Sweltering with heat from the lit Furnace at the far end of the Armory, the Lower Level is home to defensive and crafting resources of the Last House.

The walls are lined with improvised XO, sets of armor hurriedly sealed against the entropy of the Void using runic inscriptions the evoke sympathetic shadow magic. These runes link the armors to the true Horunculi that serves as the shroud of the giant-god of Song whom the Lost House was born within.

The weapons associated each armor set were not enchanted, and have since rotted. It seems as though someone tried to live in here at some point; there is dust and dirt here, where the rest of the house was nigh on spotless.

The winding stair from the upper level continues on to the hidden Gaol area, but the way is blocked by an illusionary wall.

The furnace itself is a magical source of fire that provides steam power to the rest of the house in conjunction with the magic well in the cellar of the house's east wing.

Currently here: Unblooded Shage, Liese Schwertgeist, Callisti.

The [Leise Schwertgeist] cannot respond to this question. It only has the slightly kiltered senses of it's wielder, which it has noted as [Unblooded Shage]. The entity stirs slightly. It cannot do much but observe, listen, and converse with it's weilder, so it tries something new. The spirit within the fire poker 'flexes' it's [Possess Weapon] ability, reaching out to the walls as they walk to see if it can find any other forms of weapons, if it can't turn into them then at least it can learn more about this strange ability.
This message was lightly edited by the GM at 00:45, Fri 12 Aug 2022.

The [Callisti] found she rather enjoyed being carried, even if the two artifacts somewhat loaded up the [Unblooded Shage]. She'd try not to make too much of a habit of it, probably. Who was she fooling? She definitely would. For now, she floated on her own, relieving the Shage's burden, and getting some mobility practice in. Good to know how to flee if they might be gunned down soon. "Very smooth ride. Thank you, Euphoria. What did you do before all this? Professional lifting? Deliveries?"

Ah, the attic. Looks like the others who had been there had slipped out before they'd gotten there themselves. Ah well, there was investigating to do. The Callisti zipped over to where the armors. "Ah yes, this is about what I was looking for. Good, good." This must be a part of that 'what we need'. She looked them over in greater detail, and the tone in her voice gained an edge of disappointment. "Well, these are certainly... lovingly made. Someone very clearly cared a lot about these remaining, even if they themselves did not. A lovely gift from the dead, even if... creatively made." She tried not to sound like someone handed an unrecognizable mass of still-sticky macaroni art. Although, given the state of the weapons, perhaps these armors survival had been more of a feat than she gave them credit for.

"Now how to make these work... and how might I put one on?" [The Callisti] tried again to tap that great oneness that tugged at the edges of her mind, using her [Meta-Analytic Computation] to assist in her [Appraisal] of the armor. She needed to find the armor's method of activation.

When the Callisi - erm - Azalea, asked her to introduce herself, the Unblooded Shage's face peeled into a black-toothed grin. "Call me-" she began with dramatic pause. Which was an indication she was still thinking about it. Leise would know. She could read the big, bandaged broad's mind. "Euphoria of the Golden Hands." Woof, that had to be a fake name. The cringy kind, befitting an original-the-character. She then lifted Azalea from the table and gauged her weight in one hand.

"Hey, you're pretty hefty. Is it cool if I bludgeon someone with you? Like, just in case. Pretty sure Leise is on board with it. You should be cool like Leise..." Before Azalea could ask who Leise was and why she was ok with being used as a weapon, Euphoria began to descend into the cellar. She explained on the way that the fire poker liked to be called Leise, because it told her so and because it was actually a person. Kinda. Were any of them persons anymore? Food for thought.

[From: Upper Level: Attic, Parlor, Dormitory]

"Who cares what I was before," Euphoria said, waving off Azalea's question dryly. "It's nothing half as interesting as what's going on here. What? Were you some kinda hot-shot? Madame of the Homeowner's association? Queen of flipping burgers? You're sure bossy like a manager would be," she said joking. Mostly joking.

When Euphoria entered the cellar, her [Accelerated Thoughts] were turned up high. Theoretically, this would give Leise access to the surge of adrenaline, making the Shage's mind a crystal clear, laser-focused channel for the weapon's senses. These were also on high alert, Euphoria's pupils enlarged to take in every detail around her. She noted the signs of someone having been there, but saw no one who smelled like Dragonsblood and no cat. "Hey, you don't think the guy who lovingly made the armor is still around... do you? Would be pretty cool if we could get the two of you bodies. What do you think Leise? Shall we... poke around?" Euphoria asked the fire poker, just in case it wanted to speak and needed to share its thoughts with the classroom.

She searched the room for more signs of life, then meandered with Leise back to the staircase. Along the way, she tapped experimentally against the walls, testing them. Since watching their furry comrade fall through a wall in the parlor, she was paranoid about other secrets hidden from view and wanted to [Appraise] the walls. Especially in a room that housed such precious cargo. Haphazardly crafted as they were. "Maybe we can ask him how they work. Or why he made them. Or what they're used for..."
This message was last edited by the player at 04:33, Fri 12 Aug 2022.

Leise Schwertgeist observes the wall in it's own way, feeling the sharpness of it's wielder's sight. Liese is unable to express thankfulness, nor feel it, but it can understand what thankfulness is and know that it should be thankful. It can't afford to ruminate on that too hard, less it give it's owner a brain aneurysm... there is a pause in it's thinking as it reaches out for something it saw in the corner of the room: a rusted sword, beyond repair.

[EXPERIMENT.] It conveys to the Shage, before reaching out towards the rusted tool of war using it's [Possess Weapon] skill. If anything dangerous happens, it will pause and reconsider it's next move, but it's main goal is to figure out what exactly it can do while also being a sharpened stick. It's capabilities are unknown, and so, while the intelligent ones figure out something about the wall, Leise figures out if it can possess this weapon, if it can possess multiple weapons at once, and if it can 'save' the position of the possessed object for later so it knows where the object is in the event it is on it's own without senses.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:50, Fri 12 Aug 2022.

[Callisti]

Your [Meta-Analytic Computation] talent, in conjunction with the Appraisal skill, told you information you had no way of knowing from just observation.

