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The Battle Beneath (Tiffanian)


Ilona: HP = 27/90, PP = 45/45, EP = 39/55, Status = Maimed (counts as Weakened plus movement reduced to 5 feet), Pregnant (litter of 14 of the psychic formori's spawn and 23 of the other random formori's spawn), Psychic Shield X = 8 (+16 dodge, AV, Resistance, defensive Bull Rush and Overrun, and Grapple) Paralyzed

Galo: HP = 48/48, PP = 31, EP = 33, Status = Fine

Aereia: Sage
Taron: Head Sentinel of Clyons
Aegea: Healer from Clyons
Treyzine: Seer from Clyons

Rolls
Ilona's Attack: 53 with a 26 on the base dice, meaning she auto-glances at worst.
Formori Dodge: 45, Ilona hits him outright.
Damage: 10 x 10 = 100 damage. He ded.
Ilona's Dodge: 75
Formori try to attack; 64 vs 75 misses, 61 with 26 on base dice for autoglance vs 70 glances, 56 with 8 on base for glance at most vs 65 misses anyway.
Damage: 22 - 8 = 14 damage, plus poison.
Resistance: 27, with a natural one, so... Failed.

Reminder Text
Paralyzed - The character is unable to take any action during their turn unless they succeed at a Resistance check against a DC of 30. Which Resistance stat is used is determined by the ability that caused this status. The character takes a -1d10 penalty to all attack rolls, grapple checks, casting checks, and Dodge, and a -5 penalty to Speed, and Parry DC for each instance of this effect. A character may have multiple instances of this status, and every instance with the same related Resistance stat increases the DC of the check to take their action by 10 rather than require additional checks, while instances of this status involving different Resistances are resolved separately. When this check becomes impossible for the character to win without a natural 20, they are considered Helpless but are not knocked unconscious.

Weakened - The character is harmed in some way that results in a reduction in their ability to fight, and takes a -2d10 penalty to all attack rolls, grapple checks, and to Dodge, as well as a -5 penalty to Speed, to all weapon damage rolls relying on Body, and to Resistance checks, and a -1d10 penalty to Casting, Perception and Stealth. If a character would be attacked after they have rolled Dodge but then gained Weakened, subtract 5 from their Dodge stat for that round. A character may have multiple instances of this status, and their penalties stack. In addition, if the number of instances of this status multiplied by 10 exceeds the character’s Body stat, the character cannot take a move action and standard action in the same round. If the number of instances of this status multiplied by 10 exceeds the character’s Mind stat, they cannot speak coherently and their thought processes are slowed such that they cannot use any ability granting them additional actions. If the number of instances of this status multiplied by 10 exceeds the character’s Spirit stat, they halve their effective Spirit Ceiling.

With an effort of will Ilona looked up at the psychic formori who had been first to breed her, who had crippled her with those screams such that the other formori had been able to poison her into submission, and channeled her hatred into her psychic powers. The formori halfbreed shuddered as his body was ripped in half, torn from one end to the other starting at one shoulder and proceeding to rent him open all the way down to between his legs. Blood and gore erupted into the water, staining her view through the cave's natural doorway red as the psychic formori quite violently died, but she wasn't the only one who had just watched it.

The other formori, perhaps unsurprisingly, didn't relish the sight of one of their number spontaneously exploding quite as much as Ilona might have. The pudgy one said something, and a moment later the other formori were jabbing at her with coral and shell daggers coated in poison. Her shield rebuffed two of them, causing their strikes to rebound away, but one of them managed to push down hard enough to jab it into her shoulder. He tore downwards as her will forced him away, scraping along her flesh, and the familiar numbness and lethargy began to spread through her torso even as the trio began closing back in to keep jabbing at her.
 
Ilona’s eyes were wide with hatred as she mentally tore the half-breed formori in two, a twisted surge of joy as she watched her tormentor practically burst into a shower of gore that flooded the cave. The other formori were somewhat less amused, and they quickly swam towards the hobbled mermaid with small daggers… Three of them closed with her initially, two of them meeting her shield and being stopped, though the third of them managed to get his dagger into her shoulder just barely, scraping her enough to draw blood… And soon she discovered that their weapons were also coated in the paralytic poison they had used to subdue her the first time. Already she was feeling numb, and she knew she would have to finish this fight quickly… but could she even? The half-breed had wanted the pudgy one of his number to do something to her, so she decided he would be the next target…

Mind Cutter at X = 10 targeting the halfbreed psychic. Base + 3d10 + 8 to-hit, 2d8 x 10 damage.
 
Ilona: HP = 26/90, PP = 45/45, EP = 1/55, Status = Maimed (counts as Weakened plus movement reduced to 5 feet), Pregnant (litter of 14 of the psychic formori's spawn and 23 of the other random formori's spawn), Psychic Shield X = 8 (+16 dodge, AV, Resistance, defensive Bull Rush and Overrun, and Grapple) Paralyzed x2, Low on Energy

Galo: HP = 48/48, PP = 31, EP = 33, Status = Fine

Aereia: Sage
Taron: Head Sentinel of Clyons
Aegea: Healer from Clyons
Treyzine: Seer from Clyons

Rolls
Paralyzed Resistance: success, Ilona gets a turn.
Attack: 48 vs 45, hits.
Damage: 12 x 10 = 120 damage, slice.

The formori continue attempting to prod Ilona with knives!
Dodge: 68
Attacks: 46 and 37, both miss.

As agreed upon, roll these until Ilona runs low on EP.
Paralyzed Resistance: Success again.
Attack: 28 vs 51, miss.

Dodge: 61
Attacks: 59 with an autoglance on base dice and a 48, a single glancing blow.
Damage: 17 is min, so reduced to 1 damage.
Resistance: 34, failure. More paralyzed!

Next round.
Paralyzed Resistance: Success.
Attack: 27 vs 44, miss.

Dodge: 56
Attacks: 42 and 41, miss.

Next round, x dropped to 8 to leave Ilona at 1 EP
Paralyzed Resistance: Success.
Attack: 41 vs 31, hit.
Damage: 6 x 8 = 48, dead.

Dodge: 52
Attack: 30, miss.

Reminder Text
Paralyzed - The character is unable to take any action during their turn unless they succeed at a Resistance check against a DC of 30. Which Resistance stat is used is determined by the ability that caused this status. The character takes a -1d10 penalty to all attack rolls, grapple checks, casting checks, and Dodge, and a -5 penalty to Speed, and Parry DC for each instance of this effect. A character may have multiple instances of this status, and every instance with the same related Resistance stat increases the DC of the check to take their action by 10 rather than require additional checks, while instances of this status involving different Resistances are resolved separately. When this check becomes impossible for the character to win without a natural 20, they are considered Helpless but are not knocked unconscious.

