"There is no such thing as fully grown with Silverthorn." Lyra said wearily as she dragged the pig she had killed over to the edge of the forest, away from the Tree, and threw a rope over a low branch to haul the pig upright. She went back to rifle through her bags before producing an old carving knife with a worn wooden handle, the edge of the blade vanishing into razor sharpness.
She would continue to speak as she dressed the pig with quick and familiar movements. "They are only overtly dangerous in the first one to two hundred years before they sexually mature. They are not evil or corrupting, they simply acquire sustenance from sources other then soil and water. Once they sexually mature and their growth slows they stop feeding on prey and draw their food directly from magic. Five pigs-" she motioned to the tree with her head as she worked to yank the bisected skin off the pig hanging in front of her.
"-will keep the Tree satiated for at least a week, probably two. Post signs all around the edge of the glade to keep people away and leave the Tree to grow. Under no circumstances will we cut or burn the Tree down, it's only dangerous to creatures who set foot inside the glade."
Domitian's eyes widened in shock and his mouth dropped open a bit as the tree ate the downed boars. It just shot right up and ate them. He had no experience with carnivorous trees, though in reflecting it really shouldn't have surprised him given everything they had seen; it really wasn't even in the top 10 weird things they had seen since starting this adventure. Even so, it still set him back, moreso when Lyra shook hands with it.
His head tilted as he heard Lyra describe the tree, and he studied it. "It is incredible..." he said lightly, as he continued to stare at it with fascination. "Dangerous for sure, but no less magnificent for all that. Many dangerous things can be beautiful." His gaze flicks over to Mehaila at this ever so briefly before returning to the tree once more.
A thought occurs to him then, something he had not even thought to try with the tree before. He believed Lyra, but given the supernatural source of this tree they really couldn't be certain of anything with it. It could be more than rare, it could be utterly unique because of how it came about. Domitian uttered a few quick words of supplication, and attempted to Detect Evil, focusing on the tree.
Meha, while not completely shocked at first, since she had asked Lyra, and assumed this was just some magical Lyra thing. However, when Lyra herself was confused, did it really dawn on Meha just how special the tree was, and then how special their bond to it was. Sure, she was not a fan of vines, and she had stepped back a few steps when they had snaked out and whipped around, but soon she seemed in awe. They had a somewhat sentient creature that looked to them for guidance. That was beyond cool to her.
Once Lyra had explained all she could, and everyone was looking at the tree in a different light, she says " Perhaps if given the chance, I would like to be laid to rest here. It is not every day one gets to see magic made before them, and then to have made it yourself is another feat. Perhaps you can remember to...." Her thoughtful and somber tone seemed to fade a bit at the end, more a sad comment about how short life was for some, for while everyone gathered knew elven kind lived long lives, it was not until realized just how long that was sometimes. Meha had not really thought about her out living her companions when she started to make the remark, but it was clear at the end she realized it
Lyra blinked at Mehaila's comment and turned to look at the somber elf. Her purple eyes seemed to bore into the cleric before flicking over at Rosa and then Domitian. "With the exception of our stalwart fighter there is a good chance the rest of us will outlive you. Rosa and I are approaching our 100th year."
She turned away from the half slaughtered pig and waved at her trim figure with bloody hands, turning slightly so that she was almost posing. "And I've seen human teenagers who look older than me."
Domitian shakes off his holy vision and then nods. "Lyra speaks truly - there is no evil here. Just a dangerous form of nature we need to respect, like any other."
When the talk turned somber between Mehaila and Lyra, Domitian looked back and forth between them, a pensive look on his face. "I've never given much thought to my natural lifespan, truth be told. Always seemed to be more pressing matters to deal with." He gives a little shrug and continues, "one can never tell, with lives such as ours, how it will all turn out. We'll just have to enjoy the ride as best we can."
"Just two hundred years she says," Moira scoffs at Lyra. "I ain't likely to see two hundred. Or even a hundred if things keep escalating here." She gives the surroundings a nervous look. "Signs or not if that thing kills a kid I'm cutting it down. It's a dangerous creature that can't be scarred off, is aggressive and always hungry. Your words," she says pointing at the tree. "Much as I'm curious what we could do with the wood," she says, nodding at Rosa, "you don't just ignore a wild animal like that."
Taking the chance, she pokes Lyra, checking her out before saying " That is very true. Look at Moira. If you took half her chest and give it to you, her's would still be bigger." Which, while Meha was a bit curvy for an elf, it was only slightly more, nothing compared to a normal human woman. She was mainly all long and graceful, not rounded.
As far as Moira talking about killing the tree, she says " That is the typical human response to everything. Kill it. Different? Kill it. Pointy ears? If you can't f#*# it kill it. Why not respect some things are dangerous? Do you truly blame the wasp when it stings you for invading it's nest?" Meha makes a fae at Moira, for while she wasn't as naturey, she still grew up in a tree house.
