Colleen
Forest Shrine
@Pyromania99@Rin

---

She could, have continued to believe she was somewhere on earth. Just a little bit of plausible deniability. Even the weird snake hair she had and the two shorties could be somewhat maybe, reasonably explained away. This illusion, however, was shattered the moment that gargantuan creature fully came into view.

"I did not survive a plane crash just to have my ass eaten by whatever the hell you are!" Colleen shouted, realizing she was in no position to outrun this beast, whatever it was. Gritting her teeth and planting her feet on the ground, she'd have to try fighting then. Her heart raced, pulse quickend, she pivoted, and then -

"Weh?" Before she could do her Totally awesome bad guy one-shot kick, however, the creature slamming into a gold wall of light, injuring it in a way that would have likely killed nearly any other being. The source of it? A young looking girl welding a staff and wearing a hat like some sorta wannabe witch type.

bonk

"Wa-ow hey!" The serpents on top of her head all proceeded to hiss in unison as Colleen recoiled lightly from the sudden blow. "What's that for ya wanna be witch nerd?! You wanna taste these fists yourself?! We got no idea where Here or what that so called death trap is!"

---

Jase scowled at the shadws as he brushed off his hands. At least coming down he'd found some quartz stones. With a bit of tinder, he might get a fire going.

"Did anybody see any sign of water as they came down?" the half-elf asked, all business. "We won't go far without water, and the only source I know is back up there in that cave, and we have no way to carry it. That cave is also the only shelter."

One that look harder to reach from down here, Jase frowned.

"We can skirt along this clif for an hour or two, then come back if we don't find anything," he added. "Unless one of you have anything better?"

---

@Crusader Lord@Thunder999999@Crimson Paladin

---

---

Duncan let out a little breath of relief as the noblewoman seemed to approve of their motley trio and turned her attentions to other matters. Namely the poor girl laying wounded by the carriage. Hikari had been quick to volunteer, and Steven was not long behind her, our old man, on the other hand, well...

Two was great, but three started to make a crowd when administering first-aid in his experience— too many hands and too many brains moving about the same body and bumping into each other— and there was also the little fact that the last first-aid course he'd ever been to had been an army refresher module back in '84... And he'd honestly slept through most of the damned thing because he knew he was retiring soon and there was nobody in that bloody room who outranked him enough to give him hell for it.

So instead, Duncan busied himself by tearing off another piece of green cloak and giving his sword a wipe down; not particularly wanting all that gunk to get into his scabbard where it'd undoubtedly start to smell like all hell and be a right pain in the ass to clean out. Before tearing off another clean piece and giving the shield he'd used so enthusiastically before the same treatment, pausing for a second to register that his manic melee-ing earlier seemed to have unfastened a clasp he hadn't noticed earlier; one hiding a much longer strap that might allow him to carry it on his back instead of having to lug it around on his arm.

Which was a welcome sight, truth be told; fucking thing would probably get heavy on the arm after a while.

Frowning somewhat at a particularly stubborn piece of brain that still clung to the shield's face, he reached down to tear off another piece of green cloth and came to a sudden stop as he felt something... different through his gloves. Causing his head to cock to the side slightly and his eyes to cast down toward the corpse beside him for a moment, before he plucked up and pulled the cloak out of the way.

There he found... two rolls of paper, tucked into the back of the bandit-turned-stiff's belt. One looking like a hastily folded note and the other appearing as a more proper looking scroll. His eyes cast upward again as he gingerly plucked the two parchments free, taking another, deeper look around him.

For as much as their previous attackers had outnumbered them, and as much damage as they had done... there was an awful lot of them laying dead or dying on the ground. And Ol' MacTyr had been around the block in enough places over the course of his career to have encountered bandits and highwaymen before— less so while fighting the Germans, but definitely in Korea, Lebanon and Egypt. And it was his experience that men who operated like that generally didn't start fights they didn't know they'd win very quickly; different tools and different lands aside, men generally needed to live to spend their coin.

Which is why it now struck him as rather... odd they'd stuck in as long as they'd had— ten minutes at least by his reckoning, measuring from when Steve had picked them up with his fox-eared sonar to their arrival—, taking those kinds of losses, especially against an adversary that fought like the woman with the claymore did.

Which meant they must've been motivated by something else. Or after something specific.

His eyes turned towards the noblewoman again, and his brow furrowed. Perhaps they'd wanted to ransom her? It'd be a helluva a payout, seeing as how she's the daughter of a Duke.

'...Which also means she's very high on the food chain. And even if they did get paid out, their days would likely be thoroughly numbered... unless...' He added mentally, turning his eyes downward as he unfolded the rougher-looking note.