Weakened - The character is harmed in some way that results in a reduction in their ability to fight, and takes a -2d10 penalty to all attack rolls, grapple checks, and to Dodge, as well as a -5 penalty to Speed, to all weapon damage rolls relying on Body, and to Resistance checks, and a -1d10 penalty to Casting, Perception and Stealth. If a character would be attacked after they have rolled Dodge but then gained Weakened, subtract 5 from their Dodge stat for that round. A character may have multiple instances of this status, and their penalties stack. In addition, if the number of instances of this status multiplied by 10 exceeds the character’s Body stat, the character cannot take a move action and standard action in the same round. If the number of instances of this status multiplied by 10 exceeds the character’s Mind stat, they cannot speak coherently and their thought processes are slowed such that they cannot use any ability granting them additional actions. If the number of instances of this status multiplied by 10 exceeds the character’s Spirit stat, they halve their effective Spirit Ceiling.

With another effort of will, Ilona turned her head towards the one that the psychic formori had indicated. She would notice that this one wore a bandolier in addition to his loincloth, one made from dried kelp and covered in hastily drawn scratchings over the pockets, each of which contained either a glass vial or a crude crystal one. That, and a moment later his horrified look as she seized him and tore him in half at the waist with her mind, cleanly parting flesh until his insides spilled out into the enclosed cavern.

With two of them dead, only two remained, but despite their losses the formori swam around her, jabbing at her. Again the water immediately around the captured mermaid roiled under the effects of her will, pushing back against their knives, but despite her efforts one of them jabbed through the barrier and scraped lightly against the skin of her back. The pain was light, but the pain wasn't the primary problem; she felt the numbing spread as the poison seeped slowly into her torso. He hadn't cut even as deep as the other, but still the paralyzing venom had entered her bloodstream, and every bit of it made it harder for her to move.

They swam around her now, and Ilona's vision and concentration both faltered as the venom took hold. Her movements became sluggish, stuttering, and when next she reached out with her mind the formori that she had intended to kill had already swam away. Her efforts created only a small crack in the cave's ceiling, and as she turned and did it again - to similar results - they continued to jab at her, albeit for those next two exchanges neither managed to pierce her defenses. Every missed strike was wasted energy, however, and her powers dwindled by the moment. After her second miss, Ilona no longer had the strength to even use her psychic attacks at full strength, but with one last desperate attempt she tore off one of the formori's heads.

The dead outnumbered the living by that point, but even with three carcasses floating in the cave the last of them refused to flee. Unfortunately, Ilona's psychic energies had been so heavily expended by that point that it was all that she could do to keep her psionic shield going. That protection might keep him at bay, for a while, but now her only offensive weapon was the primitive stone dagger clutched in her hand, and even putting it to use would be a harder effort with the paralyzing poison running through her system.
 
The burst of mental energy Ilona let loose at the portly formori hit him right at waist level, and in an instant it separated him into two halves much to her pleasure. Of course, there were still two of the creatures, each armed with a knife and practically on top of her. She pushed against their blades with her mind, hardening the water around her, but she couldn’t keep them from landing blows. One of them managed to get his poisoned knife into her back ever so slightly, just enough to deliver the paralytic substance.

It quickly went to work, slowing up her movements as her muscles seized, the pain in her tail helping exactly none as her vision occasionally dimmed. She lashed out at one of the formori, but it had already moved on and she simply blasted the air behind him, and then again moments later… Her head was pounding, and she was already starting to run out of energy... but with her last gasp at attacking them she simply decapitated the penultimate formori. That left only one still breathing… But the mermaid knew that she couldn’t use her mental energy to attack this one. Her eyes were wide with rage and fear as she clutched her dagger and lunged herself at him as best as she could, trying desperately to finish him off before he could paralyze her with more of that wretched poison. She had already come so far… She couldn’t fail now!

Attack with the knife. Weapon Attack = 4d10 + 9
Weapon Damage = 2d6 + 20
 
Ilona: HP = 25/90, PP = 45/45, EP = 1/55, Status = Maimed (counts as Weakened plus movement reduced to 5 feet), Pregnant (litter of 14 of the psychic formori's spawn and 23 of the other random formori's spawn), Psychic Shield X = 8 (+16 dodge, AV, Resistance, defensive Bull Rush and Overrun, and Grapple) Paralyzed x2, Low on Energy

Galo: HP = 48/48, PP = 31, EP = 33, Status = Fine

Aereia: Sage
Taron: Head Sentinel of Clyons
Aegea: Healer from Clyons
Treyzine: Seer from Clyons

Rolls
Rolling until someone wins or loses, since not much else to do here.

Paralysis Resistance: 33, failure
Ilona's Attack: Doesn't get it
Formori's Attack: 51 vs 52, miss.

Paralysis Resistance: 34, failure
Ilona's Attack: Doesn't get it
Formori's Attack: 48 vs 55, miss.

Paralysis Resistance: 48, success
Ilona's Attack: 34 vs 45, miss.
Formori's Attack: 48 vs 62, miss.

Paralysis Resistance: 36, failure
Ilona's Attack: Doesn't get it
Formori's Attack: 52 vs 74, miss.

Paralysis Resistance: 35, failure
Ilona's Attack: Doesn't get it
Formori's Attack: 43 vs 82, miss.

Paralysis Resistance: 32, failure
Ilona's Attack: Doesn't get it
Formori's Attack: 58 vs 68, miss.

Paralysis Resistance: 34, failure
Ilona's Attack: Doesn't get it
Formori's Attack: 40 vs 61, miss.

Paralysis Resistance: 43, success
Ilona's Attack: 38 vs 35, hit.
Damage: 32, max! He's at 8 hit points.
Formori's Attack: 59 vs 75, miss but for the autoglance on the formori's base dice.
Damage: 20 - 24, min damage of one.
Resistance: 41, success. No more paralysis.

Paralysis Resistance: 41, success.
Ilona's Attack: 39 vs 35, hit.
Damage: Enough.

Ilona wins! By the skin of her teeth. She is still maimed, still paralyzed, still out of EP, and still super pregnant, but those formori are all dead. She gains 6 exp!

Being the only one remaining, the last formori nonetheless continued hovering around her, darting in to jab at her with the poisoned dagger clutched in its hand. The venom already running through her system made it harder to move by the moment, and the longer the fight dragged on the more difficult it became for Ilona to move. It dove in at her repeatedly, and it was all she could do for the helpless mermaid to push aside the creature's knife with her mind and its grip on the gore-filled water around her.

For minutes they went through that dance, Ilona often unable to move more than a few feeble wiggles at a time, but the formori unable to get through her defenses despite her paralysis. She managed to fight off the poison enough to swing once, but he drifted out of the way, and it nearly cost her a nick on the arm. The formori circled, kicking its feet and thrashing through the bloody water over the prone, nearly helpless mermaid, but when he darted down next she managed to surge upwards, and cut a wide slash across his chest. The creature recoiled, its mouth opening in a gurgling sound of pain that Ilona could barely hear through the water, but when he lashed out in turn he managed to cut her arm, just barely parting her skin despite her shield.

