Ariela roots her feet where she stands, reaching out with her mind and body to draw upon the elemental energies in the air. Seeking to call forth icy cold in this burning environment, hr grip is tenuous as she lets out a kiai, a weak beam of icy cold projecting from her hand, coming nowhere near her target.
The creature juked out of the way of the icy blast, but the dagger caught it fully in the flank. It snarlled as it discorperated and a fast wave of heat, like a campfire snuffed out by very strong wind, leaving behind only red-hot paw prints.
Talas exhales in relief, having not been terribly sure of his next move if that hadn't worked. He glanced over, properly registered that Dolgrin was..... back on his feet, head intact.... and... stared for a moment before shaking himself. Later, ask questions later!
"It looks like there's only a couple of them left standing." Ariela notes scanning the battlefield.
Teral glanced around, unable to find any hostiles still active on the field. Of course, with all the smoke around, that didn't necessarily mean much. He kept his guard up for the moment - hard to be too careful, after all - and called back through the haze.
"Spectrum? You still alive out there?"
"Of course." the elf's voice came from the platform above.
The Orcish witchdoctor left a trail of fire that would have been easy to follow if any were so inclined, but at the moment the two groups were too busy collecting themselves.
"Lets get these flames out." Thedra said. "Spectrum, any word from home? When's our door?"
"Two days." the answer came from the smoky platform above. "This native says these orcs will return in larger numbers, but not likely before we have left."
"I hate this place." Thedra grumbled.
"Thanks." Vance said to Garridan. "I'll replace that potion when I get a chance."
Eythil glared at the Elf, though he didn't understand what he said, it didn't sound like they were planning to run. He stepped in front of him and grabbed at his robe.
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The elf was implacable, but his eyes narrowed at being grabbed.
Talas drew his sling and lobbed a stone in the direction of the orc leaving the fiery trail, but it was a reflexive and futile gesture and he sagged with resigned weariness almost as soon as the stone let loose.
Groaning, Talas looked around him. Well... everyone was breathing. Even the two acolytes who he had thought for sure were goners. Feeling a bit numb, and also like he needed to regrow his eyebrows, Talas wobbled over to where his pack had gotten dropped at the start of things, picking it up with some relief it hadn't been incinerated to ash.
He still couldn't hear. Talas wiggled a pinky around in his ear to see it that helped: it didn't.
Moving to Garridan, Talas said in the too-loud voice of those who can't hear themselves:
Walking over to Dolgrin, Ariela puts he hand on the dwarf's shoulder. "Did I see what I think I saw back there?"
Dolgrin raised his head and turned to face Ariela. His face was droopy and sullen; he looked like he had aged 40 years. Across his neck, the clean cut remained a vicious scar, with drying blood caked over.
"Aye." Dolgrin said, mouthing the words before he spoke. "I fell in battle, like a sack o' potatoes before an axe. I saw my own body beneath me, and before me stood the All-Father. He spoke of my destiny, and a need to continue fighting. It was he who influenced Miss Thedra to carry a scroll to resurrect me. If'n you'll excuse me for a minute, my friend. I must speak with her."
Picking up his weapons and shield, Dolgrin marched over to Thedra. "Miss Thedra, I must speak with you for a moment."
The Dwarf dropped himself to one knee, and sunk the backspike of his axe within the charred jungle soil. With a bellowing, passionate, and steadfast voice he declared. "Lady Thedra, here do I swear fealty and service to you. In peace or war, in living or dying, from this hour henceforth until my lady release me, or death take me. May the All-Father take witness of my oath."
Talas squints at the dwarf making some sort of speech to their guide.
Thedra smiled a little awkwardly. "I'm an Operative. I'm not allowed to accept rewards directly related to my mission. Those belong to the city, including things like oaths of fealty and whatnot."
"Right now my mission is to collect you and get you to the Academy. You'd be a lousy student without your head."
Garridan gaped as he stared at Dolgrin, talking and moving around as if nothing had happened to him. "How did you...?" He looked at Thedra with a new found respect for her abilities before shaking his head and quickly gathering up his chakram, that was something he understood.
Once he had gathered them all, he looks at Thedra. "What now?"
