When Celindara finally started paying attention again, her mind still wandering it seemed, the dryad looked a little shocked at the fact that <ei was speaking of killing the fey. No matter how indirectly, and no matter that she had been ready with the fire and vengeance not too long before.

"Wait, what? Not alive? Why... shouldn't we...send him back to tell others to show respect and not come back?" Celindara sounded almost upset, and again swapped from her sometimes knowing and wiser proclamations to sounding young.

[Secret to Meri: Meri watching the fey's face didn't see any flicker of emotion on his face until Celindara looked upset, and then there was a subtle frown and intense look, as if he was awaiting more information or trying to work it out. It was very likely - though not certain - that he truly hadn't understood what was going on, and was scrambling to pick up clues from reactions. He still seemed to be smarting form the slap and in no mood to actually speak to Celindara again.]

Edit: Oops, forgot something...

Goodwin had made a motion when questions, but it once more could have been a 'no' or a shrug of not knowing.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:56, Sat 30 Jan 2016.

"You're assuming he won't just return with others then?" replied Meri.  "We'll see though.  May as well try this."

She reached for the Feyspeak Potion and eyed it for a moment before pulling out the stopper...


OOC: So unless Celindara or someone else stops her, I'll just have Meri drink the potion here.  Not too sure how it works, does it just give Meri temporary ability to speak Fey?
This message was last edited by the player at 23:57, Sat 30 Jan 2016.

Presumably Nym won't stop her, but I'll let Nym say so and then relate the effect. The potion description and the potion you will be able to brew will effectively let you understand and speak to fey. However, because the wording is vague and the reference is to beasts, then... well, let's just say this specific potion will have an additional effect that will seem logical in hindsight I won't bake in the standard version...

Yeah, unless you want to call Nym over to try and use Insight to read this guy, she't not really interested in talking to him right now.

She sort of did but Nym ignored her... I think you'll find Meri was trying to watch the fey herself so couldn't really pull focus away more than that comment. IC Nym hasn't really demonstrated the higher Insight you as a player knows she has btw :p I think it might be up to you to poke Nym to prove it at some point.

Anyway, I'll update for Meri drinking the potion then. It's one of those good news / bad news thingies... I think overall it works out well and better it happens now :)


The potions was as honeyed as the smell and Celindara suggested, yet did have the more refreshing taste of bubbling sweetened wine. Instantly Meri could tell something was slightly off. She'd had enough experience brewing potions to realise the base ingredients and perhaps even replicate this sometime. However, there was some odd bitter aftertaste.

Worse though, if the potion was to affect her language, she knew she should feel it. Instead, it felt as if something...external...had happened, that the magic of the potion was not affecting her mind how she would expect.


Celindara's eyes widened after a moment as the import of the words came to her. "But they wouldn't, would they? This was just that Phystal, the fey have left this forest alone for centuries. You've got me worried now."

[Private to Meri: Meri felt odd. She had an odd knowledge in her mind that Celindara wasn't worried, it was just something she had said because she felt it was expected, and would be a good excuse for her to go back to thinking about whatever it was she was actually worried about.

Looking to the fey bowman, she could somehow know he was uncomfortable, and trying to hide looking around the battlefield and looking to Goodwin.

There seemed to be no other odd link, not to the forest creatures nor Nym nor Many.

Time to pay of that huge Arcana roll before.

The potion was suppose to allow someone to understand and be understood by fey. With a dawning suspicion, Meri realised that fey didn't have to be humanoids with language. They could be beasts with a more limited vocabulary. The base potion most likely allowed one to not only communicate the language but intentions. If The Phystal had taken this potion along to interrogate prisoners, it was not a stretch to think he might have augmented that effect. So that the potion could let him understand any subtle non-communication cues, and the likely collary of being perfect understood - his resolve and willingness to torture or kill, say - being equally impressed on the one interrogated.

Meri could probably brew a normal version of this potion without this addition burden, but for the moment Meri had probably just opened a two way link where she could neither lie tp nor be lied to by the fey bowman nor Celindara. Was that a good thing, though?

Hehe, imagine taking that later in less controllable and reliable company :D Anyway, have fun with that. Hopefully it goes without saying to keep telling me Meri's true intentions, etc when she does something. Obviously you usually do it, but now it will actually be automatically understood by the other two. Stupid magical effects :p I meant evil DMs, that's what I really meant.



]

Meri frowned slightly and shook her head as if to clear it.
Her previously unconcerned look seemed to have disappeared, as if something had happened that she hadn't expected and whatever it was had damaged her calm somewhat...

Sighing she shook her head again and glanced back towards Celindara.
Then, focusing on the Fey once more, she spoke up in the same Elven language as before, although this time there was a hint of an odd accent to the words, as though some deeper meaning was there, but hidden from most others.

