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Post by Althea on Apr 22, 2017 0:47:34 GMT -6
"Relaxed?" Althea scoffed at the thought. "Kraft's insane fervor only grows with time, and the Inquisition enforces his will."
Still. It wasn't a subject worth arguing. Or, rather, its importance was not directly proportional to how much she might want to discuss it. She had never mixed well with politics and had stopped trying to make much sense of them long ago, aside from a very basic understanding of each territory's political structure. And she certainly didn't want to spend the argument arguing with Talus about just how good Eliminism was for everyone.
"As far as I am aware, magic weapons can focus spells from all three schools of magic, but I am no expert in the field. If he is Etrurian too, perhaps he keeps its nature secret to avoid the eyes of the Church." She shrugged, not particularly concerned with the who and the why. Victor had seemed like a decent enough fellow, but his life was none of her business. "If you are that curious, though, there are resources to investigate the subject with. Self-edification is a good trait to cultivate. Perhaps learning more about those kinds of weapons will aid you in combat, or simply be interesting trivia; only you can decide what interests you, after all." Which was a nicer way of saying she didn't care, admittedly, though admittedly Althea knew that she would have to learn more about them eventually if there was a reasonable chance that she would have to deal with the bloody things sometime in the future. And knowing her luck, she would run into someone wielding a light magic sword right about... now.
...Well, sometime soon, anyways. She glanced around her suspiciously just in case, but found no sudden assailants.
"Ah, but you see, Talus," the shaman abruptly started, to keep her attention focused on what they were doing - what was that over there? A dark mass awaited motionless some ten feet or so away, and so Althea scurried over to investigate it. A dead deer, decomposing where it lay. It was hard to tell what had killed it or how long it had been dead. "...That's not a good sign. Anyways, the pursuit of knowledge is more important than a little risk to life and limb. Aaaaaaalso, if we start seeing more dead animals, we should probably start worrying about curses." And with that she was back to moving onward, not willing to let one purely coincidental dead animal derail her dreams.
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Post by Talus on Apr 23, 2017 15:49:18 GMT -6
"You have a point. I think they only kill the unregistered dark mages now, and yes, there's now a registry for dark magic users, if I recall right. But i've heard there's a lot of procedures to go through, so meh. And yeah,I don't like the inquisition either. For gods sake, nobody expects them when they pop up, at its annoying as all hell." he said.
He listened to her explanation on magic weapons. "You know, I was just thinking that." he said. He really would have to talk to Victor at great length about the matter. She had a point, it would be prudent to learn about this sort of thing... Of course, although he didn't mention it, he wished he could cast light magic right around now. Then she motioned for him to go look at something. That something was a dead deer. He swallowed nervously. That was not a good sign indeed. Although he did have something to say on her rather dissonant Serenity to the growing possibility of death. "Um... I kinda agree with that, but I don't think any knowledge is worth dying for, I mean, risking your life is one thing, but... well... yeah." he said somewhat nervously. He honestly wanted to remark about how maybe they should already be worried, but he really didn't want to seem like a chicken at this point. "What are we going to do if there is a curse?" he asked her. He had a sinking feeling that the answer would be something along the lines of "improvise". But there was always hope that maybe it was just that: a feeling. Hope keeps one sane, after all.
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Post by Althea on Apr 23, 2017 16:32:23 GMT -6
"Annoying." She could still hear the crackling flames of memory. "I suppose that is one way to describe them, yes. Considering that they have invaded Ilia and Sacae alike, though, I believe we have long since passed 'annoying'." Althea didn't push the discussion further, and she didn't know the EXACT details of what was happening nowadays with that invasion, but she wasn't a big fan of war, especially the kind where you invaded your neighbors to spread your cancerous religion and killed anyone who didn't convert. One Prophet's holy war was another man's genocide.
