Banished Quest 193 - End of an Era Edition

Welcome to Banished Quest!
You take the role of a young mage labeled a criminal by his people and cast out into the wider world. In the last thread you shot a spirit and destroyed reality.

It is currently the 30th of Svarthi, in the year 936 NH.

Character Sheet:
pastebin.com/8wLGz3HQ
Inventory:
pastebin.com/9mxDQn7N
Companions:
pastebin.com/tWc3Zjje
Spellbook:
pastebin.com/Tu1sVEnQ
Runic Library:
pastebin.com/7zQt9XLy
Current Missions:
pastebin.com/rzD5PPsU

Dice:
pastebin.com/nhswziq6
Magic:
pastebin.com/aYPzn0aU
pastebin.com/2iHKTQTS
Combat:
pastebin.com/e1peu2ih
pastebin.com/1niidZEa
Enchanting:
pastebin.com/jUQKQLLx
Fluff:
pastebin.com/ydKwNLba
pastebin.com/sijmZSSf
pastebin.com/UygnkCBe
pastebin.com/gR0sgiFu
pastebin.com/ibi8j7Md
pastebin.com/q8rQUjzS

Archives:
suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?tags=Banished Quest
Twitter:
twitter.com/Quidam_Asinus
Ask Page:
ask.fm/Quidam_Asinus
Tumblr:
somaqm.tumblr.com/
IRC Channel:
#BanishedDiscussion on Rizon

Notes:
Using names or trips in this quest is heavily discouraged. While it is impossible for me to prevent you from doing so, I ask that you not. I will also not count any votes made while using names or trips.

With reality quite literally tearing itself apart around you, some small corner of your thoughts urges you to cut your losses and run. It's the smarter option, the option that puts neither you nor your son at risk of any serious injury. For a moment you're even tempted to bow to the wills of this iota of common sense. Then you have a better idea, for a given definition of better. What if you looked at this borderline apocalyptic turn of events not as promising your untimely demise, but as an opportunity to advance your understanding of the magical arts?

That disused corner of your mind screams that you'd have to be an absolute madman to attempt to meditate in the midst of all this, with the spirit's realm rapidly collapsing and the only two beings capable of actually mending the fabric of creation currently embroiled in a life or death battle of wills. It protest in vain, you're already too busy planning out how you'll go about this to pay it any attention. You'll certainly want to rope in Mahana's disciples, and if you can find the boar spirit you should try to get it involved as well. You might also ask the water spirit's vassal for help, after all the void is probably more dangerous for spiritual entities than it is for mortals.

Channeling vys allows your mind to play lightly across the strings which bind reality. The tear has yet to reach you, so you're still able to glean useful information about the whereabouts of Melancholy and Mania. They're not far, and at your slightest suggestion Zahak dips his wing and carries you towards the two of them. Mahana's disciples seem to have had the same idea you did, but they're going about it entirely the wrong way.

(1/10)
Buckle your anus, this'll be a long one.

>Inb4 thread deleted.

They seem to be entreating the two vassal spirits to do something about the tear in the void, neither of which is doing much of anything useful. The boar seem to be only barely holding himself together, a great jagged gash torn into his side and partially stitched together. His essence leaks freely from the wound, as well as from a number of teeth marks in his neck. The reptilian vassal, by contrast, seems largely unharmed. It's been gored through the abdomen and likely tossed around a bit, but it's in nowhere near as bad of shape as the boar.

You're out of Zahak's saddle nearly as soon as he lands, his hasty landing kicking up a torrent of mud and stagnant water. The ground underneath you won't hold much longer, as that thousand-legged monstrosity creeps ever closer to the two battling spirits it begins to siphon off some small portion of their essence. It appears as a dim white mist collapsing into his gaping maw, and for every second that the void beast is allowed to drink deeply of the spirits' combined power the deterioration seems to accelerate.

The disciples are distracted from their silent conversation by your sudden appearance on the scene, their masked faces, frozen in expressions of ecstatic excitement and crushing depression, turn to face you. Now that you've made note of it, their silence is decidedly unsettling. You don't waste any time explaining yourself, merely snapping your fingers at the two of them as you might an unruly pet. “Quickly now, do either of you know Metal magic?”

