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Post by Bennegar Moore on Jul 25, 2015 5:39:07 GMT -5
Lizzy shivers, but says nothing. Bennegar sighs. "She's upset because I brought up food. She used to be human, and misses such pleasantries dearly." Lizzy shivers again, as if in agreement. "I'm sure I said this before, but I'm prone to forget such things... Lizzy and I are searching for a way to restore her own body, or at least a way that she can shapeshift. She got the idea from our shifter friend--" He nods to Stravanya. "--that she could possibly learn to change shapes. I know nothing of such things, however, and look forward to learning about them." Finally, Lizzy speaks up, using telepathy to communicate with Zem. "You may NOT call me Liz." Bennegar chuckles quietly and shrugs at Zem, doing his best to put on an apologetic face.
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Post by (George) 3.5./ ZEM ( 4.0) on Jul 25, 2015 6:44:42 GMT -5
Zem gives a look back without saying anything: what his look said :
That one was fully my fult, my bad.
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Post by harknail on Jul 25, 2015 13:07:28 GMT -5
Barbatos suspects that a variation of the spell might work on these drakes. Though the resulting bond would be very different (these aren't big enough to ride), and control of their blood lust might still be difficult for the person they are bonded to.
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Post by Stravanya on Jul 26, 2015 0:03:09 GMT -5
Over a delicious stew flavoured with the exotic spices that Stravanya keeps on hand, she speaks to Lizzy at length.
"I am so sorry for your hardship Lizzy. I cannot imagine how difficult this must be for you.
I wish I could be of more help in this matter, but my shifting is not something that I have control over. It just happens when I become badly injured whether I want it to or not, and does not subside until my prey is dead. Although my people were wiped out in their struggles against Lolth when I was a baby, I had the good fortune to spend time in the oldest known Eladrin library a few years ago. The Eladrin were the last remnants of civilization in my ancestral homeland by then, and they had recorded the ancient knowlege of my tribe for posterity. I discovered that not even the oldest sages knew how we originally became shifters, nor how to control it. We were descended from white tigers. But how that happened seems to have been lost to history.
The only aberration that I can think of would be myself. Apparently the reason my physical features change so little during shifting is that I was raised so far from my people's ancestral home. To be sure, my eyes still glow the colors of the northern lights and the speed and agility I gain in shifting is no less potent. But my fangs are smaller than my people's were, my features do not grow catlike, nor do any stripes appear on my skin. The few other white tiger shifters in recorded history who were raised so far from our snowy northern home developed those same barely more than human physical characteristics during shifting as I did.
As for personal experiance with shifters, I have rarely even seen another, let alone had occasion to inquire about their tribe's history. Although if their tie with their tribe's land was broken from a very early age as it was with me, I doubt I would have been able to tell them from a human outside of combat.
Shifters are very uncommon in the empire that I hail from, as it is no longer wild enough for their culture to thrive. They are said to have such a disdain for farming that they even uprooted themselves from the lands of their ancestors in order to migrate to the Eastern Jungles a century ago. There they make a good living to this day, for the goods they trade with the empire are in high demand, and no-one can hunt those savage jungles like shifters. Some say that in the Eastern Jungles there are even shifters who can fully transform into tigers at will. But since there is no record of such individuals in my own tribe's history, I do not know how that might have occurred, or even whether or not it is true.
I can't think of a way this information could help you, but now at least you have the full extent of my knowledge. Perhaps we can discover a use for it to you with the help of the large shifter tribe of this region, as all I personally know about shifter culture is from books."
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Post by harknail on Jul 26, 2015 13:17:12 GMT -5
Harknail comments, "I hear tell that there be two villages of shifters in the Ridge Woods. Mayhap we be looking for them when we be getting back to Moonhaven."
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Post by Bennegar Moore on Jul 28, 2015 5:02:02 GMT -5
Bennegar listens intently to Stravanya's words, intrigued by her situation. When she mentions the Eladrin library, the glow within him flares up slightly, but he holds his peace until she finishes speaking.