"For someone with a fixation on my chest you have yet to ask to see them," the hunter said thrusting out her assets with a sleazy smile. It was really hard to read the elf most of the time. She had an odd sort of stillness to her that gave nothing away unless she wanted.
She sobers quickly at the commentary of her people. And to be fair, she had a point. Humans did a lot of killing. Some of the best at it really. She shrugs at Mehaila. "Some of those are fair. We can f+&& a lot of things," she says smiling briefly. "This hardly compares to a wasp. And I didn't say I'd kill it now. Just that if it ever kills a kid I'm chopping it down. Doesn't matter if its human, elf, drow, or whatever. If we're going to be responsible for it same rules apply. Keep a dangerous pet and don't have the discipline to keep it from mauling people then you let it go far away or kill it. Can't do the first with a tree."
Meha sighes and shakes her head. She wasn't ever sure where humans stood on the whole age scale, but clearly Moira was like a young elf. Always curious, but sometimes missing the whole point. After a bit of time to properly compose her thoughts into something she could make human, she ventures forth " We elves have a saying.... or.. well a phrase for your kind, but a phrase for us. Lyra may have heard it before. I glad na- cuin, or rather, the forest lives. It can be either helpful or harmful, but the forest is ALIVE. Would you say a bear is anymore a pet? Outside of creatures like Shirak who are bonded to someone with a cooler head, if not by much, you do not actively blame the trees for falling on your house if you build among them, nor do you blame the bear when you live out in the woods." She seems a bit miffed Moira doesnt get her point, because to her it is just simply a creature who exist and causes them no harm nor anyone else harm. The tree would be fine if people did not interfere with it.
"Alright look," waving her hands and placing them against her temple in frustration. "Let's say someone from your elf or drow village, doesn't matter who, child, idiot, hunter, trader...they go into the forest for whatever reason and they either come back crippled or not at all and you find the culprit. A tiger or bear or something. What do you do? What would your village do?"
Rose perks up to the exchange between Moira and Mehaila, but she nonetheless has an opinion to offer as well as she moves closer to them.
"A hunter assumes the risk that hunting poses. They are just as likely to lose their own life to what they hunt as successfully hunt it if they don't take care or inexperienced. As the caretakers of this creature we have given life to, it is our duty to educate those capable of understanding to respect and keep their distance from our charge, less they find themselves in great peril."
She raises an eyebrow as she doesn't quite understand if there is further need to argue or if the point could be made that they need not declaw or defang their creation so long as they warn others properly so as to avoid unfortunate accidents.
Thinks before responding, her overly large eyes blinking " We would know to either be prepared to defend yourself in that area, ask someone to move it, or if it was sick and dying, put it down. If you are careless enough to lose to an animal, perhaps it was due to nature. Live in harmony with nature. Secondly, " and Meha gets a bit dark sounding, as if something is gone from her voice, an emotional key that made her seem approachable " Drow do not exist, and if they did, do not ever, ever, make the mistake of calling an elf one. I will give you a pass this time, due to them not being real, and you being ignorant. But something's not even friendship will stay a fight on." Her eyes bore into Moira, for the tense in the air it was clear a very hard line had been crossed.
"The point is moot Moira, by the time that might be a possibility I will have taken steps to shield EVERYONE from the tree. Do you think just because I will not allow the tree to be destroyed that I would not also take many steps to protect everyone FROM the tree? By the time more then the occasional hunter comes this far south...whatever we are trying to build will be strong enough to educate everyone on the tree's danger." Lyra interrupted, digging into the ground under the slaughtered pig until she made a pit. Once the organs and other viscera from the pig had filled the pit she used magic to sink them even further, allowing the ground above to collapse onto it.
"Mehaila if you would use your preserving magic please?" Lyra asked, washing her hands from a waterskin. Once her hands were cleaned she dug into her bag and pulled out a long roll of paper. Inside the roll was a partially completed drawing of what appeared to be a temple made of beautiful stone arches lining the edge of a glade with a single tree at at the center.
"I started working on this the moment the tree was created. It serves a two-fold purpose. First is to protect the tree. Second is to draw attention to this area and for the curious instill in them a deeper respect for the power of nature. If they know what the Tree can do, that information will spread and the problem will solve itself."
"Yeah I know what a hunter does. I am one," Moira says pointing to herself while starring at Rosa with wide eyes. "I am just asking what do elves do when things go wrong." She turned back to Mehaila expectantly. And her answer was...expected. She didn't want to say it was cowardly but it felt that way. She rolled her eyes at Mehaila's refusal to accept that drow existed and pinched her nose in frustration. "Wasn't calling you a drow. I was talking about them," she says, indicating the sisters.
