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Post by Ilia Underwing on Nov 9, 2010 2:43:23 GMT
Ilia kept healing Jynx, fueling the fire that was her existance. She felt torn between two actions. She knew that they needed to get to shelter and heal before they could do much else. But they also needed to warn Phoena. Wincing, Ilia took a step towards the Temple, deciding that it would be best to get Jynx there first, and then they could decide what to do. On her way towards the Temple, she faltered, and turned towards her other companions. She wanted to look at them so see if they were on the brink of death as Jynx was.
Move action: Finish healing Jynx Standard action to move action: Move towards her companions
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Post by Maerin on Nov 9, 2010 5:28:29 GMT
Jynx lived, at least for now. That much, Ilia was sure of. Whether or not the woman would survive remained yet to be seen.
Rogue hobbled after Ilia. He snarled in pain and irritation as she turned, after a few steps, to return to the bodies of her other companions.
The sight that greeted Ilia was shocking. Having felt the extent and nature of Jynx’s injuries, Ilia had some sense for what she might find. The reality, however, was horrifying.
The companions were laid out, side by side. All, save Ector, lay flat upon their backs, mostly submerged. Their heads had been carefully elevated above the surface of the water on hummocks of mud and grass. Ector, in contrast, was positioned face down and slumped over, propped up impaled upon the blade of his sword.
The water in a vast pool around the fallen companions was red with blood.
Ilia carefully felt in among them. She still held Jynx, and so used her magical senses to seek for any signs of life. However small they might be.
There were none. Each of the companions had inflicted, upon him- or herself, a fatal injury. Likely as part of the Swamplord’s attack upon all of them. The fight against the Swamplord had cost heavily.
As Ilia finished examining the bodies of her companions, the three owls appeared. They did not settle in a perch, and Rhia and Peep kept near Sage, but all three birds looked unharmed to Ilia’s eyes.
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Post by Ilia Underwing on Nov 10, 2010 3:53:43 GMT
Ilia looked at the bodies. She didn't know what to think. She brought Jynx, the only human member of her party left, closer to her as if trying to cling to what little familiarity she could find in the mass chaos of the death pool before her. She turned away from them, mind empty of anything besides the idea of healing Jynx, and returning to the Temple. She didn't know what to say to her animal companions. She didn't hardly know what to think at this point. The three feathered ones flew closer to perch on her trunk and head, hard-pressed to find a place that was not bloodied or bruised, but the need to be close to Ilia was so intense that they managed. Rogue whined at her feet, not for the pain he felt, but for the equally strong need to comfort his friend. As soon as this contact was made, Ilia felt purpose flow into her deadened heart and mind. Her human companions were dead. She could not bring them back. She, Jynx, and the rest were alive by sheer luck and...Well, probably not much else Ilia thought. She turned back towards the Temple, and did not stop walking until she got there.
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Post by Maerin on Nov 10, 2010 4:40:08 GMT
Ilia stepped out of the Swamp and back onto the lawn surrounding the Temple of Ohrido. There was now no evidence of the Nadziranim artifact. Even the crater she expected to see, where the thin obelisk had jutted from the ground, was gone without a trace. Of her own charging passage to attack the artifact, there was now only a faint set of large footprints.
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Post by Ilia Underwing on Nov 11, 2010 4:04:54 GMT
Ilia, weary to her very bones, stumbled towards the door of the Temple. Once there, she leaned her head against the door, mind fuzzy. Inside...the Temple... she thought, watching the doors open in her mind. She made it through the doors, thinking only of a room made to help her heal herself, her friends, and Jynx.
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Post by Jynx on Nov 11, 2010 4:19:06 GMT
Jynx's body still hung motionless and mostly dead in the gentle but firm grasp of Ilia's trunk.
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Post by Maerin on Nov 11, 2010 4:25:22 GMT
The Temple door did not open in response to Ilia’s mental thought. Ilia opened her eyes, and stared at the reflections of herself, her friends, Jynx and the Swamp behind her in its polished surface.
As Ilia tried to remember how the door had been opened the first time, the voice of the Temple spoke in her thoughts. When you have entered, a place has been prepared for you within.
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Post by Jynx on Nov 12, 2010 0:43:43 GMT
Jynx's body was cradled in Ilia's trunk as the druidess tried again to enter the temple.
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Post by Ilia Underwing on Nov 12, 2010 4:50:15 GMT
Ilia rested her head against the door, and remembered that Jynx had opened the door the last time. Her mind could not coalesce thoughts quickly enough to try and link everything else that happened in the temple into a straightforward way through the door. Thank you, she said back to the Voices of the Temple, and then she went to work trying to heal Jynx to a waking point so that she could again get them into the Temple. She didn't know if she could figure it out by herself.
