“Imagine if I was high enough level to Pair and Admix and Echo and Fastcast them,” I replied to Princess Kristie calmly, Mana Boosting to replace what I was using after every spell, as I was having to go through fifty-plus Mana a cycle now.
“That would be… a lot of dead wisps,” Princess Kristie acknowledged, watching as ever more wisps were crackling into existence, while I was picking off the stragglers as they moved off in a steady flow down the dark ramp leading into the ground, a gaping hole now surrounded by misting flames that were slowly following the wisps down into the darkness. “You’re basically creating an extra twenty wisps every thirty seconds at this point,” she noted quietly.
They were being reborn considerably faster than that, well over sixty every six seconds at this point, all of them bobbing and weaving and heading down into the ground. The air was thick with crackling balls of spinning shadows materializing and pouring down into a steady stream into the hole in the ground.
“By my count, at least two hundred have died below. Who knows how many the wisps have killed.” Swarms of wisps now had to be pressing through the place, exploring every nook and cranny. They might be kept out by something as nice as a closed door… but invulnerable doors didn’t exist, so they could start blasting anything closed to get on the other side if they sense life, too.
“And our Karma is going up,” Kris noted, perfectly happy to reap the rewards of Fellowship we were all in, as were the scouts back on the beach, probably watching the numbers cycle up with both wonder and excitement.
The Mick was watching through our eyes, also quietly impressed at both the casual reaping, AND the sheer amount of mental effort it took to make it look like casual reaping. Plotting the targets of twenty Chained targets at speed was NOT something done easily. -Just had a team of Aun hunters show up on the beach, lasses,- he /informed us, enough to get Kris to look back at the shoreline.
-Drawn to the light show out in the water, no doubt.- Shards weren’t the flashiest of magic, but the constant multi-colored flickers would definitely not be mistaken for sun on the water after they repeated a few times. The strobing of the Shardrays would also stand out with the wild and vivid patterns they etched in the air.
The air was snapping and crackling with great vigor and release, the Land spewing up monstrous amounts of contagion, which I was Feeding into vivus and back into itself purified. There was no way I could possibly satisfy all the stress it was under, but the goal was to saturate the place with wisps, let the vivus infiltrate everything, stop any Summons below with its presence, and then it could either slowly dissipate, or feed on any continuing contagion from below.
In the latter case, the area would just be off-limits until whatever connection with another world ceased, as any wisps killed would just keep doubling and eventually spread off the atoll. In the former, they could eventually be picked off once the active vivus was gone.
“They are starting to back up. We’re going,” Kris stated in no uncertain terms, and the Shards I’d spun up fell away before I could attach the Iron Piercing Bolt rider to them. I noted the Wisps were not moving down into the hole very quickly anymore, which meant something was backing them up below.
“I think it’s self-sustaining at this point,” I murmured agreement, kneeling down as she trotted away across the waves. The black swirls in the air might have seen us go, but had no interest in us, despite at least a couple thousand of their kind having perished to Shardrays before I let up.
There were still occasional crackles as new wisps came back in in twos and fours, too, and as I watched, began to cluster more thickly on the top of the island. I switched over to Vatic Sight, ramped it up, and watched the mana surging around the island violently yet quickly, being sucked into the dark hole by a lot of spellcasting going on down below.
“I think they hit a door and are pummeling it down,” I reported, watching a concentrated flow of mana swirling down deep somewhere doing something. The location suddenly broke open, and mana started spreading out in a wider swathe. “I think they just broke through something and are dispersing.” Kris paused a quarter-mile out, and we both watched as the traffic jam worked its way slowly back up to the atoll, taking a good ten minutes to riffle through, and suddenly more wisps starting heading down the hole, clearing up the blockade to their descent.
However, more pairs of wisps were snapping into existence to join them, showing there was a lot of fighting going on below… which I found incredibly amusing.
“If there are Summons, the killing will continue until those Summon points are actually blocked by vivus,” Kris said slowly, grinning slightly as she appreciated the strategy. “If there is anything real, it is definitely hosed if the wisps can sense them. They’ll be dug out of wherever they are hiding and die badly.”
“Don’t make dungeons oozing extra-dimensional energy with Summon points when vivus is around and the Land can spew wisps out to vent its ire?”
“Sounds like practical wisdom. At least it wasn’t popping out zefirs,” she noted.
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“Zefirs are Fey, and have actual spirits,” I reminded her. “Vivus would have eaten the spirits, too, and soon enough, no Fey to call on locally. Self-defeating. Likewise, the slithyr tentacles would have a harder and harder time worming their way here to feed on the corruption, and I assume are being shot as hard as anything else, if they are present below.”
“Good enough. Ready to meet some green tummies?” she asked, turning fully around and making time for the shore.
“Sure. I think they might be impressed we both can speak their language…”
“Polyglot is the best Feat!” Kristie agreed brightly.
