Tergonaut

Pariah Online | Season One

L a n d o n

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• The Dungeon - Frost Slime Room •

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Landon grimaced at the fierce warning Elian leveled at him, but managed to fire back a wink and a quip. "The chain wasn't what I was thinking it would be nice to lick right now!"

Yeah, super A-grade class right there, he thought to himself. He wasn't actually sure if he was being serious or sarcastic about that thought, either, but he had a sudden epiphany that he let his mouth say things without thinking because he was too focused on what he was doing with his body.

Like, hanging upside down from a frigid chain of metal in the middle of a death dungeon...

It was Tessa's warning that got his attention really quickly. The one person in the room that he felt wouldn't mind seeing him die, and she was the one calling out his name. It was so bizarre that it snapped his attention immediately upward, and he saw the slime drip down towards him in a sudden rush as adrenaline pumped into his veins. He swore as he released his legs from around the chain and fell downward, his reflexes kicking into overdrive as he yanked three bolts from his quiver at once. But the first strike was from the slime as it darted down to grab hold of his foot...

Landon cried out from the sudden, intense cold that penetrated his boot, but on a certain level, he knew it should have been much worse. What...?

Then he recognized the warm, prickly feeling of a buff directly under his skin, and realized he needed to thank Elian later. He finished his quick-draw and fired off the bolts rapidly: one that created a whirlwind from a motorized fan built into the tip, a fan powered by a wind crystal, that forced the slime back upward (and off of his boot, to his foot's relief) toward the ceiling and pressed it there; the second was a fiery-tipped bolt that was similar to the flame buff he gave to the tanks, except it imbued the target's cells itself with the enchantment, creating a damage-over-time incendiary effect at the cellular level.

The third was an explosive bolt, set to wide dispersal as a last-second alteration at Elian's request.

The frost slime mass that was pressed against the ceiling suddenly became hot napalm that sprayed out to all sides in a gout of liquid heat. This liquid showered a wide area around the room, more frost slimes becoming melty puddles as they were doused with superheated splatters, and fortunately in a circular wave that hit the area around the party instead of hitting them. This also had the side benefit of reducing a lot of the building frost to sloppy puddles.

Landon had no time to congratulate himself as he continued to fall toward the floor. Another flick of his wrist and fingers, and he popped the cork off of a sky-blue vial and downed its contents right as he approached the ground. He suddenly slowed in his fall to the point where he actually swayed in the air from side-to-side like a feather, and he lightly touched the ground with a flourish as he loaded another explosive bolt, this one loaded with fireworks that he had originally intended as a distraction. But an idea had entered his mind at Elian's suggestion.

"Hey, Red!" shouted Landon, getting Redsky's attention just long enough to wave his crossbow bolt. "Amp this bolt to make it as hot as you are, will ya? Trust me, you're gonna like it!"

And he fired it in a path directly toward the exit Graves had indicated. Redsky jabbed her splayed hand after it like she was attempting to call it back, and fire arced from her hand into the noisy firework, which went from a whistling, snapping shower of sparks to a torrential inferno of shimmering flames that washed the floors, walls and pillars with molten light. It was like someone turned up the water pressure on a mobile sprinkler...except, fire. Slimes and frost alike melted away in the sheer incandescent beam, and it only dissipated after it had traveled from the party's location all the way into the mouth of the exit they were looking at.

"Open, sez me!" quipped Landon as he relit the cig in his mouth that had gone out from an errant droplet of water sprayed from deceased slimes. "That work for ya, Elly?"

Forest of the Future

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T a f f y

Southeastern Mir - The Fall, Marshland

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A half-hour later...

Nikki's words were merely an ironic prelude to the grimy trek out of the boggy marsh. They climbed out of the bog and proceeded across more solid ground in the direction of Taffy's uncle's house. The way was still wet, muddy, cold and dark, but they still had working lights, a direction they knew would be safe to go in...and, oddly enough, they had yet to encounter a single predator vine.

This last fact bothered Taffy more than she liked to admit. It kept her tense as they continued through the damp underbrush, and she often aimed her flashlight around her in all directions, even glancing upward at the leaves that hung heavily from the branches of the thick and twisted trees that populated this lowland area. She and Akaeyla were up at the front of the group - while Taffy still wasn't entirely sure what to make of the red panda-bat hybrid, she had to admit that the other's intimate knowledge of the Fall far exceeded her own. And despite how Akaeyla seemed so courteous, Taffy still wanted to stay close enough to keep an eye on her. Taffy's physical conditioning helped her keep up despite Akaeyla's unerring agility and ability to spot trip hazards that slowed Taffy down.

The rest of the group was in a loose pack behind the two front-runners. Yonath seemed to gravitate toward the middle of the travelers, mostly because Nikki and Xell were competing with each other to try to bring up the rear. As far as Taffy could tell from the occasional backward glance, there was still some friction and distrust there.

Mostly because Xell's got a serious mad-on for getting on everyone's nerves, and Nikki's irrepressible cheerfulness is almost worse, thought Taffy as she briefly allowed herself to be annoyed. But in a certain way, she was glad Nikki and Xell were back there balancing each other out. It made it easier to keep an eye on the two of them if they were keeping an eye on each other. She didn't trust the meager medical supplies they still had to Xell, and she wasn't sure what would happen if he needed another fix.

Still, it was only another half-hour from here back to her uncle's cabin, if she was estimating the distance correctly. They might have even made better time than she realized. If only things could continue to go this smoothly...

Taffy swore under her breath suddenly as, of course, as soon as she had that idle thought, Akaeyla held out one arm in warning. "Up ahead, behind the third bush, the one caked with the orange slime mold," whispered the hermit, and Taffy followed her gaze to the leaf-green cylindrical tube that sat just barely in view. And, just like she had feared, it was certainly much thicker than any of the predator vines she had seen before. Most were only as thick as pencils, and suitable only for snaring small rodents and bugs; this one was about as thick as her wrist, and ringed with bristle-like sensory clusters down its length every foot or so. It laid well-hidden in the underbrush, but now Taffy could follow its shape through the foliage, where it was hiding in wait under dead leaves and other decaying debris. If Akaeyla hadn't stopped them when they did, they would have tripped right over it, and one of them would be grabbed right now, with the others in probably danger as other vines would have arrived to investigate the disturbance in case there was more food to be had.

