Sub-turn 67.01 :
Caedan the Bloody Impaler((To the closest guard post or adventurer guild post? Please lead me to the guards, dice. Something tells me going inside any building related to adventurers will be bad.))
"Very well." Caedan turns to the one they call Hark. "Lead on."
Be led.
[6] You follow Hark, the nurse assistant and a scrawny young man with clear brown straight hair. He leads you through a main street packed with people of all status : peasants, merchants, scholars, magi, nobles, etc...
Then after a short trip, you arrive in front of an outer wall made of rock. The gate leading to the interior of the enclosure is tightly guarded by four heavily armored men wielding a halberd and a shield.
Hark tells you :
"This is Eastarm Western District Guard Station, the 2nd biggest of the City."
You feel nervous, and so does Ramas. Hark discusses with a guard, and show him some wooden insignia. Probably to prove his job and identity. The guards let you pass, and you arrive in a huge courtyard. Unarmored soldiers are training with discipline. You can see huge barracks, which can probably house hundreds of soldiers.
Eventually, Hark brings you to a small office with what must be a low-ranked officer shifting through a pile of paperwork. There is a plate on the table with a name on it :"Officer Telos Aldeonze"
You both take seat, and Hark briefly explains the reason of your presence here to the officer. He speaks of the wounds, and give a note to the man. He reads it attentively, and finally speaks to you and Ramas.
"Alright, I'm listening. What happened to you and this girl ?"
HP: 21/21
MP: 25/25
Snehk the Unseen- Say soldier, would you mind helping an old man prepare for caravan to Eastarm?
Prepare for a caravan and then leave.
He smiles :
"Sure ! It will allow me to skip some work -but don't tell it-"
He leads you to a caravan and explains to you the various administrative steps required to become part of the caravan. Just some paperwork to prove you come from Eastenval One. Afterward, he bids you good luck and sighs as he returns to his squad.
You wait for some hours before the caravan finally leave. There are a lot of people in this one, with a dozen carts of all size in total. This caravan has the benefit of being escorted by a handful of soldiers : as the travel will be done at night, a sudden monster attack could occur at any time.
You leave before the sun set. You are in a cart with other lone persons, for now the trip is silent.
HP: 20/20
MP: 14/14
Dahak the Fear Lord((hoh boy, I was actualy expecting Nihil to be useful this time. Muh expectations >:U))
Dahak suddenly feels good, and not just because he landed in a very cool way. He feels as if a weight was taken off his shoulder.
Dahak glances at delinde, now nailed to a rock by her own fog scythe. The sight is rather distressing, he never saw Delinde actualy get hurt in such a way, he starts yelling at her direction.
HOLY CRAP WOMAN, HANG IN THERE
He realizes he just made an accidental joke. This only serves to further increase his feeling of responsibility over all this.
ERM, SORRY
Dahak then turns to Nihil. He's... Doing something, Dahak assumes, though not anything useful.
COULD YOU POSSIBLY BE ANY MORE USELESS? SNAP OUT OF IT AND HELP DELINDE
Dahak then realizes something's up with the corruptor. It seems a fair bit different then before, maybe the white thing that got into Nihil and was later removed by Delinde had something to do with it? Regardless, it seems to be really scared of Dahak, and it should be. Dahak decides he has to destroy it before anything worse happens.
Make the damn thing FEEL THE FEAR, then try to help Delinde in some way
[4] With unmatched confidence, you activate -Feel the Fear- on the Corruptor.
You lose 4MP
The effect is immediate and apparent. Physically assaulted by the fear running rampant in its wakening mind, the black being body contorts to the limit of splitting itself in two. Then one of its arm blows up, and corrupted ichor spatters on the ground.
Though you would really like to further observe the effects of your attack, you decide Delinde must not feel very comfortable. So you don't waste a second and go help her.