-------
There were only four of them, but they were all experienced hunters, measuring at least Level 100 on the Isparian scale, and so completely capable of taking care of themselves against any of the wandering threats of Ithaenc. As a team, they could take down any of the enclosed threats, which I’m sure they did regularly to keep themselves sharp.
They were very impressed when Kristie came skating in over the waves instead of having to wade through the water, although the floating Disks and invisible Wagon had also given a lot of weight to the things the Mick had been discussing with them.
Archer-warriors with a scattering of magic, using the traditional bow, spear, and knife, I noted. Their Shamans did not use weapons, and used drums as Implements, something I didn’t see on these four. These fellows seemed to use special knives as athame for their spells, although they didn’t sacrifice anything, more ritually cutting the mana out of the air and drawing patterns with the point, much like a wand.
No shaman with them meant this was an experienced group capable of taking care of themselves, as their beadwork, scars, and the intricate stitching on their leathers and furs related.
That was lugian steel on the ends of their arrows, however, although they all had remoran stingers on their Spears.
“Greetings from the Tonk of Aunok Ithaenc,” the tallest and most senior of them greeted us, towering head and shoulders above the two of us, feathers of his rank dangling from his braided hair. “I am Aun Tipua, a Master Hunter of the Tonk,” he continued, his solemn voice handling the Isparian words with only a little difficulty, our Polyglot automatically filling in translated words where he used Nuarea and Itea and other terms.
Tonk was their own name for themselves, tumerok being sort of a bastardized allusion to ‘bloody-handed brutes’, which the Hea took pride in as an acknowledgment of their martial prowess, and the Aun as a bit of an insult that they were only barbarians.
Princess Kristie bowed formally, as did I, and we got the attention of all four of them when we made the proper polite greeting gestures to them. “Greetings to the Aun of Ithaenc,” Kris replied firmly. “I am Kristie Rantha-Briggs, second daughter of the Emperor of Ispar, across the winds and waves between worlds, where the Isparians of Dereth once called home. This is my advisor, Devra al-Ryinth, magos and weave-shaper of the winds and flames of the arcane.
“How may we be of assistance to the noble and vigilant children of Aun today?”
Her accent was exquisite. The Aun were all wreathed in their somewhat sharp-toothed rendition of smiles at her almost poetic manner of speaking.
“The great warrior Lord Mick has spoken of the evil uncovered on the atoll in the waters. We had thought more of the breathless might have infiltrated, and did not expect the shadowed ones to have returned like this,” he admitted. “He says you have ‘contained’ the threat, for now, Your Highness?” he asked curiously.
“The Land is feeding upon them and the evil that they have brought here,” Kris stated without batting an eye. “It has vomited the pox that is the wisps upon their location, and the pustulent things of magic go into the hole, seeking the rot that is their sustenance below, killing all in their path.
“At some point, the wisps will need to be cleared away, and I anticipate many greetings from the wind-thorns of the Aun when that day comes.”
The other Aun cheerfully confirmed that sentiment. As wandering threats that could pop up anywhere, wisps were among the more despised creatures of the area to the Aun. Their Wards kept the wisps away from their living areas, but I doubted a day went by they weren’t killing a few off.
The Land had a lot of stress to vent hereabouts.
“Running them out for a look would probably be a good idea, Highness,” I murmured to Kristie.
“That’s true. Hop aboard a Disk, and I’ll tow you out there to see for yourself what is happening!”
They were warriors and adventurers. They got up on the floating silvery things of Force with only mild trepidation, and were rather surprised when they didn’t lose their footing when she started off, hit the water, and started Skating over it.
We watched them head out towards the black blot on the water, which seemed to almost be writhing from this distance from the motion of so many wisps so close together.
“Got a campsite picked out?” I asked the Mick, as we watched them go.
“There be three natural ways down the hillside close to this point,” he answered me calmly, not looking over. “Be plain as the nose on me face the shades know that, an’ the easy camping spots. Like as not, they’ll check them first t’ see if there be any o’ us mortals watching for them.
“Aun Tipua said there’s a little nook nearby his fellow hunters have carved out for themselves we should be able to take cover in, and post watchers for the ways down.
“He also noted the shades can heal themselves, an’ there’s two areas where the jump be only thirty feet, an’ they might just hop off, mend themselves up, an’ trot on out.”
“A lot of places to watch,” I noted neutrally.
“Aye. Be thinkin’, a roach out in the water, sitting down comfortable-like invisible, might not be a bad idea, too.”
“They likely have excellent darkvision, so that’s a good idea,” I admitted. “The waves will also conceal most of their body heat. Just have to stay off to the side, instead of on the proper approach paths.”
“Aye. The Aun will volunteer, too, an’ they’re keen attuned t’ the jungle. Odds are they’ll sense the shades getting’ close, even if they don’t see ‘em first.”
“Get the vine blankets ready for the Disks, and we’ll see about setting up a proper surprise.”