Unbound

"Here, lad. Climb up," the Knight said, making space on the boat. "We must be away and in the Redoubt before the sun sets, but first we gotta finish our patrol."

Felix eyed the boat skeptically, worrying at his own weight for a bit. Pit, ever the enthusiast, leaped aboard immediately with his ungainly puppy legs. The mage laughed as the boat rocked side to side. "Maybe not as wildly as your friend, though."

Adamant Discord sang within him, pulling ever so slightly upward on his connection to the air above. It wasn't a strong connection, nothing so great as to generate the strange magical friction that resulted in brilliant azure lightning, but enough that Felix felt his weight shift. He took a cautious step forward, it felt as if he were tensing every muscle in his body at once while also feeling a little floaty. Felix reached out and grasped the gunwale of the shallow boat before taking a leap of faith...and a literal leap, right into the center. He landed with a light tapping, and only a minor splash as the shallow-drafted craft slapped into the water.

"Careful, boy," warned the Knight. Felix held up his hands in mute apology.

"Are...what is up with your hands?" the mage behind him asked.

Your scales and claws! Pit sent alongside a thrill of alarm.

Acting swiftly, Felix Willed his Garment to fashion black leather gloves, slightly scaled for texture. His Mana dipped, but the formation was near-instant and hopefully hidden by his body. Felix turned and held out his hands to the mage, as if proud to show them off. "Oh, these? Killed some big sand lizard out in the wastes. Broke my butcher blade skinning it, but made some good gloves out of it."

Deception is level 35!

The mage scratched his head, revealing slightly pointed ears beneath his hood. "Huh. That's some fine stitchin'. My nan did some good seamstress work, years back, though I never got a proper handle on it."

"Mage Venali. He's Knight Tandagh."

"Quiet, the both of you," Tandagh warned from the front. His spear was still resting on that elevated prong, but now he angled it toward the water as they pushed forward. "Things are stirring."

Felix and Pit both peered over the sides of the boat, eyes focusing on the murky depths. He could make out tons of debris, uprooted trees and unsettled soil for the most part, but smaller, brighter shapes flitted among them. Fish of varying size and shape, but nothing to be worried about yet.

Mmm, fish. Pit licked his doggy jowls. I'm hungry.

Felix rolled his eyes. You're always hungry. I see you've picked your [Chosen Form] then?

A measure of joy trickled along their bond as Pit sat his small rear end in between the seats and panted. Yes! I like this one.

Felix smiled. Me too.

The barding his Companion wore, now fully Masked by his [Chosen Form], gave him a couple of benefits aside from simple protection. The first was that the barding would change size with him, so that Pit need not ever worry about outgrowing his armor. The second was due to its construction within the Smithy in Nagast, beneath the boughs of the Spirit Tree, which granted increased protection from a foe's Spiritual pressure. The last was altogether more arcane and strange: the Mask of Echoes IV.

Name: Abjuration Barding

Type: Armor (Enchanted)

Tier: Master

Lore: A set of heavy armor designed exclusively for Pit, Companion of Felix Nevarre. Scales of exotic metal form a powerful barrier against harm, and the sleek design hugs tight to Pit's chimeric body, covering his legs, neck, back and chest. An attached helm completes the set, and all of it is a unique red-gold coloration thanks to the bond between Companions. An enchanted gem has been placed just below the gorget of the barding, a Stone of Alloyed Refrain, and it confers several bonuses. The armor has gained the ability to alter in size to fit its wearer, as well as masking the physical form of the one to which it is bonded. The armor must be bound by blood to a single user.

Chosen Form: Unknown

Mask of Echoes IV - Once bound by blood, the Stone will allow the wearer to appear as a [Chosen Form].

Chanter's Intent I - The Harmonic Song of a Chanter was used to enchant this item, and it bears their Intent. +10% Effectiveness of Mask of Echoes.

Chanter's Inversion I - Addition of Dissonance to invert the item's properties, hiding them.

Spirit Smithed I - A Unique enhancement, bestowed by a Forge that has been directly influenced by an Elder Spirit Tree. Increased resistance to Spiritual pressure given by those of greater Temper.

Like the enchanted Stone that had first granted Pit a Dire Hound form, this had a similar function. The main difference was that Pit could have chosen anything to mask his physical form...and had decided on a puppy. Felix found it hard to be mad about, though, as Pit shoved his hound head beneath Felix's dangling hand.

"You're a tall one, ain'tcha?" Venali said from behind. "Don't see many folks wandering the Hills or the Expanse...specially not now that a Night-cursed sea has come up outta nowhere. You're only Journeyman though, huh? Pretty low to face the undead alone."

Sitting next to Pit, Felix settled his thick sandy-brown cloak around himself. "It wasn't so hard as all that. Big rule is to stay active during night and hidden at day. You might have to deal with the occasional creature at night, but during the day is when the Cursewinds start to blow...or it was, anyway. Things changed out there...here too, I noticed," Felix said, gesturing to the water and broken fortification they were leaving behind. Their path looked to be an arcing circle around the ruined perimeter of Bogfeld, but for now it was through mostly thick, tree-clogged waters. "What happened here?"

