2020-09-19 - The Graphics Are So Realistic

The ways of sinking into Dreams are mysterious and strange. However they end up here, whether they were playing the game at the time or not, the trio find themselves in the middle of a mix of desert and scrub land, under the sparse shade of palm trees. On the horizon looms a city, and towering over the city is a geometric ziggurat.

This all feels...very real, including the heat in the air, the dust, and the weight of clothing and weaponry. It does look familiar, though. It's on the outskirts of Babylon proper. The architecture is based off archaeological evidence rather than bible descriptions, so everything is geometric and square as opposed to a twisting tower that appeared in biblical art.

This is not a safe place. It's hard to say why they think that, but they feel it in their bones. In the game, the city oscillates between being hostile, neutral or friendly depending on which faction holds it.

Alexander was playing the game, because he's got a bum leg at the moment, and playing the game is considerably more interesting than most of the other activities he could get up to on his own, without messing it up further. Not that this has stopped him before, but his leg is throbbing as it heals. He dozes off at the keys for just a moment, and then wakes up...here.

Bright side: he's in a body with dark olive skin, a face concealed by an elaborately painted mask, a lot of leather and knives, and two perfectly working legs. Down side? He recognizes this place, albeit in considerably less lifelike a manner, and he even recognizes the knives in his belt. "Fuck," he says, quietly. Then blends into the shadows as best he can and starts trying to figure out who holds the city at the moment. Idly, he reaches out and tries to either 'log out' or 'bring up his character sheet' by tapping where those icons would be on the screen in the air.

Had she been sleeping? Dozing? Had she been sitting in her studio? Abitha actually was fuzzy on that. Her eyes slowly blink open, the green irises seeming in slow motion as she comes to consciousness of the change, then quickly coming around, snapping in every direction as she starts to take stock of their surroundings. She shifts her stance, feeling the strange weight of the light armor and airy clothes she was wearing. Her eyes snap to the other two, and she looks like she were about to step away, something making her hand cheat toward the spear that was hung over a shoulder, focusing on the masked one that seemed to be trying to sneak away. "What the fuck?"

With both he and Lilith being mostly homebound to prevent themselves from being triggered into believing that she killed him, to kill (haha) time, Byron loads up this infamous game. He'd tried his hand at it a few times earlier, mostly working on his character while taking a peek around, but he didn't have much else to do at the time, so he figured he'd further explore the game world. If anything, Byron does't realizes that he may have dozed off during and simply finds himself here. In the game. It really felt like he was wearing a VR headset while playing without the shitty floating hands.

For the most part, Byron looks exactly like Byron would. Or as close to the man as possible because he could never imagine himself as anyone else. And just like the D&D games of his youth, in his mind, he's portraying playing the Hero of the story. The Good Guy. The Knight in... well, the armor is as close as he's going to get, but it looks regal with the fur trim of his cape and the flowing fabric that adds vibrant color to the metal armor pieces. He's brandishing a sword, however, something that his characters are always used to.

It takes a moment for him gain his bearings. This was the game, but it wasn'... "Shit." In the distance, there's a grand yet unfamiliar landscape. And in his company? Two thieves if you asked him! Yes, he probably believes them to be Rogues, he's a closet nerd in a sense. Anyone, one of those rogues starts to go into hiding, so he'll look over at the other, studying her masked features. "Is this part of the game?"

There are no menus that pop up, no video game interface of any kind. It feels so very real. It's hot under all those layers of clothing. It's heavy. But their bodies also feel strong and used to both of those things.

There's the thunder of hoofbeats from the city gates. There's no actual warning that pops up, but all of them can feel it in their bones. This is the enemy approaching.

Behind them is a small tent, and three mounts lashed to a palm tree.

Alexander freezes when he notices the other two around him. His hands instinctively go to his knives, but their voices are familiar. So is at least one face. He relaxes a little. "Thorne? Miss...um. Mac?" Yes, Alexander just used a nickname. He emerges from the shadows (which weren't hiding him very well anyway), and says, "We got Lost. Maybe playing a little too much?" And then there's the sound of hoofbeats, and his shoulders hunch. "We should find somewhere to go to ground. I think," a glance towards the mounts. "That's my horse." He points to a roan horse built for speed rather than war; it's a mid-tier mount of no particular specialness, although he did go and get the fancy barding for it that has the Babylonian symbol in brillia0nt colors across the breastband.