On it's surface he found, to his lack of surprise... a map. Of a road. With an arrow pointing down it's path and symbols he at first couldn't make out until a momentary blurring of his vision seemed to transcribe them into... numbers. With a few other accompanying notes. Not to leave a stone unturned, he quickly thumbed open the scroll as well, but only found scrawled on it a series of symbols and a merciful lack of visual distortion. Nothing he could make sense of, at least— some kind of code, perhaps?

He'd have to think about that little hallucination later, but first things first; he stood to his feet, sheathed his sword, slung his shield over his back and picked up his helmet before calmly approaching the maid who'd exited the cart last— mainly because of those nearest to the Lady, she seemed the most the most likely to put something pointy somewhere he'd rather she not if he'd approached her Liege directly, judging by that subtle movement in her arm and the look she'd given him and his fuzzy friends earlier.

It honestly kinda reminded Duncan of himself when he was younger and a bit twitchier.

Which is exactly why he stopped just barely out of arms reach of her. And made sure she was between him and the Noble she served before looking past her and speaking directly towards her boss; something borne out of equal parts professional courtesy and understanding how to act around someone who was already 'switched on'.

"Found something, M'Lady." He stated matter-of-factly, offering the documents out in one hand to whoever would take them. "A map, showing your direction of travel, numbers and disposition. The other one looks to be some kind of cypher, but I can't make heads or tails of it."

@VitaVitaAR@PKMNB0Y@Raineh Daze

---

With Sheila's assistance, keeping Linie from moving too much while she was being tended to wasn't particularly difficult. Thankfully, the Duke's Daughter and her entourage weren't entirely unprepared, and some alcohol and clean water as well as some loose fabric was able to be located for the purposes of tending to the wound.

It seemed as if Linie was finally listening to her orders, at least, given she appeared to be resting still, though she did flinch slightly as the gash in her side was tended to. As long as they could put a stop to the bleeding, it was likely the future was relatively bright for the injured girl.

While it didn't show on her face, the Duke's daughter seemed to grow a little less tense at the medical attention to her maid, though the third maid that remained by her side was less ready to relax.

This was made abundantly clear when she snatched the paper from Duncan's hand.

"Don't address Lady Darnell so lightly," she asserted, her voice firm as she gave a sharp glare to the armored man, "Regardless of how you may have assisted, you-"

"Morwenna, do you take me for some kind of fool?"

The maid went rigid at that.

"Of... o-of course not, Lady Darnell," she said, bowing her head.

"Hmph," the blonde girl huffed as she folded her arms, "Then don't treat me like one. I want to see what he found, even if he is a commoner."

"I... I apologize," the maid responded, bowing her head swiftly. When she addressed Duncan once more, she didn't look him in the eye.

"I'm sorry," she said, quietly, before silently handing holding the paper up to her mistress.

The girl's glare intensified.

"Someone dared to hand these pieces of trash information on my route back to the capital?" she snapped, snatching the paper from her maid's hand, "The audacity to aid mere bandits in attempting to assault nobility---!"

"I'm not sure if they are mere bandits, Lady Darnell," one of the armored men approached, kneeling and bowing his head as he did. He was in his forties, perhaps, with a rather thick moustache, "Their equipment is higher quality then the average highwayman, no matter how they tried to make it look."

The girl's grip on the paper tightened as her eyes narrowed.

".. I see," she replied, her voice dripping with venom, "So that's how it is."

@PKMNB0Y@Raineh Daze@Sir Lurksalot

---

---

While Sora fiddled with the undead corpse, Tiny stammered something. The tamer frowned up at her. The small elf’s voice was high-pitched, wavering…on the verge of crying?

“Hey, hey, okay, okay,” he said, trying to calm her down. He raised his hand in a stop motion, but noticed his hands were definitely not sanitary right then. “I said sorry, didn’t I? This isn’t the kind of situation any of us are used to, right? We don’t actually know anything about it, we can just guess and try things out until we do find out, yeah? So, c’mon, I know it wasn’t your fault or anything…Don’t cry please?”

He almost went to scratch his head, but was reminded his hands were gross in time. “A fantasy setting…Then would you call our world a realistic setting? I wouldn’t, and I don’t know that thinking in terms of tropes is such a sure bet, either,” he rationalized. “Them being magic doesn’t tell me enough,” he shrugged. “That’s why I want to know why. Because there’ll be a next time, and we want to do better next time. Right?”

Tiny seemed to be calming down now, and was finally on the track of focusing on the positives – that they killed a zombie and cleared out the cellar without any injuries on their part. “Would you like a hug?” he asked, just in case. She said she wasn’t a kid, but she did still remind him of his younger sister a bit. “Ah, but my hands are a mess,” he remarked with a wry small. Whether Tiny accepted his offer or not, Sora went to the kitchen momentarily to wash his hands.

He brought the washbasin, cloth, and a piece of hard soap he’d discovered after looking around the kitchen for a while with him to the reception area. He set the items down next to the dead armoured lady (who'd died while still human), and started cleaning her body, and the area around it. He wanted to bury her. However, he wasn’t sure what to do about the zombie. Part of him was tempted to just chuck it out but…Maybe the others would have some better input.

