[M&M 3e] Defying the Future IC

[Zelphas]

Ntombi Peters looks up, her eyes meeting Floral's. Something flickers in their depths for just a moment, gone before it can be registered, leaving them dark and twinkling once more.

"I can find my own way; I know enough not to distract those who are on the job," she waves off your offers to take her away from the area. "Be gentle with her if you can, but despite her gentleness she is a wild creature. She can take more than you think, I just don't know that she deserves it. Fortune to you... Perhaps you should think of a name. I never asked nor answered, but others might, and some folks may wonder what you call yourselves when you're in a group." Waving with her walking stick, Ntombi Peters turns and begins walking east. "Just a passing traveler's suggestion; take it with you or leave it in the woods, it's yours to use."

The forest changed around you at Raphael's arrival.

First was the moss, a living carpet of thick, emerald green life that rolled out in a silent wave and covered the earth all along the riverbank to either side as far as you could see. It grew so thick that you could sink into it if you weren't careful. Then, thin tendrils of greenery slowly rose from the ground or drooped from the branches above, thickening slightly into slender, fuzzy vines of darker, murkier green. They didn't do much to impede your vision, but made moving more difficult, as they clung to everything around them and slowly wrapped what they found in a soft, easily-broken embrace. The air grew thicker, laden with moisture. The temperature rose.

And throughout, the greenish glow beyond the trees grew closer. The vines and new growth darkened the area slightly, making the glow seem slightly brighter, but it didn't truly grow in its brightness as it approached. Instead, it simply intensified, becoming more green, more filled with life. All of you feel it, a sense of growth and growing approaching with the light; to Floral it is not so familiar as to be frightening, but still contains some familiarity with what she encountered roughly a month ago.

Spoiler: Ariadne

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You "see" Raphael before any of the others do through your thread sense. Unfortunately, your thread sense is nearly whited out by the amount of magical energy Raphael is pouring out, so you mostly get a vague impression of a cow-shaped creature larger than any real-life cow, and Life with a capital L. After a few moments of study, you realize that Raphael isn't really using magic, it's more like she is magic, like what she's accessing is magic in its "raw" form, without the refinement of spells, gestures, bloodlines, or other factors. It's closely related to magic, but not quite the same, which is probably why your Threadwork Sense is giving you such a vague image.

Spoiler: Helios

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Looking at the green light as it closes, you get a strange response from your Mystic Sense. You sense no magical aptitude from Raphael, but with every second the Life Magic filling the air around you grows stronger, and its all pouring from where Raphael seems to be. She doesn't seem to be able to use magic, whatever she is; instead, she is magic, as though a fraction of whatever energy that allows magic to function has taken physical form and is now walking straight towards you.

Finally, Raphael herself walks into view. She steps soundlessly on the thick, heavy moss, her deep greenish-black hooves making no sound on its surface. Every inch of her enormous form radiates deep green light, from the tip of her thin, tufted tail to the points of her long, vine-draped horns and the deep, milky greenish-white of her glowing eyes. Her broad back is a carpet of the same moss that now covers the earth around you. Vines and small white flowers wind around her limbs and peek out from behind her long, drooping ears. Her wide, heavy nostrils flare as the wind shifts, and she stops abruptly just before the four of you, her left front forehoof pawing the ground. To either side of her, saplings burst silently from the ground, growing almost instantly into protective bars of wood on either side of the great ox.

Raphael of Manchineel's Menagerie, the Angel of Healing, stands before you, looking at you with eyes that show little but animal confusion, which can quickly turn to fright.

Spoiler: OOC

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Here's a map, in case it becomes needed. The darker green is Raphael's Environment; all movement speeds are reduced by 2 while you are in it.

A battle has not started, but in case one does, I'm going to roll Initiative below:

Floral: (1d20+8)[12]
Ariadne: (1d20+4)[5]
Helios: (1d20)[6]
Nope: (1d20)[9]

Raphael: (1d20+16)[25]

Raphael is very likely to go first, but she does not initiate combat, so you are all good to go.