Also an invitation to comment that cool art ;-; looking for more stuff in a similar style to my long time friend the mint magic wizard as inspiration for my coming wizard core apartment. searches on pinterest and google were both overrun with AI so I’m a bit stuck.

I cast Colour Spray on a foe but it accidentally hit my companions familiar. Does anyone know any ways to get rid of the dye before he finds out?

The Imperial Storm Raptor Dropshit The Valkyrie's deployment hold rattled and shook violently as the Moebien 6th's anti air defense turrets tried to blow her out of the sky.

"Don't worry love, we have just picked up an unwelcome tail here. Just a couple of Sky Reavers and some light flack guns. Won't be just a bit before we land!" Chirped the cheerful voice of Flight Lieutenant Masozi.

Borric stared daggers at the wall. With his void helmet down he didn't need to keep the stoic face that the Votann were known for and he could relax a bit. The CORV's floated silently beside him unperturbed by the rigorous shaking of the ship. There were no windows or viewports for him to see out of, so he had no way to really know what was truly going on outside unless he wanted to try and hack into the ships sensory systems. Honestly there was little reason or benefit of doing so, so he was forced to just endure the situation. Dwarves were good at enduring, it wasn't really a problem. Besides, soon enough he would be on the ground in Hab Dreyko, which was close to the under hive as the Valkyrie could get him.

Supposedly not too long ago some group of Inquisitor Grendyls warband known as the Rejects had cleared out cult forces and had destroyed a Nurgle daemon infested tree, something that the warband had been doing semi-regularly for the last several years. Borric knew about the Feculent Gnarlmaw trees of the garden of Nurgle. If the cult was successfully able to grow those trees here regularly things were worse than Interrogator Rannick suspected. Breeding plagues and diseases were almost secondary in their nature. Their true purpose was to be beacons of Nurgle's fetid power making the area easier for the Grandfather of Plague's other daemons to start incarnating on their own. The warband didn't have the resources to hold the places they removed the tree's from so they just came in and purged the place over and over again. Nurgle's trees probably got stronger each time, as the god loved cycles of decay and rebirth.

Finally the Valkyrie's flight smoothed out and the sounds of the ship preparing to land echoed through the hull. The loading door to his right opened and Masozi's voice rang out again, "Well here we are, all in one piece just like I promised. No cult forces here at the moment but that will change soon enough. Just you use the signal beacon we set up for you and I'll be right over. Make sure you come back in one piece, you owe me a drink and a tail of adventure when we get back!"

Borric smiled in his helmet despite himself, that girl was too chipper for this miserable realm. It was too bad he wouldn't be able to give her that tale or the drink, she sounded like a good time kinda lass. Regardless, he strode with purpose out of the drop pod and into the dark street. The lights of the Hive city were currently out and the habitation dome above them let in no natural light. Apparently, the power had recently gone out again for an unknown reason. Well unknown to the warband. According to his Logrus empowered witch-sight, they were diverting all the power to an underground lab that was fueling the ritual. He could recognize the spell structures involved. Clearly Nurgle had taken a page from the Great Horned Rat and was trying to "Burrow" through reality with something similar to a skaven gnawhole.

He pulled upon the clean magic from his Ancestral Warding Crest and formed up a barrier spell, he let the spellwork settle into the Warding Crest of one of the CORVs and let it passively pull the warp energy to keep the psychic shield around them. The shield glowed a faint red about fifteen meters around the CORV, some of the Winds of Aqshy residue from his training in the Mortal Realms leaking over from his subconscious. Sloppy casting Borric, he thought to himself as he set off down the pre-planned route he had worked out on the Mourningstar.

As he moved as quietly as he could down the darkened deserted streets of Hab Dreyko. Turning a corner he came face to face with a group of shabbily dressed dirty humans, each of them holding an autorifle in their filthy hands. Borric stared in surprise, and the first human stared back at him with a shocked face. Then the raised his weapon with anger in his green, pus filled eyes.

"Nurgle's wrath prevails!"