[1] You decide to begin by pulling out the Fog Scythe. As you grab it, you begin to wonder how fog can even be grabbed or cut in that matter. Or maybe it isn't fog, and just some fancy name. You pull on the scythe with all your strength, but can't muster enough to pull it out. You only manage to twist it around, making Delinde yells in pain as her wound widens.
At least it snapped her out of unconsciousness.
Delinde Roll : [4]
"AAAAH ! WHAT THE HELL DAHAK ! STOP !"
With that she simply dissipates the Fog Scythe and land on the ground with an unsteady foot. She lean against the rock she was just fixed on like some piece of art, and breathes heavily.
"Dahak. I'm nearly out of mana. I should have enough for one more medium spell."
She is bleeding and can't move her arm. Her blood is white as milk. At least it won't stain her clothes.
Nihil Roll : [1] ((Ah please, come on !))
Corruptor Roll : [4]
Back to consciousness but shaken, Nihil fails to see a tendril coming in his way. The Corruptor, in a desperate measure, extended a black tendril specifically toward Nihil.
Once the tendril tethers itself to Nihil's arm, his corrupt energy gets absorbed and sent to the suffering Corruptor. It grows in size and power, sapping away Nihil's power ((Which he visibly can't use)).
Enemy Status :
Spirit
-Gone-
Corruptor
-Bigger and Stronger-
-Arm lost-
-Weakened and Wounded-
HP: 21/21
MP: 21/25
Corruptor Core Expansion : 60%
Ulkas the Sorcerous Osyluth of LiesUlkas tapped his chin in thought. For such places of power to go unnoticed for so long... There must be some caveat. To think, Fenia said she guarded them, yet she was powerful to begin with, else she would not be able to do so in the first place. On the other hand, she was strictly against their help. So, it might be possible to gather power? Or not? Is this power too thinned out for physical entities to consume, so that only spirits may do so? An interesting thought...
"Balask, you said that power comes from nodus... Yet how come no one aside from spirits used it for so long? Did Fenia even use the nodus she protected from you? If it is possible for us to gather some of its power in a timely manner, as a victory spoils, could we do so? This won't hinder your progress much, since you'll remain here to grow, yet would benefit us greatly."
Inquire about means to get this power to ourselves. Wake Astrosa up if it's possible, else let her sleep and decide on course of action afterwards.
((Nakéen, you're giving Ulkas more and more incentive to kill good-aligned NPC so that evil ones would show up later, grateful for help and much more open to conversation.))
[4]"…"
Balask is eerily silent. It takes of its mask, revealing a simple porcelain human face with clean features. The eyes and mouth are shut. Then it takes an other mask, one with a stoic and serious expression, and put it on.
"Mmh. Seems like I was mistaken. Ha. Ha. Ha. How reassuring."
The sudden change of attitude and intonation is surprising, and you can't help but stay on the defensive as a result.
"Allow me to explain. I thought you knew something about the nodi that we didn't, and that you got rid of that red-headed priestess because of that. I theorized that you somehow knew how to monopolize a nodus power despite not being a spiritual creature."
He joins his hands at the tip of the finger in an inverse V motion and keeps talking before you can add anything.
"Now for your questions. Having cleared those doubts, I can freely tell you the tales of this place. Mmh, where to begin."
"Long, very long ago, this place was just a land with naturally high spiritual energy. As such, weak spiritual beings could manifest and live here for how long they wanted. Then some people who knew of a way to harness spiritual energy and make it useable for living beings created the nodi. The role of the nodi were to act as pumps to drain the grounds of all spiritual energy, which would then be harvested by some means by those people."
"Something must have happened in the meantime, and these people were gone and their knowledge probably lost. But the nodi remained, still draining the ground. This priestess was keeping each nodus in check to maintain the spiritual balance and prevent these grounds from dying, or the nodi from being abused by ambitious spirits. She wasn't the first to act as some sort of balancer, they were many more before, but for some reason she is the last one."
This is a pretty long story. You feel like he would love to tell more, but he is trying to restraint himself from doing so.
