Turn 177
Crush 4 shards for +1 pot. Pick up a dead wasp from the floor (if there are any) and a bone from the rabbit.
((Assuming wasps are still building.))
Easter crushed some of his crystals for some extra firepower in preparation for the bloodshed ahead and collected a bone from the same rabbit he tore open earlier. There were no dead wasps here, the ones that died remained where they had perished. Oh well, there were enough live ones for any rituals later on.
switch back so that I can be healed by the towers regeneration field.
Seva resumed his wizard shape and immediately fell to his knees as pain resumed. But soon, the spikes in his guts began to fade, along with his more external injuries. This was a great place, he was really fortunate to have this.
Ooh, this land looks kinda dangerous, and I don't know if I'm in the mood for psychadelic spores yet... Oh hey, what's with that odd land over there?
Chorkinaan goes to the hex northeast of the hex he is currently in and has a look around. +3 essences.
LUCK [9]
CMP [6+1=7]
POT [6]
CMP [3]
POT [2-1=1]
CMP [5+1-2=4]
POT [4-2=2]
Chorkinaan passed the burning plains and walked onto another plain, also full of cracks, but lacking the fires. The cracks themselves were larger and more akin to actual cracks rather than melted holes of the fire plains. One particularly large crack caught Chorkinaan's eye with a gleam of reflected sunlight. Inspecting the gleam, he found that it was reflecting off a gemstone. And when he walked close enough to see how deep the hole was he found a prize of a different kind - Surg who seemed to had fallen in the hole.
Summon A heating cube. Find out if it produces enough heat to get to the tower and back without freezing to near death.
Chorkinaan conjured forth a cubical heater. If he wanted to explore the frozen lands, he'd need some way to keep warm, and cubical clothing was notoriously unfashionable. However, as he looked on a lukewarm dice sized cube he didn't even bother wandering over to the icelands. This would keep him warm no better than a silk gloves.
four essences, float on over to that island to my left/west.
CMP [1+1=2]
POT [2+2=4]
CMP [3]
POT [4+2-1=5]
CMP [3+1-2=2]
POT [4]
CMP [3+1-3=2]
POT [1+2-3=0]
SPD [(4)/2+2=4]
Clownman decide that it was quite rude of that wizard, whoever he was, not to answer his greeting. In fact, it was so rude, he was not going to go with him. In fact, he was going to go in an entirely different direction. The mountains were no longer any trouble to traverse thanks to his levitating balloon mount, and he made good time, flying almost all the way to the frozen sea.
Remember how Essences work.
Make 2 Essences.
CMP [6+1+1=8]
POT [5+1+1=7]
CMP [6+1+1-1=7]
POT [5+1+1-1=6]
{There is more number filled info in the OP under "Essences"}
Magus N.A. thought back on his training of essence craft, back when he was an apprentice. They were wonderful things, providing boosts to any related spells, capable of changing failure in spellcasting from a possibly lethal disaster to something that was simply lesser than intended result. There were limits even for an experienced mage on how much they could do, of course, and using them did make one both slower in spellcrafting and less capable of dodging as mind was occupied by magic.
2 Essences.
CMP [5+1=6]
POT [2+1=3]
CMP [1]
POT [3]
Surg continued preparing for his grand escape from the hole when a shade appeared over him. Looking up, he saw not a cloud he hoped for but another wizard, looking down from above. This could end either really well or really badly.
Hand out some more GBM-boosted inspiration (of the Dragonfire variety) to Fighter-Guy. Make a GBM-boosted essence.
Damond, Master of Fist:
"Aha! Stunned by the power of my punch, are yeh? TASTE THE FIST!"
ATHATH isn't the only one who can abuse GBM. Damond throws a punch at the troll, and uses GBM to increase his punch's velocity.
SPD [3-1=2] vs [3-1=2] vs [1-1=0]
CMP [5+1+3=9]
POT [5+3=8]
END [6+2=8]
CMP [2+1+3-1=5]
POT [3+3-1=5]
END [5+2-1=6]
CMP [3+1+3=7]
POT [6+3=9]
END [1+2=3]
STR [6+1=7]
DEX [2-2=0]
END [5+2=7]
Damond pulled back his right for a full hit this time, empowering it further by magic. He could feel his fist itching as magic moved through it, and he knew that this one would hurt him too. But the bard far behind played music most appropriate for the encounter, Damond felt his blood pumping and held back not one bit as he punched. The troll did not even try to dodge, instead, it moved it's hands forward to block. Damond's strike connected straight on at full speed, sending a ripple in troll's flesh that moved from his fist and created a bloody explosion at the other side of the arms. The troll roared in pain, but even though it would certainly lose strength, it had not yet lost the use of it's arms.
