[x] Keep watching them. Staaaaare~
- [x] Especially if they go into the misty area. You want to see what happens!
You sit atop the gate, watching the assembly watch you. The tall one - the leader, probably - says something again, and you turn your head slightly to stare right at him. Everyone stands there for a long moment, waiting for something to change, and then the silence is broken by an odd laugh. Many of the strange people jump or shudder, and several of them back away from the shaking individual in their midst; it takes you a moment to realize that the fully-armored figure is the one laughing, and then it stops. The leader turns to the laugher and they talk for a bit. Finally, the leader shakes his head in apparent defeat, and the armored figure walks toward the gate. It looks up at you as it reaches for the handles, and when it pauses to say something you scoot over to the post. Then it pulls the gate open. You frown; the gate should open outward, so that anything coming in has to be smart and strong enough to pull, possibly against a bar, instead of opening the door the way it wants to open. And if the gate can be opened by a single person ….
The rest of the group files through the gate, moving carefully along the walkway and peering into the mist. The armored figure remains by you, however - presumably some sort of guard. You hop to down to the walkway and study your companion. It just stares at you, yellow eye-lenses unblinking and incapable of showing you where he's looking. The armor itself is rather odd, a single large plate forming the front 'armor' over another, thinner, body piece … with a grill through the armored plate. The helmet is more of a lid, and you tilt your head, blinking - the armor does look kind of like a cookpot with arms and legs, although not exactly. The three-fingered gloves and cape don't help, either, nor the fact that it's only slightly taller than you. The two of you stand there for a little, just watching each other, then you shrug and turn to follow the others - maybe they're doing something interesting! You start to follow them before they get too far ahead - you want to see what they're doing, after all - when a large hand grabs your arm. The armored figure … you suppose it's shaking its head, or something, and it tries to pull you toward the buildings. You plant your heels and refuse to budge, and your watcher crouches in the packed dirt for a bit. It backs away to reveal … what you think is supposed to be you and it going into a building. Its artistic abilities are quite lacking - although you do have plenty of paper, so if you want to try communicating, you could just draw some pictures. You spin back toward the gate and start walking through, only for your watcher to rush in front of you to physically block your passage. Several methods of removing it occur to you, but there's something odd about it, so you settle for simply picking it up and setting it back down behind you. It laughs again, and as you continue onto the walkway it follows you.
You aren't that far behind the others, and you see them setting up some kind of ritual near a collection of houses. When they notice you're there, they pause what they're doing and stare. You wave and sit down a good distance from them. Your watcher calls out something that gets them back to work, and then it chatters at you, trying to ask you something. It points at you, then around the town, then stomps its feet as though walking. … Maybe it's asking how you got here? Would you get in trouble if you told it? Is it even worth the bother trying to communicate here instead of looking for a magician? Shrugging, you take out a sheet of paper and a pen and begin drawing several rough sketches - you waking up, walking up to the portal, walking through it, and then here. After holding it up for your watcher to look at for a few moments, you put it away and point past the workers. Your watcher lets out a yell and … its fist flies off, smashing into the deformed creature that had been creeping up on the workers. You stare at your watcher, surprised, as the creature howls in outrage and is launched off the narrow platform, and a small horde of the monsters begin clambering toward the group, bony scythe-arms punching into the wooden ramps or houses before their muscular, worm-like lower bodies launch them at their prey. Your watcher's fist flies back and reattaches, and the armored figure turns between you and its allies, but you wave it off and it charges to protect the others.
They aren't completely helpless, of course. You see flashes of magic, fire and bright lights, and the creatures shy away or crumble to ash. Others use polearms to hold the monsters at bay, or to pin them while others hack at them with swords. A few, like your watcher, are capable enough to deal with them even when outnumbered. The monsters don't attack you, for some reason - in fact, quite a few try to squirm past you, only for you to pitch them off the walkway. They know you're there, they just ignore you. They also don't initiate attacks against the armored figure - they fight if it impedes their progress or attacks them, but they seem focused on the rest of the group. Maybe it's that same oddness you can feel if you get close enough that's causing it? The fight doesn't take too long, and your watcher returns to you, chattering about something. A lot of the workers keep sneaking glances at you. Eventually, your watcher falls silent.
It takes more than an hour for the ritual to finish, but finally it's complete, and the atmosphere feels quite different. It's not quite as hostile, and something in the air prickles at your skin and eyes, and in your throat. You giggle; the ritual is probably something to do with fighting 'bad' monsters, and you're getting it by accident. Yes, 'accident.' The workers split up, each carrying a glimmering crystal on a pendant - probably something to connect them to the ritual. You follow one group as they traverse the rooftops, staying in the slightly thinner mist until they reach an area with quite a few machines. They survey the area from the rooftops, then climb down to work with the machines. Some are broken or damaged, and they are fixed. The group then … begins cleaning the area while the machines do something. Somehow, you can feel the atmosphere clearing a little, and the mist is thinning even more. Boo~oring.
What do you do?
[ ] Find some place to sleep through the day.
- [ ] In the misty area.
- [ ] In the cleared area.
[ ] Try to communicate with your watcher.
- Anything specific to conceal or try to get across?
[ ] Leave the city.
- [ ] South.
- [ ] North.
- [ ] West.
- [ ] East.
[ ] Other?
