Kaelidascope [Multicross]

[Pyro Hawk]

Yeah, this is a pretty big weakness of mine. I can pretty much only right stream of consciousness. As for the caps, I've been capitalizing proper classes. I figured it would make sense too.

And I guess I end up caping Mystery a lot. but that's partly to separate it from the normal use of the word mystery. This is the Mystery of how to throw lightning. VS. This is a murder mystery.

Click to shrink...

I think it's been more often than that or it might be that some of the ways you word things make it seem like things that 'shouldn't' be capitalised are being capitalised because you think they should yet the wording is awkward. I'd have to re-read to verify that however, so instead I'll just keep an eye out as I read the next few chapters to verify if it's all as you say it should be.

 

[AurielReaver]

Well it's also a matter of Wierd stuff very much existing and it's probably some manner of magic nonsense considering she is a Caster of some description even if the kind is not quite obvious as they don't know what a Magus is atleast from the perspective of Dnd Adventurer type people especialy with her also having a spell that let's her trivially identify things and some of the context surrounding them

 

[Kerashana]

A/N: Exhibit A; The disfunction in even good parties!
But really, this chap was... bleh. Feels more like filler to me, but well, some things important happened near the end, so whatever. Hope people don't hate it as much as I do.
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Walking into the Town Hall, we found Sildar, and showed him the corpse of Glasstaff.

"That's Iarno." Sildar declared upon seeing the corpse, "That… does not bode well. I will need to send some letters. Regardless, here is two hundred gold for removing the Redbrand threat."

"Do you have any maps of the area?" Silla asked, "I want to see where Thundertree is."

"Oh? Well, I don't see why not." He agreed and led us to a side room where there was a map of the area up on the wall.

And Silla fell too, updating the party map. Useful, and that ruin there looked to be Cragmaw… heh. Too bad I want to see that Druid.

"Well, I got some notes to go over, and I think we could use tomorrow to prepare for heading back out?" I stated and asked. "Oh, and here," I said, pulling out the letter.

"Right! And yes, I agree," Markith spoke up, "I want to see about procuring that manor."

"Really now?" Sildar asked as I left the room.

"Yes well-" Markith began to reply before the door closed and I stopped caring to keep listening.

Returning to the woodworker, I found Joan talking with Mirna. So, I waited for them to finish before stepping forward. "Joan, I know you probably aren't finished with the finish, but I wanted to buy four more blanks and get them finished as well."

Ah, Vaela, you're back." She greeted, "I can agree to that, but only if you don't add in the stone, whatever that was. It makes things a lot harder."

Oh. Well, ok. "Sure, I'll leave them with you until they're finished, and pick them up next time I'm in town."

"Alright…" She seemed to be doing some mental math, "Four blanks… so, three hundred gold."

Fuck, what? No, wait! This is back in the times of haggling! "Two hundred, no way it's worth all that."

"Bah, getting Weirwood is harder than you think! No way I can let it go for less than two sixty." She rebutted.

Hmm… "Two twenty and I'll shape some boards for you."

She paused, frowning at me, before nodding. "Done."

So, I spent about half an hour slowly turning a log into a bunch of boards. Boring work, but I bet I could make good money doing it.

Smiling, Joan caught me on my way out, holding my cane. "It's not fully dry yet, but all you need to do is leave it out tonight. It should be completely cured by tomorrow morning."

"It just needs to soak into the wood?" I asked, just to make sure, and at her nod, I took the cane and headed off to my room. Well, the room I was sharing with Silla.

Once there, I used Αλλαγή to cause the wood to suck up the varnish and also to dry and harden the tacky outer layer.

Then I put it aside and pulled out the Glasstaff we had gotten. A Mystic Code! No!A real magic item!

I ended up studying it late into the night, even after Silla returned and went to bed. It was frustrating, fascinating, and was opening up a whole new horizon! It had some concept alignment, but it all appeared to be incidental. Mystic Codes were all about aligning concepts. Magic items seemed all about energy matrices. I was already seeing how I could overlap the two for better items!

I mean, my cane, a Glintstone Cane, if you will, was an incidental magic item. It was naturally magically active, so would empower my Mysteries if cast through it. Spells? Eh, I wasn't sure of the difference yet. Though there definitely was one.

Shaking my head, I closed my eyes and let my reverie take me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"So," Hymlen opened with over breakfast, "I found someone who could read that journal." He motioned towards the bartender, "And it had some useful information, like inside the mines there's some kind of magical forge called the Forge of Spells. But it also mentions that there's a magic mace there, and I want to call dibs."

"As long as I get to study it a bit, sure." I agreed, and the others nodded along, though I could see them giving me odd looks, "Speaking of, Kith let me see your sword for a few hours."

He was quiet for a moment before he sighed, "Sure. We have some people to talk to today, so we won't be leaving until tomorrow at the earliest. Also, the manor is ours! And the Lord's Alliance has agreed to subsidize some of the cost to repair it! I just have to be their representative in this area."

Huh, that was neat!

"Well, I'm making a list of the jobs we've picked up and keeping track of them." Silla put in, "I figure we should keep a record so we don't forget anything."

"Good idea." Hymlen agreed. "So, shall we?"

Taking Talon for a grumbling Markith, I went back up to my room and continued my research! It was fascinating how magical energies were woven together like this! So much like a more stable and long-lasting Ενίσχυση.

By the time everyone was back, and we were eating dinner, I had some pretty in-depth diagrams, and a bunch of notes! This was…

Oh, wow… I really was a Magus! Discovering new Mysteries and Arcane Lore really got me going! I couldn't wait for a chance to try and enchant something! Maybe when we have another few days free!

The Root could go fuck itself though.

While we were eating dinner, Markith asked, "So, did you figure anything out?"

Huh… did I? Well, "Maybe? In theory, I could make an item that emulates the enchantment on your sword. But I'm not sure if I could anchor it long-term right now."

"Wilted fields," He grumbled, "I was hoping for magic armor."

"Pretty sure we all were." Silla commensurate. "Now, to more immediate topics. Where do we head when we leave town? Thundertree is all the way back towards Neverwinter… and the rest of our jobs are out East along the Triboar Trail."

"Map?" I asked, and she handed it over… hmm, if I remember, the well and Tor are supposed to be in the hills somewhere… "Do we have an idea of where to search? Because the best I can think of is to hit Agatha's, then look for the other places. Since we know where she is."

"Why not go straight for Thundertree?" Markith asked with a frown.

"Well, we'll be collecting loot. We might want to try and buy some magic items in Neverwinter while we're there, right?" I explained my thinking.

"That's actually a very good point." Hymlen agreed.

Sighing, Markith nodded. "Alright, so, we head east tomorrow."

As we finished, I headed outside to see if I could make sense of this ability to Teleport I suddenly had. It took some trial and error, but I managed to pin down the mechanism. A metaphysical organ, not unlike how my Circuits existed, but this also opened up a new problem. That meant I wouldn't be able to fuel it with my Circuits, or maybe… Well, it would have to wait for another day, I couldn't get it to work anymore tonight.

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The first day of travel was quiet enough, and we made good time. The night? Not so much, a group of three mosquito bats called Stirge attacked during my watch. But well, there's nothing to really talk about as they died to what amounted to a stiff breeze.

Ok, look, I cast sleep, then stabbed them. Happy?

We ran into what I guess was the rest of their swarm later the next day, to much the same result. The next night and day were just as quiet until the day we reached Agatha. On the road, the two dumbest Bugbears chose to attack us, instead of run for their lives. You can imagine how well that went.

Now, Agatha? Well, we passed through the abandoned town of Conyberry, a depressing place with buildings in ruin, and into the Neverwinter Woods.

This part of the forest was dark, and still with the trail winding deep into it. I could see as my companions started to act on the sense of foreboding this place gave off, but I was far more interested in what was obviously a naturally formed territory. A kind of Bounded Field, mostly. But for being the domain of a powerful undead? It was surprisingly verdant, with heavy vine cover, and thick layers of moss.

It wasn't long until we found ourselves coming into view of a dome made from live branches and vines, the doorway low and crude.

"Well, it's no Aeaea, but it's not terrible." I muttered, then asked, "So, again, what are we here for?"

Hymlen took in a shaky breath and replied, "Sister Garaele asked me to try and gain some information. To try to convince Agatha to tell me what she knows about the location of Bowgentle's spellbook." He reached into a pouch and pulled out a fine silver comb with jewels encrusted into it. "I'm to give her this to help persuade her?"

With a sigh, I reached out and plucked the comb from his hands. "You're shaking in your boots, just stay near the doorway with the others. Let me handle this."

"Y-you think you can handle this?" Silla asked, chewing on her lip.

With a sigh, I explained, "My teacher was a goddess. What do you think?"

That earned me wide-eyed looks from all three of my companions, and I couldn't help but wonder how we hadn't gone our separate ways. Maybe we just had the right chemistry going on?

With a small shake of my head, I turned and walked into the dome.

It was… interesting, the branches were woven together, often forming shelves. Of worked wood, there was a nice table, a beautiful chest, and a loveseat of sorts. I assumed they were supposed to be in some Elven style or something.

Walking around, I didn't touch anything, but couldn't help but frown at the gathering dust. "Μπάνισε βρωμιά."

Then I knelt down by the love seat… sette? Longue? Anyway, by the half couch, and muttered, "Επισκευή." And watched it slowly return to pristine condition.

Standing back up, I turned, just in time, to see the figure of a pale woman appear in the air, just blam, there! The sense of dread it was giving off was a four on the Κίρκη scale, so not bad. The figure was rapidly taking form into that of an Elven woman with long golden hair and a once impressive robe now in tatters along the edges. Both her hair and robe were flowing in a non-existent breeze too. A very nice effect.

Her face was set in a hateful expression as she spoke but quickly turned into one of mild confusion. "Foolish mortals. What do you want here? Do you not know- What… what did you do to my bower?"

"I banished the dust and repaired your Sette." I replied, "I came here to offer you this comb and ask a question. I figured the least I could do for your time was to clean a little."

She was silent for a long moment, before nodding to herself. "I am often called Agatha. That will do for a name. You are welcome to stay briefly, and ask your question."

Half-bowing, I replied, "I am Vaela Aeaea, Apprentice to Κίρκη. Please accept this gift."

She took the comb from my hand, examining it. "I accept."

Silence stretched for a moment, but I was quick to fill it before she grew bored with me. "I have two questions, three if you want to be technical. Do you know where Bowgentle's spellbook is? And where are the 'Old Owl Well' and 'Wyvern Tor'?"

She frowned, looking up, but replied, "I traded the book to a necromancer named Tsernoth from the city of Iriaebor more than a century ago. Now, why do you wish to know where these locations are?"

"To remove the… let's call it trouble, that's moved into those areas," I replied, but honestly, I wasn't expecting much.

"Bring me your map." She replied, and I was truly surprised she refused to help. Maybe it was… was it a Thayen? Or just a wizard at the well? Eh.

"Of course." I agreed, and quickly, but calmly walked over to the doorway and stuck my head out. Silla was already there, waiting, map in hand. So I took it and returned.

Looking at the map, she scowled, but two dark green spots appeared on it. "There, now I wish for peace, leave me."

Folding the map, I turned to leave but stopped at the door and frowned, well… why not? "Just an idea, have you thought of trying a ritual to force incarnate you? Well, I guess it doesn't matter. Have a pleasant day."

I didn't look back as I hurried out, and I shared what I was told with the others, who had been listening in. Rude. As we left.

None of them wanted to spend the night in the forest, so we force marched back to Conyberry, and camped there, before heading off the next day for Old Owl Well.

Nearing the well, I got my first look at the crumbling tower, and I had to sigh. Magic lore? In a place like this? You know, what? "Twenty gold it's a Red Wizard of Thay."

"A who?" Markith asked, frowning.

The other two didn't look much more enlightened. Wonderful.

"Never mind," I grumbled.

"Do you think we need to know?" Hymlen asked, even as we started up the small hill to the ruins.

"Thay is known for it's Necromancers and such," I replied.