"Alexander?" Abitha wonders after the halting use of her name, her voice inquisitive. There's a slow trail of Abitha's look from Alexander to Byron, the green eyes visible behind her shroud opening a bit wider, her eyebrow quirking in confusion. Her hand lifts to undo the side of her shroud, the fabric falling from her face so Byron can see the full glory of her blank expression.

"If this were part of the game, they would have been so much more popular." she asserts. She shakes her head and snorts in amusement as she glances around, tying her shroud back into place quickly as the feeling of danger spikes her adrenaline. She spots her War Boar, her grin slowly growing behind her veil, even as the jitteryness of approaching war slides up her spine. She pads up to the big creature, hand lifting to run along one of its decoratively carved tusks, then up under its neck. "How is this happening?" she asks no one in particular under her breath. One hand slides up to the pommel of the leather and green silk saddle. In for a penny, in for a pound. She unties her beast and puts a leg in a stirrup, levering herself up into place. It feels strangely natural, and she unfastens her spear, holding it easily in the crook of her arm as the other takes the reins. "Think we can outrun them?"

If anything, Byron probably purchased himself a horse as regal as his own avatar model. That is if the game comes with micro-transactions. But yes, hearing the sound of hooves fast approaching, he recognizes his mount because it looks as shiny as he does in a decorative sense. Hearing his name being uttered by one of the bandit types, the armored man with the dark beard lifts his brow, "...Clayton? Why am I not surprised." But those who know Byron best might say the same thing about his choice of cosmetics and class. When Alexander addresses the female rogue, his dark gaze settles on her. Hmm, with Abitha, his guess could've gone in any direction, so he can't say that he's entirely surprised by this either.

Going over to pat at his horse's side before he decides to mount, he asks the group as a whole, "Did the killer drag us into this, the way he did with Bennie?" Or was this something else? He may not utter that second question, but it's almost clear that that's what he's thinking. Both he and Alexander had horses, but seeing that wild boar just standing there makes him take pause. That arched browed look once more drifts to Abitha as he settles himself into his seat, reaching for the reigns, "That's... fancy." To her question, however, he looks back of his shoulder, murmuring, "Whether we can or not, we don't have much of a choice I think." But of course, there's choices.

They'd better get moving fast. The approaching squadron is the city guard, who they can tell just by looking at them are no good to mess with. Not just because they look strong but they know there's dozens, perhaps hundreds more where they came from. The PNW Guild's colours are a burn orange. The soldiers that approach have blue as their primary colour, which in-game belongs to the Vancouver/Lower Mainland guild - their biggest rivals.

They also know that their mounts are fast, and that they have a base in the low foothills of the mountains that loom on the horizon.

"Yes," Alexander says, simply to both of them as they use each of his names. Byron gets an exasperated look. "This isn't my fault. These things just happen." He swings himself up into the horse by instinct, and although he's never ridden a real horse in his life, it feels natural. He smiles, and pats the animal's neck. His expression turns grim as he sees the uniforms on the city guard. "...I think we're gonna have to try." A curt nod to Byron's comment, and then he's kicking the horse lightly in its ribs. "Head for the base. Byron, if you haven't played the PvP much, just follow us."

Digging her heels into her boar's flanks with a skill she wasn't quite sure how she had, Abitha kicks the beast into gear, steering the beast toward the base in the distance as she carefully looks over her shoulder. Head on a swivel, that's what you do when you raid or PVP, and she was making sure she was. Her spear was held at the ready, and she tried to stay in formation with the other two. "I'll run interference," she calls above the pounding of hoofs. She wasn't sure if Byron's mount was up to the task of carrying all that armor, so she at least tried to ward off any of the faster guards if they got close. A spear was the perfect deterrent to an overtaking horse, afterall, and hers was made just as much for slashing as stabbing, and as they really got underway, the waving of her skirts made it clear she was not short of knives herself. She wondered how hard she could throw one...

