Mike in Megiddo: The World at it's End...

You dream a strange dream
You are in a giant hamster ball when Eren in titan form pick you up and throws you to the female titan with a branch as a bat. she hits you and sends you flying outside of everything.
You are falling and falling and hear strange things
"The End of the World Approaches."
"The Undead appear. Breaking the Natural Cycle of Life and Death."
It's garbled and you don't catch all of it.

You are coming too. You hear Unnatural sounding groans.
This message was last edited by the player at 09:04, Thu 28 July 2016.

I shake my head, and instinctively feel at my chest. The feeling of dying just doesn't get normal, I like to make sure it's healed.

My thoughts momentarily linger on well wishes for their struggle against the Titans, anger that I failed them in dying, and pride that I established a legacy that I believe will usher them into a brighter future. And I died swinging. There have been worse lives, I'm sure.

Then I realize I don't know how dangerous the world I'm in now is, and I snap my eyes open and hop to my feat. I take an immediate swordsman's stance and check if my blade is at my hip. I look around and take inventory of what all is around me, especially where the noise is coming from.

I'll also do a quick mental check:
Hermes, Zeke, Nix, you all with me?

You get up and get into your swordsman stance.
You are in your uniform from the previous world with the ODMG. You have 6 of the Ultra-hard Blades with you and your Masterwork Gladius is on your side. You sense your things in several Directions.

It's Night now. But there is a full moon. You spot two humanoid creatures with green tinged shin approaching you. They are about 50 feet away. They are the source of the unnatural groaning.

You hear replys in your mind
"We are ok. What happened?"
We moved to his next world. Hmmm... The little ones wont listen to your commands like before. You'll have to learn to draw power from us.
...Great. That means we won't get to fight Directly.

Hmm, looks like we might be in for some zombies. Will have to be careful, and infection would be catastrophic.

Just in case they are intelligent I'll call out, "Hello, identify yourself"

Hermes is right, I assumed you saw in my memories. I'm functionally immortal, when I die the universe puts me into a new world instead. Some are less supportive of furycrafting as Hermes said. The world where Hermes came from had furies so abundantly that there were occasionally storms of them. But for now, it looks like I'm going to be needing to draw on your influence, and train with you at night hopefully. I trust we're relatively sure that manifesting isn't practical in this world Hermes?

I'm going to use some farseeing windcrafting to see far distance, I'm looking for buildings with walls around them, any fortified structure that might be non-zombies.

The Wind doesn't listen to your mental command.

You can see that you are in a clearing in the middle of a thick forest.

Not the way we have been doing it.

I'll focus on collecting my stuff then, while staying a good distance from these zombies or whatever they are.

One of these vectors has to be to the wand that I left at Eren's house. If furies are out of the question, I want to know if magic is as well, and that wand is a potent tool. I'll keep gathering my stuff, until I figure out which one has the wand. At that point the rest can wait for now. I'm avoiding using the ODMG since I don't have any way to recharge it once it runs out of charge. It's strictly for emergencies for now.

The rest of the things you had with you was on the horse. You pick that up in the clearing.
When the zombies get within ten feet of you They spit a boiling black glob of something at you. That you dodge with your reflexes.

The Vector for your other things is in the direction of the moon.

A young woman with a staff enters the clearing and notices you fighting.
She is now charging and shouting "Kill Them Quickly Before They Hit You!"

Well, that's enough motivation to make me attack. Here we go.  Using two of my ultra hard blades, I move towards them with deadly intent in my gait, and go through a crescent arc decapitating one of them, before pivoting my footing and going into an upwards arc drawn to bisect the other.

Once they are dead, "Thank you for the assistance, what are those things?"

She formed a halberd of sunlight with her staff. But you kill them before she gets to them. She skids to a stop and says.

"Ok. You obviously know your way with a sword. But way are you this far out of San Miguel?"

"I'm not sure, I just woke up in this forest. I don't even know what these things are.

Perhaps I could go with you for a time? My name is Michael by the way."

Edit: forgot to introduce myself.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:26, Sun 03 July 2016.

She studies you intensely using the light from the halberd at the end of her staff.

In excange you get a good look at her. She has a deep tan, dark brown eyes and ight brown hair. She is fairly short at about five and a half feet. Her face could be described as more cute than beautiful. From what you see under her cloak she has a lithe figure.

She stops studying you and says.
"You are not lying. How?... I'll take you to San Miguel to figure this out. Those are Bok's weak undead that spit Klorofolun at you. Even a little bit with turn you undead unless you have solar blood. My name is Leona."

"I do my best to not lie." said with my best smile. "and it's very nice to meet you Leona"

"Good to know, and glad I avoided it then. Who is Bok? and what does it mean to have solar blood?"

I follow her lead as to where we're going. My wand can wait. Seems like that wand is always waiting for me to fetch it anyway.

OOC: opps. Oh well.

She seems a bit shy with how casually you are talking to her.
"Um... it's Good meeting you too...

Bok is the name of that type of undead. They generally are under the command of the Undead Immortals.

Having Solar Blood means you are a member of the Solar Tribe. A descendant of the civilization that used to rule the world."

It seem like you are heading in the direction of your wand.

OOC)Not at all, I've just been trying to put more of my internal monologue in. Experimenting with if it makes the writing on my end more interesting. My character is happy to have a place to go and someone to learn about the world from, and is saying to himself that the wand is secondary priority.

"Hmm, I'm assuming there is a test for this solar blood? Or do members who carry it look different? And how did you make your staff into a halberd, it looked to consist of sunlight."

Just going along for the ride, more will become evident in time I'm sure.

"Most look similar . But there are tests for those with weak blood. It was made of Sunlight. That was Ancient Solar Magic. Most can't use it anymore. Do you know where you are from?"

"I've been from many places, Earth was my first place I called home, Alera was my second, and I don't know rightly what the last place I was in was called. I've lived a strange life, and I'm afraid I'm often out of place."

I realize that what I said is likely to come off strange, especially if this world is referred to as Earth, but I don't feel like lying to a woman who made every effort to save my life.

She stares at you again.
"The land is called Megiddo. The world at it's end. You are not as strange here as you think."

"Why is the world at it's end?"

Other than that, I've asked most of my questions for now. I'm sure I'll have more as I see more. Just following along towards where ever she's leading me.

"The world is dying. It's being choked by the Undead and the Immortals. In some places the land itself turned undead.

...We fight to try to stop it..."

You are coming upon a old style town. Looks to be adobe construction.

"In which case I would very much like to join your efforts. It is clearly what I was sent here for."

When we enter town I'm keeping an eye out for types of magic or technology in use. I expect that the world is somewhat magic diven based on the halberd earlier, and the mention of it being ancient solar magic, but I'm trying to deduce how common magic is among others.

"It'll just get you killed like everyone else..."

She seems rather down about that.

You enter town. You see the occasional candle for lighting.
The most interesting thing you saw looked like a blacksmith's shop. But there was an array of mirrors and lenses on the roof.
You also spotted a clock tower.

She leads you to a old house that she opens with a key.
"Come on in."
She lights a candle with a simple gesture and a whispered word of "Come Fire".
She then uses the candle to light a few more candles.

"Or it could be the effort that tips the war effort in our favor. Let's stick to the bright side." And I'll give another smile.

I wonder if the mirror arrays are for catching solar energy, sunlight seems important here. I'll have to stop by and find out at some point.

I thank her when she invites me inside, and just follow along for a bit. I have questions but I'm most curious about where she's taking me anyway, so the rest are sidelined until then.

"One can hope."

-------

You follow her inside and she sets up the candles in a sparse living room.

"I don't have the money to let you stay at an inn. So I'll let you stay in my spare bedroom."

She sits down in a chair.

"It's not unusual for people like you to end up here. Usually their world is on the brink of destruction too. And then they slip though the cracks in the Doomsday phenomena. "

"Huh, that would explain some things. This world is definitely different than where I remember. I had much stronger control of the elements in my previous location, I can only talk to the ones I brought with me here. Those around don't heed my will.

I appreciate your hospitality, is there anything I can do to repay it? What type of currency is used here? I have some gold and silver."

"There are those that can control the elements with magic here. Although Solar elemental magic is generally the most effective against the undead. But there are a few exceptions.

Currency is usually gold and silver coins.

Don't worry about repayment for now."

"Is it possible to learn these forms of magic? I'd be very interested in trying."

Mostly just going with the flow for a bit, she seemed to have reason to believe I should come to this town, whether it be the only safe town, or if there is someone I am to meet I don't know. I'll employ patience for now, hoping she'll mention what she thinks the best course of action next is.

"Yes. I know a bit about it dispite specializing in Solar magic. Whould you like me to test you?"

I nod "I'd like to test for solar as well, if you don't mind."

"Ok. The first thing we need to do is empty your reserve of motes. Do you have any spells you can use?"

"I know some limited healing magic, but it requires the use of a materia focus, which is quite some distance away. I also have done a limited amount of destructive fire magic, but require my wand for that, which is with the materia." and I point in the direction they both lie "They're both in that direction, I have a connection to them. Outside of that I have been able to control the elements, but my attempts at it here have completely failed. So I supposed what I'm saying is I think my reserve of motes is empty."

"You've done magic before so your essence is probably Awakened. Most people call Motes magical energy. Let me try something..."

She closes her eyes and touches your forehead.

"You have 21 motes within you. Odd they are undifferentiated. Almost like wyld energy but less chaotic... maybe you can use magic without gathering the proper motes."

"Hmm, well let's try some basic stuff then. So undifferentiated magical energy, so I likely have a fair amount of flexibility towards what I use them in. Is 21 a respectable number, or does it put me on the weak end? And is it possible to gather more motes? But I get ahead of myself, what would you suggest is a good starting point for testing my magic?"

I'll follow her advice and council on this completely. She's earned my trust, which goes a long way.

"It's extremely good for someone that hasn't had any training. But it can be improved. The first thing you should probably learn is to call fire."

She pulls out a candle.

"Practice these movements for a bit"
She shows you the hand movements she did before.

"Once you are ready. Visualize a litle bit of you energy flowing though your hands and say 'come fire'"

I practice, focusing to make sure I didn't miss any of the motions and then replicate the gesture, visualizing what I imagine the motes to look like, small white orbs, flowing out of my hand and turning red as I say 'come fire' and give them direction. I am careful to only use a little, as she said.

You feel a single fire fury come and eat the mote you offered it. It then lights the candle and inhabits the flame.

"Good. You have the discipline and control needed to be a mage. I wonder if your system can accept a solar mote."

She smirks
"May I?"

I smile at the compliment to my discipline, and say thank you.

When she asks if she may I nod, "of course"

She closes her eyes and then places her hand on your forehead. You feel a little bit of the raw essence of sunlight enter your soul.

"...Interesting. You essence system isn't rejecting it but it isn't converting it to the undifferentiated energy you where storing. If you can gather essence from the sun, You could learn the Ancient Solar magic."

"Hmm, how does one gather sun essence? And is the one you just passed to me enough for me to try some of this Ancient Solar magic? I take it it's uncommon to be able to use both solar and undifferentiated motes?

"Most people only have motes attuned with one element. Mote of the time when they receive motes of another aspect, their body unconsciously converts it to their own element.
With other magic you can convert your motes to the proper element, With a little lost from the conversion. But Solar Magic requites Solar motes. It doesn't work with motes converted from other elements.
We'll need sunlight to gather solar motes. Those with Solar blood gather them unconsciously when they rest under the sun. But I'm not sure how you would do it.

...What do you consider yourself best at? Your swordsmanship looked good enough to have a noticeable effect with what I'll teach you next."

"Hmm, perhaps if I rested in the sun and concentrated I could absorb some as well. It's safe to presume it's impossible that where I came from has traces of solar blood? Could I be tested for that as well or would it already be obvious?

It's probably a close call between my swordsmanship and my archery. Swordsmanship is probably the better by a hair. Let's start with that."

"Maybe, The test was seeing if you could accept solar essence. It's sort of academic at this point if you have Solar Blood.

Light four more candles. I'll give you some more solar essence so that the effect of what we do will be noticeable."

I assume you do so and let her add more solar motes to you.

"The Sun represents a variety of things including Light and Perfection. By focusing Solar motes though your skill with the blade. You can make yourself closer to perfection for an instant. What would be a feat that is just slightly beyond your ability?"

I happily follow what she says, glad to have found a friendly person here and a guide in something new. I always love learning.

"Hmm, just beyond my normal limits. I suppose snuffing out all four candle wicks with one swipe is just outside my ability normally. It's close to the level of precision I'm comfortable with. It is a little hard to say though, I've grown accustomed to always drawing speed from the wind, it's been a long time since I've gone any real time not embracing the wind."

If she tells me to try, I will. Or if she offers an alternative.

"That will work. It is a show of extreme skill. Try to focus the solar essence though your skill to accomplished this."

You focus the solar essence though your skill. And you feel four of the motes burn. You swing with superhuman skill and hit all four of the candle flames.

"Ok. Good job."

"Ah, so through using the notes to bring me more in tune with the solar essence, my skill shifts closer towards perfection. The amount it changes towards perfection changes with how many and how fast I'm using solar motes I presume?"

Eager to explore this new talent further, I ask "so that covers elemental and solar motes, and how to use them in a limited fashion. I presume my undifferentiated mote pool restores on its own over time? And perhaps we could go see if I can gather my own solar motes from the sunlight, so I don't keep eating away at your reserve. Unless you had something else in mind, I'm just always eager to learn more."

"You are limited by your skill for how much you can enhance yourself. You can only use so many at once. Solar essence does push oneself towards perfection.

I don't know how your essence recovers. We can try to let you gather solar essence on your own tomorrow.

Do you want to rest for the night?"

"Yes, resting for the night would be good. I am able to more fully commune with some of the elemental spirits I've recruited to join me in my travels while sleeping. They may be able to explain more tonight about how, and we can try and collect solar motes tomorrow.

Thank you again for your great kindness", smiling sincerely. She's gone above and beyond anything I would expect from someone.

"Elemenal spirits? Interesting.  You are quite unusual. I'll show you my guest bedroom."

She leads you up a set of stairs and to a sparse bedroom.

"Goodnight"
She leaves you in the room.

I assume you go straight to bed.

You wake up in your Furyscape. All three of your furies are in front of you.

I nod. "I can normally manifest them for a substantial time. That's not possible here, or not my normal way at least. I hope you will get to meet them eventually."

I respond goodnight and head to see the furies.

Once in the Furyscape "So this world doesn't allow me to manifest you all through psionics, but I'm working on a method to leverage their magic system for me to manifest you all. I will do my best to do so as quickly as possible, but I think it may take some time.

The system seems to respect the normal elements I would expect, as well as a solar element.

Any of you have questions about what's going on? Have you been able to see the world through me?"

If they have no questions I'll see what training I can do with them. Am I fully able to use my furycrafting here? Do I see an influence of the solar magic manifesting here at all?

Other than that I'm just practicing with them all.

The next morning I'll wait until I hear movement before I head downstairs to say good morning.

"I hope so."

----------

You see a sun in the distance in your furyscape.

"That is correct about the psionics. It takes concentration to see though your senses"

Your furycrafting manifests normally in your furyscape.

You wake up with the morning sun in your face. You hear activity below. You head down and find her preparing breakfast.

