Sapphire had made a little house a small distance from where they were staying. In the evening there had been a tree on the edge of a field. In the morning when the sun rose there was a truely breathtakingly beautiful garden that blended into the field so that it was hard to see the boundary between the garden and the field and the hedge. In the tree itself was a tree house constructed with living plants as the walls. There was a grace to the windows and doors of the house, in the way the flowering climbing plants had symetrically formed around them, with just enough wildness in them that it looked almost natural

There was no obvious way to the tree house: the climbing roses and brambles while they looked beautiful also had remarkably sharp looking thorns. Sapphire would form a ladder out of grass which would then collapse back to being normal grass when she had ascended or descended.

During the waiting time she spent quite a long time staring into the distance. She explained to any that asked that she was researching a new spell, one that might be use in the Living Land that they were heading towards

---

When the time to leave arrived, she was ready. While her weapons were on display: she wasn't going to violate that principle, she was wearing a hoodie. She knew that many locals weren't used to seeing Elves and didn't want to cause any problems for the others

"Mr Little" she greeted the new person "Call me Sapphire. I'm not from round here, so my Geography isn't as good as it should be. Is Maine in the Lizard Men region?"
This message was last edited by the player at 07:43, Wed 24 June 2020.

Pierre spent time videoconferencing, with a pretty woman he claims is his headshrink, with a masked and hooded 'asset' in the hope of gaining local intel before the run, and with a variety of seedy looking characters.

At the end of this he approached Sita, telling her that he had 'sourced' an artificial pancreas and some 'silver bullet' serum for when she had a plan to move her sister to it or visa versa. He offers to teleport her, but warns that doing so is dangerous.

He also spends time talking with Ben, Sita and Sapphire regarding their various magics.

Not going to clutter up this thread with sub-plots, anyone interested in exploring these please pm me.
Also, Primal Instincts is pooled.
Primal Instincts → The Storm Knights embrace the primal allure of the Living Land. Clothing rips in the most flattering way and passions are greatly amplified during the next lull in the action. Storm Knights who have an amorous encounter gain two Possibilities.

Sita spends the bulk of her time over the course of the week discussing magical theory and practice with Sapphire, Matthew, and Pierre. With various teammates, she also spends time discussing possible options to help her sister.

Leaving others to greet Gavin Little, she instead chats with Pierre. When he mentions a "silver bullet serum" she blanches, her mouth falling open. Then she quickly realizes that this is probably some sort of euphemism, and that he wasn't proposing an 'extreme solution' of some kind.

She laughs nervously. "Ah, forgive me. When you mentioned 'bullet' and 'serum', I thought that this Cyberpapacy must have very unusual methods of administering medicines." She laughs again. But then also watches him cautiously, trying to verify that he doesn't actually want to shoot anyone . . .

Matthew thoroughly enjoys the academic conversations on magic over the week.  He is very open about the power of Mathematics and the gods, with their planets, that power it and answers any questions openly and eagerly.  He focuses on what planets are in alignment on each particular day the discussion is had.

And while he does consider himself lacking in any expertise on the Arcane Knowledges, he is most intrigued by the conversations on Occult Magic.  He is fascinated by its workings and its potential effects on the caster.

When Gavin arrives he acts as he did when he first met the others... he is distant and quiet, but not rude, until he can gain a better understanding of the person.

In reply to Dr. Sita Chandrasakar (msg # 33):

Pierre laughed. "No, not that kind of bullet. A silver bullet serum is one that kills only one thing. Genetic and behavioral targeted. So if your problem is say flu, it kills only flu, not people or anything else. Very useful in medicine. In this case you would set it for 'Sita's sisters cancer cells'."

Jason frowned lightly and nodded at Sita, echoing previous sentiments. "I'm sorry to hear about your sister, Dr. Chandrasakar. I hope you can get a cure to her or vice versa. I'll be happy to help if I can."

He looked over at the airman, and that at the "Gavin Little" talked about. "I mean...it's not that out of our way to go to Maine. Or closer to Maine after we complete our mission. Sure." He smiled at the newcomer. "Welcome to the Menagerie, Mr. Little."

As the prep time stretched longer and longer Ben grew more and more impatient. He was a soldier and he knew the wait was part of the game, a long part of the game. Most people who watched movie thought that war was all about bullets flying over your head and heroic acts in the face of certain death. In reality war was stretched of long wait punctured by brief bloody violence.

While the whole idea of magic was intriguing he did not joined the tree house club to discuss magic, he was no wizard or warlock or whatever people in Tolkien-land called magic users and beside he already freaked out the elf-maiden one to many times.

