[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/3X6doyS.png[/img][/center]

Light shone down on a grassy moor as a herd of goats voraciously mowed through it, little worn bells on strings around their necks chiming as they ate. The air was warm, the air clean, the land around them coated with life. In the distance a river could be heard running. There were humans here too. Some hacked at a nearby thicket with axes, felling the trees for firewood and tool making. A small troupe walked their way towards the sound of running water, hauling barrels. Others moved around the goats, hacking at the long untouched grass, using swords as scythes and tying bundles of the healthy plants together for transport. Scattered around them several more humans sat astride hulking horses which had feathered hooves, the manes of lions and great horns that would shame the noblest rhino. The riders had recurved composite bows held at the ready and their eyes were ever vigilant as they watched the idyllic landscape for anything that moved.

[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/yMeUNpN.jpg[/img][/center]

Above, dozens of spotlights shone down from an iron sky, illuminating the landscape and the great glowing portal that had let the humans and their animals in.

Not every portal was a monster box, ready to spew out horrors. Certainly a lot of them were, and those ones were a lot more obvious than the rest as they vomited their chaotic children into the world, but if you know what to look for there was opportunity to be found. Some lead to worlds that were simply strange and nonsensical. Lands of brass walls and clicking machines, endless hedge mazes, a palace where things fell up into the sky, tiny worlds made of a path that could be ridden around in a few minutes. Others, however, were sane. Normal. Useful. 

Ish.

The nomads had learned quickly that nothing in these worlds could be trusted. But what other option was there? Their home was a barren wasteland slowly crumbling into nothing. The portals held the only usable land that could be found in the world, a bit temporarily.

So now, just as they had driven their herds from grassy plain to grassy plain when such things still survived, now they drove them from gateway to gateway. Those that had survived anyway. The goats' ability to eat almost anything had let them live where other beasts had slowly faded and to be slaughtered. Their otherworldly mounts had the same advantage, not only being able to consume practically anything seemingly they could feed off of magic itself, storing it inside rainbow hues half seen in the depths of their pale hair. They were suspiciously easy to tame too, if you were kind to them. But as the saying went, you don't look a gift horse in the mouth, especially when that horse felt like it could stare into your soul with its blind yet seeing eyes and you had to eat your old horse because it died of starvation.

The humans gathering the long grass and bundling it up were doing so so that it could be hauled back to the other side to feed their animals while they sought out the next gate. Those chopping up trees were doing so at a breakneck pace, hacking down only the best and easiest to haul wood so it could be taken home. The same went for the water bearers, filling their barrels and rolling them back to the gate quick as they could. Those were the safe jobs. Less safe was standing guard, done by the thin line of mounted archers, their eyes watching for anything that moved or seemed out of the ordinary, ready to stick an arrow into it if they could, or to warn the others and act as bait to transport to get the dismounted nomads back out of the gate.

Just because the moisteners hadn’t spewed out of the gate didn't mean there weren't any out there. 

The most dangerous job, the one done only by foolish and daring volunteers, was going out there to find more valuable things beyond short reach of the gate. Water was key. Rivers were rarely close and needed to be found first and foremost, as they had done here.  Raw metals or, rarely, strange artifacts were also highly prized, but ultimately non essential. Fruits, vegetables, game and other extra food that could be found was far more important.

Of course, in a strange and foreign world, who could tell what was and wasn't edible.

“Delicious fruit or deadly poison?” Vardan, an expert in these things as far as their tribe had experts in things everyone needs to know to avoid being turned into a fruit bat by the fruit they found, asked as he poked the bulbous spiny thing hanging from a tree with his profession’s now ubiquitous six foot long pole. 

“It looks like a fruit to me” the youth, Jayce, who was accompanying him on one of these trips for the first time, commented. The pair were far out form the portal, the furthest anyone had gone, and they’d been out here alone for quite some time. So far everything had seemed safe, so the youth was growing a little impatient with their teacher’s supreme caution.

