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.