791 - Clasping at Claws
“You know, most people have the courtesy to ask for a favor instead of demanding one.”
Spinner rolled her eyes. “I don’t think you’re really in a position to complain about someone else’s poor manners, Shadow.”
“Besides, Drafty is our friend,” added Valor. “If we have a chance to take her out of danger, we have a responsibility to do so.”
“Especially since she did the same for me,” chimed in Woodheart, reaching up to casually pet Littleknight, who was perched on her back. “Besides, it’s always easier to sleep when someone’s watching over you. That’s why so many animals cuddle up when they slumber. That and warmth.”
“She’s not exactly sleeping,” corrected Mystaria, prompting a chorus of groans as the nun began to reiterate the exact nature of Thermal Draft’s current condition.
Lex ignored the earth mares’ antics as he carried the doppelganger they were discussing down the stone stairs, toward the cul-de-sac which hugged the underground river. Although it sat behind several of the Shrine’s outer defenses – including the rushing waters, which were magically kept out of the small alcove despite the lack of a physical barrier – the unworked recess of stone was technically outside of sanctified ground.
That was important, since that meant that the Shrine’s most potent defenses didn’t extend that far. Thanks to his enhanced senses and some brief experimentation, Lex now knew that those defenses included a powerful ward against planar travel...though that apparently didn’t include the Confluence. Indeed, Lex still wasn’t entirely sure if the unusual gateway to Darkest Night was the reason that no other form of dimensional movement was possible within the Shrine’s grounds, or if that was the result of some unrelated enchantment.
But that’s unimportant right now, he knew. His primary concern was calculating the proper amount of energy to feed his short-range teleportation spell so that it had sufficient power to not only reach the intended destination – without adding so much that he accidentally sent them somewhere else entirely – but was able to transport everyone.
While he’d used this spell in its unmodified state multiple times before, it had always been either alone or with a very small number of ponies. Sending an entire group – without making the journey himself – was another way in which he’d need to carefully modify the spell’s basic functionality via-
Master? Solvei’s voice in his head almost made Lex miss a step, resisting the urge to curse as he recalled that, although his new body was far more formidable than his old, he was still battling exhaustion. I just wanted to let you know that I’m finished with...that I’m finished, if you need me.
I don’t-, wait... Pausing as an idea came to him, Lex glanced from Thermal Draft to the five mares and the almiraj trailing behind him, running some quick mental calculations. Come to my current location. I have something I want you to do.
Understood. I’ll be right there.
Nodding to himself as he reached the cul-de-sac, Lex quickly reconfirmed how much more energy it would take to send Solvei along with the others. While that would necessitate some additional power, sending the winter wolf would mean that she’d be able to confirm their safe arrival via their telepathic link. Once that was done, he’d be able to summon her back to his side immediately.
Satisfied, Lex turned to look at the others. “All of you move closer together,” he announced. “The spell requires physical contact between everyone being teleported.”
“Aw, group hug!” cheered Woodheart, throwing a foreleg over Shadow and Spinner.
“I’ll carry Drafty,” volunteered Valor, standing up and holding her forelegs out.
Nodding, Lex carefully levitated the comatose doppelganger into her grasp, gratified to see that Valor was taking special care to treat her gently. “Once I’m done here, my next priority is her. Until then-”
“We’ll keep her safe.” Holding the unresponsive mare close, Valor nodded solemnly. “I swear to Makwa, anything that tries to hurt her will have to go through the five of us first.”
“Meep!”
“The six of us first.”
“But don’t think we’re going to stick around in that village,” cautioned Spinner. “Not after what the ponies there did. Instead, we’ll probably try and hoof it to Bright Night. It should be safer there, plus that way Mysty will have a chance to finally meet her grandmother, right Mysty?”
“Yeah...actually, that reminds me of something.” Stepping away from her friends, the novice nun caught Lex’s eye as she nodded back toward the stairs they’d just descended. “Lex, do you mind if I speak with you privately for a moment?”
