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When we got up, the snow was coming down fairly heavily, and I thought it was going to continue for a few days. I told the others what the Healer had shown me in response to my prayer about helping us figure out how to get rid of the claw safely and find the spear, the three visions of the bionlear I'd had last night. We discussed what they might mean; there could be a lot of possible explanations. We really weren't sure what to do with the claw. Ruza suggested we ask the bionlear, and Jack thought that was a good idea. May readied her light blessing while I held the claw, thinking about the bionlear taking ... then dropping it as a rush of force came back at me. We debated what to do next, and in the end, I thought into the claw, towards the bionlear again, not resisting the force, letting the bionlear take me.
The next thing I knew, I was inside the cabin, my heart feeling weak and fluttery, and I heard about what had happened while the bionlear wore me.
It held the claw, stroking it through the conversation, and basking in May's light when her blessing was active. It asked what time it is, and it came out that the bionlear that came is an earlier version bionlear, whose claw it isn't, yet, though it will be, later. This bionlear doesn't yet have the all-light. It told us that it saw three possible ways, death, rebirth, consumption. It couldn't tell us how to deal with the claw; that was forbidden by the Mother. Then it handed the claw to May, saying that it is her key now. May understood immediately that the claw is the key to finding the spear, though we don't yet know how to find the spear, exactly. We didn't have the lights it talked about, asked for, but May thought that perhaps the three crystals on the spear might be the lights, somehow. May had to ask the bionlear to leave when my body fell over and started shuddering; Ruza strengthened me for a bit, steadying me through it.
Well. We're much clearer on what we need to do now, though how is still a bit of a puzzle. Somehow, we will use the claw to find the spear, which hopefully will also bring us to finding the lights as well. We think the spear is in the featureless plain, somewhere, and it might've been the source of the featureless plain, somehow. Perhaps if we pray along our way, we'll get help in finding the spear more precisely than it's shown on the map Cor copied from the half-blasted Orem room.
Jack thought that we should all learn to use the claw, and I started by seeing what I could do with it outside the cabin. I'd never used the claw, though I had the memory of the bionlear using it as it wore my body. I pointed it at a deep piece of snow, carefully not pointing at anyone else or a tree or anything. It took a while to get a full sense of that piece of snow, its wholeness, its density; I hadn't thought before of the properties of snow that way. And then, when I had the wholeness of that piece of snow in my mind, it vanished. Ruza started counting to see how long it vanished for. Jack immediately ran to the patch of bare leaves and twigs to see what would happen when the snow reappeared. Which we found out 45 seconds later, as he was launched high into the air, then landed heavily, mostly on his shoulder, which was broken. I used Purity Within to heal the bone, and Touch of Purity on both Jack and myself, since we were the only ones who weren't at full strength.
Next I tried the claw on a boulder, which was easier than the snow in some ways, being more of a oneness, but denser than the snow. We had to argue with Jack to keep him from where the boulder temporarily wasn't. The third time I used it, on another rock, it was harder to wrap my mind around what I needed to, and the claw seemed slower.
Jack said that the bionlear had given May the claw, so she should learn how to use it first. I wasn't sure I'd be able to explain at all. She tried pointing it at a rock, but nothing happened. I told her that she needed to know all of the thing she was pointing the claw at, and suggested she use something smaller and familiar. She pulled a pinch out of her pocket, pointed the claw at it, and thought about the shape of the pinch, the size, the pattern on it... Nothing. I suggested she also think of the density of it, since that had been integral to how I'd managed it, and she did it! Ruza counted again, and it was gone for 45 seconds. We were all excited. She tried it again, with a small rock, that she could hold and examine first, but that didn't work. Still, a huge start, since it's now not only something I've done.
It was already midday, and we came up with a new plan. Cor and May would go hunting, Ruza going along to help bring any carcasses back, while Jack and I would stay at the cabin and make sure the fire was ready for cooking when they got back. Really, we should've been more careful about getting supplies before we left town.
While the hunters were gone, I practiced dodging Jack's wooden daggers, and worked on Touch of Purity. The others returned with a whole garruth, a very successful hunt. Cor and I butchered it (not a pretty sight), and I cooked the meat for traveling. We moved the rest of the remains away from the cabin, and there was still half an afternoon to travel in, which we did; Cor very much didn't want to spend a second night in the same place.
We traveled in a valley heading northeast towards the featureless plains for the rest of the day, and were lucky enough to find a very sheltered spot to camp in. We split up the watch as usual, with two people awake at all times. When it was my turn, the first half of my watch was with Ruza, who was engrossed in his book, so I was vigilant about keeping watch and alert as he read. Once he traded off with May, I took a turn being merely awake as I wrote for a while. Which turned out to be not a good decision.
I looked over at May when I heard her move suddenly around the fire, and then she was enveloped in swirling cloud of darkness, a vortex whirling around her. I grabbed my quarterstaff and ran towards her, calling to the others. There wasn't anything I could do directly for May, so I ran outside the range of the firelight and tried using my night vision. Behind me, May had used her blessing to dispel the vortex. Jack had woken up and run out of the shelter as well. Cor saw where Jack had gone, and ran out in another direction, grabbing a burning log from the fire to see what was going on. I was able to see where the whatever-it-was was attacking us from, and yelled to Cor an approximate distance, pointing towards the figure. He couldn't see it, and was soon after enveloped in a vortex of swirling blackness himself. I headed toward the figure, and Jack sneaked around as well, seeing about where I was headed. I tried to fight what turned out to be a large Woeg man using ice and darkness magics. My fighting was poor, but I did keep his attention on attacking me while Jack and May were able to fight more effectively. Jack tried throwing a dagger at him, but missed. May shot some arrows into him, but that had no effect (another dead man? probably.). Jack went up to slash him, and May did as well. When I felt the coldness start to overcome me, I backed away from the fight, going to Cor, trying to think how I could get the vortex to vanish from him. It was lucky that I did; Jack and May finished him off, and he exploded as he went; they were both hurt.