The sadder of the two nods his head. Perfect. “Follow my lead then once I start meditating. As for the other one-” You gesture vaguely in the direction of Clarisse. “-just make sure she provides me with the fullness of her vys reserves. I'll be needing all the power I can to pull off what I hope to pull off.”
(2/10

Brushing past the disciples, your business with them concluded, you channel Nature magic and allow your mind to alight upon the consciousness of the reptilian spirit. {If you want to survive as anything more than a mote of dust drifting through the void, you'll supply me with the full weight of your spiritual power. Understood?}

The creature leans forward until its snout almost presses into your chest, one of its burning yellow eyes staring at you balefully. {And why should I help you, little mortal? Who is to say you should not be helping me?}

Right, you hadn't really thought this far ahead. Grabbing the edge of your cloak you pull it wide, urging one of Ricky's tentacles to slide out from beyond the event horizon. Immediately those same pops of unreality begin to appear around the edge of the ethereal limb, causing the spirit to recoil in horror. {If you refuse to assist me I'll invite my friend outside for a visit.}

As Ricky's tentacle begins to retract, the spirit's voice thunders through your thoughts. {You are unhinged! You would guarantee your own demise simply to spite me!}

{Yes, exactly. I'm glad you understand.} With that, you turn away from the water spirit and instead wander over to your collapsed porcine ally. He's not looking good, in fact you don't know if he'll be able to survive much longer in his current form. Regardless, you allow your thoughts to brush against his. {I'll require your help if you want any chance of surviving this. Can you supply me with what little power you have left, at least until I close this tear?}
(3/10)

You receive only vague impressions by way of response, but it's enough. He'll provide his aid where he can. Turning around you face your gathered band of assistants, ragtag though they may be. {The plan is this: I'm going to use what remains of my husk to ward off that monstrous entity crawling out of that darkness beyond the mortal coil we call the void. Then, once I have successfully forced the entity back through the tear, I am going to reinforce the shard of shell which surrounds that minuscule sliver of Surya's essence which separates us from the inanimate. You are going to provide me with whatever assistance you can. Understood?}

You allow a brief pause for any sort of response, but receive none. {Good. Then pardon me while I ingest a hallucinogen. Oh, and when my task is done you'll need to drag me back into the mortal realm. I'll need the entity dwelling in my cloak to remove this armor, lest the vys it supplies me with reduce my body to ash.}

Reaching into your cloak causes the reptilian water spirit to flinch away, but it relaxes as you draw forth a heft dose of that horrid poultice you bought so long ago from Ghada. You place it on your tongue, holding it there for a moment while you dig the enchanted gemstone which has imprisoned within the essence of the spirit larva you battled beneath Nazir. It glows bright enough to be mistaken for a sun in miniature, but you have more important things to concern yourself with.

The poultice takes like rotten meat and dirt, it's a struggle to get the foul concoction down. Once you finally do you know you don't have much time, so quickly assume a meditative pose in the middle of the swampy soil which fills so much of this spirit's realm. Well, which once filled so much of this spirit's realm. It's vanishing inch by inch into the vast emptiness of the void. Your senses are already starting to bled together, the subtle sound of reality tearing itself to shreds causing burst of light along the periphery of your vision.

...

Instinct takes over once you've settled into your trance, and as you begin to harness the husk of your soul power surges through you. The sheer amount of essence and vys being pumped into your mortal form is almost intoxicating, you feel as though you could reshape creation in your image if you only had the desire. The reptilian spirit has begrudgingly lent you his power, and the surge of energy would only grow larger as the two disciples offered their own contributions to your efforts.
>Vys Pool: (108/[241])

You don't even care that smoke is rising from the cracks in your armor, this feels amazing. Channeling the aggregate power of your allies, you will the fire of creation to leap from surge forth from your chest. The result is an intense burst of golden flame which consumes everything in its path, threatening to incinerate reality itself in fact. It's only due to the efforts of Melancholy that the flames are stifled before they rip open a second tear in veil, and it's with great relief that you watch your spiritual fire gradually encroach upon the meddling void beast.
>Vys Pool: (108/[221])

The centipoid monstrosity seems unaware of your fire, so absorbed is it in consuming the essence of the spirits quarreling beneath it. Its manifold limbs twitch in delight as the stream of white grows more and more distinct, the beast drawing deep of Mahana's power. It's taken entirely by surprise when your golden fire wraps around its torso, the creature's chitinous skin almost immediately beginning to peel away. Just as the first time you employed this technique, there is no flame. Pockets of the void entity's body simply cease to exist, greater and greater chunks vanishing from this reality as you constrict the ring of fire tighter around its midsection.
(5/10)

Go die in a fire.