However, it seemed at least Ryu and Blonde were already off exploring the cellar. “Anything good in there?” he didn’t shout, hoping they could hear.

---

---

@VitaVitaAR @RolePlayerRoxas @Aku the Samurai @PKMNB0Y

Javal

Javal glanced around at the forest, then looked back up at the cave mouth.

"I agree," he said to the pointy-eared fellow assessing their situation. "We've no idea how close or far civilization is from here, and can't be sure about what manner of weather patterns we'll be facing."

The sky the position of the sun throughout the day, the, temperature, and state of the forest might give some clue as to what they'd be experiencing, but weather could be lethally unpredictable for those unprepared. And with no knowledge of this region beyond the most basic of physical observation, they were very unprepared.

"If we head into the woods, it'd be easy to get disoriented and be unable to find our way back to the cave if the weather turns bad, the night turns too cold, or we're unable to find water," he continued. "But if we follow the cliffs, it should be a straighforward journey back."

@Expendable@Crusader Lord@Thunder999999

"Uwwwwwwaaaaagggg..... The hell is that thing! It's so damn gross!" rita was held over the medusa's shoulder and got a horrifying constant view of the monster chasing them. The smell was disgusting. Sickly sweet rot to mix with the look. The sounds it emanated, the sickly green ooze... The Centipedes... There was nothing not disgusting about this thing! "I forgot your name snakey... But I'm feeling sick..."

Soon enough however there was something odd. A girl. A... weird cosplayer? It wasn't something Rita could judge really. There was a golden wall of light seperating them and the creature. It was wanting.... revenge or something? Rita couldn't pay attention. She felt sicker than when she drank far too much. The smell just kept to her nose. As soon as the witch girl hit the medusa with her stick? Staff? Whatever. Rita used the moment to wiggle out of the snake's grasp and started to dry heave. God she felt the inner need to throw up from that smell. Nothing came up however. She made some horrifying noises herself but soon enough her nose and stomach felt a small bit better. She seemed to be cured by whatever amount of clean air there was with that light wall going up and the creature leaving. "I hate this forest. I hate that gross deer skull thing. I need beer..." She muttered to herself finding herself sitting now. She wasn't even sure when she managed to do that without knowing.

The goblin took a deep breath of air before standing up. "Listen, uh, girlie? I don't know. Whoever the hell you are. Thanks? I think. Let me get one thing straight, I'd never go to a place like that one purpose, you know? I just want to do my job and drink lots of alcohol, ya' dig?" She mentioned, "In fact, I don't know why I AM here. Was I too... Wait." It was then that something dawned on her as she turned to Colleen. "You! Uhh, Celine! Snake-head! You said something earlier, plane crash! Were we on the same plane that crashed!? I was black-out drunk, I don't remember that!" She exclaimed as both of her hands gripped around Colleen's leg and started to push and pull on it desperately. "I was too busy with work to die!"

She took a second to hold back any amount of tears she might have released as she tightened her grip on Colleen's leg a small bit before releasing and taking a step back. "Ugh... So like... Why do I look so green and short...." She looked frustrated before her eyes went wide and looked between the people present. "In spite of any change.... Am I still a bombshell like I remember?" She seemed a little excited about that as she tried studying her body as best she could. "I need a mirror."

---

"Not everyone here has whatever your strength stat is and a warhammer, you know."

As much as I'm glad she used it and crushed the undead, I really hope that the girl in the white robes and armor isn't going to go assuming everyone has whatever freakish layout she has going on.

My strength stat is the bare minimum and I don't have anything aside from my staff. I can't say I favor my chances in the same situation, so I'm hoping I don't have to put that to the test.

... Did the other elf just tell me not to cry?

I wasn't going to cry! And I'm definitely not now!

Am I?!

I can't help turning away quickly, embarrassed. Did I seriously---

I'm an adult. A grown man!

... Well, this body isn't a grown man's, though I'm definitely not a child. There's no way I was on the verge of tears and didn't even realize it, right?

Is it really because the hormonal balance of this body is different then I'm used to? That I'm simply not used to dealing with the ways a small elf girl emotionally responds to things? I know it can't be the same as an adult male human's, but---

Aah, I don't even what to think about the fact I might have just nearly cried in front of a bunch of strangers!

At least I can distract myself by answering his questions.

"I-I'm making a lot of assumptions, but-"

Wait wait wait.

Did he offer to hug me?!

I feel like the stare I give him is probably enough of an answer to that, but I'm not about to let it go.

"I'm an adult. And a stranger. Do you seriously offer to hug adult strangers all the time? Please tell me you don't."

Sucking in a deep breath, I try to calm myself. My heart's not beating quit so fast, and I can easily avoid looking at the dead zombie.

