So you did, so you're all good versus the slowed thingie :)

Nym giggles, dancing further back and waving her staff around in a random pattern as though deciding what to do with it, then finally points it vaguely in the direction of Celindara, letting loose another bolt of energy.

"Nasty, naughty, silly little pointy-stabby-knife!" she says in a chiding sort of voice. "Ping, ping, all for you! It's not very nice to be mean to the nice person who's made of tree! Then all the trees will be angry with youuuuuuu!"

So I'll Shift one square west, then we'll have another Chaos Bolt, this time aimed at the dagger that's been bugging Celindara...attack roll is, urgh, a rather pathetic 10 vs Will :(.

Meri's burst of energy blasted through the dithering cloud in front of her decisively, but unfortunately as Nym had found earlier hitting its actual core in the nebulous body was harder. However, even if she hadn't destroyed the thing, it still visibly shifted back in shock, and now seemed jittery and nervous. Perhaps it hadn't liked the psychic backlash of the darkness it had uncovered.

Then both wisps quivered for a moment. The reason was The Phystal, who realised his shot had gone wide of the mark by the swiftness and positing of Meri's counter attack. For a seocnd his control wavered, then he yelled in anger instructions that Meri barely understood - the accent and language was so far removed from elven. Still, the general tone was clear. 'Get her you idiots!' The Phystal himself though did not renew his attack. Instead he struck at the rope holding the rowboat the the shore. He looked angrily upstream, clearly the direction he wished to go, that Meri's presence blocked. Reluctantly he pushed the boat and let it drift downstream a little, or of her way. He furiously jammed an oar in to the other bank to try and slow the drift, and scrambled for the discarded arrows on the bottom.

The wisps oppression had momentarily broken, and they did not manage to rebuilt it. It was the shadow stalker, perhaps cowed by its master's yelling, or perhaps realising it had let the coils loosen on Meri too much, that leapt up her leg decisively to strike at her.

Ok, so the wisps are nasty thingies that can coin flip ignoring your damage. But it still counts as a hit, as Nym found too, so that wisp still takes -2 to damage next turn. And being minions, that damage was only 4 to begin with :)

Ok, if the shadow stalker had missed one more time I would have simply ruled it terrified and had it slink off. Instead it rolled a 20 for its attack! Auto success! However, I'm still going to give you a gift. Obviously because you broke the grab, my default attack would be the shadow restoring the grab and totally wasting that sweet crit on immobilising you for no actual damage. :) However, since you may actually want to move this turn, I'll let you decide. Do you want to take 14hp damage but be free to move, or do you want to be immobilised by the grab but take no damage?

Note if you move, the OA still happens on the square you are in, so you would be under cover and very protected. If you stay immobile, you are welcome to ready an attack if The Phystal moves back in range. Though it might be a gamble, since his likely next attack is an area effect attack again so even if the range is 10, he might therefore stay at 11 and rely on the edge of the blast to hit you. If you have something longer range, of course, you can bean him perfectly :)

Oh, and just to confirm now - the wisps definitely will break if the phystal goes down, they are clearly linked to him. The shadow seems more independent, but who knows, it might just run.


Meanwhile, Nym's bolt grounded in to the blue gemstone of the dagger. It seemed that the psychic backlash of it did not deter the cool, focused animated object as it kept burrowing in to The Dryad's arm.

There was a strange sound as Nym came forward though. It was laughter. Oddly childish, and tinged with the pain of her wounds, but Celindara laughed happily at Nym's song. And then the air was filled with the dryad's voice as she sang a song of her own. It took a few goes round to be noticeable that it was the same mocking cadence as Nym's, and then a round more to realise that the occasional elvish word thrown in matched Nym's words. Celindara was happily taking up Nym's tune as she kept trying to find the opening to prize off her insistent attacker.

The wisp meanwhile moved to block Nym, its body flaring and it physically blocked her way, unleashing doom and gloom in to Nym's psyche.

Ok, Nym, the wisp will try to move to R25 directly south of you. This means it has to shift through a threatening square, so you get to make an OA with your staff - AC15. The wisp's ignoring damage ability was an encounter (as you might guess from something so unfair) so if you hit it, it dies :)

If you miss, it will do 4 psychic damage to you.

