The village of Sunset Pass was the perfect spot for her pilgrimage from the convent. Quiet, isolated, and covered in ancient temples and shrines. Not to mention, absolutely beautiful! The landscape was fraught with picturesque mountain vistas and serene forests. No wonder it had been recommended to her by the Abbess.



Though, one sort of concerning thing had cropped into Serenas mind. If this place was so perfect, why were there so few tourists? Or traders, or travellers? The Tavern had been sparse, and Abbess had told her it was quite a popular destination among pilgrims. But it actual struck her as a bit of a ghost town. Literally in one case, some old granny had whispered to her about the angry spirits in the mountain, but that was likely some old legend.



Serena decided to make the most of her vaca-I mean…pilgrimage, and grabbed a few bottles of wine from the tavern in town to enjoy out under the stars. She had a very comfortable setup in the field outside of town, and was all set for a fun night by herself. Lying in the grass, already a half bottle in, her ears perked up at something stirring nearby…





Quest Name: Howls of the Past

Participants: Two or more

Location: Crescent Isles

Post Requirements: 5 posts per person, 200 words per post

Reward: Ability to take on Part 2, +1 Renown

Description: The locals of Sunset Pass have started seeing apparitions and believe it to be the souls of deceased inhabitants who used to populate the area. Under order of the Crown and the Council of Travel and Trade, traffic has been diverted from this once populous travel hub, and the remaining locals have all but given up hope. They say that at night they can see shapes moving in the forests and near the old Mines. The Crown believes the Oniwanban are behind the disturbance and are using the mines as a base of operations; however the Oniwanban believe the exact same about the Crown. Grand Chancellor Lao is requesting that someone goes in and unveils whoever is behind these faux hauntings.



Your investigations reveal that neither group is behind the hauntings - rather, members of the Lunar Rebels, a group actively fighting against the crown in Moonglade, are behind the occurrences. It is believed that they are purposefully stirring up conflict between the Oniwanban and the Crown on purpose, as a war between the two only benefits their cause in Moonglade.

Ominous rumours of ghostly apparitions and crawling ghouls were precisely what lured Ambika to the quaint village of Sunset Pass. She would much prefer her son to be alive, but she was also incapable of pretending there was a non-zero chance her son might not necessarily be among the living per se, especially after recent events. Clutching Kishan's accessory tightly for a moment as though hoping otherwise, she sighed, put the accessory away and made her way to the aforementioned village.

Observing the few people who were outdoors, everyone was either rushing or disinclined to engage in any form of banter without the exchange of monetary value, Ambika decided to make her way to the tavern and was about to head in when she saw a familiar hue of red hair and instinctively moved out of sight. Peeking out to double-check her observations, she was dismayed to see that it was indeed who she thought it was, and that Serena had already netted herself some alcohol. Ambika could already feel the impending migraine pounding at her head as her brain cycled through possible scenarios, none of which could even come close to competing with the reality that is the unpredictability of an intoxicated Serena.

Ambika entered the tavern to gather whatever information she could, and made her way to the field out of town Serena was seen headed towards. Pretending the Serena-shaped can didn't exist was unfortunately not an option, after all. Ignorance was by and far not bliss, and she would be immediately proven right when she saw a shadowed figure casting some kind of spell to conjure apparitions targeted at Serena by a tree. The angle meant she could not fire at their legs, so Ambika had little choice but to aim her crossbow at the outstretched hand and hope it would be enough to disable the assailant.

Unfortunately for Ambika, however, that was not the only assailant - a fact she almost learned too late as she ducked to avoid a knife aimed at her head. She managed to counter that attack with a well-aimed shot at her attacker's knee, but the two were highly organised and swiftly retreated before she could get a second shot in.

To her front, a group of disorganised apparitions were now hobbling towards Serena.

She sat up at the sound of a ropes twang of some sort, probably a horse nearby pulling at it’s confinement. Though what she saw when she did was what truly worried her. Three men, or what she thought were men approached from the forest. They were dressed, quite oddly. Ancient robes and demon masks, along with what seemed to be golden staffs. The masks were probably the scariest, visages of angry red eyes and stark white moustaches conjured images of ancient warriors.



Serena stood, or at least, attempted to. The drunken stumbling had cost her precious seconds before the three figures had already surrounded her. They were still far enough that she couldn’t reach out and touch them, but it was still concerning. Their judgmental glares stared down at her, piercing through her with terrible percipience.