Amazingly, Ruza slept through the whole battle.
The next thing I knew, I was inside the cabin, my heart feeling weak and fluttery, and I heard about what had happened while the bionlear wore me.
It held the claw, stroking it through the conversation, and basking in May's light when her blessing was active. It asked what time it is, and it came out that the bionlear that came is an earlier version bionlear, whose claw it isn't, yet, though it will be, later. This bionlear doesn't yet have the all-light. It told us that it saw three possible ways, death, rebirth, consumption. It couldn't tell us how to deal with the claw; that was forbidden by the Mother. Then it handed the claw to May, saying that it is her key now. May understood immediately that the claw is the key to finding the spear, though we don't yet know how to find the spear, exactly. We didn't have the lights it talked about, asked for, but May thought that perhaps the three crystals on the spear might be the lights, somehow. May had to ask the bionlear to leave when my body fell over and started shuddering; Ruza strengthened me for a bit, steadying me through it.
Well. We're much clearer on what we need to do now, though how is still a bit of a puzzle. Somehow, we will use the claw to find the spear, which hopefully will also bring us to finding the lights as well. We think the spear is in the featureless plain, somewhere, and it might've been the source of the featureless plain, somehow. Perhaps if we pray along our way, we'll get help in finding the spear more precisely than it's shown on the map Cor copied from the half-blasted Orem room.
Jack thought that we should all learn to use the claw, and I started by seeing what I could do with it outside the cabin. I'd never used the claw, though I had the memory of the bionlear using it as it wore my body. I pointed it at a deep piece of snow, carefully not pointing at anyone else or a tree or anything. It took a while to get a full sense of that piece of snow, its wholeness, its density; I hadn't thought before of the properties of snow that way. And then, when I had the wholeness of that piece of snow in my mind, it vanished. Ruza started counting to see how long it vanished for. Jack immediately ran to the patch of bare leaves and twigs to see what would happen when the snow reappeared. Which we found out 45 seconds later, as he was launched high into the air, then landed heavily, mostly on his shoulder, which was broken. I used Purity Within to heal the bone, and Touch of Purity on both Jack and myself, since we were the only ones who weren't at full strength.
Next I tried the claw on a boulder, which was easier than the snow in some ways, being more of a oneness, but denser than the snow. We had to argue with Jack to keep him from where the boulder temporarily wasn't. The third time I used it, on another rock, it was harder to wrap my mind around what I needed to, and the claw seemed slower.
Jack said that the bionlear had given May the claw, so she should learn how to use it first. I wasn't sure I'd be able to explain at all. She tried pointing it at a rock, but nothing happened. I told her that she needed to know all of the thing she was pointing the claw at, and suggested she use something smaller and familiar. She pulled a pinch out of her pocket, pointed the claw at it, and thought about the shape of the pinch, the size, the pattern on it... Nothing. I suggested she also think of the density of it, since that had been integral to how I'd managed it, and she did it! Ruza counted again, and it was gone for 45 seconds. We were all excited. She tried it again, with a small rock, that she could hold and examine first, but that didn't work. Still, a huge start, since it's now not only something I've done.
It was already midday, and we came up with a new plan. Cor and May would go hunting, Ruza going along to help bring any carcasses back, while Jack and I would stay at the cabin and make sure the fire was ready for cooking when they got back. Really, we should've been more careful about getting supplies before we left town.
While the hunters were gone, I practiced dodging Jack's wooden daggers, and worked on Touch of Purity. The others returned with a whole garruth, a very successful hunt. Cor and I butchered it (not a pretty sight), and I cooked the meat for traveling. We moved the rest of the remains away from the cabin, and there was still half an afternoon to travel in, which we did; Cor very much didn't want to spend a second night in the same place.
We traveled in a valley heading northeast towards the featureless plains for the rest of the day, and were lucky enough to find a very sheltered spot to camp in. We split up the watch as usual, with two people awake at all times. When it was my turn, the first half of my watch was with Ruza, who was engrossed in his book, so I was vigilant about keeping watch and alert as he read. Once he traded off with May, I took a turn being merely awake as I wrote for a while. Which turned out to be not a good decision.
I looked over at May when I heard her move suddenly around the fire, and then she was enveloped in swirling cloud of darkness, a vortex whirling around her. I grabbed my quarterstaff and ran towards her, calling to the others. There wasn't anything I could do directly for May, so I ran outside the range of the firelight and tried using my night vision. Behind me, May had used her blessing to dispel the vortex. Jack had woken up and run out of the shelter as well. Cor saw where Jack had gone, and ran out in another direction, grabbing a burning log from the fire to see what was going on. I was able to see where the whatever-it-was was attacking us from, and yelled to Cor an approximate distance, pointing towards the figure. He couldn't see it, and was soon after enveloped in a vortex of swirling blackness himself. I headed toward the figure, and Jack sneaked around as well, seeing about where I was headed. I tried to fight what turned out to be a large Woeg man using ice and darkness magics. My fighting was poor, but I did keep his attention on attacking me while Jack and May were able to fight more effectively. Jack tried throwing a dagger at him, but missed. May shot some arrows into him, but that had no effect (another dead man? probably.). Jack went up to slash him, and May did as well. When I felt the coldness start to overcome me, I backed away from the fight, going to Cor, trying to think how I could get the vortex to vanish from him. It was lucky that I did; Jack and May finished him off, and he exploded as he went; they were both hurt.
Amazingly, Ruza slept through the whole battle.
