|
Post by blackghoulmon on Feb 17, 2017 20:17:22 GMT -5
"I'll figure out something to do with the Light vial," Urasina agreed. "Even if I do drink it, because I'm immortal now, it probably won't harm me." "I'd honestly rather not have you drink it," Pyoga cut in, sounding worried. "If you give it to Kouren, I'd feel so much better." "We'll see, but we may not find it for a long time. We need to keep moving," the Uni responded, heading down the passage again. "Does this strike anyone else as not exactly a 'maze?'" she called back over her shoulder, sealing the mouth of a Krawk statue that was breathing icy cold gusts of air. "There are no branching paths; just this one main path." "There are 'mazes' with only one path," the Peophin cut in. "One of King Hagan's gardens was designed that way. You walk in, reach the center, and walk back out again. It was meant to be peaceful, not puzzling."
|
|
|
Post by Flutter (Frosty) on Feb 21, 2017 14:23:08 GMT -5
((This is probably gonna be my last response until at least Sunday- I just don't feel comfortable writing when I'm stoned to my gills. Sorry my responses have been so slow D: hopefully this makes up for it.))
Doe hummed a little melody, but no vials sang back. She figured they wouldn't. But the melody finished off with a "Hmhmm..." as she lilted her head, agreeing with Pyoga. "Labyrinths don't have a whole lot of twists and turns. Thankfully. They just sort of lead you to the center and then once you're there, there's usually a really pretty garden, not an undead terror from a forgotten age."
"I imagine the Lich probably thinks it's peaceful. It might have been beautiful, once, until its death. Or undeath," Simi corrected herself. "In my homeland, entire cities would be built underground for the honored dead. These necropoli would span under the entire city for the living. They'd have shops, hotels- and not a single living soul."
"You have any idea why there would be so many traps in one of these places, Simi?" Liin stepped over a rope. She wasn't sure what it did, but it looked rather taut. She wasn't entirely unoffended when Simitra rolled her eyes at her question.
"Son of a flying rabbit, you really don't listen, do you?" She let out an exasperated sigh. "I already told you. These traps aren't to keep the living out. It's to keep the dead in. Seriously, haven't you been listening to anything I've said in the last half hour?" She skulked a little. Doe ignored the Peophin- she'd been listening, but she was pretty certain Liin was still slightly out of it from pulling her Guardian of the Night spell without the proper incantation.
"We had one when I was a very little filly. It was made of ice, though, so if you stepped wrong, you were forced to go through it VERY QUICKLY." She grinned. "Needless to say, we did that a lot. It's one of the few things I remember well, honestly." She snapped out of her reverie when the citrine vial came into view after she stepped on a wonky tile. It glittered in her magelight, nestled in the wall in its tiny alcove. It looked larger than the others. "That thing is so yellow it almost doesn't even look real," she said. "All yours, Urasina."
Liin looked up at the big mare, lifting an eyebrow with more than a little suspicion. "You're awfully good at finding these things." Doe merely shrugged. It wasn't out of character for her to not comment on her abilities- said it was too much like bragging. But this was on the verge of uncanny.
|
|
|
Post by blackghoulmon on Feb 25, 2017 17:27:21 GMT -5
Urasina turned to look at the yellow vial. "Well darn, you sure found that quickly," she commented, approaching to get a better look. After a moment, she lowered her head and closed her eyes. "/Kouren, you can have that,/" she mentally contacted her guardian Faerie. "/See if you can make some use out of it./" The vial glowed with golden light, then vanished. "/I'll examine the contents and see if they'll be of some use to you,/" came the reply. "/If not, then I can probably use it to do some advanced research. These ancient Lost Desert magics are not my specialty./" The mental link broke and Urasina opened her eyes again. "My Light Faerie friend took the vial," she told the others. "If anything, getting it out of the labyrinth means the Lich can't use it, and should have weakened his Light resistance. I don't know what my friend will learn from it, if anything, but she's going to examine it very thoroughly. If it can be of use, she'll let me know." Pyoga gave the Uni a look. "You're calling Kouren a friend," she cut in. "Why are you calling her that? She's your guardian! She's MUCH more than just a 'friend!'" Urasina returned the Peophin's look. "I don't know how much Simi and Doe know about Faerie/Neopian relations, so I'd rather not go too deep into the subject," she retorted. "Even some Neopians find the concept of guardian Faeries rather weird. The Faeries are pretty aloof and "hands off" in general, you know."
|
|
|
Post by Flutter (Frosty) on Mar 2, 2017 12:33:32 GMT -5
((back in action! that was a rough week. I'm still not 100% but I'm also sick of 'taking it easy' while my mouth heals.))
