In the chaos of crashing through the metaphysical barrier of the bright moon, half the party was cast into a vast jungle basin encircled by mountains. The loam was soft but stank more like rotten death than fresh earth. This was a cursed place.

It was deep night; the great planet loomed above, rimmed in red light from an unseen sun. The jungle was painted in blacks and dark greens accented by the red blood of the all-too-frequent eclipse. This jungle was quiet. There were no insects; the air was cold. This was a place that held its breath for far too long.

[Up to five players may participate in this quest. To enter, just reply describing your entry to the area.]

[Quest has two parts; the Hunt, and  the Godslaying. There are several secrets to discover within the Hunt portion of the quest that will provide information about your target or offer some immediate advantage. If the Hunt is not completed within three hours, the quest will automatically progress to the Godslaying as the native theofauna discovers you.]

[Quest Completion awards 10 spheres and +1000 XP divided amongst the hunting party.]
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:04, Sun 04 Sept 2022.

The [Lunarian] appeared here in a standing position, having understood previously that the transition from Void to moon was more metaphysical than physical. More of a transition than a true falling. And so he had stepped into the moon from the void more than anything. But there were still many rules and meta-rules he was still learning. To him, this wasn't a game like it was to some of the others. It was an anime, but any anime fan knew that the worlds within stories held their own sort of "realness" and Godhunter had become VERY real to him indeed.

He swept the area with [Illuminatio], refusing to let the darkness of the night be of any hinderance to him. But it wasn't enough. The group was split but he feared not; they were still connected back through Eri so he roughly knew they were okay.

He closed his eyes and bent down to touch the Earth.

"Sprits of the land, of the water that permeates the air and the loam. Spirits of the lunar eclipse and of the light of the planet overhead...heed me, Starling the [Lunarian]. I am of the Flesh of the Unfaltering Sun who shined in the Void, and of that flesh I ask the spirits who walked with my second mother to walk with me as her heir." he mumbled as he drew upon his lunar powers.

"Spirits! Please tell me about this jungle and give me a lay of the land. Any prominent features, landmarks, as well as boons and dangers you think I should know about. Anything to help me have an edge against my enemies, to let this aethereal prey have a chance to become the hunter instead."

Starling uses [Illuminatio], and grants access to it to whichever allies of his participate in this quest as well (except to anything REDACTED which he withholds for their own protection for now). He then uses [Lunar Magic]+[Feng Shui] to attempt to commune with the spirits of the land and sky and light overhead to get a lay of the land, and perhaps discover some advantages or pointers from the spirits.

Without even grasping what was going on, Domonkos found himself landing into yet another unknown area, a jungle by the looks of it. He wished he had invested more of his previous life playing Godhunter instead of working, which was a thought ironic enough to make him laugh out loud. The grasp that came out of his new throat startled him. It would take some time to get used to that.

Looking around, he found the darkness fading away as one of his companions landed with him. At least he wasn't alone. He stumbled his way towards the [Lunarian].

Landing amidst the rest, [Rajmund], formerly the [Scapegoat] looked around at the dead jungle basin. He also glanced to Lunarian as the other cast his abilities outward. Meanwhile, he looked around.


"Not the most hospitable place to find ourselves..." he mused.
This message was lightly edited by the player at 12:34, Mon 05 Sept 2022.

Dalton, err Atilla, closed his eyes as he prepared to slam into the surface of the moon. Instead he felt himself suddenly stop. The first thing he noticed before he opened his eyes was the horrific smell that filled his nostrils. The next thing was how humid the air around them had suddenly become. Indeed he opened his eyes to what appeared to be what remained of a jungle. The dim light cast by the eclipsed planet above them prevented him from seeing more.

The sudden glow provided by [Starling] illuminated the surroundings and easily let the Demilupine pinpoint the godling. He confirmed that the effigy remained in his possession before he slung the doll over his shoulder. Once the realm his other half was in had calmed down he would hopefully be able to deposit Eri's keepsake somewhere safe. As he approached he noticed other players, although not nearly as many as had floated in the void. 'Stupid portals never keep us in the same place,' he mentally noted.

