Leilani (Margaret)

25th of Secondmoon I DID IT!!!! I FIGURED IT OUT!!! TODAY WAS INCREDIBLE!!! Mission board today: Do Research, make preparations for the arc > Join ritual to repair the Shimmerglass Leytap > Clear Blue Shard creatures causing travel problems >> Protect townsfolk evacuating ahead of the arc >> Elementals gathering along shores of the Sea >>> Clear escalated Blue Shards throughout region >>> Colorwoods delegation requests escort through Shard >>>>> Continue - search the Shimmerswamps for answers We started the day finishing up the Shimmerswamps! Xitli told us that she thinks the solution to the arcs - WAIT I DIDN’T EXPLAIN - Waru, the crystalline golem, worships the rainbow serpent, and figured out beforehand from it that we would have another arc this month! I was really afraid about it, but it actually turned out quite well!! More later. But Xitli told us that she thinks the solution to the arcs will probably be magical, not primal, and that we should address fixing the root of the problem, not the results. But anyway, we went off to finish the Shimmerswamps! Oh wait, but first! Beau and I were gone last week, and I had a breakthrough. It was right at the end as we were coming back to the outpost, something just clicked. I know it sounds cliche, but it’s true! I think I had been trying too hard to rely on my blood and bones and all the weirdness, and I was shying away from just letting myself… be normal, I guess? Like I wasn’t letting myself learn the spells like normal spells. Once I realized that, it clicked instantly, and I know that my weirdness helped. It was the best feeling ever, I just felt this incredible surge of power, and I could feel all the magic resonating in my body, but it didn’t hurt! It felt like it was meant to be there, like it was a part of me! Anywho! So the golem that we were talking to in the swamp, remember that? It gave us a little charade story after the riddles, miming the fish swimming, then an anchor falling into the river and all the fish getting disturbed… we figured that was meant to be that we were the fish, and something got dropped from above and that’s what disturbed all the scapes. Something is important with time though. Need to think about that more, I think we’re disregarding it. Then we ran into two more big statues, these were golems that must have been reanimated by all the ambient mana surging around, they were really big and scary! They almost immediately took out pretty much all of us with a death ray cascade, not fun. I stole the deathray off the one who had it afterwards though! Which I can do now!!! I died twice to them, that was rough… and Beau died coming back for me… even rougher. The golem’s were animating us as undead I think? We ended up all getting out, except for Ik’nali, who was animated as an undead, and we couldn’t summon him for some reason. We ended up getting him back okay, I don’t know exactly how though. I lost my spell stones one of the times I died, which sucked :/ but I got new ones in town! Next we came to a river which was teeming with like sea snake kind of things, tons of them! They were a little nasty, but the crystalline coated boats we were given came in handy crossing the river. We all made it across eventually! Then we came to a smaller river that was absolutely chock full of crystalline, normal and purple! Beau gave me a big chunk of purple that he found. This spot was all full of colored lights in the mist, blinking in and out, of pretty much every color. I tried to draw in some of the pink ones, but it didn’t work. There were lots of things there, giant pitcher plants that were charming us, crystalline turtles, all kinds of things. Obb was smelling that there was “less swamp” farther in, so we kept going to try to find it. We fought something then I think? I can’t remember what… Then we came to a place where there was an abandoned Greyfen tent, and lots of dead Greyfen people who were now undead. There were a bunch of things like weapons and the tent and everything else around had become crystalized, and the weapons dealt magic damage but also made us vulnerable to magic. I took the protective face coverings from the Greyfen skeletons and we fixed them up to have in the future. I think according to Obb this was the place that smelled “less swamp”. We decided that since an arc was coming we should go back to town and prepare, and come back to the Shimmerswamps another time. I think that was the right choice, though I am still incredibly intrigued by the swamps. By the time we got back, it was time for lunch! Back in town we met with Xitli in the inn, and decided to go meet the Colorwoods elemental speakers and try to convince them to come with us to see the elementals on the shore of the Sea (my idea ;) The elemental speaker was totally receptive and said that he didn’t care where we went as long as he could talk to elementals, so we went straight to the shore. We ran into lots of things on the way, a giant hydra-mudcrab thing, and some other stuff I can’t remember… lots of things