"L-like I said, I made a lot of assumptions, but..." I pause a moment. It really is a lot of guesswork, but it's what I have to go off of. Two of us are elves, we're all dressed up in robes and armor, and magic clearly exists.

"I'm guessing this world is a fantasy setting," I continue, "Something out of story about elves and dragons and magic."

The only thing we don't have right here was the dragons, after all.

At least I hope so.

"So it doesn't run on the same principles as the world we were born in," I add, "These undead are probably animated by magic. Rather then dying, it's more like a car breaking down. If your car irreparably breaks down, you're going to leave it, right?"

If magic is making it move, then it doesn't need the brain to stay intact. But a broken spine or destroyed limbs means it can't move anymore.

"That's probably what happened."

I take a deep breath and glance at the rest of the cellar.

"We should take what we can and get out of here. I doubt the whole world is like this, and we don't have any source of clean portable water anyway. So, we need to find a way out of this city."

@PKMNB0Y@Aku the Samurai@SilverPaw@RolePlayerRoxas

---

---

"You're one of Cassius'... Erm... Acquaintances, correct? Could you bring this bastard to the guards at the gate?"

Connor stumbled out of the doorway of the shack, flinching in the bright light, then recoiling in horror as he saw the stump of the hooded man's leg. And the rapidly growing pool of blood.

"You mean before he bleeds out from his femoral artery?!" he said, his voice breaking at the high point as he gestured with both arms at the empty air where a second boot should have been. "Somehow, I don't think so!"

And yet, the next squelch of blood that escaped from the leg was slower. There was an odd sound, like someone sucking a straw in an empty glass, and before Connor's eyes the bandit's wound started to close of its own accord. There was no light show. It was hard to see through the gore still covering the stump, but it almost looked as if worms were crawling underneath the man's skin, pulling against it like drawstrings to close the muscle and flesh around the stub of bone...

"Did you know that was gonna happen!?" Connor pointed at the body-horror as he turned towards the cat girl, his expression wide eyed with shock and disgust. But she was already heading in another direction---wait, where was Cassius? Why had she been fighting with this guy in the first place? Had something happened?

The Slime sent him a message, asking the same thing. As Connor paced around the unconscious man, trying to figure out how best to proceed, he composed an answer. But as he did so, he noticed an unusual typo. Did Up do something?

Could they even have typos, given the nature of this communication? Did the slime mean did U do something? instead?

Contact: Slime
Ye, smth happened, but OK now! Guy was fighting w/ catgirl, came into the shack like he was gonna start something. I threw Caliboard at him, but then catgirl cut off his leg, and now she wants me to try and drag him to the guard station. Apparently he's not gonna die, but it's still really gross.

...

...Do you wanna try to eat the leg?

Connor looked at the limb where it lay on the road. It wasn't twitching or anything. God forbid it start growing a new body for itself. Then he looked back at the hooded man, who was still just laying there.

At least he wasn't ragdolling out or clipping into the environment or anything. Status screens, monsters, and magic he could handle. Glitches in reality, those would be much more existentially concerning. Although, now that he was thinking about video game NPCs being ragdolled...

Focusing his mind like he did with the Status Window did not open a "looting menu" where he could simply press "take all" and immediately leave the man in only his underwear. Crap, he had to do it manually. But this guy had been about to attack them, and had lost a leg for it. Right of conquest or something, yeah?

It was easy enough to undo the cloak's clasp near the man's collar, and then just start yanking it out from under him. It was covered in dirt, blood, and something absolutely foul-smelling that Connor did not want to talk about, but it was a black, tattered cloak. Clean it off---maybe with the slime's help---and it would be baller.

There was also a bandolier of throwing knives. He had to work it and slide the belt around until he could get to the buckle, but he took that too. But even though he now had some actual weapons, one couldn't forget their humble roots. He fastened the bandolier over his own chest, and then hooked Caliboard to it by the nail sticking out of its end. The cloak, for the moment, was rolled up and stashed back inside the shack.

Contact: Slime
The catgirl said her name was Meira, and if what Cassius said about her being an adventurer holds up, it's probably safe for me to do as she said. I'm gonna try and get info from the guards. But while I'm gone, you should try to hide, okay?

I dunno if you've already figured out how to move or not, but maybe imagine yourself as like...a train? Saw a video once about how Japanese metros were like slime molds, moving efficiently between food nodes/cities. Maybe make a bunch of cilia like treads underneath you?

If the slime did indeed want to eat the formerly hooded man's leg, Connor would use Caliboard (he wasn't gonna touch it, ew) to flip it over to them. Otherwise, he would take the still-legless, still KO'd hostile under his arms (cringing the whole time as he looked down at the man's bruised face) and start dragging him towards the guard station Meira had indicated...