XOs were part of Godhunter - they were a late game item, sure, one of the rewards you got for reaching the maximum level and resetting to level one. It was something you earned as a 'godling', and gave you access to others planets than the default world among other things.

However, this XO tech wasn't from the game. There was actual science here; the magic was just covering the basic concept of a 'SUIT'. "SUITS" had come from Earth. Not a fictional earth, an actual Earth. Her Earth. It was all there, black and write, clear as crystal. She could map out exactly how the neural link between the inner membrane of the suit would map to a human nervous system to enhance combat reflexes, provide instant tactical updates, protect the user from the vacuum of space, and connect to the Internet. If she ever got to return to home, she could build this thing. It wasn't that more complex than some of the military hardware already being researched at the time of her previous life.

Someone had just decided to slap magic armor over the underlying apparently real-world tech. Through her connection to the other Callisti, she had the odd sense that Callisti were in love with XOs. It was a strange feeling, an almost childlike exultation in the joy of having limbs.

XOs designed for Callisti were different, though, more like a Mech than a suit.

Activating the armor was simple; all you needed to do was touch it, supply it with some MP, and it should activate and open up to allow a user to sit inside. They didn't have an internal power source so it would run on the user's own magic power.

[Appraisal LVL2] has advanced to [Appraisal LVL3]

[Unblooded Shage]

She found no fewer than three false walls. Once opened onto a continuation of the staircase, further into the guts of the house. Another opened a corridor connection the Armory to the Cellar on the east side of the house, and a third revealed of all things an iron-banded steamer trunk in a small alcove. Inside the chest were clothes, a dark heavy canvas jacket and matching pants that seemed fire resistant. Good gear for welding or something in.

As she focused on her new bond with the fire poker, she felt an opening of the 'cord' that connected them, sharing her MP as well as her [Thought Acceleration] talent with the Fire Poker.

Talent gained: [Living Weapon LVL1]  "Cast aside fear; greet death as your second mother." You may treat sentient weapons as natural weapons for the purposes of skills governing unarmed combat.

[Leise Schwertgeist]

The bronze swords did not qualify as weapons for the [Possess Weapon] skill. Their integrity had become too compromised. She was able to identify their location as invalid targets, allowing to estimate their distance from her in meters. The skill had a range of about 10 meters. However, as she concentrated, new skills bloomed into her awareness.

Skill gained: [Copy Weapon LVL1]
Talent gained: [Haemomorphic]

By borrowing some blood from the Unblooded Shage, she could transform herself into any nonmagical weapon she had [Appraise]'d.

[The Cycle continues unbroken. Timestamp: 20:17]
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:34, Fri 12 Aug 2022.

The Callisti balked at the idea of being used as a projectile weapon. "No, Euphoria. Look at the lustrous perfection that is me. Of course I'm not going to let you bludgeon me against something. I guess I'm just not as cool as Leise. By the way, is Leise able to communicate? This body is challenging enough, I can't imagine being stuck as a fire poker."

Azalea did however agree with Euphoria on one thing; she had no interest in the world they'd come from. But she was willing to entertain some memories of that trash hole while she more closely examined the armor, sorting through the information that poured through her head. "HA! Me, a homeowner. In this economy. You are funny." It wasn't even a bitter laugh. It was a laugh like someone remembering something far behind her. "Queen of flipping burgers, my non-existent ass. I'll have you know the place I worked at had crustaceans and booze! That's like, a whole echelon higher! And I definitely got to be manager..."

"Oh!" The Callisti declared, like a gasp caught in her lack of throat. Then a laugh bellowed out of her that rose into a full on cackle that echoed through the cellar and probably into the floors above too if someone listened hard enough. "Oh yes! YES! Wonderful! These suits really are exactly what I hoped I'd find here! I think I can make them work! And I think this one is for me. Maybe we can even find a body for Leise. We non-anthropomorphic gals gotta stick together."

And she was eager to try it on as soon as she could. Not allowing for a moment of advice or permission, the Callisti found the suit that would fit her unique curvature and entered into it. She tried to reach out into the armor as one would putting on a suit of clothes, waiting for the blessed instant that it might respond, to become her limbs, the new body with which she would claim all she deserves.

The Callisti attempts to don the XO Armor

The [Leise Schwertgeist] can't exactly convey what the sudden new understanding opened. When held by the [Unblooded Shage] borrowing it's brain power now gave Leise it's own [Thought Acceleration] skill. The weapon doesn't experience the telltale signs of adrenaline flow that it's wielder does on account of not having adrenil glands. It takes a deep 'breath' and takes a moment to think. It can organize the rest of it's new abilities later: right now, it needs to chase this thread.

Leise can individually point out every object within a ten meter radius from it. It can note whether or not what it 'touches' is valid or not for it's [Possess Weapon] skill. The amount of time it'd take to individually touch each item isn't much, but expanding that out to ten meters makes it a bit infeasible. In most cases, it wouldn't have enough processing power to tap each one in a timely matter. However, that isn't the case when wielded by the [Unblooded Shage], because viewing the world even a tiny bit slower is an effective boost to how fast it can touch each individual object. Keeping all these concepts in mind, [Leise Schwertgeist] is going to combine it's own [Possess Weapon] skill with the [Thought Acceleration] ability of it's wielder to manually 'touch' every object within a ten meter sphere of itself and make a mental map of the room, and, conversely, everything in the floors above and below Liese.

Before disapearing, Euphoria did confirm that the fire poker was sentient and could communicate. If not with some steps involved. "Yeah they seem to be able to read my mind and I can kinda read theirs? Leise, girl, if you can hear me, I'm happy to be your mouthpiece. Actually, are you a girl? I guess I didn't ask. Do fire pokers have gender identidy? I mean it's 20-[CENSORED] so, like, of course you can have a gender and pronouns."

Euphoria greedily gathered the clothing in the trunk and [Appraised] them, especially checking for any scraps of metal like a belt buckle or otherwise decorative boggle. She was kind of digging her this barbarian mummy look, so the pants were eh, but the coat was way too sick to pass on. Since one hand was already occupied, Euphoria dressed in both, figuring it was easier to carry them this way. And not because she was a big loot horder or anything. There was even some loops in the pants that she could hook Leise into if she wanted. But for now, she held the weapon close. On her way back to the armory, Euphoria noted the three invisible walls that she found, and transmitted the knowledge back to Lesie, which was easy to do when every thought could be read. She felt the fire poker tap into her in turn, and something bloomed in the Unblooded Shage's brain. A deeper pact of some kind. The fire poker seemed deep in thought, and Euphoria trusted it would share its knowledge in good time. Both were called back to the armory by Azalea's rattling cackle. That probably meant good news.

