They're certainly somewhere else, near the edge of where woods give way to open plain. Mountains rise a ways before them, slopes turned a dark blueish purple by the distance. The forest is odd, trees dead and twisted into unnatural shapes, choked with thorns, and the grass of the plain is long dead, dry and brittle. 

There's a small group standing there, in a recess near the edge. It looks like this is their camp; all three - four, if you count the enormous silver wolf, easily larger than a horse - spring to their feet, hands going to weapons.

One, a man clad in shining plate with a white-and-gold tabard, decorated with a stylized sun on the front, holds up his hand, then asks something in a sharp tone. He's blond, not wearing a helmet, and small horns disrupt his hairline. His dark eyes have a hint of red to them, and his skin seems more gold-toned than is normal for a human. His ears, along with those of his two companions, are noticeably pointed. His fingers are just a hair too long, his features a tad too perfect.

"Strange magic! Back off! Ghost, try and raise someone."

The trio, with their drab uniforms and big metal mounts festooned with probably-weapons, zips up into the air and a healthy distance away rather quickly.

"-Nothin' on any band 'cept our intercom."

"You said they're magic, Cat? They're men. And no radio- And this place looks like the Neuroi blight already got to it. We're obviously not where we're supposed to be."

"Sun's wrong too. Wrong latitude, wrong time zone. We're lost, boss."

"Fantastic. Keep an eye out for Neuroi anyway. We probably spooked the locals. They look like they've never heard of the war, like old Knights."

She peers at them again, trying to get a feel for the magic - the exceedingly weird magic, of which there is kind of a lot. The giant wolf is magic, but she could have guessed that. That armor is magic and the people are also magic - probably. It's hard to tell.

The three converse among each other for a bit, then the wolf looks over at the newcomers.

'Hello,' comes a voice in their minds, smooth, feminine, and deep. 'I am Raena. These are my sibling Tess and our friends, Lirhan and Emes.' With the words comes information - Tess is the one with light brown skin and silver hair, Lirhan the man who first talked to them, Emes a blonde woman dressed in fine chain with a tabard also bearing a stylized sun, though a different one from Lirhan.

-Okay, telepathy, she has ever encountered a witch who uses telepathy before.

"We're gonna be cautious, you two."

I'm Witch Second Class Nylund, with me are Witch Third Class Smith - the dark skinned one - and Witch Third Class Chavel - the blonde one - We are part of the 37th air wing, Strike Witches. We weren't supposed to end up here - where are we?

(Aaaah turn it off turn it off-) The only visible sign of her distress is a tightening of her grip, though.

The third member stays mentally silent.

Just to the one who responded: 'You are at the edge of the Blight nearest Ticceosia. I am unfamiliar with 'witches'.'

Ticceosia... Ticceosea... Is that in Karlsland? The Low Countries? Maybe the Balkans? It does sound vaguely Danish... But not familiar at all.

(The mental map leaking through is totally unfamiliar.)

Well, we are unfamiliar with what you all seem to be. Are you familiar with Neuroi?

(Flying monsters, big as a house or bigger, matte black with shiny red hexagons, fast, hated-)

'No. Though they look like they are not of this plane; I have seen similar creatures from the Plane of Fire.'

...Planes?

'...The planes that make up the multiverse. The Material Planes, the Shadow Planes, the Ethereal Plane, the Astral Plane, the Elemental Planes, the Energy Planes, the Outer Planes, and the Outer Sphere. The worlds beyond this one. Do your people call them something else?'

Unless you mean other planets, no. We only see the material - and only one material. Our teleporter may have sent us much further afield than we expected - do you not recognize the planet?

She holds the shape of the world in her mind: A truly colossal ball of rock with a thin skin of water and air, huge stretches of land looking barely a finger wide from this distance, continents seeming like one could hold them in one's hand...

'...No, that isn't one of the planes known to me, though I'm not classically educated...' She bounces the image to her companions, who don't recognize it, either. 'And the ones I'd expect to know about it don't, either.' 

So

1. They're lost with no contact and probably no resupply available in a world with at least two or three kinds of strange magic.
2. They don't know anything about the locals except that telepathy is a thing and this lot didn't attack them on sight.
3. They probably really need to reserve mana for emergencies, which means not flying in circles all day.

She has a quick conversation with the other two before asking, Do you have a map of this area? Since we're clearly not going home today, I want to find us a good place to camp.

The wolf looks over to her sibling, who nods and produced a map. It shows the mountains to their west, a few scattered settlements - some with notes written over them - and a river to the east. 

'This area is rather dangerous; I'm not sure how much context you need to understand how much, and whether it's a threat to your group, but it's the Blight. Plants are withered and animate, the very ground is poisoned, animals and people have returned as undead. The nearest safe haven is Hellean, which is a small border town several day's travel away by foot.' There's a quick telepathic conversation they're not privy to, then: 'You can stay with our group until you have your bearings. Lirhan and Emes are also authorized to make official contact with your world, and would be interested in doing such.'

Several days by foot isn't much to us. Also, we're soldiers, not diplomats. I can tell you a lot about what the folks back home would probably want, but I definitely can't agree to anything much bigger than shooting at something for you. So the Blight is that burnt-smelling background magic, huh?

'Yes. We don't know what creates it, yet, and are trying to find out. And hopefully end it. It's already swallowed one large and several smaller nations.'

Quite troublesome. The Neuroi have destroyed Ostmark, half a dozen small nations, and large portions of Karlsland, Venetia, Turkey, and Orussia. It's now a worldwide fight against them.

'Perhaps our planes could help one another.'

I wouldn't know where to start, but perhaps. Will we have to keep doing - this - to understand each other? I don't think we'll share any languages...

'Tomorrow Emes will be able to get a spell for languages. She doesn't have it prepared today.'

Oh, huh. Our magic doesn't work like that. We can do certain things, but they all cost mana, and our mana is the finite resource.

'Psions work like that; they have a certain number of powers they know, and using those powers draws from a pool. Sorcerers also have spells they know, and they can cast those in a specific power category a certain number of times per day. Most divine spellcasters, like my companions, are granted the spells they pray for or meditate upon at the start of each day.'

So God is real after all? Hmmm.

