[center][h3]Tora and Poppi[/h3]
[b]Location:[/b] Sandswept Sky - Split Mountain - Redstone City
Level 9 Tora (105/90) Level 9 Poppi (105/90) Level 5 Big Band (44/50)
Midna’s [@DracoLunaris], Fox’s [@Dawnrider], Jesse’s [@Zoey Boey], Sectonia’s [@Archmage MC], Primrose’s [@Yankee], Yoshitsune and Sora’’s [@Rockin Strings], Mao’s [@Potemking], Raz’s [@TruthHurts22], Ellie’s [@Thatguyinastore]
[b]Word Count:[/b] 2534[/center]

With everything the Seekers faced thus far, from undead hordes to rampant machines to criminal organizations to cosmic horrors, it seemed almost comical that the danger presented to them by the canyon raceway seemed to be nothing more extraordinary than reckless racers. Still, taking a bike to the face at seventy-plus miles per hour, let alone a Goron, was no laughing matter, and the group buckled down for a grueling slog uphill through the dusty, windswept streets of the Redstone City.

After the fourth collision it became clear to Tora that going against the flow of Riders would demand not just constant vigilance and terrific reflexes, but also a steadier hand than he had. As much as he wanted to be the cool guy shrugging off impact after impact as if they were no more than leaves in the wind, his aching wing told him that he couldn’t keep this up forever even if he swapped his shield arm. Every blow against his shield would jar and numb him that much more, and sooner or later his poise would be so shot that another strike would blow his defense wide open and send him bouncing down the mountain like those spherical, white-furred Shiverians. Hiking uphill took it out of the Nopon inventor, Riders or no Riders, and having to repeat even the easiest part of the climb sounded absolutely awful. “Poppi, we need change tactics! Switch to QT mode for evasion!”

The artificial blade nodded, but before she could change she boosted to the right to avoid a whooping, bearded man on skis. Right after passing her, the guy tripped over a rock all on his own, went flying like a propeller, and slammed into a tree only to fizzle right back onto the ground, right as rain, and continue on his way. “Poppi was wondering how long it take Masterpon to tire of getting slammed by cyclists. Happened sooner than Poppi thought.”

Waving his free wing to clear out some dust thrown in his fast by the skier, Tora gave her an incredulous look. “Wait, Poppi already think of doing this? Why not say so sooner?”

His companion smiled. “It look to Poppi like Masterpon want to keep proving how tough he is. Poppi not want rain on Masterpon’s parade.” Before Tora could rebuke her, she began her transformation, reconfiguring into her more agile QT mode in a centrifugal pirouette of scarlet ribbons and orange sparks. Tora looked over at Braum as if to say [i]can you believe her?[/i], but the giant only chuckled as he stepped up to give them cover. With a much larger stature and a much heavier shield, the Heart of the Freljord could do a lot more to defend the team from the multisport menace.

Not far away, Big Band and Peacock seemed to be taking a more proactive approach. After trying to parry a couple Riders and not seeing the dividends he would have wanted from such a risky maneuver, Band made the pragmatic choice of taking the racers’ ability to restore themselves to heart and just punching them instead. With their armor and range his Brass Knuckles could pulverize the bikes of any Riders foolish enough to not swerve out of the vintage virtuoso’s way. Nobody he struck down even seemed to react to getting hit, and of course they blipped back to normal the next moment. Peacock happily followed his example, sending out George Bombs ahead of her to blow incoming Riders out of the way. At one point, a small pack of them detonated all of her bombs at once, leaving a long Rider hurtling straight for her. Peacock just snickered, then pulled her hat down around her head. A hole opened up in the dirt directly in front of the offending racer’s bike, through which her metal teeth extended from her wide-open mouth like a bear trap. It snapped shut on the bike’s tire the next instant, causing the Rider to flip forward and slam straight into the ground. Her bike practically exploded, although it reappeared in one piece right after. Back to normal, Peacock flicked a cigar at the woman as she cycled on by, then dusted off her gloves with a jagged grin. “What a maroon!”

The others dealt with the cavalcade of riders in their own ways. Naturally, the lucky few just flew right over it all, watching the chaos below like pinballs bouncing around in a machine, but the rest needed to employ quick reflexes, quicker thinking, and no small amount of strategy. Going straight up the central avenue through the region, where the various routes through the network of canyons tended to converge, offered the most room for evasion and the best visibility, but it also guaranteed the most traffic. Packing into one of the smaller sandstone corridors off the beaten track, meanwhile, meant a trade-off of fewer Riders but worse conditions for dealing with them. Once Tora, headed up the main path with most of the others, realized how unfeasible it was to physically block the avalanche of racers headed his way, Jesse stepped up to take over defense, and Midna lent a hand. Her telekinesis created a mobile wall of safety for her team that the average Rider could only crash against, but not every reckless daredevil headed her way was created equal.

