Here it is, all action!

It's a little dark. Dash is joined by a couple space elves in this futuristic .. vision?!

 
Knowing the vision wasn't real did little to soothe Sebastian Dash or to calm his emotions. He could feel the heat rising from sinkholes dozens of feet away or further. Dash wasn't sure what conclusions he could draw from the lack of bodies, even though it was clearly a disaster area. Hopefully, this reflected a chance to evacuate the city before whatever happened, happened.

Of course, it didn't really happen, Dash reminded himself. Yet.

"This land of the dead has awful infrastructure," said Tarvel. "It's a shame, it could be more efficient with better maintenance."

"How exactly should 'a land of the dead' achieve efficiency, my friend?" quipped Glyn. "Seems that some sort of cleaning happened anyway - or whatever cleared off the inhabitants excelled in cleanliness."

Tarvel stared at the sinkholes of the former city, looking unsure. "I wouldn't hire the cleaning crew that cleans like this."

"I don't get it," Dash said, puzzled. "It looks like an earthquake but the buildings look smashed from above. Obviously that isn't consistent with what you'd expect from a 'quake."

"Considering that the ground is giving off heat erratically from the craters scattered about, that there's nothing of the inhabitants' history besides these structures built and currently in disarray, I'd hazard that something targeted and successfully wiped out this city's people." Glyn said.

Dash looked at him, heart sinking a little. "Any idea on what?"

Glyn shrugged. "Perhaps a meteor shower? But it's statistically low that something inert would achieve this sort of result."

Dash's face seemed to go pale. "We really need to get moving."

"Why?" asked Tarvel. "You think whatever did this might still be around and doing it?"

"Or their servants." Dash picked a seemingly random direction for them to move in. "We should avoid the center of the town. This must be the 'Mist of the Mighty Raruall.' May any gods with influence in Hey Daze help us if it is."

Sweeping his eyes as he moved about, Glyn assessed the scale of destruction all about the three. He found some functions that he had grown accustomed to as a space elf were out of reach presently, but his own mental capabilities were undiminished. "Tarvel, Dash: you've got more battlefield experience than me, so am I right in thinking that the defenders' attacks should contrast with those of the assailants? Even if they couldn't damage the invading bodies, some of the structural damage about should show traces that the locals fought back, right?"

"If there's traces of the Raruall's mists," Dash answered, head jerking as he scanned the area around them. "Then they might have already been in the middle of an attack. If the Raruall gained enough power, the first strikes would have hit before we knew what was going on.. But.. I can't imagine how they would have gained a foothold in our world."

Without meaning to, Dash began to move faster, having to fight the urge to break into a full speed run.

Tarvel sprinted alongside Dash, the cysuit allowing her to keep up the pace while focusing on her surroundings and on Dash. "Care to explain who or what these Raruall are? I don't know many of the local myths and legends about Hey Daze."

Dash didn't respond right away, either taking in the sights of this horrific vision or mulling over his history with the town and the Raruall. Either way, the two elves gave him a few moments to collect his thoughts. Just when it seemed Dash wasn't going to answer at all, he spoke in a low, almost hushed tone.

"Nightmarish monsters bent on destroying all living creatures," Dash finally said. He looked crestfallen at the thought- and at the unreal image of the city around him. "As I mentioned, I was a part of the first encounter with them after other heroes and I were transported into another dimension along with an entire building.

"We had to fight them off as well as reflections of ourselves and others from Honorburg," Dash said. "It was a rather long couple of weeks, and it took us days to find any real source of food and water. Thankfully, we had the building to rely on. To this day, I have no idea why it didn't collapse after being teleported away.

"Anyway, we eventually figured a way to open a way into our own dimension." Dash paused. "We found out along the way they couldn't get into our world. Talking to the locals, we learned of their hatred for.. well.. life. They don't belong in Hey Daze, but if they're connected to the Dark Ones, this could be an especially dangerous place to be."

"When you get right to it, does anything truly belong here?" asked Tarvel. "They might be just as alien as we are. Not that I would discount a connection to these Dark Ones you speak of, but it's good to get all the possibilities on the table."

Dash nodded. "Except every attempt we've made at establishing peaceful relationships has gone badly. Believe me, we were stranded in another world with no way back, at least that we knew of. We weren't looking for trouble. At least, most of us weren't."

"Just remember that we come in peace," said Tarvel. "If there's attempted violence, I'd rather that they be the ones to start it. Let us know if we get into a situation that looks too familiar for your tastes. ...ignoring our immediate surroundings right now, naturally."

Glyn bobbed his head in agreement. "Right, what the combat elf said. I think that I can clear up this illusion shortly - but it would help if we won't be engaged by something occurring here."

"How much time do you need?" asked Tarvel, scanning the horizon.

"... Four minutes - longer than usual, but that whine's persistent in its annoying. And Dash? You may want to forget part of this trip shortly," deadpanned Glyn.

"Whine?" asked Tarvel.

"It'll reach you shortly - engaging auto-defenses now. Locked incoming targets for you, Tarvel; Dash, you should see one coming from your left in a bit."

Dash drew his sword. "Are you sure? They seem eerily adapt at fooling our sensors, but maybe your.."

That's all Dash could get out before he suddenly rolled to the side, just barely avoiding a streak of dark smoke and thick, scaly flesh.

Tarvel spun, her weaponry surging to life. Three gouts of plasmified neutrinos later, the scorched remains of two short creatures that looked like ambulatory crystal (but only if crystal was a kind of soft, edible fruit) and a taller, green-scaled humanoid creature with a bulbous, pulsing head fell to the ground, smoking.

"Watch yourself!" she shouted. "They're fast!"

"Hopefully," Dash said as he prepared for another attack, "we won't have to deal with the hallucinatory effects of some of the more annoying creatures."

<Shouldn't be a problem for you Dash - already working some micros on your nanites. 128 seconds for first task to complete - oh drat, why did it have to be an airborne flip?> High velocity maneuvers flourished with the inclusion of three-dimensional movement, but still shook up Glyn as he concentrated on resolving the setting interposed with reality. This was interrupted as he realized that, with no further warning, the group had become surrounded by large monsters. Some had scales in a rainbow of dulled, muted colors and spear like teeth, while others seemed almost human, although they seemed to glow with deadly radiation. Creatures that seemed to stand between a dozen and two and a half dozen feet tall for the most part.

Dash prepared to attack, dimly noting, "The worst part about this is the fact it isn't even the worst part about this."

It's a very vivid image. Who knows if we'll ever get to see if anything comes of the vision. There's more action up next with a different set of player characters in the next piece - the last before the Finale starts!