Lyra Stoneheart's page

Lyra's eyes opened wide at Mehaila's suggestion and she was suddenly visibly trying to restrain her laughter. After silently struggling to contain her amusement for a minute she calmed down enough to answer without laughing in the elf's face. "Unfortunately if we tried to absorb that much magic we most likely would explode. Or mutate into a monster. Or any number of things, you can't absorb that much magic without becoming something you were not born as. And how would you stop the influx of ambient magic into your spells at just enough? You would most likely overlord your spell and have it blow up in your face. We need something of a more permanent and resilient nature to channel the amount of magic that can blanket an entire region into something useful and controlled."

The mage yawned widely at this point and rubbed at her eyes tiredly. "Normally I would love to eloquently wax long into the night about arcanomechanics but I am absolutely exhausted so I will see you in the morning."

Without another word the short woman would go crawl into her tent and soon be fast asleep. Shirak would ghost out of the forest and check on the position and smells of the camp before disappearing into the darkness on her normal nightly patrols. Mylee had been asleep in the branches of a nearby tree since just after sundown and shifted only to cover her head with a wing to shield her eyes from the glare of the campfire.

Feel free to discuss some more, I will give everyone 2 days to chat on this night unless the group decides they are good to go.

Lyra didn't answer Domitian's question right away, staring into the fire as she tried to figure out the best way to answer. Magic left unchecked would sink into and alter anything at random and there was no way to predict where such powerful currents would flow. It could do something as innocuous as making a stone glow or transform a flower into a dragon. And anyone attempting to capture and channel such immense power would be taking a large risk without the proper precautions. "Maybe."

She shifted on the log she was sitting on and looked up at the tall man. "And I stress, maybe. It will take me time to research and design anything remotely capable of handling such an influx of wild arcana. And even if I do I'm not sure what material is capable of withstanding that much energy. Nothing we've come across..." she trailed off as a sudden thought fired into her head, her posture becoming more upright as if blessed with sudden invigoration. Without a word she jumped up from the fire and ran into her tent, rifling in there for a short minute before coming out with a small black velvet bag embroidered with mithril. She opened the bag and flipped it over into her hand, dumping the contents out.

There was a dull clatter as two stones rolled into her palm, one a rough topaz the size of a melon and a fist sized gem colored the red of blood. She staggered under the weight of the two stones before getting both hands to hold them up. She sat back down on the log and placed the blood diamond on her lap before holding up the rough topaz to the firelight to watch the light play through the interior. She mouthed the words to a minor cantrip, all she was capable right now, and stared as the world around her took on a different cast of light.

Lyra was caught off guard as the entire world around her began to glow with a soft light under her enhanced sight. While the magic wasn't intense enough to manifest it existed in far higher concentrations then was normal for the material world. It also would make the task of detecting the minor oscillations of magic within the topaz almost impossible. She canceled the spell with a wave of her hand and frowned in irritation. "I can't tell if these gems have the proper crystalline lattice necessary for controlling arcana flow, there is too much interference in the atmosphere around us. Either this is exactly what I need to help with this problem or it will be."

She placed both gems back into her magical bag and cinched the opening shut before sliding the bag under her coat. "I'll need time and a proper workspace, neither of which I have out in the field."

Lyra accepted the hand from her sister and sat up into sitting position. She wiped the blood that had started to seep from her nose from the intensity of the crafting with a handkerchief pulled from her pocket and grimaced at the bright red stains. Taking a huge sigh of relief and exhaustion she looked around at the carnage of the fight seemingly for the first time and her eyes went wide at the destruction around her. The mage was silent for along time as her eyes darted around and cataloged everything.

After regaining her strength and standing the short woman brushed the dirt from her pants and glanced to make sure the remnants of the pillars were dissipating. When she saw the hundreds of pieces of distilled negative energy evaporating into nothing she trudged wearily back to her horse. "Lets get somewhere else and make camp, i'm completely spent of all magic power. We have a lot to talk about."

Later that day at camp.

After the party had traveled an hour further into the forest and found a suitable clearing they had set up camp and washed the blood and other marks of combat from their bodies. Lyra helped where she could but it was obvious to everyone that the magic she had performed had taken everything out of the small woman as she didn't even have the energy to bury herself into her spellbook as she often did most nights.

