Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Harry Baldman]

((I'm rather certain Viri would have had experience causing cramps. Among many many many other applications of healing magic. It's very convenient when you can force people to vomit consumed toxins or disable grabby patients.))

Not at all. You see, healing magic is essentially returning a body to a physiologically and anatomically normal state. As such, you can't cause cramps with it. In fact, you can't harm people with it at all. That'd be body (or flesh) control, of which healing is a subset.

[~Neri]

((I see healing magic as completely different. It moves the body towards the projected state. Said state is usually healing but can be rather harmful if intended. There's a reason most healers in fiction can stop hearts. Purrhaps you should have clarified what you defined everyone's magic as prior to game start? Cause as it is, that's completely different from intended. I was thinking more along the lines of the healing done in the Magicians series.))

[monk12]

Rev's interest in Tom fades as he realizes the incarcerated dwarf is not insane, merely self-deluded, and a possible (though unlikely) victim himself. Still, there might be some value in getting to know him better- if he were not in the proximity of a very public and very lethal disturbance happening in the midst of the settlement's garrison, particularly a disturbance that seemed likely to reveal the presence of shapeshifters within the community.

Though he debates attempting to free Tom (or at least sticking around to watch the fun unfold,) Rev decides to flee the scene. If the armory door is open, he runs in there. If not, he escapes the garrison entirely.

((I see healing magic as completely different. It moves the body towards the projected state. Said state is usually healing but can be rather harmful if intended. There's a reason most healers in fiction can stop hearts. Purrhaps you should have clarified what you defined everyone's magic as prior to game start? Cause as it is, that's completely different from intended. I was thinking more along the lines of the healing done in the Magicians series.))

((Eh, I'd call that Biomancy; if I hear "healing magic" I usually expect White Mage))

((Monk, if you touch that puffball I will murder you(r character).))

:3

((Wait, why is everyone fucking around with the dwarves? Didn't you need to get a cure for the plague thingy?
Or have you merely suffered Sidetrackitis, a common disease in HB's RTDs?))

((We need a cure for the plague thingy, which we don't expect to find in a dwarven frontier settlement, so at the very least we'd like directions to a bigger city or mage town or something. NATURALLY the best way to do this is by turning into a cat and nuzzling drunks/transforming into exotic wild animals/pretending to be dead/killing guardsmen/being a talking animal.))

[Harry Baldman]

((I see healing magic as completely different. It moves the body towards the projected state. Said state is usually healing but can be rather harmful if intended. There's a reason most healers in fiction can stop hearts. Purrhaps you should have clarified what you defined everyone's magic as prior to game start? Cause as it is, that's completely different from intended. I was thinking more along the lines of the healing done in the Magicians series.))

Well, if you just say "healing magic", you get healing magic, White Mage style. Not stopping hearts. There's only so much intent you can read into a couple words.

Not that you can't work toward stopping hearts, of course. It's just that your powers are humble and limited to begin with, and are exactly what's said on the tin and not much else. They're meant to develop over time rather than be very impressive from the get-go. A talent that decides what you start with. And the thing about your magical abilities is that, from the start of it, you don't actually know how they work, either, or how much you could potentially do with them, given that your applications for them in the Lands Untamed have been limited at best.

[~Neri]

((Think about it this way: Healing them in a fatal way, like healing their nose and mouth shut. Or healing their heart in a way that causes it to lose efficiency or rupture. It's exactly what it says on the tin, you just have a completely different can.))

[Harry Baldman]

((Think about it this way: Healing them in a fatal way, like healing their nose and mouth shut. Or healing their heart in a way that causes it to lose efficiency or rupture. It's exactly what it says on the tin, you just have a completely different can.))

That's flesh control, not healing. And if you'd said that in the beginning, you'd have gotten that, but been unable to heal things effectively without practice. You can't have both to start with. You can, however, develop both in time. In fact, this latest overshoot is the first move on that path. And that's as much as you're gonna get.

[FallacyofUrist]

Grab the map, head over to one of the other logging camps.

[~Neri]

Try again to form a repulsion shield. Simply have it react with double the force to anything moving semirapidly into it. Then attempt to heal away the tentacles. Or at least dispell the thing causing the mutations. Perhaps remove the air from their lungs for about a minute? Might make them pass out. "You were warned. Child of the Mountain. Be glad I am not currently of the mind to root around your insides. The mutations there must be fascinating, however this was not intended and I would rather you not die due to your fool of a captain's inability to do her job properly."

[ATHATH]

"Yes! Now, will you please tell me what I need to know, or direct me to someone who can?!"

[Harry Baldman]

In the doctor's office...

Martingold continues to generously inform the doctor in greater detail.

"Well, first of all, this is a fake voice. This is my real one. I won't tell you my name because I've heard of many spells that specifically target names and although I do trust you doc, anyone can read the official medical report that you will have to file after this session," he says, preparing to discreetly pull away a scalpel at a more engaging point in his tale.

