|
Post by blackghoulmon on Apr 20, 2017 14:08:39 GMT -5
Urasina rolled her eyes at Simi and Liin going at each other. She wasn't particularly pleased with Doe's urging either. "I thought Simi said that your little buddy's services came with a price," she said. "What kind of a price are we talking about here? Is it worth paying instead of me doing something I've been trained to do, and have done, for years?" One thing she really disliked was being told what to do, especially from someone she barely knew. She didn't know the limits of Doe's powers, and Doe didn't know the limits of Urasina's powers. Neither one should really be telling the other what they could or could not do. "If you have no problems paying whatever this price is, then fine, but I'd really prefer doing night watch myself."
|
|
|
Post by Flutter (Frosty) on Apr 23, 2017 18:11:58 GMT -5
Doe shrugged, sensing the animosity. "I've never had to pay anything for Chupe's services because I scare the crap outta it. But if you want to stay up with it, that's fine by me. I'm not gonna force you to do something you're not comfortable with- but its price is usually a favor for a favor, usually a rare artifact we find on our travels. Only Liin can pay it actual gold because it feels she's too inept to pay its real prices." She was beginning to feel like the mare had some problems she wasn't quite dealing with- that big immortal thing, for one- and maybe needed to stay up to sort through things. While she herself generally sorted through stuff while sleeping, it wasn't her place to tell the younger mare how to put her Mallards in a row. "I'll call it when it's time. No sooner, though." She wasn't entirely thrilled with the idea of having a member of the party even a little tired when they got to the center of the labyrinth, but if the other mare wanted it this way... She pulled down the wall of silence she'd put up when she noticed the other two mares staring at her.
"You know, Doe, if you got tired of our bickering, you could have told us to shut up." Simi said.
"Yeah, but I figured you two needed to get it out somehow. You've been like long tailed cats in a room full of rocking chairs around each other since our last mission. The tension's gone, though. Good on you two for getting that out."
"We also figured out what we need from Chupe, but you wouldn't know that since you just blocked us out. We stopped bickering about five minutes in." Liin handed Doe a list with about fifteen items, ranging from sleeping bags and pillows to food more nutritious than what they'd brought. The big unicorn studied the list, committing it to memory. "I'll actually have to pay it for some of this, though. Nothing too bad, since it likes me. Not as much as it likes Xena, but I'm right up there. Urasina, would you like something? I'm buying, so no worries."
|
|
|
Post by blackghoulmon on Apr 24, 2017 10:40:42 GMT -5
Urasina held her tongue at Doe's response, simply shaking out her mane. Discretion was not her strong suit, but she was learning, slowly. She also looked over the list of items, rather surprised by what was on it. "No, I don't need anything," she replied. "I've explored enough old ruins and done enough multi-day trips for my mercenary business that I'm used to 'roughing it,' so to speak. I don't know about any of you, but I was born in the wild and spent my first several months in a herd of wild Unis. The survival instincts you pick up... you never really forget them. I've spent over nine years living with my human and adopted siblings, but if they suddenly ceased to exist, I could go back to being wild without skipping a beat. Aside from missing them all dearly..." She grunted at this, clearly not happy about it coming up yet again, but knowing it was her fault this time. "...Anyway, I'll be fine." She left it at that.
|
|
|
Post by Flutter (Frosty) on Apr 24, 2017 21:11:45 GMT -5
Simitra knew nothing of discretion, however, or how to keep her mouth shut. "Yeah, I was born in a prison cell. Not really room for learning except how to hide food from the other prisoners." Part of not having a conscience gave the mare the added advantage of not dwelling on her past, and she said it in a rather carefree manner. "I'm not sure if you'd consider that roughing it. But I still prefer to have nicer things if I have access to them," she finished.
"And that's fine for you, Simitra. Don't push her. She's probably more prepared than we were, at any rate," Liin said calmly. "But no, I got all my field experience when I was older. We're normally more prepared than this, but Jariev didn't give us much warning before she teleported us into the middle of the desert," the mare said, perhaps a little jovially. "At any rate, it was nice to see this part of the desert. Well, the aboveground part. The underground part hasn't really been my cup of tea." She crinkled her nose a bit, which made Doe laugh.
