Gwendolyn crept through the woods, the soft clank of her armour making her cringe each time it creaked to break the silence. It was dark, spooky enough without the dim light of her maul, Enlightened Redolence, floating behind her. The woods had a grim reputation already, but recent rumours in Stargazer village had prompted the Mage’s Guild to send her here to investigate. There was supposedly another member in the area, but they hadn’t specified whether or not they were here for the same reason. Or who or what they were. Weird.



Whatever, she thought. No big deal. She was a big girl, and she could fight off any weird little creature that decided to attack her in the night. Thats right! She was dangerous as hell! Her confidence boost quickened her pace, though the trail had turned from small to near imperceptible this far in. She could still see the Mother Moon above, shining dimly across the canopies above her as she walked. It was nice, even if she got lost, all she had to do was wait until morning and continue.



The only reason she had come at night was to hopefully catch whatever goofy wizard or whatever was out here off guard, bonk them on the head, and then go home. Lets hope it would be that easy.

Who was the wizard that had the audacity to be going around turning people and animals into inanimate objects? How devious, how demented, how infuriating that Hylltywyll wasn't the one doing it! The Fairy had to know what their secret was. He wanted to know how to change people into objects and stuff too! Hyl had to gain such important knowledge for himself!

Hylltywyll made his way through the forest, scurrying across the ground beneath bushes and through the shadows. He was practically invisible in the dark, the reason he'd chosen to approach this at night, his preferred time to be out and about. He could see perfectly fine in the shadows and the darkness of the night made his magic more effective at keeping him hidden from sight. His shadowy magic also helped mask his scent and any sound he made, making him extremely hard to detect. He was great when it came to stealth.

Someone else nearby was not.

He heard clanking metal from someone walking down the path in armor. Didn't they know that stuff wasn't quiet? Who was this idiot? She seemed kind of jumpy. Was she afraid of the dark or something?

Heh.

Hylltywyll stayed hidden and let a little magic out to mess with them. He could take a quick break from his task to have a little fun.

SPOILER: Click to show

Quest Name: Investigate the Shadewood
Chapter: One
Description: Strange rumors of people vanishing and items becoming creatures have started to come out of the shadewood forest. You are tasked with going in and searching for any clues. However while searching you encounter a group of strange creatures, random animals like wolves, bears, etc, however these animals are not organic and instead are made of common material, wood, glass, fabric, and mimic everyday objects. You must gather clues as to what is going on while taking out these strange animals.

Requirements:
- Requires at least two people (you and one other, the other does not need to be interested in the guild)
- You must make at least 6 post with each post being 150 words to complete the mission.
- You must gather clues that may lead you to the source
- You must fight 4 artificially created animals who are made out of objects.
- Once you complete this mission you gain access to chapter two. (which needs to be a separate topic)

---

One With The Shadows
Shadow Sight
Foreboding Presence

    A small branch cracked nearby, her eyes darted to it and her maul lit up to illuminate the area. Nothing? It wasn’t nothing. She could feel a presence nearby, watching her from… from where? Behind this tree! She thought, sending her maul to smash it apart to splinters and cinders. Once the dust cleared… Nothing. A small bead of sweat dripped down her brow, soaking into the metallic fabric of her perfumed veil.



    The thought crossed her mind to clear it, but this was no mental effect. There was someone watching her, she knew it. Twisting around to catch the culprit, only to see the empty path behind her, sent her heart racing. Another bead of sweat formed, prompting her to shout out.



    “Hey! I know you’re out there, come fight me like a woman!”… For a few seconds nothing happened. She turned to hurry away, further into the forest, frustrated as to how easily she was riled up. Still certain she was being followed regardless.

Wow, this lady was pretty easily startled. They hadn't even made any noises to mess with her yet. She was just imagining them herself. How fun. He was just a little worried about the big, glowey weapon she had with her though. He was glad he hadn't been where that tree was. With the light from the maul, he also couldn't get very close to her now without having to reveal himself. His magic to hide himself only worked in dark or shadowy places. Well, he didn't need to get close to her to mess with her anyways. He had plenty of tricks up his poncho that worked from a distance.

He focused on her, linking his mind to hers. He could sense what she sensed, hear what she heard, see what she saw. Ugh, her vision is awful. And all he could smell was flowers and smoke now! How did she live like this? Whatever, he'd smelled worse and could still see through his own eyes. This was fine. He shook his head silently.

In Gwen's mind, she suddenly heard a small, scrunkly voice speak to her.

"Whatcha doin here? Looking for something interesting?" He asked, chuckling.

---

Mind Parasite

    “WHO IS THAT” She shouts, exploding another tree as she slides to a halt in her combat heels. Her maul slowly retracts from the rubble to reveal once more nothing there. She outstretches a hand, imbuing a medium sized tree nearby with eldritch magics, ripping it from the ground without ever touching it. Both the tree and the steel maul orbited around her.



