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Long Game 49/Anonymous Game 3: Window to the Past


little wilson

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"I'm sorry Ialai, You seem to have forgotten that I do not believe in such practices. There is no evidence to suggest that any supreme power answers the prayers you send up on glyphwards." Jasnah responded.

Then, pausing a moment. "Actually, I will help you light them however, it will be at a very specific moment. Hopefully having some flamespren will add to the confusion and distraction of the unmade. But you will need to have others help you to write them. I've got more important things to be about."

Then Jasnah turned, and headed to discuss more plans with others, while also keeping hidden from Darkness. 

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Sorry Darkness, I Apperantly did miss your post.

There were several differant things happening all at once, and Liss didn't know what to prioritize her attention on. Even with Jasnah having somehow escaped from Nalan while everyone's back was turned, his words still established him as a threat.  Liss could not ignore such a threat. "Nalan, if niether of us move from this space, neither of us will have an issue with each other.  Therefore, that is what I suggest.  After all, we don't want to start dueling with shardblades in the middle of an unprotected crowd."

She then heard Ialai talk of gliph wards.  But Liss barely listened.  "Oh, great idea.  Would you like for an Ardent to be fetched as well so they can do it for you?  I could do that, just hopefully Nalan, here, won't just start killing everyone while I am gone..."

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Liss still doesnt understand why Jasnah was being targeted.  though I haven't worked out whether she is intentionally ignoring the hints, or hasn't noticed them yet.

Liss added in an undertone, "burning gliphs hasnt helped any of the people I killed..."

 

Oh yeah, and then there were all the minor nobles and lighteyes all clawing at each other trying to become Elhokar's new bride.  Then 3 people stepped in who had an actual swords.  After one decapitation, everyone else backed away, so now there were only 3 people fighting.

Edited by SE_Liss
added a sentance about Elhokar's dueling thing.
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The presence of the Unmade bore down upon Jezrien, rendering him nauseous. If he felt this way, surely Kalak would be in even worse shape.  The mere presence of the Thrill twisted Jezrien's insides, so surely an actively hostile Yelig-nar would incapacitate Kalak entirely. Even as Jezrien leaned against a wall to steady himself though, he saw Kalak run to intercept Nale. If his fellow Heralds could function, it was Jezrien's duty to protect them. Pushing himself off the wall, Jezrien instinctively reached for his Honourblade. It felt closer to him than it had in years, but of course it didn't come. Jezrien had made his choice years ago to relinquish his Blade, knowing perfectly well what it would cost him. Now, he was helpless before the very threat he had sworn to protect humanity from. No! Not helpless, he yelled at himself. He was the Herald of Leadership, and one of the few people in the room who had ever fought an Unmade. There must be something he could do.

Jezrien well remembered what a mortal holding that kind of power could do if Yelig-nar were given the chance to adapt. The Unmade's next host would not be so easily dispatched. What were their assets? Elhokar, Dalinar, Tearim, and Adolin all had dead Blades. Nale still possessed his Honourblade. Jasnah, that was no dead Blade she held. Was that his? No, he realized upon observing her Soulcast a spoon to smoke. That was not his power. Had the Radiants somehow returned? Jezrien shook himself out of that thought. No time to ponder that now. Whether a Radiant or wielder of an Honourblade, she would be no match for Yelig-nar's power by herself. Even if all the Shardbearers together could destroy Yelig-nar's hosts, they could not hope to defeat him again without a suitable prison. Jezrien had a clear mental image of the gemstone used to capture Yelig-nar the first time, but there was a hole in his memory regarding the location of the gemstone. Perhaps Kelek, Nale, or Ash would know. Jezrien walked towards them.

FOPTr1AVfC0aE99aee2b_yBLjGeKG8psM9nFSFW2WKPushh3pJY0sVSrIa0WZBFgzUsrrdbKTJVt4Ce218JI6XrBpHQEWcceAx1lcSuO3zc6B4OcWgCL1DzNZXFD-aKLic1HD3wh

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LG50 signups have gone up, which presumably means this game will be over within the next couple of cycles. I don't know what that signifies, but we'll probably have to defeat Yelig-nar quickly.