"I found some other rooms, and the stairs keep going. I wonder if it could be an escape route. Definitely useful if someone bothered to hide it," Euphoria told Azalea. She didn't bringing any attention to the fact she was now sporting a look like a bosozoku girl from a martial arts film. Not that she would know what that was or anything. "You figure out how to make the armor work with your all-powerful-orbnes?" Much to her delight, she had. She watched Azalea enter one of the armors, trying to suss out what she was doing. The use of MP was totally lost on her, so she just gravitated to the suit that most appealed to her and brushed the dust from the crude plates. "Eh, it doesn't really fit my character's backstory to wear armor but..." oh but they did look real cool, and Euphoria had to admit, putting a layer of protection between her and the outside world was tempting.

She also checked the suits for any sign that Leise could use one. If possible she would strap Leise in. Otherwise, she would weild them while dawning her own. Euphoria then put on a suit of XO armor. She looked to Azalea for any kind of instruction. "Once we boot these babies up, we should figure out our next move. Yall wanna backtrack and report the armor? Or do we venture downstairs to see if there's something useful? Might not be a bad idea to divide and conquer. If they ran into the guy we're looking for, or that cat, there's a good chance they'll be led here eventually."

She posed the question to the other two, but her vote was to go downstairs to see if there was any missing piece to the puzzle they found themselves in. It was possible their comrades were acquiring a piece of their own.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:16, Sat 13 Aug 2022.

Callisti

None of the suits were designed for a Callisti to operate. They were humanoid suits, meant to be occupied by humanoid people. However, through her [Meta-Analytic Computation], she was reduced the issue from 'her size and shape' to her 'her ability to precisely impel force' into objects.' She could levitate and fly through the air; this meant she had some native ability to counteract gravity and propel herself. Seated inside the the XO, she concentrated on her own natural propulsion and used [Analyze]

Hidden Skill: [Autokinesis LVL1] identified.

She directed her [Autokinesis] inward, exerting force on herself. She began to spin rapidly in place, faster, then even flaster until she hummed with exertion. A field of warbling air like heat haze emanated from her, ultimately expanding to a sphere five meters in diameter. The Suit constrained this sphere, pressing the force into the arms and helmet of suit.

She flexed the hands of the suit, and took a few tentative steps. She had to remain in the torso of the suit to operated it, but hey, limbs.

Leise Schwertgeist


The mental mapping Endeavor was successful. She now had perfect awareness of everything within a 10m radius.

Skill: Blindsight LVL1 acquired. Range: 10 meters.

Unblooded Shage, Demilupine, and Old Bones

Removing the woven hemp belt from the pants was no issue, and it did have a black iron buckle that was chunky but decent quality. Even with only the jacket equipped, she gained the [Fire Resistance LVL1] skill. From what she knew of the Godhunter game and its ilk, she could probably permanently learn the skill from the clothing if she wore it long enough and improved it.

Leise was not able to equip armor. The Ultralight XO wouldn't hinder her movement; it had a certain self-supporting property as it came online. The runes engraved on the armor were inactive, though.

The Demilupine arrived and quickly suited up, while the Old Bones picked up two of the corroded bronze weapons and cackled with glee. A dark sheen took over the weapons so long as they were in the hands of the Old Bones.

Hidden Talent: Grave Goods identified. Durability status of weapons is ignored while equipped by an Old Bones.

[The Cycle continues unbroken . . . Timestamp 20:18]

This message was last edited by the GM at 20:10, Sat 13 Aug 2022.

"Kya ha ha ha HA HA! PERFECT! Nearly worthy of my perfection!" She cackled with thrill and abandon. "And so simple! You simply need flow some of your magic through it and it does the rest. Limbs, oh glorious limbs. And it doesn't seem to 'weigh' anything at all! You'll love it. Wonderful look by the way. love the pants. OMG can I wear clothes over this do you think? Power is little without regalia to adorn it." Azalea flexed her 'body' this way and that, delighting in how natural it felt, how right. A fitting start of her grand conquest to perfection. "All-Powerful-Orbness is right!"

"And you found some paths! Wonderful! That'll give me something to do as I try out my newfound mobility." Azalea peered up the stairs at the racket of people making their way down to join them.

"Oh! You all are here too. Good good, you'll have time to dress up before our pursuer comes to kill us all in mere minutes, as I'd warned previously. Everything going well upstairs?"

Azalea readied her way downstairs with whomever would join her, to explore these newly found avenues, hopefully to some kind of escape route or whatever may be.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:46, Sat 13 Aug 2022.

Euphoria's eyes widened in wonder and envy as Azalea successfully strapped into her armor and activated it. She knew because the orb actually made the body move! Also the runes were glowy... and her's were not. "I think that might be the coolest shit I've ever seen," she deemed with dead-panned wonder. "Now tell me how the hell you did that. Euphoria demanded.

She then noted the Demilupine and Old Bones joining them in the basement. "Oh good, you guys made it. Are the others coming too? They gotta get a load of this sexy armor." she then flexed a bit in her suit. She had put her new fire-proof coat over her's so she could enjoy its stupid anime-ass vibes. Except now she was layered with plates of metal instead of the black rags. She told herself not to make a meal of them. She already had a snack up her sleeves for later.

Following Azalea's instructions, Euphoria concentrated on the power within her. She knew enough about the Shade's deep lore to understand they were capable of magic. Sort of. It was hard to know how to make said magic happen, or what it would even feel like. She had no spells or totems or otherwise to channel it through. Just the flesh of her own strange body. Euphoria closed her eyes and did what she knew best. She took deep breaths and entered a state that she had known on Earth, one that made her tingle in anticipation for "the Big Game". That sent electricity coursing through her blood. She felt the tingle in the tips of her black, charred fingers. Metaphorically, of course. Until it wasn't.