“Look out belooooooow!” came a boisterous bellow, accompanied by a thunderous rumble growing louder by the second. A Goron, nearly half a ton of rigid stone and muscle curled up into a living boulder, came rolling straight for the procession of heroes. Unable to control his own path in the slightest, the unstoppable force bore down on Jesse’s telekinetic barrier. As impressive as the FBC director’s supernatural feats had been, none could rightfully predict whether or not her defense would hold out against a head-on collision with what might as well have been an out-of-control truck, but luckily they didn’t get the chance to find out. Sectonia added a little magic to the mix, creating a crystalline ramp to send the formidable Goron up and over her teammates, protecting them from harm.

“Nice save!” Necronomicon commended the bee queen. Hovering above the action not too far from Sectonia gave both the Persona and her passenger Mona a bird’s-eye view of the commotion below. “Hope you’ve got more where that came from, though. Raz is right, it doesn’t look like this place is running out of Riders anytime soon. We should hurry!”

Mona crawled over to the edge of Necronomicon’s top and peered down into the canyon paths. “There’s gotta be a better way to do this that doesn’t involve a massive detour,” he muttered, surveying the scene through squinted eyes. His gears turned for a couple moments as he watched the Seekers continue to defend and dodge below. Then something clicked, and his eyes went wide. “Wait, duh! Hey, guys!” he shouted down. “Quit fighting through the trenches and get up on top! It’ll take more jumping and you’ll need to be careful not to fall, but there are pretty much no Riders up here!”

Down where they’d taken cover behind a few stacks of tires, Joker, Skull, Panther, and Fox exchanged sheepish glances. Panther broke the silence with a nervous laugh. “Hahah...we probably should’ve thought of that already, huh? Guess we’re all a little short on brain juice today.”

“Man!” Annoyed more at himself than anything, Skull rubbed his head, ruffling his croppy yellow hair in the process. “This kinda crap is why we need Makoto.”

“Perhaps Oracle was right when she joked about us four sharing one brain cell,” Fox commiserated, sounding gloomy.

Joker jumped up onto the tires, then hopped over to a ledge on the nearby cliff. “We can laugh about it later. Let’s get going.”

The Phantom Thieves wasted no time scaling the canyon wall. Since the precarious narrow high roads, with neither walls nor railing to safeguard the edges, were especially difficult to navigate on any vehicle, not even the most daring Riders stayed up there to endanger the Seekers for long. Tora followed suit, rocket-jumping with his Mech Arms and a little help from Poppi, while Peacock teleported up through the use of a portable hole. That didn’t stop her from continuing to throw George Bombs down into the action, of course. With the high road looking a little too narrow and fragile to accommodate his size, Band remained down below alongside Braum, where they took one of the side paths to minimize contact with Riders, even as Braum’s fellow Lakeside refugee the Scout zipped right up to the top. “A to D, skippin’ B and C!”

With the going neither quick nor easy for anyone no matter which path they chose, except of course for the cheating fliers, it was close to an hour before the Seekers finally put the Redstone City in their rear-view mirrors. When they reached the top of the labyrinthine sandstone raceway, and all the arches, columns, and crevices finally gave way to more ordinary terrain, they quickly discovered the source of their frustration. Being the frontrunner, Fox was the first to see the startling line he predicted, albeit more expansive than he expected and flanked on either side by a wooden platform that sported a fluttering orange and teal banner. As he watched, Riders appeared out of thin air on top of those platforms in a constant stream, each barely even stopping to get his or her bearings before heading over to the starting line. In the time that first Seekers to arrive spent taking a breather and waiting for the rest to catch up, the starting horn signalled the launch of not one, not two, but three new Mass Races, each with between sixty and a hundred participants. A few riders loafed around, doing tricks and such, but most exhibited a single-minded fixation on the main event. With the whole concept of Ferrystones still fresh on the brain, Big Band plodded over to examine the flag platforms that the Riders used to warp in, but could determine nothing special about it. If this constituted a fast-travel point, it seemed to be one exclusive to these bizarre sportspeople--if people they even were.

“Everyone okay?” Tora asked, waddling between the various members of the group to check on them, accompanied by Poppi all the while. Even if he couldn’t heal any injuries they may have sustained, he and his companion offered what they could, be that water refills or moral support. The Nopon made extra sure to visit the group’s newest additions Raz and Therion, eager to start them on the road to friendship. “Doing good so far!” he told them. “If friend ever need hand, just call Tora!” A wink and a thumbs-up sealed the deal as far as he was concerned.

Before long everyone had reconvened at the rest area by the starting line. Everyone was hot, dusty, and at least a little bruised or battered, but mostly okay. Already the ambient temperature had grown temperate, which came as a welcome change from the brutal heat of the desert floor. Some ice from Poppi and Sectonia’s antlion’s, along with water from the canteens, helped cool the heroes the rest of the way down and get them ready for the next leg of the journey. Looking back made it clear that they’d already come a pretty long way, both vertically and horizontally. The colors of Tostarena Town already seemed quite distant. When the party turned their gaze back toward the mountain, they could see the snowline not too far off, with white-capped redwoods nestled among crags peering down at them across a sloped field of rocks and low-lying plants. “Making progress, meh!” Tora chirped, trying to be positive despite the immense amount of journey still in store for them. Once suitably refreshed, he and Poppi set off once more.

