Witchers of Nifelheim - Part 3

"Body positions tell me that it was less of a physical fight and more of a magical one. The archer I assume tried his range tactics but was... punished." She motions to the archer, "the best way to remove the archer would be to obliterate him with a spell and that looks to be what happened. Dale over there on the tree, whatever happened there had to be some kind of magical energy, the crater may explain that in fact. A spell that emits a kenetic force powerful enough to superheat rock and blast our heavily armored friend into next week." Her eyes flick to Alder, "Poor Alder, torn in half. I think its safe to say that he got blasted with some kind of immolation spell." Rain looks to the ground for flat grass or palmprints, "I'm willing to bet that Alder got his ass handed to him, first the ribs, then torn in half by god knows what kind of force. From there our insanely powerful killer cooked off a fire spell right into his face." She shrugs, "We shouldn't put off the fact that other rogue witchers exist. Back there could have been his stomping grounds but as the parasites moved in Alder had to leave. Another band of rogue witchers saw them, recognized them or saw that they were encroching on their territory, and then... well..." she waves her hand across the scene, "then again... even thats doubtful." She looks down, "I mean... look at our fake tim over there." She looks around at the witchers, "Is there a nonparasite that can cast spells?"

Rain closes her eyes, looking down in thought, "This whole area is a long stretch of road right into a brick wall." She takes a deep breath, "Ok... so..." she begins breaking down her thoughts, speaking out loud if not to just calm her nerves, "Alders in half, unsure if he was still alive before or after that happened. I personally think he was still alive, got fucked, crawled his way to that position before being immolated a physical and magical kill, undusted. The archer being a decently fast couldn't outrun the spell, whatever killed him must have tracked him, its likely he landed his shot and whatever attacked took the chance to obliterate his insides, a magical kill, undusted. Dale the tank, i'd imagine rushed the attacker/ers shields up. I also imagine he was the first to go but if I knew ANYTHING about dale it would probably be that he is stubborn both litterally and figuratively, he probably took the hits not thinking his shield would crack only to be suprised by the ammount of power he was met with, enough to send him flying i'd assume, theres also the chance he could have been hung there after the fight, a physical kill, undusted, and finally, the brick wall. Tim was a con artist and a coward, innocent if you ask me, none the less, his lower half was eviscerated but soon after that while he was still alive, a beast with enough force to rip a man in half, tears off a solid half of his skull a physical kill, undusted." she squints, "The other half... I'm going to see if I cant find it." With her head clear and a new objective she begins scanning the area, walking around the parameter.

C̷O̴N̴S̶U̸M̵E̵ wrote:Rain looks to Rogue with a nod, "That was my next thought." She presses her thumb to the bridge of her nose, "...But alder was hired by carvos to give him information about our team. Carvos is dead so..." she looks to the party throwing her arms up, "so... who else?" She looks down a moment brushing her hair back  "You think its that old man we met when we first got here?"

"Why would he?" Rogue replies to Rain, "Kaznachey already completed his objective by infecting us when we first met him. He has no connection to this lot, and no reason to get involved, that we know of. No, I think this was someone else, someone behind the scenes; maybe a middleman that put Carvos and Alder in contact with each other?"

Radiance wrote:Radiance starts to slowly walk among the nightmare scene. He furrows his brow and walks towards the sniper. He dips his fingers in the blood and brings it up to his nose. Looking to see if it is indeed human blood or a well crafted fake

"Rain, Rogue, do the blood trails or the body positions reveal anything to you? I'm not convinced this is actually Alder and his team. Evidence of taboo magic and the corpses remaining are setting of major red flags for me."

"Well, Alder's face might've looked better if he'd applied suncream beforehand, but the others're pretty unblemished, and they check out, so i think these guys're the real deal" Rogue replies to Radiance, "Hard to imagine why they would fake their deaths, their street cred didn't take that much of a hit from all this. And as for the taboo magic, well any Glystaria has access to those, so it would just take a few with slightly looser moral codes."

