Magical Happenings at Astorius Academy [IC, Pathfinder]

[Grek]

Melwyn had heard of a variety of things that pixies might like. Food was the most common - eggs, milk, honey, salt, sugar, cookies, cakes and cheeses. And she had never been one for half measures. Why give one present when you can make three, after all? Given this information, what came next should only be a modest surprise: "You foul little fairies! Take this! Galamelikaihalas!" Melwyn swung her arm overhead, tracing out a quarter arc. In response, the sky began to rain some horrible sticky mess over the assembled students only adding to the growing chaos. "Make me cast another and I'm making it rain rotten eggs!" she threatened, already a bit dizzy.

Spoiler: Mechanics

Show

Spell Points: 3/8

Galamelikaihalas - Create milk, honey and salt. In this case, a thin sheet of it 40 feet by 60 feet above the path. Overcharged (to CL 6), but not Lengthened, so it'll last as long as Melwyn concentrates (to a maximum of 6 minutes), plus an additional 1 round byond that. -1 SP, Melwyn becomes Fatigued.

[AmberVael]

"Stars! Ew ew ewww!" Azalea exclaimed, all decorum and curiosity lost as she desperately backpedaled from the horrible stench. After gaining a bit more distance she slowed and brought her hands together cupped, whispering softly as she called on her magic again. For a brief instant phantasmal golden gates appeared behind her and creaked open just a hair; light streamed through the crack in the doorway and poured between her hands, pooling there strangely. When the gateway shut again that fragment of light remained in Azalea's grasp. Eyeing the pixies (and for that matter, the boys they were attacking) warily, she began to shape the light in her hand. Despite the grandeur of her magic's casting, the effect seemed remarkably tame, bright without being blinded, light without being hot.

But then, maybe she wasn't Sianna to threaten people with death over annoyance and inconvenience. Still, she was holding the orb of light in her hands as if she was ready to use it on anything that displeased her, so maybe it didn't bode anyone well. At least, anyone who tried something on her.

Spoiler

Show

Azalea will retreat from the splattered fruit for 30 feet with her move action, then use her Light sphere to summon a Dancing Light glow. Its glowing brightly right now, but not really doing anything else.

Don't make her glow at you! She'll do it!

[Nettlekid]

Anura's throat quivered with a warble, twig in hand and a translucent field covering the greater area. He had been nervous to do anything, and had hoped not to have to use his magic, but in the face of the unknown the go-to response was to throw up a shield and assess the situation. Of course, there wasn't too much he could figure out from this. He watched the fruit's juices spread and drip over his shield and tilted his head as the smell permeated the hemisphere. Unpleasant, but only a little more so than swamp gases. He'd prefer to avoid exposure, but if this was the worst that faced him then he could relax. Part of survival is figuring out what threats to expend effort on, and which not to.

That said, he couldn't be certain this was all that was about to happen, and that there wasn't some second assault waiting in the proverbial wings. He also didn't want to drop his Barrier just yet, while the juice was still fresh and runny enough to splash down if he did. So he did the opposite of drop his Barrier - he kept focus on the one in existence, and conjured a second with a radius a foot or two less than the first. If something should happen to shatter the outer wall then this second would protect him. While he waits for the juice to dry enough not to run so much (and for the commotion outside his walls to settle,) he plots as to how he can progress while shielded. Tactical placement and replacement would do it, probably, if he determined that the double-layer wasn't necessary.

[Steel Mirror]

There was a chorus of shrieks and tiny cries of alarm as the sheet of glistening honey, frothy fresh milk, and soaking piles of salt gooped and glopped onto the half-dome of protection surrounding the boys. Inside of it Anura, Columbus, and the other three kids had renewed reason to be thankful for the frog boy's quick thinking. Not all of them were reacting with such grace under this unexpected assault.

"Aaaaaaaah! What the stars! WHAT THEAAAACHOOO!"

"Satyr's balls, what is that smell??"