She sighs and continues. "Well that's where we differ I guess. If a human is attacked, any human, it means that animal has lost it's fear of us and is a danger to the rest. So we scare it off, move it, or if neither of those is feasible, we kill it." She might have added more but Lyra interjected. She listened to the Druid but again rolled her eyes at the idea. She looked over drawing, marveling at the artistry. It was pretty and she had no idea any of the magical runes and writing around it meant. She took out a charcoal pencil of her own and drew lines pointing away from the structure, while carefully avoiding Lyra's notations.
"Better idea. Keep people away. You are clearly underestimating the power of stupidity and greed. It's a magical tree. Me and Rosa are already drooling over the possibilities but we're level headed and respectful enough to wait for it to mature and only take what it can provide. Soon as some a!@!!*$ noble finds out there is a magical murder tree nearby their gonna try and buy it. And when you say no, they are going to try and take it. Either to sell for magical materials or just as a centerpiece in a dumb garden that they can throw exotic animals or people they don't like at."
She sighs and mumbles to herself, "This and the bloody cave are going to be a nuisance."
While helping Lyra by using her preservation magics, she shakes her head. During a pauses she says softly, more to Moira's last point than anything " Then as good people we kill that person. Just because someone is stupid does not mean you protect them to the harm of the world around you. Does the less camouflaged deer not get shot first?" It was clear Meha didnt understand Moira's worries about the other humans, a small reminder that elven society and thinking was just slightly different from humans. Once finished however, she would look at what they completed and state " Well now, that is finished... what is next?"
Lyra watched while Moira made her notes on the drawing, not upset in any fashion to the alterations. She remained silent while the larger woman made her comments and studied the paper for a long time before she sighed and rolled it back up. "I know Moira but that is only the first line of defenses. I think your problem is you are afraid of something you don't fully understand."
She would hold her hand up to forestall any arguments from the fighter with a patient expression. "Please let me finish. You don't know magic like I do. None of you do, not even my dear sister Rosa." she threw a half smile, half smirk at her darker sibling. "I say that not to belittle or out of arrogance, it is simple fact. To me magic and life are two sides of the same coin, a beautiful web of mystery and unimaginable possibilities that give us the power to shape our own destinies."
She slid the diagram back into her pack. "There is a story I want to share with you, from the ancient history of the elves." her eyes would dart over to Mehaila for a moment before she launched into her tale, leaning forward to restart the still smoking embers into a cheerful fire with a cantrip and flick of her fingers.
"Did you ever wonder why elves seem to be so partial to living in forests with giant trees? It harkens back to their creation myths of the Trees of Life. Telperion and Laurelin, the Silver Tree and Gold Tree that brought light to the ancient faerie kingdom of Valinor where the elves were born. It is said that the dew that would drop off the trees from the rain was so potent in magic that the elves created entire cities with a few drops. In return the elves worshiped the two trees of creation, sang to them, incorporated their image into their daily lives and considered all children of the Two Trees to be sacred; that is, all trees."
Lyra leaned back and rubbed her neck. "I wont bore you with the minutiae but in the ancient past there were a few elves studying the deeper mysteries of the multiverse that discovered the Rough Beast. The very act of whispering about his existence drew his attention to the land of faerie, the realm abandoned by the other gods. His fury and lust for chaos annihilated every trace of Valinor and he personally feasted on Laurelin, growing with every berry from Her until he was as big as a moon. Telperion was smashed into pieces by the Rough Beast's thrashing and his seeds scattered to the four corners of creation. Some scholars debate whether or not Silverthorn Trees are the actual seeds of Telperion, beautiful like their ancient ancestor but endowed with weapons and a way to defend themselves that the Silver Tree didn't have. And since the Fall the elves have lost something they can never recover."
Looking over at Moira with an earnest expression, Lyra finished with "Can you imagine that? Can you imagine the possibilities that these ridiculously rare trees are the ONLY remnant of the creator race of the elves? Can you imagine an entire race of sentient beings looking for trees like this only to reminded of what they lost? This is why I will not allow the tree to be cut down, because that is destroying a potential life line to a history that has all but been forgotten. I am-" she cut off suddenly, looking uncomfortable and angry at the same time for some reason.
Taking a deep breath Lyra continued. "It's too important. That Tree is impossible. I planted a Pinetree over that bandit, a simple northern species capable of surviving freezing temperatures, not a Silverthorn. Whatever is going on here, we need to see it through to the end."
Rose smirked back at her sister, refusing to take the obvious bait. She however did listen in earnest to her sister recount a tale that she wasn't even aware of. She took her staff in hand and gently rubbed her fingertips over the groves that made the runic carvings upon the staff.
She had originally made the carvings because the shapes they made were pleasing to both her eyes and touch, but now she wondered if something more ancestral was hidden away in the strange carvings she had etched upon the sturdy wood. Especially when hearing about the ancient elves from her sister.
She made her way over to comfort Lyra near the end of her story and feeling the emotion that she fought to keep in check. "As well we should, it's not everyday a tree changes its breed and eats meat. We would be insane not to want to learn more from it, and the little we do know barely scratches the surface." She chuckled softly, patting her sister's back.
