*000000*

[X] Use Message to inform the Sergeant of the wurm and your plans. Then try to lure the wurm away from the rest of the team. Once the wurm is distant enough from them, escape the wurm with flight, and rejoin with the party.

((()))

Hoping that the Wurm won't react to some relatively minor movement and noise, you start casting Message, preparing to send a subtle warning to the Sergeant.

"Skrreeee!"

Your hope is disappointed, as the Wurm immediately shrieks and starts rushing you, moving surprisingly quickly for something so large.

Worse, a moment later your spell fails, due to trying to reach farther than it can actually affect, meaning you've set it off and wasted time.

"There's a wurm!" you shout, turning your head back while keeping one eye on the approaching beast, "I'm fast enough to lead it away, don't let it spot you!"

Taking a few flying hops forward, you ready yourself to hurl yourself out of the way as soon as it tries to attack you. Fortunately, it seems to have an intelligence more bestial than draconic, and it pretty much just comes straight at you, also giving you the time to manifest Force Screen before it arrives.

As it gets close, its head rears back, and you hurl yourself out of the way just before it lunges, flying smoothly past the head, and up the length of much of its body. In order to make sure that you have its attention, you activate Swarm of Crystals, and pepper its hide with razor-sharp ectoplasm.

(5d4=12, SoC does not allow saves or require an attack roll.)

"Skrree!" the creature shrieks in outrage, before turning about to chase after you as you put on the speed to make sure that you stay ahead.

...It really is a lot slower to you, to the point where you have to slow down after just a few seconds to make sure it doesn't lose sight of you.

Of course, now the question is what do you do with the attention you've worked to draw away from the others?

What do?

[] Just keep flying ahead until it's exhausted and gives up.

[] Try to gradually take it out with Swarm of Crystals?

[] There are some large holes in both the floor and the ceiling, large enough for you to fly through, and it to follow you through. Maybe lead it onto a different level?[X] Lead it away a safe distance then try to lose it before returning.

((()))

Your first priority is getting as much separation distance from the rest of the party, which can't outrun the Wurm, as you can. Given the large, wide-open main streets, and how many of the smaller side-streets have been smashed into being more open than originally intended, this isn't exactly a difficult prospect.

Flying along at a fraction of your top speed, you're still faster than the wurm chasing after you at what is clearly its very fastest speed. If it weren't for the deadly threat presented if the thing ever actually catches up with you, this'd be fun.

Soaring along through the depths of the city, banking smoothly around pillars, columns, and corners, always a good hundred feet or more ahead of the creature, going from twitchy to amused by the crashes and thumps of the stone rubble it knocks around while chasing you.

...Betty would probably think of this as a sport, even though she'd have a much more difficult time keeping a head of this thing than you. Of course, she could also fly into and through a lot of sub-structures that your wing span would never fit through.

It's hard to accurately gauge time when you're engaged in high-stress flying like this, but you'd guess that you spend at least half an hour leading the enraged Wurm through the ruins of Ravnica's lower levels. You should definitely buy a watch the next time you're on Earth Bet; clocks aren't everywhere here like they are in a modern city.

As you approach a large open square, probably used for open-air markets in happier days for this part of the city, you catch sight of something that momentarily bewilders you, before you're able to piece together the outline of what you're seeing.

Glancing back at the Wurm again, which is pursuing you just as doggedly now as it was when the pursuit first began, you decide you can put a basic plan together and take a pseudo-risk.

Upping your speed to something the Wurm can't even come close to matching, you focus and bring up Swarm of Crystals again, spewing razor shards across the shin of the zombified giant in front of you, before activating your choker's temporary invincibility effect, and doubling back past the Wurm as quickly as you can.

(1d20+26=31, Taylor is hit by zombie giant. Invulnerability effect nullifies damage.)

A fist larger than your entire body smashes into you, sending you bouncing off of the ground and ricocheting back out of the market square like a pinball. Thanks to the magics McClade wove into your choker, you don't feel even a twinge of pain from the impact, and are able to regain control of your flight before the effect wears off.

Turning around, you see the wurm plow into the zombie giant, the two immediately starting to brawl with each other.

