Dungeon Master Forum

@Ameena: Whiskers aren't magical dark seeing eyes though. There is a difference between knowing something is around you, and knowing what it is. I don't think poor ratties get chased around by evil tiny humans in their natural crawl spaces, and of course evil traps can catch them out if they feel them once they are already inside them. So still watch out!


Deephold looks concerns. "That is one of the dangers, of course - Dolo or the stone might be desperate enough to act if we cannot overpower it with a first strike. It is certainly a precaution, but I worry more for goign the other way, and potentially killing you to destroy the evil of the stone." Deephold pauses, and seems to age years as he asks the next question. "Is that a risk you would take, to be sure the priest does not have a safety net against his own death?"


The dwarf seems happy, for now, that something distracts the group from the glum conversation.

"The spirits of water will have no hesitation to allow a child of nature to clense herself of this place," says the slightly friendlier sounding air elemental to Ameena, "those who so quickly crawl back into their shells should avoid it though."

However, despite its words, the air elemental plays a little with the torch that Haynuus lights, while reciprocating the song of OH back to the pixe. The song has both resonate and higher pitched melodies played around Petal's voice, and the group have a pleasant and uplifting final journey back to the waterfall area.

To Ameena and Haynuus, the place has not changed - that is both a relief, and yet disturbing for the lack of Westian, even after the delay that Haynuus and Ameena suffered in their rescue.

For Deephold, he draws a surprised breath and looks at the waterfall startled. It is only as he slowly walks forwards, and realises the vast chimney and expansive cavern revealed, that he is truly taken abaack.

"This has existed here all this time?" he gaspsed. "I never knew!"

To Petal, both her senses as one of nature and her sense as a sorcerer tingle. She can hear the faint song of life in all its forms, a small microcosm formed in this airy place. And she could feel the magical power of the elementals around, the song of OH and VI mixings with the roar of the waterfall and the echo of the cavern to be deafening to her senses. And the chimney stretching up above the waterfall speaks of fresh air. Infact, of course, Petal realises the chimney is a long, long tunnel that leads to the outside. On her wings, she could escape so easily...

Would it really be so bad to leave now? Strange things seemed to be happening and building up, but couldn't she leave and come back? Would really an hour, or a few hours make that much difference? Wouldn't sending a warnign to others around not be an idea....


So there we go, you guys have emerged, and of course Petal has an awkwards choice to balance out now!

Anyway, so the idea is that it might be best - and Deephold will urge it - to tackle the darkstone, now. Just to highlight the danger, what you guys are abotu to try could geneuinely kill off Ameena's character, or at the very least have implications that could turn her into an NPC.

The way this works is actually going to be simple in practice, but you guys can do alot to prepare. Ameena aklready wants to wash - which might make her mentally more fortified. Haynuus could figure out using nature and survival if there were any medicine to help sedate Ameena, or fortify her, or just would look pretty to keep her spirits up. Petal has alreayd suggested touchign the darkstone, etc.

Basically, you have free play here to come up with ideas to prepare here. Thing as off the wall as you like, just realise the more things you try and do, the more time passes, and so the more likely secondary bad thigns could be happening in the background. No pressure, but, for example, if you want to suggest taking an hour or two to sleep on it, you've may well have doomed the poor murafu. No pressure!

Hey, at least you aren't going to have soldiers busting in on you. That would have sucked!

So yeah, finish intereacting, but also come up with some ideas, and ask questions, and over the next day or so let's firm up a plan on how we're going to humourously ki.... resuce Ameena.

Good luck!

Ameena is slightly surprised that Deephold is asking her to consider the possibilities that the removal of the Darkstone might kill her - she'd already figured that that might happen, and being a murafu, she is already prepared to accept it as simply a side-effect of the elf's unpleasant magic being stopped.
But she doesn't really think about this for now - now they are emerging into the waterfall cave once again, and her simpler, more everyday instincts are kicking in.
"I think I want to talk about this in a little while." she says to the dwarf, with a slightly apologetic tone. "I had already thought it might kill me, so I just want to be a normal, simple murafu again for a little while first. At least then I'll have something nicer to think about when my spirit leaves."
She moves out into the cave-proper, looking up and around at the waterfall, which she then bounds over to, stopping at the edge of the ledge and looking up at it, and also down into the pool beneath.
"Hello again, Water!" she calls. "What will happen if I jump into you? Do you mind if I get this...stuff...in you? It's not all from me - you might think it's...dirty, or something, because some of it is from one of those aggressive humans, and I think a little is from...that elf. And I have...bad magic...in me at the moment. But we're going to try and get rid of it, only I might die in the process. i just wanted to be able to see my fur again before that happens."
Despite what the small quantity of Air said about Water not minding, she decides she wants to check anyway. She gestures to the Darkstone on mentioning "bad magic", to demonstrate what kind of "bad magic" it is - she realises that the Elements might not want her to touch them if she has something like that inside her.