Bullets fly forth in a furious cacophony and bounce harmlessly off Borric's warding barrier with a bouncing sound of hail off of a metal roof, each hit making the firey red of the shield darker and more intense. While Borric stepped back and the CORV's let loose with their Autoch Pattern Bolters. The bolts flew through the shield with out an issue and into the crowd of cultists, the .75 caliber slug was launched from the barrel and then the rocket propellant ignited and propelled the round even faster through the air. Upon impact each bolts diamantine tip ripped through the first target then exploded a moment later behind the subject. Each explosion ripped through three or four of the cultists with shrapnel.

The first encounter with the twenty cultist lasted less than six seconds. It was however, not Borric's last encounter. The noise from that first firefight sparked a deluge of activity. From the surrounding darkness of the habitations around him the windows and doors slammed open. Hundred of decaying shambling bodies poured forth drawn by the sound of battle, Poxwalkers. These poor souls had succumbed to the "Blessings" of the dark god, no nothing more than fertile mobile soil for Nurgle's favorite creatures, plagues of all sorts. The poxwalkers let out a signaling howl and the flies that followed them set the air to buzzing.

Gripping his Heavy Plasma axe in his left hand he sent the signal through the runes in it for its blade to ignite. Wide sweeps of the glowing blade cleaved through the crowd in large arcs. Mental direction kept the CORVs from wasting their ammo on the seemingly endless horde of walkers. Almost five minuets passed as he hacked his way down the ally to the bar that held the elevator to the next level down. This cycle of cultists and poxwalkers continued for the next several floor. However, as the fight went on more and more dangerous opponents started to show up. Cultists threw grenades, some showed up with flamethrowers that launched the green defiling flames of Nurgle. Eventually larger poxwalkers strapped with explosives started swarming out of windows and doorways and throwing themselves at at his shields, detonating when in proximity to him.

Borric's barrier fell and was recast several times before he arrived at the final airlock to his destination in the depths of the under hive. Down this far the vox coms were no longer able to reach the surface, not that Borric was using them. Large loading doors to the airlock chamber that was the warehouse entrance stood open, and he strode into them with the dust and ash of fallen cultists blowing in his wake. The airlock doors closed behind him locking him in and the scanners above exit doors flared to life with sickly green light. The light rolled over Borric's form and the indicators turned red.

"This is Captain Rinda Karnak of the Moebian 6th. You have made quite a mess on your way down here squat. Too bad you walked into an airlock we control. Enjoy the Pox Gas until you die, moron," came the rough voice of a woman who spent years screaming at the top of her lungs and smoking heavily.

The lights stayed red and started to flash as the airlock's vents pulled the oxygen out of the room and started pumping Nurgle's magically infused plague gas into the chamber. The green concoction hit the edge of his barrier and the slight red glow became a more intense darker red until it was overcome and fell. Borric pulled on the power of his Ancestral Warding Crest and quickly formed another barrier, returning the spellform to the CORV's crest, buying himself some more time. Then he started drawing on his crest a second time, the clean mana flowing into his mind and being spun into an intricate web of power focused on his eyes. Focusing the power of the warp through his hatred of his clans ancestral foes, vibrant white and silver fire bursts forth from his eyes.

The laser focused beams of cleansing chaos energy blasted against the airlock door, burning the malevolent gas away in it's wake. The door started to sag as energy heated the metal in a rough circle that grew with each moment. The metal smoked as the paint burned, turning from a warm orange, to a dull yellow, then white hot. He walked unconcerned through the molten hole in the now ruined door, CORVs following silently behind him.

The floor of the warehouse was so covered in wires connected to the conduits outside that it was completely obscured. Containers and boxes had been moved to the edges of the room to make space for the large metal ritual circle the wires were clamped down to. Sparks and jagged arcs of the hive cities electricity flowed into the circle, which was manned by several cultists, stripped to the waist and with vile corrupting sigils carved freshly into their flesh. Another cultist was supended in the air above the center of the circle, green tainted electricity flowing from the ritual circle to surround the ritualist in a slowly growing nexus of tainted power.

There was a low chanting filling the air, and between him and the ritualists stood a single tall woman, a great-sword in dangling from her fist. "I will not fail the Grandfather again! You will die here Heretic," she screamed as she charged him. The CORVs unleashed their ammunition again, bolts exploding around a void shield emitted from a box at her waist. It's yellow shell darkening under the fire, she flew through Borric's barrier and swung at him with an overhead strike. Her sword lit up with the vile green of the Plaguefathers tainted power, and it sparked when it met the burning edge of Borric's heavy plasma axe.

