When something is taken from us, it is said to be the will of the gods. And yet, when we ask of something from those gods, a simple question is always asked in return, a simple answer demanded from us.

"What will you give me?"

Nym was aware of Celindara shouting her name, and filling her vision.

"Nym! Nym! Oh, thank the spirits. You fell - you both fell down. At the same time. What happened?" Celindara seemed more childlike than she had a moment before, confused and uncertain.

Across the gigantic tree limb, Meri was apparently passed out on the ground. Goodwin was trying to shake her awake, but it did not seem to be working. The half-elf looked across, and seemed momentarily relieved when he saw Nym was awake again. He looked back with concern at Meri, then looked to Nym, lost. "What's going on? What's wrong with Meri. And Many?"

He gestured across to where Many was. The little beholder was rocking on the ground, trying to cover his head with his eyestalks, main eye open wide in alarm. "No no no no no no no!" he was repeating, clearly upset, lip wobbling.


Umm, so yeah, welcome back to the game again, and woohoo new chapter? So, Nym does have two ways to try and contact The Shadow - grabbing the clear stone out of Meri's pack, or trying to use the wish. Of course, Nym might be wanting to do neither of these things, since this was apparently what the Ultimate Big Bad Evil Guy was wanting you to do. Still, at the moment all signs point to Meri mentall or spiritually being the one still with that UBBEG...
This message was last edited by the player at 17:59, Sat 29 Oct 2016.

Nym blinks and look around, somewhat confused.

"Oh, hello, Celindara." she says. "I think we were just somewhere else, or maybe it was a dream, or something, and there was some big giant face person taking to us about Students and Teachers and nothics and himself as the Teacher, and...oh...some other stuff about...I don't know, corruption, and...stuff...I didn't really understand most of it. Oh, is Meri still asleep?"

She goes over to the unconscious half-elf, absently reaching up to tickle the chest of the falcon who has swooped down to alight on her shoulder the moment she has assumed an more upright position.

"Hey, Meri!" says Nym, giving her friend a gentle poke in the arm. "You can wake up now. The big weird face has gone. Well, he's certainly not here. That was that person that that Shadow thingy said we weren't supposed to think about, right?"

She glances around and notes the incredibly upset Many.

"Ahh, Many, look, it's okay." she says, going over to pick him up in both hands and cradle him against her chest. "I'm all awake now, see? And we just ned to wait for Meri to wake up too..."

She goes back to the half-elf and shifts the beholder into one hand in order to give Meri a little poke again.

The idea of contacting the Shadow would never have occurred to me if you hadn't suggested it OOC, so it's not going to occur to Nym any time soon ;). She's woken up just fine, after all, so that means Meri will be doing so too any moment now. She probably just sleeps longer because she's not quite as active as Nym is, yeah, that's it. Her magic's more sleepy and spend its time sitting inside inanimate objects waiting to be called upon, rather than flowing freely through a bloodstream and needing to be discharged every few minutes so as to avoid too much of a build-up ;).

"Noo, noo, bad face, Bad face!" said Many, returning the hug and wailing, clearly still frightened by whatever shared vision he'd had with the other two. He tried to squirm around so he could see Meri while still being fully hugged.

Celindara and Goodwin both looked concerned, but for different reasons. Celindara spoke first. "The Teachers? What was said of the Teachers? Are they not defeated?" she asked.

Goodwin pointed to Meri. "What about Meri? Is she still there with the.... what face? Who's face?" He reached for Meri's pack. "Is it that stone's fault? She went weird last time she held that clear stone from the portal!"

"I don't know." say Nym with a shrug, seeming rather confused at the fuss everyone seems to be making. "We were sat in the tree talking to you, then it all went dark, and then we were in this weir place that was all sort of...barren. And it had a weird sky with a sort of...sun-thing in it that was all red and swirly, and then this big face appeared like a really big, huge enormous giant, and he was taking in a weird voice that sounded all, I don't know, sort of...red, and he was going on about doing something with these things called nothics. And there were some Students that were doing what he wanted, and then they all forgot what they were so he could make them do...things...I don't really know. And he said they all learned really well because he was the Teacher. And he made their world. Or it already existed and they broke it, or something, but he didn't mind because that was what he wanted. And he looked like he wanted to squish us with his giant hands but it kept not working and it seemed like he was a bit upset about that, like something was stopping him but he was acting like he was doing it on purpose. And then he said he'd see one of us again soon and both of us some other time and then he sort of waved his hand like this..."

She moves her non-Many-holding hand in a mimicry of the gesture the entity had used to banish them.

"And then I woke up here and you were all acting all worried. And why's Meri still not waking up?"

She looks over at Goodwin.

"Oh, that stone we got from the thingy? I don't know what it does. I think Meri used it to find that Shadow-thingy, or something. I'm not really sure if the big-red-face-person is actually the same as the Shadow who came out of the big purple portal or if they actually are different people. Um...maybe if I have a look at it..."

She takes the stone from Meri's pack (or from Goodwin, if the half-elf has found it by this point) and looks at it.

"Um..."

She holds it closer to her mouth.

"Hello?" she says. "Is umm...anyone in there? Are you the person who made us both be asleep? You forgot to wake up Meri..."

"Teacher? You mean... the master of the cult?" Celindara looked with horror to Meri and then Nym. "That's why you fell? It spoke to you? And Meri's still possessed by it?"

The dryad took a step back in uncertainty, while Goodwin renwed his search. He moved back to allow Nym to take the stone.

It was only when Many squirmed again in Nym's hand too look up that Goodwin perhaps realised something was wrong, and Nym had stopped moving. "Nym?" said Many with a sniffle. "Nyh-meh?"

Lol, thread temporarily locked and who knows, maybe there's a new thread open somewhere else to look at...

Slowly, Meri's eyes opened once more.  At first her gaze looked unfocused, staring up at the leaves of the tree overhead, her irises that same pale blue-grey that seemed to be their natural colour.
Eventually though, the faint blue luminescence returned and she looked to Goodwin's face before sitting up again and looking around as if searching for something or someone in particular.

On seeing Nym, she seemed to relax slightly, although realising she was holding the clear stone made her gaze harden again.
"Did I disappear or something?  How long ago was it?" she asked, glancing to Goodwin and Celindara.


OOC: Sorry for the delay, meant to post something earlier today, but ended up going on a several hour long Wiki-walk and then had to go somewhere.
Just throwing up a quick post before calling it a night.  Anyways, Meri seems to be back! :)

"Oh good, you're awake." says Nym happily as she blinks a few times and looks around to see Meri looking at her. She quickly shoves the stone back into the half-elf's pack, looking guilty as she does so.

"Sorry, I just had to pick it up for a moment." she says. "I mean, I know it's rude to mess around with other people's stuff. But Goodwin said maybe it would help. And it looks like it did! Yay! That was a weird dream-thing we just had, wasn't it? But it looks like everything is still here. I mean, we're still in the big tree and everyone else is still here, so that's alright, isn't it?"

She gestures around at the other creatures present, then looks down and realises she's still carefully clutching Many against her chest with her other hand.

"Aww, are you alright now, Many?" she asks the little beholder. "Look, we're all awake and everything now, see?"

[Private to GM: I'll make my Wish as soon as I get a moment to randomly turn away and mutter something inaudible to no-one in particular. Fortunately that should be pretty easy to do without arousing any kind of suspicion from anyone as long as they're even vaguely familiar with Nym's personality ;).]