Teral, still warily eyeing the now-quiet battlefield, slung his mace and hiked his buckler up onto his arm and jogged over to Spectrum and the others. Grimacing at all the people talking in languages he didn't speak, he grumbled something to Thedra.
He blinked, looking around at the little group and inspecting the wounded, saying something in a sheepish tone.
He raised his buckler overhead, the footed arch symbol prominent on its surface, and a soft green light pulsed from it, washing over the party.
He blinked, apparently confused, and tried it again, clearly unsatisfied with the results the first time.
He scowled and waved his arm around empathically, the little shield bobbing back and forth in the air.
He snorted, apparently more pleased with the last one.
Talas also collects the dagger he hurled at the fire dog and makes a ginger way closer, as he orients himself to the weirdness of moving without sound. He squints at someone who looks... similar to him, in terms of mildly pointed ears and a slim build. When he feels healing wash over him from the other man's direction, he breathes out in relief-- even if he doesn't know the god on the buckler's surface.
He addresses Teral in Taldane, which gets him no results, and then he gambles with his rarely-used elvish tongue. Or at least, the elvish tongue of his world.
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Thedra grumbled in Draconic. "Damn language barriers."
"Lets get these fires out." she said in Taldane. "We don't have a way out for two days, so we're going to fortify here. Sounds like there's a good chance those orcs will be back."
The work was quick with so many hands. The fires were put out and the bodies of the orcs looted and dragged a ways away. At one point a large crashing coud be heard in the woods, but the smell of smoke was keeping local wildlife away.
Eventually the whole group was up in the highest platform of the outpost. The big main tree had been hollowed out creating a small, comfortable room that was a five by eight foot oval just big enough for two people. Any supplies that had once been here had long since been looted, but the orcs had carried quite a bit of salvagable gear.
Spectrum had almost imidiately gone into the small room to rest, meditating quietly against the back wall of the tree.
"Any of you that are spellcasters, I recommend following Spectrum's lead. We don't have any idea how long this place is going to be safe for, so the sooner you can regain your magical energies the better. The rest of us will keep an eye on things."
"It's as good a suggestion as any," Ariela responds rubbing the back of her neck tiredly. "By the way I can speak your language in case its needed." she says shifting to Draconic.
While she didn't really see her ability to harness energy and alter her environment as spellcasting, it was about close enough that she would definitely benefit from a few hours of rest.
Taking some time to thoroughly clean one of the sets of armor removed from the orc closest to her size, she lets her focus scour the studded leather, the dirt, grime and other assorted filth falling away from it, a trick she'd mastered cleaning the monastery floors.
Adjusting her sleeves, the young warrior changes her clothing to a simple robe and removes her own armor, curling up in a corner of the little room and going to sleep.
Talas rubs at his arms, where there are still some lingering blisters from the flame blast he had been caught in.
"Are there any water sources near here?" he asks Thedra. "If we're expecting another assault..."
"I've never been to this part of the forest." Thedra shook her head. "You'll have to ask the native. Anyone speak that elemental tongue of his?"
The dwarf blushed and grumbled as Thedra brushed off his life debt. Grumbling back to the orcs for gear, he said to himself "Hmfh. Damned humans, they almost never understand honor or dedication. Sigh."
"Oh, no. I get it, Dolgrin. I really do." Thedra said, catching what the dwarf had muttered and clearly worried she's offended him. "Thise values are mine too. There's another one that takes precidence in the traditions I'm bound by though. Community."
"My actions aren't my own. Not while I'm on a mission. Not ever, really. I'm a representative of the city I am sworn to. I can't accept personal rewards related to my mission because those rewards don't belong to me. They belong to the community as a whole."
She pointed to the pile of collected equipment. "That stuff? That's Spoils. It isn't specified in my mission. It's just a byproduct of it, so it gets divided among the mission operators."
"The mission is you, so any reward you offer me, I'm not allowed to accept. You can't pay me, or give me gifts, or anything like that. Well, technically you can. I just have to declare it at my debriefing when I get back and see if the city wants it. That oath you swore belongs to the city first, not to me."
"I've never been to this part of the forest." Thedra shook her head. "You'll have to ask the native. Anyone speak that elemental tongue of his?"
"Not me," Talas concludes after some pointless attempts of trying out his repertoire on the 'native', who looks hideously burnt.