To say the path was perilous for someone like herself was, ah....yeah. Perhaps it was obvious, in hindsight, in her mind. That made the stabler footing at the base of the cliff feel that much better underneath her feet at the very least, though the sounds of a forest teeming with life and the feeling of brimming with soome kind of energy certainly was a change of pace compared to the cave proper. A light sigh escaped the lips the knightess, though now things were a bit more uncertain than they even had been before in a sense as well. A large forest of unknown location and clime sat before them, the cliff side going to either side, and the path all the way back up to the cave lied behind them in turn.

"Did anybody see any sign of water as they came down?" the half-elf asked, all business. "We won't go far without water, and the only source I know is back up there in that cave, and we have no way to carry it. That cave is also the only shelter."

"We can skirt along this clif for an hour or two, then come back if we don't find anything," he added. "Unless one of you have anything better?"

"I agree," he said to the pointy-eared fellow assessing their situation. "We've no idea how close or far civilization is from here, and can't be sure about what manner of weather patterns we'll be facing."

"If we head into the woods, it'd be easy to get disoriented and be unable to find our way back to the cave if the weather turns bad, the night turns too cold, or we're unable to find water," he continued. "But if we follow the cliffs, it should be a straighforward journey back."

Eh? EH?! Would she have to go back up the path to the cave again later? Seriously?!?! Ahhhh....no, but it was preferrable to not having anywhere to sleep or rest otherwise. She'd rather be 'safe than sorry', even if it was a cold and damp cave back up there. Still, after a moment of pause, and listening to the other two men in the group talk, Nyana would give a simple nod of agreement in turn in the end. Thank goodness her helmet hid her face and such though...

[color=violet]"I'll agree with those ideas as well. We can search along the cliffsides for a short bit, then return here before it gets dark. Though question is, which direction do we want to go first?"

Maybe they could split up into two pairs to search in two directions at once? More risk, more scouting, would be the payoff of that. But minding that this was all so new to them, ah, perhaps splitting the group wasn't such a good idea in general. Certainly the 'badness' of the idea was enough to convince her it wasn't the best shot they had at least. But they did need to try to think something up in general for how to proceed somewhat beyond this as well. Camping in the woods for all of their new lives didn't sound quite as exciting as it could be, though maybe living a nice slice-of-life isekai would be less dangerous to them as well? That could be nice....but probably had a zero precent chance of happening if she were being somewhat realistic about the matter.

"Though we will need to address the forest at some point, perhaps, given the seeming lack of civilization near us. Not unless we wanted to make a 'trail of breadcrumbs' type of things to trace back our steps when investigating the forest sooner or later now. Mark trees, leave a trail of rocks, etc?"

@Crimson Paladin@Expendable@Thunder999999@PKMNB0Y

Vrelenor certainly doesn't have a better idea, he could try melting conjured ice in a pinch, but that seems unlikely to provide enough water for all of them, particularly as they don't own so much as a cup. Probably better to just try that pool in the cave.
Marking trees sounds easy though, just got to carve into them, he'd worry about angering a Dryad or something, but so far this place seems to be empty, so no more paranoia.

"We've got enough sharp objects to carve marks into trees with, but lets just stick to the cliff first, there was water in the cave so maybe there's some sort of natural spring serving as the source of a stream nearby."
Thinking again of the chest room he adds.
"Lets just go right, both ways seem identical to me."
No more delays.

@Crusader Lord @Expendable @Crimson Paladin

In the midst of the group's exploration of the cellar, the presence of a pair of objects that most certainly did not belong in the cellar would eventually be uncovered next to one of the barrels of alcohol. A simple leather journal, bound and left untouched since the room had been sealed, and a nearby burnt-out lantern would seldom have been kept in a place to store goods like these, which meant that the undead here had to have brought them down before becoming what they were now.

Or, well, what they had been. It was hard to call them undead when they were most certainly little more than a dried-out corpse now.

Perusing the journal, however, would at least provide some more interesting information. Though the entries, penned by someone by the name of Byron Tere, provided mostly mundane accounts of life as an innkeeper's son, the steady progression of the events that followed were... Less than pleasant.



@VitaVitaAR@RolePlayerRoxas@Aku the Samurai@SilverPaw

---

With the matter of the very unconscious attacker handed off to the odd young man, Meira began to bound off back towards where she had left Cassius. It took less than a minute for her to close the distance, and less than that to understand what had transpired.

It had been a mistake, in a sense, to expect that only one person would try to attack her and only her. By some miracle, the elf had survived—and slain his own assailant besides—but that didn't mean that they were out of the woods quite yet.

"Sorry, that was my mistake," the catgirl apologized as she approached, only to see that the elf had passed out next to the corpse of the one he had just killed. With a grimace, the young woman knelt down for a moment before slinging Cassius' unconscious body over one shoulder and grabbing the now-damaged packace with her sword.

The bad feeling she had been getting from it had only seemed to intensify now that someone's blood was on it, but that was all the more reason to get it checked out than not.

