(Astral Dive II) Saurian Dream

[Puck]

Puck froze like a deer in headlights at the sound of the roar. Slowly he begins to retreat as the realization that maybe, just maybe, this was a mistake began to dawn on him. It was too late though, and with one word from Phoenyx he is doing his best to run away from the source of the roar.

Silver lining though? The thing seems to need to break through the trees. There's a reason you don't see elephants in dense forests, and this is it. Maybe they could get away by just running away into the densest part of the forest? The creature had to tie into the realms narrative somehow, the question was how. He watched over his back for a glance at the creature. Was it chasing them to somewhere? They wouldn't find out if it caught them. Wouldn't you know that Puck just happened to have a trick for that scenario?

4 suxx evil eye, -3 to the dinosaurs next 4 rolls

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2021-04-20 19:18:46		Puck rolls 10 to Evil Eye (Manip+Pers+Fate) (10 Again)		2, 8, 2, 9, 8, 2, 6, 3, 6, 9		4 successes

His hands worked their way through his mudras as a golden glyph appears. The Winds of Chance cease their gentle nudge as Arcadia reaches into the realm of dreams to curse the dinosaur with ill fortune. With their chances of escape slightly improved the Enchanter turns his attention fully to their retreat.

Spellz- 2E Fate Armor and Sight, Evil Eye
dropping Winds of Chance reflexively to avoid a penalty on Evil Eye

[Crystal]

Crystal saw it coming: how bad could a dream titled 'The Storyteller' be? Nooo, they had to go on a playdate with Puck. He realized that he was acting out the weirdest fight or flight response ever - being snarky as something big made its way over to them.

Phoenyx command took him out of that contemplation. He watched the direction the others would take (he wasn't going to get separated here) and took off.

1 success

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-04-21 00:36:19	Crystal rolls 3 to run (Sta 2 + Athle 1) (10 Again)	2, 10, 3, 7	1 success

He had a good start, but the humidity was killing him. Hopefully either of them had a plan - hopefully 'finishing the dream' didn't involve staying unseen.
Fuck, hopefully they weren't running into something worse.

Active spells: -/-
Willpower: 2/6
Mana: 5/10

[Yumyumcrow]

The mighty behemoth emerges from the gloom, exploding into view in a storm of pulped wood and sundered foliage: larger than a car on squat forelimbs and stout back limbs, with a small triangular head and a whipping tail. Large pentagonal plates rise up from its back, flushed red now from the fold of skin stretched taunt over them like drums. The whipping tail ends in a series of sharp, boney, spikes.

The creature sees the mages as they begin to run.

Puck hangs back - as does Phoenyx - as he quickly hurls the Evil Eye at the monstrous thing. And he runs...

Just in time, too...

The monster pivots on its legs, swings its rear end toward them and launches a blistering strike with its tail...

Which goes wide and tears instead into the disturbed undergrowth of the slope. The lumbering monster is further slowed as it attempts to pull up its tail - the wicked spikes have found... the log Puck disturbed... and while the behemoth is increasingly focussed on shaking the log into oblivion, the group vanish into the riotous growth of the primordial forest.

I've taken the Evil Eye into account writing this narrative

[Phoenyx]

The Arrow had time to see the Fate spell flare to life before Puck headed past her. She followed apace, glad that parkour had been folded into her routine as it helped avoid all the roods and undergrowth.

Somewhere behind there was a crash and a bellow, but she didn't look back. It slowed you down.

After several minutes, she began to slow and called a halt, finally looking back. The sound of the dinosaur was distant. Phoenyx took a few steadying breaths. Of course, now, finding their way back to the portal would be far more difficult.

"Nice work with the spell," she offered the Acanthus. Looking around, she moved to see both the boys at once. "There must be a way out of here. Campenella said Briar Rose and Star had to complete a story of some kind, so there must be some kind of plot to follow somewhere. Maybe we have to get from here to an escape zone, like Jurassic Park or something. We should look around.... Perhaps a tiny bit more careful than before?" She added, the adrenaline giving her a grin.

[Puck]

Puck is running like he never has before. Which isn't saying much given the fact he doesn't really run at all. He's watching over his back in case the spell wears off, but that moment doesn't seem to come. Instead they manage an escape, and one that didn't even cost mana or anything else to muster. Call that a lucky moment.

"Thanks." Phoenyx's grin is met with a smile, the wonder and glee seeming to rapidly reemerge as the panic evaporates.

"I was thinking that too. The dino was to obvious to not tie in somehow so I think it was either meant to lure us towards something or scare us away from something but I have no idea which. So I guess we keep going deeper into the forest? Or try to run around it while it's still cursed."