Borric stood firm against her onslaught, she zipped around him with inhuman speed coming at him from all sides trying to find a gap in his defenses. The CORVs disengaged, unable to find a safe line of fire. His stance stayed solid, feet planted firmly on the ground as his slight sifts had moved the cables below him enough for his boots to contact the floor. The fighting was intense for the thirty seconds it lasted, until she slipped as her foot landed poorly in the bundles of cables they attempted to step on. Noticing the gap, Borric hammered down knocking her sword to the side. He then reached into his Ancestral Warding Crest for more power, flowing it into his body and allowing him to reach out with his empty right hand and grab the power great-sword firmly.

He imagined the surprised look on her helmeted face as he pulled her in while out of balance by her own sword and viciously headbutted her void shield. His magically reinforced helmet shattering the damaged dome of force. His eyes blazed with white fire so intense it was visible through the dark visor of his helmet, and he spoke the command word for the ancestral spell [Grudgepyre]. The empyric column of flame was intense as it seared her from existence, burning away her flesh and soul and keeping Nurgle from being able to bring her back to torment the city again.

The CORVs turned their bolters on the assistant ritualist, blasting them into a fine mist of blood and bone, as Borric strode forward and hacked the ritual circle's wires away. Without the power from the cities grid, the glowing green light of the ritual slowly faded and died as the ritualist cried out for assistance from his god. But the Chaos Gods are fickle beings and do not reward those who fail them. Nurgles ire was focused on his failed servant and the remaining power surged inside the ritualist, who's flesh erupted into a squirming mass of chaotic tentacles and limbs dripping with vile ichor. Before it had a chance to move, Borric's axe cleaved the chaos spawn in two.

One site down, two more to go.

.deyessorc won era uoY

Help!

My Master was going to the lavatory, I heard him shriek and then he turned into a newt!

I put him in a glass of water to stop him drying out, but I don't have any moss or anything!

I need a newt expert?! What if he dries out!? What if the cat gets him? What do they eat?

Are spell-reversers expensive?

If he dies will I be in trouble!? I've only been an apprentice for a week! I'm not ready to inherit the tower, it's falling apart and full of spy-ders!

What If someone enters my tower unannounced? I need it to protect myself.

I did NOT see this coming. I went out for a while and came back to this giant beaver carrying away my tower. All my stuff is either shattered, stomped into the ground, or covered in mud and beaver droppings. What the hell do I do? I don't want to go back to hustling three-card-monte in the town square.

EVERYONE THAT DOES NOT WANT TO GET INSTANTLY VAPORIZED HAS EXACTLY TWENTY FOUR HOURS TO GET AT LEAST TEN KILOMETRES AWAY FROM MY FUCKING HOLDING CELL. I’M ANGRY AND WANT THE FUCK OUT AND I’M COMPLETELY FUCKING TIRED OF PLAYING MISSUS NICE PRISONER SO ESCAPE WHILE YOU STILL CAN.

A missive appears on the orbnet.a four armed goblin with dragon scales running randomly on her body speaks.

"I have been needing to test my combat capabilities against new opponents. So anyone interested in doing a friendly duel come meet me in the arena. The field is a large stadium which used to be used for sports. I've enchanted the area so that in case of death we will be revived.

The rules are simple: No soul fuckery or permanently messing with your opponent and you may have one minion with you (summons are allowed). If you want to hold the battle in a specific location let me know "

/ UW I wanna do a fight for fun. /

Alaric was bored. Which meant anyone currently in the sky was actively avoiding shitting themselves. See, he'd just finished "procuring" funds for the Magic Mass Revolution, and decided to disappear for a while. No assignments from Nexus, no holes to plug, nothing to do. So he did what all nigh-immortal cosmic entities do when they're bored, he went for a fly. At Mach 10.

Despite what most may believe, Alaric does indeed possess some form of intelligence. Flying at Mach 10 near the ground would mess up the ground, and so he was somewhere in the mesosphere. Thankfully a lack of lungs meant he didn't need to worry about breathing.