The sneezing kid grabbed Riley's arm and managed to get out a whole two sentences. "What are you waiting for! Shoot them!"

"Shoot what? I can't even see them through whatever this is! Besides," he added, waving his bow in front of him to show that it wasn't ready for battle. "I don't just walk around with the bow strung!"

"THEN WHAT GOOD ARE YOU?"

Meanwhile, the three girls outside the dome saw the attacking fey as blurry, wavering almost-images that danced and weaved confusingly through the air, avoiding getting entangled in the falling conjured sticky mess. From above, they heard a sound like someone inhaling through a rusty kazoo, followed by another veritable bellow from the tiny-voiced leader of this ambush.

"Blue regiment, flank on the left! Fox regiment, the right! Powder blue socks regiment, hold off those girls who are attacking us with their pocus! Beware the shiny bits they wield, those always hurt the most. We shall carry the day yet!"

There was an angry sound like the buzzing of a horde of angry, very large bees, and various cries of excitement. A few more of those noxious smelling berries impacted on the outside of the magical barrier.

Then, nothing. The girls, who might have expected some kind of assault based on the thing shouting orders, didn't notice any angry fey throwing fruit at them, or even see rustling leaves or hear wings moving toward them. Instead, a dozen tiny hand and footprints started appearing by themselves in the honey stuck to the barrier. In a couple of places, they could almost see the outline of tiny humanoid creatures crawling all over it.

"What is this treason? Troops, return to your battle stations! I'm giving you a direct order!"

"I'm sorry captain! Perfidy! Dishonor! The troops have been are distracted by the sweet honey of a witch's deceit!"

The voices were coming from much closer to the girls than before. It was hard to tell an exact direction in all the chaos, but it seemed that the leader was somewhere nearby.

Izumi saw everything from where she was walking almost a hundred feet back, though perhaps mercifully she hadn't smelled anything yet. Next to her, Cecil reared up in surprise when the path ahead of them exploded in magic. Magic and salty honey. "Gaaaaah! What is it this time? What did I do?"

[jamieth]

"Nothing as far as I could tell", Izumi replied seriously as she hurried towards the place of havok, raising her fans - with her hands, for now; she was too much in a hurry to afford even a couple dance steps.

Spoiler

Show

Double move 60 ft. towards the battle; draw fans as part of movement

[Hella Lugosi]

Relief floods through Columbus as he saw the strange goo splash harmlessly off the barrier (although it does die down a bit when he realises that it hasn't affected the smell at all). He reaches for his hip flask and, after briefly considering how bad it tastes, downs it in one.

He feels it's effects take hold on him and, not knowing his attackers, decides to make an impression. At least he got some practice being scary today. "Right! All together or one at a time, it's all the same to me!"

[AmberVael]

Azalea wrinkled her nose at the storm of food, but in the end she guessed it wasn't quite as nasty as what the pixies were already throwing out everywhere. That said, the mix of the two... she had been looking forward to eating something, but now she felt that she could wait a while.

Seeing that most of the pixies had seemingly abandoned the fight in favor of food, she decided to do her best to attract the remainder to it. With a flick of her hand and brush she sent a rainbow of colors swirling through the light she had gathered, then sent it spinning towards the pixies. The glowing sphere pulsed and shifted colors hypnotically as it soared around the path, leisurely swinging around where she thought the remaining pixies were lingering, then came to rest just above Melwyn's conjured pixie bait. Once there it continued to spin and began to shine even brighter, quite an eye catching sight.

Spoiler

Show

Azalea first customizes her light with the Style talent, making it a glowing rainbow, then sends it to dance around the 'battlefield,' hopefully attracting the attention of the fey. She wants it to stop right in the middle of Melwyn's conjured food and a good distance away from Anura's barrier, then she'll start concentrating on it to make it glow with bright light.