 

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Ialai scowled. “We all know what you believe, Jasnah. Perhaps the Almighty will let you repent in the Tranquiline Halls. While you all try to capture this creature with science, I will be here doing the work that actually matters. These glyphwards could save all of our lives!” She began to ink the first glyph, muttering about heretics and fabrials.

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Someone get that beggar his sword already :P 

Yelig-Nar's presence in Shadesmar was even more overwhelming. Ivory did his best to remain unseen and the creature seemed to be focused on its new human play-things. As he crept out from under the unmade's shadow, he started looking around. There where spren everywhere. Pain-spren on the prowl, anticipation-spren feeding on the air, fear-spren, pain-spren... Ivory quickly ducked down as he saw the massive form of a gloom-spren dart through the air.

No sign of any Spren with more than animal intelligence, however.

Then he spotted a light, further away. It seemed to belong to a ship that was pulling away from the thing tongue of land running past the city. Ivory broke into a run, ignoring the various predatory Spren that had started converging around the palace. If there was a flawless sphere anywhere near the palace, it'd be on that ship.

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Meanwhile, at the palace, the contruction of the mega-fabrial was going marvellously. A large metal frame lay where there was once nothing, smaller gemstones of all colours lining up its legs. Jasnah's soulcasting had come exceptionally useful. Now, they could carve wood into the shapes they needed, and Soulcast it into metal. Contruction after contruction, the fabrial was looking just as good as it did in Navani's book.

All they needed was the perfect gemstone. A cradle had been constructed for it at the top of the large fabrial, veins of metal and gems branching off of it to the rest of the machine. It was the last piece of the puzzle.

But Yelig-Nar was here.

It came as a scream in the wind, and then multiple. Shadows coalesced to become crystals to become corrupted, and the full place was hit by Yelig-Nar's power. It felt like a small earthquake. If you were looking in the halls of the palace that night, all you would see would writhing darkness.

"Quick!" Navani shouted over the scream. "We have to finish it now!"

The fabrial was almost complete.

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The palace shuddered, the sturdy stone pillars groaning, forming an awful harmony with the shrieking wind, rising rapidly in pitch. The dark night grew darker, threatening to snuff out the stormlight of the gemstones. The corridors filled with writhing shadow, filling them with darkness as quick as water in a chasm during a storm. Tearim clutched his Blade tightly, gritting his teeth against the horrid screeching of the terrible wind. The vaporous night swirled around the hall, circling like vultures. 

"Quick! We have to finish it now!" Brightness Navani shouted, her voice nearly engulfed by the dark maelstrom. The massive fabrial she had been constructing was nearly complete, almost every slot filled with a gemstone.

Tearim shivered. Truly, the Final Desolation has come. He felt death near. This was a fear rooted deep in his chest, unlike any danger he had experienced on the field of battle, watching the tip of a Shardblade pass mere inches from his face, seeing his fellow soldiers collapse and die. This was a Voidbringer, an Unmade, a demon from the deepest pits of Damnation. And it would kill him.

For once, his salvation was out of his hands.

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Jasnah had finished her soulcasting. It looked like Ialai had almost finished her glyphwards, and the last pieces were being put together on Navani's mega fabrial, so Jasnah took a step back to analyze what was about to happen. She noticed multiple foreign dignitaries all congregating around Nalan. 

Weighing the risk of approaching Nalan, she decided it was worth it. As she walked up to the other dignitaries, she began to confirm her suspicions. These are all Heralds. Jasnah realized. I hope I'm not walking up to my death. 

She reached the edge of the circle of Heralds. More nervous than she ever remembered, she asked "Are you all Heralds?"

After a reluctant confirmation from the group, and deathly shots from Nalans eyes, Jasnah continued, "I believe that I am the first new radiant of the Elsecallers. I have only a few hours of experience with my abilities,  but I know that we need to stop this desolation. What do you need from us, as common people, in order to stop this monstrosity that we have unwittingly unleashed upon oursleves? I will do everything in my power to do that."

