Turn 161
Head towards the tower.
Duritarium was both unnerved and intrigued by the Tower; it was both mysterious and slightly menacing. It could be sold as top tier wizard bait; although all wizards would agree that they had no interest in the thing. Then they'd all try to steal it in the night. There was a bit too much of it here to steal though, so Duritarium chose to inspect it from up close instead. The purple walls turned out to have something akin to a purple fog sticking to them. Durtarium was unable to find out much more since the gates inside were closed and locked.
Act One. Scene Four. Mista J. discovers the absolute curse that is artist's block...
"Oh. Goodness."
Mista J...walks off. Uncaring. Unmotivated. Unfulfilled. He continues to explore the castle, however, in search of his muse. No essences.
Mista J. was feeling something akin to depression. All the joy in his life was drained. All the great ideas, all of his ability to move with grace and style unique to him was gone. He shuffled out of the room with the mage and dragged himself to the room he had skipped previously, the one with strangely open door. Inside, he found a mirror as tall as he was. He looked into the mirror and his sad reflection gazed back at him. Then the reflection reached outwards and punched Mista J. in the face.
Gah! Well, that sure ruined my good mood. I'll have to take a note of this... Thing. It might come in handy if I can create another one.
Chorkinaan targets a thin strip of this mistake which he is wearing, which runs all the way down whichever side of it is currently on his front side, and gives it a "very cold" melting point. With luck this will cause the strip to melt away, thus cleaving this armor-net-thing down one side and allowing it to fold open. If this succeeds, Chorkinaan removes the "armor" and uses both essences to try and create that scabbard again. Otherwise, Chorkinaan attempts to struggle free.
Either way, Chorkinaan makes a mental note of how he created what he just created. If he has any physical actions left, he also walks towards the bigholder fiasco.
And suddenly, someone else appears. Wait, look at that armor... This has to be the guy.
Oh! Um, hey! Are you that guy who walked into that tower a while ago wearing a similar-looking suit to the one you have on now? If so, I've been meaning to have a conversation with you! Um... Could you please come over here? I'm a little tied up.
CMP [4+1=5]
POT [6]
CMP [4]
POT [2-1=1]
SPD [(2-1)/2+1=1.5]
Chorkinaan was not feeling optimistic about his chances to wriggle free. He was also not optimistic about what would happen if he tried to simply break free. This was going to be the third time in last ten minutes where he'd use magic to deal with nonsense caused by magic. The bindings split neatly in half as parts of them evaporated into mist, releasing Chorkinaan. The scabbard project was not going as well, however, as what Chorkinaan had conjured would have difficulties holding a pin. Oh well, he wasn't planning on keeping his sword sheathed anytime soon, as his childhood hero Professor Jiksap was going to fight some Uber Beholder and that was not something he'd want to miss.
2 more essences, have my birds scout the area
CMP [3+1=4]
POT [1+1=2]
CMP [3]
POT [5]
LUCK [3]
Seva ordered his flock of search parrots to spread out and search for anything of interest. Mostly, they found fruits in the trees. Some of them found peanuts. A few found gigantic swamp frogs which ate the parrots. None of them found any trace of Ilium. The results were not that great, unless one felt hungry for some frog legs.
HahHAHAAAhaHHaaHaAaa! At last, my voice is free! All can now hear the high-amplitude sound waves of the new and improved Professor Jiksap!
Jiksap is elated to finally be able to speak properly with other people again, thanks to the IronMage suit. He also enjoys being able to experience the world like any regular human being would, albeit from within a sweet metal exterior. This is true science. It was now time to test his new power! Or something.
Leave the castle in search of ADVENTURE!, which probably lies in the north-east! Three essences along the way.
SPD [(6+1)/2+1=4.5]
CMP [2+1=3]
POT [3+1=4]
CMP [1]
POT [5]
CMP [4+1-2=3]
POT [6+1-2=5]
Jiksap rushed out of the Tower and towards the eldritch fields. His armor felt like second skin, he felt fantastic and he almost ran past the place, giant beholder and all. The Beholder was acting surprisingly benign, though its central eye was glowing menacingly. Then, everything caught fire.
Really? Kahel could not believe, how pitiful and powerless he became after losing his trusty staff to the portal fluctuations... If not for the previously-cast enchantments, he would be already dead.
Jet it while retreating back to the lake. Try to bait the jelly-flamethrower thing there, to make the battle safer.
LUCK [4]
END [4]
DEX [4]
CMP [4+1=5]
POT [5+1=6]
Kahel was feeling empty. The specific area in which he was feeling empty was the one in which his staff whispered him megalomaniacally. He wondered if he missed the voices less than the actual power. He wandered as he ran towards the water, the jellyfish trailing after him. It used fire so it would be useful to have water to use against it; it made sense enough to Kahel. Another spike flew past him and he responded with water jets. This time the stream flew off at great enough speed to cut off a few tentacles. The two arrived at the beach without about a third of jellyfish tentacles and about half of Kahel's water.
"What should we do now?"
Convert the red eye again to electricity, but this time with 1 +1/+1 essence.
I make the napalm jelly absent
Sorry i started to think, what would happen if i tried to make the eyes absent again
The good news is that we appear to reinforcements in the form of skeletons. The bad news is after 1000 eyes dies, they will probably come after us. (Groans)
Skeliborn
Action:
Fix the dakka-cannon's trigger
Summon an antimagic glass wall slightly towards the bigholder.