Assuming that the other man had followed her instructions, she would meet him either at the guard station or en route to it; ultimately, where they met mattered less than the fact that he was listening to begin with.

---

At the guard station, Meira wasted no time in making sure the guards—who seemed rather taken aback by the trio walking in—had the incapacitated assailant bound up and tossed into a musty cell for later questioning before securing somewhere for Cassius to get examined and rest. One of the guards had run off to call for a healer to attend to the elf's wounds (and to make sure that their suspect didn't die before they would squeeze any information out of him), but that meant that the group was also very much stuck here until the guards had received their account of the situation.

The package, of course, was placed into a box and left off to the side for further examination. The contents were unstated and Meira had essentially brought it in without so much as a glance inside, after all, but mentions of "cultist activity" and "smuggling" would make it clear to any who happened to overhear the discussion that whatever was inside was not something to be trifled with on a whim.

Of course, this situation meant that Connor was free to stay and ask questions of his own... Or leave as soon as the interrogation was done. None of the guards would stop him if he left, nor would anyone really wish to given where they presumed he was from.

@ERode@Zeroth@TheMushroomLord

---

Traveling alongside the cliff face would lead to much of the same scenery that the group had seen—or, well, so it would be for a decent while. The route that they had chosen to take seemed to curve around, leading the group out of view of the path they had taken to leave the cavern from earlier and away from the forest that only now seemed to thin.

Around the bend, however, the group would find in front of them rather rugged plains that seemed to slope upwards at a gentle incline. Compared to where they had emerged, the area seemed to be far more open.

That alone would make it nearly impossible to miss the river that was feeding into what seemed to be a lake that had been just out of the group's vision earlier.

Before the group could make any hasty decisions, though, a massive shadow seemed to pass overhead, crossing the skies overhead before the source of it—a large bird whose body seemed to be plated in metal—slowly settled on the ground near the lake. It had not yet noticed the ragtag group of explorers at this point, of course, but whether or not that was the truth or if it was simply ignoring their presence for the moment remained to be seen.

@Crusader Lord@Thunder999999@Crimson Paladin@Expendable

---

The green-haired girl gave a blank, incredulous stare at the medusa and the goblin, for a few moments rendered entirely speechless.

"You don't know where that was?" she exclaimed, "Then how did you even-you must be drunk. It'd explain why you're such an odd group, too."

She pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed heavily.

"In case you needed a refresher, that ruined shrine is given a wide berth for a reason," she continued, her right hand still on her wooden staff as her left rested on her hip, "And the creature that attacked you is why."

Averting her eyes for a moment, the girl grumbled something under her breath that was barely audible. But given her goblin nature, her large ears adapted for hearing faint noises, it was possible that Rita would just barely pick up her voice.

"-not that staying away from the shrine is enough these days..."

The girl let out another sigh before directly addressing the trio once more.

"Listen, I'm not thrilled about this, but I can't have a set of drunk lunatics dying on my conscience," she began, "And I think Relki wouldn't leave me alone if I just let you try and find your way out by yourselves."

As if on cue, a raven alighted on the tip of her staff. It regarded the assembled figures before it, tilting its head.

"So, follow me. I'll take you someplace safe for the night and then show you the way out in the morning. Got it?"

The girl turned and started to walk away, then paused and looked back over her shoulder.

"Since you seem so ill-informed, I'll introduce myself. I'm Ilsa, Substitute Witch of the Forest."

The raven let out a caw, and Ilsa glared at it for a moment. Eventually, she let out a sigh.

"And that's Relki. For some reason, she won't just tell you herself. Now, come on."

With that, she turned and started to walk away. The forest was no longer so dark and intimidating, with the departure of the creature, but the patches of dead plants where its hooved feet hand fallen remained. Still, the birds had returned, and the idyllic and peaceful-seeming surroundings no longer held a scrap of malice. Certainly, there were likely dangerous creatures living in the woods of a more ordinary sort, but it still seemed to be a pleasant enough place.

If one could forget the deer creature.

After a few moments of walking, the forest cleared slightly to reveal a stone path with grass growing between it, leading to a cottage across a small wooden bridge over a stream. It had a small garden out front, flush with blooming flowers, and something small and sparkly seemed to be flitting around above the rooftops and about the garden.

@Rune_Alchemist@Pyromania99@Rin

---

Jase grinned as their hike seem to pay off - the trees thinned out and they could see a river coming out of the forest, flowing into a lake. Water! There had to be an outlet away from the lake, and with luck, that would lead them to civilization.

When the overhead shadow past over them, Jase instinctively looked up - and froze as he caught sight of a giant bird, wearing what looked to be armor was decending towards the edge of the lake. If that wasn't an optical illusion of some kind, it suggested there was civilization here - but why would a bird wear armor? Was it to protect itself from beings like them? Or was there something else flying in the skies above?

