Reborn Sword (Sallin Kari)

[porne]

[The baby is still too young to really get into much mischief, she mostly just needs to be cared for. Considering the house, I don't think we need to worry about danger, nothing we'd be any help with anyway. Let's do some scouting.] Karina continues to think to you. [Do we introduce Hestia?]

[Sallin_Kari]

[If you say so,] I defer to her experience, before adding, [I think that would for the best... lest she freak out.]

[porne]

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

I'm starting to doubt the wisdom of creating an RP where your character is keeping their existence a secret.

"Hestia, would you greet our current guest? If she works out today, we're going to be bringing her on as a retainer." "Certainly Mistress Karina, I am the house young miss." That was... incredibly blunt. But Purity seems to take 'that' in stride and simply greets her with a polite curtsy. Well, if she's that okay with it, and so many of the locals seem to be able to handle the existence of talking golems, keeping your existence completely secret may not be necessary, just the part about being such a potent source of mana.

[Sallin_Kari]

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Yeah well... he has reasons to keep himself a secret... I'm mean the whole attack on a person whom was reseachering golems makes him suspect that there is a non zero chance that that group or a similar one will go after him... besides while golems are relatively common, who knows about intelligent weapons?

Everything is going well, however I'm unconvinced that this will neccesarily transfer to me and the public... or more concerning any ill meaning groups.
[It looks like everything will be fine. Let's get to that scouting.]

[porne]

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

With the wonky golems coming out of that house? Not that I'm going to push you, but that seems like the best way to integrate your character being able to explain Johann, and I'm going to slowly steer toward that if you don't mind.

As you head back toward the dungeon, you can detect something slightly off about it. Some careful probing with your abnormal senses says it's different. Like it's shrunk or something. Before you can stop her, Karina stealths and slips into the cavern, padding on silent boots. Rather than the headlong rush into the depths that she normally makes, Karina slowly works down all of the paths. Rather than the entrenched pockets of goblins you'd expect, they're scattered. They aren't reacting... but they probably can't see Karina. The defenses are dug, but the goblins are more interested in... not lazing about, but following little paths of insanity. Some of them are walking in a circle, their feet bloody and raw from not resting. Another has obviously finished bashing his head against a wall, his dead corpse leaking fluids.

Karina stops at one of the intersections, [so, that's not terrifying at all. We still need to check the boss room, and probably the treasure/mimic room. Anything else you can think of?] She asks you, seeming to look for both comfort and direction.

[Sallin_Kari]

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

I mean sure... but he's a cautious character and it's not like he can go, "LOL, just a joke guys, I'm just a sword," if things go south.

As I recall the goblins should be copies of actual creatures, and thus act normally, albeit predictably... this, on the other hand... all I can think is something or someone is interfering with the dungeon controller... akin to what happened to Hestia. [The anomaly room,] I remind her, [If something strange is happening here, there might be a clue or something to work with in the anomaly room.]

[porne]

[Agreed.] She says, and you get the feeling the room is almost an afterthought to a lot of the people that come in here. Going closest to longest, the 'treasure room' seemed to have spawned a mimic this time, although there doesn't seem to have been much help with that. The wooden remains of the chest are flung across the room, severed arms and legs are scattered as well, the core having been torn out without first killing the monster, just by a gigantic hand or tentacle or something.

When you get near the anomaly room, you get a queasy feeling, and having Karina stay behind seems like the right choice. Whatever the anomaly was this time, it seems to have torn a hole straight through the smaller cavern, but the rock is almost sandblasted smooth. There's a massive... spatial rip of some kind in the middle of the room. Almost like the surface of a black hole, air seems to bend around it.

[Sallin_Kari]

My metaphoric blood chilled at the sight of the mimic, especially the blow to the core. I couldn't help but fear that what caused this might eat cores. My fears only worsen as I find this giant hole in the wall. I fire a radar pulse into the hole as I think. Stan... is there something I should know about this?

[porne]

A small screen pops up. [Quest: strange happenings. Strange events are occurring within the local dungeon. Investigate as much as you feel safe doing, and if you think you can solve the problem without invoking any powers that might undermine the secrecy of any powerful beings. Maximum success: analyze and resolve the issue without calling on any 'higher' assistance. Failure, immediately call for assistance, creating a mystery that will naggle at both the local mortals and less mortals.

Assistance may be called at any time, however your reward, if any will be decreased.]

The last set of rewards you got from Stan... were very impressive. While the monster is terrifying, you could always call for help, the question is simply how much are you willing to risk.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

For some reason, this seems to fit his character more. Using you as something of an agent to solve headaches without getting directly involved.