Its stats are AC15, Fort 12, Ref 14, Will 13. If you kill it, the dagger won't make an OAs for you moving around - it seems logical it's purely focused on attacking Celindara.


Anyway, a bad round in some ways if you just looked at the rolls and damage dealt. Narratively of course The Phystal is terrified, and The Dryad - I mean Celindara - seems to have found a new resolve.

I loved how you managed to bring out the character beat from that attack last turn Meri! And I loved how without realising it Nym, your song actually is the flavour of Celindara's main attack. It was the one hinted at when she first came to attack the phystal, but of course against an inanimate object she didn't think to use it until now. So she's also been making substandard attacks when she's been in a position to attack the daggers. That might change now, so I reckon between the two of you, especially if you can flank the thing, it should drop.

Celindara is bloodied though. She has two good rounds left, but won't survive a third. Still, I don't think that will be a problem.

And yes, the phystal has moved away, but also is one decent hit away from being floored too I reckon.

So, new round! Round 9! Good things are coming up, I know it! :D


This message was last edited by the player at 08:54, Sun 24 Jan 2016.

"Bad, bad, naughty-bad, you are silly, bad-bad-bad!" chants Nym, giggling in a ridiculous way as she notices that Celindara seems to be joining in. As the wisp moves toward her, she continues flailing her staff around in a way that seems almost accidental.

It's clobbering time! Or so I hope...oh, I actually have to open the Char Builder to check what my attack bonus is for melée, as I haven't got it on my sheet here, lol...okay here we go, attack bonus will be +6 so I need to get a base roll of at least nine...lol woot, splat it's dead, attack roll total of 24 :D. I know it's a Minion but I want to see how hard Nym accidentally whacks it whilst looking elsewhere...7 damage :).

"Ping! Ping! Ping!" chants Nym, barely noticing that her staff has knocked the second wisp out of existence as she brings it around once more to let off another bolt of indeterminate substance at the dagger.

Another Chaos Bolt at Mr Pointy over there...ohh ffs I botched again, lol. Still, I can remember that my Unfettered Power goes off this time so I'll Push Celindara one square south and the dagger one square northwest. I was hoping to kill it this turn so I can get after the Phystal and give him a very special present in the style that only Nym can manage, but it seems he gets to evade me for another turn. Probably better for him, anyway. No, it's definitely better for him. If we want this guy alive, best not to let Nym be the one to get to him during this fight ;).

Nym steps back as her power flares and fails to produce the desired result. She doesn't seem to give any indication that she minds, however, instead laughing all the louder.

I'll move two squares north so I'm a bit further away from the dagger but have less far to go to zap the Phystal if I need to...but hopefully Celindara can now zap th dagger as it's no longer next to her and she's up before it is...

OOC: Well obviously I'd rather take no more damage, hehe.  But I'm not too sure how I feel about deciding that.  Toss a coin or something :)

And yep, I do have more creepy visions lined up if any more of those "tapping into her inner darkness" attacks hit home.  Meri has plenty of inner darkness to share with the world! ;)

[Private to The Altweaver: That one was based on the attack hitting her hand, hence she took an injury to that hand in the memory.  If you wanna see something REALLY disturbing, try hitting her on the chest!  hehe]

My max range is 10 (Thundering Armour), and I'm fairly certain it would be near-suicidal to break out of cover right now with all these surrounding nasties poking at me, so looks like Nym might get to the Phystal first...
This message was last edited by the player at 13:28, Sun 24 Jan 2016.

I dunno - if Celindara and I can finally rid ourselves of the last thing bugging us, I suspect she'll make straight for Mr Elfy-Twatface so maybe Nym will come and help you (as long as you're not out of sight in a bush or something) - if I get lucky enough on Chaos Bolt I can basically kill an indefinite number of Minions as long as they're all within five squares of each other :D.

OOC: Well I think Meri is mostly out of sight in the heavy foliage.  Although the noise of fighting (and occasional mingled elven/goblin cursing) might give her position away since she's not really making an effort to hide any more beyond ducking behind trees to try to dodge attacks (as much as she can with that shadowy git tied around her legs).