"That's... almost as weird as Doe finding the vials so quickly," Liin admitted aloud. "I grew up in Faerieland and can count on one hoof the times I actually saw the Faeries take an interest in a Neopian." She lifted her hoof and used magic to make a big, glowing zero in the air. "Anyhow, as long as the vial is of some use, I'll be happy. Weird or no, if it gets us to where we're going, I'll take it."
"Doesn't matter to me," Doe offered. "In battle, you take what allies you can get, even if the relations do seem to be... a bit of a stretch. I'm not sure Simi can really... grasp that sort of alliance? Everything's really black and white with her."
"Nonsense," Simi said, unoffended. "The world of dreams is in shades of purple and blue, not black and white." This statement caused Doe to look over at Urasina and Pyoga, her face deadpan.
|
|
|
Post by blackghoulmon on Mar 2, 2017 16:18:21 GMT -5
Urasina and Pyoga rolled their eyes at Simi's comment, with the Peophin waving one hoof as if saying "That went right over her head." "I guess an explanation is in order," Urasina said, starting down the passage again. "When I was still a weanling, probably only a month or two after meeting my human, I went out for a gallop around our neighborhood and found a Light Faerie caught in a bounty hunter's trap. I tried to free her, but the hunter returned before I could, and we started to fight. Keep in mind, at that point I had ZERO fighting experience. I was running solely on instinct and my resolve to protect the Faerie. It almost cost me my life, but my human arrived to help out. We drove the bounty hunter away and saved the Faerie." She stopped and turned to face the other mares again. "She drew this mark on my chest as her way of thanks, and gave me my first Light blessing," she went on, indicating the glowing ring on her chest that was pulsing like a second heart. "And from then on, she was a vital part of my life. She taught me every Light magic spell I know. And I do mean 'taught;' she didn't just randomly show up and give me the ability to cast a new spell, she made me work for each and every one of them." She turned again and continued along, shooting a solar ray down the passage to trigger a rockfall trap before the mares got close to it. Then she blasted the rocks to dust and kept moving.
|
|
|
Post by Flutter (Frosty) on Mar 2, 2017 20:04:54 GMT -5
Liin made a sound that sounded like massive approval. "Most of the faeries I knew growing up would just as soon knock a Neopet off a cloud than offer training- you're very fortunate, indeed." Simi didn't appear to notice the faerie Peophin's derision, but the big mare did, and quickly turned into a giant raven to perch on Liin's withers.
"You alright, sugarcube? I was gonna suggest someone cast a cold spell to make it a bit more bearable down here, but I don't think we need it after that." Her voice was audible to everyone, but she had merely changed for affect. She puffed out her feathers and shook, doubling her size and looking much like a navy orb made entirely out of feathers. She bobbed her head as the other mare walked along.
"You haven't been on this world long enough to know this, but before Faerieland fell, the faeries were completely and utterly removed from us. They were supposed to be our protectors, and every once in a while they'd hand out a blessing if you did something for them. But it was always on their terms." She grimaced a little, and fired a weak ray of light at an oil trap, evaporating it without stopping. "It was pretty bad. Some faeries were alright, but the rest of them were pretty damn arrogant." She ignored the raven's flinch at her use of language and her sharp tone. "We were below their notice. It wasn't just Xandra that made Faerieland fall. They brought a lot of it on themselves." She knew it was a dangerous line of thinking, and unpopular- but the veil had become increasingly weak in Faerieland. She couldn't have been the only one to notice it.
