War of Dragons 2: A Way Home

It's been a couple of days since the gang was shipwrecked smack dab in the middle of hostile territory. What they found at the heart of the Palace Lands, however, surpassed all expectations. Not only did they survive, they also found what seemed to be a long-forgotten Root Town, one which resembled nothing less than a ruined, overgrown version of Beijing. Monster infested though it was, the ancient Root Town was a safe place-- relatively speaking. But safety is one thing, actual permanent habitability is another. Putting aside the issues of practicality of spending months establishing a Robinson Crusoe-like existence in an uninhabited land, the fact is that they all have other places to be. Or in the cases of the Landers, families and homes to get back to.

Waiting for a ship was a possibility, but there's little to say whether they would simply be set upon /again/ by the people of the Palace Lands. No, that was strictly a Plan B. Prophylaxis, the Doctor of Tolbana, happened to have a better idea of how to get home.

One that might... result in certain consequences down the road. But nevertheless, one that could get them home even so.

And so the Doctor has directed the survivors to the functioning Chaos Gate, Landers surrounded by Adventurers to keep them safe from any incoming monsters. He looks to Setsuna, then, and nods. "Now, as we discussed. Make contact."

Make contact with whom...? And for what reason...?

Well. Setsuna knows. And everyone else does too, if they were listening to the doctor last scene! But just as a refresher: Prophylaxis believes that they might be able to ask a Kunie to force a transfer away from this particular Chaos Gate if they ask the right one in the right way.

And emphasizing that there are not only Adventurer but Lander lives at risk, that they all desperately need rescue from dire straits, and that the Kunie's mastery over the Chaos Gates' teleportation network is the only thing that could get them all home safely...

...Might just be the argument that is required.

Schneider is here with the Chaos Gate, and it's sort of lucky, he's done a lot of research into the chaos gates. But he was never in the game wheen they worked, so he doesn't really have any insight and this one seems ... inoperative. It's basically blocked because all the detinations are unavailable. Luckily, they have Radio Setsuna, and Schneider, though he's been appraising things like crazy to learn as much as he can, he's not really much help here. Chaos Gates are not subject to having their data drained, or he would have drained those INOPerative flags long since.

It could haved been worse, she's been making friends with these Yamato Adventuerer and it's been good for her. She's gone full archologist on this. She's been mapping, sketching and going over eveyrthing she can find. At this being go time? She's ready, staff in hand and knows she might have a lot of healing to do real quick...

    While the big-brains have been planning how to get out of this place, Fukaziroh has been searching around for alternate exits, for convenient and useful resources, and for some hints as to what happened to make this place abandoned. She's also been the most-useful bug-zapper, taking particular offense to the violent and aggressive stinging wasp-scorpion things. It's kept her busy, but she's also been back often enough, prodding Doc and Uta and the others for a solution. Because they're running out of stored food, and she's not gonna start eating raw insect meat! Not even if someone convinces her it'll taste like lobster.

    When is a necromancer not a necromancer, when he is a walking mobile phone. That is Setsuna's roll today as he looks at the doctor for a moment before looking at the chaos gate. "Sometimes you make it sound like I am the people person of the alliance..." Taking a deep breath he takes a seat at the base of the chaos gate and begins to focus.

     Focusing on the best coffee shop Setsuna has visited since being a part of the apocalypse, and the Barista who runs it. Taking a long moment to focus on the oracle link with the Barista before he begins to send the message, "Setsuna of SEA, to the Barista. We would like it if the chaos gate from Dragon Eye could be allowed to connect to Carmina's. Please and Thank you." The message is short and sweet due to the limitations of Oracle, but hopefully it is enough to get the thought across on what they are asking for.

There's a notable pause when Setsuna first contacts the Kunie in question. The 'Barista' of Carmina Gadelica. The man who crowned King Gilgamesh to truly be 'King'. Almost like someone on the other side of the phone only just having realized they butt-dialed someone.