"So you, like us, are separated from your own kind. Interesting..." He pauses, his face creaking into a slight frown. "I don't know if I mentioned this before, but I was born a human child. But I was born under a cursed star's influence, during a blood moon, so my parents bore me into the world upon the altar of an elemental cult. They believed that doing so would lessen the burden of my dark birth... What it actually did, however, was open my as-yet-unborn body to energies of the Elemental Chaos, as well as of the Far Realm. My body crystalized within the womb, and my mother did not survive. My father raised me to the best of his ability, teaching me all manner of magicks. But I was always an outcast... Where you were separated from your people in space, I was separated from my own in spirit. I was feared and abhorred by the grown and the young, alike. I did not grow, as a normal child should have, but instead was forced to rely upon systematic rituals to increase my mass at the same rate. When my father passed, I took up the blade in order to strike down foes with fire and steel, alike. Through this, I met Lizzy, who was another Shardmind, though, unlike myself, she was born as such."
He pauses, hefting Lizzy off his back and holding her upright, the metal shaft resting on the ground beside him. The green crystal tip of the sentient spear flared up, as if in annoyance, but died down with an audible sigh. Bennegar continued. "We attempted to become one, as we loved each other very much. It was odd for a Shardmind of natural birth to have such emotions, but Lizzy... Elizabeth is special." The crystal spear tip flared up again, changing color to a deep crimson. Lizzy didn't like being called by her full name, it seemed. Bennegar chuckled. "She was also raised by humans, having been thought to be the avatar of some god or another. This gave her unique traits, such as her fiery personality." His face forms into a deep frown suddenly. "But we were unprepared and unskilled for such a procedure as we wanted. With Lizzy's passion and my own fueling our ambitions, we attempted to fuse our bodies to become two souls within a single vessel." The glow within him dims to a dull grey as he recalled the incident. "Lizzy's body was shattered entirely, and she could not reform it. Even I did not escape the happening unscathed..." He pulled up his robes, showing his crystaline torso. Deep cracks ran all over, stemming from a puncture wound where his heart would've been. His torso, as a result, was fractured and floated freely around his hollow, energy-filled core. He lowered his robes. "For a time, I carried the shards of her body with me, thinking her to be dead. But one day, the largest of them began to speak... She demanded to not be useless to me, despite her distress at having been so fragmented. I had this last remaining sentient shard formed into the blade of a longsword, which I used for a long time as an implement." He chuckles softly. "And to scare my foes into submission. It's surprising how a simple, crystal blade can frighten some men. But, alas, unrest struck us once more, and we attempted to seal her soul within an automoton, similar to our companion, here." He nodded at Harknail. "But it was ill-fated; the last remaining shard of Lizzy's sentient body ruptured, and she remains trapped in the largest shard, to this day." He reached up and undid a clamp on the tip of the spear, removing the blade. The crystal was much longer than it appeared, having a piece that rested within the metal haft of the spear for about ten inches. He fully removed it and held it out. It vibrated gently as he did so, and it turned red once more. Lizzy was embarrassed. "We seek to find a way to make her able to change shape, as this piece is large enough to serve as a blade for a small sword. Perhaps a spell of some kind could help, we thought." He bows his head apologetically at Stravanya. "We did not take your shifting to be a solution, as we assumed that this ability of yours is of a natural source. It was simply the idea of it, that one might be able to modify oneself, that we took a liking to. Your shifting was simply the catalyst we needed to spark such a notion." He refitted the crystal back into the spear shaft, clamping it down tight. "However, your tale is not without its merits to us... Mayhap your Eladrin library carries such knowledge as we might use to create or synthesize such a spell. I should like to go there and see, someday, I think..."
Lizzy, who had remained silent throughout Bennegar's story, spoke up.
"I don't care to be humanoid, nor do I care what shape I take. I simply wish to be of use, not just sitting in a pack or resting on a lapel... The day that I cannot be of use to the one I care for is the day that I will release myself from the bonds of life. I do not fear death; I fear the cage of stagnation. Bennegar knows this well." Bennegar looks at Lizzy, surprised that she not only spoke for so long, but that she was so open with their companions. He says nothing, but even his crystaline face cannot suppress a slight smile.