The numbness didn't spread further, however, and she managed to lunge further upwards for a second strike. That time, she took the formori's throat, opening a wide gash that he clutched at while she settled back against the cavern's floor. He dropped his poisoned knife as he tried, in vain, to keep his blood from pouring out of the fresh wound, leaving Ilona able to watch - still barely able to move - as he died over the course of about a minute. Then he was floating, among the other dead formori that she had managed to kill despite her weakened state, and she was alone, though for how long would be hard to say; there was a lot of blood, and scavengers would undoubtedly be along shortly. She was still pregnant, still poorly armed, still naked, and now paralyzed and exhausted, but she was free... For now.
 
The final formori didn’t lack for persistence, lunging at Ilona again and again with his poisoned knife. The hobbled mermaid was barely mobile, her psychic shield the only thing keeping his blade away from her again and again. It was all she could do just to hold on to the dagger in her hand, much less swing it feebly at her attacker from time to time… until finally he got careless, practically swimming into her blade and allowing her to cut him across his chest. His pain didn’t go unrewarded, however, and she had to quickly move her arm in the path of his blade to deflect it from her chest, receiving a nick from the poisoned blade.

Even though she didn’t feel her arm going numb a sense of panic spread through her, and she decided to risk everything on one last try rather than be slowly nicked to death. Her aching and broken tail hit the cave floor and sent a twinge of agony up and down her spine, but she powered through the feeling without difficulty and lunged at the formori, catching him off guard and this time opening up his throat with her primitive dagger. As blood poured rapidly from the wound she felt a surge of relief… That was the last one, and that was certainly a fatal wound. She allowed herself to float back down to the cave floor, laying on her back and staring at the sight of her last attacker trying desperately to hold his throat closed.

The adrenaline drained out of Ilona’s body as she watched him twitch and squirm, leaving only a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach and an ache spread across her whole body. She let her mental shield lapse as she laid down, the paralytic poison still flowing through her veins. Even with all of them dead, this was still a dreadful situation. She was still maimed, her tail too shredded for her to swim properly, and this time she was paralyzed… and the stone that had earlier blocked the cave entrance was rolled away now, leaving a simply huge quantity of blood to leak freely into the open ocean. The sharks would probably be along soon. Perhaps something worse than that… But for now she could only lay there and try to recover as quickly as possible. She needed her mental energy to recharge, the poison to work itself out… She had more or less given up on her tail healing in any reasonable amount of time.
 
Ilona: HP = 26/90, PP = 45/45, EP = 28/55, Status = Maimed (counts as Weakened plus movement reduced to 5 feet), Pregnant (litter of 14 of the psychic formori's spawn and 23 of the other random formori's spawn)

Galo: HP = 48/48, PP = 31, EP = 33, Status = Fine

Aereia: Sage
Taron: Head Sentinel of Clyons
Aegea: Healer from Clyons
Treyzine: Seer from Clyons

Rolls
It takes Ilona four hours to recuperate to the point that the paralytic poison wears off.

Hour one; some sharks appear and eat the formori halfbreed.
Hour two; just some fishies.
Hour three; Uh oh.

As soon as Ilona relaxed her mental shield, the boon of her will thrumming through her body ended with it, and suddenly she could no longer move. What was worse, even if she'd wanted to she couldn't have recalled it, she was simply too exhausted and the venom itself numbed her mind as much as her body. All that she could do was lie there and wait, barely able to draw breath, unable to move, unable to truly pass out despite the pain of her maimed tail and unable to even try to sleep due to that and the discomfort of the paralytic poison running through her bloodstream. It was terrifying and painful and tensely boring as she drifted in and out of proper attentiveness while floating at the bottom of the cave, the corpses of the formori that she'd killed floating around her.

It didn't take long for the first scavengers to show up, and frighteningly it turned out to be one of the most dangerous creatures of the reefs. She only partially saw the first of them as it drifted by, but the unmistakable outline of an adult bull shark flitted through the blood. She caught only a glimpse of one soulless black eye as the predatory fish - a creature that could bite her cleanly in half if it got its jaws onto her - flitted by and started tearing off chunks of the psychic formori that she had killed first, the only one to float out of the cave. She could do nothing but watch as it swam in circles, tearing off chunks of flesh and devouring them over the course of minutes. The first shark was soon joined by a second, and a third, all of them ripping the formori to bits until there were no edible portions of him left. Fortunately for Ilona, the trio of sharks departed, well fed, one by one following their grisly feast.

The next creatures to show up were smaller, as a small school of local fish of varying types drifted in to take off bits and pieces of the ones in the cave. They were colorful, and most were smaller than her hand and offered her no more attention than a brief glance as they swam by. The little fish that lived among the coral were quick to flee when predators arrived, however, and so when the rotating stream of fish coming to nip off pieces of dead formori suddenly became a full scale retreat, Ilona knew that something bigger and more dangerous was coming.

That something proved to be a bigger problem, but a less immediate one as the creature loomed in the distance, coming directly towards the mouth of the cave. The great white was nearly three times her length, and she got a good look at the beast as it turned away from the mouth of the cave. There were scars along the gigantic shark's sides, chunks missing from a fin, and scars surrounded one of its eyes; it was clearly an old beast, and while it clearly smelled the feast waiting in the cave it didn't seem able to fit its bulk into the small opening... And it seemed to know it.

For a long while the great white drifted back and forth, swimming in slow circles vaguely near the entrance to the cave. Ilona could see the beast's eyes, impenetrable pools of blackness that nonetheless seemed to focus on her. After another hour, however, Ilona felt the water stirring around her. There had been little to no current active in the cave while she'd been trapped there alone, but with the stone removed it seemed that the changing of the tides caused the water to cycle in and out of the small coral chamber... And it was doing exactly that now. The floating formori carcasses had largely stuck near the top of the cavern, and floated there bumping against the ceiling as they gathered near to where the entrance narrowed. Ilona, hovering on the bottom, had no such defense.

The paralyzed mermaid began to drift, ever so slowly, towards the entrance to the cave. She moved hardly more than an inch at a time, the drifting of the cycling current perhaps gaining a centimeter at a time, but every centimeter drew her closer to the shark, and the poison still hadn't worn off. Slowly but surely the gap between her and the protective tunnel entrance shrank, inch by inch and foot by foot. At the same time, however, feeling returned to Ilona's muscles, and it became a race to see which would come first; the return of her motion or the jaws of the great white.

It took nearly another hour before that contest was decided, and it was a narrow one even then. The maimed mermaid had to live through total helplessness as the great white and its deadly jaws grew nearer and nearer, and by the time she felt her tail swish - still painfully - at her command again she could have counted the thing's teeth or reached out and brushed her fingers against its skin when it did one of its nearer passes.
 