Once dinner was finished Lyra looked around at the party and began to speak in a worried tone. "What we fought today, that creature, is a byproduct of a process I've been seeing the hints of manifesting ever since the night the area was touched by Nethys. To try to explain..." she slowed to silence as she struggled to find the right words. "In many ways, magic is not some esoteric, supernatural force that only a few rare chosen can manipulate. It is a pillar of creation like heat or light, a fundamental force that existed long before any beings such as our God of Magic claimed supposed dominion over it. In the most basic terms magic is just a form of energy that responds to mental stimulus and like most forms of energy it can react with what we perceive as reality in an infinite number of ways. The great boar we fought two years ago was the first hint I had had that something was afoot. Everything I gathered from the Levetons and the hunters that roamed the area suggested that the boar, while massive, was still just a normal animal. Not the creature we fought, imbued with the essence of earth magic."

Lyra paused to take a sip of her mint tea before continuing on. "And then all of the incidents that have happened since then. The ice creatures that almost killed all of us, the phoenix, the Blood Moon...this." she waved at herself, pulling back her sleeve to illuminate the pale, purple skin.

"And finally pillars of distilled necromantic energy erupting from the ground randomly and killing a passing group of gnomes and then combining and animating their bodies into an undead monstrosity. Nothing I've read about the Stone Lands indicated that it was imbued with such an abundance of potent magic seemingly everywhere we travel. I think that night where we felt the presence of the Divine Arcmage left a permanent mark on the lands we seek to claim as our own. We should be prepared in the future to deal with...things that are imbued with forces far beyond what we would term as normal. Magic this powerful left to run amok can be very dangerous."

Lyra looked up from her book at Moira at the questions before turning back to gaze at the shattered corpse of the undead monstrosity. "Likely. As long as these pillars are still standing they are connected to the beast. Most likely it will begin to regenerate though I'm not sure when or how quickly. And no, the trolls didn't do this...I think."

The mage looked back up at the tall women with worry in her eyes. "It's very unlikely. Magic of this scale is usually only within the scale of the divine. My worry is that this is only the first act in a very dangerous game. I think I can destroy the pillars but I need time to study them, time when I'm not being distracted by that beast. Keep an eye on it for me, wont you?"

Lyra ignored the smoldering, twitching corpse and flew over to where the remaining seven pillars crackled with black lightning. "Do you as you wish, I'm going to study the remaining pillars. They need to be destroyed as well."

She landed fifty feet away and began to cautiously approach step by step, her body tense and ready to spring back in an instant. When she was thirty feet away the pillars all sprang to life dangerously, energy dancing hungrily as it sought out life.

Lyra launched herself backwards and up and managed to avoid three bolts of black lightning that lashed at her like hungry vines. She landed again fifty feet away and sat down, studying the necrotic field with her chin in her hand. She sat like this for several minutes before reaching into her jacket and pulling out a thick book and thumbing through it, scanning the densely worded text for information.

The moment the creature started charging Lyra lifted into the air without any effort, her fey blood befriending the wind and carrying her out of danger. She soared high and sheathed the wand back inside her coat, realizing that firing fireballs at a creature charging through deep water was an exercise in futility. Once she gained enough height she simply hovered in place and studied the creature, watching how it reacted when the other party members began to shoot it.

Her eyes narrowed in suspicion as she saw the arrows failing to pierce the hide of the creature, no matter how well placed the shot or with how much power the shot was delivered. Recalling her studies into creatures created with necromantic magic Lyra began to search through dozens of facts and legends.

When Rosa's shot detonated with such destructive force Lyra almost fell from the sky in shock. Recovering quickly after a short fall she sees the still moving remains of the creature and calls up magic from a scroll inside her bags. A runic circle of blue-white energy formed around her hands as she wove the prepared magic and coated her hands in snarling lightning. With a negligent wave she unleashed the bolt of energy into the still living part of the undead.

"I can't tell from here. Lyra responded to Rosa. "Hence 'Wild' Magic?"

With just a tiny bit of snark at her twin the short red-head pulled a wand from her belt and stepped forward. The polished wooden wand began to spit out a steady stream of red sparks as Lyra aimed at the pillars. "Get ready for anything."

She unleashed the magic of the new wand and and a fist sized globe of fire wooshed through the air and crossed the 300 feet between the group and the strange pillars before detonating. Fire engulfed all of the pillars in colors of white, orange and red before a shock-wave of sound slammed into the ears of the party.

Lyra had been towards the back of the party, relying on the skills of her group to lead while she continued to study one of the many books she had purchased in Absolom. She guided her horse with just her knees, her eyes focused on the slim volume in her hand. So when the horse jerked to a stop and stepped back she was caught by surprise and almost dropped the book before grabbing the reigns and bringing her scared mount under control. Mylee, her familiar, had been dozing on the special roost that had been attached to the saddle of Lyra's horse and screeched in indignation as she opened her wings and turned a fall into a graceful takeoff into the air.