The trip up through the field of rocks offered no more peril than the occasional shifting stone underfoot, although the heroes did glimpse some wildlife here and there close to the ground. [url=https://i.imgur.com/Id5FxOI.png]Sandshrews[/url] and [url=https://i.imgur.com/3jWxj4f.png]Diglets[/url] poked up from their burrows on occasion, while here and there a woeful-looking [url=https://i.imgur.com/vZKhdcW.png]Silicobra[/url] snaked between the rocks, steering clear of the [url=https://i.imgur.com/agBRazJ.png]Diggersbies[/url] that lorded over the place with smug looks on their chubby-cheeked faces. Bit by bit they got closer to the redwood-masked cliff edge whose elevation change marked Split Mountain’s snowline, the air growing cooler and more crisp as they climbed. By the time that the rocks finally gave way to rugged grass beneath the boughs of towering redwood trees, Tora was huffing and puffing all over again from the exertion of clambering up and over rocks with such stubby legs. He couldn’t afford to just plop down in the shade and relax, however--not with that strange, heavy, breathy noise echoing through the trees, rising and falling like the tide. Better to be safe rather than sorry, the party hiked a short way farther in search of the source, crunching through autumnal life litter amidst the megalithic forest. On the way Band kept an eye on the cliff face, but found no means of ascent or entry that might grant them access to the winter wonderland above and beyond. Once the group finally tracked down the source of the noise it took them a moment to process what they were seeing, although as always Skull seemed happy to state the obvious for everyone. “Holy shit,” he exclaimed, trying and failing for obvious reasons to keep his voice down. “That’s the biggest freakin’ bear I’ve ever seen!”

[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/QKgAb6f.png[/img][/center]

Out from what could only be a tunnel through the solid stone poked the head of an enormous brown bear, sound asleep. Big Band realized that the sound everyone heard must have been its snoring, loud enough to fill the mountain slope for miles. Dollops of snow lay on top of its head as well as the earth around him, but neither the cold nor the noise of the newcomers seemed to bother him one bit. No matter if they shouted in his ears or bopped him on the snout, in fact, the bear just snoozed on peacefully, the steady inhale and exhale  sending whirls of leaves up into the air with each breath. His only reaction to anything seemed to be a slight twitch when leaves brushed against his big, black nose.

At that point the group could disperse through the clearing, able to relax and ruminate on options and alternatives. “If we could get him to wake up and move, we might have an easy way through to the next part of the mountain,” the detective observed. “Trouble is, I don’t think we wanna start a fight, so what’re we gonna do to rouse him?” He glanced at Peacock, who looked like she had an idea, and shook his head to shoot her down without so much as a word in. The girl pouted, crossing her spindly metal arms in a huff. 

[center][h3]Ms Fortune[/h3]
[b]Location:[/b] Carcass Isle
Level 6 Nadia (63/60)
Koopa Troop’s [@DracoLunaris], Blazermate’s [@ArchmageMC], Hat Kid’s [@Dawnrider], Geralt’s [@MULTI_MEDIA_MAN], Ace Cadet’s [@Yankee], Sakura's [@Zoey Boey],  Link’s [@Gentlemanvaultboy], Mirage’s [@Potemking], Delsin’s [@Rockin Strings]
[b]Word Count:[/b] 3003[/center]

Just as Nadia hoped, Ace used the myriad of boons given to him to the fullest. Wielding his exquisite blade with the power granted by Kamek, he took advantage of the vulnerable state that Nadia and Junior left the Shark Giant in, and like that one chef back in the Maw’s ghoulish kitchens carved through the sea monster’s scaly flesh with lethal precision. Nadia joined in, wielding her own tail as a sword to hack away at the monster while it struggled, though rather than be blinded by the prospect of revenge, she made sure to steer clear of Ace’s wide-range longsword swings. In a few short moments the intractable fishman lay in malodorous chunks, soon to dissolve, and the Cadet spited what little remained by crushing its spirit straightaway.