Taffy gestured to the others and pointed out where the vine was. "Just try to step around it, quietly," Taffy hissed. "Loud sounds or moving too fast can set it off even if you don't touch it, and we have no idea how many-"

"HOLD IT! Hold it right there!"

Taffy glanced up, and found a scruffy-looking canid Novan of some kind crashing through the bushes toward them, from the opposite direction they were going in. Wearing a tank top and cargo pants, as well as some kind of bandana around his head, the most important detail that caught Taffy's attention was the gun he pointed in their direction. Taffy thought it was some kind of rifle or carbine, but she didn't know that much about guns. It was an odd sort of moment to wish Max hadn't gotten separated from the group, but Taffy caught herself feeling that way just the same.

The Novan - maybe a coyote? - panted as he stood across from them, clearly the worse for wear as he was covered in sweat and the muck of the swamp. "Y-you're getting me outta here," he stammered as the barrel of the gun wavered between each member of the group. "One false move, and I'll shoot the lot of ya, hear me?" His eyes were bulging and bloodshot, and he trembled with a fear that Taffy could smell even through the tepid stench of the bogs around them. She suddenly remembered the other plane that had come down in the forest...and noticed a skull-and-crossbones insignia on the forehead of his bandana. Was this one of the sky pirates?

But to make matters worse, the pirate was only another step or two away from kicking the predator vine, and it was clear he was not paying attention to it as it began to writhe slowly, as if sensing his adrenaline. And though he stood in place for now, all it would take was one jumpy move to get the entire swamp writhing with trouble...

Pariah Online | Season One

L a n d o n

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• The Dungeon - Frost Slime Room •

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Landon noticed the cold as it suddenly began to descend, and used this as an excuse to move closer to the nearest warm female body. As Elian and Mirage were both equidistant, the deciding factor in Landon getting closer to Mirage was because she wasn't likely to slap him silly. His bones felt about as old as he actually was in this cold, and he hoped the extra realism didn't include his arthritis reaching through from his actual body to this one. So, really, this wasn't about him being a lecherous old man in a lecherous younger man's body. This was a matter of survival in extreme conditions! Or so he justified it to himself as he brushed up against Mirage, exchanging glances with her and then giving her a wink that she responded to with a smile as she brushed in a way that sent a different kind of chill down his spine...

The sudden rattle of chains ruined the brief moment and made Landon nearly jump out of his skin. He swore as he brought his crossbow up to shooting height and ranged the room, noting that Mirage had done the same with her bow and covered the angles out of his range...only for them to both discover that it was Tessa's chains, not the ones hanging about in the room, that had caused such a stir. Landon swore under his breath, which puffed in a small cloud of fog in front of his mouth in the frigid air, simultaneously relieved and annoyed that the sudden spike in adrenaline pumping loudly in his ears was due to the overexcited reaction to a rat.

The sight of the dead rat did give him pause, however, as he adjusted his anti-fogging goggles over his eyes. Sure, it was just vermin...and vermin inside of a game, no less. But it looked just as real as ones he had seen during his time on the battlefield, and had squeaked in pain just like a living creature before its life had been snuffed out like a candle. How much different were he and the rest of the party from that rat? Would death come to them as quickly and suddenly, just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time?

As if the unspoken question had been heard by fickle Lady Luck as the prelude to a joke, suddenly the whole room got a lot colder as the chill breeze picked up, and suddenly the group was surrounded by slimes of the ice elemental variety. The air crackled with ice as it condensed too quickly on nearby surfaces to even reach the liquid stage before going immediately solid, and the gooey sucking sounds of slimes accompanied this staccato of molecules slowing down all around the cold stone walls and floor of the enormous room. The slimes reared up on their pseudopods as if trying to imitate the humans, yet still remained about as shapeless as water no longer bound by the decree of gravity.

And just as suddenly as they appeared, the team formed up and readied for battle.

"Geez, if anybody was bored, you just got yer wish!" growled Landon as he immediately let loose the explosive bolt he had loaded in his arm-mounted crossbow, aiming toward a small crowd of slimes that burbled toward the group. It was fortunate that he aimed toward the front of the group, for the following blast seemed to have little effect, aside from knocking the slimes backward and in a multiplicity of other directions. The slimes that were destroyed ended up effectively multiplying, as each individual piece acted like a much smaller, but just as hungry for hot human flesh as their big siblings. If Landon hadn't been aiming at the front of the group, but toward the middle or the rear, some of the slimes would have been splattered directly at the group - with awful consequences.

This is terrible, I can't get many shots through this crowd! I need a higher angle... Landon glanced upward at the chains hanging from the ceiling, and got an idea. Sustained by Tiferet's melody, he made a leap for one of the hanging chains and climbed quickly up its rattling length, oddly reminded of the obstacle course he got to know so well during boot camp in his original life. That experience carried over well, and he quickly had a much better angle to see the action and, as suited his slight cowardice, was far enough away from the actual fighting that he was in no immediate danger from being frozen or dripped on. He latched onto the chain with his legs to leave his hands free.

"Hey, front-liners! Fire boost incoming!" shouted Landon above the chaos as he loaded up a bolt with a glimmering red cylinder as the front tip. He had a few of these in his quiver, and while he only had enough for this single encounter and only for the melee fighters, he was more concerned with surviving the present situation than worrying about a hypothetical one down the road where he might have needed these. They were much like his ultra-buff bolts in function, but instead of boosting strength or resistance, they infused elemental fire magic directly into the target in such a way that it would not harm them, but increase their resistance to cold while simultaneously adding a flame tongue to their weapon strikes. Landon still didn't understand exactly how it worked, but that sure as heck didn't stop him from using it to his advantage.