What does the rest of today look like? We can fly and make good scouts, I'd think, are you looking for anything in particular? Do you know about bullets and bombs? Those are our weapons, but if you can't make more we should use them sparingly. What about food and water?

'We're trying to find the center of the Blight. Likely, it'll be a profane temple of some sort. Currently we're traveling towards the area likely to contain the center; we're still a good ways away - about two thousand miles at least. We have means of rapid travel, but they don't allow us to scout, and they're imprecise. How quickly can you fly? And we have both of those things, though they're incredibly rare, especially with the Blight having wiped out most of the manufacturing centers, and ours might not be the same sort as yours. For food and water, we have both a cleric and a druid, who're each capable of conjuring enough for the group.'

Well, I'll have to give the other two a chance to duck out, but I think we can volunteer to help out with the Blight. Nobody likes world-level threats. On our 'wings we can sustain about ninety miles an hour - when they start breaking down because there's no maintenance yard here we might have to fashion some brooms from tree limbs or something, and it'll be more like forty.

'If your 'wings aren't magical, Emes and Tess can both make minor repairs to objects. If they are magical, it would depend on the type of magic. Emes has a spell that lets herself and three others travel at sixty miles an hour, albeit with poor maneuverability, for eleven hours at a stretch, and could cast it twice if need be. And any help you could offer would be greatly appreciated; the Crown will be sure to see you compensated for your efforts.'

They're not magical, but are complicated. We can carry one person each and some cargo, witches are couriers sometimes - we probably can't fly for eleven hours a day without running dangerously low on mana. Also we don't know the threats here, which could cause problems. We're skilled and experienced specifically at fighting Neuroi. Also, Sparky - the blonde one - wants to join the conversation but doesn't know how to.

'I can include her, and act as a relay for all messages,' Raena sends to both. 'I can attempt to explain the threats properly; Tess and I worked as border guards for a while, so have seen a variety of the threats.'

Understanding the threats, your capabilities, and you knowing ours is probably the most important thing we could possibly do today. Knowledge is power.

'...It is difficult to summarize our abilities for someone unfamiliar with our magic. Lirhan can fight, more strongly against evil creatures, and heal to some extent, as well as ward people and places from evil, is immune to fear and magical charm, and can grant resistance to those within ten feet of him. I am, beyond the telepathy, primarily a fighter. Emes can heal very well, do damage directly to undead, improve the power of allies, use some divination, dispel magic, travel to other planes given a special object attuned to said plane, and a number of other spells. Tess can control the forces of nature - plants, animals, weather, stone - within limits.'

Elanor asks about the particulars - and explains her team's abilities (All three can fly, project wide but flat shields, and project blasts - Grendyne can feel and with effort copy other witches' magic and maybe get enough detail to mimic some of the local magic. But it would be a mimic, not a copy, and still cost her mana. Elanor can shoot lightning. Simple, but more efficient and powerful than the standard blasts. Sandra can turn herself, her equipment, one other and their equipment invisible for as long as she focuses.

The three Witches land, as long as they're not going anywhere for now. Might as well save mana.

The team makes room for them, and Raena communicates that it's currently late enough in the day that they'd decided to make camp - it's dangerous to travel around nighttime, and they knew a good camping place was here from old maps. Do the witches want to be included in the watch schedule? The chance of something happening this close to the border is relatively low, but there's still a risk.

Also, does the invisibility break if you attack someone?

The invisibility breaks if you attack with anything louder or more direct than a bow and arrow, though Ghost can re-establish it fairly quickly.

The witches will take turns on watch, fair is fair.

Good to know.

'Lirhan will be on first watch, myself and Tess on second, and Emes on third. The second watch is the more dangerous one usually.'

Is it better to have extra people on watch and more chances to see something off, or for us to be overall more rested?

'More people on watch tends to be safer, but isn't technically necessary if you can wake up quickly. It will likely become advisable as we move further into the Blight, though. Tess and Emes are very difficult to get things past, Lirhan is less perceptive, so it might be efficient to have only one person join him.'

We can wake up quickly. Most of the time we spend on alert - ready to respond in case of a sudden Neuroi incursion. I could watch with Lirhan and let my subordinates rest, if nobody objects.

'That works for us.'

The three witches arrange bedrolls from their emergency supplies. They didn't bring tents, and 'Ghost' sets hers up a ways away from all the others.

Lirhan settles in for the first watch, apparently taking the time to do basic maintenance on his gear while frequently glancing around.

As night falls - fairly quickly, out here, the sun winks out behind the mountains with barely any proper sunset - the unfamiliar stars come out. They're brighter, somehow, and there's a hint of color to the night sky. The edges of an aurora can be glimpsed to the north.

Grendyne is quiet and watchful, waving to Lirhan but not even bothering trying to talk. She also has a pair of binoculars, though those are less useful at night.

The watch goes easily enough, in silence, as do the next two.

The next morning, Emes chants something under her breath, moving her hands in complex patterns. A page of parchment upon which she's written something crumples to dust in her hands, she goes around tapping the witches - and then suddenly three new languages insert themselves into the three's heads. Two are spoken; one is a sign language.

"You should now understand the trade tongue, Ticceosian, and Ticceosian sign," she says.

"Now that I can finally say it properly, I'd like to welcome you to our plane. I apologize for the dreary scenery."

"Seen worse. Neuroi don't leave anything higher than a weed, some places."

"Thanks for the welcome. And that whole thing just goes again to show how different your magic is. For us, we just do it. No chanting or paper or anything."

"People who've dedicated themselves to practicing it can leave out some components; mostly the purpose is as a memory aid. That's interesting, though, and definitely sounds more like psion powers than our magic."

"Also, for us it's random who gets powers, about one in five hundred women, women specifically, and they show up when you're ten or twelve or so, and you can train to use your magic better but it's not something you can get or learn. Hiring some of your world's spellcasters could turn out to be very beneficial... If the teleporter who screwed up and sent us here manages to find us again, that is."

"It's possible one of our wizards will figure something out, we've made contact with new planes in the past. We do have spontaneous casters - sorcerers and oracles off the top of my head - who don't have to train to use magic initially. But, yes, that sort of collaboration would be great."