Euphoria poured her magic into the suit, attempting to activate it. And by extension, gave Leise the ability to sip from this power as well.

Ehem, actually... it was no longer Lesie. She was Haloise now. And finally, Euphoria could hear the magical weapon's thoughts crystal clear in her head. She proceeded to exchange some words with the weapon with a lot of "Uh-huhs," and "I'm really sorry" thrown in. It all seemed very normal (as normal as talking to a fire poker could be) until Euphoria removed one of her gloves and sliced her hand with the sharp end of Haloise. She hissed and commented under her breath about her second wound in this body. "Ow that also freakin hurt..." but followed through all the same. As it was asked of her.

When the rest of the group came bolting down the stairs, Euphoria cleared her voice for a special announcement. "Everyone, I have some stellar news. Turns out our friend the fire poker is fully sentient. She likes to be called Haloise, and I request you refer to her as such going forward," she told them. "Also, we found a secret path. Would be worth going down. Might be a way out. Which is great news. You know, so we don't get roasted by that incredible danger her royal orb-ness warned us about. Uh question, Azalea, do you know when about that's supposed to happen...?"

OOC: Added Euphoria drawing blood using Haloise, per our private telepathic conversation we are just now catching up with.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:09, Sun 14 Aug 2022.

Dalton was relieved when he poked his head in the room to find both the armory and the other former-earthlings. The house wasn't exactly large but it had taken him a bit to find the way down. It seemed the others had already donned armor, which was actually a surprise considering one of them was just a sphere. Revelation after revelation however had numbed him to a certain extent so he nodded in acceptance and continued on. The demilupine wasted no time and rushed to find armor that seemed to fit his new dimensions. 'Silver lining in all this? No joint pain!' he mentally noted as he slipped the suit onto himself. He also looked around for a shield and weapon to arm himself with.

He listened to Azalea's instruction and looked down at his own armor in confusion. The wolf-headed man had his [Familiar] ability but was that magic? It didn't feel like magic but then again how was magic supposed to feel? He certainly couldn't explain his new sense.

Unsure he decided to put a pin in that topic and addressed the others. "I can answer one of those questions. We have roughly 5 minutes left before the monster gets here. We," he paused as he tried to summarize the events. It seemed every minute something new happened that was hard to comprehend. "We found the remnants of a goddess in the attic. She said the monster is a 'ghost eater' and it apparently kills us all if we don't work together. Apparently the XO armor is essential although it seems you guys are already ahead of the game there. They were trying to activate theirs when we left. They were also discussing whether we should try to flee or fight the monster."

He turned to face the armor clad Callisti and looked her in the chest? "Azalea I was hoping you knew what a ghost eater was and what they can do? Aside from kill us all. That's been made clear. Do you know what it looks like or how it fights? The others were considering blinding it but we don't even know if this things sees like we do."

Dalton huffed at the thought of fighting. Aside from his empathic abilities he wasn't sure how much he could contribute. He did however have an idea that might help him. "Actually, Shage can I ask a favor? You like slapping right? Can you try and smack me in the face? Err, not with Haloise. She seems lovely but just a fist please." If she agreed to his request he closed his eyes and focused his [Familiar] trait on Euphoria. His ability allowed him to sense the intentions of others but would it be able to sense if someone intended to attack him? If he could sense the attack would he be able to sense when they attacked? If his experiment was successful he'd be able to dodge her slap. If he was wrong at least he wouldn't immediately be killed.

The dusty, flame-irised skeleton gives Mysterious Floating And-Now-Armored Geometry a funny look as she arrives. "I see someone else has fashion passion," she says sullenly. "Had I still my gloriously girly flesh I would love to play dress up, but I'm all bones and this is hardly the time."

The bones hoist a bronze weapon in each hand and give them appraising twirls. "More than adequete," she says. Iron rusts, but bronze simply develops an aesthetically pleasing green or sometimes red patina that does little to diminish their function; there is a reason why so many relics of the bronze age survived while their iron age counterparts didn't! Bronze is less durable, true, but also easier to repair. The perfect material for some lost souls like them.

And what of this dark aura? Is this a function of the same profane magical perversions that allow her creaky corpse to walk and talk as if it were alive? Curious. But she did not plan to hang around this strange world long enough to need to know how it works.

"Less than five minutes, because of all the talky-talky -- and walky-walky now." Bones corrects Dogface.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:38, Sun 14 Aug 2022.

Scampering down into the Armory/Furnace area Grimalkin looked around. He was bigger and his eyes shined against his dark form.

"Is there cat armor anywhere ?" He looked about frantically.

"We got the armor to work upstairs and Eri is safer now."

Then he realized it all came out as reow, or mrow or meow. He shook his head angrily.

He touched someone's shadow anyone's shadow to convey these things.

Haloise feels the blood drip down it's 'face' if it could quantify it. It has no awareness of the feeling itself, but the mental map it had opened up prior gives it constant, up-to-date updates on the position of the fluid as it runs down its system. Haloise would get flashbacks to trying to properly calculate fluid wave functions in high school chemistry if it had the ability to feel panic, but thankfully, it doesn't. So, it does what it can: it begins to ADMINISTRATE. A mental image of everything Haloise has ever scanned appears in front of it. Hm. That's no good: Haloise tunes things slightly, and it's vision clears as it refines it's brute force sorting to 'weapons.' That gives it the fire poker. For the first time since it got here, Haloise huffs in annoyance. The frustration quickly fades away as it picks up on something.

A skeletal system that arrived, presumably one of the 'humans' like Haloise itself, picks up the old, corroded weaponry that Haloise had labelled as 'incompatible.' However, Haloise is pleasantly surprised to see the weapon now in working order. The skeleton seems able to temporarily repair the old gear. Fascinating: this is good for COORDINATION. [Liese Schwertgeist] uses it's [Possess Weapon] skill to do an [Appraisel] on the target weapon held by Old Bones, utilizing the blood on it's 'face' to transform into if possible. While it does that, it's mind passively finishes it's scan of the area. Haloise takes a moment to  use it's [Blindsense] to peek through the walls and ceiling for secret passages, vents, or something of the nature.

