[X] With spells - he's much more accurate with wand than knife, and a good flipendo tria might help push things away
[X] With spells - he's much more accurate with wand than knife, and a good flipendo tria might help push things away
Originally Posted by shanagan
Chapter 7. Books, Character Sheets, Keys to Rituals
Sitting in Miyuki-senpai’s greenhouse, with Natsumi beside him, and a motley assortment of books scattered across the desk, Matou Shinji stretched, a groan of something between exhaustion and agony escaping his lips as he reached up to rub his aching eyes.
His brain hurt.
His fingers hurt.
His back hurt…and all from spending the day doing nothing but sitting and reading as he tried to come up with a character that would satisfy Professor Spencer-Moon.
‘Two attempts so far, and both of them rejected…’ the boy grumbled, thinking that it was quite unjust that he couldn’t simply play as an onmyouji in Europe, using his ofuda to baffle and amaze the wand-users, though the man had taken one look at his submission and told him to try again, as he needed citations for what he had written ofuda could do.
“It isn’t that I don’t want to believe you,” the old man had said during office hours. “But I have no experience with the Eastern Arts, and as a scholar and a professor, I cannot simply take your word as truth, as you do not know how to use…ofuda, I believe you called it.”
Which was true, not that knowing that made him feel any better, especially not when his second sheet – with his character being an obscurial exiled from Russia, was also rejected.
“As a rule, Mister Matou, I am not allowing one to play as an obscurial,” the Professor had admonished him. “For one, the conditions that give rise to them and the destruction they tend to cause are quite horrific. For another, you are aware that nearly ever obscurial known has died by the age of ten?”
“Only nearly,” Shinji had replied. “There was the case of Credence Barebone,” he’d pointed out, with the former Minister nodding.
“True, though there are a number of other abnormalities with Mister Barebone you are likely not aware of,” Spencer-Moon had noted. “All you need to know is that he is thought to be the singular example of an obscurial with that level of power – and that such a level of power would be very hard to justify any of you having. Try one more time, if you would.”
And so that boy had, even deciding that he should go to the library and look up some of the more unusual things that witchcraft was capable of – only to be turned away, as the library was full of other students.
‘Scavengers,’ he hadn’t been able to keep himself from thinking, noting how they seized one book, then another, hungrily adding anything of even possible relevance to the stacks of tomes before them.
In the end, he’d had to ask the acting Headmistress for some recommendations about books related to the “Global Wizarding War” during one of their lessons, with the old woman looking at him oddly and asking why he didn’t just use the library as that was why it was there.
“The library is full, and all the books I need are already gone,” the boy had told her, with this piece of news making McGonagall pause, as if surprised. Still, she had been kind enough to write down the titles of a few volumes that discussed the time period, and some of the more significant people and places who had been involved in the incident.
“Frankly, Mister Matou, the material in these may be a bit much for a second year,” she’d warned him. “It may be better for you to work with one of your peers, or wait for a book you need to be returned.”
But the boy hadn’t heeded her, and at the first opportunity, had ordered those books from Flourish and Blotts by owl order, with Natsumi helping him carry them out to the greenhouse using (what else?) the telekinetic abilities granted to her by Mopsus.
“You rely on that potion too much,” Shinji had half-jokingly said to her, only for the chestnut-haired girl to wave off his concern.
“There’s no such thing!” she had replied, going on to say that Mopsus wasn’t dangerous, and that even if it was, she could stop using it any time she wanted to.
Which brought them to the present, with Shinji agonizing over how to make a character that was both interesting and relevant. Most – if not all – of the people in the books were wand users, yet…being limited to using a wand didn’t really interest him, not when he knew that magecraft – and other mysteries – were capable of far more.
“This…why is the Professor treating me like this?” he groaned aloud, with Natsumi shooting him a sympathetic look.
“At least he isn’t treating you like Smith?” the chestnut-haired girl asked pointedly.
Shinji winced as he remembered the scene the Hufflepuffs had witnessed on the first day, with Zacharias Smith being nearly flayed alive with lightning, leaving the boy a nervous, petrified wreck.
“…well, that’s true,” the boy conceded, shaking his head. “I guess it could be worse.”
“Right?”
The Japanese boy only sighed at this.
“You’re still fine with working together, right?” he asked instead of answering.
“Of course, Matou-kun,” Natsumi replied. “Though you have to make your character, or I’ll be left all alone.”
Shinji grumbled under his breath as he shook his head. He wasn’t going to pick a fight with Natsumi. It wouldn’t do any good anyway, and if senpai came in and saw him, well…
“…would you mind if I looked at your character sheet?” he said finally, in an attempt to get his mind off his current frustrations. “I know that yours was approved, so…”
“As long as you don’t just copy me,” Natsumi teased.
“I-I would never!” Shinji sputtered, turning his face away with a mock huff that made the chestnut-haired girl giggle.
“Here then,” the Japanese girl said after a few moments of mirth, as she handed him a rolled up character sheet, with the boy unrolling it to see what she had written.
Tallulah Kai
Origin: North America
Ethnicity: Native American/Japanese (Claims to be Hawaiian)
Occupation: (cover) Poet/Playwright; (actual) Investigator for Imperial Japan
Education: “Homeschooled” (Navajo magic); some schooling from Qausuittuq (First Nations Magic School)
Skills: Skinwalking, Occlumency, Basic Enchantment (Navajo crafts)
Advantage: Japan will cover operational expenses
Drawback: Suffers discrimination due to First Nations background, did not complete education at Qausuittuq (due to being cast out of the tribe)
Following the American annexation of the Kingdom of Hawaii and other expansionist behaviors taken by the USA in the Pacific, especially with regards to China, Japan grew concerned about the possibility of American eyes turning towards the home islands. As such, it dispatched a number of students to study in the US, that they might come to understand American culture and how Americans thought, in case conflict should arise.
These students (or spies, to call them what they were), soon discovered that America, despite its name, was not entirely united - that there were a number of indigenous nations within its borders that had only recently been suppressed, each with their own languages and culture. This discovery kicked off a second wave of infiltration, where a number of Japanese agents were tasked with embedding themselves within these various groups to learn more about them, paying particular attention to any mention of things like magic, or of any resentment of the US government that could be...exploited and nurtured. Of course, some things were not told to outsiders, so...measures were taken.
Some of the agents married into the tribes, becoming part of the People, and having children with wives from the People. Tallulah Kai is the daughter of one such union, and in many ways, is one of the program’s success stories, as she is not only fluent in the Navajo language and its cultural traditions, but is well-versed in its magical traditions.
One of the traditions, that is, as Tallulah Kai is a skin-walker, having learned of the forbidden lore of the Navajo people during her time at Qausuttiq, the institute of magical learning established by a number of more forward-thinking tribes in concert with a number of native Hawaiians, who believed that to stand as equals to MACUSA and the government in Washington, the First Nations needed to put aside their divisions and old hatreds and stand united.
