Successor (BTVS)

[X] Buffy pulls out her oxygen supply and pops her pill, then gives orders on what to do. You should stunt a plan, including if others should use their pills.
-[X] everyone take their pills
-[X] Buffy leads the team down an alley or side street with fewer demons then attacks the horse.
--[X] Jonathon recasts the veil afterwards
-[X] if the veil breaks with no harm done to the horse try to hide for a handful of minutes before recasting

Buffy made a snap decision, spitting her regulator out and popping her oddly gummy flavored pill, then pushing the timer on her fancy demony watch as part of the same motion. The native air smelled vaguely fruity; she assumed it was a weird effect of the pill and not something innate to the plane.

But that wasn't important. They needed to get their act together, right now. "Everyone, pills, and let's back up. Are we even allowed to fight this thing without making a scene?" Belying her own words, she stayed at the front, readying her hammer defensively. A lot of the people she had might not fare so well against a giant flaming horse.

It took a moment for the humans among them to follow her orders, and then she heard Jonathan behind her, "Its senses aren't being clouded, so interacting with it probably won't cause interference. But even if we can hurt it, it's too crowded here. The veil stops people from crashing into us, but if we crash into them during the fight I won't be able to hold onto it."

Jonathan was right, the street had people going to and fro all over, and there was no clear road in the middle like she was used to for big vehicles. Everyone just moved around however they felt like, even with the bigger floating carts. Fighting something so big and avoiding a mess like this at the same time would be impossible.

As they started backing away, the Cauchemar stopped rearing, but it did follow them menacingly. It should've been far too huge to move through the crowd unnoticed, but the phasing she'd noticed before was doing a lot of work. Both the horse and the demons around it looked solid, but somehow they didn't interact even as they filled the same space.

"Are we sure it can even touch us?" Skip said. "We're going to feel pretty silly if it turns out that it can't." Even after saying that though, he was still backing up with the rest of them.

"A great variety of demons can only affect those that perceive them," Nigel said balefully. "Perhaps the nightmare effect is due to its victims' senses opening slightly to the ethereal as they sleep."

Buffy remembered the hospital monster working like that. "Like the Kindestog?"

"Der Kindestod would be one example, yes," Nigel agreed.

"Us being able to see each other is part of the spell, but I can't shut that off. And it would be a really bad idea even if I could," Jonathan warned.

"All of us forgetting about all of the rest of us being here would be a sticky wicket, wouldn't it," Phillip snarked.

Angel had been scanning around, looking for something. "Maybe we can lead it into one of those alleys. Probably less people."

It was as good an idea as any. Buffy didn't want to fall all the way back to the road into the marketplace, and that had been getting packed itself. "OK, everyone to that one, another street back." There was one closer by, but she could see some passersby in it and it looked a little too nice. They needed the kind of dingy place nobody would want to go. Hopefully that still applied to demons.

It was a good thing they'd figured out what to do, because the Cauchemar was getting impatient again, and neighed at them, breaking into a trot. As big as it was, a trot was fast.

They had to get to the alley before they fought it. Or it fought them. "Everyone, run, the alley," Buffy turned and started moving herself. The rest of her party sped up to varying degrees.

"Not arguing!" Jonathan agreed.

He found some gas and kept up, but Nigel was falling behind. Buffy was about to just pick him up and carry him one-armed, but with a clang he wriggled his oxygen tank off and zoomed forward. Buffy was about to pick it right back up, but a surprised demon that had been right next to it noticed it first and started inspecting it greedily. She winced; it wasn't exactly ideal, but hopefully mysteriously appearing used scuba gear wouldn't scream 'interdimensional invasion'. Nothing to be done about it now.

When they reached the alley it was worse than she hoped but better than she feared. A worn-down looking Fyarl was digging through trash in something that was probably an alien dumpster, but it was otherwise deserted. It was a pretty big space, about fifteen feet wide and over a hundred feet long, exiting out onto another street at the end.

"Squishies get to the back, fighters make a line with me," Buffy said quickly, driving far enough into the alley to give the van-sized horse good clearance before pivoting and winding up for a good hit. Hopefully it would charge right into it and she could slay-on-slay-off.