Moira rolled her eyes as Lyra went into lecture mode but soon found herself listening intently. This didn't feel like something elves shared often. It was interesting to ponder if that was all true or not. Elves lived a long time so maybe that wasn't too many generations ago. They were also a little mystifying but Moira believed that was mostly a facade. Considering all the things she'd seen so far, giant trees birthing a whole race seemed a lot more believable now. And wasn't that something. Her contemplation turned to surprise as Lyra grew more animated, more intense. And no, she couldn't imagine that. Just another difference between elves and humans she supposed. If what Lyra said was true, she just couldn't imagine a whole race moving together like that. Humans certainly didn't, fractured as they were.
She waited for Lyra to calm down before untensing. The druid had a lot of power in her and any time she got angry Moira expected thunderstorms for some reason. "Fine," she said throwing her hands in the air. "We can keep the murder tree. If it's that important then I stand by my additions," she said pointing at the temple plans. "Better if you keep people away." Then a thought struck her. If Lyra could make this temple, arch thing to protect and hide the tree could she also...
"That temple thing? Could you also put it around, say, a pond...with a very important cave under the surface?"
Lyra looked surprised and a little suspicious of Moira's question, not understanding at first what the fighter was getting at. "What...oh! Way ahead of you!" she said excitedly, grabbing her bag and turning it over. What came out, in addition to the normal brick-a-brack of an adventuring wizard, was rolls and rolls of paper wrapped in leather and wax to protect them from the weather. Grabbing one roll seemingly at random she ripped the top off to reveal several rolls that were not tightly wound and dumped those on the ground.
What was revealed was an entire collection of random buildings from a lowly house to an entire cityscape completed with roads that spider-webbed through civilization before shooting in every direction to connect to distant cities and other countries. Shoving aside the random hand-drawn pictures the wizard muttered under her breath before grabbing one with a triumphant "Aha! This is my idea for that."
In her hands spread a drawing of a massive, heavily armed fortress that had the vague diagrams of tunnels underneath it. "This is our lodestone. Once we make these lands safe this is how we will pay for everything. It will need to be protected."
Domitian let out a long breath that he hadn't even realized he was holding in when the tension in the group finally unwound. His thoughts went to Akiivos, always near at hand. He had taken to talking to the bow more and more lately. I can fight off demons and dragons without losing a beat, but the women around me begin to fight and I tense up like a lone bard in a dragon den. Then again, I've seen what these particular women are capable of, so maybe that's smart...
He then tilted his head in interest as all the various plans started flying all over the place. He walked closer as Lyra showed the fortress plans. "Quite impressive. How long will construction of that take? It will draw attention to that place before the fortress is ready, which could be problematic."
Moira starred open-mouthed at the sheaves of paper. Not the ones that fell out. That tracked with wizards and scholar types. What she starred at was a city. Actually it wasn't just a city was it? It was a future. The vision of a half elf, wizard and druid from...huh, she actually didn't know. In fact she didn't all that much about any of them. Life just short of shoved them together, put them through trial and tribulations, and somehow they came out closer without really questioning it. Well, things had grown a little distant after she causally turned herself into a half dryad. That made a little more since now considering the breadth of her vision. You need power to do anything. Making a nation would require...a lot. Her own dreams seemed diminished comparatively.
She bristled at her own traitorous thoughts. No. They were not diminished or lesser or anything else. No one's was. But this was big. Real big. Bigger than the person they belonged to. They'd have to belong to a lot of people. It felt a little petty to think it but if it gave her access to that Cave of Wonders. She was in. She'd do just about anything for her own dreams too.
Still.
"The f+!% did you have time to do all this? Also aren't we doing a tree house?" she asked remembering the absolutely enormous tree where the mites lived. She went over the fortress a little more critically than the rest and the tunnels underneath. She imagined dwarven miners (or maybe kobolds?) plugging away at the depths. Funny how she cold picture both. "This...this is going to take a lot of work."
With the intact boar corpses properly processed by Lyra and their decay halted with Mehaila's magic the party settled around the reignited campfire, talking about their plans for the future. Lyra and Rosa would reveal extensive plans they had created over two years ago when the first rumors of Brevoy's plans for the Stolen Lands began to circulate.
In the middle of the night a tremendous storm rolled through the area, flattening the long grass of the grasslands to the east and causing the forest to dance wildly before crashing to the ground. Lightning danced across the land as the eye of the storm moved slowly across the sky.
Inside the glade the party felt none of this. A gentle rain had come during the night and they awoke to gray skies and a gentle breeze. The moment they crossed an invisible line in their trek south they would become aware of the magic of the glade as savage winds threatened to bring the trees down on them and they were quickly soaked to the bone. Within the shelter of the forest they were shielded from the worst of the storm but still felt nature's fury all the same.