“You’d think that, but bright colors can either mean, ‘come eat me I’m tasty and have seeds in me’, or ‘don't eat I’ll kill you and I’m going to flaunt that fact by not bothering to hide’”

“How does poking it with the stick help find that out?” the youth asked

“Well it helps us find out if it explodes. Or rots things just by being nearby then. Or melts stuff that touches it. Or is aggressive” he explained, giving it another jab

“Aggressive?”

“Oh yes. Saw a fruit almost like this one a few layers back. Poked it with a stick and then it tried to eat the stick. Took a dozen arrows to take down that fruit and it nearly got Ardash in the process. Was pretty delicious though” with one final poke the man was satisfied. They’d already done the same with the tree and the ground around it, but even still he gave the grass a few more whacks with the stick as he carefully approached. You never could tell with these things, it could still be a trap. 

Then, after giving the tree a few pokes too, he carefully climbed up and gave the fruit a sniff, then, carefully, touched the back of his and to it. After several more tests, including chucking one away from them in case they exploded or worse when agitated and then splitting one open to make sure the insides were not dangerous in other ways, he started cutting some down and dropping them for Jayce to collect.

“These smell delicious. They’re safe right?”

“We’ll need to test them further. Feed them to a beast last of all, before we eat them ourselves.”

The youth groaned 

“this is how it is, Jayce. There was one tuber that passed all the tests and then the goat that ate it inside out remember?”

The youth looked sick at the memory and, conveniently, had their appetite ruined so they wouldn't be tempted by the fruit as they gathered it up in a sack. Once the last fruit fell and Vardan dropped down with it, quick as can be.

“You're doing good kid,” he said, clapping Jayce on the shoulder as they hefted the sack. “Now, lets have one last look around before heading back to test those. I’m thinking-” the man’s thoughtful scanning of the woods looking for a way to go was interrupted by a loud long sound. The sound of a horn.  

“Shit” he cursed, before telling Jayce that “we move to move. Stat”

The youth did not need telling, or asking questions. The horn signals were drilled into everyone, the one that was sounding now most of all.

Together they hurried to where their mounts had been tied up, the pair of great equines had been grazing at the grass (the first thing they’d tested) but they too had learned that the sound of the horn meant it was time to move (they were too damn smart). With the ease of people who had been born in the saddle the pair mounted up and took off at speed and a short time later came bursting from the woods and into the plains separating them from the portal. A portal who’s edges were fraying and distorting.

It was about to collapse.

Ahead of them goats where benign quickly shooed through the portal as people dropped whatever they had collected. The nearby harvesters had already made it clear, or so it seemed and as they approached they could see the water bearers carrying either empty barrels or nothing as they too made it to the other side.

“Damn it. Why was it so late!” Vardan shouted angrily. There was hardly any time left, but there should also have been a fair warning that the gate was growing unstable that hadn't been given this time. “If we don’t get trapped here forever I am going to skin whoever was supposed to be watching the portal!”

Far ahead of them the last of the herd made it through. All except for two. Baying and bleating a bell-less buckling looked to have had its hoof trapped by something, and its mother was staying by its side, trying to uge it to pull it free to no avail. Without hesitation or thought, Jayce swung towards it 

“Damn it kid no leave it!” 

The youth slowed to grab the young goat by the horn, trying to haul it free. The beast flinched away but though their own might and the strength of their mount Jayce managed to pull it lose from the spot it was stuck at. Even then however it seemed to be unwilling to move, continuing to stay in place and bleat rather than run for the exit on its own or follow its mother there. 

“Move you wretch!” Vardan demanded of the beast as he rode up and then smacked its rear with the end of his pole. The creature started forwards and, working together the youth and the man herded the goat towards the portal as its mother ran ahead. 

The gateway rippled, light and magic sputtering off of its edges. 

“Damn goat, we aren't going to make it!”

Then a blue glow wrapped itself around the edges of the gate, stabilizing it for a moment. It was all the time they needed as they ran through the gateway. Vardan sighed with relief and then prepared to yell out to the people he could see gathered at their camp, which was pitched a safe distance front he gateway, but his words died in his throat when his eyes took in the land he’d left behind only a few days ago to go explore the wilds of the Layer. 