"Sugarcube, this hasn't been anyone's cup of tea. But as for me, I feel like most of my... training, I guess? Is natural. Or maybe military." She looked over to Urasina. "I'm with you on the instinct part. Sometimes, instinct is the difference between becoming a horse-shaped splotch of blood in the bottom of a pit or coming out on top with nary a scratch on you."
"Um. A splotch?" It was Simi asking the question, and she was eating a piece of grass like one might eat spaghetti.
"We're too big to survive long falls, Simi. Even immortals have to reconstitute after a long fall." When the mare looked confused still, the unicorn sighed. "We splash."
"Ew." Both Peophins responded at the same time, each with a different expression on her face- Liin's was one of horror and Simitra's was her normal blank-faced stare.
|
|
|
Post by blackghoulmon on Apr 25, 2017 15:02:14 GMT -5
Urasina rolled her eyes at Simi's comment (she had been doing that a lot today) but at this point, she wasn't sure she could believe anything the pink Peo said anymore. Simi just seemed so weird to her. Doe too, for that matter, but to a lesser degree. "Yeah, labyrinths guarded by wraiths and skeletons and a big ugly boss Lich somewhere inside are hardly my cup of tea either," she snorted in response to Liin. "Still, I've had to deal with these kinds of things before, and it sounds like you have too." She nodded when Doe mentioned the benefits of instincts, then perked her ears at the immortal comment. "...Are you immortal too, Doe?" she asked. "Or aren't you sure, since you've got some form of amnesia?"
|
|
|
Post by Flutter (Frosty) on Apr 27, 2017 14:58:01 GMT -5
Doe paused for a moment, unsure. "I really don't know. I know that, for the most part, I've just proven exceptionally difficult to kill. Kinnous, Liin's husband, thinks it's just a racial attribute. He's felt no other signs of immortality about me other than the 'exceptionally difficult to kill' part." She hesitated for a moment. "There's also one more thing that I should mention, but perhaps it's better hearing it from someone else." Liin picked up, knowing exactly what her friend was mentioning.
"There's the slight matter of her blood. You haven't seen her bleed yet because her armor makes her almost impossible to hit, but we'll be facing larger armies as we get deeper into the labyrinth. It's sort of... really bright blue and glows in the dark." The last part came out in a rush and the young mare bit her lip, knowing how strange it is. "It's not an alien thing, it's... arcane. If pressed, Doe can use her blood to form... little Does as a form of blood magic."
"I don't particularly like doing the blood magic bit, but it just sort of happens on its own. Jariev described it as reaver magic, but that would imply drinking dragon blood at some point." Simi was about to mention all the magical blood vials the big mare had downed and had begun her protest when Doe held up a hoof to silence her. "It's not the same thing. Picture someone sneaking up on something like the Snowager and draining it of some of its blood." She furrowed her eyebrows. "It's something I would have had to have done on my own, which means I was once either incredibly brave or incredibly stupid."
"Likely a mixture of both, my friend," Liin said quietly before turning to Urasina. "She's sort of a very strange, probably illegal, ace in the hole. Using blood magic in any dimension is forbidden, and I'm still not even certain about the extent of Doe's abilities. And I've been travelling with her and living with her for nearly a decade."
|
|
|
Post by blackghoulmon on Apr 28, 2017 15:06:42 GMT -5
((Not much to say this time around, sorry.))
Urasina didn't say anything, just took in what Doe and Liin had told her. Two more skeletons approaching caught her attention, so she placed a mark on the ground in front of them. When they stepped on the mark, a small explosion of holy fire immolated them. "We might as well keep moving, we've got a lot of ground to cover," she said at length, turning to head down the passageway again. She had a lot to think about now, but no time to do so. She had to keep her guard up and stay on alert.
|
|
|
Post by Flutter (Frosty) on May 6, 2017 19:19:30 GMT -5
((It's alright, I suck. I haven't even been online in over a week. XD))
Doe smirked when the skeletons turned to ash. "It's alright, it's a lot of... odd information to take in." Doe flicked her ears about, listening for the song of the vials. She sensed one immediately through the wall, but it was very well protected under seven layers of traps and what felt to her like fire. "Anyone feel like breaking into the earth vial, which is sort of going to be useless anyway since we're going against an Earth Lich? I'm sensing this one is going to be way more trouble than it's worth and it's not going to give any of us any more of an edge than, say, a grilled spinach sandwich."
