The edge of the strange labyrinth is also the edge of the thunderstorm. Beyond it lies the domain of the wizard, and all within is twisted by his magic, left loose and free and pulling the land into twisted shapes. The tower rises into the sky, far above the clouds of the storm. Strange creatures, like one would never see in civilized lands, swoop down from the clouds and around the tower- others seem to be climbing up it. The tower itself is a strange thing, made of a strange black stone unknown to nature, smooth and clearly wrought by magic. In places, it's colour seems to shift, here blue, there purple, in another place red, but the change in colour never lasts, and one could almost believe it to be a trick of the eye. The labyrinth is made of plants as strange and twisted as the animals above, thorns as long as a sword, vines that move on their own, paths that twist and change, trees that seem made of stone. From it come more sounds of strange creatures, howling and screeching. It is not an inviting place.
No, it is not.
She has a sword. This is unlikely to be very useful against the majority of obstacles in play here, but holding it makes her feel more focused.
She stands at the threshold of the labyrinth and tries casting a navigation spell.
A pale blue line leads her into the labyrinth.
She wasn't sure if it would work. This is good.
She will follow the pale blue line and hold her sword aloft. Do any screeching creatures attack her?
Not before her navigation spell tries to lead her through a hedge.
This seems like a great time to cast a spell for illusions. She will do that.
If the hedge continues being a hedge, she will incinerate a neat gap in it to walk through.
It does continue being a hedge! It burns easily enough. She is barely past the hedge when a passage opens up just ahead of her and a creature which seems to be both a wolf and a lizard at once lunges at her.
She hisses and jumps back. Spell to toss things far away is the first thing that springs to her lips.
The creature is flies through the air down the labyrinth away from her. It rolls to it's feet and runs at her again.
She has more time to think, this time. (And she wants to try killing it with her sword, but now - really isn't the time to mess around with that. She tragically has not been trained to kill things with swords.)
She'll try forcing it unconscious.
She casts a sleep spell on it, and it wavers and falls to the ground before it reaches her.
She'll leave it there, sleeping, and forge ahead.
As she goes further the hedges get taller and closer together until she can go no further. Something hisses behind her.
Inconvenient. Spell to blast the hedges apart in front of her, then, and she'll spin around to brandish the sword at whatever is behind her.
The spell gives her about ten more feet, but she's still at a dead end. She doesn't see anything when she spins around, but there is a strong wind where there wasn't before, and the storm is louder.
Hm. She will try a spell for eliminating ongoing magical effects, in case that helps her with the hedges, and then one to see through illusions, which she will use again to look behind her.
The hedges do not move. The illusion is dismissed, and a snake with scales of stone and metal is beginning to circle around her.
Her sword is even more definitively useless against this snake. This is tragic.
Can she turn the snake entirely to stone?
She can. It doesn't seem to object to this state of affairs at all, and circles closer, hissing. It's brushing against her now.
Okay now what about a spell to shatter stone.
Cracks spread through the snakes body, and then it bursts into pieces around her. Some of the pieces of stone hits her.
This doesn't bother her.
Lana narrows her eyes at the hedges. She recasts her navigation spell.
The navigation spell leads her away from the closed hedge. She is able to follow it for quite a ways, before she hears the shrieking seem to get closer, seeming to surround her.
Ugh. Counter illusions again, dispel ongoing magical effects again - she keeps moving, quickly, as she casts these -
And now there is a... something in front of her. It has five legs, and seems almost insect-like, except it is four feet tall, in place of a head has a mass of tentacles, and is emitting a screeching sound. The screeching from other directions has not stopped. The creature lunges at her as soon as it sees her.
She swings her sword at it before the bizarre sight of the creature can fully register.
Soft tentacles are very stabbable but it doesn't seem to have a head, she has no idea where it keeps its vital organs (if it has any) - probably should not try to kill this thing with sword alone, even though it's sorely tempting to try - how does it react to her first slash -
It reacts to the first slash by launching itself away from her, and while the injury does not vanish, and it leaks a strange ichor, it does not seem affected by the injury at all. The screeching behind her is growing louder now.
Great. She tries to slice the creature in half with a spell instead of a sword. (The screeching is unpleasant but she doesn't what the threat is, can't yet do anything to counter it.)
The creature falls into two pieces. Both halves are trying to move, but falling over constantly. The screeching is right behind her now, nearly in her ear.
Well that's fucking annoying.
She will try the other spells she knows for dispersing illusions or magical effects. She will also stab resentfully at the air with her sword.
It's another of the creature she was fighting before! It leaks ichor when she stabs it, and backs away from her, before beginning to circle. The first ones back half has figured out walking, but the front has fallen over and is unable to right itself.
She would put the terrible thing out of its misery, but she doesn't know what would actually be sufficient to kill it and she wants to save mage energy.
As for the new creature - she might as well experiment - she'll try a spell she knows for crushing things. If that doesn't work, this monster can also get sliced in half.
Crushing things works. It's now a puddle of strange black ichor before her. The ichor does not try to move.
Great. She will recast Navigation, since this is apparently useful, and will then continue on her way until she wanders into whichever monstrosity comes next.
The walls rise around her. The path grows darker and darker. She can follow the spells guidance without question, but the farther she follows it the less she can see, until it's dim light is all that's left. The wind rustles ominously in the darkness, but the shrieking and howling she could hear before fade slowly out of her hearing.
...well.
The darkness is slightly concerning but it's nice that nothing is shrieking anymore. She would keep checking for illusions anyway, in case the next invisible monster has decided to be quiet, but it's dark enough that invisibility wouldn't be making a difference here.
Can she cast a spell for light?
It starts out illuminating the area as she would expect, but soon fades and is simply a glowing ball in the darkness, offering no light more than a few inches from it. The sound of the wind rustling begins to grow distant.