[4] A marble prison.
It has an open exit. We can leave. But on the other hand, the prisoner might take offence to that. And she is going to be free eventually.
[5] A strange city.
There is some lizard that has driven everyone inside. Likely there is more than one, too.
[2] A magical glade.
I doubt elementals would attack us, at least on their own initiative. They may prevent us from leaving though, which is bad.
[1] A library.
It does sould like a public library, so we won't be getting into trouble beyond breaking silence.
[3] A dragon's hoard.
The dragon is probably reasonable, but I doubt we would get anything from this and the dragon's lair is likely in the middle of nowhere.
How are we supposed to be cautious in this situation? Trusting the words of anyone imprisoned this hard without some way to verify it is... Unless we're lucky enough to head upstairs and find a book or person to explain why this person was imprisoned, I'm inclined to let them stay there, and possibly stamp out the ant infestation if we're capable of it.
We can at least try to get an impression of what sort of person they are? If they promise us the moon and the stars in the sky for their release, they are probably untrustworthy. If they simply assume common decency on our part, it's more likely that they possess it themselves or at least come close. Things like that.
[1] A marble prison.
[5] A strange city.
[3] A magical glade.
[4] A library.
[2] A dragon's hoard.
Come on, it's a magical adventure! What's life without a little risk? Go for the options that seem the most interesting, not the safe ones.
The marble prison immediately poses several questions that could lead to fun places. Yes, the prisoner could be evil, but I'm totally okay with opening up a 'Melia accidentally unseals a great evil and has to reseal it' storyline.
The marble prison immediately poses several questions that could lead to fun places. Yes, the prisoner could be evil, but I'm totally okay with opening up a 'Melia accidentally unseals a great evil and has to reseal it' storyline.
[3] A library.
[4] A strange city.
[2] A marble prison.
[1] A dragon's hoard.
[5] A magical glade.
Dragon's are awesome, whether or not they are good is another matter entirely but I don't THINK a dragon is likely to react to "random little girl who isn't all that strong or trained and tiny elementals" with "BURNINATE"... most likely.
Elf Lady may or may not be nice but she almost certainly can't hurt us unless we get dumb
Libraries are safe 89% of the time... the rest of the time they are the most dangerous thing on this list!
Eh... also Monster Police is either Good Sign or VERY VERY VERY BAD SIGN.
'd say it was a split. You kind of just missed it and went off on a hair trigger because you're used to salty people bringing up past debates in ugly ways. I kind of swung and missed when it came to clearly communicating my views.
No need to eat it. We have a bag, right? We can put them away and use them later. I mean, we could snack on them (carefully) with the ones we can't bring with us, but other than that, I don't see a reason not to take at least some fragments with us.
We can at least try to get an impression of what sort of person they are? If they promise us the moon and the stars in the sky for their release, they are probably untrustworthy. If they simply assume common decency on our part, it's more likely that they possess it themselves or at least come close. Things like that.
Indeed. Also, I don't think stamping out the ants will do much beyond delay the escape. We don't actually have any way of preventing something similar from happening again, so it's kind of a moot point.
Indeed. Also, I don't think stamping out the ants will do much beyond delay the escape. We don't actually have any way of preventing something similar from happening again, so it's kind of a moot point.
Yeah. Stomping individual ants on an ant trail isn't effective, because the remaining ants will just mindlessly follow the pheromone trail laid by their predecessors, even if those predecessors are dead. To break the trail you have to wash away the pheromones themselves AND temporarily stop scouting ants from passing through.
Yeah. Stomping individual ants on an ant trail isn't effective, because the remaining ants will just mindlessly follow the pheromone trail laid by their predecessors, even if those predecessors are dead. To break the trail you have to wash away the pheromones themselves AND temporarily stop scouting ants from passing through.
And that's assuming there isn't an imperative, biological or otherwise, causing the ants to seek out the crystals. Sure, if you erase the pheromone trails to an open bag of sugar, they won't go after the sugar...for a while. Eventually, though, they'll probably find it again. We have no way of preventing scouting ants from reaching this place long-term.
Assumes we can find one, and that it'll understand what we're asking it to do. Even our elementals aren't so good at figuring out what we want them to do, when it comes to more complex tasks. It may also just wander off or get bored.
Anyway, I don't think we should do that unless we get positive confirmation that the sorceress is very evil and dangerous. And we certainly shouldn't threaten to do it. We want her on our side.
[2] A marble prison.
[4] A strange city.
[1] A magical glade.
[3] A library.
[5] A dragon's hoard.
I'm more interested in the Glade for more power, and library for knowledge. Dragons don't have the best rep when dealing with people who snuck into their hoard.
And that's assuming there isn't an imperative, biological or otherwise, causing the ants to seek out the crystals. Sure, if you erase the pheromone trails to an open bag of sugar, they won't go after the sugar...for a while. Eventually, though, they'll probably find it again. We have no way of preventing scouting ants from reaching this place long-term.
Well sure, but unless these ants are super-badass (a distinct possibility if they're chowing down on crystalized mana, these ants are secretly the final boss), there should be nothing stopping us from having our earth elementals widen their tunnels enough to send our fire elemental into their home and immolate their queen. That won't do anything long-term, but it's still better than doing nothing.
Anyway, I don't think we should do that unless we get positive confirmation that the sorceress is very evil and dangerous. And we certainly shouldn't threaten to do it. We want her on our side.
