This all was very odd indeed and while Saxon did what he does best, Lady Isile shape changed into a bird and she took flight over the landscape.  High and toward the farmhouse to see how close the black rock was to the farmhouse and if there was any signs of life inside.

As she flew over her eyes scanned for Magical Auras. (Detect Magic)

The black material--in the shape of hexagons--went all the way up to the house, but it wasn't so close together that you couldn't carefully step  your way to the house. Front door was blocked but a window would work, and the back door. There were some black hexagons to the sides and around back but not so close together than you couldn't reach the back door.

Lady Isile doesn't see any signs of life from the house, but she can see how the black stuff was progressing and encroaching on the house. And farther out around the whole area.

There appear to be several different 'sources'--she can spot a dozen--where the black has radiated/grown outward from a central point. It looks like something was dropped into those areas... or maybe fired from a catapult.


While she didn't spot any signs of life from the house, she does spot a track through the woods at the back. With a bit more flight, she spots a camp about a mile away from the house. She counts four people... and a dog.

Lady Isile took flight in the direction of the people and wanted to see if they were what the statues looked like.  When she got close enough she would take human form if she didn't spot any hostility.

Yes, they definitely look like the statues.

There's no sign of hostility, though the man is armed with sword and crossbow.

She also notices that the young girl seems to be injured or ill, being held in her mother's arms.

When she lands she took her human form "Greetings.  I mean you no harm but here to see if you can help explain what has happened here. she asking calming then she noticed the child.

"Is she hurt.  I'm a healer if I may assist.

"Greetings," the man replies. He seems a bit wary but is not immediately threatening.

"I am Jarson. The Darkness came and then the Black fell from the sky. No one knows why or what it is."

"My daughter Vanetta has been poisoned by the Black. It grows ever worse. If you are truly a healer, please save her."

Looking at Jarson "Come closer and hold on to each other.  Grab the dog too if you like but I'm taking us to some others that will also want to see this and help. 

If they all agree she will Teleport them to where the other party members are a bit away from the Blackness.

At first, they seem a bit leery, particularly Jarson, but after glancing at his daughter and the pleading look in his wife's eyes, he--reluctantly--agrees.

It only requires everyone to hold hands.

Lady Isile teleports them to an area she recalls where there were none of the black hexagons within 100 feet.

Grimfast is the first to sense Lady Isile's sudden reappearance... with the others.

Soon, everyone joins Lady Isile.

Holding up her hand to get everyone's attention and to speak.

"This is Jarson and his family.  His daughter Vanetta has been poisoned by the Black.

Saxon what all have you discovered about this Black rock? she asked before casting any spells upon the daughter.

Saxon looked up with his goggles on that made his eyes look absolutely massive. Like two giant coals looking out from a lantern before he lifted them up. "It's nearly pure magic with a nearly nothing amount of crystal to give it shape. It doesn't react to anything I do to it. But its entirely neutral, used by someone evil enough to imprint on the material."

"Best I can tell is that this stuff made contact with people and tried to replicate them. Fascinating material."

Nodding her head "Was you able to get a small sample that I can try to Dispel?  Let us see if that has any effect upon it first before I cure her and it still resides inside her.

Lady Isile will cast Dispel Magic on a small sample if Saxon can supply her with it.  If not then she will target some that is on the ground.

As near as Lady Isile can tell, her Dispel Magic spell has no effect on it, though she gets the sense that her spell simply isn't strong enough, by several magnitudes!

"I can't say I didn't expect that," Anira offers. "I can sense the magic. It's kind of like lodestone... it attracts other magic."

"If you are sure that your spell just isn't strong enough, we can probably boost it through a magic circle... with all of us joining together."

"We might only have one shot at it, though, as it will take a great toll on us. The magic circle will boost our power to the level of this Black essence... but not to the point it will kill us. If we get to that point, the circle will break on its own."

"If we put the girl inside the circle, it should dispel the Black. However, whether we are successful or not, it will not harm the girl any further."

It was good to hear Anira's suggestion and as she spoke Lady Isile looked over at the statues by the farmhouse and then at the family.  If it copied them all, what happened to the other dog and why is the girl the only one being effected if it touched them all.

Looking to Jarson "May I ask, did your daughter ever show signs of using Magic?

"Not in the way you would appear to mean," Jarson says. "She's a child still. She plays at casting pretend magic. It's never been real. Has it?" He directs this last to his wife.

"No, not that I know of," his wife replies. "She may have touched it, though, or maybe she got it from Rufus. He was our other dog. He barked at the stones, and when it started turning into us, he attacked it. We think that's how he got the poison. He died two days later as the blackness slowly turned him all black."

"Vanetta comforted him as it got worse."

