Vertigo

The Wild Beyond Witchlight

Okay there, Brutrumukk and Jub have been bothered!

The Wild Beyond Witchlight

Leveled up (+1 Int/Dex, avg HP) and also posted. Don't be alarmed, Sshizna just basically cast a flavoured Mage Hand.

Edit: OOPS I forgot to write for the last bit of the GM post! Will edit that in real quick.

The Wild Beyond Witchlight

As tempting as ransacking the hag's dwelling was, Sshizna found herself agreeing with the adventurers for once; it was high time they rid themselves of this place. No matter what state the world outside was in, Sshizna imagined it had to at least reek less.

... It did, she noted duly as they trekked through a putrid swamp some minutes later, though only barely. She could not remember a place like this from the time before, and it took the yuan-ti quite a while to orient herself. Once she did realize where she was supposed to be, her indignation returned however. To not only ruin the scenery, but to even free him?! Purely to spite her mentor too, no doubt.

But why the bullywugs?!

Sshizna was still deep in thought as they reached their destination; an overjoyed, gourd-headed scarecrow whose skull the others had apparently been retrieving. There was a dwarf, too, who had apparently come seeking an audience with the hag. The naiveté to think one would offer him any answers worth their price.

Then they were off, following the scarecrow into a mist Sshizna could also not remember being so thick — or so disorienting, for that matter. While on a normal day she'd been rather happy to lose the strangers around her, sticking with them for the time being was, unfortunately, the more logical choice — and so having them wander off one by one wasn't exactly ideal. Already she had lost sight of one of them!

"Tssk."

Sshizna dug around in the many pockets, pouches and other containers strapped to her person, until she found what she was looking for: a decrepit, skeletal hand. Holding it upon one palm, the witch opened her jaw and let a few droplets of venom drip from her fangs onto the thing, seeping into what little flesh remained wrapped around its knuckles.

A second later, the hand twitched. Then, stretching its fingers, it floated off Sshizna's palm and grabbed hold of the clothes of whoever was walking directly in front of her.

Shizzna nodded. Good. With that, she was able to track at least one other person.

—

An undisclosed amount of wandering later, the mists finally parted enough to offer a glimpse of colour. The sunlit forest was a much more familiar a sight than anything prior, and though the pollen made her sneeze violently (by the gods, she hated flowers), Sshizna welcomed the stench of flowers over the one still clinging to her from the hag's confinement.

Then she noticed the poppies, and the... peculiar duo snoozing away amongst them, annoyingly without a care. How disrespectful. Were they not aware of the state of the realm they were in? Ought she remind them?

With a flick of her wrist, the skeletal hand detached from whoever it had been clinging to, gliding soundlessly across the air to stroke both of the sleeping creatures' cheeks, escalating to light slaps if the first touch of a cold dead hand did not rouse them.

Meanwhile, Sshizna turned around to squint at the poster.

The Wild Beyond Witchlight

Oohh, a level up! Will do that and also hopefully a post this week still. (I jinx myself whenever I make promises so keeping it as a hope instead lol).

Epyllion: Beyond Moonlight's Reach

__________________________________________________

Fellwing whirled on Garrock once more, exasperated and not in a place where she could hold her tongue. "Did he not talk about spiders? Is this troll a spider to you? Good Moons! To begin with, there never were any spiders, it was just Skobel—"

Runa cut her off, her worried words dousing some of Fellwing's anger. "Yes, he attacked you, that is—" but the bite had gone from her words. "That is... no, I'm sorry. I understand, l-let me see what I can do." She approached, reaching out towards Yetu apprehensively, still not entirely sure whether she could trust him — or herself.

Magic that could make one lash out... yes, indeed, she was familiar with at least one source of it.

ooc

Fellwing Searches Yetu for Traces of Darkness and with a 5 is, uh, probably too blinded by Darkness still, herself.

Daggerheart: The Witherwild

And so, as promised, Spix told his tale. By the time the man got to the disappearing carcas, Capriccio no longer had to feign interest. He leaned forward ever so slightly, the tip of his tail curling inward. The infernis loved nothing if not a good mystery.

He nearly hissed when Greenbeard broke the tense silence in the midst of Spix's tale; had the man no sense of dramatics? That was a pause for effect, quite clearly!

When Capriccio realized the pause had been for a... zombie auroch, of all things, he nearly chuckled and wrote the rest of the tale off entirely — until he took another look at Spix's face, and realized this was a man ready to stand behind his words. If he had just mistaken what he saw, he had to be truly deep in his delusions, for Capri could detect no lies.

Then came the parasites. Now that was a story worth pursuing. Perhaps his trip had been proven worth the effort already.