Unlike the other two, Byron didn't have the time to play much because he had an actual job or three. Okay, Abitha sort of is attached to the GHPD. And yes, they were all kind of investigating these murders, so it's not like Alexander wasn't doing anything. Nevertheless, Byron is unfamiliar with the layout of this level, so he will defer to the others who have put in more time into this game. At the moment, his own sword is sheathed, so he can gain better control of his steed.

"How hard can be this be, right?" Byron keeps telling himself, but he's not just playing an avatar who knows how to ride a bloody horse, he was riding a bloody horse! "Let's hope that there's no steep learning curve." Trailing behind Alexander, his voice grows louder as he calls out, "Lead the way!"

The lead riders are gaining on them quickly. The guard captain lashes his horse with a silvery whip that suddenly surgest the animal's speed ahead for a short burst. It's an in-game mechanic and not a specialty item, but it does suck one's magical reserves. It is, however, very good for closing a gap with your quarry. The captain unsheaths her wicked-looking curved sword and holds it low. She's gaining on Byron, now close enoug to swipe at his horse's flank. The first strike misses, but she's well-positioned for another.

There is a line they all know is up ahead. If they pass it, the guards will break off pursuit. Their duty is to protect the city, not chase down enemies. It's pair of statues of Gilgamesh and Enkidu that marks the outskirts of the city.

"Thorne!" Alexander calls out when he sees the captain take a slash at Byron's horse. He nods to Mac, but at the same time, he's already dropping back to cover Byron's flank. He pulls his knives, gripping the horse tightly with his knees - it works in the movies! - and turning to slash, not at the guard captain himself, but at the eyes and face of his horse, hoping to blind or panic the animal and lengthen the lead between the three and the guards.

"Just train them to the zone line!" Abitha shouts as she strafes her mount toward the offending guard captain as well. Difficult or not, PVP experience meant sometimes, you just needed to debuff. Her spear flashes in an arc, attempting to cut at the horse's legs and slow the woman's mount long enough for them to clear into the next area.

In a conflict like this, there's this great temptation to just slow down, draw swords and fight it out. In a video game, not in real life. Yet, this is the first thing going through Byron's mind when he notices the guard captain bursting ahead to nearly catching up with his steed. Turning quickly to shoot a narrow-eyed gaze as the captain takes a swipe at his horse's side, he seethes beneath his breath, Digging his heels in and tugging at the reigns, he urges the horse to go faster.

"Why is her horse that much faster?" He calls out to whoever is closest, Abitha and Alexander, before he murmurs, "Is that part of her Talent set?" There's little time to do anything huge, especially when being chased, so rather than attempt to lash out at his pursuers, he sends out feelers to get a sense on whether he can feel the electricity in the air to tell him whether their powers worked here or not.

When any of them feel for their Glimmer abilities, they find a well of magic instead - one appropriate to their class and build, and similar in strength. Byron can do something, but it doesn't feel like electricity. It does however, feel like it will be offensive.

The strikes to the poor horse land true. The creature rears in pain, but the guard captain keeps her seat. But she does fall behind, and is forced to dismount as her horse keels over. The other guards are slowing now as the trio makes it closer to the gate. They seem satisfied that they've run the intruders off.

"It's a mount-based power. Just whip the horse and you should trigger it. It depletes your mana, though," Alexander offers, helpfully. He gives a nod of satisfaction as the captain and guards fall back, and checks Byron over briefly for injury before urging his horse forward, again. "I don't like to run away in these things," he tells Abitha, "but in this case, I don't think the three of us can take on the entire fucking Vancouver alliance - or whatever horrible Dream version of them exists. But there's probably something that we're supposed to do. Or endure. Before it'll let us go back home."

"I'm gonna grief their officers so bad on principal for this, Dream or not." Abitha calls over the tumult of their passage, the spear coming back to rest in the crook of her arm as she looks backward toward the slowing masses. She gives them the finger just for good measure, then turns her eyes forward again. "Pretty sure it's not too far up one of the mounted combat trees if you wanted it." she adds across to Byron. Now they were relatively safe and she had time to think, she starts digging around her pouches and bags, taking stock of her inventory, seeing if there were any consumables or key items that stood out, maybe a quest journal? You never knew how these things would manifest.