"Huh, well, I suppose we can't leave a Necromancer free to roam these parts," Markith spoke his thoughts.

Shaking my head, I quickened my step for a moment and called out, "Hail to the camp!"

There was a moment of nothing, and then corpses started shambling out of the ruins of the tower, and there was movement from the tent, followed by a call of, "Hold."

All the Zombies froze in place, unmoving, but ready.

"Who goes there?" The man asked as he turned towards us. Bald, check. Tattoo on head? Check. Red Robes, check.

"A band of travelers asked to see what was going on here. Prospectors have been talking about undead attacking anyone who gets near here." I replied, "Seems kind of rude, what with the best source of fresh water being here."

"Ah, hmm. A fair point." He muttered, then asked, "Now that you know, what do you plan to do?"

"Honestly, I'm kind of torn," I replied, frustrated, I didn't want to let the Red Wizard survive on principal alone! But he didn't seem like a terrible person. "Eh, we weren't asked to kill you or anything, just maybe, try not to attack prospecters? Also, probably a better idea to use an Earth Elemental to sweep the ground of man-made things."

He opened his mouth before closing it and then biting out, "Broken Skull. Why didn't I think of that." Shaking his head, he refocused on me, "Actually, perhaps we can come to some kind of agreement about a job?"

"Oh?" I asked because I wasn't sure where this was going! Yay!?

"Yes-" He was interrupted as Silla yelled, "To the Shadows with this!" And loosed an arrow into him.

Wonderful, just… wonderful! Did these companions of mine not understand subtlety?

But I guess we were doing this! Fuck!

At least they were ungrouping us! Rushing off in different directions. Silla to the west, just outside the crumbling walls, Markith right up in the unnamed mage's face and stabbing him. While Hymlen just hit him with a guiding bolt, I guess, the glowing orb of light.

My part knew to geek the wizard… I'm not sure how to feel about that. Being the castery type that would get focused down and all.

And suddenly, the zombies started moving! Ho shit! That Zombie Apocalypse vibe is strong!

Stabbing out with my new cane, I punched my blade of… energy into the zombie, and nearly sliced it in half! Woo! Of course, then I teleported the fuck out of there!

"Shyt!" Silla cursed, "This was a bad idea!"

Wait! I had that scroll! Yes! Now I just needed a moment to use it!

Fumbling it out, I watched as Silla put an arrow into the zombie I nearly killed and finished it off, and Kith left a large gash in another.

"Hym! Turn! For the Grace of the Harvest! Turn!" Kith called out, and Hymlen held up some kind of symbol, and spoke some words… and most of the Zombies started to run. Those that didn't swarmed Hymlen, but just couldn't seem to hit him.

Silla dropped another Zombie, and it seemed like I wasn't going to need that Scroll just yet. Kith and Hym were hammering on another zombie, and at this point, I'll just jump forward. We killed the Zombies. Hymlen's ability to 'Turn Undead' proving to be a 'Gods Send' here. It didn't last quite long enough, but by the time it ended, they were scattered and mostly dead.

What we found in the Red Wizard's belongings? Well, it was what I wanted, but I was trying to be smart about things, not murder it all. Oh well.

As Silla was dividing the loot, I quickly called dibs on the ring! It was definitely something I wanted, and wanted to study! A 'Ring of Protection', this one didn't have that ridiculous signet bit, and was instead a single piece of green glass, or maybe gem, that's stronger than steel.

Definitely less obvious and easier to hide.

Hymlen insisted we burn the bodies, so we spent more of the rest of the day doing that, in the ruined tower, then we made use of the Wizard's tent to sleep the night away and head out in the morning.

So, this ring? It had a completely different way of building Arcane Matrices, more… permanent. Heavy? Hmm, that was one way to describe it, I guess. But permanent seemed more descriptive. More refined, and would take me some time to unravel. Not like more recent enchanted items. I guess the Netheril knew what they were doing.

Or, maybe it had to do with complexity?

Well, we found our way into the area of Wyvern Tor from the north, and Silla who was our trailblazer and, I guess general ranger, waved us to a halt before disappearing into the brush.

I watched in the distance as she ambushed a Bugbear sentry and almost killed it, but it was still moving with an arrow in its skull! Her follow-up caught a gust of wind and was blown wide. So, I reached out and touched the tough Bugbear with my beam of light!

The Bugbear dropped, and she hurried back, looking contrite.

But we had a cave full of enemies to hate on… now, surprise or?

"Hey, think it's a good idea to pull them all together? Then I can tag them with a Fireball." I quietly called over to Silla.

"Yeah, that could work. Or at least soften them up." She agreed.

Moving over to where Hym and Kith were getting ready, I whispered, "Kith, be obvious. You're all alone and looking for 'adventure'. Get them all to the cave mouth."

He frowned at me before nodding. "Right, sure… why?"

"Fireball." I replied with a smirk, one he was quick to return.

Walking, noisily, to the cave mouth, Kith called out, "I wonder what's in this cave!"

"Kill the Human!" Echoed out of the cave, along with a loud bellow.

"Haha!" Markith fake laughed, "Bugbear scum! I will slay you!"

Man was he being hammy, but he wasn't pulling blows as he cleaved into the first Bugbear.

"Move! Let Gog!" Bellowed- Ho Shit! Bellowed an Ogre! And that was a Javalin flying past Kith! But thankfully, Silla waited, though I could see her not far from me, biting her lip.

Then tragedy struck, or at least put us on notice, and a Bugbear slammed its crude mace into Kith's head and nearly toppled him. How was he still standing?! He wasn't wearing a helmet! And two more javelins!

But they were all gathered up, and I had the scroll out and was reading off of it. Which, I might add, was a fascinating experience. As I finished, the scroll burnt up in a flash, and I found myself holding a small bead of fire. I didn't hold on long, I quickly sent it flying, which was less of an actual throw, and more of a willing it to a specific spot from your hand, and it had to travel in a straight line. The explosion flashed over the cave and took out most of the enemy in one go, sadly, not the Ogre. Then Silla let loose the arrow she had been holding to stab into the Ogre's massive bulk.

Hymlen moved in, throwing his ball of light, and missing horrifically, but he spoke a word for his other main spell and some of Kith's wounds pulled together. And of course, the man himself just charged in, and with two swift strokes killed both the Ogre and the last Bugbear.

With that done, we set about searching the cave, and I found myself coming to a stop, studying a crude carving on one wall. "Huh, what do you make of this?"

It was of a Goblin with an elongated skull and a crystal jutting from its skull.

"More of those strange Gobos?" Kith asked, shaking his head. "What a pain… think we'll end up running into any of them?"

"Probably," Hymlen called over.

"Cyric's dick." Silla grumbled, "They have shyt for loot." And with the happy information, we set up camp for the night, away from the cave, by a few miles.

We were sitting down for dinner, when Markith asked, "Ok, I keep forgetting, so here we are. How the nine hells do you know anything about my family's lore?"

Ah, um… er… fuck. "I might have heard a bit on my way here."

"I knew it!" Silla exclaimed, then paused and drooped a bit, "No, wait… You're not from Toril, are you?"

With a sigh, I shook my head. "No-"

"Ha! I was right!" She proclaimed before I could go on.

"Silla, let her finish," Hymlen admonished her.

With a sigh and a shake of my head, I continued, "The world I originally come from is… gone. Eaten by Elder Evils. I don't know how I survived, I just… kind of fell into a formless void where uncountable more slept. Then, the next world I ended up in was called Gaia. That's where I ended up learning magic from Κίρκη, a goddess of magic who reigned over Transmutation, Illusion, and Necromancy. Of which I was taught next to nothing. She mostly trained me in Herbcraft and healing magic, along with the core basics." And that was all I was willing to give.

"Great Mother." Silla whispered at about the same time Hymlen muttered, "Our smiling lady."

"Meh." Markith proclaimed, "I'm just glad to hear my family lore is true!"

The next couple of days were a bit subdued as we made our way back to Phandalin, and they processed my story, for all that it mattered. But they seemed keen to read more into it than there was.

We spent a night in Phandalin, along with picking up the rewards for the jobs we finished; Magic boots for Markith, gold for everyone, and some more potions of healing, split up among the others. Which was fine! I had a jazzy ring!

What the hell did 'Jazzy' even mean?

Our journey to Neverwinter took five days and had us carrying mail. I mean, fair, we were headed to the big city.

Now, I realize, I failed to describe Neverwinter, and I am tempted to keep with that, but the city was big, with high walls and many guards. The architecture differed from district to district, and some places were older than others.

Yeah, I'm not describing the city as a whole. Use your imagination or something. The Market district though was very classically European, with winding allies and… What's Europea- oh, huh… hmmm. Moving on.

Both Silla and Hymlen found something to burn cash on. Silla got a 'Cloak of Elven Kind', while Hymlen got an 'Amulet Of The Devout'. Markith and I didn't have the cash for it. Me because I bought that expensive wood, and him because he dumped some money into that crumbling manor.

Still, I had enough money to burn on things I needed to buy. First, a barrel sealed for preserving Dragon Blood. Next, a bunch of jars. Then a one-pound sample bar of Adamantine. And finally, fifty gold worth of seeds for various herbs, magical.

I had also begun experimenting on my dagger, with enchanting.

But we weren't in the city for more than two days, then we were off to Thundertree.

 

[Kerashana]

Our destination was a day away, but that's if we wanted to arrive at night. So, most of the way there we set camp early. The day after that, we arrived to find… well, a ruined town. More so than Conyberry was. And of course, some chuckle fuck thought it was a good idea to put out a sigh!

Oh, this one didn't proclaim the town or anything, instead, it read "Danger! Plant monsters and zombies! Turn back now!"

And this was supposed to… what? Discourage? Looked more like an invitation to me.

"Does that ever actually work?" Markith asked with a chuckle.

"On people whose name isn't Harlock? Sometimes. On Harlocks? I don't think it has ever worked." I replied with a shrug. "Now shall we depopulate a town of monsters?"

"Let's!" Silla agreed with a toothy smirk.

So, we followed the overgrown road into the town and looked around.

"Where do we even begin?" Hymlen asked, frustration clear on his face. "We need to find that Druid?"

Shrugging, I pointed at the closest building. "Well, let's just clear the town, we're bound to come across the Druid eventually, right?"

"Works for me." Markith agreed as he drew his sword and walked over to the nearest door. And nothing happened.

"All I see are plants." He called back, and… fair, I guess.

"The sign said plant monsters," Hymlen called back to remind him.

"Huh, so it did." He muttered before stabbing a nearby plant with his sword. "But nothing's moving."

Stepping forward, as though she was going to say something, Silla lunged forward, her saber sliding free of her sheath. I was unable to see what happened, but there was the thump sound of metal hitting wood, then again as wood hit the ground.

Moving up to the other building, I looked around, but didn't see anything, even as Hymlen called out, "You good there?"

"Yeah, we got this," Kith called back.

So, the Cleric moved up to the other house and looked in, and called out, "Shyt." Followed by the sound of metal hitting stone.

There was another thump, thump sound and Silla came running out of the building and into the other building with Hymlen.

Then suddenly, I was too busy dealing with the two of these things just appearing next to me! Backing away, I wasn't quite fast enough to dodge a reaching hand and took a slash right under my right breast!

"Fuck!" I hissed because that fucking hurt!

And without thinking, I reached out and grabbed the arm, of the hand that had slashed me, and growled out, "Qo." To my great surprise and confusion, lightning arced over my hand and into the plant man. Who immediately collapsed, dead.

That was… that was the taser hand Magecraft/Spell I had created. Except… that was instinctive! That was… what language was that?

No, now wasn't the time!

Thankfully, Kith came running up and cleaving the other thing in twain, "Come on, now isn't the time to get distracted."

Right, yeah, he was right.

Turning, I jumped and pulled myself up onto the crumbling wall, and from my new vantage point, I blasted away one of the seeming two remaining of these…. Things. While Hymlen crushed the other.

"Shit, what were those?" Kith asked, saving me from having to.

"Twig Blights." Silla replied, "Not very dangerous unless they surround you."

