D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad

— Kamiko — (Day 13 Sometime before Lunch)

Kamiko found herself slowly crawling over glass for the team. Not broken glass thankfully, just some old stuff that hadn’t been washed in centuries or seen much rain. Probably. The mist confused the issue certainly but they were at least at the big dome in the centre they’d seen at the start. Anyway, Kamiko found herself doing this… *wait why am I doing this?* “Why was I volunteered for this?”

Meg looked over at Hunter hopefully who rolled her eyes and answered instead of offering Meg more headpats. “It is because demons weigh more than the average sapient of similar sizes and both Meg and I weigh an order of magnitude more than that. As a lamia a lot of that weight is in my increased size and scales while Meg is essentially a walking bag of rocks-“

“Rude but true,” added Meg.

“-and that means we both weigh a lot more than you’d think. This glass is quite sturdy… but probably not that sturdy. The problem is that it’s filthy and none of us can properly see into the dome to work out what the next step is so we’ve sent you ahead to check out the insides and hopefully not fall through the glass doing so,”

“The holes do NOT fill me with confidence,” grumbled Kamiko as she continued to carefully craw to the nearest one. Kamiko didn’t want to get too close. Sure the rest of the glass was stable but the stuff around the holes were going to be much weaker. Kamiko was not looking forward to the time when she’d need to stand up and try to look through the hole.

Perhaps jumping to one of the treetops would be better?

Kamiko looked down, trying to get a sense of what was below her but the glass really was filthy with dirt, mould and even a bit of grass around some of the edges of the glass. What little could be seen through the muck was treetops and trying to clean away that muck was not easy. It almost seemed to have baked itself into the glass instead of just sitting on top so off she went, hoping not to fall. Continue your journey at empire

When Kamiko got to the last metal support before the edge, she tried to stand up, slowly… and promptly fell back onto her knees. The glass sounded like it cracked… but a quick check and everything was fine. Completely fine. Kamiko made a few more attempts at standing up and eventually managed to get there… only to realise she wasn’t tall enough to see into the hole properly. It was a bit too far away.

“Dammit,” grumbled Kamiko.

So back onto her hands and knees she went, crawling around and sticking to the metal supports until she was standing ‘above’ the hole. A few more attempts at standing up later and she could finally see inside of the hole. The tree that had broken its way through was still a bit of a pain and the temptation to jump on it for a better long was strong. And a quick look around confirmed the necessity.

“I’m going to take a closer look!” shouted Kamiko.

One quick jump to the tree later and Kamiko was finding her footing much sturdier. Climbing down a few branches to get inside the dome proper and Kamiko could finally make things out. Some of the trees, were not trees at all but some sort of walking tree people. There wasn’t too many of them, and they ranged in size.

There was three large tree guys that could probably touch the roof if they weren’t so hunched over. Seven medium sized ones and two tiny ones… that in actuality were about the size of Kamiko herself.

“So like… there are these tree people?” said Kamiko as she climbed back up. “I didn’t see an obvious door or any path down but there’s an even dozen of them inside of various sizes,”

“Treants or dryads?” asked Meg.

“What’s the difference?” asked Kamiko as she climbed back towards the group.

“A dryad is attached to the tree and is more likely to be sentient while a treant is essentially a tree golem. They tend to not be sentient but they’re actually much harder to kill because they can take stupid amounts of punishment and don’t always have cores,” said Meg. “Oh and that tree sticking out of the dome is just a tree not a dryad,”

“Um… is there anything else?” asked Kamiko. “I really don’t know…”

“Hmm… what sizes are they?” asked Meg.

“Um… the large ones could probably break the dome if they stood up straight and might be the cause of the holes that don’t have a tree sticking out of them. The medium sized ones are like… a bit more than half as tall as the big ones and the little ones are about my height from the looks of things,” said Kamiko.

“Is there a range?” asked Meg.

“Um… what do you mean?” asked Kamiko.

“Are they the same height within their categories?” asked Meg. “Like, are all of the small ones exactly the same size, are all of the medium ones exactly the same size…”

“Oh… um… I don’t know? I wasn’t really looking for that and they were pretty close to the same size and the very least…” mumbled Kamiko.

“Hmmm… I’ll have to have a look myself then. The problem is those big treants, if they are treants, are going to be at least Rank 3 and will be a massive pain to take down… hmmm… is it worth trying to see if the glass can support my weight? Just jumping to the tree… hmm… hmm…” mumbled Meg.

“What’s so scary about treants?” asked Kamiko.

“Dryads are simply much easier to kill, but also less likely to be hostile. There is a story we were told growing up, one about ensuring you actually kill the target. A treant was set on fire and allegedly continued to burn for over a century before finally dying, and it was killed be a local hero instead of actually burning to death,” stated Hunter.

“Personally I suspect that the treant either became demonically infused or turned into a fire elemental at some point, one that just continued to look like a treant. But yeah, Hunter’s right. The issue is that while setting them on fire sounds like a great idea they are… in some ways the ‘idea’ of a forest instead of just a moving tree. So they can burn a lot longer then they should.

They’re still weak to fire… but not in a particularly useful way.

“The real issue is that we can’t afford to get into a proper fight here. If we cause a rampage and they trigger the reactor that is almost certainly under the dome we will be screwed. It… might be time for Hunter to sneak ahead of us and check things out. Treants can have pretty good senses… but the real issues is I’m not sure the compass will work while she’s stealthed,”

“I am perfectly capable of hiding myself with others means,” stated Hunter. “If I must go on ahead alone so be it, though I worry that should a treant notice me I would not be able to take it down in time to stop major damage being done to the area so I would be open to alternatives. Though I ask, Kamiko, was there any sign of civilisation near them?

I assume you would have mentioned it but if there was anything that helped tell us if they were sentient would be nice. We may simply be able to talk it out if they are,”

“Errr… um… no?” said Kamiko unsure. “I don’t think I saw anything like that… or well… um… not anything that wasn’t there before? Like I saw some metal bits and pieces and there’s the walls and the glass obviously… um… there are some lamps and sprinklers? And I think maybe they had a collection of sprinklers? Or at least bent metal bits that might have once been sprinklers? Does that count?”

Hunter looked at Meg and they both shrugged. “I really don’t know,” admitted Hunter. “I’m going to assume not as many birds collect shiny things and I imagine these treants simply thought they gave water from nothing and tried collecting them until realising it didn’t work. Meg?”

“I should be able to tell if they’re sentient. Things tend to have specific weaknesses that point for or against sentience if you’re paying attention so I’m not that worried. Though I guess it means I’ll need to take a look first before sending you in Lils Sis…” answered Meg.

Hunter gave a nod alongside Kamiko. It was as good a plan as any and the treants didn’t seem too scary. Tough and potentially annoying yes, but not too scary. They hadn’t reacted at all to her presence, not when she yelled back, not when she stood on the tree in the dome. Despite the fact they should’ve been able to see her… they either ignored her or just couldn’t.

So it was probably going to be fine,”