Part 25: You Have a Patient to Attend.
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-[X] Try to stabilize the river Fae, but keep her restrained. With iron, preferably.
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You watch the Fae silently as he walks around the corner, before motioning to the others to come close. "Can the two of you watch him until he leaves," you murmur, "and then drop the Portcullis and try to raise the drawbridge? We're going to want to check and take other precautions, but I think it was just the two of them who did… all of this."
Cora nods seriously. "What will you be doing?"
You indicate the river Fae, the name of whom you still don't know. "I will be getting this one contained and then fixing her up enough that she won't die. I want to know why they attacked this place, among other things, and then she owes us her life for not killing her when she attacked us unprovoked." The two of them nod again, and turn to trail the fire Fae, and you speak up a bit louder. "Oh, and Sheesi?" She hesitates and looks back at you. You give her a grin and a thumbs up. "Nice hit."
She returns the grin with a slightly shaky one of her own, before hurrying to catch up with Cora. Right, it's probably the first time she has ever used that skill on a living thing, or at least a sapient one.
You turn back to the comatose river Fae, and begin working. You'll need some way to keep her restrained, preferably using iron. Doing it physically and directly might not be the best idea right now though, since it might cause issues with healing her or even finish her off outright. You note the spreading pool of blood and decide that you are going to have to work quickly if you don't want that to happen anyway. The corridor is a bad place for it though, so you drag her as gently as you can into the closest room; fortunately, it seems to be a spacious bedroom empty of bodies. Probably the master bedroom of the castle, in fact.
All things considered, your best bet for restraining her is to use a modified version of the Protect Area ritual, using iron as your anchors; one that will keep things in, instead of keeping them out. It will require that you be in there with her in order to perform any rituals on her, but once she is stabilized you can restrain her with physical iron as well.
When you try to figure out how to do it, you find that it is actually a very easy adjustment to make. In fact, your new Contain Area ritual will be even easier than the original, leaving you room to attune it to a single specific being if you so desire. A quick check of the room and the contents of your pack leaves you with eight small objects containing iron, and so you leave out the one that looks the most unworked so that you have seven; it's a magically powerful number, so it should actually be stronger this way.
You place them evenly in a circle around the Fae, making sure that they won't be moved on accident. Then you begin the ritual, pushing it as far as you think you can go without any risk of failure. You might need as much mana as you can get in the near future.
[difficulty 11; auto-success]
Gained the trait: Perfective Compulsive (rank n/a): Changes the way that the ritual skill modifier functions: rather than being a simple die roll, half of the maximum value is a guaranteed bonus. The remaining half is still calculated by rolling dice. Has no effects outside of rituals.
Ritual Skill Modifier changed to 5+1d5.
Once the ritual is complete, you move inside the circle and work to get the Fae to the point where she at least won't die on her own. You draw out the Heal Wounds ritual, healing her slowly both so as to make sure it gets done right with such a large wound and so that you don't accidentally heal her too much. You still want her to be in no position to reject any contract you offer her.
Even if the fire one had obviously been thinking something disgusting and reprehensible when he said it, his suggestion of making her your slave has stuck in your mind, and you can't help but admit that it makes a lot of sense. She owes you a life-dept for sparing and treating her when she attacked you unprovoked. It would be perfectly just to bind her as a servant to your line for the rest of her days. You'll need to work in something for Sheesi as well, but you somehow doubt that she would have attacked the little sprite the way she did you, had Sheesi been alone. This Fae seemed to have done it out of a grudge against humans in particular, which is also the reason that you cannot let her go free.
You hear the distant rumble of the portcullis, and you know that the others will be coming back as soon as the drawbridge is raised. Assuming that it can be raised by one person at least. If it can't, you expect that they will be back even sooner. You sit down outside the circle to consider how you want to word your contract. It will have to be watertight, no pun intended, and you will need clauses to prevent attempts to break it or get it broken, attempts to kill herself, attempts to kill or harm those she is contracted to protect, contract abuse from your end such as on the part of any of your descendants….
Okay, this is going to take some thought. You get out your blank ritual notes and writing materials; there is no way you are going to be able to remember it all, and you want to have at least a basic idea down before Cora and Sheesi get back, so that you can have something to work with for convincing them this is a good idea.
[] Write In contract.
[] Decide to do something else with her instead.
-[] Write In.
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AN: So long as you don't word the contract in a way that is easily abusable, you will probably be able to convince the others of it as it is. Stunts for convincing them may help make it easier though, especially for Sheesi since she is Fae herself.
Here's the enchantment you used to restrain the Fae. You did make it's effects exclusive to her, though I forgot to write it in the chapter.
Contain Area (enchantment):
Difficulty: As high or low as you want to make it. The higher the difficulty, the stronger the protection. Slightly easier than Protect Area.
Reagents: cold iron or another significant material, planted or fastened at the boundaries and/or center of the protected area. If used, removal of the reagent will weaken or destroy the enchantment.
Effect: Prevents things from leaving the area, whether they be creatures or magical effects or other things. Using a reagent massively strengthens and stabilizes the effect of the enchantment, making it last pretty much as long as the reagent is in place. Depending on what reagent is used, the enchantment will be much more effective against certain things. For instance, cold iron makes it very effective against Fae, while silver is highly effective against Fell. May be used to restrain a single, specific being, allowing others to pass through it without any effect at the cost of being equally as difficult as Protect Area. Variations of this enchantment may be layered over the same area multiple times.
