Witch in which place?

[witchwatcher]

Grendyne groans and starts pulling on her boots when the alarm goes off. Again. She quick-marches to the broom hangar, sits on her machine and is handed a plethora of loaded weapons by attentive corporals.

"Two flyers in one day? They're getting way too common."

"It's worse," the commander informs them, "South Karlsland got hit with three at once. We're taking Lytee's express and sleeping there. You can sit out if you absolutely need to, but Freya's still recovering so we could use you as a comms relay."

"No, I'll come. I just reserve the right to complain about it."

The 42nd United Forces Witch Wing takes off, bracing to fight yet another city-destroying monster, and assembles into a perfect synchronized formation as Lytee charges her teleport power.



...This is not South Karlsland wilderness.

Near the Golden Coven capital, in Aurum

Near Savarasse, in Thilanushinyel

Near Whately Academy

With Unbitwise

Comments

[alicornucopia]

No. No it isn't.

This is the sky above a subtropical beach.

[witchwatcher]

...Palm trees? Is this Egypt or something? If so, the teleport spell overshot by about a thousand miles. She looks for other Witches. Failing that, landmarks.

[alicornucopia]

Well, there's buildings. Glassy, architecturally unfamiliar buildings. In the distance also really tall buildings.

Also, there is a man's voice in her head: [Please land. Someone may see you up there.]

[witchwatcher]

What.

Well, now that it's been used on her, she tries to grab the strangely dry-feeling magic. It's... Really slippery.

Eh, things like this are usually two-way, so she replies 'at' him [Why is being seen a bad thing? And where am I? I was supposed to end up in Karlsland to intercept a Neuroi, not wherever this is. Lytee botched her teleport spell.]

[alicornucopia]

[You may have ended up farther off course than you know. Please land; it will be easier to explain if we don't have to say everything through this channel.]

[pythbox]

It is definitely not South Karlsland wilderness. It is a long, flat stretch of richly forested coast, with enormous trees growing right up to the edge of the water in places, while other parts have scoops of sandy beach.

On one of those curving expanses of golden sand, a large red dragon is sprawled out comfortably with her wings spread to catch the sun. Her scales gleam in the warm afternoon light.

[witchwatcher]

A dragon? A dragon? Dragons are not a thing. Except apparently, they are. She extends her senses out, scanning the horizon and listening for the tone of life. The forest is rather aggressively alive, but there's no hint of the distinctive metallic dissonance that Neuroi give off.

That dragon is pretty magnificent, isn't it? She's staying up here for now, though. Who knows how fast and hostile it is.

[pythbox]

It's debatable whether the dragon is even awake. But magnificent, yes, it is definitely that. And also... magical? Not in any remotely familiar way, but there's something there.

[witchwatcher]

It would be a bit surprising if something so big could be alive without being magical. What's interesting is how weird its magic is.

Glancing between the shiny, shiny dragon and the world surrounding it, she starts making slow, lazy circles around the area, not high enough to look like a weirdly shaped bird.

[speak_softly]

A humanlike figure emerges from the woods, wearing a complex multilayered robe in shades of blue and black with a practical, non-movement-hindering cut. She has a longbow and quiver on her back, and in one hand she carries a pair of rabbits.

When she reaches the dragon, she greets it with friendly headscritches, reaching up to get at the soft spots on its face. The dragon opens one eye (the near one), smiles a dragony smile, and yawns; the humanoid person waits out the yawn and then tosses the rabbits into the dragon's mouth. Nom.

The humanoid is magical, too. Her magic is different from the dragon's, but also closely connected.

[callmeleo]

A clearing, in what looks to be some kind of temperate forest. If she looks closely enough, there's evidence of pruning and cultivation; if she breathes deep, there's a faint tinge of diesel smoke to the air. This place has seen the touch of human hands.

Also, there's a dude over here. "Whoa! Anybody ever tell you to knock?"