"Huh, annoying," Hymlen muttered as I climbed down, but he was preoccupied with looking around the roots on the floor. "Ha! Hey, I found a strong box."

"Great," Kith said with a grin, "So, the tavern next?"

We just shrugged in reply, so he walked over to the dilapidated building and casually threw open the door. Looking into the building, he shrugged, "Just some rotting bodies."

With a sigh, Hymlen moved forward, saying, "I guess we should give them burial rites then."

"Didn't the sign-" I didn't get to say more as Hymlen let out a curse and the sounds of shuffling groans could be heard inside the building.

"Vigilant Eyes," Silla… um, cursed? "Zombies."

So, probably a curse of some kind.

Moving forward, I got a good look through the door into the building and let out a sigh of relief. It wasn't like there were twelve of them or something. Then I took a pot-shot at one, punching a hole into it's torso. Not that it was inconvenienced much.

At the same time, Markith had ducked down, and charged in, striking out with his blade and taking off a leg. Then there was a flash of light from Hymlen, that didn't seem to do anything from where I was standing, and Silla put an arrow through an arrow slit in the shuttered over the window she was standing next to.

And then I saw why, Zombie fingers trying to get through the securely shut… well, shutters.

With a shake of my head, I moved up to the doorway and fired off another Δόρυ Φωτός, and punched a hole in the wall. Fuck.

At least Markith finished off the downed Zombie, but Hymlen didn't seem to be able to hit anything.

Silla ducked past me as the zombies continued to flail around. Wait, were these zombies drunk?

Something had to have happened, maybe that thought distracted me or something because my Spell failed, causing feedback like pins and needles to shoot through my hand for a moment. Was I just a bad Magus? Or were these the pains of creating a new system of magic?

Thankfully, no one seemed to notice as we went about the business of killing the last two zombies. Then after a look around by our… archer, because I wasn't sure if she was supposed to be a rogue or a ranger. Or just a righter that used a bow? We headed along the path around the base of a hill with a great deal of brush on it and a crumbling tower at the top.

"So, right or left?" Markith asked, looking in both directions.

"Well, there are buildings in both directions…" Silla replied, "How about a stick fall?"

With a sigh, I pointed right. "This way is an obvious dead end, so we can clear it, then head east."

"Sounds good to me." Silla agreed as the other two just frowned before shrugging.

Making our way down the right-hand path, we found a building in markedly better repair than the rest of the town, and a wrecked… farmhouse perhaps?

With a sigh, I walked up to the door and knocked. What door? The one for the well-kept building of course.

There was a moment of nothing then the faint, to me, sounds of movement inside. Then the door opened. The face that looked back at me was… old. A human woman with white hair and many wrinkles, she studied me, then the others for a moment before sighing, and quietly saying, "Come in, before you agitate one of the dangers of Thundertree."

And so we entered her little hut. It was… quaint, but I guess Druids didn't really do with frivolities.

Once we were all settled, and she even poured us some tea, some blend I couldn't name, she asked, "So, what brings four 'Adventurers' to my door?"

There was a moment of silence, but it seemed the others were going to let me do the talking thing.

"Well," I opened with, and I know, such a deep subject. "Intruductions I think. I'm Vaela, and these are Markith, Hymlen, and Silla. You are Reidoth, correct?"

"Indeed." She agreed with a faint huff.

"Then we need your help to find Cragmaw Castle," I explained, "The Cragmaw have been attacking caravans to and from Phandalin, and even kidnapped a friend of ours."

Frowning she shook her head, "That doesn't bode well. Someone must have riled them up. But it's still too… hmm. Perhaps a deal?"

"I mean," I replied, "Sure, but we're already planning to clear Thundertree."

That earned me an owlish look from her before she shook her head. "Do you even know what's here? The house at the base of the hill is home to two giant spiders. There are many twig blights and zombies. There have even been people in black masks and cloaks lurking around recently. And on top of that, there's Venomfang, a young Green Dragon. You're better off leaving Thundertree and forgetting all of this Cragmawe mess."

"Nah," Markith exclaimed, leaning forward, "This sounds like a great old time!"

The Druid sighed, "Fine, if I can't stop you… If you succeed, then I will tell you were the castle is."

"Deal." I replied with a grin, and suddenly felt magic quiver and snap into place between us… "Um, was that your doing?"

"No." She replied with more of a frown, "How strong is your Fey ancestry?"

That… was a good question. So, I just shrugged, "I have no idea."

"Then, perhaps, you should be more careful about making deals." She advised, and I think it was rather good advice. "Still, you and your party are welcome to rest here if you need it."

"Thank you." Markith spoke up again, smiling, "We could use a breather."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Outside Reidoth's hut, Markith motioned at the building across the way questioningly.

"Go ahead." I replied with a sigh, but it wasn't like I 'remembered' much about Thundertree. Just the Dragon and the Cultists. Kind of.

Markith led us into the building, and… well, nothing.

Then suddenly, there were Twig Blights behind me, and I lashed out without thinking, that strange word falling from my mouth in a growling speech I didn't know I knew. "Qo."

But as my sparking had made contact, the closest Twig Blight practically exploded. And Markith stepped onto it's smoldering corpse, Talon lashing out to make firewood of the other Blight. Not that Silla and Hymlen were silent, though by Hymlens muttered curses, he missed, again.

Then another Twig Blight, appeared and slashed into Markith. But failed to do any real damage.

Leaving that Blight to Markith, I turned and fired a spear at one of the three Blights I could see to the south of the building, blasting it into kindling.

The sound of cut timber was refreshing, coming from where Markith was, Even as something with a more defined human shape appeared. And I watched Hymlen swing wide… what was going on? I knew he knew how to hit things! But at least Silla was murdering the Blights well enough.

Still, there was a new, unknown threat, so I blasted it with one of my spears. To say the sudden surge of arcane power that occurred was unwelcome would be a lie. But fuck was this getting annoying. My best-understood cantrip was swinging wildly between nearly useless to hyper-effective! There was no excuse for this!

I needed to study the ambient Mana, I think.

Shaking my head, I turned away as Silla murdered another Blight, and moved to help Markith, another spear lashing out to blast apart another Blight. Even as Markith cleaved another to flinder and stepped forward into it's place.

And the battle, slaughter? Was more or less over.

"That was a bit intense." Markith grunted out, "Fun, but intense."

"A bit," Silla agreed, leaning against a wall, "But I don't think there's anything to find here."

"Damn." He grumbled, "Still, less of those… Blight things. So a win over all."

I was only listening with half my attention as I tried to figure out the best way to make a tool to measure ambient Mana, and the flows in the air. Atmosphere?

"Well, let's keep going." Hymlen grunted, "Though I think I'm going to have to start using my spells a little more freely."

"Right," Silla muttered as she quaffed a potion. Then with a nod, pointed at the next house. "You want to just bumble in, again, Kith? Or shall I do my job?"

"Ah, er… right, I'll wait." He replied chagrined.

As Silla slipped into the building, I took in its exterior and… well, it was markedly less crumbling than the other buildings around her, with the obvious exception of Reidoth's hut.

It wasn't long until she returned, pointing at different sides of the building. "Giant Spiders, there and there. But I figure we can kill them if we focus them down quick."

Eh… no, I'll save my magic for now. The Dragon is going to take some real power. "Yeah, but remember, there's also a Dragon around. Maybe, maybe we can clear the town before calling it a night and come back in the morning. But I'm iffy about that right now."

"Right. Yeah, you're right." She agreed with a frown.

"Spiders now, Dragon later," Hymlen spoke up, "The worst that could happen is the Dragon comes to us."

True… I guess. Huh, true. "Ok, Spiders. Silla, start us off will you."

Silla fired an arrow into the building before standing there for a moment, then she crept into the building and fired another through a doorway, this elicited a skree sound and more angry spider sounds. Then she was covered in webs. Wonderful.

Quickly moving into the building, I noticed one of the spiders was just dead, and the other was skittering towards her. So, I did what smart people do. I shot it.

My Δόρυ Φωτός punched through it and the spider just… folded up. As dead spiders do.

With a shake of my head, I looked around, even as my companions began to search the place for anything of use. This place was… mostly held together by spiderwebs. Neat! Walking over, I used Δομική ανάλυση to study the composition of the silk webs, and… it was interesting but also boring. They definitely weren't revolutionary, but I saw a few properties that could potentially be useful for other types of silk? No, no, it was all tied too tightly into its flammability, which was best labeled as flash burn.

"Yes!" Silla proclaimed, drawing me away from the webs and over to where she was stripping a dead, husk of an elf. "Found myself some magical Brigandine!"

I frowned for a moment, I could… but no. I didn't really need armor. If I was in melee something was going wrong. It wasn't like I had to deal with bullets here.

"Better than those leathers you've been using." Markith snorted, "They're starting to get worn."

"Yeah, yeah. Out, all of you!" She proclaimed and with a shrug, I led the others out.

"Building?" I asked, pointing at the small smithy.

"Sure." Hymlen agreed, and we walked over and opened the back door… to find two Zombies. They… were not a challenge.

Looking through the building, I found myself swiping a pair of tongs, but my hands were itching. Something was here… something I needed to-

Unburying an old cabinet, I opened it to find a leather satchel filled with diamond-shaped plates of a brown-gold color… these were.

"What'd you find?" Markith asked as he walked over.

Looking down, I wondered why I was clutching it so possessively… "Um, Dovah Qah-" Wait, what did I just say? "Dragon Scales," I repeated and… what was going on?

"Huh, ok." He replied with a shrug. "What could we do with them?"

Looking down at them, I found myself suppressing a sneer? Then the feeling passed and I replied, "Make Scale Mail I guess? It would be stronger and make you resistant to… fire in this case."

What? "How do I know this?"

"No idea!" Markith replied chipperly, "But that sounds like armor that would be great for Hymlen. What do you think?"

I stood there, holding the bag, confused for a moment before reaching in and pulling a few out. Then I held the back out to him. "Here, take it. Now."

"Right!" He agreed, taking it. Then he hurried over to Hymlen and gave it to him.

"So, what's I miss?" Silla asked as she walked in, wearing the browns and blacks of her new armor.

"Just Vae here speaking Draconic." Markith declared, "Of I'm pretty sure it's Draconic."

"Oh? Well, Μπάνισε βρωμιάRul dreh hi siiv mindoraan?" She asked and… I knew what she said.

"No idea." I replied.

"Huh- wait." She marched up to me and stared directly into my eyes for a moment. "Are your eyes bluer?"

Um? "I don't know?"

"Well, then, let's continue on!" She cheered.

Nodding, we stepped out the front of the smithy, and looked around-

"Hey, there's the Herbalists shop." Silla happily pointed out. And sure enough… So, we headed over that way and found the necklace Mirna told us about.

"Ok, I spoke of, clearing my throat, "Vote. Do you sell it and get some more gold? Or do we return a valuable heirloom to it's owner, and get no reward?"

Everyone looked at everyone else before Markith replied with a sigh, "I vote we return it."

"Agreed," Hymlen spoke up.

"Darn." Silla grumbled, "This is worth a lot too." Then with a sigh she continued, "But you're right. We should return it to them."

"Good to see you all have morals." I replied, "After the incident with the Wizard I was starting to wonder."

"Hey, look." Silla defended herself, "That guy was a Necromancer. They do horrible things."

Note to self. Never tell her of all the people I helped, or did myself sometimes, turned into animals. Especially need to remember not to tell her about eating some of those animals.

Leaving the shop, I looked south, then north, and hummed. "Fine, whatever. Let's check those two buildings to the south. Then we can head north. Also, we're killing the Cultists. 100 Gold they're Dragon Cult."

"No bet." Hymlen shot back.

"Eh?" Markith vocalized, "Dragon Cult?"

"Cult of the Dragon, followers of Tiamat," Hymlen spoke in rote.

"Well, then," He replied, "I guess it's to the harvest we go, again."

The first structure, couldn't be called a building anymore. It was just a few walls barely holding together, but the courtyard beyond? That was an interesting story. It was covered in debris. Obviously, someone had cleared out the house before us.