[center][hider=For Ace Cadet]You have acquired:
[url=https://i.imgur.com/KzPaoOz.png][b]Sharq Attack[/b][/url]
[i]An unusual, albeit novel, weapon composed of a dead sharq stiffened by rigor mortis (and pelagicite ore) plus a no-swimming sign, wielded as a lance and shield. Though its sheer size and top-heavy weight distribution make it unwieldy even by Monster Hunter standards, it puts out appreciable damage with bonus water attack, plus an attractive fifteen percent critical hit chance and blue sharpness on its teeth[/i][/hider][/center]

Already soaked, Nadia saw no harm in sitting down, leaning back on her arms as the last of her grievous injury faded away. Her chest heaved as she tried to calm her pounding heart. When Ace asked if she was okay, she flashed him a smile. “Yeah, I’m alright.” The Life Gem was truly an incredible thing. A punctured lung in a place like this would typically mean certain death, either through bleeding out, suffocation, both, or infectious disease that followed in the wake of injury, but she’d gotten off with just unbearable agony. Right about now, Nadia’s numbness came as a real blessing. Ace’s lifepowder helped chase away the last of her pain. “Aw, you’re sweet,” she purred, bumping her shoulder against his. “For real, thanks. That got pretty intense for a moment, huh? Just goes to show, it’s true what they say.“ She shot him a mischievous look. “You can tune a guitar, but you can’t tuna fish.” After Ace took a moment to ask a favor of Kamek, the four headed for the hole in the wall to take stock of the situation outside.

The fighting throughout the village center raged on, but cooperation between the scattered heroes appeared to be giving them the edge they needed against their ruthless aquatic adversaries. Naturally, this bore the most fruit against the murloc rabble that had emerged to complicate the various fights around the contested plaza with shameless potshots and vicious attacks of opportunity, forcing a few of the Seekers to prioritize their elimination above all else. Spurred onward by the chance to finally take revenge against the monsters that wiped out his crewmates, Delsin did well for himself despite the abysmal circumstances. His chains whipped against the fishmen as effective crowd control, even if his flames mostly sizzled and turned to steam thanks to both pouring rain and sodden targets. While he got their attention Bowser mopped them up, putting his varied arsenal to work to methodically take down murloc after murloc with cannons, water cutters, poison, tooth, claw, and brute strength. Though he took a number of hits from their seastone tridents, fishbone weaponry, and harpoons, his rampage continued unabated. The few fishmen that managed to escape him fell victim to Rika’s bombardment, and when the fighting concluded Blazermate cleaned up, creating foul thralls from murloc corpses in tandem with cheerfully mending her allies’ wounds.

The efforts of the four to keep the murloc mooks from troubling their allies allowed Link to put all his focus into the fight with Tidehunter, a duel that demanded both his utmost strength and ingenuity. What Leviathan lacked in straightforward stopping power he made up for in cunning and debilitation, making him less easy to take advantage of compared to the near-mindless Shark Giants, and more dangerous to underestimate. The Hero of the Wild not being decimated by Tidehunter’s anchor smash was a relief, but it took only a couple hits for Link and Peach to realize where the monster’s true strength lay. A blast from the princess’s scatterboom already barely put a dent in her opponent, but a cut to her attack power made her shots downright pitiable. Unbeknown to Peach, something about Tidehunter’s hide negated a flat amount of damage from every attack, which applied separately to each of her shotgun pellets, reducing her output to basically zero. In the heat of battle she couldn’t tell what exactly was going on, but it became clear nonetheless that she needed to try something else. Tidehunter was in his element, and had the two right where he wanted them.

While she backed off to wait out the debuffs and figure something out, Link battened down the hatches. He wasn’t about to let this overgrown fish rope him into this lopsided battle of attrition. This was a formidable opponent, possessing not just a power but a plan, yet he lacked finesse. With eyes narrowed to guard against the stinging rain, Link bided his time, defending with ice as well as his blade, until finally his ship came in. When Tidehunter overcommitted, Link slowed down time to unleash his withering counterattack. His dancing blade aglow with the flash of lightning overhead, as he slashed again and again, cutting deeper and deeper, until his sword itself gave up the ghost. As it exploded into shards of light the flow of time resumed, and Levithan’s guttural cry heralded the splash of his anchor into the water. He fought to avoid floundering, found his footing on the slimy bottom of the basin, and lunged forward to crush Link between his jaws, but the Hero was already in motion. His own anchor, dredged up from below by Link’s magnesis, dealt him a sickening uppercut. At that moment Peach leaped from the water’s surface, whirled through the air with the grace of a dancing crane, and with an elegant spin kick launched a torpedo directly into Tidehunter’s cranium.

Its explosion filled Leviathan's vision with stars, and for a moment, punished both from above and below, he staggered. But the Champion of the Sunken Isles would not be done in so easily. His bellow filled the drenched arena as he executed a titanic lariat, pushing through the water with his sheer bulk to send up a mighty wave. The disturbance was enough to knock his foes back despite their shipgirl infusions, and in the moment afforded to him, Tidehunter pounded his fists into the basin floor. Instantly, a ring of tentacles erupted from the solid stone around him, each like a fleshy geyser and strong enough to launch just about anyone into the air. He seized hold of his anchor with his other hand and surged forward to smash Link back down into the ground. As Peach soared she felt a surge of helplessness, but only for a moment--she remembered how Nadia managed her own aerial momentum during the fight aboard Shippy. The princess took hold of Chao Ho’s greatsword-sized fan, wheeled around, and kicked off it midair to send herself into a headlong dive. “Yaaaaaah!” The next moment she struck home with a torpedo-powered axe kick into Tidehunter’s head right where her first explosive softened him up, stopping him in his tracks. Around him the outward rings of tentacles continued to wreak havoc throughout the basin, but Peach kept her attention on the task at hand. Memories of the fight in the Paved Wilderness guided her hand as she grabbed hold of the monster’s fin and focused Grimm’s soul-harvesting power, trying to reach into his body and draw out the spirit within. She took hold and started to pull, straining terribly as he fought her every step of the way, until finally his spirit appeared from his body, radiant with prismatic light that shone through the gloom across the entire basin. Though she planned to shoot it or something, the spirit was like a heavy-duty spring pulled to its limit, and it was all she could do to keep the spirit out. Luckily, she had a hero on hand adept in the art of lethal finishers. “Link!” she growled the clenched teeth. “Do it!”