Edit: Grammer
This message was last edited by the player at 19:56, Sun 14 Aug 2022.

Leise Schwertgeist & Unblooded Shage

Blood was spilled. Unblooded Shage gained an awareness of some hidden talent within her; the fiercely independent Shage developed their own magic, called their Pathwork, as well as they own Martial Philosophy. She would need to cut her own path through the jungle.

Meanwhile, her potent blood slid down the fire poker . . .

[Administrate] talent gained. [Bronze Spatha] identified. Form is replicable. Materials compromised beyond recovery. Unable to replicate supranatural effect overriding natural properties.

Troubleshooting initiated. Substitute material [Iron] available. Inferior to original design.

Troubleshooting. [Bituminous Coal] present within range of [Possess Weapon]. [Carbon] identified. Synthesis of material [Steel] available. Synthesis of material [Diamond] available.

[Mythrolasium] present within range of [Possess Weapon]. Unable to replicate supranatural alloy. [Appraise] Mythrolasium. Components materials: Mythril, Solarium. Unable to replicate supranatural material Solarium. [Appraise] Mythril. Supranatural preparation of natural occurring element Khamrabaevite. Synthesis of material [Titanium Carbide] available.

Collating.

Material Recipe unlocked: [Adamantite].

Activating [Haemomorphic]. Replicating [Adamantite Spatha].

The fire poker absorbed the blood, and in a dull red flash transformed into a dark gray spatha that gleamed in the light, sparkling along the diamond-laced cutting edge. The light of the furnace dimmed by a fraction, and part of one of the suits collapsed into a white powder.

Earthborn and Minor Grimalkin

The creation of 'cat armor' was not possible, but with Earthborn's knowledge of magical chroma and runes and Minor Grimalkin's native capacity with Shadow Magic, they were able to cut a strip of the odd metal and bend into a crude collar. From there, Minor Grimalkin recreated / copied the relevant runes with the Earthborn's oversight.

[Earthborn] gained the skill [Whitesmithing LVL1]

[Minor Grimalkin] advanced in the [Runic Inscription] to [LVL2]


Voidsafe Coronet [Accessory]
Player-Crafted

Crude brass-like coronet, or perhaps braclet or collar, crafted by stranger and shadow.

Permits the bearer to safely traverse the Void.

Demilupine<DarkGreen>

OOC: I'm making the assumption that players collaborate here. Unblooded Shage & Liese Schwertgeist, if our characters would not act as described below, please let me know I will revise things tonight accordingly.

His [Familiar] talent detected no hostility from Unblooded Shage even as she performed a feint as asked. It seemed her would be able to see through such deception with his ability, but would not be able to detect attacks themselves.

<DarkGreen>Lunarian

The Lunarian descended to this lower level, also equipping, activating, and empowering a suit of his own with the assistance of the others. Child-sized as he was, the XO required some modification to fit him; but this was not too difficult.

Callisti, and all those who join her


After answering the question posed to her or not, the Callisti and the party assembled with her marched to the secret stairway down that had been discovered, descending into the dark.

>> Continued in The Last House, Lowest Level: Gaol, Crypt. >>

The Cycle continues unbroken . .  Timestamp 20:19.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:04, Mon 15 Aug 2022.

Let's Earthborn put it on him.

Touching Earthborn's shadow, "Thank you, Earthborn."

Grimalkin purred lightly. Still there was little time and he thought of his original idea.

With [Curiosity] he looked around quickly for things that stood out even things within the shadows maybe even shadows of thing that had been down here before. Anything that might help them against this horrible thing that was coming.

"I just made the mistake of looking at my character sheet," the Old Bones says, tucking the weapons into her ribcage for safekeeping. "Apparently my attributes are Skillet, Bald, Strange, Viagra, Insertion, Adaptability, Dexterity, Integers, Mind, and Failure. I am pleased to report that failure is my lowest stat."

She looks at the others. "I'm guessing those are not what they really stand for. Ideas?"
This message was last edited by the player at 01:21, Mon 15 Aug 2022.

Shrugs, "Mrow."

Power radiated through Euphoria's body, and she had the innate sense that this was her magic. She felt her suit burst to life around her, the runs along the plates finally acquiring their own glow. What wasn't obscured by her new jacket, that was.

The armor springing to life wasn't the only magic happening before her eyes. At first, she thought it was her - oh shit, did she break something? - only to realize it was Haloise. The fire poker transformed before her eyes into a short, straight sword with a flat blade. She wasn't enough of a nerd to know its name, but it went stabby-stabby and she liked that. "Haloise, you magnificent, metal bastard. And I mean that in an endearing way." Soon they would all be armored up and one step ahead of dead.

Euphoria looked at the Demilupine in his desperation and cringed. "Aw, now you wanna swap slaps? Yeah, sheesh, ok, but I'm begging you not to look at me with those puppy-dog eyes." She lifted her fist, hesitated, then closed her eyes before socking the poor guy right in the snout. It made contact, which made her heart sink. Great, first punch of the game, and it was against her own teammate. She hoped there wasn't some kind of dark-side mechanic. Kicking the dog - or in this case, punching the dog - was totally a bad guy move.

Euphoria's eyes couldn't help but cross hearing Old Bones list off all those stats. She... maybe wasn't... the best at mechanics. But hey, no one needed to know that, right? "Yeah, those all sound... right to me. Low failure's gotta be a good thing." she offered, definitely not equipped to be more helpful than that. "We'll have more time to swap notes once we get out of here. If we don't die, of course." And Euphoria really didn't want that to happen. So she quickly followed behind the Callisti and Demilupine, descending into the Crypt below.

[To: Gaol, Crypt]

"That's not the way back to the attic..." the Bones try to point out to the hot-but-also-absent-blooded shage, whatever the heck a shage is. She looks back at the door she had entered by, then the passage by which the shage left. She weighed her options unhappily...

The [Lunarian]'s light seemed a bit...different to the others now, once he came into the Armory. It was a bit brighter than before, but yet had a subtle off quality to it. Like if light could have a tinge of shadow without actually betting dimmer. Like if light could look into shadows now rather than simply unveil them.