So instead he practiced, went to regular jogs and made sure his weapons were maintained and ready for use.

In reply to Matthew Matherson (msg # 34):

Apologies in advance for taking liberties: This line of discussion has brought up something that I wanted introduced by the newest member who is permisably unable to suply it at the moment. This post may need to be retconned, however I need you all to start taking notice in character, so...

Gavin appears to be confused as he exit's the jeep. It's almost as if he's stepping back into a friends house, but all the furniture is different. Then he overhears Matthew say something like, "The last time Horus and Nut were alligned..." the rest lost in the movement of people preparing.

Gavin approaches Matthew, cautiously, and asks, "Excuse me? Can you explain why the days are getting lomger?"

Jalia was getting sightly upset at the discussions going on around her. Not  that she was especially dumb ~she was not brilliant either ~but most concepts she might have understood before, such as cancers, genomes, medicine, technology as a matter of fact, was at best a blur of memories, and confusion.

To get rid of this frown on her mind and face, she turned to the new arrival Gavin, and rolled her eyes as he was asking about mathemathics.

"Am I the only one to be curious about where we are going exactly, and for what purpose ?" she asked around with her low feminine and raspy voice. She was quite impressive now standing at her blonde beauty of more than six feet tall. Muscles well sculpted without been a bodybuilder.

"No" Sapphire said in response to Jalia's question "I asked. But he looks a little .. well .. how can I put it... It looks like he might have been smoking some weed. Certainly he ignored all the questions put to him." her words were light, but she was worried "Mind you if I thought the day was getting longer I might start smoking weed. If the sun stops oscillating through the middle of the earth, then who can predict what will happen: perhaps it will stop in the Land Between." she paused suddenly not sure of her geography "Earth does have a Land Between right? And the sun goes up and down?"

In reply to Apeiros (msg # 38):

"Seasons, my friend," Matthew replies instinctively.  "You see, the Earth faces the sun at an angle and-" Matthew stops mid sentence when he notices the placement of the sun in the sky.  "Hmm..."

Matthew has been so focused on tracking the stars back on Terra via his charts and equations that he hasn't payed much attention to the the skies on Core Earth.  He pulls out a compass and his pocket watch.  He immediately sits on the ground and pulls out a small notebook and begins writing numbers and symbols, some of which seem a little alien to anybody who takes a look.  He seems to come to a conclusion but checks his work again.

"By the gods... he's right." Matthew says as he stands.  "I apologize for being so dismissive Mr. Little.  I do hope that you forgive me.  Everyone, please listen.  The days are somehow getting longer.  Or better said, the spinning of the very Earth has slowed!"
This message was last edited by the player at 18:14, Sat 27 June 2020.

Ben was happy to see another soldier, even if he was just an airman.

He glance over at the elf maid, nothing she said could surprise him anymore, her world was so alien that the only thing that got his attention was that even in a magical flat earth realm they had weed.

"The Earth is a sphere, it rotate on its axis and around the sun... which is one star of millions in our galaxy." he explained looking perplex at Matthew "You think there is something abnormal with the days?" he asked.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:56, Fri 26 June 2020.

Koharu glances up from the table where she's been working on her laptop.  "Is it?" she says to Matthew's announcement, sounding relieved.  "That would explain why the sunrise and sunset have been late.  I thought my tables were off."  She smiles a little, clearly finding comfort in the confirmation that it is just all of reality that has gone wrong and not a typo she needs to debug.

She looks back down at her spreadsheet thoughtfully.  "If it's going to continue, I suppose I'll need to model the impact on our crop cycles."  Then she blinks, frowning.  "No, if it's going to continue it's going to devastate our crop cycles, eventually, and that should probably be prevented, not modeled." 

She slides her chair out with quiet delicacy and stands, steps to the side, and puts it back where it belongs before turning to face Gavin.  "Mr. Little, what does this have to do with Maine?"

"Yes, Ben, I am afraid so," Matthew replies then takes a moment to review his calculations.

"With so much discussion about magic lately, I first thought that maybe we were under a spell that slowed down our time.  But I sense nothing of the sort."

OOC - I have detect magic but I am assuming that, since we are in a pre-game scene, we are not making rolls like that yet.  Correct me if I'm wrong Aperios.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:21, Sat 27 June 2020.

The idea of the Earth spinning was so new to Sapphire that she wasn't really able to work out what the consequence would be. It didn't sound good though: she could by analogy imagine what would happen if the sun was stuck shining on Upper Alyse: there would be heat... and Lower Alyse would get cold. And it would be deadly...

