Vaniala, as a mortal she was once Queen of the Elvenhan; as a goddess she has continued in this role. Guiding, following and assisting her husband as they rule over the subjects that raised them into the ranks of the divine. While she is a goddess of motherhood, she is also the god of mercy and charity in the justice system of the Elvenhan. She pleads for her children, both direct and by her rulership, to receive the mercies that they may when her husband judges them for their deeds. This relationship is mirrored in the courts of law amongst the elves, her clergy acting not as advocates in defense but to plead for leniency for the penitent. As the goddess of weather, she is also known to bless elven lands with the sun and rain they need for their crops but also in sending forth winds and lightning to strike down those who would harm her children.
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Adrian
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After the relatively short discussion about Damû, the rest of the day goes as most of the past week has. Abagail does however seem much quieter than before, so maybe Shadow-Bryan was a good thing to happen to her? Though she does keep looking outwards with the same eyes as before, still I mark it as an improvement. Kylana continues her lessons on mana manipulation and blood magic, which as I’ve been using excessively to get more practice in than I otherwise would be able to. Sure, magical healing from the magics that Bryan, Kylana and Alana know can’t heal the damage to one’s vitality but Ravnos magic can. . .
Of course, we still do have to be careful, the way that I’m healing the spent blood does spend energy from the body which means that we do have to eat more than if I was not doing this, but it is in my opinion a great tradeoff. Though we are running out of meat in my stash of food. We do however stop to make camp a bit earlier, after all it is the night of the full moon and that means there are werewolf stuff that the pack is going to do tonight, probably a Howl since I don’t think any of the rites need to be done. Unless there is something that needs to be done about Bryan?
There probably is as he is told that he is to stay in the center of the clearing where we are camping tonight. Like every other night of the full moon, none of the werewolves seem even the slightest bit tired even after walking the entire day without any breaks aside from one we had for lunch. Danny walks up to me followed by the elven twins, Talia then asks, “are we in any danger when they turn?”
Deciding not to mess with her I answer, “no, unless you act in a way they consider hostile or a challenge you’re perfectly safe. Don’t stare at them, especially straight in the eyes or show your teeth and they’ll likely ignore you. They’ll have mentioned you to their wolves and know you’re not prey.”
“You talk like they are different people” Danny says.
“They are, the wolf and the human do not always agree with one another and they don’t act the same. You can expect the wolves to act more bestial and a bit ravenous. They’ll probably even try to play with you somehow.”
“Play?”
I don’t answer the question as I wait the few minutes before they begin to shift and change each of the Bloodclaw giving way to their inner wolves. Most sprout grey fur but my K's silver hair stands out as the best, though Bryan’s black has a silvery glint to it when it catches the light, he is also the only one who struggles with his wolf rather than just letting it loose. Analais, like always, merely seems a bit taller and bulkier.
Abagail tries to hide and make herself even smaller when Shadow-Bryan looks over towards her. The other wolf’s looking at him, as if eying up a piece of meat. Which they probably are, he isn’t part of the pack yet.
“A shadow brother? Why is he a shadow brother?” Kylana's wolf asks to no one in particular.
“He didn’t seem like someone who was suppressing what they consider evil in themselves” Alana's wolf says to herself while Moonlight Runner instead looks towards me with a wagging tail that only speeds up when I make eye contact.
I smile when she bares her teeth at Ria for a moment before looking back to me. Ria moves and hides behind me but I don’t actually feel any fear from her. Either she’s playing the poor defenseless fox or she has absolute confidence that being at my back completely protects her.
Ragnan’s wolf ignores everyone else and growls something towards Analais before stalking off into the night. I think he’s still mad about the Pairing Howl and not getting to be alpha.
“Are you sane or need to be put down?” Analais asks the dark wolf as Moonlight Runner walks over to me and leans into me as she sits down. My right hand begins scratching behind her ear as I know just the right place to tide her over until we can go play.
“My Primary somehow still likes and cares for the small female, you tell me” Shadow-Bryan answers with clear disapproval and those who can understand the language chuckle.
“Shadowkin are dangerous, no single moment can prove him safe” Alana comments from the side.
“It’s rude to talk about me as if I wasn’t here.”
“You haven’t even been accepted as a yearling. Right now, you’re a beast we’re deciding on if you’re a member of the pack or need to be put down” Analais says to him while the women continue a discussion that I don’t hear as Moonlight Runner has decided she is getting all of my attention.
Which honestly, I am willing to give but I’m not sure if I want to give a specific kind to her current shape. That the elven twins and Danny are keeping away from the wolves by using me between them and the wolves doesn’t help.
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“Can we go play yet?” Moonlight Runner asks in a tone that demands a yes.
“Soon, I want to see how this goes and if he’ll be accepted” I answer.
“What’s going on and should we even be here?” Talia asks in her ever-present authoritative you need to answer me way.
“They’re deciding if the black wolf can be a part of their group or not” Ria answers her purposefully leaving off the answer to the second question; for which Moonlight Runner bares her teeth at the elf.