Then, the sound of a calm older gentleman streams back to Setsuna. "I would deign to put a limit upon this intrusion into our fine city. I do recognize your voice. Setsuna, is it not?" Another pause, as if something is happening on the other side. "I will need an exact number of people - and their names, as well as the reason for your entry into this city from... /that/ place."

    Setsuna frowns a little as he looks up at the doctor, "Sounds like our good coffee friend isn't just going to let us pass through without a bit an answer and possibly as only a one time thing. Even needs a reason. " Having filled in the group he shouts, "Spread out enough so you are arms distance from your neighbor." All he needed was not being able to make out a landers name with inspect.

     Taking a deep breath Setsuna focuses on the conversation as he continues with the conversation with the Barista, " Yes we got shipwrecked here and are likely blockaded by Rosenheim's fleet. We would find our own way home, but we have people of the land with us and they are not quite as durable in coming back from the dead as us Adventurers. So we humbly request if you could allow the following people, " Setsuna takes a deep breath and knows keeping the link going this long is going to cause a headache but begins to give everyones name and a final head count including the people of the land.

    While Fuka can't hear the other side of the conversation, Setsuna's side is enough to give her some idea what's going on. "Tell him we're in danger of starving and need to come to his coffee shop!" she suggests. Then, as Setsuna lists out the other reasons she nods. "Those are important too." she acknowledges.

    She pauses, considering. "Is there a problem with this location in particular?" she wonders aloud. "I mean yeah, it's from the other server and there might be trouble from the locals. But is more than that going on here?"

"I figured he would want some kind of explanation," the Doctor admits with a nod. "It's not surprising. All of the other Chaos Gates were blocked for reasons of National Security. If he were not doing his due diligence, then 'National Security' would seem like a fairly flimsy excuse, wouldn't it? He is trying to protect Carmina Gadelica."

A shrug, then, "After all, if you had been crowned and were in fact bringing along Palace Land saboteurs, you could be leading an entire strike force into the heart of one of Yamato's root towns."

Llyn is going to wait she figures Setsuna is having some sort of mind DMs going on right now so she's going to sit back and wait she looks to Prophylaxis. "Aye if the gates were active the Palace Land Nations would have just ported on through...While crowned that's the very thing I would have done."

Schneider will spread out when Setsuna directs us, so he can read off names, not that Schneider really understands what it's for. But Setsuna's the one that will be getting us out of here, so it behooves us to cooperate. He asides to Prophylaxis, "He's got everyone's names. We're not quite enough for a strike force, I think?" He shrugs, what does he know. This is all over his head, he's just going with the flow now.

    "Yeah." Fuka acknowledges. "But this portal's blocked from everywhere. All Yamato portals and all Palace Lands portals too..."

"No, it's the only one that isn't blocked," Prophylaxis explains, tapping his nose. "For whatever reason, /this/ portal was never Protected for reasons of national security. Every single other portal has been. Now the question is, once we get back to Carmina, will we be able to take that Chaos Gate back here?"

There's a pause on the other side again. It's almost starting to feel like there's a lag to it all. But it's more likely that the 'Barista' is really considering this. After all, this function was locked off for a reason. The Landers in the meantime are lining up as Setsuna requests. Some of them preparing weapons, because it is certain that the monsters will come for them the moment they leave the barricade.

Eventually, as the names are given along with the reason, the Kunie answers; "Very well. Be aware that this is a one-time permission I am granting. None of the people with you are part of this Kingdom - or you yourself for that matter - which makes this a very notable exeception."

That's when the Chaos Gate outside begins to spin up, notably becoming more active, then slows down again. Almost like it just gained a new capability.

Awaiting people to teleport through one at a time. Except...

"Be aware that each Adventurer will have to be touching a Lander. The Landers do not know how to use the Chaos Gate at this time."