Divided, their influence was weak, as one group could be played against the other. United, however, pooling together their resources, their manpower, and their understanding of the world, they might be able to oppose the government which had broken faith with them time and time again, which had taken their land, killed their people, and more.
Such a center for learning would teach not only the arts considered good - healing, protection, blessing and such, but those considered evil as well, as to defend against the darkness, one had to know its nature. Unfortunately, not all who studied there were suited for the path of balance and resisting the call of the forbidden, and so turned to darker paths. Paths to powers long thought lost, to abilities that some might consider...unnatural.
Tallulah Kai, one of the brightest members of the first class to study at Qausuittuq, was unfortunately also the first to fall, becoming a skin-walker, the very antithesis of what the school sought to teach, with the ability to transform into various animals at will, steal the faces of people they see, possess individuals/steal control of their bodies, and weave powerful curses of blight, compulsion, and pain.
When she was caught, as she eventually was, because she wasn’t quite as clever or as skilled in the art of deception as she believed, she was expelled both from Qausuittuq and from the People as a whole, with the Elders placing a mark upon her that she may never return to any dwelling of the People except in the direst of straits, and even then, not without permission from one of them.
As she left, however, her father passed along the details of his contacts, giving her the option of becoming an agent of the Japanese government in her own right. Naturally, Tallulah accepted, with her new mission being to find out more about the Magical Congress of the United States, with particular regard any substances or inventions with strategic implications.
Her first mission for the Japanese government sends her to New Orleans, where she has been tasked with investigating Violetta Beauvais, the up and coming wandmaker whose wands are said to have a peculiar affinity for Dark Magic, and who is said to use the same wood and core for all the wands she makes.
Shinji blinked as he finished reading the rather lengthy document, glancing back and forth between Natsumi and the document containing the details about Tallulah Kai, the character she would be playing during the simulation.
“…she’s not a Mopsus swilling sword user?” the boy asked, not sure whether to be amused or outright shocked by this discovery. He’d been sure – so very sure, that her character would be less…subtle than this.
‘Though I guess her character is the bright one who fell…’ he mused, narrowing his eyes as he noted that Tallulah Kai did fit her thematic preferences. ‘Maybe I should come up with a theme, instead of just making doing what I feel like at the moment.’
Amber certainly had – she was the copper-haired lady in red, a swashbuckler as quick and cutting with her words as with the tip of her sword.
For himself though…
“Matou-kun, you shouldn’t underestimate a girl like that,” the chestnut-haired girl said unhappily as she pouted, puffing out her cheeks. “I’m not a one trick pony!” She paused, looking at him. “Or mule, I guess.”
“Ouch,” Shinji replied, as he mimed being stabbed in the chest. “You wound me, Nats. Truly, you wound me.”
“Good. Maybe it will remind you not to take me lightly,” the chestnut-haired girl replied, putting her hands on her hips. “Besides, don’t you have a character sheet to make? We’re working in pairs, so I’d like to know who my partner will be in North America.”
“…fine, fine, I’ll get back to work,” the boy grumbled, shaking his head and making a few other vaguely conciliatory remarks before he turned once more to his books, searching for some sort of inspiration for what kind of character he would play during the simulation, only to come across the same frustrations as before.
He didn’t really want to play as a standard wand-user from Europe, and those were, by and large, the sort of people mentioned in the books.
‘…though, huh…that’s right, there were probably a number of African practitioners too. Beauxbatons did have a professor who had studied at Uagadou…’
He’d even been taught by one such man – a rather unconventional practitioner whose notions of how to become an animagus were radically different than those commonly accepted on the Europe, but which had worked.
Remembering this, Shinji smiled slightly.
He supposed he could be someone from Uagadou, or at least had some relationship to the Dark Continent of Africa. Maybe he could even throw in some French ancestry as well, tying him to one of the spheres of influence.
…being part French might even help if he was going to be in New Orleans with Natsumi’s character. So Nats told him anyway, though he wasn’t sure – didn’t everyone in America just speak English? Maybe there were dialects in different parts, just like Kansai-ben, Tohoku-ben, or the Kagoshima dialect radically diverged from standard Japanese (which was itself based on Tokyo-ben)?
America was big, after all – bigger than the Home Islands anyway.
‘Maybe something like this…?’ he wondered, as he cobbled together something that he thought the Professor might be inclined to accept
Ras Al'Gue
Origin: North Africa - Algeria
Ethnicity: Arabian - Father side; French - Mother side
Occupation: A forlorn part time worker at his Uncle’s Potion Shop - Le Liège et le Chaudron; Adventurer Education: Homeschooled; Later various tutors
Skills: Potions & Herbology, Martial Arts (Knives and Savate) and Occlumency with a bit of training in modern muggle weapons and stealth.
Advantage: Always under an Enhanced Mopsus Effect due to being experimented on.
Drawback: Can’t use a Wand or its associated magic due to being experimented on.
Ras was born into a small nomadic tribe of magic users in the sands of Algeria. Born from the union between the son of the Tribe Chief and a young French noblewoman of House Ingelger, he never quite fit in with the tribe. The arranged marriage caused issues between the tribe’s normal way of life and the Ingeler family, who was using the marriage to expanded their small potion business into Algeria, in the hopes that they could gain access to the tribe’s secret knowledge in potions and access to rare ingredients by marrying their 3rd child to the tribe chief’s son.
Ras never fit in with his tribe, always being mocked for his poor riding skills (for some reason he never could get the hang of riding on camelback) as well as for his mixed heritage. Yet Ras threw himself into learning potions to prove himself, quickly absorbing his tribe’s considerable knowledge in the subject as well as his mother’s. But no matter what he did, he was disliked by his father and by age 9, he was deemed unfit to be future leader of the tribe. After which the relationship with the Tribe and the House Ingelger soured. Instead, his younger half-sister, from his father’s second wife, was placed as the heir to the tribe. After this betrayal, a cold fire burned inside him.
Things slowly spiraled out of control after that as the Tribe and House Ingelger relationship worsened coming to a head when he was about eleven years old. The Chief decided that the only use Ras and his mother had left for the tribe was as test subjects for potion experimentations. His mother quickly grew very ill, taking the blunt of the experiments. And the two of them would have died after drinking concoction after concoction if not for a stroke of luck in the form of a potion’s miscalculation.
In an effort to remove the downside of Mopsus, by brewing a version that allowed for magic to flow normally yet still have the potion’s effect, they had accidentally brewed a stronger version of the potion that caused Ras to permanently be under its effects. It locked away his magic forever yet granted him exceptionally strong psychic abilities. The power to move objects with his mind, to sense danger before it happened and the ability to see small glimpses of the future.
