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Though Ameena allows Petal to touch the Darkstone a second time, she flinches backward at much the same time as her new winged friend when something seems to happen.
"I don't think you should do that again." she says, looking at Petal with great concern. Fortunately, though, it doesn't seem as though she's been too badly affected by whatever the stone was trying to do to her.
She then pauses for several moments, trying to mentally work her way through what everyone's been saying about the magic of the Darkstone.
"So if this stone's magic is...nothing..." she says, somewhat uncertainly because she doesn't know whether she really understands what she's talking about. "If it's the magic of Nothing, maybe if we fill it with Something, that would work? I mean, if it's Nothing and it's trying to get Everything, then maybe if we give it something that's bad for it instead...I mean, something that would...hurt it. Is there magic that can hurt Nothing-magic? Or...is that what you were saying anyway? Maybe if I think of...things...that the stone doesn't understand."
She has a sort-of-half-idea and looks up at Deephold.
"If the stone is from...that elf-person...who doesn't understand things like...like friendship and creatures caring for each other, then maybe if I think of those kinds of things, that will be enough Something to stop his Nothing from getting too much in the way, because it won't know how to fight something it doesn't understand. Maybe? I have lots of Something to think about - all my friends from the past...I don't really understand how someone can't have any kind of friendship with anyone, but...well, it's part of our nature so I suppose I wouldn't. But I do want...someone. I mean, if someone is...with me...close by...when you try to break the stone...it might help. Because then I'll have someone to hold on to. I mean...because my kind, we like to be close to each other. But most other creatures I meet don't' seem to really understand that. I mean, they think of it in a different way, I think. Some people I've met think that two creatures only get really close to each other when they want to mate...or...something. They must be so distant from each other the whole time, it just...doesn't really make sense to me. But then...neither does any of this, really..."
She finishes with a gesture to the Darkstone to emphasise her point.
"If I'm going to die," she adds, "I don't want to feel as though I'm dying alone. That's all."

Haynuus continues holding the murafu. He doesn't understand what just happened, but everyone else seemed to! He pats her on the back, to giver her reassurance.

Petal smiles at the murafu after recovering from the stone's blast. "Good. Think like a mage, starting you are to. Think I as well, that perhaps, magic of the stone, DES, if encounters opposite of it, might the stone not like it?" The pixie frowns as she tries to explain magical theory in the unfamiliar language. "However, is possible as well, that a bad effect may have." She looks at Ameena. "First goal of mine, to make you safe is. If what we do, stone not like. May hurt you. That cannot be."

When Ameena says she is afraid of dying Petal frowns again. "No. Die you wlll not. Too many have I lost, my friends. My family. Will lose new friends, I will not. Promise you this, I do."

She seems confused by Ameena's desire to be physically close to another being. Pixies in general dont touch each other, and to touch a pixie's wings without permission is a grave insult. But she smiles and scratches Ameena's head for a miniute before turning to Deephold.

"Deephold dwarf, an idea have you? Willing am I to use my Song to destract stone, but not sure how, I am." she tells the priest.

"Deephold's idea," states the half orc "is to smack her so hard with his mace that the stone comes out." He pauses for a moment. "It's a weapon touched by the high lord 'Lethallorien' apparently so it might just work."

Deephold looks uncomfortable. "The idea is not that crude. The stone must be destroyed. A weapon could destroy the stone eventually, but the spiritual and physical damage could kill the victim. My mace is indeed blessed, with it I could drive off the hordes of Chaos's undead if I must. I have carried it many years in battle, and it is indeed blessed by Larethian. Through Larethian's power, I can destroy the stone without - I hope - it having a chance to react. However, the matter is delicate. The more we can weaken and distract the stone, the less....crude...I will need to be in my strike. My order has dealt with things of this nature in the past, this is the only way I can see. Each moment we hesitate allows the one this stone is linked to time to recover his powers. We may already be too late."

Deephold considers the pixie's question. "I do not wish you to risk yourself again. The power of life through the rune of VI should be enough to distract the stone until we strike, I think the water elementals will work well. I had hoped you could intuit a weakness in the physical structure of the stone, but the stone seems to resist such efforts, if your reaction to touching it a second time is an evidence. You never did tell me your diety. Can you petition them as I petition mine to weaken the stone's? Or can you use your powers to weaken the stone physically without putting yourself in danger?"


Apologies if Petal did tell Deephold her religious beliefs! Running out of time before work to go bakc and check....

OOC - Did Ameena actually say somewhere she was afraid of dying? If she did, that was a rather large typo on my part . She's not afraid of dying (because that happens to everyone and the Murafu accept that), just the fact that doing so might hurt quite a lot .