He tilts his head and looks over to the other half-elf, trying again in elf tongue-- speaking slowly and simply to Teral.
Eythil eyed the group that had formed at the partially burned fort. He had never heard quite so many different languages he didn't know.
When the brightly dressed, aged looking Elf tried to talk to him, Eythil only eyed him growing more annoyed until he spoke Orcish. Eythil's eyes flashed, intrigued and he stood up to follow after the Elf.
Talas glances back, blinking. The other one's accent is very strange... or perhaps his sounds strange to the burnt man. Who knows. He replies haltingly.
Teral cocked his head at Talas, trying to place the other's dialect - clearly Elven, but with more rolling sounds and less of a lilt than he was used to back in Qualinost. Definitely not Arch Elven, but still it sounded familiar. He blinked, realizing he hadn't actually paid attention to what Talas had actually said the first time, then tuned in for his second attempt.
He laughed aloud, an odd but pleasant sound on the burning field. H spoke again, sounding out each syllable clearly and slowly, and his hands raising in a splashing motion as he did so.
He shook his head, then paused and nodded, turning one hand over and back to indicate 'sort of', then giving a rolling gesture that indicated time passing.
While he spoke, a spiky, long-nosed little head poked out of his belt pouch, glaring around at the rest of the party with beady little eyes.
Inside the little tree-cave, Spectrum opened one eye and sighed. He opened his heavy, metal-bound tome, flipped open one of the many ear-marked tabs that lined the edge of the pages. He found the page he wanted and waved a hand over it while speaking quietly in Draconic. His other hand gripped his spiral-prism staff, which briefly lit up in a braid of colors. The page of the book disintegrated into a fine multicolored powder and a wisp of smoke.
Then he waved a hand, sending a partially visible ghost-hand out to brush the Recruits. As the ghost-hand touched them, suddenly all the myriad of languages being spoken became clearly understood.
That was a Communal Tongues spell, cast from a scroll. It was delivered by a Spectral Hand spell. Something else altered it as well, but you aren't sure what.
That was a Communal Tongues spell, cast from a scroll. It was altered by a Metamagic Rod of Extend, which doubles the normal duration.
That's some pretty potent magic. The stuff that Spectrum did during the fight was nowhere near that caliber of spellcasting.
Teral shook his head, apparently amused, and addressed Spectrum. "You know, if you bothered to sling around magic like that in an actual fight, they'd be over much quicker."
Spectrum let out another, longer, angrier sigh and said "Would that I could. While traveling to retrieve Kenna I contracted a... spellblight." The elf seemed quite embarrassed. "I can activate scrolls and enchanted items without risk, but my own spells are... unraveling. Lesser magnitude spells I can force to normalcy, but I am concerned that more powerful magic would have unexpected results. In the heat of battle that could be very dangerous. I do not have the same love of the unpredictable that you do, Teral."
Talas didn't know a hell of a lot about magic beyond his hobby of mixing bottles with other bottles, but he brightened as talking became MUCH easier. "Thank you either way, Master Spectrum. This will be easier."
To Teral he said, "I was saying earlier... thank you for the healing. I think a lost a few layers of skin back there, but better than my life. Talas Arduinn-- pleased to meet you. I was saying about the water-- maybe we can douse everything, just get it soaking wet? It won't save us from getting blasted with fire again-- but it might inhibit the fires spreading and making it that much harder for us to fight, when these orcs come back."
Teral whistled low, sympathetically. "Spellblight, huh? That's rough. But the unpredictable..." he grinned.
"The trick is to get it on your side."
He turned to Talas. "Not a problem, healing's the job. I'm still getting used to the positive energy matrix, but..." he shook his head. "Never mind. As for the water, I don't have the right spells ready today. I can make it happen tomorrow, but unless someone else is ready for it, we're out of luck for the moment."
"That's better." Thedra said. "Thanks, Spectrum."
The elf said nothing. He'd already closed his eye again and gone back to his meditation.
"Alright." Thedra said. "We're stuck here for a bit. That's the way it works sometimes."
"I'm not allowed to tell you much about the City yet. I can tell you a little about this place though."
