Follow in Their Footsteps: Krentel Gerolf

        To Follow the footsteps
            Of those who came before

    Katherine remembers these words well and the imp, having hit a wall in her studies, quickly has decided to track down the locations of old laboratories. Time, after all, was not always on her side. A feeling she knew well from her real life.

While the Scale has been halted by the tenth floor, they would eventually solve how to bypass it. She needed to learn how to create a mana battery. To create one to power her constructs for longer and eventually maybe see if she could design a core.

There was studies. Experiments. Plans! So much needed to succeed, but she needed to learn more from those before her. To learn what secrets they found and why, oh why, did they say to not do what she wanted to do: To create an army.

    So the imp finders herself hunt for those old labs, her hooves clacking against the stone floor under her. Her imp tail flicks ever so slightly. Normally she would walk with a canter, a strut, but she is focused. Her walk is that of a woman on a mission; Perhaps a little of her real self 'slipping' through the act; Her roleplaying mask.

It's not often that Adventurers get into the areas she's gotten herself in. Dun Loireag is a large town with many valleys, drop-offs, stairs that lead to nowhere. It's a mysterious place. A mystery that is elevated by the presence of the Tower of Mages, which plays them so close to their chest.

As the imp descends deep along one of the valleys that lead down, she suddenly finds herself assailed! Heavy feet drop down on her shoulders, and she's pressed to the ground by someone.

"Haanyaaa~ what are you doing all the way down here?" A voice asks her, right as something gets thrown over her head. Not a bag, but some kind of cloth to prevent her from looking up.

"Keep up this kind of search~nya, and you will draw the Mages on you like vultures."

    "Maybe I want the mages attention! I have questions and I will not be thwarted!" Katherine hisses back as she is pressed to the ground. Her imp tail flicks with frustration, as her canine teeth grit tightly.

Her fingers flick with magical energy. "Now unhand me before I make you sorry! You-- You-- ruffian!"

"I would reconsider attacking me~nya. You're in a Root Town, and you wouldn't want the Guardians to get involved, now do you~nya?" the male voice asks her, pulling her arm behind her back as he keeps her on the ground for a bit longer.

"Hmmmnya, don't like the mages having secrets hmm? How very Adventurer-like of nya~ou."

There's a pause there for a moment, before the figure gets off of her, allowing her to stand. If she turns around, she'd spot a guy in very... hobo like clothing. His hands on his hips, grinning at her. His blue hair is practically covering his eyes, a ratty feline tail swaying behind him, and he's just... giving her such a grin.

He looks like a Cait Sith, yet, he has the tattoo of a Were Fang on his neck. More notable, he's marked of Orange danger level. Name; Hans Humpty.

"What are you looking for~nya?"

    Katherine tsks softly, as her hand seems to stop surging magical energy. This-- man seems to have a point and her tail flicks in another moment of frustration.

Once this strange Cait Sith lets her get up, she sits on the ground for a moment, giving the individual a once over. While she can see the name, it is the danger level that does give her pause. "... You are a curious one sir... You shove me to the ground, now trying to be friends?" She raises a brow, as her eyes naturally glow in the low lighting. "Mayhaps I should ask what it is /you/ are doing down here."

She then slowly goes to stand herself up, brushing off clothing and body, along with fixing her robe to help her keep warm and protecting her wings. "If nothing else, mayhaps I can have the name of the one who has placed me in such a strange predicament hm? But-- I shall go first." She then places her hand near her bosom. "I am Lady Magus, Katherine Tanzer of the Outcasts." She bows her head slightly, but her eyes staying on the strange fellow.

"And you are...?"

"Nya'm thinking that most Adventurers look roughly here to see my name through some kind of magic~nya." He motions up to where his name floats, though he appears to be a bit off. He can't see it himself after all. He then hops onto a nearby barrel, one leg up on the top of it, the other hanging off the side.

Leaning forward, hand under his chin, staring at her from underneath his long hair. "Who said anything about being your friend~nya? I'm just curious. Like a cat~nya." Hans points out, and uses his other hand to make a mocking pawing motion.

"Most people try to play ball with the Tower of Meowges. If you want secrets they don't want you to nyave, then it must be interesting. Tell me, so I know if I should eliminate you or nya~t."

    "Mayhaps not all of us adventurers desire to be so... Rude with introductions." Katherine points back out. "Unlike some of my barbaric peers, I like to think I have a little more, courtesy." The imp says as she flicks some of her hair to the side and shifts her weight ever so slightly.

"Though the fact you speak of eliminate makes me then wonder if you, yourself forget about the guardians as well." Her head tilts gently. "But if you /must/ know, even if you are being so rude, I am looking for more information on the studies of a particular man. The father of Werefangs and perhaps the one the Mages of the tower know /all/ to well."

Katherine says all this as she steps away slightly, before she turns with elegance on her hooves toward the Cait Sith, Werefang, "Krentel Gerolf." Then she motions to Hans, "Which I also find most curious that while you seem like a Cait Sith, you have the mark of one of his children."