Atilla noted that [Starling] seemed to be talking to something out in the jungle. Not wanting to interrupt his speech he moved to [Rajmund] and [Domonkos] before he whispered, "so those who played Godhunter, does any of this look familiar? Are we in stage 1 or some area in the game? Eri said this belonged to someone named Ilan, that ring any bells?" The demilupine reached out with his [Familiar] talent to see if he sensed the emotions of anything besides themselves in the forest.

Domonkos whispered back, likewise not wishing to interrupt [Starling].

"I'm afraid I never played the game. I've heard about it, but I was more into Real Time Strategy games. I somehow doubt we are players though, are we? Are our "races" part of the classes of the game? It keeps feeling like we are NPCs, which is a troubling thought. Even now, I sense some tendencies inside me that I shouldn't be feeling if I was truly in control"

Realizing what he said looking like he looks, he quickly adds:

"Nothing to worry about, just a mild sense that I'm more comfortable than I would normally be to the idea of eating corpses. Not gonna go on a rampage and turn on you"

It was a improptu effort, and Starling's words stirred the pools and rivulets of rot only slightly. We do not recognize you, tidesinger. they whispered to him. Yet, the spirits of the reddened light answered more fully. The flow is hindered. Unstopper the waters; part the veil. Give us a bit of your blood; give us a speck of your sight. Join with the flow. Unstopper the waters; part the veil; join with the flow, tidesinger.

[You may bleed yourself to tithe 1 HP to dedicate your left eye to spiritual sight until you are healed, seeing as these spirits see. This will hinder your ordinary perception. This is not a spell.]

Atilla sensed emotion, wretched emotion. Psychotic rage, insatiable hunger. Not near, no, he could not sense anything nearby, but the emotions were so loud and so plentiful that he could tell the South was a very dangerous place; the aggression came more faintly from the other directions.

South was also the direction of the slope.

[Timestamp 20:55]
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:46, Wed 07 Sept 2022.

Starling touched the Earth, and shook his head. Standing up, he looked upward at the Red light emanating from the planet far overhead. Light that was from the sun and moon, reflecting from the planet to them there in that dead forest. The former was more reticent, while the latter was more forthcoming. Starling desired to try and commune with both.

Still piggy-backing off his open spiritual connection, Starling responded aloud, apparently to thin air. Demilupine/Atilla senses via [Familiar] purposeful intent though from Starling; the now-teenaged Lunarian wasn't just acting whimsically or randomly.

"Spirits of the loam and soil, of the rot and of the pools beneath that hide concealed traces of life. I offer you a drop of my blood as a show of good faith. Light of the sun and moon, shining planet overhead, I offer you a drop of my blood to join the flow with you. I dedicate, temporarily until I choose to heal, my left eye to the flow. And in doing so, let us each share our sight and in doing so, expand one another's awareness." he said aloud.

Suddenly, the Lunarian began to tear up in one eye - his left to be precise. The water trickled down his face a moment, before turning red and falling to the Earth to sink into the loam. Another tear fell from his left eye, turning red as it went, although as it fell off his face into the air it suddenly dissipated into aethereal mist before wisping upward in the air, vanishing. His left eye suddenly turned blood-red.

Starling temporarily dedicates his left eye (and temporarily commits 1 hp) to spiritual sight. He then attempts to further commune with the spirits of loam and stellar light.

"Spirits of loam, please acknowledge me now. Spirits of stellar air and shining light, I unstopper the waters. Please show me a lay of the land and insight ab out the dangers here, and perhaps...ways to hunt the hunter."

Starling now attempts to get a lay of the land. And of course, should the spirits try to hide things from him he will shine [Illuminatio] upon even the spiritual landscape.

While [Starling] seemed to enter a seance with spirits, Domonokos looked into his very being, perhaps for the first time since he had died.