Empowered and enraged - Ras tore out of his bounds and telepathically choked his grandfather. He then tore a warpath to the people that hurt him and his mother. He desperately pushed on in the hopes that he would be reunited with his mother. In the end, he stood surrounded by the smoking remains of his now wiped out tribe, with his mother dying in his arms. She succumbed after having a lethal allergic reaction to one of the many potions she was forced to drink.
Ras Al’Gue took the remains of his now-extinct tribe’s wealth and traveled throughout Northern Africa. Hopping between places, he sought people that would train him in any art that was still available to him, magical or mundane. But he always kept seeking a cure for his condition, to regain what he had lost. He threw himself into his comfort subject, potions, and began to learn how to defend himself against monsters and wizards, using muggle weapons if he had to. He quickly learned how to use knives to defend himself and became an excellent marksman with them.
Spending all his money on tutors and equipment, Ras grew into a hardened man. One able to use his wits and potions as a great equalizer against arrogant wizards that underestimated what a small bladed weapon could do, especially one that could be controlled from a distance with his mopsus power and was coated in many of his own deadly potions. But after the money was mostly used up, he was forced to track down the remains of his mother’s family for help.
His search led him from Northern Africa to Europe, where he continued to refine his arts and skills, combining the knowledge of his tribe with the various crafts of European civilizations, even managing to create an animagus potion that he could use even in his state.
He finally arrived to America where his Uncle owned a Potions shop in the City of New Orleans. Ras managed to convince his uncle to give him a job working at the shop for a small paycheck/room and board. But Ras quickly became bored and bitter in his new life. The harsh reality of their fear for all things muggle, in this new strange land, hit him hard. Ras began to suffocate under the draconic laws of America and dreamed of old lifestyle and the freedom it gave him.
In America - like in most nations where the Statute of Secrecy was upheld, the ability to use a wand was everything. Without one - without the ability to use one even if he’d had one, he was nothing. In their eyes, he might as well be a muggle, someone worthy of pity, or a laugh...
Well, he’d show them, he resolved. He’d show them all just what one could do without a wand...
Finished for the moment, the boy leaned back, only to hear a muffled grunt as his shoulder hit something soft.
‘Huh?’ he wondered, turning to find his face uncomfortably close to Natsumi’s, with what his shoulder hit being her…her… ‘Her chest.’
Shinji’s face went utter red at the realization, though why had she been so close, so close that he could feel the warmth of her body, could smell the scent of her hair and skin, could—
The boy’s eyes widened as the girl leaned in and kissed him – and not on the cheek this time, but on the lips, a move far bolder than he would have expected of her as she stole his first real kiss.
…true, he’d kissed Amber before. But that had been an accident. When they fell on one another. It-it wasn’t as if he’d meant to do it.
This…this was the first time someone had meant to kiss him like that, with the boy almost moaning as he felt invisible fingers tracing the line of his jaw and the curve of his neck, with all of his senses helplessly consumed by the girl beside him.
It seemed to last forever, an eternity, though that couldn’t have been true, he knew, only that when it couldn’t have been a true eternity, for the moment passed and the kiss ended, leaving him breathless.
Was that what a kiss was supposed to feel like? And…
“…why?” he mumbled, his thoughts all a whir.
“Because you look handsome when you’re concentrating,” Natsumi murmured, her face just about as red as his felt. “And because even though you make fun of how I like the power of Mopsus, you ended up making…how did you say it, a ‘mopsus swilling blade user?’” she teased.
“I…hey, he wasn’t—”
But his words were cut off as Natsumi’s lips sealed his, and the boy’s protests melted away.
This time, when they parted, he’d forgotten what he was even annoyed about.
“Can’t let Amber get ahead of me too much,” Nats had murmured.
“Natsumi, I…”
Whatever he was about to say, though, was interrupted as the greenhouse door opened, with the elegant figure of Tsuji Miyuki entering, trailed by one Momiji Kaede, with the two discussing something about fusion, though the boy wasn’t sure why, as he couldn’t see any way that a form of electrical power generation would be relevant for higher mysteries.
“Matou-kun, Natsumi,” the older Hufflepuff greeted as her eyes fell on the two second-year Hufflepuffs with Kaede echoing her with a more formal “Matou-senpai. Suzuki-senpai”, her eyes cold. “Are you well?”
“Y-yes, s-senpai,” Shinji stammered, his body going rigid as a sudden surge of fear shot through him as he wondered if Miyuki-senpai had seen…had seen the k-k-kiss and maybe gotten the wrong idea? “N-natsumi and I were just working on our History project.”
He picked up the parchment and waved it vaguely in her direction, as if it was a talisman warding against misfortune.
Miyuki came forward and took the paper from his hands, the sensation of her fingers lightly brushing his in the process making the boy dizzy in the process. Not quite dizzy enough to fall over, though that was as much Natsumi keeping him upright with her telekinetic power than anything else, as the brunette gave him the side-eye.
‘What did I do?’ he wondered, not knowing why the girl who had just kissed him was reacting like this.
While he was wondering, his Senpai handed the character sheet back to him, the faintest hint of a smile gracing her lips.
“You and Natsumi make a good pair,” the raven-haired beauty noted, with Natsumi nodding seriously at that.
“I’m honestly surprised he didn’t choose Amber as his partner,” the brunette answered. “For this assignment, anyway.”
“What we choose may sometimes surprise us,” Miyuki replied. “As may the consequences of our choices.” She paused. “Kaede and I have some Herbology work to attend to tonight. I am afraid we may be somewhat noisy, so it would be for the best if you went back to the Common Room.”
“I can’t stay and learn Herbology with you, Senpai?” Shinji asked hopefully.
“Matou, it might be best if you concentrated on one thing at a time,” the older Hufflepuff chided. “For one, you have History to finish. For another…I believe there was a letter for you from Professor Quirrell in the Common Room. Kaede, you picked it up, yes?”
“Yes, senpai,” the first year stated, handing her an envelope, which she in turn handed to Shinji.
The boy took it, and swallowed, knowing just what that must be – a summons to take his turn in the Challenge.
“I-I’ll get right on that,” he squeaked, knowing that if he was late, the Defense Professor would no doubt visit terrible things upon him. The man was as merciful as a typhoon after all – which was to say, not at all. “T-thank you, senpai.”
Matou Shinji didn’t know exactly what to expect from Quirrell's newest challenge, given that the man had told his students very little about inferi. He knew enough to prepare for the worst though, which was why he’d gone back to the Hufflepuff dorms to retrieve his wand holsters, his knives, the wand Sokaris had given him, as well as the practice rapier Amber had given him, and the protective gear for it, the last of which he wore under his robes, since one could never be too prepared for one of Quirrell’s challenges.