|
|
|
Post by blackghoulmon on Mar 4, 2017 20:58:24 GMT -5
Urasina looked concerned at Liin's comments. "You must not have been around the kinds of Faeries I grew up interacting with, then," she said at length. "Kouren was a constant presence in my life, but a lot of other, less powerful Light Faeries played their roles too. I could classify Kouren as an elder Faerie; she's not as old as Fyora, but she's close, and she's one of the most powerful Light Faeries there is. I'm glad to have her around, but it's rather rare that she tells me what I need to hear when I ask her for advice. She prefers to give me a vague idea of what to do and let me figure it out myself." She paused to trigger another mono-filament wire, this time one that set off a brief gout of fire. "Still, Kouren is a bit of a loner/outsider kind of Faerie. She doesn't interact with other Faeries much; she much prefers to pal around with me and my family. It's almost unheard-of for a Faerie to 'join' a Neopian family, but that's what Kouren did, several years ago. And that story ties in with my... unique... appearance."
|
|
|
Post by Flutter (Frosty) on Mar 7, 2017 17:39:23 GMT -5
Liin nodded, understanding now. "Yeah, were she like most of the faeries I met, she'd have given you a blessing and told you to kick rocks after." She relaxed a little- not because the situation had changed, however. It was because Doe's claws had begun sinking into her flesh and it was really beginning to hurt. "There's always an outlier," she said jovially. "I mean, things have changed since my childhood home came crashing down from the sky, don't get me wrong. It's always nice to hear something different- Doe, if you need to say something please say it, you're going to make me bleed."
"I'm not... I'm not sure what's up ahead. I really don't know. But I... cripes." She shook her head a few times, and her feathers were now completely flat against her body, making her look very small. "It's just a sense of impending doom and I can't put my finger on it." Neither of her more constant companions commented on the finger thing- she had more than once demonstrated her ability to have hands in any form and it made everyone in the area uneasy when she did so. "It's like we're getting closer, but..." She clamped her beak before turning into a tiny finch, hiding in Aerlliin's flowing mane.
"You didn't happen to form a bond with this thing when you drank those potions, did you? When we roast this mother jumper, it's not going to hurt you, is it?" Simi said with a squinted glare. She followed the moving lump in Liin's mane with her eyes.
"No, nothing like that. Well, there's sort of a bond, but mostly it's just me knowing his weaknesses and strengths. It's nothing so intrinsic as a blood bond." She shook her head again and chirped loudly. "But that's not my problem! You seriously don't feel the resonance?" Simi and Liin shook their heads. "It's almost like a dark music. I'm unfamiliar with the melody."
"It shouldn't last long, Doe. It's probably another trick or trap that'll go away when we get past the area of effect," Liin said gently, with affection.
|
|
|
Post by blackghoulmon on Mar 8, 2017 18:33:47 GMT -5
Urasina and Pyoga didn't have the ability to sense magic, so they couldn't pick up on what had Doe so worried. But the fact that she was worried made the siblings concerned. "Well, here's hoping it's nothing too... Holy-" She stopped speaking when she rounded the next corner and found herself staring at a vast pit. She could see the other side, but she couldn't tell how deep it was because of all the swirling black shadows in it. It didn't look like water, or goo, or even like the Faerie wraiths; it was just... shadows. "I don't care how good your levitation abilities are, Doe; I'm INSISTING that you three take my portals to get across this," the Uni said firmly. "What if you tried to levitate across this and something grabbed at you? I feel that for the rest of you, landing in that pit is certain death." With that, she formed her portal and stepped through, Pyoga right on her heels. The siblings came out safely on the other side, but the little Peophin was quivering with fright.
|
|
|
Post by Flutter (Frosty) on Mar 8, 2017 19:08:49 GMT -5
"OH, THAT'S WHAT IT WAS! Yeah, not even gonna chance it." Doe chirped happily. She sent Simi through the portal first (admittedly, as a test,) before encouraging Liin to walk through it. "Let's just say it's a good thing you couldn't feel it. The crushing feeling of death and impending doom isn't something I'd recommend anyone attempt to feel in any situation."
Liin tossed a small rock into the pit of shadows to see what it would do. It didn't make a sound, even when it bounced off a wall. "Dark magic might have its applications, but this is just ridiculous. I'm willing to bet that it would cancel out most magic, if you attempted to cross it. Which means we're getting close. It also explains why the other traps weren't really traps- if anything could get past that, everything else would just be a formality."