OOC - Am I right in remembering that the ledge they're on now is one level up from the water-line? If Ameena were to jump in, is the cave wall rough enough here that she'd be able to climb back up again easily enough? Or is there a spot at this sned of the cave which has a beached edge down to the water? Obviously, this won't matter if the water elemental doesn't want her tainting it with her icky human/elf/murafu goo and the touch of the Darkstone...

Ameena had said something really important he realised. His old shaman once warned him that it was not such a good thing to die a violent death, as was proposed by many politically motivated 'agitators' in orc circles. Your journey from this life to the next can be made far easier with a more... Peaceful separation of one's soul from the body. The talk of removing that accursed stone from within her made him shiver. He had felt that he was so strong before but with these companions he was learning a new dimension of what strength really meant. She was being so brave.

He spent a little time meditating on her problem. With noise of the waterfall, the sonorous song of OH in the background he could drift of to a place where his own thoughts would arrange themselves and the words of the circlet would actually echo around his skull as if a cave to be filled.

He sees the murafu stepping towards the ledge, her words are silenced by the noise of falling water and those of his thoughts drowning out his hearing. For some reason he thought she might jump but why would she do that?! and subconsciously starts threading a rope from his backpack into tidy hoops in a hand. He still can't hear anything, his vision is that of the small brown murafu infront of a swirling falling curtain of water, but his muscles know what to do.

OOC - Oh okay, I thought we were up one level at this point. That's okay then. I'll still await the response of the elementals before I make another post, since Ameena's not about to just throw herself in there without permission . And it seems as though Haynuus either doesn't know that rats (and therefore murafu) can swim, or presumes that rats and murafu are different enough that maybe the latter can't do everything the former can for some strange reason . Oh well, he'll see how good they are if the water elementals don't mind her jumping in .

OOC - Not if the water chooses to catch him and lift him to the surface .

Petal looks longingly up the waterfall. She swears she can see a brief speck of light, the light of RA, the Sun. It would be so easy to fly up and away. She looks back to the beings she has met. The good-hearted beings. They couldnt fly away. They would be stuck here, left in the dungeon. Petal sighs. She cant leave them. Poor land bounds, stuck on the ground. What if they needed to cross a pit or something. Could she live with herself if they died? Already her family and Growlgra was missing. Couuld she live the rest of her life wondering what happened to these people?
She decides the answer is no. But she makes a mental note of this place, in case hse ever needs to escape for some reason.

She turns to the murafu, who stands looking in the water. Petal closes her eyes and Sings VI to the water, its trilling song answering her magic. It was nice for the pixie to be somewhere without the everpresent YA mana enclosing her on lal sides. Sure shre could feel it here, but it was drowned out by the Song of air and water.

She examines the water for any signs of hostile life within, before she steps down to the bank to drink.

Percept (1d20+4=13)

After drinking he turns to the party "Fire make? Eat, us." And so saing she starts pulling out various dried vegetables from her bag. "Have anyone pot? Make stew."

Suddenly Petal was the half-orc's best friend, and the distraction from his thoughts. "Wow! Great idea. I have some fish, but... Nothing to cook it with." He looks up at the dwarf in the party. He'd seen orcs griddle a steak on chainmail, fry some pork on the back of someone's breast plate. You weaken the metal, but the goblins they borrowed it from was probably tied up in a tree at the time anyway. Usually what was done in an orc raiding party is to ask the weakest person to either remove their armour to cook on it, or to actually BE the feast. The former was always the way to go in Haynuus's experience. He decided against asking Deephold for his banded armour and decided to look for something to burn instead. "Fish-on-a-stick... Better than rat-on-a-stick but someone once told me that they made a fortune selling those in a city on the other side of the Lituratuur Ocean."