At a glance, the place looked pretty well sealed up…

"Follow my lead," I whispered back, then purposefully marked towards the front door and growled out, "Bex. Zu'u los het wah tinvaak voth hin kinbok."

Now that I was doing it on purpose, I could sense the change, and hear it, but there was also another feeling. Deep in my throat, like my vocal cords were shifting, changing, to accommodate the new words I was speaking.

"G-gein tiidm, zin briinah!" Someone stuttered out in a pale mockery of this true tongue.

There was some shuffling around, then the door opened, "Ah, daar miiraad zin briinah, Favric los ahst fin praan hofkah."

"Good," I replied in common, "But your diction offends me."

"My apologies honored sister," The cultist replied, "But not all of us can be blessed with Dragon Blood."

I just snorted, and as soon as I stepped into the new room, I stepped aside, out of Markith's way, and let loose a Δόρυ Φωτός at the man who looked to be the leader. To my frustration, he was fast enough to dodge the beam, and bellowed out, "It's a trick!"

Sneering, I replied, just as loudly, "No Favric, the cult simply had no more use for you."

Blatant lie? Yeah, but might as well keep up with the charade.

He rushed at me with a snarl and struck out with his sword, a scimitar… mostly, and missed horribly.

Markith? Not so much, he stepped forward and with a flick of his sword he left Favric clutching at a bloody stump.


He wasn't so lucky with the cultist next to him, and I was just as unlucky as another lunged for me. But even with the glancing hits we took? This wasn't so bad.

Surrounded as we were… well, it was a target-rich environment, for a moment, then with a flick of my cane, the blade of my ξίφος had bisected one cultist. Sadly, this didn't help Markith as a cultist showed that they knew how to parry!

So novel, much shock!

Hymlen pushed through, and made an attempt to crush Favric under foot, but sadly failed.

Stabbing downwards, I stuffed my energy blade through Favric's eye and that, as they say, was that.

And suddenly, with a burst of movement from Markith, there was only one cultist left.

"I surrender! I surrender!" He pleaded, throwing down his weapon… Sure.

"We accept," I replied, "Now take a nap. Kith, if you would?"

And the cultist hit the floor, while Markith shook his hand. "Wow, what are their jaws made of?"

Shaking my head, I started looking around, and beat Silla to the good stuff! I found a bag filled with six lustrous amethysts, not as good as sapphires, but respectable!

"Hey, I found a potion of some kind," Silla called, holding up the bottle.

Taking it from her, I spent some time using Δομική ανάλυση on it and… oh, well fuck you miss loot goblin! Fuck you! "It's a Potion of Fly. You should hold onto it, it might be useful against the dragon."

"And those pretty stones?" She asked, smiling.

I wanted to hoard them, but that was silly, I had research to do!

"I think I can use them as anchors for enchantments, maybe. But I need to experiment to find out. Unfortunately, I'm not a smith, so I need a wooden weapon to work with, maybe a club? Yes, that would work."

"Cool!" She replied smiling, "And the cultists?"

"I'm sure our Druid friend would like to ask some questions," Hymlen replied for me, and I smiled, pointing at him.

"That…" She paused and frowned, then nodded. "That sounds legit. Yeah, let's go talk to Reidoth."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"So, you brought me the survivor?" Reidoth asked sceptically.

"Well," Markith hedged, "More like prisoner; he did surrender."

She frowned, then looked at the unconscious body. "And what do you expect me to do with him?"

"Um, find out why the cult was here? If there are any big plans in motion?" He replied with a shrug, "You can take him out behind the shed and use him to feed your plants for all I care. I just don't want to know."

"Alright," She conceded, "Was that all?"

"Sadly," He bemoaned, "We have more town to sweep. I just didn't want to drag this… prisoner around with us."

"I see."

And we left her with a cultist. Not sure how that will turn out, but I hope he isn't in the evening soup. She probably couldn't turn him into a boar.

As for the rest of the town, I'll skip to the Dragon, Venomfang, with a note that all that was left were a few zombies and blights. It didn't take long to kill them.

The top of the hill, the tower, was… interesting. There were two giant spider corpses out front of it, and half the tower's roof was visibly missing. The acrid scent in the air was telling of the kind of Dragon lived here, a Green, but we knew that.

No, most telling was the ache in my bones, I don't know how to describe it, but a part of me wanted to fight. To prove my rel over the foolish youth before me. Still, it wasn't hard to reign the feeling in with sense and logic.

"Silla, you fly us up to the roof? While Kith and Hym gon in from the ground?" I asked, "We then hit it with everything we have?"

"That… yeah, that could work." She agreed as she pulled out the potion.

"Alright," Markith agreed, "We can totally do this."

"Yes, we can." I agreed as Silla took the potion, floating up, and then we headed for the roof.

And suddenly, things popped off with startling speed. Silla let loose an arrow, finding a niche between scales, and Hymlen called up a glowing sword and tossed his glowing ball. The ball missed, but not the sword.

Then the Dragon roared, pain evident in it's voice. And everything went wrong, all at once. The Dragon breathed out its poisonous breath, and Kith and Hym fell to the ground.

Instead of cursing, I did one of those things you can't describe, and you can't quite understand unless you can do it. I spoke to words at once. "διορθώνω/αστέρια."

The first was healing directed at Hymlen, and the other was to send a bolt of arcane energy flying at the Dragon. It even worked, as the Dragon suddenly looked up at me.

So Silla put an arrow in the underside of his neck.

And Hymlen healed Markith, even as his glowing sword slashed into the dragon, and he threw another glowing ball, this one hitting.

Then Venom Fang burst forward and bit into Hymlen, and as he was falling to the ground he growled out something in a guttural tongue, and a burst of fire blasted the Dragon in the face.

"Keep fighting!" Markith roared as he tried to find a weakness in the Venomfang's scales. And low and behold, Hymlen caught himself and looked up into the frustrated Dragon's eyes as I double-spoke again.

"Γοητεύω/αστέρια."

This time, when my bolt of arcane energy slammed into Venomfang, it was accompanied by a burst of entropic force. And suddenly, our boi the Dragon was not looking so good, in fact, I would say he was looking scared, and trying to find a way out.

Then as he looked at us with calculating eyes, preparing to try and push past perhaps? Well, it doesn't matter, as Silla put an arrow through an eye.

The Dragon was dead.

Hopping down, onto the stairs that ran around the tower, I bolted down them as fast as my Ενίσχυση body could go. Even as I fumbled out the barrel! It wasn't long before I was letting blood pool in the barrel, and able to go over and help my companions… and maybe even friends at this point, with their wounds. It wasn't great, but I was able to seal up the worst of it, and mend some of the damage to their lungs.

"Great Mother Chauntea! That was…" Markith grunted, "Too close. We… that was too close." Then he got a madcap grin on his face. "But we killed a dragon! We killed it! Ha!"

"And he was only a juvenile," I remarked, sealing the barrel. How was I going to get this into my bag? Shaking my head, I moved on to the remaining eye, placing that in a jar with preservative liquids. Then parts of the brain stem, brain, and using Αλλαγή, I pulled out as much stem cells as I could. Then I went digging for the Heart and whatever the organ that produced the poison was called.

Then I started pulling scales, an easy endeavor with Αλλαγή to have them pull off easily. Three thousand scales, with a fourth being damaged beyond recovery. Then I had Silla help me skin the Dragon's hide, at the same time recovering claws, and teeth. Then on to cuts of meat, and finally Dragon bone.

"Shyt, there's not much left of this… guy?" I nodded at Silla's question, "Not much left of this guy to do anything with, just a pile of awful and extra organs.

Yup! I took all I could, and now my bag was rather full… Could I make a bigger bag?

"Well, let's return to Reidoth and have some dragon steak!" I said cheerily, "Not to mention the location of Cragmaw Castle. We might want to stop by Neverwinter on the way back though, I'm out of room in my bag!"

"Yeah." Silla replied with a sigh, "And we have all this loot too!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A/N: Ho boy howdy! You all saw this shit right? This almost ended horrifically. And yes, I fudged the- actually, I haven't given over that! I fudged the mechanics of one of MArkith's abilities a bit. But that's because I'm treating every round as mostly simultaneous.

Now, to go over things.
-Markith is a Fighter, with the Banneret (Purple Dragon Knight). No, he has not taken an oath, or been knighted. He is officially just some bumpkin who fights and acts like a knight. Kind of, this is a Harlock after all.
-Hymlen is a Cleric, no shit bro. With the Trickery Domain... but I'm bad at using it. Meh.
-Silla is a rogue/ranger hybrid. Probably going to end up Rogue 4 [Scout] // Ranger 8 [Gloomstalker]
-Finally, Vaela is running, right now, a modified Warlock [Celestial] // Sorcerer [Dragon Blood]. I'm debating the exact split, but maybe 4/8- probably 4/8. 2/10 or 3/9 also have their own appeals. [I would, personally, not allow the modifications used in this story in real play. For this character specifically. As she can, kind of, arbitrarily get spell slots back. and eventually won't be rolling damage, just maximizing it.]

And this is all assuming that the characters only go up to level 12, and not higher as I'm not running milestones, but actually calculating XP.

Hope that answers some questions.

 

[AurielReaver]

Well she's a sorcerer who was Taught the Basics of magic from a different world one that doesn't really have the Weave and builds on top of that plus she can restore spell slots but if she doesn't moderate her use of such she will disable/Cook herself for a short bit and that is liable to get her killed if she's not careful but she has the right background to be able to fudge things if she works out how

 

[Sesparra]

For a minute there I thought she was turning into a dragon full stop.
Granted she did just gather all the ingredients needed to make herself a dragon hybrid, fate style so… idk? Honestly I hope she stabilizes her mysteries soonish, though waiting on a suitably dramatic moment is also fun… hmmm.
That fae bit might be good or might be bad depending on what type of rules she must abide by?

 

[Kerashana]

Grump!

Well, I found something I missed, or am pretty sure I missed. I never described the Protag. So, I've put a description in the Character Sheet. but here it is for those who don't want to look it up. I'll try and work a more natural one in eventually.

Vaela is a lithe young woman, an elf with long ears and bright blue eyes. Dark brown hair falls in loose curls, framing a thin heart-shaped face. She had fair white skin that still holds a fading bronzing from many years spent in the sun. She has a modest bust, and a thin waist, with visible muscle tone.

 

[Kerashana]

A/N: Sorry, this one's a bit short. But I want to start the next section with a clean start. Whole start? Hmm... Well, I bet you aren't complaining about more out.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Returning to Reidoth, manhandling a dragon skull was… awkward and a view of what we had to look forward to. The look on her face was worth it though! She was more than a little shocked, eyes bulging, and I couldn't help but laugh.

"So, the towns clear now!" I told her, "And we have Dragon Steak for dinner!"

"Ah, then… I should get the stove heated up." She replied hollowly, "How- no, just… fine. I suppose I have to tell you where the Castle is, but I warn you. Attacking them isn't a good idea."

"Great!" I replied with a smile, "Now, who knows how to cook?"

We ended up going through a bit of the meat I had, turning a large chunk of it into jerky, while Reidoth kept another portion as well, and I was able to sit down and experiment!

A little bit.

Taking a branch, I fashioned it into a club, then embedded one of the amethysts, before starting to build the arcane matrices. It was tougher than I thought it would be, but also easier. There was a momentum to it. Yet, I was able to etch it out and imbue a concept of solidness to it.

Not an impressive Mystic Code, but a good proof of concept.

It was empowered like Kith's sword and drew ambient mana into a reservoir in itself, so even in an anti-magic zone it should keep working through concept alone!

As proof of concepts went, it was very bland, but it worked, and most importantly, showed me I could enchant things! Just… this way was less than optimal. More like strapping a… motorcycle engine onto a shopping cart. You can do it, and it will work, but why? And more importantly, you just shouldn't.

I had better ideas to work out, and so on… but I also had friends who needed better gear now. So, I would need to get them to a blacksmith.

The journey back to Neverwinter took two days, because of the skull, and we made quite the spectacle entering the city. Enough of one to have a Noble catching us outside the market district gates.