“Ooh!” Woodheart’s eyes lit up, almost quivering in her leafy robe as she leaned closer to Spinner, lowering her voice to a whisper despite the close confines meaning that everyone could hear her. “I’ve heard about this! This is how female ponies make a mating proposal to males they favor, right?”
The comment made Mystaria blush, Valor wince, and Spinner put a hoof to her face as Shadow gave the filidh a wry look. “What was that you were saying about me being the one with no tact?”
“Just...everyone wait here, please!” huffed Mystaria, practically galloping back up the stairs, Lex following her at a more sedate pace.
Once they’d reached the top, the earth mare cast a quick spell, granting herself darkvision before rounding on Lex. “I’m sorry about Woodheart. She’s one of the nicest ponies you’ll ever meet, but she grew up in the wilderness, so there’s a lot of...I guess the term would be ‘social expectations,’ that she doesn’t understand.”
Having had his own problems with social expectations his entire life, Lex’s only reply was a grunt of acknowledgment.
But that was apparently enough for Mystaria. “That’s not all I wanted to apologize for either. I didn’t mean to rant at you before. It’s just, well...being a priestess of Luminace, I can get a little carried away when it comes to magic. But that’s not why I asked to speak with you.”
Taking a deep breath, Mystaria put a hoof to her holy symbol before meeting Lex’s eyes. “I wanted to say thank you, for sharing the details of your arcane magic with me.”
“Your gratitude isn’t necessary,” dismissed Lex. “If any of you tried to resist the spell, it could potentially disrupt its functionality, so it seemed self-evident that an explanation of its workings-”
“That’s not what I meant,” interrupted Mystaria. “After what happened the last time I asked you about your magic, I know it’s an uncomfortable subject. So I wanted to thank you for trusting me, for trusting all of us, with the details of why it’s so hard for you to replenish your spells.”
Frowning at the memory of how he’d lost control of himself so completely – and brought Woodheart to death’s door – the last time Mystaria had asked about his magic, Lex gave a curt nod, wanting this conversation to be over.
Mystaria, however, apparently wasn’t done. “Also, if you don’t mind my asking, how are you doing?”
Lex’s frown deepened, not in disapproval but in confusion. “How am I doing?”
“I mean, are you okay?” persisted Mystaria. “You’ve been through so much recently. Losing Solvei, finding out Thermal Draft was a doppelganger, not to mention this...” She waved a hoof up and then down, looking his altered form over. “And that’s just the most recent stuff to have happened. You haven’t even slept since we got here. And...”
She dropped her gaze. “And we haven’t exactly been all that helpful.”
“I never expected you to be,” replied Lex flatly. “I’ve known since we first fought that you and your friends aren’t strong. Even pooling your abilities, watching over Thermal Draft in a relatively civilized area is the very most I think you’re capable of accomplishing, and only because I have no better alternatives.”
A pained expression crossed Mystaria’s face. “I wasn’t referring to helping you fight. I mean, we haven’t made things any easier for you. I pushed too hard about your magic. Shadow keeps sniping at you. Spinner made that awful prediction. Valor’s been giving you the cold shoulder. And Woodheart...I won’t say she was wrong to try and save Toklo, but even if you hold it in, I can tell that you feel terrible about what happened to her.”
Letting out a breath, she lowered her hoof, giving him an earnest look. “That’s why, before you teleport us away, I wanted to ask how you were doing. I know the Night Mare’s faithful hate doing anything that would make them seem weak, but I also know that when you’re going through a hard time, just having someone listen – without judging – can make things a little easier. And since Akna...has her own things to work out right now, I wanted to let you know that I’m here for you.”
Lex hesitated, trying to parse what she was asking of him. But while his body had been upgraded, his ability to infer subtext remained as stunted as ever. “I don’t know what it is you want me to say-”
“Whatever you feel like saying.”
“-but this is a waste of time. The sooner you and your friends are sent back to safety, the sooner I can finish things here and give Thermal Draft my full attention.”
