Black Zenith [Adventure RPG / Chapter Four: Fires of Heaven]

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to definitely was good at what he did and should probably send him her thanks next time

writing master

remember kids, fully delete sentences when you decide to change it, otherwise that happens

will get a command up in a bit, got more important things right now

Myra lets the others start ahead in exploring the dome room, noticing how magic seems to be warded off near the alcove as the orb of light disappears.

Once the room starts rumbling thanks to Watson's...exploring...she decides it's high time to go investigating too, before something happens. Myra changes to her Raven form (if possible; I don't know if her initial Change Form counted or its CD is up, considering Myra's stats aren't on the status list), and summons an orb of light for the room. Once lighting is taken care of, Myra begins searching around to see if there's anything reflecting the orb's light. In a shiny way. A shiny way that would make a raven-person want to take a look to see if it is something sparkly and useful.

Bohw glares at Watson, with an expression that seems to be in complete disbelief that the man hasn't died yet. She scolds him, but in a whisper just loud enough for everyone in the room to hear, she doesn't want the whole room to collapse on them from her shouting.

"Oy, bread for brains, the place looks unsturdy as it is, it doesn't need you helping it. What did you think would happen?"

She then turns to Mayor. "Also, Mayor, stay the hell away from this lil hole here, immediately cancels out magic it seems. If you walk near it you'll probably die."

Mayor seems unsettled, but nods in agreement, edging a bit away from the center of the room. Bohw pauses to think, then whisks back around to Watson. "And you too, call it a hunch, but I think that vase will probably blow up if you go into that hole, keep it somewhere safe."

With that, Bohw goes to check the chasm entrance at the far end of the room and looks around for some kind of way down.

Savannah shrugs, slipping the coins and belt knife into her pocket and stands up. A quiet rumble reverberates through the dome and Savannah shoots an accusatory glance at Watson. She then heads over to the middle of the room, checking for the source of the foreign magic there.

As you come closer, you identify the source of the magic to be coming from the two pillars. Theres also a third signal burrowed beneath the rubble. The magical signatures seem warped somehow, as though you are 'looking' at them through water.

Myra lets the others start ahead in exploring the dome room, noticing how magic seems to be warded off near the alcove as the orb of light disappears.

Once the room starts rumbling thanks to Watson's...exploring...she decides it's high time to go investigating too, before something happens. Myra changes to her Raven form (if possible; I don't know if her initial Change Form counted or its CD is up, considering Myra's stats aren't on the status list), and summons an orb of light for the room. Once lighting is taken care of, Myra begins searching around to see if there's anything reflecting the orb's light. In a shiny way. A shiny way that would make a raven-person want to take a look to see if it is something sparkly and useful.

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you can generally assume that out-of-combat turns count for more in combat turns. It depends on what y'all are actually doing at the time, if it takes long you can bet that it counts for long and the other way around.

You change to your raven form, and then conjure a magnificent sphere of light (roll 19+7), easily lighting the entire room. Thanks to the generous light, you are able to pick out a few coins and other metallic objects that Savannah missed, uncovering an extra 14 coins. Additionally, from your elevated vantage, you can clearly spot the glint of gold among the rubble in the center alcove, hidden away from your companions' sight.

Bohw glares at Watson, with an expression that seems to be in complete disbelief that the man hasn't died yet. She scolds him, but in a whisper just loud enough for everyone in the room to hear, she doesn't want the whole room to collapse on them from her shouting.

"Oy, bread for brains, the place looks unsturdy as it is, it doesn't need you helping it. What did you think would happen?"

She then turns to Mayor. "Also, Mayor, stay the hell away from this lil hole here, immediately cancels out magic it seems. If you walk near it you'll probably die."

Mayor seems unsettled, but nods in agreement, edging a bit away from the center of the room. Bohw pauses to think, then whisks back around to Watson. "And you too, call it a hunch, but I think that vase will probably blow up if you go into that hole, keep it somewhere safe."

With that, Bohw goes to check the chasm entrance at the far end of the room and looks around for some kind of way down.

Its only a short drop, perhaps a few feet down, actually. Its hard to tell as it is very dark up ahead, but you think the chasm opens up into a large cavern, and you think you can hear the dripping sound of water somewhere in there, too.

Abruptly, a misty silhuette appears in front of you, hovering a few feet over the ground. It looks like the one you saw earlier, when you were fighting Echo. It beckons to you with one intangible hand, then cackles a light but rather crazed laugh as it spins off into the cavern, disappearing from sight.