Rather than flee, as you'd expected, the creature slides further from the portal to the void and twist in on itself to peer with obvious confusion at the substance burning it. Its jaws hinge open wider and clamp down around the flame, only for the best to recoil. Its entire lower jaw has simply dissolved away. A pained screech tears through your thoughts with nearly enough violence to pull you from your trance, but a simple application of Metal magic quiets the disturbance. It's unfortunately clear that you've drawn it's attention, and judging by the way it speeds towards you across the vast black expanse of the void, you're guessing it's not happy with you.

The unnatural blackness of the void extends behind the entity as it surges forward, destroying the veil with its presence alone. The length of its body seems unending, it must stretch for miles now and you still see no end in sight. You wait as patient as ever, a plan already assembling itself in your head. The moment it draws close, skeletal arms extending to rend the flesh from your bones, there's a flash which blinds you even from within your trance. An enormous burst generated by the husk of your soul, powerful enough that the creature never reaches you.
>Vys Pool: (108/[211])

When the light fades, the entity lacks its terrifying visage. Indeed, much of the first dozen or so segments of its body have been shorn away cleanly, leaving no sign of their prior existence. Already it's beginning to regrow its lost mass, but you don't intend to give it the opportunity to recover. A decisive blow now is all you require to banish this warped monstrosity back into the hole it crawled out of.
(6/10)

Once more you carve through the husk of your soul, now significantly enlarged by the essence of the spirits at your back. Underneath is the black stone shell, the only thing which binds you to this mortal coil. Its dull facade occludes your view of the fragment of Surya sheltered within, but you know it's there. You can feel it intimately, struggling to escape its bonds and return to its originator. Rather than channeling the husk outward in the form of that spiritual flame which destroys all in its path, you instead channel it inward. The stone shell is rapidly transmuted to gold, a divine strength surging through your limbs, but that is only the beginning.
>Vys Pool: (108/[161])

As the last vestiges of this power vanishes into the golden husk, something strange occurs. You can feel your mind expanding, coming to encompass the whole of this realm. Millions of thin golden strands sing at the touch of your consciousness, bending as easily to your will as they would the will of the gods. You are no longer confined to that fragile prison called mortal form. You have momentarily separated yourself from your body, becoming something more for as long as you're able to maintain some grip upon this power.

A glance down at yourself reveals a body formed from coal, dots of white ash stitching their way across the surface of your form in intricate, mesmerizing patterns. Of your mortal attire, only your cloak remains. It reflects the magnificence of your being upon its inner surface, patterns of golden light twisting together with rich blue. However, your modesty is preserved by tapestries of cloth which seem as much part of you as your skin. A sash dyed a royal blue, tied about black robes patterned with red and gold stitching. They are as richly adorned as the garb of any king or emperor.
(7/10)

...

You take one uneasy step forward, a grave cast from gold sprouting into existence over your shin as soon as your foot touches the marshy soil. Another appears when you take a second step. When you will it to be so a sword of ice appears in your hands, golden bracers following shortly after. You have become more than any mortal man could hope or dream for. You have ascended beyond, if only temporarily.
>Vys Pool: (108/[141])

A thought carries you forward, your feet leaving the ground as easily as Zahak takes to wing. Fear grips you as you rise further and further from the ground, but you're not longer bound by physical constraints. You may act as you wish, when you wish to. As soon as you accept the notion the fear passes, and you're able to drift in a lazy, controlled manner towards the regeneration denizen of the void.

