Walking to Rosewater

[Anastasia]

It's highly technical work and some of it is more specialized than even you can follow easily. But in essence, it seems to be mutilating the soul and roughly speaking, grafting abilities onto it. It causes unspeakable agony to the victim as well as shreds parts of them, but it works. It takes the Styx to be used as the agent to do the shredding and transferring due to its native abilities and the nature of evil.

There is but one downside - it scars the soul. Imagine the soul as one smooth, perfect sphere. This is like a protrusion from it, grafted on. It works, but at the same time, it does things do it. A point of weakness. Almost like a tumor on healthy flesh in a way. If you know it's there and know the arts, you could target it as a weak point for spells that attack the soul or trap it.

There is evidence that more powerful entities will heal this scar in time by their nature. All it takes is using the souls of others like firewood to be hacked up and burnt.

This is all somewhat relative as the soul has no true shape per se, but it gets the point across.

[Ebiris]

"That explains why she wasn't using it herself - and why she was so eager to offer the benefits to me earlier," Alicia says as she digests all of that. Something to talk about with Mystra later, she thinks.

Did that also cover how skills and knowledge were preserved to be copied multiple times instead of it being a zero sum transfer?

[Anastasia]

That's a different branch: It involves soul sacrifice, using the Styx, an artifact and profane rituals to consume other souls to fuel it.

"It's an abomination is what it is," Syala's voice is steady, "To end a life is one thing, but to end souls? Those are the forbidden arts for good reason."

[Ebiris]

"She's an inventive abomination alright," Alicia agrees. "Ask her about the ritual she meant to benefit from today, how it worked and differed from the normal method?"

[Anastasia]

More arcane research and rituals. In short, she would feed on those souls and grow stronger. They would be destroyed doing it of course, but the dark arts would grant Violet a great deal more power.

"What I want to know is," Here Antenora speaks up, "Did Malcanthet get augmented?"

[Ebiris]

Was Violet's soul wounded by the ritual?

"Good question," Alicia says, letting Naeys ask it on Antenora's behalf.

[Anastasia]

It shouldn't have been, mostly due to the number of sacrifices and Violet's own work, as well as an innate trait - she seems compatible with the Styx somehow.

A scene. Malcanthet lies nude on a ritual stone slab, arcane diagrams all about. It's not the one you saw in Rosewater, but it's similar enough on a glance. "The sorcery of an archmage and the battle prowess of a legendary monk." Violet declares, as she watches Malcanthet's body. She's certainly gorgeous, no two ways about that.

"I feel it within," Malcanthet says slowly, then crooks a finger forward, "You've earned a reward, Violet. Let me feel you withi-" At this Naeys coughs and clears his throat, the memory stopped.

"I don't think we need to see what happens next," Naeys says, quite firmly.

"None of us do," Syala's lips twist into a grimace. "She treats her more like a genuine lover, not a tool or minion. Not all the way, but she's definitely nurturing Violet along."

[Ebiris]

"Her talent is one worth cultivating," Alicia says, unbothered by what they saw. "Ask who the archmage and legendary monk that donated their skills to Malcanthet are," she adds. Getting run of the mill skills is one thing, but to get legendary skills requires taking someone legendary out and sucking them dry.

"Didn't you kill her avatar?" Marie asks. "I wonder if those grafted talents translate across to avatars - ask that next?" she asks Naeys.

[Anastasia]

"In one moment," Naeys says, getting that ready. In the meantime, "Didn't she cast time stop?" Latha observes. "Would that not say it all?"

[Ebiris]

"Oh, if that's something she can't normally do then I suppose, but divine magic...?" Marie hazards.

It's a trickery domain spell that she'd have as an SLA anyway. Did she cast it as a spell or a spell-like?

[Anastasia]

Spell-like, she has it as one. This is just a case of Latha not knowing the sheet, so to speak.

"That is true," Antenora considers, "With how tricky she is, I can believe she'd have it."

[Ebiris]

"It looked more like divine materialisation than casting an arcane spell," Alicia says, waiting to have her questions answered on the provenance of those skill-sets first before they see how it works with avatars.

[Anastasia]

You have a realm post as well.

You see memories of a fetid swamp. All about two armies clash - demon on demon, meaningless slaughter. Amid it a towering marilith commands a contingent of hezrou and vrock, crushing through a strong point, a fortified little building on a small, muddy island. You see it as Violet approaches, the marilith turning.

She has wild red hair and a bloodied lip, eyes wild and arms writhing not with swords, but with wands. "What does a Radiant Sis-"

Time stop.

A hand of black Styx water is prepared, Violet right in the demon's face. You can see her look - and your arcane lore helps. This is Sinydai, a marilith in the service of Demogorgon. Known as a born sorceress of great skill, she is assigned to help defend Abysm. Powerful, if relatively low profile because she only participates on demon on demon warfare, save when a force challenges Demogorgon's realm. She's competent and relatively favored by Demogorgon, and has a knack of avoiding the worst of everything on the realm. Also known as a generalist sorcerer, rather than anything more specialized.

Violet's hand grasps the marilith as the time stop ends, clawing into her face. Sinydai screams as the lilitu's fingers dig into that face like it's nothing more than runny clay, Stxy-waters spreading. A pulling and a wretching as reality shifts, a prize taken home.

[Ebiris]

Take 10 for 100 for a buffed up knowledge check to know what Sinydai's capabilities were?

[Anastasia]

Besides fighting with many wands at once - hitting and using them at the same time for pain - her main talent was powerful magic. She tended towards evocations and transmutations, but wasn't a specialist. She had little time for enchantments, though she did acknowledge their usefulness and usually have a few personally selected enchanters in her service.

You know for sure she cast at least a 12th circle spell, though she usually relied on heavily metamagiced spells rather than unique ones past the 9th circle. With how spellcasters can adjust the difficulty of such things, that makes it harder to pin down if she can go past that circle.