The first bolt struck Graves in the back between his shoulder blades, the impact mostly unnoticeable against the big man's armor, but just enough so that he knew he had been given the boost. The cylinder ends squished together as the magic was compressed and then conducted directly into Graves, forming as a fiery aura that pulsated from his body and weapon.

Seeing that his bolt had worked as he desired, he continued to fire more of these bolts at the other melee fighters. He reasoned that if he gave the meat shields a fighting chance against these things, then he was more likely to survive the encounter.

Unfortunately, he was so focused on looking down at the battlefield, that he was not looking up at the ceiling, where an oozing slime endeavored to slowly drip down the chain toward him, its very touch freezing the metal solid as it approached him from above...

Pariah Online | Season One

L a n d o n

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• The Dungeon •

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Landon sat on the ground for several more moments, still quite stunned by that much explosive not even putting a dent into the walls or gate that blocked their primary escape route from the dungeon. Or was he stunned by the fact that he had escaped death in the "real world" only to face it again here in this one?

Landon - no, Watts Broker - didn't just view Pariah as a fantastical escape from an inconvenient existence. It was literally salvation, a second chance at life. He was terrified of dying the slow death that awaited him back "home." And even the slimmest chance of bringing some kind of immortality to the real world from this video game...he thought that was worth every risk he could possibly take.

And yet, as he reflected on it, he realized that he probably had the least reason to worry about going back to the "real world" than any of the others. Landon's real body was hooked up to life support machines already, a measure he had taken to ensure that he could spend as much time in Pariah as he possibly could. His servants, though some of them were practically family, would follow his instructions to keep his body alive even if he became unresponsive. That wouldn't prevent brain death at the hands of the game's machinery, but it did mean he was in no hurry to awaken in the real world.

As Graves rallied the group, Landon watched him, still pale and in a nervous sweat, but fascinated. Heckuva lot different than he was before, thought Landon as he idly put another cigarette into his mouth and lit it with his own lighter, trying to ignore the shakiness that made it hard to keep the lighter still long enough to do the job. Guess now that this isn't "just" a game, it's getting to everybody...kids. Most of these guys are just kids. They still have the rest of their lives in front of them, and they probably have friends, family even, waiting for them to get back. I don't got nobody to go back to...

And right there, Landon steeled himself with all the courage he could muster, pricked with the memory of what it felt like to be defying death every time he had to disarm a bomb as a combat engineer back in the military. Hadn't he risked life and limb before, long ago? Sure, he had been too young and stupid to know his own mortality back then, but if he had cut even a single different wire, or if any battles he had been in had gone even a little differently...

No, the memories of courage were too faint in themselves after all these years. He couldn't possibly rely on those alone. He had been young, idealistic and far too stupid to realize how much danger he had really been in; only later, when he was old enough to feel aches in his bones and muscles left over from all the crouching, running and tightly-gripped field tools from those days, that he had the wisdom to see just how terrifying being a demolition specialist had been. Even in his reborn form in Pariah, he didn't have the same youthful sense of invincibility he once had.

It was the fact that he needed to get these kids out of this dungeon that he could rely on. His entire life, he had tried to make things better for the younger generation. And here, now, this group of kids needed him far too much for him to give up now.

He got up to his feet, dusted himself off from where he had sat on the hard rock-block floor, and then dug around in his backpack for several vials of a purple fluid that glimmered with an inner light that hinted at their magical origin. He nearly dropped one when Tessa had her outburst. Her very reasonable outburst. With Ochre's help, he could probably lay out a minefield of explosives in front of a defensive position...

No. Digging their heels in here would be the worst thing they could do. And they had no idea if this dungeon had any burrowing monsters, which would make such explosives worse than useless; it would box them between impassable walls, and the only possible exit forward.

Once everyone had been reorganized, Landon passed out the slim vials with the purple liquid. "Everyone gets one o' these elixirs," he explained, letting himself go into lecture mode, which helped him ease his trembling voice back to his normal gruff baritone the longer he spoke. He was still somewhat pale, but he was no longer sweating with raw anxiety. "They will refill your health and mana pools to the max. Obviously, if your HP goes to zero, you can't use it on yourself, but you can use it on someone else who goes down. Doesn't have to be drunk - skin contact is enough to activate it, so just pour it on or smash it if you can't get it unplugged. Remember, they said that your HP has to be down to zero for more than fifteen minutes, so this is a way to make sure that doesn't happen."

He didn't have to mention that he had been saving these for the final room of the dungeon, or why he was passing them out now instead of later. Survival had now become the priority, instead of maximizing their overall effectiveness. He hoped that mentioning the time limit would remind everyone they still had the ability to be healed before that limit was reached.

Of course, he still had his max buff bolts ready in case they were needed...now he wished he hadn't wasted one showing off earlier. He would hate to think he had used up the one last buff they needed on a whim. And he had healing bolts, too. But it was his explosive, acid, napalm, and Tesla bolts that he made sure were closest to his hand from his bolt case.

"So, what are we waiting for?" he growled as he racked one of the explosive bolts onto his crossbow. "Sooner we clear this dungeon, sooner we can go back for drinks. Heck, I'll even buy for everybody!"

Oh yes, he was certainly willing to do that...but he mostly just wanted to get this over with, and some bravado was helping him cover his nervous fears just like it had back when he was a soldier.

Forest of the Future

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T a f f y

Southeastern Mir - The Fall

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Vague rambling warnings from a drug addict of something hiding inside of him certainly didn't make things any easier for Taffy as the group formed up again...well, as much of the group as there was remaining, here in the darkness of the forest. But what rankled Taffy more than the guilty looks from the Draconi, was his bringing up the very subject that Taffy had fought to convince herself that was a lost cause, at least for now.