Not too far away, the tone of Sakura’s fight against the Sea Crawlers had shifted, even with the sudden abduction of the one she called Clammy by Bella. Grotesque and animalistic as they might look, the monsters worked as a capable team; if they weren’t double teaming the street fighter in a double-pronged assault of amphibious might and electrical mayhem, one was shielding the other. It ended up feeling almost like a tag-team match, similar to how she’d seen the popular wrestling R. Mika fight alongside her partner Nadeshiko, but with a lot more oceanic magic in the mix. Bruises, electrical burns, and gashes were accumulating across her body and limbs. Still, Sakura used Arashio’s mobility to fight them toe to toe, deftly avoiding being put into a blender between the troublesome pair, and she landed her fair share of blows. The battle of attrition continued until, with no warning, Clammy’s head erupted from the water right by Sakura’s feet. At the sight of its open mouth and lolling green tongue she braced herself for a surprise attack, but none came. Instead Bella pushed up from below, shoving Clammy’s severed head to the side. Though soaked to the bone and sporting a few new bite marks, the Water Princess looked pleased, both with herself for expertly eliminating one Sea Crawler and with Sakura for hanging in there. “I’m here, mon cherie!” she practically sang, oblivious to Crabby as he charged at her from behind. Before he reached the Seaplane Tender’s monstrous tail burst up from underwater once more and sank its fangs into its unprotected bicep. Bella glanced backward just long enough to make sure she had a good grip before she fired. Before the Sea Crawler knew it, it lay on its back against the rocks, its arm blown off by the blast and sent flying clear across the plaza. Bella rose from the water to stand on its surface alongside Sakura, ready to rush the dizzied crab and isolated eel-ectric down. “Let’s put zese ugly things to rest!”

Meanwhile, Geralt’s struggle against Fizz continued to worsen. Try as he might, the Witcher just couldn’t seem to hit the slippery little squirt, and his prodigious size was quickly revealing the danger of inordinate exsanguination. His Strikers and his bomb managed to do some damage, but nothing decisive, and every moment spent fighting meant more blood lost. Still, as bad as the situation seemed to be, every problem had its solution. Though used to working alone and not without his pride, Geralt made the pragmatic choice to call for backup rather than doggedly keep at it. And Barely had he called for help then a friendly face appeared.

“I got your back!” Mirage called, cruising forward over the water with his pistol drawn. Fizz turned with annoyed scowl and without a like of hesitation hurled a little orange fish at the interloper. With the fight against Geralt going well, he chose to let fly his ultimate ability and Chum the Waters to dispose of his opponent’s reinforcement in one fell swoop. Once it hit the legend, he had only a scant few seconds to make peace with whatever he believed in before a megalodon would emerge from below and chomp him in half. But the bait passed right through Mirage, causing him to flicker and Fizz to blink in confusion. The hologram disappeared to reveal the real Mirage immersed in the water at the fake’s feet, grinning as he brought the barrel of his trusty Wingman out of the water. “Bamboozled!”

The shot rang out and Fizz balked, shot straight in the chest by Mirage’s revolver. The legend got off a second and third shot into the shocked trickster before Hat Kid footstooled off his head and leaped straight for her target, fists extended like a superhero in flight. Fizz dodged to the side only for Hatty to hook a sharp left mid-air and bop him right on the head anyway. As she bounced off, the girl latched on to one of his tentacles with her umbrella’s grappling hook, then soared up and over the frame of the well. “Whee!” From there she dropped straight down, becoming a counterweight that yanked Fizz off his feet and left him hanging above the well. From there, all it took from the Witcher was a well-placed chop from his silver sword to slice the irksome creature twain. As he dissolved, Hatty's hook latched onto the well frame instead, preventing her from falling any further into its depths. 