"A wave as big as the sky dropped on us," the Knight grunted. "Crashed through the Pass and ripped apart the fort there before flooding the whole damn Province."

"It kept going too. For days," Venali added. "I have lived in the Ghreldan Hills my entire life, the Land of a Ten Thousand Lakes, and I have never seen so much water. I cannot understand what happened in the wastes to make such a thing possible. The scouts even say the entirety of the desert has become a sea. Is that true?"

"It is," Felix said, suppressing a wince. "Did anyone survive the fortification breaking apart?"

"No, and good riddance," the Knight said, a growl in his deep voice. "Only those Paladins were in there, and they got what they deserved."

That was something of a relief. Felix had finally realized that the Paladins—as the Inquisitors before them—were not worth feeling guilty over. Not that it stopped him from feeling bad, at least a little. All the Willpower in the world couldn't quell his anxious Mind, after all.

The trees cleared as Venali pushed them out into the open expanse of water, though they clung to the edges. "Safer near the trees. Harder to maneuver, but..." The mage let his words trail off as he focused on the tiller in his hands. A very simple inscription had been carved into its wooden surface, nothing more than a basic siphon glyph paired with force, and water sigils. It was sucking Mana straight from Venali's channels and converting it into thrust, but from a quick glance Felix could tell the transfer rate was abysmal. A ton of the mage's Mana was being lost, wisping up from the sigaldry before it ever made it below the waterline.

They arced further outward, eventually reaching a point where Felix had unobstructed view of the Low Side of Bogfeld, fully the opposite end from the Redoubt of the Knights of Tevin. That structure was bathed in the golden-orange light of sunset, same as the Priory, and small fires had bloomed along both of their walls and watch towers. "So who runs the Redoubt?"

"Knight Commander Etriska Lavin," the mage told him, and Felix could detect the faint beat of admiration across the Half-Elf's Spirit. "She's the reason so much of Bogfeld survived. Her and the Menders."

"Menders are good folk, if a bit...misguided," Tandagh said.

Felix wanted to ask about that, but he had other priorities. "The Priory, right. I see their castle survived the flooding too. How...how many people died?"

"Too many," Tandagh said. His Spirit was bedrock solid, but a thready chord of sadness played at its center.

Venali spoke up when the Knight remained silent. "The wave caught us during market day, so at least most folks were in the town walls...the problem was the town walls didn't hold. Lost as many folks to the collapse as we did drowning, and that's before the monsters came."

"Monsters," Felix repeated. "What exactly are you looking for out here? What comes out at night?"

Venali shuddered. "Nasty things, Silas. Fishmen with claws. Dragon eels the size of trees. And once...once a Depthwurm. Ain't sure where they come from, 'cept the abyss below."

Tandagh grunted. "I saw a few come down the Pass, but not for a while. Mostly they come from north and east. And it's why we need quiet. The beasts like to hunt at night, and I can't

That's where Haestus Lake was...where the Deepking said the Fathom resided. Felix didn't believe that was a coincidence at all. So the flooding allowed the Fathom to escape the lakes, to spread outward and into the Hills. That guilt clung to his chest, persistent as ever, and heavier with every passing breath.

The ship slowed, not that it was going particularly fast. "Mage. Hurry up. I don't like the look of this grove we're nearing."

Venali tipped the last of his blue vial down his throat, grimacing the entire time. "I'm trying. But there are only two of us and too many patrols to man, Tandagh. I need rest, proper rest. Or at least better tinctures. This one tastes like boiled socks."

A scream tore through the gathering gloom, high pitched and infused with a primal terror. Felix spun toward it, flaring his Perception, but was only able to make out the sounds and impressions of something struggling in the water in a distant copse of waterlogged wood.

"What is that?" Venali asked, his face pale.

"Someone with bad luck," Tandagh growled. "But it's too soon. The sun wont' be down for another half glass."

"We should go find them," the Half-Elf suggested, already turning their boat toward the sound.

"Are you crazy, mage? You're almost outta Mana, and proposin'...what? That I go in alone and fight an unknown number of unknown monstrosities?" The Knight gripped his spear hard, but shook his head. "As much as I want to, that's a bad call. We finish patrol, head back to the Redoubt."

"Move." Felix picked up the mage and rotated, setting the confused Half-Elf into the middle of the boat before sitting back against the stern wall. "And take this." Felix shoved a glowing blue bottle into Venali's hands. The mage and Knight both looked down at it in wide-eyed surprise. "You both better hold onto something."

Felix grabbed the tiller and focused his own Mana through it. Sparks flew and Mana burst in a wave behind them that shot them forward across the waters. Venali shouted, nearly falling overboard only to be saved by the stout Tandagh who settled the both of them into the hollow at he prow of the craft.

Like Felix had surmised, the transfer rate was horrible, wasting fully half of what he was pouring into the construct, but it did its job. Felix wove between trees and hanging vines, threading the ungainly ship with a Skill he'd had little time to practice in recent months.

Manaship Pilot is level 23!

He dodged through trees and the odd block of masonry, weaving across the water and leaving only a riotous spray behind them. The Knight and mage shouted at first, but after a while they merely braced themselves; one sprawled entirely at the bottom of the boat and the other still clutching onto his heavy spear.