Saxon looked at the two sorceresses with him and pressed his lips into a thin line. Dealing with people was NOT something he was good at. He wasnt even great at talking with kids. But all in all this seemed like a magical essence that had rules. He moved over and crouched near the little one. "Hi there. My name is Saxon... It is very nice to meet you." He nodded once, "Would you mind if I have a look there at what made you feel bad?" What was in her arm may differ from the stones as substances changed depending on what was interacting with them. Who knew? He may have a way to draw it out.

((OOC: So, Saxon had said he'd post, and then I was waiting for him to post, and then he posted... and I forgot that he posted and then I got 'busy' with RL stuff...))


Saxon examines the black areas on the girl and readily identifies it as magical, then recognizes it as necromantic (though nothing he's ever encountered before), and finally it's evil. To his senses, it smells of the Dark Lord.

While he can identify the various 'components' of the 'affliction', there's some sort of twist to the combination that--for the moment--eludes him.

((If we razed you about that then we would be some extreme hypocrites.))

Saxon took a moment to write down his findings and handed it off to the lovely ladies. He knew the strange stuff but they had a stronger hole on the lore of arcanum. He smiled at the family and sighed. "Any chance you saw someone with eyes like mine walking around before the black stuff showed up?" He had an odd idea. "Just on the odd chance we are way over thinking this..." He looked back at the mages. "Want me to try and command the material? It's a long shot but worth a try before we commit to a ritual but I submit to the wisdom of the group."

"Always hope for the best, but expect the worst," Anira said with a smile, recalling one of Radagast's favorite sayings.

"We know it's magical, confirming our ideas, but we don't know what kind of magic. Too many different categories... yes, it's necromancy, but what is the method of it!"

"Let me try a basic cantrip first."

She promptly casts Detect Poison on the little girl.

"Well, that confirms it! It's a poison! A magical poison. I think it akin to that which poisoned the Ent. It can be a toxin or venom, but I think it might be a disease because of the way it spreads."

"Okay, one more spell."

She now casts Diagnose Disease.
17:15, Today: Anira rolled 41 using 1d20+24 ((17)).

Per GM:

"Ah-ha! It IS a disease... a magical disease! I'm pretty sure there's a necromancer spell called Plague. I think that's it, but heavily augmented. It's going to take my most potent spell!"

"Radagast and Lady Isile, can you assist me? If this is the Dark Lord's work, it may need all of us to overcome it."

This time, she casts Greater Dispel Magic though she's prepared to still have to remove the disease itself once the magic driving it is (hopefully) gone.

When she said "If this was the dark lord" Saxon's lips drew into a thin line like he was beating back bad memories with a club inside his own head. "I have alchemy that can removed diseases and restore the damage done by corruption, however, I have nothing for a poison. I do have universal access to most lower forms of alchemy." Lower alchemy to Saxon was mid-tier magic to a mage.

He leaned over to rummage in his bag and pulled out a glowing blue vial with the words "dispel magic" written on its tag. He offered the bottle to Anira "I may not be a mage but every little bit helps right? Let me if you need a remove disease potion as well."

((OOC: Bleh. Don't know what happened. I think I was waiting for someone else to post.))


If Anira uses Saxon's Dispel Magic potion as a spell component, it will significantly enhance her own spell.

Once her spell gets rid of the Dark Lord's 'taint'--if it does, it'll be up to Saxon to remove the disease from the girl.

Saxon pulled a number of small vials from his bag and used a drop of this and a pinch of that. "And a touch of sugar helps the medicine go down." He offered the dropper to the girls family. "Far better if someone she cares about does it. Three drops on the tongue and it should be all right as rain and twice as nice. "

"I can assist you in the first part," Radagast responds to Anira. "We don't cast spells the way you do--we just focus the magic inherent to our natures."

"You've all seen orcs. They are the twisting of Nature, and Nature is my field of study. So i can add my energy to your spell."

"Alas, I doubt if it'll be enough to drive the Dark Lord's presence from this land."

"How exactly do you cast spells?" Eomund asks the wizard.

"Being Istari, I do not 'cast spells' as mortals must," Radagast replies to Eomund. "It is about focusing our personal energy. It is why, if we expend too much, we become weak."

"You see us wield staffs, sometimes other devices. These are items attuned to the energy we emit. We are more readily able to focus our energy through them to make the result more powerful and have a greater range."

"Through meditation, deep study and intense training, mortal can cast spells in a somewhat similar way. However, it takes years to master this. It is but one reason why the Istari look like old men. If we appeared young, you would think you could learn the magic in merely a year or two. Also, the energy of youth interferes with the spiritual energy. It's like aging whisky or wine. It takes time to get that good."