She'll effectively be painting her rainbow pattern on with her brush, so I figure a calligraphy roll to make it look as pleasing, eye-catching, and hypnotic as possible won't hurt.
Craft (Calligraphy): (1d20+11)[22]

[Steel Mirror]

As Izumi ran down the path, fans flashing with reflected sunlight as she passed under the dappled shadows of the forest canopy, a sudden flash of movement caught her attention in the corner of her eye. In the bushes nearby, she could see something disturbing the underbrush as it moved, slower than her but about the speed of a brisk jog, through the forest and towards the gaggle of students in front of her. Giving it a second glance, she realized that it wasn't just one creature moving; it was a whole swarm. Hundreds of centipedes as big around as her thumb writhed and clicked, carpeting the forest floor in ten foot wide mass. It took her a moment to realize that there were other figures, too, a pair of tiny humanoid figures about eight inches high flitting back and forth behind the centipede swarm, shooting out handfuls of magical sparks at lagging bugs and making little clicking noises of their own as they drove the creatures behind the students on the path in order to flank them.

As far as she could tell, none of the students ahead knew that the creatures were coming, and the little pixies didn't seem to be paying much attention to Izumi, either.

Meanwhile, Azalea's display of multicolored magic was impressive, and it also had the unexpected side effect of helping to illuminate the outlines of a few of the invisible attackers. Whenever a mote of colored magic flew through the sky behind one of the fey, the illusion which made them so hard to spot took a moment to adapt, giving the impression of looking at the colored lights through a few inches of thick glass or water. It wasn't enough to see clearly where they all were or to easily target them, but it was enough to confirm that the foe the students were facing were, in fact, small humanoid figures, about a dozen in number. Several of them were already gravitating towards Azalea's light show, though the rest seemed to be still attacking the honey with a will. If someone wished to target one or more of the little nuisances, though, there were several at the center of Azalea's magic that provided the most easy targets.

"Good idea!" Jennifer shouted from Azalea's side. "I'm not failing the test this time! Looks like it's my time to shine!" She lifted up her arms and even seemed to grow an inch or two taller, then recited a few words in some strange language. "Amarech! Vusta'ib nilaya! Kezzet falhoor abed Daya!" There was a flickering of shadows, as though the various shadows cast by the trees and bushes around them were lengthening and trying to reach out toward the girl, as power built between her outstretched (gloved) hands and reached a crescendo-

Melwyn, Azalea, even Anura and Columbus nearby could tell when the spell faltered. Jennifer stopped speaking in the strange language, then said in her normal voice, "Wait did I say Kezzet? I really meant Ligali. Umm, can I have a do-over?" The spell fell to pieces, the energy escaping in a rush of unfocused spell power that quickly streaked across the path and just inches away from Anura's protective dome, catching fire as it went. A second later it detonated in the forest with a massively loud WHUMP, shaking leaves from trees and exploding with such heat that it could be felt even where the students were standing, about a hundred feet from the blast center. The light from the fireball cast new shadows for a moment, and a column of thick white smoke was already rising from the forest where it had exploded.

Jennifer scrunched up her shoulders and hid her eyes behind her sleeve. She peeked out timidly, then hid again as the sound of a burgeoning forest fire could be heard. "Ohhhhhhh ****, that was my bad."

Spoiler: Infernal

Show

Jennifer's spellcasting language is Infernal, though she basically spouts over-wrought formal sounding poetic gibberish, which is more or less par for the course when using certain casting traditions. Notably in this case she apparently got a word wrong, replacing "light" with "inferno", thus leading to this mess.

Spoiler: Spellcraft DC 17

Show

Jennifer was attempting to cast Glitterdust, but her failure (read, she bungled her spellcraft check) led me to roll on the wild magic nee Rod of Wonder chart, which gave us a 6d6 damage fireball (!) which exploded in the woods nearby. Oops!

Inside the dome, Columbus' boast seemed to have gotten some attention. A few of the pixies switched from scampering around in pursuit of the honey to employing their tiny weapons against Anura's shield. Spectral cracks spiderwebbed out like fractures in a glass window each place where they bashed against the barrier, though they had yet to muster up enough force to break through. Unfortunately, their comrades inside with them were not thinking clearly enough to be much help.