Tears welled in Serenas eyes as she collapsed back down to a seated position, bawling as she tried to wipe away the tears. “Forgive me! Forgive me spirits! It is true, I have come only to enjoy the sights and the wiiiinnnneee” She wailed in shame, these spirits obviously here to make her repent. They did not respond however, only continued their silent judgment from afar.

The ghosts seemed to have stopped at just arm's length from the seated Serena who was too busy wailing and confessing her sins to think logically. Seeing no point in wasting a bolt, Ambika opted to pick up a random pebble on the floor and throw that at one of the ghosts. The pebble phased through the ghost seamlessly, leaving no indication of the pebble having travelled through it. No response. Ambika tried another pebble, this time throwing it in a trajectory where it would be arcing down and landing a short distance past Serena, which should be enough time for the rock to be perceived. The pebble flew harmlessly past Serena, doing a little hop before landing on the grassy field. Still nothing, which suggested they either weren't sentient, or saw no cause to respond to inanimate objects.

Which meant Ambika had to offer herself on the platter. Ambika reloaded her crossbow then slung it vertically against her head to give herself a semblance of being unarmed, then raised her hands up in the air, palms facing forward and approached the trio of ghosts slowly. Inching towards Serena step by little step, Ambika noted that the apparitions had not responded at all and simply continued to stare into the former.

Circling her way to the back of one of the ghosts, Ambika placed her right hand in front of its head to assess whether it responded to visual stimuli. The answer was no. So next, she decided to thrust her left hand into the ephemeral silhouette. It met no resistance and safely reached the other side of this apparition, with no reaction from the other two either.

At least Ambika now knew these apparitions were entirely harmless. Sadly, she hadn't the means to dispel them... But Serena might. Ambika pondered for a moment on how she should approach this, and settled on the following.
"How disappointing. A priestess of the Temple of the Sun, incapable of discerning false light?" Ambika leaned forward and placed her head directly above Serena's as those scathing words left her lips, making sure to leave enough space should Serena suddenly raise her back and avoid one of those clichéd head bumps.

A pebble rustled the grass nearby, quickly grabbing the disoriented womans attention. We’re the spirits conjuring some rock spirit to punish her? Nope, there goes another pebble… was someone trying to throw something at her? Her silky red hair swung wildly as she tried to discern the source in the dark, before she spotted it.



Serena gasped as the scarecrow like figure emerged from the brushline. Though the reveal of a fifth potential spirit had certainly dulled her surprise, squinting revealed that it was none other than Miss Phairot from Sol City! Not only that, but she had revealed that all of these spirits were merely tricks of the light! She wiped her tears from her face with an obvious pout at the jab, but quickly brightened her own spirits once it was revealed she was no longer in danger.



“Miss Phairot! Of all the lovely fields of Charon you have chosen to bless mine with your beauty and wit. It would certainly seem like I had surrendered all sensibilities to these illuuuusions, but worry not. The gods have sent you here to dispel them! My eternal gratitude is yours of course madame.” She said, standing once more to give a curtsey to the traveling bard.



“What brings you all the way here to the Crescent Isles Madame, is it solely to dispel the illusions that trouble me so? If that is the case, I truly am quite grateful.” Serena offers, before not so subtly remembering she had a bottle of wine in her hand, and hiding it behind herself.

Opting not to show acknowledgement surrounding Serena's attempt to save face and surmising that Serena was likely much too hungover to have remembered her interactions with Sister Carmilla following that incident during the Summer Festival, Ambika spoke thus: "I am looking for my son. Though unfortunately, it seems that trouble has found us first."

The winds blew ominously as a group of masked figures adorned with black robes appeared on the horizon. Counting five, no, six figures, and noting that one of them was shambling along due to a bad leg, Ambika quickly drew the conclusion that it was the same group of people who conjured those apparitions they saw just now. Two of them removed their spears from their backs and moved into a battle-ready stance, two prepared their bows, and the last two had staves and promptly began to chant some kind of spell. Whatever their intentions, the group was clearly hostile to the two and Ambika had no intention on letting them get the drop on her.

"The illusions are their doing. Move!" Ambika bent down low to make herself as small of a target as possible and began making for the trees, readying her crossbow in preparation for self-defence.

“Oooh, what’s he look li-“ She muttered a bit, clumsily shifting side to side as though antsy to return to lying down. Her utterance was slowed by the drink, enough that Ambika ducking and running to cover threw her off mid sentence. Serena cocked her head with confusion, still standing with a dopey look on her face and calling after the running bard woman.