BIC - Ameena looks up at her friends as they continue to discuss the situation. She still isn't entirely sure of what's going on, though she's gathered that removing the dark object from her will involve Deephold trying to hit it with his mace while Haynuus and the Water keep hold of her (something she'd glad for) and Petal...does something with magic.
Then Deephold mentions something that's probably rather important.
"Umm...I think we probably shouldn't delay this any longer." she says, a little apologetically at interrupting their big important magic-talk. She glances at Deephold. "As you said, I think he might wake up at some point, and then I suppose things will get worse. Maybe we should just do this. If I die, then maybe my spirit will be able to get up through there to safety before someone tries to catch it and put it in their armour."
At her mention of "there", she points upward to the distant sky. If there's anywhere in this underground place of spirit-snatchers it's safest to die, this is probably it.
Then she looks over at the Water.
"It seems strange you'd be helping." she says. "I mean, you're Water, one of the forces that creates Life itself, and so you're all big and powerful and everything and usually big powerful things don't really care about little insignificant creatures like murafu. But I suppose everything is significant to you if you had a part in making it. Maybe the water that's part of me will join up with you if I die here, and my air will join up with the Air. I suppose if this magic is Nothing, then yours is so much Something that it'll have to notice it. I think. Well, thank you for whatever you're about to do anyway."
Then she looks around at Haynuus, having been aware of his proximity but having been so busy with other thoughts that she let this one pass by.
"I think I'm supposed to be in there." she says, pointing over at the pool of Water. "But...if you want to heep hold of me in there, I'd prefer it. It feels better to have someone with me. I suppose since you're not a murafu you might not understand but whenever one of us is feeling even a little bit unhappy, at least one other will come over and just sort of...sit by them, even if they don't say anything useful. But usually we do. I'd better get back to thinking about them, I suppose, to try and distract myself from...what's going to happen."
She realises she might not get another chance to say anything much more to them, if this doesn't work, so as she starts to move over toward the water she turns back round and looks up at each of them, including the Elements.
"I just...umm...well, thank you for this. For trying to help me with this. For everything. Well, just being friends is enough. I suppose you'll never really understand exactly what it's like to be a murafu, but for us, being alone is probably the worst thing that can happen, and that hasn't really happened much since I've been down here in this place, because of all of you. So if I die, then it doesn't matter. Lots of people seem to get so worried about death, but the Murafu don't understand why that is - it happens to everyone, eventually, so why fear it? If I'm dead, my spirit won't be in my body any more, so it won't matter what you do with that, while the rest of me can hopefully get off to...wherever it is spirits go when their bodies die. So if this doesn't work, thank you all for trying. Even if it does then I suppose it still might hurt a lot, so thank you for staying with me and I'm sorry if the Darkstone makes me try to bite you..."
After these final words, she waits on the edge of the water, not quite sure what to do. She supposes Haynuus and the Water will help get her into the right position - after all, she'll probably need to be sort of on her side in order for the Darkstone to be accessible to Deephold. His mace seems almost as big as she is - how can something that big hit something so smalL/ Well, she supposes, maybe that's where the pain comes in...

The view across the expanse of water is magnificent. So is listening to the words Ameena uses to explain her opinions of life, before death. He unfocusses for a brief moment and lets the situation sink in. Looking over the water's edge he tentative places his foot across it, leaving a sandal behind. Next the other foot, and finally gently asserting his strength across to the murafu pulling her into what feels like the cold embrace of life and water. Even the chilly sensation of the liquid on your skin is a blessing as it proves you possess the gift of the living.

"Ready"

Petal looks confused when Deephold mentions petitioning a deity.
"Titania, Oberon, King and Queen of Seelie Court. High Lords of Pixie. But, not take the Test of DAIN, I." But then she stops and thinks for a miniute. "But, not see what it would hurt to ask help of King and Queen." she says quietly.

She goes over to Ameena who sits crouched by the waters edge. "Ameena murafu, mind you if ask I Pixie gods help with this?" she asks her.

If Ameena says it's ok, she gently places her hands on the murafu's head and begins a prayer "So'hali malil tui nisail, Tu ka'ili Titania e Oberon, Kotu ei'i Seeli. Hator in Dare. Lokai ei Vi-'i. Ameena murafu, alinta e sant dointi de-nosu." she prays in Sylvan.

After she is done, she hugs Ameena and looks at her. "Fine, everything will be, friend murafu. Worry you not."

When everyone is in position and ready she wades into the water, just so it is to her hips (about a foot) . She places her palms down, so thta they are just touching the water's surface and begins to Sing the Song of VI.

Translation of the prayer:

Spoiler

Titania and Oberon, Lords of the Seelie, I ask a boon of you. Brave warrior. Great Lifebringer. Please watch over this murafu Ameena and protect her from harm.

Or something like that. I'm working on a Sylvan dictionary I plan to post soon. Well, not like a real dictionary, but it might have like 40 words.

Ameena was encouraged to go in first, which was not a concern as her rattish frame allowed her to tread water as if she were scurrying on the ground.

