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Syka is a new settlement of primarily humans on the east coast of Falyndar opposite of Riverfall on The Suvan Sea. [Syka Codex]
As impressive as he was, Ken could only withstand thr creature's blows for so long and it was the next one that had his back slam into the nearby tree that had been splintered only seconds ago. Both thr tree and the man shook with the force of the impact as Ken shouted in both frustration and pain, his strength faltering for a moment as he dropped to one knee, the snake's head already rearing for what would surely be it's final strike.
A tick later the air was filled with the horrific pained hisses of the giant serpent as two short stone spikes sunk into its side, not far below it's head, the creature instantly turning it's gaze on the attacker, Kamilla.
Filled with terror, Kamilla's djed had been stiff and unresponsive and it was only through sheer force of will and effort that she'd managed to produce enough for the two earth spikes which had met their mark, another one had begun forming as a glistening lavender liquid res coating her free hand, with Yennefer held toghtly to her body witg other, the distressed feline clinging to its owner as well, nails digging painfully into Kamilla's exposed skin, but that was the lesst of her concerns.
As the snake stared her down, Kamilla noticed that it's tail was lifting in preparation for a crushing strike as well, one she doubted she'd be able to survive, so she fired another spike of res, this time aiming at its face in hopes of killing it as she transmuted it to solid stone.
Apparently, the serpent was smarter than it looked, swinging it's head to the side and out of the way of her projectile. Kamilla could only watch in horror as her chances dwindled to next to nothing, not having nearly enough time to produce enough res to do anything useful with, but before she could accept her fate there was a loud shout and another loud angry pained hiss. The former came from Ken as he swung his giant machete into the creature's side, drawing blood, the latter from the monstrosity itself.
With the opening, Kamilla took a deep breath, willing her res to pour into her lungs as well as from the long healed scars on her palms from her reimancy initiation years ago. She exhaled a viscous ball of lavender res with two fist sized balls forming above each other her hands as well and in a moment she had split each of them into two and had begun swinging her arms upwards at the monstrosity.
The first of the projectiles was dodged and therefore not transmuted while the second was turned to solid stone right before making contact and slamming into the underside of the creatures face. The third and fourth were similarly avoided and landed respectively. She was angry, scared and most of all, sick of being hunted by the wildlife in the petching Hai of a jungle and for some reason, that specific coctail of emotions had her more focused than ever.
While two of the four projectiles had made their mark, the two that had missed had flown past the monstrosity and into the air above its head, untransmuted and still well within her range of influence. Driven by sheer focus, the res that had poured from her mouth recombine into a single blob which them began to spin rapidly in front of Kamilla's face, dipping low towards the ground and expanding into gaseous form to the point that it was now surrounding the monstrous serpent while attracting air, which caused it to pick up a storm of dirt and any other tiny debris in the area.
Dust devil. Something Kamilla had taught herself to do years ago in the wilderness near Zeltiva when she was still only beginning to understand her reimancy.
While the vortex of dirt was harmless, it did make it more difficult to see without getting dirt in ones eyes and because of this the creature lashed out at Kamilla, swinging it's tail horizontally towards her assumed position. She ducked. Once again narrowly avoiding the danger as the bulbous tail slammed into the same tree trunk as before, it's splinters rushing to join in the vortex of tiny debris she'd created.
Having had enough of the creature and the jungle in general, Kamilla willed the two balls of res hovering above the monster's head to combine, flatten out and hollow in the center as it began to spin in what was anothrr well practiced technique. The chakram, which had barely been formed for a tick when Kamilla sent it flowing down and towards the unsuspecting serpent, instantly transmuting it and watching as it slammed hard into the back of the creature's head, causing it to stagger and fall to the ground, writhing in pain.
Seizing the opportunity, Ken shouted once more as he raised his machete above his head and prepared to bring it down on the snake in a powerful chopping motion, but once again the Dhani was too fast. Twisting, writhing and fleeing into its hole in what could only be described as a tornado of scales and tail.
Upon its exit, Kamilla was force to hit the dirt to avoid the swinging club of a tail as the snake fled, slamming it's tail into both the tree and Ken's machete as he once again used it as a shield.
As the debris from dust devil spell began to dissipate and settle, Kamilla laying face down in the dirt with Yennefer held tightly between her arms, her own breathing loud and labored, along with that of Ken's nearby, was all that could be heard among the relative silence. Was it over? Kamilla dared to hope.
The silence was deafening as she lay there with her face in the dirt, gasping for air as she strained her ears for any sign of the monstrous serpent and it's movements but none could be heard. Was it really over? It seemed too good to be true, and Kamilla was too scared to risk feeling relief. Had they really survived such a horrific creature? It couldn't be heard so surely they must have been safe and in the clear.