Also if anyone can tell me how to translate "Mr Elfy-Twatface" into Elven, I might shout it at him at some point ;)  hehe.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:33, Sun 24 Jan 2016.

As I said, the stalker is unlikely to follow you, and any OA's happen in cover. So if you break from cover you only have the Phystal to deal with to start with, and the wisps after but they aren't that hard hitting. So don't feel too pinned down. Your instinct to hit the phystal is maybe a correct one.

OOC: Well, Meri would rather kill the Stalker first anyway.  It's too annoying to let it live ;)
The wisps don't seem like they'd be that hard to take down, if I could actually damage them.  Wishing I hadn't used up my Lightning Sphere early on...

Anyways, you want me to toss a coin for the results of the last round then? :)

No, if you have no strong feeling the default was the no damage because the stalker regrabs. Anyway, go ahead with your round 9 actions then!
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:51, Sun 24 Jan 2016.

Meri eyed the floating wisp oddly for a moment, as though surprised that the enemy she had lashed out at in her mind had turned out to be that strange cloudy thing.

Recovering quickly though, she turned her staff around and stabbed the other end downwards, sending a crackling wave of sparks across the ground, trying to hit the Shadow Stalker again...


OOC: Static Shock attack on the stalker.
Attack (Ref): 11 (4 + 7) - Eww, not even going to bother rolling damage for that...  (;~;)

Move action Athletics check to shake it off again (16 + 2), better one!

Free action to look rather angry!  :)

While the wisps started renewing their general build up of oppression against Meri, it seemed to be the shadow that was more affected than Meri. She managed to escape its dreaded coils around her legs, and rather than renew the attack it shrank back away from her attack, the shadows protecting it once again.

The shadow actually did try a grap again, but missed this time. The Phystal struggled to keep the rowboat jammed against the stream, but moved t othe front of the boat and readied what might be the last of its flurry of arrows in to Meri's small copse of trees. Again the fey hesitated and second guessed himself, keeping an equal bushel of arrows back. It proved a bad choice, as the rain of arrows was not enough to luck a strike on the artificer.

So Meri, you are under no conditions. Yay. And nothing hit you. So also yay!

Meanwhile, the magic of Nym's staff had apparently ripped through the centre of the wisp, and it simply imploded to nothing. IUt was perhaps that residual magic that interfered with her actual spell. However, the blast of power had at least the desired effect of throwing the dagger clear of the dryad.

Celindara looked with surprise at Nym, perhaps impressed at the display of power and not realising it came from the magic exploding incorrectly. She did not seem too concerned - despite her arm hanging by her side with dripping blood - that the dagger had not been atomised, and instead circled around the dagger with the same joy Nym still had. She was still singing seemingly mockingly too.

The dagger rotated cautiously, and this time its defense and delay was better spend. It managed to take Celindara's more confident attack on its own blade, then slid along and dove at her weakened arm. It could only manage to embed in to her shoulder, and Celindara was still defiant, trying to bash it with the pommel of her blade.


Wow, interesting round, everyone wiffs. Well, except the dagger. If the dagger is wiffing against an opponent in the open, you know my rolls are really bad! Still, I did think a newly empowered Celindara would score a hit and leave you guys free to rush towards Meri / The Phystal. I was almost counting on it in terms of the flow of battle / story.

Ah well, at least with the push Celindara was free to move around in to a flanking position if you want to take advantage NYm (as I said, no danger of an OA, it just doesn't make sense from this enemy and what its doing). And Meri, if you want to risk even going in to the thinner trees which still provide partial cover, you should be in range now (since The Phystal's area effect needed 10 range to get to those trees to attempt to hit you). Anyway, good luck this round whatever you all do!

Meri glanced back at the sounds of arrows falling behind her.
A hint of a smirk crossed her face as she slowly circled around the form of the Shadow Stalker, taking another quick electrically-charged jab at it with her staff as she did...