"Can you understand me now?" she asked.


[Private to The Altweaver: OOC: Hmm, reminds me a little of that ancient language in the Inheritance Cycle which is used to weave magic and makes it impossible for anyone speaking it to lie.  Although the elves in that universe are so familiar with the language, they can get around that limitation to some degree by "nuancing" meanings or implying things in certain ways to make someone think they meant something else.  Or by omitting things entirely.  Loopholes of a sort.

Anyways, right now it's probably obvious what she said before about not feeling so "involved" with events here.
Possibly a spark of anger at the Phystal "killing" Timur earlier and attacking them being what got her more involved.
She might still be stinging a little at being rejected by Blace and Goodwin before, but there is that part of her that just can't leave them both to die if she can still help, the light lurking behind the darkness in her.
Her intent now is to find Blace, although a part of her is also wondering about what Celindara said.  Are there more Fey out to destroy her, or was the Phystal the only one?]
This message was last edited by the player at 21:34, Sun 31 Jan 2016.

The fey's eyes narrowed, then he said [Secret to Nym: some words in a harsh, unknown language. The words were unfamiliar but there seemed to be some 'affirmative' intonation such as elves used, and the last word might have been said like a name.  ][Secret to Meri: , "You know I can. Where is the Old One. Where is Delsaran?" Meri understood the fey meant the other fey that attacked Nym, and the Phystal respectively.]
[Private to Meri:
Not familiar with the series!]

Meri glanced back towards Nym, mentally evaluating the chances of survival of anyone who might have attacked her during the battle.
"They're dead" she replied evenly.
[Private to The Altweaver: Not that I wanted to kill them, but I was occupied elsewhere, and they did attack us.  What did they think would happen?]

"I'm more interested in the woman who had him before" she continued, gesturing towards Goodwin to indicate her meaning.
"Is she dead, or somewhere else?"


[Private to The Altweaver: OOC: Grey text being Meri's thoughts behind her words.  Not sure if it's actually thoughts or just intentions that get transferred here :)

The Inheritance Cycle is the series that Eragon was from.  Not too bad, though I prefer the books.]

[Private to Meri:
It's more intentions that get transferred.]

The fey's face fell at Meri's words. [Secret to Nym: He spoke more harsh words in his own language, negative this time. And perhaps a word like 'stick' in elvish. ][Secret to Meri: There was a calculation, he was trying to tell if Meri was lying. But she had taken the potion, and clearly he must have seen the ruined boat. A cold look that communicated hatred settled on his features. She did not need a potion to know the fey was simply now playing for time to figure out how to take her with him, even if he died doing so. And she could understand whatever the purpose of the group, it had died with the other two, he was somehow not as connected to it. His expression and stance had seemed to scream defeat and confusion and then grasping for a purpose, finding simply revenge all that was left.

"Why would I know who that is? It's a staff. Not one I've seen." the fey said. But after a moment of confusion regarding the staff and Meri's question Meri could feel he did know both. And there was no way he could not know what she meant after all, because Meri's question would have allowed him to understand it was Blace and Goodwin. The fey seemed to be not fully aware of how the modified potion was working, and so was trying to answer the questions truthfully without being fully honest. His attention seemed torn between Goodwin and Meri, perhaps the old quest and new vengeance.

And as an OOC comment, you know this is likely. It sounded like whoever Goodwin was originally dealing with - the fey - gave him a method to take the dryad's voice that couldn't be replicated. So it is likely they've been looking for him and not finding him. After all, if they could silence the dryad they would have used it against her at the start of the combat :)]

"Blace? Dead?" said Celindara in confusion, and looked to the fey. She took a step forwards, uncertain.

[Secret to Meri: And Meri felt a strange headache suddenly. Heh, roll me a perception check and an insight roll please :D
]

Perception: 23 (10 + 13)
Insight: 25 (17 + 8)  Woo! :)

Yay!

[Secret to Meri: Meri felt as if she was trying to understand two voices at once. It was like when Krunluc had spoken to her through the stone, in a way. She understood now that obviously he had been pushing his words as telepathic conscious thoughts, but his underlying orcish words and real intentions had always been bubbling underneath, sometimes harshly at odds with what he had said to her that first time communicating.

It was the same but different with Celindara. She was genuinely worried for Blace, yet for some reason Meri simultaneously understood the dryad both wanted to ask further questions about Blace, and wanted to do nothing more than get back to her more important deep thoughts. It wasn't like the fey, who had conflicting concerns. Nor like the Nym-like ability for Celindara to be childishly happy or scary angry in turn. No, it was some new quirk as if the dryad was she was genuinely in two minds about everything.

And worse, Meri spotted out of the corner of her eye that Celindara was sub-consciously still wiping her right hand on her right breech leg.