"I can turn water into wine and I sometimes begin to rhyme... like just now for example. I'm not bound to do it by some specific curse, I just enjoy rhyming. As for Viri, well... I wouldn't really call him a friend. Sure it's true that I do know him, but we traveled incredibly distant from each other. We foxes are solitary creatures. The only thing that brings us together is when we perform religious ceremonies for the Fox God. Viri was not actually part of my original infiltration plan. He (or was it she?) just saw me disguising and tried to ride on my one-man bandwagon. As for who she is, Viri is a doctor with healing magic. I remember her once bragging about how she was so good at shape shifting and anatomy that if one were to cut open one of her forms, they would find the internal organs in their proper places. In a way Doc, you were lucky that we foxes are solitary creatures. If Viri and I had coordinated this plan, she would have made a perfect duplicate and then when you dissected her, you would have found a perfectly normal dwarf," says he, at the same time nabbing the sharp implement he's had his tendril wrapped around for a while now, sucking it into his body discreetly.

"Now as for the nature of the plague. I've been told so far that it is parasites. Symptoms are thickening of the blood and reduced shapeshifting. Another symptom is higher infant mortality rates. More specifically, no young fox ever reaches the age of 50 anymore. Now before you decide that you'd rather just have these annoying fox bastards to go extinct, I want to give you some important information. It is ONLY the holy lands that are being ravaged by this plague! The heretics that you actually hate are still f***ing and spreading and developing magical powers that they then use to cause mayhem! Apologies for the language but we, the good foxes who would want nothing more than to just leave you guys alone are the ones being punished here! It's so unfair! We were the ones who still followed the Fox God and all of His Holy teachings and yet look at us now!" he tells the doctor, who looks fairly intrigued, pausing before the rant gets out of hand.

"Ahem... OK, sorry about that, rant over. As for why I didn't come in through the front gates. Well, the simple reason is because of the stigma associated with foxes and I thought you guys worked on a "decapitate first, ask questions later" sort of motto. My original plan was to have my corpse discovered, get buried, dig out, then shapeshift into a more inconspicuous creature, like a cat for example. The rest of the plan I hadn't thought about," he finishes with, and the doctor looks at him with what might be mild pity, leaning against a nearby wall as he considers what to say.

"Hmm," he grumbles as he thinks, standing pretty far off. "All right, I think your story checks out. What little I know of foxes is certainly in accord with what you just said. And no, we have no such policy. This is a city of exiles, we all bear a stigma here," he says and gives off a long sigh before looking seriously at Martingold again. "Still, I couldn't help but notice my doctor's bag stir. You realize that you trying any funny business isn't going to help your cause, right? Please refrain from doing anything idiotic and you can continue with giving me two final answers. What do you want from us? And, this one is a bit trickier, what makes you the good foxes and the ones who left your holy land bad?"


In Crawlinghome's wonderful jail...

Rev picks up on his marvelous cue to leave, squirming out of Tom's grasp with some difficulty and landing on the floor, escaping through the bars with little effort.

"Hey!" Tom calls out. "Not you too, kitty!"

However, by this point Rev has already started running down the hall, past the growing flesh horror and over into the hallway, hanging a hard left into the armory, where its guard dwarf still sits, entirely asleep and unsuspecting of the danger brewing nearby.

Meanwhile, Viri refuses to give up on the entirely nifty and useful form of magic that is an all-purpose repulsion shield. It sounds simple in theory - speedy thing goes toward her, gets double the wallop right back. Concentrating as hard as she can upon the process as she imagines it, she considers the mechanics of the process as well as she is able, trying to force the very same rush of power that her mind seems to generate her healing ability into a whole new direction. Restoration becomes change, flesh twists into force, and with a blinding wave of Newtonian truth her magic seems to completely reorient itself, having reached some form of intellectual threshold. As her mind rides the thrilling downhill slope of difficulty suddenly overcome, a shield of incredible repulsive nature forms an invisible, but very much palpable barrier around the contours of her body, tingling mildly in the process, pushing back the encroaching flesh of the guard as she concentrates upon it.

This is, of course, very fine and good, but fails to solve the immediate problem, which is the sadly progressively mutilated guard currently holding on to her. Probably should do something to help her. She's growing a bit too large for her own good. Shifting her mind back into the familiar tracks of healing (disappointingly this does dissipate the shield she just formed), she turns her power on the guard, trying to restore her former shape, which proves surprisingly simple, given her healing's nigh-universal applicability. Syb, now looking much more like her old self and not at all growing anymore, lies on the ground, shaking for a moment from the intense experience. Getting up and freeing herself from the guard's grasp, Viri, now with basic mechanics as well as physiology bending to her whim, finds ample time to be deservedly smug as she stands over the prone dwarf.

