[Area] The Lethean Dream

Upon the appearance of snow, the majority of the group begins complaining out of habit. Raphael switches to wearing a powerpad cloak instead of his usual ragged and bloody cape.

Thoren gives a signal for the group to halt. it takes a moment for the command to ripple through, but with minimal trouble, they manage to stop.
He walks close enough to the girl with the doll to speak, but not too much closer.

"Hello. I am Thoren of the Dead Seths and we are simply passing through to get to Gintopolis. We are planning to fight against the specters that have made their way there. I apologize for any ...ruckus we might cause through here."
He keeps it simple and formal, not really focusing on anything until the end of the introduction. He notices the doll. It seems to have a striking resemblance to a Certain Someone. Almost instinctively, he steps back slightly and covers his chest with his arms, especially over the patch. A familiar flash of fear freezes him in place for a couple seconds.
"...where did you get that, if I may ask?"

Meanwhile, the shopkeeper of their group takes off his large bag and pulls out a handful of captchalogue cards containing various weapons, preparing to show them to the pajama girl.
"Since we're out of the fog now, you can check out the selection here a little better now."

Hearing a familiar voice, as well as a confirmation of his harmlessness, Thoren relaxes a bit.
The little guy is strongly on their side apparently.
Made up by one of the Kats, specifically Ophelia. It seems she knew at least one of them pretty well, judging from how accurate his personality seems to be compared to an original. It seems a little odd that he would almost refer to her as his mom, but then again, it almost makes too much sense, with one of the main kats literally being known by the alias Ananke (Ananke was Chronos's wife in Greek mythology, though it seems more just a cool reference than anything in this context).
Seth is kinda weirded out by the implications. He seems to be asleep at the moment, but not close enough to manifest nearby.

Returning his thoughts back to the situation, Thoren seems to pity Shade's situation. He's been reduced to a floppy doll that can't fight physically for fuck's sake. To be that weak... it must be a fucking nightmare.
Thoren hadn't felt helpless since his meteor hideout days, shared with Raphael as well. But what they do remember of it was the worst time of their life. Maybe he could try to teach Shade some magic attacks to defend himself with.
"Hey, Shade. I might be able to teach you some magic spells to make up for what you've lost in your encounters." He raises a finger and lights a dark flame on the end of it like a lighter. Remembering his current form might be too flammable, he waves his hand in a small circle and switches the dark flame to a small amorphous wavering plume of darkness. "You're free to travel with us regardless." Thoren dispels his dark magic display and smiles.

Hearing something potentially strategically useful, he follows up on it.
"Why are they being aggressive?"

Meanwhile, the shopkeeper patiently waits for the pajama girl's choice, explaining the features as well as he can.
"They should all be a reasonable price. I still need to figure out the exchange rates, but at least in boondollars they shouldn't be anywhere over 4000, and that currency tends to work like pennies so that would be around 40 bucks give or take."

"We're willing to help however we can." Thoren nods with confidence as the shivering crowd behind him seems to be agreeing, though perhaps they're just shaking to get out of the cold.
"Can we get the fuck out of Iceland already? I think my hair froze stiff!" A generic seth complains.
"Who the fuck cares about your hair? My coat won't move." Another probably generic seth nearby with a very thick padded trenchcoat retorts.
"Well of course it won't, you lined the pockets with macaroni and cheese. I still don't understand why you'd do something like that."
"Hey, I was buried in macaroni. It makes me feel at home."
"...I'm not gonna question it. Your funeral I guess. Doubt anybody showed up for it though."
"...fuck you and your frozen hair."
The macaroni seth faces away from the frozen hair seth and flips him off.

Thoren listens to his crew's complaints for a moment before returning to business.
"Shade, after this mission, we can probably start some training. For now though, we should focus on the matters at hand. The army is getting restless in this frigid location. Us seths aren't known for handling cold temperatures very well. We should all get a move on soon before some of them freeze in place or something else ridiculous like that."

