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Okay, so let’s start this book called The Plague Lords of Ruel. This time I am swapping Assimilance for Kai-Surge, which I was looking at anyway.
That makes my CS 52.
Okay, let’s start again just like before, only now I have Kai-Surge instead of Assimilance. I also will take the forest like before, but this time, the fallen tree entrance instead of the creek entrance.
Quote:
Using your innate Magnakai skill of Invisibility, you take care to mask your body heat and scent lest they should stir the curiosity of any keen-nosed denizens of Ruel. Then, with caution guiding your every step, you advance through the knee-high grasses towards the fallen tree. As you approach, you focus your powers of Divination and scan the surrounding darkness for invisible or hidden enemies. Sensing no immediate threat, you continue to the forest's edge where you are greeted by an unwholesome warmth. It rises out of a mulch of insects and fungi that are feasting upon the corpse of the tree. Silently you offer up a prayer to Ishir before venturing a step further this inhospitable domain.
Beyond the dead tree you find a muddy track which is bordered on both sides by the tall trunks and thorny briars of the forest. So dense is this tangle of trees and brush that it is impossible to leave the track. You feel as if you are walking along an endless passage, one so unnatural that its construction could only be the result of evil herbcraft.
At length the track widens and the trees begin to thin out. Ahead you see a clearing and at once your senses tingle: it is a warning that you are not alone. Instinctively you reach for your weapon and, as your hand closes upon it, you see that the floor of the clearing is alive with a carpet of loathsome scuttling creatures. At once you attempt to use your Magnakai powers of Animal Control, to determine if these creature are hostile, but your efforts go unrewarded.
(I use Animal Mastery)
You focus your power upon the scuttling horde and try to bring them under your control. They do not respond to your commands and, at once, you sense that they are under a spell that has robbed them of all free will. You draw on your inner strength and attempt to break this spell, and the creatures cease their frenzied movement with an abruptness you find unnerving; it is as if they have suddenly turned to stone. Now that you can see them clearly they remind you of beetles, save that they are far larger and have long, rat-like tails. You observe them for a few moments longer, then take a tentative step forwards. Instantly they burst into life, only this time they do not confine themselves to the forest floor.
With a sound like a thousand squeaky door hinges, they sprout wings and soar into the air in a formation which resembles a small black cloud. Soon they have left the clearing, and as you watch the last of them disappear over the tops of the trees, you can only hope that they are not some form of lookout employed by the Cenerese.
On the far side of the clearing you discover that the trail continues deeper into the forest. You follow it for nearly an hour until your keen senses warn of danger ahead and immediately you halt in your tracks. You hear a movement: it is above and behind you. With incredible speed you spin on your heel and raise your weapon to parry a possible attack. Your reactions are fast, but they may not be quick enough to protect you from what lurks in the canopy of branches high above.
From out of the darkness there falls a wriggling mass of thorny creepers that come snaking towards your head as if driven by a single mind.
(Yes, I have Grand Pathsmanship, I think I know where this is going…)
Forewarned by your powerful senses, you are able to avoid the wriggling creepers by diving and rolling across the spongy forest floor. As you begin to rise to your feet, you fix your eyes on those vines and suddenly you realize that they are not plants after all--they belong to a creature that is hiding in the canopy above. The creeper-like tendrils are part of its natural camouflage.
Suddenly another mass of the tendrils descend and spread out in an attempt to locate you. One brushes against your foot and immediately the others hone in on your position like a swarm of hungry eels. You raise your weapon and strike a mighty blow which tears away a great swath of the creature's wriggling limbs. A fountain of ichor erupts from every severed end and, from somewhere above the canopy of branches, you hear an unearthly roar of pain. Once more the remaining tendrils seek you out; this time they are no longer soft and fibrous, but stiff and studded with barbed thorns.
The swirling mass strikes out for your throat. Desperately you hack at them with devastating effect yet more and more emerge from above to replace them.
(I choose to evade. This one is in a tree.)
You duck to avoid the sweeping tendrils, then turn and begin to run towards the clearing. You have taken but a few steps when a barbed limb lashes out and rakes the back of your legs (lose 4 ENDURANCE points).
You cry out at the sudden pain and stumble to your knees, but quickly you regain your footing and manage to escape without sustaining further injury. Without looking back, you cross the clearing and press on towards the east.
I am back at the area with the moldering skull, and from here it is all the same, except I don’t use Divination on the pits this time. Until…
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