It was as if they’d rode back into an entirely different world. A light flashed across the sky, illuminating the world for the first time in an age. When it vanished a moment later behind a nearby mountain range  dozens of smaller lights could be seen high up in a clearer sky and a great moon was setting, training a rainbow of colors in its wake. Storms arched across the land and rivers flowed from a mountain far away.

Oh also a mindbogglingly colossal eight sided shape coated in an ethereal glow was just sitting there in the air between them and their tribe's camp. Not only that it was looking down at the pair as they emerged from the gateway with a glowing unblinking eye. Verdan entirely understood why the horn had been late because who could remember their duties when faced with. Well. This.

[color=LightSteelBlue]”Hello there, you are Vardan and Jayce are you not?”[/color] the giant thing asked politely, somehow talking to them as if it was another person standing within casual conversing distance despite being both distant and titanic. 

“I... Yes?” Verdan replied after a moment's hesitation. When a titan asked you a question you answered

[color=LightSteelBlue]”Good”[/color] 

The blue light holding the portal’s increasingly angry edges vanished, and the gateway snapped shut behind them in a thunderclap, making both humans and the four animals who had been the last that needed to leave it startle away from the considerably more violent than usual death of the Layer. Whatever method the thing had used to keep it open, the layer had not been happy with it one bit.

[color=LightSteelBlue]”Interesting”[/color] the thing said as it observed this fact.

“Who. What are you?” Vardan asked, still dumbfounded as to what was happening 

“Did you just save us?” Jayce asked as well, the youth somehow handling this a lot better than the man. 

[color=LightSteelBlue]”Hmm. Oh, yes, I suppose I did, but your own system of getting everyone out on time was disrupted by my arrival, so you do not owe me for this. Turns out I am rather distracting even when i am simply attempting to observe people and tell them to ignore me. As for what I am, I’m just an explorer who’s interested in learning about everything that exists in this world. Like that beast you have there. What's that?”[/color] 

The machine shone a spotlight within its spotlight upon the young goat they’d rescued. Vardan explained as much in a confused tone “It’s.. It's just a goat?”

[color=LightSteelBlue]”It is? But it’s so much more dense than the others. How odd”[/color] the thing said as it continued to examine the buckling

The pair looked at the creature with confusion, which seemed to be getting very agitated from all the attention, before Jayce slowly pointed out that “Vardan…  why doesn't have a bell?”

Vardan flinched away and the instant he did, the goat erupted into a mass of flesh and hooks and tendrils all lashing out at everything around it. The man’s response got his mount to move just in time to get away, so the thing that had been pretending to be a goat went for Jace instead, only to receive a blow from Vardan’s six foot long pole for the second time, giving Jace the seconds they needed to escape. Both humans were carried away by their mounts, who knew a bad time when they saw one and needed no prompting, so the beast turned on its confused “mother”, wrapping her in meat and devouring the goat in an instant, making the beast’s flesh its own. Then it extruded half a dozen spidery limbs from its disgusting mass and started to chase after them.

Arrows sprouted in’s form as both humans drew their bows and fired from atop their steeds. Yet still it came on. Then half a dozen more arrows struck it, as riders front he camp raced forwards to aid their kin. They reached Vardan and Jayce and then about turned, all of them riding backwards while peppering the abomination with arrow fire  Volley after volley fell upon the monster until it collapsed.  

The other rider’s cheered while the two explorers caught their breath after their near death experience. 

“Close one there Vardan” one of the riders said, slapping him on the shoulder “guess even you aren't cautious enough sometimes”

“We need to make sure it's dead,” he replied. Though it had been a close call this at least made sense where the benign titan in the sky did not.

[color=LightSteelBlue]”It isn’t”[/color] the floating thing that had done nothing, told him.

“Fuck. ok. Get some firewood and-” Vardan began to instruct the others, but was interrupted by Jayce yelling “Why didn't you help!” up at their observer.

