The Miss Demeanor Ep. 11

### YouTube VOD

***Miss Demeanor* Episode 11** was streamed on BrettUltimus' Twitch channel on the 17th of October 2020, and premiered on the World of Io's YouTube channel on 24th of October 2020.

## Summary

*Written by u/Sir\_P1zza, edited by u/Justa5crub*

After taking a night's rest at the entrance the group again enters the crypt. Layton takes a tooth from the corpse of the hatchling while the rest of the crew explores deeper. Among the pile of egg shells Alice finds one egg that isn’t broken and is of the size of himself. Together with Layton, they both lift it up. Hiding underneath is a small hatchling that screeches and spews a bit of harmless water at Alice. Luna tries to pick the creature up, but it slaps her with a few of its tentacles. It quickly warms up to Layton though, and when Layton feeds the hatchling a portion of his rations, it quickly devours with its grinder-like fangs. It climbs up onto Layton’s shoulder, and Layton names the hatchling Scrum. With Scrum on his right shoulder and the giant egg on his left, Layton and the rest of the crew leaves the crypt.

The party enters the rain and jungle again. Alice wants to return to Sholo’s hut, but Layton convinces him to unlock the rest of the stones to unlock the ziggurat and gather more knowledge. While Layton teaches Scrum to lift up a stick like a weightlifter, the rest of the crew unlocks the other two inscribed stones without trouble. They return to the ziggurat, and the lock is now humming with energy. Unlocking the multiple stones around the island gives the party more tries, but ultimately it’s still a lock and a task for Captain Armstrong. Sadly, even with the moral support from Luna, Armstrong fails multiple times and can’t get through the lock. In anger he throws his tools over the edge. When Luna hits the lock with a crowbar, she gets a shock, but this allows Armstrong to try again. Realizing that this lock isn’t foolproof, they ask Laurence the engineer for help, and they soon realize that a bit of violence helps with unlocking the door. Layton climbs to the top of the ziggurat, performs a shooting star press, and divebombs the lock. He suffers a big shock, but this time, Armstrong finally picks the lock open. While the crew takes a small break, Luna tries again to bond with Scrum. This time she uses some rations, and Scrum becomes a bit more interested in her.

The crew enters the ziggurat, and inside they see a hallway with both ends going around a corner with a pillar on both sides, one to the southeast and one to the southwest. In the middle and  right next to where the group entered is a glass window that shines with a blue light and contains unreadable hieroglyphics. As Alice inspects the glass, a voice echoes through the hall: “*Io Archive Chambers activated, please specify identification*.” Captain Armstrong says his own name to which the voice responds:

*“Identification refused.*

*Confirming status of Div seed. Negative.*

*Confirming status of Void seed. Negative.*

*Archive has activated lockdown. Threat will be neutralized.”*

The southeastern pillar lights up with a blue light, and a scrambled image comes to life in the form of a woman with golden hair. Alice quickly realizes that this illusion —although influenced by the pillars in the room— stands on its own and is hostile towards the party. In a panic, Alice touches the blue panel with a Shocking Grasp to which the voice responds: “*Tampering detected.*” The stone door behind them slams shut, and the crew scatters. Layton and Laurence run towards the southwest pillar while Alice, Armstrong and Luna hold off the illusion. Alice shoots out multiple Magic Missiles, and although the first missile hits her, the rest does not seem to affect her anymore. The illusion creates a copy of Layton, but before it could strike out, Layton attacks the southwest pillar. Both illusions disappear. However, the woman soon returns, but this time she does return not with the golden hair and eyes but with purple hair. They resemble the colors of Div and Void, but the party is unaware of the illusion’s connection to the dead gods. While the Void illusion is active, both Alice and Luna shoot out Lightning Bolts. The illusion reflects Alice’s Bolt but gets hit by the one from Luna. The woman strikes out with a flurry of hits against Armstrong with each one hurting more than the last.

The party realizes that both forms are independent from each other and that by damaging the pillars the illusions are forced to switch. Layton and Laurence get put on pillar duty, running through the hallways damaging the pillars. The now Div-form illusions scramble Armstrong, making him much more sluggish but also stronger. She rushes towards Alice who fires off another Lightning Bolt in response. This time a wild magic surge is activated, and Alice is able to cast Misty Step for a minute. He barely gets away from the illusion before it turns into its Void form again. The illusion then walks towards Luna.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Date is shown on YouTube VOD
2. ↑ The illusion is named Dyvania Simulacrum, most likely referring to Dr Dyvania Voired.