"Awful sounds like quite an understatement," Capriccio agreed, nodding sympathetically as he waved the bartender to bring over the promised drinks. "Is this the first you've seen or heard of such a thing? What I mean is— out here, surrounded so by nature, I do wonder if you've ever happened across, ah, stories or rumours or even old folklore of anything like that existing; parasitic plants taking over corpses?"

An Idiot's Dungeon Union

And thus, hell chaos pestilence Rats were unleashed upon the camp in a volley of three tiny, squealing bundles of fur, teeth and nails. In a desperate attempt to break their fall, they latched onto anything their flailing little hands could reach; hair, clothes, tent fabric, the scary lady's bosom.

Even amidst its fight against gravity, one in particular had the presence of mind (or perhaps the strength of nose) to remember their original objective however; the crock full of food. And if one rat had the mind to do something, by definition so too did the others.

So after scampering about scratching and kicking at things in panic, the three eventually united, launching themselves at the scary lady. They squealed and scratched about with reckless abandon so that, hopefully, in her attempt to be rid of them she would knock over the pot. Why? Because then the food would be on the ground — which seemed to them far more accessible than the crock, although admittedly more difficult to carry. But that was a problem for another post cycle phase of whatever plan they may or may not have been carrying out in their terrified, hungry little minds.

Larry, meanwhile, was working towards his solo leveling quest, using the chaos outside as an opportunity to... take... stuff. He wasn't sure what the stuff was, but some of it had writing and was pretty light, and some smelled like it had at least been in contact with food, and was technically food by proxy.

Now, while he was the biggest of the bunch, Larry was still a rat, so it wasn't like he could carry a lot; but what he could get moving (a few supplies, some scriptures), he stuffed into the pockets of a robe, buried into its hood, and then hightailed it out of the tent like the ghost of a priest past.

As for the three rats with Muste? As they gained distance from the rest of what made them Rats, they grew increasingly restless, running and digging around in whatever place they had hid in, feeling as though they had to return to the rest of their mischief.

That was, until something else entered their mind. A presence, a power, something familiar and yet not. At first Muste would hear only incessant squeaking, but as he focused, the Rats' thoughts would become clearer, their intents bare, then finally condensed into words.

"Return! Reunite! Fight! Food!"

... No one said their thoughts were very complex, yet.

Daggerheart: The Witherwild

Also hoping to continue! And I get being busy super well, the end of the year is always hectic for me too, this year in particular. Hoping to get something up asap but feel free to skip me if I'm holding things back (same goes for all the other rps with this crew btw!).

An Idiot's Dungeon Union

Rats were both figuratively and literally — at least to the extent they were possible — divided. The stowaway three were quite content in their hiding places, able to listen in on conversations and even carefully stick their tiny heads out for glimpses of their surroundings when they were sure no one was looking. It was during one such moment they saw how close they were to the crock — as well as the large, scary woman from earlier, who must've been its guardian. To get past her, they would need someone with the capability of speech—!

One by one, Sal's pouch-rats began trying to nudge and tug at her, clearly in want of something. Unfortunately, they knew of no way to communicate their will more clearly now, with their usual pantomiming out of the picture. Hopefully, Sal would understand the gist, however; ask food. Get food. Continue talk over food if want.

Meanwhile, the three rats that had stayed behind, running in stressed circles, all perked up at the approach of another familiar face. It was Muste, keeping his distance from Sal, yet clearly observing her. Without a second wasted the Rats, who were feeling quite alien for being separated from their brethren, scurried towards him. They were likewise trying to hitch a ride with him, should they catch him before the now-old-man got too close to the camp. They did not want to risk notice. They remembered, collectively, what the large woman could do with her brush-tipped weapon.

Larry was on his own. Truly a soul to be commended, able to infiltrate the enemy lines equipped with naught but four quick paws and a rumbling stomach. It did not know what it was looking for, but its quest drove it to search for it in the the nearest tent. Still small, still quiet, still blessed with the aid of ample distractions, and therefore quite stealthy indeed.

Epyllion: Beyond Moonlight's Reach

Oh I didn't even remember I owed a post here, oop. Adding this to my catchup list this week!

Speaking of which, I still gotta find ways for Skobeloff to be brave, creative, or empathetic to obtain more Friendship Gems to fuel the gem sand's teleportation powers with.

@rush99999

Oh man, yeah, I always forget the friendship gems and their triggers; I'm sure we've each done a bunch of stuff that would qualify, but I at least don't remember to make note of them aiuyhdajkhd.

@rush99999

... Hey!! Identity theft!