Your first instinct is to take the opportunity to flee, but a realization strikes you. Both of the beasts are fairly large and powerful, and it's not at all clear that one is decisively stronger than the other; if you can make sure that the two do each other in, that'll clear a space for the squad to move through. It should take at least a few days for some other monster to realize there's unoccupied territory, and move in on the space, more than enough time to cross past these 'wilds.'

...Not to mention it looks like there's at least a little bit of gold and possibly-useful equipment scattered around the market square.

What do?

[] Just leave, you've done the important bit. (Taylor will not know the outcome of the monster brawl unless/until one of them shows back up)

[] Try to tip the scales so that the Giant wins. You clearly need to travel through the wurm's territory, but not necessarily the giant's.

[] Try to ensure that both creatures die, either through killing each other or one being weak enough for you to finish of

[X] Get someplace safe and look natural while watching the show, bemoan the lack of popcorn. Try to ensure that both creatures die, either through killing each other or one being weak enough for you to finish off. The giant will probably be easier to finish off since it can't hide by burrowing, so try to arrange that if possible.

AN: Sorry for the delay on this BQ has been very busy, and I ended up writing a 3k update for it today.

((()))

Winging your way upward, you find the highest perch in the large market square you can, which ends up being an enchanted steel cradle that was probably installed for exactly this purpose.

Below you, the wurm has managed to wrap itself halfway around the giant's arm, biting at its head and neck, while the zombie tries to catch a grip on the thing's long coils.

And they are very long coils; the wurm is actually bigger than you had first thought, long enough that it might be able to wrap itself completely around the giant. The two thrash around ineffectively for a few seconds, before the zombie finally manages to get a grip on one of the coils and tear itself free.

Then the two start to hammer each other, bony fists and muscular coils smashing into each other as the two pound each other with raw force.

Thump.

The cradle you're resting on rattles with the force.

Wham.

The air displaced by the blow buffets you hard enough to make your wings flutter.

Smash.

A nearby wooden market stall, decrepit and worn down, collapses without even being touched.

Crunch.

It's clear that the giant is the stronger of the two, and it's getting the upper hand, so you hock up an acidic loogie, and spit it down at the enormous zombie. Only about half of it strikes the target, but you hear the sizzle of dissolving flesh even over-

Thump.

-The sound of the giant battering the wurm further and further down. Both of them have been roughed up pretty badly, but the wurm clearly is far closer to losing, so you caste Haste, this time including the giant snake-thing.

Glomp.

The change is immediate, the wurm surging forward and biting a chunk out of the giant's shoulder, before finally managing to wrap itself around both arms at the same time, and pinning them against its rotting torso.

It thrashes and bucks, but the wurm is able to quickly bring its overall greater size to bear, wrapping the zombie in coil after coil as it bucks.

You hock another acid loogie, this time at the wurm, since it seems to have the upper hand, and busy pinning the giant down, it isn't able to avoid the full spread.

(Reflex save failed, 3d6=13 acid damage.)

The wurm mostly ignores you, squeezing and squeezing until something in the giant cracks with a sound like thunder, and it goes deathly still.

"Skreee!" the wurm roars in victory, though not quite so loud as before.

It isn't hard to see why; it's flesh has been pulped and smashed by the giant, long segments of pulverized scales revealing flesh bruised black underneath. The wurm is in very rough shape.

Your chest starting to feel somewhat over-exerted, you strain yourself to bring up enough acid for one more good spray, interrupting the great serpent's victory roar with the hiss of dissolving flesh.

(Reflex save failed, 3d6=17 acid damage)

"Khhhhhhkhhkh!" It half-hisses, half-growls, immediately turning up to face you, before winding its coils along the wall of the market, trying to climb upwards with the odd movements that snakes use to try to defy gravity.

You hesitate, feeling the ache in your chest that means it'll be a fair bit before you can concentrate enough acid for a proper breath attack. Your Swarm of Crystals attack is a reliable damage-dealer, not usually against targets this large, but it's in rough shape…

It slips a little as it climbs, tilting almost off balance, and you leap from the cradle, angling into a dive to try and finish it off.

You moved too soon, and its head snaps around; you try to evade, but sheer shock at its sudden movement catches you off-guard.

