You know, as long as Thuun is in touch range, he can heal you with a very nice dynamic bonus. And since there’s blood, I’d be happy to allow touch range Life magic to be from an inch or two above the wound to avoid Thuun going the way of Cyrus.
Prematurely, anyway.
- Turn 35: The Epilogue of Cnoc Adh -
One dead demon, one unburied priest. Seems all is in order…Remain still. Try not to injure myself further.
"Well... at least I'm not... quite buried alive anymore. That's nice. Did you... all kill the... demon, mayhap?" you rasp around your broken ribs, trying to lie in one spot on the ground. You hurt pretty much all over but as long as you don’t move too much it doesn’t seem too bad.
"Oh thank the waves you're all right! I was afraid I'd have bad luck for a year," the sailor answers, seeming most relieved. You can’t quite tell if he’s relieved just because of his superstitions or if he actually does feel concern towards you. But that’s a thought for another time. Right now, most of your energy is focused on staying conscious.
"Yeah, we did," Baldur responds to your unanswered question. He’s busily wiping blood from his broken sword. You guess he’s the one who finally did for the monster, although the miniature avalanche undoubtedly helped.
"Pretty unsurprising, I guess. If you monologue that much, how can you not turn out to be a total wuss, after all?” you shrug and immediately regret it. Apparently your shoulders do not appreciate that. “Make sure to... steal anything... he's got on him... by the way. You never know what... you'll find on these... demon corpses, you know?" You secretly hope for more crystals, even though they tried to drive you mad.
"Later. I'm grabbing the life mage," Baldur remarks, ambling towards the village’s main gate. His greatsword is sheathed in its sling across his back now.
"Oh, don't be silly. You're not supposed to do that until after you hear the explosion.” Just outside the gate, you hear a muffled sneeze. You put it out of your mind. “He's probably alright if you haven't heard one. I mean, how much trouble could he possibly get into that doesn't involve mass destruction of some kind?” you remark to whoever’s listening, hoping that the healer won’t prove you wrong.
Baldur stops and turns. He shrugs. You’re momentarily jealous of his ability to move his shoulders without crippling pain, but you put it behind you."So you don't want him to tend to your wounds?" he asks, giving significant glances at your arm that’s currently crinkled up like a piece of waste paper.
"I can't honestly see how him doing that is likely to help my situation any."
"You sure?"
"Maybe later. If the pain doesn't stop soon, I might have a transcendental experience! Or we could just get the other guy to do it. You know, the guy that buried me in rubble."
"It worked, didn't it?" Ekoka responds indignantly from his spot on the ground. “The bastard’s dead, what more do you want?”
"Well, I really wouldn't know. I missed the subsequent events for some reason. But you can do a bit of healing, right? As long as you do it nice and slow, I mean."
"Just wait a few minutes."
Rest. Attempt to stop nose bleeding. Prepare healing spell.
You grumble a bit about complaining priests and stretch out on the ground, trying to find a comfortable spot amongst a large pile of stones. You wriggle until one offending stone dislodges from your spleen and then sit, sighing as you can finally relax. You lean forwards and pinch the bridge of your nose to try and control the trickle of blood.
As you sit there, you decide to piece together a spell to heal the priest. (2) Unfortunately, your collective aches and pains distract your mind and you can’t quite put the spell together. Damn. “Sorry, Lyu… Might take a bit longer.”
"Hey, take all the time you need. I'm not going anywhere, am I?"
Baldur checks if the unholy barrier around the village has gone away, and if so goes to grab Lao.
"I'm still grabbing Lao in that case," you rumble to the others, stepping around the mage trying to stop his nose from bleeding.
The gates are cracked and broken and the signs and sigils that covered the walls are blackened as though they’ve been burned out. You gingerly step up to the threshold of the village and poke one finger across. When nothing happens, you shrug, take a deep breath and hurriedly step across the threshold.
There’s no flare of light, no sudden annihilation. Good. Now to find Thuun… You glance around and your eyes finally lock onto a stumpy little person waddling out of some bushes on itty-bittty feet.
Bingo.
You stroll across the clearing towards Thuun but stop when you see who he’s with - a lady with… uh… wings. An angel?
Here? And she didn’t lend a hand? Damn.
Gather arrows that aren't broken. Use kidzuku to inspect Vanda's body, and if possible for possible shinies around these parts.
You scout around and manage to recover both of your arrows.
Well, time to get a look at your opponent. You draw your mind inwards, standing perfectly still and marvelling at the feel of the breeze on your skin, the sunlight on your neck and the ground beneath your feet as your mind slowly stills. You gradually funnel it into the bracelet and through; in a rush, your mind opens to the glories of the world around you.You stride over to the body and peer down at what was once Vanda Maranalu. (4+1) “Male, aged about thirty five, half-Limerete. Cursed for seven days, one of the originals born of the chaos. Looks like he was actually an artist.” You stop and shake your head as a myriad tiny details thunder through your mind. “The curse… I don’t know. It’s fading fast. It seems as though it feeds on his life force and now that we killed him, it’s dying.” You take a deep breath and focus all of your huge mind on that curse. “It’s… It stinks of blood, but not mortal blood. I can’t see what created it, though.”
You sigh and step back. You open your mind once more, allowing it to simply expand as it wants to as you let your senses examine the surroundings. (4+1) Five things catch your eye. Five spots where something of value may well be hidden.
(3+1, 4+1, 2+1, 3+1, 1+1)
(4) You find a sword. The blade is pretty heavily nicked, but it’s solid enough. It looks to have once been wielded by a pretty deadly warrior; you can only sense one person has ever wielded it and it’s seen a lot of killing. Huh. You test the edge. Yup, nicely sharp.
