[WH] mumber fiffteen buger kingh foof letuce

James was already getting everything set up. He was trying to knock down logs, dig holes, putting up traps and things for the hunters to fall into or get clotheslined on. He already had an idea about stringing vine across the ground and setting up more at neck height to catch the hunters at the throats.

"Alright... this might do," he said, and started to string up the stones he had. If the vines on the ground were pulled, they'd fall and hopefully smash into the faces of the hunters.

Thankfully, they appeared to not be corporeal, or at least not entirely. If anything, it might slow them down, especially the holes. Perhaps he could set up wisps to look like the deer and send them whizzing through the maze.

The wisp fizzled out and he snorted, "Hey! Now's not the time!"

As if his magic understood.

He got to work digging, pushing logs into place so the hunters would jump and either fall or at the very least, trips. If someone could try and set up walls or even hills, that would be great, he just had to help the quarry get to the other side.

"Excuse me!", he called to it, "Once the hunters come, follow me!"

He hoped it understood.

He came up at a cautious trot, one ear flicking back and then forward; the float of his gait settled into stillness a few yards away.

"Excuse me--I think you're the one I saw before-? Ahh, back there-..." -Awkward. Fresh start. "My name's Warrior. I live in Hydra, so I'm not too familiar with everything out here; can I ask if, ah, things like this happen often?" Here, he hesitated. "Is there--danger in it?" Warrior was hardly one to shy from danger, but it was always good to know where there was any. Not that he wanted to risk himself, exactly.

Wisp-eyes fell on James' work, and he tried to figure out what the winged horse (and wasn't that strange-? Wings?) was trying to do. "You said something about a--a maze? I may be able to help, if you point out where," he offered. It seemed to be a preemptive payment for answers to his questions.

A moment's concentration and his magicka flared; the earth parted and a spike of stone, not very large or imposing but... a spike a couple feet high, at least, pushed up along the line that James seemed to be building.

He noticed a strange humanoid-thing, too, arriving; and to this he offered a polite, if somewhat uncertain, nod.

Look at what we have here.

A trio of strange creatures setting up traps for the Hunters. Madhukar knew this game. It was like making an obstacle course! Maybe she should've helped with the Quarry if it had meant getting to correct their mistakes and make yet another obstacle course, this time for creatures she didn't mind getting zapped by an electroball. But she was too angry to have even thought about it. In fact, the moment her mind even suggested the thought, something within her felt nauseous with disapproval.

Look out for lightning! She'd warned them. She would make sure it was a threat.

Unfortunately, these three were all too tall to be making traps that could really block smaller gembounds like her. There was a few things she could do here: move through and try to redirect the Quarry, maybe even try to straight up hunt the Quarry with her magic, or try to get them to quit it with the traps.

She liked the first idea best, because she didn't know exactly how the other two would... work.

So she'd start by trying to zip through while the three creatures were busy building.

Think "Speak"

All else was forgotten when Cryogen arrived, just after Warrior had spoken--he did not even notice Madhukar, the little cat racing past. Instead, blinking eyes found his child, one he hadn't seen in quite some time--and why was Cryogen looking at him that way-? Warrior was baffled, for a moment--surely the change of white coat to slightly grayer coat, the light to his eyes, hadn't been enough-..? He still was the same shape, a similar color--hell, the horn or voice should have been a giveaway unless... What if their memory is damaged, somehow? Fear spiked, and Warrior hastened to speak, pushing toward Cryogen at once.

"Cryo-?" he asked, bewildered. "Are you all right? It's--been a long time--you do recognize me?" Confusion. Worry. "Did something happen to you?" The 'where have you been' was left unsaid--not a demanding thought, but a worried one. The child had left half-grown to explore the caves, and Warrior had hardly seen them since.

THE WILD HUNT

THE CHASE

Vines and logs were prepared, and for a moment it seemed like it might work perfectly; the distant, ghostly Quarry lifted a fox-like head to peer at James as he called out. It had started their way when Madhukar raced through, briefly entangling herself in all the vines before breaking free and streaking away.

The fire trap, however, was quickly placed and it was then that the Quarry streaked past, a blur of icy mist: and a few moments later the Hounds. The wispy fog-forms of canines, of bones and teeth and dimly-glowing eyes, raced into the maze-shape.

For the most part they merely slowed, turning this way and that before leaping over--and through--the obstacles; the fire trap triggered and a blast of flame seemed to give several of them a start. Soon the Huntsmen had caught up with them: towering figures, the snorts of the spectral steeds sending unnatural shivers down the spines of those nearby, frightened or not.

Then the chase was on again, the Huntsmen slowed, but hardly stopped. Perhaps the Hunt would come back this way; perhaps it wouldn't. The Gembound might choose to try to get ahead of it again, or herd it back around...

_____________

The Gembound will have one more round to make any further attempts at affecting the outcome of the Pegasus leg of the Wild Hunt before it moves on. See the main quest thread for more information.

James offered Talys a soft smile and brought a wing down to touch their arm, "Yes, I am."

He looked up at Warrior and seemed relieved, watching more and more people appear- and the quarry rush by, the hunters and the hounds descending upon them.

And a cat, one that had been described by his own daughter as trying to kill her.

One thing at a time, quarry first, yeeting a cat later. Soon, though.

He readied his spell and looked behind him as he took flight- not literally, but he felt like he was running so fast that it was similar. He narrowed his eyes, perhaps a shield could stop them, or at least slow them down.

"FORM TRENCHES AND MAKE MAGICAL SHIELDS!", he cried out, noting how physical things like obstacles were barely anything to them.

They'd need to get tricky.

James slammed the shield down and locked it in place behind him, forming a half-dome around the back of himself, stretching out as far as he could before leaving it be. If anything, he'd just make himself a moving barrier. And well, if he trampled a cat on the way to defend the quarry, then... oops, he supposed.