He noticed her looking out over the water. "Ermmm, I think the danger to you is above the water and not in it. You see we were attacked by enormous insects, sort of a wasp with a nasty sting in it's tail. Still, I suspect fireballs are a Pitchies best friend in a place like this." he smiled. "Oh and there are leeches around the edge of the lake, attracted to body heat." This place was pretty, but dangerous all in all.

While looking for bits of wood and flammable pieces of detritus he continued pondering over Ameena. Perhaps Westian could (roll an) assist as well?

Petal helps the half orc look around for stuff to build a fire with. She supposes since no one has any cooking gear, she'll have to roast the onions and potatoes. After they scrounge up enouhg stuff to burn the pixie flies over to the bank and tests the composition of the mud with a finger.

"Hm. Is clay, I wonder? Make roasting good. Clay, taken, around fish and vegetables put. Cooked it is, clay you break off. Is better than stick cook." she tells the orc.


It really works, too ;P

The water elemental reforms as Ameena approaches, walking passed her as if not seeing her to observe the new arrivals. "Bathe and drink as you wish," the elemental said looking backwards to Ameena. "My kin keep you safe from breathing water, and from the children of the water."

It then strode forwards towards the rest of the group. "Your two emissaries have not returned. I see you encase yourself in the fruits of the earth once more. Does it mean anything different when the shell is white?"

Deephold seemed confused at the creature walking towards him, let alone the tone of rebuke.

Petal had already moved forwards with Ameena, and the water elemental seemed to regard her for only a moment before the obvious shimmer of excited Air elementals seemed to make him think better of commenting. He walked closer to Haynuus and Deephold.

Meanwhile, Petal could see that the water moved strangely, and the song of VI fro mthe place was odd and muted. It was most likely that this place was filled with the strange beings such as she had just seen emerge, instead of with water. While the water was dark, it was clearly water. She could neither see nor feel anything threatening, and after all the being had just promised her safety. The water tasted fresh and wonderful, and reminded her of better times back home.

...protect you from fellow children of air... came the whispers around as Haynuus pointed out the danger to the pixie. ...stay a while and speak to us, land bounds and water bounds not understand the joy of the infinite...

Sadly for Haynuus, he could not instantly see any obvious detritus to cook with. The water's edge here was not quite the mess that normal shore lines were. Still, at least he had the boss elemental paying attention to him. Perhaps they could ask?


Sorry, way over lunchtime and had weird sleep. If I've missed anything, make a note and I'll rectify it tonight

Haynuus shifted about as uncomfortably as if he was actually being chopped up by Garax. All of the magic and elementals and undead were to him all placed in the same mental bucket - best forgotten and not understood. His gut instinct was to perform his normal act when placed under the direct eye of a superior. That is to say 'Ughhh, need a piss.' and then scoot off somewhere to some shadow. Rather than asking for things to burn to cook his food, and despite his stomach's complaints, he decided to go for a different tack.

He thought about what the elemental said... The shell is white He assumed that it was commenting on the black or white armour that they wore. He started to take his off again, as before. It was true that the colour themselves held no power except in the mind of the beholder, yet he sometimes wondered if the evil actions of it's wearer persisted around the object long after it had been removed. "It is the person inside that is important..." He mentally forced a change in his thoughts.

"Ameena there" he gestured across to the murafu who was washing herself (with her tongue? Better than those humans who use soap - ugh!). "can you see that she holds a stone beneath her fur? Placed there by someone other than herself. Someone that would harm her, control her. They tell me it is an evil thing, and if it could it would as if to try form a shape to water against what is natural. Against what is right." His metaphors were weak, but his aspiration to try to get the water elemental to give them an opinion was strong.

