Group 2: Hope Quest

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Esper was quiet on the way to the Northern side of Morgg. Every so often, he would look back at Yuki's direction, thoughts of the past coming to mind. He had to shake himself free of those thoughts: this was a different girl, but curiously enough, was this one of Karina's ancestors in the timeline? It was possible...after all he didn't meet Karina til nearly a thousand years after today. Plenty of time for last names to change...though he had to wonder, if Yuki had an analogue in the timeline he was from, did she have the same gender swap issues?

At one look back, he exhaled as he glared at Aria. "You really had to insist they come huh deliberate choice because of the resemblance or coincidence?" he says when the bird was close enough to hear at one point.

After a swift as possible flight later, the curve around Morgg begins, he looks in the direction of the ground, looking for a clearing of some sort near the northern side that would indicate a path. At one point he descends and then abruptly begins to drop as he ceases his flight spell, turning invisible on the way down as the shadows bend light away and only when close to the ground he triggered levitation to land safely. In his stealthy state, he surveys the area while the others were in the air to make certain there was no ambush.

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”Of course I’m right; as for me bringing them along, you did just finish stating that they would be under your protection. I assumed you meant they would be coming.” Really trying to blame the company on her. Aria tilted her head to the side, her large eyes staring down Ai’s priest. ”Incorrect, love while powerful would not exist without knowledge. One has to make an active choice to love; otherwise its feeble dribble. But one cannot do so without the knowledge of it to begin with. Logically that makes knowledge arguably a runner up for the strongest force. However there are the main seats in the pantheon for a reason, not one can exist without the other in some way. Though as a priest surely you would already know that?” She flipped her tail feathers at him and took off from Adrains head as they took flight; her wings carrying her up with ease. The magical gust of wind was also appreciative; it meant she didn’t need to find thermals to conserve energy. ”Skinny legs pulling her weight already in the first stretch, way to go!”

She glided along ahead of Adrain. ”Bombs away!” Lovely white bird gunk would narrowly miss the mage. She wasn’t mean enough to get it on him, but it was enough to live up to the name he had just given her. Really next time he might give her a little nicer name!

Aria stayed with the other two as Adrain descended; her sharp eyes keeping an eye on the ground and the air around them. She would wait for the all clear before she landed; that and she would make sure nothing came for the larger group while they were in the air. "We should let him give us an all clear before we land with the large beasts."

[Yuki D'Avranches]

Yuki remained in her thoughts knowing that Aolani wasn’t going to allow her to fall off if her thoughts started to wander. She wondered if she was doing the right thing by going on this adventure her mind going on auto pilot as they flew. Having been riding with Aolani for a while now she felt the natural dip and changes to they flight and summoned magical gust of winds to help them along the way.



Snapping out of her thoughts when she heard a voice say bombs away, only to find that Nox was flying down to Esper and dropping a load off. A small giggle left her lips as she watched it something light and a subtle way to help her de-stress a bit and stop rethinking her decision to go on this quest. Nodding her head understanding that there was no point in them landing if it wasn’t safe yet. “Aolani, when we land I only want you to stick around a bit okay girl, then I want you fly somewhere safe.” She said brushing the mane of the mare as way to relax. “I know you can sense when I need you so you don’t have to worry. I promise to call when it’s time to come back and don’t forget to bring your friend with you.” She said all of this while still brushing the mane to reassure the horse who just neighed and threw her head back since she knew that the Yuki was only doing this to reassure herself as they waited for the all clear. 

[lucifina]

Once the group reached the Morgg they would see a desolate wasteland if they looked towards the castle they could see a few scorched corpse which increased the closer they were to the castle. On the opposite side they would see many small flames in the area. It would seem normal with the state and location they were in except that the longer they stared the more flames would appear. Camouflaged into the area were a few flames that would change color gradually from a bright red to a dullish blue over and over again. Wisps, they would slowly float around the area as if they were waiting for someone.

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Adrain surveyed the area as he landed from his cloaked position. A lot of what you would expect, even the unfortunate corpses. The charred flesh was a testament to recent activity however, watching he could sense a number of small presences. Wisps...curious beings. They shared some similarities with elementals, perhaps it was possible to appease them for minimal disruption and attention of othet things: there were ways to deal with them if it came to combat

Adrain draws a glyph of fire mana and summons a Fire Elemental to his side.

"Please assist me with negotiating safe passage with the native wisps." He says, then stepping out to approach where a few wisps were. He was prepared to teleport back to a safe range but for now hoped the fiery elemental would be capable of communication with the wisps.

[lucifina]

The Wisps slowly gathered around and surrounded stood in front of the flame elemental, once they got close enough there were various screams as the wisps would change color, to the best of their ability the wisps said there was a cave filled with monsters where they spend their time but due to the recent activities they were forced out.

