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  #136  
Old Sep 19th, 2023, 03:46 PM
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GallindanThe eladrin watched as Kerwin set up the apparatus. From time to time, he advised on the positions of the candles around the circle. Let's take the Religion roll for 18He suggested a rune that could be added to the circle to help specify the target. But for the most part, Kerwin's research seemed to be solid. He found he had little expertise to add. In particular, his knowledge ended long before the specific words that the wizard planned to use. Gallindan had never truly understood how wizards controlled their powers, and this was no exception. The trappings of the ritual, however, fell within his understanding. He smiled at Isabelle as Adelaide took her aside. "Adelaide is right. She's not going to let anything happen to you. It'll all be fine." He was less confident than he sounded at that last part, as he feared that the entire affair would come down to a contest of wills between Kerwin and the spirits to be banished... and he wasn't sure which side to bet on in that event.
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  #137  
Old Sep 20th, 2023, 11:41 AM
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OODM@zebedee either one would be fine. Looks like Starflier used persuasion to do something similar though, so the other option might be better.
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  #138  
Old Sep 20th, 2023, 01:31 PM
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Once more unto the breach
 
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OOC:Yep, I committed to the Religion roll in my post
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  #139  
Old Oct 4th, 2023, 09:47 PM
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It was an interesting moment, to see Isabella escorted this far, so close to having the cords of Fierna cut. Did she want this? Looking at her, so intent on her new mentor Daybreak, it appeared she might really have let the evil that once consumed her mind actually slip away. Young people were very good at changing their minds, letting something go in exchange for the next new thing. Maybe, the warlock hoped, this would make it even easier.

He knew that Fierna was neither young nor forgetful. If the demon queen knew what they were up to, there might be unexpected trouble before the night was over, starting in fact any second. Oren keeps one eye on the proceedings, and one eye out for anything amiss. He might not be able to contribute to the ritual, but he could do his best to ensure it was completed.

OOCGoing to be watchful.
 
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  #140  
Old Oct 9th, 2023, 11:59 AM
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Marcus watched as Kerwin led the efforts to try out this magical operation that hoped to remove any effects Fierna had left on the young woman Isabella. "Might be best to close the curtains. Locals might get the wrong idea if they see us getting ready to cook a girl like a goose..." Marcus admitted, giving validation to Kerwin's assessment of what the whole setup looked like.

Isabella was a little nervous too, when she realized what she was going to have to do. The whole procedure of 'A Process to Detach Astral Leeches after Traveling the Astral Planes', hadn't been performed in who knows how many years, and now it was going to be attempted with some slight alterations. With a little encouragement though, she took the step up into the plum of white vapors emitting from the cauldron.

Kerwin began to read through the encantation in his book, changing a few words here and there as needed. All kept a close eye on Isabella, to watch of if she was OK, and if anything was happening. Everyone, except Lux that was. The familiar was not going to get anywhere near a plum of holy water smoke, and it was still known how Marcus was going to accept the small fiend.

Just as Kerwin uttered the last words of his spell, Isabella started to let out a yell, and her face changed from one of concern to anger. "Out! Out!, Get out of my head!" she insisted, arguing with something going on silently inside of her. Above Isabella, the white vapors had changed color to a dark black and purple plume.

After a few more seconds, the voice Isabella was arguing with was no longer in her head, but echoing throughout the chapel, emanating from dark fumes. "You need me! You are nothing without me!" The voice of protest didn't last long though, as it rose upward and dissipated. Isabella was still standing on the grate, now covered in sweat and condensation from the holy-water vapor, Daybreak holding her hand to help her keep her balance.

Isabella's screams of anger turned to laughs of joy and disbelief. "She's gone!" the young girl happily proclaimed. She turned to Daybreak and gave her a hug. Daybreak embraced her, but was looking at her own hand that was wrapped around Isabella's torso.

The druid didn't say anything but noticed that her whole arm had changed. The exposure to the fumes and magic had caused her arm to change. It wasn't back to the green skin dryad she had once been, but looked like a living tree-branch with bark. She could move her fingers but felt no sensation in them. Not wanting to draw attention to herself, she quickly covered the appendage in her own cloak (but not before the others had noticed it) and pushed Isabella towards Kerwin. "He is the real hero here, go thank him!" She encouraged the young woman, who needed no further encouragement to run and embrace the alchemist nearly tackling him in a bearhug.

OODMWill give everyone a post to react before we move on.
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  #141  
Old Oct 12th, 2023, 07:33 PM
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Adelaide Darkdraft Easing her grip on the hilt of her sword, Adelaide took a step forward as her entire body relaxed, and she realized just how tense she had been through the whole affair. She glanced around at those assembled and offered an approving nod to Kerwin; the snake oil salesman had done well since joining their cause and she found herself hoping that he did not fall back into bad habits.

”Well done Kerwin,” she offered, as sparse in her praise as she was with all her words, ”at least you didn’t burn the place down.”