He started to turn back toward the stairs then, but Mystaria put a hoof on his side. “Wait. One more thing.”
Gritting his teeth, Lex scowled at her, but the earth mare didn’t notice, glancing back at her saddlebag as she dug through it. After a few seconds of searching, she withdrew a small bauble, holding it out to him. “Here, I want you to have this.”
Raising a brow, Lex looked at the item she was holding toward him.
It was a double-headed clasp, the kind that rich ponies used to fasten a cloak around their necks. Fashioned of silver and patterned with gold trim, it was ornately crafted to resemble two ponies – mares each – in an embrace, both reaching their forlegs around the other to form the clamps on each end of the clasp.
“See the inscription on the back?” prompted Mystaria. “It’s in Tianyu, the celestial script. Can you read it?”
“Of course I can,” snorted Lex, turning the clasp over to look at the array of logographs on the back. “Ward against ironic retribution,” he pronounced a moment later.
Mystaria giggled. “That’s the literal translation, yes, but I’m pretty sure it’s supposed to be ‘protection from poetic justice.’ I’ve been going through the things my parents left me, and this is one of them. I’m pretty sure that my grandmother created it, since she’s an emeritus at Bright Night and this is enchanted.”
Quirking a brow, Lex let his vision slip into the magical spectrum, even as Mystaria kept talking. “It has an abjuration on it which makes the wearer immune to their own spells, unless they directly cast them on themselves. I’m pretty sure it’s to prevent someone from reflecting an attack spell back at you, which is kind of strange because ‘spell turning,’ as it’s called, is actually a rather esoteric magical technique, not to mention a difficult one to pull off. But that’s not even the weirdest thing about that enchantment! It’s that-”
“It’s recursive,” muttered Lex, his brow furrowing as he stared at the clasp.
“That’s right! How did you...no, after everything else you’ve done, I shouldn’t be surprised you figured it out that fast.”
Lex didn’t bother to correct her, since despite her statement to the contrary, the unusual nature of the clasp’s enchantment was a puzzle to him to him.
The magical protection woven into the item did indeed ward the wearer against their own magic; that much was obvious to Lex’s augmented vision. But the inlaid energies were looped back on themselves, not just once but several times over, in a way that was like nothing Lex had ever seen before.
The iterative nature of the enchantment meant that the basic functionality it granted was enhanced...but in a strangely indirect manner. The initial layer of the warding already protected the wearer from their own spells, no matter how powerful they were or what they did; so long as the bearer of the clasp was wearing it both when the spell was cast and when it was turned back on him, the magic would be harmlessly scattered. But that protection was then looped back on itself, the arrangement passing through the initial set of programmed instructions in a way that altered them – no, that annotated them – so as to...to...
Lex’s frown deepened as he found himself unable to decipher the puzzle.
It was one of, or perhaps even the single most, complex pieces of magical construction that he’d ever seen. Not the most powerful – it had nowhere near the amount of magic that something like Severance had possessed – but the detailed construction was on a level that was leagues beyond anything he’d ever come across. And if Mystaria’s grandmother had been the one to create this...
“I’m just letting you borrow it,” continued Mystaria, apparently taking his silence for approval. “Until you can come back and take care of Drafty, okay? I don’t know if it’ll help you, but Sissel seemed like she had some pretty impressive magic of her own, and if there’s any chance this might help you out...”
“I understand,” murmured Lex, examining the clasp one more time before reluctantly donning it. Despite not being entirely certain what it did – though he’d found nothing to indicate that it was in any way a danger to the wearer – he couldn’t put aside the fact that Mystaria was right. Sissel had shown herself to be a spellcaster of considerable power, and despite having gained a great deal of new strength, Lex knew he was in no position to turn down an additional measure of protection.
Even if he wasn’t completely certain what exactly that protection afforded.
“Master?” Solvei’s voice made Mystaria jump, Lex turning to look at the adlet-turned-wolf – now back in her lupine form – much more slowly. “Is everything alright?”
