Turn 157
Well, that worked out! This is going to be a fantastic weapon, I can feel it. Now, back to business. Chorkinaan attempts once again to create a shield. same properties as before, using two +1/+1 essences. He then alters the properties of the grip of the physicality knuckles, giving it unnatural toughness just like the rest of the weapon, using no essences.
CMP [2+2+2-1-1-1=3]
POT [1+2=3]
Chorkinaan, his newly crafted weapon in hand, returned to his attempts at creating something protective. The day was of disappointment for him, as what appeared before him was a perfectly flat sheet of the usual. It was a square, about 50cmx50cm, which made it large enough for the purpose, but once again there were bits wrong, as in, missing. Well, if the trend continued, next one should go right.
Make another one of those rings, using my two weakest chaotic essences. +2 essences.
CMP [4+1+1+1+1-1=7]
POT [4+2+1+1=8]
LUCK [3+1=4]
CMP [4+1+1-1=5]
POT [5+2+1-1=7]
CMP [1+1+1-2=1]
POT [1+1+1-2=1]
Gloomy bent his curses again, and this ring was just a bit different from the others. It was a ring all right, but there were four places where it rose outwards, making it look square. Gloomy put it on, along the others, to both see if it was indeed what he wanted and because it was the easiest way to store them. It was a bit uncomfortable, but otherwise proper curse ring.
Fly off towards the hills in the bottom left with my birds, make 2 essences along the way
SPD [(6)/2+2=5]
CMP [2+1=3]
POT [2+1=3]
CMP [1]
POT [3]
Seva left the harpies in peace and took to the air. His Eagles and crystal bird followed in the air while raptors ran over ground. The forest moved swiftly beneath Seva, and the tree line appeared before he had to land even once. His various birds gathered around like excitable dogs around their owner, each trying to make more noise than the other.
"Greetings brother. War, unfortunately, war of wizards. It has arrived to this land. And as part of the war, I stumbled upon imps tending plants not far from here and with a careless spell set off plats observing usage of magic. They claim they have made a deal, which I find unusual. There wasn't any imps in the area I was tending before this war, and certainly not gardening demons of any kind."
Inform the local manager about the unintentional even with gardening imps. Inquire what other deals are in place. Inquire about what's going on in the forest, about lay of the land, so to speak.
Make two essences.
CMP [1+1=2]
POT [6+1=7]
CMP [5]
POT [5]
Ah, that explains so much. Like why a Troll was trying to plant a burning tree... But if that was all, we wouldn't need to work so much. The imps are indeed allowed to stay there, and I'll go over and fix the painted lilies later. They are gardeners before demons, quite harmless really. They are helping us to deal with recent invasion of blade diggers. Terrible creatures, an ambush predator with insatiable appetite. They are what is occupying us most at the moment. If you have the time, we'd appreciate the help. "Hmm. It seems that Jiksap is attempting to do something. Perhaps I will join him."
Use three essences to summon three piles of bones: one from Triassic period, one from Jurassic, and one from Cretaceous.
CMP [5+1+1+1-1=7]
POT [2+1+1=4]
CMP [2+1+1+1-1-1=3]
POT [3+1+1=5]
CMP [3+1+1+1-1-2=3]
POT [6+1+1=8]
Bob sat down on one of the free chairs and began summoning some resources for his own devices. Triassic period relics came easily, Jurassic produced merely a skull and Cretaceous returned a full skeleton, clad in meat and skin. It was rather alive, rather toothy and rather angry. The dinosaur was about a meter and a half tall, and focused on Bob. Paleontomage saw the flaw of entering a building with doorways too small for a T-Rex to fit through.
"That got deep pretty fast. Maybe we'll find the answers one day, and maybe this tournament will end. I'm gonna get Grundar now and try to summon my tree over, if it's even still alive. It's gonna be angry that I left it alone this long.
Farewell for now. And if you ever want muscles like mine let me know, not that you seem to need to use your body much."
Find Grundar and return to the druid's forest. We've got some work to do.
Finding Grundar proved as easy as walking to the council chambers. Few mages were there, each apparently busy doing a project of their own. James and Grundar left them in peace and headed out towards the forest. It was not a long walk, and soon they were among trees again.
Form 2 essences, try to move right.
CMP [6+1=7]
POT [1]
CMP [4]
POT [2-1=1]
Cuberac collected his stuff and took a few careful steps eastwards. There it was, the edge of the world. New land did not rise to meet him, unlike the first explorers of the Duck, and the sight below was different as well. Some distance away there was a mirror surface, reflecting the land and Cuberac looking down from it.
i pray to my goddess for help as i use an essence to make the eyes of the beholders absent
Great job taking out that Beholder. It was really starting to become a pain.
Oh. Your paralyzed. Looks like most of us are injured so we should probably deal with that. But first....
Skeliborn
Action:
Drain the eldritch portal pools portal energy into my portal knives.
Upon accomplishing this, take my fourth of the eternity (I'm hoping that dead beholder drops the eternity in addition to regular beholder drops) For that matter, divide up all the loot as equally as possible among all four party members.
...
Let the paralysis heal by doing nothing.
Shove my regeneration ring on Skelliborn's hand, and drag DE (alongside the rest of the eternity) to the SW, toward the gap in the mountains.
