GLoG 91

[Earl of Purple]

By the Lake

"Healer might be a good idea. I mean, in books and movies, adventurers always have to deal with monsters, traps and whatnot, right? So injuries are likely." Though it dawns on Natalie that Iknika's family might not be familiar with that sort of book or movie, particularly because of how goblins are typically portrayed in fantasy adventure literature. Movies too, but the 'goblins' of Moria and Goblin Town look nothing like Iknika or her family, so it's easier to ignore.

[Morty]

[By the Lake]

"Monsters and traps, yeah. So we'll need a healer," Iknika says. "Do you know anyone who might fit?"

[Earl of Purple]

By the Lake

"Ummmm... No, I don't think I do. Not off the top of my head. I mean, I used to, but I haven't seen any of them around for a very long time indeed. I don't know how to contact them any more, nor if they'd even be interested." Natalie's wracking her brain for names, but all the names she can think of aren't around any more. Jamie, Abigail, and others I can't remember names off are flashing through her mind.

[Morty]

[By the Lake]

Iknika's ears twitch again.

"That's not good. Maybe we can put up posters. Junior adventurer with healing skills wanted."

[Earl of Purple]

By the Lake

"Yeah, maybe. But then we'd need to find somewhere to put them, where there's children to see them. Around here, it's probably easier to just ask everyone. The Applehills and so on." GLoG's got a lot of children, or used to at least. I haven't seen so many since I've got back.

[Morty]

[By the Lake]

"The Applehills are halflings, right? Brinika told me about them," Iknika muses. "I guess it's worth a shot." She pauses. "Could we go outside the campsite, so you can show me your magic?"

[Earl of Purple]

By the Lake

"Yeah, they're halflings. Just follow your nose to the tastiest food, and you'll find them. Or at least the parents." Though if they do go, we should probably warn Happyturtle.

"Of course! I'll show you before we look for the Applehills. They'll distract us and divert us till we forget, otherwise. In a good way, though." Because they're nice, happy and likely to freely share whatever they're cooking until neither Natalie nor Iknika can walk.

Natalie's going to walk over to the main entrance, where the easiest way through the cacti marks the point where Natalie's magic begins to work. "I'll start with some simple light. I can't do that in GloG, because I'm actually summoning it straight from the sun, not creating it out of nowhere. It's not too impressive, but it's a nice warm up, and for people like me who don't have a goblin's ability to see in the dark, very useful. I'd summon a monster, but that's a little risky unless there's a clear threat to myself or anyone nearby. Mostly what I use my spells for is money. I've hidden my purse in the woodland, and when I need to buy something, I summon some coins from the purse into my hand." The monster could see Iknika as a threat, and that would be quite unfortunate. Though possibly Natalie could teleport a rock around, or something.

[Morty]

[By the Lake]

((Happy said that the Applehills are away from GLoG, so they won't be finding them just yet. Unless she decides otherwise.))

Iknika's ears dip slightly in thought.

"Isn't the sun pretty far away? Does that matter for your spells?"

[Earl of Purple]

To the Entrance

"It is. Very far away indeed, millions of miles. So far away, the light is a week old by the time it reaches us, and light's the second-fastest thing in the universe, after darkness." Natalie's fact may be wrong. "I'm teleporting it. From there, to here, instantaneously, bypassing that time and distance. Same concept as calling a rock from the floor to my hand, but a far greater distance. It only works because I'm only calling a little bit of light, and the sun is giving off so much of it. Teleporting is tricky. Both ends usually need to be pretty accurate. But because the sun's so large, and there's so much light, and there's so little else out there, it's far easier- in some ways- than calling the rock. It's... Quite complicated. With teleportation, accuracy matters far more than distance. Accuracy is easy at short distances, but teleporting a rock from the ground to my hand takes the same amount of effort and power regardless of where the rock is in relation to my hand. So long as I know where the rock is physically and metaphysically. And the heavier the rock, the more power it needs, too. Light weighs nothing, and is common enough I can scoop some up from anywhere close to the sun. So all I need is accuracy at this end, and a way to keep the teleportation going for a while, because light doesn't last long. Unlike the rock, which when teleported, stays teleported. You see?" It's not 'natural' light, however. After it's been teleported, it no longer counts as 'sunlight' for such things as vampires.