Ilona let her mental shield lapse, and almost immediately her body froze up. She was exhausted both mind and body, and the poison running through her veins had her so very paralyzed she could barely move a finger, her chest barely rising and falling as she took in shallow breaths. She couldn’t even move her tail to avoid it brushing against the floor of the cave, sending sparks of agony shooting through her body. Even unable to move she couldn’t really rest, had no chance of sleeping. She could only float at the bottom of the cave, gazing up at the corpses of the formori who had attacked and violated her. There was a grim sort of satisfaction in that, which was good since she was running critically low on reasons to be satisfied right about then.

It wasn’t long before the blood in the water attracted some unwanted attention… A fully grown bull shark had scented the fresh kill, and though she could barely see it from where she was it was still easily distinguished as the threat that it was. Bull sharks were large and aggressive, mere animals that couldn’t be reasoned with. Thankfully it was too large to properly fit into the cave, and so the pieces of the psychic half-breed formori that had floated outside of it were the only food available to the creature. As it ripped off chunks of flesh a second shark appeared, and then a third… It only took them a few minutes to strip the corpse nearly clean of meat and move on, apparently satisfied with the meal.

A little bit later on the fish came. A diverse, colorful assortment of scavengers flitted into the cave to nip at the dead formori, almost all of them tiny and inattentive of the mermaid floating in the cave. It was just a little bit entertaining to watch the stream of fishes as they came and went… It was a brief respite, however. When they quickly swam away she knew something was wrong… and the sight of the great white shark swimming towards the cave confirmed it.

This was an old shark, a veteran of many ferocious hunts from the look of things, and as it swam past the cave opening Ilona estimated it at fully eighteen feet from nose to tailfin. She could take comfort in the fact that the entrance to the cave was too small to fit the shark, and even if it could fit in there was no way such a beast could maneuver itself inside. Still it swam in a loose circle in front of the entrance, its gaze fixing occasionally on her. It was hungry… and given the chance it would have preferred her over the already dead formori. A chilling thought, but still nothing in particular to be worried about.

Until the tide started going out, of course. The water began to cycle in and out of the little cave, which began to pull everything inside out slowly, bit by bit. Just an inch here and there… But Ilona’s muscles were still thoroughly paralyzed, and there was nothing she could do to alter her trajectory. The shark swam menacingly in its circle, watching, waiting for the tide to deliver its meal to it. The feeling was returning to the mermaid’s extremities, but far too slowly for her taste given the circumstances. She willed herself to move, even just a little bit, but nothing was happening…

Everything was happening so damn slowly. Half an hour, forty-five minutes, on and on the struggle went as the mermaid tried desperately to move a muscle, any muscle that would save her from floating out of the cave… Until finally, an hour or so later with the shark close enough that she could have touched it if she wanted, her tail fluttered. She pushed herself deeper into the cave again, the pain of her mangled tail dwarfed by the exhilaration she felt at finally being able to move again. Safe once more she looked out into the open ocean, at the great white… and then up at the formori corpses stuck on the roof of the cave. She would have to leave eventually, and probably not anywhere near fully healed… it wouldn’t do to have such a monster still hanging around and hungry. She forced herself up to the cave roof and grabbed the formori one at a time by their limbs, pushing them out the mouth of the cave to the waiting great white that had just been deprived of its intended meal. That would leave her to rest some more… At least until she felt she could swim properly again, could have a chance in combat against whatever might attack her.
 
Ilona: HP = 26/90, PP = 45/45, EP = 28/55, Status = Maimed (counts as Weakened plus movement reduced to 5 feet), Pregnant (litter of 14 of the psychic formori's spawn and 23 of the other random formori's spawn)

Galo: HP = 48/48, PP = 31, EP = 33, Status = Fine

Aereia: Sage
Taron: Head Sentinel of Clyons
Aegea: Healer from Clyons
Treyzine: Seer from Clyons

Even though she pulled back, farther out of reach of the great white's jaws, the gigantic shark continued to circle in front of the mouth of the cave, drawn no doubt by the scent of blood still pouring forth from the dead formori. Even moving that much was incredibly painful, and re-opened many of the tears in Ilona's tail, leaving fresh blood pouring into the water around her. If she stressed herself too much those injuries might not heal properly, and the more she moved now the more likely that would become.

Moving to the roof of the coral cavern would luckily take only minor effort, and Ilona would suffer only minor pains as she pushed the dead formori out of the cave. The waiting great white seized the first carcass in its jaws without hesitation, and after a brief bout of tearing bites that fully bisected the dead formori, the shark swallowed most of the carcass whole. It circled about only to eat the half that it had left behind, and when Ilona offered the second body it repeated the gesture almost identically, and again with the third. It continued to hover around her for the next few minutes, leaving Ilona to fidget in the cavern where she'd been raped before it suddenly swam off out of her line of sight and then didn't return to it.
 
Safe from the shark once more, Ilona offered it the corpses of the formori she had killed, an offer it took gladly. As she watched it devour the dead bodies she pulled her tail up towards her upper half, gingerly touching it and assessing the damage for the first time. It looked bad… and she was only going to reopen the wounds again and again if she swam all the way back to Clyons. It would take her forever as well, and the chances she would run across something else hostile seemed pretty good. Still, she couldn’t just stay there, she would starve. She decided she would have to try something novel… If her psychic shield could stop a knife, maybe it could hold her tail together while she swam. It was worth trying, in any case, so she steeled her mind and applied it to the fins of her tail, pressing down to keep pressure on them and keep them from shearing apart, and then gave her tail a ginger, testing swish to see how well it might work.

Psychic Shield on her tail for X = 3, start to move out and try to get to Clyons if she feels like her tail will survive swimming
 
Ilona: HP = 26/90, PP = 45/45, EP = 25/55, Status = Maimed (counts as Weakened plus movement reduced to 5 feet), Pregnant (litter of 14 of the psychic formori's spawn and 23 of the other random formori's spawn) Psychic Shield X = 3 gives none of the usual bonuses but raises her swim movement to 15 feet

Galo: HP = 48/48, PP = 31, EP = 33, Status = Fine

Aereia: Sage
Taron: Head Sentinel of Clyons
Aegea: Healer from Clyons
Treyzine: Seer from Clyons

With yet another effort of will, Ilona prompted waves of force to compress against the shredded membrane between the bony strands that made up the structure of her tail. It hurt, immensely, and fresh blood momentarily poured from the newly rent tears, but after a moment the pressure shut it off, and a few minutes later Ilona could move it without re-tearing the injuries or causing herself too much pain. Unfortunately, her mental prowess couldn't replace the lost tissue, only healing would do that, and healing was what was needed if she was to regain her ability to swim quickly. She might be able to move at more than a crawl, but she was far from mobile, and if she had to run away from anything she would be in big, big trouble.