As for curses... the problem was that they were mostly theoretical magic - remnants from the age of magic - it was difficult to truly categorize them. This site, however, was much more recent, from a more modern age, which meant that any 'curses' that could have been placed on it were likely either legitimately bullshit or at worst some variety of location-fueled, area-effect Worm tome equivalent... if the rumors of this curse were true, it might be some form of wide-area Luna, but the difficulty in keeping something like that up for centuries led her to believe that there was no such thing. "Pushing into the secrets of the past oft comes with a dash of danger," the shaman returned archly, seemingly almost unaware of the... immediacy of the potential danger, "-But if the curse turns out to be real, we'll fall back. Suicide is a fool's errand, and if there truly is a geomantically-fueled area Luna spell in action, it would be wise to only approach it after gaining a better understanding of the mechanics thereof. Something of that power should have only been possible in the Age of Magic, not the modern day."
"...Which brings us to the current time. I have several hypotheses. The most likely scenario is that the curse is entirely, ah, falsified. A story built to scare others away. Among the superstitious and cowardly, a nearly ironclad guarantee." Yeah, because her near-suicidal search for knowledge was so much better. She'd have died several times already if not for the good people she seemed to accidentally fall in with on a regular basis. "Second, there is a strong possibility that the 'curse' is simply a faux explanation for an unrelated phenomenon. For example, a group of bandits or cultists who called that area home at the time, or a den of monsters. People fear what they do not understand, and strive to explain it in terms that make sense to them."
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Post by Talus on Apr 23, 2017 18:51:59 GMT -6
He wisely decided not to press anymore. While she was probably right, politics was always something that seemed to lead to a fight, one way or another. Althea was one fight he decided not to try and risk. She could probably curse him to death, literally. So he just nodded. While he did agree that, at times, this kind of thing could be dangerous, he did have to wonder: was her serenity because she had done this many times before, and knew what to do, or was she just plain crazy and doing a damn good job of hiding it?
Which is why he was greatly relieved that his sinking feeling was, for the most part, unfounded. So she wasn't suicidal, at least. That was a good sign towards being not crazy. So he nodded again.
He listened to her hypothesis's on the curse, then put them together, and let them churn in his head for a bit before he said his response. Although both sounded like reasonable explanations, and what he said next might just be summing up what she had said, that had never really stopped him from saying stuff before.
"Maybe it's a bit of both: whatever might have taken up residence there at the time took to spreading rumors about a curse so that no one would come looking for them there. Which begs several different questions with it. Like, if that's the case, what is there, then? And are they still there? If they are, are they hostile, and if they aren't, why did they leave? Although feel free to correct me if i'm wrong..." he asked her.
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Post by Althea on Apr 23, 2017 19:08:49 GMT -6
Of course, there was the third option: that there WAS a deadly, insidious curse, that it had already infected them, and that it was already far too late for either of them to survive. If she was going to curse a site to ensure that people never came near it, after all, she would probably put up an obvious short-range curse and a slower acting subtle one with a much larger area to ensure that people could report back of the obvious one, then die from the longer range one shorter term. Althea... decided not to share that theory with Talus, though. Partially because that sounded slightly evil even by her standards, and partially because as far as she knew it would be impossible with modern magic. Perhaps in the world before the Scouring, but this site had (supposedly) only been abandoned a century and a half ago. IF there was a curse of some sort, it was likely much smaller scale and less dangerous.
Spreading rumors... yes, it was certainly possible. She had toyed with the idea. That WAS her first main hypothesis after all. She didn't feel a need to correct him on the subject though. "Were the creators of the 'curse,' be it literal or metaphorical, to still exist there - we would have a significant problem. To live for over 150 years is a trait that supposedly no mortal alive save Athos himself has managed, not even the other Scouring heroes. If that were the case, there is the possibility of facing a foe of that scale who may not wish to be disturbed." Yep, that was her alright, Althea the Idealist, bringer of hope and joy. Never a dull moment - or a happy one. No biggie, let's just piss off something that may be on the same level of Athos himself, what could go wrong?
Slightly amused at the thought, Althea pressed onward regardless, both physically and socially as she pushed through the foliage. The trees certainly weren't dying, there was still plenty of greenery to be found, so she was fairly certain in ruling out a massive scale life-consuming curse, though there were still other possibilities that suggested she retain some level of caution. "Though in truth my belief is that whatever happened here lost relevance meaning so long ago that there is naught but superstition holding others away."