I dunno. Sometimes there's good reasons to free a terrible person. Short-term concerns might be short-term, but not dying is a pretty good reason, IMO.
Well sure, but unless these ants are super-badass (a distinct possibility if they're chowing down on crystalized mana, these ants are secretly the final boss), there should be nothing stopping us from having our earth elementals widen their tunnels enough to send our fire elemental into their home and immolate their queen. That won't do anything long-term, but it's still better than doing nothing.
I guess? Though I personally think that any prison that can be so easily undermined by ants is probably going to fail pretty quickly anyway. Might as well do it on our terms, in some cases.
Nothing new occurs in the time it takes you to step through the rift. The chosen window expands, you step through it, and you feel a little dizzy. The only change seems to be the stability of your anchor; the various threads look significantly larger than they've ever been before. You're not quite sure how much of a difference it'll make. Half again as much time as usual? Twice as much? It'll be a pretty big difference, you know that much.
The prisoner is already starting to turn around when you step through the rift. It looks like a long and difficult process; she doesn't really have enough room to maneuver, especially since she's being careful not to touch any part of the dome itself.
Your elementals make a beeline for the closest chunk of mana as soon the rift finishes closing. You shake off your dizziness and call them back.
"No touching!"
Your elementals stop and reluctantly make their way back to you. You tilt the lone light elemental into a single palm and use the other to pat your friends.
"Good. I'll get you all treats later, okay? But those aren't ours yet."
Your elementals stare at you with blank, pupiless eyes. It takes them an unusually long time to comply, and even when they do, you can hear unhappy grumbling coming from your water elementals.
The prisoner finally manages to finish turning to you, having been forced to lay on her right side. You can't quite decide if her eye color is normal or not; it looks like a mixture between orange and yellow. Amber, you think it's called?
Her eyes switch between your elementals and you several times, ultimately settling on you.
"---------."
You mentally sigh and lean back as the inevitable translation dizziness strikes. At least you only need to do it once per language, right? Her voice also seems a bit off, but you can't quite figure out how.
"------------------?"
You shake your head and hold up one finger.
"------------------------------?"
You slide down the wall and lean against it as the lightheadedness doubles. You're pretty sure she just switched languages.
"------------------------."
And again. At least the prisoner seems a little concerned. It doesn't stop her from making it even worse.
"-------------?"
Your head slowly returns to normal within a minute or two. The amber-eyed prisoner continues to stare at you with obvious concern, but at least she's figured out that talking wasn't helping you any.
You smile weakly and force yourself to your feet. You try to focus on using the first language she spoke to you with. You're not sure it works.
"I'm feeling better now. What were you saying?"
The prisoner's eyebrows slowly creep upward. No response is forthcoming until they've finished their unnecessarily long journey.
"Are they really so unreasonable as to make you sneak in here?" The prisoner frowns and shakes her head. "Pay no heed to my idiotic question. Of course they are. I hope you realize I can't do anything for you from in here?"
An odd prickling occupies your throat and the back of your skull while the prisoner speaks. The ants indicate nobody has stopped by for a while, yet her voice still sounds unusually pleasant. You literally can't remember the last time you thought that about someone. Did you ever?
...Right. Question. You chew on your lip and try to think of a good response. Does she think your dizziness was from an illness, or...?
The prisoner sighs and rolls her eyes while you're still working on a reply.
"Well, I can't. Purging your curse or illness seems like a fair trade for my freedom, but if you want more, I'm afraid we'll need to work out a proper covenant. Know that I don't accept post-death soul leases anymore, not after this. I also never liked sacrifices to begin with. Unless you can think of something better, that leaves shared possession."
[] Admit your ignorance; you don't know who she is or why she's here.
-[] You're not sick, either.
-[] Ask for her name.
-[] Possession? As in, "take over your body" possession?
-[] Ask whatever questions come to mind.
[] Try to avoid showing that you don't know who or what she is.
-[] Could she define "possession" for you, please? Is she talking about control over your body or something else?
-[] What can she offer you?
-[] How does she interpret the decision to imprison her? As in, what does it look like from her end?
[] Sneak up the stairs and take a look around. Maybe her prison's location will tell you something useful?
[] Write-in
To avoid this taking fifty years, OOC voting cycles and updates may be shorter than the usual twenty-ish hours; I'll be aiming for two shorter updates a day while negotiations/social are ongoing.* The more I feel like the possibilities of a given (winning) action have been fleshed out (discussed/noticed), the more likely it is that I'll update earlier.
*Admitting your ignorance and asking whatever questions occur to Melia would, for obvious reasons, lead to longer updates occurring with less frequency.
Is this shade of red causing any problems for anyone? I tried to tune it so it would show up OK on both darker and lighter themes.
[X] Admit your ignorance; you don't know who she is or why she's here.
-[X] You're not sick, either.
-[X] Ask for her name.
-[X] Possession? As in, "take over your body" possession?
-[X] Ask whatever questions come to mind.
[x] Admit your ignorance; you don't know who she is or why she's here.
-[x] You're not sick, either.
-[x] Possession? As in, "take over your body" possession?
-[X] Ask whatever questions come to mind.
-[X] Do not under any circumstances agree to any deals or bargains with this entity right now.
I'm reluctant to ask for her name. For some reason I'm getting 'djinn' or 'demon' vibes off her right now and names are a big deal to them. We might accidentally offend her.
