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Post by blackghoulmon on Mar 20, 2017 20:45:26 GMT -5
Urasina turned around to face the others, the amulet dangling from her mouth. "Way ahead of you, Doe," she grinned, dropping it on the floor. "I can't see the wraiths with my eyes, but I can detect them with my magic enough to kind of 'see' them. Enough to know where they are and to hit them, at least. And I'm not wearing that, and neither should either of you. If the Lich is watching us through these, then it's best we don't tip him off to what kind of magic we can bring to bear." She held one front hoof over the amulet. "I'm going to smash it to bits... unless one of you REALLY wants it."
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Post by Flutter (Frosty) on Mar 21, 2017 12:16:08 GMT -5
Simi shrugged before ripping hers off and attacking it with Dreamsever. "I'm linked to my blade. He hasn't shown his full potential, either." But the blade went inert (and, for the first time, just looked like a sword to those around it,) refusing to touch the amulet with any destructive force. It plinked uselessly, bouncing off the blade like a baseball and right into Aerlliin's field of influence. The mare shrieked, protecting her face from the oncoming amulet with her big butterfly wings. The amulet disintegrated on impact, and something hissed from far away.
"Maybe we should have tested those with my aura before strapping them on the necks of our non-magical friends." Liin side-stepped the metal scrap pile, carefully avoiding touching it at all. Doe watched, and though it was difficult to follow exactly where her eyes went, it was clear to those that knew her, at least, that her eyes were on the dust of the disintegrated amulet.
"Sealed in blood. Of course, it's so obvious!" Liin waited for an explanation while Simi looked terrified. Doe continued. "The people that worked here- the original amulet bearers- would have needed to see the wraiths. Or needed to be 'seen' at all times by the Lich- these dudes are power hungry." Her face still twisted and Simi got it, rather than the actual scholar.
"Oh, snap. That doesn't bode well for the villagers. We need to roast this guy, fast."
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Post by blackghoulmon on Mar 22, 2017 15:08:20 GMT -5
Urasina lowered her hoof. "Are you sure you should have done that?" she asked, arching one eyebrow. "None of us can see the wraiths without someone wearing one of these and calling them out. The skeletons, though..." With that, she kicked out with one hind leg and shattered another skeleton. "...We can all see those. My point is, we may still need one of these things. Unless we want to be wandering 'blind,' so to speak." She shook out her mane and pawed at the amulet she stood over. "I'll let you three decide. But if you ask me, it's probably best if Simi keeps wearing it, since she doesn't have any magic, so she won't alert the Lich to what we three are capable of." She indicated Doe, Liin, and herself as she said this. "But Simi's right; thankfully the Lich can't seem to escape the labyrinth, so he can't get at the villagers that way. We still need to find him and bring him down quickly... but, given the volume of that hiss we just heard, we've got a ways to go yet."
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Post by Flutter (Frosty) on Mar 22, 2017 19:24:08 GMT -5
Simitra nodded, knowing what she did was right. "Like I said- I'm linked to my blade. While I'm not a mage by any means, Dreamsever has powers and abilities all on its own. If the Lich can see Dreamsever, it'll know to defend itself against a crazy magical dream sword and I'll be more useless than I've ever been." It was Liin who spoke next.
"But how are you going to protect yourself from them? I mean, Urasina and Doe have a pretty good idea of where they are, they can't get anywhere near me. But you..." She let her voice trail off when Simitra waved a hoof dismissively.
"Dreamsever will protect me, as he always has. If any of you feel uncomfortable, watch." She balanced her blade on her back, and it came to life again. It caught fire and encased her in a cloak of bright yellow flame, which mimicked Urasina's holy fire. "It's an otherworldly blade made of, well. Dreams. And memories of dreams." She looked at the blade as one might look at a lover.
"The way you look at that thing is downright unnatural." Doe snorted. "So, what, it saw what Urasina can do and mimicked it, or did it read her mind or something scarier? Or is that blade maybe worse than the Lich?" Her voice was almost accusing. She didn't want to come out and say it, because it made her sound like a scaredy-Kad, but that blade often gave her the willies just looking at it. To say nothing of what she felt when she got near it.