And then he looked outwards, into the dead jungle that surrounded them. That spirits were here, as [Starling]'s conversation seemed to suggest that this jungle once held life, even if it was dead and cold now.

Domonokos closed his eyes, and tried to search for a spark of divinity hiding in this natural tomb. Since he apparently could [Detect Theofauna] now.

The wolf-man shrugged at Domonokos' attempt to placate him. After everything they had witnessed the one thing Atilla did not fear were the other godlings. "I wouldn't say we're in that game but I think this world influenced that game. So I don't think there are players and npcs. Hell if I know for sure though, we've only been here an hour longer than you. Corpse eating makes sense. We killed a ghost-eater in the house", Atilla paused as he glanced at the undead man again. "At least I think that's the race you are. Anyway yeah the description called them 'degenerates who eat corpses'. I'd prefer if you don't do it in front of me but do what you gotta do."

Any further communication stopped as the prince nearly fainted. Compared to the foul stench of the jungle this proved to be somehow worse. Atilla hated this damn jungle. It took a few moments for him to grow used to such a powerful emotion. "No matter what happens we need to stick together. Whatever this thing is we've been sent to hunt I can sense him from here, he's to the south. I think we should avoid it for now and see if we can find anything of use before we fight it. There will be no diplomacy or negotiation with that thing. If someone ever offers you the chance to sense insane rage, do not say yes."

The wolf-man was somewhat concerned he could not sense whatever Starling was talking to. A large percentage of things in this world seemed to want them dead. However he decided to let the other godling continue on with his negotiations. Until then he kept his senses open in case the insane god started to head their way.

Atilla readjusted the doll that had been slung on his shoulder. "Actually, I might drop this off before things kick off here. Might as well test how this works. I invoke the name of Regina Damnatorum! Grant me a passage to our kingdom!" He shouted to the heavens. Even though he knew this could work, it still felt off. The wolf-man either teleports back to his fief or if a portal shows up he tosses the Eri effigy through it.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:33, Wed 07 Sept 2022.

Starling

[-1 MAX HP]

The world was beautiful, awash in decay. Decay was not death; it was failing old life broken down to be rebuilt into new life. His red-eye showed him that all the fresh vigor was being diverted to feed something; something that was stoppering the waters, a whirlpool of fresh wind and fertile soil drawn down, down, down . . . a small creature one cubit tall, made of rich dirt wriggling with insects with ichor-eyes, rose from the loam. A spirit of dim light, earth and water. It was not visible through his normal eye. Sideways, sideways, it said. Walk sideways, tide-strider. Join the flow. The center is far, the flow is fast. Walk sideways, tide-strider. the little gnome swayed, and the Starling's vision swam as his right eye saw a jungle, but his left saw the hidden river of flowing rot that ran widdershins . . .

Domonokos

Domonokos used his nascent [Detect Theofauna] talent. Something like a 'minimap' appears in the corner of his vision, with an arrow pointing due south. He could also 'jump' his vision acros the 'fog of war' to see where his prey was.

There was a God here. A dead god that refused to be dead, for it had walked those rivers and returned. A god of Life that could not live, and so harrowed the jungle. He was within the palace, beyond the impassable gates, within the city of -

No, no, that was the wrong God. There was another God here, in this same place, but at a different time. Their time. This was a beast, a predator, proud and fierce. A savage god trapped in a circle of circles, beast-men in tents that kept it at bay. Their warriors fought it in shifts, keeping it ever-bleeding so that that its own blood could be used to bind it where it stood. The beast had no more blood to bleed, but it refused to die. The blood was drying, the binding weakening . . . in three hours, the beast would roar and feed and rise again to full strength.

The savage god was two hours away, due south.

Atilla

He spoke the name of the Lost Queen, and an Echo of his fief appeared; a watch-golem. The golem took hold of the doll, and this dissipated as quickly as it had appeared.

Stillborn Effigy has been returned to the Pools of Predilection.

[Timestamp 21:05]

Domonokos scratched his chin absentmindedly. An old habit that seemed to have carried over from his past life.