Dodge, hope not to get burned.
SPD [3] vs [3] vs [6] vs [3-1=2]
CMP [6+1=7]
POT [6]
CMP [6+1+1=8]
POT [5+1+1=7]
CMP [5+1=6]
POT [4+1=5]
CMP [4+1=5]
POT [4+1+1=6]
Skeliborn focused on his dakka-cannon, trusting fully that his allies would be able to deal with the Beholder. The trigger extended outwards in length by about meter and a half and formed a serrated claymore. Pulling that with naked hands could prove troublesome, but it could be pulled.
Meanwhile, Nihilum was busy clearing the napalm jelly from around them, forming an area with little chance to actually catch fire. This proved exceptionally useful, as Eterna again thunderformed the Beholders red eye, causing arcs of electricity and ignition of the napalm. In about five seconds, everything burned, including the water. The clearing around the mages remained, but it severely limited their ability to dodge.
Gambler conjured a glass wall of antimagic in hopes that it would help if the Beholder fired anything towards the dakka-cannon. He looked it over, congratulated himself over a job well done as the wall created a shield just low enough for the cannon to fire over it and looked around to see why everything was red. He found himself in a circle of flames, about two meters off the edge with only his wall protecting him from the heat.
Above them all, Beholder's central eye began glowing with pale white light.
{Skeletal warriors have arived but you can't see them over the flames}
{Skeletal archers arrive next turn.}
Main eye:On fire(mild) [Power Unknown]
Secondary eyes:
Red Eye:Burns and tears(Major, blood is flamable and is burning) [Spray Napalm,???]
Green Eye:On fire(Mild) [Power Unknown]
Composite Eye of Thousand 879 Eyeballs:Minor dammage, On Fire(mild) [Power Unknown]
Chitin Eye:Basically dead, On fire(mild) [Teeth, Poison,
]
Cyan Eye: On fire(mild) [Lightning, Disintegration]
"Hello... Would you care to explain some things to me? Although, I can't be sure you can speak, or even think."
Regard mannequin, be prepared for violence. Form 3 essences if it speaks or fails to notice me.
CMP [5+1+1=7]
POT [4+1=5]
CMP [6+1+1-1=7]
POT [2]
CMP [6]
POT [4+1-2=3]
Cuberac awkwardly raised his hand to greet the mannequin. It raised a hand in return and walked off back into the Tower. This seemed a sign enough that he wasn't in any immediate danger, so Cuberac relaxed and had a look around. The inside of the walls was just as the outside. Tower was also just as purple, but it was unlocked. Cuberac was too busy being a nosy tourist that he hardly even noticed that bones in his maimed arm began to move gently.
"You're okay? I was so worried!"
Talk to tree.
Start replenish my summoning essences, 3 of them.
CMP [5+2=7]
POT [6+1+1=8]
CMP [4+2-1=5]
POT [3+1+1-1=4]
CMP [5]
POT [3]
James, Grundar and the fire tree-house, the tree friends were reunited once more. James walked over to the tree and placed the hand on the bark to commune with the tree. What he heard was the most obviously fake despair he'd ever encountered. "Nooooooo, I was finally away from all the wizardry.” It sounded practiced. The leaves that had suffered from being in vacuum began recovering rapidly and recovering their yellow and red patterns.
Feed it three +2/+1 chaotic curse essences, then. Put on all three rings, and then conjure up five more essences, stopping early if something unpleasant happens.
CMP [4+1+1=6]
POT [2+2+1=5]
CMP [2+1+1-1=3]
POT [3+2+1-1=5]
CMP [2]
POT [1+2+1-2=2]
CMP [5+1+1-3=4]
POT [2]
CMP [1+1+1-4=-1]
LUCK [10]
Gloomy watched as Mista J. departed in a sad shuffle, looking approvingly at Mista's back. Good riddance and better yet, it made him feel himself again. There were too many mages here who didn’t appreciate exactly how much damage a good curse could cause. Maybe this would change now. He fed his book few more sparks of power and focused some himself. At the very end, magic slipped out of his grasp, but to Gloomy's delight, was eaten by the Tome. With the amount of power it was collecting, it should be able to use some half decent magic soon.
Well, arrive, make three Essences, and get away from things that might be trying to kill me.
CMP [1+1=2]
POT [1+1=2]
CMP [4]
POT [6]
CMP [4+1-2=3]
POT [5+1-2=4]
Portal flared to life again, surprisingly soon after its last activation. When light subsided, left on the arcane pedestals was Magus N.A, specialist army mage from forces lost to temporal bombs. Before his disappearance, he was known for his skill of tampering with magic of all kinds, and if his skill was at least half of the rumors, he was a force to be reckoned with.
Magus looked around in the reflexive military way; quick scan for danger, followed by through scan of ambushes followed by a more relaxed look over of actual terrain. He found himself on a plain, with clearly artificial landscape surrounding him. Mountains to the north were far too close to the southern swamps and western lake for any two to be feasible naturally. The eldritch purple Tower to the east only reinforced his conviction. There was nothing obviously dangerous yet, so Magus spent his time freely observing the surroundings some more.