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Post by Talus on Apr 23, 2017 20:37:31 GMT -6
He quickly paled at that theory. He knew, somewhere in him mentally, that was a definite possibility, but had chosen to ignore that particularly cheerful thought. The way that girl said it, though, was in the tone of someone casually stating it, as if it were something barely worth acknowledging, added on only as an afterthought. Which, granted, while it wasn't likely, made him reevaluate her once more.
He wondered, privately, just how sane she really was, honestly. Either she was so used to it, that her nerves had pretty much gone dead in the section known as fear, or she was just plain crazy, and very, very good at hiding it. He had heard tales of beauties who had a personality like spring weather: one moment, they were peaceful and serene, the next, insane. Was she one of them? Granted, she was rather nice looking, and she was serene... at the moment. If she was one of those beauties, either her insanity was so bad, it was spilling over, or she wasn't, and she was just naturally like that. Both of those possibilities were about as cheery as the prospect of jumping into a bottomless pit full of monsters. Because at this point, it was an undeniable fact in his head that she was at least slightly crazy. The question now was how sane.
It was too late for him to turn back now anyways.
Her next statement threw it even further into question with her belief that whatever it was was just superstition, said just as seriously as the first statement. "Let's hope so. Otherwise, we're in for a universe's worth of trouble. Because if something went through that much trouble to keep people out, there's usually a good reason why." he said.
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Post by Althea on Apr 23, 2017 22:03:39 GMT -6
A small part of Althea took private pleasure in Talus's worried reaction, noting it subconsciously out of the corner of her gaze. She hadn't actually been trying to scare him (probably), but it was an amusing result nonetheless. Of course that did register in an even smaller part of her conscious mind that he was prone to scary stories and that she was, if nothing else, very good at being unnecessarily descriptive when it came to describing many magical subjects, such as curses, traps, monsters, tomes, and the like. ...When put that way, she could almost understand why people were scared of magic. Certainly it was a discipline capable of both great and terrible things, a fact she had never shied away from but some preferred to only look at the upsides of.
As they crested a small rise, through the gathering gloom Althea saw something through the trees, down the slope a ways; a mix of grey and green, perhaps a clearing. Without the benefit of a locator she wasn't sure if they had reached their destination or not, but it still filled her with hope that they were at least nearly there.
Then she saw the bodies.
Dimly visible were what looked to be more dead animals, some... fresher than others, stains of dried blood marring the forest floor. They didn't look to be more than a few days old, she estimated, though it was a rough guess at best. "Trouble, hmm?" Gliding towards the nearest small tree, she gently ran her fingers across its bark while trapped in thought. The trees still looked fine, for the most part. She could see leaves overhead. If there was a curse, it didn't target ALL life. And for, er, better or for worse, it definitely wasn't a direct lifesteal curse akin to Nosferatu or a soul rending curse a la Luna; these animals looked as though they had been torn apart rather than simply falling over dead.
"...Do you hear that? The background sounds of the forest, almost entirely vanished." If she was going to be perfectly honest with herself, Althea wasn't entirely sure what to make of the scenery. There was no obvious danger, no monsters or mortals with which to contend, nor did she sense the colossal quantity of magic that she suspected would be necessary for a curse of that scale and power. The sound loss was suspicious, but not absolute enough to be enforced by a Silencing stave or similar. "If you would turn back, now is the time. I'm going on ahead to investigate."
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Post by Talus on Apr 23, 2017 22:31:46 GMT -6
Then they got there. At that point, he could dimly see something that was enough for his mental early-early warning system (the early warning system kept kicking in too late) to jump straight from 'Uh-Oh!' To one step away from 'Run For Your Life!'. 'Trouble' indeed. "How can you be so- you know what, never mind." he said, about to question her stoic attitude before finally mentally caving at 'she's just insane'. Her next statement snapped him back to reality. "You're right.... something's definitely up. My heart's pounding, which is a sign that something's up. Victor said that that's one of the forms my battle instinct takes... and battle instincts aren't usually wrong." he said after taking a moment to confirm her statement by listening. Her next statement was kind of her to make, but some part of him that may or may not have been stupid said no. That, and though he would never admit it out loud, he really didn't want to walk back alone. Especially when he felt like they were being watched. Of course, it could be just paranoia,but his nerves were nearly shot at this point, and considering what they might be dealing with, he wasn't going to dismiss it. "Hey, uh... do you feel like we're being watched?" he said as he followed her. "I'm not turning back either. Someone has to go with you to get away if something lethal is there, and kills you. Someone has to go back running to town and notify someone that you died... I think." he said.