‘Mopsus or…’
He decided against it, knowing that Quirrell was no doubt expecting someone to use such a trick – though how would inferi respond to that, he wondered? It wasn’t as if the undead were particularly intelligent – except for vampires, which he didn’t think were on the table here, because if they were, then he was not nearly loaded up enough with protective gear.
'Still, I should be thankful I'm not a first year...' he told himself. He remembered all too well the horrors of first year and being tossed into a scenario where he was bound and gagged, and had been forced to try and escape a house full of Death Eaters – a situation which he was sure most of his classmates would not even begin to know how to deal with.
Though…maybe it was easier as a first year, since Quirrell tuned his challenges to be very difficult, but not impossible, calibrating the difficulty to a level that the average student of a year could be expected to perform at if they pushed themselves to the limit – and if everything went perfectly. Granted, this did mean most people would fail, but it did encourage a drive for excellence that he hadn’t seen from any other teacher.
‘Or a drive to be creative, at least, since the other way of winning is stumbling upon some strategy for dealing with the challenge that Quirrell hadn’t foreseen.’
Granted, that alone didn’t guarantee success, but…it was a fair bit better than trying what everyone else was doing over and over and hoping for a different result.
With this on his mind, the boy made his way out of the dorm and over to the Defense Classroom, mulling over what little he knew about the undead and how to face them – though the only things he could come up with were “not much” and “using holy weapons” – neither of which were exactly helpful in his current situation.
After all, if he had a divine construct or holy sword, he wouldn’t exactly need to study witchcraft, now would he?
Thinking this, he shook his head, and walked the rest of the way in silence.
Soon enough, though, the door was before him, with the boy raising his hand to knock, only for it to swing open.
‘Huh.’
He walked through the door and froze as the world around him changed.
Instead of a classroom, he found himself in a great room filled with racks upon racks of weapons, armor, and other artifacts, like the armory he'd been allowed to visit before the Surviving the Crash scenario.
There was a small table in front of him, with a letter from "High Reclaimer Quirrell", explaining the basics of the mission to which he had been assigned and authorizing him and his partner to each requisition 3 pieces of equipment from the armory that had been built up over years of service in goblin rebellions, giant wars, and other such conflicts.
'Three...each?'
The boy frowned. The last time he'd been allowed to choose an item, his entire team had been limited to three...and now it was three...each?
'I have a very bad feeling about this.'
One that was only compounded as Phelan Noel materialized before him, with the Earl's son carrying a sword over his shoulder and seeming quite excited as he took in his surroundings – with polished metal, oiled leather, and more gleaming from every surface of the room.
"Ah, Matou, you're already here," the young noble noted, rubbing his hands together in delight. He took a moment to glance over the briefing before— "Three each, he said?"
"Yes," Shinji replied somberly. Surely such...generosity was a trap – or at least a dire warning. It had to be...didn't it?
But Phelan, it seemed, did not share his concerns.
"Excellent, excellent," he murmured, a covetous smile gracing his lips. "Let's split up and see what they have, hm?"
"...if you insist," the Japanese boy allowed, shaking his head. Why had he chosen to work with Phelan again, given his history with the other boy? 'Oh, right, because Quirrell wanted us to work with people we haven't partnered with before, and I know that he can be competent, so long as he doesn't go out of control.' Of course, not being Amber, he had no idea how he would keep the young noble from the worst of his excesses, but he thought perhaps if he just mentioned what Selina would do (or what he thought Selina might do), he could probably retain some degree of control.
...however good that would do him, given that Matou Shinji didn't really know how to fight the undead.
'Well, let's start with the basics then,' he told himself, his eyes catching sight of several racks of protective gear. Yes, protection was always good, especially when dealing with inhuman monsters which could no doubt rip him apart limb from limb, and which perhaps had claws or teeth and were willing to use them to deadly effect. 'What do we have?'
The answer was quite a lot, really.
Suits of gleaming goblin-silver plate.
Coats and coifs of mail, available in both goblin-silver and cold iron, whatever the latter was.
Wyvernhide cloaks.
Basilisk skin garments.
Fine black cloaks that muffled sound and were enchanted to reflect spells.
Even armor meant for a mount of some—
'...wait a minute. Why is that there?' the boy wondered. Few people would have any use for something meant for a horse or a mule, so unless Quirrell had added this specifically for him, perhaps to tempt him into using his animagus form... 'It's a trap. It has to be.'
...and quite frankly, even if it wasn't, there was no way he was letting Phelan ride him.
'Or is that the trick? Does he know me well enough to know I wouldn't let Phelan ride, and taking the armor is necessary to pass, or...'
No. To try and guess Quirrell's intentions was the path to madness, as there were too many possibilities for what it could all mean, and if he just didn't choose anything, Shinji wouldn't put it past the Professor to have included some kind of time limit for he and Phelan to be in the armor, meaning that if he was paralyzed by indecision, he'd have to face the undead with no special equipment at all.
'Right. I'd better pick something then.'
But what? The full body coverage of the goblin-silver plate was very, very tempting, given how such armor was said to be virtually indestructible, meaning that he would be safe from the claws and fangs of the undead beasts lurking in the Archive. And yet...
'No...' He'd never worn plate before, and had no idea how wearing something so solid would affect his endurance. Truly, it would be the cruelest of ironies if he was rendered immobile due to exhaustion, and he didn't think that the armor would protect against something like poison or just being thrown against a wall with great force. And as he recalled Selina mentioning, simply wearing indestructible armor didn't mean one's flesh was any more resistant to damage.
Mail then?
It would protect against physical blows, like the plate, but...in case one of the inferi used fire or some sort of acid, he would be doomed, and he didn't think it would be very good against curses either, especially as spell-beams could be quite narrow.
Narrow enough to pass through the small holes in the armor, perhaps.
'And since I don't plan on changing my clothes in front of Phelan – or being naked once the simulation ends and these things fade, the basilisk hide garments are out.'
Which, by process of elimination left a wyvern-hide cloak.
The boy looked over the rack of cloaks, seeing an assortment of sizes and colors, and eventually settled on a hooded charcoal-grey number that covered his entire body. Somehow, as majestic as a cloak of crimson scales could be, or one of emerald green, style was of little importance next to comfort and functionality.
He moved from there to the racks of weapons that had been set aside for the students, with the boy gawking at some of the items available – great zweihanders taller than he was, siege bows made of the ribs of some great leviathan, exotic throwing rings – chakrams – with razored edges, whipswords with wickedly sharp tendrils, and even some massive bludgeon that was labeled by the improbable name of Holy Flametouched Iron Heavy Mace of Greater Undead Bane – whatever the hell that was.
‘Well, its probably good against the undead, from the name, but that looks…heavy.’