OOC: Okies, assuming I'm no longer trapped in place, I'll shift 1 square southwest.  (*looks back at the Phystal.  "Come a little closer", said the cat to the mouse!*) ;)

Also Static Shock on the stalker again.
Attack (Ref): 22 (15 + 7) - Bit more like it :)
Damage: 9 (4 + 5)

Sadly because you're in difficult terrain, you can't shift - you'll need to use a move and generate an OA. You'll be in cover doing it, so feel free to :)

OOC: Nah, I'll stay put then.  Still hoping to take down the stalker before I go after the Phystal.  And hoping he'll run out of arrows sooner or later!
This message was last edited by the player at 17:05, Sun 24 Jan 2016.

"Wiffing"? That's a new one...is it good or bad?

Nym is hopping excitedly from hoof to hoof, despite how battered she islooking from the numerous attacks that have struck her during the fight. She waves her staff around some more and lets loose another burst of energy at the dagger still hounding Celindara.

So we'll have another Chaos Bolt at the bloody (no pun intended) dagger and hopefully "kill" the bugger this time...oh whaaaat...9 vs Will (only one point off another botch). Sigh. Hmm, okay...let's see if I can speed things along a bit rather than spend another turn on this one mob - I'll spend my Inspiration to reroll that attack...ahh, better! 23 vs Will! I'm not sure if it's this roll or the first one that counts for my Chaos Burst but they were both even so I have +1 AC either way. 18 Psychic damage (yes I know it's a Minion) and I can ping to something else but as I don't want to hit Celindara or myself I'll just let it fizzle :).

Sooner you spend Inspiration the sooner I can give you more :D And whiffing is bad, just means missing your roll badly and having no effect.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=whiff

Don't worry, for the moment there are only a normal definitions!


And Meri, for no good reason can you roll me two melee basic attacks with your staff? :D

*peers suspiciously*
Attack (AC): 12 (7 + 5)
Damage: 4 (3 + 1)

Attack (AC): 23 (18 + 5)
Damage: 9 (8 + 1)

Meri's blast tore in the the shadows as before, but this time there was an answering howl that showed her blow had struck this time.

Meanwhile, Nym's own magical blast shattered the blue gem on the pommel of the dagger at Celindara's shoulder. The dryad was able to pull it clear as the blade crumbled to nothing, and a small but precious sapphire fell to the ground amid the detritus and the hilt.

And another gem falls! A small sapphire, still valueable to the tune of 100gp

Celindara staggered for a moment at her wounds, but then shook it off with determination. She gave a bloodied grin and nod to Nym as she ran passed the sorceress. While one arm hung uselessly, Celindara raised the other in defiance at The Phystal and once more started challenging and mocking her fey opponent. The waters of the river shifted, the bows of the trees creaked.

The Phystal had been alarmed at the sound of Meri's success, and now suddenly had a second foe to deal with. For the moment he seemed to distracted to be actually affected by the oddly ritualistic chanting of the dryad, in such a hurry as she was to reach her foe. Instead he screamed to the wisps, beckoning for them to come provide him cover and deal with the dryad.

The Phystal himself lined up a shot to Meri's general position again. And once again, because of the rush or because he had simply split his ammunition too much, none of the arrows found their mark.

The fey cursed and clicked the heels of his boots together. Nothing happened. He cursed again in fear and dove to the back of the boat. It was only partially cowardice to gain cover. He was also scrambling for something near what would be the back of the boat. Perhaps more weapons to use against his too numberous foes?

Meanwhile, the moment the wisps moved Meri was able to strike out with her staff. The one she had blasted before was more wary than its fellow and had bobbed out of the way. The second was perhaps less caring of Meri's abaility to strike its tiny core. This proved to be a fatal mistake, for the end of Meri's staff caught true and the wisp exploded with a tiny storm in to a puff of nothing.

The other wisp bobbed around and darted towards Celindara, taking advantage of the destruction and blocking Celindara's way.

This of course left the wounded shadow stalker alone with the object of its own fears. With no further word nor sound, the shadow stalker uncoiled itself from the shadows and sought to escape in to the dark roots.