The Cauchemar sped around the corner, literally clipping through the side of a wall as it made the turn and the noise of its hooves echoing through the alley. Something was off about the noise though.

Angel turned back with surprise. "There's another one!" But he'd be too slow to get into position for it.

Buffy pulled on her superspeed, racing back, past a suddenly panicked Jonathan and the reorienting Watchers and the oblivious Fyarl to meet the second Cauchemar charging in from the other side. It was just as big as the first had been, but was moving way faster. Either they were mega-unlucky or this was a trap; she should've realized the first one had been a little too reluctant to actually catch them in the open.
KILL
Nigel dived out of the way of the giant animal as Buffy met the charge with her hammer, arcing up to connect with one of its forehooves. Magical fire erupted from the point of impact and she felt the scalding heat wash over her, but the Cauchemar's momentum was broken. It landed awkwardly on its hooves, but even as she pushed forward to take advantage it darted sideways, all the way through a wall and out of sight.

Even as she was kicking herself for fighting a phasing creature in a narrow alley, Jonathan screamed out, "Buffy, whatever it is you just did you need to stop doing it! That almost shattered the Veil!" Jonathan was on his butt and the magic bone looked like it was overloading, sparking with electricity and smoke.

She didn't have time to argue as the giant horse came out of the wall again, fifteen feet over from where it'd gone in. She raced to engage it, but held off on the superspeed. It'd probably been what set the Veil off, and she shouldn't use too much of it before fighting Tapparich anyway. Unfortunately, that and her poor angle prevented her from getting another good shot at a hoof, and she was forced into making glancing blows along its legs and torso.

The hammer passed through it as its body acted like smoke, and even though the demon didn't seem to like it much she got the sense she wasn't hurting it nearly as much as she had before. It kicked her in the ribs for her trouble, causing another fiery eruption as it punted her into one wall and it disappeared into the opposite one.

She felt her tank dent behind her as it took the brunt of the impact, and she had to shrug it off and throw herself into a roll to put out the fire on her shirt. It was totaled and her ribs were killing her, but at least the stab vest mostly survived.

"The hooves are a weakness, but watch the fire," Phillip yelled, summarizing for the benefit of the others. He was watching the wall with an actual ninja star in hand, though what he thought he was going to do with it was anyone's guess.

"Somehow I figured out the fire part," Skip shouted sarcastically.

Buffy got back up and risked a glance to check on everyone else. Skip, Angel, and Bantha were trying to triple team the first Cauchemar, still at the head of the alley, and it wasn't going that great. Skip was getting stomped on and burned, Angel was trying to ward the horse off with his nasty-looking Kris, and Bantha seemed to be trying to jump on its back and take a ride. He predictably passed through it instead when he did, but it at least managed to distract the monster enough for Skip to get out from under it and back to his feet.

Jonathan was back against the (currently) safe wall still trying to get his magic bone back under control, and Nigel was throwing some powder at it. Hopefully it would do something to calm the magic focus down, but neither of them would be much help in the fight. The Fyarl was still searching through the trash, woefully ignorant of the chaos surrounding it.

Buffy was tempted to go help the guys on the other side, but if she did the second Cauchemar would attack. Instead she stared at the annoyingly windowless wall and tried to ready herself to react to another sudden charge. This time it popped out directly across from her, giving her barely any time to react.

Without superspeed she thought she'd be on the defensive again, but the ninja star shot through one of the Cauchemar's eyes just as it emerged. It passed through the head and buried itself in the wall, but the demon panicked anyway, rearing up and giving Buffy a chance to engage cleanly.

She didn't waste it, racing forward and jumping up in the air to get a solid overhand hit on a forehoof. This time she was far enough from the point of impact to avoid the burst of flame, and her blow was heavy enough to force the giant all the way back into the wall. The hoof she'd hit clanged on entry instead of passing through cleanly, and shards from it sheared off and fell as the monster fled this time.