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Post by Althea on Apr 26, 2017 22:14:51 GMT -6
"Well that sounds familiar," the pale shaman quipped, looking somewhat affronted but maintaining a jovial tone... of a sort. "'Oh Althea, why are you like this?' 'Why are you so... you?'" Her voice rose slightly to a falsetto replicant of certain of her past companions. To some degree she did not disagree with them - Althea was aware of her tendency to focus on one thing to the exclusion of others - but it could be as strength as well as a weakness, and besides, she WAS paying attention. Gentle fingers sliding off the tree trunk, she looked back to Talus. "Certainly there is danger, yes, but progress does not occur without taking some risks. I do not intend to throw either of our lives away by jumping headfirst into certain death, but in the pursuit of knowledge there are often trials to be overcome." As she had learned the hard way, many a time, again and again. f**k everyone who made traps, seriously.
Althea didn't know much about battle instincts, to agree with or argue Talus's point, but it was certainly the sort of situation in which paying attention to one's surroundings felt as though it would pay off. Not that she, er, had been planning to ignore them. ANYWAYS. Were they being watched? she... frankly had no idea how to find out. As much as people liked to think that mages knew everything, they didn't ACTUALLY have scrying magic or mind reading abilities (mostly - though she had heard of some dark magic that could influence the minds of others), and she had pretty... normal human people eyesight and hearing, at least last time she checked. Though one of the things he said was enough to definitely amuse her. "Already killing me in your head, hm?"
Althea giggled quietly, a bit girlishly compared to her normal tone of voice. "I doubt many would miss me," she stated honestly and simply, "-But I would prefer that we both returned alive. If we keep our wits about us, I believe we will be fine." Well... probably, anyways.
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OOC: I have some stuff planned so don't spawn anything crazy lol
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Post by Talus on Apr 26, 2017 23:13:47 GMT -6
Uh-oh, was she offended? Well, she seemed to be taking it in good stride, and now she was... quipping at him? Well, if she wanted to get snippy... "Well, I'm guessing you've had that conversation before,huh?" he said. Again, she was back to progress. And therein lied the issue with her statement. Who in their right mind throws themselves into certain death deliberately? Although there were trials, sure, but those were one thing. He shuddered at the thought of someone actually making traps designed not to test, but outright painfully kill anyone who couldn't make it. That sounded like a tomb of horrors right there. As for the remark on killing her in his head... "Huh? No, no... I'm not killing you in my head or otherwise." he said. Mainly because killing her, at the moment, even if he wanted to would have been quite difficult. If not downright impossible. That, and he didn't want to think about what dark magic could do to him. Also, he didn't want to die out here where it was such that she could just hide the body and he'd never be found... He quickly pushed aside that terrifying cheerful thought though, preferring to focus on more genuinely pleasant things. As for her giggling, that sounded a bit girlishly compared to her usual tone. "Oh, I'm sure there are plenty of people who would...." he said. Putting aside his own fear of dying alone and unremembered, of course, it was a genuine statement, not just comforting with words. "Of course. Let's do that so that way we both get to live another day." he said in a determined tone.
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Post by Althea on Apr 26, 2017 23:51:10 GMT -6
"Many a time, yes!" It was actually kind of funny when she looked back at it like this. By no means was Althea going to downplay the danger of not paying attention, but in this moment it was mostly just an amusing reference rather than any particular insult, and she felt no need to get peevish with Talus. The poor boy was clearly concerned about the danger of the evening, and not entirely wrongfully so. No reason to mock him in turn. The difference was merely in perspective. She acted somewhat careless but was keeping much of her attention focused on trying to foresee possible threats, where he dedicated all of his attention to doing so. And it was in some regard thanks to his perspective, his presence, that she could in turn focus on her own inspection. Even if it made her a little bit sad that he had missed her joke, but that was okay, genius was never understood in its own time! ...Anyways. Althea kept moving in the wake of their back-and-forth, with nothing leaping from the trees to murder them. At least not yet.