Hmm, wonder what's wrong with her...]

Suddenly the fey jerked backwards. The bonds around him loosened slightly, he had clearly been trying to work them, but it did not seem voluntary his body's movement. He looked as if he was having a fit, his jaw clenched. And the left side of his face - where Celindara had slapped him - possessed an ugly, black area. Not a bruise exactly, for it had trailing black tentrils to it, as if outlining the veins beneath his skin...

That doesn't seem good!

The doe by Celindara's side backwed off, with a restless head motion as if skittish. And over on the ground near Nym, the fox suddenly lifted its head from its curl, looking around sharply towards the fey.

OOC: Oh crap!  (O.o)'


Meri had been about to ask something else when something odd seemed to happen.
Backing away slightly, she moved her staff in front of herself in a defensive position.

"What's happening?" she asked, looking back at Celindara.


OOC: Rolling Arcana to see if I can figure out what this is...  23 (10 + 13) - 10 again, I think this dice likes 10s...
This message was last edited by the player at 23:07, Sun 31 Jan 2016.

Nym pauses in watching the ant crawl over her hand and looks up as the fox raises his head.

"What's up, Mr Foxy?" she asks, following his gaze toward the little gathering of humanoids.

She gets to her feet, careful not to accidentally squish her insectoid "companion" in the process or brain any nearby creature with her staff. She looks over toward the others to see what's going on, but for the time being doesn't go over to investigate up close, perhaps waiting to see if it's worth looking at before she exerts any further effort in doing so. The owl, who has flown back up to the branches of a nearby tree, has turned her unblinking-and-probably-therefore-slightly-creepy gaze on the strange fey.

Perception for "wtf is happening"...hmm, 13. Insight for "whatever is happening to that bloke, does he look like he knows about it or wants it to happen"...18. Arcana for "if some weird magical thing is happening, do I jhave any clue about it"...20.

Lol, maybe you can see why I wanted to know if you were staying out or not Nym... didn't really want to start anything interesting elsewhere when I knew without you there things would get...umm....happening-y....over by the fey...

As with many consequences in this game, it's neither altogether bad nor altogether good...

[Secret to Nym:
While 'Mr Foxy' didn't answer, Nym could see a few things for herself, as confusing as it all looked. There seemed to be ropes around the fey jerking around, though why they weren't done up was silly, if Meri had wanted to capture him and stop the fey moving around.

It was hard to see exactly what the jerking fey thought, he did seem to be in pain, and also seemed to try to turn to Meri and Celindara - as if to ask for help, or perhaps to accuse them of something.

What was happening though, it didn't seem to be externally magical. Not only did neither of the two by the fey seem to be wiggling their fingers or staves theatrically, but more importantly there just wasn't that feel of magic in the air.

To save time and as you have good Nature, rather than get you to roll I'll just add that it looks more like someone being poisoned. Indeed, having been poisoned twice by them recently in succession, it would be an obvious guess. Correct? Who knows, but a logical leap to make :) ]

Celindara looked shocked at what was happening. "I don't...is it poison? Oh, look at his face. Did he eat poison? Did I shake loose some poison they had ready in case they were captured?"

The fey's cheek was indeed blackening. [Secret to Meri: And to Meri's linked mind the fey was definitively looking to Celindara as the cause, not showing any signs that the claim of poisoning itself were true.

Because you rolled good arcana before and because of the mind link, I'll give you this one....even a 23 shouldn't have been good enough to get this confirmation:)

The two simultaneous 'understandings' of Celindara's words continued, but some suspicion made sense. It was like Celindara was under a magical compulsion. Subconsciously she was fighting it or trying to be herself, but it was forcing her to do something - or as it seemed, think on something. It was why she had been so distracted. She did not seem to be lying about having no clue why the fey was suddenly spasming, the compulsion just seemed to want her to not care about it, nor Blace, nor anything else around and to instead focus elsewhere. Whereas, of course, her conscious mid couldn#t help but care about it all.

What/who was compelling her, or why, or how, and when it started...all those were simply not apparent. At least Meri had been warned by the expanded potion!

Heh, so there you go... ]

OOC: Hmm, does that poison look like something curable?  Rolled 22 (11 + 11) for a Heal check.  (I think it was going to roll a 10, but landed upside down, hehe)

Lol, you need to chisel a '2' from the '1' on that 10 :) It will also make it lighter so it lands face up :p

[Private to Meri: If it is poison, you need to know roughly what it is to have a hope of curing it. That would involve actually looking at his mouth and face. Also, the easiest way to counter something so virulent would of course be to burn/remove the ara - but it being part of his head makes that much harder if not impossible, annoyingly!

