Ellisandra activated her Draconic Titan power. Her body swelled to 11 feet tall, her scales growing larger and thicker. Her face extended into the visage of a steel dragon, two twisted horns extending from her head. Her clothing, to her relief, magically scaled with her.
The vines started to wrap around her thick legs, unable to find purchase to implant seeds. She stepped forward, tearing away vines as quickly as they clung on. She opened her mouth wide and exhaled a stream of shredding metal, cutting a wide path forward deeper into Saltwatch. Krypdyr, Zeff, and Fuzzball all followed Ellie as she stomped her way along the cleared path.
The vines were already beginning to spread over the shredded area as Nate watched them advance from his vantage point. Terry happily ran around the rooftop, snapping up errant vines that began to creep back over the parapet. Nate summoned his bow, whose duration was doubled by his first Conjuration perk, Soul Bound.
Soul Bound. Novice Conjuration Perk. Passive ability. Cooldown: None. The duration of summoned weapons and tools is doubled.
As he set the translucent arrow and pulled the string back, his first Archery skill perk activated.
Trajectory. Novice Archery Perk. Passive ability. Cooldown: None. You see a translucent line indicating your arrow’s trajectory.
They, being on the other side of Saltwatch, were beyond the range of his short bow. He fiddled with the settings of his trajectory line, finding himself able to change the color and degree of translucence with mental commands. He shot several leaves, pinning them to the ground or wall where they swayed. With a wriggling motion of the vine, the leaves pulled free, the holes slowly closing over.
“Time to try some new abilities,” Nate said to Terry, who stepped into him once again. The purple heavy armor plating spread over Nate’s body and he felt his Health surge. He pulled his cowl over his head, and Terry’s wide mouth and sharp teeth sprung to life. When worn by Nate, Terry now was shorter than normal and much more humanoid in posture. Nate crouched, triggered his luck ability, and leapt out, keeping his right hand open and his left with his Elemental Bolt spell ready as needed. The roof he’d jumped from was about 40 feet above the ground level, his Terry assisted jump adding another 20 feet, and he used two more of his new perks.
Padded Soles. Novice Acrobatics Perk. Passive ability. Cooldown: None. Your falling damage is reduced by 25%.
Meteoric Strike. Novice Athletics Perk. Active ability. Cooldown: 1 minute. Cost: 25 MP per foot radius. When landing from a distance greater than 25 feet, you can deal bludgeoning damage to an area dependent upon your magic expenditure.
Nate pumped enough magic to make it a 5-foot radius, and his luck power surprised him. The cobblestone road beneath his feet crumbled and he plummeted into a hole he presumed to have been dug under the town by the vine. Soil walls became a blur before he slammed onto his back on hard stone.
“There may be holes under the road,” Nate groaned into the chat as he sat up. “Try not to break the ground too much.”
“Are you okay?” Fuzzball asked.
The yellow light of healing flooded over Nate's body from his Healing Touch spell, “I'm good. Keep the vine distracted.”
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Gronwood was in surprisingly good shape for a town long abandoned. Spring Jack watched from his enchanted spyglass as a group composed mostly of Mothkin ambled about the town, tending to the gardens and heading out to hunt rat moles and other nearby creatures.
“Copper for your thoughts,” Blackwing said as he leaned against the rail.
“Do you remember Luma?”
Blackwing smirked, “I remember the ruckus you two made in your chambers.”
“Indeed, those were good times! I think her crew is down there.”
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“What's the play?”
“Well,” he pulled up his shirt and touched a small scar on his chest, “we didn't exactly end on great terms.”
“She stabbed you.”
“Yes, Blackwing, I remember. Damn, that was a fun night!”
Blackwing grabbed the spyglass and took several moments to look over Gronwood. “I don't see their airship.”
“I noticed that, too. Keep the merchant flag up for now until we get closer.”
“Are you thinking what I'm thinking?”
“She's going to try to steal our ship.”
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Bright, Luma's new first mate, hustled into where Luma sat enjoying a warm cup of tea, tucked in her entirely white Mothkin wings, and sat next to her, “Captain, there's an airship bearing Tempeste merchant colors heading straight for Gronwood.”
Luma gently sat her mug down, “Any visuals on the crew yet?”
“They're a bit too far out for details, but we think one of them may be a slightly dark blue color.”