Quickly giving up on the stubborn animal Lyra tied her horse next to Moira's and slipped the book into her white robes as she stepped forward and incanted a minor dwoemer. Almost instantly the short woman skidded to a stop and held her hands up as if she was warding something off before jerking back several steps. Her breath was heavy as she clutched Moira's sleeve and pointed ahead with a faintly shaking hand. "Those spires..thats wild magic. But how...!?"

Her pointing hand clutched into a fist as she lowered it to her side and visibly calmed herself, releasing the tall fighter's sleeve. "I sense an incredible source of necromantic magic ahead of us. This type of wild magic will anchor itself to an item or person and grow over time. Another time I can explain in more detail but that must be destroyed. Now."

Cast Detect Magic and rolled nat 20 Spellcraft.

For two years the druid bent her will and magic to everything around her, spending the first two months scribing many new spells into her spellbook, an activity she had been putting off while they adventured. Once the spellbook was completed she began to work on scroll after scroll, making some on order to sell to the settlers and the others going into her bag for future use. When she had free time she would use her magic to further mold the immense tree, creating wide stairs to make it easier for workers to ascend to the branches high overhead. The wily caster already had created designs for a series of massive lifts that could be able to carry dozens of tons of weight from the ground to where the settlement would eventually expand to, the thick branches that didn't start until halfway up the trunk.

Lyra would have brought her epic work-in-progress to the council meeting at the end of the first two years, a detailed map of the kingdom assembled from the druid's own explorations and the dozens of reports that came in from hunters on a weekly basis. She marked the locations of the troll signs with small colored stones and soon it was apparent that the markings became more numerous the closer to the unexplored southern forest they were. "There. Somewhere in there is where we will find our prey. That's alot of ground to cover."

Lyra gave Moira a dubious look. "...maybe? A berserk magic item isn't exactly a run of the mill occurrence. The problem with portable holes is they aren't completely water or air-proof. It's possible that the cold blasting off the weapon will leak out and do this, just slower. No what we need isn't to just seal it but to counter...when I use fire to combat the cold, that reaction wasn't normal. Perhaps fire is the counter?"

She spun to the assembled people and spotted many who were obviously crafters whose shops were nearby. "How many of you have a forge that is up to heat right now? You, just down the street? Run back and get those coals as hot as you can, we will be there momentarily!"

Lyra turned back and put a hand on Moira's shoulder, her eyes determined. "Follow me, and move quickly." She stepped back into the zone of cold and reached into numerous pockets that lined the interior of her cloak, taking out a tarry black substance and rolling it into a ball. Draconic syllables flowed from her mouth in a smooth cadence as the black marble began to glow with a fiery intensity. "Sorry about this."

She flicked her fingers and the bead of energy shoot off in a flash, slicing through the freezing vapor and into Moira's shop. A second later the front door blasted free of its hinges as the fireball detonated and scorched everything inside.

Lyra moved to the side as more militia arrived and began to herd people away, forming a growing circle with their bodies. She stepped next to Moira and gently pushed her hand forward, frowning as she felt the bite of the cold slam up against the magic of her blood-red robe and fail. "My robe protects me from the cold. Let me see whats happening inside the shop."

Without waiting for a response she pushed past the taller fighter and strode into the circle. Her robe seemed to become even more red, the depth of color sinking until it appeared as if she was coated with blood as the magic protected her from the hungry cold. She spared the lump under the ice a single glance before walking right up to the outer edge of the billowing vapor. She stepped from side to side trying to see into the window before losing her temper and throwing her hand out with a harsh word.

Bright flame spilled from her palm and slammed into the clawing vapor with a thunderous detonation that threw the short woman back a step. For a second the temperature in the immediate area rose several degrees before more freezing vapor boiled out of the window and began to take control once again.

Lyra stepped quickly back and walked back to the gathered party. "It's coming from one of the barrels. I could see the vapor explode out of it like a fountain when my fire disrupted it. What's in the barrel to the left rear of where your sharpening wheel is?" she asked Moira.

Lyra watched as the huge bear came roaring and charging at the worshipers of Erastil, her heart fluttering as she stood still and watched the angry predator attack her friends. Her familiar Mylee had transformed into her staff form and the short woman clutched the blue wood tightly, the grains creaking under the pressure. An errant bolt of electricity snapped at the faes' hand in irritation but the woman ignored it.

Why? Why would you do this Old Man? Your rage is forcing your followers to kill each other. Purity? Honor? You sully the very concept! the thoughts boiled Lyra's head as she felt her anger growing with every second. Standing here and watching gave her plenty of time to study the bear closely and she saw there was something wrong with the creature's movement. Erastil's teachings, the state of the bear, the way the information was delivered to them...