Ameena looks up at the Water-shape as it forms.
"Thank you." she says after it gives her permission to bathe.
Without a further word, she leans right out over the water's edge and simply lets herself tip over forward, pushing off a little with her hind legs as her nose touches the surface. Within almost half a moment she is entirely submerged, her tail trailing after the rest of her into the cool wetness that is water. Her head almost immediately comes back to the surface, however, and she swims around in little patterns for a while to let some of the blood trail off her, her paws kicking easily to propel herself along. She occasionally ducks below the surface momentarily, submerging her head in order to clean that too and easily holding her breath as she does so.
After a little while of this, she returns to the ledge, pulling herself out of the water, tail and all, and then giving herself a brisk shake to remove some of the water, scattering droplets everywhere as she does so. Then she sets about cleaning herself, rubbing her paws together and licking them, then running them briskly over her face and ears multiple times before she turns her attention to the rest of her body, carefully grooming every tiniest little area of her fur to remove as much as she can of the unpleasant substances she'd become stained with (though she's careful not to touch the Darkstone in the course of her ministrations). After this is complete, she then finishes the job by taking her tail in her forepaws and working her way along it, cleaning every joint as carefully as she cleaned the rest of herself.
Finally satisfied that her fur is, for now, as clean as she's going to get it, she then lowers her nose to the water's edge once again and laps some of it up, interspersing this with a few little nibbles at the fish she's been carrying around since the last time she was in this place. It doesn't taste perhaps quite as enjoyable as some things she's eaten in the past, but it's certainly passable for food and doesn't taste as though it's going to make her feel unwell later on, or so she hopes.
All the while, as she does all these things, her mind constantly seems to dance around the subject of what might be her impending death. Not that she's particularly scared of that, really, but more the fact that she doesn't know how much this...procedure...will hurt, whether it kills her or not. And though they are all clearly her friends, she's fairly sure that none of these creatures she's with really understand what it is to be a murafu, and quite how much members of her kind depend on one another when bad things are happening. She doesn't expect that she could ever hope to explain it, but murafu just sort of...know when one of them needs help of comfort. They're so closely bonded to all their fellows that each of them can tell when another is upset or hurt, and can try to help them to deal with that.
But despite this, Ameena knows that these friends of hers will probably try, at least, to make this go more easily. She just doesn't really know what's going to happen, and resolves to, at least for now, fill her mind with further thoughts of the Murafu.
Having finished eating and drinking, for now, she simply sits quietly, staring out across the water, remembering times when she did exactly the same thing, in other places, out there in the rest of the huge, inexplicable world, and another murafu (or, as was more often the case, several of them) would come and sit beside her and just sort of...be there.
Whatever's going to happen in the rest of her life, however short it ends up being, she'll think of them. Of all of them - all those she's met so far, and all those who must exist but whom she's not had the chance to meet yet. And she'll miss them, every moment they aren't there.

Petal approaches the murafu after the rat-like creature has finished cleaning herself.

"Greetings, murafu." Petal tells her. "Mind you if touch stone, I? If Song I can hear of stone, then perhaps find a way out of you to get it, I can." If Ameena says its ok, Petal will touch the stonea nd try to listen to its magic and figure a way to get it out of Ameena without hurting her.

Burn a 0 level if needed

Ameena looks at Petal a little doubtfully.
"What do you mean, hear its song?" she asks, somewhat confused. "It makes a voice in my head sometimes, but it's not singing. And when Deephold tried to get a close look, it...it made me bite him, although I would never..."
She stops and lowers her head a moment, remembering what the Darkstone made her do. Though she then tries to replace that memory with one of her fellow murafu, she can't help but feel somewhat nervous.
"If you want to try, then just...be careful." she advises, somewhat unhappily. "But it certainly doesn't sing."
She turns herself enough so that her left side is angled toward Petal, and raises her left foreleg a little so that the flittery creature can reach the stone.

"What do YOU see?" the half-orc asks the water elemental, intending to change it's attention to Petal and Ameena so that it could intervene should something bad happened. "For us death is the process of returning the elements, to which we have borrowed to form our bodies, back to their owners, their original state. But this... Thing would stop that?"

I didn't comment on Petal's clay baking idea becaue it seemed to be a character discussion beat, but if you guys look for suitable material you can probably find something that would do in a pinch at the dge of the lake. Perhaps not perfectly clay, but the dissolving loose stone would be something similar. I might wiki that for interest to see a semi-likely collary.


The water elemental turned his gaze to Haynuus again, though his oddly undulating features did seem to soften a little as he saw the half-orc once again strip out of his armour. Deephold seemed thoroughly confused, and did not imitate Haynuus, instead taking the opportunity to strap his own in a secure manner.

The water elemental drifted forwards with a shlup, shlup noise, and intently listened to Haynuus's words, looking to Ameena. It them made a gurgling sounds that was surely an angry sound.

"It is evil, and against like. It sucks the life from air and water, we can feel it."

The water elemental strode forward to where Petal and Ameena were speaking, and to where Petal was investigating the darkstone.

Deephold seemed a little put out that the elemental had not properly addressed the cleric, especially as Deephold asked Haynuus where Westian was.