Stats

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Thunderpaw: 1300/1300
Farstrider: 1000/1000
Fury Comet ready!
Vendetta ready!
Blade of Light ready!
Restoration ready!
Slowfall ready!

Bohw: 830/830
Mayor: 1512/1512
Sabotage Cready!
Selfless ready!
Hellbent ready!
Block ready!

Nos Reaper: 1200/1200
Kill Time: 0, 0
Calming Breath ready!
Overexcited ready!
Madness Dance ready!
Spell Focus ready!

Savannah: 1200/1200
Aromatherapy ready!
Absolute Zero ready!
Parasitic Relationship ready!
Wand of Healing: 23

Watson: 1250/1400,
Wits ready!
Fine Wine ready!
Dragon of the Red Wine ready!
Runeguard ready!
Water Vase: 3 charges

Myra: 1200/1200
Change Form cd 5
Winds of Fate ready!
Punishment ready!
Wraithstrike ready!
Shield of Feathers ready!
Farsight ready!

Mael: 1000/1000
Inner Focus ready!

Map:

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Wait shit apparently i forgot to upload the updated map earlier. Ugh. It should display the correct one now.

Savannah steps onto the lip of the alcove and feels what little remains of her magic wink away. Shocked, she takes a few steps back and feels it trickle back to her. This might be bad. She did want to see what was emanating those signals though. An idea came to her. "Hey Watson! Stop trying to kill us and get over here! I might need you help." Without waiting for him to respond, Savannah walks over to the alcove and takes a step, gently sliding halfway into the alcove and walking the rest of the way to the rubble.

"Hey," Myra calls out to the group, "There's something gold in that alcove's rubble! Maybe that's what's cancelling out the magic." Wanting to be no where near that magic-sapping spot, Myra glides over to examine the northernmost entrance to the room.

((Edit: Blurp, didn't read earlier posts well enough. Either pretend Nos did this before walking into the room of no-magic, or just pretend I didn't try to cast anything for the moment!))
As the party entered the room Nos had ignored everything at first, eager to put another spell into his new orb. He tosses the orb into the air recklessly, then moves his arms as though heaving something heavy up after it. A gust of magical wind hits the orb and the orb absorbs that wind, preserving a spell of Wind Spirits that would temporarily grant someone of Nos's choosing greater movement and jumping speed as well as increased evasion while the spell lasted. Satisfied, he looks at the room and what the rest of the party has been up to and chuckles.

"Oh my, are we breaking this place apart now?" Before Nos could try to break anything he caught sight of the misty form that appeared near Bohw. As it goes away, Nos runs up to Bohw excitedly, tugging on her sleeve and pointing in the direction it went. "Ooh, ooh, let's chase it! C'mon, let's go let's go!"

What happened before the update: "Mercy! Well I sure do get the point not to hack at the wall again! I thought I'd find something worthwhile if I hit against this gilded part over here", Watson pointed to the rusted metal part of the wall.

"However that alcove does look suspicious, I'd been meaning to check it. Thanks for telling me." Watson checks his Hat to make sure the Vase is still there and puts it back on.

Right now: Watson follows Savannah. "Coming," he answers tiredly.

Savannah and Watson descend into the alcove. The loss of magic is disconcerting - magic is something most people have innately. Still, it is easily ignored. Each of the two pillars seem to have a cloudy crystalline surface inset in the surface. The one in the pillar that is knocked over is cracked. The other one seems ringed by some kind of compass, with a small pointed rectangle in the center, floating in the air above the crystal. The rectangle seems to be pointing slightly up in the air, at Myra, for some reason. Other than floating in the air inside what must be an anti-magic field, nothing seems special about it.

"One... two." Savannah counts off the pillars. "Now where's three..." She looks around, following the rectangle's aim up to Myra. "Huh..." She pokes it with her Champion Blade before turning to the rubble. "Watson, help me move this, would ya?" Savannah starts pushing the rubble aside, looking for the 'gold thing' the bird girl mentioned.

Watson heaves, and ho's, helping Savannah get rid of all the rubble in *less time than it would normally take for only one person to do it

Its a lot of rubble, and clearing it all would probably take hours, assuming you had help. Fortunately you only need to find the third pillar, as Savannah asked you to. You search around for a bit, finding something you think might resemble the other two pillars and get started clearing things off of it to get a better look. Yep, it matches the other two.