To one side the water elemental walked into the lake, dissolving rather than sinking into the water. Already there were strange currents in the lake, though its entrance did seem to increase these odd waves by a marked amount.

However, Haynuus was already wading into the water, and Ameena did not have to swim anymore, being held by the benign giant. The half-orc needed to walk closer to the shore, and discover a place where Deephold could reach. And then Haynuus had to find a way to hold Ameena so the cruel stone was visible, while not drowning the poor murafu. The water was oddly deep and cold, and Haynuus felt himself shiver despite his normal resilience. Or perhaps he was shaking for another reason.

However, the water warmed almost instantly as the strange currents moved to where Haynuus and Ameen were. Petal could hear, with the odd senses gifted to her as a sorceress, the song of Vi in all its glory. To the others it was possibly a peaceful or ominously quiet calm. To Petal the slow release and rechannelling of VI energy into the water and into the elementals themselves created 'sounds' that no other could probably hear. To Petal, it was almost unbearably loud, in turns inspiring and sad. If there was ever a song of life, this would be the closest. It was missing the orchestras of the other elements and magical aspects to complete it. And that might be a good thing - perhaps no mortal could hear such a song in its full glory and remain a distinct entity apart from it.

As Petal placed her hands into the water, she felt connected to the elementals, and felt as if her prayers were amplified. She feels the elementals respond to the prayers, rtheir efforts amplified. Despite listening out for the wrong note, she can no longer hear the song of DES from the stone at all.

Deephold was standing close to the edge now an agreeable spot had been found, his eyes closed. He rested his mace in his arms as if cradling a child, and appeared to be murmering to himself. Whether he was steeling himself and nervous, or whether he had complete faith in his chosen High Lord was an important question that could not be answered by looking to the dwarf.

Eventually, Deephold's eyes opened, and he refocused on the surroundings and the situation. Absently he hefted his mace, although he looked to the group in the water. "Are you ready?" he asked to each in turn, seeing the agreement. "I will say nothing more, for I know Larethian - and your noble High Lords, pixie - watch over us, and will provide us the strength to see the other side of this."

Nodding, he closed his eyes one last time and intoned a rote prayer to Larethian. It sounded as if it was specific to combating evil, and even more specifically those aligned to opposing the High Lord.

Ameena bobbed in the water, still cradled by the waiting half-orc. Petal hovered close, forced to be on her wings as the water here was deeper than she could stand in. She had not realised the air elementals had been at play until they stilled themselves. Her body - and heart - became heavier in the moment.

Suddenly Deephold swung his mace with all his might, eyes still closed. Even as it began to move it glowed white hot, as if hitting an invisible barrier. Similarly, the mace slowed... all who watched could see the arc in slow motion, although there was also a sluggishness in the air.

A moment before the the mace touched the water, the water itself turned black in a perfect oval where the stone was. The moment the mace touched the water, there was a screech of inhuman origin. The sound vibrated bone, rumbled in the chest, and rang the ears of all around.

The mace continued onwards, making contact with the submerged stone....


The water exploded with violence, throwing Deephold upwards in the air and causing him to land hard ten feet away. The water spout had risen twice that height, and the shore was slick with the backwash afterwards.

Petal had been caught in the spout too, and was lying on the shore. She was wet and grounded, the lake water lapping at her feet as it settled back, her hands pruned as if they had been in the water for hours.

Ameena was floating on the water. Her side was visible and clear, unblemish by the stone once more. However, she was floating oddly, her body lifeless.

Of Haynuus, there was no sign.



And with that, I'll leave you guys to wonder who is alive and who isn't, and react accordingly. Well, unless I've PMed you and told you you can't, of course...

