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blai in book 11 of asftv
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Nayoki gets out a communication-spell order that they need reinforcements following them as soon as possible and can someone please tell Jisa to ABSOLUTELY STAY PUT and not go right back in there after Leareth just got her out. 

She needs them to be ready to cross very quickly to avoid her Gate being blasted when the gryphons see it, as soon as the Gate is up - 

 

- which is now. 

She dives through. 

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Through the Gate, then! 

It's indeed pretty dark, though the sky is clear enough for there to be some moonlight - a state unlikely to last for long with this many Gates around - and a lot of splintered remains of the spindly far-northern trees are on fire. 

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The Gate snaps down as soon as Vanyel is also through, and Nayoki reaches ahead with Thoughtsensing - if Leareth is unconscious and his Thoughtsensing talisman is intact, she might not be able to find him, but if it's damaged and she's looking very hard then hopefully she can... 

 

 

 

 

 

...find him. 

:- He is a hundred-some yards this way.: She's already in motion. :Buried under debris, I think, or trapped when the cave collapsed. Not responding to me.: 

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At which point they are divebombed by a pair of gryphons, who weren't quite fast enough to hit the Gate. 

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Nayoki could set-command them but she can't do that and wayfind to Leareth, the signature of his mind is very faint and it's taking all of her concentration to keep her fix on him - she's worried that he's weakening, he was clearly shielded enough to survive the explosion and cave-collapse but she's not sure he has air where he is - she's just going to keep moving, and trust Vanyel and Blai to handle defense. 

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Vanyel flings up a shield and the gryphons bounce off it. 

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And immediately come at them again! 

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Ah, they found a battle.

Prayer.

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They got a bit ahead of them while Vanyel was distracted holding off gryphons and now he's trying to move over uneven ground and hold a shield over all three of them and probably cannot do that and simultaneously hit two gryphons who, having bounced off again, are now now circling back to come at them from two directions and with more momentum. 

Blai has a weapon, though. 

(All of this is shared with Blai.) 

:Think you can take the one on the right if I tell Vanyel to get the one on the left?: Gryphons are very fast and have wickedly sharp beaks and claws, but Blai is wearing armor and apparently tougher than most humans. The gryphon will be shielded, but probably more against magical attacks than a mace to the face, maximum-power physical shields would interfere more with flight. 

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:I'd be more confident of it standing on my own feet but I think so.: It's way less intimidating than a glabrezu.

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(See? He has the BEST Herald.) 

:I won't let you fall.: 

Seldan passes the plan on to Vanyel, and prepares to stop moving for a moment. They've covered twenty yards or so. 

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Reasonable plan. 

Vanyel doesn't drop the shield, that would make the gryphons suspicious, but he'll plan on letting it come down after it's caught most of their momentum. 

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Gryphons dive. 

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Blai smashes one in the beak.

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Other gryphon gets an overpowered levinbolt that flings it back. It crashes into the ground a few seconds later, possibly dead, definitely at least unconscious. 

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Beak-smashed gryphon is not as badly off but it tumbles back and flaps dizzily and ungracefully a foot off the ground, trying to right itself before it comes at them again. 

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Which is plenty long for Vanyel to get it with a levinbolt over Blai's head. 

He puts the shield back over them and runs. 

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Seldan hurries to catch up with Nayoki. 

:- Once we get close enough, can you hit Leareth with a channel even if he's buried, or does it need line of sight?: They can probably dig him out but it sounds like they might be under attack the entire time. 

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:Line of effect.: Which is its own entire concept in Blai's head - visibility doesn't matter but barriers do, the channel won't helpfully go around rubble. Also if the gryphons are near enough and not dead it'd get them back up too, he can't do it selectively.

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All right. Then hopefully they can get close enough and - Vanyel is best placed among them to move a lot of heavy rocks quickly, which he can't do and shield them or fight gryphons at the same time, but Nayoki will be less distracted once she's no longer focused on directing them to Leareth, and should be able to just set-command incoming gryphons, which will incapacitate them in a way not fixable by Blai's healing. And they'll judge then whether they have time for Blai to get within touch range of Leareth once Vanyel has the rubble out of the way. 

They keep moving. 

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They're going to come under attack again by a better-coordinated group of five gryphons while still thirty yards short. 

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...All right, harder to divvy up in advance. 

Seldan pulls Vanyel into rapport as well, which does mean some unavoidable close contact with the unpleasantness of a broken Companion-bond, but Vanyel is mostly keeping a lid on it and it should let them coordinate in realtime. 

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Vanyel is startled but not so much that he loses the shield. The lead gryphon bounces off and circles back up, but he's worried - he, she, who knows, he can't tell with gryphons - might just be testing the strength of it. If they have a mage with them - 

 

- he can leave the shield up but without an active link to him, it'll go down under the first serious attack but should still slow them down, and then rather than waiting for the gryphons to dive all at once he can hit both of those two with a big enough fireball and they can figure it out from there - 

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If they've noticed Blai isn't a mage they could end up focusing on him, but Seldan can't see what to do about that, other than being as ready as possible, Blai really just has to hold them off long enough that Vanyel can hit them one at a time. 

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Two gryphons are now badly singed, not quite down but they're backing off and not flying very well.

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