"I don't want to leave them behind, either," Taffy said as she began to lead the way toward her uncle's cabin from Sculpture Copse - she estimated it wouldn't be more than a half-hour away at the rate they were traveling. "But looking for them in the dark might get us lost, or attract predators, or worse - it might bring that pirate down onto our heads, and since they'd only be looking for Max, there's no telling what they might do to us. If they haven't rejoined us by the time we get to my uncle's cabin, we'll look for them in the morning when there's enough light."

Taffy sounded reasonable enough out loud, but her insides felt like betrayal jelly as she led the group onto a slightly wider dust-ridden path into the trees from the copse. She knew that if they didn't find the others before they got to the cabin, it was more than likely they wouldn't survive until morning to be found. The only consolation she had was that she could, at least, get the rest of this sorry group situated more safely until it was light enough to let them go on their way.

But the otter kid...Taffy didn't understand much of what Akaeyla had told Yonath, but she did know that he was basically orphaned and didn't have anywhere to go. The Lotori girl didn't consider herself the motherly type, and she hadn't made any plans to have any kids until later in life, but she wasn't sure what to do. Adopt him, or put him up for adoption? The latter option felt like a sort of betrayal, but how the heck was she supposed to go to medical school and pay room and board for a kid like him? Maybe her uncle would be willing to put up Yonath at his place until-

Her left ear pricked up as she heard a shearing slice noise, then the sound of timber creaking. Someone grabbed her backpack with both hands and yanked her backward, a move that kept her from getting crushed by the huge tree that fell across the path with a tremendous crash that seemed to shake the whole forest. Taffy only barely kept on her feet as she glanced backward to see that it was-

"Nikki! Where did you come from?" The obvious relief in her voice helped temper the accusative tone that Taffy let leak through, in her haste and reactive anger from being nearly flattened.

The nekomi girl let go of Taffy. "Why so surprised? I wasn't that far away from you guys, you're lucky I caught up just in time to keep you from going pancake! And that wasn't an accident, look!"

All Taffy could see on either side were tall grasses and underbrush, bushes and vines, rocks and weeds; but her eyes caught a glimpse of the stump of the downed tree, which was so clearly sliced with a cutting implement that she could count the rings from where she stood.

Things weren't adding up, and that made Taffy scared - and angry. "Okay, whoever's out there, you better show yourself right now, or I'll come out there and kick you in the-"

She stopped as she her flashlight beam fall onto a tall figure that loomed in the middle of the path. It was a Miran with ragged blonde hair, and equally-ragged black jeans and a long white overcoat, left open to reveal an ugly scar seared across his muscular chest. In one hand, he held onto a long pole tipped with a wickedly-curved scythe blade, a weapon deceptively simple in its design, without decorative marks or symbols. In the dimness of the branches that blocked out most of the moonlight above, the pale figure looked almost like a symbol of death himself, and he stood with his head lowered just enough so that his bangs hung over his eyes, hiding them from the group.

"Little, furry, animals," the figure said, in a sing-song voice as he swayed from side to side, the minimal light somehow managing to glint off of the scythe blade. "Which one of you is Max Stone? It would be ever so convenient if one of you were him, then I could leave this dreadful forest to the bats and to the moles."

"Who wants to know?" asked Taffy, sounding gruff, but her heart felt like it had leapt up into her throat. This guy sounds like a real maniac...

"Oh? So one of the animals talks," said the new arrival with a chuckle that set Taffy's hair and tail fur on end. "I don't usually talk to animals, but since you can talk back, it's only polite to introduce myself. I...am Hermes Carrion, and I am only interested in finding Max Stone."

"Careful," whispered Akaeyla to Taffy in an urgent tone. "He is dangerous, far too dangerous. There is poison in his mind."

Well, gee, tell me something I couldn't figure out, thought Taffy to herself. Out loud, she lied, "We haven't seen anybody like that, sorry - maybe you'll have better luck elsewhere."

"Pity." Carrion's voice truly carried what sounded like a heavy burden as he lifted the scythe to both hands. "Oh well, I'll continue the search..." There was a momentary pause, then his whole frame shook with an almost sobbing laugh that echoed into the trees. "Oh, I nearly forgot! No witnesses...not even animals like you."

Carrion's head lifted, and Taffy felt a true shock of fear go down her spine as she saw the complete madness glittering in the Miran's eyes. He raised the scythe higher, and a moment later, the blade ignited with blue fire that clung to it, swaying as if it was a banner caught in an invisible breeze only it was affected by. He began to advance toward Taffy and the others, with unsteady-looking steps that reminded Taffy of zombie stories, yet she was beginning to finally catch on to what Akaeyla had already seen with her blind eyes. The feeling of danger was close, practically radiating off of this bizarre Miran.

We can't fight him, Taffy thought. That's magic he's using to empower his scythe...so if he's this insane, and still able to focus enough to use magic, then there's no telling what he'll do. No, scratch that, no doubt what he'll do if he gets close enough to us - if that tree couldn't take a cut, then there's no way we can!

"That way!" she shouted as she pointed sideways into the forest. A desperate idea sprang into her mind, and she wanted to enact it before she lost her nerve - or her head. "We'll lose him in the underbrush! He can't swing that thing around with so many obstacles around!"

Out of all of them, Akaeyla probably knew what Taffy had in mind, but there were no protests from any of the others as they rushed into the forest off of the path. Taffy didn't know why they were listening to her, and maybe they weren't, but as she ran off after them, she glanced back to see that Carrion was suddenly increasing his stride as he curved off of the path into the thick forest greenery. And, as if to spite her, the Miran swung his scythe to cut cleanly through the vegetation that barred his way and begin to set it on fire. This provided more light for the group to see by, but Taffy felt like she could've done without that at this point.

"Keep running!" she called out, turning her face back forward. Don't look back, she told herself, that's how people die in the horror moving picture shows, because it slows you down, remember? If we can only get to the cliff, then at least we can-

Her thoughts were broken off as the first shout of surprise ahead told her that one of the others had fallen over the edge of the cliff. Closer than I thought, Taffy realized. We have a chance, then.

"Don't stop!" she shouted. "Jump, it's the only way to be safe!"

