Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nephis" data-source="post: 9419769" data-attributes="member: 20459">After putting enough distance between the witch and themselves, the travelers pause for a quick bit of refreshment and war council, the key point of which is to find a way to silence Vruk's exuberance without stifling his enthusiasm to aid them.ARUNNY sips the herbal concoction Xin Mae has just handed her, letting his anxious commentary flow over and through her body as molecules of living air, knowing that its essence and meaning will be revealed in due time in what she later will remember, if anything. For now, his voice provides a backdrop against which her observations are shown in strong relief.The Scrivener's detailed explanation of how to properly brew these particular leaves focuses her attention on the Book Ibhea is feverishly reading and examining, turning pages, rereading passages, muttering. This madness has had time to steep, indeed.The Seer's vision begins to blur into spirals of meaning, and Arunny allows herself to momentarily fall down this rabbit hole.Echoing several instances during this journey where Time has felt especially fluid, the spirals double, even triple, multiplying into revelations of superimposed moments of past-present-future, each bleeding into each, with motes of possibilities dancing tornadoes around all:A grey young man, exuding the scents of exhaustion and sour milk, writing in a book resembling Ibhea's, also muttering, arguing, and attempting to put the brush down, to stop writing, but a Shadowed Hand lifts the brush back up. Tears falling, the grey young man continues to scribe...The book in Ibhea's hand, his eyes glowing as his gaze passes over the words, leading him forward... exhaustion ignored as the compulsion to continue pulls him along. The scent of sour milk mixes with burnt cloth, while the low almost soundless buzzing assails Arunny's ears...A triumphant roar of laughter as a truly mad Ibhea, innumerable skeletal warriors at his side, lights a bonfire beneath their acolyte's bound feet. Holding the Monocle of Flame, the former priest of Omthala no longer calls out to Delban, for he now knows: the Book was clearly written by Someone Else, by the Being whose laughter is now resounding, the Being Ibhea now heeds...Or...The Monocle of Flame, on a table, near a book open to a page of ... unlocking? Releasing? Arunny can hear wings beating within the enchanted glass: a prison!Xin Mae's commentary now turns toward the history of the region of these tea leaves, and Ibhea's attention is caught. The leaves -- or pages -- of the Book begin to curl in Arunny's double sight (remaining whole in Ibhea's hands), and scaly fingers seem to reach up and pull the priest's chin back around, returning his focus to the book.***Maba's Piercing Eye shudders, and she sends an urgent request to Delban's Consort for aid.Then she awakens into the present-time, with Vruk's song -- while delightful in melody and charming in verse -- endangering them all. The playful joy at his new situation shines in his face and calls for them to join in.Arunny considers their situation, then smiles at their enormous new friend, her smile only slightly fading at the sight of the scabby headed bird on his shoulder, staring balefully back at her."Vruk, shall we play a new game? A quieter game? How about 'Tiptoe Through the Maze of Iron to Find the Bunny on the Other Side?' Doesn't that sound fun? I bet you can't be as quiet as Qamra!"The young warrior, quickly catching on, stands up, prepared to quietly walk down the path.[HR][/HR]The initial section of this post is informative color about Arunny's growing understanding of Ibhea, Delban, and the Book and the vision she has reinforcing this new awareness of this. This fiction also reflects the -2 Forward from her low morale resulting from the loss in her contest versus Ibhea. The fiction for her actual move re Vruk follows the asterisks.We are deploying an Advantage for 2 Successes against a Hard DC: Arunny's history of caring for the younger children of the missionaries her father worked with, a skill utilized again with Qamra and her fellow young Blessed.* Arunny uses a Primary Skill Insight check to understand what might distract Vruk from and curtail his exuberance: r14+23-2 Forward =35 vs 31 Hard DC. Success!</blockquote>

Verification