"So that answers your question. The priestess prevented us from abusing the nodi, and she kept them under control. Also, spiritual energy is of no use for you, apart from the fact that mana permeates more easily around it."
Before letting you speak, he adds :
"A doubt assails me. Did you check the body of the priestess ? This isn't the first time she got "killed". Some humans killed her many time before, though mainly because she didn't defend herself. She possesses a power similar to that of a phoenix, though I don't exactly know the specifics, she did come back more than once from death's door."
HP: 19/22
MP: 36/36
Durst the Rock Seer".... uhhh....
That way, I believe, young one."
Durst points in the direction he THINKS Coridem should be.
[6] You point in the direction your instinct is telling you to point. Toward the desert you just left. You don't know if it is the good direction or not, but pointing in that direction feels reassuring.
"Somewhere Westward ? Mmh, as an undiscovered place, it is probably lying somewhere in the Seatrine Desert. Very interesting, but not enough to make proper conclusions..."
Hertomal looks at you with an analyzing eye, as if he could visually deconstructs your body.
"Would you mind accompanying us until we are done with our mission ? A being with so much wisdom and knowledge as yours would be welcomed warmly by my fellow colleagues…We could even continue chatting on the way."
You notice the most wary member of the group, a woman, taking some distance to scout around.
HP: 15/15
MP: 12/12
Stormslayer the Aradian Mirage Beetle Mystic He would give instructions to his puppet soldier to run out and yell for them to open the gates, and then pass out or feign passing out.
"Be ready to attack when the gate opens, we will spring our trap preferably when try to retrieve him. if we can get inside their fort, even better."
He would turn his attention to a loud thump off to his left, spotting a scouting human.
(Note: Cross game interaction in progress.)
[3] The agile Sylvarian scouts manage to get closer to the human. Manipulating the roots around, they attempt to trap his foot.
He throws a quarterstaff in your direction.
[After you will have stated an action, I will send you your rolls via PM so that you can properly describe the situation in You are a Human RTD]
HP: 24/24
MP: 19/19
ZoomochScoomtarto the Four-Eyed BeholderI will Help you Look for your friend.
I Say still talking to the Mindeater
"Good. Gratefulness. Separate. Search."
Some knowledge invades your mind. Glar seems to be transmitting his intended research path, probably to give you an idea of where to find it if you find anything. Glar then removes his appendage from your head, spilling some blood from the wound. The voice and torpor disappear, and the Mind Devourer just creeps past you, going to search for its companion.
[6] You help him search for its friend, floating around using the clues Glar gave you. You then spot some blue algae bits forming a trail. [Roll result will affect future situation]
Mana regeneration : 1d6 [6]
You recover 6MP
HP: 14/17
MP: 8/17
Gray the Metalslinger and Glint the True ArcanivoreCover up the vein we found with loose dirt, then overload mesmerizing to make the Radasars run into one of the chasms. Or, failing that, just away.
((This is sadly how my luck works. Next roll should be a 5, hopefully.))
Split myself in two. One should start eating through the vein to absorb the essence to the fullest extent I can, leaving a fair share for Glint and Brown, while the other goes to watch in case Glint needs help. Not watching Glint, though. Don't want to get mesmerized.
Glint:
[3] You cover up the vein messily with dirt, hiding it barely. It's better than nothing.
[2] Then you jump out of the hole and overload your mesmerizing.
You lose 6MP
The Radasars are totally unaffected. The strong light of the desert must have rendered them resistant to optic attacks.
Gray:
You split yourself in two perfectly equally sized parts.
You are split in two parts with 8HP
[1] The first half begins to eat at the elemental vein, hoping to acquire some power or maybe even essence given the right circumstances.
Now, there is something you couldn't know about elemental stones excavation. The process is highly dangerous, because of the high volatility and instability of unearthed elemental soil. While in contact with aerial mana, the elemental energy of the stones react unpredictably, sometime detonating.