 


 
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  #142  
Old Oct 13th, 2023, 01:23 PM
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Kerwin Powell "Might be best to close the curtains. Locals might get the wrong idea if they see us getting ready to cook a girl like a goose..." Marcus said right as Kerwin was starting to feel satisfied this might all actually work. The alchemist had heard of the legendary humor known to permeate every paladin but this guy was just next level. Closing his eyes as Isabella gained her position atop the grating, Kerwin blocked out the world around him. He focused on his time as a youth, a pupil, locked in a repository, scribing away at scroll after scroll until the words glowed with power or chanting over and over again until a puff of air that smelled like fresh cut grass would waft through the cloister. He focused on a time back when he had cared, back when he had willed himself to unlock the secrets of the Weave, back when he had been training as a proper wizard.

When he lifted his lids again, he placed the book up close to his face so that all else was non-existent. The entire universe consisted of nothing but Kerwin and the spell. His lips began to move, his voice strong, confident and unwavering, his concentration impeccable. Each inflection was perfect because it had to be. Each syllable was enunciated with precision because they must be. Each point of alteration was done in proper cadence so as not to upset the delicate balance between raw power and subsumed will. The Weave would answer to him, it would obey him.

As the last tone left his mouth, Kerwin became aware of the disembodied voice amongst them, "You need me! You are nothing without me!" His heart froze in his chest...had they freed a woman to unleash a devil? No, the voice faded as quickly as it had arrived. They had done it!

"He is the real hero here, go thank him!" Breathing a massive sigh of relief, the mage was startled when he was wrapped in perhaps the warmest embrace of his entire life. It was all he could do to keep his balance and prevent the pair from tumbling to the ground in an undistinguished pile. His arms were straight out under Isabella's grasp for an awkward moment before a laugh erupted from Kerwin's mouth and he returned the embrace.

Puffs of fresh cut grass indeed. A tear streamed down the alchemist's cheek.

He was a proper wizard, damnit.

 


 

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  #143  
Old Oct 13th, 2023, 02:05 PM
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Once more unto the breach
 
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GallindanThe eladrin nearly collapsed in relief, and grinned broadly. And with that grin, changed. Adelaide, Daybreak, and Oren had seen this before, but it was new to the others. His silver hair turns to burnished gold, his blue eyes to forest green, his white skin glistening pink, perhaps even flushed. A smile lingered on his mouth. Curiously, at least to the three who knew him the most, the changes also lingered. There... were his cheeks turning paler, less flushed? If they were, it was a slow change, almost imperceptible. He laughed, not because anything was funny, but because he didn't know how to deal with this rush of emotion. A dread which had been hanging over them all for so long was gone, at least for the moment. If ever there was a moment for joy, surely it was this? Surely planning and preparation and alertness could wait for this moment? Like the alchemist, Gallindan felt tears sliding down his cheeks. He turned to the stout wizard and reached out to clasp his hand, still grinning broadly. "Well done, indeed. I will admit I wasn't sure that would work. Not that I doubted you... but rather I do not doubt Fierna. Thank you for sparing this girl. From both the demon and the purge." He spat that last word with venom and stared daggers at Marcus.
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  #144  
Old Oct 19th, 2023, 10:22 AM
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OrenOren claps Kerwin on the back. "That was well done my friend. Tonight we celebrate!" He smiles at Isabella too. A few years back he had found the young girl chained outside a dragon's cave, already a pawn to larger forces. "Thanks to you," he says to the wizard, "She's finally free."

To Isabelle the warlock says: "We must return you to your parents. No doubt they will be happiest of all."

When things die down, he settles next to Daybreak. Looking at his companion he says in a low voice, "The spell did something, didn't it? How do you feel?"
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  #145  
Old Oct 23rd, 2023, 10:37 PM
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With the celebration at hand, Daybreak was not in the mood to talk about what had happened to her arm. Later she pulled Oren aside and pulled up her cloak to her shoulder. Her arm, as Oren noted, had changed to wood, knotted and gnarled branches together, with a few spots of bark and twigs sprouting leaves coming off the sides, woven together to form the shape of her arm and hand. "I can move it, and feel it, but it's different. It doesn't have the same sensations of touch, temperature, or pain. I think this means.... there is no way I can ever become a Dryad again. If this transformation I was put under is reversed, I will end up as a living tree. Like a Tree Blight. I don't want that Oren." The fact saddened Daybreak, though she was more resolved now than ever to hold onto what she had.

Marcus hadn't noticed the side conversation. He had a new agenda, as he approached Kerwin. "This is a significant development. There is a way to purify, rather than purge, those who have been marked. We need to make a copy of this ritual, and I should get it out to the rest of my order as fast as possible." Marcus then called over Adelaide and Gallindan. "We have a lot to unwrap, but some things must take priority. We are being hunted now, and the others need to know that we are in danger. They also need to know of this ritual to cleanse those who have been tainted. We still don't know much about the antilantern. And, in addition to all of that, while under Fierna's influence, Isabella mentioned that King of the Mountain's Avatar was bound in some mountain on our world. Finding, and freeing that Avatar, might be the best hope we have to end all of these incursions. I don't know where your path will take you next, but I need to go and warn Order."
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Old Oct 24th, 2023, 09:14 AM
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Kerwin Powell Marcus' words spurred Kerwin to action. The paladin was right. His work there today needed to be shared. Scribing a spell would not be mere practice tonight, no, it would be with a purpose far greater than the words of magic themselves.