"I got a vision of our prey. Some ancient beast, being held off by the rituals of native beastmen, but not for long. I'll estimate it will take us two hours walking south to get to it, with only one to spare before it sets itself free. If we move now, perhaps we could fight it together along it's captors. Or we could explore the area or set up an ambush here, and wait for it to come to us, buying us some more time

What do you think?"
This message was last edited by the player at 10:05, Fri 09 Sept 2022.

After Atilla had spoken his command he had glanced every direction. Would there be some flashy spell effect? Would he suddenly be teleported somewhere? As it turned out instead a familiar sight appeared before him. A golem he recognized from his fiefdom, or at least the echo of one. When the golem extended it's hands he took the hint and offered up the doll before both disappeared. "Well, that's one thing dealt with."

The others still seemed to be in various types of trances. The wolf-man had no idea what they were doing but no doubt they all had various abilities he didn't know about. So he waited for another to speak up first and listed to [Domonokos]. "Well, not a huge fan of charging forward. That being said I don't really have any skill or ability the might be useful in an ambush. If there are already people fighting this insane god then I think we should try and make contact. The whole 'enemy of my enemy' schtick. Not sure if it's worth exploring around here and risk getting nothing if we know they aren't going to last much longer."

That being said [Starling] had not finished his discussion with the spirits. There was a chance the spirits could provide an alternative. If the group agreed to march towards the spirit he spoke again. "Starling, do you want to be recon? With your cloak you might be the safest one to scout while we move."

"Setting an ambush would be useful if we held more information. Some weakness of our prey or some advantage would could glean from the natural terrain or locals. Without either of those, though, we're down to either a rush to try catching our enemy before they can be prepared or trying to take up a defensive stance. Or seeking out some natural advantage the area here might offer. But even that search is a gamble.. what way to proceed is hard to tell," Rajmund reasoned, as he listened on to the various talks thus far.

Starling silently turned his red left eye to toward a different direction than the rest of his body was facing, before several awkward seconds later the rest of his body followed suit. He stood there, in the seemingly dead jungle that he knew was actually teeming with life, except it wasn't because it was getting all drained off somewhere.

He silently pointed in nearly the opposite direction the others were facing.

"Recon? Huh? Oh yes. I am actually pretty good at sneaking around and such apparently. But what wait...look there!" he said as he pointed down to the ground, away from where the others were facing.

"Look there! On the ground, between the ebb and slow. This jungle is teeming with life and isn't dead at all. It's only looking that way because the new life energy keeps getting sucked and drained way, in a stream of energy going that way, along the ground. The decay there, on the ground...it isn't the same thing as death. It's a bedrock of new life but it's all forcefully flowing that way, kinda sorts behind us and away from the jungle we were facing." he said.

"If we are going to get a jump on this thing, or perhaps learn more info about things we can use against it, we have to stop going against the flow and instead go with the flow, and let them flow go with us in the process." So we need to go that way, even if the jungle seems thicker the other way." he added, pointing in the direction of the invisible flow of natural energy he could see with his spirit-sight.

Starling then attempted to look at the river of spiritual life energy he could see, and try and learn more about it while he waited for the others to respond and see if they'd agree to follow the invisible tides.

Starling points out to the party that the flow of vitality from the area is unnaturally being drawn like a river in a certain direction per his spirit sight.

Starling then uses [Appraise] along with [Feng Shui] and His Spirit sight to analyze the flow of life energy he now sees flowing away from them. He'll double-[illuminato] if something tries to hide something from him in this analysis.

"I see. In that case, we should start following the flow for now, see where that gets us. We have about an hour to spare, so traveling south-west is not exactly out of our way. We should be able to explore the source of life and get to the beastmen before the beast escapes"

If noone opposed, Domonkos would start walking, following Starlight's lead.

Atilla looked where [Starling] pointed and saw nothing but more jungle. He did not doubt however that the other godling saw some path or flow as he described it. "A small detour works for me. Lead the way Starling." The wolf-man followed the others as they started their trek into the jungle.