"You son of a whore!" the druid snarled under her breath, not caring that she was directing her words at a god. She stepped forward with a spell on her lips and almost broke her nose when she slammed into an invisible wall between steps. She held her hand against the wall and slid sideways, finding that the barrier was smoother then silk and slicker then ice and absolutely flawless.

Muttering a quick enchantment Lyra blinked her eyes a few times as the spell took hold and found...nothing. No magic held her back, no physical force...she was being held back by the invisible and unbreakable will of a god.

"Fine!" she snapped as she stepped back and stood with her hips cocked at an angle. "Let your children spread blood in your name. Such greatness."

Lyra watched as the huge bear came roaring and charging at the worshipers of Erastil, her heart fluttering as she stood still and watched the angry predator attack her friends. Her familiar Mylee had transformed into her staff form and the short woman clutched the blue wood tightly, the grains creaking under the pressure. An errant bolt of electricity snapped at the faes' hand in irritation but the woman ignored it.

Why? Why would you do this Old Man? Your rage is forcing your followers to kill each other. Purity? Honor? You sully the very concept! the thoughts boiled Lyra's head as she felt her anger growing with every second. Standing here and watching gave her plenty of time to study the bear closely and she saw there was something wrong with the creature's movement. Erastil's teachings, the state of the bear, the way the information was delivered to them...

"You son of a whore!" the druid snarled under her breath, not caring that she was directing her words at a god. She stepped forward with a spell on her lips and almost broke her nose when she slammed into an invisible wall between steps. She held her hand against the wall and slid sideways, finding that the barrier was smoother then silk and slicker then ice and absolutely flawless.

Muttering a quick enchantment Lyra blinked her eyes a few times as the spell took hold and found...nothing. No magic held her back, no physical force...she was being held back by the invisible and unbreakable will of a god.

"Fine!" she snapped as she stepped back and stood with her hips cocked at an angle. "Let your children spread blood in your name. Such greatness."

Lyra eyed the clearing and took her time to track all of the small details, spotting the same signs that Domitian had. Her mind scrolled through reams of information before she remembered the most pertinent information about bears. "Supernatural or not, bears never sleep out in the open. My guess is the temple itself." she pointed past Moira and Domitian to the opening framed by the giant Elks horns.

Her eyes shifted over to Moira and she frowned at the proud fighter. "Think of what The Horned Gods teachings are. He does not want glory-seekers but those who seek cooperation and stability. We are a team, we are your community." The druid placed her hand on the taller woman's shoulder. "Let us help you."

"It's not up to the gods to keep their temples clear. After all temples are a construct of mortals. If mortals want them to stay clean then mortals can keep them clean." Lyra said softly, her eyes shifting between Domitian and Moira. "What do you want to do?"

Feeling rather ambivalent herself about the location, the druid was going to leave the decision making up to the people who actually cared about Erastil and his teachings. Personally she thought the deity to be too far stuck up his own behind. And a misogynist pig.

Lyra looked back at Mehaila with an incredulous stare. "Try to drag them over fifty miles? They do not breath any fire nor would they provide any real challenge to a full grown troll. Let's just deal with them here so we don't have to worry about them in the future."

Lyra spat out a curse and held out a hand to her hawk, Mylee. The bird, who had been perched on the special mount attached to the saddle, took fight straight at the woman and shimmered with light just as she would have slammed into the open palm. Instead what appeared there was a staff of blue wood that snapped with tiny bolts of electricity. "Tatzlwyrm are a distant cousin to true dragons with neither their intelligence nor immense might. What they share with dragons is the desire to hoard and their taste for ANY kind of meat. We have no choice, we must kill them. Now that they have our scent they will never stop tracking us."

The druid stood there silently for several seconds, her eyes scanning up and down the the lizard before looking over at the mound and dismissed it quickly. She turned and walked back to the party, her motions slightly careless as she only attempted to step over the brittlest of branches. "It's a tatzylwyrm. Type of small dragon-"

Lyra stopped mid sentence in the conversation she had been having with Mehaila and frowned at river the group was starting to see through the trees ahead. She threw a hand up suddenly to stop the group and slipped from her horse quietly. Walking as quietly as she could she moved up to the tree line and peered out from behind the bole of a large evergreen.

"It's a hardy plant adapted for the northern climates that produces a blue raspberry like fruit and is quite sweet. It's also quite rare so if we do find a patch of it we should harvest seeds and try to grow them in a farm setting. Fangberry Jam would make for a lucrative export." Lyra responded with a slight smile. "Just watch out for the thorns, I've heard of cases where people have died trying to harvest the berries at the center of the thickets but end up bleeding out. Not a pleasant way to-....well you'll see."