Eyes glance between his two traveling companions to see what their thoughts are. He doesn't comment on an exit zone, for the simple reason he has no ideas one way or the other. His thoughts are more about direction and where to go, not what they might find when they get there.

Spellz- 2E Fate Armor and Sight, Evil Eye

[Crystal]

Seeing the dinosaur didn't scare Crystal, it terrified him. Only out the corner of his eyes he could make out Puck working something but his focus clearly was getting away from the mighty thunder lizard. Thank God for the little bit of vanity he had - it ensured that he wasn't totally out of shape.

When the group stopped the Mastigos needed a few moments to catch his breath - not only was the terrain cumbersome, the air was too hot and sticky to properly breathe. "Fuck. Fuck this." He hissed between half-gasps.
Standing up straight again, he looked between Puck and Phoenyx. He felt more alive again, or rather: the humidity wouldn't go away, so he had to deal with it. At least he felt like he got enough oxygen. "Assuming the dino was between us and the goal - we were running away from it. Has anyone been keeping track of which direction we were going?" No accusation, just an observational question.
"Follow up: where should we go next?" He didn't outright say it, but considering how long they've been moving 'circling' around would probably take them all day and certainly get them lost.

1 success

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-04-23 00:36:44	Crystal rolls 5 to look around (Wits 2 + Comp 3) (10 Again)	9, 3, 7, 1, 1	1 success

Crystal took a moment to assess their surroundings. He sure as fuck didn't want to run into anything else bigger than a dog.
Looking back at the dreamers he offered a suggestion, only to contribute and not just bitch around. "Retrace our steps for a while?" At least they knew for certain there was a dinosaur that way.

Active spells: -/-
Willpower: 2/6
Mana: 5/10

[Phoenyx]

Phoonyx recovered her breath quickly, looking the way they had ran. Think it through logically. That was the way.

"While there isn't any evidence it was between our objective, we cannot go back through the portal we came, and the alternative is roaming around without direction," she says slowly. "We need to find where we are supposed to be aiming for. Perhaps it can be seen without the trees obscuring." She looks up, searching for a gap in the canopy above.

When she finds one, she heads beneath it. "Stay here. I'm going to see if we can find a waymarker or something. I'll be right back." The Arrow smiles at them both, and takes a slow break, beginning to chant slowly in High speech.

5 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-04-23 06:57:28	Phoenyx rolls 10 to Levitation: Gnosis + Forces+HS (2) (10 Again)	8, 2, 10, 1, 5, 1, 5, 10, 9, 10, 5, 7, 4	5 successes

The Obrimos glides upwards elegantly towards the canopy.

[Yumyumcrow]

Between breaths, Crystal looks around. All he can see is the forest and the vaporous air.
Phoenyx rises soundlessly into the air, moving upward with a slow deliberation that masks the crude - if wondrous - application of Forces. She encounters no obstacles to her progress: the trees are predominantly pine, or else giant ferns whose mighty fronds she can simply brush aside. When she emerges from the canopy she finds the light incredibly bright. A bold sun beats down from a brazen sky. Here and there winged reptiles glide serenely.

The Arrow can see that they are in the middle of an oval valley. Mountains rise precipitously on all sides and if there is a pass or a way through them, she cannot say. Perhaps the wall of rick represents the furthest limits of the dream? Approximately half the valley is forested. The other half appears to be a brown and dusty plain. There appear to be a number of herds - or packs - of dinosaurs roaming freely in the plain but their exact nature and number is lost in the haze.

In the middle (Phoenyx thinks it is the middle) of the valley is a lake.

A large bipedal dinosaur is patrolling at the edge of the forest.

[Puck]

The Warlock's profanity is met with nothing but an irritated raise of Puck's eyebrows. Was Crystal always going to be this averse to a little danger? Hopefully Fate can keep the Banishers and Scelesti away from Crystals gentle soul.

"I was more focused on cursing the dino so it didn't impale us." Puck says as Phoenyx takes to the air. "Maybe you could scry and get a second pair of eyes for the objective? Directions to go don't seem readily apparent to me."

He's asking nice, mostly because he knows his curses were not suited for this particular endeavor. Plus Crystal seemed to complain less when he had something to do.

[Crystal]

Crystal didn't even dignify Puck with a response. The bully-principle still applied: just because some Acanthus said so didn't mean Crystal would experiment around with an Arcanum he wasn't very proficient in, in a surrounding they didn't fully understand yet. Most importantly: he didn't owe this one an explanation to any of this.

He just smiled and waited for Phoenyx to come down again. "So, what's the situation up there?"

Active spells: -/-

Willpower: 2/6

Mana: 5/10