She didn't have any time to celebrate the partial victory, as the other Cauchemar had bullied its way past the trio at the mouth of the alley and was bearing down on Jonathan and Nigel. It looked a little worse for the wear at least; there were some marks along its flank bleeding black stuff. But even wounded, the rapier Nigel was waving at it wasn't gonna scare it away.

She dodged around the Fyarl and reached her teammates right as the monster did, but it was more cautious than its friend had been. Instead of running right into her hammer, it crouched down into a skid just outside her reach. A billowy cloud of smoke and ash erupted from its mouth, blocking her vision and further wrecking her clothes. She struck out blindly with the hammer a few times but didn't think she was accomplishing much; there was some resistance, but its snout was probably as insubstantial as the rest of its flesh.
KILL
She felt the blow coming for her head before it struck home, and her next swing cracked solidly against a hoof. She attacked a few more times after that, but instead of feeling the slight resistance of the smoke or a sharp impact against a hoof, one of her blind swings hit something bigger and more solid.

"Friendly fire isn't friendly!" Skip groaned.

"Sorry, sorry," Buffy apologized. At least she knew he could take a few hits. "Where are they?"

The smoke started to clear, but her question wasn't answered. Jonathan and Nigel had taken refuge behind the dumpster, which was still being rooted through by the Fyarl. Angel and Bantha were back to back, looking out for an attack but also arguing with each other in some language Buffy didn't know. And somehow, Phillip had gotten about twenty feet up and was perched on what was maybe a gutter, another ninja star in hand ready to throw. Neither of the giant horses was in sight, but something told her they hadn't decided to run away.

One of them proved her right by bursting out of the wall, coming straight at Bantha. She saw another ninja star flying at it out of the corner of her eye, but before she could do anything to help, she was under assault again herself.
KILL
It burst out of the wall behind her, entirely out of her line of sight, but she'd been listening specifically for the freaky voice in her head this time. She snapped into a roll, going beneath the creature's stride and under its attack. Without special guidance she would've been trampled, but she'd been prepared, and she knew just where to swing.
KILL
She slammed the head of her hammer into the already-injured hoof and it broke apart completely, exploding into a blue fire that burned straight up the horse's leg and completely engulfed its body. Buffy felt something snap in the back of her mind, but before she could pay it any attention the giant horse fell to the ground, forcing her to get out of the way.

Bantha started roaring in rage, but Skip quickly grabbed him and put a hand over his mouth. "The other one's gone, I think your veil broke."

"I couldn't hold it," Jonathan confirmed. "It was already unstable, and whatever happened just now pushed it-."

A stream of snarls interrupted him as the Fyarl suddenly noticed his presence. First it took a threatening step forward, but then Bantha wrenched Skip's hand away and shouted something at it.

At this point it was obvious the Fyarl had only noticed Jonathan at first, and upon seeing the rest of them its demeanor changed completely. It shrunk back and got quieter, focusing its gaze on Bantha.

"Should I try to recast the veil?" Jonathan asked. "This big guy might forget we were ever here."

"Something tells me he won't forget about the giant dead horse we'll leave behind," Skip said. The Cauchemar Buffy had hit was still unmoving, and its flesh looked like burnt meat now instead of smoke. It was definitely a goner, but it being visible at all outside the veil meant that Skip had a point. Lying down its bulk practically filled up the whole width of the alley.

"That could be a problem, yeah," Jonathan admitted.

"Kill it, we can hide both the bodies and then leave," Phillip suggested, skidding his way back down the wall. It seemed callous, but they were in a tight situation, and it had looked ready enough to rip Jonathan apart before it saw the rest of them.

"We could maybe knock it out instead?" Buffy wondered.

"They're notoriously resilient. I wouldn't be sure how long it'd stay unconscious, even if you managed to hit it with the correct amount of force," Nigel said.

"Either way, it could make a lot of noise," Angel worried. "I don't know why you all seem to think Fyarls go down easy."

"We're already making a lot of noise," Phillip said. "Better to get it all over with before someone comes to see."

Bantha said something and Skip translated, "He thinks the Fyarl will do what he says, on account of the royal blood or whatever. He thinks he can just tell it to get rid of the big horse and stay quiet."

"Can he?" Buffy asked.