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Post by Maerin on Nov 12, 2010 5:41:48 GMT
Ilia again reached her magic into Jynx, wincing as she did so. The Vassa woman was very deep in shock, with loss of blood and painful burns warring for which pushed the woman deeper into her coma.
As carefully as she could, Ilia tried to inhibit the pain of the burns as she slowly brought Jynx’s consciousness back. The effect was fragile, and Ilia guessed it would not hold for very long. Jynx was too far gone. But Ilia could keep Jynx conscious long enough to ask about the door.
As soon as Jynx moaned, and weakly opened her eyes, Ilia carefully asked Jynx how the doors to the Temple could be opened.
GM OOC: Jynx, you will need to make a Fortitude Save (DC20) to remain conscious beyond a very simple and short answer to Ilia’s question. Remember your total Fortitude save right now is only a +2.
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Post by Jynx on Nov 13, 2010 2:17:30 GMT
Jynx felt some force jerk her out of the blissful, black nothingness she was in and back into the painful hell that was consciousness within her body. Her torn and burned body tensed as Jynx shrieked in pain which then turned into a horrified bawling. Through the sporadic light that played over her weakened sight, Jynx saw the temple in front of her. This was her chance to escape. She thought deliriously, not knowing or caring how she got to the mirror like doors. She imagined no grass, no sky and no swamp. Jynx franticly concentrated on her own image, her black damp and matted hair, her terrified brown eyes, her burned skin and her muddy, torn clothes still brightly colored with her and her comrade’s blood. She then imagined herself within the hallway that made up the entrance of the temple as if looking she was looking into the other side of the door inside.
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Post by Ilia Underwing on Nov 16, 2010 4:49:30 GMT
Ilia closed her eyes, concentrating on keeping Jynx as pain-free as possible. Ilia hoped that when she opened her eyes, she was in a perfect healing room within the Temple.
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Post by Maerin on Nov 16, 2010 5:30:52 GMT
As Jynx again collapsed into unconsciousness, the doors to the Temple of Ohrido slide open to reveal the same hall that had greeted their companions upon their first arrival. Ilia stepped forward. Some part of her thoughts reminded her that she was taller than the door had been. However, both door and hall appeared to accommodate her present shape without difficulty.
As soon as Ilia was entirely within, the doors closed. Taking another step, she found herself in a large room. It was a bedroom, though it seemed overly large for that purpose. A great, comfortable-looking bed stood against one wall, near a hearth. There, a fire already burned. Near to both was a wooden table. On it, Ilia saw food and drink already present, as well as a large, iron kettle and other utensils.
On the other side of the room, Ilia saw a second bed. This one stood near a window that seemed to look out upon the exterior of the Temple. Sunlight, real sunlight rather than the sickly light of the fog-shrouded Temple, beamed in.
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Post by Jynx on Nov 17, 2010 5:01:40 GMT
Jynx fell back into the morbid peace that was unconsciousness until Ilia was able to hear her broken body.
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Post by Ilia Underwing on Nov 18, 2010 3:39:51 GMT
Ilia gently set Jynx down on the bed, ignoring the fact that she was going to soil the bedclothes with her current state. Once she slipped her trunk from beneath the broken Lady, Ilia shrank to her human form and, ignoring her protesting body, turned to her animal companions. She noted that the owls had landed on a perch near her bed and the window. She briefly inspected them, noting what harm had come to them. She then turned to the fire, where Rogue had settled on a blanket that appeared to on side of it and had began to lick the wounds on his forepaws. Ilia managed a tiny smile in her weariness as Rogue frantically shook his head, trying to get the swamp muck taste from his tongue. She looked over him, noting any significant damage, and got down a bowl of water for him to lap at while he waited his turn.
Then Ilia quickly turned back to her most severely injured patient. Lady Jynx. She rolled up her sleeves, gave a glance to the tools that she had at the ready, and got to work. She worked with practiced speed, yet had to be delicate with the charred remains of much of the mangled body. When she finally got to look closely at her, she was aghast at what she found. Jynx was toeing a very fine line between severe unconsciousness and death, an incredibly perilous situation at best. Not only was she mostly dead, it would take days of healing to exhaustion in order to get Jynx anywhere near a working state.
So she did. Ilia spent days healing Jynx, herself, and her animal companions. She did little more in those days than eat til her eyes could not stay open.
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