Harness the heart and create a wave of burning blood to carve through the room and hallways.
Duritarum decided that the best way out of this was a preemptive strike. With staff in one hand and blade in the other he sent a wave of blood and flames in one of the exits, setting it all on fire. The blood burned like napalm with dark red flame, destroying bone adversaries, but also blocking off the exit for the moment. From the other exit poured out two burning skeletons and three skeletons armed with swords and shields.
Xom was pleased. For the first time since he had crashed into this new land, he was free to recuperate, strengthen his territory and develop new plans. Moreover, he now had a levitating construct armed with an order-driven disintegration ray in his arsenal. It would need to be repaired and reinforced in the future, but that could wait.
Look around and explore the surroundings. How much floating stuff is there now? What of the chaotic dust cloud? Any dust-contaminated pools of water? Anything particularly interesting?
Test the pyramid by pointing at a relatively distant boulder and ordering it to fire. Make up to 4 law essences.
CMP [4+1=5]
POT [6+1=7]
CMP [6]
POT [4]
CMP [2+1-2=1]
POT [3+1-2=2]
CMP [5+1-3=3]
POT [5+1-3=3]
Xom looked around at the aftermath of the combat. The sulfur fractal crystal statues were a lot more numerous now and the clouds were thin enough to see through in places, but other than that not much had changed. There were no new points of interest unless you found a demon that wanted to decorate their new torture chamber. The pyramid fired a beam that sorted a stone into few piles of dust. However, not all that much of the stone was affected. Was the pyramid damaged or was it running out of power?
((I'm sorry about disappearing for a while; I went on a trip and had a spotty internet connection for the duration.))
"Should we head to less... hostile areas? Perhaps ta tha south-west?"
Summon a glass amulet that siphons off curses, storing them in glass beads. Then summon a cluster of (glass) beads.
CMP [5+1=6]
POT [2+1+1=4]
CMP [5]
POT [2+1+1-1=3]
Gambler conjured up a glass amulet with power to siphon curses and a bunch of glass beads to siphon the curses into. Of course, since he had little to no experience with curses, the amulet was appropriately weak. The beads were also fittingly small.
Go to the castle, look for Viznor, and make 3 healing essences.
SPD [(3)/2+1=2.5]
CMP [2+2=4]
POT [6+1+1=8]
CMP [6+2-1=7]
POT [1+1+1-1=2]
CMP [2]
POT [2]
James, having done all he could for his allies, left the blasted fields and moved off for the Tower. It was a bit tough to get over the mountain but it was nothing he couldn't handle. Soon, James had returned to the tower and it did not take long to find Viznor. He was making a deal of some sort with Ilium.
Sounds good to me. Southwest is fine.
Skeliborn:
4 essences and travel with gambler.
CMP [2+1=3]
POT [6]
CMP [1]
POT [4-1=3]
CMP [5+1-2=4]
POT [6-2=4]
CMP [1+1-3=-1]
LUCK [10]
Skeliborn prepared to move out with Gambler but as he did not seem to be going anywhere just now, Skleiborn sat down to focus some power. It was a bit risky to do so with blood curse, and he was reminded of this as magic leaked out at the end and into his Swiss knife. It reshaped itself into a dwarven army knife with some loud metal bending noises. Each of the various tools in the knife was replaced by a differently shaped knife.
"Hm, right, I keep forgetting that I'm not quite as powerful with the staff gone. Fighting against wild monsters already proved it with much pain and suffering on my part..."
With that said, Kahel knew the next step he should take in his quest for power. It included quite a bit of spellcasting, so a proper surroundings must be found first... Which truly left just one place he could venture to.
Return to the Tower. Craft 3 [Temperature] essences on the way.
SPD [(5+1)/2+1=4]
CMP [2+1=3]
POT [1+1=2]
CMP [3]
POT [1]
CMP [6+1-2=5]
POT [6+1-2=5]
Kahel decided to improve his armaments before engaging in any serious combat and the best place to do that would certainly be the local nexus of magic, the Tower. It was a short walk, and it felt short this time as he was not feeling pain with each step. The gates were wide open this time