"That's right!" called out the sneezing kid shrilly, pulling out a wand from his belt. "We can take you!" He flicked his wrist and sent a silvery orb of force zipping through the air and right at the place where a pair of tiny footprints indicated that an invisibly pixie was standing. Unfortunately, while the aim was unerring, the barrier was in the way. Instead of a web of delicate cracks, this assault created a three-foot wide mass of fractures. The barrier still held, but it was a close thing.

Spoiler: spellcraft DC 16

Show

Magic missile, of course!

Spoiler: OOC

Show

There is still time for a post from Anura and Melwyn, after which I'll post again for the pixies. All the NPCs have done what they're going to do this round, though so far they've been a lot more trouble than they are worth, apparently!

[Grek]

Cackling maniacally and coated in conjured goop, Melwyn continued her assault upon the hygiene and dignity of those around her. A clockwise turn of her wand, and an incanted "Ptisi!" were followed by a sudden yank and the levitation of a goodly amount of muddy, sticky, honey-milk muck into the air. With a flourishing sweep, she swung her new projectile through the air in hopes of hitting more pixies. "Don't worry, there's plenty for everyone!"

[spoiler=Mechanics]
(1d20+7)[27]Spellcraft DC 17
(1d20+7)[14]Spellcraft DC 16
Ptisi - A levitation spell. In this case, a cantrip from the Cantrips feat. Levitates up to a pound at 10ft per round. Melwyn will attempt to levitate it into the invisible pixies as well as she's able.
(1d20+3)[21]Perception, if needed. Hopefully the parallax off the flights is enough to find one?
(1d20+3)[23]Attack roll, if needed. Subtract one if levitating honey into someone is a melee attack rather than a ranged.
[/spoilers]

[Steel Mirror]

Melwyn's mucusy missile streaked through the air with impressive precision, smacking with a wet SLAP into two of them that were entranced by Azalea's multi-hued display. Both of them were glancing blows, but enough of the frothy, sticky mess stuck to them that it was easy to make out their locations, even without the mad display of energy lighting them up. Apparently their magic was not good enough to completely conceal them when they got dirty!

Melwyn wasn't done with the gob of goo yet, though, and she brought it arcing up into the space above her where she thought she'd heard the leader of these things yelling. There it impacted solidly, splattering out droplets of the stuff while clearly entrapping something. "Eeeeeek!" The gob landed on the ground a few feet away from Melwyn and Azalea, and the half-outlined figure of one of the pixies landed right in the middle of it, thrashing around and yelping and trying to clear enough of the sticky mess off its wings to allow it to take flight once more.

"Troops! New plan!" the tiny thrashing figure yelled. "SAVE ME!"

There was a buzzing noise like a whole hive of bees suddenly taking issue with a nearby interloper, and then suddenly the air in front of the three girls was alive with flickering distortions. The pixies were coming for them!

Spoiler: Mechanics

Show

Three attacks on each of Melwyn and Azalea by little invisible furious faeries.
Against Melwyn:
(1d20+5)[21]
(1d20+5)[15]
(1d20+5)[8]

And Damage against Melwyn (only apply the total number of hits, of course, and minimum is 1):
(1d4-2)[2]
(1d4-2)[2]
(1d4-2)[0]

Total damage against Melwyn: 4

Against Azalea:
(1d20+5)[20]
(1d20+5)[18]
(1d20+5)[11]

And Damage against Azalea (only apply the total number of hits, of course, and minimum is 1):
(1d4-2)[1]
(1d4-2)[1]
(1d4-2)[0]

Total damage against Azalea: 3

Also, three faeries are attacking Jennifer, but I won't bother rolling those here because they will just clutter up the post. But she is under attack, as well.