Natalie isn't sure she's explaining it very well; the rock tangent didn't need so much attention. But the problem is she's rather inexperienced, and mostly practices the spells as they appear in her book rather than innovating on her own. So her understanding isn't as complete as it could be.

[Murkus]

[Isle Center]

Spoiler: Quotes

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Spoiler: Isle Center

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If The Empress realizes that someone is talking to her, she doesn't seem to notice as she slips beneath the waters to head towards a different shore. As badly wounded as she was, she needed to concentrate on literally holding herself together through force of will so she could recover elsewhere.

Anchor will feel that Beastbreaker is...heavy. However, despite its heft, the weapon will feel right. It doesn't seem unwieldy despite its construction and there seems to be a subtle force trying to tug it from her hands towards King Lammergeir's body. The spear seemed utterly bloodthirsty and if she isn't careful, it might drag her along into the fight it sought.

Spoiler: Previously

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"Easy there, Beastbreaker. We want the same thing, but we can't be too hasty." Anchor pets the spear a few times, along the grain of the wood. Then she strides forward towards the monster, through the debris, picking up a bit of speed with each step.

If the cry were dangerous for its contents, she could drown it with another song. But the King's screech is dangerous for its magnitude, and that, she will just have to endure. She does not flee at the initial almost-human roar. It's just noise. She does not flee as it twists into a monstrous scavenger shriek. Anchor has been known to eat the land's stoutest soldiers for breakfast (although a whole host at once would be rather gluttonous) and is tougher by far. She does not flee even if it grows so vast that all sound ceases and Lammergeir's voice becomes a noiseless stabbing pressure drawing blood to run down into her hair.

She weaves with the spear under a branch, steps up onto a fallen tree, and lunges, thrusting Beastbreaker up towards a pitted pock of rust in the beast's armor. At this point it doesn't have to drag her along. They are both here for a fight, both here to stab through that armor and tear at the monster within it.

[Isle Center]

The nameless man holds his ears as the King starts his shout. As the sound reaches a painfull level that his hand can't prevent he holds a hand up. A blue circle with strange symbols appears and a few moments later ring after ring build aorund the circle making it the size of the man.

"Carbuncle, I need your help." the man shouts.

Right after his last word was said, and not be heared due to the shout, a small creature climbs out of the circle. It appears to be a cat size creature with scaled skin long bunny like ears and a red diamond on his forehead. As the sound reaches it cries out loud and his Gem shines red. The Gem creates a shield around it and the nameless man protecting both from the painfull noise. For now he is nunable to go out as long as the sounds still up. Blood runs out of his earas he has taken quiet some damage.

[Isle Center]

Well, as the volume starts to ramp up to painful degrees, Cassandra, at the very least, has no intention of allowing it to continue to its debilitating zenith. The King may find his display quite rudely interrupted by a surprise attack from his flank - a moderately sized fragment of shattered tree levitated and thrown at his face in a rather inconveniently graceless manner. The source of the attack remains 'invisible', but now that Cass has revealed her presence with a magical attack she has no expectations of remaining such, and quickly retreats from her ambush point, making her way across to Anchor.

Though it seems he still got a bit of use from it, the King isn't able to continue with his scream into lethal decibels. As it's trembling pitch mounts, he's slapped across the face with a flying tree, and all sound from him abruptly ceases. It shatters to splinters, dealing little damage, but severely arousing his ire. His teeth clack as he turns to look at the direction it originated from, moving quickly, and his lack of attention gives Anchor the opening she needs.

The spear strikes deep, unnaturally so, and the King shrieks his anguish. The titan, now concerned only with ending the source of his pain, brings up his fists and tries to bring them down directly on top of Anchor. Crushing her into the ground if he can. The pommels of his two weapons will cut the flesh and snap bone if they find purchase, even without accounting for the apocalyptic physical might of the King.

Regardless of whether Anchor ends up underneath them or not, the earth around them shudders, craters and cracks with the impact.

[Morty]

[To the Entrance]

Iknika's ears dip progressively lower throughout the explanation. Having known Brinika for a while, Natalie will likely recognize that it's a sign of mind confusion.