The screaming continued, the sound growing more frantic as it went on. Then it went silent as violent splashes increased, just as their boat slipped through a copse of trees. At the center of a grove a woman flailed in the water, barely getting her face above the surface as something swirled around her.

Pit immediately tried to dive in, but Felix quickly killed his connection to the tiller and grabbed his friend by the scruff of his neck. "Wait. Look."

The others stood, all of them watching the woman flail in the water, reaching toward them with every stroke and yet...not moving. She wasn't quite right, either. At first blush, in a panic perhaps, she appeared Human but the longer they lingered at the edge of the grove the more Felix could spot the strangeness. Her skin was too pink, her eyes too exaggerated, and her slicked back hair seemed to wriggle on its own.

"Blighted Night," Venali whispered. "What is that thing?"

"A trap," Tandagh growled.

The woman, never once ceasing her screams that still reverberated against Felix's Affinity with true terror, rose up out of the water. Her dress flopped to her sides, the murky liquid no longer hiding the way it spread and flapped like fleshy gills. A thick, pulpy tentacle filled the bottom of the "dress", lifting the thing up higher as the waters swirled and exploded upward. A dozen more tentacles ripped through the air, each one angled at their small boat.

Cardinal Flame!

Red-gold fire hit the creature and skipped off, the limning fading after less than a heartbeat, though the burning nature of the spell did send a few tentacles recoiling. Thankfully, Tandagh snatched up his spear and inscribed a wide circle before their boat at the same time.

"Aegis of Iron!" The remaining tentacles smashed into the circle, which instantly transmuted the air into a massive plane of dark metal. Sigils glowed upon the edge of the huge disc, but each one burnt out with every strike against it. "Venali!"

"Y-yes! Bottomless Quagmire!"

Newly restored Mana thundered from Venali's channels, fully half of it pouring into the spellform that sank around the rising mass of tentacles. The water went from translucent haze to a thick, impenetrable morass that clung to the beast like sticky mud. Immediately, the creature's attacks faltered as its efforts turned toward escaping the strange spell.

Voracious Eye!

Name: Bog-Lure

Type: Beast

Level: 55

HP: 9984/9984

SP: 3388/4327

MP: 92/233

Lore: A Bog-Lure is an uncommon threat in the Ghreldan Hills, and normally only seen in the deepest areas where they are known to grow to immense size. Utilizing a magical form of mimicry, the Bog-Lure grows an appendage to appear as a mortal Race and emits an intermittent scream in order to lure its prey into its clutches. They do not move fast, so avoiding them is easy so long as you do not enter within range of their strong tentacles. If caught, prey is pulled into the water to be devoured by the jaws just below the surface.

Strength: More Data Required

Weakness: More Data Required

"Nasty," Felix muttered. Judging by the flickering of Mana he could see, Venali's Bottomless Quagmire was fading fast, and Felix doubted the Knight could maintain his odd shield for long. Don't attack, Pit. We're not trying to give away all our secrets right now.

Ugh. Fine.

The smart thing to do was to pilot the boat out of the copse and just never enter it again...but that was a temporary solution. What if the thing kept growing? Would it eventually threaten the town? Felix could kill it in any number of ways, most of which were very flashy and counter to his purpose. So he settled on simple and hidden, instead.

Stone Shaping!

Rime Shaping!

With the others preoccupied, it was easy for Felix to shove his left palm into the water to obscure the torrent of Mana that poured from his channels. It speared downward, sinking into the earth more than thirty feet below them, until all the ground around was seized by Felix's Will. The water froze into spikes of jagged ice, each stabbing through the central stalk of the Bog-Lure, while the stone and soil itself began to pull inexorably downward. In seconds the lure itself disappeared beneath the waves, pulled deeper and deeper as Felix reshaped the very earth beneath it. And then, with a final flex of his Will, it was gone and the stone solidified.

You Have Killed A Bog-Lure!

XP Earned!

"Damn good job, son," Tandagh said, slapping Venali on the back. The mage only stared at his hands, as if disbelieving what had happened.

"I'm impressed," Felix admitted, and it wasn't even a lie. Both the Knight and mage had acted fast and with level heads during the unexpected attack. "Now I know why you were chosen for patrol duty."

"Ah no, it's just because I can pilot the boat," Venali admitted. "But I have been practicing against the beasts...thought I've never seen one of them before. A Bog-Lure, was it?"

"Aye. I've seen them, but not anywhere near a settlement though." Tandagh lifted his visor and spat into the water, as if clearing his mouth of something nasty. Felix was mildly surprised to see he had the purple-green skin and short tusks of an Orc. "We need to report this to the Knight Commander. Bog-Lures aren't anything to take lightly." The Knight looked to Felix, suspicion and curiosity playing across his Spirit. "Mr. Veil. If you wouldn't mind. I think my mage is spent."

"Not a problem," Felix said, careful to breath heavily, as if he too had just exerted himself. "Glad to put my back to this grove, that's for sure."

Tandagh grunted, and Felix guided them out of the trees and back toward the Redoubt.

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