Meanwhile, the cracks appearing in Anura's outer shield quickly vanished as his will solidified and reinforced it, even as he diverted the other part of his attention towards making a smaller bubble around only himself. The few remaining faeries seemed to give up on their assault as they saw that, and the tiny blows against the surface quickly stopped.

"Haha!" cried Riley, pumping his fist as he stopped trying to string his bow. "We drove them off!" Behind him, the display of light and sorcery that the girls were putting on even as they were mobbed by tiny stabby invisible people completely escaped his notice. "Of course they don't want to mess with me! I'd stick 'em one by one and make kebabs!"

Then, each of the boys inside the shield felt something pressing against their minds. Something wild and unpredictable and insidious, like the feeling you got when you were standing on the side of an airship and something told you to just jump. And it was really tempting in the moment for them to give in...

Spoiler: Mechanics

Show

Anura and Columbus need to make a will save, DC 14. If you succeed, you can also attempt a spellcraft or Knowledge:nature check to figure out what this effect is, both DC 16.

Saves for the NPCs:
Riley: (1d20+1)[10]
Sneezy: (1d20+4)[5]
Other dude: (1d20+2)[6]

Annnnd that is 3 failures. I'll roll some stuff in the OOC and then post again for their antics. <insert evil GM grin here>

Izumi was still running down the path, but the pixies driving the swarm of bugs hadn't noticed her yet. They didn't seem to have great control over those bugs they were herding, either. It was possible that she could distract them for long enough that they could lose control over them completely.

[Steel Mirror]

Inside the barrier, Riley and the sneezing kid weren't enjoying themselves. "Does anybody taste cheese? I'm tasting cheese," complained sneezy. "Oh this is weird. Something's wrong with my head."

"Ow, my brain," agreed Riley. He gritted his teeth and went back to trying to string his bow. "I should have known that faeries wouldn't play fair. I HATE mind magic."

If they were having a bad time though, it was nothing compared to the other boy. With a scream, he grabbed one of the heavy books out of his own bag and starting bashing his own face with it. Immediately his nose started bleeding, but he kept at it, ignoring the damage he was doing to himself as well as the other boys' startled cries.

Spoiler: Mechanics

Show

damage: (1d8)[3]

[jamieth]

Izumi, while worried about the pixies' intentions, just didn't have it in her to start a fight - not with something that small, certainly. But she had to stop them anyway... and with what she had on her, as well, since her bag was, of course, left with Cecil. That left the girl with precious little options... dropping the fans, she started dancing, extending her hands towards the pixies and into the sky, in much the same way as she did when levitating the fans...

Spoiler

Show

Using Hostile Lift with Divided Mind to lift two creatures, creatures being, naturally, pixies.
Casting check: (1d20+11)[22].
My CL is 4 on result of 19, -1 for every 2 points less on the roll. To lift 2 creatures totalling no more than Tiny size, I need CL1, so a result of 13. So, basically, anything but nat-1 :-) But CL Affects the Save DCs, so...
Yep, easily made it, so CL4, and Will DC19 for pixies to resist. If spell works, I'll move them to right in front of me.

[Steel Mirror]

The faeries let out surprised "Eeeps!" as an invisible force plucked them out of flight and pulled them out of the embrace of the forest and into the path.

Spoiler: Machanics

Show

Will saves:
(1d20+4)[12]
(1d20+4)[22]

The nearest one was pulled easily out to dangle in front of Izumi as she danced, but the other one managed to resist her pull. Unfortunately, it still meant that there was only one faerie trying to corral a swarm of angry bugs that two faeries had been finding difficult to steer. The swarm's forward momentum immediately stalled, and a few of the centipedes turned around and started snapping towards the lone faerie, launching themselves up at it to try and get a taste.

"No fair!" squeaked the tiny faerie that Izumi held in her magical grip. "You can't ambush our ambush! Big folk aren't supposed to be sneaky, that's breaking the rules!"