Rolls
Ilona's Perception; 2 successes vs 1 success. She ducks back into the cave as the great white tries to eat her.

The wounded mermaid was in a bad way besides the maiming of her tail, of course. Her armor and her weapons were gone, taken by the formori and likely added to their hoard of stolen mermish arms and armor. She was still completely exhausted, both physically and mentally, meaning that any use of her psychic defenses or weapons would have to be sparing and conservative. Any dangers that she encountered on her way back towards Clyons could well be her last, or worse... Leave her once more in formori captivity.

The first thing that she had to do was get out of this cave, however. Unfortunately for her, Ilona was anything but out of danger. Fortunately in turn, however, she spotted the shadow of the scarred great white and darted back into the cave as the creature swept by with jaws open wide. It had noticed her in the cave, apparently, and waited for the off chance of acquiring one last easy meal it seemed. Fortunately, it proved not quite patient enough to continue circling for more than another few minutes. It vanished again, and this time when she peaked out there was no sign of it in the sea around her.

Unfortunately, there was also no sign of Clyons, nor any marks that she recognized of the besieged village. She had been paralyzed when the formori had carried her here, and while it hadn't been a long trip as far as she knew, Ilona also had no idea which direction they had gone. All that she knew now was that she was in a coral reef, and colorful structures of the coral stretched out across the landscape behind her. The reef went for a ways, but off in the distance the mermaid could see the sea floor rise up to meet the ocean's surface, marking where land began. Whether or not it was the specific island that she'd been looking for prior to being captured, she could not say, but it would at least give her a long distance look around if she went up on shore, and assuming her human form would let her ignore the maiming of her tail for a while. In front of her, in contrast, lay a dip into a sandy floor that ended nearby in a kelp forest, where she might get some cover from any hunters at least. The dip was much lower off to her right, heading towards deeper ocean... Though that was where the sharks had mostly come from, though if there were sharks there probably wouldn't be formori.
 
Ilona grimaced and groaned out into the bloody water as she tried to use her mental energy to press and hold her shredded tail together, the pain nearly overwhelming… But the bleeding stopped after a few moments of hard pressure, and a few tentative tests told her that she could now move her tail without tearing the wounds open all over again, without even having much pain. She wouldn’t be able to move quickly, of course, both to avoid somehow doing more damage to herself and also simply because maintaining the shield around her tail couldn’t simply recreate the portions of her tail that had been destroyed, so there just wasn’t as much surface area as she needed to move more normally. Still, she was maybe… fifty percent, much better than without the mental effort.

Of course, that wasn’t her only problem. She was still intensely tired both in body and mind, and now she was completed unarmed and unprotected. She would have to avoid combat, or else she would be in great trouble… The fragility of her situation was only reinforced when she swam just a little bit out of the cave and was almost immediately attacked by the large great white, noticing just at the last moment and dashing back into the cave before it could properly get to her. This time she would just have to wait, to make sure that it was gone… It seemed to swim away after a few minutes, but she waited just a bit longer to make sure.

That left her alone in this stretch of ocean, at least for now… Though what stretch of ocean she was in exactly she didn’t know. The formori had dragged her some way off her intended path while she had been paralyzed, and she didn’t really have her bearings. She was in some sort of coral reef, and a little ways away was another kelp forest… or was it the one she had been swimming through to begin with? It was probably the same one… probably. Still, there would be ample chance to encounter more formori in the forest, and in her current state she wouldn’t be a match even for a couple of those. There was also a path that led over the deep ocean, one where there would likely be fewer formori, but plenty of other more deadly, if less horrifying, creatures to be encountered there. Sharks, mostly, though if she was caught out at night…

The most intriguing option was the island that was fairly close by. Ilona had no way of knowing if it was the one she had been intending to get to or not, and she had never been on the land before… But she knew that she, along with the rest of her kind, could transform their bodies to appear more like a human. The lower body of a human… legs and feet instead of a tail. Would her feet be crippled if she transformed? Or would she simply be able to ignore the damage? Even if she were still severely injured it would at least help her to get a look around, see if she could at least tell which direction she needed to head in. And so she swam in that direction as fast as she felt she could safely move, wanting to minimize the chance of encountering anything until she reached the (hopeful) safety of dry land.
 
Ilona: HP = 26/90, PP = 45/45, EP = 25/55, Status = Pregnant (litter of 14 of the psychic formori's spawn and 23 of the other random formori's spawn)
Human Form; Fine...Ish
Mermaid Form; Maimed (counts as Weakened plus movement reduced to 5 feet), Psychic Shield X = 3 gives none of the usual bonuses but raises her swim movement to 15 feet

Galo: HP = 48/48, PP = 31, EP = 33, Status = Fine

Aereia: Sage
Taron: Head Sentinel of Clyons
Aegea: Healer from Clyons
Treyzine: Seer from Clyons

With her course chosen, Ilona left the cave where she had been raped and impregnated, heading through the coral reef towards the shore. She couldn't move fast, and given her vulnerability remaining near the ocean floor was the safest route. Her journey took Ilona through the vibrantly colored and thoroughly populated coral reef. Dozens of different kinds of fish and small cephalopods flitted through the coral, anenomes and sea urchins and cucumbers clung to coral and bare patches of sand and rocks alike, and crabs and other crustaceans crawled along the ground in search of prey. The vibrant ecosystem played out around her as Ilona made for shore, encountering nothing more dangerous than a curious squid no larger than her fist that latched onto her chest for a few moments - inspiring sensations similar to those that came when Galo explored her body - before releasing her and swimming off.

Ultimately, Ilona made it to shore, and the surface of the water grew closer with every passing moment. It was up to her how long she wanted to wait before transforming, though slowly but surely she would simply run out of ocean. Whenever she did it, Ilona would break the surface, and the ancient spells that had given people the ability to change their forms and become like creatures of the sea would naturally take effect. While their ability to change their forms was not the like of a demon or one of the sidhe, in that they had far less control over it, the everlasting spells created far more drastic alterations to their physic. Ilona's tail split, her scales receded to make way for more pale skin, her ear fins retracted, and her maimed tail became a pair of human feet... Uninjured human feet. She would emerge from the water in human form, the form that all of her people once wore at all times and the only one that they had, naked, still pregnant, but without the crippling injury that the psychic formori had left her with.

Ilona would awkwardly clamber up onto the beach, breathing her first breaths of air - shockingly dry - and feel the first rush of moving air as the wind gusted against her dripping form. Sand conformed between her toes, first soft and cool but, when she first stepped fully onto dry land, hot and gritty. Her first steps were awkward, perhaps, but the mermaid could stand better than she could swim. Being in open air made everything look and smell strange, and her hearing felt off even as she heard the wind gently whistling by her ears and the waves lapping at the shore.