It took them longer to move through the forest with the wind pushing them in every direction. Several hours after the sun crossed the zenith of it's daily journey the party would feel a shudder in the ground as they began to descend into a small valley in the depths of the forest. It was followed quickly by another rumble in the ground as the tree tops ahead of the party danced wildly before crashing to the ground as something shoved them aside.
Then the group heard the unmistakable sound of a pig's grunting from deeper in the valley, only far deeper and louder then anything they've heard before.
Meha would ask and try to find out more about the plans to do the tree house, as she really enjoyed the idea of using that obviously Elven place as a base, but she knew they needed to know more about it before anything else was done. It could go very badly if everything wasn't carefully examined there, and she knew it. A girl could wish though.
However, Meha's talking goes down as they got soaked. Even with a travel blanket and other ways to keep the rain off of her, she puts her hair back into a ponytail, clearly soaked. Battling the rain was a chore, distracting from all directions with the wind. This all happened when suddenly there was a large crashing in the surrounding area. Which with all the weather, meant it was very close by, perhaps close enough they would not outrun whatever was causing it if it was something they had no wish to met, and the sound of a wild hog did not bode well.
" Perhaps we should get ready for this fight? Surely you all here that." Due to the weather, she attempts to locate how much time before this beast was before them.
Rose emphatically discussed the plans that she and Lyra had come up with a while ago, looking earnestly excited that their ideas for founding a city are slowly coming to fruition bit by bit.
The change of the weather put somewhat of a damper onto her spirits, but she would grin and bear it. It was just rain after all. However the other sounds that reverberated aside from the gentle sounds of thunder gave her slight pause.
She nodded at Mehaila's comment, preparing herself for what lay ahead for them in the pouring rain.
Moira didn't bother putting up her hood when they exited the relative safety of the tree's strange aura. In this rain, nothing was going to stay dry and they had forest to explore. All she did was tie her hair back because wet hair whipping about her face was a distraction she didn't need. Despite the pouring rain and pushing wind she heard the sound of shifting and creaking trees in the distance. Following that was the deepest grunt she'd ever heard. It felt more like a mini earthquake. And yet somehow it was unmistakably a boar's grunt. Instinctively she crouched down and peered ahead. Both fear and excitement surged through her at the thought of hunting a giant boar. "I'll check it out," she said stepping forward and ghosting into the woods.
It would take Moira some time to creep through the underbrush as she didn't have the skill of either Mehaila or Lyra but eventually she would get close enough to spot ponderous movement ahead of her. This close to the beast the fighter could feel the vibrations the beast's snorting was creating in her chest, a deep rumble that shook her very bones. Each heavy step was accompanied by a shiver in the earth under her feet as the twenty foot tall creature used it's three foot long shimmering tusks to rip up trees and rifle through the upturned earth under them.
Moira would see that the huge boar had deep brown, almost black fur and a row of bone spikes lining it's spine. The immense creature ignored the blowing wind and rain as black ichor dripped from its mouth and fell into steaming pools that bubbled vigorously as it ate through everything the goo touched. Another flash of lightning would be reflected from the spikes and tusks of the powerful creature as it dug up a large boulder from the ground and crushed it into pebbles with a single bite, munching happily on the dissolving rock. All of the upturned trees and bare earth showed the same acidic scarring.
Through all of this the loud storm overhead kept Moira hidden completely from the creature.
Slipping from her horse, for she was no good fighting on one, she tried to slip into the underbrush away from Moira, though she was not as careful as Moira when she went to dismount and go to brush. She was unsure if she had attracted its attention, but she would try to see if she had anything to keep her good, at least until she knew what she was dealing with. She just was not yet used to the wilderness for this. However, she would await to see what it was, and form a best way to attack or redirect the threat.
Rose stiffened at the sounds that were being heard aside from the terrible storm that raged around them. She didn't think it wise to go potentially picking fights with the weather as such, but she could not argue the negatives to having the upper-hand in an engagement if they should need to come to blows.
She grimaced as she once again pulled out her usual murky substance and carefully quaffed it, feeling the familiar tingling of her skin becoming rougher and her movements more graceful. It always felt like her senses dulled slightly whenever she imbibed the mixture, but there was always risks when it came to experimentation and discovery.
She carefully made her way over into the brush as the others had, but she also took her time and was slower to follow as she wanted to check her available extracts that she had prepared as she moved.
Moira slunk back away from the rock crushing beast and back to the others. For a long moment she is silent, looking back in the direction of the boar before finally speaking. "I have no idea what that thing is. It's obviously a boar but nothing like what we already hunter. 20ft tall. Black fur with bone spines running along it's back. And black, acidic spit leaking from it's mouth. The damn thing was eating boulders. And it's tusks were..shimmering. Coated in a thin sheen of acid spit I guess."