"For now it seems you have more immediate, blight-related problems to deal with. And like I said yesterday, since we can't fight the Neuroi from here, it's reasonable to fight the blight."

"I swore to defend people. Didn't swear to a specific people, or world."

"Boss promised me combat bonuses, so... Yeah."

"Thank you. There is a bounty for information on the Blight, and a further reward for actually doing anything about it - enough to keep even a large group comfortable for life. We greatly appreciate any volunteer efforts, but help isn't unrewarded." This Sparky sounds more like his sort of person; might make a good paladin someday, even, if training people from their world works out. He doesn't let any of his thoughts show on his face, though.

"Shall we get going, then?"

"Let's." He nods to Tess, who casts something - this involving words like the rustles of leaves in a tree and no spent objects. All color drains out of Lirhan, Emes, Raena, and Tess after Tess taps them, and they look like clouds shaped into strange forms.

"We can move at about sixty miles per hour like this," Lirhan says. "There shouldn't be anything flying around this far south if you three want to scout ahead, but - keep an eye out for giant flying fire-breathing reptiles, there used to be a colony up north that we lost contact with."

"Lovely. I'll keep them in mind. I bet they're not faster than Neuroi. They might be on the ground, though, and we're less practiced at spotting things there."

"Says you. I did all kindsa surveying runs countin' soldiers on the ground before radios were everywhere. I bet I can spot a giant lizard."

"I suggest we stay in a few kilometers of Lirhan's group and check in every few minutes. Patrol is about diligence and being in supporting range of each other is almost never a bad idea."

"Agreed. Well, up we go. -Wait, Lirhan, maybe your group should take one of our radios? We only have three, but they can talk to each other - at least until they run out of power."

"...What's a radio?"

"Device that sends signals with... Rays of light with a higher wave-length. It's technology. I don't think this language has proper words for it. But their range is pretty good - twenty kilometers or so. I don't know how much range Raena's telepathy has, is all."

"Her range is currently about four hundred thirty feet, so those're definitely much higher. Leaving one with us sounds like a good idea, definitely."

"You can have mine. Ghost goes off alone sometimes, and Cat's the squad leader, so I'm the obvious choice. Bad weather or obstacles like dips in the ground or thick tree cover can reduce the range, and they won't work much at all in caves or some buildings, so keep that in mind. Battery will last another eight hours, we have a total of five spare batteries - took inventory last night. Also, don't get it wet."

She hands it over - it's small enough to be worn on the head if you don't have a helmet - and demonstrates how to use it.

The team, after some discussion, leaves the radio with Emes, since she's going to be the least involved in any fights.

"Let's get moving, then. Standing around won't stop the blight."

The three witches take to the sky, keeping pace with Lirhan's party for the first while.

They move fairly quickly, though slower than the witches' maximum, Tess and Raena in front, Emes in the back.

The landscape is very, very thoroughly dead. There's patches of blighted trees around distant lakes and ponds, but not much else yet. Soon the plains start sloping down, and in the distance the witches can see what might be buildings nestled in a small and dead forest.

Grendyne reports this in a businesslike manner, slipping into jargon they're not familiar with before correcting herself, and asks if they want to check it out or pass by.

The group debates for a bit before deciding to check it out.

Sandra zips ahead and high above, invisible, to get a good bird's-eye look at the buildings. She's pretty good at this kind of thing. And has binoculars. Anything still moving down there?

Not at first, just plants rustling in the wind, but then she notices forms not moving with the others, and strange shadows inside the ruins.

Yep. Monsters.

How about a slightly closer look, only a couple hundred feet in the air? Can she get a number on the monsters?

It's hard to get an exact count, there's the occasional intact roof between her and the thing, but there's definitely more than their group. There's at least forty humanoid things, and some of the plants might be animate, too. All of the humanoids move with the same slow, stuttering gait, and look rotted, their clothes and flesh slowly sloughing off. Numerous bones, mostly of animals but some of humanoids, lie bleached in the sun.

She relays all this, plus the fact that she really doesn't like the odds of fighting forty-plus creatures at once, to Grendyne and Emes.

The team discusses it, then Emes returns with, "Sounds like zombies, mostly. Possibly a few more powerful variants, maybe an abhominal or several, but - our group could manage it. I could solo forty plain zombies with only minimal difficulties. The only problems that might crop up are if there's some more powerful animate skeletons. Both Lirhan and I can do a burst of holy damage that'll harm only undead within thirty feet of us, bad enough to kill weaker zombies. Tess can create a path of fire through them. Raena can handle anything we don't outright kill with that. And... Lirhan wants to lay this village to rest, so their spirits can move on. If there's plant creatures, 'lots of fire' remains an option, as does more exotic magic. This might also be a good chance for you all to get a sense of our abilities and tactics, at least in massed combat."

"Picking a fight we don't need to seems a bit stupid to me, but I'm getting paid to follow orders here."

"Laying the dead to rest isn't stupid. And she's right about getting a feel for each others' abilities. They say this is a relatively unchallenging enemy? All the better to get us introduced to local hazards, so we're going to help them fight. Now, I think us Witches are all best as ranged support. Magical blasts, our bows, the guns if we need them, flight. We don't train in melee combat, really. Sparky and I can both use lightning, if they're grouped up. I think we should all come together and talk out a detailed plan of attack."

"That works for us."

They meet up. Ghost is very good at scouting, drawing a detailed map of the area, locations of enemies, walking patterns, and so on from memory.

"...Now I admit when I plan engagements they're usually much bigger and with far more room for maneuvering so tell me if I suggest something stupid, but here's what I was thinking..."

Going in up close and personal will be important for Lirhan and Emes, since their bursts are centered on them; Raena can tag along within sprinting range of anything big. Tess decides to show off their wildshape, and fly above the village controlling a flaming sphere (which they have to stay within two hundred and ten-ish feet of right now) in the shape of... a large air elemental, why not, they were originally thinking a bird but an elemental will be able to handle the chance of aerial combat better. If the witches can do any low-cost area-of-effect spells, the time for that's in the early stages of the approach, before the fighters enter the melee. (Lirhan cautions against using anything too powerful right now; they want to conserve spells and energy in case there's more combat later).