    Setsuna takes a deep breath and then begins to speak to the group, "Every lander grab hold of an adventurer. You must be touching them until we get through the gate." Taking a glance towards the doctor he lowers his voice and says, "One time permission especially since none of us are a part of the kingdom. An interesting comment, if I say so myself." The necromancer looks at the Dragon Eye location for a moment later before he looks at the doctor, "Are we leaving this place only to allow it to be reclaimed by Rosenheim?" Its probably a question that should have been talked about before this moment but still, it was a question. Raising his voice again he shouts, "Ok adventurer and landers start making yourway to the gate, I will go last."

Llyn says "The witch of the kingdom should not be allowed to gain more power." What else she might say is kept to herself but the look of hate in her eyes at speaking of the Ruler of Rosenheim. Yeah there's a gruge a big one, for now though she'll make for the chaos gate direction their Lander comrades to grab hold of her once they get to the gate.

"Now that we know what's here, we won't be leaving it for long," Prophylaxis answers decisively. "And none of the Three Kingdoms will be reclaiming it any time soon. There's a treaty in place between them all. This place is off limits." But that doesn't mean these foreigners are safe here, either. The doctor nods to the others, "I'll be second-last to leave. You heard the man, group up. We might need to take more than one person through at a time. I don't want anyone being left behind."

"Lowest levels through the gate first," he announces, "Anyone with wide area of effect spells and healing magic, I'm asking you to kindly volunteer to stay behind till the last of your echelon makes it through the gate. We need to last as long as possible."

    "We've been careful not to be spotted once we found the cave entrance." Fuka notes thoughtfully. "Well, most of us. And once we got deep enough, nothing we did would've been seen from the sea. I'm not sure they know any of us actually survived the sea battle and the wreck."

    She pauses, holding up a finger. "Actually they do know we survived, at least at first. The combat-lock on communications. But that's ended by now right? We've still been in combat because of the monsters, but we have no contact with Palace Landers. For all they know we all died. And when they find the wreck of our ships, well, they'll just assume we all died right? No corpses, but no one leaves corpses anyways..."

    She shrugs, and hoists her sword. "I have both, Prof." she notes. "Though if I spend my mana on big spells I'll have nothing left for healing so I'll protect physically, and save mana for heals. Either way, I'll help you hold the line so we can retreat in good order."

Schneider takes note that he will have to be holding on to a Lander, and extends his hands to two of them, offering them a grip as directed, but hanging back as he will be among the last to exit, in case anything needs to be exploded before we go. As far as leaving it to the Palace Landers, he says, "They've had two and a half years to reclaim it. The Palace Lands Landers are not very proactive." Landers in general being less adventurous than Players. "And if they do, what will they do with it? Where could they go, everywhere is blocked." Proph's news about a treaty in place is news to him, but that's even more reason that no one will come.

Llyn looks to Proph for a moment "If I die I will end up in Rosenheim's clutches." She notes but she unds. "I understand on the healing it has to be done. So if I do go down presume i'm a mind slave again." She smirks a bit at the comment Schneider made. "We could make a kingdom ruled by ... /us/ with this city."

Stepping outside of their protection, communications immediately die once again for them. Elkwolves are the ones to rush them this time. One of the nearby Landers is quick to snipe it with a bow. Luckily, with all this overgrowth, the Landers have been able to make more arrows. They're not as well made as they would be if they had a forge, but they will function.

One of them erects a barrier of stone for a while. They aren't useless, and for the most part, they don't need the Adventurers to protect them against these kinds of lower level enemies. They were able to battle with the Palace Landers on equal footing for the most part after all. Still, the Adventurers' protection is most welcome as they head towards the Chaos Gate.

Then, the first one of the Adventurers uses the menu to get through...

A glowing ring forms around the Adventurer and their Lander companion they are touching. Rapidly descending over them, as their vision goes blank for a moment... there's a sudden surge of 'unconsciousness' for a moment, before...