Lyra listened closely to Moira's description, frowning in concentration as she assembled all of the facts. Acid, shimmering tusks...acid doesn't make things shimmer...unless...
"It's no longer just a simple animal." She mused, calming her horse with a simple flick of her reins when the creature began to dance with impatience. "Most likely the shimmering you saw in the tusks was from a metallic element introduced into the creature's skeleton. That coupled with the acid...I believe the creature has become imbued with traits of earth elementals. It will be resistant to weapons and Very strong. With this storm..."
She trailed off and looked up at the swaying trees above them, the forest protecting them from the shrieking wind that blew with unrelenting fury just two hundred feet overhead. "I think our only effective option is to enhance Moira and Domitian with growth and strength magic and support them. With this wind arrows are more likely to miss their target-" she cut off suddenly.
Lyra held looked through the trees and at the storm itself, a fey smile growing across her face. She raised a hand and spread her fingers, looking down as electricity danced across her fingertips. "Or we can use the storm itself. Domitian and Moira will distract and hold the creature in place, prevent it from charging. Rosa and Mehaila will support them and give me the time I need to direct the fury of the storm at the creature. I have recently been granted access to more powerful wild magic and prayed for a spell that could summon forth the lightning at the heart of a storm, a spell that will be absolutely perfect in this situation. Do you all agree?"
Rose turned back to the others, a bit nervous and unsure as she wasn't fond of the memory of what happened last time there was a severe lightning storm around them. She bit her lip in thought.
"If we want to still make Moira and Domitian bigger, I can help with that..." She instinctively reached for her staff, as reassurance for herself and emphasis for her words.
"If you mean to wield the storm's energies again, be my guest dear sister. I just hope you know what you are doing." She shook her head, but nonetheless would not stop her or tell her otherwise. Lyra had always been gifted, her latest fey incarnation another example of such. She rubbed her dendrite-infused neck with her hardened palm, still not quite used to the feeling of her own strange magics. She smiled, "Course that means if you think we have a chance..." The hesitation from her voice dropped and became more determined, firmer than her enhanced flesh, as she smiled.
She trusted her, she trusted them, they would see this through, through storm and dangerous wilds.
Domitian frowned as he barely heard Moira's description over the howling winds. He searched his memory for any trace of such a creature, but came up woefully short. Going for the silent-but-wise look, he held his tongue as he waited for Lyra to inevitably explain what was going on. He smiled as she did so, not disappointing in the slightest; but then the grin faded as the plan came into view. Such a beast did not sound trivial, but they couldn't just leave it to potentially hurt others.
Not trusting his ability to be heard in the storm, Domitian simply dismounts and ties up his horse to a nearby tree. Stretching out his head and shoulders, he then gives a thumbs up, ready for whatever they wanted to do.
"Sounds fine to me. Just let me get first strike so I can tell if lightning will work," Moira says, tilting her head until it pops. She turns to Domitian adding, "Stay mobile but don't bother using trees or rocks as cover. 20ft boar. Don't think they are going to stop it. I'd prefer a clearing but I don't see one out there." She looks out over the first and particularly at the trees still waving around at the beasts passing.
"Hold still and try not to attract any friendly lightning. Tis NOT but a scratch." Lyra joked, sparks of red energy swirling around her hands in a growing cloud. She spoke in a low tone in draconic, the guttural words snapping from her mouth angry and bitter. She touched Moira first, sending power into the larger woman that took root and soon she was growing taller and wider, her heads vanishing into the tree branches overhead.
A moment later she repeated the same spell on Domitian and he grew to similar size, two two titans making the wet earth under them squish and thick tree roots groaning under the sudden weight. "Hold on, you still need more."
Removing a few thick cow hairs from one of her pouches Lyra rubbed them between her fingers and extracted the latent energy from the strands. She touched first Moira and then Domitian, imbuing both with the brute strength of a raging bull.
She flicked the last sparks of magic from her hands and shrugged her shoulders, translucent dragonfly wings that sparked with blue and purple unfolding from her coat. The wings blurred to invisibility as she lifted several feet off the ground, an old dagger appearing in her hand. "Be careful."
She vanished into the upper branches of the forest and headed towards the gluttonous animal. She alit on one of the branches at the edge of the clearing, bracing herself on the trunk of the tree and looked down at the hungry hungry piggie. "My apologies hungry one but you are a threat to the forest.
A mad grin splashed across Domitian's face as his view shot up into the air. It was AMAZING! The strength in his arms was exhilarating, his muscles barely twitching as he drew forth his mammoth falchion. He shared a manic glance with the similarly-enlarged Moira, and began chanting softly while holding up his blade. First it began to glow, and then alighted in flames, flickering and hissing as the rain splattered against the magic flame. "Shall we?" he grumbled to Moira, the massive weight of his voice rumbling in the air around him.
Rose blinked her eyes in surprise, watching as Moira and Domitian swelled in size from Lyra's magic. She smirked and quietly moved closer to where the beast was trampling the earth and felled trees immediately around it.
