You have gained (112 x 6) 672 experience.

The remnants of the celestial fires of the Starbloom Eruption were slow to fade. The large magical explosion had wiped out all of the piles of bone that crawled towards the gate and left both of the armored spectral warriors looking haggard. Arrows from Lorien accompanied by a Take This, Too! casting of Soul Lash took down the left warrior, while the arrival of the hornet swarm and Xeras finished off the second.

You have gained (175 x 2) 350 experience.

Congratulations, you have reached level five. Please visit your local Pillar of Ascension to level up.

“Good job, Ruth!” Dahlia said. The fairy met Ruth’s look directly until the fire mage coughed and looked away.

“Thank you, Lady Dahlia,” Ruth responded. The fire mage danced back and forth, almost like a flame herself. She was so pleased with the compliment that it put a grin on Dahlia’s face. More than that, though, Ruth held the wand in an almost sacred manner now that she had cast a spell with it and established a connection.

“Ruth, are there Pillars of Ascension in Aelwyth Morghaine?” Dahlia asked.

“Yes, Lady Dahlia. If we continue this route another block, they used to be in the courtyard facing the avenue. Unless someone destroyed them, or they became corrupted?” Ruth answered, and although the insubstantial spirit mage didn’t need to breathe, she seemed to be holding her breath as she attempted to stare through the wall and buildings that separated her from the Pillars.

“Let’s find out,” Dahlia said, gesturing for the Ebon Chorus to lead the way.

Beyond the wall, the city showed fewer signs of destruction. Outside of the damage caused by Ruth’s Starbloom Eruption, everything in the inner city of Aelwyth Morghaine seemed to be intact, other than the black lichen that threatened to consume all remnants of Fey knowledge and culture and the wild vines and weeds that had overgrown everything.

The Pillars of Ascension lay where Ruth had said they would and hummed with the divine blessings of Thoth. The curse of the Gods, the black lichen, didn’t approach the pillars. Nor did the wild vegetation, as if even it feared the retribution Thoth would release for the desecration of their work.

Dahlia touched the Pillar, and the world fell away to darkness.

Congratulations on reaching level five. Your new spell slot distribution is as follows: 4 1st-level spell slots, 3 2nd-level spell slots, and 2 3rd-level spell slots.

You have learned the following spells automatically due to your class/race: Call of the Grave, Coda of Unraveling, Embiggen/Shrinkydink, and Speak to Dead.

Call of the Grave (3rd level Necromancy): You awaken an undead servant from a pile of bones or corpse within range. You choose to raise either a Mummy, Wisp or Wight. Note: Due to Shaper’s Prerogative your undead remain under your control until defeated, or you free them.

Mummy: Raised by dark rituals and known for their wrapped appearances, these undead are ready to punish transgressors against whoever holds power over its unholy curse.

Strength: 16, Dexterity: 8, Constitution: 15, Intellect: 6, Wisdom: 10, Charisma: 12.

Vulnerabilities: Fire

Resistances: Nonmagical attacks

Immunities: Necrotic, Poison, Charmed, Fear, Paralysis

Level: 2

Actions: Fist of Wrath, Inspire Fear.

Wight: Intelligent, armed, and armored undead. They never tire, and their only purpose is to slay the living.

Strength: 14, Dexterity: 16, Constitution: 15, Intelligence: 11, Wisdom: 12, Charisma: 14.

Resistances: Necrotic, Nonmagical Attacks.

Immunities: Poison

Level: 2

Traits: Sensitive to Sunlight

Actions: Multiattack, Drain Life.

Wisp: Malevolent balls of light born from dark fates and darker magic, which feed upon fear, despair, and the living.

Strength: 1, Dexterity: 28, Constitution: 10, Intelligence: 14, Wisdom 13, Charisma 10.

Resistances: Acid, Cold, Fire, Necrotic, Thunder, Non-magical attacks.

Immunities: Lightning, Poison

Level: 2

Traits: Vampiric, Insubstantial, Glowing.

Actions: Invisibility, Zap.

Coda of Unraveling (3rd level Abjuration): You wage your skill with Thaumaturgy against that of another caster in an attempt to end their spell. If you succeed, their spell fails.

Embiggen/Shrinkydink (2nd level Transmutation): The target (creature or object) is made up to two sizes larger or smaller than normal. All clothing and gear change size with it. Embiggened creatures who have gone up two size categories deal extra weapon or unarmed damage. Shrunk creatures deal less weapon or unarmed damage.

Embiggen/Shrink has been granted due to your race of Fairy (Soulweald). You may cast this spell once per day without using a spell slot and with a spell slot thereafter. When used upon yourself this spell has a duration of 24 hours instead of 1 minute.

Speak to Dead (3rd level Necromancy): You may force a corpse to answer up to five questions about what it knew in life. While it will answer truthfully, it can only speak to what it knew in life.

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You may choose two Dark Choruses from the list below.

1st Tier

Distant Verse: Choose one cantrip, your effective range increases dramatically.

Repellant Intro: Choose one cantrip, your cantrip now pushes the target up to ten feet away from you.

Soul Rending Lash: When you hit a creature with Soul Lash, you can expend a spell slot to drain life force, regaining hit points equal to half the damage dealt.

Warding Shadows: You gain the Warding Shadows reaction, which allows you to decrease damage taken by you or an ally.