[witchwatcher]

"One, I didn't expect me to show up suddenly either. Two, there's nothing to knock on. I don't suppose you know where this is? It's not Karlsland. Wrong kind of trees."

She looks a like a villain of some kind. Unfamiliar clothes reminiscent of a military uniform, though not one this century uses. And she's flying on some kind of spiky metal thing.

[callmeleo]

"Yes, that would be why it's the very funny joke that it is. Sweet ride, by the way."

The dude is not currently armored; his clothes are generically dark and variably Gothy. Also, for someone the age he seems to be, his skin is weirdly clear. Lucky bastard.

Wait, scratch that; that's a Power. He seems to have three of them (ish?), one keeping him pretty and fit, and one giving him some kind of... poorly defined shadow magic, and one... the fuck is that? It's connected to his shadow, at any rate.

...His shadow, which just twitched of its own volition, and at a closer look seems not to match up to his body as well as it should. Like someone trying to fit his silhouette into someone else's.

"We're in New England. I'm not sure where Karlsland is, but your accent's weird enough that I wouldn't really expect to. You a Warper?"

[witchwatcher]

"No, Scatter's the teleporter. How the hell. Ugh, the first time you botch a teleport in months and it sends me all the way to Liberion. Maybe further, you have weird magic and the rules I know say that's impossible. And what's more it's only me, not the rest of my team. Bloody wonderful. I am extremely confused."

[callmeleo]

"Confused sounds about right. I've never heard of a Liberion either, unless you mean Liberia, but I think I'm the wrong color for that. Do you know America? England? Germany? Luxembourg?"

[unbitwise]

This is the middle of a cloud, accompanied by the feeling of falling. Her Steelwing doesn't seem to be functioning normally.

[witchwatcher]

-Some kind of trick? Or did the 'port just kill her momentum? She grasps the Steelwing tightly and pours mana into it. Balanced, for hovering. A little more force to the front-left, since she's starting to fall in that direction. She peers through the cloud with her enhanced sight and opens the lifeforce-hearing, replacing her regular hearing, trying to identify any threats.

[unbitwise]

Hovering does not seem to be happening. There's something else that could happen —

It feels like she's somehow caught the air, like her Steelwing grew actual wings, if that were a thing that could happen. Hovering is impossible, but gliding, perhaps —

The cloud thins out. She's a couple thousand feet higher up than she expected and the ground is approaching at an only moderately alarming rate. There is nothing else in her immediate vicinity.

[witchwatcher]

Shit shit - this is becoming alarming, her magic is not working correctly. But she has a minute or two. Deep breath. Her area-telekinesis? Slow herself down by shoving all the air around her down. Does that work?

[unbitwise]

That works. It even seems to work together with the strange new other thing to be somewhat more efficient than throwing large amounts of air around usually is.

The landscape looks a lot like some part of Suomus, but there is no sign of the airbase she just left, nor any obvious buildings or roads.

[first_and_final]

This is... a tunnel, dimly lit by a vein of faintly glowing blue crystal running through the walls.

A short man wearing leather armour and carrying daggers is stumbling back from the site of her appearance with a yelp of alarm.

[witchwatcher]

Weapons. Her bow is already in her hands, but not strung. She shifts it to one hand, pulls a revolver and points it at him, while simultaneously jerking her Steelwing backwards a few feet. She pulls on Highlander's tracking thing- (Caves? Why caves?) And finds that this guy is the only potential threat in the immediate vicinity.

She doesn't lower the revolver as she asks, "Can you understand me?"

[first_and_final]

"Perfectly. Who the fuck are you and how did you get here?"

[witchwatcher]

"Grendyne Nylund, UDF Witch, botched teleport spell. And you? ...Where is here?"

[first_and_final]

"Stalas Aeducan, exiled prince of Orzammar. Here is the Deep Roads, under the Frostback Mountains between Ferelden and Orlais. Probably closer to Ferelden unless I'm more turned around than I thought."