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Stygian Mirror     The City of Palanquin, in Creation. A chain of islands upon which massive, time-worn humanoid statues have been built, their grey and green moss-covered forms holding up a massive island, as though elevating it towards the sky. All around the statues on the ground, buildings can be seen; and up they go, built into the legs and bodies of the giants too. One can assume tunnels and paths run through and on the arms of the titans too, giving access to the landmass they hold up.

    http://40.media.tumblr.com/c5318216d61b12fad2dcaee253d246e1/tumblr_inline_nwzjamsDVg1rx1dmf_1280.png

    Of course, the area isn't as it used to be before being conquered by a Deathlord. The Sun is constantly in twilight and eclipsed, shining like a black star in the sky, muffling light. Vegetation down below is rare, typically pale and ghostly, not lush and green. Even the moss on the massive statues has turned a pale white, hardening into a bone-like substance. The birds in the sky vary from monstrous vultures to skeletal birds, sometimes even ghosts.

    The particular Wardgate that Sigrun has been told to show up at is within one of the chest-level cities in one of the statues. The Warpgate is only a few streets away from the edge of town, and so it isn't hard to see where the ground ends and immediatly gives way to a very steep fall. It seems to be an entertainment district, with many shops, restaurants and even a town center where a circus is set up. There's a lot of foot traffic, too! Not just people, but undead, ghosts, assorted abominations, beastmen, and a few minor gods. Contrasting this is the fact the area's magic is completely inverted, possibly disorientingly so for those who feel those things.

    Where Creation is made of Essence aligned with life, this place is made with Essence aligned with death, and it shows. Needless to say attempts to tap into the area's magic wouldn't work as well as elsewhere.

    Mirror is waiting by the Warpgate at any rate, in her usual tunic and armor. There's a lot of restaurants nearby they can stop in to talk, so this is the perfect place. Plus, good view of the eastern ocean of Creation.
Sigrun Stem Sigrun can feel the ambient energies, they seem to creep her out fairly substantially, but she keeps her chariot going at a reasonable pace. The magicked vehicle could go far faster if she willed it to, but between the crowds and the heights, she doesn't feel that's wise.

She heads fairly directly towards Mirror, once she spots the Deathknight anyway, in her usual garb. One exception, she's not wearing her mask, and so her mildly scarred face is visible below the hood, blonde hairs flowing around her face. "Interesting place." She comments as she gets close, "Hey Mirror."
Stygian Mirror     The arrival of a chariot does cause a few people to turn and look, but nothing major. It's just something people aren't used to seeing. Mirror raises a hand to wave in greeting, approaching. "Hey Sigrun. Welcome to Palanquin if this is your first visit. There's a couple places nearby where we can eat and drink, with balconies for the view. It's on me, since I can get pretty much anything free here."

    Being an abomination against Creation has to have SOME perks.

    "Any particular tastes?"
Sigrun Stem "Thanks, the atmosphere isn't quite as welcoming as I'd like. Something tells me the air here would prefer me dead." Sigrun mildly complains, the energy that wells up out of her is actively pushing away the death-infused essence, but it's not doing a great job.

"Something filling. I haven't had a proper meal in like a week, and if it's free..." The monster exterminator smirks, "Well, can't really say no to free, can I? I'd prefer a little bland over exploring the varieties available, I'm not feeling particularly daring."
Stygian Mirror     "That's a Shadowland for you. The area's linked to the Underworld-- so closely in fact that if you walk out of here during night you'll be in the Underworld, not Creation. The place can sustain the undead and lets ghosts materialize, but it's not comfortable for the living. The way you feel right now is about how I feel whenever I'm not here," Mirror answers, matter-of-factly, before considering Sigrun's tastes.

    "Bland... so, beef or chicken then. Alright."

    With that settled, Mirror begins walking, towards the edge of the city. A few blocks later, and there's a steak house built on the edge of the 'cliff', with large black metal columns securing the back half of the building over thin air.

    Going inside, Mirror vaguely gestures towards the counter, and immediatly two waiters (one a skeleton) shuffle in to offer to take their things and show them to one of the private balconies in the back. The Abyssal leaves her sword with them, nonchalantly.

