• Closed • Ignis Internum

[Elisabeth Black]

54 Vhalar, Arc 720.

His observations were sound. She -was- inexperienced. Focus was one thing when sitting in her home, doing nothing important, or in training but this wasn’t that. This was combat with a creature that had every intention of killing her and could do so. It was also true that she had a hovering ‘angel’ that was helping her and while that was a good thing, Elisabeth was stubborn. She wanted to see this thing through on her own with limited interventions.

Just as she thought she was getting the hang of it, the worm made an unexpected attack, causing Prae to intervene by use of his magic. That shook her a bit. If he hadn’t, she would have been seriously injured or dead. Listening to his voice gave her something to concentrate on while pulling her focus back again. Music? She understood the concept he was trying to convey – rhythm. It was like training back at the fortress with the dummies or even cutting patterns. But calm place? Hmmm…that was going to be tricky. What calmed her the most? Falling snow. If she could envision it around her, maybe that would trick her mind to go to this place was talking about?

It was worth a shot.

Reengaging the worm, she remembered what Prae said about not knowing where the vitals of the worm were. That was true, but taking an educated guess, she decided to concentrate on the mid-section and head, thinking that the odds were most likely that the vitals weren’t in the tail section. The wounds she had already inflicted were oozing…something. She wasn’t quite sure what it was but for the moment, she would just consider it ‘blood’…but going forward was mindful that she didn’t want to get herself covered in it – just in case. Thankful for her gloves, long sleeves, and leather armor, she pressed forward.

As much as she didn’t want to attack the head, logically it made sense. The head was one of two major weapons the worm had and if she busied herself with that, she only had one other to worry about – the tail. If she attacked the midsection, she’d be looking out for both the head and tail. It wasn’t a solid plan, but the best one she could produce at that moment.

Watching the tail, she rotated her blade in her hand into a grip for stabbing and went to work on the area that possibly was its neck. The plates slide apart as she buried her sword as far as she dared into the monster, mindful of any ‘blood’ substance issuing forth. Her mind whirled, trying to find this elusive place Prae was talking about. She imagined snow falling around her, and slid her sword out of the beast again, finding a new spot to skewer. By this time, however, the worm had endured enough of her experiments, tossing itself to the side, trying to crush her beneath it. It wasn’t an attack she had seen yet but as soon as the large body began moving, she felt Prae’s air dragging her away from harm.

Damn, another mistake made.

Swiftly moving back towards the worm, it seemed it was tired of her poking. Shooting a jet of flame in her direction, Elisabeth had barely enough time to roll to the side to evade before being melted. It was upping its game and she was simply trying to finish the job. Rising to her feet, she cursed and found her way back to the spot she had been working on before. It was exhausting work for the inexperienced, finally understanding Prae’s wisdom regarding ‘keep attacking, don’t get hit’. But she did not that she was tiring a bit. Stabbing the worm again, plates sliding to the side as she drove the blade in, the young woman wondered if the worm would retreat underground again…or if her strikes would prevent it from doing so. Were its abilities to penetrate the ground related, in any way, to how hurt it might be? She didn’t know and really didn’t care much…but it was something to think about.

The tail decided to get into the fray this time, swiping at Elisabeth as she dug into the creature again. This time, she saw it coming her way, ducking around to the other side of it swiftly and re-engaging on a new area, relatively the same spot, simply different side of the beast, stabbing into the surface between the plates. All the while, in her mind, snow fell – its icy kisses bringing her the calm she needed to continue. Her arms hurt a bit for stabbing was a different motion than simply swinging her sword around but that was to be expected.

Time passed, more stabs were delivered – always between the plates, digging her sword as deep into the creature as she dared to avoid the surface of the worm or any substances that might issue forth from it. It shot jets at her, tried to crush her, and flicked its tail to try to swat her away…but she learned something new each time and kept herself safe, relying on Prae’s wind less and less. She tried to stab in different places each time, hoping eventually to hit something vital but wasn’t sure she would ever know if she had.

Finally, after one last deep stab, the worm shuttered and collapsed onto the ground before her, moving no more. Disengaging the weapon from it, she stepped back a bit, kneeling to catch her breath and casting a questioning look up at Prae.