|
|
|
Post by blackghoulmon on May 7, 2017 18:24:50 GMT -5
"You found it?" Urasina asked. She was tempted to try and retrieve it, but Doe's comment about it not being worth the trouble stopped her. "Hm. I suppose if the advantage it would give us isn't worth it, we can leave it alone. But what do you all think?" She took note that Doe was looking at the nearby wall. "Is it on the other side of that wall, Doe? If it is, we should probably keep going and maybe we'll loop around to it in a while." She gave Simi a look. "Don't even THINK of trying to break that wall, Simi. We don't know how old this place is, or how structurally sound it is. Breaking even one section of wall could be disastrous. If you want to see daylight again, don't get too smash happy."
|
|
|
Post by Flutter (Frosty) on May 8, 2017 18:30:59 GMT -5
"I was only gonna smash it a little bit!" The slim mare said in response. "A little hole in a non-loadbearing wall isn't going to bring the whole place down around our heads."
"No, I'm with Urasina on this bit. No smashing- and I think the beasties are following us through the walls. Or trying to. I'm not about to open the gate to let them out." Doe gazed at the walls with eyes that saw more than they let on. "If he's Earth based, he's already going to have a big advantage over us. The potions give me an additional fifteen, twenty percent resistance, tops. I'm already mostly a metal element, which is a sister element to Earth- since I'm the only one dumb or brave enough to drink the potions, getting to it is a moot point." The big unicorn took in a deep breath, then directed her words to the other horned mare. "I'm also sensing ANOTHER light vial. It seems our undead friend here felt the need to stock up, or maybe there are doubles of every element."
|
|
|
Post by blackghoulmon on May 9, 2017 13:54:53 GMT -5
"If there's another Light vial, then I'd really like to get my hooves on it, and fast," Urasina said, her demeanor changing a bit at the mention of the vial. "I'm not going to smash down the walls to get to it, because I don't need to. I have another way to retrieve it. Which way is the vial from here?" She hadn't been planning to summon her reinforcements at this point, but getting that vial changed her priorities. A few seconds of concentration, and three baby dragon spirits materialized next to her. Each one was a bit taller than she was, and their wings looked very similar to her own. They paid no attention to the other three mares; instead, one of them promptly began to preen itself while the other two clicked and snapped at each other. Urasina let them carry on for several seconds before making a noise at them, and they stopped what they were doing and stared intently at her.
|
|
|
Post by Flutter (Frosty) on May 9, 2017 17:24:33 GMT -5
Liin stood, stock-still, at the sight of the baby dragons. She was, instantly, reverent and close to making baby talk with the little things. (Even if they were several feet taller than she. And probably dead.) "Sweet Fyora."
Simi, lacking any magical sensitivity at all, seemed to not be able to see them at all- but her scimitar seemed to teem with an unnatural energy and writhed in its sheath. Simitra didn't seem to notice, but Doe did. She shrugged, however, at both the scimitar's unusual behavior and the appearance of the three dragon spirits and Urasina's dragon taming skills.
"You know what," she said. "Nothing surprises me anymore." She looked down on the dragons, which seemed small to her. They might have seemed enormous to Aerlliin, but the younger mare looked like she was about to coddle the little spirits and give them a bottle of deer blood or whatever hooved animal three little spirit dragons would take down. Though, at this point, the mare thought to herself, they might actually eat ectoplasmic creatures. "I'm just gonna hazard a guess and say these have something to do with the dragon you took down." It wasn't a question, more an observation.
|
|
|
Post by blackghoulmon on May 10, 2017 12:30:58 GMT -5
((The baby dragons can be seen by everyone, so Simi can see them.))
Urasina grinned at Liin's reaction to the baby dragons. "They're pretty cute, aren't they?" she quipped. "For dragons, anyway." Then she turned to Doe. "Exactly. The dragon was carrying three eggs that she hadn't laid yet, so when I killed her, I gained the ability to summon and command the baby spirits. I can also summon and command the dragon's spirit herself, but she'd never fit down in these ruins." With that, she turned to the babies, which were still staring intently at her. "OK, you, and you," she began, pointing her horn at the two that had been squabbling, "We're looking for a vial made of citrine gemstones. It's somewhere in that direction." She pointed her horn at the wall. "Go search for it, and bring it back to me. Don't break it, and DO NOT eat it. And above all else, stay out of the center of the labyrinth. All clear?" The two babies clicked at the Uni, then turned and proceeded to walk right through the wall. The third baby seemed to be still waiting for a command. "OK, you stay with us," Urasina said to it. "There's lots of enemies around, so we'll be doing some fighting." This baby clicked at her as well before finally seeming to notice the other three mares. It's gaze went from one to the other several times before making a sort of squeaking noise.
|
|
|
Post by Flutter (Frosty) on May 15, 2017 16:25:24 GMT -5
((Simi can't see any spiritual or magical energy- she really can't see the dragons XD. It's the way she's built.))