"Don't make any sudden moves," Jase whispered. "Just slowly sit down here. It's probably seen us already. If we rush over there, it might attack."

"Am I crazy, or does it look like it's wearing armor?"

---

@Crusader Lord@Thunder999999@Crimson Paladin

Colleen
Shrine
@Pyromania99@Rin

---

"Drunk?! I might be a lunatic, but I haven't touched alcohol in years. Sensei would've put me in a chokehold..." Colleen replied, huffing in irritation, following after Ilsa. She was glad this...witch, seemed friendly, but she still had so many questions. Hopefully once they got somewhere relatively safe they could get answers.

At least the forest was pretty, now that the freaky deer thing was gone. The walk let her collect her thoughts a bit more clearly now, too, now that the relief and shock of not being dead or in immediate danger of dying again wasn't present.

"Rita, was it?" She turned to the goblin, voice low enough Ilsa couldn't hear for now. "You don't think we actually died and...we got like, reincarnated or something do you? I was never one to believe in my Masters Bhuddist beliefs but..." What's the phrase? When you rule out everything else, the impossible becomes likely? And the situation was getting less and less easily explainable and the thoight had popped into her head for some reason. "Mngh...well, whatever. I guess it don't matter are we there yet miss substitute witch-"

Just as the words left her mouth, the cottage came into view. Honestly, it wa an idyllic looking little slice of the forest, like it came right out of some fantasy painting.

"...huh. I was expecting something more Hansel and Gretel."

Just when he was thinking this world might not be that dangerous and giant metal bird monster shows up, no way are a bunch of level 1s with literally 0 combat experience taking that thing down.

He whispers back to Jase "I don't think it's armour, I don't think a bird could fly with the extra weight and it might mess up however feathers work. More likely this is some sort of creature with naturally metalic hide, that sort of thing pops up in fantasy. Figured it's worth mentioning since armour implies people to forge it and strap it on. Do you think we could make it back to the forest if we moved slowly?"

@Crusader Lord @Expendable @Crimson Paladin

---

Sylva merely inclined his head to acknowledge the hammer-wielding woman and the little blonde elf’s descent into the cellar.

As his eyes wandered around the rest of the cellar, he caught sight of something a bit odd; a lantern and a leather-bound book that seemed to be a journal of sorts. They weren’t things most people would usually consider storing in a cellar that held only food and alcohol. A more in-depth inspection revealed a few more details. The book looked worn but it wasn’t a recent thing, and the lantern had long since burnt out. It seemed someone had been trying to keep a record of events—someone who had been down in the cellar for some time.

.... That crumbled zombie upstairs was the most likely suspect. Well, it was.

Morbid thoughts aside, the journal might contain useful information, so it was a start. It wasn’t like anyone else was going to be reading it now. Carefully, Sylva made his way over to the area where the book and lantern were kept, picking up the journal and ignoring the lighting implement. There wasn’t much light in the cellar, and the lantern had already exhausted its use, but strangely enough, it didn’t seem to hinder him very much, if at all. Yet another thing to figure out later. With that in mind, he began flipping through the pages of the journal.

The first few entries were nothing special, mostly mundane accounts of the life of an innkeeper’s son, but it was when he reached the 13th entry that things became odd.

Something's not quite right. Call it instinct, but there've been less travelling merchants hawking their wares here these days. The streets feel emptier than usual, but...

.... That was ominous. The innkeeper’s son had thought the same, which made Sylva wonder how things had gotten this bad. It didn’t seem to have happened all at once, everything pointed to it being a gradual change. Filing that question away for later, he continued reading.

The next relevant entry wasn’t much better than the previous ones.

All the adventurers have left; our only guests now are the knights. One of them told us to pack our bags and go, but Dad wouldn't have it. Started going on about how his dad and granddad had run the place, and that giving it up wouldn't ever happen.

So, the innkeeper had been too stubborn to evacuate when things started getting worse, and his son stayed with him. Sylva could sympathise with that. His parents were stubborn at the best of times, too set in their ways to see any perspective other than their own.

He didn’t regret many things, but.... some things could have been better.

All hell has broken loose. Whatever's outside is killing anyone and everyone that it so much as catches a whiff of. I saw it through the window last night, but just barely. Dad was being dragged away by it as he tried to open the door. I can't take this much longer.

That entry was just depressing. Sylva’s lips dipped downwards as he read. The young man had all but watched his father die at the hands of something he couldn’t even describe, and there was nothing he could have done to stop it. A picture of events had started forming in his head, and it wasn’t pleasant.

Not one bit.

That knight who told us to leave—she came back. I let her inside, but I saw how much blood was dripping down her body. She thanked me for giving her a peaceful place to die, but...