A look around revealed... Not much. There were many islands around Clyons, and some of them had once been inhabited. Her people rarely interacted much with surface dwellers, however, and Ilona hadn't taken the time to ask after what the local surface dwellers had been like. This particular stretch of beach wasn't large, being more of a sandbar than a real landmass. The band of beach went a ways to either side, and deeper inland crested at a small hill covered in green grass with a few larger plants with thick brown bodies topped by blade-like strands of green fiber, with a few thick brown... Hairy looking things near where the green growths emanated from the brown bodies. That stretch of greenery ended some hundred or so feet down the beach to her right, and the land met the ocean at a curved beach that ran 'round the other side of the grassy rise. To the left, the strand continued, and eventually widened a good long way off - she could see so much farther up here than she could underwater - where the larger plants grew more common and were joined by ones that looked a bit different. The smaller plants on the ground grew bigger as well, becoming so thick as to obstruct, and she could see birds unlike any that she had ever seen feeding from the ocean taking off and landing near the plants, especially near the tops of the bigger ones.

The dense plantlife rose a ways, to the top of a large hill where Ilona could just barely see a few artificial structures, made from the larger plants by the look of them, clustered together deeper into the island. The beach continued, ringing the entire island, that seemed to mostly be the norm in this area as she looked around, out across the ocean. There were other islands nearby, some smaller and some larger, and she was looking for the largest of them. There was no telling from here which one specifically she was looking for, however, and finding her destination would require more exploration.
 
Ilona swam along at what felt like a glacial pace, hugging the ocean floor as she made her way through the coral reef and towards the island up ahead. It was a beautiful area, and under different circumstances she would have enjoyed passing through… As it was she just felt incredibly tense, worried that something might take note of her. Where there was so much life and color there were always predators looking to be fed, after all. Still, she never saw anything of any threat to her. The only thing that seemed even a little bit curious about her was a little squid that latched onto one of her breasts. It was actually a welcome distraction for a few moments as it gave her a bit of a pleasant feeling to counteract all the pain she’d been feeling lately.

Finally, though, she found herself at the upward slope to the shore. She couldn’t help but feel a little bit anxious; she’d never transformed before, and she didn’t really know how to strictly speaking. And yet, it happened almost automatically, almost without her input as she broke the surface for the first time. Her ear fins seemingly retracted into herself first, though that was the least of all the changes that occurred… Her tail split into two, the scales giving way to more flesh, and her tail… it morphed into… feet? They seemed functional. She got up onto the shore and stumbled forward, catching herself with her hands and getting up on wobbly feet.

What a weird feeling. Everything was so… dry. She had never understood what it meant to be wet before, but now in the open air it felt so wrong not to be immersed. She walked forward another few steps, carefully, very carefully… This was going to take some getting used to. It didn’t hurt though, so her feet were probably fully functional. The air was also moving sort of like a current, but it was so much colder. She was dimly aware of the fact that her nudity and her wetness were unpleasant, that she needed to find a way to dry off and perhaps find a covering for herself. Gods but the feeling of sand squishing between her toes was strange.

Everything, down to the way Ilona saw the world, the way she heard, it was all so very different. She wished she had the time to appreciate and understand it, but she didn’t exactly feel safe. And so she looked around, trying to get her bearings… This was a strange place, covered in a diversity of plant life that was entirely foreign to her. It was pretty, though, much prettier than a kelp forest. There was a hill up ahead, in the interior of the island, with what looked to be houses. These islands were all abandoned, or so she’d been told, but that didn’t mean that everything of use had been stripped out of them, not necessarily. There were other islands about, but she could worry about them later; for now she just needed to get her land legs under her, to prod the island to see if she could get some things she undoubtedly needed. She would have to find food soon, which might prove difficult given how little she knew about the surface world. For now she would head towards the buildings to see what they held.
 
Ilona: HP = 26/90, PP = 45/45, EP = 25/55, Status = Pregnant (litter of 14 of the psychic formori's spawn and 23 of the other random formori's spawn)
Human Form; Fine...Ish
Mermaid Form; Maimed (counts as Weakened plus movement reduced to 5 feet), Psychic Shield X = 3 gives none of the usual bonuses but raises her swim movement to 15 feet

Galo: HP = 48/48, PP = 31, EP = 33, Status = Fine

Aereia: Sage
Taron: Head Sentinel of Clyons
Aegea: Healer from Clyons
Treyzine: Seer from Clyons

Rolls
Perception: 2 successes
Their Perception: -2 successes.

Heading deeper inland, towards the village, ultimately drew Ilona towards the clustered vegetation, and whether she headed for the nearest in order to be a bit less exposed or straight for the core of the island, eventually she would leave the beach. The sand grew both warmer and courser the farther up the beach towards the mysterious surface plantlife that Ilona traveled, causing some minor discomfort at its worst before she ultimately stepped up onto ground that was somehow denser, packed together and covered in strands of small, scraggly plants that gently tickled the bottoms of her feet. There was nothing comparable to the denser ground that she could easily compare to from her life spent purely underwater; the packed ground had far more give than coral or stone, but far less than sand. The shade offered by the larger plants covered her from the sun, leaving her a little cooler, especially with the gusts of moving air gently brushing across the island, but even being dripping wet she wasn't quite cold given the general pleasant warmth of the atmosphere.

Walking for long periods proved difficult for the inexperienced mermaid, even though the injuries that the formori had inflicted hadn't transferred to her more terrestrial human form. She lacked the muscle memory of someone who had done walking motions for most of their lives, and had never really had to balance outside of a fluid medium or contend with gravity in quite the same way before. Stumbling and slow pace as she adjusted to walking on land aside, however, Ilona encountered no serious issues as she headed towards the larger area of plantlife. The local wildlife, in contrast to the fish in the reef, kept their distance from her, with the birds on the ground taking off as soon as she drew within a dozen or so paces, but when she reached the treeline the skittishness of the surface fauna quickly became a secondary concern.

Above the quiet din of the surface's numerous sounds; the waves, the wind, the rustle of leaves and the calls of birds, Ilona heard a slight splash of something emerging from the water off to her left. No less than three formori had emerged from the water, walking with far greater comfort even as they pushed their way out of the surf. One was carrying a net bulging with wriggling fish that lightly dripped with blood, and the other two had spears coated in blood with a few more fish flopping their last impaled on each of them. They were talking in their native language, a combination of woops, short sibilant sounds, long basetto noises, gurgles, and other such indecipherable utterings that Ilona couldn't make heads or tails of just yet, and hadn't seemed to have noticed her as they started across the beach towards the island's interior. They weren't heading directly towards her, but they would pass close by where she stood, having emerged from the water perhaps forty feet from her at most, and unless she took cover it would only take a glance in her direction to allow them to discover her... And if they did, there was little doubt as to what would happen to her at this point, even if they mistook her for a human.
 