"Be careful," said the dwarf to the pixie, watching from the sideline as the water elemental stood much closer, regarding the scene without any discernable emotion. Deephold continued speaking across to Petal while trying ot make reassuring motions to Ameena, "The thing reacted to my petitions to Larethian. Which High Lords do you draw your faith from?"

Petal could feel the stone like a hole in the world, despite the solid and real look of it. She could feel strong magic as she stretched out her senses. Despite the looks of it, the stone was not really in Ameena. It seemed that the interface was smooth and magical. IF the stone could be removed, Petal doubted it would harm the murafu. Or, rather, it would do no additional harm - the murafu may well now have a hole in her side from the magical interfaced only plugged by the stone.

The song was a dark one, but Petal recognised it instantly, and it stirred memories of a strange dream she had at some point. It was the song of DES, the void. The song had a strange flavour to it, it seemed to be contradictory, Instead of the apathy or delight in loss that this rune sometimes invoked, the song was almost of something alive. The stone was looking to fill the emptiness - reaching outwards.

So, if it had a semi-sentience, on an emotional level, could thye do something to distract it from reacting while destroying it?

The water elemental, meanwhile, was listening to Haynuus. It looked around to the half-orc, and the turned its gaze to the circlet. "The voices of the crown seem to be teaching you well," said the water elemental. It looked to the discarded armour then Haynuus again. "Or perhaps they simply tell you the right words for what you wish to say." The elemental looked to Ameena and stone.

"I see a thing of evil, sucking life towards it. It is dangerous, for that which draws life can have a semblance of life. If you threaten it, it might pull harder to avoid losing itself."

The elemental looked to the group. "You plan to remove this item? How?" The elemental listened the group, although it clearly already had an idea to offer. "In the water, my people can put pressure onto the stone, and can distract it. Would this help?"


Sorry, way over my lunch. Will let you guys throw around some more ideas and questions, and come back to this tonight then!

Ameena is relieved that Petal's attention doesn't seem to be causing the Darkstone to do anything bad, or make her do anything bad, as it did when it caused her to bite Deephold. She half-listens to the theories and questions being thrown around by the various creatures and Elements around her, but isn't truly listening to them. Not really. She's not had time in her life so far to really get into learning about magic (there being so much in the world to learn about - this is simply one of many areas she hasn't yet got around to investigating properly), so she doesn't entirely understand what they're talking about. Instead, given that she knows they're talking about things that would probably make her quite nervous or scared if she were to pay proper attention, she decides to distract herself by thinking more about her past, about things that have happened before now, before she came to this place and all its strangeness and fearful things. She doesn't expect she can make any meaningful suggestions, really, with regard to removing this thing from her because she knows so little about it, really - it's magical, it's unpleasant, and it's in some way connected to the mind of the person who put it there, but beyond that she isn't really sure of much else other than the fact that removing it could kill her.
She decides she might as well let the others talk about it while she tries to distract herself - they seem occupied enough in their discussion without her trying to speak up with her own, unfamiliar (to them, at least) views on life. While they talk around and over her, she has a rather abrupt realisation that it is actually possible to feel somehow separate, and therefore alone, despite being surrounded by friends.
She turns her gaze downward to a blank patch of floor while her mind wanders off on its own course, remembering the time she once spent temporarily living at the back of old store-house in a fairly large human settlement, when she'd become the "secret special friend" of a young female human called Beth, who'd come to visit her regularly and have many enjoyable conversations about nothing in particular. That had been quite some time ago, of course, when she'd been fairly new out into the world - Beth was one of her very early non-murafu friends, and Ameena supposes she might even met her again one day, though she isn't sure whether the human would remember her - other species seem to have strange memories, forgetting some things and remembering others. But Ameena remembers, and the memories make her feel happier, so that means it's a good thing.

From observing the murafu Haynuus ascertains that her spirits have lifted slightly. Perhaps it was because she was the center of attention, this would definitely have pleased the orc side of him. As to the course of action they might take he wasn't sure. "The final say must lie with you, Ameena. The when and just a little bit of the how. Do you wish to wait for Westian, or is there little time and so use the help of our elemental friend here?" He'd seen Westian at his limits, and assumed that a water elemental would surpass those in circumstances of magicks and perhaps curses.

Petal breaks the contact with the stone and looks at the group. "Learned I this. is mana, DES the void. But different." She looks at the murafu. "Stone not in you, actually..." She stops as she fumbles for words in the unfamiliar language. "Not inside. Like more is held on magic with. Made in you, a dent. Remove it we can, if destracted it is." She stops again as she tries to explain the stones Song. How do you describe color to someone who has never seen?