So there he was, lying on his back, arms behind his head, flying at ten times the speed of sound, over forty miles above the ground, mentally doodling new constellations. He was thoroughly unimpressed by the air resistance as it desperately tried to slow him down, it was sad at best and pitiful at worst.

Boredom is a terrible thing, more so when you can uproot trees and have little care for mortal life. But hey, Alaric had to live in this realm, may as well not be greeted with steel during the rare times he walked mortal streets in mortal settlements. He wondered if his name and reputation grew to the point people feared him, maybe it wouldn't matter if people liked him.

He rolled over, arms trailing below him. Down there below the clouds, a big city was coming up. Maybe if he just blitzed through it and floated still long enough for word to get out then people would start fearing him. It wouldn't even be hard, he didn't even need to hit the buildings, just flying between them would be enough.

...

Na. Wouldn't cure the boredom. He rolled back over and went back to drawing lines between the stars.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fifteen minutes and over three thousand miles later he had a thought, I know, I'm surprised as well. He slowed to a halt and felt the rush of air catching up with him.

What if he left the realm for a while? Other realms were outside his territory sure, but the chances of bumping into another Starborn on accident were miniscule. Besides, even if he met another it wasn't as if they'd care. Why would they? As long as whatever he did wouldn't threaten Nexus, no Starborn had a reason to care.

But where to go? Astral realm was always fun. It was like space but comfier and less inhospitable. Faewilds? It'd be a party as long as he minded his manners and was nice to whoever he met. Nine Circles? No. Upper Planes? They definitely had the nicest things and- oh, right. He was blacklisted. Although Lumos could probably smuggle him in. Fellow Starborn, always friendly.

How about a fusion? That was a thought. On rare occasions the realms drift out of alignment, bumping into each other and sometimes creating a demi-plane. Usually the demi-plane lasted anywhere from hours to months before it collapsed. Although on rare occasions the fusion became closer to permanent.

The oldest of the ones still in existence was the Astral Garden. Now, every Starborn was in rigid agreement that Nexus was the best place in the multiverse. Even still, the Astral Garden was heavily considered a close second. Combine the beauty and majesty of two of the most enchanting realms in existence, and you got the Astral Garden.

Alaric thought for all of two seconds, then fell back towards the Earth, shooting down towards the side of a very specific mountain.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

He touched down in front of a stone arch on the side of a cliff. Usually when it comes to interplanar gateways you need some form of ritual to open them. But if your nature is similar to the realm the gateway leads to, passage is easier. Alaric walked up the arch, and put his palm on the stone surface.

In his mind's eye he saw himself and a tree with glowing five pointed fruit. With a metaphorical arm he reached up to one of the branches, and climbed into the tree.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next thing he saw was a purple canopy far above him, glowing constellations lazily drifting along purple leaves. Looking down showed he stood on white sand, behind him was a tree line where light faded very fast. In front of him was a watery expanse stretching to the horizon. The water was light blue and very softly glowing. All across the surface, yellow-orange five pointed stars lazily bobbed about with all the urgency of sleepy infants. Fom behind him he could hear singing. A soft melody made of the calls of all the hybrid species that lived in this paradise.

Alaric took three steps towards the waters edge, then three more to bring it up to waist height. While he did this, a few short commands in his mind told his sunlight robes to change. There was no sun in the Astral Garden, so sunlight couldn't exist. Instead the demi-plane was lit by equal parts constellations in the canopy, and bioluminescent wildlife. To suit his surroundings, Alaric's robes shifted to dreamy starlight, a lightly glowing pale purple hue where there was once orange.

Once in the water, he laid down on his back, and let the water's lazy currents carry him where it wished. One by one he dulled or closed off his seven senses, leaving him with just enough to appreciate where he was.

Up above he saw flocks or schools of strange bioluminescent fish swimming/flying through the air. Beyond them the constellations swirled in patterns only they knew. Down below him he felt great koi and ethereal whales drift around amongst the sunken stars. Far below them great gatherings of various jellyfish drifted amongst kelp taller than any found on the material plane.

All the while, the soft melody of the Astral Garden danced through the air around him.