As the party began following the 'flow', the air around them shifted with strange angles in the same way the void had; they were moving through some alternate space.

It was extremely difficult going. It was constantly uphill, always through the bushes and the deep muck rather than around. The exact opposite of any natural path that would be taken; the path of most resistance. When the looked up at the curve of the great planet on the horizon, though - in the rare moments where the natural sky could be seen; most of the time they saw a distant roof of a massive cavern - they could make out that they had made an hour's progress in ten minute's time.

Abruptly, they came to a shoreline by a river that could justifiably be called a slowly drifting lake, for all its vastness. To Starling, it was clear that the flow ran straight through it. The river was clear; he could see straight down to the bottom his [Appraise] told him the river was named Mṛtyu, and that it was "as deep as thought and as wide as time."

It seemed they were at impasse, beneath the sky of distant stone and between the strange angles.

[Timestamp 21:15]

While he let the others come up with their own way to cross the river, Domonkos decided to experiment with his own newfound abilities. He made an attempt to use [Grave Magic] to carve a path in the stone for the party of godlings, so they may avoid the river entirely and cross through the edges of the path ahead.

The wolf-man sighed in annoyance as they trudged through the humid, festering, sad excuse for a jungle. 'I apparently can't sweat through my head. Great,' he internally noted as he panted. Still it was hard to be too mad since they had seemingly made great progress. Atilla was by no means a natural explorer but with what little he observed they had made great time.

Unable to see the path they followed he had been somewhat confused when the party had approached a shoreline. Confused on where to proceed he had looked into the water and appraised. "So I'm assuming we need to cross this somehow?" He glanced over at [Starling] for him to confirm his suspicion. When it was obvious they needed to cross Atilla rubbed his head. All his training so far was useless against water. He felt somewhat embarrassed that despite this being his element he had little to contribute, magic was still very must a mystery to him.

"Do we think the description might be some sort of clue or a riddle? 'Deep as thought', maybe if we don't think about it the water is shallow," he offered as he stood on the coast. "Oh fuck, am I thinking about it by saying this? How do you not think about something?! Telling someone to not think about something is a sure fire way to guarantee they think about it!" The wolf-man muttered a few more curses as he tried to empty his mind. If no one else had succeeded with a more logical solution Atilla closed his eyes, attempted to clear his thoughts, and took a step into the hopefully shallow river.

Starling nodded.

"The spirit-flow trial that I'm following is...weird, to say the least. It feels like we're hiking up a freaking mountain, but when you look up at the sky only minutes have passed. I'd say we've covered about an hour's worth of hiking in like ten minutes, which is pretty amazing!" he said.

"And yes, the life-flow leads into the large river-lake thing. And I feel we should stay on track and on course with the life-flow, and not try to deviate from it. This could be as much a spirit-trail as it is an energy flow and I think that's why we're making such good time despite the fact the hike kinda sucked up till now." he continued.

He looked at the water, and bent down and touched it lightly, closing his eyes. He called upon his shamanic powers once again, although this time one that was more directly in tune with water. [Rain Dancing] wasn't JUST for rain, but helped commune with all watery spirits as well and he hoped it'd offer a slight edge over [Lunar magic].

"Greetings, river Mrtyu. Salutation and blessings upon you! I am leading my friends along the side-stepped path, through the life flow and beyond the solely physical world, while still being grounded within it. Could you help us walk with you easier, to turn your as depth to that of a mere moment's thought and your width to a mere moment's time? Just so that we can continue on the spirit-path?" Starling asked graciously.

"We don't wish to disturb you needlessly, but we need to follow the life-flow path if we are to find a solution to the imbalance of this realm, of its waters and soil."

Starling attempts to use [Rain Dancing] to commune with the river Mrtyu, and beseech its aid diplomatically.

Rajmund followed along with the group, keeping his gaze around them as if watchful for any surprises as they continued. His expression - as much as one could read an expression on his features - looked perhaps thoughtful as Starling described the life and death nature of the land and how the energies were flowing. But he said nothing as yet, looking to be absorbed in his own thoughts on the matter for the moment at least.


