@Grandmaster | Audio

[paletteswap]

[Kuai has been here for over half a year and has never made a network post. The fact that this technophobe is using his tablet for something other than Sudoku is already pretty alarming. And then...]

Rosinante, General Hughes, and I went searching for the downtown area some had seen in their dreams, following the map that was created. We found it, but we found something else as well.

[Faint in the background is music, it sounds like they might be being pursued by a marching band. There's also hooting, hollering and sounds of general shenanigans in the distance.]

There is a group of forest spirits in some sort of a parade. They are heading towards town. We are trying to get back ahead of them, but if we do not, something is wrong about this. There's a sense of ... wanting to follow them.

Stay wary.

Comments

@mollymauk; voice

[mollymocked]

But it sounds so delightful.

[Sarcastic tiefling is sarcastic.]

[paletteswap]

Perhaps you can join them then.

[He is in no mood.]

[mollymocked]

[No one is ever really in the mood for Molly.]

Tempting. Are you absolutely sure they're dangerous? I mean if they want you to follow them and they're headed here, then wouldn't that mean they're leading you back home? Am I getting this right?

[paletteswap]

I'm not sure of their intentions, but we thought it wise to warn others should it be dangerous.

And nearly everything here has proven to be somewhat malicious.

[So far the post master general and the librarian seem to be benign, but they might be the only ones.]

[mollymocked]

I tend to operate under the assumption that you trust things where you can and don't trust them where you can't. Otherwise you're just gonna be miserable and paranoid and it's just awful.

[paletteswap]

Being paranoid keeps people alive. There's nothing wrong with planning ahead should the worst arise.

[mollymocked]

No, but it's definitely a joy-killer.

[paletteswap]

What would you prefer?

[mollymocked]

Cautious optimism and making the most of the situation, instead of expecting it all to go to shit within seconds.

[paletteswap]

I am all for that outlook.

[Heavy on the caution]

Though expecting the worst does have the perk of keeping one pleasantly surprised when things work out well. Or so I've been told by someone far more pessimistic than me. I'm usually the optimistic one, but this place is affecting me. So far there has not been much to be optimistic about.

[mollymocked]

It is more encouraging to expect nothing and then come to find things just... sorting themselves out somehow.

But I died to get here, and if that means not making my afterlife a cesspool of unhappiness, then I suppose I'll just have to be cautiously optimistic and accept that whatever happens probably doesn't matter all that much. What are we really going to do about it? I don't know the first thing about how to fight world-eating gods, and that's about where we're headed.

[paletteswap]

Things have sorted themselves out thus far, so you're not wrong. And I'm hopeful it will continue. We can make it happen.

Gods themselves I've fought before. But this.. I fear we're all going to get a first-hand education on how to fight world-eating monsters.

[mollymocked]

Well, I hope you plan on showing us the secret to fighting gods, because the worst thing I've fought against was an undead necromancer and a spinning death ball.

[paletteswap]

I'll try and distill decades of training into a few short lessons.

[He's joking, not that it really sounds like it.]

Spinning death ball?

[mollymocked]

It was sort of ball-shaped. And it spun. And it had blades.

Spinning death ball seemed appropriate. It was technically an automaton.

[paletteswap]

A robot?

Did you defeat it?

[Or is that why you're here dead? Because if so he may have to rethink this training regimen.]

[mollymocked]

Stuck one of my swords all the way through it.

[paletteswap]

Where I'm from, that does not necessarily mean it's defeated.

[mollymocked]

What about ripping its mechanical heart out? Does that usually mean it's defeated?

[paletteswap]

I prefer spines, but I appreciate the thoroughness.

It sounds like you're well on your way to being able to fight gods as is. What makes you think you're unprepared?

[mollymocked]

[He's level 5, Kuai.]

I got killed trying to save my friends from a bunch of slavers.

[What he doesn't say: I knocked myself out and then got myself killed trying to save my friends from a bunch of slavers.] I'm a very confident person, but that was a bit of a blow. And I'm not too proud to admit I'm a bit squishy.

[paletteswap]

[Everyone starts somewhere. The smallest stone can change the course of a river and other such uplifting aphorisms. He's full of them!]

You don't need to be on the frontlines to be effective.

But I see your point. Unfortunately there's no real training to be done to fight a god when we don't yet know its power nor its fighting strategy.

[Other than eating all the light.]

[mollymocked]

Might need to interrogate Robin about that at some point. She seems like she's the expert.

[paletteswap]

Assuming she tells us the truth.

It's also hard to interrogate someone via phone calls.

[mollymocked]

It's not like we have any other options.