"Here is the forest." Hermit gestures grandly at a couple of dead trees. Somehow, I don't think those are gonna stop the Life Vessel. "The car stays here." "Right, don't wanna have any trees scratch the paint." The caution is sensible. Any damage to the car could mean we're just a snack waiting for the Night. Hermit said there were rumors of forests around here. Some said the forests appeared like magic, the other story is that it's always there. Either way, the Life Vessel has to go this way if it's going to keep ahead of the Night.
If the forest is already here, it's doing a really good job of hiding as we get out. Hermit prods one of the trees, "It is not predatory." "You didn't have a better way of finding out if it wants to eat you?" "You would protect me," Hermit says with only a few hints of irony. She's not wrong, but I'd still prefer she not tempt fate. "How about I check what's ahead while you check over the car?" "As you wish, beloved." Still kinda weird how she calls people stuff like that.
The techniques involved in their creation had already been considered apocryphal, but Cardinal Radcliff's insistence in exposing the primary sacrifice to recordings of the intended rituals for a minimum of 24 hours was the missing key that turned the Proselytizer from a non-functioning deviant project to a staple in mid/post-battle conversion of enemy assets. While doubters had criticized isolated incidents of proselytizers converting viable friendly units, most alleged cases of this being an accident were found to be intentional, and approved, incidents of dissident conversion. This Saint project has been one of the most successful cases despite its tumultuous origins.
What the hell is going on? Nothing stays the same around here and I'm not sure if everything else here is in on it or just as lost as I am, but they sure are doing a good job of making sure I can't keep better track of where I am with how they keep trying to kill me. It feels like I've been here forever, but I know it's just a matter of time until the Night passes over. I have to get back to the car before that.
We've proven that the forest is real, at least. That just means we have to figure out what's making it. Hermit, at least, seems to be taking the situation well. Hermit steps away from the terminal she was messing with. "The source is deeper." "Any idea what it is?" Hermit shakes her head. "No, just suspicious words. Mundane-sounding, but suspicious. All heading towards there." She points at the screen. It's not an easy-to-read map, but Hermit was able to point out what's caught her eye. I don't really get what she sees in this, but any goal is better than random wandering.
"It's probably another divine entity of some kind." It's hard to believe it's anything else, but it's still worth saying out loud. "The Divine Maiden's forte. I wouldn't mind witnessing. Your acts of cleansing." She makes it sound like she's going to see a show.
Can anyone explain why I'm getting 3 emails an hour trying to sell me chainsaws? There's barely any trees up here and I certainly didn't look for any. Did the administration sign us up for some sort of news letter again or something?
Grow, spread, rise, decay, blossom, compound, wither, conceive, seed, fall, light, night, chop, render, stiff, worm, multiply, flourish, entangle, sacrifice, grass, leave, fear, leaf, lost, root, dig, soil, priestess, life, pollinate, trap, wood, compute, eye, wire, death, ground, vine, cease, cliff, watch
interlevel teleports