    Sweat poured from her forehead as she panicked through the possibilities of what was going on. The wizard? Was there even a wizard to be fucking with her? Maybe it was a third party. regardless, they were in her head, no doubt about it. Closing her eyes, she deeply inhaled the perfumes drenching the veil draped across her nose. The strong scents brought her back to reality, the fear dissipated (Filter Veil). But somehow, the voice remained.



    Disturbing, this had never happened before. What twisted magicks dwelled in this woodland to invade her own mind like this. Another crack of a stick from further up the trail sent her fuming maul directly into it. Splinters sheared off from the tree and exploded forth, a million shards of wood impacting the spot where the sound came from. Once THAT dust settled, there was actually something in its place. A….chair?

Did she just rip a tree out of the ground and start making it float around her? What the fuck? She was a bit more interesting than he'd thought.

Hylltywyll coughed and waved his hand in front of his face as Gwen suddenly sniffed that smelly piece of cloth in front of her face so deeply. The smell was just too much! How could she do that!? Did she have as bad a smell of smell as she did sight? No, then Hylltywyll wouldn't be gagging from their shared senses.

"Ugh, stop that!" Hyl complained in Gwen's mind indignantly.

Through Gwen's awful eyesight, he saw what she saw. A chair walking on its four legs toward them. There was something strange about it. At the top of the back of the chair was a wooden head, resembling a reindeer. Hylltywyll turned to look with his own eyes in the same direction. Behind the deer chair were even more animals. A lounge chair with black velvet cushions and the wooden head of a panther. A chandelier crawling across the ground on candleholders like a spider. And finally, a coat rack that was snaking its way toward them, slithering across the ground.

---

Forboding Presence (ended)

    “What the fuck?” She said, in awe of the odd menagerie of comfortable creatures crawling colloquially closer. More importantly, the voice in her head didn’t like the smell of perfume. The creatures were moving slow enough, she had time. Reaching into a pouch that sat on her waist, she added some extra strength Patchouli to both her Censer Maul and the censer that sat on her hip.



    “Try and worm your way into this you fucker” She said to noone in particular. The coat rack took particular offense to that for some reason, two of it’s prongs twisting into some weird form of anger. Coiling upon the ground, it leapt forward like a snake, the head of it open wide. Too distracted by annoying the voice in her head, it hit home dead center mass into Gwendolyns armour. It’s spiked head attached, and wrapped it’s body around her plate steel whilst trying to gnaw through.



    She tried to push it off, but it’s brutal strength had managed to ensnare her right arm in it’s binding. Not only that, but the Reinchair broke into a charge, back bent so it’s antlers were poised to strike. Acting on their own, Enlightened Redolence slammed into the ground before the chair, blocking it’s path with an angry flare of smoke and cinders. The tree on the other hand, having the intelligence of an awakened tree, slammed into Gwendolyn. The weight of nearly a ton of wood sent her flying into the pack of animals, but at least the coat rack released it’s grip.

"Aaaahh!" Hylltywyll screamed and rubbed at his nose, the scent of patchouli invading his sense of smell through Gwen's nose. He couldn't take this anymore. He wouldn't be able to speak to her mentally anymore, but he had to cut off the connection if he wanted to stop the suffocating smells from making him unconsciously choke. He'd just have to make that her problem.

This fight wasn't going very great for the lady. He might have been more tempted to do something to try to help her out if she hadn't tried to suffocate him like that. He watched her get strangled by a coat rack and then bashed by a tree with glee. Served her right. Oh, but these furnitimals were ringing a bell. Oh yeah, they were here about someone turning people into objects. Turning furniture into animals sounded kind of similar. They weren't related incidents, were they? Yeah, probably. He guessed he should do something about this after all.

He looked at the remaining creatures and chose a target. The panther lounge seemed suitable. With his hand raised, he focused on the ring that let him borrow a bit of power from Tsarra. Not that they were friends, they were just good acquaintances who exchanged rings that let them do that! It was a mutual benefit and not for any weird reason like friendship, which the Fairy didn't need!

A ball of water formed around the lounge chair, swirling rapidly and trapping the beast within. That should help, keeping one of the opponents occupied while the smell-obsessed lady fought the rest. She'd be fine. Probably.

---

Tsarra's Eternity Ring- Water Prison

    In the midst of the furnitimals she sat, assaulted on all sides by creatures both comfortable and vicious. The chandelier reared it’s many appendages back, flames sparking on the wicks of the candles as it prepared to attack, Before gwendolyn fell to the ground in prayer. (Divinities Protection, pt 1). She prayed for protection from her patron saint, Alvina. A celestial that had protected Mystwud Manor since it’s recent founding, may his grace find her even here.



