isleofavalon | FEBRUARY CATCH-ALL

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FEBRUARY CATCH-ALL

🧙 WHO: Claude (

facebite), Iskandar (

gordianknot) and you!
⚔️️ WHAT: Catch-all for February - TDM prompts, questing, etc.
🕒 WHEN: Throughout February
🗺️ WHERE: Everywhere!
⚠️ WARNINGS: References to death/graverobbing in the TDM Forest of the Fisher King prompt.

CLAUDE

SUSIE

noelle - valentine's day

ISKANDAR

gathering of kings

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[Claude had thought about Elphame's riddle long and hard, and to him, the most obvious choice of location was the Forest of the Fisher King. It was also terrain he was much more comfortable with than the Land of Rot, particularly as he'd visited here before to explore and gather ingredients. He knew the risks and how to navigate them, so even if he turned up empty-handed, it was less dangerous.

In theory, anyway.]

a. the forest
[In practice, a near miss staying out of sight of a Titan Pelican has them hurrying through the undergrowth and down a slope. Claude stumbles and looses his footing, and he pulls his scarf tighter around his mouth and noise to avoid inhaling any disturbed spores.

It seems like they've made it out unscathed, but soon Claude starts to lag behind his partner, pulling his scarf loose again and coming to a halt.]

Hey... Can we stop here? It'd be nice to take a break, don't you think? [That'd be fine, but he had advised with his exploration buddy before they went in that they shouldn't stop moving, unless absolutely necessary. He also as a vague, absent smile on his face, like they definitely did not just avoid getting eaten by a giant bird.

Uh oh.]

b. graverobbing
[If by some miracle they manage to make it to the crypt after Claude's spore mishaps, there's a creature here ready to kill them. Surprise, surprise. Claude's calm, readying an arrow to fire the second the creature looks ready to pounce, but he knows he can't handle that thing if it gets anywhere near him.]

...Unless that corpse is holding something amazing, I say we make a run for it. How about you?

[Like treasure, some kind of magical relic, a weapon? They did come all this way, it'd be a shame to leave empty-handed.]

If you can distract this thing, I can use dark magic to sneak by and get a closer look.

( oh good. of course. why wouldn't there be something trying to kill them after the forest and the quicksand already tried to? maybe she should have just followed the most obvious seeming answer and went to the Land of Rot. it can't be worse than this continuing course of murder attempts.

unfortunately for this thing, and this riddle, Kate has no particular inclination towards dying here. not while her brother still needs her to finish this whole saving the multiverse bullshit. )

Yeah.

( it's a short, breathed out agreement, but it's an agreement. and, given all the traps leading up to this place, Kate isn't entirely convinced that getting closer to that corpse could be worth it for anything. isn't entirely convinced that there aren't more booby traps waiting closer to it.

so if Claude wants to risk his neck while she drags this thing backwards, she's fine with that. )

Get ready.

( she's siphoned some magic from the forest, the store buzzing brightly in her veins, and it's as good a time as any to practice aiming blasts of magic, isn't it?

at least if she fucks up she can run. probably.

welp, time to try. hey monstermonstermonster. look over here at the bright pink hair so she can drag you away from Claude. )

'Sgood a time as any for shadow travel, huh.

[Dire peril is not usually Rei's go-to pastime here in Avalon. But he does enjoy solving riddles and turns of phrase that the fey queen so dearly loves to hand down to them, and if Kate's going graverobbing then he might as well too, right?

That was the idea a few hours ago, at least. Now that he's severely muddy and ankle deep in snakes and whatever, staring down some amalgam creature? Ehh, not his greatest tactical decision ever.

Fuck it, if he gets cursed he gets cursed! He can fix that! (Maybe???????)]

Countin' on ya, Kate.

[The chimera-- well, reverse chimera-- hisses harshly with its serpentine head, crouches, and leaps for Kate. Yikes, time to go!!]

Right.

[Claude looses the arrow he'd readied, and it strikes the creature's flank, sending it staggering slightly off-course so Kate can press an advantage. That done, he shrouds himself in dark magic while the beast is still recovering, and slips by.

Of course, the closer they get to the corpse, the more snakes lie in wait. He hits a few with a stun curse to render them immobile, before dropping his shadow spell, looking across to find Rei.]

Ready? There could be more traps, so be careful.

( she's not exactly rusty, but being in this situation just throws into clearer focus how much it sucks. a frustrated sigh builds in her throat but there's no time to waste letting herself indulge in it.

so, as she has for... oh, too many years of her life, Kate swallows down her complaints and focuses a blast of magic towards the place Claude's arrow strikes. it works, sort of. she misses the target by about a foot, but it's a hefty enough blast that it still hurts. the creature cries out in pain and not for the first time, Kate's glad Avalon uses a different magic system from home.

it's much easier to survive shitty fights when you can actually do something with your magic. even if she doesn't get the warnings she would back home, she has eyes. she can tell that the way the creature moves means it wants to strike back at her for the transgression of attacking it.

that's just what they need right now. she just has to make sure it doesn't catch her as she sprints in the opposite direction to Rei and Claude, holding back on the kinetic magic for the moment. there's only so much magic in a body, after all. even if she keeps siphoning magic from the area, there's a limit to what she can do. especially in the middle of combat. best to play it safe for now, throwing herself to one side to dodge a blast of acid, narrowly skidding around the edge of a pit.

dammit. quick, she needs somethi—

ah!

what Claude and Rei may hear is the sounds of a stone pillar tumbling to the floor as Kate blasts it with enough magic to fell it like a tree. )

[Kate's death-dodging is much appreciated, but Rei will hold onto his comments for now. Instead he nods to Claude as their eyes meet. The snakes may or may not be magical, but they're still ectothermic either way; Rei's curse pools at his feet, drastically dropping the body temperature of any approaching creature.

He clicks his tongue as they approach the corpse. Traps too, huh? Damn.]

Gotta wonder who exactly set these up. [Is the Fisher King protecting his own body, or was it something else? Rei doesn't have long to wonder, though; better to grab something and get out before that chimera gets them.

The room shudders as the pillar Kate attacked topples to the ground with a resounding crash. Rei's gaze snaps to a shock of movement in front of them that accompanies it: a trapdoor of some kind jolted out of place by the impact.]

There. [Watch the edge of that, Claude. Still, there's something twinkling amongst the dust and grime beyond the trap's reach.]

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FEBRUARY CATCH-ALL

trust falls - forest of the fisher king

b!

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