Alan? I asked my familiar. Found anything?
I watched through his eyes as he circled around. The jungle around our camp was quiet, suspiciously quiet even. I spotted several nocturnal monsters that would normally be out hunting stealthily moving about, as if they were afraid of something. This sort of behavior was extremely uncommon but not unheard of. When a powerful pack of predators was in an area.
Nothing Great Mistress. I felt his frustration through the link.
Come back then. We are moving out and need all the eyes we can spare. I felt affirmation come back through our link.
Our small camp was packed in a few minutes, everyone vanished their bedrolls and other equipment into their storage ring. With the attack fresh in our minds, we were all on edge and all detection spells and abilities were deployed.
"I asked Alan to scout around our camp and he found something unusual," I said.
"How unusual?" Hamak asked.
I explained and he frowned. If it had only been Vel and I, it would have been much easier to lose the Stalker-Hounds tracking us. But with a much larger group and my new form, it was harder for us to hide our traces. If we were able to sleep near the canopy, it would be much better but …
"I suspect that their strategy is to wear us down." The orc said, interrupting my thoughts. "Prod at our defenses during the day and prevent us from resting. At some point, we'll make a mistake."
"Are Stalker-Hounds really that smart?" Katherine asked.
"The Alphas were," Vel remarked, "they managed to coordinate to punch a hole in our defenses."
An idea formed in my mind. I had considered my new form a disadvantage but it was not. Far from it.
"We need to flip the script." I said. "Ambush them instead of getting ambushed. And I have an idea." I grinned.
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Raised Skill Spider Thread to rank 5, level 2 for 32 ES (+128 levels)
Raised Skill Utility Thread to rank 5, level 1 for 33 ES (+132 levels)
Raised Skill Thread Control to rank 4, level 1 for 10 ES (+40 levels)
Raised Skill Thread Creation to rank 4, level 1 for 10 ES (+40 levels)
Skill Spider Climb has reached rank 3, level 20 (+8 levels)
----------------------------------------
"Are you certain it will hold?" Darrel asked.
I carefully finished tying the web harness around him.
"It worked with everyone. Gwynn and Hamak were heavier than you." I said but he still didn't seem convinced.
I rolled my eyes.
"I can hoist you up if you prefer ..."
"Alright, alright," he raised his hands in surrender.
I lowered myself so he could climb on my back. He settled in the improvised saddle and I gave the safety line two tugs. It went taut and I started to climb the tree next to us. At the top, the rest of the group was waiting for us.
The canopy was the safest place for us to rest. Stalker-Hounds were excellent ground hunters but poor climbers. It wouldn't get them off our trail but that wasn't our objective at the moment. Hamak suspected that even if we lost them temporarily, they'd find us again before we reached our destination. Their name was well deserved after all.
I stepped into the web at the top and let Darrel dismount. This particular tree was convenient for our temporary camp as its branches spread out into a large bowl. I took advantage of it and created a massive web to serve as a floor. Everyone was secured to the trunk by a harness and rope in case of accidents.
"Let's rest first," Darrel said. "Then we'll make a plan. Katherine and Velatha, you're on the first watch, stay on guard even if we aren't expecting trouble this time."
I gave Vel a good night kiss and went to my hammock.
After the night's events, sleep claimed me quickly
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I was woken up from a pleasant dream for my watch shift by a smiling Elyssa. Vel had snuck into my web and was snuggling against me. I gave her another kiss on the forehead and carefully stepped out. She mumbled something until I summoned a large pillow for her to hug.
"Nothing happened?" I asked in a whisper.
"Not a leaf out of place," she confirmed.
Alan did not see any Stalker-Hound, my familiar confirmed as he landed on my arm. Only curious tree-dwellers, easily scared off.
Good job, I scratched his head.
I walked to the edge of the entrance and checked the ground as my sphere didn't reach all the way down. The jungle was quiet. Out of an abundance of caution, I cast Arcane Eyes again and sent the sensors away to watch possible approaches.
"Has this happened before?" I asked the snow elf.
"Once with snow wolves on the third layer," she said as she leaned against the trunk. "Not this persistent, though, we only had to walk a day to lose them."
"Proper scouts would've dealt with this already …"
"That's the adventurer's life. Sometimes things just go sideways and the best you can do is survive and do better the next time."
Words of wisdom.
We continued to keep watch in silence. I didn't mind. The background noise of the jungle was soothing to my nerves. It also gave me the opportunity to prepare for the next encounter. I had plenty of spell slots available and some essence to spare.
The first thing I did was take a look at which specializations were available for my Mystic Knight class. I had left them to the side for long enough. I wanted every advantage at my disposal for the next fight. One that had caught my attention all the way back in Nis was still there but it seemed it had changed slightly.