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Post by blackghoulmon on Mar 23, 2017 13:47:28 GMT -5
Unlike the other mares, Simi's sword didn't bother Urasina. She had a lot of experience with semi-sentient, magical weapons; her younger sister Ludroth had one, after all. "Your call," she said, picking up the amulet by it's thread and swinging it around a few times before leaping into the air, doing a forward flip to build up momentum, and bashing it against the wall. It basically disintegrated on impact, and had hit so hard that it left a dent behind. As expected, the Lich hissed in anger a second later. "Now, this could go any number of ways," she went on. "The Lich probably can't see us anymore. So he may summon more wraiths and send them out to find us, but they'll be wandering 'blind' too. Or he'll summon a LOT of wraiths and flood the labyrinth trying to locate us. Or... worse," She said this very casually, with a hint of sarcasm, yet she knew well enough that any of that was highly possible. "Anyway, enough standing around. Let's go." She started moving yet again, shooting a solar ray to trip another spear trap, and then shattered the spears so the mares could pass.
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Post by Flutter (Frosty) on Mar 25, 2017 14:44:48 GMT -5
((I'm going to throttle my internet. I could have sworn I'd responded to this!))
"I can think of so many ways for this to go wrong." Doe said, still avoiding Simitra and the blade that set her at an anxiety level of about ten. She did not pick her up again. "But with everything being blind and at least two of us being untouchable, there are also a great many ways for this to work out in our favor." She got a twisted little grin on her face, remembering a few traps behind them they hadn't set off. "Anyone up for a little misdirection? We're going to be stuck in here for a while. Labyrinths are boring, even with all the traps. Maybe especially with the traps."
"They're meant for quiet contemplation, Doe, not amusement. But misdirecting the wraiths does sound like a good idea." She jumped slightly when she heard a clatter, and then what looked to be an ancient Uni horn rolled towards her feet. It didn't disintegrate as it was already dead again. "This is just disturbing. Do we even have necromancers in Neopia? Sometimes I get my dimensional magic mixed up," Liin asked of Urasina.
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Post by blackghoulmon on Mar 25, 2017 15:02:09 GMT -5
Urasina matched Doe's grin. "Misdirection? That's always fun," she said. "What have you got in mind, Doe?" She also noticed the ancient horn lying at Liin's hooves. "Let me see that," she went on, going over to Liin and nosing at it. "Well... hm..." She mused for several seconds before biting off the tip of the horn, chewing it, and swallowing it. "Ew, tastes nasty," she admitted. "But there was still some magic in it. And I THINK I've learned something from it." She turned away from the group and closed her eyes, focusing on sorting out the faint trace of ancient Lost Desert magic she had gained from the horn. After several more seconds, the whole spell became clear to her, and a beam of Light energy shot from the arcane space behind her horn, extending to about six feet long before solidifying into what amounted to a gigantic sword made of solid Light power. "Oh, cool, that was the beam sword spell!" she said, sounding pleased as punch. "I've read about this in old texts. A unique spell only the ancient Unis could pull off, it was rumored to have been lost forever." She tossed her head and swung it side to side, testing the reach and heft of the blade. "THIS is going to be so much fun to mess around with!" She dropped the spell and the sword vanished. "OK, Liin, to answer your question, yes, there are plenty of necromancers in Neopia. Especially in the more ancient worlds, like the Lost Desert. And the Haunted Woods is rife with them." She looked back at the Faerie mare's hooves, but the ancient horn had disappeared into thin air. "I guess its innate magic was the only thing keeping it intact," she said with a shrug.
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Post by Flutter (Frosty) on Mar 26, 2017 15:29:44 GMT -5
Liin stuck her tongue out when the other mare bit the horn. She knew it as an alchemy trick, as many magical creatures held their secrets within their very bones. Learning an entire spell wasn't unheard of, either. "I'll admit, I'm impressed. Last time I tried that, it wasn't a magical bone at all. I do know how to get bone powder off my tongue now without using my fluke, though."
"Not likely the spell would work for me," Doe said. "But I've got something similar. It's like an ice metal that's so sharp, I can hit a practice dummy seven times before it collapses into tiny pie slices." She tilted her head when the Uni dispelled it. "Sort of does the opposite in terms of 'golly that hurts', however." She was about to put it on display for kicks and giggles when the small skeleton army Aerlliin had been sensing made its appearance. "Oh snap." Her armor covered her body again (which she thought was a bit of overreaction on the armor's part) and the claymore she'd been forming solidified and levitated. It radiated cold magic, and the instant one skeleton that looked like it may have been a Techo at one point shattered when she hit the bonewalker. The clattering the bones made when they hit the sandstone tiles got the attention of the other skeletons.
"At least they don't seem upset," Simi chirped, but Dreamsever spun quickly on its hilt, expanding the sympathetic holy fire around her. "Or maybe they are." She shrugged, charging into the middle without hesitation.