He continued to follow until they reached the water's edge, listening as some suggestions and attempts were made to reach out to the spirit of the river, which he watched and waited on for the moment lest he interrupt improperly. His gaze looked back the way they had come as well, then forward to the rest of the group and those inspecting the water and the path forward.

From the river there appeared a great serpentine shadow. It rose out of the waters, an immense [Lesser Jorgumandr].

Mrtyu glared at Starling. "Fuck off, degenerate stick-man, your hollow courtesy make me cringe in distaste. Unless you desire death, which you might, do not speak again."

The serpent dived back into the water, the shadow disappearing. A pale humanoid hand shot out from the water to seize Atilla's foot before it to could touch the surface. The head and shoulders of a humanoid woman with blue hair and pale skin covered in fine lines like scales followed up. "Now you, beefy man, I like. Speak all you want, sugar-teeth, I am enrapt." Mrtyu grinned, showing off excellent dentition.

There was no stone to cut with Grave Magic; distant roof above them had a cavernous quality, but nothing stopped them from walking along the shoreline left or right.

[Timestamp 21:25]
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:08, Mon 19 Sept 2022.

Starling was...taken aback to say the least by the response of the river spirit Mrtyu. He wasn't sure what he had said or done to offend the spirit, unless it simply disliked the idea of diplomacy overall and preferred Atilla's action-approach. Or maybe it was Atilla's water element that was helping.

Starling attempted to assess the phenomena that was occurring before him, to try and silently learn more before deciding how to proceed. He was going to try something more forceful with the river but saw no need, for it was responding well to Atilla. So he'd listen and watch, for knowledge was power that he could use to potentially aid the group.

Starling uses [Query] on the [Lesser Jorgumandr] before is vanishes from sight, to try and learn more about it and why it was.

Starling uses [Query] on the river itself, to try and learn more about its properties.

Starling uses [Query] on the woman who appeared, in case doing so revealed anything different from the first query or otherwise revealed new secrets.

Unable to carve a path for himself as the boundaries of this area seemed out of reach, Domonokos opted to shut down his logic brain and rely on the [Intuition] that his new body came with. He wasn't quite sure how things would work out as he started walking towards the edge of the water, following the straight path Starling had pointed at, but he guessed that was the point of it.

The sound of water crashing caused an eye to snap open. Both eyes widened in alarm when he saw the gigantic serpent appear from the river. He watched in confusion as the monster scolded [Starling]? The wolf-man's confusion only grew as the jorgumandr sunk beneath the surface of the water and a hand grabbed his foot.

Atilla snapped his head down to find a woman held it? Not a normal woman he realized when he saw the blue hair, scaled skin, and fanged smile. Her words all but confirmed it was the same spirit he had just seen. Baffled by the course of events he recalled what [Grim] had told him in another world, a choice between love and a monster. 'Well if that huge serpent is the monster I know which choice I'd prefer,' he mentally noted as he attempted to grin with his own toothy maw.

All he had to do was somehow keep Mrtyu 'enrapt'. From her reaction to [Starling] it seemed a formal address was out the window. If the spirit was going to flirt with him maybe he should flirt back? Granted he hadn't done anything like that in decades but he figured it was like riding a bike. Atilla pulled his foot back and kneeled on the shore. He focused his [Familiar] talent to try and get a judge on the spirit's mood.

"Hey there, apologies about my friend. What is a beautiful and powerful river like you doing in a dying old jungle like this? Surely something as profound as the Mrtyu deserves better?"

'Nailed it.'

Rajmund takes a few steps closer to the water himself, though still keeps a respectful distance given his size - no longer the small little goat from his original arrival after all. He looks out in the area where the spirit of the river had appeared and then submerged again, speaking up to it while Atilla spoke to the other spirit. He did pause to [Appraise] each as they first appeared to get some gauge of who and what they were.