"Not to mention everything here is to keep something in, Aerlliin." Simi sighed again, feeling that the other mare was just ignoring her theory at this point. "You know, the thing we're going to fight? Though I admit that the pit was probably also to keep people out." She bit her lip. "Anyhow- Doe, if there's a dark magic vial, maybe don't drink that one. I get the feeling it might have the same effect on you, especially since you're still kind of shivering." She watched the portal, but quickly lost interest. She preferred leaving the magic stuff to the mages. She watched as the tiny bird, still nestled in the other Peophin's mane, did not uncoil from her massive tension. She knew the Uni was lying about the pit having been the thing that set her off, but said nothing. Mostly because she feared what could possibly be worse than a pit of unending darkness and shadow.
|
|
|
Post by blackghoulmon on Mar 10, 2017 16:35:56 GMT -5
Urasina had also caught on that Doe was lying about the pit being the source of her fear. "Come on, Doe, spit it out already," she said with mild irritation. "What has gotten you so worked up? If there's anything I can't stand, it's when others beat around the bushes rather than saying what the problem is." It seemed her previous bad mood was returning, and this time, Pyoga didn't move to try and get her to snap out of it. "/If Doe is that worried, it could be a REAL problem,/" the Peophin thought silently. In a case like that, she'd much prefer to know what was going on, so she sort of understood her sister's mood. Urasina turned to Liin next. "I guess dark magic has some uses, but I can count on one hoof the amount of times I've seen it used for good," she sighed. "And I'd really rather not talk about that..." There was a brief flash of pain on her face, almost too brief to notice. But Pyoga knew her slightly older sister well enough to know what she was referring to.
|
|
|
Post by Flutter (Frosty) on Mar 11, 2017 22:49:40 GMT -5
Doe let out a sigh, which would have been longer if she had bigger lungs. "I don't know what it is, is the thing. I can't tell you what's bothering me if I don't know what it is." She couldn't very well explain that whatever the unseen force was, it was giving her a headache that would have killed a smaller mare. That might have been an overstatement, but it was the worst she'd had in a while. "It's like someone's playing their music too loud and magically amplifying the bass, but three rooms away and in all directions." She tucked her head under one of her tiny finch wings, which muffled the effect she was feeling some. "At any rate it's probably completely irrelevant."
While the sisters had their secrets, Liin knew Doe had hers, as well, even if she didn't remember them. She had a sneaking suspicion that her husband knew better than most what, exactly, was going on with the alien shapeshifter, but didn't ask when he'd first given the hint. "One of my friends has an aunt that deals almost exclusively in dark magic. Used to be one of the worst creatures in several dimensions, but she's... reformed now, I guess. In their dimension, slavery is pretty prevalent- Nyct uses her magic to free the slaves. It helps that she's sister to royalty, I think."
"She makes no mention of the fact that her mother in law is a demon," Simitra cackled. "Ance uses dark magic all the time- she says the biggest difference between 'good' dark magic and 'bad' dark magic is intent. And that 'bad' dark magic should be called 'shadow' magic."
"I didn't mention it because it wasn't relevant, Simi." Liin sighed, rolling her eyes. "But yes. That pit is teeming with what Ance would call shadow magic. It twists and consumes, like it's hungry. It makes you do things you wouldn't normally do, all in the name of power." She squinted, almost glaring back at the pit. "My brother was a practitioner."
|
|
|
Post by blackghoulmon on Mar 15, 2017 15:50:31 GMT -5
"Oh brother," Urasina groaned. "That's not good at all. If we're up against something intangible, then this just got even more dangerous." She looked around before going on. "My sense of direction is terrible when I can't see the sun... Have we moved any closer to the center of this labyrinth? Maybe the Lich is giving off whatever aura you're feeling, Doe?" Pyoga, meanwhile, was mulling over Simi's theory. "If the smaller traps on the other side of the pit were mere formalities, then now that we're on THIS side of it, there could be a lot worse things out there..." she murmured. "Do you think the pit was a kind of moat? I couldn't see how far it stretched to the sides." She gestured to the solar orb floating above Urasina's back. "The light from that only shines so far." "If it WAS a moat, then that might explain Doe's headache," the Uni commented. "Now we're really in the thick of things." She nodded to Liin but chose not to comment on what she and Simi had said. "Keep alert. We know we're not alone down here."
|
|
|
Post by Flutter (Frosty) on Mar 15, 2017 19:45:03 GMT -5
Doe peeked her head out from the fluff of Aerlliin's mane, inspecting where the resonance might be coming from. "I think my sensitivity to whatever it is is coincidental. It's not like the Lich could remotely prepare for my kind of magic." She fell out of Liin's mane, a tumbling ball of feathers. She bounced when she hit the ground, and rolled into her unicorn form mere inches away from an obvious pressure plate. Her ears had popped and the magical pressure had released her from her tiny form. "Sorry, that was more dramatic than it needed to be."
