Raineh Daze

The Elder Scrolls VI: Sentinel

So, apropos of absolutely nothing, I am once more in the market for trying to run a post-Skyrim Elder Scrolls game! A proper writeup will be forthcoming if there's enough interest, but the TL;DR reason is that you have been chosen by your new Empress to be a member of the Blades and go… get Hammerfell back in line with the Empire while she goes and keeps the Thalmor from overrunning Cyrodiil because Talos is back in fashion.

Now, if only she wasn't an idiot savant who did also think that "prisoner with nice vibes" is an acceptable recruitment target.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Cyrodiil

"For a first attempt, well done." You stand on the water's surface—oddly yielding, and moving with the lapping waves, as opposed to your instructor's apparent ability to treat the lake as smooth stone, but it is nonetheless a success, and without a further word Lannessa turns and starts walking for the more distant northern shore at a leisurely pace, only briefly adding to let her know if you start to run low on magicka to recast your spell.

The trek across takes the rest of the morning, the elf stopping to show how to not waste all the magical potential of the Ayleid stone in a single shot, and otherwise avoiding any questions about herself. Not magical knowledge, though, if you thought to ask further about that. Regardless of the topic.

As noon approaches, she glances towards the sun and casts another spell. It isn't clear what it did for a moment, until some of the omnipresent heat dies down and the glare of the tropical sun gets slightly less oppressive. "Strange, how few mages seem to consider that their destructive spells are just as easily turned to convenience. Though, I doubt most would be making such an unprepared trek across Cyrodiil."

The reason for the northward trek is more apparent—if not asked before—as you head from the northern shore, passing through the trees and joining the Red Ring Road: a modestly sized inn, serving travellers along the highway, its wooden exterior looking slightly the worse for wear. Inside, the most apparent group is a small band of likely mercenaries that oddly back off at the elf's glare, and a Nord woman that returns a suspicious look of her own.

"You again? Still not going to help with the necromancer?"

"Oh, I don't know. What about you, Vivienne? Do you feel up for some bounty hunting?"

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Tyaethe and Fiadh

"Oh, that's great," Tyaethe said, armour gone and vampire darting over to inspect Fionn with a grin, "It's been too long since we had somebody throwing around magic blasts from their sword and the like, it just never feels right without some of that, you know? There was Elly, and Ed, and Parv…"

The vampire's rambling stopped, hands reaching out and pulling Fionn's sword down to inspect closely. At least it wasn't quiet for long, Fiadh had freed herself from her safe little bunker and flung her weight on the former mercenary's back with a cheery, "Yay!"

"That was very impressive, darling, I didn't know you'd take to everything so fast! Oh, to think you're so talented…" It was probably a bit awkward, all the Niyar's weight hanging from his shoulders while she did her best cat impression against Fionn's head.

"You broke your sword a little," Tyaethe noted, tapping the metal adornments on the hilt. What had previously been golden and shiny was now looking distinctly melted, with all sorts of interesting and oddly translucent bubbles ruining its previous symmetry. That was nothing compared to the smoking ruins of the runework, blackened and slightly steaming if one were to listen closely. Probably how the shortsighted girl had even noticed it to start with.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Cyrodiil

"Excellent, we can work on it in the morning," the elf gives you a satisfied nod and then hides the stone away, attention returning to the pot, "It has been quite some time since I had an apprentice…"

For the rest of the cooking process, and all through dinner, she seems happy to leave you to your thoughts, sipping away at her own wine and gazing up at the clear night sky as if the stars have some hidden meaning to impart. From the Emperor's cryptic words within the escape route, it's entirely possible that they do, for someone learned enough.

Once the fire has burned to embers, it's time to get some sleep, and it's altogether unsurprising at this point that the elf can pull further camping supplies out of nowhere as she packs away the pot. It's generally safe, this close to the city, and the only thing making it difficult to sleep is how suddenly loud the wind is after weeks of still air; how big the sky is compared to low stone ceilings of smooth stone.

—

When the sun once again rises, you're unceremoniously prodded towards the lake shore and given what feels like an almost over-abbreviated introduction to alteration and, more importantly, water-walking. At least it's couched in terms that make some sense for your little practical experience.

The expectant gaze for you to follow her lead and step onto the lapping waters of the lake is only made heavier by the continuing absurdity of someone being able to walk on water. At least she wasn't joking about its possibility.

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Tyaethe and Fiadh

Tyaethe regarded the falling bolts with a sort of casual indifference, moving despite the armour almost too late to dodge it… but nonetheless now advancing steadily towards the snake's rear rather than just smashing parts off of it as the bolts slammed into the ground beside the vampire. It had sent its heart down here for protection, had it? To keep it away from anyone else? Well, she just had to force this snake to keep it nice and vulnerable. If it was that intelligent, there was no way it was coming down her end until there was nowhere else it could possibly be.

The paladin jumped forwards, slamming on what had probably been a tail at some point but was now a snapping mass of mouths too fractured and divided to easily penetrate her armour. Of course, she wasn't heavy enough to hold it in place, but if she just took her sword and stabbed it right through—

Well, it would probably reform from being staked soon, especially with how much she'd had to pulp to get it right into the ground, but it only needed to stay still and keep its heart further up for a tiny bit longer.