“Hey wait!” She shouted out, waving as though she had just been abandoned. “Whose doing?!”. There was no way the illusions could be their own doing, otherwise they would just actually be spirits. Serena stroked her chin in inebriated contemplation.



That was, before she was interrupted by an arrow whizzing past her face, missing her nose by about an inch and impaling a tree on the far side of the field. The feathers of which even tickled it slightly, bringing a look as though she was about to sneeze. The priestess twisted to see where it had come from, squinting to see what Ambika had actually been talking about.



The moonlight only served to blend their forms with the surrounding tall grasses as they advanced forward. Serena could barely tell them apart as she squinted in the near-darkness. Taking the golden staff from her back, she raised it high in the air and illuminated it fully. (1,2)



The disoriented wail of one of their assailants could be heard from her right, recoiling from the immense light that now surrounded Serena. “Oh heyyy, didn’t see you there! Hehe, nice to meet youuuu!” She gave a wobbly curtsy to the nearly blinded ninja with a spear. his attempt to sneak up on her failed due to unfortunate luck.
Vestige of Light

-Blessing of Illumination



If your Vestige of Light is in effect, you can activate this blessing, creating a bubble of Sunlight within your aura. For the next two posts, any enemy standing within your aura will find that their vision is filled with bright light, making it very hard to see. They are not completely blind, but lose 75% of their vision. Allies within the aura will see the light but will not be blinded by it in any way. If anyone under any version of the Vampire Curse enters this blessing they will be burned instead, taking medium fire damage.

The Vestige of Light was blinding, but fortunately (or unfortunately), Ambika has had too much experience with glaring displays of excruciating luminosity to be affected by such effects[1], and promptly got to work in taking down their assailants, starting with the ninja near Serena. A bolt to the knee from behind a tree quickly brought him down, sending him kneeling at Serena.

The other assailants were equally disoriented from the blinding flash, long enough that the spellcasters broke their focus, but they recovered relatively quickly, using their voices to communicate their general locations and the groan from the falling ninja probably registered to them as well as they all turned towards the direction Serena is at.

"Over here, you fools!" Ambika shouted from behind a different tree, then swiftly shot the other ninja once he turned around enough for a clear shot to the knee. That served as enough of a taunt for the remaining ranged attackers, and they launched their attacks at her direction, arrows flying and icicles shooting, all fruitlessly striking the barks of trees.

She would take the opportunity to reload her crossbow once more, then the sound of metal piercing wood echoed behind her, followed by a muffled thud on grass. If she had to guess, the ninja she had just shot managed to stay upright long enough to perform a spear throw and signal her location to the others. This was going to be a pain.

---

[1]Shooters Sense

The Oniwanban got down on one knee, and it was all that Serena could do to hold back a squeal. Her face grew as red as her hair before her joy turned into terror. The ring the man was about to give her was unfortunately attached to a kunai, of which her reaction time was mysteriously too slow to dodge. It cuts a slice through her flank as she falls on the ground trying to get away.



“Hey…HEY! Stop that” Serena says assertively, finally understanding the situation to be more dire than she had initially realized. A finger juts out at the now crawling Oniwanban, sloppily tracing a sigil before activating it. His eyes glaze over, and he begins screaming in terror, rolling on the ground and swatting at imaginary foes. Serena gains a smug smirk, picking herself up and clutching at her side with a slight grimace. Gods above knew she should have paid more attention to the healing spells.



The mages in the field were busy working together casting something or other. Serena had most certainly not paid attention during spell recognition. But, it was distracting enough for at least her to get quite close to them before they noticed. Near simultaneously, the mages turned their dark sigil on her as she finished drawing her own. The two were activated, and a look of immense regret came over their faces.



A massive skeletal dragon erupted from a portal above, bathing the field in Serenas direction with a large dusting of pure poison. Though what might be more concerning was the fact that the two Oniwanban Mages quickly waded through it to make sure she was okay. Their society would not speak easy of these action, best to try and keep it secret if they meet any more.

Dazzling Aura
You cause a cloud of sparkling dust to surround your being, filling up a 15 foot diameter range with you at its center. This dust will remain for 2 post then will fade away. Anyone standing inside of this dust will become instantly infatuated by you, considering you to be the love of their lives. They will act and treat you like their love for the full duration. However if the affected targets take any damage or are effected by negative abilities, the spell will end and they will now view you as a hostile enemy. This spell can be used once per topic.

