Shorebound, Day 538.11.15
After not having much in the way of colds for two years, getting colds again is no fun. But it's almost Halloween, so there is that!
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We regarded the basilisks - they regarded us. There was one at the top of the stairs and a pair in the room that I could see through the bannister rails. This level at least had a decently large landing, but the closed doors at each end on the other side and the noises behind them made me imagine there was more stabbing to come. For a long few seconds it seemed like maybe the basks were tame. And then Kromnir took a swipe at the nearest one, and the chaos re-started.
Years of swinging from rigging made hopping over the rail an easy task, even if I did land near another bask. Figuring Kromnir had his covered, I tried my luck with my new friend, and my blade just passed through. Was it...illusionary? A spell similarly passed right through the other one near the back of the room. I turned toward Kromnir with some thought of going to help, since I had actually heard that one react when attacked. And at that moment, a bright spray of colors from the other side of the room blinded me. The maker of the basilisk illusion had been hiding in the room. I had a hand on the rail so I at least knew where *that* was. The next few seconds were again of that agonizingly slow variety. I could hear fighty noises, and the casters were presumably doing their thing. The room started to come back in view, and everyone was now at various different points in the room. Kiarra and Kromnir were now engaged with a huge tiger man. One of the back doors was open and someone shouted "IF YOU ARE FROM SKINNER, WE'RE GONNA GET YOUR STUFF, JUST HEAVE OFF PLZ."
I took a couple of cautious steps toward Kromnir, still holding the railing because everything was still very muzzy. When the second step resulted in a sharp click, I stopped dead. Something landed on the floor behind me with a hefty thunk, and as I turned to see what it was, my side got shredded by about half a dozen blades on a spinning column. If I didn't scream, it would be suprising, but I don't even remember. I did stumble back against the railing. Aja to the rescue again! As she was calling on her gods to heal me, Visandus was casting a fireball in through the open door of the other room. Unfortunately, their magic user cast something similar right back into the our room, and it seemed to actually catch some stuff on fire, even though it missed us. I sidled away from the blade thing and accidentally met the glance of the one real basilisk, which looked pretty hurt but still had enough vitality to put some kind of miserable curse on me. This isn't fair, I just looked at it and now I'm moving at half speed.
The blade thing was trundling toward Aja, so I grabbed the rail and side kicked it as hard as I could. Hard to do while you feel like you are moving through slush. I hoped it would fall over, but while it weebled and it wobbled, it did not fall down. It did at least get shoved to the far side of the room. The basilisk snapped at my ankle and I struck at it - it was pretty hurt already and it went down. Even if it had been trying to kill me, I still felt bad.
Kromnir and Kiarra had driven the tiger man back through one of the doors, Kromnir taking a nasty bite from it in the process. Visandus made some complicated motions at the tigerman and Kromnir, and the tigerman suddenly seemed to be moving about half speed while some of Kromnir's wounds stitched back up. The tiger retreated back into the adjoining room...
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We regarded the basilisks - they regarded us. There was one at the top of the stairs and a pair in the room that I could see through the bannister rails. This level at least had a decently large landing, but the closed doors at each end on the other side and the noises behind them made me imagine there was more stabbing to come. For a long few seconds it seemed like maybe the basks were tame. And then Kromnir took a swipe at the nearest one, and the chaos re-started.
Years of swinging from rigging made hopping over the rail an easy task, even if I did land near another bask. Figuring Kromnir had his covered, I tried my luck with my new friend, and my blade just passed through. Was it...illusionary? A spell similarly passed right through the other one near the back of the room. I turned toward Kromnir with some thought of going to help, since I had actually heard that one react when attacked. And at that moment, a bright spray of colors from the other side of the room blinded me. The maker of the basilisk illusion had been hiding in the room. I had a hand on the rail so I at least knew where *that* was. The next few seconds were again of that agonizingly slow variety. I could hear fighty noises, and the casters were presumably doing their thing. The room started to come back in view, and everyone was now at various different points in the room. Kiarra and Kromnir were now engaged with a huge tiger man. One of the back doors was open and someone shouted "IF YOU ARE FROM SKINNER, WE'RE GONNA GET YOUR STUFF, JUST HEAVE OFF PLZ."
I took a couple of cautious steps toward Kromnir, still holding the railing because everything was still very muzzy. When the second step resulted in a sharp click, I stopped dead. Something landed on the floor behind me with a hefty thunk, and as I turned to see what it was, my side got shredded by about half a dozen blades on a spinning column. If I didn't scream, it would be suprising, but I don't even remember. I did stumble back against the railing. Aja to the rescue again! As she was calling on her gods to heal me, Visandus was casting a fireball in through the open door of the other room. Unfortunately, their magic user cast something similar right back into the our room, and it seemed to actually catch some stuff on fire, even though it missed us. I sidled away from the blade thing and accidentally met the glance of the one real basilisk, which looked pretty hurt but still had enough vitality to put some kind of miserable curse on me. This isn't fair, I just looked at it and now I'm moving at half speed.
The blade thing was trundling toward Aja, so I grabbed the rail and side kicked it as hard as I could. Hard to do while you feel like you are moving through slush. I hoped it would fall over, but while it weebled and it wobbled, it did not fall down. It did at least get shoved to the far side of the room. The basilisk snapped at my ankle and I struck at it - it was pretty hurt already and it went down. Even if it had been trying to kill me, I still felt bad.
Kromnir and Kiarra had driven the tiger man back through one of the doors, Kromnir taking a nasty bite from it in the process. Visandus made some complicated motions at the tigerman and Kromnir, and the tigerman suddenly seemed to be moving about half speed while some of Kromnir's wounds stitched back up. The tiger retreated back into the adjoining room...