(1d20+25=40, hits. 2D8+12=21 damage. Improved Grab allows immediate grapple, 1d20+40=55.)

Its jaws clamp down around you, pinning your wings in place-

(Taylor rolls 1d20+12=15 to try to avoid being grappled. Fails.)

- you thrash around futilely as it starts to chew, trying to focus enough to manifest Swarm of Crystals-

(1d20+15=18, fails. Wurm rolls 1d20+40=55 for grapple, Taylor rolls 1d20+12=32. Crit, add 1d20, 19. Total 51. Still fails grapple. Wurm rolls 2d8+12=23 damage.)

But it's chewing on you, teeth cutting into your wings, pressure trying to collapse your chest-

(1d20+15=31, concentration check succeeds. Swarm of Crystals does 5d4=12, more than enough to finish off wurm's last 3 HP.)

NO.

You will not die here.

Ignoring the feeling of what is happening to your flesh, you focus your mind, and a spray of lethally sharp crystals erupts out from your body, shredding it's flesh.

The creature collapses around you, its mouth falling open as it strikes the floor, and you roll out a slimy and bleeding mess.

But still very much alive.

((()))

AN: Taylor earns 14,700 XP.

Whoooo boy. I thought Taylor was going to get off scott free, until she made a bad roll in judging the situation right at the end there, one which her continued lack of proper combat training amplified into her almost getting eaten.

High-risk high-reward has paid off though. There'll be treasure in the next update, an additional two HD, and probably the opportunity to vote on some more class levels. You can expect Fighter, Warblade, Swordsage, and Crusader levels to be available from the Boros, and Rogue from Melissa.

Psion is always available.

On the whole, Taylor has finally gone out and had a proper classical adventuring experience.

AN: I was getting a little annoyed at people saying I was having Taylor act like an idiot for not using Mind Thrust… then I realized that I was subconsciously metagaming in her favor; she didn't realize it (so the players weren't informed), but that wurm was...

((()))

Breathing harshly, you cast Lesser Vigor on yourself, shivering as the small tears in your wing membranes immediately begin to heal, and the soreness all along your chest and abdomen starts to slowly fade.

That's the closest to death you've come since…

Actually, you've been close to death entirely too many times. Getting shot repeatedly, tangling with the Gruul, whatever it is that ended your time on Earth Bet.

You're glad you've finally had the opportunity to kick someone else's ass instead.

Limping a little, you pad over to the giant wurm's corpse, morbidly fascinated with just how much damage it took to put the beast down.

...Something looks off about it.

Backing up again, just in case it isn't as dead as it looks, it takes you a few moments to realize just what's off.

It isn't bleeding.

At all.

From any of its wounds.

It was an undead wurm, which means that it wasn't a 'monster vs zombie' fight you just set up, it was a 'undead vs undead' fight.

...Doesn't really matter, you suppose. They're both re-dead, which makes this a safe area until some other giant deadly creature moves in, so it's time to set about looting the room and getting back to the rest of the party.

Casting Detect Magic, you start methodically scanning the piles of detritus around the market. Part of you realizes absently that this would be much more difficult if you were stuck with normal human eyes, but dragon eyes have something like the ability to see heat, meaning that even in these dark depths of the city without a source of light, you can do a reasonably quick search.

You only find two objects with magical glow, a quarterstaff, and some sort of ring. You also find a pair of locked strongboxes that have basic durability enchantments; one of them is too large and heavy for you to reasonably carry as you fly, but the other is easy enough to tuck under one foreleg as you take to the air to head back to the party.

((()))

Another positive side-effect of the wurm being nowhere near as fast as you, is being able to make it back to the rest of the squad. You have a hard enough time retracing your flight path without it being two to four times longer, like it would have been if you were actually pushing your limits, rather than just cruising along.

It's also kind of surprising how much faster you're able to get back to where the chase started. It felt like you were leading the thing on for at least most of an hour; it's more like ten minutes to get back.

You definitely should pick up a good watch next time you're on Earth Bet.

The party isn't exactly where you left them, but it isn't hard to make out the simple chalk marks they left pointing the route they took past where the wurm had been sleeping, and it only takes you a few minutes flying at a good speed to catch up with them from there.

