"To our cavernous camp then. While uninjured I should rather meditate before risking a further fight if I may."
Roy will stack up and carry their haul as necessary, and eventually they should make it back to camp.
Bareth perches on his shoulder and presses a glowing hand against his cheek”how’s that?
"Better," Lwazi states, nodding his thanks... though in truth his wounds are clearly not fully closed.
the party manages to haul back to camp without incedent.
Luca's gonna give Lwazi some more healing in between cooking.
While he's taking his watch before he rests, Roy uses his obtained magic to change the river water he collected earlier into beeeeer.
Lwazi wakes in the morning feeling rather odd. Overnight he dreamed of armor, and now feels that he could truly craft something useful--perhaps a delayed effect of the psionic treatment given before they had left?
More worrisome to him, however, is the result of his morning meditation. Tiger answered swiftly when he called... too swiftly. The spirit within him feels tense, uneasy, restless. Lwazi finishes his meditation feeling more agitated than when he started, his tail lashing behind him as he rejoins the others.
"I can craft some armor from the hydra hide," he says, without preamble. "If no others want it, I will use some to reinforce my own armor."
He grins humorlessly. "The triceratops's horns have made me think more of defense."
Roy holds up his destroyed leather overcoat as folks begin to wake up.
"I could use a new coat. This one kinda got a lot of holes bitten in it yesterday. Maybe some of that hide could go to that?"
Lwazi shrugs slightly. "There is enough of it."
the first day passes without event, but the second is much less lucky
Lwazi feels odd when he awakes, as if there is a... pressure in his head. He hastens to his morning meditation, hoping the relaxation will help what he suspects to be a building headache.
But as soon as he sits down, even before he is able to properly fall into his meditative trance, he feels one of his spirits enter him. Unlike the normal gentle easing of spirit into spirit, this feels almost like being pounced upon...
...and then the pain started. Searing, agonizing pain, all through his head, as if his bones were being pulled apart in every direction. He tries to scream, but his throat refuses to work. He falls over and rolls on the ground, gripping his head, hardly conscious enough to notice as it begins to change beneath his hands.
The pain lasts for a long time, but at last, it eases. Slowly, Lwazi staggers to his feet and stumbles back into camp.
"What... what... do I... look like?" he rasps, his voice sounding harsh and unfamiliar in his ears.
Roy looks a little confused, but not really taken aback too much.
"You, uh... Face... Lizard mouth and goat horns..."
Roy works his traveler's any tool into a small hand mirror and gives it to Lwazi.
"This some of your spirit magic or whatever it is?"
"It... was not supposed to be," Lwazi replies. He takes a ragged breath, and lets it out slowly. "I think... something must be wrong with Tiger, and it must be affecting me."
He winces as he feels a growl in his mind... twice. For a moment he sees triple as pain lances through his head again, but then it passes. "This place... it is not good for them. Or for me. Or for both. It looks like a natural place, but it is not."
Roy pats an uncertain hand on Lwazi's shoulder, apparently not used offering comfort.
"This place is very wild. I don't really believe in spirits or stuff, but we'll do we what we can to help, right? You want a drink?"
Lwazi shakes his head, trying to focus. It feels like his thoughts are trying to go in three directions at once.
"No... I think... I want to work. To focus on something else. There is nothing to be done about this. Best to work on survival."
Roy nods and pulls his hand back.
Alright, just let me know if you need anything.
Roy returns to working on the cavern.
Rivet overhears this but still jumps at seeing Lwazi's altered head. "My word! Do you think you contacted the spirit of some dragon or strange outsider rather than your Tiger?" He pauses then asks, "And is there any chance that such a creature is close, do you think?
"...I think you look great." Luca leaves his tent with a hunch before straightening his back with a groan. It appears something hasn't gone as expected with his cloak. The hide is yet too alive, too stiff. The dark gray material is covered in deep red spirals. And the cloak seems split in the back, almost offering the impression of wings. The longer a view one gets of it, the more permanent this change looks to be. Less like a cloak, more like a new addition.
The priest begins his own days work with a whistling tune.
Lwazi frowns, noting the odd feeling the expression gives him on his elongated face. It's not strange
He shakes his head slightly, noting the odd weight of his horns on his head as he does so. It's not odd
"I do not know," he replies to Rivet. "Something feels odd with the spirit, but... it is not as if he introduces himself to me every time he comes. It could be that something interfered..."
He trails off as Luca comes out. "Luca... are you well?"
Yeah, are you uh... Do you usually get those spiral things in the morning?
Roy is evidently one to point out the obvious questions today.
"I create them in a similar fashion when I commune in the morning. But it's never this... blood red. Or permanent. Something else tried to invade after I finished working on the cloak. I feel the Moth's influence seems to have deflected that force, but with, well, this side effect."