They don't really have low-cost spells, they're all fairly expensive - or in the case of the bombs, non-renewable.

So Gren and Elanor will open up with a single blast of lightning, then reserve power and fly around firing on targets of opportunity with arrows.

Lirhan and Emes will be the leading and central force. Raena follows behind them, supporting. Tess flies above with Gren and Elanor.

Ghost will lurk invisibly in reserve and attack any enemy that the others seem unaware of or unable to handle.

"If things get too hot to handle, I bet we can pick you all up and fly off, or at absolute minimum cover a retreat. Mobility is probably a witch's best comparative advantage here."

"That would be helpful, other than Tess we're not exceptionally mobile."

"So we should identify lines of retreat on Ghost's map before going in, just in case."

"'Out the way we came in' will be easiest, undead are rarely intelligent enough to plan ambushes, or lurk in wait. We should probably start soon, we have the advantage while there's light."

"Useful, but we should still identify the approaches just in case. Old growth along this creek, so that's bad for running away. Looks like a clearing here, a road here, and another exit here to the north between this church and that barn if we somehow end up over there. Okay, okay, I'm done."

The team memorizes the map, then it's go time.

Lirhan and Emes do not make a point of hiding their approach, wading into the midst of the town, holy symbols raised, bursts of light rolling off of them and turning most of the zombies to dust. Raena tears through the more durable ones before they can reach the siblings. Tess turns into a vaguely humanoid ball of air and conjures an enormous ball of fire that they set to rolling among the buildings.

A dense flock of raven-like creatures, their bodies half decayed, erupts from one such building, scything towards the flyers. Tess sends a blast of fire into their center, destroying easily half of the ravens in one go.

The branching lightning bolts that Sparky and Copycat pour into the first line of non-trivial-looking creatures is certainly impressive enough. And the lightning she sends at the flying zombies- well, she has practice at zapping flying targets, though usually larger ones. The scent of charred zombie fills the air. After a few volleys they switch to arrows, mostly aiming for heads.

(Some of the arrows seem to come from nowhere, hitting enemies at the edge of the fracas. That'll be Ghost's doing.)

The arrows aren't as effective as they should be, and the zombies don't seem to notice the difference between being shot in the head or the abdomen, but they do enough damage to slow things down.

The ground team finishes clearing the easy targets within twenty seconds.

The tough targets barely take any longer (especially since several of them are on fire courtesy of Tess).

And/or blasted to bits courtesy of the Witches.

When nothing in sight and hostile is still moving anymore, ever diligent, Grendyne commands, "Witches, circle and check for stragglers!"

Lirhan concentrates, feeling for the aftershocks of evil, the auras like slime against his skin, and runs a loose search pattern.

Between him and the witches they're able to flush out stragglers, mostly immobile ones, or ones damaged by Tess's fires but not killed.

When they're not maybe about to be ambushed by hostiles showing up late, she relaxes a lot. "That went well! You guys are very good at fighting groups, it seems. We have more experience chasing down single targets."

"Yeah, most of the time what we're dealing with is hordes of undead attempting to pour over the border. We can do massive individual damage, and my smite ability is actually more useful for a few big targets, but the easiest thing is groups."

"Witches are snipers, chasers, assassins for the fastest Neuroi. The ground-pounders with their artillery guns and mine fields are the ones who fight groups, in our world. Specialization, you know."

"We do have bombs if we need to hit a group of something very hard. It's just that we can't get any more so it'd better be worth it."

"Yeah, I suspect unless we're near the end it won't be worth it. ...It might be worth it to return to the capitol and find an alchemist to arm you with something similar. They don't do much compared to high level spells, but dropped from on high they'll be good for thinning out masses without wasting spells."

"We're carrying most of a full load already, between bombs and bullets and other gear. If we have to use a lot of it, then that will be a good idea - but until then probably not."

"...Do you guys have bags of holding? The smaller kind aren't too heavy."

"...No. We don't have magic items, generally speaking. They sound potentially useful though?"

"I think we have some spare, in case we came across anything we needed to bring back..." There's a bit of searching, and Tess does have a small bag of holding they can shift things out of. "We'd need to hit the capitol for anything else, but this will hold up to two-hundred fifty pounds or thirty cubic feet of something, while never weighing more than fifteen pounds. If it's anywhere close to full it can take about six seconds to get something out of it, so it's not good for storing weapons. - Also never place one in a portable hole, that ends poorly."

"Useful! We could store some of the bombs in there. If we drop eighty pounds each the increase in maneuverability won't be huge but won't be nothing. If we have to use the bombs we'll probably have enough warning to get them out and mount them again. How expensive are they? ...Our money won't translate well, will it? Hm."

"...I suspect that without enormous caches of gold and valuable magic items lying around guarded by various terrors your world has a very different economy than ours. A small bag of holding is probably about two thousand five hundred gold. In comparison, an inn stay would range from a fifth of a gold to two gold a night. I have about ten thousand gold ready to spend, and more in assets, because I've been doing this a long time, and adventurers are allowed by law to keep the spoils they find with a few rare exceptions. If you're helping with the Blight, I'd be willing to pay for gear, especially since I have a wizard friend willing to sell me things for three-quarters the market price."

"A stay in a nice inn costs... Eight pounds or so, I think. So I will estimate that four pounds is one gold. I don't think it's urgently necessary to get more bags of holding."

"We might also find more resources during our adventures. ...Emes and I should also go ahead and consecrate this town before we move on."

While they do that, Elanor watches curiously.

The other two witches stick a few bombs and lots of spare ammo into the bag of holding, and then Gren puts it inside a small compartment on her Steelwing.

Consecration apparently involves walking around the perimeter of the town, each going in the opposite direction to the other, seven times, while chanting in a language the witches haven't been taught. A light slowly builds, until both Lirhan and Emes finish their loops and turn to walk towards the center of town. They kneel across from each other, Lirhan driving the point of his sword into the ground, Emes merely touching it. The entire town glows in a faint golden sheen, then - changes. The bodies and skeletons sink into the welcoming ground, the plants no longer move so unnaturally. It feels more abandoned than cursed. The whole affair took ten minutes.

Lirhan straightens and sighs while his sister stands.