"He certainly thinks he can, but that could just be the battery acid talking," Skip replied.

"If we recast the veil won't the other one come back for us?" Nigel asked, ignoring the Fyarl issue.

"I don't know, how good are evil horses at learning?" Buffy asked. The demon track record on that front was spotty at best, even with humanoids that talked.

"I think I hurt it pretty bad. I mean, not as bad as you did, but it wasn't really healing that well." Angel was wiping off his Kris as he spoke; it had some of the black ichor Buffy had noticed one of them bleeding still on it.

"Then again, where there were two, there might be many," Skip said. "Maybe we could use the glamer instead?"

Phillip frowned. "We haven't really prepared a story."

"I still have enough magic left to cast either," Jonathan cringed a little. "Once."

Vote: What spell do you use to keep sneaking in, and what do you do with the Fyarl? Vote once for each option.

[][Fyarl] Buffy and her team kill it quickly, and they shove the bodies behind the dumpster or something.
[][Fyarl] Buffy and her team try to knock the Fyarl out, and hide it with the Cauchemar corpse. Hopefully it won't wake up and cause a commotion.
[][Fyarl] Buffy lets Bantha order the Fyarl to get rid of the Cauchemar corpse for them.

[][Sneak] Jonathan recasts the veil, and they all hope the giant demon horse(s) have had enough of this fight.
[][Sneak] Jonathan casts the glamer instead, making them all look like Mok'tagar (or maybe like something else.) You'll have to figure out some lie to talk your way in (Maybe stunt an idea.)

[X][Fyarl] Buffy lets Bantha order the Fyarl to get rid of the Cauchemar corpse for them.
[X][Sneak] Jonathan recasts the veil, and they all hope the giant demon horse(s) have had enough of this fight.

Really, the situation wasn't any different than it had been in the Initiative. Would killing the Fyarl be convenient? Yes. Did she trust Bantha to control it? No. But it hadn't had a chance to do anything wrong, and didn't really have any reason to hate them more than it hated the people in charge that had it eating out of the dumpster.

"Have Bantha do his thing, then we Veil up again," Buffy decided.

"But the other Cauchemar," Nigel worried.

"It didn't want to fight us alone before, and then we killed its friend. We'll move to the other side of the alley before we cast but I don't think it's going to want to fight us now," Buffy hoped she was right.

Meanwhile, Skip had translated and Bantha was deep in conversation with the Fyarl. It was mostly one sided in favor of the annoying Mok'tagar, and featured him repeatedly slapping the flank of the dead horse with his hand and exclaiming about something or other. The noise worried her, and she looked to the end of the alley, but the passersby were oblivious, almost like they were purposefully ignoring it.

Angel distracted her, "That's not the decision you'd have made three months ago."

She shrugged, feeling a little exasperated. "Things change."

"I'm not complaining," Angel said. "It's just, you didn't used to really-"

"Think about them? Sometimes I wish I still didn't," It'd been simpler when it was just good guys and bad guys.

The commotion of the Fyarl struggling (and mostly failing) to lift the corpse interrupted them. "Time to get a move on," Skip said. "We can't count on the bystander effect forever."

They made a quick trip down the alley to get some distance from whatever the Fyarl was trying to do, and then Jonathan was messing with his bone again. Then there was the disorienting effect from before, but this time it hardly lasted a second before her mind was clear again. Jonathan lost his balance at the same time, and Buffy had to catch him by the shoulder to stop him hitting the hard stone ground.

"Did that work?" Angel asked. "I'm not sure it worked."

"It worked," Jonathan answered, his breathing harsh. "Barely."

"Are you OK?" Buffy asked.

"I don't see how he could be," Nigel was wide-eyed.

His face reddened a little. "I'll be fine, as long as I don't have to cast anything else." After a false start, he managed to get his feet under himself again. "Let's just get going."

Buffy was concerned, and as the party started moving again she made a point to stay near him. Hopefully he could keep out of the firing line when it came time for the big fight.