After a short time longer they reached the clearing she had been searching for, which was, for better or for worse, NOT filled with roiling oceans of dark magic, portals to Hell, an army of monsters, a raging tide of bandits, or even a crazy druid looking for a couple blood sacrifices.
Instead, what lay before them was an arrangement of gargantuan stone monoliths, a good eight to ten feet tall each, arranged perfectly upright in a five-pointed circle. Thick, too, maybe three feet in diameter she estimated, though not perfectly hewn cylinders so much as merely roughly cylindrically shaped, each thinning as it grew upwards. Grey, solid, sturyd stone, surrounding the low-growing but brightly green grass within the circle they formed. Very neat. Not quite kept, as if by human hands, but she would have expected it to be as somewhat wild and weedy as the outside which had taller grass, shin to knee height, and weeds mixed in. But... nothing particularly threatening.
"How intriguing..." And were those some form of runic designs on each pillar to boot? Althea approached them quickly, caution thrown to the wind in the moment, as she spotted that each seemed to have some sort of unfamiliar, singular rune inscribed on the face of the rock pointing inward. "Was this meant to be a summoning circle of some point, or a nexus of power? What was used to power it? I see no sacrificial altar..."
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Post by Talus on Apr 27, 2017 0:39:11 GMT -6
So he wasn't the first, huh. Well, that figures. In that case... "Uh-huh. And how many of them had that conversation with you after they've saved you?" he said with a smirk on his face. Frankly, he'd call her crazy, but he still had to be polite to a lady, after all. Then they arrived at what he presumed was the site, judging from the stone monoliths arranged in a circle and with runes on them. "Huh. So I assume that this is the site in question?" he asked her,merely seeking to confirm it. However, her attention was on other things. "Huh. Thsee runes... these feel vaguely familliar." he said, touching the rune on the rock. As for her theories as to what it was... "Maybe it's both. The power source could be the mage's magic, channeled into the circle... although then again, you're the expert at dark magic. You'd probably know more about this than me... still though, I gotta wonder... I just get this feeling like something's calling to me almost. Do you feel it too?" he said, drawing again on her theories to create his own. Talus's twelfth personal rule was 'When in doubt, use what other people have together to solve a problem', after all. Although he genuinely felt like something was calling to him. Almost. Maybe it was just him, though. Maybe he would turn out to be right, or maybe he would be wrong. Maybe they were both wrong. But either way, he had a certain tingly feeling in him that he got when he was in on something big. And it excited him.
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Post by Althea on Apr 27, 2017 0:59:31 GMT -6
"Oh, we usually argued about it mid-fight for a bit. If this was one of my usual adventures, we'd have bandits, monsters, or a trap activate right about... now."
...
"Hm, that usually works. Perhaps we are safe. For the time being." Althea didn't even make a token attempt to sound convinced; the doubtful timbre to her tone spoke volumes of exactly what she thought of THAT notion. However, it was true that they were neither on fire, dying, or dead right now, and they did have a wonderfully intriguing site of possible arcane magic to explore and learn about, so that was a great start! "Yes, these are the Cairn Stones of Tir na Nog... and thankfully free of any killing curses, it seems." A small part of her was almost disappointed. She had expected some grand magical adventure. Perhaps even a portal to parts unknown; a world of fairies, or nightmares, or even a budget Dragon's Gate. To have such a heaping helping of nothing was thus a bit of a letdown. But admittedly. She would take a minor letdown over being dead. She had a feeling Talus felt the same way.
Thankfully the younger mage found something to do other than grouse about her tendencies, seemingly finding interest in the great, looming rocks that had been their destination. Though she could hardly resist the urge to mess with him a little. "Talus... I'm sorry to inform you that rocks are not capable of speech. It is unlikely that they are calling to you or anyone else for that matter." Delivered with an almost perfectly even tone, her face warped into amusement near the end, a rebellious smile, and ended in a girlish giggle shortly after finishing. "They are fascinating, though." Bringing her own hand up to the stone, trailing her fingers across the rough hewn surface before bringing them across the rune on the stone nearest her, she regarded it thoughtfully. There was a very slight, what was the word... resonance? "A... memory of magic...?" she breathed without certainty. She could detect some residual magic in the stones, but nothing modern - no real power - they did not throb and hum with eldritch might.