Ok, so Meri, you are suddenly freed of foes, and even took one out! I felt so bad for you that you only hit the one that got a damage avoidance reroll, but it actually failed (rolled a 1, funnily) so that was cool.

More surprised the phystal missed again, but then that's the benefit of cover of course :D

Anyway, Meri, you get one last OA against the shadow stalker, but unless you roll really well for damage it may yet escape. But at the very least, you will be alone and unthreatened!

Nym, I presume you weren't going to use your move action to move any further forwards? Sadly you can't until after Celindara because of course your attack let her move, and readying an action is a standard action - even if it would just be readying a move. So let me know if you wanted to be elsewhere, but I presume where you are is currently fine?

So, round 11! Getting close to the end, I think...
This message was last edited by the player at 20:48, Sun 24 Jan 2016.

"You'd better run!" snapped Meri, lashing out with her staff at the retreating shadow.

Glancing around her, she noticed she was suddenly alone in the patch of trees, the battle having moved off elsewhere.
Peering out, she noticed the dryad now under attack by one of the wisps that had been facing her a moment ago.

Pushing her way through the foliage, she broke out into the open, sprinting towards the two combatants.
One hand jabbed at the remaining glowing blue crystal on her staff, sending a shimmering blue energy towards Celindara.

Almost immediately, she flipped the staff around, pointing the other end at the wisp and unleashing a crackling wave of a decidedly less beneficial energy towards the creature...


OOC: Okies, OA against the Shadow Stalker:
Attack (AC): 20 (15 + 5)
Damage: 8 (7 + 1) Yay! :)

Moving diagonally down and across towards Celindara's position.

Spending my minor to cast a Healing Infusion on her (Restores HP equal to her healing surge value + 4).

And firing off a Thundering Armour attack against the wisp.
Attack (Fort): (19 + 7)
Damage: 6 (1 + 5) (+ Push effect)

Butt has been kicked! :D
This message was last edited by the player at 19:23, Sun 24 Jan 2016.

Just to let Nym know for her own moves, yup, wisp is dead!

The shadow's fate I'll leave to the actual update after Nym's moves are given :D

Yeah, I don't mind staying put for that round, as I don't need to move far on this round in order to get off an attack :). Now...only one target left and it's the main guy. He might have cover...but that's not going to save him, ohhh no...

"Wheee! Playtime! Wheeee!"

Nym skips forward in the direction of the Phystal's boat, laughing and giggling while the little multi-coloured owl remains perched calmly on her shoulder. Despite looking pretty terrible due to her injuries, Nym almost seems to be glowing from within, as does the owl. Even the gems in her headpiece glow more brightly as she seems to be building up a surge of power. Multi-coloured light runs along her body and ripples through her clothing, making it look as though her power is overloading, building to a strength greater than she's shown at any recent time. It flows along her staff and builds at the end, coalescing into a perfect sphere, an orb of the pure chaotic magic that constantly flows through the changeling's blood.

She raises her staff and the orb raises with it, looking for a moment like an absurd headpiece to the staff, an orb a little bigger than Nym's head and constantly swirling, crackling, and changing with every element, every colour, all at the same time. The glowing light from each of the seven gems in Nym's strange crown fully detaches from the gems and flows through the air, adding to the orb and making it glow ever brighter.

Then Nym abruptly jerks the top of the staff back, so that the orb detaches and seems to hover for a moment, before she swings the top of the staff back and bats the orb in the direction of the Phystal's boat.

"Catch!" she calls, sounding for all the world like a small child playing a game.

Yes, Nym just performed a Tennis serve with a magical orb of magical magicalness :D. So I'm going to move up (north) five squares and then...I'll put the rest of this in private to the GM so that Meri can get all freaked out at whatever the hell I just did :D.
I will say, however, that I have been wanting to do this for a loooong time, as in, around the time I decided I wanted the magical gem-crown-thingy... >:)

[Private to GM: Muahahaha, this guy is totally screwed, even if I roll a miss. So, after moving up a bit, I'll blow my full seven-gem power-up (Minor action) which means I can maximise up to four dice on my next damage roll.