The wisps after speaking to the flame elemental would continue creating flames around the area while moving away, though if looked at closely, the flames would be where the wisps would move to next.

[Deleted]

"I see...very well then, I will move to take care of this problem. I am going to signal some allies of mine whom are in the air, two humans and a bird that might turn into a human, and they have a couple of beasts with them. Please don't attack them when they come." Adrain says, turning to the sky as he fires a beam of light from the ground up that should be visible. Turning to the direction that seemed to be indicated by the cave, Adrain begins walking toward it, manifests a shadow blade in his right hand, his eyes rapidly scanning for imminent threat.

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Gabriel looked seeing that Esper landed followed suit. Landing the horse not to far from the said cave. He would then pick up his staff and headed towards the cave a few paces behind Esper “Anyone else wondering what's in this cave that we went all the trouble to go to?” Gabriel turned to look for Yuki and Nox as he slowly made his way to the front of the entrance.

[Deleted]

Nox looked down as Esper signaled them; apparently it was safe. ”Here we go” Nox dropped into a dive; pulling up and gently landing on Adrains shoulder. She shifted uncomfortably as she looked around. The amount of wisps here were concerning. Helena was clearly slacking on the duty required of her, that or she was using these wisps for her own purposes. ”I had hoped to keep this fun charade up for a little longer…but I need my hands. Aria jumped off Adrains shoulder, her form bending and twisting to quickly form her humanoid self. Aria stood there in the buff; completely covered in tattoos from the neck down. Very little of her skin wasn’t covered in ink. Aria brushed her long wavy red locks over her shoulder, placing a finger on a tattoo of a book on her hip. The ink seem to peel from Arias skin and into her hand; forming a little red leather bound book to which she opened to a blank page. She waved her hand over the book and letters began to burn into the page. She cataloged what state the land of Morgg was in, giving a rough estimate of how many souls she saw floating around. At the end of her report she wrote ’ I know you are the god of knowledge, along with being the god of balance. Knowing what I know, and your tendency's to be cryptic as hell. I’m assuming I have a task here as your champion? Do you have anything that I might find helpful in this venture?’ That and gods weren’t allowed to say to a mortal go do this, considering that would be direct meddling. She’d wait for an answer, if she did or not receive one she’d close the book and look up at the group.

”So hello all. Now that the Nox facade is dropped, I’m Aria. My apologies Gabriel, I couldn’t resist playing along. I’m not usually so rude.” Aria smiled; apparently not caring in the least she was in the nude. ”We should proceed with caution; we don’t know if the wisps will alert a certain someone of our presence. The sooner we escape there site or do something about them the better… Else wise our coming North to enter with the element of surprised is completely pointless.” Aria allowed the book to once again turn to ink and slide down into her skin to its place on her hip.

[lucifina]

After seeing the group seeming to follow them, the Wisps picked up the pace and reached the cave. They stood behind the group and made a flame inside the cave to try to light it up. Once that happened there was a low growl almost like a warning sign.

A few moments after they would see what seemed like another wisp from inside the cave try to leave it before what seemed like a large wolf of sorts hopping out and biting the wisp. The Morgg Hound would quickly finish off the Wisp, and after a few moments seemed to have grown slightly with a red hue to its skin. Letting out a low growl 4 more would show up from the cave ready to pounce on the group that invaded their territory.

[Deleted]

Esper looks at the group, then shaking his head in indifference as Aria emerged naked. He had seen her tits enough times over the course of his life to not even care or be phased at this point: that girl had too much of a penchant for being naked. Even if it came with the animal forms she seemed to revel in the reactions too much. As Gabriel mused what was in the cave just before Aria's show, he shrugged.

"Perhaps this cave will lead to the temple, we don't really know what we're looking for, but the wisps say they live here, so this is a place of some importance to them, perhaps by aiding them there is something to be gleamed in return like a passageway or something." he says, then seeing a wisp get attacked and consumed. Interesting...either these hounds reacted to magic that way or just fire and heat. Knowing Aria she might prefer to not kill these beasts, so he looks at her when she catches up.

"Gorge Hound? Fear into portals to the cliffs to the east?" he says lowly. What he does next would depend on what Aria does: If Aria does shift into Gorge Hound to fear the beasts, he would attempt to open portals as they fled to displace them from the cave far away. If the hounds lunged, Adrain's arms would shift into those of draconic scale covered claws to strike at those that got too close, prioritizing any that would go after Yuki since Aria he knew could defend herself and the priest at least was more sturdy looking.