"Curses are usually easier to dispel than that," he explains when he reaches the witches. "The Blight, though - it's tough. Stubborn. Requires a full-blown ritual for each tiny space instead of a simple spell... Tess will go through after us and - sort of pour life into the area. Not quite a full hallowing, we don't have the time for that, but it should hold back the Blight and help nature reclaim this area."

"There's quite a lot of land to do that to. It'll take a while. As far as I know the Neuroi miasma we have to deal with is supposedly just a chemical that is poisonous to most vertebrates. All the official sources say it's not magic, there's no curse to lift."

"It's stronger in areas that used to hold life; we're hoping that consecrating the places where it's strongest will make it easier to push back once the source is destroyed. It's possible, too, that we'll be able to break the curse entirely at the center; weakening the curse ahead of time will reduce what we have to do later."

"Well, you're the local experts. I've studied ballistics, chemistry, physics, mechanical engineering, strategy - but not a type of magic we've never even heard of."

"Well, I haven't studied most of those things, either, so I suppose we're even. Not many people know much concrete about the Blight, though, it's entirely possible it'll require a greater miracle or something of similar power."

"Not to criticize her overmuch, she's a good leader in combat - but Cat's plan is likely just going to be 'blow it up'."

"...That might work if there's someone actively maintaining the Blight, who does not have a phylactery and is not merely an avatar of a greater power. It's more likely that the source is an artifact, which can be... Difficult to destroy, or that the source is a curse and not anything physical."

"I know the recipe for thermite. Which burns spectacularly hot. Most of the way to the temperature of the sun kinds of hot. Would take some doing to mix it up and it is not stuff you want to play around with, though."

"- Difficult to destroy as in you need to do things like, for the Book of Infinite Planes, rip a page out and leave it on every known plane except it releases a catastrophe each time you do that. I don't think anyone's ever tried throwing an artifact in the sun, I have no idea what thermite would do to one. Probably nothing good for its surroundings."

"And you don't even destroy things in the way I know how to do. Oh well. Perhaps I should visit a library."

"That... Might be good. The thermite would probably work on anything else, it's just that artifacts usually have unusual and often divine or profane origins. ...If you ever see anything that looks particularly evil-ish, like let's say a book made of human skins, don't touch it. Actually don't touch anything that looks particularly divine, either, even good artifacts sometimes object to wielders. Or anything very blatantly magical or strange."

"I'll keep it in mind... Should we be moving on now that this place is consecrated?"

"Yeah, we still have time before we need to set up camp."

Meanwhile, Emes approaches Ghost.

"Hey, can I talk to you for a bit?" she asks.

Ghost is collecting arrows off the ground. "...If you must."

"Are you alright with this mission?"

"What, with killing the Blight? Sure. It seems like it's destroying everything - just like the goddamn Neuroi. And it doesn't seem all that much more dangerous than fighting Neuroi so far. So for the same pay as before, which Cat's promised to get me one way or another, I'll still do it."

"And if our opponent turns out to be sapient and offers you greater pay? Not even necessarily in riches."

"Pff. Depends what exactly's on offer and how obviously evil and inevitably going to betray me they are. Switching sides at the drop of a hat is a bad rep to have so it'd have to be good, but you can't trust people who're used to being in charge. Nobles, merchants, priests, banks - they don't even notice the little folk they end up stepping on."

...It's possible she shouldn't mention being the princess.

"Gods are probably worse for that; Lirhan certainly seems to have enough of a problem with most of them. Our nation also doesn't have nobility in the way our neighbors do - inheritance is usually tied to how much divine favor you have. Which. Since divine favor of our particular pantheon is usually gained by helping people and lost by harming them, means there's a good bit of pressure to not be an ass. And while it's possible to be a powerful divine spellcaster and an atheist, it's noticeable if you have the favor of an evil god. Evil gods... Tend to be strength based. They rarely betray their followers, but they might abandon someone weak, and they wouldn't protect you from their other followers. Liches, which this might be, are about as varied as evil beings come. Some are chronic backstabbers, some like setting everything on fire because it's funny, some are out for themselves, some have a strict code of honor." And if this is a life-force sapping artifact like she suspects, anyone who can control it is liable to become immortal. Not that she's going to mention that, wouldn't want competition. Or to give warning.

"Pretty sure I just want to get enough to buy out my contract an' move to Albion and be a courier. And not die. And not get involved with gods."

"...Our opponent probably isn't an evil god, but it is possible. If buying out your contract's all you want, the reward for fighting the Blight will more than cover it, unless your contract exceeds the wealth of a small country."

"That's the goal, yep. Buy out the contract that has me risking my life, have enough left over to live it up a little. This is new and probably more dangerous than what I was doin' before - but also an opportunity. One last mission and I could be done. Shiny magic toys or sticking it to the debtors' prisons some way or another would be nice, but you can't have everything and I don't wanna risk my neck for lesser goals when what I'm trying for is the ability to not risk my neck anymore, ya know?"

...Ghost appears not to have noticed that this realm doesn't exactly have extradition treaties with her homeland. Well, Emes is hardly going to be the one to mention it.

And, hey - "Yeah. In a way, that's what I'm after long-term, too."

"I'm not quite as simple as all that, of course, hardly anyone is, but that's most of what you need to know about me." Shrug.

"I could just disappear into the wilderness right now, or any time in the last year or two, but that sounds like a great way to farm turnips for the rest of my life and get mauled by a bear one day. If I'm gonna retire, it'd better be with some gold... And there's always the chance that we lose the war against the Neuroi after all - or against the Blight, it would be here, and I die anyway."

"World-threatening disasters are rather inconvenient."

"I will say this about the Neuroi War, it's done wonders for the way Witches get treated. Also weapons technology."

"Convenient. The Blight hasn't had nearly as many good effects; magic's getting blamed for the whole thing in the first place, and we're losing heroes - especially lower-tiered ones. We used to have a few high-tier people other than the Queen; the Queen's always been the most powerful in the nation, but she's only sixteenth tier, and by now this group includes a solid portion of the eleventh-tier individuals. There's no one really between our level and the Queen's anymore, and I can actually now keep count of the people we have above fifth tier. - Tiers indicate power level and the strength of your spells, which's actually quantifiable. The highest recorded maximum is twentieth tier, though there's legends of higher tiers. Maybe we can import some technology from your world, it sounds easier to train someone in than wizardry."