"Taylor!" Fortinbrass shouts almost the instant you fly into view, "Damn, it's good to see you. Did you manage to lose the wurm?"

"Better," you say with a grin as you glide down, "I ran it into a zombie giant, and got the two to beat each other up, then finished off the wurm. There's probably a safe route across at least the length of their territory, if not further."

"Alright then," Fortinbrass says, raising an arm and spinning it around, the gesture or the squad to form up and turn about face, Melissa taking the opportunity to latch onto you in a tight hug, "Let's reroute through a hopefully-safe path, and move double-time. We don't know how long the opportunity will last."

He stops speaking for a moment as the squad starts to jog along.

"Now tell me how the fight went," he says, "I can see that you got roughed up a bit, and if we're down here for the long haul, might as well teach you a thing or two about proper battle tactics..."

((()))

AN: So yeah, Mind Thrust was useless against the wurm, because it was undead. More, once it had climbed up high enough to reach Taylor, neither of her ranged options would be far enough to keep herself out of its charging/striking range. There are other things that Taylor could have tried than staying in position until she could manage another breath attack or Swarm of Crystals, but as I said, she rolled very poorly on what to do.

Level up options:

Taylor has a total of 16,710 XP currently available to spend. She also can take another feat, and has 27 skill points available. (I had to amend the XP number because I forgot to factor in Item Familiar's 10% bonus.)

Currently available classes for purchase are Fighter (already to level 2), Swordsage, Warblade (already to level 1), Crusader, Psion, Rogue, and the Urban variant of Ranger.

She could also technically take Swiftblade, but she would be wasting a caster level if she does so. If she takes the correct powers with a sixth level of Psion, she would then be able to start taking the Constructor prestige class from the current XP pool (first level will cost 6000 XP), which would focus on making Astral Constructs a top-tier ability, IE good enough to be an entire combat strategy all by themselves.

Vote for class levels to gain. (Separate line for each class you want levels in.)

[] Write-in what class level to take.

[] Write-in what class level to take.

[] Write-in what class level to take.

Vote for what feat to take:

[X] Class: Psion 7 (13K XP)

[X] Class: Rogue 2 - Fighter Bonus variant (3K XP)

[X] Feat: Practiced Manifester

[X] Plan Make Taylor a tactical genius.

-[X] Martial Lore +13

-[X] Perception +3

-[X] Craft (Sculpting) +5

-[X] Spellcraft +2

-[X] Diplomacy +2

-[X] Concentration +2

((()))

Moving at a hustle, Melissa and the Troopers reach the shattered market square in about twice the time it took the wurm to chase you there. As you'd hoped, no other monsters trouble you along the way; you spot a few small scavenger creatures, what look like coyotes and felines about the size of bobcats, but nothing big enough to really be a threat, or think it has a chance against the Boros.

When you reach the square itself, the Sergeant uses hand-signals to order the squad to break up and swiftly scout the perimeter, Rast and yourself moving to the center as rapid support should something go wrong.

"You killed those?" Melissa asks, staring incredulously at the two felled monsters.

"They mostly killed each other," you reply, glancing at the wurm and the giant for a moment, before focusing back on general situational awareness, "I finished the wurm off afterwards, which was rough, but almost all the damage you see came from the giant."

"Still bigger than anything I'd want to tangle with," Rast chortles, the Embermage looking particularly satisfied by the shattered corpses sprawled across the market floor.

When the rest of the squad returns, there's wolf-whistles, congratulations, and the sort of shoulder-smacking you've seen teenage boys engage in, but never taken part in before yourself.

"The squad might have been able to take one of those in a straight-up fight," Fortinbrass says, "But we definitely would have lost someone. Damn good problem-solving, Taylor. When we get back, I'm going to be forwarding a letter of recommendation that you be offered a slot as a Guildmage as soon as you're finished training with the Izzet."

"I'm not part of the Boros," you point out.

"If you're talented enough," Fortinbrass says, patting you on the shoulder more gently, "We'll take you on at a rank above recruit. Even if you don't take the offer, it's a mark of respect, and will let the other Guilds know you stand high in the Boros' esteem."