Note

Permission to note Prae's Defiance wind interference gained from Praetorum

[Praetorum]

Apparently they had not seen everything the worm could do. Prae normally just executed them as quickly as possible, and it seemed that under duress, they had a few more tricks. Still, having a defier watching bought Elisa a great deal of leeway, and he carried Elisa away each time the worm was about to injure her. He was glad to see her take his advice, and approach the fight methodically, attacking without being attacked where possible, varying the location of her strikes to try and find a vital area.


When the worm finally collapsed, Prae floated back down to the ground, and leaned over to pat Elisa on the shoulder. "Good job." He said. "You've got a good eye for incoming attacks, but you need to train your body to react faster; dodging when you notice an attack should become a reflex. That will just take some practice, so try to get that in if you can. And a good eye and good reflexes won't do you any good if your body isn't quick enough, so try to work on that too when you have time.


Dropping onto one knee, Prae carefully drew a rune of endurance and regeneration on her, and dispersed it over her body. He hadn't let her get injured, so strictly speaking the rune of regeneration wasn't needed, but his spark refused to let him place a solo rune, so this was his best compromise. The rune of endurance thought, would help ease her tiredness, wiping away the fatigue of the fight. 



"Come on." Prae said, rising to his feet, and gesturing for her to do the same. "Let's go back to the fort. And on the way, try to think about how you felt during that fight, if it was any better than your first."

[Doran]

Elisabeth:

Knowledge:
Acrobatics - Rolling away from a flame attack
Acrobatics - Ducking to avoid attacks
Combat: Blade - Piercing attacks
Combat: Blade - Remain loose and flexible
Combat: Blade - Stab in different locations for maximum effect
Mount (Kheledzan): Climbing up on a Kheledzan
Strength - Forcing a blade between the armored plates of a nickleworm
Strength - Prolonged sword battle can slowly sap strength
Meditation - One can meditate within battle to help push distractions away
Tactics - Having prior knowledge of your enemy helps create battle plan
Tactics - Playing it safe with reinforcements

Loot: -
Lost: -
Wealth: -
Injuries: -
Renown: 5
Magic XP: -
Skill Review: Appropriate to level.
Points: 15

Praetorum:

Knowledge:
Attunement: Tracking with Attunement
Teaching x5
Tactics x3
Mount x2

Loot: -
Lost: -
Wealth: -
Injuries: -
Renown: 5
Magic XP: 5 XP may be used for Attunement. Prae used Attunement to track the nickel in this thread, but he did not push himself sufficiently for full Magic XP in my opinion, especially since he almost has Master Attunement.
Skill Review: Appropriate to level.
Points: 15

- - -

Comments: A Flameborn thread! It’s been a while since I’ve read one of those, so I appreciate this little trip into the past. Was this before or after Elisa became a Defier? Anyway, I thought that asking Praetorum to train her and help her with her problem was a good idea.

I agree with Praetorum. That she sought him out despite her fear was a good sign. Not everybody would do such a thing, and facing your fears in battle is one way to overcome them!

I thought the part with Sivan was well-written. Elisa’s excitement was obvious. I didn’t know that Praetorum had taken Sneabru flying as well though! I wonder what Sneabru was up to during the siege at Storm’s Edge. I get a little excited every time you mention him in a thread!

Using Hone to make Elisa stronger and such was a clever idea in my opinion. Apparently, you need Competent skills to even survive an encounter with a wormernickel, so those runes definitely came in handy. Without them, Elisa’s low Acrobatics skill and lack of the Running skill would have constituted a problem in my opinion.

You really made the fight exciting to read. The scene where both Prae and the wormernickel burst from the ground was great, for example. I enjoyed that part of the thread!

I liked that we pretty much got to see things from two perspectives – Elisa was fighting the wormernickel, and Praetorum was watching her, prepared to help should it be necessary.

That being said, I’m not sure how easy it really is to strike a wormernickel between its plates, especially if the wormernickel in question is moving. I guess the runes that Praetorum put on Elisa beforehand help in that regard, but I would still have liked Elisa to struggle a bit more.

Furthermore, I would have liked you to mention Elisa’s fears a bit more in the thread. A wormernickel is scary, but you didn’t mention the fears that your PCs wanted to overcome much after your initial posts. That being said, I wonder what she told Prae on the way back to the fort. I hope that fighting the wormernickel helped her at least a bit!

Most of your knowledges were fine, but I decided not to award you the following knowledge: “Tactics - One learns something new with each enemy reaction”. That sounds more like common sense rather than true tactics to me. Feel free to suggest a replacement knowledge!

Enjoy your rewards!