Your sword bites deep into its flesh, steam rising form the frozen blade as it passes through the creature's form. With your blade stuck firmly in its wound you thrust a hand forward, that same golden flame leaping from your fingertips to consume the glorified worm. To think, you once feared this creature. You are god here, and it will learn that in short order.
>Vys Pool: (108/[126])
(8/10)

Jerking the blade free, you seize the strings which once bound this world together and will them to obey your commands. They leap and twist according to your desires, reforming themselves with the same rapidity which once sent them flying apart. The advance of the void is brought to a grinding halt as you labor to end this degeneration, and with an almighty screech the void-born horror lunges towards you. Its half-formed jaws clamp down only on air, your form shifting unnaturally away from the creature's assault, and then your blade is sawing through its chitinous hide, cutting free a second chunk of its hideous form.
>Vys Pool: (106/[106])

The fire burns in your eyes as the duel begins in earnest. With reality slowly closing in around the two of you, the void beast retreats towards its vile den. You do not allow it a graceful retreat, carving away great swathes of its flesh either with your frozen blade or with the fire which leaps to obey your every whim. Your task becomes a race against time, to close the tear in the fabric of creation before this parasite might escape your grasp. Yet, for every head you remove a new one is quick to sprout in its place. Whenever you think the enemy slain, it revives itself in that same instant.

Ultimately, you win the race. Really there was never any contest, any chance your prey had of retreat had been removed before it had even begun to flee. As reality reasserts itself around the base of its monstrous form, the golden strands slice through its flesh like the blades of a thousand knives. It cries out in pain, only to be silenced by your blade. You've little doubt that it remains, nursing its wounds within the void, but you have bested the creature here. Now you have only to snuff out what life remains in its corpse.
>Vys Pool: (86/[86])
(9/10)

...

The husk of your soul is stripped away with each passing instant, your memories slowly being flayed away by the ravages this form places upon them. Mortals were not meant for this power, but you've pried it from the hands of Surya himself. With but the slightest exertion of your will, a wave of decay spreads out around you. As it makes contact with the ground the soul is slowly ground to nothing by the onslaught of your power, and more importantly wherever it makes contact with the fragments of that creature it rapidly reduces them to little more than dust. Finally the task is done. At long last, you might rest.
>Vys Pool: (46/[46])

The journey back to your shattered mortal prison is a reluctant one, but you know that if you remain separated from your true self for much longer the power which sustains you will be depleted. You will be left a soul without a housing, and soon dragged off kicking and screaming to whatever afterlife awaits you. You catch a glimpse of your appearance reflected in a pool of stagnant water, your eyes glowing with the golden light of your soul and two curved horns crowning your skull. Odd.
>Vys Pool: (36/[36])

Your actual body lays comatose where you'd left it, your various assistance still focused upon their own meditation. Save of course for the twin spirits whom you'd asked to aid you. You note the gash along the boar's side has yet to heel, so with a minor exertion of your power you close the wounds which cover his form. You offer the same aid to the reptilian water spirit.
>Vys Pool: (16/[16])

(10/11)

...

...

...

If this get's deleted quests are dead.

New board doesn't have archives so running there is literally pointless.

You're a cuck.

...

reported

What's more is there'll be a fucking riot.

I reiterate

I better see some fucking lewds here tonight, Soma, if only to give a final middle finger to the anti-quest fags.
FUCK THE MODS, FREEDOM FOR QUESTS!

Waiting for next post OP. Ignore the shitposters.

However, with these final efforts your soul truly is depleted. Sliding back into your body is as simple as closing your eyes and allowing your grip upon this world to subside. A sense of vertigo overtakes you, and then you're once more constrained within the suddenly cramped confines of your mortal form. Fortunately you're not forced to suffer for long. Your consciousness slips away, and the black overtakes you.
>Vys Pool: (0/[0])
>Trait Gained: Child of Surya
>Trait Gained: Force of Will

You cannot say how long you remain unconscious, but what you are certain of is that you feel like absolute shit. Above you lie arches of black stone, their form shaped by the depredations of the void. A orange tabby sits upon a near-by stone, its surface carved with glowing blue lines. Flanking the shrine on either side are a man and a woman. The woman is familiar, the same which greeted you after you offered your blood upon an altar to the Cat. However, the man is unfamiliar. He is dark skinned, for a human, with an armor of a sort you've never seen.
>Vys Pool: (1/[1])

As you roll over onto your side and expel a torrent of blood and vomit into the ash before the shrine, you see Zahak as well. He watches you with evident concern, his tail lashing irritably through the air behind him. You try to comfort him, to employ that strange connection the two of you share, but your body protest against the effort. Pain rips through you, sending you once more stumbling into the black.