"We call it The Forest of Dread. It's kind of a trumped up name to scare academy students, but it's also definitely earned it's name. This is one of the most dangerous Material Planes we've ever encountered. We've been sending academy graduates here as a testing ground for about a hundred and fifty years, but the planar connections to this place have been becoming more and more unstable. We're probably going to be the last group to come here for quite a while."
"The reason we're here at all is because we made peaceful contact with a small, semi-nomadic native civilization who have strong bloodlines for the traits the city is looking for. They also have some... interesting views on 'coming of age', so when we approached them ten years ago to try to recruit, we were turned down flat. Now, there are a couple of those children we scouted that are adults, and can make up their own minds."
Thedra turned to Eythil. "We came to find you."
Talas listens to Telar with a little nod. "I don't know much of god-faith like that, I only know I've met priests who could call forth water, so I thought it worth asking," he says with a wry smile. "Even if you can't do it now, it might be worthwhile for the next day... if we're still alive, then."
He listens to Thedra's explanation of things, and glances to the badly-burned chap when she turns to him as well. "Ah... nice to meet you. I'm just a recruit as well."
Garridan listens quietly to the conversation, allowing the implications sink in of everything that has happened in the last hour or so. Everything has changed so much... The talk of spellblights and positive energy matrix was lost to the young man, he'd never really had the spark for magic. He was still confused how Dolgrin's head was attached... 'All in good time, answers will come.'
"Even with all this talking, I don't believe any of us have introduced ourselves. My name is Garridan Teskarova."
Dolgrin merely nodded after Thedra had spoken. "I'll... have to think on that."
He had absolutely no idea what they were talking about. All the realms of magic were beyond him. However, once introductions were starting, he offered his two copper. "Dolgrin Ironbottom of the Five King Mountains. At your service."
Eythil glanced around at the group, the strangeness of the magics at work the Elf had cast made it far easier to understand the group surrounding him. It was the first time in years he had been able to have a simple conversation... the feeling was an unusual mix of emotions.
He focused first on the woman.
"I don't remember you. Or any of what you're talking about, then again, I guess I try to forget those days. Everyone else is dead so there's no point in looking for them."
"Tell us, what does this city of yours offer?"
"Well, for one thing it isn't on fire, or full of things that want to eat you." Thedra said with a grin before becoming more serious. "This is the fourth time I've been to this forest. That's three times more than just about everyone I know. Every time was awful. I can't even imagine growing up here."
"I think that the city- pretty much everything about it- is so far outside your experience that describing it would be all but impossible. I don't mean that to belittle you. It's just that different. Imagine trying to describe color to a blind person. That sort of thing."
"What I can offer you is a way out of here. You said everyone you know is dead, and the odds of you surviving alone here are very small. We'll get you out of the forest, let you see the city for yourself and you can decide if it's for you when you're under less duress. We don't make people make choices like this when they're desperate."
"My name is Thedra. The grumpy elf inside the tree is Spectrum. We're recruiters. Everyone else here is like you. People we're bringing to the city in hopes they'll decide to join us."
Teral raised his hand, as a schoolboy getting the teacher's attention. "Not quite everyone."
With that, he swept his hand downward in an elegant flourishing bow to the rest of the group, his face breaking out in a roguish grin. "Teral Saevus, once of Qualinost, at your service, ladies and gents. I've been with the city for..." his eyes scrunched up a little bit in confusion and he shot a glance at Thedra. "Ahem. Well, for a while now, anyway. My particular situation is a bit more complicated, but apparently I get to be one of the last of the poor bastards visiting this lovely little patch of forest. Again."
He nodded to Eythil. "You have my sympathies, friend. This place..." He shuddered. "I can't say I remember too much about my last trips here, but what's still there is not pleasant. Take it from me, our city might not be perfect, but it is one hell of a lot better than any hand you'd get dealt staying here."
A wounded and disheveled Ylmen landed with a muted thud on the platform surrounding the great tree. All down his back and left side the feathers on his torso were stuck together with his drying blood. There was evidence that he had attempted to clean himself, his hands and beak were stained red and the feathers near his wound had thinned and stripped. His breathing, usually silent, was deep and unsteady. If he was embarrassed at his condition, it wouldn't be apparent to his company. His facial expression was static, and interpreted by most humanoids as one of panic and bewilderment. It was the eyes, he had been told. His wide, golden eyes, locked forward, always seemed to invite concern as to his state of mind. This time, at least, they told the truth. The sudden escalation of violence and subsequent failure of the summoned mist to conceal him from his attackers had sent the gravely wounded and magically exhausted Syrinx into the trees for protection.