"What was THAT?!" Simi nearly shouted at the big mare. "And a little warning could have been nice." She would have gone on with her harangue had the unicorn let her.
"A massive pressure change. It sucked going through what I think now was a pressure wall, but now we're through it and my headache is mostly gone." Her armor had also retracted itself back to normal, though it still spiked now and then to test the area for enemies. She sighed and rolled her head back, cracking several joints. "We're still totally boned, though, I can feel it. It was one thing to go over the pit."
Liin spoke up again, slowly blinking as though it were having no effect. "We're definitely getting closer. I don't like this. Not sure why but I feel like there's something I'm missing. Something we're missing." She spread out her aura a little more, getting a wider feel for the area. "It might be the reanimated skeletons, because we're apparently in a cliched adventure tale dungeon."
|
|
|
Post by blackghoulmon on Mar 18, 2017 14:15:17 GMT -5
"R-Reanimated s-sk-skeletons?!" Pyoga squeaked, whirling around. "Where?!" "I'm pretty certain Liin was joking," Urasina responded with an eye roll. "But if there ARE reanimated skeletons out there, then I highly doubt they'll be much of a threat. Set the ground on fire and they die within moments. I've faced such things before, and I bet you have too, Liin." She also avoided the pressure plate and began to move forward again, her sister scrambling to keep up and stay close. "Doe, you sound more and more uneasy with this the further along we go," she spoke up again. "You seemed a lot more confident back before you began drinking those magic resistance vials. Are you picking up something the rest of us can't detect? I wouldn't be even remotely surprised if you are; I can't sense magic like you can. But if it's bothering you this much, I don't know what else to say."
|
|
|
Post by Flutter (Frosty) on Mar 18, 2017 17:38:26 GMT -5
Doe chuckled. "I'm always picking up things others can't detect. I think my unease is just from getting closer to the center of the labyrinth." She swiveled her ears around and squinted at Liin when a single reanimated skeleton shambled around a corner, but it seemed to ignore them entirely, collapsing and turning into a small pile of ash when it got near Aerlliin's aura.
"Not much of a joke, but I really thought there were more of them. I might be feeding off Doe's paranoia- but it's not paranoia if they're actually out to get you." She smiled beatifically. "But yeah, I've faced a few. Pretty easy to take care of when they can't get anywhere near you." Doe flicked an ear back.
"How's that aura thing work on our alien vampire friend, anyhow? Isn't she sort of undead? You get close to her all the time and she doesn't ignite. You know. POOF." The way she said it sent Liin into a near giggle fit.
"Amulatt isn't truly undead, haven't we discussed this?" She glanced over at the other two mares. "Shortly after Doe came into our lives, an ancient, immortal vampire with no understanding of the Neopian language came to the manse. Well, she didn't really 'come to it,' she sort of fell from the sky like a meteor. I tried, more than once, to uh... 'take care' of her because vampires are undead." Simi cackled above them, still held aloft by Doe's magic.
"Turns out the mare has hereditary vampirism, isn't undead, and is really easily offended when you try to burn her with holy fire." She straightened herself out. "At any rate, Doe gets anxious before most battles. It's not something you can control without blasting her with half a dozen calming spells, but that'll slow her reflexes to the point of endangering the rest of us."
|
|
|
Post by blackghoulmon on Mar 19, 2017 14:58:01 GMT -5
Pyoga squeaked again when the skeleton appeared and scrambled backwards, tripping over her own tail and toppling over onto her back, legs flailing in the air. Urasina looked over at Liin. "Do you have an offensive ward up right now?" she asked, intrigued by what happened to the skeleton. "It just turned to ash and none of us did anything." Then she helped Pyoga back onto her hooves. "If you're going to react like that every time something shows up, I'm going to send you home, for your own safety and sanity," she sighed, nuzzling her panicked sister. Then she turned back to Liin, nodding at her explanation of Amulatt. "For as many undead as I've killed, I don't go around hunting them actively," the dragon-winged mare admitted. "I've met several undead/vampire/zombie creatures who don't want to cause mayhem, they just want to exist; they're often in that form for reasons beyond their control. As long as they're not attacking others, I'll let them live... or, well, whatever the undead do... un-live?"