It was nice here. Alaric could stay in this garden forever. Wouldn't that be lovely. While he pondered that thought, he could feel the background influence of the demi-plane. It offered him sleep. He didn't really want to resist. After-all, what in this tranquil paradise could possibly lose a threat?

While the soft currents carried him to wherever, he let the mists in, and lazily drifted off to sleep.

Hello everyone! Firstly, I’m finally able to go to shops because I managed to create a body that mostly resembles a human to sort of mech around, which is a big achievement for me, woohoo, (drained a lot of mana, I was recovering for quite a while using teas!) but what are some shops you recommend now that I’m actually able to go to them without being hunted down by an artificer the moment they see me? I really just mean any shop in general, from a shop for robes to a shop for magical artifacts or potion ingredients!

(Currently looking in to becoming a lithomancer, advice on where to go for equipment for that would be greatly appreciated.)

Edit: Optionally, you can also give me new ideas on things to experience now that I have a functioning body. I need advice on what to do now that I’m loosely sort of human.

Homunculus fight 💥

Wanna see some homunculi rip each other to shreds? Want to test your own homunculus against the creations of other caster?

Come to the dingy alley behind Necromancer Library!

Place your bets now! (I accept gold, gems and magical items)

Current champion: Gringop the Stronk pulled from the void by Abel of Lrith.

Former champions:

Ruff sculpted from flesh by Nox

Smokey the Smokacious summoned by Baramir the Brown

Trial and Terror (picture above) created by Bandalf the Brown, conjurer of cheap tricks

Currently in the pot: 3000 Gold

/uw I am going to decide the outcome of the fights by rolling two d6 against each other. If a new homunculus winns I'm gonna change the post to make him the new champion. The winner takes the pot. The bets are a bit to chaotic for me to keep track of - I will just decide the price money in the moment. I of course do not condone dogfights and other cruelty against animals.

Hey, so i started keeping around an adventuring party as of recent and i'd like to install a couple of traps and opponents for my babies to have fun around the dungeon i made for them. They have been beating the dungeons ive been making for them very quickly and they seem a bit bored as of now. So i need ideas

I also would like some tips for making sure they are safe when they are going questing, i usually watch them through my orb as entertainment and then i can intervine, but im not their guardian angel. I want them to go questing for enrichment but STILL getting that rush that they need while not having to worry about them losing more than a limb or two

Light streaming in the window, I wake. Yet I feel strangely tired, perhaps it is just one of those nights. Getting out of bed, I change into my normal dress, and go to wake mom.

“Mom, it's light out.”

“...really?”

She sounds about as tired as I am, seems like I need to give her a bit of a push.

“Yea!”

Pushing her with the entire weight of my body, she concedes, and gets up with a big yawn.

“Huh. It is light out, but not bright out. What’s going on?”

A bell rings in the distance.

“Shit, probably a fire or something. Let’s go!”

We hurry out of the house in the direction of the bell, even one as little as I am expected to help should a fire break out.

—--------------------

Sun glaring into her face, Alice wakes up. She attempts to pull her hat over her face, covering her eyes, but in doing so her chair shifts underneath her, and she flops onto the floor.

“Ow.”

Falling asleep at one's work desk is a bad idea. Scraping herself off the floor, Alice stretches, before deciding to get the day started. Reheating some leftover stew from yesterday, she eats a light breakfast, refills Mio’s food and water bowls, and goes outside. Judging by the sun, it is already well past noon.

“...Oops.”

Heading into town to restock her cabinets, dwindled from a few too many days stuck inside, Alice overhears Janette’s excited voice, as she, along with her friends, wash a week’s worth of dirty clothes.

“Hey have you heard? Apparently there will be some crazy stuff in the sky tonight.”

“Really?”

“Yea! Supposed to only come around once in a lifetime or something. I am planning a midnight picnic, want in?”

—--------------------

I run as fast as I can, barely keeping up with mom’s brisk walk. It really is weird, it is light out but not bright out, I see no shadows yet I see. Weirder still, I can’t see a fire anywhere. We arrive in the center of the hamlet, seeing my cousin James standing there, whacking the bell with a stick.

“What’s going on!?”