    The balcony has a nice table and several chairs set up. It's got a damn nice view of the area-- of the other statues and cities nearby, of the islands several miles below, and of the main landmass of Creation far to the west, with its tallest mountain seemingly piercing the sky even from this far.
Sigrun Stem "If everywhere else feels to you like this does to me, then... well, I guess that sucks." When Sigrun parks her chariot, she does a quick hand-wave thingy and runes light up in the sky. Then the winds that surrounded it fade, and she walks away from it and into the steak house.

She looks over to the distance, even going so far as to use magic to create several red circles in front of her eye, she's looking around, especially towards that mountain, trying to estimate how far away it is. "Wanna bet I could hit that mountain from here?"
Stygian Mirror     "I'm used to it. The discomfort is lessened if I wear the trappings of death-- well, you know, dark clothes, Soulsteel, skull motifs, bones," Mirror says, waving a hand dismissively at the matter. It does explain her clothes.

    She watches Sigrun, and then quickly says: "No. Sorry, I know better than taking a bet like that with anyone who could pass as a Chosen. Especially one I know is proficient with a bow. You can try if you want, I'll be amazed if you make the shot, but not surprised."

    It's pretty far, admittedly. A hard number is hard to pin, especially for someone used to gauging distance on a round world, but it's at least some five thousand miles away. Ish. Maybe more. The new map of Creation doesn't have any references to figure distance out, the narrator mourns.

    "So, what did you want to talk about?"
Sigrun Stem "The real challenge will be getting the arrow to fly that far." Sigrun seems to be considering the challenge, but rather than get her bow she's creating a couple of blue magical orbs that spread out to observe the distant mountain, moving fairly wide and in a somewhat complex pattern. Sigrun whistles. "That's pretty far, I think I'd need to work on something for that. Nonmoving target, so a spell that's efficient but slow would probably do the trick."

She's disrupted from her examining the challenge she's sort of set for herself by the other question. "I'm looking for a subcontractor for a job, and I thought it might be up your alley, but I wanted to know if you're someone I can work with, first."
Stygian Mirror     "Maybe. I've never tried taking a shot from that far, with any kind of weapon. The Blessed Isle isn't home to the Realm anymore, but... it's still full of Terrestrials. They'd probably think you're attacking them and intercept it somehow. There's a reason we haven't just built a giant cannon and aimed it there." As convenient as it would be if they could do that. Mirror shrugs, returning her eyes to Sigrun.

    "Depends on what you need. I'm willing to do anything, if the pay's right. Your morals'll be my morals, even." In the event Sigrun weren't comfortable with mass murder, it's something Mirror is more than ready to adapt for.

    The skeletal waiter returns, eventually, handing menus to his two guests before departing again. He'll be back to take their order in another five minutes. It's pretty standard steak house fare-- with a few dozen weirdly named meats and the ever-popular mystery meat that's cheaper than anything else here. There's a few different cuts of beef though, so Sigrun's not in foreign territory entirely.
Sigrun Stem "There'll be lots of killing, I'm sure, but what needs killing isn't smart enough to count as people." Sigrun starts to explain the problem she needs help with, and then explains further. "And based upon what you've said, the place is going to feel right at home for you. We're not sure what happened, but somewhere in upstate new york the crops started dying, and then the wildlife and cattle did too."

It may be obvious where this is headed, but Sigrun goes on anyway, "We evacuated the people, but the crops and animals came back to life, and they're pretty hostile to anything that comes in. The atmosphere is... well, like the magical ambiance of a graveyard turned up to eleven."

"And they can sense me come in, but if I want to handle it, I need to do proper investigation. I can't do that while trying to fight of entire herds of undead cattle, packs of undead wolves and who knows what." She looks over to the mountain again. "And I know you're syndicate, and I thought 'you know what, Mirror would probably be able to do a decent job as a bodyguard while I investigate.'" She shrugs, "As long as you don't kill any people, zombies are fine, I think I can find the money."
Stygian Mirror     "I don't work for money, I work for... I guess you can simplify it to 'lore'. Books, maps, cultural baubles. My lord is collecting information from as many worlds as possible, and since I don't really need money..." Well, Sigrun can put two and two together. "Information on what I deal with as part of the job counts as partial payment, too, so just toss in a little something extra and we'll call this a deal."

    She considers the particulars, for a moment, before leaning back into her chair to relax. "I can deal with what you're talking about though, sure. I can even give you advice on containing it. Get salt. A LOT of salt. It's not enough on its own here, but it can slow down the spread of whatever's tainting the land. Just don't overuse it or you're going to make the land unable to recover afterwards."