Edited by SE_Jasnah_Kholin
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This was what Taln had always done; standing in front of the direst of foes and refusing to back down. He almost always died as a result, but he always managed to slow down the enemies, whether Unmade, Thunderclasts, armies of Voidbringers, or any of the other forces the Lord of Hate had at his disposal. Taln wasn't here now. That was Jezrien's fault, and it was his responsibility to stand in for Taln. This was his duty; the sole purpose of his existence. Jezrien interposed himself between Navani's fabrial and Yelig-nar, then began to walk towards the darkness. He hoped his death would be quick. Soon, he would be able to apologize to Taln in person.

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It was done.

As big as a horse carriage, it was the result of Navani's fine planning and the palace builders finest jobs, mixed in with Jasnah's abilities. It was done. By all calculations, if Yelig-Nar was properly distracted, this could catch it. But there was that other thing Navani had read about. A lure. Something to attract the Unmade into the sphere. What would if like? Sources regarded it as being an individual rather than a force, and from the looks of it, Aesudan has bonded it.

Was that what it wanted? A host to bond with? The fabrial was completed. Only the gemstone was required.

A beggar walked into the Shadows. "Are you crazy?" She asked him. "You'll die if you go there! You don't even have a Blade."

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1 minute ago, SE_Navani_Kholin said:

A beggar walked into the Shadows. "Are you crazy?" She asked him. "You'll die if you go there! You don't even have a Blade."

This is my job, Brightness. I may only hope that my death will distract Yelig-nar long enough for the rest of you to entrap him.

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I peeked out of the restroom which I had stopped to use. 
"What's all the racket about? Did one of the nobles let one loose? I swear, I've always known that if you hold that in too long, when it finally comes out, all damnation breaks loose." 
Then I noticed the unmade. I looked at my trusty chull, and hopped upon him. "FOR NOODLES!"

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just a quick PSA: I won't have time to make another RP post for the next 12 hours or so. If you guys want to move things along, my plan currently does involve succeeding with retrieving a mostly suitable gem (enough to buys us a chunk of time, at least), you can have Ivory return with a suitable gem at the most dramatically appropriate moment, looking a bit the worse for wear.

 

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Gemstone. All we need is the Gemstone.

Navani made a small prayer to the Almighty as she looked up and closed her eyes. Not as fancy as Ialai's, but it was the best she could do. Time was of the essence. Around her, walls crumbled and shadows became sharp.

They were all going to die.

Ivory appeared.

"Shadow person!" Navani moved in and grabbed the gemstone from the spren. He looked weary, and slightly damaged. Moving the gemstone in place and pressing it into the cradle, Navani watched im awe as smaller fabrials around it got it up, the whole fabrial blazing in the night. It was done. They could trap it. But first, a distraction.

Beggar was walking forward. With a little help, Navani pushed the fabrial after him. People were saying Beggar was a Herald. Hopefully that would mean he would be a distraction and a lure. "Come!" She yelled to the party. "We can capture it! We just need a bigger distraction!"

Edited by SE_Navani_Kholin
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My mighty chull was not fast, but no unmade would mess with a being so lumbering yet stupid. "Remember the tale of the Chull!" I shouted. "The Chull won against a whitespine despite the obvious disadvantage. And as I've been telling the Alethi elite since the day I was hired, you are all chulls! You can handle this thing!" 
It took a true genius to both inspire and insult people at the same time. 

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1 minute ago, SE_Ivory said:

just a quick PSA: I won't have time to make another RP post for the next 12 hours or so. If you guys want to move things along, my plan currently does involve succeeding with retrieving a mostly suitable gem (enough to buys us a chunk of time, at least), you can have Ivory return with a suitable gem at the most dramatically appropriate moment, looking a bit the worse for wear.

The cycle countdown ended nine minutes ago, so I suppose we all just die now.

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The unmade was stalling, and it disconcerted Jasnah. She left the Heralds to discuss her proposition, and told them to call out to her if they needed any assistance. 

Jasnah began worrying. Why was the unmade stalling? What could she do to save her family? 

