MTG Salvation

Basander seeks solitude for repose and reflection. Where better than the Glassdunes? Now normally no one would dare cross the excoriating expanse of the dunes, but Basander has a trick up his sleeve; stoneform. A spell normally used to aid in meditation, with practice can be extended beyond total immobilization to allow walking. Not terribly fast walking, but certainly well defended. While in stoneform things like heat, cold, rain, and sand mean little to his granite skin and allows Basander to reflect on the disaster that befell the valley. "If we are so gifted by the Gods, why are we told not to use them? What sort of loving deity would bestow on their followers the capacity to save others and yet forbid them from doing so?" Basander ruminates for three days in the glittering wastes. Well, three and a half days truth be told, he had forgotten that his spell made him as heavy in addition to durable and he barely made his way out of a very fine plume of sand that he sank into.

Finally the grasslands of the Leonin creep into view. Though his journey through the desert was not awful while warded by lithomancy, but the flowing grasses and serene river were welcome sights. He makes his way down to the water's edge to refill his canteens and suddenly finds himself stuck. Panic strikes for a moment,"Have the catfolk caught me? Have I sunk into the mud?" Thankfully it is only a series of sharpened metal teeth wrapped around his leg, though finding no purchase in his rocky flesh. It is difficult to pry the metal away, but eventfully he is free... only to take two steps and land in another such trap. Another half hour of wrenching metal and he finally reaches the shore and dips his waterskins into the river. In fact, he lowers his warding spell altogether and relishes in the cool feeling of the waters and the breeze. He had forgotten that stoneform numbs ALL sensation. He resolves to use it so often. Hmmm! What a thought, that turning inward to solely contemplate the divine leaves a man unfeeling toward the mortal realm, a pleasing epiphany mirrored with and without. Once he has restocked his water supplies, he draws up his stone form again to gather plants and from the nearby shrubs and willows, it was nice to feel the waters, but clearly the locals are less than welcoming. It would do him little good to lose a hand finding dinner. Night falls and Basander drifts to peaceful, stony sleep to the sound of croaking river frogs.