DracoLunaris

A Tale of Owls and Wolves

Are you still open and if so can you tell me a little bit about what you expect pact mages to make pacts with? or anything you particularity don't want them to make pacts with? If i do make one I want to be sure I don't end up throwing something into your world that you don't want there.

Project Crossover [Video Game Crossover RP]

Captain Piper

level: 1
day/time: day 3 - evening
Location: 26th Floor of Tetris Castle, The Reception Hall -> Forest of Skyrim
Interacting with: @Zarkun, @Holy Soldier, @Mattchstick, @Lugubrious

”fair enough” Piper responded to the councils complete lack of info ”Guess I’ll ask this stormcloak guy the same thing when we meet him”

As for Vent’s explanation of his question about lethality, Piper supposed these Pseudoroids and Mavericks where something akin to vectron’s voltbots in nature: dangers to everyone. Though even they had their exceptions in the form of the free willed Fen, who was still part of Piper’s crew. It at least let her get an opinion of him, an uptight military sort who might struggle with remembering that the he was not in his own world anymore and thus that his assumptions might not be valid. All in all, that was better than the insane president, but she felt he might be the kind of person who did what he was told rather than what was right, and that was exactly the kind of person she had decided not to be when she deserted the military.

After Vent had dumped his explanation at her feet she headed up with the others to the 49th floor. There, after a lot of finagling to get the digital vaccination to integrate with her analog steam tech, she stepped up to the portal. Think of it as just another heist, she reassured herself Only this time it’s a city that we’re breaking into rather than a ship

She stepped through the gate, still wearing her santa hat, and moments later found herself in skyrim. For a few moments after she arrived, Piper just stood there absorbing the snowy landscape in front of her, before crouching down and grabbing a handful of the stuff. The soft white powder sieved through her loose grip in such a fascinating manner.

”Guess this is why water aint worth anything to these people, it’s just laying around all over the place” she muttered to herself.

After standing back up she retrieved her trusty blacksmith sniper, an plain Gunmetal revolver sporting a scope on the top, from a pouch on her hip and proceeded to load it, one shell at a time. They were in potentially dangerous territory now, so it did well to be prepared. While she had used everything from flintlocks to harpoons to semi autos to laser guns, it was always nice to be using old reliable steambot tech again. The blacksmith cost a hell of a lot less to maintain than the other options that was for shure. Along with that she had the Carrion Pistol, a slug thrower that could fire basically any kind of ammo you shoved into it. With its bigger clip, higher rate of fire and dreadful accuracy it was better for when fighting got up close and personal, as was the single brass knuckle she had stored close at hand incase they got in a scuffle.

After her gun was locked and loaded she listened with the other to their ridiculous buffoon of a leader ramble on about themselves for who knew how long. She liked the tone Azura took with him though, now there was a woman who did not appear to suffer fools gladly, though she also failed to introduce herself. Vent meanwhile caught onto the issue with the boss’s speech while knowingly suffering from the exact same issue. Piper did her best to be general with her descriptions of her accolades as a result.

”I’m Piper. Captain Piper. I’m a smuggler by trade. My planet also exploded, though that was before I was built, and we now live on the broken chunks that remain. My crew and I have battled against zombie space pirates, dethroned the queen of what's left of the world for being a tyrant and stopped a buncha hive minded, raygun wielding, volt powered, robots from beyond the moon from wiping everyone else out coz they thought they were superior to us.” She spun her revolver round her fore finger once before concluding ”If I’m interpreting all the technobabble correctly, that’s probably all a pretty standard stuff for this team?”

Legend of the Silver Legion Redux (Open)

The Emerald Empire

Lake Sem

Enzar fled west along with the recovering Ruzan, carrying the tale that had already traveled all across the Empire’s holdings thanks to Yaval’s offshoots. Opinion on Enzar himself was mixed, as was what people were calling him. A treekins title,( the Keen, the Swift, the Serpent, etc. ) was a vital part of their identity, and a naming convention that predated their adoption of actual names. When the children of the Trees was young and fighting for their kind’s very survival, titles were ideas rather than words, a mental picture of what a treekin had done/could do that awarded them a degree of individuality among their mass produced peers. As time had passed, all those who survived or where later planted gained names in the adopted human tradition, yet the acquisition of a title the closest their kind had to a rite of adulthood. Names changed however, Enzar forsaking of his own in the face of  the destroyer was a prominent example. Appropriates its loss was, for he was now lord of none but the dead, it had left a notable gap that had been filed by many new ones as he was discussed. The coward, the traitor, the forsaker, the messenger, the herald, the spared, the lone swordsman, the sane, the mad, the possessed. Some even called him the brave for his lone charge, though as with Xuna it was just as used to mean foolhardy. For the time being he went simply by Enzar, his state of bing influx till he found a new purpose.

Enzar and Ruzan passed through the town of Emway as the border forest fire, the smoke and light of which could be seen throughout the southern province, died down. The former border Forest becoming subsequently known as the wall of ash. The two finally arrived in the Dreaming grove that was located in between lake Sem and Fenreforst on the day Merken Froze solid.