She wondered if she could peer into Shadesmar, without falling completely into it, like she had done at the beginning of the night. 

She decided to try. Hesitantly, she repeated what she thought she did before. Nothing. She tried a little bit harder. "Storms. How did I do that" She cursed to herself. 

One more try. She pushed the limits of her understanding. And she began to see her shadow change. It wiggled a little bit, and began shifting towards the lights, instead of away. . Harder, She thought. She kept pushing, and her shadow was actually able to switch directions. But with all the Chaos going on, Jasnah couldn't focus to keep trying, nor did she have time. She was forced to quit trying, as some of the lesser brighteyes approached her, and began frantically asking for more help. 

It was time. All they needed was for Ivory to return, and they would try catching the Unmade. Just as she thought that, She saw the figure of Ivory appear, near Navani, at the end of the hall.

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Their plans were coming to fruition. Jasnah and Navani had done something with fabrials, and Wit had contributed in his natural fashion. But all their attempts hadn’t worked. The Unmade had survived.

Until now. Time to change the game. Time for a checkmate. 

“Voidbringer!” Ialai raised the glyphward aloft, like a soldier would lift a blade. “Tremble before the power of the Almighty!” With a firm hand, she grabbed a candle from one of the servants and began to burn the fabric. Any moment now, the Unmade would recoil and wither, leaving the others to place the finishing blow.

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LG49/AN3: Hour 8.5 - With a Light That Was Black

Thara watched Aesudan’s body fall with something like detached horror. There was something... had been something else, there. Wisps of dark smoke rose from the brightlady’s body, and Thara turned away at the sight.

***

Yelig-nar felt the tiny mortals begin their preparations. Even a few Heralds - but broken, twisted, like sculptures that had been so worn away by the wind that they were barely recognisable. It waited impatiently to recoalesce.

***

Thara brought paper and pencil to Brightlady Jasnah, trembling. Hoping. The fabrial beginning to take shape seemed a small thing to house such a terror - an Unmade. She shivered to even think the words. Unmade were the stuff of nightmares and stories, not of truth - but then, tonight was a nightmare in itself, she supposed. A fitting enough ending.

***

The Unmade grinned, if that could be done without body, at their little device. How... quaint. It wasn’t quite ready to reform, but it was happy to play with its food first. So it brought its essence into visible form, a swirling darkness encompassing the entire palace. Let them try to make their precious fabrial in that.

***

Thara nearly screamed at the sudden darkness, coming as she helped Brightness Ialai draw the glyphs. Her hands continued to move, fortunately - one did not interrupt glyph-writing, and her hands knew the work well enough that the darkness wasn’t too much of a hindrance. She started murmuring a prayer under her breath, trying to keep herself calm enough not to run screaming. Though, I might get away if I did. Maybe running away screaming is an option after all... But the others weren’t running. And she would get such a dressing down from the Master Servant if she did.

Her lips quirked at the thought, out of place in the nightmare. Not much of a reason to hold against an Unmade from legend, true, but she supposed it would have to do.

***

The Herald of Kings was walking into the deepest shadow, trying to distract it. But shadow could not be fought, and Yelig-nar only laughed.

Almost...

Now.

***

The darkness disappeared. Thara flinched at the sudden renewal of normality - aside from the glyphs and the enormous fabrial in the centre of the room, it was almost as if the banquet had never stopped. Food still graced the tables, and the nobles decked in all their finery were only slightly out of place. Everyone looked wary, but a few smiles broke out.

Was it gone? Was that too much to hope?

Then Thara saw the tiny tendril of shadow drop to the floor. Almost unnoticeable, and far too close for her liking.

She opened her mouth and started to point. “It-”

The tendril darted faster than she could’ve imagined, under her dress, and wrapped around her bare leg.

She couldn’t move. She couldn’t move. Thara panicked, struggling to move her lips even a twitch, to give some sign of the thing inside her.

And oh Almighty, she could feel it. An oily swirling blackness, dripping through the layers of her mind, curling around her thoughts.

Get out get out get out, she thought at it, panicking. It laughed.