C̷O̴N̴S̶U̸M̵E̵ wrote:"Body positions tell me that it was less of a physical fight and more of a magical one. The archer I assume tried his range tactics but was... punished." She motions to the archer, "the best way to remove the archer would be to obliterate him with a spell and that looks to be what happened. Dale over there on the tree, whatever happened there had to be some kind of magical energy, the crater may explain that in fact. A spell that emits a kenetic force powerful enough to superheat rock and blast our heavily armored friend into next week." Her eyes flick to Alder, "Poor Alder, torn in half. I think its safe to say that he got blasted with some kind of immolation spell." Rain looks to the ground for flat grass or palmprints, "I'm willing to bet that Alder got his ass handed to him, first the ribs, then torn in half by god knows what kind of force. From there our insanely powerful killer cooked off a fire spell right into his face." She shrugs, "We shouldn't put off the fact that other rogue witchers exist. Back there could have been his stomping grounds but as the parasites moved in Alder had to leave. Another band of rogue witchers saw them, recognized them or saw that they were encroching on their territory, and then... well..." she waves her hand across the scene, "then again... even thats doubtful." She looks down, "I mean... look at our fake tim over there." She looks around at the witchers, "Is there a nonparasite that can cast spells?"

Rain closes her eyes, looking down in thought, "This whole area is a long stretch of road right into a brick wall." She takes a deep breath, "Ok... so..." she begins breaking down her thoughts, speaking out loud if not to just calm her nerves, "Alders in half, unsure if he was still alive before or after that happened. I personally think he was still alive, got fucked, crawled his way to that position before being immolated a physical and magical kill, undusted. The archer being a decently fast couldn't outrun the spell, whatever killed him must have tracked him, its likely he landed his shot and whatever attacked took the chance to obliterate his insides, a magical kill, undusted. Dale the tank, i'd imagine rushed the attacker/ers shields up. I also imagine he was the first to go but if I knew ANYTHING about dale it would probably be that he is stubborn both litterally and figuratively, he probably took the hits not thinking his shield would crack only to be suprised by the ammount of power he was met with, enough to send him flying i'd assume, theres also the chance he could have been hung there after the fight, a physical kill, undusted, and finally, the brick wall. Tim was a con artist and a coward, innocent if you ask me, none the less, his lower half was eviscerated but soon after that while he was still alive, a beast with enough force to rip a man in half, tears off a solid half of his skull a physical kill, undusted." she squints, "The other half... I'm going to see if I cant find it." With her head clear and a new objective she begins scanning the area, walking around the parameter.

"Another alternative answer is that whoever did this didn't have time to consume them, like if they were interupted?" Rogue suggests, "It could even have been our own scouts showing up that forced them to slink off. Not because they posed a threat, but because they would be missed if they had to be taken out as well, and whoever did this wasn't ready to reveal themselves yet."

"That wasn't what I had in mind for them faking their own deaths. We very clearly showed them last time we fought that we know little about this place. Sure we ended up winning but I'd hardly call it a proper victory.

I'm guessing that they figure they can trick us by faking their own deaths then using that false sense of security to attack us later."

Radiance taps the top of his lip with a finger. Resting his chin on the rest of his fist.

"I wonder if searching the surrounding forest will reveal any thing. Foot prints or debris from the explosion. Speculating at this point won't help. We need more evidence to point us in the right direction."

Radiance wrote:"That wasn't what I had in mind for them faking their own deaths. We very clearly showed them last time we fought that we know little about this place. Sure we ended up winning but I'd hardly call it a proper victory.

I'm guessing that they figure they can trick us by faking their own deaths then using that false sense of security to attack us later."

Radiance taps the top of his lip with a finger. Resting his chin on the rest of his fist.

"I wonder if searching the surrounding forest will reveal any thing. Foot prints or debris from the explosion. Speculating at this point won't help. We need more evidence to point us in the right direction."

"But why would they even need to fake their deaths? As Ursula said, if they had wanted us dead, they could have easily one-shotted us. They wouldn't need to give us a false sense of security."