"That mare is going to be the death of all of us," Liin said quietly. She didn't bother running, as Simi did. She just walked through, the raised army either moving out of her way or disintegrating on impact. "I imagine this is another trap or something. Though I don't know why there are more traps outside of the Oozing Shadow Pit of Doom."
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Post by blackghoulmon on Mar 26, 2017 17:20:36 GMT -5
While the other mares went toe-to-hoof with the skeletons, Urasina stayed back and blasted them with her arcing solar rays: she'd shoot one skeleton and the solar ray would bounce to the one closest to the original target, then bounce again to the next closest one. It hardly took 30 seconds for the group to clear them all out. "All I have to say is, those things are worthless bits of animated anatomy," she quipped as she walked over to rejoin the other mares. "I think that, had we stood perfectly still, they wouldn't have even noticed us. They don't seem driven like the wraiths are; maybe they're just wandering around haphazardly? I would think the Lich would have better minions than just what we've seen so far. Unless we haven't found them yet."
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Post by Flutter (Frosty) on Mar 27, 2017 18:29:02 GMT -5
The other unicorn and the other Peophin both looked at Aerlliin, who seemed to have a knack for this sort of thing. She didn't return their looks, instead only nodding at Urasina. "It did seem a little too easy, didn't it? I'm still sensing a lot of undead. This was just a sampling, I think." She lifted her head and closed her eyes, and said a small incantation. When she opened her eyes again, a quick wave of magic shot out from her body and returned just as quickly, outlining the aura that surrounded her. "Yup. And I'm not sure but I think the next ones might actually fight back a little- I sensed one or two mages, several warrior types, a few dozen archers..." She stopped listing what she felt when Simi simply stared at her.
"From that one little pulse? Seriously?" Simitra shook her head, almost amazed at the extent of the other mare's magic. "It's a shame that sort of thing is out of my reach," she said, almost wistfully. It wasn't the first time today she wished her magic had been unlocked, but it seemed the loss would be permanent.
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Post by blackghoulmon on Mar 28, 2017 15:43:13 GMT -5
"I figured there would be worse out there," Urasina said with a shrug. "But I can't do a detection pulse like that. I can sense darkness from quite a distance away, but I'm not actually sensing much of that, if any, right now. This Lich clearly isn't dark-aligned, or he doesn't favor it over other elements, or I'd be picking that up by now. I think our previous hypothesis that he's earth-aligned holds true." She started walking again, senses on alert for more traps. But there didn't seem to be any close by. Another skeleton shambled towards them, but she spun around and kicked out with one hind leg, kicking the thing's skull right off its neck and shattering it against the wall. "Hm. Anyone have any idea how long we've been down here, or what time it might be?" she asked at length. "I'm starting to feel a bit hungry. How about you three?"
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Post by Flutter (Frosty) on Apr 6, 2017 16:26:00 GMT -5
Liin only grinned- the pulse, she knew, was pretty impressive. "The time sense thing is Simi's bailiwick- she might not have magical senses, but she's like a living clock."
"We've been down here for about half a day," Simi said. "Breakfast time!" While she spent most of her life hungry- a side effect of being a dream creature, Jariev had said, always hungering for more than food- solid foods at least filled the hollow parts. "Or at least, some meal time. I'm still sort of off on what you lot call your meals." Doe lifted an eyebrow, pulling what looked like a bit of hardtack out of one of her metallic pouches.
"Simi, you've been here even longer than I have and you still get the mealtime names wrong?" She bit into the bread-like meal, not particularly enjoying it. She ate it quickly before moving on to a few dried vegetables. The carrots didn't go well with the potions she'd been drinking, causing her to burp again. Her ability to do so was about the only thing preventing her from colicking at the moment. But the combination of the food and potions made her feel more energized than she'd felt in, well, ages, and she could almost feel her muscles pulsing with the mana. "Interesting."
"Doe and Simi are always hungry," Liin said without heat. "Simi for creepy dream reasons, Doe because she's constantly burning off energy. She also just really likes food." Her own pack had fresher food than what Doe was offering Simitra, who hadn't gotten any food in the village. She bit into some white root that tasted a bit like a potato and had a bit of a spicy sting to it. The other two mares turned up their noses when she offered it. "It's not actually made of horses, girls. It's just a horseradish, and a mild one at that." She shrugged when her sisters politely said they wanted no part in it. Before she offered it to Urasina, Doe stopped her.
"Liin's mouth is broken when we talk about what's spicy. She puts those radishes in salads sometimes- they're so spicy they once caused her sister-in-law to set the entire north wing of the manse on fire." Doe grinned. "You can try one if you like, but I just need to warn you that they taste like pain."
