This lady is insolent as anything and has the wrath of a twelve year old.

I say we keep her around as long as possible so that Astara can come out of this and capture her for herself. Then we'll have ourselves a free mana generator/leecher or whatever. Im sure a mage can be used for something.

Or, employ her.

...Sheesh! When we get back to Astara to report, we're going to have to remember to ask if all new mages tend to be as full of themselves as Blaze Fang.

We better not jump to our mistress until she calls us, so I say that we should stick to Blaze Fang for a bit if we can, and if we can't we should just float around in the aether for awhile and watch Astara do her work.

Blaze Fang 2013/01/11(Fri)03:27 No. 484414 ID: 7cc179
File 135790365466.gif - (1.02MB , 600x600 , symbol.gif )

>try to look at it.

animated

Blaze Fang 2013/01/11(Fri)03:28 No. 484415 ID: 7cc179
File 135790371325.gif - (589.59KB , 600x600 , spirittrap.gif )

She barks with laughter. "Stop me if you can!"

Shifting ethereal walls block your passage.
Without a name to bind you, and scrawled hastily in dust and ash, this symbol won't hold you long.

Probably.

animated

Can we just sorta...break it?

well shit, we better fucking hurry up and warn Astara.

>>484416
well, there's never a hole on the outside, so that's basically what needs doing unless the goal is the center and we're starting somewhere on the edge or vice versa, in which case you can basically always reach the goal by taking the most obvious current path towards the center (or outside), and letting the shifting walls open up new ways to go further. This takes like, 3 complete loops, 5 max if you're really unlucky

... Its a 2d maze. We're more than just 2d. Fly up out of the circle.

>>484415
Maze only shifts 3 times before repeating. This shouldn't take more than a few seconds, provided the goal is either to get to the center or to get from the center to that opening in the surrounding red barrier. The way the maze shifts it practically guides you in/out. With proper timing and placement dead end and corners become like straightaways to the goal. If on of those isn't the goal then perhaps we can just think in three dimensions and ignore the maze entirely.

That last option is the one we should try first considering how much time we'd save if it's viable.

One more thing. How the hell are we going to stop her? I mean if Astara's too occupied or drained to defend herself what could WE do? Besides shouting z̒҉̡͖̗͎a̶͔̞͈̩͕ͬ̂l̖̯͓̩̲͓̈̈́̐ǧ̂̽̑́̋͞͏͉̹͉̼̱͍o̥̘͙͕̩ͥ͡ ̹͖̱̼͓̮̗̠̀̊̍̐ͦ́̃ͨ̎ṡ̢̜̤̭̦̬̩̫̒ͬ͊p̸̗̉͗ͮ͢͝e̗͈̯ͮ͗̓ͤ̎ͪ̒̐͜ḁ̷̜̭͂͋͋̉ͬͤͦ́k̟̠̦̠͈ͫ̊̽̌͊̋ͩ́͘͞ into Blaze's head I mean.

Notice that the symbol has TWO sets of barriers - the ethereal walls, and the symbol itself. If we wish to escape this trap directly, we should pass through the I/O port on the '1 o' clock' section of the binding diagram. Otherwise, we'll wiggle through the maze only to slap against the outer walls...

>>484415
This is why I didn't say we should look at it, and why I'm not.
[Head off on my own to notify Astara]

>>484415
Go left.

Suggestion 2013/01/11(Fri)12:56 No. 484500 ID: 78c6ea
File 135793777873.gif - (537.42KB , 600x600 , sigh.gif )

I don't actually want to stop her. She's leaving like we were supposed to do. But I can't resist a good puzzle. Here's a solution to the 3 mazes in that hex that all end at the same spot, presumably where there's less fire. I still say let her go though. What good presenting her to Astara would be lost if she were presented by force.

>>484500
those are technically valid. but i don't think you can go through any red lines. need to navigate through the corridor and then stop and move again when the map changes.

>>484500
What? She isn't leaving. She suckered us, and now she's going for the vortex.

>>484512

She's not going for the vortex. It isn't even fire anymore. We were all jabbering about grabbing her and depositing her in Astara's clutches all of a sudden. She disagreed, and now she's leaving.

Suggestion 2013/01/11(Fri)15:56 No. 484527 ID: 78c6ea
File 135794861489.gif - (717.89KB , 600x600 , nofire.gif )

>>484509

fffffiiiiiineeeee

>>484527

That was...remarkably simpler then I initially though.

And only like three seconds. We can go annoy the crap out of that upstart mage now.

>>484548
I vote for following the upstart! It only took us three seconds to escape her silly shapeshifting maze.

>>484524
Not really. At the time she decided to draw this trap most of us were just feeling bad for her. Some were a bit mocking and others were speculating on whether Astara would be willing to ally with or teach her but there was no mention of using force to take her to Astara.

She created a trap and lied to sucker us into it. If she really intended to leave why would she do that?

There is no point to following her and we can't actually force her to do anything considering what we and she are.
I do feel sorry for her but not enough to follow her on a fools errand.

rolled 11 = 11

---

>>484527

Personally I want to see if we can do something more than just talk and posses bodies made for us by Astara or whatever.

"FOOLISH YOUNGLING MAGE, YOU DARE TO TRY TO IMPRISON US!"

Try to possess her, have her gutpunch herself, paralyze her and wait for Astara to finish her stuff with the Fire Tornado.

>>484578
Let's not attack the mage who has demonstrated some skill at manipulating spirits.

I think we should go back to Mommy and tell her all that we know.

And THEN tempt death by following the mage.

>>484587

No.