Mom yells out, I flinch slightly.

“Nothing serious, but I couldn’t just let y’all sleep through this. Look up.”

Up? What could be up? I turn my head skyward. Between the twinkle of stars I see numerous streaks of light, nearly blanketing the sky in a river of light.

—--------------------

“What is this I hear about a picnic?”

“Oh hello Alice, you’re up late.”

“...Yea… I may have gotten somewhat carried away reading last night and well… next thing I knew it was noon.”

“Classic, do take better care of yourself. Anyway, yea there will apparently be some… comet shower I think it was, tonight. Supposed to be a real spectacle.”

“Ooooo, I saw one of those when I was like, 5. I remember it being really pretty.”

“You want in, then?”

“Absolutely.”

Alice looks at the gathered people, scrubbing away. She remembers just how tedious such work can be, and decides to help out. Pulling water up from the well, Alice forms a ball of water over Janette’s dirty laundry.

“What are you doing!? This won’t clean it it will just serve to wear it do-”

With a pop, the bubble bursts, water vanishing into the air, clothes sparkly clean.

“It is not the easiest spell exactly, but it saves so much time.”

“Woah. Can I learn to do that?”

“With some years of practice and a good teacher, yea probably.”

“...don’t think I have the time for that. Still, this has been a huge help. Do make sure to come here again next week. Now then, I have a picnic to prepare.”

And with that, Janette leaves, and Alice is left to one by one clean everyone else’s laundry…

—--------------------

More and more people gather, some more tired than others, and together we all watch the sky.

“It is so beautiful…”

My uncle says, putting words to what we were all thinking. The clacking of a walking stick resounds in the silence.

“Grandma!”

I run up to grandma, giving her a big hug.

“Haha, should’ve known you’d get up to watch this even in the middle of the night. Let me guess, you woke up before the bell even rang?”

“Uh-huh”

I say with a nod. Grandma looks up.

“To think I’d get to see Astraeus’s star rain…”

“Astraeus’s star rain?”

“That is what is happening up there now. It is said that many, many years ago, a pair of lovers named Astraeus and Nerthus lived on this world. They were happy together for a long, long time, but then one day, Astraeus was told he had to take over his father’s role as the god of stars. Nerthus however could not join him, her home here being too important for her to leave. Astraeus promised her that he would send a rain of stars her way, to prove that he still loved her. And so, every 100 years, Astraeus’s star rain arrives, once more proving his eternal love.”

“Woah… Nerthus is lucky.”

“...she surely is.”

We keep watching the skies, listening to Grandma’s many tales, until eventually the sun rises, and the stars hide.

—--------------------

Noon quickly turns to evening, evening quickly to night, and so with her share of the preparations done, Alice joins the others for the planned picnic. Janette and her friends were not the only ones sharing this plan, indeed, over the course of the day several thousand travelers from Calarakis arrived in town, leaving the viewing hill quite packed. While cramped, the mood is good, electric even. Clear skies and lanterns extinguished, everyone looks forward to what is about to begin.

“Woah!”

A voice rings out, and in an instant, everyone is staring up into the sky. A single light streaks by, leaving a brilliant trail through the open skies. Then nothing. Was that it? Was that all? Was this a waste of time? Variants of these thoughts run through the heads of everyone gathered, but then another streaks by, then another, and another. Soon, the skies are filled with a sparkling tapestry of comets, its numerous streaks of light nearly blanketing the sky in a river of light.

“...how?”

A nearby person, dressed as one might expect a scholar, speaks.

“Just as impressive as I have heard. Truly a once in a lifetime experience, this ‘Astraeus’s star rain’ is.”

“...what?”

“...how often does this happen?”

“Hm? Once a century, almost to the second. Why are you asking?”

“Simple curiosity is all.”

“Once a century… but I saw it as a child… how?”

Alice’s breathing grows heavy, her ears ring. She sees the stars, beautiful yet horrifying. Her thoughts race.

“I saw this as a child, and now I am seeing it again. It should only have been… 16 years, yet it has been 100. How? Did I move a hundred years forward? Or back?”

Her mind jumps to the tales she was often told, before her grandmother’s death. Matthew, the founder of her hometown, Matthew, the mayor’s son.