Ilona trudged up the beach, paying no mind to the possibility of another being taking note of her; these islands were all abandoned, after all. It wasn’t a particularly pleasant time; the sand was hot and hard to get traction in, though soon enough the sand was packed down into solid earth beneath her feet, which was at least easier to walk on. Still not totally natural and easy, though… this whole “legs” thing was going to take some getting used to. The ground was even covered in some sort of odd plant-life, short and stubby and all over the place. It was nothing like the kelp she was familiar with, so she bent down and ran a hand through it for a moment or two. It was kind of nice… Walking on it definitely felt better than walking on the sand, in any case.

This was a very strange place. Warm despite the lack of water, with strange sounds and even strange gravity, seemingly. Even the simple act of keeping her balance was difficult for the mermaid out of water, and she went to one knee a couple of times as she wobbled her way inland. Even the animals were strange sorts, skittish and afraid of her it seemed, though maybe that was just because of the relatively odd way she was behaving.

Or maybe it was because they knew what normally walked this ground… Very close by she heard something coming up out of the water, multiple somethings in fact… Formori, at least three of them too, seemingly right on top of her. They were carrying a lot of fish with them, in nets and impaled on spears. Why were they carrying them here? Was there a nest of formori here, on the island? Whatever the case may have been, her concerns were more immediate… They were headed right past her, and she absolutely didn’t want a fight. There was some vegetation nearby… She would have to try and hide in it, but if they caught sight of her there was no doubt she would have to be ready to fight, even with her mental and physical strength nearly at its limits.

Time to hide! And if she thinks they’ve found her she’ll blap one of the spearguys with a Mind Cutter at X = 6.
 
Ilona: HP = 26/90, PP = 45/45, EP = 25/55, Status = Pregnant (litter of 14 of the psychic formori's spawn and 23 of the other random formori's spawn)
Human Form; Fine...Ish
Mermaid Form; Maimed (counts as Weakened plus movement reduced to 5 feet), Psychic Shield X = 3 gives none of the usual bonuses but raises her swim movement to 15 feet

Galo: HP = 48/48, PP = 31, EP = 33, Status = Fine

Aereia: Sage
Taron: Head Sentinel of Clyons
Aegea: Healer from Clyons
Treyzine: Seer from Clyons

Rolls
Ilona needs one success on this stealth check to avoid discovery; She gets zero.
The formori need one success on their perception check to notice her; They get negative one. MOST OBLIVIOUS EVIL FISH PEOPLE EVER.

Ilona gets 2 xp.

Ilona wasn't exactly graceful or adept when she dove hastily into a nearby bush, nor was she prepared for what it was like. The plantlife that grew in the sea was naturally all fairly soft, being underwater, and even the sort that entangled was at least not overtly harmful to the touch. Not unless it was directly predatory or some other predator happened upon someone trapped in it anyway. This bush, however, proved soft in some ways - the green portions weren't too bad - but hard in a very unpleasant manner in others - namely the brown, stiff portions that made up much of the primary structure. The plant poked at her uncomfortably wherever she touched too firmly against it, and some of the ends were sharp enough to be painful.

What was worse, every time she touched a portion of it, the entire thing seemed to shake and rustle, and the green portions brushing against one another made an awful lot of noise. The formori noticed it as they walked up the beach, she could see through the gaps in the bush that she was hiding behind, and one of them began approaching the crouching mermaid's hiding place.

Before she could launch her panicked psychic attack, however, Ilona would realize that she wasn't the only one hiding in this particular bush; there was also a land creature of some sort in there, lying on the ground essentially underneath it. The surprised creature sluggishly looked up at her, and a forked tongue flicked from its maw. It had four legs that jutted out from the sides of its body, each of which ended in sharp looking claws that were a fairly rare sight among ocean dwelling creatures that mostly killed using their jaws alone. It was about as long as one of her lower legs from the tip of its snout to the end of its tail, but nearly half of that length was that tail, leaving its legs rather stubby compared to the length of its body. The creature had eyes on the sides of its head rather than forward facing, like a predator, but its snout was unusually long compared to what she might be used to, almost like that of a barracuda or a dolphin, or maybe a seal. Its head was flatter and wider than either of those creatures, however. The whole thing was covered in a rough looking hide that boasted a variety of intermingled earthy colors, with the dark browns and greys primarily on the top and progressively lighter colors proceeding downwards.

The strange creature rose, its legs pushing out from under it, and it flicked its tongue at her again twice before suddenly turning and running out of the bush, away from her. That happened to be almost directly towards the approaching formori, and the land creature hissed before turning to dart into the jungle instead. The formori laughed, and then rejoined its comrades, saying something that made them laugh too while the three of them continued on their way into the jungle. A few moments later, Ilona couldn't hear them over the din of noises present seemingly at all times on the surface anymore, leaving her to figure out what she wanted to do next.

(What Ilona found for clarity's sake.)
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It was all Ilona could do not to cry out when she dove into the vegetation and found it full of brown scraggly bits that were stiff almost to the point of sharpness, and diving into them made plenty of noise. What had led the flora of the surface world to booby trap themselves so? Or were these simply younger versions of the larger ones she saw around? Whatever the case she was certain she had made enough noise to wake the dead, but there was no longer any time to reposition herself, and even if she could she was sure the formori would notice her. Indeed, as she peered out of the bush she could just see one of them approaching her, walking steadily towards her hiding place…

Which she soon discovered she wasn’t alone in. There was some sort of creature there with her, barely a foot away as it lay in the bush… Her eyes went wide, and for a moment she thought she might have to fight it as well now that she had disturbed it. It had wicked looking claws and seemed to be covered in some sort of scales… in all it seemed like a legged, clawed version of a barracuda, which was sort of a terrifying thought. The mermaid’s gaze flitted nervously from the creature to the approaching formori and back again, preparing to attack one or the other of them, but before she could the strange land creature made its move. It stood on those somewhat stubby legs, flicked a forked tongue at Ilona… and then bolted out of the bush, straight past the formori. The mermaid held her breath as the vile creature laughed… and then wandered off with the other two, heading into the jungle.

Ilona breathed a sigh of relief, crawling out of the bush once she was sure the formori were gone. Luck was on her side, it seemed, at least this time. Although the appearance of the creatures on the island was an ill omen… She hadn’t expected to find them up here. And where there were three there would undoubtedly be more, the way they bred. Her belly would surely be ample proof of that soon… They hadn’t gone for the buildings though, so that would still be her initial goal. There might yet be something of use in them, and they would at least provide a passable hiding spot she could use to rest a little while as she decided what to do.
 