As Rain begins clearing the area she calls out, "Radiance puts up a good point, keep spread out should alder not actually be dead this would be his trap, he said when we least expect it he would smack us with an AOE, Stay spread out!" She calls.

C̷O̴N̴S̶U̸M̵E̵ wrote:As Rain begins clearing the area she calls out, "Radiance puts up a good point, keep spread out should alder not actually be dead this would be his trap, he said when we least expect it he would smack us with an AOE, Stay spread out!" She calls.

"If this is another one of their traps, it's a lot more elaborate than their last one" Rogue says, "Last time, they just stole a notebook and read extracts from it to lure us into a swamp."

"I agree with you rogue. I dont think alder and his group were smart enough to bring such an elaborate plan. However... Its better to be safe then sorry." She clears her throat, "watch your step as well! This could very well be a trapped area! Alder and his ragtags could have very well just stepped wrong."

Rain wrote:she looks to ursula, "You know Ursula. How quickly we forget why humanity doesn't surpass limits. Its reasons like this. One man wants to use it for his own power, yet another comes along and wants more... take out the competition they say."

"...it wasn't even a fair right.." Ursula quietly whispered: "Just a one sided slaughter"

The convoy leader sighed and slowly approached Kaylee. His expression was stone cold, hardened by time. He un-clipped a water canteen from his belt and passed it to Kaylee. She slowly looked up, sat down on the ground and took a few gulps, then wiped her mouth and returned the canteen to him:
"...I served in the military for 8 years... I've never seen anything like this" Kaylee said, deeply inhaling.



"I have" Johan quietly said, looking away: "..not to this extent but.." he went quiet, then forced himself to make eye contact with everyone:
"Don't be mistaken. The one skilled enough to do all this, could have finished this fight in seconds, without letting a single drop of blood hit the ground, without spraying everything with human entrails. Without making a scene.

But he didn't do that. He wanted it to look horrid. For fun, or as a warning, he did this on purpose. I know... I know" his voice gradually went more silent: "...I've seen it before..."




"..you're.. talking about Nyx....?" Kaylee cautiously asked.

Johan didn't answer, only looked away and pulled up a sleeve from his right hand. His entire forearm was covered in horrible burn marks.

Rain wrote:she walks up to the remainder of "Tim" and kneels down, looking for toothmarks, cuts, anything to indentify weapon or any hint at what this thing could be.

Judging by the wound on Tim's head, you conclude it was inflicted by one or two bites of a massive jaw, filled with teeth the size of your forearm.
"Tim's" lower half of the body was pinned under a massive uprooted tree. Upon closer examination, you notice eerily large claw marks on the bark. You estimate that the paw of this thing was roughly a meter in diameter.

You note signs of blunt trauma on "Tim's" head and chest, and signs of blood on the tree bark.
Its possible the uprooted tree was hurled right at him.

Rogue wrote:"What kind of spell level would be needed to pull something like this? Could another Witcher do this, or are we talking something bigger?"

"Level 3 or 4 could cause something like this" Ursula quietly said: "Could have been a monster.. or a Witcher who let his parasite go Berserk. Same thing, really.."

Radiance wrote:Evidence of taboo magic and the corpses remaining are setting of major red flags for me."

Rain wrote:Rain looks to the ground for flat grass or palmprints

Most of the ground in the crater was turned to glass by the fires. But outside of it, you spotted several passive paw prints, each about a meter in diameter, plus massive claws.
The paw prints were strange though, they only appeared around the crater, but disappeared afterwards, as if the thing that left them, didn't walk away but took flight.


"Its true.. if the victims soul isn't consumed, his body will remain intact, so to speak" Ursula grimly said: "It won't turn into ash.
It seems the murderer didn't care for their souls. Or couldn't take them, for some reason."

Rain wrote:"You think its that old man we met when we first got here?"

"Kaznachey" Ursula frowned and thought for a moment: ".......no. I don't think so.
The Treasurer is a monster, but he bares that name because he is the Treasurer of peoples soles. He collects them, takes great pride in it.
If he came through here, I would expect to find nothing but ash"

Rain wrote:Is there a nonparasite that can cast spells?"