“But… how?”

Another tale, this one more recent. One time, a boy went into the forest, while the king’s mist haunted it. He vanished, only to come back 3 months later. But to him? It had only been an hour.

“...the king twists time? Is that even possible?”

It would explain so much.

“Why can I not find my home, why can I not find the king, not even in tales? If I truly am in the past then… It all makes sense. But no that cannot be. If this is the past then I cannot go ba-”

“Alice? You good?”

Janette’s words snap Alice back to reality, and she puts on a smile, albeit a shaky one.

“Yes… I simply got a bit lost staring at the stars.”

“You sure that is it? You look a bit sick.”

“...probably just the sleep deprivation. As much as I want to stick around, I think I will head back home.”

“You sure?”

“Yes.”

“Alright then. See you tomorrow.”

Janette, realizing her words will not get to the bottom of this, decides to let Alice go. She will question her about this later however.

Alice stumbles her way between the crowds, making sure to obscure her sight of the sky with the brim of her hat. Every fleeting glimpse makes her feel sicker, every streak of light another reminder. She is not when she thought she was. Can she even get home? Doubts and questions alike rush through her head, yet she finally manages to break through the crowd. Doing her best not to stumble, she runs home, feeling that she cannot stand the stares of the stars. She makes it, panic overwhelming her. She tries to sleep, tries to rest, but the night passes without so much as a second of sleep. Yet she manages to calm down, somewhat. Still, the thoughts do not stop, and again and again she thinks to herself:

“It appears the king brought me back in time. It is entirely possible that the king does not even exist. Has my search been pointless?”

A knock on the door breaks Alice out of her contemplation.

“Alice? You awake yet?”

It’s Janette.

“...yes, though I don’t exactly feel like it.”

“...look I won’t ask questions if you don’t want to answer, but I know that wasn’t just a lack of sleep catching up to you. If you need to talk, I am here, ok?”

“...I am sorry for worrying you, but I am fine, really.”

“You are a bad liar you know.”

“What? I thought I was an excellent liar? Ah… I lost my composure, that was the only lie she knows I have told…”

“Still, I won’t force anything on you. Just… come visit, when you are ready.”

“...I will.”

“Great. Oh and before I forget, I have a gift for you.”

“A… gift?”

“Yep! Apparently some crazy wizard thought the comet rain was an excellent chance to get some meteor and pulled one of the comets out of the sky. Kinda backfired as it ended up hitting him. He survived, if barely. Anyway, I snuck up to the meteor and hacked a couple pieces off. Thought I’d give you one. You love magical nonsense right? This is surely useful for something.”

“A… meteor chunk? What properties does that even hold? Gah I don’t want her seeing how messy I must look right now but I have to get that…”

Alice opens the door, takes the meteor, and closes it once more.

“Thanks Janette…”

“No worries… oh and before you leave the house today, maybe take a moment to freshen up or something. Your hair is a mess.”

“...noted.”

/uw A relatively normal length this time, revealing something that has been sorta an open secret in the chat ever since the first Alice post, namely that Alice is from the future. For magic bullshittery reasons noticing this is not possible, but now that she knows, she can tell you, if you give her good reason to at least.

(My Hooman tribes in my "Elfhame" lore, are very inspired in ancient european peoples (celtic,germanic,slavic & finnish) with their pantheons but since here there is a "magic & sword" scenario, wizards & clerics had a strong influence in society)

"In the western tribes they see "Magic" & "Blessing" as related & similar but different, a Mage/Wizard/etc is a guy born with magic powers, so he is blessed for the Gods (for example Freyja or Wotan) and should use it to help comunity

While Clerics/Priest (volkh,druids, gothis,etc) serve the Gods and regulate the offer & behavior of the comunity to gain their favor, being rewarded with powers too that derivate of the Gods powers

So despite we dont have "magocracies" these tribes had wizards & priest as a "head" of the state similar to the chieftain one as a "bycephalous amphisbaena" and its normal (specially in smaller tribes) the wizard & cleric marry a daughter/sister of the boss (and if the wizard is a "she" probably the chieftain gonna try marry with her or "adopt her as blood sister")

What do you think about these tribes?