"Ah, you are the mighty Adventurers that slew a dragon! Marvelous! I have an offer for you if you are interested." Turning, I found myself looking at… a round man who seemed a little too… brightly colored, or his clothes did anyway.

"Well, we'll hear you out," I replied, bringing us to a halt.

"Wonderful! I offer you seven hundred gold or a pair of Goggles of Night for the magnificent skull you're carrying." He replied with a grin… huh.

"Seven hundred gold, and the goggles and you can have the skull and a magic axe." I shot back, and he froze for a moment, frowning.

Then figuring a medallion, he nodded and proclaimed, "Let me see that axe then."

Markith pulled out the axe, 'Hew' apparently, and held it up.

"Hmm, certainly in magical… but the rust? How does a magic item rust?" The fat noble grumbled.

"The rust is cosmetic," I replied, "The Axe is called Hew and is actually unique. It's very effective against plants."

"Ah, really now? Well… hmm… six hundred gold and we have a deal." He counter offered and… yeah that was good enough, and a rip-off for a unique magic item, yes. But we were pressed for time, just a bit. Just getting Armor made for Hymlen would be a pain… unless…

"Or… perhaps you know where we can get some magic armor?" I asked, frowning. "Our Cleric could use some extra protection."

"Ah, sadly no. But if you're looking for Bags of Holding! I can help you!" He replied much to my dissatisfaction… wait, Bags of Holding?

"How many?" I shot back, and he grinned. "I only have twelve in stock, but if you need more I assure you I can procure them!"

Twelve! Gah!

Still, "Alright, a hundred gold, the goggles and a bag."

"Deal!" He immediately replied, "Now if you will follow me! My shop isn't too far from here!"

And so, as we followed him, he chattered on and on about his shop. His hobby really, because collecting enough magic items to sell was hard. Eventually, we were free, Markith declaring the goggles should go to Silla.

Then we went off to find the best smith in the city, which took a day in its own right.

Walking into the foundry with my friends, I spoke up, "Regmur! Got an offer for you."

The foundry was busy, with a number of people doing this, or that, but one dwarf looked up before yelling something at another Dwarf in- well, at a guess, Dwarvish.

That Dwarf came up to me and proclaimed, "Regmur is busy. So you'll have to take your offer up with me, name's Dolmur."

Frustrating, it made me want to tear them to piec… es? Ok, I need to watch that. "We have a project we need done well, and fast." I motioned at Hymlen who showed the scales. "We need to outfit our Cleric with better armor, Dragon Scale should do. So, I'm offering an equal amount of green dragon scales to have armor made out of brass ones. On top of a premium of a hundred gold to get it done as fast as you can."

Then I paused for a moment, weighing things, before explaining, "We are on a time crunch. A friend, Gundren Rockseeker was kidnapped, and we mean to get him back. But that means we need to be able to survive."

"Greeds Curse." The Dolmur cursed under his breath. "That the only thing you need done?"

"No, I need these Amathysts embedded into a few pieces of gear," I replied showing them off.

"Which I'll be paying for." Markith cut in.

"What gear?" Dolmur asked, frowning openly.

"A Saber, Splint, and two Shields." Markith continued, looking at me.

"Yeah, what he said," I replied.

"Fine, wait here." He grumbled before trundling off.

A few minutes later he returned with the Dwarf who was probably Regmur.

"Dolmur's told me everything. And we're going to make a number of people unhappy, but you have a deal. If you'll follow me. We need to get measurements for the Cleric and you have something to give me?" He spoke, and I sighed internally.

"Of course, let's settle accounts." I agreed. "We need to be back on the road by the end of this tenday."

Grumbling, he asked, "There a reason Gundren would be kept alive?"

"Yes," I replied with a sigh. "They want the lost mines of Phandelver. He had a map, but the… probably Drow, running the show would have need of a dwarf, at some point."

"Slag Steel." He cursed, "Yeah, that sounds about right. Fine, we'll get things done as fast as we can, but we can't compromise on quality."

"Please don't," Hymlen replied before being led off by what was probably an apprentice.

From there it was just payment and waiting.

Over the course of the four days, we had to wait, the gemmed gear came back, I enchanted it, while also turning Silla's bow into something a bit better, and I even found time to study the Dragon's heart. It was a fascinating specimen, but also very depressing. It was powerfully magical, but it was not a Dragon heart as I knew of them. It was not a Mana factory.

Now that I thought about it though, that made sense. Dragons here were fearsome, yes, but they weren't like the Dragons on Gaia. Even after pouring Prana into it, there was no marked change. Just an organ that granted innate magical power. Impressive, but therein lay the difference.

Dragons here had evolved in parallel with the Weave. They had no reason to be arcane reactors. Instead, they were powerful channels for the magic of the weave. Even then, there were things that could be done with the heart. For example, one could be fused into a magical focus to make it more powerful.

My findings were backed with a kind of disappointed disdain that bubbled up from within me. Daar lost fron, nuz kreh. It just left a bad taste in my mouth. Like seeing an amputee, you pitied them, it was just an unconscious reaction.

Now, the other thing, one I know you've been wondering about. What about Runes? Well, I have been collecting them, or something like them. The difference was subtle, but the mechanic was the same. Yet, I hesitated to use them. Here I was, doing mostly fine, and…

On the last day, I caved and channeled Runes, or Souls, or whatever it was, into me. Letting it permeate my soul and build on it. I still focused on my Magic Circuits, but I also let some splash out and pool into other parts of me at random.

Leaving through the south gate, I smiled as my friends seemed giddy over their new gear. Hymlen was actually quite dashing in his Dragon Scale armor, and Markith seemed more sure of himself now with his armor and shield enchanted. That would be Splint armor. Silla though was practically hugging her new bow, her enchanted saber almost forgotten.

That bow turned out better than I had expected. I used Αλλαγή to combine Dragon bone with her bow, replacing the wood almost completely with the bone. Yet the better properties of the wood, it's springyness, remained. And I fused the last Amathysts into it, before pumping it with an enchantment.

To my great surprise, it devoured far more Prana than the other items, even the larger armor, before the enchantment settled in. Do you know what happened? Somehow, I had made it into a bane weapon, specifically, against dragons. I just… how does that even happen?!

Of course, I knew how it happened, after looking back on it. The bow that killed the Dragon, fused with pieces of that very dragon? Concept alignment. I had made a Conceptual weapon! A Noble Phantasm! Sure it was only rank E+, but that changed nothing!

I was almost as giddy as she was.

But moving on, it took us two days, with Silla leading the way, to get to the area of Cragmaw Castle, and on the third day, we came within sight of the castle, and Silla left us cooling our heels in the cover of a copse of trees while she scouted ahead.

And when we returned she silently led us around the north of the castle, then up to the wall or crumbled tower really. Why, you would wonder, but she led us on through a hidden opening and into the castle. Looking around, I could see many rotted barrels and crates, marking this as once being where provisions were kept, at a guess. There was a heavy curtain to the South and a door to the East.

If memory/knowledge served me… we needed to go east.

Silently moving that way, I waited at the door, listening for a moment, then opened it slowly. Sure enough, there was a hall leading to another door, and it was just as I remembered from the map.

Turning around, I sighed as I saw everyone gathered around the curtain. They- Gah! Fuck, can't mak- "Haalvut."

The word came hissing from my mouth and a spectral dragon's paw? Shimmered into existence, and floated over to tap Markith on the shoulder.

His head turned and he frowned at the hand, then looked around. When he saw me over at a different door, he herded the others over. "What is it?"

"This way," I replied, "Can't you feel it?"

"No… but you haven't been wrong yet." He whispered, "What's the plan?"

I didn't get to reply as a scream of pain cut off anything I wanted to say. Instead, I pointed and growled, "Krii."

He blinked at me for a moment before shrugging and charging in… and shit, I did it again. Really, I should just be glad I wasn't slipping into Greek too.

Then came the roar of an angry Bugbear echoing through the halls.

The sounds of movement just to our south had me rushing forward and teleporting into the room by the unconscious dwarf. Who was, thankfully, not dead.

What I found was… well, a bent-over drow, a Bugbear, and a Wolf. A big wolf. So, I threw a αστέρια at the Bugbear. Sadly, this Bugbear actually wasn't half ba-d… was that a crude crown on its head?

"N-no! Stay ba-ck!" The Drow yelled, swiping with her sword. And missing Markith badly. Then a Hobgoblin appeared in the doorway and struck at Markith, managing to score a hit.

"Wilting!" Fell from Markith's mouth, even as he tensed and suddenly burst into a two-strike combo, killing the Drow. Only for it to transform as it died… Doppelganger.

Wait, did it try to read my mind… and run into the Kaleidoscope? That seemed like a potent mental defense… I should see if I could firm that up!

Then, of course, there was also Silla ramming her saber into the skull of the wolf. My party was starting to be more than just lucky, good.

"I will kill you!" The Bugbear bellowed as he took another swing with his mace. But really, did Markith even need magic armor?

Now, αστέρια, round two, fight! And this time I hit! Blasting a bloody crater into the Bugbear's back.

And that was an arrow in Markith's shoulder! Ok, he needs better armor! Even Hymlen was… not fighting up to par, as his mace hit didn't K.O. the Bugbear. Fuck.

Markith sidestepped the Hobgoblin in the door's blow and eviscerated the Bugbear. Whatever his name was. Of course, then Silla moved to have a clear line of sight and killed a Hobgoblin in one shot.

Stepping in front of Gundren's unconscious body, I stared, wide-eyed at the number of enemies outside the door! I needed some kind of AOE! Stat! Sadly, I was not equipped for that. Instead, I called up my magic, opening Circuits as I did and pushing power out with my casting. "Υπνος."

This was followed by the sound of four bodies hitting the floor. And a Goblin bolting in past Markith, somehow, and attacking Hymlen, again, for whatever reason. But, it was a Goblin and not a very smart one, so it was obviously easy for him to parry the clumsy blow with his shield.

And that was an arrow bouncing off of Kith's armor! Ha! Come one! He's on the ground! How did you miss?!

What! Even Silla's missing! Fuck!

And another Goblin bolting in? No, just… No, two! Fuck!

Stabbing out, I put my ξίφος through the Goblin's head, and moved on, even as Hymlen took a strike from one of the Goblins that had gotten in. Not that he was daunted, reaching out and crushing its head with his mace. And here comes another Goblin.

Finally, an arrow flying down range elicited a cry of pain! Ha!

Fuck! That's a- fuck!

Holding my leg where a new goblin just sliced me open, I growled, and put my ξίφος, through his head too! "Silla, the Archer!"

And there's another Goblin skull crushed by Hymlen.

Silla danced forward, loosing an arrow, then back to her previous position, and I let loose my own spear, I don't know which killed the Hobgoblin, but it wasn't getting back up.

And just like that… things were over, and I had time to slowly knit my flesh back together. But fuck! Being cut to the bone hurts!

Meanwhile, Markith killed the last two Hobgoblins and a single Goblin. Even as Silla got to looting.

Once I was fine, I took care of Markith and Hymlen, then looked over Gundren. He… didn't look good, beaten and bruised… Reaching out, I channeled Prana into him and slowly started the process of healing.

"Huh! Ah!" He proclaimed as he suddenly woke. "W-were… oh… it wasn't just a dream."

"Well," Markith spoke up, "We aren't done here yet, but I'm sure we'll be fine. If you want to wait here."

"Y-yes. I think that would be best." He replied, with a sigh, "I'm still not feeling the best."

"Ha!" Silla cheered as she moved a false flagstone. "Loot! Oh, and I found the map."

Taking it, I looked it over before handing it to Gundren. "We'll be needing to get to Wave Echo."

"R-right." He grunted. "Can't let this… Spider keep the Wave Echo Cave!"

"First, we have to finish off the Cragmaw." Hymlen stated.

"Right." Gundren grunted, "Go, I'll be fine."

I would love to cut this short, and just tell you that it was all Gobos from here. But well-

Leaving Gundren, we headed south and came across a door that was boarded up… this was not a trapped Owlbear…

Interesting.

"Do we… just leave it?" I asked, looking at the others.

"I say we see what's inside." Silla countered. "Markith?"