LIGHT.

As they arrive in Carmina Gadelica, in the middle of the square. Before them, three Machina, pointing arm-weapons right for their head. Saying nothing, as laser-light starts to scan across them, focused on their head region. Then, when they seem to have confirmed they are say, they silently motion the person to move to the side.

Schneider is one of the ones hanging back for just this purpose, and he drops FIRE on the elk-wolves almost negligently. Not so gratuitously as to set /us/ on fire, but the elk-wolves will surely recoil from having their muzzles singed. Or their heads incinerated, as these are not high-level enemies. He's not pushing too hard yet, he can do GUNZENRO all day, and he may have to, but that's OK, it's quite the useful application of basic FIRE.

    Setsuna stays back as he said he would watching the first person through the gate with held breath before nodding his head. There is a bit of notice as he watches a lot of people volunteering to stay back, " We all have to go through at some point, if you are staying back to drop spells, drop them and go. Don't hold your mana, burn it and dip." Setsuna shakes his head as he looks at the elk , countering by summoning several undead skeleton to act as humanoid shields. " Come on lets keep things moving people!"

Llyn is healing and caring water spells when she can, she does know she will be one of the last ones out as a healer but not one of the last she makes sure all her Lander companions hang on. They were the crew of the ship and had at least not pulled anything threating to her. This is a point in their favour. Her healing spell goes out to those fighting and those who might get hit..."

"Look," Prophylaxis grunts, freezing a whole host of bugs solid, "I understand that we're all a bunch of self-sacrificing morons, but one of you /really/ needs to get in there. The longer we all hang back, the more tired we're going to get!"

As Setsuna urges us to not hold mana, Schneider will shrug and haul out the big guns. "Kaizard, aruzard, kisk! Hansay Glossik!" he chants, and those who know him will worry. "Unleash total destruction! Sage of Hades use the seven keys to open the gates of Hell! ... HALLOWEEN!" That's /just one/ of his big spells, and the fire engulfs monsters as the spell basically opens the gates to a fiery realm of vast energy and just dumps it on the attackers.

And now it seems the exhortation to hang back to defend the group is an exhortation not to hang around too long. "Make up your mind!" he says, and will lead his Landers through. Hopefully safely.

    Fuka sighs, giving Proph an annoyed look. "Fiiiiiiiine." she drawls, grounding her mighty sword as she pulls back from the front line. If she's going to spend her mana in a big AOE, then she might as well use something really big. She chants, sending pulses of mana down the length of the blade, inscribing glowing blue circles into the ground then stepping into it and raising her sword once again.

    "LORD." she chants. "OF. VERMILLION!" and the air seems to darken around her as a pulse of energy leaves the tip of her sword to strike the underground city's sky. Only to be returned to the ground fourfold, massive lightning strikes in rapid succession, carving a broad swathe through the lower-level monsters of this region.

    Looking deeply satisfied and also somewhat exhausted, she nonetheless grabs any Lander in reach and makes to drag them bodily with her through the portal.

Llyn is now thinking it's time to go. "All right all of you hang on!" She'll let her Lander companions make sure they are all holding on. She'll throw one last aoe dot heal and then hit the gate. The next thing she knows she's staring at a facefull of killer Androids?! She stares for a secon and just drops her weapon hands going right up into the air.

"Oh you have got to be kidding me..."

There was an American movie with the main char almost like one of these things. This however is not Detroit...

"I surrender I'm not here to fight! All of you stand down."

She calls out to the landers with her.

Once most of the others have vanished through the portal, Prophylaxis is soon to follow-- but not before slapping the group left behind with a potent regeneration spell. It's not that he doubts the prowess of any of the Landers and Adventurers left behind, but...

...He's never been one to take chances with people's lives if he can instead stack the deck.