I go down and say good morning to Leona. (That was the name right)

I ask if I can help with getting breakfast ready, and during meal prep tell her I talked with my elemental spirits last night. They validated my assumption that my previous method isn't possible here, but didn't see a reason that they couldn't be summoned through motes here. They didn't seem to know anything about it though.

I ask during breakfast how I can tell how many motes I have, is it a skill that she can teach me, or something I'll grow to understand as I use them more.

She accepts your help with breakfast.

"I hope that is correct. I would like to see them.

Most of the time you'll learn to feel your reserve of motes."

You are having eggs and pancakes.

I thank her for breakfast when we sit down to eat.

During the meal I'll ask what the plans are for the day? Is there a patrol she needs to go on or something I can help with?

This morning you noticed that your things where in the direction of the rising sun.

"I was planning to Go and Kill the Count of Groundsoaking Blood in a few days. He is East of here in Istrakan, The City of Death. Which is east of here. I've been training to do this since He killed my father five years ago. I was planning on gathering supplies today."

"I'm sorry to hear about your father. Whenever you decide to go, you have my pledge of assistance any way I can."

Is the vector to my equipment a different direction that the other day?

No it is in the same direction.


"You Want to go with me to Istrakan, The City of Death?
Are you sure? It will be extremely dangerous."

She seems really surprised that you would want to go with her there.

I nod.

"I've done dangerous before, and will again. It's all a matter of the cause being worthy. You attempted to save me from those Bok, you've taught me things I didn't know, and provided food and shelter to me. Further, your goals are righteous and deserve doing. I'd like to learn as much as I can in the few days before we leave however, such that I can assist more in our efforts there."

She blushes and stammers a bit.

"T-t-thank you. That means a lot to me... I will teach you what I can before we go..."

She continue to eat in silence. Unless you decide to ask something.

I smile, and say "Your welcome." and am content to let her eat in silence.

At the end of dinner I'll help wash the plates and put them away, and then ask "So, I know we were planning to see if I could collect solar motes this morning. Shall we start with that? And how advanced was the magic that let you forge a weapon out of light? I was thinking, I have quality swords but I never got around to getting a really well made bow. If I could learn to create a bow of sunlight, and the arrows to fire... Well it seems like it would add a good tactical option for us. Other than that, I don't even know what to begin asking about ancient solar magic, what other techniques do you think I should be learning?

And what supplies do we need to gather? Do you have a list prepared?"

"I was planning to get various dried foods for the long trip into Istrakan. Since I already have the other gear I need. You have a pack, Do you have the supplies to camp outside? and what was that contraption that was strapped to you last night?

We might be able to fine a good bow in town. Along with some arrows.
Learning to make a bow out of sunlight is possible. But really difficult. making arrows of sunlight is easier to do though. The First thing I would learn if I where you is 'Enhancement Sol'. It makes your weapon take on a Solar Elemental property. Which will allow you to cut down the tougher undead easier."

"I would need to get a portable tent if we're not going to be traveling through wooded areas. I would normally construct shelter when I need to in the wood,otherwise sleep under the stars. That device is a piece of mobility gear from the military I was in before coming here. It's used to rapidly move through any areas with terrain to grapple on to. It works by sending a grappling hook flying out, and then I can have the cable snap and pull in, letting me shoot through the air at fast speeds. It took a lot of training to be able to use it with any semblance of safety however. But we were fighting for humanity's sake there too, so dangerous tools had to be used.

Getting a good bow in town would be great, could you take a look at the money I have and let me know what it's worth? I'm willing to use as much of it is necessary to support this endeavor. Perhaps we could see if I can collect solar motes when we go out and run those errands, and look for a good bow and light tent while we're out, then when we get back see if I can pick up enhancement sol?"

I get out my bag of coins, to get her estimate on what they're worth. I still have a good deal of aleran gold and silver on me, and most all of the money I made in the attack on Titan world.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:00, Wed 06 July 2016.

Just looked back to double check how much of what currency I had. I had 22 gold eagles, 6 silver eagles from Alera. I spent 1 gold eagle on my sword, and converted 1 gold eagle and 1 silver half eagle to attack on Titan currency, which was 1 pound 1 shilling.

Then I had some time in the attack on Titan military, not sure how much I was paid for that, but that would be on top of what I mentioned.

OOC: They set your wage at 4 pennies a day. You where in the military for about a year.
4d*365=1460d
1460/12=121s 8d
6L 1s 8d
So you had 6 pounds one shilling and 8 pennies total.
In what form would you have your money in?

She takes a look at your money and says.
"That's quite a bit of money. Most will accept it. It's is a bit unusual to have different sized silver coins. What you will be getting wont cost that much. Unless you try to get a magic bow. Then it is really expensive."

You note that when you woke up that you where full of mana again. and you still have that one solar mote.

You go out with her and head to the store. She is selecting various dried meats and nuts and fruit.

The tent will set you back 10 shillings. The store owner was willing to help you out and accept your currency as equivalent to their own.

Will do it as 4 L 41s 8d which for what currency I would be carrying. I like to keep things broken down fairly well so that I don't need to try and get change in each world.

"What sets the magic bow apart from the others? Is it worth the added expense and would one be available and how expensive are we talking? And the currency has come from various locations, it's been an interesting life."

On the walk over I'll mention "what motes I used yesterday from my own reserve replenished overnight. And I still have that one solar mote from yesterday. Seems I can hold on to the solar ones for some time, and that when I sleep my other motes replenish at least partially."

I thank the shop owner for doing business with me, despite the odd currency.

So with the food and tent taken care of, it's getting the bow next? I'd like to see if a magic bow is for sale, and if so how much and what it claims to benefit over a normal bow.

"Most of the Time sleeping will restore your mote. Depending on how restful the sleep is. It's just faster for" me to use sunlight.

"Magic weapons are usually better than normal one and do something unusual. Really expensive in that It would probably take all of your money to get one."

You go to the weapon shop. They don't have any magical bows. But the owner is willing to trade you a really nice Composite Recurve bow for 30 shillings.

Well that solves that question, wouldn't have wante to spend all of that on it anyway. I'll buy the composite bow and a few quivers of arrows.

On the way following Leona to wherever we're off to after the bow shop I'll concentrate on the sunlight hitting my skin, and see if I can absorb it and collect it as a solar mote.

You get 100 arrows for 3 more shillings.

You currently feel full. So you don't have room at the moment to store the solar mote.
I'll assume that you spend some of your mana to make room.
After about a minute of concentrating fully on it, You gather a mote out of Sunlight.

I'll spend a mote, directing it towards embracing the wind, mimicing internal windcrafting to boost my agility. I'm curious how long a given mote's effect will last and if it can even be used in such a way. But regardless I'll find some way to burn off the mote, not particularly picky about how, so that I can gather the sun mote.

Once we have the bow and set of arrows:
"So, we got the food, tent and bow and arrows. What else is on the to do list, or are we good to find a location to practice enhancement sol and producing sol arrows in conjunction with this bow?"

I'm very eager to try making arrows of sunlight, and I'm sure that anticipation is bleeding into my voice.

You feel your mote convert to a wind mote and spread throughout your body. Giving you an urge to run like the wind. After a few seconds, the urge and mote passes.

She raises an eyebrow when you do that.

"I know a clearing west of town that will be good to practice in. You might want to do that a few more times. You are going to need a decent amount of solar essence to do what I'm going to teach you."

She leads you to a clearing west of town and sets up a log as a target for you.

"Before you make arrows out of sunlight. You need to learn how to enhance your arrows with the essence of the sun. I.E. Enhancement Sol. Go ahead and get your bow and arrows out.  Take aim at the target. Now force one of the solar motes you gathered into the arrow. It might take a few arrows for you to get this right. once you get a feel for it you shouldn't break any more arrows."


OOC: Any particular visualization you are using? Otherwise I didn't want to presume too much and do a chunk that is too big.

I nod, "will do, was just checking to make sure I could collect the solar mote. Will burn off more of the other type now then."

And on the walk I burn off all but 5 of my normal motes, and concentrate on collecting solar motes to replace them.

I follow her instructions on what to do, but don't have a particular vision in mind of what to expect for the enhancement sol. For the actually creating my own arrows I have the image of forming the arrow in my hand, of crackling yellow sunlight, but no strong image of what the enhancement would look like.

You notice when you pass through some shade, that you are glowing slightly when you use the wind power. The glow is a light purple.

she lets you break a few arrows getting the feel of forcing the mote in them.
You get the feeling that she isn't accustomed to teaching people.

"Ok. I'll show you the next step now. Normally when you just shove a mote into something like an arrow, it'll break. But if you focus on adding that light and power of the sun to the arrow, it will take on some of those properties. Here, Let me demonstrate."

 She borrows your bow and a arrow. She focuses and then the arrow glows with a golden color and a solar flame at the tip. You also notice that she glows slightly with the same golden color.

She fires the solar arrow and misses the target. She looks visibly annoyed.
She glows again and forms an arrow out of crackling golden sunlight. She nocks the sunlight arrow and fires again. Hitting the target and leaving quite a scorch mark. She seems satisfied with herself.

She hands the bow back to you.

Hmm, I'll have to pay attention to those glows, and see what colors everything else is. And also stay aware that using it in a dark location will likely give me away.

I nod, listening to her. Making the connection that adding the amount of power to a fragile item is difficult, but she's saying to reinforce it at the same time. It makes a lot of sense.

I take the bow back, and adjust the grip in my hand. I'll draw the bow a few times without any arrow to get a good grasp on it's weight before I attempt to fire.

I'll then take an arrow and try and replicate her results, focusing on imbuing it with the light and power of the sun.

I'll then knock and release, aiming at the center of her scorch mark, thinking back to my testing in the military academy. It feels good to be able to demonstrate my ability with the bow again.

(The training I'm referencing is for recruitment in Alera we were tested in sparring matches with swords and an archery contest. I did ok in the sword sparring, having no training with it prior to that, but the archery contest is where I shined. Each person shot from a distance, then moved back to the next furthest distance. Myself and one other recruit got to the farthest distance, that I hit and they missed. That was before knowing any woodcrafting too.

Just figured if I was having my character flashback to a scene from when Krillis was running it would be useful to summarize it.)

OOC: I do remember reading that. The flashback does help.

The Bow has a fairly strong pull. It might have been difficult if you haven't been working out nearly constantly.

It clicks this time and you charge the arrow with the power of the sun.
You fire and hit the center of the scorch mark. Making the scorch mark bigger.

"...Nice shooting. Making arrows of Sunlight is similar but you focus on making the solar mote maintain the shape of an arrow."

I assume you try with your previous visualization.

A bolt of crackling golden fire forms as you draw the bow. You release and strike the target. Finally setting it on fire.

I smile as the arrow hits the mark, glad to have a bow in my hands again. They just weren't practical in  a world of titans.

I thank Susan when she comments on the nice shooting.

Yeah, I'll stick with the previous visualization.

"Hmm, I think I'm getting the hang of this method. We should probably put out the fire before continuing though. Is it possible to form arrows with other elements? Perhaps I could use some of my undifferentiated motes, and use them as water elemental to put out the log."

If she says it's possible I'll try just that, going through the same motions, but forming the image of an arrow that's dripping water along its length with a payload of swirling water at its front. I'm guessing it'll be ineffective against anything that isn't weak to water as it's not well suited for piercing, but should be quite effective against flames.

After that, I'll ask "so, what else should I know? Just trying to make sure I have as many tools to help you as possible when we set out on our journey. You mentioned that stuff the bok spat at me would turn me undead, will the solar motes help me resist that if I don't manage to dodge? What type of resistance are we expecting to face on our hunt?"

OOC: Susan? She is in the thread you are running. This is Leona

"That is the principle of using the other elements in Enhanced attacks.
It's a bit inefficient with me because I have such a strong solar aspect.
Give it a shot."

You coat the arrow with water and have a swirling mass of water at the tip.

You fire the arrow and put out the fire.

"Well have to pass though a few dungeons on our way to Bloodrust Mansion. Those shouldn't be too bad. The Count will be difficult though.

...I'm Not sure. In theory that would work since Sol is the elemental opposite of Darkness.
It would be risky.

Developing your magic would probably be our best bet."

Ooc) Oops, my bad. I meant Leona.

I smile as the water arrow does it's job. This opens up a fair amount of options for me when approaching an obstacle.

"That all makes sense. And I'll just concentrate on not getting hit by that stuff, would rather not have to find out if the theory would work.

What's the next step in developing my magic? I imagine it's going to be too short of a time to do anything that will raise how many motes I can hold at once, I've figured out how to collect solar motes, and my undifferentiated ones restore with rest naturally it seems.

I'm not confident that I have enough raw power to manifest any of my elementals, even the other way I did it before coming here was taxing. And there, I kept up constant elemental augmentations to myself. I would often go entire days where I never stopped borrowing speed from the wind and strength from the earth.  Just the speed from the wind aspect I tried using motes a little while ago, and one mote burned away in seconds.

So should I just be practicing with what I've learned so far, making sure I know it well for when we leave or is there more I can learn?"

"It's up to you how you want to develop yourself. You might practice what you got or develop a few more spells. As for your wind based magic. You could try to use more motes at the start to get the Spell to last longer. It might take a bit of set up time before hand.

It probably will be more useful to have more spells."
This message was last edited by the player at 03:19, Fri 08 July 2016.

"Ok, I'm going to try a trick I knew the other way. I'll need to stand away a bit to see if it works though."

I'll walk about 20 feet away, and then focus on bringing four motes out from my reserves, and shifting them to wind element. I'll then position them as a shield around me and have them work to bend the air as I do in furycrafting to create an invisibility cloak.

It strikes me as I'm doing this that when Leona lit the flames earlier she used command words, and I decide to do the same. And since I grew to know wind elements well in Alera I decide to use the language I learned there. I put about a minute into concentrating on my effect, the four motes mentioned, and speak the word vanish in Latin (which I learned in the Aleran furycrafting academy, so I associate  it with elements).

I'm hoping for an effect measured in minutes rather than seconds, as it would be a technique I'd want to use for sneaking.

Leona's eyebrows raise when you start concentrating.
And her eyes widen when you disappear.
You are in the middle of the winds bending light around you. It does take quite a bit of concentration to maintain.

"That is really good. It does produce a slight murmuring sound. Most wouldn't notice it."

"Excellent, I'm glad this worked. It does take up a lot of my concentration maintaining it, but It may come in handy if we need to get by something.

I'm curious how large of a cloak this is in practice. Try walking towards the sound of my voice until you can see me. It'll give us an idea of whether what I did will be large enough to shield us both or if I'd have to make it larger."

After that experiment I'll release my concentration and the invisibility cloak, "well that brings me quite low on my undifferentiated motes. I burned off most of them just to make room to collect solar motes. I suppose the rest of today I'll focus strictly on solar then.

While I concentrate on absorbing sunlight to collect more solar motes, perhaps we could discuss the count and what you know about him. Does he have any known weaknesses? What are his strengths and things to look out for? Do you think he'll be expecting you to come after him or will we have the element of surprise. These things will help figure out what other magic I should be trying to learn."

"Ok."

She walks towards you and when she gets within three feet of you she says.

"I can see you now. We would have to stay really close for both of us to be hidden."

She steps back a bit as you let your spell dissipate.

"The Count is a Vampire Lord of the Death Clan of Immortals. Like all Immortals, The dark Matter keeping him active reacts badly to Solar Essence. He also has an affinity to earth. Beyond that Information is more limited. He has been observed conjuring Earthen Spikes and swords; Turning into a multitude of bats; And Beating people to death in melee.