"I'm always down to explore dark chambers!" He replied with wiggling eyebrows… and was he flirting with her? Was she blushing? Well… that was more about the party dynamic than I wanted to know.

Hymlen just sighed, and complained, "I guess we're going in."

So, Markith started pulling off the boards.

Past the door? It was a hollowed-out tower, the whole of it in shadows and darkness. Which, was a problem for Markith, but not the rest of us! Ha!

Still, Hymlen reached out and touched Kith's sword and it burst into light.

The light did nothing for the tower, simply highlighting the dust and rubble on the floor. Along with broken glass, an old work table, and empty bookshelves.

Then Hymlen walked past us into the room… except, I turned to make sure, and yes, he was still standing to the side of the door.

Markith blinked at him, then turned to blink at him again… Then jumped as something floated down from the rafters and tried to tentacle the Tiefling! No bad! This was not Japan!

Where the fuck was- oh, Gaia. Earth. Ok? I don't get it.

Then with a shrug, Markith walked in and slashed into the… beaked tentacle brain. And it let out a warbling cry of pain and flailed around. Not that it did the creature any good as Silla and I blasted it, and even Hymlen got in a lick of magic. And then Markith's second stroke cut the thing in half.

"Well, that was exciting." He stated looking around, "But I don't see anything that could be worthwhile."

Shaking her head, Silla started climbing the tower up to one of the cliff-like sections. Once up there, she looked around before making her way over to a different protrusion.

"Nothing worthwhile?" She called down, "So I get to have your portion?"

"Don't be daft." He shot back with a smile.

And I think, really, I'll just give you the short version of the rest. We killed some Goblins, and some more Hobgoblins, and even a Grix. But nothing really noteworthy.

From there, we took Gundren to Phandalin and took a day to recover.

 

[Kerashana]

A/N: Ha... fuck. So, Simple Intrest and such, sucks. (Math class) But I got through it. Even figured out where I was going wrong the next day.... making it so much easier. Go figure. But I also got caught up in reading [A Young Girl's Weaponization of the Mythos], and wow did I enjoy it. Check it out. But that's been my week mostly, and why I don't have as much to post this week.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Over the course of that day, I found myself starting to ache, and I wasn't sure how to deal with the constant pain. This led to us being held up for another day as Hymlen looked more over, but neither he nor the local cleric of Tymora could figure out what was wrong.

The pain was just getting worse, but I talked everyone into heading out the next day. We had a job to do, and I had to just deal. Wouldn't be the first time I had to work through debilitating pain. Not with who my teacher was.

But I had forgone my leather armor. I wasn't in melee enough to justify it, and the pressure just caused me more pain. Like fire in my bones, and only breathing in seemed to cool the flames.

Wave Echo was only fifteen miles out of town and a dingy little cave. Disappointing really. I bet finding Mithral Hall was nowhere near as bleak.

Making our way into the caves… well, we reluctantly let Hymlen turn Markith's sword into a brand of light again. Then we found a large natural cavern with a wrecked camp in it.

Three bedrolls, a heap of the usual supplies… and a dead Dwarf. Sighing, I walked over and touched him, letting my Δομική ανάλυση tell me what it could.

Let's see… Tharden Rockseeker, dead for about a week… killed by a crushing blow. Oh, he's wearing a magical cloak, cool.

Touching the cloak, I did the same thing… protective energies… ah, name. "Cloak of Protection, who wants it?"

Markith and Hymlen went back and forth for a moment before Markith spoke up. "I'll take it I guess."

Taking it, he sighed and pulled it on. Then looked around before walking over to a large pit and looking in. "Oh, a rope!"

With a sigh, we all climbed down, and I had to grit my teeth the entire way. This was getting ridiculous.

As I let go of the rope and looked around, Markith asked, "So, North or South? I'm thinking North. The stories always say to stick to the right-hand wall and all that. So if we go opposite, we'll find all the dead ends and loot?"

Everyone gave me a look, and… what? What did they want? "What? I'm not the leader or anything."

"You kind of are." Hymlen replied, "I mean, you let Markith do most of the Leadery things, but you have a… force of personality…"

"Fine, fine. I don't really have a preference. North sounds good." I replied with a sigh. This was obviously the problem of Facing a party. People start to look at you to be the leader.

The North led us to a warren of tunnels and left us frowning. Shrugging, he picked a tunnel and started off.

Eventually, we made it to a chamber with a still, dark pool of water in it. Unfortunately, it was very fishy smelling. The odor, horrid.

Stopping near a set of stairs, Markith asked, "So, does anyone want to-"

And was interrupted as a snake, no sorry, a giant snake, lunged out of the water at me. Unfortunately for the Snek, I had these things, called legs, they help you do things, like duck.

"Shyt!" Silla yelped backing up, but she also let an arrow fly as she did her best to open space between her and the snake.

Backing up myself, I raised my cane and swirled it in a circle motion and spoke out, "αστέρια." Blasting a chunk out of the snake. Unfortunately, that was the same time Hymlen stepped forward and swung his mace… and the snake might have jerked out of the way because of my spell… oops?

Markith on the other hand managed to score a shallow slash, even with that happening.

On the other hand, it also threw off the snake's attempt to bite Markith so… yay? Of course, Silla and I did it again, we both hit the damn snake and who knows which of us killed it.

"Well, that was a surprise." Hymlen laughed, "But it could have been worse."

So, of course, it got worse… maybe? An amorphous blob of orange goop slothed into the view…

"Blighted Harvest!" Markith shouted, "I'm out!" And he backed away… why?

Oh! Oh… Oozes… often split into two with slashing damage. Right. Nope! Better he didn't engage.

Silla on the other hand, fired an arrow and watched it melt away after impact before declaring the same… which I guess was fair.

Moving further away from it, I let fly my Δόρυ Φωτός, and the fire in my bones ebbed away for a moment before returning, but the fluctuations in the spell were still driving me crazy!

Hymlen threw a perfect ball of light, hitting the Ooze… and Ochre? And burning away a good chunk of it. Even as it charged at us… at its slow, slow speed.

Maybe… flicking open five Circuits, I let the Od from them, pool with the Mana the spell components pulled in, and fed that into the matrices… and it worked!

My beam of Prana was… well, missing the Prana component! I got it! Now, how to apply this to other spells? But my beam seared into the Ooze, leaving very little left. And in a burst of divine light, Hymlen killed it! Yay!

Oozes… ew.

Looking around, I asked, "So, are we ready to move on?"

"Yeah." Markith agreed, "So, door or stairs?"

Walking up to the door, I placed my ear near it, not on it, that actually dampened sound, but near it, and listened. Grunting and talking in… Goblin I think? Along with… "I'm pretty sure there's Bugbears in there."

"Best to kill them now." Silla stated, "Before they ambush us, even if on accident."

"I'm good with that." Markith agreed.

Grumbling quietly, Hymlen muttered, "Here we go again."

Then Markith kicked the door open and charged at the first enemy he saw. Managing to get into range and leave a deep wound in the Bugbear's back before it could react. Other Bugbears were faster on the uptake and reacted with adroit awareness and speed.

Following him in, I took position to the side of the door and targeted the Bugbears that were at range, around the edges of the room, in the hopes of taking them down fast. My Δόρυ Φωτός carving a deep wound into one of them.

Hymlen, being Hymlen, rushed into melee with the main cluster of the Goblinoids, and hissed with his mace. But managed to have a Javalin glance off his side with enough force to stagger him.

In my expert opinion, that was a bruised set of ribs. Not that I got to stand around and critique it, as I was also the target of a Javalin. Maybe I should invest in some kind of shielding spell? Well, to my surprise, the Javalin slammed into my shoulder with enough force it should have been longed into it, except… well, it wasn't. It cut a thin gash along my shoulder before hitting the wall behind me.

That… wasn't supposed to happen? I mean, horses and gifts, and mouths, but what?

Of course, then Silla did her thing, appearing through the door and putting an arrow in the Bugbear's eye… but it somehow survived, because, of course, it did.

She also didn't hesitate to bolt back out the door and into cover. Should I do that?

I was knocked from my musings by Hymlen letting out a sulfurous curse, and a Bugbear to be hit with a short burst of fire. It sure didn't do the ugly beast any good. But hey! I got a kill that was indisputably mine as I finished off the Bugbear that had dared to throw one of the accursed lengths of wood and iron at me.

Which gave me a great view of Hymlen absolutely murdering the Bugbear he had blasted with flames. I mean, he really needed to work on that, if he was that strong, he needed to work on his aim.

Why couldn't he be more like Silla who almost always hit her targets? Like that, right there! Shit! Or maybe not? She didn't seem good at dodging, if the Javalin that had just opened up her side was any indication.

Note to self, work on your own aim too! My αστέρια shot high and slammed into the wall above one of the distant Bugbears.

And fuck! That was another Javalin slamming into me and not through… and it didn't even hurt this time? Well, more than I hurt right now anyway? What was even going on with my body?

But, to save everyone some time, the fight against the last two, or the six Bugbears, was grueling, with Hymlen almost going down. Thankfully, we managed to kill them, and it was easily agreed we needed a rest before moving on.

Returning the way we came, we headed up more stairs, and I couldn't help but sigh, "You would think we could kill those things by now with little problem."

"Pfft." Silla replied, "I doubt that's ever true. But we did have a bad showing."

At the top of the stairs, we were given a choice. Left, or right? Right took us down some stairs and towards the sound of water… Left was a door and a dead end.

"I vote left," I spoke up, "Unless that door leads to another hallway, it's probably a room that goes nowhere."

"Yeah." Markith grunted, "But I hear something the other way."

Shit…

"We don't have time to sit here and argue then, Left it is," Hymlen spoke up, heading that was.

Making it to the door, Markith opened it and we all found ourselves in a Dwarven Temple. Standing by the altar, was a Drow. A slate-skinned Elf with white hair. He wore dark robes and carried a staff of metal with a spider at the top.

The temple itself had six splintered marble pillars lining the walls, and a nine-foot-tall statue of a dwarf seated on a throne. One of the Dwarven Gods obviously. The large emeralds gleam in his eyes set into it definitely drew the- Heh! The eye. It also made me think of two things from my… fuck it, let's just call them memories. One was a monkey grabbing a large red ruby, only for everything to go to shit. The other was- well, I would sum it up as Indiana Jones.

There was no way those eyes weren't a trap.

Otherwise, the room was unremarkable, with dust, debris, some bedrolls, and a fire in front of the statue.

As we walked in, he, the magi of some flavor, moved forward toward us, and asked, "And who do we have here?"

The Drow, the Spider, wasn't alone, as there were two Bugbears in the room, but I could also make out rushing footsteps headed in our direction.

"Tss." I let out, "You presume much and with such terrible manners, even for a Drow."

My words brought him up short. "Ah, true, true. I am Nezznar the Spider."

Nodding, lips pursed I replied, "Interesting. These are Silla, Hymlen, and Markith Harlock. While I am Vaela Aeaea. I find it interesting, that you failed to mention your house. So, I would guess you are an Exile. Very interesting, as you seem to surround yourself with Doppelgangers in the form of Drow."

"How very… intuitive." He replied with a straight face, but it was more than likely a mask. "Well, why have you chosen to get in my way, time and time again?"

"Now, that is a fair question." I agreed, "Unfortunately, the answer is less interesting than you would guess… or maybe not. Many of those instances were us simply doing jobs, but it is true we were interested in saving our friend, Gundren."

"Of course." He grumbled, "Perhaps we can come to an agreement? I could turn over Nundro to you. I'm sure you can make some profit off of that? No need for things to come to blows."

It's funny, if I had been a locally trained magic user, I might have had some AOE to use, or have had to do this the hard way. Unfortunately, for him, I was not, and the Art of Magecraft was… flexible, even if it needed more time in many cases. But, to cut to the chase, while the conversation had unfolded, I had been spooling up multiple instances of my ever-reliable Δόρυ Φωτός.

"Ah," I let out, "I suppo- Δόρυ Φωτός!"