"Is like, this. Most DES, void, inward bringing. Consuming it is wanting.This is DES, but outward reaching. Have not seen like this before, I."

The pixie flies over to the elemental. She sings the VI song again to greet it, than says "Perhaps, help us, can you?" She points at Deephold. "Good being, is dwarf. Wish to contain evil of stone, he does. Out of murafuy, stone must come."

Ameena looks up as she hears Haynuus mention her name - she is a little relieved that someone is talking to her now, rather than simply about her and over her head. She also listens to Petal's attempted explanation of the magic that the Darkstone is made of, but it means little to her. She looks up at the half-orc somewhat helplessly.
"I just...want this horrible thing to not be inside me any more." she says. "But I don't understand all this talk of...of magic, and such." She pauses, now addressing the group at large. "If you..if someone can get rid of it, then please try. If it will kill me, then it will. I probably won't understand whatever it is you're going to do, but maybe you could at least tell me if...if it's going to hurt."
She bows her head slightly, fidgeting a little awkwardly as she is aware that what she wants to say might seem a little strange to these creatures - she realises she probably knows as little about them as they do of her.
"There's only one thing I'll want when you...when you try to remove it." she says quietly.

Awww, poor murafu. The memory of Beth was sweet. Must resist urge to use it against you in any way :p


The water elemental bows to Petal as she sings the song in greeting. There is a faint susurration from the lake behind, and a counterpoint song of OH still in the air from barely visible air elementals nearby, but the water elemental does not say anything immediately. Perhaps he realises the pixie is about to ask something of it.

The water elemental acknowledges Deephold on the edges of the group. However, it seems to pre-emptively shake its head at the Petal's words. "We can hold the child of nature, despite the pollution of the stone in our waters, and sing songs to distract it. The only help we could give greater would be to give something of ourselves to this parasitic weapon of a demoness, so the stone would be unaware of what occurs. And of this, you would be asking too much." The water elemental gives a guglings growl and shakes its head again, as if imitating the actions it has seen humans perform.

Deephold has only been partially listening, concerned with filling in Ameena on what was to occur. "In a way it is simple. I must smash the darkstone. A normal weapon could do it, however I do not believe the stone would leave you alive. My weapon - blessed by Larethian and a holy symbol of his power - would be able to strike a blow to the power of the stone aswell as its physical form." Deephold pauses and gathers himself. "I feared the power of the stone before I had my fears confirmed and multiplied by the talk of the pixie, and the ....elemental, I suppose!" Deephold still seems surprised at their appearance, and off-balance at the ease with which the rest of the group treat them and are treated in kind. He continues with his words to Ameena. "I fear it must be a powerful, true blow, one that the High Lord himself must bless. Or else the influence of Lolth, and its own power, will keep it intact, and surely trigger some desperate release of power. Such a physical strike could simply shatter it and kill you if the magic does not dissipate aswell. And the clash of Lolth and Larethian might well shatter your spirit of psyche if felt so close. There is much risk. Perhaps less, at least, if the elf priest cannot directly interfere nor petition his demoness ahead of our attempt."

Deephold looks across to the water elemental. "Can you hold Ameena up high in the water? The less between the stone and my mace when I striek the better."

The water elemental looks to the dwarf. "No, we must concentrate on the stone or else its evil could affect our number. She must hold herself, or you must hold her, where you need her to be."

Deephold quickly glances to Haynuus, though does not ask anything. He then looks to the pixie. "You seemed to be able to read the stone. Is it possible you can tell its physical structure, or feel a weakness in the magic? If there is a weak point to strike, I would say we need to know..."

The dwarf is then silent as he realises that Haynuus has spoken to Ameena, and that Ameena is speaking.


Obviously, I'll leave the rest of you to react to Ameena's words, and also let Ameena speak again.

Anyway, everyone get the plan as proposed? The water elementals will let Ameena be in the water, and in doing so they can distract the stone. Petal has realised the stone is actively looking for 'life', and the water elementals could technically actively channel some form of VI magic at the stone to fully distract it and render it inert. However, they don't really want to do that. If you want to push your luck and chance losing their support, then of course you guys can roll some Diplomacy and also make some RP arguments for the water elementals risking opening themselves to the stone.