"I get it, I think. I read a book about sorcery, once. That was before I decided to be a knight. It didn't work this way, though. Not sure if teleportation is even a thing back home. Can you teleport dark, too?"

[Earl of Purple]

To the Entrance

"No, I don't think so. I mean, I might be able to figure out how to do it, but there's nothing in my book on summoning darkness. The problem with magic, at least on my homeworld, is that it's all so contradictory. I summon things by creating a resonance here and where the item is, bringing it to me. I know how to do that, and how it works. But were I to try to learn how to, for example, turn invisible, I'd never be able to do it. An illusionist could, by... I think they bend reality or light or perception around them, or something? I don't know. But according to the theory of magic my conjuration runs on, bending perception like that is impossible, but they couldn't vibrate reality to create the resonance I use to teleport a rock to my hand." Rule #1 of Earl's Magic System: Any given magic contradicts all other types of magic; even if both types of magic creates the same end result, they do so in inherently different ways. Addendum: Magical knowledge for somebody else in RP doesn't follow this rule unless they want it to, so their pyromancer can learn necromancy if they find a book on reanimating the dead in my dungeon. Or their knight who found said book can later learn pyromancy.

[Morty]

[To the Entrance]

Iknika seems like she's thinking hard, then shrugs.

"...I don't get it. Why can you learn one thing, but not another? Is it just how magic works?"

[Earl of Purple]

To the Entrance

"It's just how magic works. I think so, anyway. In order to cast the spells I know, I have to understand how they work, so I learn the theory. But that theory doesn't agree with the theory behind other types of magic. I manipulate existing magical fields to effect the world, and to do that I know magic exists as latent energy waiting to be used by anybody. But Alchemy works on the theory that all magic is inherent to specific things, and so their rituals and methods work on the assumption that an item's magical properties need awakening and enhancing in order to do anything. Which is complete claptrap and doesn't agree with how Conjuration taught me how magic works, except it works for them, and they can't detect or manipulate the same energies I use." Basically, magic is confusing and doesn't make any sense once you start trying to compile a complete list of magical laws in order to try and create an uber-magic that can do everything.

[Morty]

[Main Cabin]

Sophie will lead Hidrus towards the cabin, so he can pick one he likes and settle down.

[To the Entrance]

Iknika's ears dip quite low this time.

"So different things are true, depending on what magic you learn? True for some people, but false for others? Weird."

[Earl of Purple]

To the Entrance

"Yep! There's a theory that whatever entity, entities, forces or phenomena responsible for creating magic and teaching it to mortal races does it deliberately, to prevent us from becoming too powerful. And if a Conjurer, like me, got in a fight with an Alchemist or a Necromancer, they'd be quite balanced, assuming they'd both studied as intently and for the same amount of period. The Alchemist could alter their body temporarily faster than I can bring in too many servants, and I can summon things- birds, for example- as fast as a Necromancer can raise them." Natalie's mistaken; a Necromancer using my system could raise corpses faster than Natalie can summon things, for the simple reason that a Necromancer needs bodies to animate and Natalie doesn't.

I think they should be nearly there now.

[Morty]

[Entrance]

They do, indeed, stop at the entrance to the camp.

"Wouldn't it be great if everything as so fair and balanced? But then, some higher-up person meddling in things this way gives me the creeps."

[Earl of Purple]

To the Entrance

"That would be neat, wouldn't it? But I still have some advantages over other Conjurers. Most can't change shape like I can, so I can still get away. Oh, we're here." Natalie smiles and concentrates, red symbols- all matching card suits, all a slightly darker shade of red than Natalie's text colour- circling round her head and hands as she flourishes and holds her hand out, a pink purse appearing from a flash of the dark red colour into her hand. The purse is a little dirty, as Natalie keeps it hidden in a box she's buried so it's safe from pick-pockets.

[Morty]

[Entrance]

Iknika's ears twitch.

"Neat. You can carry it around without actually carrying it."

[Earl of Purple]

Entrance

"This is mostly what I use it for, really. Keeping stuff safe so I can summon it when I need it. I keep some stuff on me, just in case I need it in GLoG or somewhere else that's blocked my magic. But I can summon creatures, too. But without something for it to fight, I'm not sure if it's willing to just hang around and get spoken about, so I'm a little nervous about summoning one. Maybe a small thing, if you want to see? I should be able to banish it if anything goes wrong." As she speaks, Natalie flourishes her hand again and the purse disappears, again with a blast of dark red light and card suite symbols floating about her head.