Heavy enough that he wasn’t sure if he could even lift the damned thing.
Moving on, there were even Holy Flametouched horseshoes of Undead Bane, the sight of which made the boy narrow his eyes. If the words meant anything, then...
'No...no, I'm not going to become a mule for this! I already made up my mind!' Or so he told himself, turning his gaze to what in his limited experience seemed like sane weapons to use. Things he knew people could use – like a rapier wrought of gleaming bone, which seemed to whisper when he held it...something like Ph'nglui mglw'nafh ...wgah'nagl fhtagn and other nonsense. Or perhaps it compelled him to whisper those words, he thought, as he found his lips moving to repeat the whispers from the blade.
Not wanting to deal with a weapon which could affect his mind, he hastily put the rapier down and examined the other items around him.
There was a goblin-silver longsword infused with basilisk venom he wasn't going to touch, since if he remembered correctly, basilisk venom was quite deadly, and he wasn't exactly proficient with the sword. If he cut himself...well, there were other ways to die that sounded more pleasant.
'Well, I guess this sounds reasonable,' he thought, looking at a staff carved of blackened bone and set with runes, with one end seeming to burn with dark fire. 'It will give me more reach than a wand, and probably magical power. I'll leave the swording to Phelan.'
Onto the accessories then...
The boy was briefly tempted by the prospect of obtaining an enchanted goblin-silver tower shield, to afford him maximum protection, or a gauntlet which could project a shield against spells, as well as what were apparently Reclaimer-proprietary Fiendfyre Potions (a set of vials containing bottled fiendfyre, which apparently were excellent at destroying large groups of enemies, leaping from one to the next and consuming them whole - magic and all).
Only...the boy paused when he realized that fiendfyre did not differentiate friend from foe.
'I don't really want to deal with friendly fire...' he told himself, choosing to pick up a set of what were labeled as health kits – Reclaimer-proprietary mixes of healing potions, stimulants, and antidotes. 'Might as well find a way to keep myself alive, because whatever I do, I'll take hits. Or Phelan will.'
The latter seemed more likely to Shinji as he wandered back to the center, were Phelan was already waiting.
The other boy took a quick look over the selection of gear that Shinji had chosen for himself, whistling appreciatively as he saw the dragonhide cloak and the staff of carved dragonbone, etched with runes glowing with dark flames.
"Nice combination," the earl's son told him. "You look like some powerful magus there, with that staff and cloak."
Shinji felt rather warm inside on hearing such words, as he'd wanted someone to say them to him for a very long time, even if the person saying it now was terribly uninformed about that side of the world. It wasn't as if he could expect such from his family, who had never given him the time of day, or from most of his friends, who had idea what a magus even was. Frankly, he didn't know where Phelan had stumbled across the word – probably while trying to learn a few new words to impress Selina.
Either way though, he appreciated it, even if it would mean so much more if it came from senpai – or perhaps from his grandfather.
To distract himself from his dark thoughts, Shinji took a moment to assess just what Phelan was wearing as well, expecting the worst…only to find himself surprised.
...surprised that the other boy hadn't chosen to wear goblin-forged plate and dual-wield longswords mostly, combining the goblin-forged, basilisk venom-imbued blade with the vampiric blade that Amber had apparently obtained for him, but it still counted.
Instead, the earl's son was kitted out with goblin-silver mail, shield gauntlets, and...
"...wait a second, are those the proprietary fiendfyre potions?" Shinji squeaked, feeling the urge to back away slowly.
"Of course," Phelan replied jovially. "We need something in case there are really big groups of them, right? I mean, I trust myself to take down any one of them at a time, and I'm pretty sure you can put a few undead on their backs, but what if there's a bunch of them at once?"
Shinji opened his mouth to object, but found himself closing it, as the earl's son had actually brought up a reasonable point.
Discreetly, he tried to pinch himself. This had to be a dream, right...?
"Hey, what are you doing, Matou?"
Or maybe it wasn't, in which case, something told him that this upcoming challenge was going to be very, very painful – or at least one that would be quite…surreal.
And so it was, beginning with the process of gaining entry Archive for the first time proved to be so.
Unlike other Quirrell challenges, he and Phelan were not simply teleported into the challenge field when they were done choosing their supplies. No – they had to physically walk out of the Armory, past what seemed like an entire squad of Aurors (who seemed far too lightly armed to be facing undead, in his opinion), and report to the Auror Captain, who could grant them permission to enter.
(What happened to people who didn’t bother getting authorization was not written, but Shinji could imagine it well enough, given that the Aurors had established a defensive perimeter bristling with wands, watching for any sign of something – anything – strange trying to enter or exit the Archive).
"Reclaimers," the Auror Captain – a man with an improbably craggy face, a pegleg and far less skin than scars and craters – stated in what was less a greeting than a sneer. "Never thought we'd be resorting to mercenaries in Britain after the mess ye lot made in the New World, but what the Minister wants, the Minister gets. Your High Reclaimer bloke tell you what you're walking into?"
"...an Archive infested with inferi?" Shinji hazarded.
"Heh, is that all?" the rather moody man snorted, shaking his head. "Still don't really agree with 'im sending boys to do a man's work, but I'm not going to lead an assault on bloody Second Azkaban."
"...second Azkaban?" Phelan asked, his eyes gleaming with something hungry.
"You idiots probably think this is some great adventure – join the Reclaimers, meet interesting people, kill them," the Auror Captain growled. "Well, time to see if you can do what you've been paid to. You need a reminder, or do you think you know it all?"
"It is only common sense to hear from the person on the scene," the Earl’s son stated diplomatically, nodding his head to the man deferentially.
The Auror Captain grunted.
"Common sense, eh? Not something you lot practice much, but I'll take it," the man replied, nodding to himself. "My scouts only made it to the end of the first floor, ‘fore they were turned back by an ambush. Some kind of strange inferi, with a wave of scurrying things."
"How many made it out?"
"One. Managed to give his report before..." the man trailed off.
"Before..."
"He became one of them. An inferius.”
“What?” Shinji broke in, startled. “How does that happen?”
“Those scurrying things – infectors, we call them – they infect wizards with a curse that kills them and raises them again as undead.”
"Infects?" Shinji echoed. "How?"
“Sharp tendrils,” the Auror Captain stated said curtly. “Sharp enough to pierce dragonhide, with some effort. Even goblin-hide plate isn’t safe if it’s made in sections.”
“…how would you even stop them from infecting you then?” the Japanese boy demanded.
“Kill them before they reach you,” the man replied grimly. “But that isn’t easy, since where there’s one, there’s a flood.”
“So it’s not just inferi we have to worry about?” Phelan clarified. “The usual walking corpses?”
