ERode

Iris Ascendis

_{@Nanaya@AThousandCurses}

"Did I stutter?"

There was an edge of irritation in Otis's tone as Chunji decided to completely ignore what he had said. What was so difficult about keeping Davil stable? Did essence exhaustion affect the bespectacled idiot's ears as well as his eyes? But what was done was done. Even though the Strigidae had prepared to begin running tests to test his hypothesis, he had to admit that Chunji's Ethos was faster. It was some form of poison after all, one that was traveling from the stomach to the heart at a rate that was nevertheless much slower than the flow of blood. It wasn't spreading or diffusing in the way that Otis himself would have expected; the manner in which it traveled was unnatural.

In which case, even the stagnation of blood-intake and essence-recovery were just side-effects meant to distract from the real issue: the stagnation of the heart lead to reduced heart rate, which would ultimately cause a cardiac arrest. Fatal, certainly. Or, if it could corrode metal, perhaps it would melt through the heart upon arrival, after having suppressed its 'corrosion' essence up to that point?

Hmph.

That was the problem with cultists. They spent too much time on theatrics without considering practicality. Otis himself could probably concoct a faster-acting poison that was just as lethal. As for coming up with an antidote for one though...

"I don't have a procedure. I'm not a doctor." His tone was flat. "Go find Doctor Kann and let him know what we found. I'll look into the foreign substance further."

It was no longer a needle in a haystack. Now that Otis was aware of exactly what and generally where the unnatural substance was, he could do a refined search. Murmured incantations clarified the nature of the world around him as he dove into the sea of essence that comprised a human being. The world was made of essence, and everything contained essence, but if that substance was only partially melded into Davil's blood, then it should still have a distinct outline. Two human beings hugging each other did not become a singular entity when viewed through a mage's eyes. A spear became a stick and a steel piece, if one changed their perspective.

They needed to learn more.

And Otis loved learning.

...

That being said, he did have at least one procedure in mind.

They could exsanguinate Davil until that poison was drawn out. Worldly problems were answered with worldly solutions, after all.

Iris Ascendis

Go for it, snake boi.

Oh yeah, Nanaya, I recall Otis also sending out another ping to check and see if his automaton was still present somewhere in that space. Any response?

Iris Ascendis

Whenever I just make shit up:

Iris Ascendis

Yeah, I just need input on poison hijinks. Or any kind of foreign material that may have made it into Davil’s body.

Magic in the Park

Gradually approaching Click levels of soon.

Wardens of the Glade: A Light Fantasy RP

The secret for me is that I don't draft, proofread, cross-reference, or revise.

For this particular case, these posts are bolstered by the fact that they are introductory posts, and thus have a lot more narrative 'time' to cover. We can freely yap about the entirety of the journey, our character's internal monologues with regards to the city and/or festival, and don't have to involve any other PCs in the yapper-y. So yeah, there's an acceptance that most of the post that is written wouldn't be addressed ICly by others.

Ultimately though, long posts are more a consequence of someone vibing rather than an objective, especially if you're not in an RP that has strict minimum words per post hijinks.

Iris Ascendis

Could've done this instead, alas.

Iris Ascendis

_{@Nanaya@Estylwen@Psyker Landshark@AThousandCurses}

Otis nodded as the Doctor passed, pocketing the extraplanar extract for himself. It was a rare thing to get a genuine article for free after all.

It was interesting too though, that the message he had sent via Adapa to the undermage had failed. He himself had confirmed that it was possible to send messages in and out of a Leyline Overcharge, so what had happened after her apparent victory? The Strigidae’s eyes narrowed briefly, considering his options for exploring that particular topic, before settling for the simplest one: the spring-like automaton he had placed within that space. A quick pulse of essence was released through his Adapa, searching for any response or resonance from his creation. And while he waited for the results of that?

Back to work.

Chunji was up, and if Otis was a good doctor, he’d bade his classmate to lie back down and rest. Extra hands were useful though, and so the Strigidae instead said, “Davil has been inflicted with the essence of stagnation, but only conditionally. He loses blood and essence at a regular pace in consideration to his injuries, but cannot intake them at the same rate, so standard transfusions are having decreased effects upon him.”

He glanced back at Ciara and Iraleth. One was rambling, caught in the throes of a nightmare. The other was barely awake, holding on with only the force of will at this point. There had been a creaking sound a moment ago, but no known origin. Shame he didn’t have eyes on the back of his head, but even he had too many things on his list already.

“Work on keeping him stable. I’ll look into locating the root cause of this condition.”

There were no other words needed at that point. The implanting of essence, by nature, was such that the more complex an object was, the more difficult the implantation process became. And what could be more complex than a living being? To have implanted the concept of stagnation, and a conditional variation of that, upon Davil must have taken either extraordinary amounts of time, effort and skill. Time, which could have been spent simply cutting off his head. Effort, which could have been spent simply blowing him to bits. Skill, which that Umbralist clearly did not have enough of, if they could not best or hold their own for all that long against the undermage.

Yes, rather than specifically an implantation of a curse, it was far more likely that the symptoms of ‘reduced recovery’ came from an exterior source. One could not easily implant the essence of ‘fire’ into a human being, but one could accomplish that with ease by tossing them into a bonfire. Essence was complex, but also just made of the world itself. They affected each other in equal measure. And thus…

“Rather than a curse, would it just be poison?”

Poison, laced upon a weapon. Meant to weaken a foe and reduce the probability of their recovery in case of escape. The poison itself could have been concocted with essence manipulation and spellwork, then applied ‘externally’ into the body of another to reproduce those same effects through the world-essence relationship.

It was a better theory than digging through a haystack for a particular needle.

Now then, the Seeker would simply have to test that theory.

Iris Ascendis

Since Nicole's Adapa can no longer be connected to, does that mean Otis no longer has access to the security systems of the Iris Ascendis?

Magic in the Park

Iz k. Technically there’s no delay at all if there’s two people left.