The next day he, Ruzan the keen, Letiana The Swift and Parabella the Intuitive sat in the foothills overlooking Lake Sem, having traveled along with others through a pass in Sems low hills. Letiana was composer of the wind dancers art, who had grown up in the same grove as Enzar, the two had fond memories of each other from that time, but had not met in person in years. While Enzar had, through courageous deeds and displays of wisdom, become an elected official, Letiana had spent her time free from service traveling distant lands much Xuna and Yarvost had, only to return one day to teach her new style of combat to those willing to listen. Parabella meanwhile was an enchanter from the Fridgit bay Grove, a child of autumn who had traveled to Cher to learn from the now deceased Lestarn The Magnificent and while there had gotten to know Enzar after she had asked to inspect his blade due to her interest in foreign artifacts. She had survived thanks to being on healing duty within the forest itself rather than on the front lines and had arrived along with a group of survivors earlier today.

From their perch on the hill they could see what remained of the Grove between Sem and Merken floating down into the lake, the Trees having ordered their own near blasphemous uprooting or felling in order to try and escape. A few Dryads stood on the trunks of the great trees with long oars or barge polles in hand, paddling and steering the trees across the lake to the river that would take them down towards the sea.

Across from them, on the opposite shore of the lake, where the 3 wide, deep, rivers that fed Lake Sem and beyond the misty marshes they flowed through to reach the lake from their source up in the distant Frozen cliffs. The cliffs themselves were hidden by mist and clouds, the day seeming to be one that threatened rain. Through the marsh ran a single long narrow road. Built atop an artificial half meter tall embankment of gravel and stone the ancient road was seldom used. Most of the Empires trade was done via sea rather than over land and when the border forest still lived access for human traders to Vitium had rendered the journey not unprofitable and dangerous. The when sending troops and supplies to the border forces the Dreaming Forest had preferred to take either a boat ride up-river from lake Sem or to traverse the natural woods round behind lake Sem up to Fenreforst. As a result the road was poorly maintained, overgrown and crawling with dangers large and small.

The four where not alone, blow them at the water's edge a number of Living ship where docked, providing with a conduit for the Dreaming, something the survivors was glad to have returned to after their lonely flight. Between the 4 on the hill and the ship a number of Letiana’s student practiced their art, watched by the crews of the ships and other assembled warriors. The sight was a strange merging of ballet performance, Country dance and material training, the lightly dressed dancers wielded greatswords and warhammers single handedly as they gracefully pared against one another, their movements looking like they where all insync with an unheard song. They claimed to dance to the song the wind played that none but they could hear. It was this that gave the group their almost cult like status among the Dreaming Forest. Through the Dreaming the others could feel the belief and certainty behind their words, yet those who did not join the dance could not share whatever it was they experienced.

The three survivors had been telling Letiana about their personal perspectives of the battle. Once they had finished she told them:

“Some of them want me to face her you know. That my speed and grace could succeed where Nyranda’s blunt strength failed”

A heavy silence followed this declaration until Ruzan spoke up with a forced chipper

“There's also the plan to do the opposite right? To Ignore her, attack her followers till she stands alone.”

“That’s what these raids are for after all” Parabella added. Indeed, that is what they were assembled for, waiting to board the small ships to carry them upstream to the marshes. Other expeditions had already moved out before Nerjeb gad even frozen, Dryads stalking through the marshes during the subsequent night to prepare traps and ambushes along the long thin road leading west to Emway. Despite having both held power in the border forest Ruzan and Enzar where now naught but regular soldiers in the line of duty rather than leaders of the expedition, overall command had been placed by vote in the hands of a Dryad from the north Fenreforst grove called Sunrost the Eagle and a south Fenreforst Dryad called Masilta the Red, who had retained her position after the congregation of various forces in her home grove.

“They will slow her, but they won’t stop her. In the end, someone will have to face Andromache”

“How about we talk about something else” Ruzan tired “did you hear about the massive hydra up north? 4 times as big as normal, and made of rotting flesh.”  

“Selzona The Cold thinks it was done with some new kind of golem magic we’ve never seen before.” Parabella Interjected informatively

“Or those mysterious black and red sailed pirate ships raiding up near Freishann and Olira?”

“More enemies”

“Um. Well, there was that ghost ship that people saw on the Sea of lights” “Ghost ship. Now your just making stuff up to distract us” “I’m telling you, the there humans said they could see right through it like it was made of glass or something“ ”humans, of course it was only humans that saw it” ”Sailed right up to one of these lights in the sea at night, shrouded in mist, then sailed into a dead end cove near the frozen cliffs and just vanished”

Eyes were rolled at Ruzan’s tall tale, but it had lifted the mood. Parabella Jump on the silence that followed to told her own story. “Have you hear the story about the woman and the mysterious staff up north? Right before dawn this woman shows up in front of Norfort leaving a trail of verdant life in her wake. She’s carrying this massive 3 meter long staff, that she says she had to hand over to them as, in her own words, ‘The right thing to do” ”that is suspicious” ”as is the staff, when Selzona studied it she found it covered in strange unknown blood colored symbols. When questioned the woman told them she had been compelled to go find it, then compelled to bring it to the fort” “like I said. suspicious.”  “but also really interesting, we didn’t know that was possible till now. If Selzona can figure out how it was done, or find who did it, then the possibilities are mesmerizing.” “think that and the hydra are connected?” “Se;zona does, she’s already sent out patrols to go hunt for whoever is responsible”

“You really like Selzona huh” “it’s a coincidence, a lot of weird stuff just happens to be going on up there. Though I have to admit she was my second choice after. Um.”