Ilona: HP = 26/90, PP = 45/45, EP = 25/55, Status = Pregnant (litter of 14 of the psychic formori's spawn and 23 of the other random formori's spawn)
Human Form; Fine...Ish
Mermaid Form; Maimed (counts as Weakened plus movement reduced to 5 feet), Psychic Shield X = 3 gives none of the usual bonuses but raises her swim movement to 15 feet

Galo: HP = 48/48, PP = 31, EP = 33, Status = Fine

Aereia: Sage
Taron: Head Sentinel of Clyons
Aegea: Healer from Clyons
Treyzine: Seer from Clyons

With at least some knowledge of the formori threat potentially waiting for her somewhere in the jungle, Ilona would eventually clamber awkwardly back to her feet and head off towards the village near the center of the island.

The foliage was denser the deeper she went into the land's interior, with some of the larger plants rising higher and higher - four, five and even more times her height at times - despite the surface gravity's insistence that everything be low to the ground. Much of the ground seemed to either be coated in the same soft plants that she'd found on the beach, or in the fallen green pieces - now turned mottled brown or grey and seemingly decaying - of the bigger plants. Some of the smaller looking plants like the one she'd hidden in were softer, with larger upper portions that split off in different directions without being so stiff, while others were covered in small blobs or opened extended portions of different colors from the rest, like greens or reds or blues. The fauna of all sizes mostly seemed to like eating those, the brighter colors the better, or in the case of the opened things flitting around and in them.

Ilona may have thought that the bush she had hidden in earlier was essentially trapped, but as she traveled Ilona would quickly find that there were far, far worse examples of the surface flora to worry about; some of the harder plants were literally just covered in spikes, some of them several inches long. There were literally large plants covered in spikes that ran all across their brown portions. In other examples, the spikes were concealed by the leaves, hidden among the green, and curved such that if pulled away from too quickly she would take the thorn - still embedded in her flesh - with her. Others, the leaves were so course that they stuck momentarily to her skin and hurt to pull away from, with closer inspection revealing that they were covered in tiny hooked spines of their own. Finally another - a big green barrel shaped thing - was open at the top, with some sort of sickly yellow green goo inside of it that seemed to attract a lot of the local creatures, which she could see dead and in various states of being dissolved floating in the goo. The most disturbing was perhaps the rarest, for she only saw a few examples of it, but the small squat plant with red streaks on its protruding portions and deep purple fruit hanging below them. Some of those fruits had been taken, and the corpses of the small creatures that had done it - and those that had come to feed on them - had been dragged closer by the thing's roots, which reached out incredibly slowly to draw in fresh kills. Only the smallest of the odd buzzing and crawling things seemed unaffected, and their larvae - bloated pale squirming things - could be seen crawling through the dead flesh.

The birds that somehow proved able to ignore that inconvenient rule were colorful but small, and flitted away nervously whenever she got too close even when they were too high for her to have ever reached. The other surface fauna proved even more skittish, and she spotted another creature like the one she'd encountered in the bush that ran away from her, and a similar beast that lacked any sort of legs but hissed and spread flaps of skin on either side of its head as she drew near. The thing didn't attack, and unless she opted to assail it somehow would let her pass by unharmed, so long as she gave it a wide berth. The most common thing that she encountered were the oddest of all, however; tiny creatures almost like crustaceans but smaller and much less durable, many of which seemed to fly somewhat annoyingly around her, move in groups, camouflage against the foliage extremely well, or some combination of the above. None of them seemed to have any compunctions with landing on her or crawling over her, which produced a fairly uncomfortable tickling sensation until they could be shaken off.

Fortunately for the mermaid, she managed to avoid stumbling into anything overtly harmful or threatening as she journeyed deeper into the island. Neither formori nor any of the local creatures seemed interested in attacking her, and almost all of the latter were much, much smaller than she. Only one type even bothered her more than by their mere presence, a small group of small shrieking humanoid things that were covered in hair and sported long, slender tails that helped them move between the trees. They started shrieking at her as soon as they saw her, and following her from their perches atop the branches, jumping and climbing across them faster than the stumbling mermaid could walk. They didn't actually overtly try to bother her at first, but eventually they started pelting small things at her, nothing big enough to hurt her but enough to be fairly annoying, and if she tried to simply continue on one of them would clamber down the tree and stop in front of her, jumping and shrieking in place while waving too-long arms over its head.
 
As Ilona made her way towards the center of the island once more the flora became larger and larger, reaching up into the sky despite the pull of the ground she found so oppressive up here. They seemed to be shedding, though… So perhaps they weren’t very healthy? There was a great diversity of them though, from the smaller ones that barely reached her own length to ones that seemed to be roughly six times as long as she. There were even some of them that had colorful bits attached to them, which seemed to serve as food for the fauna, though the purpose of that for the plant she couldn’t fathom. Was this the surface equivalent of coral? Pretty though the soft colorful blobs may have been they seemed a poor substitute. It was interesting though, and under better circumstances she would have examined things a bit more closely.

It didn’t help that seemingly half of all the flora on the island were traps of some sort. Some of them carried spikes on their brown portions, some of them very long… And some of them hid the spikes in among their green portions with no particular indication that they were trapped, and a few times the mermaid found herself not only pricked by them, but the things sometimes broke off in her skin, forcing her to pick the things out with some difficulty and pain. Even some of the green bits themselves were traps, painful hook-covered things that scraped at her flesh if she brushed past them. Still others weren’t suitable for trapping her, but the smaller fauna native to the island; plants with a sweet-smelling goop inside of them that attracted things to it that then died in the goop. There was also one that seemed to have poisonous fruits, or else its vines had some method of killing the poor things and then dragging them into itself to be consumed… Truly the surface was a harsh and terrifying place.

Oddly enough the fauna seemed less dangerous to the mermaid than the plants, at least at first. There were many small and colorful creatures that literally seemed to swim through the air, and every one of them seemed to be a nervous basketcase that bolted away whenever she drew near. The earthbound creatures were even moreso, from more creatures like the one that had kept her safe from the formori to other legless beasts that slithered across the ground. And while not dangerous, there were other creatures that were deeply annoying… Tiny ones, sometimes barely large enough to be seen, that swam about her making unholy buzzing noises, landing on her, making her skin crawl. She swatted at them, crushing some, but the rest seemed wholly undeterred and it just about drove her nuts.

Eventually, though, she came across something more than just annoying… They were relatively small creatures, covered in short hair from head to toe, and as soon as they saw her they began to make the most wretched noises, shrieking incessantly as they jumped amongst the tall plants, following her as she made her way inland. For a while that was all they did, though it made her nervous all the same. After a time, however, they began to throw things at her, just small things, twigs and rocks. It didn’t exactly hurt her, but it was very annoying and it signaled a hostility that bothered her… One of them jumped down into her path, screeching and waving its arms side to side above its head. Perhaps that was the leader of them? And maybe… maybe she could talk to it. It wasn’t implausible that it had some form of intelligence. And so she opened up a mental connection with the one who had jumped down to confront her, thinking "I don’t mean any harm, I’m just passing through. Let me by and I won’t bother you at all" at it, hoping that it had both the intelligence and inclination to do as she asked.
 
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