Not a threat, but she is inpatient to start run off with me and maybe Ria if I read the first thing she did right. Still, Talia moves a bit further away to which Moonlight Runner grins to her ability to scare a two-legs
A moment later K gets all the way up and all the wolves have stopped their talking and are looking eastwards, not inquisitively but like they are searching for something. I follow her eyes to a shrub, was that their earlier?
“Ria. . .” I start before she cuts me off with a nod.
“We’re discovered, start. . .” I hear from the bush before it fades away into nothing, revealing a man in dark brown leather armor holding a small hand crossbow. I don’t even have time to react before I see Kylana’s wolf already there with tearing out the man’s throat.
He as talking to someone else though. . . I snap my fingers, casting what I have started to call Life Radar, sensing the life forces around me and giving away their locations and strengths. I quickly ignore the static of the insects and plant life to find over a dozen significant signs around me, but something is odd. At first it was only one other then it became two and more kept appearing.
“They’re teleporting in!” I hear Danny shout panicking while the two elves have moved to each other’s backs.
Ria tosses a ball of her foxfire at a man in chainmail but unlike with the soldiers a week ago they seem to be magically protected from her flames and it only serves to give light to the area, not that any of us needed it aside from Abagail who in a surprising degree of competence retaliates with a variant of Magic Missile on someone in leather that is charging at us. Not that it helped her, but it did slam against a shimmering shell of light that I did recognize as an abjuration most likely the spell Shield.
They all have magical protections on, this was not a random assault that we stumbled into, but a hit squad sent by someone. The ponce back in Daerth? No, he was a minor noble of a backwater town; not the level that could afford or have access to something like this.
A Lightning Bolt formed of Ravnos Magic likewise discharges into a similar shell around another of the assailants, but Moonlight Runner seems to have no trouble at all with using her claws and teeth though they certainly are not tearing apart the men as well as they should be. Their elemental and magical protections are too high for me to simply overwhelm in mass. I really should have focused more on antimagic, but evocation and necromancy are so much more fun and interesting. . .
I shift, growing into my larger hybrid form; an action that is copied by Danny and grin as a quarrel from an unknown crossbow is defected off by my scales. They seem surprised by that and how their weapons are not leaving lasting damage on the lycanthropes. None of them brought silver weapons, they are not fully informed to our capabilities, or at least that I am a part of Pack Bloodclaw.
I don’t recognize the spells that the elven twins are casting but they seem to be protections of some sort. I growl out to Ria “conceal yourself and take pot shots” which she seems partially confused about but vanishes from sight.
I fall into Battlemind and catch the first of the soldier’s blades in my claws, the iron giving way to whatever compound they are made of and my left claw punctures the chain shirt he is wearing relatively easily . . .
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Tallian Feros
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When I was told by my superiors that they would be sending me and my men to capture or kill a rouge called I was skeptical as to why it was an order sent to me. Watching my men be torn apart by werewolves that I was not told anything about in the briefing through a Clairvoyance focused on my office mirror however leads me to accept that either I’ve been set up for a failure that will see me demoted or that this elementalist is far more dangerous than even my superiors thought. As I pull out the information packet that I was given to check for a third time if there is any mention of werewolves I notice something else that also is not in the dossier.
The elementalist is in fact either not human or not an elementalist at all, he just took on the shape of a draconian’s natural form; that of a half dragon. Black scales but far sleeker than the black dragons that I know. A variant of some sort? Can draconians even manifest the variant versions of their draconic ancestor? And why does it specifically say that he is a low human denoting to his abysmally low mana levels?
None of this information is right. It is all garbage aside from maybe the names of some of those that are with the target and that he is in fact marked with a trace anchor.
I stand up and as swiftly as I can move to the courtyard where another two dozen men stand at ready to be teleported into that bloodbath. Seriously, why did they want me to attack under the full moon if he has multiple werewolves around him? Especially without giving me the information to have my men even carry a silver weapon of this strike?
I run though the white marble halls of the temple-castle and only have to push a few scribes out of the way. As soon as I get through the door into the courtyard I shout, “stand down, there is no hope of success.”
“Knight Commander, why would you shame us?” Sargent Angrus Brightblade shouts back at me in question, not wanting to be called back on his chance to avenge the death of his cousin.
“There is an entire pack of werewolves, two elves, and a draconian you are not prepared for nor is the information on our target accurate.”
“That is not possible, our orders clearly state that his most dangerous ally is a two tailed kitsune, hence me being an Inquisitor who is well practiced in True Sight am here.”
“The kitsune has three tails, his male ally is a lycanthrope and he himself seems to be a draconian. The only information . . .”
“That is not possible. Our orders state otherwise, I advise that you call the attack back on. The kitsune must have noticed and is fooling your Clairvoyance. Their kind is known for such deceptions” he says in a sneer and he does have a point with that, but I did not sense any such trickery and my mirror is enscrolled to resist and note any such attempts to alter its divinations.
“No, as the local commander I belay the attack orders for two weeks for us to strike on the new moon. See to it that you bring silvered weapons and at least one dragon’s bane . . .”
Just as Sargent Brightblade speaks up again I cut him off, “. . . my orders are final. Even if this is kitsune trickery the silver will harm her better than the steel you have now.”