I'll let the check carry if you want to investigate him further. You are welcome to reroll after new facts emerge - though the general needs to Heal a poison like this won't change - but I will take the new roll whether higher or lower :)]

OOC: Well the 11 is directly opposite the 10 on that die, so if I can keep confusing it into landing upside-down, I can improve most of my rolls by 1 :)


"Someone or something is compelling you, meddling with your thoughts and making you do what they want.  You need to fight it off" said Meri, looking to Celindara.

Moving closer to the Fey, she reached out a hand to hold him down, trying to closely examine the area where the toxin was taking effect.


OOC: Taking a closer look.  Trying to touch him on areas covered by clothing rather than skin (and hoping those shiny new gloves keep anything off my hands, just in case).

[Private to The Altweaver: Not sure if I can also gain some understanding of the poison's precise effects by sensing over the mental link?  At least he should know of Meri's intent of trying to figure out what's wrong to heal him, if he's still linked with her like that.]

Lol, fair enough :)


[Private to Meri: The potion is still an augmented version of feyspeak, so getting him to actually speak to you will help far better than relying on magical sensing of his non-vocal cues. Especailly since most of those are screaming 'OOOW!']

Nym takes a few steps closer but continues to hang back as she doesn't seem to really have much of a clue what's going on.

"Ooh, he doesn't look very well." she says. "What's the matter? Did you eat something bad? Or did a little buggy bite you or something?"

Well, I have plenty of ways to destroy people and very few which might heal anyone, and nothing which could cure poison so I think I'll just stay back and let Meri deal with it, her being the healer and all ;).

OOC: Assuming the healer has much of a clue what it is either...


Meri frowned and shook her head, glancing back briefly at Celindara then focusing her attention on the Fey again.
"Hey, look at me.  Concentrate on what I'm saying.  Do you recognise the poison?  I can try to help you, but I need to know what it is, what it's doing to you, how it's working..."

Yeah, maybe I've told Meri in private to burn it all to the ground and kill everyone, which would definitely be in Nym's wheelhouse. Also just because I haven't made you roll Nature yet regarding what's happening, doesn't mean it wouldn't be something you could do!

"What?" said Celindara angrily to Meri, "well that's clearly not true at all. I have have important things on my mind, and I can't be doing with all this distraction!"

[Private to Meri: Unfortunately you don't get the dual mental shift. It seems of course the compulsion is happy for Celindara to be angry, and Celindara seems to get genuinely angry at the accusation that she could be compelled :)]

Meri struggled to look at his face and visible skin while not getting her hand too close to the area itself. The fey still thrashed and grunted quietly in pain, but managed to mumble out a few harsh sylvn words. [Secret to Meri: "The black gift....But not for me. Not a gift. It will take, not give."

Knowledge. Somehow Meri understood the 'give and take' was knowledge. 'Not for me' brought about the same feelings of this fey not being as devout or wanted as the other two - too new to the quest, a newer recruit. The understanding of the black gift was harder, but brought a mental image of The Physal again. The black crystals, so dead, had seemed wrong. Had something infected The Phystal and his magic then?

Not a poison, the fey seemed to be making the word 'gift' mean something different. It felt like a disease, or a virus. And something, somehow, alive...

It was perhaps very wise Meri had not touched the skin. The black area of skin now just seemed like dead, parched flesh, his cheek sunken and hollow making his words slur. But there was movement under the skin, and slowly down his neck and up his temple there were black tendrils following the path of his veins. His left eyes seemed to be darkening and glistening...]

Nym saunters a little closer, peering over at the Fey, then looking at Meri and Celindara.

"Well, all sorts of things happening here!" she says. "Can you make that man get better? He really doesn't look very well..."

Lol okay, I'll roll Nature as well, then, to see if Nym has any random flashes of inspiration in that area...ooh, she may well do, as I just scored 26 :).

Lol, the inspiration will no doubt end up being 'Burn it with fire and kill it' I tell you :)

[Private to Nym: The fey's face was a blackened mess on one side, as if something was on or under his skin - it was hard to want to tell.

There were also little tendril of black going along the path of his veins. It was like some odd, icky parasite. Usually with those you had to kill the body then pull out the horrid feelers.

Told you didn't I :p]

OOC: Okies, running another Heal check to see if I can figure out how to cure that.  Then maybe try and slap some sense into Celindara!  21 (10 + 11) - 10 again???  That die is creeping me out a little now!

Unfortunately my "epic post" mind fuel just got used up over on Rebirth, where Swift appears to have found her moment of destiny :)  (Probably just before she gets brutally murdered in the boss fight!)

Nym walks the rest of the way toward the little group, squinting as she peers more closely at the fey-man's face.

"Ewww, I think he's got an icky wriggly bug-thingy in his face..." she says, her deer-like nose wrinkling and her ears twisting around in distaste. "Can you splat it and then pull all the bits out?"