"...Thank you," you say, glad that you don't have to worry about blushing in your Dragon form, "I'd settle for just managing to get back home."

"It's good to have something to look forward to," Fortinbrass says, "But yes, primary focus on dealing with our current problems. Where's the other chest you said you found?"

You lead him to the small stall where you found the two chests, and Rast double-checks your own findings; it's enchanted for durability, which may make it very difficult to crack open.

"If you can use Dispel now," Rast points out, "It should be able to at least temporarily suppress the effect of the enchantments, even if it can't break them outright."

You frown slightly; it still isn't clear whether or not the distinctions between how Psionics and the Arcane work is large enough to keep that property from overlapping. The only way to find out ultimately is to try.

It takes three tries, but eventually the power works, and Fortinbrass is able to smash the chest open with little trouble, revealing hundreds of gold coins inside.

"Looks like you found the local moneylender's stall," he says dryly, "Good work; this should keep us well-funded for the rest of the trip to the surface and then some.

((()))

Taylor will now get to learn two additional 3rd level Psionic Powers, and two 4th level Psionic Powers.

For her Dragon HD advancement, she also gets to learn One additional Sorceror Cantrip, one additional second, third, and fourth level spell, as well as her first fifth level spell.

I advise people recall various bits of advice Taylor has received about psionics and magical possibilities before they pick which spells and powers to learn.

Psionic Powers:

[] Write-in 3rd (or lower) level power.

[] Write-in 3rd (or lower) level power.

[] Write-in 4th (or lower) level power.

[] Write-in 4th (or lower) level power.

Sorceror Spells:

[] Write-in a Cantrip.

[] Write-in a 2nd level spell.

[] Write-in a 3rd level spell.

[] Write-in a 4th level spell.

[] Write-in a 5th level spell.

[X] Plan Don't get eaten by evil wurms.

-[X] Psion Power: Ecto Protection

-[X] Psion Power: Psionic Repair Damage

-[X] Psion Power: Energy Bolt

-[X] Psion Power: Correspond

[X] Plan Just say no to Moroii life sucking

-[X] Sorcerer Cantrip: Mage Hand

-[X] Sorcerer 2nd level: Wraithstrike

-[X] Sorcerer 3rd level: Resist Energy, Mass

-[X] Sorcerer 4th level: Death Ward

-[X] Sorcerer 5th level: Plane Shift

[X] Sorcerer Change: Benign Transposition to Alarm

AN: I'm quite pleased with how the vote for switching to Alarm went. Someone had a concern, expressed it, and persuaded the thread it was important enough to do something about. I like it when the voting system works well like that.

((()))

"What are you doing?" Rast asks, his eyes glowing slightly with the signs of a Detect Magic spell.

"Working on something that one of my teachers at Nivix was teaching me," you say, after a moment to consider how to put things, "What does it look like to you?"

"You're moving something magical around," Rast says, shaking his head, "But I can't see any coherence or pattern to it."

"That'd make sense," you say with a smile, "If it looked just like regular Arcane Magic, there wouldn't be much point in developing this independently. Now, please let me focus."

He nods, settling back down to rest again.

The party reached the edge of 'the wilds' about an hour ago, or at least what you think is the edge. There's another barricade, and though it's unmanned, it doesn't have any holes large enough for a minotaur to pass through, much less a giant. Fortinbrass had you all move far enough in that you were out of sight of the barricade before stopping for a rest.

A day and a half of forced-march has tired everyone out, only Wefer seeming to be doing better than he was before, now mostly-recovered from the immediate effects of the Moroii's attack. Of course, for you the whole trip was less straining than a stroll in the park; flight really changes how you interact with the world, and keeping up with the humanoids' jogging pace was easy.

While everyone else is either laid out to try and sleep, or alternately on watch, you've been trying to assemble the correct psionic pattern to engage in Telepathy. Given how fighting down here has proven even more dangerous than it already had, you've found some fresh motivation to expand your psionic horizons.

You'd think 'psychic' and 'Telepathy' would go hand-in-glove, but for some reason none of the patterns you've managed to develop with Parasetimol's active help ended up panning out that way. Empathy is the closest you've come, and it gives you a decent starting point, but you still haven't quite…

Click.