He knows that I'm going to be coming for him. He doesn't know When I'm going to attack though. I'm going to try to sneak in to Istrakan to surprise him."

I nod. "True, so it'd be difficult to sneak in that way, although if we need it at least we have it.

An old friend of mine used to be able to create Earth spikes, I generally would stick to flying around to avoid the advantage they gave him in sparring matches. I'll see if I can manage to fly using this new method tomorrow, when my non solar reserves are refilled. Is it possible to convert solar motes into elemental motes?"

At this point I don't have a huge amount that I have in mind that I want to do, will be practicing to get ready for the trip. And helping Leona out with whatever she needs over the next couple of days.

"It's possible. But inefficient. Usually you need to convert two or more solar motes to get one elemental mote.

I haven't heard of humans being able to fly with magic. "

After your conversation, she goes to that blacksmith shop with the solar collector.

She says
"Smith, are you here?"

A rumbling male voice comes from the back
"I'm back here. How are you Leona?"

Leona replies
"I finnished my training.  I'm going to go and fight the Count soon."

A large man with grey hair comes out. He Looks concerned. Then he notices you.

"Who is this young man?"

Leona nod towards you
"This is Michael. He is planning on helping me fight the Count."

The man turns towards you.

"Hmm, good to know it's possible at least, if not ideal.

It may not be possible, but it's worth trying. I'm just not used to being locked to the ground. But that'll wait till tomorrow, I want access to all of my elemental motes for it.

What's the solar collector? I think this is the first time it was mentioned?

When Smith turns towards me I extend my hand for a handshake, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mister Smith"

I consider explaining myself more, but I imagine he'll ask the questions he wants to know about. Otherwise just watching as they go about business. Smith seems to have concern for Leona, hopefully he'll feel at least a little better that she's not going alone.

Remember the Blacksmith shop with lenses and mirrors on it's roof? It collects sunlight.

Smith shakes your hand.

"Where are you from Michael? "

Leona says.
"He's A new arrival to Megiddo."

Smith continues
"Do you think you can help Leona with her fight Against the Count?"

Ah ok. I had read with the solar collector as she was carrying one, not the shop that has one. Makes more sense now.

"I believe I can be a help. I'm proficient with both sword and bow, and Leona has been helping me develop my sol and elemental magics. More over, I know a righteous cause when I see one, and am willing to do what is required to those ends, even at the expense of my life."

OOC: eh... The language I used there was somewhat ambiguous.

Smith stares at you for a bit.
"I see. Make sure you don't hurt her by dying...

Anyway, I have something for you Leona."

He goes into the back and brings out a box and then gives it to Leona.

"Go ahead and open it."

She sets it down on the ground and then opens it. Her eyes widen and tears start to form in her eyes as she looks at the contents of the box. She pulls out a blood red silk scarf and hugs it to her chest. It's tattered at the ends and you see some blood stains on it.

"That is the Solar Scarf worn by your Father, Red Ringo. It's the only thing we found of him after the Count killed him besides the other thing in the box."

She cries into it for a little while. Then she sets the scarf back into the box and pulls out a very strange looking gun.

It looks like this.


She says
"The Gun del Sol. You said that you couldn't fix it."

Smith says
"It was extremely difficult to fix. I don't have the parts to do it again."

OOC)Oh cool, didn't know you could put pictures in.

I nod, "Will do sir."

I stay quiet, in respect when the red silk scarf is being handled.

I am happy to see the Leona has a ranged weapon now, although I'm curious about both the scarf and it. I'd assume the scarf was just sentimental other than it was called the solar scarf, and the gun obviously looks to use sol magic, but there's just stuff I don't know. But I'm not about to ask, it's too close to such a sensitive topic for Leona, and I don't want to make her feel more pain.

I'm hoping she may explain a bit on her own, so just going with the flow.

OOC: yeah. It just requires a bit of HTML. the form is like this <img src=TheSiteItIsOn.com/YourImage.jpg>

She examines the gun.
"What happen to the Essence Battery? This handle is different from the one Father had."

Smith Replies
"I couldn't fix that. So I rigged an Oricalcum Essence Collector in the handle to draw essence from you."

Leona Continues
"The Solar Elemental Lens is also smaller than I remember..."

Smith continues
"That was busted pretty badly. I had to rebuild one with the material from the busted one."

Leona concludes with
"Hmmmm... Thank you Smith. It's so nostalgic to hold my Fathers old gun.
I'll put it to good use."

She carefully put's it back into the box and the goes to Smith and hugs him. Smith actually looks surprised.

He says
"... Take care of yourself. If you need anything, Tell Me."

She nods and picks up the box.

"I'll see you later. I promise that."

The then leaves and heads to her house.

On the way back, I'll say "I hope I didn't say anything wrong, he seemed to not like me all that much."

I don't have anything in mind to do other than help her make dinner and engage in small talk.

The next day when we practice I want to try flying, using 5 motes for the purpose. I'm curious how much control I can have, and how long it lasts. I'm effectively experimenting and making mental notes on the differences between my furycrafting and these magics.

"He's like that to everyone new. He'll warm up to you as he get's to know you."

She let's you make dinner. but she insists on cleaning the dishes in exchange.

The next days she goes out with you to practice with her Gun. She isn't dressed in her cloak today.
Her outfit now consists of Leather Jacket and Pants  with a dark under shirt. Along with boots. She is also wearing her father's crimson scarf.

You go to the same area you practiced before.
She is practicing with her gun.

You spend 5 motes for that purpose. You feel a very strong updraff centered on you. It's almost strong enough to lift you up.

When she comes out in her new outfit, I'll compliment her, "Nice outfit, it looks good on you."

With the updraft I'll start adding a single mote at a time until it's enough to get me to be able to hover and have low elevation flight abilities.

She blushes and fidgets when you compliment her. It seems like she doesn't know how to take a compliment.

You start burning motes and lift off the ground.

Leona says
"Try jumping. You'll save your motes."

Hmm, she's definitely shy about compliments. It's not terribly surprising given all the indicators that life here is hard. Social niceties are likely a luxury she doesn't get to engage in much.

"Good idea."

I try as she says, jumping in conjunction with the mote expenditure.

How's her practice with the gun going?

Her practice is going well. She is hitting the target most of the time now at a decent range.  Her gun fires balls of sunlight that are about two inches in diameter.

You jump and go ten feet into the air without trying. And then float there as long as you burn motes. Then you float gently to the ground.

"That is very interesting. You seem to channel your essence differently that most Essense Users"

Interesting about the gun. I was expecting lasers of light not pellets. Glad to see she's doing well with it though.

"I'm not surprised, I'm relying fairly heavily on my previous experience. What's so different about it though? And how common are essence users anyway?"

"Most have to burn a path in their soul to get the essence to flow properly into an effect.
You are just willing it to flow properly within you.

Essence users are fairly common among the Solar Tribe, The Lunar Tribe and The Gaian Tribe. But they have interbreed with normal humans causing a significant number to not have Awakened Essence. Some normal humans work very hard and manage to awaken their Essence. But that is very rare."

"Ah, well I do know why that is then. It requires a little more of my backstory though. The elemental spirits that follow me, they're technically known as furies. But they are fundamentally the essence of each element relating to fire,wind,water,earth,metal and wood. In other worlds, I have a strong talent in each area, but have managed to convince a strong fire fury, a strong water fury and a strong wind fury to join my cause.

As time has passed, I've considered these furies both large and small to be a fundamental part of myself, and I've grown to consider them friends and allies as well. My soul has been slowly reshaping itself to accommodate them. Recently it's become strong enough that when I sleep I go there and train with my furies. It's a maelstrom of every element that I have near complete control of. After the first day you showed me sol essence, a sun that was never there before has appeared in my soul, representing the sol essence.

Honestly at this point it feels more natural for elements to flow through my soul than to be without them."

She walks around you.

"That is Really Interesting. Wood and Metal are not elements here. Our elements are Sol, Lunar, Dark, Earth, Fire, Wind and Water. I'm going to have to study you and your magic."

"You are more than welcome to Leona. Perhaps through you studying me and my magic we'll both grow to understand both systems more. Tomorrow I was considering trying to manifest one of my furies here, so that you could talk with them. I'm not sure I can, and I imagine it's going to take most of my motes, but I need to know whether I can do it here or not.

Is there a something specific you had in mind to study me? I've been doing my best to be forthright about what I can do."

"I'll have to think on how to examine you. Probably with a magic circle... You are not like anything I have seen before. Let's figure out what you can do."

"Sounds good, whenever you want to you're welcome to. I will continue seeing what I can do, one of my issues is just thinking of what I can normally do, it's been nearly instinctual. I'd like to try drawing essence from the wind actually, see if I can recharge without having to rest."

I'm assuming we're in an area open to the sky and the breeze, I'll concentrate on the flowing air around me and try to collect motes that way. Similar to absorbing the sunlight and forming them into motes, but with the flowing wind.

If that works, I'll continue until I'm at full charge, and then see if I can manifest Hermes. I have a strong image of what I know Hermes to look like, and I know he's in my soul, he just needs the elemental energy to be able to manifest. I'll mentally tell him in advance that I'm going to try and to be ready.

I'll be adding one mote of energy at a time to the effort, as I slowly build a reservoir of wind elemental energy for Hermes to flow into. Once he is I'll keep adding motes over time, to sustain the effect.

Leona says
"Generally only a member of the Gaian Tribe with an strong alignment to wind can do that. But You are different from us. Give it a shot."

The wind blows and you draw pure wind essence from it.It occurs at the same rate as drawing it from the sun. You fill yourself up with wind essence.

Hermes says in your mind.
I'll help you manifest me Master.

You spend the wind essence and a howling vortex of wind appears in front of you. In the center is an handsome but ephemeral young man that you can almost see though. He has sandy blond hair and sky blue eyes. He has facial markings that resembles a cheetah's along with spots that cover his arms, back and legs. He also has a cheetah's ears and tail. He's only wearing a loin cloth.

"Greetings Leona. It is a pleasure to meet you. We'll try to maintain this as long as we can.
How are you?"

Leona is blushing and wide eyed in surprise.
"Wh-what are you?"

Hermes just smirks with a knowing grin.
"I am Hermes. Elemental Fury of the Wind. Although you would probably call me an Elemental Spirit."

Leona says
"Sorry. You just surprised me. I'm doing fine."

The drain is slower than expected. But you sense that Hermes is helping you maintain his form.

I smile as Herme's manifests.

"It's good to see you in the waking world again old friend. Whatever you're doing to help with the manifestation is helping a great deal. Leona has been most interested in talking to you, we're different from what she's seen here before, so I'm going to concentrate on just maintaining the connection for now. I have some questions as well, but I can always ask them while sleeping, so she gets priority on questions for now."

Then, since it occurs to me seconds later,

"I'm assuming you would like to move around though, perhaps we could talk while the three of us ran? If that's ok with you Leona, for as long as I've known Hermes he's preferred to be on the move, even while talking."

After Leona asks here questions, I'll ask how Hermes feels here, whether the others are helping support this, and what he thinks his limitations are here in terms of assisting in combat.

Hermes' tail starts whipping around in obvious excitement. Leona replies
"A little running never hurt anybody."

Hermes jumps into the air with his arms raised and says
"Yay!"

He then dashes off with blinding speed.
He then dashes back to you and just barely waits long enough for you two to start running. At which point he starts to literally run circles around you two.

Then he answers your question
"We haven't quite figured out how to manifest as a physical being here. Right now the most we can do is provide an distraction. There might be other possibilities for our aid though."

As you run Leona asks
"You said that you consider Hermes a part of yourself.  What are the details of the connection between you two?"

Hermes says
"I'll let my master explain this. I'll elaborate afterwards."
This message was last edited by the player at 21:26, Tue 12 July 2016.

Hermes' tail starts whipping around in obvious excitement. Leona replies
"A little running never hurt anybody."

Hermes jumps into the air with his arms raised and says
"Yay!"

He then dashes off with blinding speed.
He then dashes back to you and just barely waits long enough for you two to start running. At which point he starts to literally run circles around you two.

As you run Leona asks
"You said that you consider Hermes a part of yourself.  What are the details of the connection between you two?"

Hermes says
"I'll let my master explain this. I'll elaborate afterwards."

"Hmm, I've never explicitly considered why I consider him part of myself. But by asking for him to accompany me, I felt obligated to provide a master worthy of his ambitions and talents. That led me to shaping myself to embrace furycrafting more. As that continued, the essence of what it meant to commune with furies became more integral to me. I consider at least part of myself defined by my abilities in furycrafting. While Hermes is an entity in and of himself, he simultaneously is a representation of my connection with the wind.

Hermes often understands the direct connection a little better than I do however, or at least understands different aspects than I do."

"Well said Master. We are connected on a fundamental level. In some respects we are different entities. But is others, You could view us as the same entity. His soul is bonded with my spirit and has grown intertwined together. We strengthen each-other."

"Interesting... I've heard of spirits fusing with humans to more easily affect the physical world. But this sounds different from that."

"Fusing? What do you mean by that."

"It's an lost art. Since there are not that many spirits anymore. But basically the spirit fuses it's essence into a human and then the human takes some of the characteristics of the spirit. It was said that it could only be done in times of great stress."

"That sounds very much like what the titans of the world before this were doing. They forced the furies around them together to transform into a colossal creature of incredible strength. I fought against them, partially to protect humanity but also because the forceable subjugation of furies is wrong. I know emotional duress helped them transform however, so that matches with the description. Perhaps we shall try it sometime Hermes, although due to the great stress requirement it'll have to be improvised."

"I agree Master. Battle would be a good time to pull something unexpected like that."

"I've heard that the spirit and human have to be close.

Still enslaving spirits sounds like a nasty thing to do. Many spirits are sentient.  It's like enslaving a human."

"I agree Leona, the Titans were reprehensible on many levels. Mutual respect and trust is the basis of any furycrafting I've ever done.

Did you have any other questions of Hermes? If not I'd like to know how he feels manifested this way."

Then directed towards Hermes,

"You seem faster, or perhaps it's just that I'm used to always running internal furycrafting. Do you feel strong here the way you're manifested?"

"You are used to using internal furycraft to boost your speed. But I am also showing off a bit for the Lady. So I'm showing more of my true speed.

Strong isn't the word I would use here. I'm not fully manifest yet. But when I figure it out I will be stronger than normal."

I smile, "That's understandable. We'll figure how to get you fully manifested, it'll just take time. Perhaps when the chance to try fusion in battle comes up it'll give one of us the insight required to fully manifest you."

"So Leona, what's next after the run?"

How far depleted is my mote reserve at this point?

You are down to five motes.

"It was a pleasure to run with you both but I must return to Michael's soul. That is quite the runner's form you got there Leona. The view was also nice."

Hermes fades with that.

Leona is blushing at his compliment.

"Let's return to my home."

I smirk when he makes his comment, but clear it off my face quickly.

"That sounds good, I'm nearly out of motes from that."

On the way home, "So what day do you want to set out on our adventure?"

"I was thinking about heading out tomorrow. The undead are usually active at night. It would be best to sleep during the day and travel at night. So the undead don't catch one of us asleep... We are also going to be traveling across a desert.  So that will help conserve water."