She pointed ahead where the ground dipped down into a thin valley between two hills and was choked with bushes that had six inch thorns sticking out from shiney black leaves. "Fangberries. I'll get them."

Lyra spurned her horse forward unless it was a few feet from the mouth of the valley and stopped to dismount. She reached into her saddle bags and removed heavy leather gloves that went all the way up to her shoulder. Next she grabbed the bronzewood staff from her saddle and used it as a walking staff to approach the thicket.

She slowed when she got closer to the thicket and saw the spider webs draped everywhere. The druid frowned at the sheer number of webs and came to a decision with a steely glint in her eye. She stuck the end of the staff into the thicket and waited for a long second. When the bush began to shake she felt hundreds of little vibrations as the end of the staff was assaulted by spiders.

With a sigh Lyra triggered the staff and set a blast of flame that spread out into the thicket and set yards of webbing aflame. She jerked the staff out and backpedaled when thousands of spiders burst from the leaves and scuttled in every direction trying to escape the hell their home had become. A minute later all the spiders were either dead or vanished into the grass.

Burning Hands into the spider-hell. Just nope.

Once the last of the webbing had burned off the druid moved back and carefully peeled away the outer layer of the fangberry thicket to reveal fist sized batches of blue raspberries protected by razor sharp thorns several inches long at the heart of the bush. With a dagger Lyra cut batch after batch from the plants, dropping them into two large saddlebags. Once that was done she removed the heavy gloves and returned to the party on horseback. "I really don't like spiders."

Instead of answering Lyra reached into her bags and pulled out the magical map she had created by accident and unrolled it. The local area was recreated with glowing lines that showed gaps where the party had yet to explore. She ran her fingers over the surface and caused the image to zoom into their location down to a few hundred feet. With a quill she retrieved from a pouch on her belt she noted the hill the trolls were digging into and the marks swirled for a second before they took on the same glowing light as the rest of the map. Stowing map and quill the druid looked around at the rest of the party and spoke quietly. "I think our best bet is to move around them for now. From what Mehaila described it sounds like to me they are digging a new home for themselves. Oleg's is over fifty miles so I doubt they are in any danger. Why don't we withdraw for today and revisit the problem with a little more preparation? I do not have the spells prepared for such an arduous confrontation."

Lyra shook her head at Moira. "No. That magic just caused the earth to shift; the pit did the rest of the work. I have heard of magic that can shift large volumes of earth with a single spell but that is out of my reach for now. If we want to drop them into a pit we will have to dig it the old fashioned way."

Lyra narrowed her eyes at Mehaila's description before growling under her breath in anger. "Trolls. They have a nasty tendency to regenerate unless you hit them with fire or acid. Bad tempered meat eaters who like to eat smaller humanoids. My advice? Shield yourself with magic as best as you can and burn them to a crisp. If there is more than one don't let them surround you."

Lyra stopped her horse at Mylee's shriek and looked up, her eyes unfocusing as she reached out to the familiar with her mind. What she felt was waves of fear and laser eyed focus on creatures that the hawk felt to be predators far more powerful then herself.

She came back to her body with a shake of her head. "Something has Mylee spooked. She's smart enough to discount normal predators like wolves and lions. Whatever this is needs to be dealt with."

Lyra turned her horse and set off behind Mylee at a trot.

Lyra would finish her prayer for the sacrifice of the thylacine and whistle sharply for her horse. A few moments later there was an responding neighing as her mottled brown and white mare trotted out of the trees and slid to a stop in front of the druid, thrusting her nose out for petting. Lyra laughed to herself as she obliged with a thorough scratch of the horses neck.

She looked up as Mehaila approached and listened to her questions. She was quiet for a long minute as she pondered her response, answering in a quiet voice. "Rosa and I were raised on the edge of a large village where we helped our mother with healing and growing herbs. She was the village wise woman but was actually born in Oppara, the capital of Taldor. She took us there once to visit our family and I can say I was impressed. Of course they are a society in decline but the echoes of what they used to be are clear for anyone to see. Like all human cities however they erased nature to make room for their palaces."

She turned to look at the elf. "I am not here to make sure we become an agrarian society; my intent is to create a kingdom of magnificence and understanding, where the populace lives in balance with nature. There is no reason to cut down a forest if you shape your homes to flow around the trees or even build a home high in it's branches. Urban sprawl and deforestation are my enemies, not progress. You've seen my plans, the ideas i've committed to paper. That is what I intend."