Ameena becomes aware of something. It doesn't feel particularly comfortable and she stirs a little, then opens her eyes as she remembers that she has them. She rather abruptly then remembers that she has a mouth and a nose, through which water currently seems to be entering. Almost immediately after this, she recalls the existence of the rest of her body as she gives a violent lurch and kicks with her feet. She is quicklya wake enough to realise that she's only on the surface of the water, and had apparently been simply unconscious and therefore not aware enough to hold her breath or otherwise keep her head above the surface. She exhales, spluttering, and shakes her head several times while her feet automatically paddle to keep herself steady in the water. She fumbles about a little bit, then manages to navigate the brief distance to the nearby bank, onto which she heaves herself. She stands there for a moment, on all-fours, then recalls that she should probably shake herself to get some of the water out of her fur.
These physical tasks complete, she retreats into herself for several moments, sitting hunched with her head bowed low and her paws over her face as she tries to compose herself inwardly. She feels as though someone has shoved a whole load of extra thoughts into her head, with no concern for how they might fit in with the ones already in there. Yet all these thoughts, new and old, are definitely hers, as she finds herself remembering all sorts of things she now realises she'd forgotten before.
She gives her head another shake, wondering how to cope with this sudden mess of memories al clustering around for her attention, and looks around at her immediate surroundings for some kind of assistance.
She becomes aware that through this entire time, there has been a strange kind of roaring noise nearby. She looks to this first, and sees it is a giant waterfall of some kind. She looks around at the water and the ledge on which she's sitting and sees a creature lying there.
It is at this point that the last vestiges of post-unconsciousness leave her and she realises not only who it is she's looking at, but what it is that creature had so recently done for her, and, indeed, what it was that had happened to her that meant she needed the creature to do it.
Instinctively, and nervously, she quickly looks down at her left side. Wonderingly, she sniffs at the now-untouched fur. Well, touched by water, obviously, but with no sign that there ever was a black stone embedded there. So it worked!
Ameena feels an immense surge of relief which triggers her natural instinct to find a nearby group of murafu with whom she can celebrate and share her happiness. However, this lasts only a moment as her attention abruptly returns itself to the nearby creature, details of whom have come surging back to her.
"Petal!" she calls, running over to the winged-flittery creature and sniffing at her anxiously. "Are you alright? What happened? I remember there was the mace, and it was moving so slowly, and...where's everyone else? What...?"
She looks around properly now, and almost immediately sees Deephold lying further away. Her instinct to stay with Petal has a brief discussion with her instinct to check on the dwarf and the two come to a conclusion that since Petal seems to be not-too-dead, maybe she should check on her other friend now (OOC - This is assuming that Petal, even if she's unconscious, doesn't seem too badly hurt...since no damage was mentioned in terms of game mechanics, I'm guessing she's just a bit wet and bumped-about).
She runs over to Deephold and starts to nudge and sniff at him anxiously.
"Deephold!" she calls to him. "It worked! Look! It worked! It's gone! He's gone! But I've remembered so many...other things. It's all a mess...too much at once...and..."
She pauses, looking around for the final member of the group whom she remembers was so close to her when Deephold's mace struck.
"And...where's Haynuus?" she finishes in a somewhat confused tone, now addressing no-one in particular.

Petal forces herself up to a sitting position. Forgetting herself, she babbles in Sylvan "Mi manis, Ei ne manis desti! Ei e mi ilurin! Li alit! Li alit!". She looks around wildly for a bit before what happened comes back to her and the wild look leaves her eyes. She stares at her hands. and says quietly "My hands, I cannot feel. My Song, it is quiet." She struggles over to the shore line on the ground, not trusting her wings to carry her yet.

"Ameena murafu? Alright, are you? Deephold dwarf? Haynuus? Where is you?" she calls out over the lake. She sings out the VI song over the water No mana, just the song itself asking a question of the elementals of the condition of her companions.

Woohoo! You're back, and with more sylvan

Deephold does not move, and the murafu has a difficult job to work out if the dwarf is even breathing or not, for his heard and heavy armour make it impossible to see anything at work.

Either of you will need to roll me a heal check (I think just wisdom in your cases) or do something else to assess the dwarf.

There is a motion from the water in response to the pixie's song, but it is not the half-orc. It appears to be an elemental, although it does not seem to be holding its form very well. On arm keeps trailing off into dripping water, unable to condense into an arm and hand.

"Stone very powerful," says the elemental, "but evil is gone now." The elemental totters, and looks back to the water. There are no other movements that are not natural undulations from there.

The air does move, as the air elementals come back. They fuss over Petal and her wings, and spin around the murafu and the dwarf. The water elemental speaks some halting words in its own language to the air elementals, and they whisper in reply.


And there we go, everyone who can post has now posted. HAAAAAAAAYNUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUS! What's happened to you?

I know, of course. It's time for you guys to worry :p

Ameena looks over Deephold, trying to find out whether he's alright or not. She has almost no experience of dealing with seriously injured creatures who aren't murafu, and even in the case of her own species others would be the ones to help - those with more experience or those with magic who could heal.
However, she does know that if someone's breathing, at least, it means they're alive, so she sniffs around the area of his mouth and nose, feeling with her whiskers for movement of the air into and out of him.
Her attention is a little divided, however, between this and the movements of Petal and, now, the Water.
"Yes, it's gone." she calls over in agreement to the latter's words. "But...is Deephold alright? Can you tell? And what's happened to Haynuus? Is he in the water somewhere? Is he...alright?"
She isn't quite sure what she'll do with herself if it turns out one or more of her friends have been killed helping her. Then again, it seems like they're living by the words of the Murafu, probably without even realising it - A friend is for life. Life is for friends.
Whilst remaining beside the motionless Deephold, Ameena looks over to Petal and the Elements, worried and anxious but unsure what to do next.

OOC - Wis roll for Deephold = 20 (19+1). Phew...well, hopefully that will at least tell me whether he's alive or not - these silly Other Species and their different physiology and their preference for wearing tons of clothes and stuff...silly creatures, how's anyone meant to get a close look at them?

