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Luca swiftly slams his hind foot into the ground with a high-octave shout and a similarly quick flash of golden light. Each swing of his limbs is punctuated with another shriek as his muscles flex. It seems like he really does know how to fight after all.
Seeing Luca deliver a beatdown that he'd never be able to match, Rivet decides to attempt something slightly subtler. He steps forward and snags one of the raptors legs...
... to no great effect as it pulls the leg out of the way.
Lwazi has his earth breaker halfway back up to prepare for another strike when the creature falls apart. He pauses, mid-snarl, then carefully puts his weapon back as the battle fury leaves him. Tiger grumbles within him about the battle being too short, and the prey inedible.
"Well... we have some work to do, it is true, but we all still live. It seems we will not have to question whether or not to eat what we killed this day, however..." he comments, looking over the pile of rubble that was once a fierce beast. "Perhaps its remains may yet retain some useful properties? But first wounds must be seen to."
Shaking his smoking axe at the pile Thorek says "An' that's for breakin' our wall! Well lads, ye ever hear o' any creature like this? We should save a shard to bring back."
Reflex takes over for Luca as he shields his face but remains unharmed by the elecricity.
"Right-o. Everyone come on over, form a line. I'm checking you all for injuries. Or infections." He produces a wand, a simple thin, dark gray rod, and begins to do exactly that.
Then he gets four shots of heal juice.
Make it five.
Lwazi nods in satisfaction once Midioto is taken care of. "Now, then, back to sleep. We should examine the remains for magic in the morning, I think. And perhaps the bloom I discovered yesterday."
And with that, he heads back to his tent.
everyone is rather well off, except for midioto.
Midioto instinctively teleports as far away as he can from the raptor as it explodes into obstian shards and ends up a good 50ft up in the air, Now out of reach of everyone, still groaning and curled up in a ball while focusing on the pain, it is a good while later (and after many calls from those below) that Midioto slowly drifts down and lands on the soft grass.
With Luca administering to him Midioto slowly comes back to the land of the living and sits back up.
Wowzers that was a lot more dangerous then I thought... The creatures here are fierce! And that thing was how big when we first started? I wonder if all the creatures here grow like that...
One things for certain, we are going to need a bigger wall...
Did that creature leave any remains? If it was magic that caused it to grow (or maybe even exist to begin with?) then it might get dispelled upon its death.
Midioto gets up and heads over to the remains. I'm going to check it out!
Midioto is still too flustered to really focus on the task at hand and his pain and irriatibility is distracting himself greatly.
So he takes a deep breath and meditates for a minute, refocusing himself and concentrating at the task at hand. Opening his now-glowing eyes once more he focuses on the remains in front of him.
Hey! Who has got that alchemy set? I am pretty sure that we could syphon off this magic using it. It seems to have all the elemental enchantments.
Midioto then looks over in Gins direction, focusing on his magic once more, duplicating the Elfs knowledge.
Hey Gin! Come over here and tell me what you think?
Gin sheathes his sword, and releases a sigh, before looking up at Midioto when he calls. Moveing over to the reamains next to midioto, Gin observes as well.
[b]"It is possible that we could siphon these. though I can't repack the alchemy station after it is set up, and it will likely not be easy to move."
"I had not expected to make this our permanent base, and perhaps it would be better to move the shards than to leave ourselves with but the one option. Will they be stable for a day or two" Rivet wonders. A flicker of light crosses his headband.
The imp comes back into view clutching Rivit's shirt " is it… Is it dead?"
"I could take a few more swings at it if you want. Don't think it's necessary though. Look at the poor guy, he's so shaken up he just fell to pieces."
Lwazi, by now, is asleep again.
soon enough, everyone has slept and awoken, and it's... Well, it's still the middle of the day. The forest seems to have shifted around, trees where they weren't before, new plants here and there. Nothing directly near the base seems to have changed, however, as the river runs calmly nearby.
Tiger has left him when Lwazi awakes, as usual. He swiftly prepares for the day and leaves his tent, squinting up at the daylight with a frown. He hoped it wasn't always like this, though he supposed it was better than eternal night.
He notes the movement of the forest with distrust, reminding himself again that nothing here in the Maelstrom is certain. But for now he has something to do.