[Zefir]

Spoiler

Show

[Isle Center]

Though it seems he still got a bit of use from it, the King isn't able to continue with his scream into lethal decibels. As it's trembling pitch mounts, he's slapped across the face with a flying tree, and all sound from him abruptly ceases. It shatters to splinters, dealing little damage, but severely arousing his ire. His teeth clack as he turns to look at the direction it originated from, moving quickly, and his lack of attention gives Anchor the opening she needs.

The spear strikes deep, unnaturally so, and the King shrieks his anguish. The titan, now concerned only with ending the source of his pain, brings up his fists and tries to bring them down directly on top of Anchor. Crushing her into the ground if he can. The pommels of his two weapons will cut the flesh and snap bone if they find purchase, even without accounting for the apocalyptic physical might of the King.

Regardless of whether Anchor ends up underneath them or not, the earth around them shudders, craters and cracks with the impact.

"Easy there, Beastbreaker. We want the same thing, but we can't be too hasty." Anchor pets the spear a few times, along the grain of the wood. Then she strides forward towards the monster, through the debris, picking up a bit of speed with each step.

If the cry were dangerous for its contents, she could drown it with another song. But the King's screech is dangerous for its magnitude, and that, she will just have to endure. She does not flee at the initial almost-human roar. It's just noise. She does not flee as it twists into a monstrous scavenger shriek. Anchor has been known to eat the land's stoutest soldiers for breakfast (although a whole host at once would be rather gluttonous) and is tougher by far. She does not flee even if it grows so vast that all sound ceases and Lammergeir's voice becomes a noiseless stabbing pressure drawing blood to run down into her hair.

She weaves with the spear under a branch, steps up onto a fallen tree, and lunges, thrusting Beastbreaker up towards a pitted pock of rust in the beast's armor. At this point it doesn't have to drag her along. They are both here for a fight, both here to stab through that armor and tear at the monster within it.

If The Empress realizes that someone is talking to her, she doesn't seem to notice as she slips beneath the waters to head towards a different shore. As badly wounded as she was, she needed to concentrate on literally holding herself together through force of will so she could recover elsewhere.

Anchor will feel that Beastbreaker is...heavy. However, despite its heft, the weapon will feel right. It doesn't seem unwieldy despite its construction and there seems to be a subtle force trying to tug it from her hands towards King Lammergeir's body. The spear seemed utterly bloodthirsty and if she isn't careful, it might drag her along into the fight it sought.

[Isle Center]

When the sound dropps the nameless man also will dropp the shield protecting him. He didn't see where the tree came from. Must be someone who assists the spearholder. He notice her charge and looks at his friend.
"Hey guy. Could you please help that person with the spear? Pretty please?" With a *miep* and a smile Carbuncle disapears.

The same moment Carbuncle reapears on Anchor's shoulder, thought Carbuncle is now mice sized. The moment the King strikes back Carbuncle will create a shield around Anchor, that should take a hugh amount of the attacks force. So there should be no bone breaking.

[Morty]

[Entrance]

Iknika nods.

"Sure. Summon something harmless. I don't have a weapon with me here, otherwise I could handle it if it got rowdy."

[Earl of Purple]

Entrance

This takes Natalie longer, as she closes her eyes and concentrates as more of the card suite symbols float around her head, though more appear circling her body as well, starting at her neck and working down to her feet. After a few seconds, a small fairy appears in a flash of red light. It's about six inches tall, female, with long blonde hair and wearing a green dress split up both sides. It dances around, wings fluttering and buzzing- there's a sharp glint to the edge of the wings. "There. A Dancing Elf. One of the weakest things I can conjure, but not strictly speaking harmless. I, um, don't actually know anything harmless."

Natalie's conjuration dates to before I got into Magic: the Gathering, so she summons Yu-Gi-Oh! cards.

[Morty]

[Entrance]

Iknika edges closer to the fairly, carefully.

"Huh. It looks like a pixie. I know even tiny things can be dangerous, though. Do you control it?"