After answering Lyra slid a wooden staff wrapped in threads of black iron filigree and topped with a chunky of cloudy quartz from the saddle and stepped to the edge of the pit. She would wait patiently as Moira removed the skin from the animal and not do a very good job at it. Once the fighter would crawl out of the hole Lyra will use her staff to collapse the pit and bury the remains of the thylacine, feeding its body back to the earth.

Lyra came out of the trees slowly, the branches of the overgrown bushes unable to find purchase as she stopped at the edge of the pit. She looked down at the trapped predator and then at the pit trap that snared such a beast. She began to carefully walk around the edge of the pit while keeping her eyes on the ground, searching for any signs of the trap setter. She knelt down several times to closely examine tracks next to the pit and picked up the broken strands of thin string used to keep the screen over the trap stable enough. Spinning the thread through her fingers Lyra could feel the coarse texture of it and realized it was made by inexpert hands, probably by the hunter who had set such a foul contraption.

Her head snapped up as she heard Moira's bowstring snap followed by a yip of pain from the thylacine in the pit. She jumped to her feet with a hot response on her lips but held back, glaring at Moira for a few seconds before turning away from the pit and hugging herself. As galling as it was the human was right. The thylacine had as much right to live as they did but letting it go would putting any settlers that might have in the future at risk. No there was a time and place for every creature and today was time for the thylacine.

Turning back to the pit Lyra closed her eyes and held her hands out from her body, palms up. She whispered a prayer as the second thunk sounded from Moira's bow and the creature went silent.

Lyra had been happy to feed the misunderstood Tree, cooing gently to the magical plant as it pulled several tons of meat into its root system. The plant seemed appreciative, bending it's branches down to brush against her head gently when she placed her hand on the thorny trunk. Already the tree was double the height from the last time they had seen it and seemed almost ready to yield it's first fruit. Searching through the spiny crown resulted in Lyra finding no less than 5 small silver berries and she spotted signs on several branches of more berries to come.

Smiling to herself the druid had carefully harvested the 5 berries and helped the others with the hundreds of pounds of bones, claiming one of the bone-spikes for her own research and adding it to her growing collection of magical creature body parts. On the way back to the fort she would discuss what to do with the boar with the rest of the party. She thought they should sell the skeleton to a researcher or one of the Universities of the region. A valuable specimen such as that could go for several hundred if not thousands of gold.

As they journeyed back into the forest Lyra and Rosa could be seen talking quietly over the possibilities of the berries and the druids twin agreed to use them to make magical ink. Together the sisters spent a few minutes one morning mixing alchemical substances, Rosa providing the expertise and Lyra providing the raw magical power. What they created took Lyra's breath away.

Yip Yap

When Moira and Mehaila slunk into the forest under the cover of shadows Lyra would wait patiently on her horse, going through the numerous spells she had prepared for the day.

"It's possible...if we can move it." Lyra responded while throwing a doubting eye at the sheer size of the beast. "But we would still need to butcher the creature. I also want to check for an acid gland, possibly a containment organ of some kind that is immune to acid."

She wiped the water streaming down her face and looked up at the sky with a flash of irritation. "I don't know what is going on with the bones but it warrants further study." She pulled a large carving knife from her bag and looked at the blade and then looked at the pig, then back to the knife. With a grunt she slipped the knife back into her bag and went to her saddle. Digging under the saddlebags for a long minute she slid a simple scimitar from its sheath and climbed onto the pig.

With sure movements she began to butcher the pig, carefully working around the skull to extricate two slender sacks from behind the jaw and handing them to Rosa. Once the acid glands were taken care of she began to chop the meat off with powerful two handed swipes, lopping off chunks and dropping them onto the ground.

Once the pig had fallen still Lyra had dispelled the remaining energy of the spell and flew down to rejoin the others, landing next to the still warm body and examining it closely. She only glanced at the tusk in Dom's head before going back to closely looking over the head and body. "The skeletal structure is wrong, acid gland is not a natural evolutionary result. No no no this is wrong, but why?"

She continued to mutter to herself for several long minutes before giving up with an exacerbated sigh. "I don't know what this creature is but it was no blessing of the wild that granted it such powers."

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.

Mythic Call Lightning, DC 18 Reflex, 29 points of Lightning/Sonic damage.

"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.

Mythic Enlarge Person and Bull Strength on Moira and Domitian.

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.

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?"

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."

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.

K. History with mythic surge and Display of Intelligence, 44

"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."

"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."

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."

"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."