The feline just smiles at Katherine Tanzer with a bemused look when she suggests he forgot about the Guardians. He doesn't answer her on that matter, he just gives her that dreadful feeling that he knows something she doesn't.

He just kicks one leg out and stretches his arms out, looking far too relaxed. "Hmmm, Krentel? He's loooong dead~meow." Hans points out, finishing his stretch, and returning to his previous posture. He then glances at his shoulder - in the direction of the marking.

"That's because I nyam a failed experiment, with a dark history~nya." He answers her in a town that is almost clown-like, hardly taking himself seriously as he says it. "If that's all you are looking for, I can help~nya. Just keep going down this street, all the way to the nyand." If she looks down however, it looks like it just dead ends on a pair of stairs that are broken.

    Katherine peers at Hans as he seems to have that look about him. "I am aware that he has long passed on, but it is in his research i search for answers, you see." She explains as she keeps her distance from him. Her imp tail flicks once more.

Though as he suggests where she should go, she looks that way, then back to him. "Mayhaps you would be willing to lead me then? As you seem to be very capable and know your way around." Then Katherine steps up toward him, she places her hands on her hips, leaning over a little to get more eye to eye with him. "I would be very grateful for your aide if you do. Maybe even i can tell you more about what this is all about."

"Nah, I am not that interested in why you want this kind of information as an Imp. But I just want to see what Adventurers would do with this information." Hans answers her, as he throws his hands behind his head and gets up from his seated spot on the barrel.

The feline leads the way, waiting for her to follow after him. Taking his time wandering down the stairs of the road towards a spot that looks like it's just a drop-off into the cliffs below...

And steps through this area of empty air and disappears as if he just stepped around a corner.

    Katherine listens to what he has to say and raises a brow softly. As he begins to walk away she softly says, ".. Curiouser and curiouser." Though she follows him, watching him closely.

It is when he steps on thin air and suddenly disappears, she raises both brows. Then with a deep inhale, placing her hand to the side. Her staff forms in her hands, her fingers gripping around it.

In hopes she doesn't have to use it, she walks the same steps the strange Werefang just did and tries to not think about the fact she may be falling for a very dangerous illusion.

Where her body instinctively expects to not touch floor, she touches floor. It's an alien experience, a shizm that her mind fails to keep up with at first as she steps forward.

But as she pushes on, she soon is standing in the middle of what looks like a lab. It's small, maybe the size of a living room. There's a single desk with multiple crystals laid out. But there's this... aura about this place. Something she starts picking up on quickly.

This emotional swell as she can feel the magic that still lasts in this place. It's slowly fading, over the course of decades, but it's there. There's items hanging everywhere. Necklaces with bubbling crystals of water. Little animal fangs with little spells on them. Everything in this room reads <magic> to her.

There's this intense feeling that she's stepped into someone's personal space. A place that should be revered, for the sheer ingenuity of this place.

Hans, hands behind his head, glances at Katherine. "Don't take anything. Just... take it in." He tells her. There's a few books which have worn down over such great time, that they would likely turn to dust if she so much as touched them. But she can see various drawings on the walls that seem like mad scribbles. There's burned ash on the ground of immeasurably many failed experiments...

This is the home to a genius. Notably, on the wall, hangs a picture of a little Cait Sith girl, raising her hands up towards the sun. The kind of image that gives an immediate sense of familiality.

    Katherine almost loses her stomach at first when she realizes that she is standing /on air/, but pushes past it to find herself in a lab.

A lab that radiates magic and her eyes go wide, she almost; /almost/; drops her staff to the ground, before she pulls it closer to her. "This place..." She says with a soft whisper. Another near drop of the illusion of her roleplay air.

Her eyes look over the necklaces, the crystals. She walks with care over to the books, but never touching a thing. "I... I would not." She replies with a soft voice to Hans. "But this place... this was /his/. He worked here."

    Then her eyes are drawn to the scribbles, her fingers reach outward, but she never makes contact. "These scribbles... Maybe if I could translate--" Then her eyes are drawn to the picture. The cait sith girl reaching for the sun. Her brows furrow a little, before she walks over toward it.

Her eyes now drawn to the image, giving it a careful look over. "As the father of the cait sith and were fangs... was... this one of his..?" She wants to touch the image so badly, but she resists. "... Krentel... why did you advise against it... when you did such wonders already.." She whispers out, befoe she turns to look at Hans. "Is this his only laboratory and-- How did you know about it? Unless..." Katherine looks at the image once more, then back to him. "... a connection?"

"I'm a cat~nya, I get into places I shouldn't." Hans answers Katherine with a shit-eating grin. "Feel free to look at those scribbles, but you'll probably need to be really good at decyphering scribbles, because that's all that's in there. I can't make heads or tails of them."

It's not some foreign language, it's just... such a jumbled and old mess that if she isn't careful, just trying to pick up or look at a page, it might fall apart. It's up to her how she wants to approach this.