"Death is a state of being that all creatures and spirits yearn for at one point in their lives - or their deaths. But while many view that yearning as seeking an end, others yet realize what they truly desire is a new beginning. A river such as this, in a place that once was full of life, must desire a return to such a time.. I suspect Death is not what you wish to deal in but Life. Even as that life around you is pulled away, you would change it if you could.. wouldn't you?" Rajmund asked of the river spirit.

Query [Lesser Jorgumandr]:

An immense serpent that draws strength from leylines to deploy overwhelming magic.

One of the titanic guardian species native to the realms of Gods, yet unaligned.

The Jorgumandrs are artificial guardians, created by the Grand Array to stabilize crumbling worlds. They detest instability.

Query [The River]: Genius Loci effect, produced by realm guardian. Identified leylines: Chaos, Life.

Query [The Woman]: Alternate form of Lesser Jorgumandr. Wields Mutation magic.

"As thick in the head as you are in the arm, very pleasing, exactly how a man should be."

Mrtyu was having fun now, but seemed to have found Starling not just boring but outright offensive. From Atilla's past life, he could recognize when a woman was testing if he had 'game', the ability to be diverting company. Starling had tried too hard, and for some reason was 'very ugly' to the river.

"I maintain this river that joins the two Ilans, the jungle and the rainforest, so I am technically at work right now. I could do better, but you know, I like feeling important."

Atilla could tell she was feeling calmer. Addressing the river as a regular person had been the right tack to take. Her attention shifted to Rajmund.

She considered. "The Gods have got to go, nothing is flowing as it should, they should be my bosses but don't do anything. If you can kill them, I can eat them, and maybe bring back some life."

Then her eyes narrowed. Atilla's [Familiar] talent told her she was curious, not suspicious. "How did you four make it here, this place is off-limits for mortals, are you guys spirits? You taste mortal, you don't have auras, but somehow futz with my leylines.

Domonkos didn't pick anything up with his Intuition [90], but he could tell the river was dangerous.

[Timestamp 21:35]
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:35, Thu 22 Sept 2022.

Atilla arched a brow at Mytru's response. It was pretty obvious what she thought of him but he let it slide for now. If an insult or two stopped a giant sea serpent from attacking he could make that sacrifice. More importantly he felt her emotions had calmed down a good deal. It seemed as if they had gained her interest at least.

The wolf-man nodded at the river spirit assessment. "I could not agree more. The god is destroying everything and needs to be stopped." He glanced at the others before he continued. In another world they seemed to have reached a conclusion. "It seems we both want the same thing so why not help us out? We aren't spirits we're... like super mortals? Potential gods? We're here to kill the god and prove ourselves worthy." He hoped that proved sufficient enough to sate the spirit's curiosity. It proved a difficult challenge to surmise just what they were in this new world.

"Just point us in the right direction to get to the jungle god and we'll take. him. out." Atilla paused to flex his arms and struck a pose. It seemed safer to lean into the meathead nature she had claimed he had. "Any information you want to provide us would be appreciated. Worse case is that we fail to do anything right? Then you're right back where you were. Best case we beat the God and you don't have to worry about it. Most likely we'll just weaken it before it kills all of us." Atilla's confidence had slipped as he ended his proposal. The idea of them being slaughtered weighed heavily on his mind.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:59, Sun 25 Sept 2022.

Seeing as there was not.much for him to contribute at this point, Domonkos opted to sit back and let the others do the talking. At least for now, while there was still plenty of time.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:02, Sun 25 Sept 2022.

Like Domo, Starling felt that Attila was doing a fine enough job of being a serpent-charmer and didn't see the need to interject. Especially since she didn't seem interested in him and that was fine, really. His main goal was to help the group gain information and being the unwitting wing-man of Attila was working somehow.

Instead, the lunarian decided to focus more on the river and the peculiar attributes it had. His [query] was a potent information-gathering tool and he sought to use it to its utmost. The more he could learn early on, the better be could help the group survive later on.