"No" one of the scouts said on Nifel: "Only Glystaria or Witcher"
He thought for a moment, then shook his head:
"That was inaccurate. Istachi can cast as well."


"Istachi?" Johan raised an eyebrow: "The tiny cat spirits?"

"They can do little more than divert peoples eyes from their villages" Ursula quietly said: "An Istachi couldn't have done this"

Radiance wrote:He furrows his brow and walks towards the sniper. He dips his fingers in the blood and brings it up to his nose. Looking to see if it is indeed human blood or a well crafted fake

The stench of blood, mixed with something unknown, awful, immediately assaults your senses.
The Heightened Senses spell didn't help, amplifying the horrid smell to an insufferable degree, nearly activating a gagging reflex.

You didn't immediately feel that something was wrong. The conversation went on and everything seemed fine. It was only a few moments later when Ursula suddenly jerked away from Radiance and emitted a piercing, horrified shriek:

"WHAT THE FUCK!!!"



It was too late. The snipers blood was beginning to melt Radiances fingers, melting the flesh completely, all the way to the bone. The pain became sharp and unbearable. Ursula covered her mouth in horror, as she watched liquified pieces of Radiances fingers slowly drip to the ground.
The bone became visible at the finger tips. The pain was beyond description. But not only the hand.

Something deep inside Radiances chest began curling up, pressing hard and twisting his insides.





(Radiance suffered -5 HP damage, 20 HP remaining)

(Radiance has been afflicted with the 'Poisoned' status effect for 5 rounds of combat = 75 Seconds)

"God fucking damn it" Radiance spoke through gritted teeth and ragged pained breathing. He was slightly bent over but still remained on his feet.

"I'm going to need a healing spell over here!" Radiance calls out then attempts to fix the problem himself. He jams two fingers, from the non melted hand, down his throat. Causing his gag reflex to fire off insuring vomiting. The hope was that the action would expel some of all of the poison from his system.

Radiance wrote:"God fucking damn it" Radiance spoke through gritted teeth and ragged pained breathing. He was slightly bent over but still remained on his feet.

"I'm going to need a healing spell over here!" Radiance calls out then attempts to fix the problem himself. He jams two fingers, from the non melted hand, down his throat. Causing his gag reflex to fire off insuring vomiting. The hope was that the action would expel some of all of the poison from his system.

"On it" Rogue nods and casts his Healing spell on Radiance, "Acid and poison, what was that all doing in there? Everyone might want to give the other bodies some room, they might be just as bad."

"Tim was mauled, teeth bigger then my arse!" She calls before noticing Radiance, "Oh... wow..." she stares for a few seconds each moment passed she looks a bit more pale then when you arrived, "Yep... I'll uh... I'll let you guys deal with that" she clears her throat quickly looking away and moving to dale looking him over without touching him, "Dale got impaled." She scoffs, "you know Johan, I seen a lot of shit trying to protect Nyx and its peoples, when I was given the chance to not only be its protector but to train other batponys to have the skills required to defend themselfs... I took it." She looks back to johan, "Can you imagine the secret rings of slavery that existed after Nyx's independence? Can you imagine the slaughter within those rings when I sent my best team to become slaves within these rings. They weeded out the leaders and everyone who was working for them." She looks around, "I also took it because I love my wife." She gives a sheepish smile to Johan, before looking away and steadying her nerves, "anyway, fact is even with everything we both saw, I think this is above the level of Artimis slaughter. This is more of a, "Oh dear god what kind of monster did this." slaughter." She frowns drawing her sword and using it to lift parts of dales armor out of the way to get a better look at the damage, "So a massive beast was here... you think it had anything to do with Alders prize for "Defeating" us?"

Because everyone was leaving, Twilight went along begrudgingly. Because of this, she arrived at the scene while the rest had already dismounted.

"Um....." She said with wide eyes. "That's new..."

She climbs of the steed as 'graceful' as possible, then joins the overview. With each step, she felt a little more sickened by it, but she keeps it in.