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Post by blackghoulmon on Apr 8, 2017 13:47:38 GMT -5
Urasina had the rest of the food supplies in a pack on her back. She wiggled her body a little, shifting the pack forward so she could reach her muzzle into it better. As expected, it was mostly low-grade Lost Desert food, like the fruit-flavored sand. She ignored that and contented herself with some bread. When Doe mentioned the horseradish, she snorted. "I tried that once, as a filly," she said. "I was in agony for a good several hours. I don't handle spicy foods well at all. No one in my family does. Sweet food, however, is a much different story." She snorted again. "My human says that if I didn't get as much exercise in a day as I do, I'd be too fat to move because of all the sugary things I eat. Don't get me wrong, I love my fruits and vegetables, but baked goods, especially the cakes and breads my human bakes, are my favorites."
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Post by Flutter (Frosty) on Apr 11, 2017 21:14:35 GMT -5
Liin chomped into the giant horseradish, which made Doe's eyes water out of sympathy for the Peophin's sinuses. The Uni sneezed when the scent wafted into her nostrils. "Gods, you could at least put a protective barrier up." She did it for the faerie, saving everyone from Liin's unfortunate lunch choice. The shield was almost metallic in nature, but was more frost than metal. "There. Suffer your own consequences!"
"It's not that bad, you big pansy," Liin responded in kind. It was a gentle, relaxed teasing that occurred between the two from many battles fought together, and her voice echoed in the unusual magic the unicorn had put around her. It worked well enough, and the scent didn't leave the frosty bubble. "I love my fruits and veggies. I think the only time I"ve seen Doe eat a fruit, though, it was coated in chocolate." She finished off the radish and reached for a thing that looked like fruit, but fell apart. "Also, is the sand fruit a Lost Desert thing? At home in Altador, we have actual fruit. The last time someone had sand on their plate, they almost started a riot." Simitra rolled her eyes, and quickly finished some nondescript food.
"To be completely fair, Urasina, Doe eats much the same things you do, but says she likes to 'conserve' energy." She ate some sandy grapes, not prone to the same texture aversions the other mares were. "The weight is sort of proof there." She ignored a quick, fluffy hoof to the ribs.
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Post by blackghoulmon on Apr 12, 2017 14:54:26 GMT -5
Urasina giggled at the exchange between Doe and Liin. "You two sound like me and my stallion when we're off on a mission," she said. "The teasing and trash talking is almost constant. It's a great stress reliever." She nodded when the Faerie Peo mare asked about the sand fruit. "It is a Lost Desert thing. It's what you eat when you can't afford anything else: you buy some cheap fruit juice, mix it with sand, and boom. The villagers probably couldn't afford much better than that; that village looked pretty destitute. Apparently there's certain kinds of sand that taste better than others? My family doesn't eat the stuff, so I really don't know. We DO have real fruits and vegetables, just ones that are adapted to the climate. They're good, for the most part, but for those who haven't had them before, they're an acquired taste. If I want more general stuff, like carrots and apples, I have to leave the desert and go somewhere more temperate. I usually go to Brightvale; the farmer's markets there get a lot of business from my family." She wisely said nothing when Simi once again insulted Doe's weight.
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Post by Flutter (Frosty) on Apr 14, 2017 15:53:30 GMT -5
Doe grinned, having finished her meal (she ate at an alarmingly fast rate.) "We can only ever tease each other on missions, never during training- Jariev, our mentor, would have our heads for it. Or make us run laps." The mare shuddered. "Hate running laps there."
"Our mentor and her daughter live in... well. It's not really another dimension, but it might as well be. It's a cave, but also a grove. The grass glitters with its own light and the 'sun' there is actually a giant mushroom hanging from the ceiling." Aerlliin sighed, casting her eyes upward as though remembering more. "It's located... well, sort of everywhere. And nowhere. You either teleport in or you have to be teleported." She watched as Simitra finished up the sand pears that would have given the rest of them colic, and the other mare spoke.
"There's probably another way in. I feel a draft sometimes when I'm in there. Sort of like an old mining shaft? I'm also pretty certain it's located somewhere beneath the Haunted Woods." Simitra grinned. "Being as non-magical as I am, I'm not effected by the charms Jari and Myth have put up around the caverns so I've got a pretty good sense of where I am." She crumbled what was probably supposed to be an apple into her mouth before speaking again. "I actually live near Brightvale. Maybe one day I'll see you at the market- I just spend a lot of time in Altador. The cottage gets incredibly lonely so I tend to avoid it."