Petal takes off, uncomfortable with being on the ground and trusting her wings to keep her aloft. The feeling starts to come back into her hands, very painfully. As if thet were frozen solid and she dipped then in hot water. Hissing in pain, she flies over to where Ameena is looking over the still form of Deephold. She examines the dwarf, but cut of from the Song, she cannot tell if he is alive. She looks at the murfau sadly

"Without my Song, cannt tell if lives the dwarf. Haynuus, missing is. Fly out over the water I will, for him to look. But hungry, I am. Need food, hear the mana I can not. Deephold, you watch, Haynuus I will look for." she tells Ameena as she goes to search for the missing half-orc.

As she searches over the water, she calls out Haynuus' name, hoping to see him somewhere. Perception (1d20+4=9) She is so tired and hungry, and without the everpresemt mana to aid her, she feels lost.

"But I thought magic is always inside those who can use it..." replies Ameena, a little confused. "Or did you use it all for now and need to wait for it to come back again? I don't have magic so...I don't know what it feels like. I mean, I suppose I would know if I did, though I've never actually tried...Oh! Wait! I have a fish!"
Having diverted her own attention in the way only a murafu can, she digs around in a pouch and pulls out the slightly soggy remains of her partially-eaten fish.
"Eat this if you want." she calls to the flittering-about Petal, whom she feels more and more that she wants to ask plenty of questions about...whatever it is that she is. But not now. Not with their current problems.
She looks over to the Elements.
"Are you alright?" she asks with concern, mainly of Water, who's looking a little...drippy. "Is Haynuus in you somewhere? Can you tell? Where did he go? What happened? I hope Deephold's alright..."
She returns her attention to the dwarf, hoping that he's just unconscious or something. What happens if the bad magic of the Darkstone somehow rebounded into him, or something? Would that make his condition technically her fault?

Ameena had no real way of working out exactly if Deephold was alive or not. She moves around as she would on another murafu, even though the armour and beard make it difficult to feel anything. The movement of the air elementals whispering nothing in particulr around her doens't help.

However, at her ticklish whiskers brushing his noise and face, there is at least a twitch from Deephold. He is not dead, although how bad his condition is - unconsciousness or some worse injury - is another matter. Certainly, he does not look discoloured, there is no dents in his armour anywhere or bleeding, and he does not seem to be lying in a strange way.

Is it too much to hope for that he is alright?


Meanwhile, Petal forced herself into the air. The air elementals were encouraging, singing songs of both flight and OH anyway. They definitely seemed to shape themselves to her efforrts, and Petal felt carried a little by helpful currents and gusts.

The water seemed strange where not a moment before the gorup had all been gathered. It was still black, although that was simply from the angle of light. However, Petal could not see deeply into it. Part of that was the final undulations of the water, restoring itself to its normal tides. This in itself was suggestive, because the teentative movements of ateer eletalscould be imagind at the eddge of a ring around this bank. As the water elementals would surely react to Haynuus, did that not mean he was somewhere submerged in the small area - and not pulled or blown further out.

"My brethern are still in shock," said the wateer elemental, still staggering a little. "However, they do not sing of the half-orc." The water elemental looked to the place Petal was hovering over, but seemed reluctant itself to go back there.


Ok, so not a good perception roll, but basic common sense and noticing means Petal can assume (or would wrongly assume...) that Haynuus should be where they left him, ish. So either dive in for him and search, or figure out a way to narrow the search, or try to persuade the air/water elementals to actually help! Or perhaps get Deephold up and see if he can help. Though the clock is ticking...

Ameena isn't sure what to do - Deephold might be hurt in some way and need some knid of help...but so might Haynuus. Either of them could be at risk of dying soon if nothing is done, but Ameena doesn't know what's wrong with one and can see no sign of the other. Should she stay and try to wake up Deephold, or go over to the water and try to find Haynuus?
She settles for a vague attempt at both. First she moves around and speaks into oneof Deephold's ears.
"Deephold! Wake up, please!" she urges him. "Come and help us!"
Then she moves away from the dwarf and runs back over to the water's edge, where she leans over and peers in. From the nervousness of the Water, she isn't sure whether she should dive in and try to find Haynuus that way - she might not be a magical creature, but there might be some lingering magic of the Darkstone remaining in the water which might affect her in some way.
"Is it safe?" she asks. "Can I go in there? Haynuus must be somewhere, surely...?"

OOC - Perception check for peering into the water for anythign half-orcish = 14 (3+11).

I will be retconning the post that should be before Beo's last post, and then seperate my new post with ----------

Petal flies over to Ameena and greatfully takes the fish that is being offered. She wolfs it down, not really caring that it is beat up and soggy. As she eats, she can feel the mana of the fish restore her own energies.

