Episode 176 - Like Burps on the Wind

## Synopsis

As they headed back to Troisle, SWIM wondered what the skill emoji meant, and sent several messages of various levels of coherence. They did not, however, receive any response from Kurt. When they got back to Troisle, Graist immediately rushed towards the central tower, saying he needed to talk to someone about his resurrection.

The students were left with the Grays. Using minor magics, a previously made bond, and good old-fashioned herding techniques, they were able to lock them all back up in their pens. Mira then healed a very broken looking Winsler, and used *Locate Creature* to find where Kurt was.

She found him to be near a workshop to the left of the entrance to the town. Following her magical radar down a alleyway between Workshop E and a residence building, they found an unconscious Kurt stuck upside down against the workshop wall, a huge dent in his chestpiece.

Feeling the pull on the wall on their metal, and Mira keeping hold of her arm, Winsler was able to *Vortex Warp* Kurt behind them. He then unsuccessfully tried to figure out how the wall was being magnetised, and SWIM brought Kurt back to his room.

They checked on Angelika, finding the hound tattoo had returned to its original place. The students then rested up, with Mira playing a restful song and Serinepth bringing Virgil out for some community petting. Eventually Kurt reappeared, and explained that while he was looking around the workshops for the tattoos, the Cat had shot him with its lasers. He fell unconscious before being attracted to the wall, so he didn’t know how that happened.

They decided to go back and investigate the duct that Kurt saw the Cat go into. As they walked out they saw a large gathering of giants in the central tower, and heard Mira’s name said many times. Seeing a giant start to look around for her, Mira told her friends to go without her, and that she’d meet up with them later.

As she went towards the tower, Casde (the giant from the golem seminar) walked up to her and asked about her revival of Graist. He reassured her that she wasn’t in trouble for doing so, but the fact that she had combined with the visions she had told him about was very curious.

She was given the giants blessing to enter the tower, and when she did it felt like the air became much thinner and colder. She also saw a blue chalk message in an unfamiliar script written on the threshold of the tower. The inside floor was covered in rugs, with incense burning all around them.

The giants questioned why she had brought Graist back, and if she was connected to the gods in any way. She responded that she might be, leading the giants to explain that they thought she might be receiving message from their god: Sésul.

Mira said she wasn’t sure what this would look like, but would tell them if anything else happened. They then asked her to accompany Graist on a trip to the catacombs, where he would search for a greater meaning to his resurrection.

Meanwhile, SWI found the duct Kurt had mentioned. Integrity and Serinepth threw Winsler into it, and he promptly slid down a very high drop, landing heavily at the bottom. Integrity and Serinepth quickly (and slightly more gracefully) joined their very hurt friend at the bottom, and found themselves in a hot boiler room.

Looking around, they saw Gnomish writing on one duct that read “*Entry through his hallowed place is unallowed, to trespassers may the god’s wrath be greater than the giants*”.

Through another duct, they heard the sound of many tiny footsteps. After the group sent each other goodbye messages in case they didn’t survive whatever happened next, Serinpeth cooled down the duct to try and draw out whatever was inside.

After a few moments of waiting, the face of an inky Cat with brilliant green eyes emerged from the darkness, seemingly about to laser whoever disturbed it.

## Trivia

* When discussing what emojis should be called in Agiya, the name “slaycon” (short for slate icon) was suggested, whether this will be their official name is unclear