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Post by blackghoulmon on Apr 14, 2017 20:15:40 GMT -5
Urasina snorted. "I don't do 'mystical secret locations,'" she said. "Finding myself in the Shadow Realm by accident once was bad enough..." Again, the faint flicker of pain on her face, almost too faint and quick to notice. Her ears perked when Simi mentioned living near Brightvale. "Huh, I thought all three of you lived in Altador. That's interesting; my mate and I do mercenary work for King Hagan quite often. Typically beating back the bandits that live in the woods." She adjusted her pack again. "Doe, how close do you think we are to more of the blood vials? Or the magical ones? If Simi's right about the time, we can maybe get another few hours of searching in before having to think about resting for the night. Like it or not, we're going to have to sleep, or at least rest, down here."
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Post by Flutter (Frosty) on Apr 15, 2017 18:19:43 GMT -5
Doe cracked a smile at the mare's comment about Simi living with them. "Simi is... off putting when it comes to a lot of things. The owner of the Altador manse is usually a very calm and easygoing mare. Simitra is the only one I've seen her use dark magic on to get her out of a building." She brought out a canteen from one of her metallic pouches, and took a long draft of it before handing it to Aerlliin. "It's really best that Simi has a more permanent residence on the opposite side of the continent." She tilted a ear as she listened for the singing of the blood vials and the eerie absence of sound the magical vials gave. For a moment, she wondered if their song was just different and of a frequency she hadn't attuned herself to? "We're not far from three vials, one of them magical."
Simi spoke up for herself. "I'm not actually allowed in Brightvale proper- the gates are pretty much my limit. I can go in the market stalls outside of the actual city, though!" She took the flask that Aerlliin handed her and finished it, but Doe offered Urasina another flask. "Also how is this water almost ice cold, Doe? It's... uncomfortable. We're in the desert, and this is ice cold."
"She uses her ice magic, Simi. At any rate, I can call in Chupe, our little trans-dimensional griffon goblin, to bring in bedding supplies. Jariev didn't exactly give us time to gather bedrolls, but honestly anything from the Shadowed Vale would probably wither in the heat." Liin dispelled Doe's shield when she was done eating the spicy tubers. The unicorn pretended to faint from the smell when the spell released.
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Post by blackghoulmon on Apr 15, 2017 22:06:34 GMT -5
Urasina pricked her ears again when Simi mentioned not being allowed in Brightvale. "Seriously? What on Neopia did you do to earn THAT?" she scoffed. "...I'll be honest, though; Pyoga grew up in Brightvale, but got mixed up in some... nonsense... and got exiled. Which also explains her attitude towards stallions. She'd be dead right now if it wasn't for me." She shrugged, clearly not bothered by that fact anymore. She accepted the canteen from Doe, but since her own magic couldn't pick up objects, she had to drink from it while the other Uni levitated it. "You can have him/her/it bring you supplies if you want," she commented with another shrug, "But someone's going to have to stay up all night on watch and defense duty. I figured that'll be me. I've done it dozens of times in the past. Also, we'll need defenses up, and I can provide those too. Up until Titance became a regular fixture in my life, I almost never traveled with someone equal or more powerful than myself, so I always did night watch. Well, almost always..." AGAIN, the quick flash of pain on her face.
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Post by Flutter (Frosty) on Apr 19, 2017 20:07:02 GMT -5
Simi grinned. "I'm not sure why they thought it was such a big deal- I mean, I can barely remember it. But I'm also banned from libraries. And petpet stores. Pretty much globally, actually. All from the same incident." She munched on what looked like it belonged to the ruins (likely a piece of tile) thoughtfully. "Yeah, nope. Can't remember what it was." Aerlliin stared.
"You set the library on fire with a petpet," she said incredulously. "You almost got ME kicked out until I begged and pleaded with the castle steward. He didn't believe me when I said I wasn't with you. It took everyone left in the royal library that didn't run screaming to verify that I was trying to put the flames out, not helping you start it."
The two bickered back and forth for a bit and Doe merely rolled her eyes, turning to the Uni. This time, she'd caught the flash of pain, but figured the other unicorn would bring it up when ready. She wasn't one to push- after all, if pressed, she didn't like opening up about her own past. She put up a shield around the other two mares, muffling their argument. Didn't need to alert every baddie in the labyrinth as to their location. "Our interdimensional friend can handle night watch. We're all going to need to be at our best, and Chupe doesn't really sleep. It doesn't need it." She spoke softly, but firmly. She placed particular weight on that last sentence, feeling a bit of unease at the thought of any member of a team being less than fully rested the night before a battle. And this was going to be a big one.
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