And thus they were all brought back to the present by the reminder of the dead ent mage. They were saved from another silence by the arrival of a small group of human carpenters escorting a large amount of timber, who where who they had all been waiting on to arrive “We best be going” Ruzan said, pushing himself to his feet and sprinting down to join the dancers and crew. Parabella rushed after him, but Enzen and Letiana where slower.

“I don’t want you to face that monster alone” “I appreciate the sentiment, but we already know you don’t stand a chance. You were too slow and will just get in the way of the dance” “then in what little time we have I will need to learn match your speed”

She turned to him, surprised, then smiled. “It is not speed you need to learn, only how to listen” “I’m all ears” “hmm. No. Not yet. But your ears will have to do for now. I’ll do what i can for you as we travel, but for now we best be off before we cause delays”

---

@Serpentine88@Commodore@Oraculum@Sigma

While Yaval’s network had carried the situation to all the places their mind touched, the living shis carried it furthur. The Emerald Empire was not so arrogant that it did not see it needed help. While Vitium had done an excellent job at alienating everyone, even its supposed religious allies, the Dreaming forest had spread its roots far and wide since it sprouted onto the world stage. On the south end of the bay that Andromache wanted to capture part off was the northern tip of the Empire of Lynn-Naraksh, ruled by the armor clad Broodlords. The primordial blooded humans in many ways shared more in common with the Dreaming forest than they did with the humans both empires ruled over and the two groups had found forming positive relations rather easy. The buffer Kingdom of Shenra also helped in that matter, preventing border friction between the two empires. A small party of Dryads and small monstrous ents made the short trip across the bay of lights and then began the hard ride through the foothills of the Frozen cliffs, towards the seat of the Lynn-Naraksh Emperor.

In the south ships set out form the moon shaped island of Gweldgale, a colony of the empire, heading for the singular city open to outsiders: Huángjin Di. There they hoped to glean information from reports of the empires failed attempts at assassinating the empress. While the trade city was known for its mercenaries the trip back home would be far to long for any hired to be useful, information and guidance where all they could hope for from the ancient nation.

Ships from the tiny island of Fostern set out for Freishann to make good on their defensive alliance, only to run straight into messages summoning them to discuss the junk pirates plaguing the region. The ship bearing Tenzin the Discerning docked sailed up the river linking the Freishann capital to a southern bay 2 days after the invasion began, docking there at noon among a number of currently civilian Emerald vessels of autumn. As the ships traded stories through the dreaming the diplomat and his small entourage entered the city proper.

Finally a few ships from the evergreen isles themselves sailed up the coast to to cold and brutal land of Tarkima. There they intended to seek out their recently acquired allies, Clan Brakor, in order to hire the services of some of their warriors to bolster their own military. They carried with them gifts and the promise that greater rewards, glory and plunder could be won in the defence of Emerald land.

Across the Vitium plains strode 2 final messengers, these sent not by Yaval’s will but by their own. They seek to bring others to the side of the forest, people who will not find out who they truly serve till it is much too late.

---

As the small fleet sailed up the west most Sem river, born by sail and living oars, Enzar tried to learn. He had expected sparring sessions, but instead Letiana had spent the trip talking. They sat near the stern of the ship, while behind them varios Dryads, small ents and the occasional human, clad in thick outfits to protect them from the biting insects that plagued the marshes in springtime, milled about impatiently among the supplies the ship was carrying. Ruzan and Parabella sat gossiping with a few of the others. Enzar tried to ignore their chatter and focus on what Letiana was saying. But she was not making it easy.

“You have to learn to listen” “ I am listening” “but you listen like a human listents, with an imitation of ears when we have none of the things in your head that make them work without mana. We were made in their image, but we are still closer to our progenitors than we ever will be to the Dreamless animals.” “That kind of superiority talk isn't polite when they are around” “Stop thinking like a politician please, and Listen. It’s not about what is better, it’s about not trying to be something other than what we are. When I was traveling the world the last place I stopped was at Yaval’s island. I climbed to the top of of their branches, ate their fruit and. Don’t look at me like that, it is was an honor, even if it tasted just as bland as all the rest. When I was up there i meditated, and then I asked to see the world as they see it” “and what did you see?” “everything. Or that  is what it felt like anyway. Their entire being, the island, the sea around it, the life that lived there and then far flung places across the empire. I shouldn’t have been able to process it all, and yet I could.” “the fact that our parents see the world as a blurry haze probably helped” “true, but that is because they can take in so much, and their minds are vast, deep and” “slow” “stop being curt with me if you want my help” “I apologies, I am just frustrated. How can I learn to fight like you by sitting here.” “because first you must see the world like I do, hear the world, like I do. Like how our progenitors do. To not use these faximalies of eyes and ears we have been given by the Trees, but to instead know the world as they do, as our primordial creator wanted us to.” “you can’t claim to know... No. I said i would listen. Go on” “you must see not with your senses, but with your mind. To experience everything around you rather than what is just in front of you. To feel the rhythm of life, how it ebbs and flows, to listen to the music of reality. To know your part, to be in the right place at the right time in tune with the beat. “I” “open your mind for me. Open your mind to the truth and I will show you the world”

Enzar reached out through the Dreaming, and Letiana drew him in, closer to her mind than he should ever have gon. Into an abyss of sensation. Most would have recoiled. Fled. Blocked the ordeal from their minds. Most did. Enzar did not. It was strange, terrifying, overwhelming, he felt like he was spiraling down a pit of insanity for an eternity before he finally saw the light at the end.