The doctor blinks through the haze of light as he rematerializes. "Ah. So that's what it feels like to do a Chaos Gate transmissio--" There's a gun pointed at his face. He pauses and slowly lifts his hands to reveal his forehead-- and the lack of a crown sitting there. "I'm safe, see? All good."

    As the summons fight off the undead Setsuna reahes out and grabs the nearest lander as he rushes towards the chaos gate. Reaching out and touching it him and the lander companions disappear into the light. There is a moment that almost feels like death before the light at the end of the tunnel. When he reappears on the otherside he sees the weapons in his face, "It was a left turn at albuquerque right?" Setsuna is looking around a bit concerned about what is going hoping to see an older fellow sipping coffee at any point who can ease the tensions.

    Merek takes the time to place a hand upon a lander while he adjusts the wrists of his attire, then he walks up to the gate to teleport through it, and come to the other side. He will look to the machina upon noting that they are there, and waits to be scanned. When they are given the motion to move, he will take the time to move to the side.

@emit There is no Kunie waiting for Setsuna. There are multiple confused Landers and Adventurers walking through the area though, staring at both the Guardians having shown up, as well as Adventurers teleporting in. They must think they used a Dungeon Heart, but there's still people approaching to check out what's going on.

Once people are checked out, confirmed to indeed not be crowned, the Machina retreat to the nearest walls, and just... 'fade' into them. Diamond shaped portals opening up, permitting them to fade into those walls, until they are gone.

And then... there they are. Carmina Gadelica. With a whole bunch of people approaching to ask questions.

    Setsuna steps forward a moment and then looks at the others, "And this has been the end of your three hour tour. If you would like to retake the tour please remember to see the Minnow tour company, where all our tours are guaranteed to be 3 hours or they write you off for dead. " The necromancer then begins to walk away from the group while once again reaching out to the Barista and leaves a simple, "Thank you." The necromancer wonders what could have happened had the Kunie wasn't so willing to help.

It worked! It actually worked. Prophylaxis releases a tense breath as the Guardians shift back into the cityscape. It reminds him a little of how those other Machina emerged from the tower to fight them, that one time. Still, there are people gathering to ask questions, and Prophylaxis knows better than to release politically sensitive information all willy nilly. No, they'll have to be sure to contain this info as much as possible.

"This way please," Prophylaxis gestures to the Adventurers and Landers who came through the gate. "I'll need to make sure we've got everything squared away before we adjourn!"

Schneider breathes a sigh of relief as we make it out this time. He's been trapped before where escape was not happening. This, this was pretty well-executed, all things considered. Getting ambushed was a probkem, but he's got a few ideas in that regard, too. It'll take more research, of course, but that6's a plan for the future. "Any landing you can walk away from is a good one," he declares, feeling that old cliche applies here, if it wasn't quite a 'landing', it's close enough.

Llyn looks at Setuna for a moment, she does not know the referance it seem but does seem amused. With the Machina gone she relaxes and slumps a bit on her staff once she recovers it. She looks to Prophylaxis and follows after him making sure no one needs critical healing.

    Fuka peers up at Setsuna, apparently not getting the reference either. "Three hours? We were there longer than that!" she claims. "And I'm *not* a minnow. That would be an Undine, surely. And nobody writes me off for dead! You hear me, no turning me into a zombie! My body is FAR too precious for that!" she claims loftily.

    Still, it's good to be back. And back in the town of beginnings! "Anyone know a good place to eat?" she asks. Of course given the number of times she's come here, she knows plenty of places. But asking is a social event, or at least an invitation.

    "I should check on my shop. You know, I would've checked into those machina, though... Well, that probably wouldn't work," Merek admits, before he follows along with the party and nods a bit, "Ah, I actually have a reservation I can take at any of the places here, because I have a shop and farm that gives to the local tax. If you want to go," he adds then to Fuka.

Llyn looks over to Fuka and smirks for a moment. "I'd say you are a Shrimp if any thing."

She giggles more at this as she keeps going along to see where the party is going to finish up this...