"If it were only that, we wouldn't have needed you lot around," the Auror Captain sneered. "We can manage inferi well enough. These things though...the mad genius who once lived here was a master of dark magic. It wasn't enough for him to simply create inferi. He had to...innovate. To make them even more...unnatural."
"Unnatural?"
"You have inferi with twisted arms and tentacles which can rip apart metal. You have little blighters with them whose sting can turn you into one of the living dead. And worse things besides. If it were up to me, there would be two more squads here, and we would level this Archive and burn everything in it to ash with Fiendfyre, but the Minister wants the Archive intact, so...better you than me."
"...I see."
"At least you have some kind of protection," the man noted, eyeing them. "Though even just armor won't save you. Only one thing will."
"Oh?"
"CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" the man roared, his rancid breath foul in Shinji's nostrils. "You let up for a second, underestimate what the Dark can do? You're dead, or worse, you're one of them."
"...I'll take that under advisement," Shinji said diplomatically.
"Sound like a damned paper-pusher, you do, not some elite wand for hire," the Auror grumbled, seeming quite unhappy. "And besides...swords. Staves. What self-respecting wizard even uses that barbaric shite?"
"One who is still alive after all the shit I've been through," Phelan replied in a completely serious stare.
"...heh," the man noted, nodding. "I suppose there's that. Well, in you go then. Sooner you do and fail, sooner we can get the Minister to let us level the place."
"And if we don't? Fail, that is?"
"Oh, you will. Pair o' overconfident kids who think they know it all? You will, or my name ain't Mad-Eye Moody."
With that, they were cleared to enter, though doing so, knowing dozens of readied wands were pointed at his back if he showed any sign of unnatural behavior was…chilling.
As such, it was almost a relief to enter the Archive at last, shutting the heavy door behind them.
Once inside, they found it quiet, almost eerily so, given that it was supposed to be infested, though at least there was only really one way forward, so there was no possibility of getting lost. Or so Phelan opined anyway, as Shinji was naturally assuming the worst – that with only one way forward, it would simple enough to have forces lying in wait for him and Phelan.
Fortunately, when he voiced this concern to Phelan, the earl’s son seemed receptive, and so they as they proceeded deeper into the structure, they did so warily, expecting danger around every corner, only to grow jumpier and jumpier as they found none, with the silence deepening with every step they took.
“Weird…” Phelan mumbled, shaking his head. “This isn’t natural.”
“It’s a library, Phelan, its supported to be quiet,” Shinji retorted.
“Not this quiet,” the other boy whispered. “It’s worse than a graveyard in here.”
“…did you have to use that particular exam..?”
“Hmhm, oh, hello!”
Shinji whirled as something appeared above them, hurtling a knife at it with unerring accuracy – only for his duplicated blade to pass right through the blue…poltergeist in a shower of sparks.
"I say – that was quite rude!" the phantom sputtered, with Shinji taken aback by the fact that there wass something else in here besides them and possibly undead. Was this an enemy or…? “Do you normally greet people like that?”
"Who are you?" the boy demanded, his staff at the ready, as he reached for his wand with his other hand. Maybe this thing was immune to physical damage, but he was sure if he channeled his dark power, he could simply erase it if he had to. Still, it wasn’t hostile…yet, so there was no point fighting if he didn’t have to.
"I am the Penitent, the poltergeist bound to this installation," the entity responded indignantly.
"Poltergeist?"
"A spirit of chaos, formed by the presence of powerful magic or emotion," the poltergeist replied, with a disturbing titter. "“And you are another group of reclaimers. I see.”
"...another?"
"Yes. You have come to reclaim this archive from the depredations of the undead, yes?" the poltergeist asked, skipping over what exactly what he meant by another. Had the past reclaimers been Aurors, or…had they been Reclaimers, as in fellow students who attempted this challenge? "To retrieve the keystone to the ritual that will destroy the necromancer’s research."
"Well, yes," Shinji admitted.
"Then I will be of assistance," the spirit said diffidently. "Do you have a weapon? I can hardly hurt the undead on my own – not when they are wrought of cursed matter that can even consume ghosts. But something of iron, perhaps..."
Raising an eyebrow, Shinji tossed over a couple of knives, which the poltergeist grabbed out of the air, seeming to test the balance and heft as it did.
“Ah, silver I see. Not quite cold iron, but it will do,” the spirit noted. “Hmhmhmhmh…excellent. Come. This way.”
It led them forward along the only path Shinji could see, with the boy expecting a fight around every corner, and being disappointed – until at last, they found a room that was quite full of undead.
Not the zombies Shinji was familiar with, or expecting to see either, but bloated forms with wriggling tentacles, tottering about to and fro.
“Ah, the infestation has become more advanced than I had previously believed,” the Penitent stated.
"Advanced?” Phelan asked skeptically. “They don't really look like much of a threat..." he muttered. "What do you think, Matou?"
"They might not look like much, but knowing Quirrell, that's just what he wants us to think," Shinji replied, shaking his head as he gripped his staff.
"Really?" Phelan asked skeptically as he peered around the corner at the group of bloated inferi who were – ever so slowly, shuffling their way - holding his sword at the ready. "They look like they'd pop if I so much as poked them," he noted, miming the action of stabbing one. "Or cut one open a hair. I know that Auror captain said the tentacles were dangerous, but I reckon I can get in there and cut them right off one of them.”
And there was some truth to that, as the "tentacles" that took the place of arms seemed more like...overgrown whiskers than anything capable of harming someone.
“...that might be the case, but there’s a lot more than one of them,” Shinji noted, a note of caution in his voice. “Besides, we have Penitent here, right?" Shinji asked, glancing at the blue poltergeist, who was once again humming as it tossed and caught the knives the boy had given it, as if it didn't realize the importance of keeping quiet. Then again, it was a poltergeist, and thus effectively unkillable by undead so... "I'm sure you wouldn't mind giving one of those a poke, and seeing what it does, right?"
"Very well," the blue spirit hummed, darting forward, and tossing a knife towards one of the bloated inferi, with the blade slicing readily through its flesh and sinking into it down to the hilt.
For a moment, it seemed as if the undead had not been affected, continuing to waddle forward, as if it hadn't been hit at all. But then, the top heavy undead fell flat on its face and didn’t get up, with Shinji blinking as he saw this.
"Huh," the boy stated. "Well, if they’re that easy, we might as well—"
BOOM!
Whatever he had been about to say was lost, as the corpse exploded, releasing a wave of sheer force that sent other bloated undead flying towards them, along with what seemed like skittering, balloon-like creatures from which a profusion of razor-sharp tentacles seemed to bloom.
'They came from...inside?' the boy found himself wondering, even as one of the bloated undead landed right beside him, and the boy jumped backwards – though not nearly far enough back to avoid being tossed through the air like a ragdoll by the explosion that followed.