Starling used his [Feng Shui] to better sense these leylines he was detecting, and he attempted to [Query] the leylines in the area themselves to learn more about them, as well as about any secrets they may potentially hold.

Starling attempts to scrutinize the leylines.

Rajmund lets Atilla speak for the group, drawing out more details from the river spirit and trying to gain their help. Meanwhile, he also studies the surrounding terrain, in particular the trees and plants that are dead. He takes a moment to utilize his [Internal Oculus] to see what the spirit world looks like here.

Rajmund

To his or her Internal Oculus, they were standing in empty air over a vast abyss. Behind them and before them were huge bubbles of prismatic light, on their 'side' of the abyss mostly dominated by an ugly dark green and on the other by a bright amber-brown. Running between them was the 'river', a high barrier wall of fused metaphysical energy between the two realms; that was shored up on foundations that ran all the way down to the Realm of Rivers, where the shadowy dead dwell.

The nexus of all this power was the world-devouring serpent they were presently having a strange conversation with, a reaper of dying realms that had arisen from the stygian deeps.

Rajmund had the odd feeling that if he was a very, very good little goat he could someday Evolve into something like the leviathan spirit he was ogling.

Starling

The edges of three planes of existence met here - one of Life, one of Chaos, and one of Time. leylines of power twisted here, feeding this massive serpent and allowing it to maintain a physical form. His query defined it as the classical example of what happened when a realm's Guardian was stronger than its God - it would seek to devour the God in question to evolve into a True Dragon.

Domonkos & Atilla, et al.

The riverside they were standing bent away at a right angle, the river only loosely following the new curve in its course. Their path onward was clear.

"Bring me the corpse of a God, little wolf, and I will show you the way home to your mate and cubs." said Myrtu. She then looked at Domonkos. "Quiet little grave-robber, you will go far, if you retain your instinct to listen more than you speak." she said, approvingly. She held out a hand, in which there was small round river-stone that shone green, black and red. "Take this, and plant it in living rock, if you would have a mighty guardian for your own Realm."

[Timestamp 21:45]
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:48, Thu 20 Oct 2022.

The wolf-man followed the serpent's gesture and watched the river itself twist and turn to a new direction. If that had happened a day ago Atilla would have been incredibly confused at the strange sight. After everything he had seen however the sight seemed par for the course.

He mentally prepared himself to ham up his speech as he puffed up his chest. "Much appreciated Myrtu. Now just..." he trailed off as he listened to the river spirit. It wasn't just what she said that stopped him, although her offered stirred plenty of emotions in his chest. Atilla was not the most observant but even he knew he hadn't mentioned his family aloud to Myrtu. If she knew about his desire to go home then what else did she know? He suddenly felt like he was actually the idiot he had been portraying. They needed to leave now while they still could.

His canine snout formed a frown as he narrowed his eyes. He relied on his [Familiar] talent as well as his [Sixth Sense] skill to ensure the spirit didn't try anything suspicious. "Domonokos take the gift and let's go." Atilla waited for all of the others to start to walk down the riverside before he joined them.

Starling had been listening silently at the exchanges between Myrtu and the others. He didn't intend to help the water dragon one bit nor did he think the thing deserved any help. It was just another grubbing, opportunistic denizen of this world like all the rest of them.

His eyes narrowed a bit when the pre-dragon tried to manipulate Attila with mention of his Earth family, but he remained composed and silent and watched to see how the wolf-man would react. Thankfully, he kept his composure. Starling saw through such gross manipulation and sure as hell hoped Attila did too. He'd mention it later to Attila, after they had left the area.

He silently followed after his companions.

Starling nodded stoically and followed silently after Attila.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:31, Fri 21 Oct 2022.

Domonkos stared at the stone for a second, thinking of what words he should say, and then realized that the obvious answer was saying nothing. He reached out and grabbed the stone, and gave Myrtu a silent nod of gratitude.

He then turns to Atilla, nodding again. "Let us go then". The Prince of Relics then joins the march towards their target, hoping they hadn't wasted too much time here.