By the time she reached the edge of the cliff, she could only dimly see Xell, Akaeyla and Sashrya gliding down with their wings through the almost impenetrable gloom that led down the cliffside into a deeper area of forest. Yonath and Nikki were nowhere to be seen - neither of them had wings, so they had dropped more quickly into the deep forest below. Taffy nearly skidded to a halt, her body resisting the lunatic idea of leaping off into the darkness, especially knowing what lay down there. A quick glance behind her, however, revealed that Carrion was still close after her, his scythe pulled back for a swing. His face was a mask of horrific glee, twisted far out of proportion, his eyes and lips open far too widely to be comfortable.

Taffy jumped. Carrion swung, and Taffy felt the swish of the wind as the blade sliced through the back of her jean legs, barely missing her legs, and she felt sudden heat as her pants caught on fire. The raccoon fell, her arms pinwheeling as she dropped into seeming oblivion, and-

SPLASH!

Taffy struggled to the surface of the dark and murky swamp water and gasped, then wiped her face off as best she could and glanced upward toward the top of the cliff. She could see the Miran looking down from the top of the cliff, crouched down and holding the flaming head of his scythe like a torch. But at this distance, she knew all he could see was the almost impossible gloom from the swampy mangrove trees that surrounded the little pond, a darkness that seemed far deeper than it naturally should have been. And after a tense minute, the Miran turned away and left.

Taffy let out a breath she hadn't known she was holding, then splashed around as she retrieved the flashlight she had lost during the fall. Fortunately, it was still on, and she was able to get it before it sunk into the mire. She lifted it up and pointed it level with the water, looking around for the others.

"Guys? Everyone okay?"

Taffy, for her part, was unharmed; the fire had gone out the instant she hit the water, and the soft mud at the bottom of the pond, combined with the water itself, took just about all the brunt of the fall, just like she had anticipated. Her clothes were scuffed and scratched, with a few tiny rents, from rushing through the thick underbrush; and now they were wet on top of that, and clung uncomfortably to her in cold patches. She was soaked, dripping wet and getting chilled from the air and the stagnant water. And it kinda smelled bad here. But she wasn't hurt, and she still felt like everything worked. What was even better, the Miran hadn't come down into the swampy depression in the forest after them, so she only had to account for the one danger she had gambled might have been able to stop the marauding madman before he caught up to them.

After everyone was accounted for, Taffy explained herself. "Okay, we got away from that guy, but now we're in a small swamp valley in the Fall. We can still get back to my uncle's cabin from here, but we have to be very careful not to disturb any predator vines. You'll know them when you see them; they're like green rope with sensory bristles ringing them about every foot or so, and tipped with a sharp lamprey-like mouth. They're part of a larger organism, and they'll grab you and drag you all the way toward the core. If the core's maw swallows you, it's a long and grisly death as the vines enter every orifice in your body and suck your guts out an inch at a time. Most of the cores are only big enough to eat bugs or small mammals, but the one that lives in this swamp is big enough to eat any one of us...at least, last I heard of it, and that was a couple of years ago. If it hasn't died, it might even be bigger.

"If that lunatic had followed us down here, we would have just had to run for it and count on the vines grabbing onto him before they grabbed onto us. But now that we don't have a maniac trying to lop our heads off, we can get out of the swamp carefully. It might be just another hour, and then we can all get into nice, warm beds after a hot bath."

Of course, Taffy could tell that Akaeyla already knew about this place; from what the blind hermit had said before, it sounded like she actually lived out here in the Fall, maybe even deeper than her uncle did. With her help, it might be possible to avoid getting even deeper into trouble than they already were.

Pariah Online | Season One

L a n d o n

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• Tʜᴇ Dᴜɴɢᴇᴏɴ •

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"...Well then!" said Landon after a moment - quite a bit louder than necessary - into the shocked and stunned silence that followed the announcement, and he turned on his heel and shoved his way through to the gate that had shut behind them. "You heard the announcement, we need to blow this joint ASAP, and I've got just the stuff right here!"

With practiced ease, Landon shrugged out of his pack and began attaching a variety of explosive devices to the gate. The announcement was still working its way into his brain, but he was keeping himself busy to avoid thinking about it too much. For someone who wanted to live forever, the idea that he could die in this game was the last idea he wanted to contemplate. If it was true, and if he could get back to the real world, he was going to sue this company for so much money...

Before he knew it, he had rigged up a series of detonation charges connected by a dangling fuse that ran through them each one in sequence. The attachable mines would have been useful in traps to set up for the others to kite monsters right into them, but judging by the way the monsters were acting now, he was willing to bet such an obvious trap wasn't going to work this time.

The blonde-haired technician got to his feet and brushed off his hands, then walked swiftly away from the charges. "Everyone back away, fifty paces, hands over your ears and mouths open - helps keep you from going deaf," he barked as he reached the minimum safe distance himself and then took several more steps just to be safe. He cracked his knuckles and adjusted his goggles. "Hey, Red, do me a favor and light the fuse up for me, wouldja? And my cig, too." Landon had just pulled out a cigarette and put it into his mouth, feeling somewhat self-satisfied.

The fire mage complied - perhaps a little too eagerly, but Landon could appreciate a woman enjoying her work - and the explosion seemed to rattle the whole dungeon as smoke blew past Landon, who was just enjoying a pull off of the cigarette as he turned around to see-

The burning white stick fell from his suddenly limp lips and hit the dungeon's stone floor with an unimpressive tap. The smoke cleared, only to reveal that the gate hadn't received a single scratch from any of the explosives. Only scorch marks remained where the explosives had been carefully attached, and the discoloration already seemed to be fading.

"I-Impossible!" stammered Landon as he fell backwards onto his butt, stunned. Of course, this outcome wasn't unforeseen; dungeons had always been notably resistant to damage, most likely to prevent adventurers from merely blasting their way through the traps and monsters by bringing down the walls. But he had desperately wanted this plan to work, and he had guessed that if the monsters were acting more realistically, maybe the dungeon's physics would cooperate better too. No such luck, as it turned out.