She fought it, or tried to. But it was too insubstantial - she could not hold it, or defend against it. It was like using a butterfly net to catch smoke.

Scared, hardly daring to form the thought, she thought, Fine then. And she gave up.

***

Yelig-nar smiled slowly, taking in its surroundings through his new eyes. Who to take out first?

“Is it gone?” someone asked hopefully. Yelig-nar dug through its host’s memories to find the name. Liss, it thought, tasting the name on its tongue. She bore a Shardblade - she would be a worthy first death.

But no. More fun to draw it out. Not as long as with its previous host - that had been fun for a while, but it’d grown bored of the shadows. A little while longer, however...

“No,” came the reply. The King of Heralds, with iron certainty. “It is hidden among us.”

“Indeed,” said Wit - interesting, that was a face it knew under different names than its host. “Have fun trying to find the horrifying monster out of children’s tales! Bo-ring. If you’ll excuse me, I need a nap.” He promptly curled up upon the enormous chull he’d somehow managed to bring inside, and for all appearances indeed went to sleep.

No one was quite sure how to respond to that, so they ignored him.

“Would we know, if we were possessed?” asked Thara/Yelig-nar in a quavering voice. Might as well add a bit of fuel to the fire.

The Herald of Justice frowned. “Usually, yes,” he replied slowly, “but... it is not impossible that the host would not know, if Yelig-nar wished it.”

That sent shivers through the crowd, as it had been meant to. Yelig-nar had no interest in such a ploy, of course, but it certainly could have hidden if it wished to.

Then the Herald looked back at Thara. “Why do you ask, child?”

Even more suspicious than I recall, Yelig-nar noted. Well. So be it.

It raised Thara’s hand and waved, smiling. “Hi.”

Everyone stood shocked for a moment. Before them stood an ordinary servant girl who had served many of them drinks that very evening. Smiling happily, as if she had no cares, and without a trace of madness on her face. And yet...

“No, you cannot be an Unmade, child,” blustered Dalinar from the side. “Why would it pick such a poor choice? I mean - no offence meant, you’re very pretty, just - um - you don’t have a Shardblade or anything. Why not pick someone who knows how to fight? Someone like me or Tearim or even Adolin?”

“Are you admitting to possession, Dalinar?” asked Navani, voice dangerously calm.

“N-no,” he said. “I just think Unmade aren’t supposed to be that dumb!”

Others turned toward Dalinar, though. Yelig-nar blinked. It had practically confessed. Humans were strange.

The Heralds were still looking at it with suspicious eyes, but they weren’t attacking. Fine.

The girl who had once been Thara started to sing, and to change.

It was not a song in any human tongue, and was really rather difficult with human vocal chords. It was a song of death, terror, destruction. Eerie and haunting, it floated through the room easily, echoing and adding further layers to the keening. The Desolation comes, it meant. Flee or die.

The Heralds stiffened. They had heard it before. Nale was first to react, his already-summoned Blade swinging for Thara’s arms. Not a lethal blow - Nale knew that would be no use. Yelig-nar would just move on. But restraint? Not perfect, but better than nothing.

The body, though, had started to change. Yelig-nar had kept the changes internal until it started singing, but it stopped bothering. Amethyst crystals grew all over Thara’s body, forming a protective layer of sorts, and it reached out and batted the Blade aside easily.

Jezrien was next, but he had no Blade and no magic. Yelig-nar had to do nothing more than kick him in the stomach, and the old man was on the floor puking. Nale swung again, and this time Thara darted under the blade, amethyst-sharpened nails scratching against the Herald’s throat, and completely past him to the easy prey.

The fabrial confronted it, having been brought a bit forward while it sparred with Nale. It grinned, delighted that any such thing could be thought to stop an Unmade.

Jasnah stood beside it, armed with living Shardblade. She swept at Thara, trying to get it closer to the fabrial. Instead, Yelig-nar dropped under the blade and up.

It had forgotten Nale, though. The Herald’s Blade nearly took it in the back, still scraping off the amethyst at an angle when the Unmade dodged.