"Sounds like a good plan. So tomorrow during the day I'm assuming we'll want to work on just getting our internal clock adjusted, by waking up earlier than normal and sleeping around noontime?"

Regardless of the plan, I'm going along with what she says. I've accomplished the short term goals I have, the rest are for after we kill the guy that killed her father.

"We should start adjusting out sleep cycle today so it's not as big of shock tomorrow. "

You head to her house and she fix "dinner". You eat and go to bed. Sleeping is a bit hard when you are not quite ready to sleep. You wake up at night.

Leona says
"Now we need to stay up all night. Do you have a suggestion for staying up?"

"Well we should avoid further training or anything physically exhausting, as we don't want to start the journey sore.

Do you have any board games, or cards? I have some card games from before I initially left home it you want to learn. It should pass the time well enough."

I had brought my magic cards with me when I versed out, teaching her the game and playing should eat up a lot of the time, and give a good chance for small talk during it.

I assume you are talking about Magic the Gathering cards.

"I don't have any board games or cards. I had to go for a long time for my training."

You bring out your deck and Magic card collection. I assume you have enough to make two decks out of them.

Leona is amazed at the Artwork on the cards.

"I've never seen cards like these before. How did the artist paint such a detailed picture on such a small card? And How did he get these two so alike? "

Sorry, should have clarified. Yes I am talking about magic the gathering. I play it a lot, so my character took his favorite cards with him, as I would on any long trip.

Yeah, there's enough to make two decks with a bit of work, which nests into explaining them nicely.

"Back before life got weird, the world I was born on had more advanced technology but no magic of any kind. These are some of my belongings from home. They are printed using machines and a copy of the original artists work. That's what allows each identical card to be the same,and to let them get the art down to that side. I used to play with these all the times, we had no magic so playing a fantasy game where magic was real was fun for us. I've come a long way since then."

"That sounds like some of the wonders of the lost Solar Civilization. But many of their things involve magic and technology combined in ingenious ways.
But a world with no magic..."

She shutters at the thought.

You show her the basics of the game and she really enjoys it. She is ok with all the colors except Black. She says it reminds her of what she fight.

She is rather interested in the fluff of how Magic works in the setting of MtG.

I'll let you decide if you want to go into the fluff in character.

"A world without magic isn't so bad, as long as you've never experienced magic. Being severed from my abilities now though is painful, I couldn't imagine going back to the old ways."

I know the fluff you're talking about, but having trouble putting it into writing, so going to skip going into it in character. I definitely spend time explaining what I know of the books and the lore that are behind it.

That should pass a great deal of the time until it's time to eat and get some sleep, at which I'll conclude it with "We'll have to play these again some time. It's been really nice to relive some of my past, thank you. We should get to sleep though so we're ready come sundown."

And with that I think I'm ready to get ready to sleep and then go on a journey come that night.

You explain the fluff and lore to her. It's interesting to her how Your home world made up a fictitious magic system that made sense despite not having magic.

She says
"It was fun to play with these.  I would like to do it again sometime."

You Eat and then go to sleep again.

You get up and it's late in the afternoon.

Leona is pretty much ready to go.
Is there anything else you want to do before you go?

Nope, all the preparations are done already, just grabbing my bag and weapons and ready to set out with Leona.

You set off east of San Miguel. The forests gives away to barren plains That turn dryer and dryer until you are truly in a desert. You travel though the desert for most of the night. You find a rocky outcropping near morning and decide to stop and camp there.

"Right now we are heading to a shortcut to Bloodrust Mansion. The first thing we'll go though is a dungeon called The Gate of the Dead. That will take us though an area we would otherwise have to go around."

"Sounds good, are there any particular types of enemies that I should be aware of there?"

Other than that, ready to sleep for the day and set out the next night for this dungeon. I'm keeping my sword readied in the dungeon. We won't have access to sunlight for the duration of it, and I'd prefer to save the ammunition for my bow.

"As far as I know the only enemies in that dungeon will be Boks. But there is a possibility we will encounter Golems or Mummies.

Golems are animated statues powered by ancient magic. The serve the Immortals.
They often attack by rolling up into a ball and then charging you.

Mummies Are wrapped in bandages. No one has seen their actual body. They can't see but have excellent hearing. They can also throw bombs around."

You travel the rest of the night and come across a huge mesa. It stretches out as far as you can see in north to south. There is a huge leering skull carved into the side of the Mesa with a large door in it's mouth.

"Be careful. There are probably traps in here. Along with enemies."

"Good to know, hopefully we'll only come across Bok, but knowing the foe is important."

When she mentions traps, "Are there specific types to be wary of? I haven't had to deal with traps all that often, other than furycrafted ones."

I stay vigilant, looking for both traps and enemies, and go to inspect the door. I'm looking for any signs of traps on the door itself, before opening it and entering.

Does Leona get a torch out, or is she using solar magic or intrinsically glowing to give off enough light?

"Do we have a map, or do you know the way through here?"

Hoping she knows the way, if not exploring is called for. In general I'm staying in the lead, letting her give me directions. She has that gun to use, and I can use my sword to keep enemies at bay or dispatch them while she uses the gun.

"There are many different kinds to look out for. Both Mechanical and Magical. Let's just take it slow for now."

You examine the door. It's a heavy wooden double door that is about fifteen feet wide.
Your not finding any traps on the door it's self.

You enter and find a darken room. Leona lights her staff up with a spell.
"We have to be careful with light spells or the enemies will spot us easily.
Unfortunately I don't have a map for here. Getting a map of Istrakan was difficult enough.

You are in a fairly large room about 100 feet long by 50 feet wide. The ceiling is domed with a skylight at the apex of the curve. There appears to be a long loop of chain reaching to the floor below the balcony you are currently on. The chain controls shutters for the skylight. It is too early for the Skylight to provide effective light. There are four columns extending from the floor below to the ceiling. There are two stairways to the floor below to each side of the balcony. Everything seems to be made of limestone.

You look below and see three figures with putrid green skin below. They seem to be... Sleeping?

I motion towards the sleeping bok's, to direct Leona's attention. I'll whisper "Looks like they're still asleep, we could get the drop on them and have three less to worry about as we go further in."

If she agrees that taking them out before moving on is the best option, I'll begin moving forward in a crouch. I'm staying alert for traps as I move until I'm within striking distance. I'm hoping to lash out quickly enough to sever the heads of each one before they have time to rouse and get to their feet. I should have a benefit sneaking, since Leona is acting as the light source, so it's still a ways off.

"Be careful. I'll support you with gunfire if you wake them up Or I'll come down to help"

You sneak down. And you behead the first one. It falls without a sound.
You move to the second one, It is surrounded by gravel.

You could sneak on the gravel but the falling body might make some noise.

I will use a little wind magic to slow the bodies fall after I behead it, which should make the noise nearly non existent.

In the time that the second body is falling through the thickened air, I'll move to kill the third bok.

You behead the body and Use the wind to slow it's fall.
Unfortunately a gust strong enough to slow a bodies fall is pretty loud.
The other one Starts to wake up. But you rush it and behead it too.

You see a double door on the opposite side of the room from where you entered.

I motion towards the doors at the far side, and start making my way to them slowly. I'm being very paranoid about these traps that Leona mentioned, especially having not seen one yet and thus not knowing exactly what to look for.

When I get to the door on the far side, I'll check it for traps and then wait for Leona to catch up before opening it and continuing into the next room.

You check the door and find no traps on it.

It opens into a room and it about thirty feet by thirty feet.
Going north to south is a ten foot wide pool of water that extends to both walls. There is a stonework bridge across the pool and a black iron door on the opposite side of the bridge. It has a glowing purple rune on it.

There is a set of steps that go into the pool on your side of the pool.

When Leona gets close enough to talk quietly with her,
"I presume that glowing rune is one of the magical traps you were talking about, and that bridge is the perfect spot for an ambush. I don't want to try wading an unknown liquid though, it could be poisonous, so it looks like being prepared for an ambush when we cross the bridge is the best bet. Once we get to the doors, do you think you can disarm that trap?"

So my plan is to progress slowly across the bridge, sticking to the center of it and staying on the lookout for traps or monsters. I'm half expecting a bunch of boks to be clinging to its underside, or a tripwire or pressure trap on the bridge itself. I don't intend to let the bok get fully on the bridge if that is what's happening, and will try to dismember them as they climb up.

Once we get to the door, the magical trap is best left to Leona.

"I'll have to get a closer look at the magic on the door. But you are right about the ambush."

You cross the bridge slowly in unnerving silence. No Boks come and no traps activate.

"... this is a rune of locking and it's fundamentally a part of the door. It would take a really long time to unmake this and the one who made it would know that it's been destroyed. But this rune requires that a key be hidden somewhere close to this room... but where? There are no other doors..."

"I'm going to go check the pool of water. If I were designing a room like this, I'd out the key in a pool poisonous to the living. I'll need you near me for proper light, and be on the lookout for enemies."

I'll go to one end of the he room, and start walking along the pool, looking for a key inside. I'm making sure to stay vigilant for traps and enemies though.

If I find the key, I want to channel motes of water magic to hold back the water on either side long enough for me to grab the key. I'm picking it up with a piece of cloth, since it wouldn't be dry, and then bringing it back to the door and releasing the water magic.

You walk with Leona along the pool from the north end to the south. You spot no key in the water but you find a path underwater towards the south.

You hear Nix in your mind
The water is tainted with some magic I don't recognize. It will be harmful to humans.

I respond to Nix
Thank you. Would you be willing to swim up there, if I manifest you? I needed some help from your side last time i experimented with manifesting Hermes, I likely will need that help again here.

Assuming Nix is happy/willing to manifest and do this, I'll start allocating my motes to the water element, and make them available to her to manifest into.

Once she's manifested, I'll ask her to go check if there is a key through the passage.

Leona finishes examining the water and says.

"This water is tainted with dark magic. It'll slowly kill anyone who enters it. And I think they would probably reanimate into a bok."

Nix continues
It wouldn't be a good idea Master. I'll end up absorbing the taint, which would affect you adversely.

Leona thinks for a while.
"I might be able to purify the water around me by directing my solar motes into it. Burning away the dark magic."

I nod, and say "Nix, my water fury was just telling me that. And she's not able to travel through it without getting tainted. If you are confident that you can keep it away with solar magic, it seems to be the way to go. I didn't collect any before we entered, figuring I'm more proficient with elemental energies anyway."

"I can hold my breath for a long time. So I should be able to get the key though that path."

She sets her pack down and removes the outer leather layer of her cloths.

"... The leather cloths would just slow me down underwater."
She is fidgeting

She starts to rapidly breath in and out to prepare for the dive.

She goes into the water and starts to glow with warm sunlight. The water noticeably clears around her. She goes down the path south and is gone for about 3 and a half minutes. and then she surfaces and gasps for breath.

She climbs out of the water.(I assume you would help her)
And catches her breath.
Finally she speaks.
"The Immortal who designed this dungeon hates humans. There is a maze in the next room. All of it is underwater. There are also boks and skeletons down there. I was lucky to get out before I ran out of breath."

I try not to make her more nervous about her reduced clothing, although not noticing is impossible. I'll hold her leather outer clothes for her though.

I will definitely help her out of the water when she surfaces.

"First things first, let's get a fire for you to warm up by and dry off. Did we pack any tinder and small logs?"

If so I'll build a fire, while discussing our options.

"So, my furies can't manifest and go down there, as they would become tainted from the dark magic. The maze combined with the skeletons and boks rules you swimming in out. Perhaps we can block this area off with a large bolder? With any luck this is the spring that's feeding the into the maze, not vice versa. Outside that, I'm at a loss other than just trying to dispel the rune on the door, which gives away our element of surprise and sounds like it will take a lot of time."

You do have sum tinder and small logs. You make a small fire.

She purified the water around her. We could manifest with no risk if we stick around her.

"Is is possible to bring air with us in the water?"

"Nix says she can safely manifest and go with you so long as you're purifying the water. I'll ask her if when she's manifested she could help you breathe underwater, she may have enough control over the purified water around her to bring the oxygen that's in it to you."

I internally ask Nix whether she could do that, and convey the answer.

If yes, I would think it best to send Nix and Leona, otherwise nix had to get me air as well.

Nix replies to you
...I couldn't do it alone. I would need help from Hermes.

Hermes comments
This place doesn't play around with it's security. There might be something further in that you would need both to overcome.

To Nix and Hermes, Ok, I was hoping to avoid burning as many motes as that will require, but your logic makes sense. I'll manifest the two of you, and go with Leona.

To Leona, "Nix and Hermes say that together they can go with us as long as you're purifying the water.  Between them they can get us to breathe underwater. Once I manifest them however, we should move immediately."







So long as Leona agrees, I'll remove any extra clothing down to shorts and undershirt. If I don't have an undershirt I'll just go shirtless, since there isn't the same modesty requirements for men.

"You made a good point about being weighed down by the heavier clothing." And trying to not pay attention to the fact that I'm wearing considerably less than normal. At least the time in the survey corps should have gotten me into very good shape, so I don't have to worry about how I look.

Then I'll work on manifesting both Hermes and Nix, and then follow her into the water with them, and test that we can indeed breathe underwater with Hermes and nix helping. I'm not bringing my bow, but I am bringing my sword.

If it does, we press on to explore this maze.

You strip down to shorts an a undershirt.
You manifest Nix and Hermes then jump into the water with Leona.

You go into the maze, avoiding the waterlogged boks by swimming around them.
The maze is sort of complex. With quite a few dead ends. The skeleton is harder to avoid since it can move faster underwater. You stab it a few times while avoiding it's strikes. It collapses into a pile of bones.

You surface on the other side of the maze and get out of the water.

It's oppressively dark in here but Leona is glowing. Showing a 20 by 20 room.

There is a chest on the other side of the room.

"I'm sensing traps based on dark magic."

You used 7 motes getting here.

"Are you going to be able to disarm these? Or should I try triggering them and dodging out of the way? I don't have any solar motes, I stuck with my elemental ones for purposes of being able to manifest my furies, so I don't think I stand a chance of disarming them."

"We'll need my motes to get back to the other room. But I can disarm a few.

They seem to work by creating a burst of dark magic when you step on certain sections of the floor."

"Would it be easier to sense where the traps are and avoid them? It might take less solar motes that way."

"There is a lot of them and they are placed close together. But I should be able to slip though them..."

She starts going towards the chest. She is zigzagging across the room, leaping from safe point to safe point.

When she is five feet away fron the chest, an erruption of dark magic. She collapses to the ground in pain. She forces herself back to her feet and continues to the chest.

She opens it and pulls out a oddly shaped blue key.
She makes it back to you without further incident.

When she gets close, I'll make sure she's ok:
"Are you ok? Should we rest before continuing on?" with concern obviously plastered on my face.

Once she's ready, I'll repeat my part for the trip across.

She does look a bit sick. Although there are no open wounds on her.

"I should be ok until we get back to out packs. Dark magic just hits me harder than most things."

She recovers for a bit and then you both go through the maze. The Skeleton is up again but you just stab it again and it goes down again. You make it to the other side of the maze and get out of the water. Leona is going though her pack.

You are down to 7 motes.

When we get back to the other side,

"Let's get the fire restarted. We both should dry off before getting dressed so that our heavier clothes don't get wet, and it'll give me a little time to try and draw in some motes from the fire and air. I don't want to try with that water, the motes would likely be tainted."