“Tell me. What do you feel”

“Way to many fucking bugs.”

At that Letiana busts out laughing, breaking the tension and serenity of his moment of revelation. It was a welcome break however. “Ah ha ha, oh I’m so sorry. Normally I do this somewhere much more scenic” “there wasn’t time.” “True, but none the less, you feel it now, don’t you. The music” “yes”

And he would never be able to stop.

“Then you are ready to learn how to dance”

lost paragraph breaks when copying from google docs

sadly not. any amount of spacing between paragraphs gets ignored
pretty sure its a problem with docs now though. same issue happens when copying to open office.
solution i have found is to copy it to docs and then replace the end of every line with two new lines using find and replace with regular expressions turn on

lost paragraph breaks when copying from google docs

I and others have noted problem hen copy pasting text from google docs into here. no idea if it is on your or their end. copied text looses paragraph breaks as show below:

this

sample text

sample text

when copied turns to this

sample text
sample text

yet when copied back again it regains the missing paragraph breaks. I have been copy pasting posts, like colabs, written in google docs to RPG for some time and it has only recently started to suffer from the issue shown above.

Legend of the Silver Legion Redux (Open)

map update 12-ish

Project Crossover [Video Game Crossover RP]

Taric

level: 2
day/time: 3 - evening
Location: save point inn
Interacting with: @ONL, @Guardian Angel Haruki, @Zarkun, @Majoras End
Cooldowns:
Bastion: 2/2. linked ally: none
Starlight's Touch: 0/6

Taric supposed that a subtle route, as suggested by Shantea and Bently, might be a better option than just storming down there and making a scene, particularly if there was the potential for other lowlifes to be skulking around trying to get the drop on them. After Bently politely assured Taric he was perfectly fine using the stairs without assistance by showing of his robotic arms, Taric supposed clarification of his own abilities could come in handy.

”Personally I prefer a more head on solution to problems like you seem to Cuphead, but I can see the merit of caution in this situation. As for what I can do, other than general roughhousing, I can use these beauties.” he plucked one of the gemstones floating behind him from its place, bringing it forwards to show it off for a moment. The flawless blue crystal sparkle radiantly, reflecting the rooms light while also giving off a soft glow all of its own. When he released it a few moments later it quickly flew back up to re-join its fellows. ” to offer protection, probably in a similar manner to how you might do it Sparx. Also, if any of you are injured I can provide healing, so long as I get a few hits in on the bad guys with Bravado here first, to charge that power up.” He gently patted the palm of his free hand with the head of the mace to clarify that its was what he was referring too.

”If some of us are to get outside unseen while Shantea is doing reconnaissance, then I recommend the window back there. I imagine I wouldn't be to good at the sneaking about gathering info, however I could probably help lower someone down or give them a boost up so they can do that.”

Taric said as he walked over to said window and opened it, poking his head outside to get an understanding of how tricky getting down to the ground, or perhaps up to the roof, would be.

Legend of the Silver Legion Redux (Open)

The Emerald Empire/Kingdom of Shenra

The Vitium - Emerald border

An hour before the dawn of the day of the Vitium invasion the various Calid scouts who had creeped round the rear of the border forest decamped from their hiding places in the marshes and villages to go meet their destinies.

At the heart of the forest into which the scouts where to venture where two great fortresses, bastions of the dreaming forest made of many Trees that had grown together, forming a hub or focal point for the Dreamscape that bound the forest together. At the center of these fortresses, in the most secure place in the forest, where two small Trees that was not their own individuals. Instead these two trees where branches of the Great Tree Yaval, head of the emerald empire, that had been transported from their homeland and planted to forge a psychic link, leading all the way back to their distant home.

It was towards one of these fortresses that Severo and what remained of his Calid Cohort slowly crept as dawn crested the horizon. Despite being so close to the fortification and surrounding settlement, the terrain was still as heavily forested and overgrown as it had been on the way in. Barring a large clearing some way off that featured a single building at its center, from which smoke could be seen emerging, the rest of the settlement had more or less been built around the existing vegetation. The some of the loose knit series of structures used living trees as their central supports, while in others snaked their way in and around the trees, carefully avoiding disturbing them. None of the buildings appeared to be used for housing, but rather they were storehouses, armories, libraries, workshops, meeting halls, markets and so on. The kind of urban housing sprawl that would normally fill the gaps between these buildings was entirely absent, in their place the Dryads seemed perfectly willing to simply hang around outdoors while not working. Standing in groups or sitting up in the branches of trees or on rooftops, the wooden people added to the uncanny feeling the place gave off. A mimicry of the familiar lacking several vital features that left everything strange.