He worked desperately with the Earthborn and others to get his armor suit up and running. The SUIT system felt surreal...very much like things he encountered in real life games, stories, play-by-post games, and anime. He wondered if it had a minimap and other features, but they had precious little time for him to experiment more than was necessary right now sadly.

"Guys! About Eri up in the attic. We might be able to get her out of here but I don't think we can do so in 5 minutes. I think the wooden doll and those glittery runes on it that appear under my light are actually a binding spell or some sort of binding effect that keeps her here. I'd like to try experimenting with removing them and such and then working on her mobility, but we don't have the time sadly. she more or less told me as such too. But on the plus side, we know from her foresight the Ghost Eater either can't or simply won't hurt her so I think we can leave her here for now and come back for her after we get some distance between us and Ghost Eater and can catch a moment to think." [Lunarian] said.

"On the plus side...she did give me a name. Like metaphysically, and it will help me begin to embrace my lunar powers...whatever they may be. I'm no longer calling myself Argentum, but Starling instead as it's the name she gave me and I feel it's the least I can do in exchange for the help she's given us. But I think we should try to focus on preparing to flee from here down to the moon if possible. My ambush plan relied on us all having weapons and these rusty old swords won't do jack for us."

He considered.

"Alright everyone! Take me to where you all suspect there may be hidden walls and other stuff. I think you don't need me for Grimalkin and Earthborn to get the armors working for people - my light more or less helped them learn the trick to it more than anything. Now sic me on all those secret and dark areas you all are struggling with and let's see what my [Luminosity] unveils!"

He then considered.

"No not [Luminosity]</b>. "[Illuminatio] now. And [Grimalkin] kitty? I wanna try something with you. Try talking to me - you can say anything you'd like. Just not through my shadow, but just...normally if that makes sense. I wanna see if I understand you and if I can make others understand you. Come try and chat with me while I look for secrets and people get armored up. ANYONE ELSE WHO CAN HEAR GRIMALKIN SPEAKING LET ME KNOW!"

[Lunarian] attempts to test [Illuminatio] to see if it can allow him to understand [Grimalkin]'s speech even without shadowplay, similar to how he could communicate with Eri. He also wants to see if he can allow the OTHERS in the area to understand [Grimalkin]. Starling is using his [Appraise] skill on [Grimalkin] and himself as well while using [Illuminatio] to try and better understand the interactions they are having with each other, as well as if he can notice differences with his upgraded light talent.

[Lunarian] sweeps through the area with [illuminatio] as well, trying to reveal any hidden secrets the others have not uncovered or couldn't pierce yet like hidden walls etc.

If it was possible for a skeleton to stare blankly that is surely what the Old Bones is doing to Argentum Starling. "That's just one letter off from Sterling," she mutters, wondering as to the point of a name change. "Whatevs. You'll always be Moonbeam to me."

Old Bones looks around under the shine of Moonbeam's lunar light, wondering as to what secrets -- if any -- might reveal themselves under it. Then, she looks to the oddly intelligent cat. "Meow?"

Tests out speaking normally.

"Can people understand me ?"

[Private to GM: I used curiosity and shadow magic to see if I could find the shadow of old weapons or  anything in the area. Also things that might be used as poison against the Ghost Eater. You might have missed the post. Even looked in the furnace.]

Seeing the wolf-headed man - their leader, if he'd heard right? - searching for a weapon, Aaron frowned, looking around the armory as well. With so many strange auras and powers in the mix, surely SOMETHING would manifest...his eyes crossed the held firepoker as it drank blood and transformed. That's new. He activated Appraise and Delver of Mysteries, hoping to draw new knowledge from the [Leise Schwertgeist].

It had had a distinctly serviceable air unlike the rusted weapons here even before it became a spatha. He looked around for the furnace-tools, at the ruined bronze, at the [Old Bones]' paralysis - a good moment to Appraise and Delve the undeath-infused weapon she held as well - before taking a breath.

Starling, Moonbeam, or whoever he was was motioning everyone to follow to the gaol, and many others had departed. Time was burning down. But this might be their last chance to draw functionality from the House, in this mutability-infused room with its magical furnace. Analyzing both the Appraised character's ability to weaponize and defy ruin through blood and an unhallowed immortality respectively, the [Earthborn] tried quickly to replicate something of their arts along with what he knew now of runes and shadow magic. Maybe it had to do with imbuement - could he use the shadows cast by the enchanted fire to make something or add something to the ruined weapons? His own blood, or the blood that infused the defunct XOs they HADN'T activated and handed out? His experiments were hasty and desperate, and perhaps profane, but he met the [Demilupine]'s eyes.

"You guys go ahead, I'll just be a minute here. If I can arm us, I will."
This message was last edited by the player at 17:42, Mon 15 Aug 2022.

Minor Grimalkin

Elsewhere, another ember joined the bonfire . . .

There was  . . . a rat?

A rather fat rat. A rat of prodigious size, its body like a triangular potato the size of a watermelon, with ears and whiskers. It was nearly as large as Grimalkin's shadow-strengthened form. It was sleeping by the furnace.

Minor Grimalkin's [Curiosity] told him this was an important rat.

Maybe it was important because Minor Grimalkin was hungry?

Welcome, [Young Dwarf], to the House of the Lost.

Aside from the rat, this whole floor was unimportant. The thread of destiny lead elsewhere, downstairs . . . and upstairs.

Was that smoke coming from upstairs? There was no one tending to the hearth!

Lunarian, called Starling

[Illuminatio] didn't work that way, it seemed. Cat speech wasn't something hidden; it was just something he didn't understand, because he wasn't a cat and had never tried to speak the language. Disappointing.

Old Bones

Grimalkin understood your cat-speech perfectly; although what you meant by "Baisha, a town in Qingshui County." was anyone's guess.

Old Bones gained the skill [Catspeech LVL0]. She could now understand, but not speak, the strange tongue of cats.

Earthborn

There were other dimensions.

It was like looking at a tiered cake. There was this dimension - the 3rd - and above it the 4th, and below it the 2nd. He was thinking on the middle tier. The shadows the Grimalkin interacted with existed on the lower tier; and the effect that made the Old Bone's weapons function regardless of condition? An effect descending from the 4th tier. In the Old Bone's hands, the weapons didn't possess durability at all. There were drawing from a concept from which - his head hurt.

