Super-Natural Reflection - 02/11/2022 - Archie’s Extracts
Nov 5, 2022 23:52:32 GMT
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Post by Andy D on Nov 5, 2022 23:52:32 GMT
On Finding Oneself More Experienced - Relatively Speaking
My age is advanced for an adventurer, certainly for the novice adventurer that I am. However, I found myself in the unexpected position of being almost the most experienced adventurer in the party.
Lilia is new to me and newer than me to the Dawnlands. She was a fair skinned, fellow human with platinum white hair and proficiency with a rapier. She performed marvellously during the combat. Although, it would be fair to say her avoidance of the potentially party killing Fireball was due to her not being inside the blast radius, rather than her uncanny dextrous talent for avoiding harm, whilst dishing it out.
Mittens is a black tabaxi illusionist, I believe (jury is still out on his wizard speciality). More notable than his cute name, was the little fella’s age; 12 years old! If I am too old for adventuring, or at the very least ‘past my prime’; Mittens is too underdeveloped for the profession. I am curious about his master. Who would let such a young lad out on adventures? Mittens was the most critical, and fortunately only near fatally wounded team member when the Fireball exploded. I would like to speak with the child’s caretaker.
I was familiar with Drake, the ‘exotic’ looking aarakocra, from our time helping Mr. Leocanto solve a patron upsetting, magical issue in his new restaurant, Multiclassy. Drake showed an equally ‘exotic’ blend of magical proficiency that time as well. If not for Mittens’ experience, I would say Drake had the most unfortunate luck during the combat, taking the trophy for most disabling experience with wild-magic - and this is coming from the person whose spell triggered the wild-magic explosion!
These were the adventurers, who like me had answered Carnan, the 400 year old firbolg divine and druidic healer’s call. Carnan, since the last time I saw him, was still a shade of blue brighter than when I first met him. This was due to the experience with Wild Magic he had last time inside the mirror. And now, we established, he is a few years younger due to Wild Magic - and again I missed out!
We were to travel to the Witching Court, and go to The Floating Melon. Upon entering Dr. Killian’s establishment; retrieve his assistant’s, Eric’s, missing magical final piece from the mirror, and make Eric whole again.
Carnan explained the situation with travelling inside the mirror and having one’s abilities switched with another in the party, and I found myself oddly in the position of a veteran as he proceeded with said explanation.
Carnan invigorated the rest of us with an enhanced casting of the Aid spell. It was greatly appreciated, and as we were to discover later during combat - critically needed. I was pleased to see Carnan’s perceptive foresight and wisdom was unaffected by his intense dislike of Dr. Killian.
On Returning to the Witching Court
Once again Swift, the tabaxi portal assistant was there to take care of us and guide us down the winding and confusing underground tunnels to get to Dr. Killian’s The Floating Melon shop. The various side rooms we passed were recognisable only as part of the most peculiar of dreams. One room we passed had a single candle in it, another was a trendy bar, whilst yet another was the living room of an elderly couple. No amount of pinching oneself resulted in one waking up; this was the Feywild.
Carnan a tad aggressively, used the Thunderwave spell to open the door to The Floating Melon, and ignored Dr. Killian entirely by enquiring with the cat as to Eric’s whereabouts, and then leading us downstairs to the basement to find Eric. I should be clear here; Eric was downstairs, but as evidenced by the ghostly apparition in the mirror; his magical skills were still trapped within - and as Eric confirmed, his magical potential had appeared to develop a rather unpleasant personality.
Perhaps the most shocking aspect of returning to the The Floating Melon, was discovering that Dr. Killian had at least one fan amongst the adventurers. I am tolerant of Dr. Killian’s abruptness and lack of self awareness - I am an academic doctor myself, and have met many similar academic. Mittens, in contrast to all others, thought the doctor was ‘alright’ - this was even before it turned out he nursed Mittens back to good health with a drop of whisky. I dare say though that Mittens himself may lack a little self awareness. Mittens was not cognisant how an increasingly long conversation with the doctor was increasingly wearing Carnan’s patience thin. At the first mention of an ‘E’ name that wasn’t Eric’s actual name, I suggested it was time to get moving and enter the mirror.
On the Mirrors Ability Switching Revisited
This time round, within the space and time it took to enter the mirror, the physical and mental alterations were not so severe - for me atleast. I did not feel my mental faculties all but vanish, but instead only noticed a slight degeneration, with a noticeable uplift in physical acumen - I became really quite dextrous. I dare say I could have handled a rapier with aplomb - I had gained Lilia’s talents. Poor Drake got my talents, and although anyone should value a sharp mind, his magical talents rely on charisma rather than intellectual merit. He had experienced what I experienced on my first time in the mirror; an experience that came at the expense of what he most relied on.
