Jask Mosseyes - The Magi-Tech Druid

“I always thought Druids liked plants and nature,” Ollerio mused as he turned back to look at Jask who had tripped on yet another root.

“I do like plants and nature,” Jask replied defensively from inside his gas mask wondering again why he had agreed to follow Ollerio and his rag-tag guild out into the Maguuma Jungle.

“Are you sure you are not secretly an Engineer in disguise?” Ollerio squinted at him suspiciously.

Jask sighed. He was used to these sorts of questions, but it didn’t make them any less tedious.

“My interests,” Jask began his all-too-familiar explanation, “lie in the study of the astral force that allows me to become a celestial avatar. The mysteries of what lies beyond the skies above and the magics I can master to help heal those in need is all tied intrinsically to nature.”

“But you just don’t want to touch it, or breathe it, or smell it?” Ollerio smiled.

“I have allergies,” Jask replied weakly.

“Well, allergies or not, if you can’t hack it out here, this will be your first, and last expedition with us,” Ollerio spoke casually, but Jask knew he was not joking.

Jask had been looking for a guild for a while. He always got turned away because he was a liability. He had spent years studying the astral force and the glyphs but he was all analytics and no practicality.

The dial on his arm-guard beeped and he peered down at it. “Unbound Magic up ahead!” he called up to the others only to find that they were all three gathered around the floating ball of magical energy. He hurried over to them.

Ptolemy, the Chronomancer, gave him a sideways look that made Jask feel as small as an Asura. The Mesmer was a kind sort, but sometimes it was what he didn’t say that stung most.

“Your machine is almost as useful as a set of eyes,” Ollerio noted and Jask winced.

“It must be from that fall earlier,” Jask said as he tapped at the machine in futile. “Back home the range is much larger.”

“Well, where there is one, there is usually more,” Emden, the Dragonhunter, pointed out looking at Jask. “Can your machine locate any more in the vicinity?”

“I’ll get right on it,” Jask smiled and walked away staring down at his arm.

**Ten Minutes Later**

The sounds of men shouting in alarm brought Jask out of his thoughts and he stared back the way he had come.

He’d wandered off, paying more attention to his Unbound Magic Detector than anything else around him. He appeared to have lost sight of the other three men. And those shouts were definitely them.

He burst back through a line of bushes, tripping on an unseen root and crashed onto the forest floor in a clearing.

“Do something!” Ollerio bellowed.

Shaking his head dizzily, Jask looked up to see giant vines had ensnared the three men, lifting them into the air and incapacitating them. Ptolemy struggled but then burst into a thousand purple butterflies and the vine recoiled as if in pain.

“There are too many!” Ptolemy called back to Ollerio as he blinked to Jask’s side and helped him to his feet. Jask was about to thank him, but the other man blinked away from yet another grasping tendril of vegetation.

Jask gave a yelp and jumped back.

“Time for that astral force, please!” Ollerio shouted in a strained voice as the vine began to squeeze the life out of him.

“Right,” Jask nodded and grabbed the staff from his back, pointing it at the vines and the two trapped men, Jask fired Solar Beam after Solar Beam at the vines, which seemed to barely notice the blasts of light.

“Stop helping them photosynthesize and do something!” Ollerio shouted in annoyance.

Jask kicked himself mentally and cast Astral Wisp. The wisps flew out at the vines, swirling around them attacking like angry hornets whilst simultaneously healing the struggling men.

Jask felt the astral force building up inside him.

He ran forward until he was almost beneath the vines holding the men, he leapt into the air and entered the celestial avatar form. He felt the ice-cold heat wash over him, making him feel like nothing more than stardust and pure energy.

He cast his glyphs, Alignment, Equality, Unity and felt his connection to the three men around him grow as he healed them of poison and broke them free of their stunned state.

Ollerio let out a roar and he seemed to burn from the inside as the Berserker within took over and sliced the vine holding him in half. The warrior dropped and rolled across the floor, his roar seemed to only be rising in intensity as his twin axes whirled across the clearing, wiping the vines out.

Jask slowly returned to the ground and left the celestial avatar form. He felt a moments remorse upon returning to his physical self. He felt like he was so much more as the avatar.

Emden was dusting himself off and Ptolemy had stepped out of thin air looking around cautiously. Ollerio ran around the clearing growling and Jask watched him worriedly.

“He just needs to let it out,” Emden explained to him quietly as Ollerio approached them looking like he had murderous intent.

“BETTER LATE THAN NEVER!” he screamed at Jask who cowered backwards.

“Ollerio!” Emden reached out a hand. “We won, it’s over.”

Ollerio panted heavily, but the crazed look in his eyes slowly melted away. “That was fun!” he said with ragged breath. He appraised Jask. “You did well.”

Jask smiled hopefully. “Does this mean I get to stay?”

Ollerio paused only a moment before nodding.

He’d done it! He’d proved himself worthy!

Ollerio smiled back at him and clapped him on the shoulder. “Now we just need to find you an animal companion.”

Jask blinked. “A… a what?”

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When druid first came out I was so excited to have this super nature loving druid but I never really fell in love with any of the looks for human male in this space. So instead I imagined a more tech based druid, someone more fascinated with studying the science of the magic - the celestial nature of it all. So that's where my inspiration for Jask came from.

This story is from his early days when he tried out to join The Golden Guard. He's grown up a lot since then, and even acquired a number of animal companions! But he's still living inside his gas mask :P

The look is all different techy based stuff. I dyed it white, blue and gold because those to me are the "righteous trio" lol and I still wanted to capture the goodness of a druid. Weapons, I went with aetherblade bow, which I love. For the staff i settled for the white ascended spire, but look to change that up at some point. I want the staff to be less "techy" than the rest because i still want an element of the magical tied up in this look.