That left just one major foe to deal with: the Judicator. Spinal and his Dhelmise, however, seemed to need no assistance. With the monster a captive audience thanks to its anchor chain around its waist, the Pokemon bombarded it from afar with Shadow Ball and Energy Ball, while the skeleton pirate carved up the body. His scimitar cut around its teal chitin armor and into its verminous purplish meat, or into the wan, sagging flesh of its human half. The Judicator couldn’t keep up with Spinal’s frenetic swordplay, especially with skeleports in the mix. When it attempted to use its trump card and unleash ghastly azure fire from its scales, Spinal brought his wriggle octopus shield up in a defensive stance and absorbed the damage, which his Power Devour converted into green skulls that he shot right back. With the punishment already sustained by Geralt’s efforts, and no minions around to empower, the Judicator was doomed. Spinal finished the fight in decisive fashion with a leap onto its back, where he lopped off one head, then the other, then finally carved its torso straight down the middle, laughing all the while. His Dhelmise then pulled tight its chain, severing what remained of the abomination’s brutalized humanoid torso. The rest of it sagged to the ground, limp, to become a wet pile of ashy sludge.

After that...nothing. The fishing village was quiet, except for the low roar of the surface and the steady murmur of rain against wood and water. Everyone gathered around the well, where the injured reported to Blazermate and Kamek for treatment. No casualties, although with the shacks full of nothing but rot and gunk their only souvenirs -apart from the spirits of the slain- would be their newfound stress and fatigue, and those wouldn’t be healed as easily as the heroes’ bodies.

[hider=Rewards][b]Party:[/b] Bowser, Junior, Kamek, Blazermate, Geralt, Ace Cadet], Sakura,  Link, Mirage, Delsin
[b]Encounter Reward:[/b] 15 EXP
[b]Additional Reward:[/b] Murloc spirit x30, diseased murloc spirit x 12, luminous murloc spirit x7, Shark Giant spirit, Crabsnake spirit x2, Sea Crawler Crab spirit, Sea Crawler Clam spirit, Giant Clam, Sea Crawler Eel-ectric spirit, Tidehunter spirit, Judicator spirit, Fizz spirit[/hider]

“Hey!”

A small voice echoed up from the well as Hatty ascended, drawn upward by the retraction of her grappling hook. She swung her legs and hopped over the rim, where she waved for everyone’s attention. Once she got it, she pointed downward, indicating that her top hat was telling her that the team’s next objective lay at the bottom of the well, beneath the basin that formed the epicenter of not just the village, but the entire detestable island. Those who remembered seeing the Judicator emerge from it could scarcely relish the thought of encountering more eldritch horrors down below, although on second thought maybe it came as a stroke of luck that the Koopa Troop’s clamor had drawn the monster out of a potential ambush. Nadia wiped rainwater from her eyes as she shivered from the cold. “Well, if that’s the way, then that’s where we oughta go. Anywhere that gets meowtta this damn rain is good in my book.” Realizing that she’d just sworn in front of two entire children, she chose not to elaborate on her feelings any further.

Peach nodded. “Hopefully we’ll have a moment to get ourselves together down there, but like as not we’ll run into more trouble, so everyone stay on your toes. Let’s go.” With any brave volunteers in the lead, the party climbed down the ladder, one person at a time. Being large enough to divulge the sizable Judicator, it admitted even Bowser and Geralt without a problem, and despite widespread doubts the wooden ladder held long enough for each and every hero to get to the bottom.

The ladder took the Seekers down into a [url=https://i.imgur.com/KRF2guP.png]grotto[/url] of shiny smooth stone, eroded to a moist polish by countless years of flowing water. It featured a great many natural pillars, and strange formations hung down from the ceiling which Nadia found herself not wanting to look too closely at. Despite the grotto’s ankle-deep water, it provided plenty of room for the heroes to get out from the rain and try to dry themselves at least a little. It offered no real danger either, since while more sea maggots littered it and there appeared to be at least two clusters of jellyshrooms, the newcomers could avoid them without difficulty. The most striking feature of the grotto lay on its easter side, where one of the walls abruptly opened up into another cave. It seemed more spacious and well-lit than this one, with a wooden railing to boot, but only when Nadia sauntered over to lean over the balcony did she realize how much larger it was.

With wide eyes she stared down into a gigantic, roughly cylindrical cavern with a floor blanketed in its near-entirety by a carpet of corpse-white sea slugs. The bulbous things lay heaped wall to net-covered wall, masked in places by crude walkways and stairways of rotted wooden planks and illuminated by braziers where more of the creatures burned. Among them were a few handfuls of spiral shells, like the sea maggots but a lot bigger, and the [url=https://i.imgur.com/Va5Q6H1.png]pale shapes[/url] that extruded from them seemed to Nadia almost disturbingly human. The nets stretched up all the way to the second floor where she stood aghast, that floor being a strictly manmade affair of wood that circumnavigated the cavern’s upper reaches. To the feral’s further incredulity the whole affair extended a good distance, after which it split into a few branching paths around a single, fog-covered opening. It was a lot to take in. “Good gravy,” she breathed, wrinkling her nose. “And here I thought the last place smelled bad!” She retreated from the edge to give the others a chance to see, wondering just what in the world they’d gotten themselves into.