"We don't have tiers, unless you count military rank. And, oh, definitely, you can learn to use a gun badly in a couple of hours. You can learn to use a gun well in a week, if you really want to. Compared to archery? Like eating cake. And the big, fancy guns are scary. You'll see if we have to cut up something with the emgees our 'wings have. Plus, there's radio, railroads, bombs, steam-ships, and so on."

"Wizardry takes years for someone capable of casting the most basic spells. Half of tier one never get to tier two. The army'd definitely benefit from some good weapons, especially if the Blight ends up leaving remnants hanging around. And I think the halflings will be plenty eager to reclaim their land once given the tools, our border guard's already half foreign."

"Witches can't be trained or made at all. Tech's pretty good stuff, probably, though. Never went to school for this stuff or I'd tell you more. You don't need your debtor-slave to know how materials engineering works, they just need to know how to carry shit from one place to the next and press buttons on machines. And since I got out of there and into the army, all I learned was how to fly and shoot and scout."

"- I think we might cross-train our people more, basic magical theory is, well, basic. Even most spellcasters can't make magical items, but mundane things it's good to know how it works. Of course, if your world's all humans, you might not have as much time for that sort of thing."

"Humans and witches for however much we count as different, yeah. Also, tech is complicated and most of it's new, but I take your point."

"Yeah, Ticceosia's mostly elves. Some other races, Lirhan's an elven tiefling for instance, Tess is half human, Raena's a wolf, but we're a lot longer lived than humans overall."

"Well, that's one mystery solved." She finishes gathering up arrows. "Don't suppose you have anything for eternal youth? Keep our witches powerful enough to actually do anything for longer?"

"...Wouldn't call it eternal youth, the only known path to immortality turns you into a withered husk. ...And involves mass murder." And she'd rather not be practically a skeleton. "There's advanced spells that can do deaging, so you appear and can act younger, but it's - artificial. You'll still drop dead around the same age you would have anyways, just with less warning." She thinks for a moment. "You could also become a god, those don't die easily, but that's near impossible."

"...A lot of us would still find that worthwhile, if it keeps us magical for longer. Witches have to retire by thirty-five or forty, most of the time. The power just evaporates, and it's linked to youth."

Hmm... She tries to remember what she knows about other people's spells. "It's not something I or Lirhan can do, but Tess and a wizard I know should be able to do it, assuming they know the spell... Tess can also reincarnate people into a closely related body even if they died of old age, and they come back young usually. Sufficiently powerful alchemists can reportedly stop aging; we used to have one like that, who was instead assassinated when my mother was a child."

"Worth investigating. You'll have a lot of folks who'll pay well, if it can keep us our Witchy powers for longer. Reincarnation would be nice too, but... I dunno, it feels dicier, somehow?"

"Yeah, if your magic cares what body you're in..."

"Can't say it's a well-explored topic. You won't find me volunteering. Well, unless I'm dead anyway, then I wouldn't mind even if I lost my magic."

"Makes sense. Any experiments would be on the already dead, regardless."

"I always thought having opinions on what happens after you're dead was a bit silly. God - the one, true god that so many folks from our neck of the woods believe in - doesn't seem to actually exist or do anything to you once you're dead as far as I could tell. Probably different here."

"Yeah, our gods are fairly active. Answer prayers, grant miracles, that sort of thing, and Aneas and Genaris, sister goddesses of the mountains and the hunt respectively, have been holding back the Blight from their territory, to the point where it's actually curling around the mountains a bit. Yashna, our death goddess, sent an actual avatar at one point during a particularly strong surge of undead. And the dead can be spoken to and their realms visited if you're powerful enough. Lirhan would probably hate your God, he has a strong objection to deities that don't do anything with their power."

"If he even exists." She glances at her two teammates, talking with Lirhan. "Don't tell Sparky I said that, though."

"Even Lirhan probably can't hold a grudge against an imaginary deity, true, not existing does tend to put a damper on philanthropy."

"Everyone has grudges. Logical or not." She finishes packing the arrows away and looks at Emes a bit blankly.

Emes takes the hint, makes her excuses, bids Ghost a good day, and goes to find something else to do.

Then Ghost can go see if there's anything lootable left in the abandoned houses. Invisibly where necessary to avoid detection. Probably not, but she's an experienced scrounger, she should be able to find something. Tolerable food left over in pantries? Hidden cellars? Abandoned jewelry? Heck, even scrap pots and pans?

This wasn't exactly a rich village, and most things even remotely organic are at best decayed scraps, but there's the occasional piece of heirloom jewelry, and most people seem to have been able to afford iron pots and pans. There's a little music box still intact, that plays a haunting tune when opened, with no apparent need to be wound up, and a few metal children's toys with minor magical quirks in the largest house in town - this one glows when shaken, that one plays a cheery tune when handled, a third is a tube that shows exploding stars when looked through.

Magic toys and magic music box make her a little... Wary.

She notes the place as decent for scrap iron from cookware, if that becomes relevant, then hides away most of the jewelry and a couple of the better pots, and shows the magical toys to her boss, who's talking to Tess and Raena.

"...Well, I'd need to look at them for a while to get a good sense of what they do. The magic here is so very different. Fascinating, though."

Tess looks them over. "Shouldn't do anything dangerous, though I can't be certain the Blight hasn't corrupted them somehow. Probably would be best to leave them here or take them to someone trained in appraisal for evaluation. Emes might have a better idea than me, though."

"I'd say leave them here, at least for now. It's not like we have much immediate use for any of these and we're going to move on soon."

Ghost shrugs and says "'Kay, boss," and walks off somewhere.

"Anyways, what was it you'd wanted to talk to me about?"

"Druidic magic sounds really interesting! With the - connection with nature stuff."

"It's nice! I like being able to just talk to parts of nature. The offer to learn magic was actually what tempted me towards civilization, rather than spending my life just running with my pack."

