[muffled spooky scary skeletons playing in the distance]

[geonomy]

Who: You! Me! Everybody!
Broadcast: idk but we've sure got a pretty broad cast of folks eh, eh
Action: HECK YEAH PLANET MINGLE
When: 10/7 until plot update or recaptcha

It's a deep, deep forest filled to the brim with fungi, mysterious life forms, and pitch black darkness. Explore if you dare and discover all these things and more! Just don't get lost...

Comments

[experiencepoints]

A living branch. Freshly cut, if possible. Any slight decomposition will make it a lot worse. But the most important part is the age of the wood- Old things conduct mana better, so we should find the biggest and oldest trees to get branches from.

[monolike]

Mmm... [Sorey looks out over the forest, pausing and resting a hand on a tree.] ...maybe we should be careful with that.

[experiencepoints]

Careful?

[She stops for a moment to consider.]

Oh! Don't worry. I haven't found any Trents or anything of the sort down here.

[monolike]

A...what's a Trent?

[experiencepoints]

... Big tree monster? Tries to crush people with branches?

[monolike]

Oh! There are hellions like that back home! They have these nasty root attacks too, those are the worst.

[experiencepoints]

Ugh, it sounds like it. Do they do that thing with the storm of leaves that feels like getting knives thrown at you?

[monolike]

Oh no, there's no leaves on the ones from home. Mostly they're dead trees that have been possessed by spirit hellions so there's hardly anything living on them.

But! That's not what I was concerned about here. More that it's...it feels kind of...alive. I mean, do you feel it?

[experiencepoints]

[Well, that gets her to go quiet.]

... I'm trying not to think about it.

[monolike]

Yeah.

[Him too, but he's too sensitive for his own good.]

But that's why I think we should be careful about taking anything directly from the trees. ...or we should at least make some kind of appeasement offering if we do.

[experiencepoints]

What do you mean, an appeasement offering?

[monolike]

Well...something that shows we appreciate the sacrifice! I don't know if there's anything here sapient enough to understand the symbolism, but if we make it beneficial to the tree we take the branch from it might work. Like picking off parasitic moss or finding good compost and spreading it around its roots.

[experiencepoints]

... Would using some healing magic on it be good enough, you think? Or does it have to be weird symbolic stuff.

[monolike]

I dunno. But that feels kinda like cheating...

It's okay; I don't mind doing it. I can get the branch for you, if you wanna go looking for some of those crystals you mentioned.

[experiencepoints]

Right... Thanks. I'll pay you back for it sometime.

I last saw the crystals near water, so I'll check there again.

[monolike]

Okay, we'll meet back up here in an hour! Sound good? [Sorey hikes his back up onto his shoulder. He doesn't have a machete or anything with him, and his sword is blunted so he's going to have to try and hack a living branch just with his knife. It's gonna be Fun.]

[experiencepoints]

[Look, there's no glowing gathering nodes around here, so she's useless anyway.]

Sounds good. We'll be in shouting distance if anything goes wrong, anyway.

[add nightingale to your party y/n]

[monolike]

[y gtf in there

Sorey goes about business as usual; he does end up finding a suitable branch and somehow manages to hack it off the tree. He repays it by helping to remove some dying branches and moss and mushrooms and hopes that, if the world or forest or whatever does have a spirit, it's appeased. It'll probably be fine.

Stripping off the smaller twigs and leaves, Sorey goes in search of wherever Nightingale's wandered off to for her crystal harvesting.] Nightingaaale! Did you find some?

[experiencepoints]

I, um... Sort of? Over here!

[She calls out so her voice can lead Sorey to her, where she's standing in front of a pond. A pond with a very large crystal formation on a small island... in the center of the water.

Nightingale's staring at the water and very nervous.]

[monolike]

What's up? Oooh, that's a big one, what's the- oh. [yup that's a bunch of water

Well Sorey doesn't have a problem with it, so he holds out the branch for her to take and dumps his pack, sitting down to take off his boots and stripping off his shirt for good measure.] Okay, I'll be right back! [wade into that water uuughghsglkdjfsfd the ground is squishyyyy]

[experiencepoints]

I- Right!

[She just takes it and inventories everything, including his stuff so it doesn't get wet or dirty.]

I'll just... wait here, then. . .

[why is it water]

[monolike]

[because water is a common element so it's likely to be lots of places BUT DON'T YOU WORRY. sorey exists to do dangerous things for other people!!!!]

Hey, is that branch a good size? [The water luckily doesn't go over his chest; the pond really is pretty small. And gross. He makes it to the center island, but he's muddy all the way up to his shins. Time to see if there are some smaller crystals anywhere, since chipping off a part of this might be hard.

Actually, maybe he should take a chunk home for himself, the one Cole got him for Edna's shrine is store-bought...]

[experiencepoints]

Oh- Um, yes! It works really well. It'll have to be carved and smoothed out and all of that, but having it be about as tall as you are is best, since I'll be using it to hit things.

[she's actually surprisingly good at staff fighting. weird, right?

there are smaller crystals forming in the water itself, but do you really wanna try digging those gross things out.]

[monolike]

Right, right... [If he's this far away she probably can't see his expression, so maybe now's a good time to ask her about it. Sorey hauls himself up onto the little island with the crystal and starts looking for chinks in its surface to chip off pieces.] So, um, that new power thing, is that how it works? You combine elements with your weapon and hit people with it?

[experiencepoints]

I... think so.

[She doesn't sound entirely sure herself.]

Well, I use my staff to fight even without magic, but yeah. As far as I can tell, what I do somehow... loads the spell into my staff. And then my physical attack is essentially replaced by the spell? I need to do a lot more testing. But I can tell you for sure that Fire 3 is my strongest spell used this way.

... Except maybe Quake, but Quake is a fucking stupid spell.