He gathers a few of the cast-off stones left from their hastily built wall, and stacks them into a simple altar. This done, he sits down crosslegged next to it and slows his breathing, falling into a meditative trance.
Which spirit should he channel this day? Tiger served him well in battle, but he thought it best to vary which spirits he called on. They might well work on further defenses this day, so perhaps wary Leopard would be better.
His decision made, Lwazi quests outwards, wondering if Leopard was even here in this place of madness.
Bareth mostly seems to be occupying himself by tidying up a bit
Luca wanders back into the camp bright-eyed and early trying to gently place some scrolls of his into his pack.
"So, are we ready to head out in earnest? I went maybe fifteen feet from our walls, so I'm itching to find something to study."
Midioto wkes up the next "Day" feeling sore and irratible, he hadn't slept that well what with the constant light and it was getting to him. Then he remembered where he was, and the limitless oppertunities to explore just waiting for him and his mood quickly became excited.
Emerging from his tent he is quickly greeted with a disturbing sight.
Ummm guys? I'm preeeeeeettyy sure that something is different here... Ya know, and dont think I'm crazy, but I think the trees are moving...
Midioto is intelligent and has a good memory, and this disturbs him.
If we leave camp and try to come back, but the landmarks have changed... Thats a problem.
If the trees can move, and if they decide to attack us... thats a BIG problem...
If WE move, that could be... odd.
Midioto pulls out a notebook and begins sketching
Did anyone see these things move? I am going to sketch out their positions and prove my theory. As it is, we better not wander too far away just yet. We might not be able to find our way back...
Or even find our way back to the portal...
Midioto will then spend a few hours painsakingly measuring distances and sketching positions of the different trees and rocks around the perimiter of the camp, and then will compare his scetches with the trees periodically throught the next "day."
A while after that is done Midioto will declare an expidition of his own (to whoever cares to listen -_-)
Right, guys. I am going to do a little exploration into the Maelstrom itself. Now I'm not quite sure how dangerous this is going to be... But I think I have enough defences in place that I won't just outright die... Probabpy...
Oh man, I really really really hope I dont die. Or turn into a chaos spawn. Or erase myself from existance. Or... ya :P
Welp! Just letting you know, if I die then you guys are all stuck here! Probably screwed too. See ya in a bit! ^_^
About half a minute later Midioto reappears with another in the exact same position as he had left but with sweat poring down his face and a pained expression, as if he had just ran a marathon. Whats more, he seems... Frozen?
Indeed, Midioto is frozen to that exact same spot for a good 5 minutes before slowly reviving.
Slowly Lwazi feels wary Leopard take up residence within him, and he lets out a breath he had not realized he was holding. He had worried that here, in this strange place, the Spirits would not come to his call, but it seemed they could still hear him.
Opening his eyes, he finds that the camp is already starting to grow busy. He nods a thanks to Bareth, but hears Luca before he says anything to the imp.
"I would say we finish our fortifications before venturing far," he states, wary Leopard growling within him in agreement. "We shall want a secure place to retreat to should we discover something beyond our capabilities to face."
He growls softly himself at Midioto's first words. "Yes, I saw that myself. We must learn what is stable here and what is not. I am not certain if the trees move, however. It seems more to me as if the landscape itself changes, and the plants are included in this."
Unless someone pushes hard for an expedition today, Lwazi spends a few hours helping strengthen the camp's fortifications. He happens to be away when Midioto starts, but stumbles across him shortly after he reappears. He frowns in concern.
"Midioto?"
When there is no response, he comes over and tries to shake him, finding him frozen in the spot.
Worried, he looks around. "What happened to him? It seems like some sort of magic. Can any of you help him?"
Luca gives the psychic a brief look over. "This too shall pass. You're probably right about our home base. I suppose I'm just feeling a little over eager. This place is marvelous to behold. Far more interesting than Mentathalos in truth."
"To complete an outer wall, and build or excavate a smaller covered area with a solid door should be our first priority here. Who knows what eldritch scavengers would be attracted by those shards if they are left in the open? From Midioto's words earlier on such mundane matters as food I'm sure he would agree.
"I can offer no healing magic to him however as it is not my specialty. He does not appear dead, at least. Can any of us dispel magics?"