    The pantherecliner was the most immediate of his gifts, being swallowed by a bubble of water. The second was that when the chandelspider fell to attack her, the candlesticks bounced off. She had hardly felt a thing, the spider hit her several more times in confusion to little effect. Gwendolyn stood to her feet in the midst of the chaos. Her hammer returned to her, allowing the chantlers to charge her much to the same affect as the other. It was as though she were invincible. A pale light glowed around each hit that she took, only to dissipate and cause the light surrounding her to grow slightly brighter each time.

Hm. That was an interesting spell. He could sense the magic being cast and understood exactly what its effects were. So she had become immune to all damage and was gathering the energy of each attack to unleash her own attack with it. Neat. Wait. Oh shit. If she thought Hylltywyll was an enemy when that went off, he'd be blasted along with all the furnitimals!

For some reason, he didn't think connecting to her mind again would help convince her he was an ally. Ugh, it seemed like he'd actually have to show himself. Well, at least he had evidence that he was helping. One of the attacking creatures was trapped in a sphere of water and that was his doing. He was helping. At least helping as much as he'd been hindering.

He stepped out from under the bushes and scurried close to her, the shadows falling off of him to reveal his form. His tiny, fuzzy form.

"Hey! I'm your ally! I trapped that chair in the water, I'm on your side here!" He shouted as he hid behind her, putting her between him and the furnitimals like his living shield. "Trust me, this won't hurt a bit."

He raised both of his hands in front of him, his palms facing each other. Between his hands, energy began to gather that glowed a pale blue. The area around grew colder, and suddenly, a beam of blue energy shot out, straight down the path in the trees, hitting Gwen and all of the furnitimals. The sphere of water with the lounge at its center was frozen solid.

Hyl didn't keep the spell going for very long. It was draining on his mana, and doing so was unnecessary. His primary goal had already been accomplished. Gwen now had an extremely bright aura around her, waiting to be released.

---

Expanded Mind
Frost Pulse

The two foot tall gremlin scurried out, claiming to be a friend. This forest was just full of nightmares wasn’t it? Was he the answer to her prayers was the question, Alvina did work in mysterious ways… Regardless, he looked skrunkly enough that she could take him if he ended up a threat, so a small exception was made to her spell as the ice cold magic brought it to a critical mass.



The explosion sent the monstrosities flying, the chair and coat rack slamming into trees and crumpling, and the lounge chair that had been encased in ice simply shattered into a million pieces. Trees and even the ground surrounding her and the little gremlin had been scorched by radiance, and left a thick coating of frost from the icy energy.



Examining her situation, and finding no threats remaining, she manifested her hammer and the tree back around her to point at the small fuzzy beast. “Explain, now.” She said sternly



Above, a small skittering could be heard as the Spider Chandelier slowly crept in the tree branches. Unbeknownst to her, it was waiting for the perfect moment to pounce.

(Formatting pending home)

The fuzzy Fairy let out a sigh of relief as the swept over him harmlessly. He even felt a little rejuvenated, thanks to the healing effect of the blast. It was warm and pleasant instead of the horrible burning agony that befell the furnitimals.

The warmth didn't last long. Immediately, the veiled lady with the bad eyesight and too much perfume on tuned on him. He really should have expected that, honestly. It was surprising she'd even trusted him enough not to just blast him with the spell. Though for some reason, women did keep trying to keep him as a pet. One even magically brainwashed him to try and force him to be her familiar. A shiver ran down his spine just thinking about her.

"Explain? Explain what? I'm just out here trying to find out about who made those things." Hyl said indignantly, crossing his arms in front of his tiny chest. He really was trying to do a little research here. Him doing that research in order to further his own repertoire of tricks wasn't something she needed to know. As he looked up at her, he saw something moving in the tree branches behind her.

"Oh, you missed one." He said, pointing up at  the chandelier about to pounce on her. 

    Her eyes darted up as even before the thought crossed her mind, her maul shot up with them. It clotheslined the creepy crawlie as it leapt down to attack, knocking it out and rocketing it back to the ground. She took a moment to inspect her weapons work, before bringing her attention back to the interesting little creature.



    “Thanks, uh… “ She said, pausing for a moment to find what to call the thing that stood before her. “I’m also here to find the source of the awakened furniture, with the Mage’s Guild. Have you heard of them?” Did this thing talk to people at all? I mean, it was cordial enough, though it barely came past her knees. His fur didn’t seem that wild, he even almost looked like a field mouse. Very interesting.



    “Nevermind, I think there’s somebody out here making these things… let me just check out our many legged friend over here.” Bending over to inspect the chandelier with her maul laying across it, it seemed almost like it was actually alive. It made movements indicating breathing, and what she took for eyes even appeared to twitch in its unconciousness. The only thing out of place on it was a small wax seal on it’s hangar, one that was inscribed with a sigil, and something else… “Eldergrove Village”