No, Byron's not getting the same sense that he would when gauging the world around him with his glimmer powers, but he does feel something within him. Mana? "This is not a damned game." He mutters once more, despite the things that Alexander and Abitha tell him. ESPECIALLY, what Abitha tells him of this mounted combat skill tree. It feels crazy, but his eyes scan the world around him, looking into the sky, then towards the ground. Nothing. No GUI. No anything. "I kinda have a feeling that I won't be able to pull up this skill tree to further advance."

Now that they've distanced themselves a great deal from their pursuers, he's just as curious as Abitha is to look through his own belongings. It's one of the first things you do in a game! Check out your gear. "My powers don't work here. Not the ones I'm used to anyway. But I get a sense of something else. Do you know what your class does?" He just assumes they have the same base power with MAYBE a branching class skill tree.

Abitha finds that she has a small satchel on her waist. But when she reaches into it, it seems considerably deeper than it looks. She can think about which item she wants and it finds its way to her hand. Each of them have a similar one that matches the scheme of their clothing. A scroll does find its way into her hand, that shows a list of gods that have been appeased and ones still to pay tribute to. It's written in cuneiform, but she can read it. The next name on the list is not a god, but a mercenary named Nin-Ridu, the Quencher - wanted for beheading travellers.

They ride past the gate and into the desert. Their mounts know instinctively where to go. Unless they specifically change their route, they're headed towards their camp in the foothills. It really is breathtaking, and yes, so very, very realistic.

"I'm a Scout," Alexander says. "Heavy on the stealth and movement trees - skirmisher DPS, melee, but I have a couple of cool flash step powers that let me engage and disengage quickly. And I have death sheep." He says that last completely deadpan. His eyes scan the horizon as the horses make their way towards the camp. He reaches down to his own pouch - Alexander is not a hoarder when it comes to items, so he uses a lot of his consumables as soon as they're relevant. NOT the guy who reaches end game with every Elixir he ever picked up - and just checks to make sure everything there is what he remembers. He looks sidelong to Abitha. "You've got the quest log? What's our mission?"

Abitha seems far too entertained with this absolutely impossible bag, "I dunno, man," she says, grinning wildly as she slides her entire bare arm up the the shoulder into the bag and still finding no bottom, but coming up with the scroll at the same time. "Seems pretty much like a game." Famous last words. How was she able to read this gibberish? Was this what being a polyglot was? So weird. "I guess we gotta complete the next sacrifice? It's weird, it's a dude's name?" She tugs on her reins slightly to sidle next to Alexander's mount, but otherwise, lets it run the flight-path. She leans out of her saddle to hand the scroll across to him.

"I'm basically a Scout too, just further down the Assassination tree." She explains to Byron, "Big Deeps for PVP. I gave up a lot of the movement stuff for burst damage and some debuffs." Because if she didn't one-shot her opponent, she didn't give them a chance to run...

Byron's played a Paladin in table top for years now, but that was a long time ago when he was still a kid. His mind goes back to the various spells and abilities for the classes that he's familiar with, mostly those that his friends often played. While this particular game may not use D&D rules and skills exactly, he expects there to be something similar because games just copy one another. And no, Byron's not going to inquire about this death sheep, he just nods the way that you do sometimes even when you have no idea what the other guy said.

As a player, Byron normally would tend to hoard, before he realizes that he's carrying too much and just sells most of the things to accumulate more stuff again later. Though seeing Abitha fish around her sack and find something of use, his gaze looks to Alexander and then back at the other scout. "Complete the next sacrifice? Great." Looking ahead of them as his horse moves along, knowing which path to take, he asks, "So are we the good guys or the bad guys? The people of the town, are they protecting themselves from us?"

When Alexander touches the name, the scroll's writing changes. Nin-Ridu has a bounty on him, and he's not a god. He's a rogue temple priest who has been talking to travellers in the guise of heping them navigate, only to sacrifice them to grow his own power. The scroll tells of a hideout in the same hills as their own. A little too close for comfort, in fact.