[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/gsqM79U.png[/img][/center]

[center][h3]The Chalk Prince, the Fallen Child, and the Skullgirl[/h3]
[b]Location:[/b] Frozen Highlands - Alpine Skyline
Linkle’s [@Gentlemanvaultboy], Frisk’s [@Majoras End][/center]

Content to bring up the rear, Albedo followed Linkle and Frisk in observant silence as the three neared the shadowed mansion, his corgi trotting right by his heels. Considering the possible perils that might endanger an unwary animal on this trail, he had harbored second thoughts on bringing his dog along for the climb, but the faithful creature seemed almost as determined to see this task through as Frisk. Unwilling to remain on Linkle’s sled, he made the ascent under his own power, assuring his owner in short order that he had nothing to fear. Those short, stubby legs meant that the dog would have to tackle any snow drifts literally head-on, but none arose to block his path, and he steered well clear of the cliff edge as the path wound upward. In fact, the little guy kept just behind Albedo and to the left, as if constantly herding him away from the precipice. The alchemist couldn’t help but smile as he watched the adorable beast patter along. [i]Treat must have left quite the impression,[/i] he thought.

Only when they pushed through the mansion’s wrought-iron gates, making it scream in protest, did the corgi’s ears flatten somewhat against his head in momentary, involuntary fear. Even if such a thing was to be expected of metal left exposed to the elements long term, the sudden, piercing creak came as something of a shock. As the trio proceeded through and across its frost-coated yard, Linkle regaled the others with a legend from her own world’s history that told of another isolated manor atop another frigid peak. She described it as the home of not just a wholesome yeti couple, but also a certain resident evil, which given the current situation begged the question. “Spooky, hm?” Albedo gave the mansion another once-over. It certainly lacked color and outward signs of life, an austere dwelling of antiquated make where old things once and perhaps still lived, neglected but still a long way from falling to decrepitude. He could find no more traditionally off-putting spectacles like the hanging dolls in the deadwood grove, although now that he looked he could see smoke rising from the chimney to spiral up into the gray-white heavens, a dark stream leading to a turbulent sea. “I suppose it does have that sort of feel about it,” he admitted, picturing skeletal hands pulling back those second-floor curtains to leer down at the new arrivals with vacant sockets. “The evidence would suggest that there is nothing in store for us but Treat, however, and phantoms seem to be the least of her concerns.”

After everyone got their gifts ready, the Skullgirl rapped her knuckles against the mansion’s door, loud and clear. Albedo stood back, present in hand, to give the more genial and welcoming members of his party the spotlight. Given Linkle’s track record and Frisk’s irrepressibly amiable attitude, he saw no reason to believe that they would encounter any trouble showing the wolfgirl that they meant no harm, or even brightening her day, for that matter. In a way the alchemist almost felt guilty; despite being neither a physical or psychological oddity, poor Treat lived alone, and unwanted, unnoticed save for the rabbit-folk whose perennial intolerance evidently brought her constant misery, while he found himself with more undeserved kindness and companionship than he knew what to do with. The affection and care she showed for his corgi stood as all the proof Albedo needed of Treat’s compassionate nature, hidden away like the rest of her beneath the invisibility cloak of introversion. Even if he couldn’t repay the people around him for the consideration given to him, he could pay it forward by helping out this lonely wolf as much as humanly possible.

By Albedo’s calculations, Treat couldn’t have been back for long. She moved quickly, with fear lending wings to her feet, but her pursuers, powered by righteous conviction, followed nearly as fast. The alchemist only hoped that the wolfgirl didn’t conceive of the situation as a chase, hole herself up in her house, and pretend not to hear Linkle’s knocks. The thought of the so-called ‘predator’ fleeing and hiding in fear from her supposed ‘prey’ struck Albedo as exceedingly ironic. Before long, however, his posse’s patience was rewarded. Just a few moments passed before there came the muffled sound of footsteps headed for the front door. A click came from the lock, and with tentative slowness the door slid open for Treat’s face to poke through. When she found Linkle and Frisk with big presents and bigger smiles, her look of trepidation turned to confusion. “H-huh? What do you want?”

The newcomers did not mince words making their intentions clear, doing their best to reassure the flighty wolf that, beyond the shadow of a doubt, they bore her no ill intentions. As they spoke they offered their gifts, which she dumbly accepted as she stood in the threshold lacking any idea of how to deal with the situation. Nevertheless, she did not run away, but listened to her visitors talk. A little explanation, as well as the affirmation of the more familiar faces among the three, sufficed to explain that Linkle just happened to be a newcomer with rabbit ears rather than a member of the reproachable local population. The double offer of presents from beneath Snowdin’s Christmas tree sealed the deal, and when Treat realized her mistake she turned red from embarrassment. “Gahh, I’m so sorry!” she moaned, burying her face in her hands. “I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions. Judging you ‘cause you’re a rabbit...well, I’m no better than the others judging me for who I am.”