Mesmer
Requirements
Rank 4, Magic Combat at rank 3, Psychic Magic at rank 3, Wisdom of 200
Skills
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Phantasm (Create an illusory duplicate of yourself that can fight and deal damage)
Phantasmal Swap (Exchange your position with a phantasm)
Phantasmal Mirror (Create a magic mirror that copies an opponent's magic)
Phantasmal Veil (Should your allies in magical shadows to make them harder to detect)
It had become much, much better.
Purchased Specialization Mesmer for 36 ES
Raised Skill Phantasm to rank 4, level 1 for 30 ES (+120 levels)
Raised Skill Phantasmal Swap to rank 4, level 1 for 30 ES (+120 levels)
Raised Skill Phantasmal Mirror to rank 3, level 1 for 15 ES (+60 levels)
Raised Skill Phantasmal Veil to rank 3, level 1 for 15 ES (+60 levels)
Phantasm (Rank 4, Level 1)
Instant, 100 MP/sec per active phantasm
You can create up to four illusory duplicates of yourself and your equipment that can use one of your classes. The phantasm's skills and spells are only 40% of their original strength and can be resisted by sufficiently high willpower. The duplicate has 40% of your Health, Stamina, and Mana and does not regenerate.
Even at less than half of my strength, the phantasms would be powerful force multipliers if the numbers were in the enemy's favor. I could also use them as melee combatants to reinforce our front-line fighters. With my glaive and height, I would be able to stab from angles our tanks couldn't on their own.
Another part where I lacked were support spells. Vel and I were too used to working by ourselves and my spell selection wasn't geared towards helping large groups. But my earlier purchase for the various Grimoire perks solved this problem.
Primary Class 2
Mystic Witch
Skills (9/10)
[collapsed (+)]
Spells
Nature: 4/8 major (10th), 7/15 minor (5th)
Arcane: 4/8 major (10th), 7/15 minor (5th)
Psychic: 4/8 major (10th), 7/15 minor (5th)
Secondary Class
Mystic Priestess
Skills (4/10)
[collapsed (+)]
Patrons
Gaia, Lolth
Spells
Domains (6/10, 10th)
Knowledge (3/8), Healing (3/8), Protection (3/8)
Magic (3/8), Arcana (3/8), Runes
As a first step, I moved some of my minor spells to major slots and slightly updated them to take advantage of the headroom.
For the Nature spells, Solar Symphony and Dark Moon received the fewest updates as they were already well rounded. Wind Overture was expanded and combined with Song of Thunder to create Song of Storms. With it I could create gale force winds, barriers of solid air, dark clouds to obscure vision, and even a localized thunderstorm if I wished. I also added a spell for plant creation and control to have a backup if Vel was unavailable. The Clef of Thorns. For the last one, I combined my metal control spells into Steel Crescendo.
In my library of Arcane spells, I elevated Arcane Artillery and added more projectile options as well as a better automated targeting. Deconstruction and Reconstruction were expanded to work at short range. For the last spell, I created Mage Armor as an automated defense to use on our tanks. Moving to Psychic spells, I improved Chameleon into Invisibility. Strengthened Psychic Armor and Psychic Barrier to provide better protection. And finally Stasis was expanded to work on multiple targets at once.
My first priority for Divine spells was to gain more Healing, Protection, and Arcana spells. The first two were obvious, I needed more support spells. The last one also fulfilled this aim. With the Split Deck skill I could, as the name implied, split the deck inside my Spell Deck into three. One for healing spells, one for support spells, and one for offense spells. Since the deck contained all the druid spells from the spellbook Breknir had given us, I had a large array of options. Then, I could draw from each at will and use Arcana spells to alter their effects. For example, a single target buff could be cast on multiple allies. Or combined with a healing spell to alter the result.
Requested Abolish Poison (Healing, Gaia) from patron
Requested Remove Curse (Healing, Gaia) from patron
Requested Life Seed (Healing, Gaia) from patron
Requested Innervate (Healing, Gaia) from patron
Requested Second Wind (Healing, Gaia) from patron
Requested Blessing of Stone Skin (Protection, Gaia) from patron
Requested Blessing of Grounding (Protection, Gaia) from patron
Requested Blessing of Spirit (Protection, Gaia) from patron
Requested Elemental Resistance (Protection, Gaia) from patron
Requested Elemental Shield (Protection, Gaia) from patron
Released Major Arcana, Minor Arcana, Astrodyne
Requested Glyph of the Elements (Arcana, Lolth) from patron
Requested Glyph of the Arrow (Arcana, Lolth) from patron
Requested Sigil of Chaining (Arcana, Lolth) from patron
Requested Sigil of Fusion (Arcana, Lolth) from patron
Requested Sigil of Melding (Arcana, Lolth) from patron
Requested Law of Similarity (Arcana, Lolth) from patron
Requested Equivalent Exchange (Arcana, Lolth) from patron
Requested Astral Essence (Arcana, Lolth) from patron