Thorns

   Delphi turned herself to the source of the voice, finding herself face-to-face with the woman she had healed only moments ago. "There is no need to thank me," she shook her head, before raising an eyebrow upon her eyes wandering from the female's hand. "An ice mage?" her eyes scanned the figure from head to toe, her attire noticeably thin for one who dealt with such a chilling practice. While she personally had little idea of how the logic of the magic worked... she couldn't help but question the person's regalia of choice. "Do you not get cold? I would worry about frostbite..."  

   After finishing her inspection, Delphi took notice of Raei's palm still outstretched. Her body was free of nicks, scrapes, and bruises making it clear that the notion was for a different purpose. With that, Delphi extended her own arm and lightly "gripped" the woman's hand- as the term was loosely used. Her grasp held no firmness, and the manner which she shook Raei's palm was weak and brief before she sheepishly pulled away from the gesture. "As your healer, I am simply paying mind to what concerns me," she spoke abruptly, as if brushing away the foreign touch.
   
   

Raei smiled a little at the woman. Ah yes, likely this woman knows nothing of my people. No wonder she is confused. "Of course not. I was raised in chill tempatures and up until the thorns attacked. In fact, I was there all my life. If you also factor in the fact that both of my parents were ice mages themselves... You could say I grew a sort of... immunity to the cold itself." Smiling, she wished to bestow more wisdom upon the other. "In fact, the less I wear, the more powerful my attacks become." Raei wasted no time pulling her arms out of her jacket and pushing the cloth behind her back to fully reveal her upper arms, stomach and thighs to the woman. They were covered only with a thin elastic cloth material, though it was a bit tattered in a few locations due to the last... encounter.

After the half hearted handshake, Raei didn't know what to think of it. Was this how handshakes normally felt? This wasn't a common thing up north, but she'd heard of it. It just felt... weird. Taking her own arm back, the mage couldn't help but make a disgruntled face at the situation.

"I see. Well, it's good to see you have you mind focused on your duty, then. From the sounds of it... we'll need cool heads around here." Raei couldn't help but crack a smile at her pun. "Luckily, that's what I'm here for."

As the conversations and introductions continued down their strange paths, the distant wall of thorns moved more and more rapidly, swelling out dangerously from the West toward the entrance. The growth accelerated faster than anyone could have seen coming, and without so much as a warning, the swell was upon the outer wall. Pouring out from the massive thicket came uncountable numbers of thorn beasts, charging all very specifically toward the gate through the second wall. Within seconds the immeasurable wave of spiked creatures would be upon the group, roaring a cacophonous battle cry in voices neither human nor animal.

The tide rage against the second wall of the castle, many of the creatures already breaching the open gates, and many more of the excess tumbling over the walls. The assembled survivors would have to take up defenses immediately in order to have any chance of fighting back.

Anden was shocked by the sudden surge of thorns, which overtook the castle faster than anyone could have been expecting. He had never seen them attack in such a motivated way, and certainly never so quickly. Dropping all of his current thoughts and conventions, Anden stepped to an open space among the group and tore his sword out of its sheath. Was this happening because of the light?

"Time's up!" he yelled in a much less friendly voice from before. Now they would see just how well these heroes lived up to the old legend.

(( Here's a quick summary of some rough examples of what we're fighting.


The basic Stinger is the more common enemy, and makes up most of the attacking force. They come in many variations of the shape pictured, but ultimately look similar to that. Stingers are very fast moving, and can climb most surfaces with their needle-like arms. Their bodies appear to be wound from thick branches, and are covered entirely in thorns. They are only capable of melee combat, but can be extremely deadly at close range.

Roots are stationary attackers that pop up out of the ground and thrash the surrounding area. They range from ten to thirty feet in length, and whip as hard as the average siege machine. Roots are most effective at taking down buildings and walls, but will also attack any people within their reach. The most effective way of dealing with them is to sever the base.

Swarms are insect-like creatures that travel in small, dense clouds. They are extremely mobile threats, but don't do a lot of damage. Swarm drones bite and sting, but are not usually lethal unless given the time to completely overwhelm their prey. They are best dealt with by magic attacks, and generally any attacks that have a wide area of effect. Fighting them with conventional melee weapons is basically pointless.

Seeders are akin to walking tree trunks which fire heavy projectiles. While shooting forward they have an effective range of about a hundred feet, but when volleying shots upward they can fire much farther. They are very slow moving, but difficult to deal with at range, and generally make up the back line of any thorn assault. Typical seeder projectiles are simple blunt seeds the size of a coconut, though variations have been known to occur.

Flowers are the least common of the thorns, and also the slowest. They take several minutes to bloom, meaning that more often the attack is over before they come in to play. However, once a flower has fully bloomed, its pollen spreads to nearby thorns and boosts different aspects of their abilities. The boost that a flower provides is directly related to the color of the flower, but there is no current record of which color applies which effect.



I will be controlling general, nonspecific aspects of the battle. Feel free to control small groups of thorns and specific individual thorns as you see fit.))

Panna exhaled. And he was just starting to enjoy the peace of being secure inside the castle walls, too. But it would appear even Granite Castle wasn't impenitrable. Panna assisted the horde approaching him and his newfound teammates, his instincts telling him to flee yet his newly appointed leader ordering him to stay and fight. Panna would applaud him for his bravery, if he didn't think it would get the entire team killed.

The ground rumbled beneath Panna's feet. He cursed under his breath as the ground crumbled beneath him. Panna rolled forwards, barely escaping the root that emerged from the ground, shooting upwards as if mimicking the beacon before then slamming it's body to the ground. The earth around it quaked. Panna back stepped away from the thorn as he stood to his feet, knowing he had nothing in his arsenal that could cut it's base. The man used his hand to steady himself as he looked around the battlefield, searching for the young ones he had been speaking to moments before the ambush.

"What's the plan? Just fight them without a strategy? I don't mean to offend, but that's a piss poor plan," Panna called out.

As the thorns approached, Leander quickly moved away from his position against the wall, any conflict he had had with the plant woman seeming minuscule in comparison to the threat at hand. His eyes scanned the scene, his third eye seeing any breaks in the coming swarm before his main two could. He quickly shook the thoughts of fleeing from his mind. Running away was not an option this time. He had seen what these creatures were capable of, what they could do. Leaving his new found allies behind would mean he would be all alone again, and who knows if there were even any more survivors to be found? Leander would stay. He would fight!

Poppy's music filled him with strength and vigor as he took a position in front of the bard, intending to protect her as he had promised. He brought his foot down hard near a massive boulder nearby, and the rock flew high into the sky before plummeting back down and splitting. He picked up one of the pieces, being careful how he gripped it, and examined the sharper edges. It would do for a weapon, as just using his hands would certainly tire him out much faster.

He heard the single-armed man shout something about a plan and he kept his head tilted that direction as he wait for others to chime in. He was not a strategist, but he'd follow without hesitation. 

Poppy had been mesmerized by the magic prowess Nursery Rhyme seemed to contain that she almost hadn't noticed the child asking her something. She took a moment to process the request he was making before she snapped her fingers and smiled. "OH! Faster!? Yeah yeah!! I can make you go faster!!" She chimed as she repositioned her fingers on her lute and began to strum away.

Her eyes darted from person to person as she began to play The Wind's Melody, albeit somewhat more hesitantly as she became worried she'd burn all of her mana away within the first five minutes of the battle. Once the song came to an end, she shouted out a bit shakily. "You all should be able to move way faster now!! Use it while you can!! It only lasts about 15 minutes!! Same with the strength song!!" She looked towards Nursery Rhyme and gave him a thumbs up.

"You should be good to go!" She cheered.