Three beams struck out… and only one actually hit. It was unpleasant, a reminder that I still needed to sit down and go over the targeting sections of my spells. Still, the one that did hit had a very visible effect on the Bugbear it hit. "Kith, the side."

"On it." He replied, charging off to meet the flanking group.

Even still, the Bugbears charged me, taking a swing, and I felt myself react, even knowing I couldn't dodge the blow. Old lessons and an odd intuition flared, and I spoke. It was not in my regular tones, but in those that I adopted when speaking Draconic, and yet, the word that fell from my mouth was very much Greek.

"Αιγίς!"

A purple-pink, three-petaled… caricature of a flower burst into existence before me, forming a quarter dome and- well, doing just what I had said. Shielding me.

The 'knowing' came instantly, knowledge giving a name to what I had done. This… Αιγίς, was a lesser version of the Ρω Αίας. The Conceptual form of the Shield of Aias, or for those of a more modern time. Ajax the Great, son of King Telamon and Periboea; second greatest hero of the whole Troy debacle, and was only outdone by Achilles, the nearly indestructible demi-god.

The Seven Burning Heavens was far stronger, greater. But Αιγίς was fine with me.

Nezznar was not as skilled or as lucky as I was, you see, Hymlen's glowy sword made a reappearance, and it struck the Spider from behind. It broke his concentration on whatever spell he had tried, and not content with that, Hymlen swung out with his mace, slamming into the closest Bugbear's ribs.

If I had to guess? Something was at least fractured.

With a glance around, I made my decision, and I closed in on Nezznar, even knowing it would leave me surrounded. My lips moved, and words fell from them, even as I struck at him my circuits open and power burning through them. "Γοητεύω / ξίφος."

And, as he fell, head separated from his body, my pain was done. The Od flowing through me with my circuits fully opened seeming to wash away the burning pain in my bones. What's more, I didn't feel like my circuits were causing my body to overheat.

But I didn't let this revelation stop me from spinning to my left and parrying a Bugbear's large mace with my cane, even as it was run through by Hymlen's floating blade.

Spinning around, I repeated my dual utterance, laying my Hex upon another Bugbear, and cleaving a deep wound into his chest.

Even as I carved into the Bugbear, I was amazed to watch Markith weather blow upon blow, with the skill and tenacity befitting the great heroes of Gaia. Given time, he would reach such heights.

With another strike, I took the head off of the Bugbear I was fighting. And from there, the rest folded. Not easily, or quietly, but they folded. Then we got to looting, or, the others did, but I had other things to do.

For example, after a quick look around, I found a chamber adjoined to the Temple by a hallway, and inside I found Nundro.

Opening the door, I let out a sigh as I found a Dwarf, in mostly good health, grumbling to himself. That is until he noticed, then he eyed me with suspicion. "What da ya want now? A new guise ain't gonna help ya."

Huh.

"Actually, Gundren sent us to protect Wave Echo from the Spider." I replied, "Who happens to be very dead."

There was a beat of silence, then disbelief set in. "Ya? Prove it."

Dwarves, stubborn as the stone they loved.

"Fine, come along then," I replied and guided him into the main Temple. "Silla, leave the statue alone."

She sighed from where she was looking up at the emeralds it had for eyes. But did as I said. "Fine, fine…"

Turning to the Nundro, I motioned at the Nezznar's body. "Good enough?"

"H-ha-hah-hahahaha!" He let out, "Dumathoin be praised. Now, we just have to figure out how to secure the rest of the mine."

Markith raised an eyebrow, and I shrugged, but Hymlen was the one to speak. "Not to worry, we can definitely help with that."

"For a price!" Silla put in.

"Hmph," Nundro vocalized, "That's fair, how's ten percent share of the mine? For your group, not individually."

Eh. "That sounds fair to me," I replied for everyone, because sometimes? It's best not to negotiate. Don't want business partners, for example, to think you are greedy.

"Then I'll follow your lead as we explore the mines." He replied, but Silla had something to say herself. "Ah, but any treasure we find is ours."

Grumbling, the Dwarf agreed, "As long as it's not a Dwarven relic."

"That's fair." Markith agreed in turn. "Well, we're going to take a bit to rest, then we can continue on."

Nundro nodded and… well, we went about setting up camp. Such as it was.

 

[josematos977]

I don't know about this world the mc is in so im a bit lost. Is it a dnd campaign? Either way i hope to see the mc in other magical words.

 

[Kerashana]

I don't know about this world the mc is in so im a bit lost. Is it a dnd campaign? Either way i hope to see the mc in other magical words.

Click to shrink...

Toril, the primary continent of Faerun, specifically the region of the city-state Neverwinter in the greater region of the Sword Coast of the Forgotten Realms setting.

Yes, this is a campaign, Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk. I might be writing this with the base assumption that people know the basics of DnD/Forgotten Realms lore. But even then, it shouldn't be too hard to pick up[ I hope? I mean it is a perspective fic, meaning it's from a single perspective, with a narrated that is reliable/semi-reliable but biased and only mentioned things that stand out to them.

You know, like how you can walk into a room and everything is set dressing, unimportant, except maybe the layout of the desks stands out to you. Or there's a purple coffee machine. Or maybe a wall covered in comics.

There's also a base assumption you know the Nasuverse. But that's more iffy, as I try to explain things when they come up for the first time, with only the most common things being left for people to infer or already know.

Might not be doing the best job at all of that, but I try.

Hope you've been enjoying things,
Cheers

Edit: P.S. Well, shit, that's more than I had intended for an answer... eh, whatever.

 

[Sesparra]

I'm going to be honest, I'm very confused as to what's happening to her physically. Is this some of her minor divinity poking through or some effect of her d&d dragon blood?
Also side note, If she's got An Astral dragon ancestor that might explain the instinctive kaleidoscope

 

[josematos977]

Toril, the primary continent of Faerun, specifically the region of the city-state Neverwinter in the greater region of the Sword Coast of the Forgotten Realms setting.

Yes, this is a campaign, Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk. I might be writing this with the base assumption that people know the basics of DnD/Forgotten Realms lore. But even then, it shouldn't be too hard to pick up[ I hope? I mean it is a perspective fic, meaning it's from a single perspective, with a narrated that is reliable/semi-reliable but biased and only mentioned things that stand out to them.

You know, like how you can walk into a room and everything is set dressing, unimportant, except maybe the layout of the desks stands out to you. Or there's a purple coffee machine. Or maybe a wall covered in comics.

There's also a base assumption you know the Nasuverse. But that's more iffy, as I try to explain things when they come up for the first time, with only the most common things being left for people to infer or already know.

Might not be doing the best job at all of that, but I try.

Hope you've been enjoying things,
Cheers

Edit: P.S. Well, shit, that's more than I had intended for an answer... eh, whatever.

Click to shrink...

I have been enjoying it a lot, thanks for writing it and for answering me! Hope to see a lot more of it!

 

[Kerashana]

I'm going to be honest, I'm very confused as to what's happening to her physically. Is this some of her minor divinity poking through or some effect of her d&d dragon blood?
Also side note, If she's got An Astral dragon ancestor that might explain the instinctive kaleidoscope

Click to shrink...

Well, you're right where I want you? It's supposed to be confusing what's happening to her. But to save you some frustration, it's Nasu related, and it's not Divinity.

Spoiler: Don't ruin it!

She has a Sapphire Dragon ancestor, and instead of giving her scales, what's happening is that he bones are slowly becoming a Calcium based Sapphire material that I see as the bones of a Gem Dragon- well, calcium [insert gem here]- there will be more to it. But it's part of why Silla asked if her eyes were bluer.

Spoiler: Kalei

The reason she has the kaleidoscope is a couple of factors. Inate magic power, luck, the potential for planeswalking, luck, falling into the gulf/kaleidoscope, luck, Eldrozi/Elder Evils eating her world, and of course, luck.

 

[Sesparra]

Well, you're right where I want you? It's supposed to be confusing what's happening to her. But to save you some frustration, it's Nasu related, and it's not Divinity.

Spoiler: Don't ruin it!

She has a Sapphire Dragon ancestor, and instead of giving her scales, what's happening is that he bones are slowly becoming a Calcium based Sapphire material that I see as the bones of a Gem Dragon- well, calcium [insert gem here]- there will be more to it. But it's part of why Silla asked if her eyes were bluer.

Spoiler: Kalei

The reason she has the kaleidoscope is a couple of factors. Inate magic power, luck, the potential for planeswalking, luck, falling into the gulf/kaleidoscope, luck, Eldrozi/Elder Evils eating her world, and of course, luck.

Click to shrink...

That's 100% fair, I just like asking questions and theorizing things<3

 

[AurielReaver]

Yaaaaaa makes sense especialy the Luck part given its a Series of miracles that she Survived the probably on a Grand scale rare event for any particular world to experience

 

[Jrin]

Well, you're right where I want you? It's supposed to be confusing what's happening to her. But to save you some frustration, it's Nasu related, and it's not Divinity.

Spoiler: Don't ruin it!

She has a Sapphire Dragon ancestor, and instead of giving her scales, what's happening is that he bones are slowly becoming a Calcium based Sapphire material that I see as the bones of a Gem Dragon- well, calcium [insert gem here]- there will be more to it. But it's part of why Silla asked if her eyes were bluer.

Spoiler: Kalei

The reason she has the kaleidoscope is a couple of factors. Inate magic power, luck, the potential for planeswalking, luck, falling into the gulf/kaleidoscope, luck, Eldrozi/Elder Evils eating her world, and of course, luck.

Click to shrink...

Just checking is her world earth or she fall into the modern knowledge of earth due to kaleidoscope?
Honestly I don't mind her Neverwinter adventures, i view it more as finding her footing after whatever mess her abusive teacher put her through, it felt like there's a case of Stockholm syndrome considering how she view that cursed women.

Will you just be going through gaming worlds or we will see her traveling through anime worlds?

Do you have any image reference for her and I guess the team, if you're playing Baldur's Gate 3 you could create profiles of the team?

 

[Kerashana]

i view it more as finding her footing after whatever mess her abusive teacher put her through, it felt like there's a case of Stockholm syndrome considering how she view that cursed women.

Click to shrink...

Magic/charm enforced Stockholm syndrome; by a goddess. Greek, so you know.

Just checking is her world earth or she fall into the modern knowledge of earth due to kaleidoscope?

Click to shrink...

This was because of an instinctive, but poorly executed use of Kaleidoscope, and for the record, this isn't Zelretch's. This is a different aspect. Zelretch uses the aspect of the kaleidoscope that is 'control' of parallel worlds, so any Earth that is Gaia parallel.

Vaela's version is to step into the 'Gulf' and pass through it to another plane/dimension/World, with no limit on it except the ability to target, which she doesn't have right now, and the power to traverse.

More importantly about using the Kaleid, is that it takes a non-standard way of thinking/seeing the world.

Will you just be going through gaming worlds or we will see her traveling through anime worlds?

Click to shrink...

At this moment, the locked in plans are Shadowrun, Cyberpunk 2077, Mass Effect, and the fifth grail war (Fate/stay night; Unlimited Blade Worlds; so on). I'm thinking about a few other, and well, we'll see, yeah? I'm open to suggestions, just don't expect me to do them, but I might, depending.

Oh, and I'm kicking around poking NGE for the fun of messing with Gendo.

Do you have any image reference for her and I guess the team, if you're playing Baldur's Gate 3 you could create profiles of the team?

Click to shrink...

I might do this to some degree... for at least base images. But don't expect the full party to stick around. They have their own thing to do here, and I have an idea of how this is going to end/bridge into the next thing.

 

[Sesparra]

Idk if you ever watched it, but poking fun at the ancients of stargate could be interesting as a later things

 

[Kerashana]

Ok, as the Threadmark says, these are approximations. Take them as such, I hat dealing with 'choose from list' as it's very cooky cutter. For example, everyone looks like five years older than they should. Yes, even Vaela the 95~ish year old elf.
Vaela
Markith
Hymlen
Silla

// SV wouldn't let me upload images, so these links will have to do.

 

[ZhaneSilverman]

Enjoyable story so far! Looking forward to reading more of their adventures and what will prompt her to travel again.