But as she comes to the realization that there are so many more questions here than there are answers, a message pops up before her:

< You have followed in the footsteps of those who came before you. Progression Unlocked. >

    "They may be, but with time..." Katherine says, "But mostly patience." She rests her staff against her as she pulls out a journal, along with resting down an ink and quill.

She steps back and places her staff in front of her, holding it in her hands. Magical energy glows from her hands, around the coils as the runes light up, before she gives the command. "Record all writings be they drawings and scribbles for me." Then moves her staff over the objects she brought, bringing them to life to do her bidding. Even if it may be a mana drain, it is quicker and safe this way.

    Then a message pops up before her. Her eyes dart over to it, before she gives it confirmation, should a confirmation be required. Her attention moving back to Hans. "I think there is more to you then what you say, but I do thank you for showing me this place."

She shifts her weight a bit. "So, in turn, I shall keep my word. My reason for seeking this place is that I am on a quest by the goddess. It all started with the construction of this staff and the desire to raise an army in order to protect the people from the harm my own /kind/ does to this world."

    Katherine's tail flicks once more. "I have no love for my own 'kind', being the adventurers. They wish to leave this world, to return back to the realm of nightmares... Where I, on the other hand, want to remain here. This place. This world. It /is/ my home, far a I am concerned... and I want to do whatever it takes," Her eyes move to the picture once more. "To protect it."

The imp then sighs, before looking back at Hans, "Probably a boring statement I am sure for a trickster like you or one I have a feeling you've heard many times before... But that is what I am out to do."

Hans's eyes widen as her equipment gets to work on trying to transcribe the notes onto paper - just for a moment - before he relaxes back into things. "That must be hard, controlling so many things simultaneousnya. Keeping those monsters at meow-ay." After all, she can't store those items with the Binders in them - in her inventory. There's a mana drain, even if she isn't actively commanding them.

Her devices however manage not to break anything, even if their transcribing of the scribbles leaves some things up for interpretation later. More-so than it already was the case.

"Fighting your own people. A group of imnyartal people... won't your soldiers just help raise their skills if they defeat them?" Hans asks. He doesn't respond to the claim that he is some kind of trickster.

    Katherine finds for a moment a twinge, a difficulty in keeping her focus, but with such a twinge, she turns her eye back to her constructs for only a moment. Her hand staying firmly on her staff, as she turns to look at Hans.

"It is something I am working on and that is why this research is critical for me. It is /he/ who led me to this knowledge and it is here I hope to find the means to expand upon it."

    The imp then shifts her weight once more, her free hand coming to rest on her hip. "Sometimes it takes an immortal to /beat/ immortals. If we are beaten, while we may return, we return back at the churches and even that takes time. They lose time, that means they lose some edge of progress. Some piece of /time/."

Katherine narrows her eyes slightly. "In defeating them, I will also grow stronger and in knowledge, that is the /true/ power. So, my soldiers will fight, I will learn. The next from my knowledge /will/ be even better and stronger. Till eventually those idiots will find themselves facing a wall they can not defeat. It is there, in that moment, I will achieve victory."

She then looks at the staff. "... and I am willing to sacrifice everything of myself... If it means keeping them from opening the door way back to that other world... I refuse to go back. I won't allow it. I /can't/ or..." Then a hint of the woman behind the character slips out once more. "... or I will die.."

Then with a deep inhale and determination on her face, she looks back to her little 'workers'. "I do not even know why I am telling you this. You'll probably use it against me or lord it over my head later."

"Nah, that all sounds like too much trouble to get involved in." Hans answers Katherine. "As long as you stay out of my hair, I will stay out of your hair." He then moves to a nearby seat, and sits down on it, just watching her work. Making sure she doesn't take anything. And when she is done, he will lead her out. She can tell that he's learning everything there is to learn from her. Just... listening.

    Once the work is done, she shifts her staff once more. Her mana was almost fully drained and she places her freehand toward her head. She mms softly, before giving her head a little shake.

She moves to pick up the objects, placing them away in her inventory, before she looks over to Hans who has been observing her so closely.

"Why-- are you so protective of this place?" Katherine asks him, looking him over. "I would like to at least know that before I leave... and if you and her," He motions to the girl in the picture. "Are somehow connected. Because you must forgive me, but you are a curious one and-- I feel like I should..." She peers at him, "... I just like to know something at least, that way if we somehow cross paths ever again, I won't feel like I am being stalked by a predator."

Hans tilts his head a bit. "Her~nya?" He looks at the picture. "I mean, she's a Cait Sith from what I can tell. I'm a Were Meow. So I'm pretty confident we are nya~t related. Especially with that picture being a few hundred years old~meow." He then looks back to Katherine with a confused look. "I'm not telling you anything that is going to make you feel safe-nya." He poinst out and motions for her to depart if she is done.

    "Oh, so you like being the big, bad predator hmm? Must get lonely like that." Katherine adds gently, before she goes to make her way to the exit. She pauses and looks over her shoulder.

"And thank you, dear sir. Even if it may come at a price... I hope one day I can return the favor." Before she goes to make her way out the way she came.