[color=LightSteelBlue]”I was not asked too.”[/color] it replied simply, as if that was obvious

“It was trying to kill us!” the youth pointed out

[color=LightSteelBlue]”and now you will kill it. You shouldn't though... It’s the only of its kind in this realm now. It would be a shame to destroy something so unique,”[/color] it suggested

“What. No! It eats people!”

[color=LightSteelBlue]”Well I assume it needs to do so to live, just as you kill these ‘goats'  and eat them to live, apparently. What makes your killing for sustenance right right and it's wrong? Why does your life have more value than its?”[/color] it replied, not sounding particularity invested in the argument but making it none the less

Despite the thing's nonchalant tone it was a terrifying question coming from the titan. Wracked by dread, Verdan and the other riders found they could not answer. For young Jayce however, it was a simple on. 

“Because we’re people!”

There was a long and dreadful silence, and then the titanic floating shame said simply [color=LightSteelBlue]”fair enough”[/color] and in an instant the monster, along with several meters of ground surrounding it, was ripped to shreds by an invisible force and the raw materials drawn up in a spiral towards the machine.

First holding open the portal, then seeing a hidden danger effortlessly and now the ability to simply undo parts of the world in the blink of an eye. It was all too much for the Vardan.

“What are you! What do you want!” he demanded

[color=LightSteelBlue]”As I said. I am an explorer. The Explorer. I seek to find, study and catalog all that there is. You, or rather this tribe, are very interesting so far, so I think I shall observe you further“[/color] 

And what a terrible thing that was.

[hider=summary]
We start by observing a nomadic tribe of goat herders who ride suspiciously smart unicorns. They have entered a layer via a gateway and are in the process of gathering resources from a land that's mostly normal apart from the fact that it has a metal roof with lamps hanging from it. They collect firewood and water while their animals graze on the layer’s nutritious grass.

Next we meet Vardan, a scout, and a youth named Jayce who is accompanying him as he explores the world, seeking out other sources of food or resources.. We watch as he very carefully examines a fruit, getting an understanding of just how cautious you need to be while exploring a layer for the first time from his rigorous testing of it. Then, just after they have harvested some of the probably safe fruits a horn sounds, warning them that the gate is growing unstable and it is time to leave

They rush towards the exit, and see that it is much more unstable than it should be so soon after the warning, but are slowed as they rescue a mother goat and her trapped child. As they then approach the gate with goats in tow it looks set to collapse, only for Exo to hold it open for them without them knowing.

The pair of humans escape, see that all the shit the gods have been up to now exists which it didn't a few days ago when they entered the rift. Then they see Exo, who notes that they have escaped and then stops holding the portal open. The god tells them that it was to blame for the warning being late and that it held the gate open to compensate.

Then it asks why the gout they saved is weird. The goat freaks out at the attention, reveals it to be a meaty shapeshifter and tries to kill everyone around it, failing to eat the humans or their mounts, but devouring the goat that thought it was its mother. Then it chases the humans, who in a time honored nomad tradition shoot arrows at it while riding in the opposite direction. Then the rest of the tribe’s archers show up and join in. skirmishing proves to be as effective as always and eventually the monster is killed by the dozens and dozens of arrows they’ve put into it.

Or so they think. Exo informs them that is only playing dead. Vardan starts to plan to destroy it for good, but is interrupted when Jayce askes exo why they didn't help. Exo replies that it wasn't asked to. Then it asks that they don't kill the monster because it is unique. The humans think it should die trying to eat them. Exo asks why that’s so different from them eating the goats and why they have more value than the monster. The adults are mortified by the question, but Jayce’s answer is simple.

They are people

After a moment Exo accepts this simple truth and then uses its reclaim tool to destroy (or rather dismantle and analyze)  the monster, along with a large amount of ground around it.

Shocked by yet another display of power, Vardan asked what it wasn't from them all, to which Exo replies it finds them interesting and wants to observe them some more.

Coming from a giant floating d8 this is very spooky indeed.

[/hider]