"You were warned, Child of the Mountain. Be glad I am not currently of the mind to root around your insides. The mutations there must be fascinating, however this was not intended and I would rather you not die due to your fool of a captain's inability to do her job properly."

Syb, considerably confused, does not reply at first. Rolling on her back, she looks up at the ceiling blankly, then at Viri.

"How about... we go talk to the captain again?" she asks weakly. The jailor, meanwhile, starts to discreetly step toward the hallway.


In the wilds near Crawlinghome...

Faer, after making sure for the third time already that he isn't leaving this valuable map behind, follows its directions to the northern logging camp, since north is probably his favorite direction. Or would that be south? Regardless, northward he heads through woods and small gullies, following at the side of a clearly visible trail until he comes along a considerably larger logging camp than the previous one - there have to be at least forty dwarves working here for sure, and they have done quite a bit of work, too, having cleared a pretty large swath of the woods, with an actual lumber mill as well as what looks like a warehouse constructed at the very edge of the forest - Faer's not clear on how the mill is powered, but it's definitely currently operating, turning felled trees into more easily transported and workable lumber.

The warehouse catches Faer's attention most of all, since at the front of it he sees creatures that he hasn't quite seen before - small, thin, vaguely sinister-looking and brownish-green with red and blue paints slathered on in places, Faer suspects they may be goblins - three of them, in fact, chatting out front and occasionally punching each other by the building next to what seems like a set of sizable wagons, a host of tall (almost as tall as the goblins themselves, in fact), muscular, hairless dogs harnessed at its front.


In the streets of Crawlinghome...

Whiskers fails to mask his increasing exasperation with this watchman.

"Yes! Now, will you please tell me what I need to know, or direct me to someone who can?!"

The watchman considers this proposal with a look of intrigue.

"Tell you what. I'll take you to the mayor. His house is right over there, I'll let you in" he says, pointing at a smallish pyramid out by the puffball. "This is really past my competence as a watchman, you see."

He walks over to the pyramid, beckoning Whiskers to follow, and knocks on the door. A few moments pass, and the door opens, revealing a dwarf of venerable age, prodigious beard and dignified bearing.

"Yes? What is it, Peter?" the presumable mayor asks.

"A talking cat's here to see you, sir," the watchman replies, scratching at his beard.

"A what?" the mayor asks incredulously.

"A talking cat. Says he wants to know all about the sporetime puffball and that his friend likes to pop them," the watchman explains with slight embarrassment. "Maybe I ought to let him tell you," he says, freeing up a bit of space in front of the door for Whiskers to approach and speak.

[~Neri]

"Hopefully she'll do her job properly this time. Let me know if you feel anything missing or out of place, I'll put it back."

Viri attempts to reactivate the physics shield field of forcyness and follows Syb. Thoroughly fascinated at the pseudoshapeshifting induced.

"May I ask how that felt by the way? That was originally intended to simply cause severe cramping, although that mutation effect is much more interesting. I was not aware that was something that derives from that path."

[heydude6]

Well, essentially what we want from you guys is a cure for the plague. If that is unavailable then maybe directions to a place that might have a cure for the plague. If that isn't available then maybe directions towards a place that might have directions towards a place that might have a cure for the plague.

Now as for your next question, the foxes that left the holy lands are bad because they are incredibly selfish and love to scam innocent people out of their stuff. After all, the default impression that people have when they see a fox is "fox=bad" and they only ever see the heretics. Now the reason why we are good is because we loyally followed the teachings of the Fox God and stayed in our Holy lands, refusing to come out and bother innocent people.

I hope this answer was satisfying...

Can I ask you a question? Earlier you mentioned that this was a city of exiles. What did you get exiled for? I can understand if you don't want to tell me.

[ATHATH]

"Finally, someone competent (no offence). First of all, what exactly is the puffball in the center of town, and why are we not allowed to pop it? Second, where would I find mages in this town?"

[Harry Baldman]

"Finally, someone competent (no offence). First of all, what exactly is the puffball in the center of town, and why are we not allowed to pop it? Second, where would I find mages in this town?"

"Why, it does seem to be a talking cat, Peter," the mayor states, eyebrows raised.

"Indeed, sir," the watchman nods.

"Well, get back to your duties, then, I think I can handle this," the mayor says, at which the watchman quietly leaves with a nod. "Come in, cat," he beckons with his hand. "It's uncivilized to have conversations like these on one's porch."

[monk12]

Not hearing any further catastrophes erupt behind him, Rev takes a moment to search the armory with his keen eye. A map might be too much to hope for (though perhaps the Captain of the Guard has one nearby) but a weapon or spare uniform could be useful, and besides, Rev mostly wants to know what sorts of things these mortals might see fit to guard beside their prison.