Getting here had not been easy Severo thought to himself, they had lost many to the attrition of the forest’s dangers. Jos had never even rached the forest, a leech like thing, twice the size of a man and covered in spiny armor, had ambushed him while they were traversing the freezing cold swamps behind the forest. When Niene had tried to save him, one of the spikes on the leech’s head had shot out and pierced through her shoulder. She had dropped dead minutes, killed by a combination of severe poisoning and blood loss. Widreth, Burwena and Eerik where tore apart as they walked through a flower bed near the entrance of the forest when small plants with snapping jaws and lashing thorny vines had popped out of the ground without warning to attack them. Asmo and Petra had been stung to death by several giant bees who dive bombed them with drill shaped stingers. Villi had been knocked over by a flying rabbit and subsequently cracked her skull open on a rock, moments after she told Severo about a weird 4 eyed deer she had seen. Putrael, frioc, Rosenwyn and Gurci simply hadn't re-joined the others after they had to split up to hide from a Dryad patrol. Severo was pretty sure they had deserted, but couldn’t be entirely certain. He couldn’t blame them if they had. Only a few minutes earlier Amalia, Cuarto and Nerita had been impaled on the branches of a seemingly mundane tree that had come to life as they passed by.

In the end only Servero, Oto, Patrik, Narella and Saba had made it this far, but now that they were here, all they had to do was pick a good few spots for their arson and then get the hell out while avoiding the dryads bustling about in the settlement.
Those same said dryads where getting rather agitated. There had been a feeling swirling around the dreaming since just before dawn, a feeling that something was wrong that had been building over the past half hour. Atop the battlements, or canopy, of the fortress proper Lord Enzar, (the jury was still out on whether “Lord” was a valid name or not, some suggested Enzear the Lord would be more in line with tradition, Enzar claimed that the “the” was superfluous in this instance) passed to and fro restlessly. The dryad, 8 feet of (literally) sculpted muscle topped with flowing grassy hair that went down to his shoulders, had already responded to the feeling by sending out additional patrols and psychically asking the Trees for guidance. So far neither of the these had yielded results. He was about to try mentally shouting at the Trees again when there was a sudden sense of pressure in the dreaming that welled up from the center of the fortress, a presence so vast and ancient it was almost physical.

Awaken children of the forest! Vitium has sent its torchbearers into our lands to bring death and destruction in an act of war! All leave is hereby suspended! Prepare for battle with ember and animal alike! I am assuming direct command of operations in this area till the Vitiums are made to pay for their desecration!

The messages was clear as day in the minds of all those in the forest, from sapling to ancient colossus, they all heard it, and they all obeyed without question. As Enzar received more specific, and thankfully less deafening, instructions from Yaval the settlement became abuzz with activity. Personal projects were carefully set aside as armories where thrown open, armor donned and weapons retrieved. The children of autumn join their brethren of spring in preparation to do what they were where all built to do. In an around the settlement, sleeping eyes cracked open as the ents awoke from their slumber. Right behind Servero a seemingly innocuous tree began to move, its branches becoming arms, its leaves wings, its once ridgid trunk a serpentine body. As Nyranda The Serpent awoke her body slammed down behind the scouts, powerful arms supporting her weight as she withdrew her roots from the earth, the tendrils coiling them together to form a long tail. In the dreaming, meaning and power twisted and danced together as she flexed her magic. Despite her blindness she could sense them all clearly, the intruders, bearing tools of flame.
In response to the cacophonous sound behind them the Candid scouts turned to find a humongous wyvern of bark and moss where moments earlier there had moments before only been forest.

“Firepots!” Servero screamed while reaching down, grabbing, lighting and then hurling his own at the monster in a single, swift, practiced motion. But it was too late. Amber lines of power flared all along the surface of Nyranda’s bark and the winds responded to her call. The flames intended to ignite the fiery weapons were snuffed out in an instant, while the pots themselves hung suspended in the air between the scouts and the Ent. There was a quiet moment of awe before the scouts tried to scatter, only to be hauled skyward like the firepots. Servero tried to scream, but the air had already been forcibly torn from his lungs.

---

From her position in the north eastern foothills of the frozen cliffs Queen Rosabella, riding at the head of her small army of loyal humans, allied harpies, foreign adventurers and well paid mercenaries, could see that the Matharanian plan has succeeded despite the brutal attrition the forest had inflicted. In the north several areas at the periphery of the forest could be seen either ablaze or smoldering. In the south, where the colder climate seeping down from the frozen cliffs which left the vegetation dryer and the inhabitants more sluggish, several fires had been lit deeper in the woods. The Calid scouts there had also had the opportunity to gathered information from local royalists and poachers who lived in land loyal to the Kingdom of Shenra, which had helped them navigate the strange and deadly woods much more effectively, leading to several successful escapes by entire southern Calid Cohorts post firestarting.

Yet the woods where awake now, and the initial individual attempts at firefighting rapidly became coordinated on a forest wide scale. Enchanters worked together, using specially made magic items to douse the flames with torrents of water. Ents used massive swords to cut down mundane trees and then dragged them away to deprive the fires of fuel to spread. The one of the Emerald Empire’s only fire mage, Saberath the mad, started a counter fire around one of the larger edge fires, leaving a semicircle of smoldering wasteland in the south but preventing the fire from reaching deeper to Fort Cher. Other Trees that were threatened by encroaching flame or fires started at their bases activated tiny amber trinkets tied to their branches which acted like a magical sprinkler system, sparing them while the wood around them was consumed. Other fires where smothered, starved of oxygen by wind mages. The battle against their most ancient foe was not without casualties but roughly 20 min after Yaval had begun the forest wide response most of the fires had been extinguished.

