Signs pointing to the nearest exits will not be provided.

[poll_the_stars]

There is a room that's dark and cold. It's made of stone, with a doorway cut into each of the four walls. At the room's center is some type of circle, carved into a raised platform. The only light comes from a slightly sad looking light fixture set into the ceiling.

Then the circle glows, brightening until it could rival the sun, humming and shaking the room around it. There is a buildup of energy of some kind...

And then it stops, returning to as it was before.

Except, now it contains two women.

One of them has pointed ears and red hair. She looks around in quite a lot of alarm.

Comments

[purposeful_glory]

"Thank you."

Læateinn's flexibility is not infinite but it will consent to be a spoon. Rather than set it down and use her hands as a cup, Loki spoons some water up.

Sip.

[poll_the_stars]

The water tastes faintly of chemicals.

... But is not poisonous.

[purposeful_glory]

"It's not poison. It's not delicious, either, but unless there is some sensitivity I don't know about in your system it should be harmless."

[poll_the_stars]

"There shouldn't be, but then, I don't know your biology in comparison to mine."

She tries the water.

"... Not poisonous to me, either."

[purposeful_glory]

"Fill your canteen, in case spiders die in it or something later."

[poll_the_stars]

"I worry that it might have something that is nasty in some way but not poisonous," she muses. "Because I'm paranoid."

[purposeful_glory]

"Nasty like...? I have a healing spell for infectious agents too, if we wind up feverish later."

[poll_the_stars]

"Nasty like... Little tiny plants that can track our location. Some thing that is harmless now but could be activated later to kill us immediately. Something that combines badly with something else in the area in an explosive fashion." Pause. "... I am very paranoid."

[purposeful_glory]

"All of those things are very nasty, and, yes, very paranoid. I can't help but think the situation calls for paranoia, but dehydration is a definite threat given that there's no exit in sight and your nasty ideas very indefinite. Still, keep your canteen separate, it's not an unreasonable thing to do."

[poll_the_stars]

Nod.

"Think I should spend the attention span on making a canteen for you?"

[purposeful_glory]

"Would you have more attention to spare if I killed more quadrupeds first?"

[poll_the_stars]

"Yes."

[purposeful_glory]

"Bring them on."

[poll_the_stars]

"All right then."

Quadrupeds are brought. Quadrupeds are killed. Soon they are out of them.

"Yay, attention to spare."

[purposeful_glory]

"They're not being immediately replaced, right?"

[poll_the_stars]

"No. I'd tell you if they were. No new monsters have been released, as far as I know."

[purposeful_glory]

"All right. ...I don't have very much paper on me. I've been marking the floor but we need a map."

[poll_the_stars]

"I can make an illusionary one... But it'd take constant attention. Mm. I'll grow us a map, that's not very difficult, and I'm the one with the area awareness."

[purposeful_glory]

"I can make an illusion that doesn't need constant attention but it won't last if I sleep, so one in - woodgrain? What will this look like? - sounds like a plan."

[poll_the_stars]

"I have a bit of design freedom. We don't need to work with woodgrain. I can actually get more colors from plants than green, it's just a bit of a pain. So it'll be more of a flat leaf-like surface that's pale with green bits marking the walls. I'll want to keep it alive, too, so we can update it."

One dart plant, into the suspicious water, to grow a map. It also gets illusionary sunlight.

(She continues dealing with the spider-things and the stompy monster. She hasn't forgotten them.)

[purposeful_glory]

"Can you tell much about the stompy monster and the spider things?" wonders Loki. "Should I kill those too?"

[poll_the_stars]

"Spider things are sometimes on walls instead of the floor, though they don't go so far as to run on the ceiling. They're about three feet tall, four feet long, each. Stompy monster... Is big enough that sometimes it has trouble fitting through the doors. I can't tell much else about it."

[purposeful_glory]

"Send me a spider? If you can separate them out."

[poll_the_stars]

"I can try, give me a minute..."

Separating them out is sort of tricky, she has to stop tending to the plant to get it right. Masking the sound of its fellow spider-things, sending the sound only to the one spider thing, until it's far enough away that she can lead it here.

"Got it. Just the one. Coming in from that way." She points.

[purposeful_glory]

For a scuttly spider on the wall, she wants something long with claws on the end. Lævateinn obeys her. She wants to get it before she finds out if it's venomous.