"I shall do what I do best." She quietly murmured. She then glares at the creature, a strange feeling from the tattoo on her forehead as she invokes her hex power upon the over-sized swine to make it more vulnerable. Feeling her power, she quickly acts to begin weaving a spell, hand on her touching her staff as she softly calls to her Patron of the Shadows. "Oh chilling dark, filled with woe, sap the energy from my foe. Make them weary, unable to stand, bring exhaustion by my outstretched hand." She chants and stretches her hand forth to project a black ray of energy toward the massive creature. She then called up a surge of her bestowed power to quickly pull and drink a murky mixture, feeling her already hardened skin become strengthened and tougher than before.
The ray of inky darkness lances out from Rosa's finger and caresses the enormous pig, failing to find purchase against the creature's toughness but leaving enough of a taint the pig stumbled as it spun towards the witch and let loose a rumbling squeal of pure rage. It lumbered slowly towards her, stumbling over fallen trees that it should have easily been able to jump over.
It reared back and smashed it's head against the tree Rosa was hiding behind, sending steaming wood chunks flying and shaking the tree viciously but the thick trunk held and continued to protect the witch.
Striking from a spot nearby, Meha tries to get her spell off. Calling forth chains from the ground, she uses them to lash at the beast. She was unable to pierce its hide with its thrashing, as the spot she had called the spell to was a bit out of reach of the chains, so they struck the wild hog harmlessly on the sides. She was now within 40 feet of the beast, with only her rapier to defend herself with, as she was not used to flying as the others were. And having her stay on the ground may give the others a better chance to attack it.
Being huge was...awesome. Literally full of awe. The power. The height. The feeling of being unstoppable. She gently pushed a tree and watched it bend and creak. Not a sapling but one years old. Older than her by far. It was a heady experience. She hoped she had the magic to do it too one day. Not only to hunt greater things but just imagine the being able to build a castle one brick at a time by yourself. Awesome. She grinned with childish enthusiasm at Dom. "Let's," she said in a deep baritone.
Then she stepped and nearly fell over. This was going to take some getting used to. As they closed in on the boar she broke away from Domitian to pincer their prey. She drew her now super-sized weapon as they closed in and when she swung, her blade toppled trees.
Domitian approached the boar, circling around in step with Moira to surround the beast. And what a beast it is! Domitian had no idea what would have caused such a creature to be, but it truly was magnificent. Also, though, it just seemed wrong. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but something about this thing just set his spine to tingling and made the hairs on his neck stand up on end... or at least they felt like they would be, if they weren't sopping wet.
Regardless, this boar needed to be put down. It is clearly dangerous to everyone. He approached the thing quickly, before it could get to Rosa, and he brought his flaming falchion down in a heavy swing at the boar's side.
Lyra looked up at the roof of the forest, seeking out the raging tempest that screamed above the branches. With the old athame held firmly in her hand she pointed the weapon at the sky and began a long incantation, the rolling and smooth syllables of the secret language plucking at the chords of energy tangled throughout the storm clouds overhead. She held strong against the winds that tried to throw her off the large branch she stood on, her concentration unwavering as she accented her magical call with mythic energy and cast it into the teeth of the storm.
Thunder rumbled directly overhead for several long seconds as the rest of her party surrounded the huge pig and splashed black blood on themselves. Lightning cracked overhead as bolts danced back and forth in the clouds, growing in intensity in flashes of green, purple and blue. Lyra focused on the bolts as the long spell finally completed and she felt a snap of energy in the old weapon she clenched.
Sweating with exertion the druid aimed the athame at the pig and released the pent up energy. Her vision flashed in negative a second later as a thick bolt of green lightning shot down through the trees and slammed into the back of the rampaging pig.
Domitian's and Moira's blades bit deep into the hide of the pig and opened large rents in the beast's hide, even as the boar's innate resistance shed off some of the damage. The great beast screamed and whirled onto the source of the greatest pain, that which was inflicted by the paladin. It reared up and slashed savagely at him, the three foot long tusks returning the pain Domitian inflicted by splashing HIS blood onto the wet ground.
The fight continued for several more long seconds before the beast tripped on the wet ground just as Lyra's slow building lightning bolt flashed down.
Domitian's face twisted in pain when those wicked tusks cut through his skin. He could feel the acid burning ever so slightly, but the sheer physical strength of the creature was the primary focus of his attention. He seeks out Erastil's assistance, and healing magic flowed out from him, knitting closed the worst of the wounds and leaving nothing more than a minor flesh wound.
He then gave a little smile as Lyra's lightning flashed down, searing the pig's skin and giving off a fine roasted pork smell. "It may look nasty, but still smells like any other pig!" Keeping himself squared off against the boar opposite Moira, he timed his next strike for when the beast was distracted by her.