---

Fionn, at least, was absolved of the burden of needing to dodge the rain of magical attacks. Although Fiadh was quite safe from her viewing spot behind, the niyar let out an audible gasp of shock and started trying to help. For once, the help was even actively useful, a woven canopy of roots springing out of the ground and covering the merc on three sides…

As long as he didn't need to go back. Or didn't get charged. It was probably fine.

@VitaVitaAR@The Otter

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

Right, that… that could be afforded. Even if she'd had to go scrounge it up herself… well, maybe not here, out in woods, but if she was back in Costa del Sol… of course, that wasn't a problem for once; the funding they'd liberated from Mizutani meant that they'd been able to bring along enough to fund this particular excursion. That was surprising, moving goods was generally the hard part and she hadn't thought they had all that long…

Although, they did have a major criminal contact and various more reputable ones, so maybe it wasn't terribly surprising. Had they been ripped off…? That was a separate question, when it came to it. For now, they had all the money they really needed, and this was definitely worth spending it on. She had a brother to catch, and Arton's arm was all… ew. That was bad.

"F-F-Fine…" the mystrel said, digging into her coat and steadily counting out the required funding. Now she saw why it was her job to carry the money on this trip, aside from the obvious "you have lots of pockets inside there, right?" aspect; if Arton was paying, he might just reject it out of concern for the Blight or something.

If her expectant stare was a bit too sharp and unblinking, that was only fair.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Cyrodiil

Lannessa nodded, leaning over to check the contents of the pot, "Walk over. There are numerous ways a learned mage might choose to allow themselves to walk on water, but the simplest are easily within reach of a novice in the school. As long as your magicka is sufficient, then we can cross the lake and follow the Red Ring Road."

The elf frowns as if the ''endurance'' aspect had escaped her notice. "Of course, as a magical novice, both your stamina and your attunement to aetherial energies may be too low to maintain this over the entire journey. A tutor, assuming they didn't insist you take a safer path, would recommend potions to compensate, but I don't have any. Maybe…"

You are treated to the sight of the elf searching through her robes for something, eventually producing a smooth palm-sized piece of blue-green glass, fixed inside a metallic lattice. "This is a Welkynd Stone. Ayleid creations, but getting them out of the ruins can be challenging, and their secrets have been almost entirely lost to the modern era."

She sits back with a smug expression, "Most mages only know how to feel the magicka within and draw it all at once, destroying the stone entirely. Of course, this destroys the stone, and they can do nothing with the excess. But I learned the secret to only taking as much as I need. The stone won't simply regenerate, but it at least isn't destroyed… and I'm sure a single stone like this is enough to take even the most inefficient novice across the lake."

From Realms Beyond — An Isekai Crossover RP (Now Accepting)

Fujiwara no Mokou

Honestly, she'd been getting out of her depth here… sure, there was something up with the orb, but that was almost a given when it came to anything from Gensokyo, and taoism wasn't anything she knew in detail. Maybe, to some degree, she had experience with working out what any given item might be used for from a danmaku perspective, but that was just exposure to Kaguya speaking. The obvious thing to do was just to touch it.

What was the worst that could happen?

Before Mokou could reach out and presumably find a new and exciting way to get herself injured, the hermit responsible for this place came back… and the jiang shi. The downside was that… ah, the half-ghost was going to jump to the fighting. Not a bad idea, fighting first and asking questions later was just how you got things done. But maybe they could avoid that? This room wasn't huge, and things still ached from being cut apart earlier.

The easiest way to delay her was to just get in the way. She might attack anyway, since Mokou would be fine in the long run, but maybe it would work?

"Looking for you. You two make six of us from Gensokyo."

And the hermit was the first one that might have some idea about getting back, or at least communicating.

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Tyaethe and Fiadh

Pinpoint its heartbeat? Hmph, that was easy, it was literally the reason they had such good hearing. Now that the construct was moving rather than quiescent—

Oh, what was this? She couldn't really point out the location, and she wasn't in a good position back here to attack what had now become amusingly double-ended, but surely one of the mages could work out how to target things if they knew… "The heart is moving!"

That just left the mouth that had transformed out of the wounds she'd inflicted down on this side. Endlessly dividing but not healing… well, if she wanted to make it easier, then, she just had to further smash it apart and reduce its mobility, right? First: armour. Second…

Well, anyone looking down to the other end of the serpent would see that Tyaethe was basically just lashing out at whatever part of it got close. Punching, kicking, actually getting enough distance to swing her sword—whatever worked. That, and focusing so much on attacking that it clear knocked her into a tree. But she seemed fine.

Fiadh had decided to be sensible for… perhaps the first time anyone might remember, dropping off and carefully hiding behind a tree. Of course, that tree hadn't been in that spot when she started; the Niyar seemed to have made it shuffle along and bend so she had a good view while still hiding.

The applause was probably for Fionn's acrobatic climb onto the snake. Or maybe she just really liked people jumping to the rescue?

The Elder Scrolls IV: Cyrodiil

"So, we could circle the Imperial City..." the elf starts, flicking her bottle open and taking a drink, "But that's a long enough walk on its own and highly visible. Or, we could just go straight through and hope the assassins aren't watching. I doubt they would recognise you, especially after some equipping."

She takes another drink and then looks out over the lake, "We could also cross the lake. There's no bridges up this side, but there should be boats and fishermen... or we can just walk over."

That statement alone is baffling. "I take it you have had no prior magical education?"