Shaking it, he considered what the Liese Schwertgeist had done. Identifying fundamental archetypes of local materials, drawing them down to her own 'shadow' in the 2nd dimension to interpolate with the shadow of the weapon she'd - his head was pounding.

It was wild sense. Nonnsense. Unsense. Madness. He was writing runes in the coal-dust, mumbling to himself, but then he had it.  A reversal of the three methods, a counterpolation, drawing shadow up from the 2nd dimension, into the forth, so that sublimated into -

there a was clang, then another, and another, and another. He shook. Where the ruined blades had been, there were now different blades, bronze blades that we functional but - insubstantial. Weaker than the surrounding dimension, having been fused with their own shadow. Thee weapon, when he held one up, did not even halt the natural light; there was no shadow cast.

He shook. He done something. Made, unmade, remade - demade?

[Spell Developed: Phantasmal Copy. Restores durability to maximum, at the cost of permanent reduction of maximum durability and some effectiveness.]

Your [Shadow Magic] has advanced to [LVL 1].

Grimalkin ran over to the rotund rat.

"Mrow !" He touched the rats shadow hopefully before it could speak he felt an overwhelming urge to touch an innocent shadow.

He then remembered and moved to [Earthborn] touching his shadow to speak, "I would love to learn what you did but something is happeneing there is a fire and it is important. It is upstairs and the only one I know up there is Eri. Also that rat that just appeared is important. Both those and the path down stand out to me right now. We may need another collar for the rat, or maybe my belly is talking I am a little hungry."

Then a serious look came over him, "I need to check on the fire, I hope it isn't the Ghost Eater." Bounding to Starling, "Come with please to hide me in your cloak if it is the big bad thing ? Something is upstairs and there is smoke and I sense importance."
This message was last edited by the player at 11:19, Tue 16 Aug 2022.

The [Lunarian] frowned at the failure.

"Well shoot! That experiment failed. I'm sorry guys - especially Grimalkin - I'm still getting the hand of my powers, and something weird happened a few minutes ago and it evolved or something. Now it isn't truly light anymore, but an illuminated understanding." he said.

And that was when anyone present would realize that the [Lunarian] indeed was no longer glowing. Except...they could somehow "see" or "perceive" all areas as the [Lunarian]'s metaphysical presence swept across the chamber. The best way to describe it was as Not-Light (not to be confused with darkness mind you), or "Like-Light-But-Not" which was why at first it semeed like he was emitting some sort of glowing shadow light but that wasn't right either. He was simply emitting an illuminated understanding and he could seemingly share it with the others too.

"And it won't work if his speech wasn't intentionally hidden. Which is strange then, since I understood Eri before. Which means I think her manner of speaking is simply so weird it counts as un-speech that intersects shadow magic and true secrets. But I'll have to play more later."

And then [Grimalkin] touched his shadow and he understood. He nodded and picked [Grimalkin] up like a child scooping a fat cat off the ground. It looked a bit comical, although it still worked. He also quickly willed the new rat-like [Young Dwarf] to be able to be privy to his [Illuminatio] as well, and [Appraised] [Young Dwarf] and all other characters in the room currently too.

"Greetings um...grossly large rat that would be absolutely horrifying if we didn't already have skeletons and such walking around. And sentient fire pokers. I wish we had more time to explain but we have like literally five minutes before some literal monster comes to try and eat us. I'm Starling, and we're all reincarnated or humans sucked inside this world like an anime, and are in an old House inside a dead large song god trying to prepare for our lives as we probably need to flee soon. We're all teaming up for mutual survival by the way - please go by that man over there and let him out a void collar onto you so you can survive in outer space meta-void when we flee. I also suggest you try using the Apprise skill on him and all these golden armors here to practice, and try your talent as well. Try to adap - I'm sorry we can't explain more but we're all doing our best not to panic and just adapt quickly."

He turned to [Earthborn].

"I'd love to practice magic with you but could help out this new rat-like companion of ours with another of those void collar thingies? I'm taking kitty and going to check on up the upstairs. He's right I can draw my hood down if it's dangerous up there. We gotta scoot see ya soon!"

And with that, Starling scampered with the cat in his arms upstairs to check things out. He was vigilant with [Illuminatio] as well - if something was stalking around up there he'd spot it once they were within 30 meters. and if he did he'd actively highlight the thing to everyone he attuned to his power. He [Appraises] any characters he encounters as well as anything causing fire and the fire itself as well.

The [Earthborn] mumbled somethin at the [Lunarian] that might have been affirmative, still reeling from his glimpse into higher realms, things he wasn't ready for. His eyes lingered on the [Old Bones] for a long time, only half-focused.

He gestured to the [Young Dwarf], already trying to center himself with more work. This wasn't what he was trained for, exactly, but stage magic was half presentation: costuming, lighting...and props, a thousand props, some bought wholesale but many in need of modification and a few that had to be made from scratch. There was only so much you could trust to other people in the industry. Given how his work in entertainment had tended to dovetail with his Other Career, he had less room than most in that department. So he'd been hands-on before, just...

...with wood and cloth and wire and metal mechanisms. Not 4th-dimensional shadowstuff.

He fanned the weapons out, gesturing that those leaving should arm themselves and take the extras to the others, choosing one for himself. Half-here, but maybe they'd prove more able against creatures from different layers of reality - and even pseudo-bronze was better than nothing. They seemed sharp enough and solid enough to kill a person. A Ghost Eater? He wasn't sure.

But he felt better with a weapon to hand.

"Hey, friend. Do you understand me? If you can understand HIM, try not to mind the...exuberance. We're all under strain. And he's right: we don't have time. I'm Aaron. This," he said, hastily shaping and carving another Voidsafe Coronet for the [Young Dwarf], "is your ticket out of here. Come on. Time to go."

The [Earthborn] looks around the furnace room and armory one last time. He snatches any tools that look serviceable, Phantasmal Copies any tools that don't, and then he flees for the gaol, sensing there's little time left.