>>484595

And distract her from dealing with the Fire Tornado, allowing the bitch to get away or sabotage her efforts?

No.

>>484596
You can only vote once.

You know it would probably be pretty cool looking if Blaze Fang blew up Astara...

>>484578
NO!

>>484595
After she finishes.

I say we sneak up behind her and tickle her anus.

Dammit! I think Blaze Fang has taken this turn of events as her "omen" is actually to kill Astara! She's going to attack our mistress! We've gotta get outta here and stop her! ...Somehow.

Once we're out, everyone get in close and lock our vision on her so she can't pull anymore trap shenanigans. Then lets try taking possession of her body. That most likely won't work, but it'll distract and slow her down. Follow that with bombarding her with massive amounts of words, which I know we can do. Making a huge racket might also get Astara's attention. And if it doesn't, then one of us can break off to warn her that this suicidally stupid fire mage is going to attack her.

>>484857
Is she walking AWAY from astara or towards her? Because I thought she was in the process of leaving

Suggestion 2013/01/14(Mon)04:13 No. 485154 ID: 7cc179
File 135816562873.jpg - (39.45KB , 600x600 , etherealvision.jpg )

As you shift your perspective into higher dimensions the labyrinth does likewise, surrounding you in every direction with fluctuating walls of force.

The journey is slower than you'd like, as the maze shuffles through endless combinations, but you continue pushing forward to what you assume is the exit. When your passage is blocked, you wait for shifts to clear it for you again. Perhaps ten minutes pass before you are able to shove your way through the final barrier to freedom.

Blaze Fang is still heading toward the vortex. You have no idea how close Astara is to finishing, but the view on the ethereal plane is impressive and terrifying. Will you chase down Blaze Fang and try to stop her somehow? Warn Astara? Or sit back and watch the show?

The maze was as much metaphorical as literal, but since you went to the trouble of solving it you escaped ahead of time. Previous votes from the last update will be rolled foward, but feel free to change them if needed.
more info:
>>/questdis/66115

jump back into fireclaw, and lets start screaming her in head so she can't think. like upload the entirety of timecube straight into her brain.

>>485156
Dear lord man, we want to stun her, not LIQUEFY HER PSYCHE. A hundred verses of "Henry the Eighth I am I am" at 300 psychic decibels should be more than sufficient at less-than-lethal levels.

>>485154
Astara told us to scout out the mage and use our best judgement. We can't affect the physical world, but can we effect the ethereal one? If so we should be able to do something to trip Blaze up considering she has a presence here. I wonder if it would be possible to copy/modify her little trap and lock her ethereal self into a maze for a bit?

>>485175
This sounds like a solid plan, if we can do it.

If not? Lets get the vinebeast over here and grab her.
If that's not possible, then lets apprize Astara of the situation and have her put up a wall of gnarled rose bushes. Or dump Blaze in a spring or something.

>>485154
Personally I think we should warn Astara. She's in the middle of a huge chunk of mana; surely she can use that to defend herself against a novice mage.

>>485197
not mana a huge KNOT of mana. if she stops trying to control it, it could fail catastrophically.

if she's going away, let her. if not, tickle her anus.

If we want to trip her up, why not go the classic route?
Jump into her head and unleash a cacophony of agonized screaming that strengthens as she nears the vortex. Maybe we can spook her away.

warn astara

Since the most we can do is yell at Blaze Fang, albeit at a massive volume, that's all we can do. Unless it's suddenly and at a critical juncture in her spinning mana such that it'd backfire and blow her up, I don't see that helping us. She'll just compensate for us making loud noises.

Let's get to Astara and whisper to her that a novice Kaftar fire mage is inbound, and looking to prove herself by killing Astara, as idiotic as that sounds. Perhaps Astara could divert a bit of that mana to shifting the ground here to either form a protective wall, or a moat of scalding hot water.

If Astara has the spare concentration to talk to us, she has the spare concentration to notice the other magical beacon walking closer. I don't know what we would warn her about beyond that. We should continue to stall Blaze Fang. Even SHE asked us to.

Go tell her something to the effect of "Look, that was cute. Really. Clever and all that. But it really didn't accomplish much. We were made to be little more than a glorified alarm clock for that lady over there, and we got out. Still here to bug you, warn you, encourage you to reconsider your life choices. We understand, you have a posse back there to impress, but this isn't the way to do that. You haven't been able to handle the alarm clock, you sure you wanna go interrupt spring cleaning to try your practical jokes on the one in charge here? Last guy what did that got turned into a beast of burden for his trouble. I like you girl, rather not see you turned into a living mana battery, even though you do look like you have the right build for it... Anyway, don't do anything silly and we'll introduce you to the mistress if you want, see if we can get her to help you out somehow. Hate to waste a good omen by handling it all wrong."

>>485392

You know, we weren't made to be a glorified alarm clock for the lady. Remember we were with the lion fellow long before she was even awake.

>>485393
that's because magic was going wild so we latched on to the first conscious mind that go close enough to the lady.

Warn the boss we tried to talk to her but she did not listen.

If we do go after blaze fang, I suggest that rather than acting immediately we follow her waiting for the right moment where us distracting her would be crucial.

Although, we told Astara we left to negotiate so if she senses us coming back with her she might suspect we are bringing her in for tea and crumpets hence why I still contend we should pop in to warn her first.

Tell her that fire becoming green is her omen, because fire kills what is useless, it clears land and makes it new. The harsh make way for the soft, until the soft grows fat and weak, easy prey for the fire.

New growth is being sown. Ashes make damn good fertilizer. And taking care of Astara's geomancy problem would allow one to know the manse's defenses.

...returning soon