"Is it just a local thing?" she wondered out loud. "Is there a local phenomena that makes us think the days are getting longer. Or can this be seen everywhere. If the latter, I don't think we will need to worry: everyone that 'can do something' 'will do something'. There are arch-mages in Aylse that could easily divine if it had a magic cause, no matter how well hidden. There would be Cathedrals full of worshippers praying to the Gods for guidance... I assume your 'Earth tech' has similar 'emergency options' and that the resources of all the world, even those fighting the invader, will be drawn to solve the problem"

"If it is the Invaders causing it... is it something they want, or a sideeffect of the invasion? Does this start a 'clock ticking' for them, meaning that somehow they have to 'finish' their invasion? Or was it deliberate... an act of one or more of the invaders?" she shrugged "I guess that will be unknowable to us for some time. Perhaps Dunad will smile on us, and place some invader with such knowledge in our path, or some other clue. I will pray for that. Other than that, we should probably try and complete our mission..."
This message was last edited by the player at 20:21, Sat 27 June 2020.

"It wouldn't be a local thing", Dr. Chandrasakar replies, to the comments of the others. "And if it continues to progress, it will do far more than merely devastate crops. It will devastate everything."

She runs through a quick checklist of cause-and-effect in her head. The loss of global centrifugal force, the heat-trapping nature of atmospheric gas on the day side, the complete lack of photosynthesis on the other. The worldwide weather effects of such extreme temperature variations. Perhaps survivable, for a time, at the boundary zone? No . . . no existing ecosystem could possibly withstand it, in even the most favorable of locations.

"Mr. Matheson, in the days ahead, please see if you can calculate the rate of slowing, if you would." She looks up at the sky as she speaks. "If it progresses enough for the world to stop entirely, it will be a global extinction event." She looks around at the others, making sure they understand the stakes. "Nothing but microbes would be left, after that. Nothing. No form of life still big enough to even see with the naked eye would survive."

She gives a resigned, humorless smile. "Until such time, I suggest we continue with our good works toward others. Such as the upcoming mission for the refugees."

She returns her gaze to the sky. She was remarkably calm about this turn of events. Living under the impending threat of a horrifying death for her and everyone around her? Frankly, that was just another day in Orrorsh. Was this any different, really? No. And so it certainly wouldn't change her behavior, in whatever time they had left. She would still help people, whenever she could. Still work to save her sister. And still continue to endure the encroaching horror, if only for one more day.

Ah, her poor friends, though. They weren't used to living this way. And now they too, perhaps, were about to truly find out just what that wretched existence was like . . .

Having nothing better to do, and still having a planned job, you continued preparing as the rate of slowing accelerated.

By Matthews calculations it has been almost 7 days scince you realized the slowing was occurring, and yet the sun has only risen 2 times, and it doen't appear to be setting. The local military assistance has kept you informed; Mobius has built an Artificial Sun, so the Nile region is operating as if everything wasn't ending. But, this must have taken him weeks...he had to have known this was going to happen long before anything was measurable.

Everyone is hoping, each in their own way, that whoever is responsible for stopping this disaster gets on with it, but for now the mission is ready.

OOC, the Player behind Gavin has agreed to let me play him as an NPC until he can be a PC again.  I beg your indulgence with any issues that may arrise

You made your deliveries. You helped the locals and you loaded up to take Gavin as close to home as you can. You are heading down a dirt road toward New York. The road has degraded significantly, and, hitting a sharp rock, your front left tire blows out.
Jason, make a Land Vehicles check DC 5 to avoid a crash.

Jason wasn't really that smart or well-versed in the sciences. He also didn't magic from a hole in the ground - hell, he didn't think magic even EXISTED last year! So he looked up at the sun for a moment, shading his eyes with his hand...but then he shook his head and looked away. He wouldn't be any help in figuring that out.

So he went back to what he DID know - work. He helped with the gathering of supplies, the packing of supplies, and more - but even HE began to notice the sun wasn't acting as it should as time went on. He muttered about it but didn't have a good idea how to fix it or anything.

So he drove them to their deliveries. Then they packed up again to take their 'guest' Gavin as close to Maine as they could - or what used to be Maine anyway. Then the tire blew out. "Damnit!" He shook his head, slowed the truck and pulled over quickly.


OOC: So I rolled a d20 and got a 16, which I think is a +3 added to my Land Vehicles total of 14, right? So a 17?

21:14, Today: Jason Keller rolled 16 using 1d20.  Land Vehicles (I think).