"Uh," you whisper, shaking your head slightly before focusing on thinking rather than speaking.

Feather?

Taylor? A shocked voice replies, Where are you? What happened?

I'm in the lower levels of the city, you reply, Level twenty-four of District Eighty-Three, according to the Golgari merchant Sarge spoke with.

We'll start scrying down there immediately, Feather replies, Can you send a mental image with this?

I don't know? You reply, I'll try?

You try to think an image at her; you don't get the feeling it's working.

Get anything? You ask.

No, Feather replies, What condition are you in? Is anyone in need of emergency aid?

No immediate emergency, you reply, Some injuries, but nothing permanent. There's some kind of ward blocking us out, way too powerful for me.

We'll start scrying into the area, Feather says, Find the edges of it. This may take some time, stay safe, and try to get to the surface.

I'll tell the Sergeant, you say, Anything else I should tell him?

Try not to start a fight with the Gruul, Feather says, But get to sunlight. It'll be much easier to find you.

I will, you say, nodding subconsciously, before-

Click.

The effect ends.

...You're fairly sure you can do it again, but you'll have to wait until some of your psychic energy has been restored.

"Sergeant!" you call, "Excellent news!"

((()))

AN: I had to bite my tongue when people started suggesting to Correspond, because they'd unintentionally stumbled across an excellent solution to a problem. I'd made it explicit that while Psionics in Ravnica are not unheard of, they are an alien thing that basically nobody but the Izzet knows about, because no native Ravnicans can use them (thus far).

This means that a Psionic communication ability would be something that would very logically be able to slip past the wards being used to keep Taylor in a shitty situation. I'm a little disappointed that nobody explicitly used that reasoning for their vote, but I'm glad that it won nonetheless.

Sort of.

You see, I did not plan on Correspond being usable as a 'solve this problem' kind of thing for situation Taylor is in right now. To be honest, it messes with my plans.

But.

But.

I am a GM who believes in player freedom. I don't like putting the story on rails.

What's the point? If people want a story with limited or only one path, they can play a computer game, and get better graphics (though I like to think probably not as good writing), out of their limited-story-flexibility-experience.

No, instead we reward Taylor and the players for seeking suitable solutions to problems. Taylor isn't out of trouble yet, but at least she isn't going to have to work her way all the way to safe territory doing a glorified escort mission for six people on foot.

"Fighting up-level is a tactical and strategic nightmare," Fortinbrass says as he leads the way up another intact spiral stairway, "At the most basic, if you control the next level up from someone, you can just drop rocks on their heads. The stamina cost of charging up stairs or a ramp comes into play as well, not to mention just swinging your weapon or firing an arrow/bolt upwards instead of downwards. Pretty much everything favors the high ground."

"I'm glad we aren't fighting anything on these stairs," you say, resisting the urge to jump up and fly ahead again.

"With the stairs this broad," he says, "It's a lot better for fliers like you, but there's still the problem of being high-visibility targets when you're in the air. The Skyknights could teach you better of course, but I can teach you a few basics about integrating aerial capabilities with legion forces on the ground…"

Fortinbrass seems to have decided that even if you aren't planning on joining the Boros, he should still do everything he can to educate you in Legion tactics and capabilities. You're pretty motivated to pay attention, given just how close to death you've come, and the fact that at a minimum you'll want such competencies for helping get out of this enormous slum, much less for possible uses in the future.

A part of that is explaining the basic combat training of the Boros, and it's a lot more involved than you'd first thought. While you're vaguely aware of how melee combat works for people without claws and giant fangs, your understanding really isn't very far past 'pointy end goes into the other man.' It doesn't exactly surprise you to learn that there's a lot more to it than that, but you definitely weren't expecting just how much subtle magic Boros Legionaries learn.

Formation maneuvers, training in how to strike so fast their shield wall isn't breached, mental hardening, intimidation tactics, physical hardening, breaching physical hardening, an odd form of martial magic that enables healing allies when you strike the enemy.

Apparently a fair number of Legionaries can sheathe their blades in flames and other pyromantic techniques, though most members of the League of Wojek aren't focused on such abilities, as they're not the most useful in a policing role. Even in a stone city, there's a lot of burnable stuff, and nobody wants the cops burning down their shop.