"Who or what did this..."

"Twilight! So happy you could finally join us. Please dont touch the bodys or face imminate melting." She frowns, "What we have so far is that this is Alders Ragtags, Tim; the one that we met at the itachi village was mauled by god knows what. This whole scene is like out of some 5 star, sold out box office, horror movie... I imagine the fanbase would be toxic." She frowns, "Alder was torn in half and immolated, the archer there." She points with her sword, "He had a really bad stomach ache... you can tell because his stomach seems to have violently exploded leaving a hole in his heart where his love once was and a hole in his body where the rest of everything else that made him not dead was also his blood is toxic... toxic enough to melt your hand and poison you so no touch. Dale here... Im investigating it now.

The strangest part to me is that they aren't dusted, who would pass up absorbing such a powerful target. I just dont understand, I mean sure it could have been a hunt for fun but if it really were that what stopped them from adding another positive to the mix by absorbing their power. The whole "Kill for fun" thing and leaving the bodies just doesnt make sense." She shakes her head and shrugs, "The more I think about it, the more I believe this is a message. There is postively no other reason as to why the bodys are here."

"You're right, that is strange." Twilight says in agreement. She seems to think of reasons why they weren't absorbed yet. "We could always make photo's and absorb their souls ourselves to power up, might help for the eventual foe. Unless that's the trap."

She turns away from the scene because her face was turning green. "Given what kind of world this is, a scene like this is tragically more common then we want it to be. Wild glysteria still need to eat. But to leave so much food behind, it's not logical. While as a message, it's more a display of power, to make clear how outclassed we are."

After a few more moments of thought, something clicks. "There is no other reason then a message if it's a witcher or glysteria who did this. But what if it wasn't one of those two? What if it was something else?"

Disgruntled purple wrote:"You're right, that is strange." Twilight says in agreement. She seems to think of reasons why they weren't absorbed yet. "We could always make photo's and absorb their souls ourselves to power up, might help for the eventual foe. Unless that's the trap."

She turns away from the scene because her face was turning green. "Given what kind of world this is, a scene like this is tragically more common then we want it to be. Wild glysteria still need to eat. But to leave so much food behind, it's not logical. While as a message, it's more a display of power, to make clear how outclassed we are."

After a few more moments of thought, something clicks. "There is no other reason then a message if it's a witcher or glysteria who did this. But what if it wasn't one of those two? What if it was something else?"

"That was my thought as well, I said earlier that this whole scene is a streight road right into a brick wall. That brick wall being tim over there." She motions to "Tims" body, "Huge claw marks, massive teeth the size of my forearm. He was crushed beneath a tree before his skull was bitten in half by god knows what. When we got here it was obvious that he was still alive when it happened." She glares at the body a moment, "now not only is this road shortening a gates lowered as well. Whatever killed the archer turned his blood into an acidic poisonus mess. Now Radience is dying should a healing spell not cure him." She then points to the smoldering hot crater, "Alders Ragtags fought back. However as unsettling as it might be to hear this. Its hard to say this was a fight. Allow me to reiterate something else I said earlier. A band of rogue witchers: Alders ragtags, realize their territory is about to be overrun by parasites, as "skilled" as his group were they obviously wouldn't survive the onslaught. Too many parsites. So they go inland. Another group of rogue witchers hear about this, and make an example." She shakes her head, "Thats as far as I got before hitting the brick wall. It's likely the start of that story is true, what other option is there honestly, what happened between when they got to this position and now... god only knows, but at least its an idea on why they are here in the first place."

Rain then remembers the pawprints and groans in defeat, "Whatever it was can fucking fly."

"Hmmmm." Twilight looks at the known set of footprints. She then makes a circle around the edge of the crater.

"... Oh!"

She heads back to the natives. "I have a question. Has something been seen that was flying, perhaps crashing?"

