Expedition Camp, The Kermanevar, Sebua
June 26th, 761, 8:25 AM; Day 101 of the Menetnashte Expedition
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Nathan of the FoS wrote:Well, she certainly knows how to make the sales pitch, doesn't she? Aloud, Charles says, "If it please you, madame, to give a blessing which might forestall my gruesome demise, I would be very grateful."
"Gratitude... is always worth having..." The old one said simply, then spread her hands. The dark eyes blazed brightly, and you wondered for a moment if they didn't glow in the morning sunlight. Probably not, but you felt they should have. "Then upon all those present here.... I cast my blessing. Silence shall be your voice.... stealth shall be your weapon.... darkness shall be your demesnes.... Let your fate be hidden....
evermore."
It was a curious feeling. A slight slithering along the skin, a sense of cold and darkness engulfing you. You were no longer things of bright sunlight and bold day, but skulking things that hid under stones. It was a rather
unpleasant feeling. It sunk deeply into your skin, fading from perception, until it was only a tiny spot of cold somewhere in your chest. Then that, too, faded away.
At least, until Khalil's back exploded.
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This was not something that happened very often. From a point in the small of the desert guide's back came a shattering sound as a burst of magical force knocked him forward. Tiny shards of crystal swept through the air, lacerating everything in sight, even as the most awful keening swept through the air. It was an inhuman sound of pain, pain mixed with a fury that made the blood run cold.
The Lorelei began to laugh, a pleasant, feminine sound that echoed throughout the entirety of Kermanevar. Except.... she was gone. The old woman was no longer there, leaving only her gifts behind.
In a heartbeat, it was over. Khalil was flat on his face, and from a smoking hollow in the back of his armor, you saw a...
thing, you supposed it was. The smoking ruins of a box, the wood charred and blackened. Inside of it was a multitude of shards of blue crystal, embedded into the wood, Khalil's armor, and Khalil. There were other things inside the box as well.... multicolored string, now mostly blackened... symbols painted on the inside, largely destroyed.... and what appeared to be slivers of bone.
Faerie blessings appeared to be rather strange things.
24 Physical Damage, Reflex DC 17 for half. DR does apply. Khalil does not get a save and gets knocked prone by the force of the explosion.
Knowledge: Religion or Arcana to understand what the Lorelei did.
Knowledge: Arcana to figure out just what the crystal-thing was and why it just went boom.