And if they couldn't go back...then the only way out would be to beat the dungeon. Or...die trying.

Forest of the Future

---

T a f f y

Southeastern Mir - Sculpture Copse, The Fall

---

During Taffy's time at the Medical Institute at Colosse, she had been taught to look out for signs of drug addiction, particularly the symptoms of Halocaine delirium - which was an all-too common ailment among soldiers who had been subjected to hasty treatment in the field by inexperienced field medics. She had treated a few such patients during her practical exams at Colosse, though she had not advanced quite far enough to reach the point to be trained for long-term care of such victims of vice. The young medical student had always felt a mixture of pity and disgust for addicts, and an underlying resentment against them for letting a drug get the better of them and thus require outside help. She knew it was more complex than that, but not being an addict herself, she didn't understand how someone could let a substance take such control over their lives.

And yet, there were cases she had seen where it seemed almost like the drugs were the only things that kept demons at bay. Not literal demons, or so she thought at the time, but merely the demons of the past for these tortured souls. Taffy wondered how ethical it was to let such individuals suffer during treatment, which often required imprisonment and isolation, rather than just let them take the drug and remain a functional and productive member of society.

But when she saw those red eyes glinting at her from Xell's eye sockets, for the first time, she realized that demons weren't strictly metaphorical. This wasn't some Codus manifestation, this was something far deeper...and more evil than she had ever thought possible.

She drew back, one arm protectively gripping the strap of her backpack as she tried to decide whether to run or to fight. It was a very instinctive reaction that went past her usual responses; like seeing those red eyes triggered a deeper, more basic self-preservation routine that her more civilized persona thought not to exist, or at least buried under enough layers of evolution that it would never see the light of day again. And in that critical moment, it was very possible that Xell might have attacked her, and what happened after that would have determined the fate of this small party before they had even made it to her uncle's cabin.

But it was Yonath who had stepped in, and while Taffy did not like the idea that the young boy was packing drugs, she realized that for the short-term, if they could suppress or contain whatever it was that resided inside Xell, it would be safest for all of them.

It was when Xell mentioned the others that Taffy finally broke her stare away from Xell, glanced around the small grove - and uttered a small but colorful swear under her breath. That idiot! she thought, referring to Max. He just gave us the slip, didn't he?! He heard that blind seer say that stuff about the pirate on his tail, and he must have decided to play hero by keeping away from the rest of us. If the pirate doesn't know we've met, then that should protect the rest of us...blast that hedgehog!

She didn't know why this made her so angry, but it did. So she swore silently to herself a few more times, then realized that Max hadn't been the only one to leave; Nikki had slipped away, as well, after the brief exchange between her and Yonath. I hope she's okay - she didn't seem like the kind of customer who'd let anyone get the drop on her. Blast them both, anyway!

Then it hit her - she was angry because she knew that she couldn't wander all over the Fall to look for Max or Nikki. If I try to follow them, I could drag us all into one of the hazards of the forest, or run into a monster, or maybe that pirate...and I'd end up dragging the rest of these guys with me. I don't really care that much about them, but I'll be darned if I'm not going to at least try to do the right thing by them and get as many of them to at least enough safety where they can make their own decisions on where they'll go after that. I just have to hope that Max and Nikki can take care of themselves.

Then she realized that the bat-winged woman had been standing by all this time, and without thinking, Taffy walked back over to her and asked, "Hey, have you seen-"

And facepalmed as she realized what she was asking of a blind person. It did not help that the woman smiled as if amused, and Taffy's cheeks burned with embarrassment. Brother, this is gonna be a long night, isn't it?

"Look, never mind," Taffy said with a snarl, breaking through the awkward pause as she faced. "I'm taking these guys with me to my uncle's cabin. I really don't know why you showed up and said the things you've said, but I don't care. You should come with us, this is no place to be at this time of night."

Taffy's voice carried far into the night, so she was sure the others could hear her, but she was ready to move as soon as she got her answer from the mysterious night herald. Come to think of it, she still didn't know her name, either...

"And if I guess right, you already know my name," Taffy blurted as she crossed her arms in front of her chest. "But what's yours?"

Forest of the Future

---

T a f f y

Southeastern Mir - Sculpture Copse, The Fall

---

Taffy lowered the flashlight as the red-and-black stranger apologized and explained her presence - not exactly the kind of behavior that some marauding monster or crazed raider in the dark would normally exhibit, and Taffy was somewhat relieved when Max was the first to respond, even if what he said wasn't terribly polite or helpful. And, finding out that the pilot of the other crashed plane had survived, and was still after Max...

This is going from weird to dangerous, thought Taffy as the fur of her tail started to stand on end. If this blindfolded prophetess is for real, and I'd find it hard to believe somebody like this could exist out here without some kind of divine providence watching over her, then that means this whole motley crew is in danger. So it was a pirate group that was after Max after all! And it sounds like, from the way Max looked when she mentioned it, that he knows why they're after him...he's hiding something, and I don't really care what it is, except that whatever it is, it's the reason we're attracting trouble.

And then when the blindfolded young woman began answering Yonath's question...that sent all kinds of chills up Taffy's spine and caused her tail to puff out, particularly when she changed her voice to imitate what seemed like impressions of other people - people that the otter boy recognized, if she guessed rightly from the way he reacted. She glanced over at Max to see his muzzle turn pale and his quills stand on end, and in a strange way, it made her feel a lot better knowing she wasn't the only one that was getting spooked by this display of preternatural knowledge.

Taffy wasn't particularly religious or superstitious, and in fact came from a family that scoffed at many myths of the Novan people - indeed, that was part of why her uncle lived out here, and why her family had come here on camping trips from time to time - but there felt like something of the truth in all this young woman said, a conviction that led Taffy to believe what she was saying had to be true. That said, she wasn't sure she understood all of what was being said to Yonath, particularly the parts that sounded like another language entirely in those different voices. Knowing what you hear is the truth, and understanding it, are two separate things.