One moment, he’d been standing his ground, ready to charge in – the next, he’d slammed into a wall dozens of meters away, his staff having fallen from his hand sometime or other as his vision swam and his hearing rang.
‘What…what ha—’
There was another BOOM, one that didn't quite register to his still-ringing ears, one that sent a Phelan that had gotten to one knee, with his projected shield before him, skidding across the ground, with the shield sputtering out, having presumably taken too much damage.
“No more!" the young noble declared – or so Shinji thought he said, though the boy could have said almost anything else that was two syllables and reasonably punchy, since his hearing still hadn't quite recovered.
Whatever Phelan said, the earl’s son followed up by rising to his feet, ripped one of the fiendfyre vials from the bandoleer on which he wore them and tossing it far into the distance, into a veritable mob of the bloated undead made up of all the ones which hadn’t been tossed forward by the first explosion.
Shinji could only watch as the vial shattered on the ground, spilling black flames upon the ground that quickly spread to engulf the nearby inferi, which popped one by one, releasing balloon-like things – which also popped in the heat.
By this time, the first – unaffected – wave of infectors had almost reached him, a veritable flood of dozens against a single boy, but Phelan stood resolute, taking his wand into his second hand.
"Verdimillious tria!" he intoned, as green lightning shot from his wand into the mob, chaining from one to the other as a dozen of the little ones just popped.
But a dozen out of eight dozen did not matter much, and so the infectors closed in.
Some jumped at his unarmored face.
Some tried to cling to his feet or legs as he tried to slice them or stop them.
Some jumped for his torso, even as Phelan sliced and thrashed and fought as best he could.
Fragile the infectors might be, but when there were hundreds, did it matter how fragile they were?
By this point, Shinji had managed to pull himself to his feet, a knife in one hand, his wand already in the other as he thought about how to support Phelan.
He had to get the infectors off his comrade – that much was sure, but how?
His knives? No…it would probably be bad form to just toss a knife towards the boy, especially if he missed and hit his face – these were real knives, after all.
By turning into a mule and trampling the infectors underfoot? Tempting but…if he missed, his animagus form had no armor.
‘Fine. Spells it is then,’ the boy thought, tossing off a quick Flipendo tria at Phelan, as a miniature tornado of force slammed into the earl’s son, incidentally popping all of the creatures on him as the remainder turned their attention to Shinji.
The Japanese boy, however, just stood his ground as he put away the knife, and readied a second wand.
“Verdimillious tria!” he snarled, as jagged strokes of purple-black lightning ripped through the air, tongues of heat and light surging forth again and again as the swarm came at him and the sound of their fragile forms popping sounded like hail on glass.
Infectors poured forth like countless grains of rice, only to be ground up, to be torn apart by the dark power Matou wielded.
And then it was over, with the smell of ozone lingering in the air, burnt flesh scattered about the corridor, and the boy on one knee, breathing hard as he felt dizziness seeking to claim him.
Desperately, he put away his wand and drew a health pack, which he used by crushing the ampoule of mixed fluids into his hand, as a fragment of glass cut his skin, allowing the mixture to seep inside and have its effect as his consciousness stabilized.
“The…hell was that?”
“Hmhm…ah, there you are,” the unwelcome voice of the poltergeist said. “While you were fighting, I managed unlocked the central lift, and now that the infestation is clear on this floor, we can proceed to the next level.”
For a moment, the boy contemplated just erasing the poltergeist for stirring up this trouble, but figured that it wasn’t worth it.
“Phelan, you ok?” he called.
“Just…ugh…peachy,” the Earl’s son replied with a groan. “What hit me?”
“…me actually?” Shinji admitted. “Had to get those things off of you somehow.”
“…ah, was that it? Thought you’d wanted to off me and get the credit,” Phelan joked. “You know, impress my sister with handling this all yourself.”
“Honestly, she’d probably be more impressed if I brought you back alive,” Shinji quipped, with the Earl’s son letting out a strangled bark of laughter from where he lay.
“…well, can’t say you’re wrong,” the Gryffindor admitted. “So, get our things, then onward?”
“…you don’t need a health pack?”
“Nah, I can – oww,” Phelan groaned as he tried to get up. “On second thought, yes, I’d like one, please.”
“…coming right up.”
On reaching the second level, Shinji sees a few small infector forms in the hallway ahead of him, as well as two armored forms - one of which seems to be wearing plate, while the other is wearing a wyvern-hide cloak and carrying a chilling bone rapier.
"Ah, combat forms," the Penitent noted, moving forward and disappearing into a large airvent off to the side.'
'Well, shit...'
"Any bright ideas, Matou?" Phelan asked. "You can handle the swarm easily enough I think, but the two others with it...?"
What is the plan?
[ ] (write-in)
"You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think." - A.A. Milne
[x]Take out the few small infectors with spells and knives at a distance. Tell Phelan to face the one carrying the rapier while Shinji takes takes on the one wearing plate. Shinji should target areas not covered by plates and blast it with spells to maintain distance. Try to knock it off its feet so it is a sitting target.
Phelan fighting the one with rapier since he has more experience against Amber who also uses a rapier. He also has his new blade he can try if it gets close if the spells he know can't get pass the wyvern-hide.
The one covered by plate might move slower due to weight and Shinji can try using his knives to hit any exposed area. If it falls and can't get up will allow Shinji to try a variety of spells to see if it can destroy it. If all spells fail they can advance pass fallen enemy or use fiendfyre on it if it is stationary.
They should split the targets up so their battles won't interfere with one another and if one one them finishes first they can join up against the last one.
Anyone else with any ideas or want to add to plan feel free.
Last edited by Dracueri; February 24th, 2019 at 12:35 AM.
Few issues here. Plate mail should cover like the whole body so there would not be a way to target exposed areas. Instead it would be better on that one to kite it since it will move fairly slow due to the armor. And then burn it with one of the Fiendfyre potions since its not able to really escape it. Knockdown idea has potential.
Second I am not sure we gain much by fighting them. Not if we can sneak by in say the airvent. Still I think we should throw a potion at this crowd. You really do not want to fight against this rapier foe. Remember this rapier WAS the one that was making Shinji numbing the Cthulhu chant at the armory. There are other alternatives to fighting a full on fight.
Still I should ask Alf some questions before I spring off of this plan using what I like and suggesting a different course.
For plate amor the joints were usually the weak points. They just reached the second level so I don't think they can just bypass the area without a fight. If infectors are in the air vent the two of them would be trapped in a cramped space where they will be defenceless.
Ok I think I have a plan to go with yours.
[X] Stay back, do not draw their attention, cast Wingardium Leviosa on a fiendfyre potion and hover it over the monsters heads until it is over the rapier wielder and drop it on them. At that point deal with the survivors by spell/knife, keeping their distance if possible.