In the main game, blood sacrifices stain players in the way others can see and sense, making it harder to purchase items and even barring access from entire towns. It also opens up a path to some pretty freaky abilities. The player community calls it 'going Sith' for obvious reasons. There is no comparable mechanic in the PvP version, but that's because ganking others is pretty much the point of the whole thing, and the Project: Dress Rehearsal quests, though they do involve sacrifices, do not (as of yet) taint the player.

All this to say, Nin-Ridu would be considered a villain to all the different factions in the game for his perverting the gods' will.

"We're the good guys," Alexander asserts with something like confidence. "We're just good guys who stab people a lot. It's a nuanced definition of good." He flashes a grin at Byron - not that they're likely to see it under his mask, but the smile is in his voice. He looks over when Renata moves in closer to inspect the scroll she shows him, taking it carefully. His eyebrows go up. "Okay, he's got a bounty on him. So, free rein for us to stab him." A pause. "...the Quencher. Byron, didn't Bennie say something about a Quencher in the dream she got sucked into?"

Abitha's responses go a bit nonverbal in enhancement... or detraction of Alexander's words. 'Good guys' gets an, 'Ehhhhh' and a wobble of a flat-planed hand. The free rein to stab gets a wide grin and a thumbs-up. The grin was only seen in her eyes, of course, because she was also masked. "It's like any RPG. Don't shit where you eat." Her eyes then track over to Byron at the question about the Quencher, because she thought she remembered that as well. She reaches into her bag and wills out a map, trying to find the best path toward the quest objective.

She tries making her boar jump while still en route, just because if this was an MMO, you always slapped space bar idly.

Byron only takes a brief glimpse over at the scroll once it reaches Alexander's hands. "What's the guy's name?" Maybe he didn't catch that part. And does he believe Alexander when the detective calls them the good guys? If anything, there's a lift of his brow, taking note of Abitha's reluctance to hop into that boat. "Alrighty then. I'm glad that we're on the same page. Look, normally in games, you play the good guys. Unless they allow for a change in alignment, some have gone that route."

As for this Quencher, he recalls it being mentioned once or twice during their last meeting. "Uh... I wasn't sure if the Quencher was this god that the killer is sacrificing to, but he's making sacrifices to him to save us. Those with the light."

There is indeed a map, that shows that if they veer to the west, towards a river with cave systems dotted along the hillside, they'll find a place that the Quencher is reported to hide. That is also an area they all instinctively know is hostile, with Dune-like sandworms that can appear out of nowhere, packs of wild dogs, and hostile spirits that feed on magic. Not to mention raiders and bandits, and assassins and mercenaries sent by enemy factions. East, their hideout. West, quest objective.

And yes, Abitha gets her boar to do a little rodeo bull buck movement. It squeals while it does it. Yee-hog.

Alexander laughs out loud at the sight of Abitha's boar yee-hogging. To Byron, he says, "It's Nin-Ridu. A corrupt temple priest." He gives Abitha a sidelong good. "We're at least good-ish," he mutters, with a frown. "We can be good." He's certain of that. CERTAIN. But he does after a moment reluctantly admit, "We could try to appease this guy instead of fight him. If we wanted. We could bring him a sacrifice, pretend to sign on to his crusade. People who think they're touched by God always want to talk about it," he adds, his head dropping a little.

After considering the map, it becomes clear: objective, or safety and possible backup. Abitha looks to the other two and points her spear, then veers her mount toward the west, trundling off the beaten path and toward their objective. Momma didn't raise no bitch. She thinks while she guides. While it's true they were without their normal powers, the rogue-like Scouts generally got practice learning the aggro ranges of NPCs and mobs. She tries to at least stick to what she remembers, making a winding path if needed, keeping an eye out, but also digging in her bag to see if she was carrying any item that could be considered something that would deaggro mobs, like a Pokemon Repel or something. "I dunno. In game, we know he's scum. But this is a Dream, it could be a trick? I dunno, They usually want us to fuck shit up."