It was at that exact moment that Kamilla heard a loud low moaning noise accompanied by loud cracking and she looked up, pushing herself back to her feet, just in time to notice the large trunk of the bludgeoned tree slowly falling over in her direction.
"Look out!"
This time she couldn't move her feet fast enough, instead forced to watch as the giant tree toppled towards her, but right before it hit, she felt a heavy weight slam into her, knocking the wind out of her as she then felt her back hit the ground, losing what little air she had left along with a stinging pain in her head.
Kamilla forced her eyes open, she was gasping for air and all she could hear was a ringing noise, her vision was hazy and the thing she could see was a bright red, like a fire, moving just in front of her.
It took several ticks for her vision to clear up before Kamilla realised she easy looking directly at Ken and pushed herself back onto her knees, Yennefer still clutched tightly between her arms as she gasped and coughed in her sitting position. Ken had saved her, that much she was sure of, though there was now a ringing in her ears and a stinging in her head.
Looking down to check on Yennefer's condition, wanting to make sure she was okay, the gray feline seemed traumatised but not physically injured in anyway, her eyes the widest Kamilla had ever seen them be. She smiled down at the feline that had caused all the trouble in the first place, too relieved to be angry, by some miracle they'd all managed to home onto their lives.
"Hey, are you okay? We need to go."
Through the ringing in her head, Kamilla could hear what sounded like the voice of a distant man, Ken, but she continued to smile down at Yennefer was remained petrified in her lap, only now noticing two spots of red on the feline's gray fur, spots that hadn't been there before. She frowned, wondering where the marks had come from, she was sure they hadn't been their ticks earlier. Then a third appeared and Kamilla's eyes widened as she felt a warm feeling running along her cheek and chin, a hand moving towards her head and returning, now covered in a dark red.
"Hey! Are you okay!?"
This time the voice sounded more urgent and despite the pain, Kamilla nodded, forcing herself to her feet with the help of a strong arm that came out of nowhere. "I'm bleeding..." Kamilla asked in disbelief, not sure how or when it happened.
"You hit your head on a rock, I'm sorry. I was trying to save you from being crushed. Just stay here, I'll be right back. I need to kill that monster before it can hurt anyone else."
This time the words registered and Kamilla turned to spot thr bloody rock, before returning her gaze to Ken. Was he insane? They'd barely survived the monstrosity in the first place, now he was following it into its burrow? Or hole? Or nest? Whatever the petch it was called. Regardless it was obviously a terrible idea, but it was too late to stop him as she watched him disappear into the hole.
This time Kamilla didn't bother to hope. The petching fool. What was he thinking? Is attempted heroism was going to get him killed. She wouldn't follow after him, there was no way. He was going to far and to follow in after him would be asking too much of her, she was injured, exhausted and quite possible concussed. It was not going to happen. Stupid shyke. Why couldn't he just leave well enough alone. He was dead. She knew it it. He was completely and undoubtedly...
Before she could finish her morbid thought Kamilla was interrupted by a soft trembling and in the ground below her ticks before the ground a few meters ahead of her burst open as the giant snake's head began to rise out, Kamilla's heart dropping for what she was sure would be the last time.
As the monster rose out of the ground, this time she noticed something peculiar, where once there was a sleek limbless body, now there was a torso with scaly clawed arms. What in Hai was happening? She knew it was the same creature, it was bleeding in a few spots and she watched as it used it's newly grown arms to pull the two stone spikes from its neck before giving what sounded like both a hiss and a roar in Kamilla's direction, causing her to soil herself just a little at the sight of what would surely be her end. And then... nothing.
Kamilla could only watch, dumbfounded in complete disbelief as the monstrosity, the Dhani, turned tail stormed off into the jungle in a storm of scales. It had fled. Left them. Given up. They had... survived.
An entire chime passed by as Kamilla remained rooted to the spot, eyes trained on the exact location she'd last seen the monster before it had disappeared, half expecting it to come back and devour her whole, but it never did. Instead, Ken emerged from the hole in the ground, looking upset, surely at having allowed the Dhani to escape, and somewhat beaten but otherwise okay. He waved he waved her over towards the burrow.
"Are you okay? Come over here quick, I want you to see something before we head back."
Kamilla frowned in confusion, what could he possibly want to show her that was more important than getting the petch out of the jungle? At this point she was too exhausted to argue and simply stumbled her way forwards, blood still dripping from her chin.
Stepping into the darkness of the burrow, or fen, or nest, or whatever... Kamilla felt an intense shiver travel down her spine, her grip on Yennefer tightening slightly. It was just a small cave like hole, clearly dug out by the monstrous serpent itself. Thankfully the hole it created during its escape allowed some light to pour in, though it wasn't much, at least she could see enough, though honestly she just wanted to get out of the petching jungle.
"What is it?" The bite in her tone had returned, and with good reason.