C̷O̴N̴S̶U̸M̵E̵ wrote:"Tim was mauled, teeth bigger then my arse!" She calls before noticing Radiance, "Oh... wow..." she stares for a few seconds each moment passed she looks a bit more pale then when you arrived, "Yep... I'll uh... I'll let you guys deal with that" she clears her throat quickly looking away and moving to dale looking him over without touching him, "Dale got impaled." She scoffs, "you know Johan, I seen a lot of shit trying to protect Nyx and its peoples, when I was given the chance to not only be its protector but to train other batponys to have the skills required to defend themselfs... I took it." She looks back to johan, "Can you imagine the secret rings of slavery that existed after Nyx's independence? Can you imagine the slaughter within those rings when I sent my best team to become slaves within these rings. They weeded out the leaders and everyone who was working for them." She looks around, "I also took it because I love my wife." She gives a sheepish smile to Johan, before looking away and steadying her nerves, "anyway, fact is even with everything we both saw, I think this is above the level of Artimis slaughter. This is more of a, "Oh dear god what kind of monster did this." slaughter." She frowns drawing her sword and using it to lift parts of dales armor out of the way to get a better look at the damage, "So a massive beast was here... you think it had anything to do with Alders prize for "Defeating" us?"

"Eh, I've seen worse, waaay worse" Rogue shrugs, "Kid's birthday parties can be rough places..."

Disgruntled purple wrote:"You're right, that is strange." Twilight says in agreement. She seems to think of reasons why they weren't absorbed yet. "We could always make photo's and absorb their souls ourselves to power up, might help for the eventual foe. Unless that's the trap."

She turns away from the scene because her face was turning green. "Given what kind of world this is, a scene like this is tragically more common then we want it to be. Wild glysteria still need to eat. But to leave so much food behind, it's not logical. While as a message, it's more a display of power, to make clear how outclassed we are."

After a few more moments of thought, something clicks. "There is no other reason then a message if it's a witcher or glysteria who did this. But what if it wasn't one of those two? What if it was something else?"

"You want to eat these people?" Rogue asks Twilight, "Between you and me, I think we've gone past the five-second rule."

C̷O̴N̴S̶U̸M̵E̵ wrote:

Disgruntled purple wrote:"You're right, that is strange." Twilight says in agreement. She seems to think of reasons why they weren't absorbed yet. "We could always make photo's and absorb their souls ourselves to power up, might help for the eventual foe. Unless that's the trap."

She turns away from the scene because her face was turning green. "Given what kind of world this is, a scene like this is tragically more common then we want it to be. Wild glysteria still need to eat. But to leave so much food behind, it's not logical. While as a message, it's more a display of power, to make clear how outclassed we are."

After a few more moments of thought, something clicks. "There is no other reason then a message if it's a witcher or glysteria who did this. But what if it wasn't one of those two? What if it was something else?"

"That was my thought as well, I said earlier that this whole scene is a streight road right into a brick wall. That brick wall being tim over there." She motions to "Tims" body, "Huge claw marks, massive teeth the size of my forearm. He was crushed beneath a tree before his skull was bitten in half by god knows what. When we got here it was obvious that he was still alive when it happened." She glares at the body a moment, "now not only is this road shortening a gates lowered as well. Whatever killed the archer turned his blood into an acidic poisonus mess. Now Radience is dying should a healing spell not cure him." She then points to the smoldering hot crater, "Alders Ragtags fought back. However as unsettling as it might be to hear this. Its hard to say this was a fight. Allow me to reiterate something else I said earlier. A band of rogue witchers: Alders ragtags, realize their territory is about to be overrun by parasites, as "skilled" as his group were they obviously wouldn't survive the onslaught. Too many parsites. So they go inland. Another group of rogue witchers hear about this, and make an example." She shakes her head, "Thats as far as I got before hitting the brick wall. It's likely the start of that story is true, what other option is there honestly, what happened between when they got to this position and now... god only knows, but at least its an idea on why they are here in the first place."

Rain then remembers the pawprints and groans in defeat, "Whatever it was can fucking fly."

"Or teleport?" Rogue adds, "Who knows, maybe they can still teleport around here, since they use a different magic system to Earth? Either way though, it does give it an edge in maneuverability."