"Have faith, friend Doctor" Sapphire had said kindly, seeing the depression... or perhaps resignation ... in Sita. She clearly didn't share it "The Gods of Honour oppose this action. Through Their Agents, this wicked plan will be averted, and the World will be saved. This is the way of the world: when a necromancer summons forth an endless army of the dead to conquor or destroy a country, then a Hero or Hero's will be chosen by the Gods to oppose them. When a plague is called forth by the Servants of Corruption, then the prayers of the faithful will call forth a champion to smite the creator of the plague"

"I have personally seen this happen perhaps three times. All hope seens lost, but at the last moment the Heros will step forwards and save the day. A good example is the great paladin Tollwyn Tancred."

"I will pray for their success. If we are fortunate perhaps we will find ourselves in a position to help them."

---

Sapphire was not enjoying this journey. The truck had been bad enough when the roads were endless and smooth. But this constant jolting on the terrible from side to side was not doing her any good at all. Her face had gone white and she was sweating with the effort of not just throwing up. The Deep Mist was not helping: the advice she'd been given of 'watch the horizon' didn't really work when the horizen was only thirty feet away or so. Her face was going white, and her sweating wasn't just from the heat when the car blew a tire.

Fortunately they weren't going fast, and Jason had handled the car superbly. Her first through then was just 'thank god this has stopped. Rather shakily she got out of the car as fast as she could standing against a tree, almost wanting to hug it. This mist was actually quite disturbing, and she couldn't help but worry about dinosaurs or lizard men creeping up on them through the mist, using the copious undergrowth to cover the last distance before a pounce: that's what she would do if she was on a raiding mission. In fact she had done on more than a few occasions

She could do nothing about the mist visibility problems, but she certainly could do something about clearing the sight lines, and making it hard for the dangers around her to flank them.

With a some what more shaky gesture than usual, and taking a little longer than perhaps would be normal, glowing lights of sunlight left her fingers and gently flowed all over the visible area. The plants there grew quickly: the undergrowth near them growing out to form a wall at the edge of vision. The area between them and the edge of the mist now just a rather pretty grass with some small and low to the ground wildflowers blossoming.

OOC Enchanted growth spell
Effect is to clear the area within the area of visibility of undergrowth. The dense green is (very - toughness 20) - dense undergrowth. The light green is a beautiful grass + wild flower lawn
This message was last edited by the player at 08:36, Mon 29 June 2020.

That is great. Displaying the roll, the resulting Bonus, Skill Value(Adds+Attribute), Skill Total(Value+Bonus) Result Points(Total-Difficulty)[if important]
This test was what we US Army Vets refer to as a G/NG, and you got a Go!

Changing the tire is not difficult DC 8 Land Vehicles, but it will take time base 40 minutes. Anyone who can think of a way to help can try Narate what you are doing to help, name the skill you are using, and make your roll...DC 5. Higher success levels on the main task will reduce the time.

"I'll keep an eye out for any dinosaurs or Lizard Men" Sapphire said leaning against a tree, just glad they had stopped moving. She couldn't think of any way that she could help fix the wheel, and actually if she tried she suspected she would have been so tempted to sabotage it that she might not have been able to resist the temptation.

They didn't say 'as keen eyed as an elf for nothing': she was quite good as a lookout, although at the moment she was mainly relying on what she could hear.

OOC Find total of 20 (the die roller is my friend today)

Pierre swung down from the truck, impressed but the instant clearing. That wall looked tough, and there was range and area involved too. He would not have liked to chew the reality lash from that one! Looked like the PEW was more than a pretty face.

Cause of the stop was easy to see, a burst tire. Easy to fix too, this primitive stuff practically fixed itself.

15:36, Today: Pierre De Gaulle rolled 20 using 1d20.  Change tire.
15:36, Today: Pierre De Gaulle rolled 13 using 1d20.  Reroll.
That's a Spectacular, I believe.

Leaving the horseless carriage to those more informed about its maintenance, Sita keeps watch as they work.

It is well know that too many cooks can spoil the dish. With Pierre and Jason on the tire Ben took into security. How many people do you need to change a tire, he mushed as he checked his SMG and heavy pistol. "Nice weather..." he muttered holding his Galil MAR in a relaxed grip, barrel pointing down but ready for action if any enemy appeared by.

Jason looked surprised that someone was bothering to help him with changing the tire. He looked at Pierre, hesitated for only a second and then shrugged and smiled. "Thanks! Good help is hard to find these days. Can't really call Triple A."

Of course, he didn't call Triple A back before the world went to hell. He used to be a mechanic.

However, the world being as it was these days, he examined the tired to see if there was anything suspicious about the blowout.