[Sallin_Kari]

Quest?... What the fuck!? Taking a moment, I calm myself down and think things through. This strikes me as bait... Simply put, something is going wrong and they want me to fix it, but not tell me that something is going wrong... Why else would they offer impressive rewards, but refuse to mention anything before now? The rewards decreasing or being withheld should I force them solve the problem, or if strange rumors start also seems to indicate that... If that does happen, then it might mess up their little game.

Regardless, I want the rewards so I'll play this little game, and then chew Stan out for keeping me in the dark. I examine the hole, using as much magic as possible on my scans to see if I can identify anything.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Sure, I can see Stan doing things like this.

[porne]

Poking at the hole with your senses, you can see something like a forcefield, which keeps the air on the planet from rushing into the hole, assuming there's vacuum on the other side. There's also some kind of... tether. You can tell it is one, but it sort of turns in on itself shortly after that forcefield. You can follow it, barely, but it doesn't seem to be reacting. Whatever came through, it seems it's holding the hole open while it does whatever it's up to right now. Perhaps more investigation on what kind of the path of destruction?

[Sallin_Kari]

Well... I can't exactly bring help... Even with the entire party, there isn't too much they can do in a vacuum. Sighing, I plunge though the force field, firing off radar pings as I continue deeper. I need to get something tangible before I return to Karina.

[porne]

Plunging through the force field, you feel it ripple and squeeze before letting you pass through. Fortunately, your kinetic magic works over here... although it feels off slightly, like the settings have been played with. Turning around, there's something that looks like a small asteroid nearby. It's a bit of distance, but it's the only thing nearby.

[Sallin_Kari]

As I suspected kinetic magic is still functional. With that said, I still had no idea what is going on. With no other lead, I head towards the asteroid.

[porne]

As you head toward the asteroid it seems to jump around, almost like it's not quite there. It's suddenly in a small variety of places before it jumps back to where it was. The asteroid is small, and reminds you more of an eggshell than an actual space rock. Is this where whatever creature came through came from. Closing in, you stop moving, the asteroid seems to settle down as well, phasing back into a single location.

[Sallin_Kari]

Once I come to a stop I fire off a couple of radar pings, trying to get some information on what the hell this thing is.

[porne]

Your radar pings do strange things. As they bounce off, the signal seems to vary depended on frequency. Higher pitched seem to be blue shifted and closer, while lower frequency pulses tend to red shift like the asteroid is moving away. And the shape changes too, like whatever it is, it's not quite settled into reality. With the amount of difficulty you're having just pinning down an inanimate object made of this stuff, a golem or monster made of it would be almost impossible to fight as it shifted around.

The asteroid/egg shell thing is pretty small, you could probably bring it back with you as an oddity. Although, if whatever is acting as the tether suddenly winds up on your side of the hole, the hole could shut... You could try and take a metallic sample, what you're seeing looks a lot like nickle-iron just... weird. You could also ignore the stuff and head back to talk with Karina and get her opinion. At the thought, you can't quite seem to reach her telepathically, although your connection is still there, and you could teleport to her.

[Sallin_Kari]

I look over it... It is likely that what ever is causing the dungeon to go weird is related to this, which means that it likely has similar properties... And if I'm to figure out why I need a sample. The fact that the tether might shut this hole isn't necessarily a bad thing, as it put it here for a reason, and screwing up the enemy's plans more often than not, an advantage. I grab it and try to put it within my pocket dimension. After it is secured, I observe it to make sure it isn't doing anything even weirder... then I assimilate it.

[porne]

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

If the hollow shell bothers you, you can change your response.

It takes a few seconds to properly actually make contact with the egg shell, but it's too large to fit entirely within your pocket dimension. Assimilating it, you begin to absorb the material, and it gives you something like the hiccups, as if it doesn't quite mesh with your own natural magic. It's most closely related to your spatial magic, or what little of it you have, but it's a different flavor than the pocket dimension. It's close though, like something that's almost touching but not quite.

Summoning some of the material, the eggshell immediately stops jump around. Or you move with it? It's hard to tell, maybe another pair of eyes can help. Or you could finish trying to digest the stuff.

[Sallin_Kari]

Without being able to separate an organ my only option to tell if I'm moving or not is the 'Hansel and Gretel' approach. I leave a small, brightly color portion of myself made out of mundane materials and spit it out, watching it to see if it disappears or not. Regardless of the result, I'm going to finish eating whatever this material is.