"Then I shall not delay in making it so." Kerwin gathered up writing implements and parchment. "I'll need a bit of solitude. Perhaps there is an alcove of the church I can claim for the night?"

With the ritual fresh in his mind, Kerwin went back to the book and annotated his modifications in the margins of the astral leech extraction section, making sure to include each alteration he had made in detail. Then he set about putting his altered spell to paper, creating a scroll that Marcus could take with him to be copied again and again and again. It required a name...Extraction of Astral Leeches it was no longer. Dragging his quill across the medium, leaving behind a trail of ink, a new name almost wrote itself, Isabella's Grace.

oocSince Magic Circle is a 3rd-lvl spell, I believe it would take 150g in materials and 6 hours to copy the spell. Kerwin will stay up all night if needed to complete the new copy plus his annotations. He could actually afford the materials but maybe Marcus and the church will donate some supplies to the task




 


 

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  #147  
Old Oct 24th, 2023, 10:51 PM
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Adelaide Darkdraft ”From one impossible task to the next, it seems,” Adelaide said with little emotion, leaving it unclear whether the idea pleased her or vexed her; in truth she was uncertain on that point herself. She watched Kerwin hustling off to continue his wizarding work, seeming rejuvenated despite the harrowing and difficult work he’d already done the past few days. With a sigh she turned her focus back to Gallindan, Marcus, and the others left in the chapel.

”Options then,” she said as she stared down at the dirty, worn floorboards of the small chapel that had been home the past few weeks. ”We go to Xulhaven and root out the ‘Cloak’. Perhaps we get lucky and find Thrain there, and information on Fierna and the King depending on how much research they’ve already done. Or, we could use the Anti-Lantern and hunt down Thrain and end that threat. It’s possible he’s nowhere near Xulhaven, out on his own mission.”

She let the first two options sink in for a moment before she continued on, the most she’d spoken in a great long time of her own free will. ”Or, we go our own way and seek out this avatar. We leave ourselves exposed to more interference, but we also draw our enemies to us instead of heading to their turf.”

The tiny swordswoman shrugged after presenting the options, lifting her gaze to look to each of her companions in turn. The options she had come up with all left her feeling anxious, unable to think of one that covered the full scope of their problems. Then again, maybe they had different priorities entirely and different ideas. She was glad of their successes here in Oakcrest and in Treblefork, but she still couldn’t shake an uneasy feeling sitting deep in her gut.




 


 
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Old Oct 25th, 2023, 12:33 AM
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OrenListening to Daybreak and inspecting her arm, now living wood instead of flesh, saddened Oren more than he let on. He forces a smile, reassuring her: "We don't know that for sure. Tonight we witnessed a miracle of healing. Surely more are possible." He says no more though, since it was not a matter to be settled then, and the warlock had little grasp of magic either divine or arcane. What he was sure of is that the King of the Mountain was the source of his own power, and freeing the King could be the secret to returning Daybreak to her proper form, and perhaps ending the threats from outside once and for all.

His heart screamed to seek out his bound god, but he paused. The King had been bound for years, perhaps centuries, and could last for millenia if needed. At least, he hoped as much. People, on the other hand, innocent people under the scorge of the Cloak of Aramok were likely dying or in danger. And with no real knowledge of where the King was bound, perhaps the Cloak might give them some leads on that mystery as well.

After Adelaide lays out the options, he says, "I feel the Cloak is the more immediate threat. The story of Thrain and the Cloak may very well be connected to the disappeared King of the Mountain. Since we don't know which mountain his avatar is bound in, we may be better served starting in Xulhaven."
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Old Oct 31st, 2023, 10:06 AM
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AttunementKerwin turned his attention to the Antilantern, in an attempt to study it and attune to its magic. Most magical objects he could get a feel for after a bit of study. The Anitlantern, however, was going to keep some of its secrets for now. Kerwin could deduce that attunement was possible, but only to one who belonged to the 'Cloak of Aramok'. To anyone else, it would function as a normal mundane lantern, albeit with an eerie red glowing light and gothic astetics.
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Old Oct 31st, 2023, 12:59 PM
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Kerwin Powell With the spell copied, Kerwin turned his attention to the antilantern. It was an odd creation that reeked of darker powers. Powers that were intent on alluding him. Such a device would take more time than just an evening to unlock and from the sounds of it, they would be leaving town shortly. With his endeavor to suss out any information about the relic turning sour, he relinquished the lantern to Marcus. "Perhaps someone will have more time or inclination to put into this but unless I sequester myself for some time, it is beyond my abilities. It would seem only those sworn to the Cloak can use it...for now."




 


 

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