"Civilization is pretty nice in some ways, but I do think - cities and workshops and universities and books and timetables and shipping and business and bureaucracy... Whether it's worth it, I don't know, but we're losing something. I grew up on a farm, helping my dad gather and trap in the woods some..."

"I find it all stressful, personally. This sort of thing - wandering into the unknown with my team at my back - is more my speed."

"There's something to be said for a good team, open wilderness, and a clear goal, yeah. The comforts of civilization - I like them, but I don't think I'll ever be really used to it. A big city is a world with a power and beauty all its own, some ways."

"This place will be wonderful once the Blight's gone and the life has a chance to return. I never got a chance to see it, before it fell. It'll be good for everyone."

"I hope the same of my homeland. The Neuroi have it, for now..."

"Once the Blight's done, I'll do what I can to help. The others likely will, as well."

"It's a big, big fight. We'll see, hopefully."

"We'll be more powerful by then, too, and without the Blight taking her attention my wizard friend will also be available to help."

"You haven't seen the Neuroi. We're losing. Badly. It's gotten better, mostly thanks to all the new tech Defense Innovations is pumping out... But then again, you guys are obviously pretty powerful, in ways that we aren't. I'll certainly be thinking about it."

"With any luck we'd be the solutions to each other's problems. And - we're a bit over halfway to our potential. Emes and my wizard friend especially are going to get ridiculous as we grow."

"Precogs are pretty ridiculous... Wait, shit, that's technically a state secret. Aww..."

"It's cool, I won't spread it around. We have divination, though it's - rather astoundingly cryptic. Though I think some psions can get combat-limited precog? I can divine the weather, that's about it for now. Emes has already tried to look forward on this, but there's some kind of divination-blocking magic involved."

"...State secrets and all, but that sounds pretty similar to what I've heard about witch-based divination, yes."

"Not too surprised, yeah."

Before they move on again, Elanor finds a chance to ask Lirhan in a roundabout way what he thinks about God... She seems to be referring to just one.

"All but a few of them could stand to be doing more. The sister goddesses of the mountains, the hunt, and the sea are the only three leveraging their full power against the Blight - Ostehe's also helping in other ways, she looks out for the lost, but she doesn't have much direct power. Yashna sent an avatar to help with one overwhelming fight, but she doesn't get much direct veneration so isn't as powerful despite her position as Queen of the Restful Dead. Aeirshiy, the sun father, could send an avatar and solve this entirely, but other than answering prayers he's doing jack. Our god of war might as well not exist. Does your world only have the one deity?"

"I was raised in the Catholic faith. Catholics and other Christians, Jews, Orthodox, even Islamic peoples all agree that there is one God, whatever other rules we hold different. Most of the other major religions hold that there are many, but surely when more than half of all people in the world believe in something it will have a ring of truth to it? Having a larger domain and no divine allies, perhaps He is busier than the god - gods - here. For while tales of His miracles are easy to come by and I personally believe He is what grants Witches their magic, He rarely directly answers prayers or sends his servants, the angels, to people in recent times."

"Huh. Ours definitely exist to some extent, it's their true nature that's debated - and not widely, it's mostly theologians arguing. I think there's a sect that thinks the gods are messengers or fragments of something greater? There's also a sect that insists they're all ascended mortals, and that anyone powerful enough could become one, but that sounds... Incredibly unlikely, the gap between a god and even the most powerful of mortals is insurmountable. But the general consensus is that each has existed as long as or longer than their portfolio - either than they came into existence at the same moment, or that they created it - and that gods with overlapping portfolios either share responsibility or are the same deity in different guises."

"Hm. I may want to read religious texts along with literally everything else in your library, now."

"It's certainly a complicated field. The university library has a lot, or the royal library."

"It feels strange and uncomfortable to have... What I believe called into question. The fact that we are in a different world - well, I would like to learn and observe. When there's not an urgent job to do."

"Yeah. I went through that for a while, too. I wouldn't be surprised if different worlds had different deities, but I wouldn't be surprised if they were the same, either. But for now, the gods are largely irrelevant - we're on our own out here, and the Blight won't end itself."

"Faith alone is not enough. Yes. Let's pick up the pace a bit?"

"Certainly."

Ghost makes a map and sarcastically comments on the blasted terrain as they proceed.

Talking in the wind-form is a bit awkward but can be managed. 

The next while is largely uneventful, the landscape still a blasted remnant of its former glory - they pass more destroyed villages and burned out homesteads, most simply dead or empty, which Lirhan and Emes cleanse. After the third village, Tess and Emes summon creatures - Tess a massive number of animals, Emes more unnatural things - to help gather any corpses and bones and take care of any fighting. (Lirhan's of the opinion that the empty villages are due to how relatively close they are to the non-mountain border - the undead attacking have to be from somewhere). 

Witches clean their gear and guns and keep a flying lookout. They're not used to this sort of long slog, short fast dangerous missions before returning to a comfy base were the norm. But they're coping.

The land marches on under them, flying allowing them to bypass most of the wandering monsters - until there's a rumbling roar, and something takes to the skies in the distance.

Lirhan curses. "We might want to speed up, that looks a lot like a bone dragon."

"...Yes, that sounds like something we do not want to fight."

Unfortunately spells like Cheetah's sprint don't stack well, so they just pick up to max speed, zooming along.

The dragon seems about as fast as they are, at least on a sprint.

Worrying. "Bones don't get tired, do they? If we're going to have to fight it, I want to get some altitude. My idea is you guys tie it up for a bit if you can, hold it for a bit, we boom-and-zoom it. If it goes after us in the air we can split up and get the drop on it that way. What all can bone dragons do?"

"That might work. And for abilities - it depends on how it was made. If it's a skeleton, it'll have claws, teeth, and possibly a breath weapon in a line or cone. If it's a dracolich, it's going to have powerful magic and lich abilities - like regenerating after death."

"Bombs should be effective either way, hopefully. Ghost-"

"Yeah, yeah, boss." She turns invisible and peels away, going high and trying to get a look at the "bone dragon".

It is certainly a flying monster made of bones, wisps of a dark purple fire trailing off it. Flames swirl in its empty eye sockets, and it turns its head to track her as she grows closer, apparently contemplating the relative advantages of this little snack versus the group it's trailing. It's well over seventy feet from the nose to the start of the tail, which is easily as long again as the main body.