Perhaps it's the bias of having spent so much time with the Izzet, but you had thought of the legion's spellcasters as a disproportionately large amount of its firepower. Apparently, that's just the start of professional bias showing in how you're a trained mage, but only know the basics of melee combat.

Something to think about.

((()))

We still don't have any useful navigational information, Feather explains two days later, This is part of why we want you to reach sunlight.

Nothing but dark slum streets? You ask.

More or less, Feather says, Be careful. Whatever created the ward has to be very powerful. Unless you stumbled upon a latent curse, this is something enormous.

I know, you reply, I'm going to try to contact Actigall directly today.

I'll send him a message, Feather says, Letting him know to expect it. Goodbye.

Your new communication power is extremely potent, but nonetheless limited. It gives you about forty-five seconds to mentally converse, and draws noticeably on your psychic stamina with each activation, so it doesn't just enable limitless communication. It's plenty for key communication though, and if you need to communicate information more efficiently, you can just look into creating a word-based form of data compression.

"Do you think you could teach me how to do that?" Melissa asks, apparently able to figure out your mental conversation is over just by your body-language.

"...I honestly have no idea," you say, "I was working with the Izzet to try to get a better idea of how Psionic abilities do and don't work. One thing they definitely don't know is what determines if you can or can't manifest them at all."

"...I didn't hear a yes or no in that," Melissa says after a moment's thought.

"I can try?" you say, "I'm not sure if it'll work or not. Even if it does, this communication power is the most complex one I know, and I've been working on these for more than six months. It'll take a while to catch up, if you're capable at all."

"It'd still be worth it," Melissa says, "I don't ever want to get stuck alone like that again."

You scoot over beside her and wrap one wing around her.

"I don't think either of us ever want to be alone again," you say quietly, "It sucks."

Melissa nods, and you spend the rest of that break quietly enjoying some human contact.

((()))

"Nuts," Fortinbrass says, glaring up at the shattered up-ramp that you've reached, "That's the third in a row that was wrecked."

"Why aren't those built more durably in the first place?" Melissa asks.

"It's a defensive measure," Fortinbrass says, "And to some degree, cost-saving. Only one in six stairwells are supposed to be made from fully-fortified stone, and it looks like whoever is in power on the next level up wanted to close their borders."

"On to the next stairwell?" Wefer asks, fully recovered at this point, aside from his beard-stubble being very prematurely gray.

"I'm thinking about it," Fortinbrass says, his eyes on the bits of stone above, "I've only got fifty feet of rope, but that might be enough to move us between the chunks of staircase that are left up there. Taylor, can you go up to get a gauge of the distances involved, and see what's on the next level?"

"Sure," you say, leaping up into the air, flapping hard to gain altitude.

It doesn't take too long to get up to the next level; there's no hard-and-fast rule to how deep each level is, but in your experience they generally have between eight and twelve floors between them, and the base structural stone 'foundation' to each level is about a floor's worth in its own right. You only have to push yourself a little to get to the top of this 'stairwell' in well under a minute.

At the top, you find a barricaded wooden door. Landing on the narrow bit of stone on top of that you find a crack in the door to look out through; beyond, you see a street with pedestrian traffic, one reminiscent of the streets in muskrat territory. There's a fair number of people, though it isn't packed like in properly-civilized districts, though it's hard to focus on any one person or make out all that much detail, given you only have a crack in the door to work with.

After you've seen enough to be confident that there's no band of thugs immediately at hand, you turn around and glide back down, double-checking the distance between intact sections of the stairwell large enough for a man to stand on. It looks like people could work their up, bit by bit, though a couple of the sections will be close.

"Another inhabited area at the top," you tell Fortinbrass when you land, "I didn't see any guards immediately nearby, and the streets were active like they were in Muskrat territory. I think the stone segments are close enough that I could anchor the rope and people could climb up one at a time, but some sections could only have one or two people standing on them at a time, including the chunk by the door at the top."

"...I think we're going to take it," Fortinbrass says, passing you the one coil of rope he has on hand, "And if we can, we'll buy more rope in whatever markets they have up there."