So I'll get the fire restarted, or stoke the remains of the old one while adding a little wood, and then while resting focus on trying to draw fire motes from the fire, and wind motes from the air around me.

I'm imagining it'll be slow from the air around me since it's too still, but figured I'd try.

Once we're dry I'll stop my gathering and pack up and go to the door to open it.

"Perhaps I should use the key, if it's got a further dark magic trap it's better to hit me than you."

She pulls out a red potion from her pack
"I was hoping to save this for later... But I'm out of motes."
She drinks the Potion.



You restart the fire and warm yourselves up with it.

The air is too still to get motes from. You you can get some with the fire. It nearly kills the fire when you draw from it the first time.  But you rebuild it and moderate your draw from it. You are able to get 5 motes from it before it dies.  It rather slow from the small fire. It takes 20 minutes to gather that much.

"I can take a few more hit's... But you do have a bit of a point. Here."
She hands you the key.

You go to the door and use the key on it. The purple rune stops glowing.

I wait a few seconds after the rune glows, then open the door and walk into the next room. I'm making sure to stay a bit ahead of Leona as I enter so that if anything triggers it hits me and not her.

What's the next room look like?

You walk into the next room a bit ahead of Leona. You step into the room and feel your front foot sink a half inch and hear and hear a click. A portcullis drop in front of the door behind you And the door on the other side of the room.

The room is about 20 reet wide and long. There are gouges in the stone all around the room.

An evil looking Zweihander appears out of thin air. It has a slight blood red glow.

You sense that this is a corrupt Metal Fury. The Darkness has corrupted it and taken it over.

Four shortswords form around it with points aimed at you. They launch at you but you and Leona manage to Dodge. The shortswords shatter against the stone behind you.

Using one of my ultra hard swords from the survey corps, I advance on the Zweihander and move into a horizontal slash to try and cleave the blade in two. My thought process is that since these swords are made to cut through the rock like Titan skin, they stand a decent chance of holding up to metal as well.

In my approach I'm circling slightly to the left so it has to pick between targeting me or Leona, not both. And by being the closer of the two I suspect it will be me, which is what I want. If not, I'll make it regret not taking me as a serious threat.

You sense it harded itself with your Fury Crafting sense.

You close and perform a quick horizontal swing. It's catches you sword with the flat of it's blade. You put nick into it's blade. It backs off a bit and has it's blade pointed away from you. It also forms four more shortswords that are pointed at you.

Leona draws her Gun and circles the opposite way you did. She is going right and keeping her distance. She is aiming with her gun.

I anticipate the four swords coming darting at me, and time my attack to be just after they lunge forward. In response I'll pivot to the side, slipping by the four shortswords and lashing at the pommel of the zweihander.

The four swords launch at you and the zweihander swings horizontally at you at the same time. You barely dodge all the steel coming your way and catch the handle withvyour ultra hard blade, cutting into the leather wrapping it.

Leona fires, hitting it in the cross guard. Causing black smoke to come out of the Zweihander.

The Zweihander teleports to the other side of the room.

"Well it certainly didn't like that. I'll keep it busy, so you can line up your shots."

And I'll approach, staying ready to dart one side to another to avoid incoming shortswords. I will make sure my approach path doesn't leave Leona directly behind me, once again just preventing the Zweihander from targeting both of us.

I'm focusing on slashing at the cross guard where Leona hit once I'm close enough, I'm hoping that may have weakened it enough that I can deal more substantial damage.

It points itself directly at Leona and starts forming shortswords. It launches one at each of you. Forcing Leona to dodge and spoiling her careful aim.

As you approach. It continues to fire swords at both of you. Leona continues to fire at it but it uses a shortsword to block the shot.

When you get close it lunges at you But you deflect it with a parry. You strike and sunder it's cross guard but a shortsword slashes you across the chest for your troubles.

It then teleports next to Leona and starts swinging and stabbing at her.  She dodges the first few strikes, holsters her gun and then grabs her staff. She then wards off the strikes with it.

I assume you have been charging towards the melee. You are close now.

I definitely charge as soon as I see it attacking Leona. I'm aiming to hit it on the broad side of the blade again, looking to continue working on destroying the blade. I'm hoping my charge posing enough of an immediate threat that Leona can regain her footing.

You charge in and distract it from Leona.
You strike at it a few times but it parries them. Leona backs off behind you and then there is a glow of sunlight behind you.

Hermes whispers in your mind
Let me help.


He uses one of your motes and ten or so of his own. A howling vortex of wind forms around your sword. You strike together with Leona and her sunlight halberd on the flat of the zweihander's blade.  Hermes releases the wind into it and the sunlight halberd burns it along with the wind. It releases bellowing black smoke and it is reduced to nothing... almost nothing. There is a piece of metal on the ground that looks like a part of Leona's gun. She picks it up.

The portcullis on both side of the room raise up.

"This is the Knight Frame for the Solar Gun. I thought this was lost... I'll need to switch it out once we rest outside. "

After the combat, I'll mentally say to Hermes, Thank you

"Knight Frame? What's that? But you're right, we should keep pressing on and handle it when we rest. Are you ok to go on?"

Assuming she is, I'll head towards the next door, inspect it for traps and then open it and check out the next room.

"Yes, I'm ok to go on. But I need to get in Sunlight. I'm out of magic.
The Knight Frame is an upgraded version of the Fighter Frame I'm Currently using.
The Frame of the Solar Gun is the part of the gun that focuses motes into bolts."

She shows you them both side by side. The Knight frame looks like a copper and bronze version of the frame that is currently on her gun.

"The solar bolts it fires should be stronger that the ones it currently fires."

You check the door and find no traps. You open it up and find a long hallway.

I nod, "it's still nighttime out, so we won't be able to get you more sunlight until we rest for the day. Do you want to backtrack and camp for the day or push on and rest on the other side of the dungeon? Caution does seem prudent, so I'm leaning towards resting,upgrading your gun, and pushing further tomorrow. This hallway clearly looks to be trapped, and while if it's physical traps I can spot and dodge them, I'm also not carrying solar essence to detect magic traps."

If she decides to go back and rest, I'm fine with that, and will follow. It'll help that we have the key and the upgraded blaster tomorrow, and this thing looked to be constructed of the piece we took, so it's unlikely to be back again.

If she decides to push on, I'll take the lead going down the hall slowly, looking for slits that arrows might come out of, or buzz saws or the like. I suppose that's what would happen even if we rested, although we would have to take out the boks again on our way in which isn't a huge deal, and I'd ask Leona to search for magic traps in that situation, since she'd be recharged.

Also, if we do rest, I'll burn two of my normal motes and collect two solar. I don't plan to use it much, but having some solar option is important. I'll also use my healing materia on both myself and Leona while resting.

Ooc)sorry that was split so much based on Leonna's decision, but I couldn't tell which way she was suggesting we go.

"It would be better if we rest on the other side of the dungeon. "

You head down the hallway looking for traps. It takes a while, but you make it to the end and are now outside. It appears to be mid-morning by the position of the sun. The environment is now grassy plains as far as the eye can see.

You set up camp and Leona goes to work modifying her gun. Within five minutes she gets the part switched out.

You use the last of your motes to heal both of you with your Healing Materia.

You gather two solar motes when she was working on her gun.

"It's Going to take me a while to recharge in the sunlight."

"We'll need to set up camp soon for the day anyway, so that we're rested and ready to move on when it's dark and the undead are active again. Take what time you need, then we'll want to move a ways do that if any bok come out they dont immediately find us, and then get some sleep."

I'm letting my other motes recover naturally, since I want them to be undifferentiated, and I'm going to sleep soon which should recharge them. When I wake up I'll take stock on how my reserves are doing.

"A bok would die if it went out into sunlight. But we sould still camp a distance away from the dungeon exit."

You camp away from the exit.
Leona relaxes in the sun for little over an hour then watches for trouble while you sleep. When you wake up you find that you have 19 undifferentiated motes and two Solar motes.

After you wake up she goes to sleep for about five hours. And wakes up near nightfall.

"Our most direct route takes us through a mountain covered with an Ancient Forest. There is a set of Catacombs under the mountain that should take us to the other side"

"Catacombs sound like the way to go then, traversing a forested mountain without a map would likely be more dangerous than any undead, not to mention unacceptably slow. We should head out then. Did you test out your gun with the new piece equipped? Perform as you want?"

Following her lead, she's done her research on the area. I'm keeping an eye out for traps and enemies as we move.

"I was just about to test it out. It should have two firing modes."

She fires a shot and it is bigger than the ones the Fighter Frame fired. These are about 6 inches in diameter.

"And here is the second mode."

These time the gun does something unusual. It's sort of like a really short range flamethrower of Solar Essence. It extends out to about a yard in front of the gun.

She fires it for about six seconds and stops.

"... It's rather draining though."

She holsters the gun.

"Anyway the Catacombs would be a more direct path to Bloodrust Mansion. After we get though the Catacombs we'll need to change out sleep schedule again. Because We'll want to attack a vampire during the day. Furthermore we'll need the Sunlight to purify Him."

You start walking towards the mountain range in the distance. For the first day it is grasslands. For the Second day it is grass land with more and more trees. As you rest during the daylight hours of the third day, You see a three foot wide ball of clumped together clay.  It has a cylinder on top with glowing green eyes. It also has clay hands and feet floating near it Rayman style.

It looks like this.


The clay thing hasn't noticed you yet.

Leona is currently sleeping.

I blink in amazement at the flamethrower display. "I can see why that would be draining."

I nod, and go along with her plan. It sounds fundamentally solid.

I sneak over to where Leona is, moving slowly as to not attract attention, and shake Leona a little, whispering "Leona, wake up and stay quiet." repeatedly, so that hopefully she gets the message as soon as she awakens. Once she does I'll point to the rock creature. "I don't think it's spotted us yet. Perhaps we could navigate around it?"

At first she trys waving your hand away but she comes to. She looks around and sees it.
She whispers back
"There isn't enough tree cover. It will notice us."

She grabs her staff.

"We might be able to sneak up on it and catch it by surprise. "

"What are it's weak spots? I'm not sure I rightly know where to attack that thing."

"it's made of clay, so it's not the toughest thing in the world, but it's generally better to strike from the back so it doesn't dodge or block as much. It really doesn't have vitals. There is a set of runes in the center of it's body mass. But you'll usually disrupt the Earth magic animating it before you can get to that."

Hermes whispers into your mind.
What usually opposites Earth in the classical elements?
You can feel the predatory smile on his face
This message was last edited by the player at 17:03, Mon 25 July 2016.

I nod at Leona's comments, roughly what I was expecting, but in the case of an obvious weakness it would be important to know to target.

Internally to Hermes, I wasn't going to forget about you. I'm thinking of sticking to wind magic arrows from range, while manifesting you for melee. Sound acceptable?

I sheathe my sword and draw my bow, and begin concentrating my motes to align them to wind, and on signal with Leona start moving into range behind the earth elemental. When close enough range, I'll signal to Leona to get ready to fire, and draw and aim a wind arrow. My first one I fire I'm going to send Hermes along with, so when it hits in a burst of wind magic he emerges from the impact area, where he rip into the golem with his claws in melee while I pelt it with wind arrows.

I'm still not strong enough to manifest physically. But I should be able to distract it for a bit.

You move into position with Leona. When it turns away from you, you both fire. Both shots hit and the Golem is thrown forward. It's not moving.  Hermes in his wind cat form looks confused.

I blink and scan the horizon quickly, looking if this was a decoy for a trap.

"Leona, how do we know when it's down? That definitely felt too easy for what it looks like."

You see nothing along the horizon... Yet.

"We managed to stun it. Quickly, let's beat on it before it gets up again."

She grabs her staff and rushes it solar halberd forming along the way. She starts hitting its back as hard as she can.

I dash forward, stowing my bow and drawing my sword in the process and enhance my blade with wind magic. I join in the flurry of assaults on the elementals back, continuing until it starts to rise and I need to get distance again, or Leona gives me the sign to stop.

Mentally to Hermes Did something about this seem odd to you? I can't shake a weird feeling about it.

Hermes falls silent thinking

Five strikes from Leona and three from you destroy it sending clumps of clay flying everywhere.

Zekes voice rumbles in your mind.
If you had a perfectly obedient slave that was also expendable and it didn't return from a patrol in your territory.  What does that tell you?

Good point Zeke. I was thinking it was a sentry, set to guard an area as opposed to scouting, but your logic makes more sense.

"Zeke, my fire fury, just pointed out that we're on a time table until our enemy knows we're in the area. When this creature doesn't report back, he'll know someone is around. How fast do they move and how far do we have yet to go? Either way we should press on."

"They move a bit slower than a human walking. But they can roll up into a ball to move much faster. They'll stun themselves if they his something solid though.

I would guess we have two or three days before he knows someone is here. A week at the most.
We should get to the Catacombs by the end of the night. Then we'll be a day or two away from Bloodrust Mansion after we get to the other side of the Catacombs. "

"Let's hope it was at the beginning of it's scouting route and not the end, but either way. We need to move for the Catacombs.

Is there anything you can use from the remnants here?"

Do I feel a strong earth fury in this? I was thinking one may have been released from it's servitude in the process?

Otherwise just pushing on towards the Catacombs.

"I might be able to think of a use for the clay or runes. But we are in a hurry and it's uses are too specialized to be worth the time."

You did feel an earth fury released from the golem. But it was only as strong as the common ones in the ground.

You two make it to the entrance of the Catacombs while dodging the Golem patrols.

The entrance is a stone archway carved into the rock of the mountain. It has stylized skulls carved into the archway.

"From what I've read about this place. It was a mine that was converted to catacombs after it ran out of ore. They say that there should be a straight walk though."

It makes me feel good that the earth fury was released from it's prison regardless.

Once at the opening, "Well, that's good I suppose. I'll take the lead, we should still be on the lookout for traps but we need to be time conscious."

And I'm taking the lead going into the catacombs, keeping an eye out for enemies or traps but also trying to maintain as fast a pace as I can without making a lot of noise.

You walk into the Catacombs. You notice that the vectors for your equipment is moving to your right. You came across a four way intersection. You entered from the west. The vector fells like its south east.

"Leona, I can sense some of my equipment from my previous world. It's a slight detour to the south, but it could prove to be useful in our upcoming fight. I would like to try and retrieve it quickly, it includes a wand tuned to destructive elements."

If she agrees, I'll lead down the path to the south.

"That will help us fight the Count. Let's go and get it."

You head south into a hallway with three doors on each side. When you pass the mittle doors you notice the vector is directly east.

I nod, gesturing to the door east, and say quietly "it's through that door."

I'll check the door for traps and then open it and scan the surroundings.

I forgot to mention.  It's really dark in here. Leona was forced to light up her staff.

You open the door and see a humanoid form wrapped in linen bandages.
Leona motions with her finger to be quiet.

The door opening got it's attention though. it walks to two feet in front of you. It's face isn't completely wrapped though. You see an eyeless black thing in there with far too many teeth. You can smell the stench of decay and gunpowder from it. It stands there for a long minute in front of you.

I will send two motes of magic, aligning them to wind, off into a corner of the room away from where my equipment vector is pointing and have them start creating an audible copy of medium-heavy footsteps. I'll maintain it until I'm out of this room.

When this thing goes to investigate, I'll sneak in toward my equipment, get my stuff quietly and sneak back out. I'll signal for Leona to stay near the door and cover me.