Seeing many of his new company up close for the first time, Ylmen hesitantly approached the the group, checking to see if they were in similar condition to himself. He stared with particular interest at the miraculously alive Dwarf, and tried to gather what they all were speaking of.
"Talas Arduinn, at everyone's service," Talas says with a slight bow.
His gaze lingers a moment on the burnt fellow, but he doesn't try to pry. Hardly the time. Instead, Talas bends his head to rummaging in his pack, looking to see if he has much of anything that can help bolster the badly-burned defenses of the sometime fort. Not... really. Somehow he doesn't think a kit of false noses and beards will help them against the rampaging fire orcs. He does pick up a few of the warm glass vials, recognizing them as items his mother had used to make. Little good against foes who can ignore flame, but, they might come in handy later... and this cloak....
Talas glances off into the jungle where it gets thick again, past the area that was so badly burned in the assault. "Might be able to rig a simple alarm," he muses, half to himself.
The foreign nature of her environment making long term sleep an impossibility, Ariela rouses from her brief nap, glancing over at the meditating Spectrum. Sitting up, she adjusts her sleeves, the simple gown becoming a short skirt and light blouse appropriate for the sweltering heat of the current climate.
Leaving her armor, she gets up silently, exiting the hollow, noticing on her approach that she seems to be able to understand everyone.
Eythil looked at the group that seemed comprised mostly of newer people, recruits this Thedra would call them. He now knew about a city they were all being sent to, a city he might have once been brought to a long time ago were things to jave been different. But they weren't
Why be secretive about the place? Why receuit a small group of people from apparently very distant places?
"I am sorry, Thedra. Even knowing that this city of yours is probably safer than here, I have far too many questions about it, your reasons for coming here or anywhere really, who you are, and why you do it. Questions that you have said you will likely be unable or unwilling to answer now. I need some time to determine if I will accompany you or not."
Eythil looked around the burning fortress.
"We still have to survive for the next two days first right? Well some of you might know the dangers of this place, but others don't. The denizens of this forest will be drawn here for som time. Creatures vary in strength, but they are all dangerous, but maybe we can use that."
He glanced over at the strange Owl like person who had fought alongside them all.
"Why are you here? You don't seem to be with this group."
Ylmen's head turned to face Eythil as the scarred and burned human addressed him. He hesitated momentarily before answering, realizing that some magic was allowing him to understand the man's speech.
"You've come to that conclusion easily, have you?" Ylmen screeched and clicked indignantly between labored breaths. "You look as much like one of those dead raiders as you do any of these other groundlings." Ylmen quickly scanned the group, eyeing each of the persons present for just a moment before locking his gaze back on Eythil. "You are fortunate my eyesight is as keen as it is, or I may have mistaken you for one of them." Ylmen stepped side to side, shifting his weight between his scaled feet. "If you mean to suggest that my appearance is unlike the others than you are correct, but we are on the same path it would seem." His broad feathered face turned to spectrum. "Spectrum collected me from my home in the mountains. I have long awaited this journey."
Unsure of who's magic was responsible or the language barrier being removed, Ariela decides to simply embrace the change. "For someone who was pretty much facing certain death until we strangers arrived, you certainly are aggressive toward the people who risked their lives to fight your enemies."
Eythil listened to the owl like Ylmen before responding. "Groundlings? I'm nothing like those Orcs. As for the scars, they learned the hard way how to deal with a burning forest. That or its some sort of initiation right. I noticed you before the rest of them arrived, and given your differing look, well there are many strange things that come from this forest."
When the exotic looking woman spoke, he exhaled sharply. "Oh, and did you fight them simply on my behalf? Because they were just as much your enemies as mine. Had I been unconscious or had this been somewhere else that you didn't apparently need to be, then maybe I'd be more willing to believe that. But I've seen many creatures risk their lives to defend their territory. How is this different?"