Putting aside the mystery of the clasp for now, Lex nodded. “Everything’s fine.”
“Akna! I’m glad you’re here! I wanted to say goodbye to you too!” Smiling, Mystaria trotted over and gave the wolf a quick hug. “Lex conjured up some food before. Teyu ate most of it, and we all helped ourselves too, but there should be some left if you’re hungry.”
Solvei winced a little at that, giving the nun a weak smile. “Thanks, but I don’t really have an appetite right now.”
Mystaria cocked her head. “Oh.”
Not wanting to think about what Solvei had been doing, Lex gestured to the stairs, looking at Mystaria. “I’m sending Solvei back with you so that she can confirm your safe arrival, after which I’ll bring her back here. Now, let’s go.”
He didn’t wait for a reply before heading back down, the other two following behind him. He heard them conversing in soft tones, but ignored them, doing the same thing when they reached the bottom of the stairs a moment later and began casting his spell, carefully feeding additional power through it.
But despite his best efforts, threads of their conversation managed to penetrate his consciousness.
“I’m kinda sad we’re leaving so soon,” murmured Woodheart. “I really wanted to talk to some of the creatures living here.”
“Trust me, they weren’t the friendly type,” snorted Shadow as she glanced his way. “I guess that’s something all of the Night Mare’s faithful have in common.”
“Honestly, I’m mostly just glad we’ll be away from that building shaped like a giant claw,” sighed Spinner, a shiver running through her. “Seeing all those stone creatures on top of the surrounding buildings made me think that used to be the claw of something huge, and it was just waiting to be unpetrified so it could take a swipe at us.”
“It would have been fine,” tsked Valor. “We were staying far enough away from it that even if that happened, we were beyond its reach.”
For some reason that made Lex frown, and he narrowed his eyes as he finished the casting. Satisfied that he’d threaded the correct amount of energy into the underlying spell structure, he turned back toward the assembled group. Now that the spell had been activated, all he needed to do was touch one of its targets, and they and everyone in contact with them, other than himself, would be instantaneously transported to their destination.
Mystaria smiled at him as he turned her way. “Good luck, Lex! We’ll be waiting for you with Thermal Draft at Bright Night!”
“Give those ugly freaks hell!” cheered Spinner. “Maybe bring us back some treasure, if they have it!”
“After everything you’ve put us through, we deserve it,” snorted Shadow. “And maybe try and fix the weather, if you want to actually help someone for a change.”
“May you return quickly and in triumph.” Holding Thermal Draft close, Valor gave him a nod before the corners of her lips turned up. “That’s how we say goodbye out on the plains.”
“We don’t usually say goodbyes too much in the forest,” added Woodheart, raising a hoof to give him a wave. “We just sort of take it for granted that we’ll meet again. It’s less sad that way.”
Standing at the front of the group, Solvei straightened up. “Don’t worry, Master. If there’s anything there which might be a threat, I’ll take care of it.”
Lex nodded, and – not caring to say anything else to any of them – reached out and placed his claw on Solvei’s side.
Instantly, the lot of them vanished.
At the same moment, Lex registered Solvei’s presence as being several miles to the southeast. But before he could ask her if it had worked, her voice flowed into his mind.
We’re back in the village, Master! Everything looks like it’s okay...except for a few ponies who seem pretty surprised. But they’re not reaching for weapons, so I think it’s fine.
Good. I’ll call you back now.
Actually, Master...I’m sorry to ask, but would it be alright if you waited a few minutes? I want to say goodbye to everyone too.
The request made a thread of anxiety run through Lex, finding himself unhappy at the thought of being apart from her, recalling how the last time they’d parted company, she’d been slain. Knowing that he was being foolish, Lex pushed that feeling away. Just a few minutes.
Thank you, Master!
Sighing, Lex slowly climbed back up the staircase, knowing he’d need to wait outside the Shrine proper in order to summon Solvei back. Glancing inside, he switched his vision over to the ultraviolet spectrum as he glanced at the cathedral.