"Ameena murafu, magic is...." The pixie gropes for an explination. "If mana mine is gone, then life mana cannot I hear. It means not that it is forever gone, needs to be replenished it does. To stone get out of you, was hard. So, mana of mine is lowered. About as best of it I can explain." The pixie smiles at the murafu and pulls two apples out of her satchel. She eats one and offers the other to Ameena. "Here, eat you apple. Strength to keep up, is needed. To Haynuus, we must look."

________________________________________

After she eats, she feels a bit better and can again hear the VI energy of the water and the deep resonant YA of being within the earth. She looks Deephold over, and shrugs.

"Perhaps he lives, perhaps he does not. To find Haynuus now, more important thinks I."

She goes over to the water's edge and sings a greeting song of VI, of waterfalls and cascades, of rainbow prisms pf water. "Water elemental, spirits of VI" she calls out over the water. "A gift, I offer." Petal holds up the small calm wand she has carried with her. "I offer you this, if into this area you will search and to Haynuus look for. As well as a tale of freeing your bretheren from Chaos' clutch." The pixie points to the area where she feels Haynuus should be. After she calls out, but before the elemental rises to speak to her, she turns to the murafu and quetly says "Running out of time, we are. If the elementals help us not, into the water I shall dive."

She takes off her satchel and dress, unconcerned with her nudity, and places the satchel at her feet. "My satchel and clothes, please you watch, if dive in I must?" she askes the rat-being. "If too heavy he is, a spell I have that pull him out6, it might. But mana of mine is now so weak. Afraid not strong enought, I am."

Ameena accepts the apple, but doesn't eat it for now. Instead, she puts it into a pouch. Having so recently eaten some fish, she decides she'd better save it till later - she doesn't know when more food will be coming along.
As she peers into the water, she belatedly realises that surely it isn't that harmful - after all, she just swam out of it herself, didn't she?
She looks up at Petal, who's removed her clothing in preparation for diving into the water. Ameena divests herself of her pouch-belt (OOC - this was something I was gonna do/should have done before they removed that Darkstone, but I forgot), leaving it on the floor beside Petal's things.
"I can swim too." she says. "Maybe better than you - you've got wings. Shouldn't they not become wet? They might get damaged and stop working."
She leans out over the water, preparing to dive in.
"I don't think I'm strong enough to move him either, but maybe I can push him through the water, if he's in there, until he's out of the bad area and Water can help him. Things move more easily in water, after all. I just...I hope he's alright..."
Without another word, having decided that plenty enough time has ben wasted already, Ameena pushes off with her back feet and re-enters the water, this time swimming down and peering all around for any sign of her friend.

OOC - Perception for underwater-half-orc searching = 26 (15+11).

@Ameena: Small things that your character would obviously do - like taking off her pouches - I'll let retcon. I might be a stickler for more game-breaking decisions, but smaller ones don't always need IC confirmation.

@Petal: Without a wisdom/heal check, Petal can't know Deephold is fine. Even if she is at full power, she can't auto-detect a creature's condition with a 0-level effect, just get a bonus to wisdom/perception rolls. At the moment, no mana regenerated - the food idea doesn't give her instant mana back for eating, just food = means of regeneration. She'll still have to digest it (ie resta little) at least.


Deephold was not roused by Ameena's yell, still unconscious. The main water elemental that Amena scurried towards was still looking concerned into the water.

"The stone is gone." The creature then looked to its still not reforming arm. "I will not go back in where it was."

Petal's senses are very, very dull. The sounds of the world have started to come back - as if a loud noise had deafened her, and she was juust now recovering sound. However, the mana was not flowing back, and the song of the world was very, very faint. Was thios what normal mortals heard?

Air elementals still spin and play around Petal, whispering in confirmation of Ameena's words to not sully her wings with water. However, they disperse when Petal strips, whispering words of wonder. Petal can catch the word 'butterfly', and perhaps realises the elementals wonder if she is about to shed her skin and grow in size and wingspan. Petal the dragon?

As Petal walks over to the edge and offers her pledge, the water elemental looks to the wand. "What does it do?" is asks, expression focused on the wand, "and what tales of Chaos?" The elemental looks to Petal expectantly.


Ameena meanwhile drops into the cold water, immediately realising that submerged her familiar sense of smell is now shut down, making her half blind. Her eyes do not compensate for the loss, but all is not lost. The shimmering light at least lets her see vague shapes. She can sort of tell the area that was deep was so because the floor seems to slide quite quickly down in a steep slope. However, she is sure not too far along she can see a large shape. She is almost certain it is Haynuus. Luckily, the unarmoured half-orc seems to be floating in the water, not coming to the surface but not lost to the darker depths.

However, something is a little strange. The darkness of the water seems to be wrapped around parts of him. Perhaps a trick of the light? It is so hard to tell.


Very good roll for perception, so you've found Haynuus. Don't worry about the other parts, that's just flavour text! :p

Petal, no instant reaction from the water except that shown by the elemental beside you. Your choice if you roll some diplomacy against him, while expanding your reply, or if Petal just dives into the water Ameena.