He wasn't the only one worse for wear. The stylish but practical shirt she'd worn over her stab vest was in tatters from the fire, her ribs were still protesting the rough treatment they'd gotten, and worst of all, she was pretty sure she had burnt ends in her hair. Or maybe that acrid smell was just how the air was in this place. She could dream, until she looked in a mirror at least.

Skip was trying to hide any discomfort, but she could see his armor was a little messed up in the front, where the Cauchemar had been trampling him, and he'd been paranoid about that before when they were sparring. Bantha had taken a beating too, but he seemed as chipper as a wood shredder, no doubt having regenerated all of the damage already.

The party was quiet as they left the alley and continued through the bustling market area, the demons moving to and fro all seemingly oblivious to them again. There was no sign of the Cauchemar anywhere, but Buffy was still on her toes. Skip's comment about there being more of them wasn't reassuring.

It wasn't all she had to be paranoid about either. She'd had to show off her superspeed, and worse, Jonathan had drawn attention to it. She couldn't blame him, since he wasn't in on the secret anyway, but the Watchers at least had to be suspicious of it. She'd checked with Giles after the Oz dream, and it wasn't a power he'd ever heard of a Slayer having before.

Whatever the consequences, it was something she'd deal with later. For now, she refocused on everything around them. It wasn't that different from a thriving downtown really, though there was more buying and selling happening on the street than she was used to. The demons around them didn't seem worried about the environment in the least, despite the giant invisible horses that were apparently in their midst. Ironically, it reminded her of Sunnydale.

Thinking of the place in those terms made her wonder about something. "Where is all this stuff coming from? That they're hawking all around? We didn't see nearly enough coming up and down the path, and there was almost nobody going all the way down to the gate."

"Portals." Skip explained. At Buffy's confused look, he elaborated. "The Great One is the only one that can open portals on or off of the mountain, but he doesn't just do it for himself or his minions, most of the time it's for shipping. A merchant will order a portal, move in a ton of goods at once, and then store most of them in whatever building they're staying in, usually rented. After a few local weeks of trading, they'll order another one and ship everything they've acquired here back home."

"It seems like a lot of trouble to go to, couldn't they buy and sell somewhere where they don't have to pay off Tapparich?" Buffy asked.

"Remember there are twelve Great Ones and twelve mountains," Skip said. "And they all work mostly the same way, so competition keeps the price reasonable. Plus there are a lot of advantages to operating here. The time difference for one."

"The sort of demons who get rich in business tend to be control freaks," Angel said. "Being able to sell all their own junk and avoid leaving home for too long would be a big draw."

"So the Mok'tagar are less actual traders and more… movers? Landlords?" Buffy said.

"It tidily explains how a society built on trade can remain so traditionalist and conservative," Nigel commented. "All the business they do is here, and everyone they work with has to work on their terms."

"Suddenly everything that happened with Kathy makes so much more sense," Buffy said.

"Kathy?" Angel asked. Right, she hadn't explained that part to him yet.

"Tapparich's daughter. She came to the Sunnydale and kind of hid behind us to get away from her dad," Buffy said.

"Is that why he's going to invade? Do you have her in a safehouse or something?"

Buffy wasn't sure how to come out and say it all. Really, she should've explained in the first place, but everything had happened so fast, and Harmony had been a distraction when Angel arrived. Nobody came to the verbal rescue though, so she'd have to girl up and do it herself.

"We took her on as an advisor and told him to get lost, but it didn't work out."

"Didn't work out?" Angel definitely didn't get it.

"I may have kind of had to kill her," Buffy half-mumbled.

"What, did she turn out to be really evil?" he asked.

"Yes," Buffy confirmed. "Very evil. She almost killed Harmony!" It wasn't like she was lying, exactly.

He seemed a little flummoxed, digesting the information.

"That's why we have to strike now," Buffy continued. "We don't think he knows yet, but once he finds out, definite blood feud, big invasion."

Angel looked like he wanted to say something else, but after glancing around at their fantastical surroundings, he just nodded and they went on.

They eventually reached the end of the plateau, where a sort of gate was built into the steeply rising face of the mountain. Unlike the last one, it didn't defend a wall and lead to a path beyond, but went straight inside and underground instead. This was the entrance to the castle built into the caldera. The passage was wide enough that they could've maneuvered around the two mok'tagar guards standing in front, but with the door shut there was no way to go past.