Lwazi relaxes slightly at Luca's words. "Do you mean he will be all right in time? I do feel your eagerness to explore, but as Rivet says, we need a safe place to store our discoveries while we are gone, and I suspect we shall desire a safe place to sleep at night until we are more familiar with the challenges here."
Constructing a simple but secure structure may be dull, but the pile of shards inspires Rivet. He also checks on Midioto anxiously until the psion revives fully.
Lwazi helps out throughout the day with hauling stone, wary Leopard within him pleased with building a safe den.
Luca uses the opportunity to add to his personal training. He helps by hauling materials of his own.
Gin starts the day by making his extracts as the others begin their day. After that he spends some time studying the magical stones some more.
another time period passes and the group has built up the wall around thier place even more- work seems to fly by like nothing, and soon they have a 5' wall in the front as before, and a 2-3' wall bordering everything but the river. Perhaps it's the magic pics xe's potency, or perhaps it's a property of the location. Either way, it's going fast. Soon enough, however, people get teird once more.
The stones pose no major threat of any sort, and can be easily broken down with tools in the kit. If they were used to make an elemental enchantment, the enchantment would likely fluxuate between elements at random.
As they stop for the day, Lwazi surveys their work. "I wonder... is it perhaps possible that in a place like here, it is easier to do such work than it would be on our home?" he suggests to anyone standing nearby.
"Ah, and Gin and Midioto, I believe I have not shown you the flower I harvested earlier." He takes it out from where he had carefully stowed it and shows it to them. "It is like nothing I have seen before. Can either of you make anything of it?"
Gin observes the flower.
"This flower has some magic to it, and could be useful in making some magic infused items. The bud won't be easy to open, though maybe we could use some magic to open it?"
Gin tells Lwazi.
"As enjoyable as hard labor is, I think we've done enough for the time being, and if a broken clock is right twice a day even here, that means my plan to go out has to work eventually." The tengus beady eyes look about the top of the wall. He makes his announcement loud and clear to the camp, yet not in a terse kind of way.
"To that end I'd like to propose we venture over to that there forest. Not too far yet of course. We need to learn the rhythm the trees move in. If no-one wishes to come along, I'll write down what I can and be back later. The call to explore drew us here. To ignore it would be self defeating, would it not?"
"Aye. I've got out wee home as secure as it needs to be for now. I could use a stretch o' the legs."
Like a battery running out of juice and grinding to a halt, Midioto is the reverse, frozen only to slowly revive, his actions and thoughts speeding up more and more until he is once again his hypermaniac self.
That was so cool! That was amazing! I had never tried to linger there before but that was... Trippy.
And guys. I think that there might be something Cosmic watching us right now. >_>
He seems to become introverted in thought for a moment...
I'm going to do that again!
But before he gets the chance he gets distracted by the conversations and plans of the others and does his best to help them as he can.
Sadly its not like he has much strength to help build the wall so instead he helps Gin to continue to study the magical rocks left behind from the raptor.
After Lwazi hands Midioto the flower, Midioto looks astonished as he takes the purple flower.
now this pooks interesting! Hey Gin! I'm going to borrow something, one sec.
Lets see...
Then that evening Midioto once again makes a foyay into the Maelstrom, just soaking up the experience. And once again Midioto reappears in the exact same spot, frozen.
[Ooc]Midioto casts Time Hop for 5pp to enter the Maelstrom. A brief while later, he reemerges frozen in place for an additional 5 minutes.
The next "day" Midioto gets up and listens to Luca.
I agree. I think its time to start exploring this island, but first: what are some goals we are hoping to achieve?
Personally, I am immensely curious about that storm over there, and would love to get a closer look... From a distance...
However, that is probably too far away for a first expedition.
Otherwise, I would be quite curious about any unusual rock formations we might find along the way. And I would be curious to observe some more animals... I wonder if our last, painful experience is the norm...
He rubs his still sore arms.
"While this place is well enough, I suppose we should see if there are even better places to encamp. We might be able to convert a cave to our use better than creating a fortification from scratch, as it were." He shakes his head, "The endless days here may mean we have spent even longer than it seems on what has been accomplished so far. I did not think to pack a water clock..."
Lwazi frowns slightly. Wary Leopard within him is not satisfied with their fortifications, but... that is Leopard's way.
"So long as we do not stray too far," he says. "We shall likely still wish the safety of walls around us when we tire. But I shall come."