Simi shrugged, knowing that there was something cool going on but, once again, would miss out on it entirely. Dreamsever 'told' her there were three unborn ancient ones in the area, but hell if she knew what it meant. All she knew was that they were big and would probably hurt her if she accidentally bumped into one. She stayed close to Liin, watching the mare's eyes follow lines she couldn't possibly hope to trace. "What do they look like? And 'adorable' is not an accurate descriptor."
Aerlliin was about to describe them as exactly that- adorable- and went to describe them in great detail, with Simitra listening to every detail. Doe looked at them, feeling nothing but pity for the mare who had been magically castrated. She explained a bit of this to Urasina. "Simi might have control over Dreamsever, but that's a blood link. Her magic has been completely removed, stripped away to power some magical orb. I don't understand it completely, and Simi doesn't talk about it." She squinted, glancing sidelong at the mare who was clearly enraptured with the description of the baby dragons. Her eyes opened again when the little spectral draconian squeaked at her. "Alright, that's adorable."
|
|
|
Post by blackghoulmon on May 16, 2017 17:58:04 GMT -5
"Ugh, that sounds nasty," Urasina responded. Then she lowered her voice to a whisper. "Does that explain some of her... I don't know... weirdness? She kind of weirds me out at times." The remaining baby dragon had turned its gaze back to her, clicking at her before beating its wings a few times and resuming its preening. "You saw the other two walk right through the wall, but what's interesting about these little guys is that they can either be ethereal or corporeal depending on the situation." She said this louder, so the Peophins could hear her too. "If they're about to be hit by a big attack, they can phase right through it, then go back to beating on whatever they're attacking as if nothing happened." She turned to the baby. "Show them what I mean." It clicked at her and rushed towards her, passing right through her before jumping up and angling its body to strike the wall with its feet, bound off, and turn in midair before rushing back through Urasina, who was completely unperturbed by the whole thing. The baby skidded to a stop right in front of Liin and squeaked at her. "I think it noticed your reaction to it and its siblings," the Uni remarked.
|
|
|
Post by Flutter (Frosty) on May 16, 2017 20:34:26 GMT -5
Doe nodded. "Magic is part of our life essence- even nonmages have some connection to it with their ability to use healing potions. Simi has to heal over time, like a human. A side effect of what Jari calls 'magical castration.'" She watched the baby dragon follow the command, impressed with its skill. "That's pretty neat. If I'm about to get hit bad, I usually turn into something, like a fly or mouse. Something fast and small that's harder to miss on an active battlefield." She grinned. "It's not the nicest tactic, but like you say. No playing fair in battle."
Aerlliin squealed with delight when the ethereal dragon squeaked at her, eyes opening wide. "Hello there, cutie!" Her voice was high and soft and completely unlike the voice she used in normal conversation, like one might use when addressing a shy cat for the first time. Despite her voice being calm, it was clear she was giddy with excitement. "I don't usually get to be this close to a true dragon without it wanting to eat me." She explained to Simi what had occurred.
"I'm actually shocked I'm not as invisible to them as they are to me," Simi offered. "The last dragon we encountered was on this really strange planet where most of civilisation was underground. He very badly wanted to eat Doe and Liin, but couldn't see me because I lack a magical signature." She balanced Dreamsever on her hoof again, spinning it in a display only the dream-mare could manage. "We took care of it before it became a real problem." The blade pulsed with bloodlust and seemed hungry.