Whispers of Gloam: You can cast Message at will without expending a spell slot.

2nd Tier

Canticle of Mourning: Your voice carries sorrow that drains resolve. You hum a soft, mournful tune and creatures of your choice who hear you lose their reaction abilities for a short time, unless they resist your charm. 3/day.

Echoes of Midnight: You learn to conjure darkness to hide you and your allies. You may cast Call Darkness (2nd level) at will without expending a spell slot.

Flickering Echoes: When a creature targets you with an attack, you can use your reaction to create a brief illusory duplicate. Unless the attacker sees through it, their attack will hit your illusion. You may use this reaction 3/day at level 5.

Gloaming Veil: The shadows love you. You hide in plain sight, effortlessly blending into the murmuring gloom. Additionally, if you hide in this way, your footsteps produce illusory echoes that appear up to 20 feet away.

Silence’s Sound: You harness magic to stifle your enemies. You can cast Mute (2nd Level) at will without expending a spell slot.

Twinned Resolve: When you or your Gloamknight fail at something, you immediately try again as if your first attempt never happened, but with the wisdom of your failure informing your second try. 1/rest for Gloamcaller and Gloamknight.

“Ugh,” Dahlia groaned. The first tier Dark Chorus options were nothing new. That didn’t make them bad, but she’d already had her pick of them. The latest batch of them ranged from outstanding to situationally helpful, and she could only pick two of them.

“Twinned Resolve,” Dahlia chose the first one without much hesitation. A chance to succeed when you failed for only one of them would have been fantastic, but it gave both her and Xeras the option. A warm thrill traveled up her spine, and her lips curled in self-satisfaction as she imagined all the scenarios in which Dahlia and Xeras would stand even greater over others. When she grew bored of her imagined victories, Dahlia turned her mind back to the list.

“Silence’s Sound.” The fairy chose. Echoes of Midnight tempted her, but too many creatures had ways around being blinded to meddle with darkness. Few spellcasters, or even regular people, had any immediate counter to sound vanishing. If she used Glimmer Warp to cast Mute on an extra wide area, entire armies could be thrown into disarray.

Laughter spilled out from Dahlia’s throat; her belly could not contain her mirth. The mortals had no idea what kind of power even a tiny fairy could unleash. Still, it saddened her that she couldn’t also choose darkness. Maybe she could find a Wand to cast it eventually? The Wight’s weakness to sunlight would be easy to counteract with Call Darkness, and she didn’t necessarily need to have the ability to Mute vast swathes of land and subjugate mortal armies.

Or did she?

So far, the little Dahlia had learned of the War of Iron and Thorns made the mortals and gods out to be assholes whom she might be on track to fight. At the same time, Anubis had given her a direct quest. Thoth seemed to have no issues with Fey either. Perhaps only Horus needed to be taught a lesson, or maybe he had learned one in the aftermath of the Fey diaspora from Nantes?

You may choose two spells from the following list: Call Darkness (2nd), Magic Dispel (3rd), Non-Sense Made Sense (3rd), Open (2nd), Surrounded By Enemies (3rd).

Call Darkness (2nd level Illusion): You conjure a bubble of magical darkness that covers a 15 foot radius sphere. You may choose any creature you can see when you cast this spell, and they will treat the darkness as if it were dim light instead of darkness. All other creatures experience total magical darkness as normal. You may anchor the darkness to yourself, or another willing creature. While you remain in the darkness you gain bonuses to intimidation and stealth.

Magic Dispel (3rd level Abjuration): Pick and end a magical effect within range. Spells of 3rd level or lower end. Successful thaumaturgy check will determine success vs higher level spells.

Non-Sense Made Sense (3rd level Divination): The target of this spell can understand any language spoken to them or communicated with sign language.

Open (2nd level Transmutation): Does an item open, but is currently prevented by some means, be that a magical lock, physical lock, or even a bar? With Open, that’s what it’ll do.

Surrounded by Enemies (3rd level Enchantment): What do you do about the bodyguard, a question asked for ages. Well, with this spell, you reach into the mind of one target and, if it fails to resist, make it see everyone as enemies. Each time the target takes damage there is a chance to break the spell.

“Magic Dispel,” Dahlia said without hesitation. The ability to purge spell effects from enemies couldn’t be underestimated. Canceling a Fly spell alone could end a fight.

Every fiber of Dahlia’s tiny being wanted to choose Surrounded by Enemies for her other spell. It was precisely the sort of spell she lacked. Yet, it was also the sort of spell she could do without. She had no locksmith within her party. Lorien proved to be a great ranger, but he was no thief.

Open made so much sense. But there it was, again. Call Darkness. Dahlia could raise Wights and cast it on them to counter-act their one weakness.

“Cal--… no,” Dahlia hissed and raked her nails through the air. “Fuck,” she swore.

Dahlia cast her eyes in every direction in search of some clue, some glimmer of advice to lead her to the right choice. No matter what she chose, she’d be missing out on the other option. She opened her mouth to speak, but ended up coughing when her breath caught in her throat. After a long, undignified coughing fit Dahlia composed herself and announced her decision.

“Open!” The fairy threw her hands up in the air in a bit of a tantrum, pink explosions of glitter filled the void around her. She wouldn’t have the spell slots to summon a Wight army immediately anyway, but if she found a treasure chest she couldn’t open she’d never forgive herself.