    That out of the way, she looks back at Sigrun. "Sounds straightforward, though. You must have a necromancer problem or something like that. I don't know your world so I can't say for sure, but I'd be fine with protecting you while you investigate."
Sigrun Stem "Information I have plenty." Sigrun holds out her hand and above the gem a glowing illusion of a book appears, the cover states 'Magipedia: the Free Encyclopedia anyone can edit.' She picks it and hands it to Stygian, "Just think of what you're interested in and then open the book to a random page. This doesn't have detail, but I can get you detail on a lot of things and this should let you search."

Then she quickly clarifies, "If it's anything classified then I can't tell you, either because I don't know or because I'd get in deep trouble if I did. The White House doesn't take kindly on deliberate leaks."

As for the advice, "See that's the thing. Necromancy ... doesn't work like that. Animating one corpse at a time, sure, but... wide area effects like this? You'd need power equal to one of the Great Magics of Death and a finesse way beyond what the state of the art of military magic can do."
Stygian Mirror     Mirror seems puzzled by the gem, taking it as instructed. When she starts using it-- thinking, first, about 'world map', her eyes kind of light up in an almost childish way. Like the first time you show a kid the internet and tell him everything they want is on there.

    "Amazing. Your world has a network of information this big? I'd heard stories such things existed here, in the First Age, but the technology's been lost. N-- no, don't worry, it's fine! This is... this is payment enough, yes. An entire world's data at the tip of your fingers..."

    Sigrun might have struck gold, in the sense this is payment enough for several jobs and then some. Eventually Mirror breaks out of her trance and glances at her guest, shaking her head.

    "Ah, no. You shouldn't say that. 'That much power is impossible' and 'you'd need this rare and unheard of power', you should never say that. Power is always discovered by pioneers. The first man to wield magic surely must have provoked the same responses. 'That's not possible,' yet, there he was."

    She pauses, and then offers: "It's also possible you're dealing with a threat from another world, like here, where such a thing is possible. I guess there's no point theorizing; I'll help you get to the bottom of it either way."
Sigrun Stem Sigrun seems amused by Mirror's wonder at what has become such a mundane tool to the people of Antichthon, barely worth thinking about as anything special by now. "The Etherweb is not just an information network, it's also a communication and organization network. It's quite useful." Sigrun adds on, "It's still fairly new, but as soon as people started using it in large numbers, development speed progressed exponentially."

Then, the other bit makes her nod, "Alright, it's not impossible by our world's magic, but it's extremely unlikely to be possible without multiple major breakthroughs of wizardry and you'd think people would've mentioned it." She clarifies, "But whether it's from our own or from elsewhere is secondary to the fact we'll need to deal with it. I'll talk to my clients to set up a plan, and I'll get you a basic codex gem that gets you Etherweb access as payment. This one is mine and I need it. Does that sound good?"
Stygian Mirror     "Oh. Yes, of course." Mirror returns the gem without making a fuss, understanding something like that must be precious. "So it's like this radio network that crosses the Multiverse, only for images and information? How different Creation would be with such a thing around..."

    Well, either way, she gives a nod. "And yeah, of course. Is it going to be just the two of us, or are you going to invite a few others? As I understand it this is the sort of mission the Union is usually all over, isn't it?"
Sigrun Stem "I'm trying to get some others along with us, but I haven't had anyone else agree to come along yet. I'm sure they will, given the nature of this threat." Sigrun agrees softly, and puts her gem back into her glove, finishing her food as she looks back towards the distant mountain. "I'll get back to you when I have more detail." She then yawns, covering the sound with her mouth, "I... don't think I should stay in this area much longer. It's draining."
Stygian Mirror     "Sorry. I've heard some Chosen can make charms and amulets that'll allow travel in Shadowlands without sideffect. If you expect to deal with these sorts of areas often, you should look into that. I don't personally know anyone who can make such a thing, though," Mirror says, with a mild tone of apology. Maybe someone in the Union can handle that, for all she knows.

    "Mirror won't try to hold Sigrun, either way; she knows enough about discomfort not to force another to stay. "Are you going to need an escort back to the Warpgate or do you remember the way?"
Sigrun Stem "I remember the way, thank you." Sigrun gets up and heads over to her chariot, a similar gesture is used to get the winds flowing around it again, and she stands on it. "I'll contact you as soon as I have some specific dates that would work."