It was flavor text. I'll change it, I think in the original post it was a little different, but I was trying to do it from memory at 3 am before I went to bed. BTW Ive been holding off on updating my char sheet on the baord (I have it in paper here) until I know if I levelled with the rest of the party.

Petal smiles at the elemental. "See you, elemental. Chaos took brothers of yours, made them hate. Enslaved their souls, he did. Set them free, I did. Reborn now, they can be, pure and happy."

She looks at the wand. "Wand this is to make things anger not be anymore. Heal, it can also. A gift to you, i give. If use you have for it, maybe can help our friend, you can? Dark water on him, know you what it is?"

Dip (1d20+4=14)

Having found the motionless shape of her friend, Ameena immediately swims upward, breaking the surface long enough to cry out.
"I've found him! But I don't think I'll be able to get him up there all by myself - can you help?"
She is addressing the room at large and spares no time in waiting for a response - as soon as she's finished speaking she takes another breath and dives back below the surface, swimming hastily toward the unconscious half-orc. Please let him just be unconscious, she thinks as she draws nearer, then attempts to push, pull, shove, and otherwise do whatever she can to get Haynuus both upward and away from the area the Water may still consider "tainted". She hopes the Elements will help her in soem way - maybe they can take hold of Haynuus and pull him to the surface themselves if she can get him within their reach.

OOC - I'm guessing it's a Strength roll for underwater half-orc manipulation. If it isn't just take my roll and add whatever the mod should have been for whatever I should have rolled. Anyway, Strength roll = 20! Woot! I have no Str mod (or I do, but it's zero ) so that's just a straight 20 for the ickle murafu attempting to err...murafu-handle Haynuus to a position where he's either above the surface (or at least hsi head is) or within reach of the Water Elementals so they can hopefully do the rest of the work and bring him to the shore or something. Typical the only characters not unconscious right now are the two physically-weakest ones .

Wow, decent and good rolls and good RP sure make it easier to do stuff. That's irritating! Hmm... I don't think it's worth dragging the encounter out when you've done enough.

Oh, @Raixel (sorry, I said Petal before, weird) I think my confirmation you can level up with everyone else got buried, you can indeed level up. And I was also making sure I didn't set myself up for a misunderstanding when it mattered, oviously everything you had said was already narratively revealed.


The water elemental looked at Petal with renewed respect. "You are a hero of the Black Times, then." The elemental gave a minor bow. It then reached across to take the wand. It turned it over in its hand, and then bent over a little as if hurt. "We recognise this item." it said without any pain in its voice. When it stretched back up, it flexed its repaired arm, fully formed once more.

The elemental seemed hesitant, looking to the water and Petal. Upon Ameena breaking the surface of the water and announcing the half-orc's state, the elemental reached a decision. "I will aid you," it said to both the diminuative figures.

Back in the water, the elemental seemed to be able to allow Ameena to see a little better somehow, or perhaps she was smpy used the gloom by now. Getting closer with the water rippling creature by her side, she can see that the shadowy tendrils around Haynuus are infact real tendrils of something. At first Ameena could be forgiven for thinking some dark power of the stone they all shattered was still around Haynuus.

However, the elemental raises the wand and the tedrils loosen, showing details and a pink underside that reveal the tentacles of some underwater creature has the half-orc. The water elemental gestures again while grabbing an arm, and Ameena aids too with desperate movements and even bites on the tentacles.

The coils retreat, and the half-orc is pulled free by the two.

The water elemental helps lift the wet and miserable looking half-orc up onto the bank. He is making noises, and then coughs out water from his mouth.

The elemental turns to the lake, and starts speaking across it in the language of elementals. Meanwhile, the three champions are left wet, but reunited once more.


And there we go. culd have made yoi fight tentacless for Haynuus, but you spotted him quickly (if Petal had dived too I would have let you know the danger exactly ahead of time), offered an intelligent incentive to the elemental (so I lowered the DC and let Ameena's uccess in finding Haynuus sway the elemental) and a lucky strength check + help really seemed to seal the deal.

So yeah, you seem to have gotten away with atwole rescue/death thing unscathed! Or have you....

Yeah, you have. Out of combat time, you can assume you guys can eat, recover, heal up Deephold, and figure out your next moves.

The world is a cold blur. The noises and sensations seem dull, unreal. Haynuus is in a near waking dream state except for the fact of the pain. The feeling of something inside of him is pushing out of his very chest and into the world. But this is no birth to some alien host. This is... Dieing? He wanted to kick, swing his arms and move to the direction of 'up' in his head, but could not.

And just when the encroaching darkness is actually visible in his vision, and his limbs are like lead, a figure and what looks like it's ghost come into his mind. Comically, the figure wraps it's tail around his chest and then ignites it's arms, it's legs, it's whole body in a frenzy of movement. The ghost, the thing that cannot be focussed on yet is very present makes lots of movement around his own arms and legs like a furious whirling changing the sensation of suspension to that of movement.

