bell and i worked out what turned out to be two very similar spells
casting "repercussive aura" on a friend means anyone who hurts them will feel the same hurt in return
"repercussive veil" is similar but cast on an opponent so if they hurt anyone they feel it just the same
the hope is that these can be the intermediate last-chance-to-come-to-their senses step between diplomacy and beatdown
turning their own violence against them
just like i promised
we called on friends for help and they responded
meledri and ploughshare have helped us in combat before
smith joined to provide healing and support
ander reed came to set up some traps and shoot arrows
transom is pretty good with "magic missile"
once gathered medya and i introduced folks to the pony tradition of wearing rainbow-stripe paint when banding together to drive off a dangerous foe – "this storm will end and we'll shine through"
we all went in painted
morran and veora were there to support jorlanna so she could face the fiend within palor
he arrived angry and escalated from there including turning into some kind of striped bipedal feline called a "rakshasa"
he gave us a really hard time but with the lantern of jaila laveau shining on him he was vulnerable and thanks to the repercussive veil every time he attacked he weakened himself more
but before we could banish him he just had to torture jorlanna one last time
i don't know exactly what he did when he told her to "suffer" but i remember her reaction
i knew that the only way to give her relief was to destroy the source of that pain
and we did
as expected this ended the spell holding jorlanna's family in stasis
but suddenly she was so much younger – reset in body and mind as though none of the time and pain in between ever happened
as though she and her family simply jumped forward 30 years with no sense of any of it
with jorlanna now too young and inexperienced for the position veora's received an unwanted promotion from lead magewright to head of cannith west
she and morran will be busy for a few months assisting family and reworking the family business
we accomplished our task
but even though jorlanna isn't stuck with having to remember it ... we still are
i still am
i feel tired and numb and trapped in seeing those few strange minutes over and over in my head
a week and a half ago i sat in on the missing pieces support circle that ploughshare led
when those folks described how they felt about what they'd been through in and after the war there were a couple moments that resonated with some of what i've experienced here
i've been sitting in my room for an hour quietly circling around the thought of how likely it is that a little bit more will resonate next time
and more again the time after that
and more again
and more
the pony who made my barding and saddlebags gave me some advice to go along with
she said that if my burden ever felt too heavy that i should make the effort to unpack and repack it because even if the contents are the same the load is lightest when kept sorted out and in balance
advice taken
once we're back in sharn maybe meyda and i can ask ploughshare to lend an ear while we unpack some things
some very heavy things