For some reason, he called what Spinner had said about fearing that it would take a swipe at her, to which Valor had said they were beyond its reach.
And then he remembered of his recent encounter with the Keeper.
“Bbbeeeyyyooonnnddd rrreeeaaaccchhh!!!” moaned the skull. “Iiittt iiisss bbbeeeyyyooonnnddd rrreeeaaaccchhh!!!”
In that moment, Lex was suddenly glad he hadn’t summoned Solvei back, since it spared him the embarrassment of her seeing his jaw drop and his eyes widen as he looked up at where the claw-shaped building’s talons were extended upward, stopping just short of the roof of the cave.
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New temp gear and maybe a revelation of what secrets the shrine may have hidden in the shadows. Putting that aside, it's good that the teleportation went uninterrupted since I was worried that Sissel might have set up a ward or something to prevent teleportation though is detecting teleportation and interrupting teleportation a thing?
Recursive? The item wards itself against being tampered with without permission the same way the Alicorn Amulet does?
Also, if it can handle reflecting, dispersing Any level of power, then like a BOLO, it uses a portion of that power to retain its structure against that power, and an extra part of that power to regulate how much it taps off, and a further tap to keep the regulator function intact, etc etc?
Would be intresting to see if Lex can hack it to deal with All incoming energies, not just his own, giving one of the most totally OTP items existing below Regalia?
i am getting a feeling that Lex is planing on starting some shit and wanted every one out of the way.
11485477 As far as teleporting goes, this is one of those "yes, but" answers.
There are various spells to detect/block/interfere with teleportation, but as with so many other aspects of the d20 game rules, they're not only fairly high-level (i.e. they're difficult to cast), but they tend to be exceptionally limited in the area they cover and/or how long they last.
Take, for instance, dimensional lock. It's one of the better-known spells for this sort of thing (i.e. it's in the main rulebook for Pathfinder 1E and D&D 3.5 both), and yet it's an 8th-level spell(!), and only covers a twenty-foot radius from the point where it's set. That it lasts for one day per caster level is fairly small compensation if someone teleports to a point twenty-five feet away from where you set it.
Other spells have similar drawbacks. Teleport trap is only 7th-level, and has an equal duration. But while its area is larger (one forty-foot cube per caster level), it allows a Will saving throw (though on a successful save, the teleporting person simply goes back to their point of origin), and has an expensive material component (100 gp worth of powdered lodestones and silver per forty-foot cube so covered). Trace teleport lets you do what its name suggests, but you need to be within forty feet of the point of arrival/departure, and if you weren't there when the teleportation happened, you can only pick up a trace up to an hour after the fact (and even then, it requires a caster level check).
That's because the game rules are primarily built to operate at the encounter level, where characters are mostly all within a short distance of each other so as to better facilitate interaction (which is typically combat). Ways of affecting characters at a greater distance are possible, but typically require exploits that bend the rules of the system, vast (oftentimes ridiculous) amount of time and/or power and/or money, or quite simply some sort of fiat on the part of the GM (e.g. an act of divine intervention, a major artifact, etc.).
So in that regard, Lex and Fail Forward were lucky. Their enemies are powerful, but apparently not to the point of bending the rules that this story operates on in their favor. That's Lex's job.
11485643 It's not the level of power that's a factor when it comes to warding off the caster's own spells; it's that the caster's own spells are the only kind it can ward off. Empowering it in that regard would only make it ward off the caster's own spells even better...which is sort of pointless, since it's already a full-on immunity. That's sort of why Lex is confused, because the recursive nature of the enchantment means that it's folding back on itself so as to lend additional support to that top-level function, but he's not sure exactly what it's making it do.
11486688 Well, that's certainly coming down the line; Lex probably isn't going to forgive and forget where Sissel's slaying Solvei is concerned. But as for right now, the mystery of the clawed cathedral is likely to come first. After that, who knows?
Maybe he'll even get some sleep one of these days.