Lyra visibly tensed when the thin vine wrapped around her finger but held still as the sentient plant stroked her skin. After a minute of this she carefully extricated her hand and quickly stepped away from the plant, flicking her right hand to dispel the magic. She rubbed her left hand with a slightly alarmed expression as she moved back to the others. "That is a very dangerous plant."

44 K. Nature rolled on Discord with Display of Intelligence.

Her shaken voice firmed as she seemed to come to some kind of conclusion and took several deep breath to calm herself. "It's a Silverthorn Tree. They are the rarest tree on the mortal planes and are always imbued with incredibly potent magic. They also have an animal intelligence and are predatory to the extreme; they are always hungry. I think the only reason it seems...fond of us is because we were directly responsible for its creation. It views us as parents of a sort."

Lyra jumped when the the four pigs were roughly yanked underground and vanished into a wave of earth that passes beneath everyone's feet. She edged a few feet away from the happy Tree as it gorged itself on four pigs worth of meat and blood before settling down, staring as the powerful magical entity grew several feet taller in a few short seconds. She continued to stare at the Tree while ignoring all questions and faint songs, her head cocking to the side very slightly as her brain clocked away at a million miles an hour.

She thought back to the several times the party had been through the clearing after the events of the bandit fight, how every time the tree seemed a little taller and yet the clearing remained somehow undisturbed. How the trees to the East had appeared literally overnight, extending the borders of the forest by several miles and moving the grove from the plains to the deep forest.

Slowly the druid stepped towards the Tree and extended her left hand, her right hand shaped into a claw that held a readied fire spell.

Lyra shook the last vestiges of magic from her hands and saw Moira glare angrily at her from across the glade, raising a single middle finger as the tall woman pointed at her ears. Lyra responded by crossing her eyes and sticking her tongue out at the fighter before bending down to grab the dead pig by its backfeet.

With several grunts the short woman dragged the corpse over to the fire and dropped it, placing her hands on her hips to look at the carnage the party had wrought. "I just want to make something clear; I don't want to make this a habit. In a normal setting I would only allow the killing of a few of that sounder, leaving at least one male and female to continue. However this Tree...it's too important. I don't know exactly why but we are bonded to it and I will not allow ANYTHING to hurt it."

Seeing the pigs were about to escape Lyra's hands ducked into the pouches at her belt and came out with a smoky glass rod and tuft of white fur in either hand. Rubbing the two components together sparks of electricity began to dance between her fingers as the rod and rabbit fur vaporized in a white flash. Gritting her teeth and touching her index fingers tip to tip the woman channeled a spark of mythic power into the spell, her brow furrowing in intense concentration as the intense mythic magic swelled up the leylines around her.

Crimson lightning spread down her arms in thick ropes as the spell consumed the pig's blood as an impromptu third component. Turning to aim the bolt so it lashed across all four pigs Lyra spat out a single word and the world flashed blood red for a second as the pent up mythic energy lashed out in a thick, jagged bolt that went THROUGH the four pigs before slamming into a tree on the other side.

Mythic Lightning Bolt affected by Leyline Mastery, 46 points of lightning damage, DC 25 for half.

The black panther shimmered as Lyra appeared crouching over the dead pig, her hands and lower jaw covered in the animals blood. "They are a threat to the Tree and the forest will be filled with them. Kill them all!"

With her animal vision Lyra was able to see Shirak move and reacted at the same time, launching her attack on a large female at the back of the herd with claws extended. In the darkness of the night shrouded forest she was an inkly blot in the shadows as she descended on the female and engaged the heavier animal at point blank range, going for the creature's jugular.

Bite 27, 2 claws at 26 and 20, total of 23 damage.

The panther and pig tumbled into the middle of the already panicked herd, the pig spasming as it's blood began to pump from it's neck in a steady rhythm. The panther had turned in mid-air after it's strike and landed on all fours, crouching over it's kill and snarling at the other pigs.

Lyra, who was reclining on a blanket on the long grass reading one of her many tomes, jerked upright into a sitting position as the sounds of several boars coming closer reached her. Her eyes quickly locked in on Shirak's alert posture as the tiger vanished into the grass in a very obvious hunting position. The druid looked back at the other party members and there was a dangerous, hungry glint in her eye. "Fresh pork."

She jumped to her feet and made it to the edge of their campsite before arching her back in pain as energy danced over her body. Enhancing her druidic abilities with mythic power sent waves of pain crashing through the woman as her muscles bulged and strained under her skin, dropping to all fours as her pelvic bone was reshaped. Shimmering black fur obscured her clothing as her jaw thrust out and grew several long, pointed teeth. In a blink the shapeshifting was finished and the black panther that was Lyra vanished into the darkness to stalk the fresh meat.