One minute, you're out hiking in the Andes, the next you're plummeting of a cliff to your death. While falling, time had protracted out into near infinity, giving him plenty of space to consider the situation. He remembered that there was one nasty-looking rock in particular that was hurling toward him (or rather, his face was hurling toward it), and he recalled thinking it was shaped somewhat oddly like a backyard grill turned on its side. The surrealism of the moment protracted through time and stole his reason, and his last thought had been to wonder what the rock looked like up-close?

Gravity obliged his curiosity.

The next moment, he'd been jumped awake by a 'giant' housecat, causing his unfamiliar form to spasm and leap in instinctual fear several feet off the floor! He hung in the air for moment, senses reeling, until gravity asserted itself once again and he flopped down onto the hardwood with an awkward, sprawling thud!

"What?!" The giant rat exclaimed, accidentally using [Mimicry] to speak in a language and tone that almost perfectly matched the [Earthborn's]! Finding his 'feet', the [Young Dwarf's] paws awkwardly skidded around on the smooth surface until he finally gained traction and slipped toward the closest wall. Like a cartoon version of a talking animal, he then stood up on his hind legs and pressed his back against the wall, chest heaving and heart racing! "What?!" He repeated the question, again using [Mimicry] to speak in cat. The sound of a giant rodent meowing like a feline was possibly not the strangest thing in the Armory at that moment, but it was an odd sound, nonetheless.

Almost dumbly, the [Young Dwarf] stood as still as he could with back-pressed against the wall, until the [Earthborn] handed him the coronet. He took it, reaching a surprisingly agile rodent paw out to grip the object, and that's when he noticed the fur.

He looked down at himself, patting his new body with his free hand like a career businessman late for meeting who had misplaced his keys. Finding no keys and way too much fur, the [Young Dwarf] looked back up again, eyes wide, and said once more: "WHAT?!" This time no mimicry was involved. It was just a very rat-like squeak of alarm that needed no translation!
This message was last edited by the player at 11:45, Tue 16 Aug 2022.

Lunarian and Minor Grimalkin

Young Dwarf's shadow was different - his shadow didn't seem like that of a rat's. It seemed like many things, like it was a shadow of nothing in particular, somehow.

The two then rushed up towards the smell of fire, Lunarian warding the way. [Continued in Upper Level]

Earthborn and Young Dwarf

Time was up. It was a shift in the colors in the house that told Earthborn so; the House itself seemed to have stirred up in anger. The floorboards were resolute in shades of indigo, the red light was dropping to something greener and grimmer. This was his magical sight, of course.

He got the sense that fire was good, that the fire was on their side. A tingle ran down his spine; the outer barrier had been breached. Death was near at hand.

As for the Young Dwarf what distracted him from the fact that he was a rotund rodent - a fattus rattus, if you will - was the familiar smell of a burgeoning wildfire. His tiny heart beat rapidly. Death was everywhere around him, but a side-effect of his [Mimicry] was a kind of intuition into whether others were tricking him. They weren't.

The Voidesafe Coronet was a little crown than rested atop his head. A Rat King indeed.

Earthborn left for the [Lower Level], where he was greeted by Demilupine and Old Bones, both readying themselves for battle.

[The Cycle continues unbroken . . . Timestamp 20:20]
This message was last edited by the GM at 11:27, Wed 17 Aug 2022.

Everything was happening so fast that the Young Dwarf wasn't really sure what to do. The man had told him to follow, and given him a crown, but it all seemed to surreal. Then there was the shift in tone of the building around him, and the fact that he suddenly found himself alone in a strange place. Alone, as a rat. A fat rat. Maybe the fall from the cliff hadn't actually killed him? Maybe this was a dream and he was in a coma? Or maybe...

"Dear God... the Buddhists were right! I failed to be a good human, and I've been reincarnated as a lesser being!" Was it the Buddhists who believed that? Admittedly he wasn't an expert on world religions... and it didn't explain why he could speak, or why he could remember his past life. But at least it was enough to put a proverbial wad of gum on his leaking confusion. It would do for now.

Any given person, in the course of their life, often forgot as much as they learned. Some things were easier to forget than others though, and while it had been some time since the Young Dwarf had been in a combat situation, the instincts that came with that sort of experience were hard to forget. Nor was it hard to forget the training associated with soldiering, no matter how deep they might be buried after years working behind a desk.

Old instincts from a freshly passed life asserted themselves, blending with new instincts and untapped skills. The Young Dwarf forced himself to calm, just enough so that he could at least get a grip on his surroundings. Without thought, he looked around for a weapon or something to defend himself with, and also examined himself Likely using [Appraise] without conscious thought. Even a rusty butter knife would help to ease at least some of his fears!

After a quick search, with only a heartbeat of hesitation, the fat rat swallowed a growing lump in his throat, and chased after the [Earthborn].
This message was last edited by the player at 18:28, Wed 17 Aug 2022.

[Coming from the Main Hall Thread]

The Lunarian ran down the stairs as fast as he could, his bronze sword in hand. He then realized he was the Cloak-Version of Shield Hero and tosses the useless sword aside to the ground, as he couldn't actually use or equip it due to the metaphysics of Godhunter. He'd have to rely on his bare hands or maybe magic and such going forward, unless he could figure out how to attack with his cloak. Or make it like that cool-ass animated one from the Doctor Strange movie. Wishful thinking, but such was all that was keeping him going right now. That and the desire to survive.

He maintained [Illuminatio], making sure everyone aligned in the house (except scapegoat but that was only because he didn't know about him fully yet despite having senses much of his metaphysical activity recently) could sense Ghost Eater's position, even through the walls. Once he learned about Scapegoat though, he'd surely include him in on [Illuminatio].

The [Lunarian] ran to the top of the entrance to the lower Gaol and crypts, and he sgouted down.

"You guys! If you can hear me, Everyone needs to get up here NOW! [Grimalkin] is fighting a Ghost Eater in the main hall, and thanks to Eri its injured enough where we stand a chance to beat it but we have to hurry! We need to all get up there and attack together! There's fire, but they won't harm you - Eri made sure of that before she...well, just HURRY guys! Now or never!" the [Lunarian] shouted down the stairs loudly into the Gaol, before turning around and heading right back across the armory and up the stairs to the main hall.

He was going to help fight, even if he had to act as a distraction or use his fists.

Heading back up to the Main Hall to Join the fight.