Then the light of consciousness arrives and with it the true dawning of how frail his life is. And Haynuus decides that he'll not bathe again. Well, not for a long time.

OOC - Thx guys!

Ameena is glad that the Water has decided to help her, and immensely relieved as Haynuus, once they get him ashore, starts coughing up what seems like half the lake - it can't be comfortable for him, she supposes, but it means he's alive. She immediately starts nuzzling at him, licking the water off his face a little before she remembers herself and recalls that other creatures don't tend to like that sort of thing.
"Haynuus!" she says excitedly into his nearest ear, no doubt giving him an earful of whiskers in the process. "It worked! The Darkstone is gone and I can remember...lots of things...I need to tell you about them. But...Deephold isn't awake - can you help him?"

OOC - So from that last OOC it sounds as if Deephold has just been knocked out from being thrown across the room and will be easily healed if someone tries, but Ameena doesn't know that and chucking a potion down someone's throat has only been done, in her experience, when that someone is leaking vital bodily fluid all over the place or otherwise not looking quite as...whole...as they did before their sharp impact with whatever thing it was did them an injury .

The half-orc heaves himself out of the water, after having Ameena do all the work for him inside it. It would be a humiliating act for an orc to experience, after having been saved by one so small, but even Haynuus knew that her desire to do good and help those of her friends ruled all. He greatly appreciated both her selfless act and that of the air now replacing the water in his lungs. He spent a few moments helpless once more heaving and coughing with his forehead on the dusty rock floor.

It was then he noticed Petal hovering over the water.

In her nakedness she was beautiful. He'd not seen many naked humanoids, and those that he had seen were usually impaled and stripped of their belongings by his clansmen (clansorcs?). He was somewhat in awe. A perfect form. What people didn't know about the half-orc, however, that despite possessing a handsome pair of testicles he was completely barren. Just as mother nature decrees that mules should not produce offspring, she would scream out with a NO after taking a look at Haynuus' parentage. It was his biggest secret as possessing a questionable fertility was of great concern amongst his orcish kin. It also was his best kept secret as... He didn't get any of that stuff anyway, it all passed him by. So beholding the naked pixie before him he saw in her a the beauty of nature for what it was. It was then his circlet injected into his head that the murafu was naked as well, you silly bugger.

"Wha?..." he returned to the world yet with his mouth still open to Ameena's suggestion. He had not taken in his surroundings and realised that the dwarf was indeed unconscious and thankfully still with his clothes on. He immediately got up and started to run up to the dwarf with some badly interpreted orcish aid - the general plan amongst the greenskins was to jump on the chest of a drowned patient and continue to do so until something comes out of it's mouth. However, the circlet comes to the rescue once more and points out that the dwarven beard is dry, if not a little singed. "I shall attempt to provide some aid (1d20+3=14)", embarrassed about what his first initial reaction would have provoked.

RETCON when Haynuus is pulled out. BTW, Ian, I am laughing my ass off right now. Thanks, I needed that

Petal hovers over the water in the nude, watching worriedly as the half-orc is brought to shore and ready to dive in at a moments notice if her help is needed. Pixies, like most sylvan creatures, are unconcerned with nudity and do not find it shameful to be seen without clothes. Clothes are seen as utilitarian and/or ornemental, not something to cover one's gens with. So the pixie is a little surprised to see the half-concious Haynuus staring at her intently as he sits on the shore coughing up water. For some reason she finds herself blushing and flits over to her things. She quickly slips her dress and satchel on and reties the length of rope in harness fashion around her torso.

END RETCON
She returns to the group to see Haunuus jump up and rush over to where Deephold still lies. The half-orc looks as if he is going to jump on the prone dwarf, but then stops.

"Glad, I am, Haynuus, that safe you are." she tells the still-wheezing orcish man. In the short time she has known her companions, she has gotten to like them all very much. The relief she feels in her heart at seeing Haynuus alive lifts some of the darkness there that was left by her missing family and Growlgra's unknown fate. Hynuus was a simple being, but in some ways, he was more pure than the holiest cleric. Petal turns to the wet murafu and giggles kindly as she sees Ameena with her fur all sticking out.

"A towel, I wish I had for you, Ameena murafu. Perhaps things to build a fire, we can find. To dry your fur, would be nice for you." she says to the wet murafu.

Turning back to the dwarf, she gently lifts one of his eyelids and looks at his pupil To see if it responds to light, if it doesnt he is either in a coma or dead. before tapping his cheeks and splashing water from her waterskin on his face a few times to try and wake him.

If he doesnt wake:
"To use magic to wake him, I can try. But rest I need first. A healing potion I have. To wake him it might, if to get him to drink somehow, we can. If tipped his head up was, perhaps to swallow it he might? But no magic I can cast, if rest i do not." she says worriedly.