---

As the armies of the emerald empire amassed to respond to the inevitable invasion by Vitium army, two ravens flew out of the forest baring messages. One was a declaration of war headed for the Vitium encampment, a force that had been watched by dryads from the forest's edge and by creatures whose minds had been bound to the will of enchanters and mages. The other few onwards, seaking out a tiny encampment hidden in a rocky outcropping somewhere behind the enemy encampment. After passing by the cave entrance and the ring of swords stabbed into the earth and stone therein the bird, a well kept creature sporting a collar which had an amber gemstone as its centerpiece, found only one of of the people it was expecting. Standing at 6 and a half feet tall, the Ent know as Yarvost the Bold was incredibly small, both for his species and age. He wore a rune covered mask sporting 4 red glowing eyes and, somewhat oddly for an ent, a thick padded robe with a belt sporting 13 scabbards The raven landed on his shoulder and, after a short delay during which the distant mage controlling the raven cast another spell, asked: “Where is Xuna?”
The Ent carefully put away the sword it had been sharpening and then pointed back behind himself at the cavern wall. The raven cocked its head to one side in confusion before deducting. “She's in the vale again?” Yarvost noded. “I will never understand how you or the animals can cope without the dreaming” the Ent shrugged “Can’t be trusted to do their duty, the Dreamless. She was supposed to be here for when Vitium made their first move”

“Don’t get your feathers all ruffled, I’ll be here when the time comes” said a young human woman who walked in past the warding ring. The raven fluttered in alarm at the sight of the intruder before the woman touched a hand to her face, revealing the human form to be an illusion, and that she was in fact Xuna the Brave. The 4 ft tall dryad, whose face was obscured by a matching rune marked horned mask who’s two eyes glowed a deep red, was one of the oldest dryads in the entire world. She pointedly refused to act her age.
“That time is now Xuna!”

“And here I am like I said I would be.” she spread her arms wide as if to present herself “You should be more trusting of us ‘Dreamless’ bird brain. Plus I think you'll find my little excursion will serve us all well in this latest war”

“I don't really care what you dug up out of the vale, just get moving already. Yaval’s instructions stand as they where given”
“We’re going. We’re going. Can’t disappoint family after all!”

The raven simply rolled its eyes as Yarvost silently stood and began to march out of the cave. As he passed by the entrance several vines snaked out from behind is back, each grasping one of the 12 unique enchanted blades ringing the entrance, pulling them all free simultaneously and sheathing them all in their respective sheaths. Xuna followed after, carefully stringing her ancient bow with its newly acquired bowstring, a hidden smile on her lips.

Project Crossover [Video Game Crossover RP]

Captain Piper

level: 1
day/time: day 3 - evening
Location: 26th Floor of Tetris Castle, The Reception Hall
Interacting with: @Zarkun, @Holy Soldier

Piper was familiar with the kind of tech used to make the projections, even if she found it a little disconcerting to see again. Her people didn’t use it, but she had seen stuff like it while her crew where blasting through hoards of hive minded bots on voltron’s ships. Once the screen started working it revealed more of the biped animal people that seemed to make up the majority of the population of this and most other worlds. Piper was still getting used to them and their… squishiness.

Piper was however rather familiar with the kind of cabin fever she decided that the people on the other end of communication device where suffering from. Coop a group of people up on a spaceship together for too long away from outside influences and they get overly familiar and comfortable with each others eccentricities, developing a micro culture that comes of as odd to everyone else. That said, this lot where on the extreme end of that process and she was somewhat surprised they hadn’t vented themselves into space or crashed straight into an asteroid as a result of their space madness. Or that none of the died to a ricocheting weapons discharge when their only sane man forced them to stop bickering with firepower. She could only hope that this president person of too many titles calmed down after getting some fresh company, rather than dragging them all down into his insanity.

As for the mission itself, piper had very little perspective to draw on to draw any conclusions from the limited data they where given. She supposed these iron gods might be people like her. Other than that she wasn’t sure how dangerous these dragons where, nor did she have much to offer in the way of ideas as to what the barbarians and their metal masters might want. Whatever it was, Piper decided her goal would be to lift it before they got their hands on it. Aiming to get a jist of what might be considered valuable in the settlement she asked:

”This Markarth place home to anything notable that would make it a target? Recently unearthed ancient structures or artifacts, vaults full of treasure, arsenal of weapons, that kind of thing?”

Like Vent, Piper would forgo traditional clothing, in her case it was because wearing flammable cloth on your body does not mix well with having an exposed furnace on your chest. She also found Vent’s comment about lethality rather disconcerting as a result of her previous mental equating of the steel gods to her own kind.

”Why might you feel like scrapping one is acceptable when the other might not be?”

She hoped it was because her kind could simply be put back together if scraped, unlike animals who would not get up again once sufficiently damaged, no matter how much duct tape you applied, rather than some kind of resentment towards her kind.