"We could just hope they open the door," Phillip said. "It worked once already."

Bantha probably didn't understand the words, but he got the message, and made his dismissive scoffing noise. Without even bothering to say anything, he led them off to the side.

Buffy shook her head regretfully. "I don't think we have enough time that I want to waste any of it on maybes. Plus the Cauchemar might come back if we stick around too long. Let's just go." She followed Bantha. Better to stick to the original plan.

He led them to a little goat trail kind of thing and started working his way farther up. It was more a collection of reasonably shaped boulders and grooves than a real path, way harder going than it had been so far. Neither of the Watchers could take it too fast, and Jonathan was having real trouble. She stuck with him near the back, ready to catch him if he slipped.

It ended up being a pretty obnoxious hike. It got hotter and hotter the whole way, and Bantha was anything but patient with the slower people, aggravatedly pacing back and forth at stopping points and ranting in Mok'tagar. Skip declined to translate any of it, so Buffy assumed that whatever it was was just grousing and not anything actually worth hearing. Jonathan did manage to almost fall off the path to a gory death once, but Buffy just rebalanced him quietly and didn't say anything about it. She could understand not wanting to look weak, especially with so many question marks on the team.

Their journey ended about twenty minutes up the path, when Bantha stopped so unexpectedly that Angel crashed into him. They got into another argument in whatever other weird language the two of them seemed to share, but Bantha quickly put a stop to it by clawing open a wound on his own palm and slamming it against a nearby rockface, covering it in his blood.

Jonathan immediately staggered again, forcing Buffy to catch him. "Why does nobody ever get the message about using other magic."

But at the same time, there was a grinding noise from the rock and it slid to the side, revealing a secret passage. It reminded Buffy of the blood lock she'd accidentally opened way back in June, revealing the mayor's stash of weird bones. Now that she thought about it, that was probably where Jonathan's magic bone had come from. Apparently evil dictators just had a thing for magic blood seals.

Bantha gestured at them all in a way that seemed victorious, dismissive, and vulgar all at the same time, directing the brunt of it at Angel. That done, he ducked into the passage.

"This doesn't make him right," Angel said, before entering himself.

"Into the breach, I suppose," reflected Phillip.

The outside had merely been hot, but the inside of the (hopefully) dormant volcano was sweltering. As if that wasn't bad enough, it was pretty dark, even though the rocks glowed with some kind of luminescent moss. It was just enough that Buffy could mostly see, a little brighter than a moonless night. There was some stumbling around among those without supernatural help, but thankfully the surfaces were cleanly cut and they were totally closed in, so nobody could hurt themselves too badly.

The passage spiraled down for a while before Bantha pushed a wall to the side and they came out in what looked like it might be a walk-in closet. Opening the exterior door revealed an unoccupied medieval bedroom, complete with a collection of violently animated tapestries and a canopy bed that looked like it was made of dead animal parts. They were in.

It was easier to see in here; unlike the tunnel the room was lit by a flickering torch in a wall sconce, making Buffy wonder how often they had to be replaced. Bantha had paused as the rest of them entered, his usual arrogance and impatience temporarily replaced by a softer expression, but he quickly got his bearings again, mumbling a few words and leading them onwards, out the door. The hall outside was made of the same clean-cut igneous rock they'd been getting used to, but it was much more well appointed than the secret tunnel was, featuring more tapestries and torches.

"It's like he remembers, right?" Buffy looked for confirmation.

Skip exchanged a word or two with Bantha. "That's right. We're going for the throne room, as we planned."

Buffy wasn't sure how big a normal castle was supposed to be, but this one was definitely on the large side, though maybe all the space around them wasn't actually filled. There were Mok'tagar moving around in here, and Bantha obviously knew some of them, taking time to harangue their unknowing selves as they passed them by. Or maybe he didn't know them, and just liked haranguing people. There were some demons of other races too, but they were dressed a little more shabbily and he paid them less attention. Probably servants or something.

