Thomas (Benjamin)

We failed. A quick recap: read my other chronicle already. Now that you’re all caught up, we started with the Trial of Darkness. This was one out of three, as we knew from a party member with threshold sense. It was completely dark, magetorch and normal torches did nothing but give warmth. I heard voices in the darkness. One started off with (war). Another added (we are the greatest army in Falnorian). Another voice was added, but this one was different. It said (peace). I followed it, since peace was our goal, and if the world herself disagreed, we were in big trouble. It continued with (international relations) (betta fish) and (bess beetle). Since these were all decidedly good things, I followed it, and reached the out point. We lost two party members, including the one with threshold sense, but continued onward. We walked down a long hallway made of primally aligned obsidian and reached a cavern. On the entrance was the name of the trial. But we didn't just see it, we felt it, this was the Trial of Viscera. In the room was a black oily monster with inky tendrils. There was also a door at the end which seemed like the goal. One of our party members got out, but the rest of us were dueled by the tendrils. I lost to one, got healed, beat one, lost to another as the last of the party. The tendrils had chainmail and regenerated. I think they had five to ten hits. The one who ran did not return, we were not supposed to win, we had to have viscera and fight to complete the trial. Then we went into a hallway. This one was longer than the first one, and felt like we were walking for days. Or was it minutes? I can’t remember. We tried sleeping, but found that it was impossible. We tried leaping, but were put back where we started the leap. We were getting impatient. If we had just kept walking…. But that is the past, and that is not a good place to live. Now, I was thinking, alright, we tried walking forward. Failed (but not really). We tried jumping. Failed. I thought this might be a dream thing. Failed. The only other option was walking backwards. It felt like leaving a duel. 1… 2… 3… 4… 5… 6… 7… 8… 9… 10… 11… 12… 13… 14… 15… 16… 17… 18… 19… 20. We appeared outside the gorge, fully intact. On the way back we had a strange encounter, or, not encounter, more of a magical ripple, a pre-leysnap. We had an extra mana for that encounter, and spells failed. When we got back to the inn, we were informed that the other party was captured by mushrooms and zombified. We chose not to rescue them, the odds were not in our favor. We went on the mission they were going on, and met them as zombies. We ran through and only lost one other person. Then we trained some Belast soldiers. Then the Leysnap struck. We lost 1 mana. 2 mana. 3 mana. 4 mana. 5 mana. Then we gained 1 mana. 2 mana. 3 mana. 4 mana. 5 mana. 6 mana. Too much mana. Kaboom. We got severe redrash (see other chronicles on moderate), but the current zombies got moderate. We also all died (can someone remind me how duel works? Wait, I got it). We had one PD and one very interesting DI. Queue had already gotten one before, from the same situation, a leysnap. It seemed non-divine, or like who you worship doesn't change anything. The first one gave him elemental traits (hexproof fire, protection from redrash), and the second one gave him red mana sense and vulnerable to torches. Queue also is looking very fiery, with flames curling around his shoulders. As a side note, I have been doing some experimentation with my strange connection to crystalline. First, I am able to, with two mana, make a sort of enamel on the mutated crystalline beasts. On their claws, teeth, and horns it makes them deal magic damage, but on those and other places it makes them vulnerable to magic. Also, a party member brought a very well crafted staff that he said he wanted to enchant with flying. Using my quirk, the tools available at my workplace, the Crystallarium, and five levels in fine arts, I added designs to the staff of wind and wings. This is a rare technique, but is proven to work very well. It is not enchanted yet, but will be soon, hopefully.