Taric

level: 2
day/time: 3 - evening
Location: save point inn
Interacting with: @ONL, @Guardian Angel Haruki, @Zarkun, @Majoras End, Holy Soldier
Cooldowns:
Bastion: 2/2. linked ally: none
Starlight's Touch: 0/6

Taric was a little less befuddled by the existence of cuphead than everyone else it seemed, having pegged him as some kind of eccentrically designed golem. Really, he was not that much more strange than the wheelchair bound humanoid turtle or a glowing talking dragonfly. still, he was glad fate had lead him to see the little marvel or rather that the protector had lead him to see them, as Taric soon found out he had stumbled into a call to adventure.

”I suppose it was optimistic of me to think we might be here just for sightseeing then” he muttered to himself in amusement. It was not much of a stretch to hear laughter in the the melodic tones produced by his follower gems as they moved to avoid scraping the ceiling of the staircase. Once they were in a room Taric sat down on one of the beds, set bravado down beside and him to listen to Spark’s tale of dragons, danger, deception and dark figures. A dark hooded figure that it turned out might be in this very building! Or it might just be someone with similar dress sense. Dark cloaks were the fashion of choice for suspicious figures everywhere, so confronting the one downstairs would probably be good for someone, even if it wasn't them.

”Shall we go confront this suspicious figure then?”

Taric asked as he stood up once more, a process that involved dramatically tossing his mace bravado up from where it was sitting using his right hand, letting it twirl around once in the air before catching it by the handle in his left gauntleted hand.

”and if we do, do you want help down the stairs Bentley?”

He imagined the bumpy ride back down would be most unpleasant if done unassisted.

Naija

level: 5
day/time: day 3 - evening
Location: tetris castle - floor 49 -> floor 75
Interacting with: Holy Soldier

A portal to another world was definitely something interesting. The amount of uses that that could provide where mind boggling.

”have you tried” Naija began before realizing she probably wouldn’t be able to suggest anything the scientist had not already thought of ”Never mind. I’ll leave you to it.”

Naija was a little disappointed to not be getting to keep the bag. She was going to use it as decor for the room she had taken on the 75th floor. A room she decided it was high time she went back to.

”good night Dr. Solus”

She let herself out the lab and headed up to the castle’s Quarters. There she went to the bathroom attached to her room, filled up the bathtub with water and towels and then promptly snuggled into the resulting warm mess to get some much needed sleep.

Legend of the Silver Legion Redux (Open)

The Emerald Empire

The Fractured Riverlands

It had taken Selzona’s expedition 3 days to over the ground the sargent had covered in one and in the interim the devastation had spread. On their way the group passed several small groups of refugees and from which they discovered that 2 villages of the main road had also been destroyed. From personally interviewing the peasantry Selzona acquired a slightly better understanding of their quarry and was beginning to suspect that the rumors of a monster where true. While this spooked their human cavalrymen, most of the dryads where getting worked up at the news, thinking of the glory and thrill of fighting something no-one had faced before. Selzona herself tried to avoid being caught up in their excitement, as the leader she needed to stay level headed, but their emotions swirling around the Dreaming got to everyone, somewhat to the annoyance of the Ents who were supporting the Psychic link.

They arrived in the village which Vertrestin’s group had last been seen in, located next to a river crossing, and set up camp for the night just outside near a small patch of trees. While the Dryads did not need to sleep per say, their night vision was as poor as a humans and they also welcomed the chance to rest, eat and socialize. Through the night, while the humans and Ents slept, the Dryads made plans, using a small number of glowing chunks of enchanted artificial amber as a lightsource. Using a cloth map dotted with stones placed to represent rough locations of the destroyed villages and areas of supposed sightings they managed to work out roughly what their quarry’s path had been over the past few days and in doing so make a guess as to what area it was in now.

Once the dawn came the expedition briefly stopped by the village to underpay some villagers to cook them breakfast and recruiting the local militia. Because of the closeness of the village to one of the estuaries they were better trained and equipped than the average town maitia due to the threat of raiders, but that did not mean many had seen battle before. Roughly 2 hours after sun up the small army set off.

It was just past noon when beast was found, lurking in a hilly area near Loch Finray. After reaching the area Selzona had split their forces into 5 smaller groups, each accompanied by an ent who keeped them all in a psychic link despite the distances between them. It was through this connection that first felt battle adjoined, the relative calm and boredom of part of the dreaming flared up suddenly, excitement and fear burning brightly in their place.

_{Report! Do not engage!}

Selzona tried to push commands though to the group, but even with the ent assisting, her thoughts were drowned out as party engaged whatever they had run into. Bursts of pain, fury and exileration drowned out any attempts to communicate. Instead she was forced to do it the human way, shouting down to the ⅕ of the expedition directly under her command at the moment and ordering them all to assist their kin. Then she drew a bronze bugle horn and sounded it as a signal to attack that would be able to reach the other three groups. Turing to where the engaged group was supposed to be the small number of dryads raced off up the intervening hills, hammers and maces drawn. The ent Selzona was riding, waw slower to react but subsequently caught up with the dryad its long strides. The human militia brought up the rear, encouraged to follow by one of the deer riders who was acting as their captain screaming bloody murder at them.