Why do an act that will draw attention when we can stay back and drop a surprise on their heads? They should be fairly dumb to this ploy. The two dangerous ones warrant the potion use since we do not want a direct fight with them if possible.
A bit late in answering but, Fav Characters are the Noel twins and I would like to see more PoVs from them. My favourite moment from this quest was Hermione and Shinji getting over their issues in Quirell's challenge.
Ok with combining with SL idea. No point in struggling against a strong foe if fiendfyre will make it easier to deal with.
Last edited by Dracueri; February 24th, 2019 at 08:27 PM.
[X] Stay back, do not draw their attention, cast Wingardium Leviosa on a fiendfyre potion and hover it over the monsters heads until it is over the rapier wielder and drop it on them. At that point deal with the survivors by spell/knife, keeping their distance if possible
No sense in risking a melee if we can avoid fighting them head on.
[X] Stay back, do not draw their attention, cast Wingardium Leviosa on a fiendfyre potion and hover it over the monsters heads until it is over the rapier wielder and drop it on them. At that point deal with the survivors by spell/knife, keeping their distance if possible.
I suppose that works. Still, using so much inextinguishable fire in the library is likely to bite us in the ass at some point.
[X] Stay back, do not draw their attention, cast Wingardium Leviosa on a fiendfyre potion and hover it over the monsters heads until it is over the rapier wielder and drop it on them. At that point deal with the survivors by spell/knife, keeping their distance if possible
[X] Stay back, do not draw their attention, cast Wingardium Leviosa on a fiendfyre potion and hover it over the monsters heads until it is over the rapier wielder and drop it on them. At that point deal with the survivors by spell/knife, keeping their distance if possible.
Unlike Phelan, who seemed almost eager to fight one of the "combat forms" before them, Matou Shinji was not as...sanguine about their prospects of defeating two armed and armored foes. Granted, the inferi probably couldn't use the cursed rapier - something he well recognized - with any great skill, but something told him that these wouldn't die as easily as the bloated wretches from the previous floor.
'And being undead, its not as if pain will disable them, or they have some vital organ to pierce - ' or so he thought anyway. 'I could try to take off their heads or destroy their limbs...'
Except again, that these foes were armored, with one in gleaming goblin silver plate and the other wearing a wyvern-hide cloak much like his own.
'...given how often Selina's talked about dealing with undead, I wish she were with me right now.'
No doubt she'd have some brilliant idea, while he could only think that even if the armor was indestructible, the contents might not be.
"...you still have some fiendfyre vials, right?" the Japanese boy asked offhandedly.
"Yeah. I have three, why?" Phelan questioned. "You're not thinking we should just burn these out, are you?"
"Got a better idea?"
"Well, no, but...seems a waste to deal with just two of them like that."
"Heh." Shinji nodded, conceding the point. "I know. When you put it like that, it does seem like a pretty big waste. But there's only two of us, and they're more heavily armored - if we get tangled up with fighting them, what if another swarm drops out..." He glanced to the side. "Out of that airvent or something, the one Penitent went off to explore."
"...point," Phelan growled. "We'll do it your way."
And so they did, levitating a vial of fiendfyre potion over the rapier wielder, and letting it go, with the contents spilling out as it crashed upon the head of the figure, with liquid flames spreading over the hapless rapier wielder, and across the floor with some of the liquid reaching the armor-clad combat form, and the intense heat of the infernal fire causing all of the swarmers to simply burst.
The figure in the wyvern-hide cloak staggered, twisted, turned, as it became a pyre, the flames devouring the armor, the sword, and the flesh beneath indiscriminately.
The figure in goblin-silver plate however...this one let out a dangerous rasp, head turning lazily even as tongues of fire crept up its gleaming armor, and noting the presence of the two in the distance, began to run, arms outstretched as if to embrace both Matou and Phelan.
Rapier-wielding combat form destroyed. Infector forms destroyed.
There is one armored combat form (on fire) rushing towards Shinji and Phelan's position. Penitent has yet to return, though the airvent is beginning to make a strange sort of gurgling noise.
What will the two do?
[ ] (write-in)
"You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think." - A.A. Milne
I see two possibilities. Either we attempt to turn into a mule and hope we can mount Phelan in time to bugger out while the enemy burns himself to death. Or we find a way to knock the enemy off its feet. The armor is fairly resist to magic so casting a spell on it might fail.
But to me the simplest risky option here we can do is cast levitate on the plate mail and then hold the burning creature away from the ground so it can't run towards them until the fire kills it. But that has only 50% chance of working per spell thrown at it. Unless someone can think of a reasonable way to trip the monster, I think we almost have to go this route. Two wands/staff casting here between the two might make the odds in our favor.
Trip hazard by transfig is out since nothing to really use here as well as lack of real skill to do fancy spellwork as a 2nd year.
Or I guess there is a third option to just use his rage magic unlock and lightening it to death since Platemail conducts electricity oh so well. Hmmmm.
Last edited by Skull Leader; February 25th, 2019 at 05:23 PM.
Rage magic starting to look like a good idea. The lightning could also push the enemy back so we remain out of its clutch. We should also remain vigilant about air vent since its starting to react.
Ragequitting undead mob lit on eternal fire. Oh boy;
[x] Cast Levitation on themselves and bombard the inferius with stashes of books using Gemino to duplicate tomes on surroundings shelves.
If there's a chance magic might not work on it, target the duo instead. Once it's buried underneath, make a run for it.
Last edited by Daiki; February 26th, 2019 at 09:25 AM.
Levitation does not work like that Daiki. It would be the cloths and they are not strong enough to hold them. People get injury attempting that. The only reason it would work with the platemail is that its full armor that would hold the person up since they can't escape from it at all.
Even if it did work, remember the flood in Halo....they can LEAP. And fairly well to boot. So I doubt that Shinji and Phelan would be out of range.
[X] Cast Levitation on the Enemy and get Phelan to cast as well, so that one of them will lift the enemy so that burns itself out.
Last edited by Skull Leader; February 26th, 2019 at 06:35 PM.
[x]Cast Levitation on the Enemy and get Phelan to cast as well, so that one of them will lift the enemy so that burns itself out.
Two spell casters and 3 wands should be able to bypass resistance from enemy.
[X] Cast Levitation on the Enemy and get Phelan to cast as well, so that one of them will lift the enemy so that burns itself out.
Ah, you're right. The spell doesn't work on humans.Not sure about that plan though. If the cast spells are inefficient, the duo is screwed. I still think you would have a better shot if you use the environment to either restrain or stop its movement while Shinji and Phelan run.
The plate mail armored combat form running toward them should still be slow enough for the to react if spell fails. If the two split up in different direction it will only be able to chase one of them leaving the other free to try other spells to halt figure.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