SPD [1] vs [1] vs [3] vs [6-1=5] vs [1]
STR [3]
END [6]
CMP [1+1=2]
POT [6+1=7]
LUCK [10]
CMP [4+1=5]
POT [4+1=5]
LUCK [6]
Gambler was first to move. Years of tavern games hones his instinct for feeling when the players were about to toss over table and punch him in the face, and it was telling him that they carried gloves made entirely of spikes today. He placed his healing ring on Skeliborn's finger and rushed to where Eternity and Eterna were lying. He grabbed both and attempted to run for it, but dragging a person with a single hand is hard work and dragging Eternity with the other was not exactly vacation either. Gambler managed to get about three meters away before the pool exploded.
Eterna was being dragged away from the pools, which he liked. His savior was dragging the prize with the other hand, which Eterna also liked. They were going away from the throne which he liked less, but was prepared to deal with later. Then the lake exploded, revealing a creature that one could expect to see in the shadow seas beneath the earth, and Eterna suddenly found his escape speed entirely inadequate. He focused on his training for such situations, sending very tiny amounts of electricity through his body and broke through paralysis and into fear.
{Dest eterna, Paralysis removed}
Nihilum prayed to his goddess, and saw her symbol appear above his companions here. All the danger seemed to be dealt with, and there was little threat to them besides each other. Just to be certain, Nihilum blasted the beholder corpses with his magic. His magic flowed around uncertainly, finally opting to go into the largest beholder, but it did not destroy.
Skeliborn was feeling optimistic. His wounds felt better since Gambler gave him the ring, the enemies were dealt with and all was good. He was feeling so optimistic, that when he noticed that the pool was bubbling intensely, he opted to drain the power away into his portal knives. As magic touched them, the blades bulged out immensely, their bone blades reshaping into something akin to sharpened skulls which attempted to bite Skeliborn's fingers off.
The lake water exploded, propelled upwards by the creature that emerged. It had some passing similarities with beholders, having a central eye surrounded by secondary ones, but there the similarities ended. Firstly, it was huge. The central eye was large enough for a human to lie on, and four secondary eyes were as large as the medium sized beholders. Mass of flesh extended downwards from the central eye, finding support in dirt at the bottom of the pool. It did not have a mouth, but a tentacle extended from its frame and joined the largest beholder, freshly infused with Nihilums energies. Tentacle and beholder corpse grew together, and the whole thing rose into the air. As it rose, Beholder's eye regenerated, while its mouth and secondary eyes shrunk into nonexistence. When it rose to its place next to the creature, it was just secondary eye, largest of the now five.
Main eye:Intact [Power Unknown]
Secondary eyes:
Red Eye:Intact [Power Unknown]
Green Eye:Intact [Power Unknown]
Composite Eye of Thousand Eyeballs:Intact [Power Unknown]
Chitin Eye:Intact [Power Unknown]
Cyan Eye: Intact [Lightning,
]
"The inhabitants of this land seem quite hostile and brainless. A pity, truly. Is there something better to experiment upon? I must find out after dealing with this distraction."
Kahel suddenly felt a bit stupid, telling his intentions aloud to a brainless jelly-tentacle-thing that tried its hardest to kill him. Yeah, seems like loneliness got him after all these years of secluded temperature studies... Still, that did not matter in short term. And as for long term, Kahel was sure to find solution or, at very least, a damn good psychic-mending mage to talk with.
Fry it distantly. If it lives, command acidic guardian ball to attack.
SPD [5+1=6] vs [2]
CMP [1+1=2]
POT [5+1=6]
END [2]
DEX [2]
D2 of Etherealness [1]=Material
END [3-1=2]
Kahel focused heat onto the creature before him, but something was wrong. His fingers felt like they were boiling, which was mostly because they were. Both of Kahel's hands were covered in pustules from burns, burns that ran so deep that there was no pain. The jelything in front of him opened a tube and pointed it forwards. Kahel thought about what it could be a moment too long to actually dodge the gout of flame rushing towards him. Burns expanded over him, searing away skin and sometimes biting into nerves below, dulling the pain.
{Kahel, Heavily burnt, physical rolls require END roll.}
Continue ritual. Use another +1 CMP essence.
CMP [1+1+1+1=4]
POT [2+1+1=4]
{Ritual power is 10. Of it chaotic:0 Sacrifices remaining:2}
Jiksap continued pouring power into the ritual, and soon found the value of his diligence in preparations. A box of parts erupted in pale blue flame, turning to ash in a matter of moments. Had that box not been there, the flame could had fallen on him. He still had two though, and if the ritual continued with this speed he'd make it before it was his turn to burn.
Attempt to destabilise Bernardo's orderly state of mind.
SPD [5] vs [4-1=3]
CMP [1+1=2]
POT [5+1=6]
END [5]
STR [2]
DEX [5]
Xom chose a new target for his attack. Clearly, Bernardo's body was impervious to alterations, and so, Xom opted to attack sheriff’s mind instead. Torrent of unconnected thoughts of color and music and taste and frogs flooded Xom's mind, and he began wondering if he had miscast something. When the flood exhausted itself, Xom noticed that he was standing as if he had tossed something and Bernardo was lying in the dirt, as if he charged and someone tossed him forwards. Maybe it wasn't a miscast after all.
From the portal entered a new mage, one known as
Mista J. When people said his name, they subconsciously extended the a and added on an h at the end, making it sound like an announcement of someone stepping on a stage. When he moved, it appeared that his form shifted slightly to amplify the appearance of movement. Causality seemed a bit clunky when he was around, and it all seemed to work out all right for him somehow. As he stepped down from the portal, some of the nearby grass turned brighter and more colorful and began to sway theatrically in the wind.
CMP [3+1=4]
POT [4+2=6]
CMP [6]
POT [6+2-1=7]
CMP [2+1-2=1]
POT [3]
CMP [2+1-3=0]
LUCK [6]