"If he hates these guys so much are they really going to listen to him?" Jonathan asked.

"It's all about the Great One mantle," Skip said. "Once he inherits it they'll have to, their whole way of life depends on it."

"Are we sure he'll even inherit though?" Jonathan continued. He was still half out of breath, but after all this effort she wasn't surprised he wanted to make sure it would work.

"The reverse slayer rule is quite clear in conditions like this," Nigel said.

"What? The succession has to do with me?" Buffy didn't remember that from the briefings.

"No, no, not you, the Slayer, the slayer rule, as in for succession. In most jurisdictions on Earth, one involved with a murder cannot inherit from the deceased, but bloodline mantles in this pattern work the opposite way in the demon world. Being involved in the killing of the previous holder is almost a guarantee of taking up the mantle next.

"Pleasant tradition there," Buffy commented.

"I doubt the Mok'tagar would want it any other way," Angel said.

"Quite," Phillip agreed. "What fun would a family get-together be without incentivizing the murder?"

There was another blast of heat as they entered what must be the throne room, and it was immediately obvious why. Instead of another small closed space lit by torches, this was a more open cavern, with a tall ceiling and an arcing side wall that looked almost artfully rough. The other side was demarcated by a sheer drop into a glowing, bubbling pool of lava that rested a good ten feet below ground level.

"I thought the volcano was dormant!" Angel said, surprised.

"It is," Skip reassured them. "It's been like this for thousands of local years, as long as this dynasty has held the mountain."

Bantha had ignored Angel's outburst, and was snorting and whining now, frustrated.

Buffy took a quick look at the Mok'tagar walking around the room, chatting in knots. "None of them are Tapparich, are they? He isn't here." The garish obsidian throne on the other side of the room was sitting empty.

"He must be somewhere else right now," Buffy said. "Does Bantha have ideas?"

Apparently he did, as after taking time to invisibly berate some of the Mok'tagar present, he turned around, about to lead them back out of the room and into the tunnel network. At least the scuba gear had extended their mission timeline, they still had over an hour by her watch before air trouble happened.

"Wait," Skip said, stopping. "I remember the vault's in a tunnel behind the throne room. Maybe we should grab the choicer bits now. Not like anyone can see us." He echoed his suggestion in the other language, and Bantha immediately started complaining.

"What is it with you and the looting?" Angel said, annoyed.

"I'm just being practical," Skip argued. "This city-state competes with other Mok'tagar ones, there might be more things that can hurt them in the vault."

"What about our time crunch?" Buffy asked. Easy for Skip to want to stop for looting when breathing toxic air wasn't an issue.

"He's probably just opening a portal somewhere," Skip said. "I'd bet he comes right back here after. All these minions wouldn't be hanging around otherwise."

"He doesn't seem to think so," Buffy said. Bantha had kept talking over them during this.

"He just doesn't want us getting into their cool stuff," Skip said. "His negotiating position is a lot worse now than it will be after the fight."

"I don't think it's a good idea, we shouldn't get distracted. This is supposed to be about defending Sunnydale, not stealing from the cookie jar." Angel said.

"Easy enough to say for the vampire that already has a Mok'tagar-slaying blade," Skip said. "It could be the difference between winning and losing."

"We didn't plan for it though," Jonathan said.

"Because we thought it wouldn't be practical, with Tapparich already here," Skip said. "He'd have probably noticed the Veil and we'd need to fight him immediately. We're getting a great opportunity."

"He has a point about the weaponry," Phillip said. "I have some ideas for getting around the regeneration, but still."

"It would make sure we could get some of the ingredients your… ally requested before anything went wrong," Nigel added.

"Won't it be locked or something? Can we even get in?" Buffy said. "I can't exactly bash the door down, we'd all be noticed right away."

"Bantha could open it, just like he opened the secret passage," Skip said confidently. "He's being difficult about it, but if you tell him that's the way it is, he'll cave. We have him over a barrel."

Vote: You have 75 minutes before the pills run out.

[] Go break into the vault now, with an eye towards grabbing things that might help in the fight.

[] Start searching through other places in the castle complex for Tapparich immediately.