Then I'm using Chromatic Orb. Right at that guy's face. If I hit it's...holy shit, 40 damage and a random elemental effect (unless I crit, in which case +1d10 from my staff as well, and the Unfettered Power stuff!). If I hit it's 15 damage (actuall make that 42 and 17 if he's currently Bloodied, but I can't remember if he's been hit at all yet) and the same random roll for an elemental effect.
Sooo, let's give a nice good attack roll, shall we...ooh, awkward roll, 18 vs Ref. One of those totals that might be a hit but as he's an elf it might also miss as he's probably got good Reflexes.
Anyway, yes, so if I hit, 40 damage (42 if Bloodied). If I miss, 15 (17 if Bloodied). I will now roll 1d6 to determine the damage type and other effect...2, so that's Red. The damage type is therefore Fire, and each creature adjacent to the target takes 4 Fire damage. Okay so there are no creatures but prety polease can his boat catch fire and go glug-glug-glug to the bottom of the river while he has to jump out of it in a panic or something? :D
Also, when describing the orb hitting this guy, could you say how its swirling colours fix on a fiery red (or similar description) as it's sailing through the air toward him, shortly before it hits?
I'd love if I did roll enough to score an actual hit and end up vapourising him or something...pity there's no-one around who's likely to think of messing with Nym, because I bet they wouldn't after seeing that :D.
Now I need to charge up all my gems again, lol...]

OOC: http://vignette1.wikia.nocooki...st?cb=20130419190839
Something like that?  (O.o)'

Meri's swift actions removed the only block from Celindara to confront The Phystal, the bolt finding the creature's core and vapourising it. The lighting flared and the dark clouds exploded in to a puff of nothing, leaving Meri confronting the grinning if bloody face of the dryad.

Meri's second action then saw the shoulder and arm wounds on the dryad crust over, perhaps not fully healed but at least they no longer wept blood, and the Celindara even managed to move that hand stiffly in amazement.

She raised her blade in welcome and thanks to Meri, and then turned it towards The Phystal in challenge, however...

[Private to Nym: Sorry, you rolled a miss, so no glug glug for you :p. Also, it's not your level 6 magical item that would be sinking to the bottom of the needle fish invested water! Plus that's 50gp worth of treasure you want to sink! Everything is lootable!

Still, as for the other thing...]

Nym's rush forwards was a surprise to all most likely, but none more so than The Phystal. Despite his panic, Nym's call made him look up briefly. His eyes widened and the boat shook as he tried to scramble to the far side, half getting up as if to leap out.

However, the spinning ball of colours span faster and faster and faster as it got closer. All the colours of it started to blur together to a vibrant white, and then as if a consensus had been reched that whiteness started pulsing redder and redder. The speed slowed as it got closer, and in an almost lazy hit the ball of chaotic energy bounced off of the near lip of the side of the boat and leapt in to the air near The Phystal's face.

And exploded.

Anyone watching closely would have seen the faint trail of green flowing at the back of the white then red ball of energy. When the ball exploded, a fireball lit up the boat, flames leaping on to the various surfaces. But normal flames tingled with an odd green edge.

And in the centre of the fire, apparently untouched, was The Phystal. He looked around in shock, standing up, looking left and right as if not understanding. He looked to each of his three foes in turn, no anger nor fear, just complete confusion. And then he looked to the black crystals at intervals long his arms, and touched the one embedded in the side of his face.

For a moment it was hard to tell if the crystals were reflecting the light, then it became clear. They were glowing. A dirty red, and the edges were ringed with a green light. The magic had been absorbed in to the crystals. There was a small 'tink', then another, as the crystals began to crack. The Phystal looked shocked at each noise, as he heard them in a way no other would hear and feel it. And then the 'tinks' became louder, the cracks wider, and he began to cry out in pain. The crystals were embedded deep, perhaps even grafted to his bones. And as each cracked more, as flames started to lick out, and as green light began to escape more and more, he screamed louder and louder. In fact the screams sounds oddly echoing, as if four, five, maybe as many as eight voices were screaming as one.

And then in a brilliant white and red fireball, The Phystal exploded to nothingness.

