Age of Ruin IC: When all your friends are dead

[The Great Skenardo]

Livina Lightfoot
Livina looks around uncertainly.
"Um, is it time to panic? I mean, I'm pretty sure that's not supposed to be happening."

[Regwon]

Krashnix

Krashnix looks up from his prayers and scowls at the pink fog. He mutters a spell under his breath and his eyes begin to glow. Quicky he casts a spell on his shield and then, with his mace and shield close to hand, retrives his armour from the tent.

Livina, if you would be so kind, I require some help donning my armour.

Spoiler

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Casts Detect Magic and Extended Magic Vestments

[Ozzy_G]

Krashnix too sees that the air is full of powerful magic.

[The Great Skenardo]

Livina Lightfoot
Apparently seeing the wisdom of having someone armored in the party, Livina quietly complies, glancing over her shoulder between puzzling over pauldrons and greaves.

[Lycar]

(.. not good.. not good at all...)

"Lady Baker ?" Orin asks with a voice that he is obvioulsy trying hard to make sound calm and collected "did you, by chance, ever happen across an effect like that in your studies of magic ? Because, if so, it might be useful to know what we ought to be expecting to happen..."

He continues to study the .. fog.. with a kind of dreadful fascination.

(..on the plus side, maybe i don't have to worry about Govan anymore...)

While Orin still ponders, something is tugging at his mind... and old, almost forgotten memory....

(.. red mist.... dwarven magic... chaos.... lady of fire...)

Then he suddenly bolts upright with a start.

"Uhm... maybe we should just break camp and ... go away .. far away... like now. We don't really need those tents, no ? I mean, we have our mule and all.... "

He really tries to control his feelings but the cold dread he feels makes him shiver and sweat cold sweat. And yet his smile is almost reassuring.

Lycar

[Moechi_Vill]

Lucidae

"Killing a lot of deserving cultists and offending ancient dwarves in one day is a bad idea Akim! She nods in agreement. "Let us forego your silly goal of saving the helpless scholar and withdraw unto civilization." she follows his moves quickly, leaving camp with him.
"Come now and save your lives, we must run!" she yells back to the two others.

[Lycar]

"Okay, just to put things into perspective" says Orin with a strained voice, waving his arms around,"this 'fog' here is pure magic you are breathing. Magic is basically untapped potential, chaotic and unpredictable. And again, to put a point to it: We are currently breathing it. So, if you do not want to experience what sudden changes in our morphology this might cause, i suggest we try and get out of here about NOW !"

Lycar

[The Great Skenardo]

Livina Lightfoot
Livina looks around.
"Okay, so it's magic. If it's so deadly, then why isn't the grass here dead or turned into stew or something?"

[Moechi_Vill]

Lucidae

"W... wait? It is pure magic?"
Lucci stops.

"Maybe it could send me back!" she blurts out.
"I'll regain my magic. It looks like this fog is not overly harmful or as Livina said it would have damaged the vegetation. It might have appeared before just now. Whatever it is, we are probably too late to escape it's possibly benevolent effects." The sorcerer squats down on the ground, her panic all but evaporated. She starts meditating without another word.

[Lycar]

Orin blinks, are they really that daft ? This can't be good !

So he recites:

"A king with a beard and a stature stout
Once had a wish, nay obsession about
Being ruler of all, to be one with the world
Of being a god, or at the very least
Have the power thereof, to be thrall to no lord
But just you know it, a wish is a beast
Digs fangs in your soul and by my word:
Learn to control it or become it's feast
The king, he studied and studied and learned,
Sacrificed many for the power he yearned,
Summond demon an devil in insane fervour,
And yet none could grant, that what he wished for
So he struck a deal, with a lady of fire
'Oh be so kind to grant my desire'
'Fool' she said 'you shall yet have your wish'
And a fog made of blood sprung forth from the ground
To engulf all that stood or flew around
And one heard a terrible sound all about
Of forms and shapes, twisting and turning
Man, beast and plant, all were burning
With magic within and magic without
And the king with the beard and the stature stout
He finally felt as one with nature
But magic, i say, is a fickle beast,
Chaotic and evil, at the very least,
It turned on the king and he could not stand it,
He burst at the seams, but one good came from it
The fog disappeared and the world was as before,
Except for the king, for he was no more."

He pauses for a moment to let his words sink in.

"Choose your own fate, i choose to flee,
who's right, that remains yet to see..."

And he goes about to hurriedly grab his back pack even ignoring his bedroll and goes about to untie the mule, obviously intending to lead it away with him.

Lycar

[Moechi_Vill]

Lucidae

Lucci gets up wordlessly and follows him.

[The Great Skenardo]

Livina Lightfoot
Standing back from the armored knight, Livina looks over her shoulder at the retreating pair.
"Wait, so you're giving up that easily? You're both magicians for the Lady's sake. And what happened to your noble talk about getting Kizima out of there? And Rego too? At the very least we ought to take a look at the tower; we owe them that much."

[Regwon]

Krashnix

Krashnix is apparently unphased by the revelation about the fog and picks up a blade of grass to chew as he talks

How long do you think it will take you to reach santuary? Will you head back towards the cultist infested ruins, that very much want your head on a pike for stealing away their sacrifice? Or parhaps you shall rist the hours, even days long walk to the nearest village with no guarentee that there will even be an end to this fog. It seems that the safest place currently is within the tower with that guardian. We stand a much better chance of defeating it now we are rested and there may even be treasure within the tomb to help you with your quest against the archmages, that we dont ever hear the end of.