with blue rash. We met a group of elephants when we were on the way to the shore, poor things were covered in blue rash. I tried to pull some of the mana out to help them, and I think it worked a bit! One in particular kept tugging on my bracelets and my sleeves, and GUESS WHAT it gave me a bracelet all covered in mud!! I feel so incredibly honored, I’ve heard stories about the elephants since I was a little kid and I finally see them and one gives me a friendship bracelet!! We made it to the shore, where there were about a gazillion elementals, all different types!! I went around changing my spell stones to match theirs, and for the most part they seemed responsive! The coolest one was one that kept switching its OWN spell stones, green, then red, then green again, so I switched my along with it, and after a bit it reverted to being PRISMATIC. WHAT?? Did I do that?? I also think it might have been like an illusionist elemental? Though I didn’t know those existed. The elemental speaker talked to them, asking if it was safe here, “yes”, if we were safe here, “I don’t know”. They said that the blue fog was protective, though I don’t know if they meant them or us or everything. Beau gave me the biggest taste of my own medicine ever… ugh. There was a big red elemental that he was interacting with, and he was trying to get it to connect with him over pyromancy and the chest orb… and guess what… tried to convince me that he should absolutely let the elemental blow up the orb. GREAT PLAN IDIOT. Of course he wouldn’t let me convince him otherwise, so the elemental cast sorcery “I ANNIHILATE your torso”... GREAAAAT. Then it reforged him. Needless to say, this was horrible terrible awful to watch. The sorcery happened so fast that I didn’t have a chance to do anything, and then I just had to trust that it would fix him. Did not enjoy this. Now I understand how awful it must be to watch all the stupid things I do, I’ll be more aware of that now. After that some of us went to help escort people away from the Shimmerglass Sea, we still were worried that being so close to it would be dangerous. I didn’t go, I’ll explain more about that later, but I think it went well! Nothing too special. So a week or two ago Lux told me about this amazing idea he had, to make like a cage or room thingy out of crystalline that would conduct all the mana from an arc around it, so anyone inside would be safe. Apparently he had the idea because he heard me freaking out about what would happen to me in the arc. I’m really lucky to have such good friends. We talked about it for weeks, and with our combined knowledge, his of blacksmithing and mine of stonemasonry and metaphysics, we were able to figure out a plan that would work. We have started calling it “the lightning tree”, which is a fitting name! It’s a hollowed out tree, the trunk made into a lattice, and then the outside is covered with purple crystalline that follows the lattice pattern. I’m amazed that we had the money to buy that much purple crystalline, it costs about three times as much, but it’s also a lot more effective, I think about five times as much. While people were out escorting folks to safety we finished up the lightning tree, and we also made Valen go inside it because we figured him not being super sick from an arc would be a great thing. I was worried that something would go wrong, or that being exposed to all that crystalline during the arc would do something even weirder to me, but it was definitely worth a try, and it worked! No side effects, at all. It almost feels wrong. I think all together it was Lux, me, Beau, and Valen inside during the arc, but I was panicking a little so my memory isn’t perfect. It was incredible to watch from the inside when the arc came, I could feel it coming. There was a big surge and all the crystalline started glowing, and it just got brighter and brighter until it was so bright we couldn't see anything, and then it started to fade down into the ground. There was another surge like the first, and then… it was over. I’m a little embarrassed to admit it but I was terrified that something would go wrong, I just held onto Beau for dear life. It was all too familiar, like… well, nevermind. Another time. I was worried for myself, but I also never know what’s going to happen with the orb, especially now that the elemental is gone and it’s empty. And, of course, I was afraid for myself. I’m not ready to go yet. Not first. I feel like something inside me is close to breaking. I’m not quite sure how to explain it… I feel powerful, now that I learned my class, but something came unstuck when I did. Like a dam just broke. I feel fine right now, but something’s going to break, I can feel it. I lie awake at night, watching my spells gather light and color, swirling and combining, and pushing and pulling. Ebbing. Flowing. I’m trying to learn from it, let myself follow its example, let the magic treat me like a spell stone and not a target. And let myself ebb and flow. I don’t have to be constant. Right? XOXOXO Leilani