"We've got to get moving again as soon as we can," she whispered to Max as the red panda/bat-like Novan started to wind down her performance for the boy. "If that pirate's really following us, then our best bet is going to be getting to my uncle's place before he catches up. At least we'd have some cover then, and maybe we'll have enough time to set some kind of trap together."

She didn't quite catch what happened there at the end, but she saw Yonath turn and walk away, in roughly the same direction Xell had taken when he had went to take a sit-down at a bench. Well, this is great, now I've got to play damage control...and get the group back together so we can get going again. I don't want to get stuck here with a pirate on our tail.

Abruptly, Taffy drew back her arm and punched Max in his shoulder. He swore and rubbed the spot tenderly, his eyes shooting bullets at her while his mouth was drawn into a small, quizzical "O" shape. "What was that for?" he demanded.

"I'm holding you responsible for all of this," Taffy replied evenly, gesturing vaguely toward Yonath, the mystical stranger - the whole situation, almost the whole forest, by implication. "Just making sure you didn't miss it."

Without skipping a beat, she turned away and said, "I'll try to get the others back together so we can leave right away." As she walked off, a strange sort of half-smile curled itself into existence on one edge of her muzzle. She tried to explain to herself why, but the words didn't come and she gave up trying.

She approached Xell just in time to hear him demand what the otter boy expected him to do, and she realized that she had been so focused on Max's reactions earlier that she had neglected to keep an eye on Xell. His pensive, bag-eyed look raised some warning flags in Taffy's mind, and she began to suspect there was more going on with this Draconi than he had let on about. "Guys," she said, coming up to Xell, Nikki and Yonath with her hands on her hips as she addressed them, "I know we just got an earful from that mystic, but I think she's right about that pirate who's on our tail. We need to get moving if we want to get to my uncle's place so we can use it for cover."

She gingerly placed a hand on Yonath's shoulder, noting he still clutched the drawing the girl had given him. "If you need some time to process...whatever it is that lady told you, take all the time you need," she said, much more softly than she'd been saying to any of the others so far. "We'll be safe once we get to my uncle's cabin, just wait and see."

Forest of the Future

---

T a f f y

Southeastern Mir - The Fall

---

Finally, words that actually make him sound he's got a real brain inside that prickly skull of his! thought Taffy as Max suggested the group move along. She had started to get annoyed enough with Xell's veiled stabs that she was glad the Draconi was keeping his distance from the group proper, or she might've tweaked his ear rather soundly...or worse.

Not that she hadn't had her own heart leap into her throat the moment that the newcomer stepped out of the underbrush and trees. Her own experience with the Fall had left her less superstitious than most, but it also put her on edge in case she ran into that thing again, and the newcomer had been big enough with her wings wrapped around herself to give Taffy a momentary flashback that made her want to stab something.

Fortunately, very fortunately, the moment passed quickly, and Taffy was almost relieved to see the mutant wolf girl there instead. Medically speaking, such hybrids were still quite rare among Novans, whose genetics usually tended to firmly favor one of the parents' species or another, rather than muddle the two up. But the hybrids occurred with enough frequency that it was a requirement of study in case a doctor needed to treat one - and that could be tricky indeed, since more often than not, the hybrids had quirks that made their innards as much a hashmash of features from different species as their outer selves showed.

As far as Taffy could tell, though, the new arrival looked fairly harmless in the flashlight beams leveled at her. The fact that she held onto what looked like a map also indicated she was probably lost, which further tempered Taffy's reaction.

The raccoon girl opened her mouth to say, "Max is right," but her teeth ground shut the instant she tried to say that, and she sort of gurgled instead. Then she unclenched her teeth and changed her tack by saying instead, "Come along with us, we can figure out how to help you find where you're going once we get to safety. My name is Taffy Tanner - what's yours?"

Some more introductions were shared, and Taffy got the impression that the demure newcomer, Sashrya by name, wasn't going to be causing any trouble for the group directly. She seemed nice enough, and Taffy felt automatically a little protective of her, though she couldn't quite put her finger onto why. Nevertheless, Taffy continued to lead the way, as the night's darkness seeped through the leaves of the thick canopy above them. A small worry at the back of her mind nagged at her that the group was making far too much noise and attracting too much attention, but there wasn't much she could do for the time being - at least, not without screaming "SHADDAP!" and that would just be counterproductive, so she grumbled to herself instead.

It did not take long for the group to arrive at a small clearing Taffy had run across before. A peculiar set of sculptures dominated the middle of this clearing, lit enough by the moon to cast long shadows across it from each sculpture. These vaguely humanoid statues were crafted by some unknown hand long ago out of a mix of metal scraps and woodwork, and were a bizarre enough landmark that Taffy knew where the group was exactly just by seeing them.

A chill ran down her spine, though; seeing the statues with their bizarre, almost meaningless poses in the dark made her feel a little on-edge despite herself. Some of them were posed like dancers, while others merely stood at attention or squatted in place. Some of the statues had tails, while others did not, further obscuring the original artist's possible identity as to whether they were Miran or Novan. A breeze whispered through the chinks in the framework of the sculptures, creating an eerie noise that whistled and moaned before it died down and left a silence almost as spooky as the noise had been. And in the night, with only flashlights to guide the way, it only added to the surreal quality of this strange landmark.

"We can take a quick break here," Taffy announced after walking up to the statues and turning around to face the group, her back to the statues and her own body partly covered by the shadow from one of them. "It isn't that far now, maybe another mile before we see-"

She was interrupted by the looks on the faces of the others as they tensed and looked slightly past her. At the same moment, she saw one shadow move around on the ground and heard movement behind her, and realized too late that one of these statues wasn't a statue! She whirled around, one arm lifted to guard herself while the other raised the flashlight she carried like an all-too-small club, and she found herself facing...