Rogue wrote:Rogue nods and casts his Healing spell on Radiance

A blue haze of lights flew out of Rogues palm and into Radiance. The wounded fingers began rapidly regenerating, but the feeling of pressure in the chest only increased. You feel as if something is squeezing your heart, preventing it from beating.
The feeling became gradually more painful, until it felt as if someone ran a spear through your chest. You felt as if you were burning from the inside.



(Radiance received +5 HP, total 25 HP remaining)

(Radiance is still suffering the effects of the Poison affliction, 4 rounds remaining)

(Radiance suffered -5 HP, 20 HP remaining)

Radiance wrote:He jams two fingers, from the non melted hand, down his throat. Causing his gag reflex to fire off insuring vomiting.

Your gag reflex kicked in almost immediately, your breakfast ended up on the ground, mixed with large traces of blood. You began to feel increasingly light headed and the feeling of vertigo followed.

"You shouldn't do that" Johan called, jumping off his fox with a blank expression and walking towards you, a healing spell began to dance in his palm:
"The poison likely entered your bloodstream. You haven't swallowed it, so vomiting won't expel it out of your system. It will only dehydrate you and increase the poisons concentration in your blood.

Right now you need liquids" he pointed at you and fired off another healing spell. Then un-clipped his canteen and passed it to you.



(Radiance received +5 HP, 25 HP remaining)


"You need to lie down for now. Avoid exerting yourself, it will accelerate the spread of the poison."


You notice two veteran Witchers slowly make their way towards Radiance. Both began cooking very complicated looking spells, drawing pentagrams in the air with their index fingers.
One spell appears to be a high level Heal. The other one you've never seen before.

Rain wrote:She frowns drawing her sword and using it to lift parts of dales armor out of the way to get a better look at the damage, "So a massive beast was here... you think it had anything to do with Alders prize for "Defeating" us?"

As you lift a part of dales armor, you note that his whole body is covered in massive bruises. A heavy force must have smashed into him, several times. His injuries seem very different from the sniper. You don't find any signs of acid burns on him.


"Alders prize.." Ursula frowned into space: "Schematics for the Doppler's Limit Break. Very valuable in skilled hands." she chewed on her tongue for a bit, then twisted her head left and right, scanning the ground:
"If he received it from Carvos, we should look for it. It will look like a small rock, with pentagrams etched deep in its core"



"Ursula, you mentioned it a few times earlier.. what is a 'Limit Break'..?" Kaylee asked.



"Oh.. right, sorry, I forgot to explain" Ursula nodded twice:
"A Limit Break is a special ability, unique to each Witcher. Unlike the spell configuration, once you choose a Limit Break, you won't be able to swap it. It will remain with you for life. Some Witchers are often defined by it.


To choose a Limit Break, you'll need two things:
Its schematics.
And to accumulate a total of 40 Points for Stats distribution, or more.


At the moment, you have acquired a total of 18 Stat Points, for example.

After those criteria are met, you'll be able to choose a Limit Break - I'll explain what it actually means." Ursula paused, catching her breath, before continuing:



"A Limit Break is a unique signature skill that allows you to go passed your human limits, in a life or death situation.
Upon taking too much damage in combat, your parasite may feel threatened and attempt to activate your 'Limit Break', as a last attempt to turn the tide of battle.


There are many types of Limit Breaks. Some unleash devastating magic attacks, some hinder your opponents. Some heal everyone in a wide area, others only protect you.

They can only be used once a day, so always keep it as a last resort." Ursula said, pausing to catch her breath again:




"...looking at this scene... two Limit Breaks come to mind...

First, the Doppler's Limit Break. Alders prize.
Doppler is a non combat skill, it allows you to take the appearance of any person you ever saw. Alder's Marauders planned to use this skill to sneak inside a Castle City and migrate to the Machine World.


Second, the Berserker's Limit Break. A very dangerous and unpredictable combat skill.
When caught inside a life or death situation, Berserker's have the ability to temporarily manifest their own parasites into a physical form, as a projection over their own bodies.
At that moment, the Witcher releases control of his own body, and temporarily passes the reins to his parasite.