Mythic Augmented Wildshape (Beast Shape)

Lyra looked over at Moira's questions and frowned at the fighter's doubt. She thought of many ways she could prove what was going on right now but decided against most of them. She could tell that her thought process was being influenced by her frustration and looked around the group. "Anyone else who can cast the dweomer that reveals magic to you?"

Lyra shrugged, grunting as she untied a pack from her horse and dropped it on the ground. "It's not that dangerously cold within this glade but I agree, I don't like sleeping cold. Plus there is always that-" she nodded with her head towards the river, "-to jump into if a firestorm erupts. And I always have these on hand 'just in case'."

She untied a small pouch from her belt and dumped flint and steel into her hand. "Get everything set up and I will go gather some firewood." She shrugged her shoulders to get the colorful jacket into a more comfortable position and walked towards the forest, trailing her hand through the crown of of the short tree at the glade's center as she passed.

Within an hour the party would see something in the forest glowing with the brightness of the sun and approaching at a leisurely pace. Soon the globe of light resolved into a disgruntled Lyra who shielded her eyes from the intensely glowing disc of force that followed behind her carrying several days worth of firewood. As she dispelled the disc and dumped the wood onto the ground with a flick of her hand as she sat down heavily on the ground. "Did I ever mention how much I hate mana storms? I just soooo love it when all of my spells do things they aren't supposed to."

"In the southern continents the mana storms there aren't like the...well calling what we are experiencing a storm isn't right. Down in the region of land between the countries of Nex and Geb there are two regions where the magic that occurs naturally around us goes wild. One part of the wastes are flooded with wild magic so potent that it will manifest into pools. There savage mana storms rip apart anything living that gets caught in them, sometimes killing them and sometimes mutating them into a monster. The other part of the wastes is where magic has died. Magic of any kind will not function in that area. There is some debate on whether or not the dead magic zone really lost it's magic or if the magic was stripped away and dumped into the wild magic zone, thereby making one area dead and the other saturated." Lyra explained.

She looked around and seemed to come to a decision. "I'm probably worrying about nothing. The fire most likely won't flare up since these aren't streams of wild magic, just heavy magic. Be careful with casting spells however, they might interact with the heavy magic in ways you aren't expecting." She waved at her eyes with a rueful expression. "After all I didn't go blind when I cast this magic. Let's try something along those lines."

She walked over to the river and picked up a stone from it's banks, casting a minor cantrip over it that caused to glow with a faint light.

A second later both Lyra and the glowing stone vanished from view.

Appearing several long seconds later, Lyra threw the glowing stone away from her as if it were on fire. She rubbed her hands nervously as she moved away from the river, laughing quietly. "See? Be careful."

Lyra looked just as confused as Mehaila and pulled out her own magical map, her eyes going wide when it showed the distance they had traveled in one day. She let the scroll close with a snap and closed her eyes, dragging her fingers gently over her eyes while she chanted a minor dweomer that allowed her to see magic. When she opened them they were covered in a glowing geometric lines that formed a pattern within a perfect circle.

What she saw made the short woman gasp in amazement, her head swiveling left and right as she tried to take it all in. "It's a mana storm! There is so magic present in the atmosphere right now that it's affecting the weather. We are surrounded by torrents of pure magic right now!" she said, her voice tight with excitement and her body posture almost giddy.

She calmed down suddenly and her look of excitement was replaced by one of worry. "No magic tonight. Do not cast even a single cantrip or you risk our lives. Mana storms are wild and unpredictable and can react very badly to spells. No fire either, even something as simple as a campfire can be empowered by a mana storm and the two will combine into a raging firestorm that scours a region down to the rock."

The short woman was silent for several long seconds as she mulled over Moira's suggestion. Finally she came to a decision and shook her head as she stood, swinging her colorful jacket around her shoulders while she moved away from the table. "If you want to fight the monster with just your muscles, feel free. Magic is my passion, my study and my life and I will not abandon a useful tool. However I will allow you to fight unaided until it seems as if you will fall. Then honor be damned, we will put that creature down anyway we can."

Done with the conversation and visibly irritated Lyra moved off with her pack and began to pack her horse.

Lyra blinked at Moira's sudden meekness and a huge smile spreads across her face as she listens to the larger woman's words. She shook her head as she reached forward and placed her hands on one of Moira's larger ones, squeezing gently. "Not alone my friend. While I do not follow the teachings of The Hunter I know of them. He is the protector of rural communities and teaches that above all else is the family and then the community. He does not need glory from his champions, merely that they get the job done. We are your community and we will not let you face that darkness alone. Learn to trust us, learn to rely on us and you will begin to truly understand what He is teaching."