[Earl of Purple]

Entrance

"The book calls her an 'elf'. But she's no elf I'm otherwise familiar with. I don't think most pixies have wings that can slice through paper, though, and she does. I... Have a little control, anyway. She'll do as I ask, and intervene to defend me if I get attacked, but I can't tell her to do anything it won't do of its own accord. So if I told her to go swimming, she wouldn't. And it might break my control over her, too. Then she'd either try to fly away, or if she's feeling really upset, attack us. But mostly me." I don't think Natalie's ever met a pixie.

The Dancing Elf, meanwhile, keeps doing loop-de-loops and flitting around acrobatically. Every movement is graceful, and it doesn't stop dancing.

[Morty]

[Entrance]

Iknika's ears twitch a few more times.

"So where'd you get... her from?"

[Earl of Purple]

Entrance

"I summoned her from Faerieland. I made a resonance here, and another there, where she was, until she fell through to here. Or possibly the resonance simply copied her here, and the real version of her is still in Faerieland. Conjuration doesn't make it particularly clear which." It's hard to conduct experiments to prove either theory, since most summoned creatures like the Dancing Elf disappear when they are killed. "I can also bring things from other places. Hells, and elemental planes, and other worlds. But Faerieland is usually quite safe, as these things go." Natalie's especially cautious about bringing things from hells.

[Morty]

[Entrance]

"Don't they mind being summoned this way?" Seems like an important consideration to Iknika.

[Recaiden]

Spoiler: Previously

Show

Though it seems he still got a bit of use from it, the King isn't able to continue with his scream into lethal decibels. As it's trembling pitch mounts, he's slapped across the face with a flying tree, and all sound from him abruptly ceases. It shatters to splinters, dealing little damage, but severely arousing his ire. His teeth clack as he turns to look at the direction it originated from, moving quickly, and his lack of attention gives Anchor the opening she needs.

The spear strikes deep, unnaturally so, and the King shrieks his anguish. The titan, now concerned only with ending the source of his pain, brings up his fists and tries to bring them down directly on top of Anchor. Crushing her into the ground if he can. The pommels of his two weapons will cut the flesh and snap bone if they find purchase, even without accounting for the apocalyptic physical might of the King.

Regardless of whether Anchor ends up underneath them or not, the earth around them shudders, craters and cracks with the impact.

When the sound drops the nameless man also will drop the shield protecting him. He didn't see where the tree came from. Must be someone who assists the spearholder. He notice her charge and looks at his friend.
"Hey guy. Could you please help that person with the spear? Pretty please?" With a *miep* and a smile Carbuncle disappears.

The same moment Carbuncle reappears on Anchor's shoulder, thought Carbuncle is now mice sized. The moment the King strikes back Carbuncle will create a shield around Anchor, that should take a huge amount of the attacks force. So there should be no bone breaking.

Anchor lifts one hand and calls up a shield of her own, a wispy bowl of black, arced over her and around the spear's shaft to blunt the flesh-cutting pommels, let them slide away. She might well have still been crushed to a pancake by the King. But then help appeared. She's left in a shallow crater where the force of the monster's blow drove her, shields and all, several inches into the earth of the island, but seems little the worse for it.

"Thanks, little guy."
She tightens her grip on Beastbreaker again and with both hands twists, using those three warped spearpoints, and then pulls it back. This is what that smaller giant said to do. Hopefully the Empress knew what she was talking about. Lammergeir was able to reattach his arm with little trouble - are his insides any different?

[Earl of Purple]

Entrance

"I... Don't think so. That's one of the arguments for Conjurers duplicating rather than truly summoning creatures. Whilst she's here, she listens to what I ask of her, but when the spell wears off or she's otherwise banished, she returns to Faerieland, and can't find her own way back, so she's unlikely to try for vengeance. Furthermore, my book suggests I summon things I feel some level of affinity for, ones with motives close to my own. Although some of the more powerful creatures can challenge their summoner and attack, she's not one of them- unless I ask her to do something opposed to her nature, anyway. I haven't summoned anything powerful enough to challenge me yet, and I hope I don't have to ever." But Natalie does know how, so if she's sufficiently desperate, she can call upon something with greater power than she feels comfortable with.