Meanwhile, over with the shopkeeper, he seems quite ecstatic to have a new customer.
"You're going with the whip? That'll be... 2000 boons. I'd have to get some price comparisons between areas to get the price converted properly, but that's the usual price at the main store location."
He uncapchalogues the whip and holds it in front of the pajama girl. It looks about as expected from the thumbnail picture on the card. A moderately long black leather whip with a glowing spiral along the handle area, currently glowing red in the shopkeepers hands.

After a moment of examination, the shopkeeper accepts the coins, placing them in a pocket on his apron. He happily hands over the whip.
Upon being accepted by the pajama girl, the spiral along the handle changes to her color. It feels like it belongs to her now.
"It's a pleasure doing business with you." The shopkeeper smiles as he prepares to put the pack back on, putting the captchalogue cards away.

Thoren follows Noelle and Shade, beckoning the army to resume travelling. "Everyone! Get your frozen asses in gear! We're moving now!"
The seths shake off the frost and eventually resume walking forwards.

So far there have been minimal losses to the group, and so far only by virtue of impassable boundaries and lack of interest. They have been growing in the amount of kats accompanying them at every turn.
Thoren seems confident still, but a bit wary of the unknown dangers ahead. They still have yet to face a single specter in battle, after all.

A couple confused conjurings of fire. Thoren laughs a little. Did he try to copy his display from earlier? He's got the technique in such an ass-backwards way it's a miracle it even worked for him. He seems quite excited over there regardless. Kat's there, though something seems different... but familiar.
Thoren can feel Seth calling out for him now. A request to examine a kat for some reason.
Not really liking the fact that Noelle is probably christmas-themed, he focuses on a different kat. There's enough of them around here for sure.

Why does Seth need to know these things? Doesn't he already have a perfectly good Kat there for him up there? He wonders if there's one out there tha-NO NOT SENDING THΔT ONE. He cuts off that thought before it sends completely. He can't just let all of his unachievable hopes and dreams just be out there for others to use against him. He can't let that happen.
Finished with that errand, he focuses again on the current situation. It seems his army is gathering quite a bit of attention.
Good.
That way their deeds will be known to this land. The kats will tell the story of how their domain was saved by the seths one day.

Thoren is alerted by the odd noisy thing zooming by. He tries to look about for the source while continuing to walk on the path. It seems too fast to keep up with.
"...What was that?!"

"So it begins."
Thoren mentally prepares himself for battle. It's difficult with Seth being so gushy on the other end. He's really proud of being able to conjure fire, even if it was something laughably puny. Suddenly, a spike in realizational backlash. He doesn't want to be seen as a fool for being tricked, so it seems he took it out verbally on somebody in the area that isn't Kat.
Thoren flinches for a second, feeling as if a door was slammed in his face. Trying to recover, he attempts to refocus. The moment passes and he's again able to focus. Seth is trying to make himself look better in front of Kat. Thoren pushes those messages aside and gets back to thinking about the tasks ahead. He and his men will be fighting together soon. Finally, a moment to shine.

Thoren prepares a small hot ember in his hand for later, continuing to walk down the path.

Thoren stands his ground, letting the flame in his hand grow to the size of a baseball.
He looks back to address his army.
"This is what we've been waiting for! Get your weapons ready!" Thoren resumes staring down the many-eyed regret orbs, blazing fire in hand. The seths pull out their various weapons, mostly scythes, though some have shotguns and other assorted things at hand. The pianist begins playing the battle theme from final fantasy 7 on his piano.
After a moment of preparation, Thoren signals the group.
"Attack!" He launches a fireball straight at the closest regret orb and the seths begin rushing forwards, into proper range.
The gunners stay back a bit, though cannot find an opening to shoot at. The closer range seths with scythes begin attempting to stab out as many of their eyes as possible.

Chestnut puts his chest-on-wheels into high gear and zooms straight into the fray.
"Get out of the way, I'm going in!"
A couple of the other seths give enough space for him to get a good hit at ramming speed. He continues on his collision course straight onwards.
Thoren stays near the back, continuing to issue orders to whomever can hear them, while chucking fireballs when he can get a decent hit.