Obviously, Ameena's positioning in the water - if she wants to go into the lake - is crucial. The greater she is submeregge,d the harder it is to make a swing. I'm sure Ameena would welcome Ameena holding her, but of course there could be risks in being in the line of fire.

Also, if Petal wants to check the stone for weakness physically or magically, no roll needed, just a 0-level effect. No, the trick to that will be she will basically need to be touchign the stone right before Deephold makes his swing. So she might get caught in some splashback effects if anything bad happens.

In the end, all Deephold really wants to do is make some prayers then smash the stone. Sounds simple, right? However, obviously all your decisions, questions, and ideas kinda decide whether doing that succeeds, and leaves Ameena alive. Not to spoil anything, but so far you guys are doing a god job of throwing stuff around - I didn't actually think of actively having the water elementals participate, by the way - so it's maybe not the doom and gloom I originally sold it as. Not wasting a whole heap of time also can't hurt, if you get something for it.

Anyway, let's see your final reactions, and then it it's all settled, we'll see what happens to our resident put upon fuzzle!

OOC - Ameena holding herself? I'm guessing that was supposed to say "Haynuus", lol .

Haynuus raises an eyebrow at the crudeness of dwarven surgery and made a mental note not to fall ill around their holdings. He was happy to help Ameena by holding her and did not completely understand the side effects of releasing a potential DES Bomb into the world. Poor murafu. But she was right. He'd do the same thing. It needed to come out. Now. And if it was before the twisted elf woke up, the better.

His strong arms slowly reached down to hold her under her arms. He visualised her trying to reach around and bite him or lash out with her legs. He must stand strong, and hoped the first strike would be enough. Slowing his breathing down he says "Ready." There wasn't much more he could add to the situation.

Petal listens to what Deephold wants to do and shakes her head. She turns to Ameena again. "Ameena murafu, is this your choice? Have Dwarf stone break? Think I, another way there must be. Too dangerous, for you. Like you, I. See you hurt , I do not want to. Let me touch stone again, you. A better way I will see if there is."

With Ameena's permission she will touch the stone again Burn another 0 level this time specifically looking for an easier way to remove it, and what will happen to the stones Song if it is shattered.

Petal once again stretches out her senses and touches the stone, much to Deephold's concern and bewilderment. While the physical interface of the stone is magical, Petal can feel that the stone is reaching out magically deep into Ameena. While the stone could be disenchanted enough to pull it from Ameena, the magic of the stone seems bound to Ameena's spirit. Ameena's spirit would be pulled free with the stone from her body. And Petal has enough innate knowledge to realise that a spirit removed from the body has less power to pull itself into the real world again, especially a passive and peaceful one such as Ameena. An evil spirit has greater desperation and can use that desperation to try and tug itself into another's body via a linked soul, but there is a reason that re-animated corpses are mindless and souless. And a reason the thinking undead are ones whose body has died, and spirits refuse to leave, rather than vice versa.

Deephold does seem right, the power of the stone both physically, spiritually and magically are bound as one. Destroying the stone's physical form while weakening it with a spiritual attack would destroy the magic instantly. In order to not to risk Ameena harm physically, the attack would instead require destroying the stone's spiritual and magic nature, and would risk Ameena spiritually. All in all, that seemed equally dangerous, with the added complication that the power of the void was emptiness. How would one attack that? Certainly using the void against itself, a painful mirror, did not seem like it would be as quickly powerful as a physical attack.

Also, it seems the water elementa is right to fear giving power to the stone. The stone already has Ameena's spirit wrapped tightly. Petal can also see a docile link to somewhwre else stretching downards to where they had gone - obviously wrapped somewhere else. If the elementals offer any pathways to the stone, they could see their essense bound, corrupted, or consumed by the song of DES. However, it did seem that such an offering would certainly distract the stone, perhaps weak its power for a short time to at least ensure the grip on Ameena's spirit would be weakened.

Of course, that train of thought led to the worry that surely Petal was opening herself up to the stone's power to probe deeper. That realisation came too late - Petal suddenly felt her hand turned death cold, and a strange lethargy take her.


Petal loses one of her highest remaining spells, and needs to make a will save right now! Hope the confirmation and further information is worth it!

Yeah, there was a part of the OOC post saying what you got...I think. There should have been...

Petal pulled free of the stone, her hand aching with chills. Deephold and the water elemental had moved forwards, but saw that the pixie had apparently had a lucky escape.


Aww, don't I get to do anything mean to anyone?