"...It can see me. Guys. It can see me. Fuck this."

She peels away at high speed.

"...Shit. A True Seeing power suggests dracolich."

"Glowy and creepy too. Auuuuugh."

"...You think a dive bombing run is still our best bet?"

He glances to Emes (the more scholarly of the two), who says, "I'd avoid getting too close, it can paralyze people with its gaze - exact range unknown, likely between thirty and sixty feet. At that size its breath weapon is probably a seventy-foot-cone or hundred-and-forty-foot-line of unknown damage type. It is probably a spellcaster. It is probably a much better spellcaster than any of us, if you can kill it from - hm, a greater range than one thousand and two hundred feet - I'd suggest doing that, most spells don't have a wider range than that. It is also going to be intelligent, and if it's actually a dracolich - killing it won't put it down permanently, and might be more likely to make it mark us as enemies, but also might trap it in its phylactery or force it to move to a weaker body, colossal dragon corpses can't be easy to find. Dive bombing it - if you can surprise it and cross that distance in under six seconds, its reaction time is probably slower than yours, assuming it doesn't have - I don't even know, bullshit like Time Stop memorized."

"Your magic is kind of scary, you know. Bombing accuracy and speed suffers a lot if we have to do it from twelve-hundred. That's level bombing. A good dive-bombing profile is six seconds of dive, release weapons at four or five hundred feet, pull up and zoom away in another six to ten seconds. And we only have so many bombs. I do have my lightning, range two to three hundred, but I have no idea how much good that will do."

"I really wish I could copy some of you lot's stuff. Maybe it'll click with practice."

"- The chances of it having a long-range offensive spell it can cast that fast are low, the dive-bombing might work. Making it very clear we're not mice might work, too. The lightning might make that clear, might risk not injuring it fast enough to keep it from catching up with you. This thing is easily twice the weight class we usually punch in, I only know theory about how to even kill one." And a lot more theory than usual admittedly, and fucking hell now she wants a close look at its phylactery - "Though if we kill it instead of chasing it off, we'll have an opportunity to find its core and keep it dead." Or figure out the unfortunately unwritten process for lichdom.

"How sure are you guys this thing even wants to kill us? I mean, it's flying toward us and looks creepy, but, like, Zulu raiders look creepy and most of the time they just posture at each other and then go home."

"I am deferring to local expertise on this one, Ghost. Emes, hitting fast and hard and then running way is what we're good at. I'm inclined to go with the dive-bombing plan."

"Lichdom is a process that involves consuming souls to maintain and increase power and immortality. Potentially it's bored, and running away makes us fun to chase, at the end of which it plans to bat us around like a cat with a mouse. Potentially we entered its territory and it's making sure we leave. Potentially we look tasty."

"...Yeah, being at the mercy of a soul-consumer sounds like a bad plan. I want to try and alpha-strike this thing. Okay. So. My idea is, us three split off and keep flying until we find some clouds. We go high and maintain position over the dracolich. You three keep leading it, if possible set up some kind of damaging or slowing ambush or trap. When the time seems right and the dracolich is focused on you, all three of us make a dive-bombing attack and release two fifty-pound bombs. I have trouble imagining that it can shrug off three hundred pounds of boom. If it's still alive, it'll be extremely pissed off. So we circle around and make our best remaining attacks with guns, mana-blasts, and lightning, and you guys join us. Kill it fast or we're not going to kill it at all."

"We can do that. Enough summons in its path should at least slow it down, or force it to use up limited resources like spells. I also remember reading a trick someone managed, summoned a wall in front of a group of dragons during the last war - most of the bigger ones are slow to turn. We can pull something similar."

(Fortunately, there's clouds about here and there, mostly high over their position - it's the sort of day that's neither perfectly clear nor overcast, but hovering calmly in the middle.)

This sucks. Not that fighting Neuroi was much better, but she mostly understands the threat Neuroi pose.

She wants to run away. Far, far away from this blight-zone and pawn some of the stuff she looted from that town and just carry packages or something. But she'd still be in the land of weird unknown crazy dangerous magic, and if anyone comes to the rescue of Cat, she won't be nearly as high on their list of priorities. And she won't have backup or anything without them.

Uuuuugh.

She forms up with the other two high in the sky, tense but quiet.

There are ways to make yourself less likely to be noticed while flying. They try to stay between the sun and the dragon, and behind clouds besides. Elanor stays in radio contact with Emes, checking in every couple of minutes. The three flyers settle in to cruise and wait for the perfect opportunity, assuming the dragon doesn't notice them and come after them, that is.

The dragon seems to have decided that the party now throwing flying summons and walls of fire (which it just barrels through) is much more interesting, at least.

They do not appear to be injuring it. At all. Even with magical attacks.

(If the dragon sees the fliers it isn't bothering tracking them.)

Well, this attack is all or nothing. Sadly, that's not a new feeling.

"Down we go, girls. Emes, if you can slow it more, now."

The dive run is set to lead the dragon just a little bit, diving out of the sun. Eighteen hundred feet. Fifteen hundred. Eleven hundred...

The dragon slows down a little, courtesy of a rather large air elemental that Emes throws in its face.

It doesn't seem to be paying much attention to the witches.

"Bombs away, pull up up up-" They zoom off to the side of the dragon, missing by less than 200 feet, enduring the G-forces and immediately going to get altitude back.

Six tightly packed metal canisters of boom fall, whistling slightly. One hits the back of the bone dragon's head. One misses and explodes on the ground twenty feet away from it. One hits its left leg. Three hit its torso. All of them explode.

It roars, thrashing and flailing mid-air. Its ribs are heavily damaged, its skull nearly destroyed. It catches itself before it falls, tattered wings whipping wide, and arcs around, shaking its head -

And then turning, and starting to fly away to the north.

"Guys, it's running. But no more bombs. Pursue and go for a kill, or leave off?"

A quick back and forth, and "I'd leave off, it's unlikely to be able to heal itself at all quickly, and we don't want it turning around."

"You're the experts. That thing is damned tough, though. Let's head back, girls, but stay alert."

The dragon slowly dwindles into the distance.