Green wisps faded to nothing, and there was normal wisps of trailing smoke as the force of the explosion blew out the flames on the rowboat. The oar that had held the boat temporarily against the current was blown to pieces, and the rowboat came loose.

Celindara was the first to recover from the shock of the situation and rushed forwards. She gave a small song, and the river surged oddly, a wave lapping from nowhere against the current. The rowboat lurched and moved back towards the near shore, beaching itself.

Celindara rushed to the boat and reached in, pulling at something from inside. It was a pair of smoking boots, the boots that had been the gift of the dryad to The Phystal - or at least one of his ancestors. The boots that had allowed him to escape once from Nym's magic, but not this time. Celindara tipped them upside down to shake free some dust that was the only thing inside, while absentmindedly wiping off the oily residue from her hand to her clothes that was all that was left of The Phystal inside the boat. She then turned to look with wide eyes at Nym in amazement.

Nym's vision had been blocked temporarily from the sight of The Phystal's death. A green mist had been pulled behind her - from the dead fey woman in fact - and had rushed to her face the moment the gems on the helm on her head had been dulled. The green mist danced for a moment, and then one of the gems offset from centre glowed once more as the mist spooled around her head then faded.

A moment later, the central gem on her helm flared bright green too - briefly with a tinge of red fire deep in centre, that faded to nothing but blackness in the consuming green...

[Private to Nym: Yup, I'm being nice and giving you both the phystal and the fey woman's souls for your helm. Don't be scared, but perhaps you should nowkeep a note of how many not-soul souls the helm has captured for Nym. Currently 9 :) ]

And with that, VICTORY! Yay you guys. Meri was all violent and caring in equal measure, Nym did some scary violent shit, and the NPC got to win the "standing around just basking in your awesomeness" award for not having anything to do except stop the shines from drifting down the river or sinking :D

Anyway, so fight won! And quest completed - The Phystal was the visible horrible thing doing horrible stuff in the forest, and you just stopped him. So that's 725XP total (326XP each) for the battle, and a bonus of 200XP total (100XP each) for completing a quest. Which I believe just tips you guys over in to level 5?

Oh, and that was a milestone, so you both get an action point, and Meri gets an extra impart energy use. So yay!


Anyway, I'm going to end this thread and chapter here with that victory before we reach the 1000 post count, and we'll pick this up immediately in the new thread. Doens't seem like there's anything left to d-

Across the river, something stirred from the forest, clearly drawn by the explosion of Nym's magic.

It was the figure of a man - or at least a male, for man implied human and this figure was too alien in the arrangement of his features to be mistaken for human, elf, eladrin, or fey. There was something ancient and powerful in the cast of those features. His face was ashen, and his eyes - visible even over this distance - were black, with the tiniest of red pinpricks in the centre.

Whatever this male had once been, there were enough tales to know what he was now. If the face was not a big enough clue, the long black nails like claws on the end of his hands, and the slight scaling on his visible skin - as if feathres trying to burst free - were hints enough. He was a revenant. A servant - in some mysterious way that not even he may know fully the reason for - of The Raven Queen. While she hated undeath, that god had ways to bring living servants back - well, living in some ways. It seemed even a god of death who hated the cheating of death needed to bend her own rules and instill champions in to the world to work her will.

However, whatever his purpose might be, his reaction to Meri and Nym and the sight of the smoking battlefield was not one of sharing their joy. His dark gaze was too knowing, too recognising of the pair of magic users, and there was clear malevolence in that gaze despite the distance.

Whatever his connection to The Phystal, it was clear The Revenant did not consider this any form of victory. With no word and only a lingering glaze over his turned shoulder, he immediately walked back in to the forest he had emerged from, vanishing.


Ah, yes, that would have been the previously not as visible horrible thing helping The Phystal. Maybe. Who knows?

One might suspect if you hadn't come to the forest, he may have been the reason you would have made a less than restful sleep. Again, who can say. Anyway, this time I'll close the thread. New thread soon to post reactions, and I'll explain the leveling up and any other stuff in the various other threads.

Congratulations on your victory!
This message was last edited by the player at 19:40, Mon 25 Jan 2016.