Once out, I'm not worrying about closing the door and gesture that we should head back and continue out of the catacombs. I plan to show her the wand, but when I can explain, not when silence is important.

It moves a few feet into the room and then spits bombs at the spot you are making noise with the wind. You sneak behind it and manage to get your wand and Materia. Along with your other things that where in Eren's house. You sneak outside.

"Is that what you where looking for?"

Once away from the room a good distance, so that being overheard isn't an issue, "yes, the wand was crafted for me to act as a channel for destructive magic. The small orb facilitates minor healing without draining my reserves as much. I've not had time to practice much with either of them, but I can use them."

Once we're back at the crossroads where we detoured to get my stuff, I'll continue leading in our original direction, intent on making good time to our enemy.

soon after you say that you hear an explosion from the direction you came from.

"Mummies. They are blind but possess acute hearing dispite the bombs they throw around. They also have a nasty bite."

 You head east from the crossroads. You walk for a little bit and then find that the path has caved in. Preventing you from continuing in that direction.

"Hmm, I think I might have an idea but it'll make some noise. Using the wand I think I could let out a drilling blast of energy that we could follow through, but I have no doubt it's going to make a lot of noise to do so. Think it's worth trying? Finding another way around could slow us down quite a bit."

If she agrees, I'll get the wand out and point it at the obstructing rubble. I'll concentrate my motes through the wand and release a column of disintegrative energy,  drilling into the rubble making a path of about 4' diameter for us to crouch and go through.

"It'll bring every mummy in here to investigate. But it'll be quick. Go ahead."

You focus a stream of destructive magic at the rubble. You produce a four foot wide hole though the rubble with quite a bit of noise. It also cost you 15 of your 21 motes. You hear shuffling from the fourway intersection.

"Well, let's go. I'd rather not wait for those mummies. You first."

And I'll follow behind her as we hustle through the tunnel I created.

You both go into the tunnle. But she stops before exiting. You see several mummies in front of her in the other room.

A tense moment passes ans then the start to slowly move back to where they came from

Leona has a better view as to when it's clear to move forward, so I'll wait until she decides and then move as quietly as possible after her.

After a minute, she leaves the tunnel and motions you to follow.

"That was quite the feat of magic. How are you feeling? "

Quietly, still a bit afraid of the mummies being near, "I'm feeling pretty good, it took up about three quarters of my motes however. It's good to have the wand back, I lost it shortly after it was made for me, well not lost... got separated. We should continue on though, I'll feel better when I can recharge in the open air."

"That sounds like a story. But you are right we need to keep going."

You move forward and come across another four way intersection.

Leona points east and says.
"The quickest way out would be this way... Assuming it isn't blocked like the last one."

"Remind me when we're resting and I'll tell you the full story."

Once at the intersection:
"Well let's try it and hope then."

You move east and encounter another cave in. The construction must be substandard.
"Figures, We'll have to go around. Since you don't have enough to do that again... Unless..."

She thinks for a while.

"I could give you the last two potions I have so that you can do that again. But it will leave you out of Magic."

"Do we have an idea how much further we have to go? Being out of magic is one thing if we're near the end, and another if we're in the middle.

I have an idea that's potentially a bit riskier but would use a lot less magic. We should be able to lure a single mummy here and hide over in a corner, and use small amounts of magic to make noise at the cave in, enough to get the mummy to throw those bombs but not to carry and draw more mummies. we could use it as a digging tool.

If that sounds too risky to you, we can do the potion-wand blasting again."

I'll enact whichever plan she thinks best

"We are not sure how many bombs it would take to blast though it. While we know you can get though that with your wand. It's a good idea though"

She gives you the two Potions. They taste like a pretty good Energy Drink
They bring you up to 16 motes.

You blast the rubble with your wand and produce another 4 foot wide tunnel.

You both go into the tunnel as the mummies come to investigate.

Are there mummies on the far side again? If so I'll wait until they move off, otherwise I'll continue moving as silently as possible through the tunnel.

Surprisingly not. You exit the tunnel and there is a door to the north and a door to the east.

Quietly, "North probably loops back into the catacombs as an alternate route, continuing east should get us out. Do you agree Leona?"

If she does, I'll lead the way and open the door going to the east. Inspecting for traps before doing so.

She nods
"That is correct."

You check the door and open it. You notice the pressure plates before you step on them.

The room is about twenty by twenty.  There is a sarcophagus in the middle of the room.

Is there no door leading out other than what we came through?

I'll motion to the sarcophagus, and whisper to Leona "should we be dealing with this or trying to sneak around the perimeter?"

I'm keeping my motions very slow and steady, figuring this may be a bigger version of the mummies, or at least a tougher one, inside the sarcophagus.

You don't see another door in this room. Although the sarcophagus has a chain attached to it for some reason.

"... We might have to deal with this one. I'm fairly sure this is the way out."

"Well I'm going to be relegated to my swordsmanship or archery alone for this battle then. It's probably best to stick to the sword and try to open opportunities for you to shoot whatever comes out. Just be prepared."

And I'll move forward quietly with my sword drawn and see about opening this sarcophagus and seeing any details about this chain and what it's attached to.

The chain doesn't seem attached to anything But there are scratch marks on the floor in the direction of the chain.

It seems like you could push off the lid of the sarcophagus.

It is covered in symbols that resemble Mayan Glyphs.

Leona whispers to you
"...This is Old Realm. a language from well before the decline of the world."

"It's reminiscent of a language from my world. Not one I know, as it's civilization passed far before my time though."

I will push off the lid and then jump back and into a readied swordsman stance for what's inside. I'm staying away from the chain itself in case it's animated.

You hear a gravelly voice that sounds like it is clogged with dust.
"Mani inik’ilifi ātirebishi yemīdefiri?"

A large man covered with bandages raises out of the sarcophagus. Unlike the other mummies this one has glowing red eyes. Along with a face that is dried out with too large teeth.

Bombs materialize in it's hands and then Leona shoots it. Billowing black smoke appears where she hit it with solar energy. Then ten or so bombs are thrown around you and Leona.

I dodge away from the bombs it's throwing using a forward roll, and spring towards the mummy. I'm lashing out with my sword towards his hands. I'm hoping to sever one or both in order to inhibit its bomb throwing, while Leona can focus on hitting from range using solar powers.

You roll forward and strike deftly at his Wrists. To feels like you are cutting into old harden wood. You take a decent chunk out of both of them and then his jaws grow to twice their normal size and then try to take a chunk out of your skull with unexpected speed. But you dodge out of the way with an inch or two to spare.

Leona fires again but the Mummy dodges the shot and positions you between him and Leona.

I duck into a low roll, going sideways and opening a shot for Leona to attack. I'm keeping my distance at this point so that it can't use me as a shield.

I'm staying just close enough that if it moves to engage Leona I can dart in for an attack. I'm trying to put it in a bad position where I'm too far to attack in melee, but closing with Leona will open it to an assault from me from behind.

She takes the opportunity that you give her. Firing a barrage of solar shots into the Mummy. Bellowing black smoke forms around the Mummy who is shrieking in pain.
He rushes out of the smoke, Ignoring you in favor of assaulting Leona.

I charge at the mummies exposed back, and let into it with a series of slashing maneuvers  aimed at the legs. Hoping to cripple it's movement at which point Leona can finish it.

You cut it's hamstring and force it to tumble to the ground. Leona continues to fire at it forming a black cloud around it. You hear the hiss of lit bombs. Leona backs off from it. (I assume you would do the same.) There is an large explosion and there is a scorch mark on the floor where he was.

You assume correctly.

After the explosion I comment "We'll have to make quick work here. That may or may not have been enough to attract more mummies even from the other side. I'll check the sarcophagus for a hidden door or exit, you check the remains for anything worthwhile."

And I'll start examining that chain and the sarcophagus to see if there is an exit hidden in there.

There is no exit inside the Sarcophagus. You note that the Sarcophagus is separate from the floor. The chain is attached to the sarcophagus and nothing else. The scratch marks on the floor are all in the direction of the chain.

Leona checks where the mummy died.
"I found a few unexploded grenades where it died."

"I think this sarcophagus may be covering an exit. I'm going to try pushing it over, you look for a switch that might control this chain."

And I'll go to the opposite side of the sarcophagus from the chain and start trying to tip it over.

It feels really heavy. It moves forward a bit as you try to tip it over.

"If we are going to tip it over then we should both push from the side. Or we could try to push it out of the way."

"Let's try and push it out of the way, I just assumed it was hinged on one end, which would have made pushing difficult. But it seems to be budging if not much, so we should be able to push it together."

Then I'll try and push it with the help of Leona.

You both get close together on one end and push. It goes easier this time. After about a minute you have it moved three feet and there is an opening under it big enough for both of you to slip through.

"Well, guess this is the way we're going. Can you slip through first and I'll follow? I don't have any magic left to create light when I get down there."

I'll slip through then after she does, assuming no objection.

Well, you have one mote left. but it wouldn't last long.

She drops in and looks around.
"It's a tunnel east. Come on down."

You drop down and see a tunnel that goes east.

"Hopefully there are no more rooms to deal with."

I'm going to assume you head east.

After a while walking though the tunnel. You come to the surface. It's thin woods here.

I smile as I see the woods and open air.
"One step closer, it should only be a couple of days from here you said right? We should continue on until the sun is about to rise and then set up camp. Ever minute could help."

While walking, I'm going to be trying to collect wind motes from the open air.

The wind is fairly weak in the forest, so it's slow to gather the wind motes. Still you are full again when you set up camp at sunrise.

"We'll need to start adjusting our sleep cycle again. We should arrive after another day's travel. "

"That works. Tomorrow we can push a few hours past sunrise to start the process."

Just going with the flow for now. Glad to be out of those catacombs.

You rest and then push the next day. By the end of the day you are within a mile of a Large Mansion.

"There it is. We're going to assault it in the morning."

Leona seems to be shaking slightly.

What are you doing to prepare?
This message was last edited by the player at 05:37, Fri 05 Aug 2016.

When I see Leona shaking I move over to put my hand on her shoulder to calm her and pull her into a hug. "It'll be ok Leona. We'll get through this together and avenge your father."

I'm going to take the time to use some motes to facilitate metal crafting any imperfections my blades may have picked up in the last few fights away. It's good to keep them in keen condition.

Other than that I'm just mentally preparing and gathering solar motes until I have 15 of my standard motes and 6 solar for the upcoming fight.

Leona is surprised when you pull her into a hug and is blushing furiously.

"i...I just have the pre-fight shakes. The Count is dangerous beyond what we've faced before. He's been fighting the Solar Tribe for hundreds of years..."

You try to do metalcrafting with your motes. It's hard to do and a bit inefficient without a metal fury. But you manage to shape the imperfections out of your swords.

You have time to recharge though.

Leona looks like she is ready to go in.

I nod at her explanation of the count. It makes sense to be nervous but it also helps to have reassurance.

"We'll get through it together, we make a good team. But I agree that we need to be prepared for this to be far more difficult than our previous fights."

I'm ready then, with blade drawn, bow across my back and wand in an easy to access pocket. Time to show this count what we can do.

I'll follow Leonas lead. She has the prep work for this and I don't. But I'm staying close so I can defend her when needed.

Tou walk towards the mansion entrance and find a large clearing.

"We could use this clearing for the Magic circle to summon the Solar Piledriver. Do you think we should go ahead and make it or do it after we defeat the Count?"

"We may be under pursuit and not have the time to spare later. Now would be better I think. What is the solar piledriver however?'

I help with the construction of the magic circle, and then continue towards our task of taking out the count.

"The Solar Piledriver is a machine blessed The Sun and Gaia to Purify the Dark Immortals. It gathers Sunlight for miles around and then drives it into the body of an Immortal. Incinerating the Dark matter that will revive them if left alone."

She instructs you to stand about 15 feet away.
She kneels on the ground and starts mumuring something.
After about 15 minutes she leaps up and raises her right hand toward the sky and Shouts
"Taiyoh!"

There is a bright flash of light. Once your vision clear, You see that she is standing in a circle where the grass has been burnt down to the dirt and baked into clay. There is a magic circle burnt into the clay it looks like this.



... without the blue lines.

"Quite impressive. I assume you need to recharge after such a feat, once you do we should head in immediately."

I'm mentally prepared and looking to slay an immortal.

"Yes, this used a large amount of my reserves."
She sits and meditates tor thirty minutes

You make your way though a Courtyard with a few bats flying around. You get the feeling that they are staring at you.

You enter the Mansion into a darkened room. The Count didn't expect guests. Leona lights her staff and you see that there are two sets of stairs heading up and there is a door on the ground level between the stairs.

I softly say, "any idea which door to try first? My instinct says the upper level."

I'll lead to whichever door Leona thinks best, looking for physical traps or anything that moves to attack us.

"Searching from top to bottom should be good."

You both ascend one of the two curved marble staircases. There is a balcony up here with a door. You don't find any traps on the door. it opens into a balcony overlooking an audience chamber. There is a rather nice looking throne on a raised dais below in the audience chamber.
The balcony is on three sides of the audience chamber. There is a door to the left side and one to the right.

The wood work in the Mansion is rather nice and it appears to be in good condition.

OOC: Sorry for the wait. I needed to work on the layout of the Mansion.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:57, Wed 10 Aug 2016.

I will take the opportunity to walk around the balcony to see the throne room from as many angles as possible. I'm looking for how many doors there are, traps that may seem more obvious from above, and if there appears to be a spot in the floor that a trapdoor might be.

After surveying from above, I'll suggest we head down and check out the throne room from down there.

You entered the balcony from the south. The throne is on the north side of the room.
There are three doors below. One to the south that is connected to the entryway. And one to the east and one to the west. There isn't anywhere that looks like a trap door. But the floor down there is made of stone. there are four decorative columns that support the balcony you are on. Everything is lighted with oil burning lamps.

You head down to the throne room and there isn't really anything you didn't see from above.

"Let's explore the east section first." And I'll go and check the door for traps and then open it quietly.

There where no traps on the door.

You open the door quietly. There is a dull eyed maid heading north. She hasn't noticed you yet.

the room is a hallway with three doors to the east and one to the north

I quietly ease the door closed and whisper to Leona, "Do you know whether house staff here are all undead, or in servitude? I would rather not dispatch an innocent who's being enslaved."

Leona whispers back

"I doubt they are undead. Vampires prefer blood from live prey. What should we do? We are not sure how she'll react."

"Let's check the other path first, maybe we'll be lucky and it's a limited staff and we can find the count first."

And with that I'll go to the other door and check it for traps and then try and open it quietly and peek in.

There where no traps on the door.

You open the door quietly. There is no one in the hallway. There is a door north and two doors west. There is also a spiral staircase up.

I'll beckon Leona to follow and close the door behind us, and then proceed to check the door north.

I'll be trying to stay quiet and check for traps at each door, but will stop repeating it each time until it changes.

You open the northern door. It's another hallway running east to west. There is one door west.
The norther wall is covered in windows. you see a garden out there. There is a door north into the garden. There is another door to the east side of the south wall. The south wall is covered in portraits and paintings.

I continue towards the door on the west end of this hallway. I'm moving a little more quickly than before to get out of the hallway with so many windows. It's too hard to hide from anyone in the garden.