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You watch the Fae silently as he walks around the corner, before motioning to the others to come close. "Can the two of you watch him until he leaves," you murmur, "and then drop the Portcullis and try to raise the drawbridge? We're going to want to check and take other precautions, but I think it was just the two of them who did… all of this."
Cora nods seriously. "What will you be doing?"
You indicate the river Fae, the name of whom you still don't know. "I will be getting this one contained and then fixing her up enough that she won't die. I want to know why they attacked this place, among other things, and then she owes us her life for not killing her when she attacked us unprovoked." The two of them nod again, and turn to trail the fire Fae, and you speak up a bit louder. "Oh, and Sheesi?" She hesitates and looks back at you. You give her a grin and a thumbs up. "Nice hit."
She returns the grin with a slightly shaky one of her own, before hurrying to catch up with Cora. Right, it's probably the first time she has ever used that skill on a living thing, or at least a sapient one.
You turn back to the comatose river Fae, and begin working. You'll need some way to keep her restrained, preferably using iron. Doing it physically and directly might not be the best idea right now though, since it might cause issues with healing her or even finish her off outright. You note the spreading pool of blood and decide that you are going to have to work quickly if you don't want that to happen anyway. The corridor is a bad place for it though, so you drag her as gently as you can into the closest room; fortunately, it seems to be a spacious bedroom empty of bodies. Probably the master bedroom of the castle, in fact.
All things considered, your best bet for restraining her is to use a modified version of the Protect Area ritual, using iron as your anchors; one that will keep things in, instead of keeping them out. It will require that you be in there with her in order to perform any rituals on her, but once she is stabilized you can restrain her with physical iron as well.
When you try to figure out how to do it, you find that it is actually a very easy adjustment to make. In fact, your new Contain Area ritual will be even easier than the original, leaving you room to attune it to a single specific being if you so desire. A quick check of the room and the contents of your pack leaves you with eight small objects containing iron, and so you leave out the one that looks the most unworked so that you have seven; it's a magically powerful number, so it should actually be stronger this way.
You place them evenly in a circle around the Fae, making sure that they won't be moved on accident. Then you begin the ritual, pushing it as far as you think you can go without any risk of failure. You might need as much mana as you can get in the near future.
[difficulty 11; auto-success]
Gained the trait: Perfective Compulsive (rank n/a): Changes the way that the ritual skill modifier functions: rather than being a simple die roll, half of the maximum value is a guaranteed bonus. The remaining half is still calculated by rolling dice. Has no effects outside of rituals.
Ritual Skill Modifier changed to 5+1d5.
Once the ritual is complete, you move inside the circle and work to get the Fae to the point where she at least won't die on her own. You draw out the Heal Wounds ritual, healing her slowly both so as to make sure it gets done right with such a large wound and so that you don't accidentally heal her too much. You still want her to be in no position to reject any contract you offer her.
Even if the fire one had obviously been thinking something disgusting and reprehensible when he said it, his suggestion of making her your slave has stuck in your mind, and you can't help but admit that it makes a lot of sense. She owes you a life-dept for sparing and treating her when she attacked you unprovoked. It would be perfectly just to bind her as a servant to your line for the rest of her days. You'll need to work in something for Sheesi as well, but you somehow doubt that she would have attacked the little sprite the way she did you, had Sheesi been alone. This Fae seemed to have done it out of a grudge against humans in particular, which is also the reason that you cannot let her go free.
You hear the distant rumble of the portcullis, and you know that the others will be coming back as soon as the drawbridge is raised. Assuming that it can be raised by one person at least. If it can't, you expect that they will be back even sooner. You sit down outside the circle to consider how you want to word your contract. It will have to be watertight, no pun intended, and you will need clauses to prevent attempts to break it or get it broken, attempts to kill herself, attempts to kill or harm those she is contracted to protect, contract abuse from your end such as on the part of any of your descendants….
Okay, this is going to take some thought. You get out your blank ritual notes and writing materials; there is no way you are going to be able to remember it all, and you want to have at least a basic idea down before Cora and Sheesi get back, so that you can have something to work with for convincing them this is a good idea.
[] Write In contract.
[] Decide to do something else with her instead.
-[] Write In.
----------
AN: So long as you don't word the contract in a way that is easily abusable, you will probably be able to convince the others of it as it is. Stunts for convincing them may help make it easier though, especially for Sheesi since she is Fae herself.
Here's the enchantment you used to restrain the Fae. You did make it's effects exclusive to her, though I forgot to write it in the chapter.
Contain Area (enchantment):
Difficulty: As high or low as you want to make it. The higher the difficulty, the stronger the protection. Slightly easier than Protect Area.
Reagents: cold iron or another significant material, planted or fastened at the boundaries and/or center of the protected area. If used, removal of the reagent will weaken or destroy the enchantment.
Effect: Prevents things from leaving the area, whether they be creatures or magical effects or other things. Using a reagent massively strengthens and stabilizes the effect of the enchantment, making it last pretty much as long as the reagent is in place. Depending on what reagent is used, the enchantment will be much more effective against certain things. For instance, cold iron makes it very effective against Fae, while silver is highly effective against Fell. May be used to restrain a single, specific being, allowing others to pass through it without any effect at the cost of being equally as difficult as Protect Area. Variations of this enchantment may be layered over the same area multiple times.