[jamieth]

It's not that Izumi couldn't be sneaky when she wanted, but in this particular case, she certainly wasn't trying. So, the pixie's question was met with some confusion, forcing the girl to stop and stand completely still (not that stillness didn't have a place in the dance... it didn't break her magic by itself, not immediately; just made it more difficult to control).

"Not sneaky", she said, blinking, "Just curious. What are you trying to do? And why? And what's the rules?"

Spoiler

Show

Using Sustained Force to keep the TK for up to 4 minutes without concentration; pixie still allowed a save each round, and breaks the spell on first success. Just want to talk for now.

[Steel Mirror]

"What are we trying to do? We're just leading you away from the path so you can get lost in the forest and be humiliated forever because you missed your feast! Duh." The faerie continued to struggle, but for the moment Izumi's hold was keeping strong. "And the rules are just the rules. Like, 'don't try to put anything in your mouth that's bigger than your head', or 'don't taunt the grinning cat unless you can fly faster than your friends', or 'don't kill any of the students this year or I swear none of you are getting any cheese, I'm serious'." She listed off each rule in a singsong voice, as if quoting something told to her by an exasperating authority figure. "You know. Just, the rules."

[Grek]

"Ow! You stabbed me! You actually stabbed me! This means war! Pyrexia!" Melwyn brandished her wand at her invisible assailants, summoning forth a gust of feverish air and following it with her levitated glob of honey, pulled roughly from their splattered general with a sickening squelch.

[spoiler=Mechanics]
Health: 17/21
Spell Points: 3/8
Create Gear: 5/8
(1d20+8)[11] Concentration, to maintain the goo. It fades at the end of the pixie's next turn if I fail this. DC 14.
(1d20+8)[28] Concentration, to maintain the goo. It fades at the end of the pixie's next turn if I fail this. DC 14.

Pyrexia - An attack cantrip, causing feverishness to the tune of 1d3 fire damage. Also see Rigos, Kayupa and Ismos for shivering, heartburn and convulsions respectively.
(1d20+3)[10] Attack roll for Fever Cantrip.
(1d3)[1] Damage.
(1d20+8)[11] Concentration check, if required. DC 16.

(1d20+8)[25] Attack roll with levitated goo.
Note: Spheres of Power levitation cantrips, unlike the Mage Hand spell, do not require concentration. This is because they cost a feat to get instead of coming free with the class.
[spoiler]

[AmberVael]

The sharp, sudden stabs prompted a shriek from Azalea, who apparently hadn't expected an outright attack. She instinctively jumped back from the source of the pain and then took a few steps further away, gaining some distance. She briefly cast her eyes over the entire scene, from the mix of stink and food, her own gleaming sphere of light partially illuminating the invisible pixies, and Jennifer's unfortunate fire, and then turned away from it. "Open the way!" She commanded, sweeping her brush through the air in a hurried flourish, the gleaming silver symbols once more dissolving into a long pathway for her, which she quickly stepped onto. In the space of a few seconds she had moved quite some distance away, apparently retreating from the fight.

Spoiler

Show

Azalea will take a 5 foot step away from the apparent direction of her assailants, and then will teleport as far away as possible - namely, 130 feet directly away, spending a spell point to accomplish the increased distance.

If possible, she'll try and hide a bit in the forest to help her escape the pixies.
Stealth: (1d20+2)[15]

Hit Points: 19/21
Spell pool: 8/10

[jamieth]

"What are we trying to do? We're just leading you away from the path so you can get lost in the forest and be humiliated forever because you missed your feast! Duh." The faerie continued to struggle, but for the moment Izumi's hold was keeping strong. "And the rules are just the rules. Like, 'don't try to put anything in your mouth that's bigger than your head', or 'don't taunt the grinning cat unless you can fly faster than your friends', or 'don't kill any of the students this year or I swear none of you are getting any cheese, I'm serious'." She listed off each rule in a singsong voice, as if quoting something told to her by an exasperating authority figure. "You know. Just, the rules."