Mages > Mubashirs Grand Dracolich

Ambika had no idea why the assailants seemed to be rushing towards Serena in a panic when they had quite literally just sicced a goddamned dragon at her, but those questions could come later. The archers had a brief moment of confusion as they saw their allies breaking rank, and that was enough of a moment's hesitation for Ambika to capitulate on.

A well-placed bolt would pierce a hand holding a bowstring, sending the arrow it held flying prematurely off-course and away from Ambika. The other archer immediately returned fire in response, with Ambika narrowly avoiding the arrow largely due to the piercing whites sending their aim just slightly awry.

Ambika's experience telling her that the unnatural Sunlight would soon be coming to an end, she hurled a glass sphere[1] upwards, sending it high up in the air to buy the time she needed to reload her crossbow, and then shattered it with a piercing bolt as it descended to around the midpoint of where the two archers were standing, exposing them to its irritating contents - clouds of charcoal and the equivalent of chilis in powder form. That should prevent them from trying something long enough as she directed her attention towards Serena and the two mages once more, though the rapidly decaying foliage signaled that she should absolutely not attempt to draw any closer to where they were now.

---

[1]Improvisation Engineer: Glass Sphere + Smoke Powder + Powdered Capsaicin

The fumes from the dragon were noxious indeed. Luckily, it seemed to have disappeared after the first pass. The mages waded through the grass and poison fumes with little dismay, apparently their equipment was made for this sort of thing. Serena swatted at the gas as they approached to help her, offering their robes as a makeshift air shelter.



This was all incredibly annoying, and a distinct hinderance to what was supposed to be a pleasant night out under the stars. Shoving them aside, the priestess lifted her staff once more. The almost blinding light did indeed dissipate, replaced with a moonlit purple hues as the poison fog was drawn in and transformed into perfume.



“Fools, you really are you know that?” She chided at the mages, who bowed deeply in apologies. “I’ve had quite enough of you, grab your injured friend here, and flee back to whence you’ve came. I’d quite like to see no more of you this night.”



Defeat sagged in their shoulders in ways obvious even through their thick black robes and masks. The three stooges each sulked in sadness of having disappointed their paramour, before grabbing the injured and walking soddenly off into the mountain forests. One sad look back was met only with a dismissive pout from Serena, the purpley mist only accentuating her beauty in their eyes, and they knew it was true.



“Miss Ambikaaaaa” She wailed, after slyly opening an eye to ensure her beguiled companions had truly left as she’d asked. “I find myself quite tireeeddddd of this tomfoolery, please bid farewell to your assailants that I might truly rest.”



The alcohols effects were waning significantly, bringing with it all the weariness one would expect at the end of a long night. Unfortunately, it would seem that theirs was only just beginning.

Major wound - Poison

-Blessing of the Purifying Libations



If your Vestige of Light is in effect, you can activate this blessing. For the next three posts, any poisonous liquids and gases within your aura are purified of any negative effects - and allies in your radius who drink or breathe the purified substance will instead find themselves cleansed of curses and debuffs, and granted a hit prevention against debuff effects.

Watching the three assailants just walk away dejectedly like that jogged Ambika's memory of the time Florentio cast that Dazzling Aura over a small platoon of soldiers looking to arrest him and his retainers, which included her, for "trespassing". In his own home. When all was said and done, she had some choice words for him.
"Don't you dare use that on me."

"Do I need to?" Florentio had a confident smile on his face and her face burned red from all the flustering it wrought upon her. The other retainers could be heard snickering in the background as she stormed off in impotent rage.

She now remembered why she'd buried her memory of this spell. It was associated with such an embarrassing event, though with where she is in present times, even that felt hopelessly sweet in the face of her ever-consuming grief.

The winds were now fragrant, and Ambika could feel a slight invigoration as she inhaled the newly purified airs even if she hadn't the slightest idea how Serena managed such a feat, though of course, Serena had to ruin any brief sense of appreciation with her ludicrous conduct as usual.
Ambika trained her crossbow at the general direction of the archers and the other ninja still shrouded in , her right palm hiding a glass sphere with powdered glass and chilies[1] as she asked, "Who are you? Why are you doing this?"
"Hah! I would rather die than betray my fellow allies!" One of them proclaimed proudly.
"And that goes for us too!" "Yeah!" Well, this was getting nowhere. Only one thing to do, then.
"Serena. Could you please get one of these bastards to talk?" Ambika's voice was visibly tinged with clear annoyance at everything at this point. Serena was not the only time who wanted this incident over with.