"Right. Bella was saying Nin-Ridu will save us all. Or something along those lines after what she'd read on Bennie." Byron recalls that much. "So let's get this over with." However, when Alexander mentions appeasing the guy rather than fight him, Thorne isn't so sure about that, but he nods slowly (again) anyway. "If he's a really bad guy, a corrupt temple priest, Clayton, I don't think your alignment will change to Evil if you kill him." Figuring maybe that's what Alexander is worried about! "But it seems that you play more than I do, so you might know better. I'll defer to the both of you."

As they veer from the path to their hideout towards the Quencher's location, there's a feeling of dread and a lack of safety that prickles the backs of their necks. In this Dream, it manifests as a feeling. In the game, this is where an area would be marked red on the map and very clearly a spot where the danger goes up considerably.

Their first obstacle is a pack of wolves that stalk them before surging out of the hills to snap at their mounts and try to unseat them. And then, the ground rumbles and opens up to show the coiling body of a massive sandsnake. This they have to fight before they can get anywhere, as the thing is so massive it blocks their path. Survive all that, then they're forced to dismount at the base of a mountain path.

Up ahead on a spike is a severed head of a raider - his face tattoo in blue marking him as one of the Vancouver-analogue faction that holds Babylon. There are more severed heads as they move along. The cave of the priest is set into the hillside. There's smoke from a fire.

"I would prefer to kill him," Alexander says, bluntly. "But I do want to make sure I offer the option." Still, he looks hopeful that they will reject this idea in favor of stabbing. Stabbing is fun. And as their journey shifts, he goes silent and watchful. Some of his skills are particularly on display during the fight with the wolves. He makes a flying dismount from the horse, and flashes across space to come down on a wolf and bury both knives in its spine. He severs the spine with a quick twist of his blades, then rolls away, flashing to the next. He doesn't do as much burst damage, but he flits across the battle like a shadow, stabbing and slicing, then retreating when a wolf whirls on him or a couple try to flank him.

Abitha was really a min-maxer when it game to games, so as they travel, she was trying mostly to keep the party out of aggro ranges. But when it really came down to it, sometimes you needed to fight. A wild pack of wolves in their way see her spur her mount and woop loudly, dragging back on the reins. The boar launches itself into the air, making a slow arc and landing in earth-crunching impact, tossing canines into the air in a knockup move. Strangely, Abitha wasn't on the back of the boar any longer as it... just stood there in the aftermath of its meteor-like descent. She appears a moment later, a bloody squelching sound coming from one of the larger alphas of the pack, a long knife buried far too deep into the meeting of its neck and shoulders. The pack members that turn on her meet a flying arc of kicked sand, recoiling as they're blinded by the move. A few clean, and unnaturally deep stabs later, she was swinging back up onto the back of her boar to continue on toward the mountain pass where she dismounts for real this time. She doesn't seem all that stealthy as she walks up the path, though she clearly had some sort of camouflage move. Something about her confidence just said, 'I will stab you in the face.'

Wolves. It's hard for Byron to not automatically go to the powers he's most familiar with in moments like this. Instead, he's forced to try and learn a totally new skill set altogether. With him, it's trial and error. Though, let's be honest, if anything, he's swinging that hefty sword around. As a child, he always wanted to grow up to be a courageous knight and he'd often play sword fighting games, so those child-like skills might come in handy here. Since he's not a knight in real life, you'd think that handling a sword this heavy would be rather difficult, but because he /was/ some sort of knight here, it comes far easier. That and he's played a bunch of video games in his time, so he's alright with learning the controls.

Looks like the wolves are being handled. That's the good news. The bad news? "Shit..." There's a freakin' sand worm thing shifting through the dunes. "Show me what you can do." He's telling himself, because he's still learning, see. Using some fancy footwork in order to dodge any of the creature's attacks, he takes a few swipes, before he realizes that his sword, it burns with fire. A cleansing fire maybe. who knows. He's a paladin! "I swear, if this thing spits out acid for venom or oozes blood and guts all over me." At least he's not in a suit. With flaming sword in hand, being a lower level character than some of the others, it's a struggle to get a clean chop into the snake, but after much effort on his part, he manage to nearly severe it at the neck. "I could use a little help over here." When does Byron ever ask for help? When he's a newb. 🙁 Who knows, the final blow may have done the trick.

