NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="PhoenixAsh" data-source="post: 4071083" data-attributes="member: 18230">Update#38: Unexpected TransformationElisa soon finds that no less than three of the ‘gone dogs’ are up where she is. They nip at her and draw blood. Readying her weapon, she slashes one of them, returning the favor. She’s inhibited by the darkness, but using Mage Hand Ruel raises the lantern up to give her light. The swifter Irregulars, Dox and Alexandre scurry up the rope to help her, but in the tight confines they aren’t able to take the fight to the dogs. Spreading out, they weather repeated attacks while the other Irregulars struggle up the stairway more slowly.This level of the inverted glass spire is a warren of tight passageways, crumpled in places and tricky to navigate. Despite their best attempts to ready spells and attacks against the dogs’ appearance, the Irregulars are unable to defeat them. The dogs are injured, but the Irregulars soon find themselves in worse shape. They eventually give up trying to fight the dogs altogether, and simply press forward, searching for a place where they can properly work as a group, rather than being strung out through the twisting passages. After a grueling minute they make it, and huddle up with weapons ready. Sasha uses her divine magic to cure the worst of their injuries.In the room they have entered, however, the dogs do not pursue them. After a minute’s pause, they realize they have happened into a safe haven. Relieved, they take stock of the situation – there is another upside-down set of stairs ascending further upwards.“We may have missed something back in those passages,” Loki points out.“I’ll be damned if I’m going back in there! What were those things anyways?” Elisa grimaces.“Blink dogs I believe. ‘Gone dogs’… I should have made the connection,” Ruel muses. “I am surprised they were so hostile.”“We’ll have to go back through them eventually,” Loki folds his arms.“But not yet,” Alexandre interjects. “Maybe we can find a way to put those doggies down up there. Come on, Elisa throw the rope!“I don’t have it! Did anyone remember it?”“I did,” Ruel says smoothly, producing it for Elisa.“Good man, holding the light and you remembered the rope! Guess wizards are good for something after all,” she smirks.Ruel laughs, “Glad you think so.”Elisa throws the grappling hook and secures the rope up to the next floor. Alexandre is first to climb up this time. When he reaches the top he sees another group of Ravers. They do not notice him, however, as they are paying rapt attention to something that he can’t make out from his vantage point. “More Ravers,” he whispers harshly down towards the rest below.“Help me up!” Sasha asks urgently, pushing forward. In her full plate, Sasha struggles to get up the stairway, but with Elisa pushing from below and Alexandre helping to pull her up from above she makes it. Most of the rest of the Irregulars follow her up into the cramped space, though Ruel and Loki are left alone below – there is simply no room for them until the others press into the room with the Ravers.“I’m going to try and reason with them,” Sasha says quietly. “Please try not to aggravate them.”“All yours missy,” Alexandre smirks.Taking a deep breath, Sasha emerges into the room. There are a half-dozen Ravers, and all seem alarmed at her presence. They grab makeshift clubs and move aggressively towards her. Quickly she takes in the tattoos on their hands – that of the Stonekeepers. These are the Ravers the Irregulars are looking for.Sasha speaks quickly, “Please, I mean no harm! May I come in and talk?”“No!” the lead woman thrusts her arms out in front of her, scowling. “No, go away! Or we make go!”“Won’t you listen? That can’t hurt, can it? I just want to talk.” Sasha pleads.The Raver looks closely at her, then at the rest of the Irregulars clustered behind her. “Just you. Come,” she gestures with her hand.Sasha steps forward, taking in the whole of the room quickly. The room is divided in half by a thick set of opaque glass walls, but from the center of the room she can see its entirety, through a wide opening in the center of the dividing wall. The back corner of the room is full of small, fuzzy pups, watched over by a canine licking an injury to her flank – a mother and her litter. On seeing Sasha the canine looks alarmed, and herds her puppies back out of sight.Through a wide opening in the central glass wall, she observes a massive, majestic statue – what appears to be an angel. Inside a standing figure, most certainly not a Raver to her experienced eye chants softly. She watches him then pick up the stone arm the Irregulars wish to recover and attach it to where it was broken off of the large statue. As he places it at the shoulder, it mends seamlessly back together. Two more canines, along with one more Raver observe her approach sternly. She feels the collective gaze of the rest of the Ravers on her back, and she get’s the sense that they are not pleased that their fellow Stonekeeper allowed her to pass.Ruel, meanwhile – finally climbs up to join the rest of the Irregulars, appraising the situation silently.Sasha subtly intones her prepared Enthrall spell. “I don’t want to fight. I just want to talk to you, become friends. I am looking for something, you can let me inside. It’s okay.” She smiles and the magic takes hold on many of the Stonekeepers. She can still feel the stares behind her turn from hatred to rapt attention, and most of them lower their weapons and watch her, entranced. The one Raver before her furrows his brow. He is unaffected, but does not know what to make of the spell’s effect on his and keeps his place.The man who repaired the statue is also unaffected, but turns to face her. He is dressed in a garish rainbow of colors, wholly out of place in the grey and black misery of the Fallen spire. “What are you doing here?”