As the thunder and lightning crashed overhead and the banshees of the wind screamed their fury and a sigh passed through the forest as the champion of Erastil let loose a flashing strike that burned with holy light. The mighty boar screamed a gurgling cry as head was wrought from body in a cascade of crimson and black. The earth trembled as the powerful creature tipped ever slowly to the side as the last of it's heartblood mixed with the rain and gave back to the forest what had been taken, a gentle vibration making droplets of water jump up from the ground as the boar sank into the mud and was still.
The storm continued to rage overhead and soak the adventurers, the deluge washing the blood from Moira and Domitian as they quivered from the pent up battle energy that suddenly had no outlet. No glorious ending, no release of potential or reward of power. The fight had been short and brutal, an endeavour of survival that played out a million times on a million worlds day in and day out and always ended in blood. Between the flashes of lightning the forest was black and featureless, the flames dancing around Domitian's huge weapon providing the only illumination for those without the ability to see in darkness.
This close to the creature not even the storm could hide the powerful musk the boar gave off and Moira and Domitian could see the hide was covered with dozens if not hundreds of scars, evidence of an old and experienced fighter finally brought low. Between one moment and the next the strength of the rain doubled and then quadrupled, a virtual waterfall pouring from the clouds and sending miniature rivers flowing downhill all throughout the forest and hills.
Moira took a step back and wearily watched the boar for any signs of movement. More than once a hunter had been surprised or wounded by the last spasms of a flailing creature. But not, the beast was well and truly dead. Quick and powerful the strike had been. A good hunt. She looked at their prey with an appraising eye. A huge, thick hide, metal bones, all of it soaked in earthen magic from what Lyra said. Good potential. She really needed one of those big sacks that never seeemed to empty. Bag of Holding she remembered. It would make hauling things back a lot easier. Like that dragon.
Speaking of making things easier, Moira dropped her large greatsword and jumped towards the cooling corpse. She grabbed it by the head and stomped hard on the 3 foot tusk, trying to dislodge or tear it out. "Quickly. Get the other tusk and start skinning before we shrink. This thing will be a b#+&@ to skin if we're normal sized."
Meha jumps as the creature is slammed down suddenly, and the fight was over. And then the rain came even harder. She was starting to get sick of being in the rain, and was feeling a bit of a chill from it and the temperature dropping. She just wanted to get back to somewhere she could at least try her hair, for it being in a wet messy of a ponytail seemed awful.
"You go ahead and do that. Does anyone need healing? I only had to use one spell, so I should have a few healthing spells left."
Meha knew Dom had been hit, but he did his fancy magic thing and was suddenly better. She really needed to check her spells tonight, and try and get some more useful ones, for what she had prepared for today was not good enough
Rose had crouched against the tree, hoping that it would hold against the giant boar's attacks to try and gore her. Fortunately it held just long enough for her two enormous companions to close in on it and strike it with heavy blows.
She couldn't see much from hiding behind the tree as she heard the tree creak and groan from being hit from the swine, and then the wet sounds of swords biting into flesh and the gurgling of the creature in death throes.
She crept carefully from behind the tree, still under the effects of her mutagen as she looked up at Moira quickly trying to rip large trophies from the corpse before the enlargement magic ran it's full duration. She then turned at the sound of Mehaila's voice and shook her head. "Thankfully I managed to escape unharmed for the most part." She looked back at the tree she had been behind and winced at the large gouges that had be made by the boar's attempts to get through it to her.
Moira would find that no matter how hard she strained against the skull of the dead boar the tusk stubbornly refused to yield. All she succeeded in doing was splashing her arms and hands with blood until finally the red fluid made the bone slip right out of her hands, depositing the 20 foot tall human onto her very shapely and huge back end.
Domitian watched carefully as Moira approached the tusk, and continued to watch as it slipped between her hands. He winced as she fell back, her huge size likely making it that much more painful. He reached down and helped her up. "Tough beast, eh? Let me give it a go." He carefully chose a couple of points on his tusk that seemed to hold his grip the best, and began to apply all of his enlarged strength to the task. He managed to get a solid grip on the thing, and strained with all his might. At first, it seemed as if he would find no more success than Moira had; after a minute of struggling, though, there was finally a mighty *CRACK*, and the tusk dislodged with a sudden yank. He finished dislodging the tooth, then gave a happy smile. "Got one!"
"Should have seen that coming," Moira says sullenly over the tattered remains of once amazing pelt. Haste makes waste. Both her father and her master warned her in their own ways. She knew it yet let the situation get the better of her. The streaming water from the rain made the skin hard to see. Her massive form was new and she didn't maintain the same dexterity. The bone spines were tough to cut around. All these things she could have puzzled out taking her time but she'd rushed. And for her effort, she mangled the whole thing. There was barely enough pieces left for one set of leather and, even with her amateur ability to sense and see magic, she could see there was none left. All she had was a tusk.