Probably for the best on that one. "Even if we returned to town right now, we've already done something that no other human has done in over a century, Talus, and acquired knowledge that is... for now... known only to us." She couldn't help but smile. "Of course I intend to inspect them further, but this expedition is already a minor success."
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Post by Talus on Apr 27, 2017 13:19:56 GMT -6
That got him into a minor panic, as he looked around rapidly. Looks like Victor wasn't wrong, that tonight's events weren't the first time soemthing like this had happened before. And apparently, it was common enough to where she actively tempted fate. Thankfully, the fates did not take the bait. Although her doubtful tone made him think that the fates were just simply waiting to unfurl something on him. "Really? Wow. You must have some bad luck..." he remarked. Although it did look like they had indeed hit their jackpot, the place they needed to be. Looks like they weren't cursed either, thankfully. Sure, he was expecting a bit more... excitement, but this was good enough. Better than being attacked right now. Although it did seem that the feeling of something calling to him was just him, although he wasn't reffering to the rocks either. It amused her, though, which caused her to giggle again. "No, what I meant was that... oh, never mind. But they are indeed fascinating." he said as he watched her run her fingers on the rock. "A memory of magic...? What are those?" he said, trying to recall what the term meant in his head as he also ran his hand on the rock, nodding as he listened to her words. They were indeed the first to know about this in years, something that he would take pride in. At the moment, he was too absorbed in the rune though. "Huh. I feel tingly when I touch these runes... I wonder... what if..." he said, thinking out loud for a second before he decided to try something. He stepped into the center of the circle formed by the monoliths, and began to try and cast a spell to invoke an Elemental thunder spirit from his tome, letting the magical energy build up. He was planning on venting it up into the sky once he was done with it, all the while trying to see if the monoliths would react to it, on the basis that the circle was powered by magic.
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Post by Althea on Apr 27, 2017 19:04:14 GMT -6
"I'm... not sure," Althea responded hesitantly to Talus's query, thoughtful and only partially mentally there in the moment. "It felt as though magic once flowed through it, but no longer." Perhaps. Maybe. Ifs and ands and maybes and buts, a yellow brick road to nonsense. "Depending on how true the rumors of the portal to the land of the fae is, perhaps only a specific ritual may awaken them, or mayhap it can only be opened from the other side...?" In all likelihood, those rumors were every bit as fallacious as those of a killing curse. It was unlikely there was another world, much less one so easily visited, but it never hurt to be aware of the possibilities and what they entailed.
Though Talus beat her to one of her tests, she wasn't unduly bothered by it, sooner or later she would have asked him to try it anyways. Ideally they would cycle through every element of anima magic and test dark and light as well to see if any had a special effect and if the effects varied between elements, but for now they would have to make do with what was available. That said, his motions did NOT instantly turn the cairn stones into a maelstrom of magic and lightning, possibly for the best considering that he was in the middle of the things. "Er, Talus, I applaud your enthusiasm, but it may be wise to test the magic circle from OUTSIDE the area of effect in case it is in fact dangerous." At least initially. It was slightly ironic that she had arguably been the one too fool to be afraid of death when pushing this far, but now served as the voice of reason. Then again, she hadn't ACTUALLY been ignoring the danger previously, just considering it internally more than externally.
There was an odd sort of grating sound that got her hopes up for a moment, hoping that the stones were beginning to react, before she realized that it was coming from the wrong direction. Althea turned, frowning, to located it, and... ah, yes, right on schedule, there were a few Mauthe Doogs, hulking canine creatures that looked quite willing to rip her and Talus limb from limb. Much as they had likely done to the other animals she had found. "Talus," the shaman spoke, her voice almost clinically calm but raising well above its usual volume to try to draw his attention. "I think I... may have found what killed the, er, animals."
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