"We need to get out of here." Luca still seems quieter than usual.
I like it here. Lwazi shakes his head again, as if to throw off the strange thoughts.
"Agreed. As soon as we finish improving our equipment, we should make for that maze. With luck there will be something of use there."
Roy does his best to help out his strangely affected comrades while they work.
everything else goes off without much of a hitch, the basic furnishings, while slow and crude the first few days, get cleaned up and made a lot more passable the days after. Even roulette helps a bit, making some makeshift cushions for the seats out of the few leaves he managed to Not catch on fire.
More disconcerting to Lwazi than the new horns and snout is the feeling of not being alone in his own head. His every thought and action provokes strange thoughts... or so he thinks at first. By the end of their rest time, he realizes that the thoughts come simultaneously with his own.
Because they are his own. He is thinking three things at once. Lwazi does not know how or why, but it is as if every action now involves an argument with himself.
In spite of this new madness, he focuses on finishing his improvements to his armor. He calls on canny Cheetah to aid him, no longer trusting Tiger after what has happened. To Lwazi's relief, Cheetah does not show any signs of corruption that he can detect. He is wary of the new additions to his armor, but after seeing the sorts of dangers they face in this land, he is willing to take the risk to save his life.
Once all of the work is done, he says to the others, "I believe we are as prepared as can be now. Let us go investigate this maze."
Roy dons the new Hydra skin coat in the same design as old one, but with a bit of a different tinge to it.
I like this. Feels good. Maybe a little bit cooler than before. Maybe it's the lizard skin bit. Thanks again to both of you. I'll do my best to keep you safe as we're trying to get out of here. All of you.
He gathers his things and is ready to set out, taking a moment to look over the circular tattoo Rivit put on his right forearm as well as strapping on a skin of his beer he magicked out of water for an idea he'd been meaning to try.
Off we go, then.
the party draws up to the massive vine maze, shrouded in mist. There's only one visible entrance unless one wants to push through the toxic brambles, or desires to go over.
Lwazi cautiously approaches the entrance and looks into it, peering as far as he can before entering.
"Do we have any kind of plan? Mapping it or string or something?"
Roy summons his armor and weapon before they enter.
Lwazi frowns. "Given where we are... we may find the maze to not be entirely... consistent. But mapping would be wise."
"Wise indeed if you have the means. But if we must leave in haste there may not be time to consult a map. I will mark the path back to the entry." He scratches an arrow in the ground pointing to the entrance by way of an example.
the twelve foot high bramble walls of this massive maze tower above, a shorter path leading straight ahead, and cutting off to a corner after about Thirty feet. There are two paths aside from the entrence, one on each side, that wind off long before one can see the end. The maze is oddly roomy, with about ten feet between the walls. The mist obstructs vision past thirty feet, and makes it hard to see anything blond ten feet clearly.
"A strange maze," Lwazi comments with a frown, "Though it is not as if anything here is truly normal..."
He carefully walks forward, counting his paces aloud for the benefit of whoever is mapping. He stops at the corner of the forward path and peers around the corner.
"We can pick one wall. Follow that. Get us to the root of the problem." Luca raises an arm out of the mantle he's acquired and points to the right vine wall.
Roy produces his rod of metal and mineral detection just to see if it reads anything in the maze as they go through.
Lwazi nods at Luca's suggestion. "Indeed, though it would not hurt to map out side passages as far as we can see without following them. Especially so we may recognize if this place is not as... constant as we would wish."
the party keeps moving along to the right, an opening to the left becomes visible to anther path. Something can be seen in the mist, a vauge humanlike figure, impossible to make out from this distance beyond that. It isn't moving. Could always just stick to plan and move on, or investigate.
Lwazi pauses, peering warily down the passageway, trying to make out more. He turns to the others and whispers, "I would not feel comfortable knowing that lay behind us, at the least without knowing what it was."
"Seeing an actual human would be the strangest thing that's happened to us." Luca nods to Lwazi in agreement.
"Nocturnarum." Small wisps of deep purple begin to move around Luca. He's only pretty sure the object won't attack. Definitely maybe.
Roy waves his divining rod towards the shape. If it was a real human, they probably had at least some metal on them.
Perception
Will save/disbelief if it's an illusion.
The figure seems to notice the group, starting to slowly shuffle towards them.
Lwazi falls into a guarded stance with his falchion.
"Who goes there?" he calls out, loudly enough to be heard but not *too* loudly.
Roy quickly jams his metal detector into his belt, freeing his hand to summon his shield as he forces a blade into his right hand, moving Next to Lwazi to stand protectively in front of the others of the group.
Rivet remains silent himself, but with a faint glow in his eyes and a sound of whispering around he calls up a psionic power and examines the figure carefully.