"I just wanted you to give this a look before be leave. Do you know what it means? I figured there's a chance you'd know since you're a mage. You know, your magic is incredible, you saved us."
While Kamilla was too agitated to say it, she hoped Ken knew that it had been a joint effort and that he'd saved her too. Perhaps she should have said it, he still seemed pissed at having let the Dhani escape.
Squinting through the dim lighting, Kamilla noticed three things of interest in the otherwise disgusting burrow of the snake creature. A skeleton of a man sat against a wall, beside him was an old and tattered looking journal that had clearly deteriorated beyond the point of no return. The skull of what was clearly another of the giant snake creatures, though this one was far larger than the monster they'd just survived, causing Kamilla to shudder at the very thought of an even bigger serpent. And finally, what she assumed Ken had wanted her to see, a sigil painted on the wall.
While she remained agitated, Kamilla had to admit that her interest had immediately been caught as she handed Yennefer over to the red headed man who looked entirely too uncomfortable with holding the cat for someone who'd just run into a hole in pursuit of a giant carnivorous serpent.
While the symbols differed stylistically from from her own, almost entirely, her knowledge of glyphing as an art allowed her to glean enough information to know that it was indeed a sigil, it's structure quite similar to the one she'd drawn up one ordeal ago. "It's a glyph... and no it doesn't mean anything. Something is stored inside it. Provably a spell." The problem was, there was no obvious key for the trigger and Kamilla wasn't about to start calling out every word known to Mizahar until she found it. It might not even have been a word key in the first place. "It's near impossible to open it without the key. Let's just go." She was clearly disappointed but also, still bleeding from thr head and in need of medical attention as well as entirely ready to leave the horrid jungle.
It was unfortunate, she would have loved to see what the sigil held, but it was just not going to happen. Sighing as she admired the sigil and it's components once more, Kamilla reached out a bloody hand touch the wall before leaving, but the instant she made contact the runes began to glow. "Shyke!" She began, half expecting to get blasted by a ball of fire, but fortunately that was not the outcom.
When she opened her eyes, Kamilla was surprised to see three items laying on the ground and the sigil seemingly vanished as if it had never been there. The items on the ground were, an odd white wand, what looked like a colorful glass globe and a pair of admittedly nice thigh high boots. She had no idea why anyone would store such an assortment of random objects but it didn't matter at the moment, she needed medical attention and she wanted out of that petching jungle. She was taking the objects with her though, as compensation for the horrific ordeal.
With that, Kamilla, Yen and Ken made their way out of the burrow and towards Syka with Ken leading the way. It was at that point that Kamilla felt the need to speak up and say something. "Thank you for your help, I definitely would have been snaked food if you hadn't been with me." It was long overdue.
"Don't mention it tigress, let's just call it even... Maybe you can thank me with a drink.
"Over my dead body."
To that, Ken simply chuckled, with Kamilla joinimg in, albeit weakly due to her light headedness... She really hated the jungle.
Words: 745
items :
Explorer’s Globe – This magical lantern looks like an ordinary vented lantern save for its shape. Designed like a geometric globe made of glass the size of a grapefruit, it has a candle inside that when lit activates the device. One of the glass panels lifts up and out of the way, allowing someone holding it to light the globe. The globe will then levitate and act as a steady light source for the owner until such a time as they pluck the floating globe out of the air and snuff out the candle inside. The candle will not burn out or show signs of melting down.
Leave No Trace Boots – These thigh-high boots, when slipped on, will automatically be the correct size and fit for the wearer. They will leave no trace of their passage through any sort of substrate including mud and snow so long as the substrate isn’t over the top of the boots. They will remain clean and dry and not ever show signs of wear. Their coloring is the owner’s choice and will change based on the owner’s outfit. The tops can be rolled down or up depending upon the owner’s activity
The Restorer’s Wand – This elegant wand looks like it has been made of woven spiderweb, though the feel of it is metallic. When grasped and passed over ripped, faded, worn, or deliberately destroyed organic material (such as wood, cloth, paint, ceramic etc) it will magically restore the damaged item to its former ‘new’ state. Thus, paintings can be brightened to the day they were painted, old worn clothing can be restored into their ‘new’ state, and even things like rope or leather can be fixed. It will not work on inorganic items such as metal.
Glyphing: Using Existing Sigils As Templates, Glyphing: Test Sigils Don’t Require Complex Components, Glyphing: Hard Lessons In Not Choosing Common Trigger Words, Ken Chi – Appearance & Mannerism, Tracking: Disturbed Ground Indicates An Animals Passage, Dhani- what their dens look like in the wilds, Ken – Has Some Hatred Of Dhani, Reimancy: Using Reimancy In Offensive Combat, Dhani – Snake and Combo Form Appearance, Investigation: Discovering Magic Items In Unusual Places
Loot: Odd White Wand, Colorful Glass Globe, Set Of Thigh-High Boots