"Dude, you got that." Abitha calls from afar, looking aside to Alexander, "He's got that!" Regardless, her hand flashes and a few silver streaks of daggers fly through the air, quietly adding some damage to the total wrought on the snake, felling it. Byron totally solo'd that shit. "See? He's got that!"

"See?" Alexander agrees with a nod. "I told you. Byron's not a scrub." Nevermind that he looks worried every moment Byron is tackling the worm. He doesn't try to move in and help out until Byron asks, and by then, it's dead. "Good job! In the game, you'd level there."

The snake could use a few more chops or a fireball or two, but for the most part, it seems like Byron had it handled. It IS a dark creature in a dark place, so it makes sense his cleansing paladin fire would be super effective.

And then it's the long climb up the mountain face.

From out of the cave, a man appears. He is tall and imposing, and all his embroidered robes are in various shades of red. His hair and beard are black, and his face is actually fairly young as priests go. But his eyes are sharp and piercing, and confident. He carries a large axe that looks ornamental, but they all know (judging by the severed heads) is very much...not. He raises the axe, which starts to glow with an energy that disrupts the air around them. Each of them instinctively knows in that moment that they're in over their heads.

"Do you give yourselves in sacrifice to the gods so that they may be appeased and Babylon spared?" he says in an oddly calm, oddly flat tone.

"Do you know how many times I would've leveled up in the real world by now?" Byron asks, not realizing that maybe he actually did level up in the real world with all the Dreams he'd been through. But he's breathing heavily and hopefully not covered in too much sand worm goo. Fighting in armor is hard, so he'll give warriors of the past credit for doing just that.

It feels like forever without fast travel or a way to skip this part, but they eventually make it to the cave mouth. Now that they've come face to face with this Nin-Ridu. The Quencher. Whatever people wish to call him, Byron studies him to assess just what they are up against. The large axe was intimidating, he'll give the kid that much. But there was three of them, right? "Is that what they all did? Gave themselves as a sacrifice for the greater good?" He's talking about the severed heads that lined the roads. His eyes shift over to Abitha and then Alexander, his hands still gripped tightly around his sword hilt, "I'm afraid that there will be no sacrifices today." So brave for a lower level character.

Abitha pauses as well, because while they had that danger sense and knew when they were outnumbered, this was an entirely different feeling. Maybe they should have gotten more raid members from the camp. Couldn't be help now, though. She squints at the man while slipping her spear free, folding one of her skirts back as she crouches so her daggers were not only visible, but easily at hand for stabbing or throwing. She peers back and forth from Byron to Alexander, agreeing with the first, looking asking to the latter, "You uh... wanna give him a chance to surrender?"

Alexander positions himself at Byron's left hand, standing a little back. He seems content to let the knight do the dramatic speeches, although at 'no sacrifices', he pulls his knives smoothly from their sheathes, and twirls them slowly in his hands. "We would accept a surrender," he tells the priest, at Abitha's prompting, but between the expressionless mask, and his flat voice, it doesn't look like he's expecting or even really wanting one.

"If you don't come to offer yourself in sacrifice or to gather the blood, then I really must ask you to leave. If you are not the savior, then you're the saved. Be grateful and let me continue in my righteous task." There is something wry, something modern about the way the Quencher says those words. He flicks his arm out, lowering the axe out to his side. He lifts another hand and they can feel magic crackling in the air as it gathers towards his hand. And then, he sets both hands on the axe, and swings far more powerfully and with better form than one would expect from a man in robes.

A burst of red energy surges towards them. When it hits, it burns and knocks them backwards, off the mountainside. For a terrifying moment, it feels like it might be the end. There's a descent into blackness, a lack of awareness, and then each of them land back where they were before, covered in a fine layer of dust.

Alexander findsd his inner forearm hurts. When he looks down, he'll find a symbol carved into it. It looks like a phase of the moon.

Abitha has a mark on the back of her hand. It's a crudely drawn tree.

And Byron feels blood seeping through the fabric of his shirt on his shoulder. It looks to be a crudely drawn spear or pike.