You enter a long Library that runs from north to south. It's huge with bookshelfs covering all the walls. There are comfortable chairs all around with tables. There is a door to the north west.

I wish I had the time to stop and check out some of the books, but we're on a schedule, pushing through to the northwest door. The room only had two doors right? The one into the hallway south of the garden and the one in the northwest?

Ah I knew I forgot to mention that the library has two floors. There are a few wrought iron stairs around the Library. You notice that there is a door on the south side of the second floor east wall.

You enter the north west door. You enter into a clock tower. There is a trap door down and a path up.

Ok, will end up wrapping back around to that then.

When we get to the trap door,
"Let's go down first, I think we're likely to find he sleeps as far removed from the sunlight as possible and underground is just that."

Proceeding down through the trap door.

There is a stairway below the trap door. You go down and see an expanse of stone tombs. You see quite a few tombs. You see a few ghouls patrolling around the tombs.

Do I see any doors out of this room, or just an area full of tombs and ghouls?

Either way, I motion to go back up, and close the door quietly before whispering to Leona,
"I don't think any of those are likely to be the count's resting area. It's likely just the equivalent of a barracks for ghouls. Let's check what's up in the clock tower."

You don't immediately see a door out. You head up into the Clocktower. Passing though various machinery that runs the clock.You ascend above the clock. And encounter a door.
You hear scratchs of conversation behind the door.

You first hear a young feminine voice
"...Moon beauty transferred without a hitch. How about you?"

You hear a deep masculine voice reply
"Ah, yes. The Earthly Maiden. The energy transfer is going as planned."

The Feminine voice continues
"Good. Next I will prepare the Guardians. The Vampire Hunter seems to have
arrived along with an ally against you."

The Masuline voice replies again
"I will take care of Them. She's just a little Girl. And he is just a swordsman.


THe Female voise concludes with
"... Well, it's up to you, Count...Dark Warp!"

The Count comments
"...That impudent little Girl! Acting without the Queen's order...that Moon
Child..."

I think to myself I'll show him just a swordsman and then mouth silently to Leona "Ready?" and when she replies I'll move to open the door with my sword in hand.

When I see him I'll push forward, mentally preparing to try fury fusion with Hermes once the battle starts. I'll give Hermes a mental heads up that it's my plan, but I'm avoiding using magic until then to catch the count unaware, just using probing strikes at first and then at a critical moment summoning Hermes to Fuse with me and unleash a full on assault in which I activate my solar motes to do a sol enhancement on my blade.

You enter the room and walk onto a raised platform in the middle of the room that takes up most of the room. The room has heavy curtains covering up all the windows.

You see a tall dark man that looks like this



He speaks in the same low Masuline voice as before.
"So nice to see you, little Hunter And Swordsmen! As for the woman..."

Leona is glaring at him.

A sphere of blackness tinged with red appears next to him with a young woman within it. She has long brown hair and is wearing a light blue dress.

The Count Continues
"She's not dead. She's the sacrifice we need to complete our plan!"

He waves his hand dismissively and the Woman disappears along with the Sphere of Darkness

He concludes
"I can't keep a lady waiting. It's time. Won't be much of a battle, a
young shrimp like you. Anyway, can't pass up a chance to feast on fresh Hunter
blood! And the band beings to play...Ready for The Musical of Blood?!"


Several swords with bat shaped cross guards appear and are immediately launched at you two.
You dodge to the left and Leona dodges to the right. He's coming for you. Leona takes several shots at him but there are only little puffs of smoke where she hits. He punches at you and you dodge again. This time striking out with your sword. It get's a light cut on him., Inhuman reflexes avoiding the worst of your strike.

Leona puts her gun away and draws her staff and forms her halberd. She has a glint in her eye like she has a plan.

You hear Hermes in your mind.
I'm preparing for the fusion. keep him Busy for a little while longer

Leona's a smart lady, I assume that glint means she going for the curtains. I start leading the count to the opposite end of the room, to give Leona time to work. I'm focusing primarily on darting attacks to keep his attention and then retreating a short distance and focusing on dodging. Rinsing and repeating this as the battle dance continues. Hopefully Hermes prep doesn't take too long.

I imagine that once Leona strikes down a curtain or starts to he's going to rush to stop her. I'll take that opportunity to slash as the top of the nearest curtain I'm close to and then pursue him once the curtain has starting to fall.

He follows you and focuses on you. You lead him to the other side of the room when leona starts slashing the curtains down. As you predicted, He notices her and rushes her. But is forced to dodge out of the way when the sunlight streams in. He launches swords at you and forms spikes of darkness from the ground but you both get all the curtains on the sunny side of the room down. Half the room has sunlight in it now and he is forced to remain in the darker half. Launching magical attacks at you.

Hermes says
Preparations are complete. Ready when you are.

I open myself to Hermes, preparing for the fusion and mentally tell him I'm ready.

I'm trying to time the fusion with when I'm charging at the count so that he doesn't have a lot of time to adjust and account for the fusion. I'm hoping to get a couple of strong cuts in out of surprise.

You change mid stride. Hermes infuses your body with his spirit. It succeeds but there are some side effects. You are now glowing light Purple. You feel that your ears changed to cheetah ears and that you have grown a Cheetah tail.

The count is visibly surprised when you change. you close and deliver a series of strong strikes. The Black Smoke bellows from where you cut.

The count Splits into a multitude of bats and flies away from you.

I smirk at the counts surprise, it's good to exceed expectations. I also expect at this point since I've displayed strong wind powers through fusion and the purple glow, that the count will assume I'm of the Gaian tribe. That should work out well when I apply solar magic a little later to catch him off guard again

How many motes did the fusion take? And can I tell yet how fast maintaining it will drain them?

If he reforms immediately I'll charge at him again, imbuing my blade with solar magic at the last second, hoping to still catch him by surprise.
If he doesn't reform immediately, I'm going to send two motes out towards one of the sunny windows to form a lens, and tilt it to start redirecting sunlight at where he's at.

I'm also staying conscious of where the trap door down is. Is it in the sunlight? I want to make a move to intercede if he tries to run. Also what's Leona up to?

When the Count turns into a multitude of bats, Leona rushes him and fires off her gun's flamethrower like spread of solar essence. Turning many bats into ash and injuring many more.

He reforms away from you. He looks haggard and his cape is torn to shreds.
"What in Darknesses Name are you?"

You rush him and enhance your blade with sunlight in addition to the natural Wind enhancement it has now. He forms blades and grabs one of them and manages to parry your strike with his inhuman speed. But only just barely. It destroys his blade in the process but there is always more.

The door is in the sunlight.
Most of the cost for the fusion is being paid by Hermes. But you feel like it is draining his reserves rapidly. You estimate that you only have a minute before you start having to pay the costs yourself.

In response to his shock I smirk, "a swordsman, as you said."

I'm sticking to the offensive, charging back in embracing the feral nature of Hermes spirit. I'm pushing my wind motes out to create illusions of myself attacking to make parrying my frenzy of attacks more difficult.

I'm maintaining my sol enhancement, and darting away occasionally to allow for clean shots from Leona.

You charge in using illusions as feigns for your real attacks. Leona switches to her halberd and charges in with you. The combination of your strikes prove to be too much for the Count. You strike true and great clouds of black smoke form around the count. He revert's to a giant bat and a black coffin forms around him. There is a bat sigil on the lid of the coffin.

Leona is breathing heavily.
"We did it. Now all we gave to do is drag him to the pile driver."

At this point, the ball of darkness opens up again and the Woman from before is now laying on the ground.

I smile, "that we did. We need to get this woman out to safety as well. I'm not sure why she was the sacrifice but we should help out. Would you prefer to carry her or the coffin? Hermes help was immensely helpful back there but I need to let him rest."
And I release the fusion, reverting and thanking Hermes mentally for the aid. I'm filled with pride at what we accomplished together.

Before starting to head back out of the mansion it occurs to me if I heal this woman we don't need to carry her, and ask Leona to hold up a second as I use my healing material on the woman lying on the ground.

When you check the woman to see if she is breathing, She wakes up and and stands up from the floor.
She says
"You Saved my life. Thank You."

Leona says
"I'm Solar Magician Leona, A Vampire Hunter. and this is Michael, Elemental Swordsman and Vampire Hunter. What's your name?"

The woman replies
"I am Lita. Caretaker of the Solar Tree and Mother Gaea's Earthly Maiden.
On that day when the Immortals attacked Sam Miguel. They captured me and took both me and the Solar Tree to City of Death"

Now that you can get a closer look at her. You note that she is rather cute instead of being beautiful. With bright green eyes and silky brown hair that goes down to her shoulders. She is wearing a blue dress. From what you can see of her physique she is toned and lithe.

Actually here is a picture

"It's nice to meet you Lita, I'm glad we got here in time. We should talk more once we've cleansed the counts corpse though. I'd like to hear more about this solar tree, and what we might do to save it. But for now come with us if you please."

And I'll go and grab one end of the coffin and start carrying it out with Leona. Hopefully we get out uneventfully.

I mentally make note that I like the titles that Leona gave me. I'll have to thank her later.

Lita Replies
"Thank you Michael."

You and Leona move to carry the coffin down the clock tower with Lita following you. at the bottom you see a bok patrolling.

Before you have time to plan. Lita leaps into action. She lands behind the Bok and enters into a brutal looking style. She strikes the back of the head with a rapid one-two punch, then she sweeps the legs out from under the bok and then finishes by curb stomping the bok's skull until it dissipates into smoke.

"Who wants to try me next, Filth?!"

Leona is wide eyed at what Lita just did.

I blink once in surprise and then say "impressively done. Let's move before those ghouls from before come up though, I'll feel better once this coffin has been dealt with."

It's good to know Lita can handle herself quite well, should make getting out of here fairly straight forward. Pressing on towards the exit.

Indeed, the way to the exit is fairly straight forward. The only time you have to stop is when the count shakes his coffin violently, forcing you to set it down for a minute.

You make it to the magic circle outside and set the coffin in the center.

Immediately four strange green machines form on the for circles. There are mirror like things on top of them.



Leona sits down.
"We have plenty daylight left. Let's recharge before purifying him."

"Sounds like a good plan, although most of the energy I burned in the fight came from Hermes. I'll see if there's a way I can facilitate him recharging."

Then mentally, Are you good to gather more energy here Hermes since we're open to the open air or is there something I can do to help? Or will it just require time.

Either way, I'll go about filling any of my reserves that are empty with solar motes and wait for Leona to proceed with this cleansing. I'm eager to learn about this tree from Lita, but I want to stay focused until the count is for sure taken care of.

I would have to manifest to gather motes from out there. But we haven't quite figured out how to do that yet. I'm working on a method to exchange motes between us though.

You wait thirty minutes and you are both full of solar motes.

Leona hits each of the four machines with a shot from her gun. Causing the Mirror like thing to point at the Count's coffin. Each time one comes down, the black lines of the magic circle flash red starting from the coffin and radiating out to the edge.

Leona says
"Lita, We are about to purify the Count. He is going to use magic to try to stop us.
You might want to stay back while we do that."

Lita says
"If you say so."

That would be a good work around for the time being, and have good utility later on. Good idea.

Once we're ready I nod to Leona, "Ok, let's finish this." And then brace for whatever comes next in this process.

Lita moves to a safe distance.

Leona moves to the eye like circle with a bar pointed toward the Count.
"Our Sun, Bring your judgment upon this vile Immortal with the Aid of Mother Gaea.
Purify the Darkess within him so that he may never rise again.
In your name, Sol Invictus. Amen!"

The sky Darkens as if it is Night and a large beam of Pure Sunlight emits from each of the Mirror like parts of the machines. Burning a hole straight though the coffin.

You see an ethereal image of the Count form over it and hear him say
"IT"S HOT!"

It goes blurry and turns into a cloud of darkness tethered to the coffin.

Ten or so swords form in the air and launch themselves at Leona. But she rolls out of the way to dodge them. You sense incoming danger and dodge out of the way yourself and a spike of Darkness forms where you where standing just a moment ago.

The cloud of Darkness goes over to one of the Machines and envelops it.
Leona rushes over while dodging more swords and smacks the darkness with hew solar halberd.

"Keep the Count off the Machines! Hit him with something Solar elemental!"

I enhance my blade with solar magic and charge over and attack the darkness. Internally I think how weird it is to be slashing at a cloud of darkness,but I focus on my task.

He tries another machine on the other side. You move over and smack him away using your enhanced sword.

Right now he is focusing on Leona. Trying to box her in with spikes and then launching swords at her.

I'll press forward in order to assist Leona, slashing at his dark cloud trying to make him dodge enough that he can't focus his attacks on her. Mostly just trying to harass him enough that the ritual has time to do its thing, and so that Leona doesn't get injured in the process.

It's three minutes of hard work. But the Count if finally purified.

Leona is holding her scarf smiling. But there are also tears flowing down her cheeks.

I feel a deep sympathy for Leona, realizing that while we've exacted revenge there's still a great deal of pain at the loss of her father. I sheath my sword, and walk over and put my hand on her shoulder comfortingly and say "He would have been proud at your work today."

She lets you put your hand on her shoulder.

"I hope so. He always told me 'Keep the sun always in your heart.' We'll need to check out the Solar Tree."

"I agree, Lita had mentioned it had been moved to the city of death. Do we know where that is? And perhaps more importantly do we have enough resources to make an expedition there?"

Leona Replies
"Technically we are already in Istrakan, The City of Death. Lita, Do you know where The Solar Tree is?"

Lita Says
"I can feel that it is near. East from here."

"Oh, right. I'll get my bearings eventually. Do we need to do anything with this magic circle or the purified corpse before we leave? Otherwise let's go check on that tree, it sounds like you can lead us to it Lita."

OOC: DAMN. I Forgot something. maybe I can Make it work... This should have been earlyer after you purified the Count.

An ethereal male voice resounds throughout the area. I sounds like the Count.
"Impossible! Me...expire!? That blood of yours belongs to a Solar
Child! You are truly his--"

Leona Interrupts him
"Count! What did you do with Moon Beauty?"

He responds with his last words.
"Ha! That woman...That traitor...Our precious sacrifice for the
Queen! She's in the far East, but you'll never make it there! There's no way
you can break the Seals of the two Dark Guardians! My job is done. Soon the
Earthly Maiden will follow...Geh...heh...I'll be waiting in the land of death,
Daughter of...my rival!"


Once the Purification is done, the Machines disappear. If you look in the coffin, you'll only see ash.

-------------------------

Leona says.
"Not really. Eventually grass will grow over the magic circle. And there shouldn't be a corpse is the coffin anymore."

She checks it to make sure.

"Just ash."

Lita says
"Indeed Michael. Please follow me."

---------------------

She leads you east past the Count's mansion.

Suddenly three bolts of Darkness come out of nowhere and knock all of you down. It hurts.

When you stand up you see a woman that looks slightly older than Leona in front of you. She actually looks a lot like Leona except Paler with Light purple hair and Red Eyes. She is also dressed similarly. But with black Leather instead of brown. And Finally she wears a light blue scarf instead of a red one. She has a Gnarled staff and a gun similar to Leona's.
It looks like this


She Speaks
"You defeated the Count, Leona...Impressive, Solar Magician."

Leona Says
"Who are you?!"

She Continues
"I am the Dark Magician, Selene. I am neither friend nor foe. For
now, at least...That is unimportant. Here is my advice. Go no further. You've
already avenged your father."
This message was last edited by the player at 17:07, Fri 19 Aug 2016.