"One... two." Savannah counts off the pillars. "Now where's three..." She looks around, following the rectangle's aim up to Myra. "Huh..." She pokes it with her Champion Blade before turning to the rubble. "Watson, help me move this, would ya?" Savannah starts pushing the rubble aside, looking for the 'gold thing' the bird girl mentioned.

Now that you're down here, you quickly find the thing Myra saw by glancing around. You spot a lone golden diadem sitting on a rock outcropping that might once have been a chair. Unlikely everything else in here, it is strangely untouched by time and the gold is still lustrous. It is inset with a ruby formed in a double oval. It definitely looks valuable.

Diadem of the Guardian Council
Allows you to purge all magic from yourself, both good and bad. This has a long cooldown.

In response to the ghost appearing, Bohw freezes up entirely, locked in place. It is only until Nos runs up and tugs on her arm that she snaps out of it, shrieking a little from being startled.

She tugs back to free her sleeve from Nos' grasp and replying with a panicked scolding.

"Don't-! Gah! Don't do that you idiot! Almost scared me out of my skin..."

Bohw sighs and shakes her head, muttering something inaudible. She takes the moment to wave Mayor over to them, who starts making his way around the room to them, Bohw then turns her attention back to Nos as she draws an arrow from her quiver and nocks it in her new weapon. Deciding to humor him and keep the notoriously destructive Nos distracted is probably a good idea right now.

"Look, whatever, if you promise to stay within my sight and not run off, we'll chase down old ghosty while the others work on this anti-magic bull-load here, alright?"

"Is this... it?" Savannah inspects the diadem, somewhat confused. "This little crown thing is the 'mysterious force that's sucking out all of our magic? It's..." Despite herself she reaches out and carefully picks it up. Yeah, that's gold alright. It was probably really valuable, but on the other hand, she felt strangely drawn to it. Maybe because it was just a crown.

"I think we found it." She turns around and shows it to Watson. "I wonder if it fits?" Savannah raises the diadem up and gently places it on her head. "How do I look?"

Watson steps back to observe Savannah. He puts his thumb and forefinger on opposite ends of his chin, and examines her. A smile comes to his face.

"You look marvelous! If it weren't for the trinket's magic-siphoning properties, why I'd think you should wear it all the time!"

Thunderpaw sits in the corner, pumpkin helmet turned eskew and used as a bowl to hold the food soldiers from earlier. He chomps on one, waiting for the others to finish up their investigations (and waiting for more nagas to pop out at inopportune positions. Might as well let Watson be the bait this time).

"So, assumin' the other side of the dungeon is more traps preventing acess to this room, shall we move on into the caves? Really, what a waste of good architecture if they're just gunna put the loot at the end of a natural corridor."

yes hello welcome back

Your troubles solved then?

Nope! But moping in a corner isn't doing me anything so I'm going to stop doing that.

Also thanks for covering me Blaze.

((Welcome back.))

Before doing anything else, Bohw stops and examines the sizable room. She tries to judge if the room is big enough to house the small army outside, without collapsing around them of course.

Certainly. It is a very big room, actually. Hundreds of people could probably fit inside, though itd start to get cramped.

"A noticeably unstable room I might add. Sure its the wisest idea to do that?"

((Thought I had posted last night, whoops.))
"A promise? An oath! Shall I slice off a pinky finger as I swear never to leave your sight? Ahh, that'd be too drastic I guess. Nobody likes a man with only nine fingers! Especially the man in question!" Nos practically skips off after the misty form in delight. "Come on! It sped off ages ago now! If we don't hurry this will all just be a waste of time! Precious, precious time!"

Is our time here precious? I forget. But I wanna know what those things are!

"A noticeably unstable room I might add. Sure its the wisest idea to do that?"

"Oh, was I thinking that out loud? Er..."

Bohw is forced to think on the spot, but decides to play it safe and not alert the others just yet. She instead returns attention to the chasm and Nos, jogging after him with Mayor not far behind.

"I'm coming! Calm down, Nos!"

Watson looks at the group chasing after the ghost, looks at Savannah, looks at the group again, then looks at Savannah again.

"I may not be entirely sure we should make chase after that apparition. Not the most thought-out idea. Should we run after them?" Watson holds his hand out flat towards the group, in question of their pursuit.