Of course, that prompted another round of consolation, with even Albedo joining in. “Please, think nothing of it,” he told her. “And if I may, don’t think yourself akin to your persecutors. While it would seem that their unprompted animosity has conditioned you toward self-preservation, you have done nobody any harm. The same cannot, however, be said for them.” He waved his hand as if to dismiss the thought of rabbits from her mind. “But there’s no need to worry. We did not come here to make you feel bad, but to try to make you feel better. Maybe you would like to open your presents?”

Treat sniffed, the words of her visitors making her eyes glisten. “Yes, yes,” she mumbled before clearing her throat. After wiping her eyes, she pushed back through the door. “Come in, this way.”

She led the way through the [url=https://i.imgur.com/pT3IN9B.png]house[/url], rather nice despite the dolls scattered around and a singular, rather ghastly portrait, but surprisingly cold. In terms of temperature, Albedo could discern no meaningful difference between the interior and the brisk, winter-gripped mountain outside. After closing the door behind them, Treat brought her visitors through the parlor and into the living room on the opposite side, where a single [url=https://i.imgur.com/ACuA2ms.png]fireplace[/url] smouldered with flame. Being the only source of light and heat in the whole place it naturally drew the eye, and on its mantle Albedo found a plaque whose inscription read [i]Little Inferno Entertainment Fireplace[/i], as well as the logo of a company called Tomorrow Corporation. In front of it lay a big sleeping bag covered in patches, stuffed with pillows and blankets like an over-filled burrito. A cookpot sat beside the fire alongside a spitroast, with a small stack of plates and utensils nearby, and on the other side stood a handful of cardboard boxes also from Tomorrow Corporation. Albedo took in the whole scene with a solemn expression. All of a sudden it made sense as to why a disheveled, depressed wolfgirl might be possessed of such a fancy mansion with such striking decor both inside and out. She didn’t so much as live in it, let alone own it, as just camp inside of it--she amounted to no more than a hermit, or even less elegantly put a squatter, a spurned girl in a spurned place. And yet, she didn’t seem to have cannibalized the place, turning anything and everything to her own well-being. Instead it looked as though she’d tried to take care of it, as much as she could. The realization made the alchemist look at her in a new light.

“Um, just a, just a moment…” Treat put down the gifts, then went to open one of the boxes. Unable to suppress the urge to peer in, Albedo risked a peek and discovered a wealth of janky-looking toys inside. Treat took a couple and tossed them in the fireplace, where they immediately caught fire and blazed with sudden vigor. “There,” Treat sighed, sitting down by the fire with her legs crossed. She stared at her guests, still uncomfortable, and waved awkwardly at the couches. “Uh, y-you know, sit anywhere. Best by the fire, though. I’m, um, well, sorry about...this place. Could be better. Could be worse, I mean, yeah…” She trailed off, staring at the floor.

Albedo sat against one couch, not too far from the fire. “Thank you for inviting us in. I think you’ve done well for yourself,” he remarked. “My camp in Dragonspine is far colder and more meager, all things considered.”

The statement took Treat by surprise. “O-oh, really?” She pulled one hand away from the fire to scratch at her neck. “Well, if you’re still cold, I have more fuel for the fire.” As the group watched, one of the toys in the fire burned out, but from its charred corpse sprang a handful of yellow coins. Treat collected them all and added them to a small pile next to a Little Inferno catalogue. Albedo’s endeavor to connect the dots left him wondering how a company that put enough money to buy its products inside its products stayed in business, but if this bizarre perpetual system meant that Treat could stay warm, he decided not to question it.

Once she warmed her fingers up, Treat commenced the opening of her presents. She handled them gingerly, almost reverently, as if she couldn’t believe they were really hers. From the Kreidprinz’ gift she exhumed a tasty-looking [url=https://i.imgur.com/QsAZSB4.png]fun snack set[/url], within the Skullgirl’s she discovered a darkly beautiful [url=https://i.imgur.com/TLbyhQJ.png]Black Shawl[/url], and inside the Fallen Child’s offering she found the quintessential [url=https://i.imgur.com/P8Vy1Hw.png]Bonk Helm[/url] along with a pack of [url=https://i.imgur.com/JNdJNaw.png]Nuka Cola[/url] to use it with. The sight of it made Albedo’s brows rise. “An article of headgear that dispenses drink? How clever.” Unable to tell if the presents were good or not, he watched Treat’s expression warily.

He needn’t have worried, however. “I...I don’t know why you’re being so nice to me, and...and I don't know what to say,” Treat sniffed, her eyes watery again. This time, it looked as though the floodgates might burst at any second. “But...thank you, thank all of you! I d-didn’t think that, that anyone cared. It’s been so long since...since I’ve felt this happy!” Despite her best attempts to staunch the flow, puffy-cheeked, she broke out into a fit of ugly crying. Albedo looked on, not quite sure how to respond. Was what the newcomers did really that impactful? Anyone could take a gift from under the tree and pass it on, after all. Just how lonely was this girl?!