 

[Kerashana]

For those wondering, I'm dealing with a bitch of a paper I have to write for one of my classes. So, I'll be back as soon as I have free time to write what I want to, not what I have to.

Booo! Hiisssss!

 

[Sesparra]

No worries! Best of luck with your paper!

 

[Kerashana]

A/N: Explanation for this title at the end.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Leaving the temple, we found a chasm, and Silla insisted we go down and take a look. I felt it was a waste of time, but didn't fight it. I had my own problems, and other reasons besides, to go down there and take a look around. For one, I was still walking around with my Circuits completely open, something that should have had consequences. Not dire ones, I wasn't channeling any great mystery, but I should be starting to overheat. I wasn't. But more importantly, my bones still didn't ache, and again, I wasn't overheating.

Still, I tried closing my Circuits and immediately regretted it. My bones were a grinding, jagged, burning pain. Something to make the great Κίρκη pause. I didn't hesitate to reopen my circuits and wonder what was happening to me. To my body.

Over the course of an hour though, Silla sifted through the rubble at the bottom of the chasm. She even found something. I, on the other hand- besides trying to figure out my circuits- was put together a work of formula craft in my head. But more on that later.

"Hey, Vae! Can you tell me what these do?" Silla asked as she walked over with a pair of heavy-looking gauntlets.

Rolling my eyes, I took them and after a few minutes of Δομική ανάλυση, replied, "Nothing world-shaking, they reinforce the wearer, making them stronger."

"Well, that sounds useful!" She replied with a smile, "For Hymlen!"

As He took the gauntlets, Silla asked, "So, which side do we climb out on?"

Frowning, Markith dug into his things for a moment before coming out with a crude, partial map. "Well, it looks like if we go back, the barracks room leads to over there." He pointed at the south-east option for climbing out. There's also a chamber south of the barracks… yeah, best if we go back and sweep south, then north-east."

So, that's what we did, Markith led us back through tunnels and past the underground pond, all the way back to the warren of tunnels, and then towards some stairs. Not that we got to walk up them right away. Not with the pack of Ghouls that charged at us, rabid hunger in their eyes.

Of course, Markith and Hymlen met the charge with shield and weapon, while I threw a αστέρια at a Ghoul further back. With all the energy for the spell coming from me, I found there were no fluctuations and was most pleased to see the Ghoul lose its torso.

Not that it stopped, or even slowed the other Ghouls, even as they poured into the little hallway we were using as a choke point. Besides that, there wasn't much to say about the fight. Five Ghouls died to us in under thirty seconds.

The room, when we entered turned out to be a multi-tier room that looked like it once was a main hall or something. Feast hall? It was hard to tell with how much of a mess it was. The chamber above this room turned out to be a waterwheel-powered furnace, or perhaps a smelter. It was hard to say with how little I knew about the process.

It was not, however, empty. The moment Markith led the way in, there was a mad howling, followed by a voice screaming, "IntruDers! InVaDerS! KilL thEm!"

From the direction of the voice, I could see some green light spilling out under the large waterwheel-powered bellow/furnace thing. It wasn't working right now, no water.

The demand was still echoing in the chamber as a Zombie rushed us and was immediately destroyed by Markith and Hymlen. Then Markith bolted into the chamber and to the other side of the furnace, all the while yelling, "Kill the Skull!"

With that in mind, I stepped into starlight, and out onto the top of the large bellow, and let loose my Δόρυ Φωτός, and missed even as I hit? No, wait, the green flaming skull was hazy… oh. Blur. Fuck.

Suddenly, Markith was standing in front of me and striking down at the skull, and with a clatter cracking sound the skull firmed up. Edges sharpening, and the blur spell dissipating, or so I guessed.

"No! YoU cAn'T!" The Skull cried, even as Markith kept swinging, hacking into the bone until it fell to the floor, no longer burning, but ominously smoldering.

Not that the Zombies seemed to care, as they rushed Markith, ineffectual flailing at him. But these things were blurred, so it's no surprise I was able to hit one. I would need to put some thought into that problem, or, perhaps, weaponize it on my end? Something to think about.

Then Hymlen rolled up and put a Zombie's head into its torso… and well, that was how the rest of the fight went. We just rolled right over them.

"So, what was up with the skull?" I asked as I got down off the bellow

"Oh, Flaming Skulls are problematic." Markith replied, before explaining, "They shoot beams of fire from their eyes, as you saw, but they can also cast Fireball. They also don't stay dead."

Pursing my lips, I knelt down and touched the skull. It was warm. Then I circulated Od, and muttered, "Δομική ανάλυση."

The skull was enchanted. No, not… enchanted, but it did have an Arcane Matracies embedded in it. Very interesting. I couldn't see its whole history, that's madness, no one could do something like- except Shirou. Right.

But I got a few glimpses into the creation process for the… flaming skull? Yeah, that. With that knowledge, and what I already knew about arcane matrices? I was able to adjust the matrix to lock the skull in its recovery state.

That done, I plucked it up and dropped it in a bag, because I wanted to know how these worked! They could be great familiars or guardians. Or, at least an interesting project!

"Did you…" Hymlen asked, before thinking better of it. "Never mind."

Shaking his head, Markith led us into another chamber, and this one? This one was special! In the ceiling, there were glittering lights, or minerals, or something? They gave an impression of a starry night sky, far above. Kind of pretty really, the rest of the cavern? Well, not so much. Dwarven skeletons were scattered about the chamber, long dead.

But, what really took center stage? The two freestanding structures. I could feel power- Prana- coming out of one in waves. An interesting find, but also a dangerous one.

Without so much as a shrug, Markith led us to the double-doored entrance for the closest structure. The doors were ajar but also beat to the hells. Scorched and battered, but they opened for him easily enough.

Inside, inside was a workshop, two of the corners were taken up by worktables, and in the center of the room stood the source of the Prana waves. A brasier with green flames in it.

My study of the artifact was interrupted by a… disgusting thing. A spherical creature with four eyestalks and a massive central eye. A Spectator. The question of how I knew what it was… wasn't. IO could feel that itch in my skull, right where my memories of the creatures that des- ate my homeworld resided. Much like Nothics, though that encounter was insulated by foreign knowledge, this was an aberration.

Then it spoke, for a definition of the word, its raspy voice sounding directly in our heads. "Intruders? Invaders? Thieves?"

I felt a flicker of impulsiveness, but crushed it under my will and by then Markith had started speaking. "Nope, just the cleaning crew!"

And he took two large steps up to the Spectator and lashed out with his blade. Two swift strokes and the floating eyeball was bleeding profusely. So, I threw a αστέρια, and kind of… maybe cored it out?

"Ugh! Bleh!" Markith cried out, spitting pearlescent red blood from his mouth. "Oh gods, it tastes like pickled eyeball!"

Oops? Quick! Distraction!

"Well, we found the Spell Forge!" I said cheerily. "It needs some work, though."

"Neat!" Silla cheered, already looking around not that there was much to find. Unless you count the two magic items, a Breastplate that helped protect against dragon breath, and a Mace. The Mace Hymlen has been wanting to get his hands on; Lightbringer.

I didn't care, I was studying the brazier… and it didn't look good. It surely wouldn't last much longer, the flame that is. Maybe a decade or two? It wasn't strong enough to permanently enchant anything right now. Another major flaw.

But, I could already see how to fix it. And for the shares, the group was getting? I was going to. More money, long term. However, that sparked a good question, did I want to settle down here? Move along?

Well, there was more than enough for me to study right now, and I still was getting a handle on my magic. Later, that was a question for later.

I could go on, and tell you how we ran into a Wraith in the other free-standing structure… but just like with the Spectator? It was underwhelming, just as the few pockets of creatures left were. So, we'll skip over that, with a simple fact. Zombie Ogres smell worse than Ogres or Zombies.


Getting Nundro back to Phandalin was no great challenge, and so a month or so of time just… passed. For the others, though I suppose it's fair to say Markith was busy getting things in order on his end. Rebuilding the manor, and such. I didn't really pay much attention. I had three projects of my own. The first was getting the furnace working again, easy enough. I spent a day drawing up form formula-craft circles to raise the stone floor and built an aqueduct to get the water redirected properly. Next was the harder one, I had to build a Mana Tap a Formula craft that could take flows of mana directed at it, and then channel that up into the brazier. But that needed Minher to be built out in the wilderness to collect it.

And that's not enough, no. I also had a new cane I was crafting. This one was… more. More in-depth, and more complicated. First I took a Dragon bone, and hand-shaped it to the dimensions I wanted, then slid it into a Weirwood shell. This I fused to it, and fused in veins of Glintstone, as well as a patch of green dragon scales to function as a grip. Then with the help of Gundren, or really some of his relatives, I covered it in Mithral filigree and end cap. Foot?

That all done, I left it in the green flames overnight and when I got back, the cane was… well, a conduit of power.

That's not even taking into account the chance I got to trade the Staff of Defense I got so long ago to a passing Wizard for a magic robe. Ugly thing, but useful. Or the Ring of Mind Shielding I got to look at. I promptly duplicated the arcane matrix into the earrings I'd been wearing for a while.

But, no, that wasn't everything, no I found myself completely debilitated for a few days as my bones felt like they had finally burst into splinters and shifted under my skin. You see, I couldn't keep my Circuits open for the entire month, and with no combat, I had let them fall silent.

It started with my ribs and spread out from there, all the way to my toe and fingertips. Grinding agony so bad you lose sense of time. When all was said and done, I was left with new nails; the old ones having been pushed out.

Sapphire. My finger and toenails were sapphire claws. And belatedly, I used Δομική ανάλυση on myself… and obviously I had changed. My bones were… Sapphire, or a sort. Calcium-based Sapphires and I could see it in my organs and muscles a bit. My nails were secured to my bone as a kind of extension, and if I was right, this wasn't the only change coming. Two pools of Od were forming in my back, at about shoulder blade height.

Wings?

That would be… future me's problem I suppose?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A/N:

Spoiler: Shit, this got long.

Really, I'm underwhelmed with Wave Echo Caverns. The hardest fight was a toss-up between the six bugbears, and the eight zombies and one Flaming Skull. On one hand, the Flaming Skull had the potential to wipe the part, if it wasn't defensive based on its orders. Round one fireball while we were all in a hallway? Fuck. On the other hand, due to like two rounds of all shitty rolls, the Bugbears almost had us. Well, maybe. Someone would have gone down for sure.

As for the 'bosses' well, Nezznar, The Spider, was a joke. 27 HP with an AC of 14 (with Mage armor up), and two bugbears? Even with three more bugbears and a Doppelganger from another area rushing in... it was a vastly underwhelming fight. The Spectator in the Spell Forge was literally killed in 1.5 rounds. A surprise round and then finished in the normal round. As for the Wraith... again, underwhelming, but mostly because action economy in that one. If we didn't all have magic/magic weapons, it would have been a hard fight.

All-in-all, 2/5 for the Wave Echo Caverns. If you're planning on running this adventure, I really, REALLY, recommend you beef up at least one of those boss fights. For Nezznar, I would say bring back some of the Giant spiders, maybe two of them, and have the Bugbears replaced with two more Dopples. Maybe? As for the loot from this place... alter it to be more tailored to your party. Maybe slip in an additional magic weapon in the Forge of Spells. Or a caster bauble/focus/whatever in the Wraith's chamber.

Finally, I really do recommend, giving your group a month or two between Wave Echo and the start of the next part of the adventure to head back to Neverwinter and look for magic items or make something, or generally whatever.

For example, the month I give was used by Markith to rebuild the Manor, and start the process of claiming lordship over the region of Phandalin. This all in all cost him around 2,500 GP which he paid two chunks of 500 GP during earlier sections of the adventure, and a huge 1,500 gp after Wave Echo.

Instead of heading to Neverwinter, I had a group of Adventurers Aprox level 14 pass through the town on their way to Neverwinter. This was a good chance for magic items to be bartered/sold. It also makes the world feel more alive. Your party isn't the only group out here making a mark.

 

[asmodyne]

Yay more adventures! Happy to see it.