Again you awaken, the passage of time impossible to determine. You are desperately hungry, but you find yourself unable to move. Even the thought of doing so sends spots twirling through the periphery of your vision.

>Tell that cat to fucking fix you, especially after you saved his ass.
>Try to reach out for Zahak, you just want to lie down in a soft bed and allow yourself to rest.
>Try to heal yourself, you don't need the help of some spirit.
>Write-in

>shitposters
You mean OP?

He's on the wrong board. Damn, that feels good to finally say.

>Write-in
Go to where you belong.

>Try to heal yourself, you don't need the help of some spirit.

Not until the archives for the board is up

>Let instincts guide you, do what comes naturally, surely it will result in being healed somehow

>Try to reach out for Zahak, you just want to lie down in a soft bed and allow yourself to rest.

>Tell that cat to fucking fix you, especially after you saved his ass.

>Try to reach out for Zahak, you just want to lie down in a soft bed and allow yourself to rest.

I have a feeling that
>Try to heal yourself, you don't need the help of some spirit. might be some kind of trap option, especially with how fucked up our vys is atm.

>qst meaning anything when there are no archives for it

>write-in

>Tell that cat to fucking fix you, especially after you saved his ass.

Gonna update the character sheet with those traits?

>>Try to reach out for Zahak, you just want to lie down in a soft bed and allow yourself to rest.

>Try to reach out for Zahak, you just want to lie down in a soft bed and allow yourself to rest.
He's a master water vatis and we're in no position to heal ourself. Have him fix us up.

Questfags have been exiled. Lack proper archives is just too fucking bad.

>>Try to heal yourself, you don't need the help of some spirit.
fuck you cat, you let this happen on purpose

we have finally discovered the ultimate shitpost Soma

>>/qst/

>Tell that cat to fucking fix you, especially after you saved his ass.

Too bad we're staying.

>Try to reach out for Zahak, you just want to lie down in a soft bed and allow yourself to rest.

>Child of Surya
Again Surya best god

>Tell that cat to fucking fix you, especially after you saved his ass.

heal our shit you double faggot.

Holy shit nigga, that was a massive post.

But Anons, I'm already on /quest/!

now you're just being a smug asshole friend, give us a couple of days to move our shit before kicking us to the curb.

>Try to reach out for Zahak, you just want to lie down in a soft bed and allow yourself to rest.

>No you

>Try to reach out for Zahak, you just want to lie down in a soft bed and allow yourself to rest.

>>Try to reach out for Zahak, you just want to lie down in a soft bed and allow yourself to rest.
>thinking you have a say in the manner

>Try to reach out for Zahak, you just want to lie down in a soft bed and allow yourself to rest.
You know how to heal me son. I only require rest for my husk to regenerate.

>Try to reach out for Zahak, you just want to lie down in a soft bed and allow yourself to rest.

>Tell that cat to fucking fix you, especially after you saved his ass.

>>Try to reach out for Zahak, you just want to lie down in a soft bed and allow yourself to rest.

>Try to reach out for Zahak, you just want to lie down in a soft bed and allow yourself to rest.

update the pastebin faggot, I want to know what the new traits do

The character sheet pastebin has been updated:
> *Force of Will: The will is pure. You have but to exercise it to exert your control over the world around you. +4 to Metal Magic, +4 to Husk Casting. Negates any limitations upon the manipulation of your soul.
> *Child of Surya: The body is but a prison, it limits the true extent of your power. You've learned a method of breaking free. +8 to Husk Casting, and additional +4 against Spirits and Void Entities. Only when in your Ascended form.
> *Mark of a Dragon Slayer (Contain+Soul): +8 to resisting outside influences, +6 to Metal Magic, +4 to Healing rolls.

>*Child of Surya: The body is but a prison, it limits the true extent of your power. You've learned a method of breaking free. +8 to Husk Casting, and additional +4 against Spirits and Void Entities. Only when in your Ascended form.
I love Surya

God. Fucking. Damn. Mik's pretty Demigod now.

>Try to reach out for Zahak, you just want to lie down in a soft bed and allow yourself to rest.