|
|
|
Post by blackghoulmon on May 22, 2017 9:41:09 GMT -5
Urasina giggled at Liin's reaction. "If you think that's cool, I'll have to summon the mother dragon once we get back out of here," she commented. "And speaking of getting out of here, we really should keep moving. I'd like to find another of the little silver vials, so I can show it to the little guys when they get back with the light vial. My plan is for them to fan out through the labyrinth and destroy all the silver vials they find. The four of us can't get to all of them, and probably not even MOST of them, but any that they can destroy will help us out." The baby dragon squeaked at Liin again, then turned back to Urasina. "Bring up the rear and watch out backs," she instructed it, causing it to click at her and stand aside for the other mares to pass before falling in behind them. "As for your comment, Simi, these aren't magical dragons. I don't know for sure, but I don't think magic exists in their world. So they can certainly see you, because they just use their eyes, not any kind of magic. I know when I was fighting their mother that she certainly didn't use magic. Just fire breath, poison spines, massive claws, wing spikes, and a mouth big enough to swallow me whole."
|
|
|
Post by Flutter (Frosty) on May 23, 2017 16:16:49 GMT -5
"You'll probably enjoy meeting the clan of Freet I can summon. They don't do the clicks and squeals thing, though. Sometimes I summon them just because I want someone to talk to that isn't my husband or someone actively trying to set the house on fire," Liin grinned. She went on to say something about their magical resonance but Doe interrupted.
"That's real handy and all, sugarcube, but we really do need to get moving." If the faerie droned on too much about the technical side of magic, she was liable to put everyone in the labyrinth to sleep. It'd be an interesting way to defeat the lich, but it sounded boring as all get-out. "Most dragons do seem to rely on the more physical aspects, at least. Even producing fire is because most have a fire gland or acid gland, not really a magical thing," she explained to Simi. "The only thing magical about these dragons appears to be Urasina's link to them, a blood bond a lot like what you've got to your sword. But Urasina's link is forced, rather than a birth trait."
Simi squeaked when she understood. "I think I remember Jariev mentioning something like that, a blood link forged in the heat of battle?" The last part of her question was directed at Urasina, like the peophin were an unusually slow student.
|
|
|
Post by blackghoulmon on May 25, 2017 18:20:51 GMT -5
"I don't know how skilled the baby dragons are in breathing fire and generating venom, but their mother sure was good at both," Urasina recalled. "Once I finally killed the mother dragon, I sliced my way into her body to take a look around. As you said, Doe, she had a sac of flammable powder at the base of her throat, and toxin sacs beneath both wing joints." She raised one of her wings. "I didn't 'inherit' the fire sac, but I DO have toxin sacs now. Right about here, behind the bones." She gestured with her horn. "It runs through a vein-like structure to my wing spines. And my venom is LETHAL; if even a small amount gets into the bloodstream, that creature will be dead within three minutes. So long as it's a LIVING creature, anyway. I don't think it'll do much to this Lich except cause some serious pain." She almost rolled her eyes at Simi's question. Almost. "Not forged in battle. More like created in the aftermath. While I was poking around in the mother's dragon's corpse, I found a lump of what seemed to be gold in her stomach. But it wasn't gold; it was something else entirely. My Light magic interacted with it, and that's how I was transformed into what I am now. It was quite a shock, to say the least."
|
|
|
Post by Flutter (Frosty) on May 25, 2017 19:44:45 GMT -5
Simi side-stepped from Urasina at the mention of venom. "That... sounds impressive. But why would you go inside her?"
Doe lifted an eyebrow. "She killed an interdemensional dragon that had ripped through the seams between our dimension and the dragon's, why WOULDN'T you cut it open and see how the thing worked?" Doe threw her head back in laughter. "Shoot, you'd have a hard time convincing ME not to do it. I might fall asleep during lessons with our mentor, but put me in a place I can learn something practical and I'll be all up in it. Literally." The big mare looked wistfully into the distance as they walked, her stare a thousand yards away. "Golly, what I wouldn't give to see something like THAT."
"Got a little bit of hero worship, Doe?" Liin teased gently. She, too, was intrigued by the draconian Uni's tale. "It could have been her life essence, or something stranger, like a second heart. In other lands, they have lizards so large they need two brains just to function," the mare said excitedly. "It's not uncommon for magic to do things it's not supposed to when interacted with in ways it wasn't meant to be. I was born pure white- my mom poured most of her magical essence into me when my brother tried to kill me as a filly, and now I look like this." She waved a wing and her fluke over her body with a wry grin. "I couldn't imagine transforming as an adult, though. I don't remember being pure white at all, or the transformation. Doing so as an adult must have been, as you said, a big shock."
|
|