"Oh, I see", Izumi replied with the deadpan expression. "Well, you see, we aren't really students here until we get to the feast and the Sorting, so the rules don't really apply to us. yet. So, you have a choice. Let us pass, so we could eventually learn the rules, or..." she wasn't sure or what herself, admittedly.

[Hella Lugosi]

The whispers are a lot more numerous than Columbus was expecting. And a lot louder, for that matter. They pour into his mind like a swarm of bats, numerous and incomprehensible and everywhere. And painful. He begins to clutch his skull, trying to do anything to sooth the noise, to make them stop.

He spot one of his classmates succuming to the voices, drawing blood with a heavy spellbook. "Blood." He thinks. "Blood might do the trick." He eyes the rest of the students trapped in here with him, trying to pick out the nearest target. The frog's a little hard to get to, the kid with the book might be distracted, but-

He spots something by the edge of the bubble. A group of faires, the cause of his suffering. "Oh, they're gonna pay." He moves closer, eyes his target. And the whispers cease as a smile crosses his lips. "You'll do."

Spoiler: OoC

Show

Columbus is gonna wait until the shield is down then bite the nearest one he can see (assuming he's not close enough to get a full attack on it).
To hit: (1d20+7)[15]
Damage: (1d8+5)[12]

[Nettlekid]

Anura's head is a whirlwind, and he's unsure of what to make of the situation. For a moment he feels hazy, but shakes off an intrusive thought. Casting a glance to Columbus however, the other boy looks less composed. It quickly dawns on Anura that this other stranger may be as harsh and hostile as the girl trying to push the centaur from the boat, and maybe it wouldn't be a good idea to get in the way of that kind of hostility. Twig in hand, he makes a brief cutting motion as he lapses concentration on the large outer shield surrounding all the young boys. However, in the same moment, he recreates that very same shield around the group clustered a few steps away. Riley and Sneezy and the others. There wasn't anything he could do to aid the one self-harming, but he'd seen a Displacer Beast close enough to know that he shouldn't feel comfortable within the aggressive aura that Columbus was giving off.

[Steel Mirror]

Columbus had no trouble finding a gaggle of the little creatures that were tormenting them. They were gathered in a gaggle in one of the clear spots in the frog boy's magical hemisphere. As he got closer to them, their magical invisibility fell and they began making ugly faces at him, sticking out their tongues and smearing their noses up against the clear surface of the force shield. They were laughing at him through the protective shield, even as the student behind Columbus continued hitting himself with his book.

Boy, were the fairies surprised when the shield disappeared. A half-hearted rain of sticky, stinky muck fell all around Columbus as the shield vanished, much of it also dissolving into magical mist as it fell. The smell was horrible, but Columbus was already in motion.

"I'm dead!" shrieked one of the tiny faeries as his jaws closed upon it with a satisfying SCRUNCH. It was like biting into a tough piece of dried jerky, albeit on that tasted like unripe strawberries. "Avenge me, my sisters! I'm dead!"

"Wow!" cried another one of the fairies as it buzzed a few feet away. "I've never had revenge before! This will be fun!"

"No!" another one cried. "She's not dead yet! Stop! We have to save her!" The three fairies wavered, then hovered in midair all around Columbus. Instead of attacking they simply stayed there, looking uncertain. He wasn't sure how long that would last.

The creature that he'd bitten simply laid in his jaws, hooked by one of his tooth-tusks. Instead of trying to escape, it had its arm thrown back tragically against its forehead, and kept squeaking "Dead! Dead! I'm dead!"

Meanwhile, Anura's shield had reformed and was keeping the four boys safe. Riley finished stringing his bow, then took a step toward the kid who was hitting himself. "Damn! Are you crazy, kid? Hey Kel, help me with this!" Riley and Sneezy quickly took the heavy book away from the kid who had been hurting himself with it. He fell onto the ground, moaning in pain but no longer harming himself. Riley looked over at Anura.