>we are now comparable to a Child when ascended

HOLY FUCKING SHIT

So we don't have the negative effects of Mark of a Dragon Slayer either?
Fuck, I didn't expect the meditation to work out so good for us

That's dope

So. Were a GM metal vatis now, and, we have a base +10 to metal from traits. Fuckin op.

Mission accomplished gentlemen.

And would you believe this all started as a milk run to fetch our niece?

To elaborate a little on what the Ascended form does:
>Consumes 10 max vys per combat round of use. (So at this point, Mik could maintain it for 7 rounds assuming that he hadn't cast anything from his husk previously)
>Supplies the listed benefits in the trait description for as long as it's maintained
>Has certain other bonuses I won't yet reveal at the moment.

>Tell that cat to fucking fix you, especially after you saved his ass.

>>Try to reach out for Zahak, you just want to lie down in a soft bed and allow yourself to rest.

we are not good at keeping things simple
so casting from our max vys doesn't effect our current vys, unless it would put our current vys over the max?
so if we had 10/20 using 10 of our husk would put us at 10/10?
And if we had 20/20 using 20 of our husk would put us at the same?

I assume that all casting in this form is Husk casting. Which means that our spells have "unknown/special" effects. Since we haven't tested what Fire/Water/Earth do when Husk casting yet.

We also have a base +10 to healing from traits now.

I wonder if that'll help us better endure wearing the Heavy Warlock Armor.

That's correct.

That is also correct, which means you can pretty much wreck all the shit while in Ascended Form. However, with Mik's current vys pool it won't last long.

>Tell Ricky to shove some food in your mouth.

Thanks for the big post, soma!

I think is more like the spirit form of the disciples without the need of an spirit.

Boy, I can't wait to see the looks on our companions faces when we return and tell them the shit we got into.

So what you're saying is start reading?

Cause that's the easiest way we have to increase our Vys pool.

>>Try to reach out for Zahak, you just want to lie down in a soft bed and allow yourself to rest.

Hey Soma, can we preserve and shove parts of our husk into high quality objects like we do with vys?

I think that it's based on our vys capacity primarily, though the healing bonus sure as hell won't hurt

>10 post OP
Thank you blessed Soma. I know we'll be lucky to get 10 more in the thread, but it was worth it.

>You've fallen and you can't get up!

>Fuck the cat! You don't need no spirit!

>Fuckin' give me a hand here you little bitch-ass kitten.

Writin'

Who knows~

Casting from Husk destroys some of the memories used right?

Didn't we say we'd be gone for, like, a day tops? They're probably gonna be pissed we went and nearly died/ended the world twice.

Temporarily. So far they've always returned after a good night's rest.

We can cast from other people's husks, right? I mean we can manipulate their souls so I don't see a reason why we shouldn't be able to.

>Right, you hadn't really thought this far ahead. Grabbing the edge of your cloak you pull it wide, urging one of Ricky's tentacles to slide out from beyond the event horizon. Immediately those same pops of unreality begin to appear around the edge of the ethereal limb, causing the spirit to recoil in horror. {If you refuse to assist me I'll invite my friend outside for a visit.}
>As Ricky's tentacle begins to retract, the spirit's voice thunders through your thoughts. {You are unhinged! You would guarantee your own demise simply to spite me!}
>{Yes, exactly. I'm glad you understand.}
mik is my favorite character

So how do we just casually mention that we're a Metal GM now to our companions?

Oh, and a real quick comment on the /qst/ situation.

I wasn't aware that they'd already made the new board. Otherwise I would have put this up there. However, as others have said, /qst/ lacks an archive at the moment. For now I'll stick to running on Veeky Forums until someone rectifies that situation, because otherwise it's pretty hard to reference shit in a quest that's almost 200 threads long. Let's be practical here.

I'm not even necessarily against the idea of /qst/, I think it will be interesting to see how shit plays out and I sorta look forward to being one of its founding participants.

>200
man we're close to 300 than 200

>filename
>Mikhael - Ascended
AW SHIT

I wouldn't mind if it:
a) Had an archive
b) Allowed anons to post images

anons can post images in /qst/

>All these deleted post.
Not often I get to use this reaction image.

that image BS was removed. one of the only things the fucker listened too.