“Send a scout to investigate. We may have found our next airship. And send Galad north to Saltwatch to inform Nate and Ellie. We'll likely need their help.”
“Aye aye, ma'am.” Bright rushed out of the room.
Luma sipped her tea thoughtfully, muttering to herself, a reminiscent smile across her face, “Darker blue. It couldn't be…”
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Vines lashed out at Nate as he stood, wrapping around his arms and legs and attempting to pull him back down. Bolts of ice froze the section around him and he crunched his way forward. The underground section looked very similar to the mines they had found under Gronwood, except here thick vines covered the exposed surfaces.
“We are close to the core, Terry. Look how thick these vines are.” Even as he spoke, the thicker vines broke away from the walls and shot toward him, snapping his legs together and making him fall. He tried to freeze them, but they must've had more health as they ignored his novice spell. The crushing vines pushed the air out of his lungs and he watched his health begin to wain.
This creature was already touching him, so he activated his Vampiric Sigil Stone's draining power. It slowed the damage he was taking, but the drain was far too slow to keep up, and he couldn't pump magic into it to make it stronger.
But that wasn't his only draining ability. Monsters were creatures typically summoned via manifestation portals, and they all possessed at least a partial connection to the astral magics thereof. Nate leaned his head down and Terry's jaws tore into the vine around his chest. The network of vines shuddered as chunks were ripped away. Nate felt his energies restore minutely.
“Time to set you loose, buddy.” He said as Terry stepped out from him. Nate's health cut in half as Terry towered before him. His familiar roared with glee, grabbed a vine as it whipped at him, and began to devour.
Astral Drain. Passive. Astral energy consumed by your familiar while it is within your aura refreshes your Hunger, Thirst, and Exhaustion, and slowly refills your Health, Fatigue, and Magic.
Nate felt invigorated as his energies were recharged. He blasted out with bolt after bolt of frost, slowly working their way deeper into the cave system.
Above, Fuzzball lashed out with ice covered vines, weaving through leaves and leaving behind ice encrusted vines that Zeff tore through using his magictech turret, which he intentionally left unenchanted to avoid using healing fire damage on the corpse-vine. A group of intertwined vines wrapped around his leg to pull him from his weapon, but Krypdyr was quick to his aid, his frosted blade severing the vines with a clean swipe. The ice broke away from his sword, quickly reapplied by Fuzzball as he continued his route to widen their safe area. Ellisandra grabbed and ripped up large sections of the corpse-vine, the plant creature unable to penetrate her thickened scales. More and more of the vines sprang up from the ground, arching out to attempt to bind the tireless Draconic Titan, but she continuously pushed on. As she tore the vines, red ichor oozed from them, which she took into herself using her blood control ability.
This continually recharged her breath weapon, and as they fought she reduced her time between cones of shredding steel from ten minutes to 8 to 5, eventually as more and more corpse vine was shredded and bleeding, she was breathing her cone of steel every 2 minutes.
“Turret’s done for now,” Zeff said over chat as he slumped to the ground while his summoned turret dissolved into motes of light.
“Krypdyr, look after Zeff while he rests,” Ellisandra said, “Fuzzball, start working toward the hole Nate made. He’ll likely need us soon.”
“Terry’s doing a great job down here, actually,” Nate said. “Good boy!”
Nate continued to track the glowing energies of the corpse-vine, moving further into the cave system. The vine coating had thinned as he moved and dodged incoming vines, more and more moving up to attack the others.
He followed Terry around a corner and stopped in awe. His Astral Sense ability nearly blinded him as he looked upon the core of the plant. The brighter, stronger vines of the core did not shoot out at Terry and him, but they swirled in loops that were 5 feet in diameter, forming 10 foot tall cocoons that shortly opened. Ten figures of tightly wound vines stepped out from the cocoons, aglow with magic and power. Five of them were masculine and five feminine in shape, 8 foot tall figures of immaculate beauty.
“Oh no,” Nate called out over chat.
“What is it?” Ellie said with more worry than Nate was expecting.
“Do you think the corpse-vine can read my mind, or does it usually make guardians that are really really ridiculously good looking?” Out loud to the guardians he added, “Do the Blue Steel! Unless you by chance can’t turn left? Or was it right?”