Forest of the Future

---

T a f f y

Southeastern Mir - The Fall

---

Taffy was in the middle of getting her own flashlight out of her backpack, and putting the plane's medkit in, when Max tossed the other torch to her. She dropped her pack, and her flashlight and the kit with it, to the grassy ground of the forest, and caught the strange flashlight after it danced along her hands for a moment. She reached down and picked up her own flashlight with a huff, showed them both to Max with an arched eyebrow, then tossed her flashlight toward Xell - she had heard him introduce himself earlier, so now she could attach a proper name to him - and kept the otter boy's peculiar flashlight for herself.

"As I was going to say before I was interrupted by flying flashlights and rude comments about my age, which is TWENTY," she said the number pointedly as she glared at Max before looking back at Xell, who she had started to talk to, "yes, us Lotori have excellent night vision. Until someone starts pointing flashlights into their faces, at which point we're about as good as anyone else who's just been stabbed in the eyeballs." The sardonic tone fairly dripped from her voice; even Max hadn't had the poor sense to aim the flashlight at her face when he turned his device on, and both he and the otter boy aimed their lights at the ground like they should so it wouldn't get into the eyes of their traveling compatriots, but she did feel put-upon enough that she didn't feel like apologizing or cutting the tone.

Then Taffy fumbled with the unusual flashlight until she found a switch and turned it on. It surprised her at how bright it seemed judging by the relative shape and size of it compared to hers or Max's, but it looked like it could be some newfangled model that must be cutting-edge technology. She'd been in larger cities for most of her life, where new devices filtered their way into public use all the time as inventors worked tirelessly to produce new wonders to pay their bills, so the idea wasn't too foreign to her, though she still felt it odd at how foreign this actual device felt despite its similarities.

"Anyway," she said, changing the subject toward Nikki's question as she put away the extra medkit away into her backpack before buckling it closed and hoisting it onto her shoulders, "my uncle actually lives in the Fall, on the edge closest to Woodsedge and Merecc. He's kind of an eccentric nut who likes his privacy enough where he built a cabin in the Fall just to get away from it all. My family used to go there for vacations when I was younger, and it wasn't until I was older when I appreciated how dangerous it was for him to live out here all by himself. Still, lots of good memories, and more importantly, it'll be a safe place to stay for the night."

She spoke of her uncle with a very small but real smile on her muzzle even as she called him an eccentric nut. The fact that they were only a few miles away from there helped warm her heart and kept her from worrying about being caught in the forest after dark. If she hadn't known about the comfort awaiting them not long distant...well, she was glad it was there, and she would just leave it at that.

"So if we're done playing Hot Potato with our lights, then let's carry on. We should try not to stop unless we need to."

She turned back toward the trail with a flip of her tail, and started to lead the way again, picking an easy, grassy trail that led through the trees.

---

? ? ?

Southeastern Mir - Office Building, Downtown Merecc

---

"Status report."

The office window let in light from the street at an angle cast against the corner of the room where the window sat, providing enough light to give shape to that corner, without revealing any of the shadowy figures that sat around the office's long table. The command for information had come from the reedy figure at the head of the table, who, like the others, was cast into silhouette by the lack of any other lights in the room, but seemed comfortable in it all the same, like a spider seated in his dark web.

"The Red Star Pirates have reported that they ambushed the courier carrying the >Package<," came a reedy voice from one of the other seats. As it said the word "package" the voice, like the others in the room, became strangely monotone and metallic, as if spoken through a metal pipe. "The courier chose to fly into the Fall rather than be shot down. One of the pirates also got too close; both planes have crash-landed into the Fall, and the remaining pirates fled, due no doubt to their illogical and superstitious fears of the Fall."

A gruff voice barked out the next response in a manner that made it sound more like a telegraph machine than an organic being. "Analysis of the courier's history including his military background indicate that he is difficult to kill/stop/cease functioning and combined with a strong work ethic leads to the conclusion that he will attempt to maintain the reputation of his company and persist in delivering the >Package< even in the face of mounting peril/adversity/danger and is likely armed but only with one handgun."

The figure at the head of the room let out a breath - not as much a sigh as a slow, steady exhalation, like a steam valve being left open too long. "We cannot afford to let the Syndicate beat us to the >Package<, gentlemen, not after it has been deemed >Priority One< by the Maker." The leader's voice seemed more smooth and natural than those of his compatriots, though the sinister undertone of his words showed that he was as much a deviation from the norm as they. "I anticipated that Red Star would fail us after consulting with our hyper-statistical machine prophets. Therefore, I've already called in an outside agent to intercede on our behalf to retrieve the >Package<."

"Why do you not engage this >Priority One< incident with our full might to fulfill the Maker's objectives rather than rely on a single outside agent not of true allegiance to our objectives?"

"Oh, he is not one of our number, yet," said the head of the table as he steepled his fingers in front of him on the table. "I chose this mercenary because of his professed - and confirmed - success rate of ninety-five percent completed missions, which is more than adequate for our calculations of how to respond to this ex-military courier. He also has many strings we can pull that he is not aware of. We cannot afford to tip our hands by activating so many of our own people at once, even in such an important task as this, nor can we allow this to be tied back to us. Hence, an outside agent, a Miran who has a knack for magical combat enhancement and wields a scythe - an unusual choice of weapon, but his success rate speaks for itself."

"And if he should fail? Five percent of a failure rate is still five percent," questioned the reedy voice moodily.

"A tracking device, planted upon his person, will enable us to tell when he has failed, and more importantly, where. Calculations can be made as to where the >Package< will be at that point, and we can activate needed agents closest to the target site without alerting the authorities or the Syndicate. The courier can only go one direction if he wants to escape the Fall and complete his objective, and that's to go towards Merecc. And once here, gentlemen, as long as we keep the home advantage, we will succeed in acquiring the >Package<."

"Calculated risks assert high probability of success/victory/glorious outcome even if target should escape outside mercenary/agent/interceptor."

"What is this agent's name?"

At the head of the table, a single glowing red light tilted up as the figure there raised his head. "His name? He goes by a moniker, like many of his sort do. For this operation, we will refer to him by it.

"The name is Carrion."