(5) Across the plaza, in what would be the small church, you find a library. You try and ignore the desecrated altar as you walk in and cast your gaze over the treasure trove of books. (4) Four books jump out at you as being particularly valuable. You tug them off the shelf and stow them in your pack.
(3) It must have been the mayor’s house, judging from the extremely gaudy architecture. It’s been pretty well ransacked, but you manage to find a pair of silken underwear. Silk is fairly valuable, but still…
(4) A gnarled old staff, capped at one end with a small crystal trapped in twining roots or something. An affectation, most likely - you can’t sense anything magical about it, even with your expanded mind.
(2) It’s… a skull. That someone has scribbled swear words on. You’re not entirely sure why.
--------------------
(3) There’s a small chance that there’s something else here, but you can’t quite sense it. (If someone wants to search, they’ll only find something on a roll of 5 or 6. Everyone can try, of course.)You sigh and relax your mind, allowing it to draw back to normal. The pressure in your skull slowly decreases and you smile as it no longer feels like your brain is about to squirt out of your nostrils.Thuun emerges from his hiding place, crawling toward the woman. FLIRTING GO!
You totter your way out of the bushes, trying to preserve some form of dignity - which is difficult for someone with tiny-ass feet. "I do, you're Sariel aren't you? The depictions don't do you justice," you mumble around your broken jaw, finally sitting yourself down with a modicum of dignity so you don’t fall over.
She smiles. It’s the kind of smile that would make babies spontaneously giggle.
“I must confess, I was worried… Last time I spoke to you, you seemed convinced that I was my late Father.” She steps closer and kneels so that she’s somewhat closer to your eye level.
“I don’t have much time, young mage. My siblings and I are a tad distracted.” She grumbles.
“I also can’t tell you much. Even after all this, my father’s Laws are still in force. You mortals must defend yourselves, we can only guide you.” She reaches out and touches your forehead with one delicate finger. There’s a pulse of rose-coloured light that fills your vision with it’s brightness and your nose with the delicate scent of rosewater. When it fades, she’s gone.
Your mind’s eye is consumed by a vista from high above Cylenia. A city lies in front of you, squatting on the coastline where Cylenia is bordered by the Eastern Sea. You look to your right and see the distant sparkles that mark Limero, although it’s nearly a thousand miles away.
Suddenly you’re falling into the city.
You’re standing in front of a large cathedral, domed in gold. The doors are massive affairs; one is gold, the other is silver. Small sally ports set into the centre of the huge doors form a smaller, more practical entrance; these are made out of some unknown, jet-black metal. You feel a pulse tugging you inside.
“Seek the answers within here,” Sariel’s voice whispers.
You sit up and you’re back in the land of the living. Baldur’s got you slung over one shoulder and is carrying you resolutely back towards the small village.
Dark is falling. It seems wise to finish up soon; the darkness holds creatures far worse than simple wolves now. Finish looting the place and let’s get moving!
Lyu Brak (Harry Baldman)Profession: Priest
Status: Still sore.
Inventory:Staff (Bronze-Capped)Religious Necklace
Warm Priestly Robes and Pants
Warm Priestly Shoes
185 gold
10 Jimsonweed Fruit
Many bits of Thuun’s legs
Jagged shard of bone
Curious dagger
Wounds/Status: [Broken Left Arm] [Broken Ribs]Abilities: [Boundlessly Cheerful] [The Good Priest] [Not that faithful] [Righteous Litany (6/6)]Baldur Bergfalk (USEC_OFFICER)Profession: Mercenary
Status: Digging like a machine
Inventory:Broken greatsword
Worn leather jerkin (and normal clothes)
Worn leather boots
Bear fur cloak300 gold
Wounds/Status: You’re all good!
Abilities: [Skilled Bargainer] [Guileless] [I'm Not Right Handed] Lao Thuun (BFEL)Profession: Warrior Mage
Status: Mumbling
Inventory: Blunted bronze sword
Leather armour and boots
Acolyte's SuncloakReligious Necklace
210 gold
Wounds/Status: [Healed stumpy legs] [Broken jaw]Abilities:[Enduring] [Dragon Aspect: 1] [Slow Cast] [Atoner] [Spellsword ][Regenerative Magic]Spells:[Life Spell: Wisp] Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 0] [Fi: 1] [Wa: 0] [Li: 2] [Fo: -1] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0] Felice Nasib (Pancaek)Profession: Seaman
Status: Finding cool things
Inventory: Repaired Shortbow
Fifteen Arrows
Sharp DirkBroadsword
Four Mysterious Books
Silken Underwear
Gnarled Old Staff
Strange Skull
Nautical Longcoat and Boots
313 gold
KidzukuWounds/Status: [Bruising on back (2/3)]Abilities: [Fearless] [Kidzuku: Arrowtime] [Not a Landlubber] [Trick Shot] [Kidzuku: Comprehension] Ekoka (GreatWyrmGold)Profession: Wanderer
Status: Not thinking
Inventory: Cracked shillelagh
Wanderer's Cloak
Sturdy Clothes and Boots
Length of Rope
Flint and Tinder
380 gold
Wounds/Status: [Bruises and Strains (2/3)Abilities: [Survivalist] [Dual Focus] [Slow Cast] [Maladjusted to heat] [Guiding Spirit] Spells:[Wind Spell: Alacrity]Magical Experience:[Ea: 1] [Wi: 1] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 0] [Fo: 0] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0] 
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Topic: Roll to Go Mad: Turn 44 - The Markets (Read 142877 times)