“My name is Sasha, I’ve come to talk to you,” Sasha says, maintaining her Enthrall spell, while doing her best to answer.“You’re interrupting sacred rites,” the man glowers.“I apologize,” Sasha replies. “I think that I have a connection with your st… ceremony.”“Are you ready to take the blood oath?” he asks immediately.“I think I might, I’d like to know more about it,” she replies, trying to keep him talking. Abruptly a glass shard on the floor flings itself off the floor and shatters against the corner of the wall. Sasha flinches, but cautiously takes a step closer. “Ah… when your worship is over, then…?”The man stares hard at her, “You are not a follower.”“If you let me, I can show you! I can show you the connection!” she exclaims.Another glass shard lifts off the floor and flings itself against a wall. “Sythriel will deal with you shortly… Oh! I’m so glad the college sent you, you came just in time!” the colorful man exclaims incongruently. “I can certainly use your help right now, a piece is missing, can you help me find it?”Taken aback, Sasha hesitates a moment, “You need help finding the last piece?”“Yes, of course! Just one piece is missing, see here, look! Just his left eye is missing,” he gestures. Indeed, the left eye of the statue is missing. That’s the only thing. Years of hard labor down to a single piece of stone! I’m so excited!” the man rambles, sounding every bit like a college professor.“What will you do with the statue once it is complete?” Sasha asks.“A museum, perhaps a university, oh! Maybe one of the art galleries will pay for it! It’s certainly an exciting piece and I feel it must have a great story and history behind it,” he exclaims.“I feel that too!” Sasha exclaims. “Ah, I have a friend who is… skilled at understanding these kinds of works of art, can he take a look at it too?”“Of course,” the man smiles. “We need all the help we can get.”Sasha’s eyes widen as suddenly the man darts behind the statue, “Mommy! Keep the doggy away! Keep the big doggy away! Nanny! Please keep it away, don’t let it bite me!”“Ah… well, I’ll protect you!” Sasha casts a wide-eyed look back at the Irregulars, utterly befuddled at how to deal with this man.“I don’t know, you look pretty scary. I’m not supposed to talk with scary people. I want my Nanny back,” the man utters childishly.“Do you want me to find her?” Sasha asks gently. Two more glass shards shoot off the floor, hurtling at her this time. The glass strikes her chestplate, shattering startlingly, but harmlessly. Taking a half-step back, she decides she doesn’t want to deal with the man alone anymore. Turning to the enthralled female Raver she says calmly, “My friend wants me to bring my friends here, okay?”The Stonekeeper nods immediately and steps aside, still beguiled by the cleric. The Irregulars hesitate, but after a moment Ruel slips forward to stand beside Sasha, his eyes glowing under the effects of Detect Magic, cast while still clustered with the rest of the Irregulars.Sasha introduces him while he tries to analyze the magical auras in the room, “This is my friend, he’s going to help.”Suddenly there is the sound of footsteps crunching on the glass, though there is no visible source to the sound. Around them the Stonekeepers are shaking off the effects of the Enthrall spell as Sasha’s conversation becomes disjointed, though they do not intervene in the conversation between Sasha and Ruel and the man in the colorful clothing.“What seems to be the problem? Ruel asks him, not unkindly.The man’s gaze fastens on Ruel, “I demand an explanation for your intrusion, and reparations for the deaths you’ve caused!”“What do you mean?” Ruel replies, puzzled. Once again two shards of glass lance out, one at Ruel, one at Sasha. The later again shatters harmlessly on the clerics armor, but the former draws blood – cutting his cheek below his left eye. He flinches, then shudders covering his face with both hands. He doubles over, and suddenly changes. His skin smoothes and turns a stony alabaster, his clothing reforms into the simple garments the angelic statue wears, he seems to grow taller by nearly a foot and wings sprout from his back. When he draws his hands away and straightens, his left eye is missing – only an empty socket remaining.The colorful man draws in a breath, “Sythriel!”</blockquote>

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