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.
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.
Dominic Reed
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.
Eli Barnes
>Inb4 thread deleted.
Jace Thompson
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
Adrian Collins
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)
John Moore
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.
Daniel Bailey
...
Nicholas Diaz
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)
Isaiah Parker
Go die in a fire.
Matthew Long
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)
