Private Finished Oud to another world

The Lionesses had made it near the outskirts of the tower where the Princess was being held. But lately they'd been stymied by the strange magics of the land around it. Dark magic that had terrain shifting and changing without warning. A small river had blocked their path one day and then when they returned after going to sleep on Manta Carlos the next night the river was gone again.

In the hopes of finding a way through or around this mess they decided to split up. With Seyyal escorting Lottie towards a plume of smoke in the distance while the others followed another lead. Perhaps the mage could find a way to learn more about this enchantment, but at the very least stopping anyone from discovering their camp would be good.

Seyyal used a ragged cloth to wipe the sand and sweat off her forehead as she walked and turned towards her friend Lottie. "Not sure I can help too much with this magic- if I can find a person doing it we're golden but just the magic? I'm hoping maybe we can find something for you to do the magic thing with and disable it."

@Pallas

Seyyal frowned. There wasn't much she could really do against magic. And Lottie seemed to be doing her best but... this was powerful stuff. She groaned and crouched a little lower as they walked. "Stay low, Lottie. I don't want anyone seeing us if that smoke is from a camp."

She took the lead but never moved too far from her friend, afraid that something might separate them and put Lottie in danger. Slowly they crept towards the smoke until they had to stop to take a break and rest. Seyyal popped her waterskin out to take a sip and glanced over at Lottie. "Hey, you doing ok? It's not your fault if this is something you can't just snap your fingers and stop"

Seyyal nodded at her friend but had the very distinct impression that she might not have been doing quite as okay as she claimed. They were all pretty worried about things- both in their world and with the weird connection they had to Manta Carlos. The Lionesses didn't let fear stop them though so she put her game face back on and grinned at Lottie.

"I know you'll figure something out. That's why you're the magic brains of the outfit." And if she didn't.. well surely they'd be some jerk of a mage to beat up or some crazy crystal puzzle for them to break in an unexpected way to get through this. They never get stopped for too long. Never.

"Right, we can't make the others wait too long or they'll start taunting us, " she chuckled and then began leading Lottie again through increasingly tall, dry grasses. The stalks rasping slightly as they brushed against them. It shouldn't have been too much further but glancing into the sky the smoke still seemed to be about as far away as it had been an hour before. Weird.

Seyyal craned her neck and shielded her eyes with a hand but she couldn't make out much more than Lottie could. Strange. "We've been making pretty good time. I dont understand why we'd still be just as far away unless this is another trick."

This was frustrating and Seyyal closed her eyes for a moment to think. Not an uncommon thing for the Lionesses to see. There was limited information to work with but... they'd tried walking towards the smoke and it didn't work. "Could we walk backwards? Think ourselves closer? Lottie, any idea how we might break an illusion or some kind of trick like this?"

Seyyal stared, dumbfounded, as Lottie began to get excited about the dumb ideas she had been throwing out in a hail mary attempt at kickstarting Lottie's magic brain.

She laughed, making no secret of being pleased at how excited Lottie was getting about the idea. "Lottie, Lottie. Hey, you're the genius. I just said some dumb stuff that helped you brainstorm," she said as she hugged her friend.

"Let's do it. What's the worst thing that's happen if you try swapping us anyway- we just don't get any closer? It has to be better than just trying to walk. Or walking backwards," she smiled and set about making sure all her gear was properly strapped down just in case the swap was a little less smooth than usual. "Your test subject is ready, oh great wizard Lottie"