Fenced in on three sides, the Unmade grinned and dodged around the fabrial until the device was between it and the two Shardbearers. Try having a go at me now, it thought.

The keening continued, throughout. And because it was made by an Unmade, it was more than song: it carried terror, and images: a Weeping which never ceased, a tiny city trying to stave off a tide of Voidbringers that had no end, a circle of blades in stone.

The Heralds all shivered at that last, of course. Yelig-nar used the opportunity to leap across a corner of the device towards Nale-

***

Now, Thara thought, and put all her remaining will into a single, tiny nudge.

***

-and its hand brushed the polestone. Yelig-nar screamed, song giving way to horror, as it felt itself sucked into the fabrial. Tendrils of dark smoke emerged, desperately seeking a host, anyone - but inexorably everything was sucked into the perfect gemstone.

***

The amethyst-covered body of the servant girl fell to the floor, slowly. It was the only sound in the silence that had fallen when the screaming stopped.

“Well,” said Navani. “That was... quite an experience.”

Servants carefully moved the fabrial down to the palace vaults, where it was securely locked away. In the coming days, the preeminent scholars of the world would likely come together to study it and learn how to destroy it. But in the meantime, everyone agreed that it was best kept far, far away from anyone.

And so all that remained were two amethyst-studded corpses.


The Unmade has been destroyed! (Or disposed of, at least. Destroying a millenia-old spren is something I'm not quite sure how to accomplish with a fabrial and a few Shardblades, sorry.)

The Turn will last until 11pm BST on Thursday, October 18th. 

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Edited by Elbereth
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Adolin gasped, taking in huge lungfuls of air. Distracted, he had spent most of the precious seconds when the Unmade had revealed itself sprinting across the length of the room; by the time he had arrived, the Heralds and the women had seemingly destroyed the creature, or trapped it. He glanced at the gemstone, which was pulsing black light, instead of the previous Violet. Adolin’s stomach turned, and he averted his eyes from the eerie unlight. Somebody needed to take that...thing and put it somewhere safe. 

Adolin’s mind turned to other concerns. The king was avenged, but the events his death had set in motion, culminating with the appearance of the Unmade, all pointed towards the coming of a final Desolation. Almighty send it be not so, Adolin begged. How in the Almighty’s tenth name did a mere feast set off a Desolation? I was going to dance with some of these Parshendi a few hours ago, and now their presence may have triggered the end of the world. He took a step forward, hesitantly addressing the Beggar, who was apparently a Herald. One I tried to kill, Adolin remembered, but pushed the thought from his head. “Begg—er—Jezrien—Mighty Herald—what do we have to do to stave off the Desolation, and the Voidbringers? My Calling is for military service. How may I serve your cause...Lord?”

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Ivory winced as he returned to his normal form. This one had been incredibly close. Securing the germ had been relatively easy. Whether by luck or design, one of the traders on board the ship had indeed carried a suitable gem, and with desolation staring at them from the palace's collation, the trader had been quite willing to part with it, provided Ivory promised he'd return the gem as soon as the unmade had been dealt with.

No, what had made this difficult where the non-sentient Spren. Why can't humans just remain calm, composed and unhurt in situations like this? Don't they know how dangerous they make Shadesmar whenever they fly into a big panic like this? On his rush back, several of the more predatory Spren had leapt at him, and it was only the momentary distraction caused by Yelig-Nar striking that he'd been able to make it back to the feast-hall with all his limbs attached.

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Navani looked around. The Unmade. It was gone. Her invention had worked.

Now she just needed to figure out what to do next.

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My Wincon is to stop the Desolation. I would assume capturing the Unmade to fall under that, but I still have it so I assume there's a threat somewhere. Anyone have any ideas?

 

Edited by SE_Navani_Kholin
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Jasnah let Ivory slip out of her hands. Had they just defeated an unmade? The likes of such monstrosities hadn't been seen in milennia, and they captured it after only two casualties. Unfortunately, one of them was someone Jasnah had trusted.

"This goes to show that I must be more careful who I choose to trust" Jasnah whispered to herself.

 

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