Reading that gave Sylva pause and his eyes shone with vague understanding. If—and it was still an if for now—these undead were anything like the ones he knew of, then, in his attempt to help, the innkeeper’s son may have very well doomed himself. Then again, considering the knight had seemingly died while she was still human, that might not have been the case. He simply didn’t know enough to come to any conclusions yet.

The next page he flipped to was blank, save for what seemed to be a few faint scribbles on the paper.

Sylva closed the journal with a heavy sigh. Well, that was about as bad as he expected. From the first floor, he heard Sora pose a question and his eyes drifted to the steps leading out of the cellar. How he would have hoped for it to have been a simple yes.

“Yes, and no.” Sylva replied, his eyes darting back to the leather book he held.

Something had definitely caused the town to become deserted, he just didn’t know what it could have been. The writer of the journal had seen it, but he hadn’t been able to provide any descriptions. There was a more pressing issue, though. Whether or not the being responsible for the undead had done this intentionally, one thing seemed clear to him.

It was probably still here.

@VitaVitaAR@RolePlayerRoxas@SilverPaw@PKMNB0Y

@Aku the Samurai@VitaVitaAR@SilverPaw@PKMNB0Y

Yeah, it figured the cellar wasn't going to be a wondrous haven, otherwise that zombie would've been slightly friendlier. And potentially more alive, though Bianca felt like it'd been a long while since whatever happened, happened. The food stored down here... much like whatever remained in the kitchen, had probably long passed it's sell-by date, but theywere hardly spoiled for options anyway, she could only hope for the best come dinner time.

Sylva seemed focused on something, so the healer approached curiously, peeking around him to look at the journal. She only caught the last couple of entries, but that was enough to paint a tragic picture, Bianca stepping back in silence once he closed the book. The writer knew the unfortunate woman lying dead upstairs, and the town was supposed to have been evacuated? Whatever went down sure had to have sucked for everyone involved, to put it mildly. It was also a bit overwhelming to ponder upon too much, she'd rather keep things simple for now.

"There's plenty of booze down here. Nothing for the little one though!" Bianca called up to Sora, trying to keep hert voice as low as the other two. She glanced towards Sylva, putting a smile on her face, "though maybe we save the drinking until after we tidy up or something?"

There was, after all, at least two corpses to move aside. It would be hard to keep spirits up with those lying around, morbid as that sounded. And she was kind of responsible for one of them.

"Hey now, Witch girl. I'm unapologetically sober right now." Rita said with a huff. "Soberest I've been since that three day straight corporate event where the banned alcohol the entire time..." remembering that horrid moment of sobriety. "Anyhow, sure. I'll follow you. It's stay her and die to that rotting smell or follow you any way."

As she followed the witch girl, she noticed the forest returned to what it once was. Peaceful and, it baring any of the traces of that horrid creature, serene. Along the way, snakey has asked her a question of if they really died and reincarnated or something. "Hard to say. I wasn't quite stacked like this before.... or short. Or green."

Not long after, the little cottage came into view. It felt like something out of a fantasy story. Collean mentioned hansel and gretal. "What, want to get fattened up and eaten by the cute witch girl?" She replied, looking around the place.

The thing that got her more curious than anything were the bloomed flowers. It would be a great way to compare this world to her own. If there were familiar flowers then perhaps more things would be similar. After she took a good look to see if she recognized any of them, she'd question the witch their names.

He couldn’t feel his arm.

It was as if tree roots had sunk into his veins, an unnatural stiffness that originated from within rather than without. Consciousness had returned, but he could hardly open his eyes, such was his exhaustion. What had happened? What was still happening? Dissociated memories flickered in and out. Flashes of red, and the phantasm of a liquid warmth. A burden upon his shoulders alongside the pressure in his lower back. Eyes, burning late into the night like a bulb that never turned off. There was student debt. Mortgages. Medical expenses. There was violence and alienation, the knife clinging to his skin, the fingers clawing at his wrist. And the stench. The stench of bodily fluids that clung to his robes, that were still clinging to his robes, as he remained awake and conscious, upon a hard bed, his senses so far gone that he was left only with his thoughts.

His thoughts, repeating the way that firm flesh turned soft and distended. The way that organs burst and spilled their contents outwards. Those eyes, looking at nothing when it ended. His blood boiling out of his wounds, as muscles contracted and the world turned brighter and brighter. He swallowed. Tried to swallow, but gagged instead. Motion was restored in that moment, sparked by reflex rather than by will, as Cassius turned over, fell off the bed he had been placed upon, and, as he registered the sharp, throbbing pain of impact, threw up.

No food splattered against the wooden flooring of the clinic. Only bile and water, a sticky, bitter saliva that clung to the back of his throat and the roof of his mouth.

He tried to push himself up, but one arm was paralyzed while the other was still too unused to movement. Lightheadedness struck next and he fell back onto the floor, cheek falling against the expelled sick. Footsteps sounded. He could hear, at least. Swallowed again and forced himself to croak out a single question.

“What happened with the package?”