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Post by Stravanya on Jul 28, 2015 15:55:08 GMT -5
"That is one of the most moving tales I have ever heard. To have survived such hardship and still have such vitality and joy is so deeply inspirational. You have my utmost and eternal respect. It is a great honor to serve beside you both.
Indeed The oldest known Eladrin library is only one of several jewels of learning in the empire that I hail from. I was raised in the capital, where The Great Library far supersedes it in both size and scope. The Eladrin Library was merely of interest becuase it made the effort to record the otherwise rather insignificant lost local cultures. If there is a way to achieve what you desire most, there would surely be at least some trace of it documented in The Great Library of the Capital, or possibly one of its several smaller branches dotted throughout the empire, which the priests of Ioun in charge of it would have enough understanding of their content to point you to. And don't worry, they are quite absent the prejudice and superstition that caused you such hardship in the past. It is an enlightened, cosmopolitan city much beloved by individuals of unusual origin. "
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Post by harknail on Aug 9, 2015 0:54:49 GMT -5
After lunch for those capable of eating lunch, the group continues towards the Dragon's Lair. As they come with insight of the ridge, the entrance high up in the ridge is usually found. But at first glance the ground-level entrance that Stravanya found reference to in the book was not visible.
Perception rolls and/or actions please
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Post by at on Aug 9, 2015 3:29:07 GMT -5
Barbatos peers around but doesn't immediately see anything of note, instead watching the higher ridge for the creature.
oBslvhaip_1-20+14 Perception1-20
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Post by Stravanya on Aug 9, 2015 22:22:36 GMT -5
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Post by (George) 3.5./ ZEM ( 4.0) on Aug 13, 2015 21:22:47 GMT -5
None the buttons are showing up for my phone normal they do, idk what is going on
At : do u know why?
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Post by (George) 3.5./ ZEM ( 4.0) on Aug 13, 2015 22:21:49 GMT -5
( odd its working now.) 08I7MtXyp_1-20+12= 30  . Perception. ( What do my elf eyes see  ) 1-20 |
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Post by harknail on Aug 15, 2015 23:48:36 GMT -5
Zem spots what the others miss, a cave entrance concealed by foliage. As the group approaches, Stravanya notices that something large has been pushing though the foliage.
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Post by Stravanya on Aug 16, 2015 18:35:28 GMT -5
Zem spots what the others miss, a cave entrance concealed by foliage. As the group approaches, Stravanya notices that something large has been pushing though the foliage. OOC: something moving through the foliage right now, or signs that something has done so frequently in the past? |
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Post by harknail on Aug 17, 2015 12:07:45 GMT -5
Signs that something large is moving in and out roughly once a day.
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Post by Stravanya on Aug 22, 2015 23:23:56 GMT -5
Sravanya quietly notify the others and tries to figure out if this large thing is Mornontormarux and what the most recent traces show about where that creature is now. Perception Roll invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4854646/Nat 20! (for real this time lol) 20+7+2 = 27 |
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Post by harknail on Aug 23, 2015 11:56:44 GMT -5
Reports are that Mornontormarux uses the upper entrance. Looking at the tracks, Stravanya thinks that this is a larger bear, maybe two of them.
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Post by (George) 3.5./ ZEM ( 4.0) on Aug 23, 2015 20:50:46 GMT -5
" So whats making the tracks?"
" I rather not alow him to see us comming up yet if there are large
Things down here a battle my alert him anyway."
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Post by harknail on Aug 28, 2015 0:04:37 GMT -5
Tag Stravanya
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Post by Stravanya on Aug 30, 2015 15:46:32 GMT -5
"Looks like a large bear, maybe two of them. They seem to be moving in and out roughly once a day. Perhaps we could ambush them when they are away from the cave to avoid the risk of Mornontormarux overhearing a battle. Since Mornontormarux doesn't use this entrance, I'd like to use this cave to gain the element of surprise if we can manage it, or at least use it for me to scout on ahead to help us develop a plan. Although given how poor even my stealth skills are I'm definitely open to a plan that relies more on our talents."
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. Perception.
)1-20