On Field Testing Spells
Carnan had earlier invigorated us with a mixture of druidic and divine supplementation to our fortitude. However, given the green nature of the party, I felt it best to strengthen our numbers in light of our opposition growing in number themselves. I casted a summon spell; Summon Undead, and cast it as the Putrid form. Not only could my summon dish out damage with its claws, it could poison the opposition (and an ally if not careful!) and potentially paralyse them with the intensity of the poison. I wasn’t able to take advantage of the later quality, but overall; Summon Undead has tested well.
My use of telekinesis has a wonderful combative edge to it. Not offensively mind you; I won’t be punching anyone with a telekinetic fist, as if I’m Kavel. But, my telekinesis was terribly useful for pushing away opposition to give me range for casting spells!
The Manifested Mind of my Awakened Spellbook had its second outing in the field. Once again casting my variant Scorching Ray spell, Forceful Ray. If there was cover for me to dart behind in the mirror’s private sanctum, I could have hidden away and benefited from my Mordenkainen tribute blasting the opposition for me. I did, however, benefit from my Manifested Mind’s eyes! There was a moment when Wild Magic turned against us and casted the Fog Cloud spell around us, blinding us all. My Manifested Mind was fortunately outside of the fog cloud, and so I was able to see through its eyes and navigate my way out of the cloud.
On the Mirror’s Wild Magic Revisited
Inside the private sanctum of the mirror, we were greeted by the same space as before. A void, with a portion of a beach; a picnic blanket by a palm tree on a sandy beach with a portion of sea next to it. The twisted form of Eric, that was his magical acumen, was on the beach and reshaped itself into four fairly large spheres of different colours; gold, silver, blue and red.
With more of the party reliant on magic for offensive capabilities this time round, we were less hesitant about casting spells, regardless of the possible Wild Magic consequences. I was certainly included amongst those liberally casting spells. We got lucky several times. After summoning an Undead, the Wild Magic fallout was turning the entire party (and my Undead summon, as well as one member of the opposition) invisible. At another point in the battle, the Wild Magic consequence of my casting of the Scorching Ray spell was the magical healing of some injuries on my person. At one point, I felt entirely unharmed. I was lulled into thinking I may have gotten a handle on this Wild Magic. This was a very foolish thought! The Wild Magic consequence of a later spell of mine resulted in an unintentional casting of the Fireball spell. This unwelcome consequence did result in one of our opposition perishing, but it came very close to wiping out more than half the party - myself included. Poor Mittens (12 years old!) was almost removed from the plane of the living. It turned out Dr. Killian revived the young lad with young whiskey (... 12 years old…) and sent him back into the mirror. Poor Drake was the worst affected by the Wild Magic. While I mostly got away with favourable effects, Drake was caught up in magical confusion for a considerable amount of time. In addition, he was for what must have felt a considerably long six seconds, a potted plant.
The coloured orbs all seemed to have a magical personality of their own. The golden orb, was in extended opposition of me and my Undead summon, and was quite fond of stabbing us with the Sword Burst spell. From a distance, the blue orb was fond of the Magic Missiles spell. Red orb’s go-to was the Firebolt cantrip. The silver orb either had a penchant for Lightning Lure or Shocking Grasp.
Visibly, when the orbs took enough harm, they would ‘die’ from their current humanoid sized form, and collapse within itself only to regenerate much larger. I was able to discern that the magic we were attacked with from the larger forms, were from spells more potent than the cantrips originally cast. There was a limit though to how many times the orbs could regenerate - there was only so much magical acumen going around, and it was split four ways. The golden orb vanished entirely after the mishap from the Wild Magic derived Fireball.
Carnan’s last, tremendously powerful Guiding Bolt spell exploded the last of our spherical opposition, and the private sanctum began to crack, and went black. We reappeared safely in The Floating Melon. The mirror shattered into pieces, and we regained our own mental and physical skills. Eric, when we found him back in the basement, was already casting the Minor Illusion spell, for the first time since leaving the mirror.
Swift once again, on behalf of the Witching Court, gave as a kingly sum of gold as recompense. The doctor rummaged together an eclectic mix of rewards for us from The Floating Melon. At one moment, while we watched him put together our reward package, it looked like he was using our reward as an excuse to get rid of some mess - several shards of the mirror made their way into our ‘swag bag’. However, to be fair to the doctor, these shards have an interesting magical utility.
I tried to make enquiries as to who between Xantha and the doctor started what seemed like a very hostile and criminal rivalry. But, I didn’t pursue the matter for too long. It was clear that being in the doctor’s presence was trying for ‘some’. When the doctor called me Andrew, instead of Archie, I will admit my own patience was reduced a tad.