[color=brown][h1]Bludmach: Outskirts[/h1][/color]
Kvasir attack drew a screech from the smokey creature holding him, the blades of crimson ichor cutting through it’s weakened form with no issue. Unlike the main creature, this one seemed to struggle to pull it’s body together, following after the Godslayer even as its body struggled to remained connected to the dull red stone at it core. Klaus, meanwhile, would struggle to stand as the creature attacking him sought to drag him deep into the toxic muck. Luckily, his size and strength proved enough to keep him upright for the moment. As a result, the creature changed tactics, forming two ethereal looking tendrils over Klaus’ head which took the form of blades as they prepped to plunge into the wolfman’s back.

At Kvasir’s current pace, he would likely be unable to catch up with the flying monster despite his efforts, as the treacherous ground of the Marsh sabotaged his every step. However, the matter of catching the creature was soon handled as the sound of an explosion sounded from behind him, followed soon by the streaking jet of flame that was Eldrid as the Dragonslayer launched herself at the beast.

Right before impact, Eldrid would see the creature look first behind it then follow the trail of smoke up until it saw her much too late. As she crashed into the mass of writhing shadow, it quickly lost altitude as all three tumbled end over end in a screeching mess of tendrils and body parts as she bit, clawed, and burned the thing. Before long, they would make impact with the ground with an eruption of mud and loose rocks. Luckily for Eldrid and the guide she came to save, the crash was in a relatively stable section of the marsh.

Unluckily, however, the creature was still very much alive. With a final screech, it shifted its formless body in such a way that the masked face of the creature was before her, it’s rubbery mass opening wide to show a maw of shadowy teeth as it surged forward to consume her entire upper body in a mass of shadows. Within the darkness, she’d feel herself being subjected to what felt like hundreds of pinpricks and slashes as the shadows attempted to cut her to ribbons.[hr][hr]
 [h1]White Harbor[/h1]

[h3]Team Bessie:First Encounter[/h3]
As Ria life she was used to. Before her being banned from taking a swim, the sea was often filled with fish both big and small, darting about the brief section of shallows that the docks rested upon. . . and the yawning abyss into the ocean depths that stretched out before the town of White Harbour.

Now, it was only home to soft silence broken by the keening call of her target. From her vantage beneath the waves, she could see Bessie’s large form swimming through the ocean depths, diving down towards the depths as she completed another breaching of the ocean’s surfaces, likely having snagged another snack from the betting fisherman up above.

On the dock, some of the other fishermen noted Vectis and Cade getting ready to set out and, as bored fishermen were like to do, soon started taking bets on the group. The exactitudes of the wager were likely easy to figure out, especially as one man started to make a gesture of prayer before bursting into laughter as he slammed his money down. Clearly, they were the underdogs in this instance.
[@j8cob][@Sanguine Rose][@pkken]

[color=0054a6][h3]Aiden[/h3][/color]


Aiden’s face didn’t express much of anything at first as Kim came clean, only a slight raise of his head as he scratched as his chin in absent thought.

[color=0054a6]“Well. . . looks like we’ll need to work out a reason for him to not be [i]too[/i] with us both, huh?”[/color] Aiden’s cold stare turned into a grin as he reached knelt down to russle the young lad’s hair. [color=0054a6]“Also, you shouldn’t call your elder’s rude names like ‘Old bat’. Mrs. Bloomberg is a nagging sort, but she only does so because she cares. . . well, that and because her husband doesn’t listen otherwise.”[/color]

Rising up, the Guild Master shrugged his shoulders, dispersing his ice-make creations with a grand swing of his arm, each bursting into an array of fine ice particles and sending another rush of cold air through the guild as he walked towards the doors. 

[color=0054a6]“Now then, I hope you’ve taken what Serena’s been helping you with to heart because this is going to be a tad bit harder to pull off if we can’t convince him that you being here is still good for your education. Not impossible, mind, but much harder.”[/color]
[@Leslie Hall]

[h3]Northern Glade[/h3]

After exchanging the mirror and Claire doing a final check through her archives to see if she could pull anything up about the runes at all, the group entered the forest in search of their kidnapped suspect. Arc and Claire searched towards the western half of the Glade, while Karna and Nia exploring the eastern half. However, it would only be after a moment into the wood that something rather strange occurred.

One moment the wood was, if eerie, well-lit by the early morning sun with trees barely taller than any of the houses back in White Harbour. The next. . . the sun had vanished behind the leafy boughs of trees so tall you couldn’t even see the tops of them, the only illumination coming from a number of dim glowing orbs of light that floated overhead as if carried by the breeze. Mist pooled around their feet and, deep within the wood, one could hear the creaking snap of [i]something[/i] moving. Multiple somethings. Nothing could be seen of the other group either, despite them only just having stepped passed the threshold of the forest.

[h3]Glade Group 1[/h3]

“Ooooookay. . . should I be, like, concerned about this?” Claire did her best to keep a straight face as she looked around the sudden gloom, trying her best to ignore all the sounds of shuffling that echoed around her in the gloom. “You’ve dealt with stuff like this before, right? It’s just a common trick or something. . . . right?”
[@Grey]

[h3]Glade Group 2[/h3]

For Nia and Karna, the wood would soon seem to wake as , off in the distance, a light started to flicker to life. It  bounced on the winds for a few seconds, before flickering off and reappearing a little further into the forest, bobbing once more. Wanting them to follow after.
[@Hero][@Inkarnate]