"This shield is yours? Damn. Keep it up, I didn't even notice those things before you had already protected us. Now isn't really the time for introductions, so I'll get straight to the point. Can I shoot through this thing, or is there some way you can let me through?"

[Steel Mirror]

Izumi's dialogue with her prisoner continued. The faerie was still struggling, but the combination of Izumi's magic and the thing's apparent interest in what she was saying meant that it didn't make any progress, for now.

"No, I can smell the mythal on you. You're student enough to be under the school's protection, otherwise the kaolin never would have left you off the docks. If you want to pass you have to take our keys, and we won't never let you have them, in the name of the cheese!" Right as she spoke, her wriggling and squirming caused a small metal object, about the size and shape of an antique key, to fall from where she had been wearing it on her back like a two-handed sword.

"Rattlerats and scumble!" she cursed.

[Steel Mirror]

Melwyn's Pyrexia flew straight and true, but the half-invisible flying jerks looped around and avoided it easily, letting the prjectile woosh off down the path creating tiny vortices in the air which caught up Azalea's conjured magical lights in intriguing swirls and patterns.

Her levitated gob of honey-goo, on the other hand, proved much more successful. It smacked straight into another one of the flying, invisible figures as it evaded her projectile, eliciting a tiny squeal as it plopped to the ground a few feet away from the previously-imprisoned lead faerie.

The two remaining fairies in the sky looped around and flew back at Melwyn. They still were hard to see, but not so bad that she couldn't attempt to dodge them as they swooped in.

Spoiler: OOC mechanics

Show

Faeries struggle to escape their sticky prisons:
(1d20-1)[9]
(1d20-1)[16]

Faeries attack Melwyn with their tiny little sticks.
(1d20+5)[12]
(1d20+5)[6]

Damage, if any hit.
(1d4-2)[2]
(1d4-2)[1]

Damage to Melwyin this round: 0

The faerie that Melwyn had just trapped in goo managed to extricate itself, becoming fully visible as it did. It was a small humanoid figure, dressed in leaves and a tiny little helmet made out of a massive acorn cap. It flicked it's dragonfly wings a few times, clearing the filth, and then took to the air again, slowly.

Behind it, the leader of the fairies remained stuck. "Help me out you pollywogs!" it cried in a tiny, irate voice. "This is my battle! That means I'm the general, and you have to follow my orde-oooooof" Its voice cut off as it fell over into the goo face first, once again failing to win its freedom.

[Grek]

Rather than let the pixie general escape yet again, Melwyn lunges for her tiny foe, hoping to take him prisoner and ransom the class's safe passage for his release.

Spoiler: Mechanics

Show

(1d20+0)[17]Grapple! This provokes an attack of opportunity from the Pixie General, if he's capable of making it.

[jamieth]

Izumi's dialogue with her prisoner continued. The faerie was still struggling, but the combination of Izumi's magic and the thing's apparent interest in what she was saying meant that it didn't make any progress, for now.

"No, I can smell the mythal on you. You're student enough to be under the school's protection, otherwise the kaolin never would have left you off the docks. If you want to pass you have to take our keys, and we won't never let you have them, in the name of the cheese!" Right as she spoke, her wriggling and squirming caused a small metal object, about the size and shape of an antique key, to fall from where she had been wearing it on her back like a two-handed sword.

"Rattlerats and scumble!" she cursed.

"Sorry", Izumi said flatly, releasing the hold of her magic on the pixie and waving her fan, beckoning the key to fly towards her, "and thank you."

Spoiler: OOC

Show

No [point to roll for something that small I believe; also, I kinda suspect it might be a trap OOC, but even if so, it's a trap I'll gladly walk in :-)

[Nettlekid]

Anura chirrups slightly, a little shy of the situation he's been put in and recognizing that the strife the growing group is going through is largely his fault. Not finding the words he wants to say, he shrugs and gives a small shake of his head. He suspects there could be some way to make an opening in his barrier, but he hasn't used it enough to figure out its nuances. He'll just keep them both up, while the other students take care of the faeries.