---

[1]Improvisation Engineer: Glass Sphere + Powdered Glass + Powdered Capsaicin

The sounds of protest and despair rung in her ears similarly like standing far too close to the church bells. Though it was the motherly sting of being forced to do something that surely bothered her the most. Serena hung her head and arms back in exaggerated despair, letting out a loud “UUUUGGHGHH” as she trudged on over to the peppery cloud of pain cloaking the coughing Oniwanban. “Fiiine, just take a few steps back. This tragedy shall soon resolve itself.”



Whatever was left of the mixture from the glass ball was luckily largely dissipated. Whatever was left that entered her senses was combated quite readily by her holy perfumes. She reached out with a hand, barely acknowleded the passage of her blurry form by the warriors, and traced a sigil in front of the ninjas forehead.



The mans eyes widened despite the intense pain, his mutters quickly turning into screams of terror. “No….No, nonono PLEASE NOT AGAIN, DONT” he cried out, tears of agony and regret flowing freely to the glass sparkled ground.



The archers quickly stuck anarm out, pawing blindly at their surroundings with their other firmly grasping a tanto blade around their back.



“Now now, calm down.” She says to the two, carving another sigil into the ether. This sigil warped the space around each of the warriors weapons, and hopefully not Ambikas, into the ethereal. Their hands soon grasped little other than air as the Tantos along with their bows and arrows each dissapeared in turn.



“Great, well we only need one of you to spill the beans. Would whomever is second like a taste of what he is going through?  She said blithely, pointing an irritated thumb at the ninja who was now rolling on the ground sobbing. "Also please tell me you have some sake or something on you...”


Haunting Visions


Dark Domain MAT



You target one person you can see within 50 feet of you. For the next two post you cause that person to see horrible, terrifying visions of traumatic experiences. Maybe they relive something bad that happened to them, or watch a love one die, or even watch themselves be tortured. If they have any past experiences that haunt them, they will relive that, but if they dont, instead they will see their own death or that of someone they are very fond of. This can cause someone to panic, break down and even completely stop interacting for the duration. Once used on someone this spell will have no effect on them for the rest of the topic.


Disarming Aura



Space Domain MAT



By casting this spell, you send a wave of energy out and up to 20 feet in all directions. Space magic will grab a hold of all weapons on all persons inside of the aura. For the next two post all Blades, Blunt weapons, polearms, ranged or other type of weapon will blink out of space and cease to exist. All enchantments and additions will also vanish with the item, leaving the caster and all other affected person without weapons.

"Wait. Wait! We have plenty of sake in our base, so please don't!" The assailants folded like paper and recoiled backwards at the thought of fates worse than death, it seemed. Best not to anger Serena too much, Ambika thought.
"Your base?" Ambika closed in and directed her crossbow at the archer who uttered those words at near point-blank range, showing a glimmer of the glass sphere with more of those agonizing chilis in the off-chance he intended to try anything funny.
"Yeah! We've been setting up operations in the mines, and mines are terribly boring, you know? So we've been terrorizing the folks and buying sake on the cheap since they ain't selling around here," a hint of smugness appeared on the archer's face before remembering he was on the other side of Ambika's crossbow.
"And who exactly are you?" This was the one question that must not go unanswered.
"......" The two remained mum. Well, Ambika had a solution to that. Throwing the glass sphere up in the air in an obvious manner as a distraction, she would scatter caltrops tied to a series of spidersilk wire[1] around the two archers, with two conveniently located in front of her feet. She raised one of her feet to mimic a kicking motion, its trajectory directed at their undersides.
"In the name of Lunala, no!"
"Alright, alright! We're the Lunar Rebels! Happy now?" The other archer answered.
"No." Ambika gently kicked the caltrops on the dull edges towards their undersides one-by-one, stopping just inches away before dropping the tangled spidersilk wire network onto them. "Enjoy the grass." She said in a sardonic manner.

The mines, huh. Ambika recalled that they too, were part of the areas affected by the apparent hauntings. It seems there might be a conspiracy afoot. The moon was already high in the air, however, and she was certain Serena, for all her ability, needed rest as well.

"Come now. We should find an inn for you to rest." Ambika offered as she made her way back to the village.

---

[1]Improvisation Engineer: Caltrops + Spidersilk Wire