What happens then, is as follows. Imagine a lone Witcher, outnumbered and cornered. Low on Mana and Health, perhaps low on Sanity. He has nowhere to run and the enemies slowly approach him.
The next second, a piercing shriek erupts from his body and the Witcher turns into a 3 meter tall, parasite monster.
With a sudden boost to Health and physical strength, he begins hurling his enemies left and right, punching them dozens of meters back and biting their heads off, rampaging across the area.

At that moment, the Witcher has no control over what happens. His own parasite is in complete control. And the boost of strength he receives is insane.

It is a devastating ability... beyond comprehension. The Witchers that wield it... the ones who establishes a deep bond and truly believe in their parasites... they are a force of nature that should be respected.


The devastation Berserkers leave behind... might look something like this" Ursula gestured over the battlefield.




Kaylee's eyes went wide open: "Holy shit... a single Witcher could have done this?!"

"Its only one possibility" Ursula said: "It could have been a Witcher.. or several.. or any number of monsters"

"That would explain why the massive paws disappear outside of the battle zone" Johan quietly called: "A Witcher went Berserk, beat everyone up, then turned back to his human self and walked off"

"Sounds more comforting than the idea of a massive flying parasite" Kaylee said with a grimace.

Twilight wrote:"We could always make photo's and absorb their souls ourselves to power up, might help for the eventual foe. Unless that's the trap."

Rogue wrote:You want to eat these people?" Rogue asks Twilight, "Between you and me, I think we've gone past the five-second rule."

"Too much time passed" Ursula quietly said: "If the soul is not immediately consumed, it returns to the Shimmer." She quietly sighed and looked down:
"...On Nifelheim, we believe that all life comes from the Shimmer.. and returns to it after death... Whether that's true or not... all we know for certain is that, after death, the soul is no longer present in the body.

We can't absorb anything here.. too much time passed" She looked away. The idea was visibly bothering her.

Twilight wrote:She heads back to the natives. "I have a question. Has something been seen that was flying, perhaps crashing?"

"No" the scouts shook their heads, seemingly thinking.


Johan knelt down next to 'Tim', frowned, looking him over: "...judging by the state of the body, I'd place the time of death roughly 12 hours ago. It was still night and we were far away on the road back then. Its possible something flew here, we just didn't notice."

Rogue wrote:"Or teleport?" Rogue adds, "Who knows, maybe they can still teleport around here, since they use a different magic system to Earth? Either way though, it does give it an edge in maneuverability."

"For better or worse, there's no teleportation spells" Ursula said, then looked at the crater:

"....I don't think we should stay here for much longer. Whatever did this, might decide to come back and we have a convoy full of people behind us.
We should make one last sweep of the area, pick up any useful gear or artifact and move out. I'll feel safer once we've moved past this area.."

"I'd search the bodys but uhhh... I dont want to go anywhere near them..." she says as she begins walking to her fox, "I'd take dales armor but uhhh... it has a big hole in it. If you lot feel no shame in looting dismembered and acid ridden bodys, be my guest. Me personally I had my fill."

Radiance took a small sip then passes back the canteen.

"I'll rest when I'm dead." he furrows his brow then looks at the Witcher casting the unknown spell "What is that?"

Kaylee Brown wrote:

Rogue wrote:Rogue nods and casts his Healing spell on Radiance

A blue haze of lights flew out of Rogues palm and into Radiance. The wounded fingers began rapidly regenerating, but the feeling of pressure in the chest only increased. You feel as if something is squeezing your heart, preventing it from beating.
The feeling became gradually more painful, until it felt as if someone ran a spear through your chest. You felt as if you were burning from the inside.



(Radiance received +5 HP, total 25 HP remaining)

(Radiance is still suffering the effects of the Poison affliction, 4 rounds remaining)

(Radiance suffered -5 HP, 20 HP remaining)

"Well this's going to get monotonous" Rogue comments as he sees the effect of his spell rendered pointless.