This is exactly what happened. When you began to eat the elemental vein, a chain reaction triggered...
Gray#1: [4]
Gray#2: [5]
Brown: [6]
Glint: [2]
Tirim: [5]
Vagush: [3]
A sudden light and shockwave detonated in the far border of the Scar. A small multicolored cloud of elementally charged dust could be seen elevating from afar.
Surprisingly, Gray's both halves managed to resist the explosion thanks to their metal and flexible body.
Brown resisted, but was caught in a stream of ice charged dust, which froze him in place.
Glint wasn't so lucky, despite his resistance to Ice and Thunder elements, he happened to be standing right under the Fire-elemental part of the vein, which exploded right under his feet. Weak to the Fire-element, he sustained heavier damage than everyone else.
Glint loses 6HP
Tirim was protected by the towering and shield-like body of Vagush, but the Scarablade took the full brunt of the elemental wave as a result. He got wounded, but much less so than Glint.
Vagush is wounded by various elements
Furthermore, part of the ground collapsed as a result of the vein explosion. The rather plane ground is now sharp and chaotic, the rock having replaced the sand.
Gray#1 (in the hole) could still see some colored shining through the dust, coming from the detonated vein.
Radasars decision roll : [6]
The Radasars were greatly surprised by the sudden detonation. They got very suspicious, and decided to retreat for now, to go seek reinforcements.
They are a fair distance from all of you, reaching them won't be immediate if you want to.
Radasars are leaving to get reinforcements.
Glint :
HP: 15/21
MP: 13/25
Gray :
HP: 16/20 - 8 - 8
MP: 14/14
Roeway the Hell Wolf Roeway eats his full of the buffet he came across then continues on his way to the surface
You graze at the mana grass and chew some leaves of the mana trees. It feels refreshing and filling. After having a decent meal, you decide to continue your trip.
[1] As you prepare to leave, a sudden cyan lightning fires toward you from above.
[2] You fail to dodge it, and get fully hit by a lightning of energized mana. The aggressor reveals itself, floating : a rather flat but bulky purple creature with two tentacles and two small yellow eyes. It is a variant of the peaceful Blue Hoverer, the Purple Hoverer. More aggressive and dangerous to confront.
You lose 3HP
HP: 7/10
MP: 10/10
T946 the Security Bot That is possible that this was once my home but I never the less cannot conclude that this is the case because of the lack of evidence.Evidently, the humans has abandoned this place and the constructs for reasons that are unknown.
Say that while searching the contents of the papers, maybe I find something like an history of the place or list of magical constructs
[6] You rummage through the messy papers, some of them are unreadable because of degradation.
You first shift through the various schematics : those are magical constructs of all kind, this place must have been dedicated to magical construct animation. The schematics goes from Military-grade golems to small automatons, from humanoid designs to simpler or more complicated shapes.
Then you read the written notes. Mostly pointless reports of daily experiences, with complicated formulae, numbers and annotations. Foreign words fill these paper : magic signal responsivity, mana conduction, equation of Kalemrau, constant of Tenet...[Those are fictional, I just made them up.]
Finally you find something interesting, some notes speaking about "revolutionary experiment", "magitics and manalysis fields breakthroughs"...
It is attached with a blueprint. A crude and simplistic design.
...
Hey, that's you.
You inquire further. The notes speak about a "self-evolving magitic construct", an experiment combining "soul-theory" and "monstrology", the replication of "mana and soul patterns" via magic... There is not much more about the blueprint of the being looking like you.
So you look into another room, but the big Crustiliac suddenly snaps to signify "danger" and "forbidden area".
You don't hear it, and enter a large corridor. A yellow light blinks at the end of the corridor and something move...
...It's an artificial construct, you can't really discern its form because of the darkness, but it is clearly taller and large than you. It is coming toward you, and the Crustiliac's panicked snapping intensifies.
HP: 15/15
MP: 12/12