[Yuki D'Avranches]

Yuki landed, once she dismounted she made sure to take her pack placing it on her back along with a few other before she allowed her horse to fly off knowing it was too dangerous for her to stay. She jumped a little when she saw Nox turn into Aria, two things ran though her mind was one why did Aria have to turn into a bird and she was naked, even with all the tattoos on her skin. Quickly averting her eyes she swung her pack around and quickly fished into is handing Aria one of her short dresses. “Aria you should at least wear some clothes.” She said offering her the dress depending on if Aria took the dress she would swing her pack back over her shoulder if she didn’t take it she would repack it back and place her bag back in it’s original location.



Following the group deciding to stay in the back since she felt it would be better since she didn’t have as much training as Aria or Gabriel and based on Esper’s armor she figured that he was a capable fighter. It didn’t take long before her ears picked up the sounds of a low growl as she watched one of the wisp get eaten by a Morgg Hound, before four more showed up looking hungry for more than a wisp. Backing up slowly out of fear, her hands shaking a tiny bit as small sense of panic over took her. “Gabriel…” Her voice a bit weak as reached down into her boot for the dagger that she had hidden in there.

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Gabriel looked at the entrance as Nox seemed to have came down to land as well as he turned around he caught a view of something he didn’t expect. “For the love of Ai put on some clothes” He quickly turned around though hearing everything she said “Thats really nice to know uhh Aria your real name was? But yes please put something on” Gabriel repeated as he saw Yuki seem to hand some clothes to Aria during the time. As he looked up he saw the wisp right before the hound pounced and ate it. “I don’t think the Wisps is what we should be worrying about now.

Gabriel held onto his staff and went to a combative position, knowing he would definitely be unable to kill the hound with the staff seeing the scraps of armor around the hounds he knew at the least it was the most comfortable weapon he could use to defend Yuki knowing from his training and the sight of the two that at the least they should be able to take care of themselves. He slowly moved in front of Yuki “don’t worry just stay behind me” Gabriel said without looking back

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Aria looked up from her book when she suddenly heard shouting; one delicate red eyebrow arching. For a man of Ai, whom was almost just as bad as her daughter, he certainly was jumpy about a little skin. His response was soon followed up by confirmation by Yuki as well….they didn’t know many phiorics did they? ”Clothes would be cumbersome and provide and unnecessary delay and possible risk when combined with my abilities.” Aria’s tone was dry; as she glanced back down at the book as a response was scrolled out. However it seems she’d be delayed in reading it when a morgg hound popped up, followed by a few more. She sighed as she placed the book back into her skin; the ink sliding back to its original position. If Saden needed her he had other ways of communicating with her.

Aria nodded towards Adrain when he asked her to transform; her first line of defense was to target the first one’s mind. Letting her divine ability to communicate with animals work its way into the first hounds head. If she broke in she might actually be able to gain access to its form……which might give her a way to deal with the wisps if needed.

”Yuki dear; do you mind kicking up the wind a bit around the beasts. It seems when they consume wisps it has well, in terms for us, a negative effect. Keep the wisps away from them.” Aria cracked her knuckles and neck…hopefully they might be intimidated by a bigger wolf. ”You two make sure not to make eye contact with me after this” She stepped forward in front of the group. Her face suddenly elongating, a canine snout with its lips curled back appearing. Fur rapidly began to grow on her body, while a tail sprouted and ears elongated into tall triangles migrated to her head. The sound of bones shifting could be heard as Aria’s body began to grow and change rapidly. Within moments her transformation was complete. It was quite apparent now why she might find clothes, hindering.

The large blood red gorge hound, with long silky fur shook its head and took another step forward. Its hackles raised, and tail held erect in a dominating manner. She threw her head back let out a loud bone rattling howl; making sure to draw the beasts attention onto her. Her pupiless blue eyes staring them straight down. All they needed to do was make eye contact. Though she wasn’t sure how they felt about facing their own mortality.

[Yuki D'Avranches]

Yuki hands were shaking a bit as she held on to the dagger, she only snapped out of her nervousness a bit when Aria asked if she could create a small wind to keep the wisp away from the hounds. Nodding her head a bit as she took a moment to re-center herself real quick, as she felt her connection to the element of air, pushing as much mana from the air she summoned a simple storm having it pick up some of the ash as she send the wind to create a simple distraction for the hounds and turn they focus from the wisp to the four mortals.



“Aria I don’t know how long it would last.” She said as she focus her mana towards keeping the gust of ash centered between the hounds and the wisp. Feeling the mana amplifier on her wrist she pushed a bit more mana into the spell to maintain it. At this point most of her nervousness was lost as she supported her team knowing that she could trust Gabriel to protect her and Aria even if they’re not the best of friends at least she felt that she was safe around her for the most part.