OOC) No problem, looks good.

Huh, looks like a dark magic version of the sol gun. Sure does pack a punch.

I stand up, brushing my clothes off as I do and speak up.
"You seem to know our objective, as such you know we can't turn back from the tree without reason. Vengeance drew us here, but restoration of the tree to it's proper place is a task too just to be ignored."

Is this the voice of the woman who was talking to the count?

Yes, She sounds like the woman the Count was talking to.

Leona says
"That's right. We wont allow the Immortals to have there way. If the
Undeadening continues, the world and All life will perish!"

Selene says.
" 'All life will perish'? But that is the will of the Galaxy! No one can
stop it. This solar system's time is up."

Leona continues
" What do you mean?! The men and women of this solar system, the
animals, the plants, all share the Sun's will! We must save The Solar tree and
Moon Beauty!"

Selena responds
"Why fight a battle you cannot win? To oppose the will of the Galaxy...is
to deny the universe, the source of life...indeed, to deny life on this planet!"

"If as you say, the result is inevitable, I fail to see the harm in the return of the Solar Tree and Moon Beauty. Allow them to return to their natural order, and allow time to do it's job.

It seems more likely that the immortals are attempting to accelerate the natural death of the system far past normal levels. We will not stand by an allow that to be unopposed."

She says
"Mwahahaha! You sounded like a member of the Dark Tribe there.
Anyway, Do what you must. You and I are destined to settle our differences.
Be warned.

Dark Warp!"
She Glows Light blue and teleports away

Leona looks stunned at her appearance.
"Why does she look so much like me?"

"I wouldn't necessarily trust her appearance. I've seen magics that will change one's image before, it may be an attempt to get inside your head.

I have a feeling we'll learn more in time though, including whether that's her true appearance and if there is any reason she looks so much like you. Perhaps she was pulled in from a parallel world that's the flip side of this one.

I'm not sure why she said I sounded like a member of the dark tribe, did I say something wrong?"

After hopefully I get responses to those, but even if not:
"Either way, we need to press on. They know we're here, let's do what needs doing and get out."

Leona says
"That is Possible. We'll wait and see.

The Dark Tribe of Immortals believe Sun Will not last forever and that the universe will end in Cold and Darkness with only Immortals and Undead left. It sounded like you where conceding a point to them. Most humans don't like thinking about that."

Lita says
"You are correct Master Michael."

She leads you the rest of the way to the Solar Tree. It's in a sorry state with no leaves and unhealthy bark.


Lita Says with a sad note in her voice
"This is the Solar Tree, the shrine of Life that supports the whole world. The Dark Tribe of Immortals and their Undeadening have reduced it to this."

Leona says
"Hmmm. Using Dark Matter to turn every living thing Undead"

"Ah, she assumed my statement assumed I agree with her. I was merely pointing out that if one accepts she's correct which she obviously believes, then forcing things faster doesn't really matter. It's good to know more about their ideology though, it always helps to understand the enemies motivation to try and counter their actions."

I look on the tree in pity before moving up to it and setting my hand against it's bark.

I've allowed things to grow through woodcrafting before, and it's time to do so again.
I start changing some of my undifferentiated motes along with some solar motes through my hand and to the tree. For a normal tree I would just give it undifferentiated motes that I align to wood element, but I think this tree may want both. I focus my thoughts on letting both of these energies flow and restore the tree's health.

Without a Wood Fury, aligning your motes to wood is hard and inefficient. But you give it your all and the Tree consumes the motes ravenously.

After you are done. The Tree actually looks alive now with a few leafs sprouting here and there. And healthier looking bark.

Lita is looking at you in amazement.
"How did you do that?"

"Mostly ineffeciently. The elements I was trained in before coming here aren't exactly the same as here. I was trained, albeit not as strongly as in other elements, to work with wood furies. I think I could help more, but I don't have a strong wood fury to help me, so I would need to do it over the course of many days. It looks like it helped a good deal though.

How was it moved here, and how can we go about getting it back to where it's supposed to be."

Lita responds
"The Solar Tree was moved here with magic. The connected it mystically to two Immortals and two Dark Guardians. The Count was one of the Immortals. The other three anchor it here and prevent me from returning it to it's proper place."

"I assume all three must be taken care of then. Also moon beauty was mentioned a few times, how is that connected to all of this. Do we know who the other immortal is and what is a guardian and do we know them? I don't like the idea of leaving the sol tree out here, but I do worry about our provisions."

Lita says
"I can feel them east of here. And I can feel that they are associated with one of the four earthly elements. Earth, Fire,Wind and Water. The Count was of Earth."

Leona says
"There is a volcano east of here and a section called the Permafrost and Ice Flow"

"Ok, so I expended a lot of my motes with what I did with the tree. At a minimum I need time to gather motes, but it would probably be better if I could sleep some before we head off east to take care of this other immortal and the guardians. I'm fine with going after any of the three next."

Then after a moment
"The count being associated with earth does explain why my fusion with Hermes was so effective. He was dealing with both wind and solar energy simultaneously. I will need to talk to Nix and Zeke about if they feel a fusion would be possible, being able to leverage the elemental opposites would be useful."

Lita says
"You should rest here then. Most undead won't go near the Solar Tree. And there are various solar fruits growing around here due to the Solar tree's influence. "

Leona says
"We should rest and recover our supplies.
Afterwards it would be easiest to get to the Permafrost. Just head north until you hit the sea then head east along the coast."

"Sounds good. I'm going to set up for the night and get some sleep then. Tomorrow we can head to the permafrost."

And I get myself set up for sleeping for the night under the solar tree and go to sleep.

All of you set up watches in a way you are agreeable too.

You sleep and dream of your furycape.
All three of your furies are in front of you. Hermes is looking much more solid than the others.

I smile as I see the three of them.

"I think today has been a big step towards determining how to fully manifest you all in this world, if Hermes appearance is any indicator. We will be traveling to an area called the permafrost next, where I expect to face an enemy aligned with the water element. There will also be a volcano that bears an enemy aligned with fire. I would like to continue leveraging my foes elemental weaknesses against them. Zeke, Nix, do you feel comfortable trying a fusion when the time comes?"

Zeke says
I Can't let Hermes have all the Fun. There shouldn't be a problem trying the Fusion.

You might want to use the Fire Element more often before you do.
Hermes chimes in.

Why? You did it fine. And I don't see a reason why we can't

"Good, I just wanted to make sure you were both comfortable with it. I'll also likely be calling upon your help more often in those areas,  which will do as Hermes suggested as well.

We also have a new traveling companion, Lita. I'll make a point of introducing each of you next chance I get to manifest you.

For now though, I'm interested in any changes you've experience since returning from the fusion Hermes and how quickly do your reserves seem to be recharging?"

After that, our standard practice sessions for the night will be good and unless they have something else to say/do I'm good to proceed to the next day.

The fusion has solidified my connection to you, Master. With a little more work, you'll be able to manifest us fully outside.

Also that sun is getting bigger and stronger. Although it is not self aware yet.

It is going well. It seems that the excess motes you gather go to us in here. I should be full by mid-day tomorrow.

You do the standard practice.

The next day, you wake up eith the sun in your eyes. You hear Lita humming tp herself as she cuts various fruit into a bowl.

"Hmm, I'll be very interested in the progress on the sun becoming self aware. I wonder if it'll require me finding the equivalent of a solar spirit, or solar fury, or if given time it'll come about on its own. It's something to think on. It's good to hear everything is coming along well."

------------

I wake up and stretch. "Morning Lita. What's that you're preparing?"

I'm going to guess that since it formed within you on it's own, it'll wake up on it's own. But I would talk about sun spirits with your friends to find out more.

----------
She replies
"Oh. Good morning Master Michael.
It's nothing fancy, just some mixed fruit and nuts to help start the day. How was your sleep?"

"That sounds delicious. My sleep was productive. I spoke with my furies, you would call them elemental spirits, about the results of yesterday's fusion and their thoughts on further use against the other immortal and these two guardians. They seem confident they will be able to.

I do have a question about the solar spirits in this world, I'm not sure whether you or Leona would be best to ask. In order to ask the question though I have to explain a bit that Leona knows already. When I sleep I visit a section of my soul that is comprised of the elemental furies, or spirits, that I have convinced to join with me in my travels. The landscape is comprised of the elements I use in my magic. Ever since learning solar magic, a bright sun has appeared there, and has grown in recent days. My furies tell me that it's not self aware yet, but they think it will be with time, but thought it best I ask you or Leona more about Solar spirits."

"That's amazing Master Michael. Your furies sound like the Terrenials that used to exist here. They controlled the flow of elemental energy here.

I don't know much about solar spirits. They don't usually visit Megiddo. The only one I know of is Otenko, Messenger of the Sun. But he hasn't been seen since Red Ringo, Leona's father, was killed. "

"That's the closest we've been able to figure out. Leona thinks I was pulled here in some method from the world I used to live in. I've been to a couple of places, all of which have had a certain amount of strife and need for me, or I a need for them. I'll make sure to talk to Leona about it then. Do you need any help with the food?"

When I see Leona, I'll say "Good morning Leona. I was hoping to ask you a few questions about Solar Spirits. My elemental furies noticed the sun in my soul is growing brighter and larger but they don't think it's self aware yet. They believe it will become so by itself, but suggested I ask you more about solar spirits here, is there anything you could tell me about them?"

Lita says
"Thank you for your offer. But I'm nearly done. "

Leona says
"That is interesting. This sun in your soul. It started growing when you started learning Solar Magic, correct?  It probably mirrors your strength with solar magic.

What do you want to know about solar spirits? "

I nod to Leona

"Yeah, that's where I was thinking. I get the impression my furies think it's on the verge of being self aware, and I think that could lead to it manifesting itself as a solar spirit.

I guess my specific question is whether you've heard of this happening before, as well as if you think there is something specific I'll had to do other than grow stronger to lend it self awareness. I get the impression that Hermes, Zeke and Nix feel that it's close. They also think that in time it'll become self aware on its own and likely become a close analog of a solar spirit. I mostly wanted to run it by you in case I was missing something because I'm not familiar with all the tenants of this world."

"No. I haven't heard of anyone doing things like that. The fusions I've heard of involved a human and a separate spirit. I've never heard of a person growing their own personal sun spirit."

"Hmm, ok. Well I'll just keep an eye on it then and see where it goes. I suppose we'll want to set out relatively soon though or are we planning to shift our sleep schedules before moving. If so I should probably be working to heal the sol tree some more so long as I'll have time to recharge."

If we're leaving, I'm ready. Otherwise I'll try and continue what I started yesterday with the sol tree, it seems immensely important out protect.

"We should shift our sleep schedule so we can travel safer. You should try putting solar motes into the tree after you put in your normal motes."

You put in your normal motes and a few more leafs grow along with the beginning of a branch.

I relax in the sun and concentrate on absorbing solar motes. Each time I am full, I feed them all to the solar tree and then begin charging again. I want to do this as often as I can charge up.

You cycle though gathering motes and giving them to the tree. It looks better and better as you go on but it is taking more and more motes to have a noticeable effect. By the emd of the day, the tree has several branches and quite a few leafs.

At the end of the day I'll talk with Leona and Lita "well that looks to be all I'll be able to do for it today. It should help it while we deal with the immortal and two guardians however. Do we set out tonight then?"

Leona says
"We should. It'll be a bit of a shock to our systems. But we shouldn't encounter major resistance. "

Lita says
"Are you sure you want me to go with you?"

"I would like you to be comfortable with whatever decision you make Lita. We welcome your help, and you've shown you can handle yourself in a fight, but I would understand if you wish to stay near the solar tree."

Whichever way Lita is most comfortable with works for me, though I'd prefer she come with us. I'd hate for her to get captured again. But either way, ready to head out and start the next leg of the journey.

Lita thinks for a moment and comes to a decision.
"I want to come with you and help, Master Michael.
The Solar tree is already in Istrakan, The Immortals wont move it again.And the best way to get it back is to help you fight the Immortals and Guardians."

Your group starts heading north. After a night's travel with no undead encountered, You find the cold northern sea. The sun is starting to rise again.

"Well it looks like it's time to make camp for the day, and I probably should be practicing my fire magic as well."

It's going to be daytime, but it's like still cold since we're near the coast of the sea. I'm going to start gather wood for a fire and then channel a fire mote into it and use it to light the fire.

During the next days travel I also want to practice my fire magic, I'm going to try and do a low burn of fire aligned motes to give myself a warm aura, that keeps the chill away from myself and warms those around me. I figure it'll be welcome by Lita and Leona as well. Otherwise just going along for the ride.

You gather wood, light a fire with magic and camp for the day.

The next night you do a low burn of your motes. Producing an aura of warm air around you. It's also producing a noticeable Updraft...

Later that night when you go around a rocky outcropping, you encounter what appears to be a light blue skinned Bok. It has noticed your group.

I'm assuming the others have noticed it, and are moving accordingly?

"Just want to confirm, that's just another Bok right, I don't want to mistakenly attack a non-undead."

Assuming someone confirms, I'll draw my bow and start shooting fire arrows at it. I momentarily consider just throwing a fireball until I remember that Lita had an upclose martial arts approach, but I'd still prefer to attack from range based on their spit attack.

Leona says
"Yes! Kill it with fire!"

It rears bach to spit it's gunk but you his it in the chest with your fire arrow, setting it on fire. Leona sends a barrage of shots at it with her gun. A cloud of black smoke forms around the stunned Bok. Lita moves in for the kill. Punching it's skull off of its body.

Afterwards Leona comments
"That was a Chillbok an ice elemental bok. The gunk they spit will freeze you to your bones."

"Good to know. I've been wanting to practice my fire magic more, looks like I'm going to have the opportunity. We should press on though, how many days out do you think we are?"

Just going with the flow some more.

Leona says
"We should be three days walk from the Permafrost."

Over the next nights travil you notice more and more icebergs out at sea.

near the end of the second night, you find what appear to be golems made of ice. They haven't noticed you yet.

I motion to the golem, and speak softly "I think it would be best that we take advantage of surprise. This immortal will likely know we're coming anyway, what with Selene having spoken with us and the purification of the Count, so preserving the secret of our path seems futile."

Assuming they agree, I'll draw my fire arrow and coordinate my release with Leona's. This way we get the benefit of surprise and potentially get a second round off before it gets any significant action.

You fire in unison with Leona, catching two completely unaware, breaking them into small chunks.

The other three look around to find you but your next barrage takes out the next two.

The last one rolls into a ball and runs away.

I aim my bow at the last one, and charge a fire arrow but also imbue the outside of the arrow with wind magic, to help it fly farther. Hopefully I can manage to take out this last one before it gets away.

You aim, Imbuing the arrow with fire and using the wind to aid it's flight.
It arcs high and lands where you predicted the golem would be. The arrow pierces into the rolled up form of the golem and envelops it in fire. Melting a large chunk of the golem and killing it.

You continue for the rest of the night and camp during the day. At the end of the forth night's travel you reach the Permafrost. Out at sea in the distance you see the Ice Flows.

Once we reach the Permafrost, I'll ask Lita "You said you could sense them before right? Is the one we're heading towards out on the Ice Flows there, or somewhere around here?"

Lita closes her eyes for a bit and says.

"I can feel one of the Guardians out there on the Ice Flows"