He spits grass and all onto the ground between him and the mule then says with a smile

Besides which, if you leave with that mule I shall have to kill you

[Lycar]

Orin freezes in untieing the mule.

"... your arguments are compelling and your terms are acceptable..."

He takes a deep sigh.

"Look, i'm all for avenging Kizima and getting her body to resurrect her but did it occur to you that i don't like staying in this cloud of magic because i know a bit or two about magic ? Just because you don't believe it is harmful doesn't mean it is not. It doesn't care if you believe in it or not, it simply is. You could as well disbelieve the sun, it will still rise again tomorrow."

"Fine, but if you insist on braving the unknown danger of the fog .. well.. let it not be said i abandoned our quest. Give me a few minutes to collect myself. After all, you want me to contribute to the battle to come, don't you.... oh you might want to discuss tactics while i meditate .."

Orin turns and reenters the tent, lies down, closes his eyes and tries to tune out the wailing of every self-preservation klaxon going off in his mind simultaneously.

(Except the one about not antagonizing the fellow with the fiery mace.)

Lycar

[Moechi_Vill]

Lucidae

"Death-threats over a box of platinum?" Lucci seems suprised.
"You people..."

"Well if everyone is going to be blunt I would love to destroy the construct but I never made any speeches for the halfling."
With a minimal amount of exasperation Misallo Baker sits down again to meditate.

[Lycar]

Eventually Orin emerges from the tent.

"Very well, as ready as i'll ever be. Got a plan ?"

Lycar

[Moechi_Vill]

Lucidae

Baker finishes meditating at around the same time. She casts her defensive spells, mage armour, shield, protect from arrows and eagle's splendour.

"If I bake the construct in flame, will it crumble or simply roast?"

[The Great Skenardo]

Livina Lightfoot
The Mokai woman gives Lucci a Look.
"You never lived much around blacksmiths, did you?" The sentence is more of a statement than a question.

[Lycar]

"Only one way to find out. Experimentation on the live subject. Or animated subject as the case may be."

Orin fidgets around a bit. As much as he wants to get this over with, he still is quite happy that he doesn't have to face the angry golem just now.

Lycar

[Moechi_Vill]

Livina Lightfoot
The Mokai woman gives Lucci a Look.
"You never lived much around blacksmiths, did you?" The sentence is more of a statement than a question.

Lucci looks back at the Mokai. "No" she answers.

[The Great Skenardo]

Livina Lightfoot
Livina opens her mouth, as if to explain something, but then shuts it again.
It'd be like explaining candles to a fish.
Aloud, she says
"O-kay. Let's try our luck!"
Once more, the rather short Mokai woman hoists the mace clearly meant for someone much taller than herself. Re-checking the laces tying her cloak close around her, she cracks her knuckles and looks to Krashnix.
"You ready, holy man?"

[Regwon]

Krashnix

Krashnix unclips his mace, straps his shield to his arm and replies to Livina

I will be shortly.

He sits down and begings to chant, swaying as he does. After a moment the swaying and chanting stops and his head drops to his chest. As far as anyone can see he has fallen asleep.

Spoiler

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Casts Augury

[Ozzy_G]

A dice tumbles out of Krashnix's still hand, bouncing on the ground.
It eventually stops, flat on the ground. The side facing up shows a bird made of fire, like the one on Krashnix's shield.

[Lycar]

Orin watches Krashnix perform his brand of magic curiously. More divine magic to witnes.

Interesting.

He is a bit at a loss about what exactly the cleric is doing however, divine magic not being an area he knows much about.

When he notices the die fall, he takes a step to get closer and see what the die depicts.

(Hm.... interesting. I hope this is a good omen. Time to put on the confident face maybe...)

He peers at Krashnix, waiting for his reaction.

Lycar

[The Great Skenardo]

Livina Lightfoot
The Mokai woman shifts from foot to foot. Priests of the Kael Vorn did fortunetelling like this sometimes, and they were usually right, in Livina's experience.
Nervously, she brushes a wisp of hair out of her face, her coffee-colored skin oddly darker in the faint pink light of the mist...

[Moechi_Vill]

Lucidae

Lucci Baker waits patiently for the others to take the lead towards the tower.

[Lycar]

"Shall i cast my spell of arcane encouragement now ?" Orin asks hopefully.

Lycar

[Ozzy_G]

Krashnix opens his eyes, and looks at the dice. The omens are good, Isana smiles on our enterprise, he says. He picks up the dice and stands up, a mad gleam in his eye. Time to kill something!

[The Great Skenardo]

Livina Lightfoot
Livina nods and moves slightly ahead of the group to the tower. Sparing only a quick glance to make sure nothing has changed since they had left, Livina nod to the others and prepares to open the door...

[Lycar]

(... finally....)

Orin seems half reliefed, half anxious as he intones the arcane syllabies of his spell and waves his staff around dramatically.

"Ash't kalar ! May the power of the ancients guide us !"

Spoiler

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Casting Good Hope. +2 on to-hit, damage, skill checks, ability checks and saves.

Suddenly feeling a lot more confident, he readies himself for the coming tempest of violence.

Lycar