As her ent crested the final hill she saw their foe for the first time, a truly titanic hydra that looked like it was rotting, its scales had fallen off in may places and a grey ooze leaked from the exposed flesh. It certainly smelled like a corpse, the valley that the monster was in was suffused with a heavy stench into which Selzona and her reinforcements descended. The monster was at the center of a vague ring of about 10 dryads who where doing little more than hold its attention as they barely avoided its 3 snapping jaws. As the reinforcements arrived one was snapped up by a head, the massive fangs of the hydra punching clean through his armor and body as he was carried screaming to the sky before being swallowed whole.

Wrapped in the massive tail of the beast, being slowly crushed, was the first group’s ent. The forest giant, standing 40 feet tall, was rendered helpless as it strained against the coils of the hydra, the wretched grey puss leaking from the hydra’s body soiling the ent’s bark as it attempted to break free and retrieve its sword that had fallen to the ground when it had been ensnared. Of the humans that had accompanied the group, few remained. Some had taken one look at the monster and flead. Judging by the blood and discarded weapons, some had suffered the same fate as the dryad male just had. Those that remained had regrouped up on the opposite side from Selzona, rallied by the captain half of who’s face had been badly burned by a spray of boiling hydra blood.

Selzona ordered the humans with her to go group up with the captain’s lot and then, grabbing a rope hanging from one of the ent’s branches, slid down it to the ground. From there she began to giver orders. The ent she had been riding was sent to try and free it’s fellow, while 3 dryads scrambled up the rope Selzona had just descended from. The rest were sent to join the ones already engaged, where they stopped the 3 heads from delivering a finishing blow on the large ent, shooting the hissing heads with arrows or trying to get in at its legs to smash them. Slezona herself meanwhile began to mutter a spell from her position on the valley slopes, the simple chant was not however the main part of the spell. Anyone who could feel the dreaming would see the complex pattern being twisted within it around selzona, pulsating web of ideas and power woven around her. As the power built the air around her chilled, ice forming on the grass surrounding her feet that began to grow until it formed a jagged ring of knife sized icicles.

As the ent from selzona’s group closed with the hydra its leftmost head ceased its chasing of the nimble Dryads and raised up, hissing menacingly at the large threat and rearing back in preparation to strike. It was then that selzona unleashed her spell, the 24 newly formed frozen blades firing off in machine gun succession, streaming up towards the monsters head and plunging into the side of it. Despite this barrage, the hydra stills struck, its many fanged mouth closing around an arm the ent raised to protect itself. The drayads riding the ent retailated, 2 leaped from it in an attempt to get on the hydra's back. One suckseaded, jamming two long kives into an exposed area of flesh and them climbing up, the other fell short and plummeted to the ground, breaking both her legs on impact with the ground. The third ran along the ent’s arm and delivered a two handed hammer blow to the hydra's eye, causing it to release the arm as it related back screaming. The central head came to the aid of the left, forcing the ent to back off and leaving the larger ent still trapped in the constricting tail. The dryads around the hydra took advantage of two of the heads being distracted to launch attacks on the legs, several being kicked or clawed for their efforts.

It was then that the rest of the expedition began to arrive, a 10 ft tall beastial ent in the shape of a wolf came bounding across one of the hills, the archers riding on its back immediately opening fire on the hydra, their enchanted shortbows perrering the rightmost head with arrows. The second group to arrive contained an ent sporting long vicious claws instead of a weapon and most of the expeditions enchanters, who hurried over to join her. The third had the smallest ent, only 8 ft tall but also sported the other mage of the expedition, Festar the parliament, who rode up to Sezona riding atop an owlbear, with two owcilots perched atop his shoulders. Accompanying all the groups where dryad food soldiers and militia troops who joined in the fray. With all her troops now on the battlefield Selzona began a plan to actually kill the beast.

Working in tandem the 2 mages worked to try and bind the heads of the hydra, vines erupted from the earth, lashing around the central head while chains of ice extended from the ice knives down to the ground. With every flail of the heads, more bindings broke, but hey where replaced too quickly for the beast to truly escape the spells, the enchanters offering up the mana in their items to help the mages continue their magic. The rightmost head was then tackled by the bitten, clawd, wolf and small ent, who all wrested with it to keep it occupied. While the three heads attempted to break free the sargent lead a charge of the human militia, who, having learned from the sargent’s wounds, stopped short of the distracted hydra and hurled their spears at the tail and legs of the beast, before hastily retreating from the resulting spurts of boiling blood. The dryads harassed the legs of the hydra using their heavy blunt weapons whenever they set down, breaking toe bones and bruising ankles. Panicked by its entrapment and the wounds it was receiving the hydra un-coiled its tail from the great ent and tried to use thrashing it to help it escape. With lethargic speed, the now freed ent picked up its massive sword, hefted it, and then swung the 20 ft long blade at the hydra’s necks.

---

It was approaching even by the time the decapitated hydra's body stopped twitching, and for the pool of blood it had collapsed into to cooled down enough for it to be safe to go anywhere close to the corpse. Most of the surviving expedition had moved, or been moved, out of the valley to avoid the smell of the thing, which was now worse than ever. One of the remaining deer riders had been sent back north with an initial report of the incident, but for the time being the rest of the force would remain near the site while Selzona and Festar conducted an investigation of the hydra in an attempt to work out why it had already looked like a corpse before it had been killed.