((I'm seriously thinking of removing Pyoga from this RP. This is not the kind of thing she'd do, and she's mostly just dead weight on the team.))
|
|
|
Post by Flutter (Frosty) on Mar 20, 2017 14:05:00 GMT -5
((You do what you're comfortable with, maybe especially since she might have a panic attack in the main chamber )) Liin only smiled. "You could say that. It's actually just... I guess you'd call it an area of influence. I, and everyone in it, am totally protected from dark and undead magic. The wraiths haven't gotten anywhere near me because of the... aura, I guess." She kicked at the ash pile. "This poor fellow was just shambling along, minding his own business. Sometimes I feel bad." Simi raised an eyebrow and just sighed. "I don't feel bad. Mostly because I can't. But I also don't have an aura that radiates light magic. When she first got it, even non-mages could see it. We could have stuck her in the Altador port as a new lighthouse!" She grinned, dipping her face down for a moment. "She can't turn it off. She's not immortal, but she might as well be with that." Doe let her fall to the ground for her last comment after Aerlliin flinched, and she glared at the wingless mare. "Simi, neither mare particularly enjoys that topic. Do what I did with you and drop it." She didn't pick her up again. "The aura is also one heck of a restorative after a battle. Get within a few feet of her and your wounds seal up without even the smallest of scars."
|
|
|
Post by blackghoulmon on Mar 20, 2017 16:11:53 GMT -5
"That's seriously impressive, Liin," Urasina said with a nod. "I can put up wards and shields, throw down traps, and even isolate small areas of the world (and control them at my whims) but I don't have a constant aura up. I used to have a constant, low level stream of Light magic flowing out of my body, but now that I'm immortal, I don't need to vent excess power. I can contain and control almost unlimited Light magic." She shrugged. "I'm still figuring all this out." She glared at Simi when the mare made her comment, then turned to Pyoga. "Pyoga, I'm sending you home," she sighed, suddenly looking very tired. "The last thing I want is to put one of my family members into danger." Pyoga sighed too, and bowed her head, looking ashamed. She set the urn and spear down on the ground. "Tell BG, Kouren, Ming, and Ludroth to be ready to port in at a moment's notice," the Uni went on. "And have Ming point the Skypiercer this way too. We may need it." Pyoga nodded, then raised her head enough to nuzzle her sister before golden light enveloped her, and she disappeared. Urasina sighed again, lowering her own head. "She's not ready, and that's my fault..." she sighed yet again, looking really glum.
|
|
|
Post by Flutter (Frosty) on Mar 20, 2017 18:49:58 GMT -5
Liin grinned at the compliment. "The real effort is in making sure it doesn't blind people. My poor husband has to sleep with a blindfold on because I can't control it when I sleep. The aura itself is automatic, otherwise." She let herself grin again. "I'm also still trying to figure it out. My mentor says I'm a long way off from being under total control of even the aura, and we're still not sure about my limits." She felt the ripple of magic when Urasina sent her sister home, and also the pang of regret. "I don't blame you for sending her home. Even if I'd kept her in my aura, or you kept her behind a shield, she likely still would have panicked. Mostly because I'm feeling way more undead, though it might be in a chamber we won't be accessing."
"It's always the job of the elder to protect those we love, even if it's a difficult choice," Doe said. She picked up the urn, securing it to her back with her armor. It appeared to seemlessly attach to her back, as though the urn were now a part of her body. "Are we going to be OK with just the one amulet, though? You sort of didn't take it off of her when you poofed her away. And since Simi's descriptions are often just 'wow it's big,' you might want to at least teleport the amulet back." She kicked out at another skeleton that had found its way into their path without actually having seen the bonewalker. She looked at it as it scattered, impressed with herself."Or maybe we're good." The bones clattered down the sandstone path like a rather flat-sounding chime.
|
|