Time
slipped into a day or two before they knew it.
The exhaustion of the previous days had taken their toll. Raschid woke first. Mainly to someone hammering on his door. He roused and drowsily made his way
downstairs. The hand on the door was a messenger
from Phelan, the town mayor. He sought
Raschid's counsel. After some prep, mainly
in making sure he looked as best as possible, Raschid made his way towards the
town's "conflict center". That
was synonymous with the town's fountains, where Phelan and often Sven had set
up a makeshift center for everyone to report.
Since they had, things had become a bit more organized in the town's
response to problems. It was unfortunate
that he did not even make it there before another piece of chaos presented its
face. Well, unfortunate to the town but
not to Raschid. He personally reveled in
it! This face, however, took the form of
an airship, one careening out of control as it skidded across the clouds
lingering over the town.
It turned on its side, burning, and Raschid watched as
people fell from the sides raining across the town. Raschid pushed back a laugh, smothering it
when the messenger looked at him, startled by the sound. They watched together as the ship continued
turning, raining people before it burned across the town and then slammed into
the mist somewhere past the town in the northeast.
Both joined the people rushing to assist those that
fell. Few lived and those they came upon
were dying rapidly from the fall and burns.
All except one lady. She was
disoriented but okay. Even had her
luggage! Her name, upon introduction,
was Talara min Ándulán. She was a
passenger on the ship and had recently departed from Maelshyra. They had left before Triangularus, hopeful of
being safe by rising high above the clouds and into the night sky. In an instant it seemed that they had
transited a vast distance and next she knew the ship was under fire by
something and tipped sharply back and forth.
When a great hole formed in the side of the ship used magic to soften
her fall and push away the debris during the descent. It exhausted her, which was why she was so
disorientated.
Skeptical, but accepting her story, at last for now, Raschid
sarcastically welcomed her to the shithole of the northeast, aka
Leiberton. Startled at his comment she
passed her thank you back and accepted the messenger as an escort to the
noble's quarter. Raschid went back to
meeting Phelan.
Of
course, Chiktik had heard it all. He was
busy, though. He'd gotten it in his head
to make his way into the metal building.
He started with a shovel. It made
decent process. When the impact of the
skyship nearly collapsed his hole, he buttressed it. Then, when pebbles rained down on him, first
in one's and two's, Chiktik climbed out to find he had a fan group of
children. In quick order Chiktik
organized them into helping him. First
in moving dirt and then in helping him craft and transport in buckets a makeshift
solvent to dissolve the earth more easily.
He made it into a game, one that he knew human children liked, and it
worked.
The Orc, given to following his appetites had done little
but eat, sleep and occasionally fight when something made it far enough into
the town. Most of it he found quite
edible. The impact of the skyship was of
mild interest but when no fighting ensued he ignored it. The town was feeding him, keeping in alcohol
and fighting.
What did he have to care
about?
Raschid,
on the other hand, had a bit more to worry.
He made it to Phelan, only to see Sven give him an odd look and then
depart, leaving behind a dozen of his engineers and several golems. He filed it away for later examination. Phelan, studied him and them let him know
that his watchers had seen Sklarda walk into the mist yesterday evening. The sounds of battle quickly followed
it. The outcome was pretty
definite. In the flat silence that
followed, Phelan also added that he thought Leiberton was still a good town,
even with the damage and fallout from Triangularus. Raschid quirked an eyebrow and managed to
look a slight bit guilty. Phelan also
noted dryly that he was going to have Raschid's quarters cleaned and upgraded
with the best the town had available since he didn't want to leave the
impression that the town was not thankful for all he had nobly down.
Raschid accepted gracefully and made amends.
He returned, later on to find his quarter lavishly laid
out. He also acquired a golem
butler. Well, sort of. It could open doors and close them as well a
few other minor tasks. It quickly showed
its worth as he was visited by a stranger.
A man named Pond. Rather a
shadowy sorts though he had affected a noble's manner. The marks of poverty and unclean life were
clearly written on his frame, no matter what level of prosperity he currently enjoyed. Pond also had the air of a man who commanded,
not followed. The conversation that
occurred proved it. Over good whiskey,
Pond laid his complaint forth. He tired
of waiting for the good authorities to put things in order. It was bad for business, this mess. He found the mayors ineffective and stupid
and wanted to take action, not wait for rescue like some fabled damsel in
distress. He knew from research that the
underground was not wracked like the above with the clouds left by Triangularus
and the nexus storm. He was also sure
they connected not to just one town to the west of them but a total of
four. He wanted to send groups
underground re-establish communication with the towns. Especially the town near Fort Blood. Arduin stationed an entire regiment of troops
there. Not just anyone, though. It would take men of standing and wealth for
the commanders of troops to listen.
Someone only a man of rank in the military or rank in the nobility could
inspire. Which led him to Raschid. As a noble of Arduin the military there would
at least listen, if not send someone to replace the bumbling buffoons that led
Leiberton currently. Rashid offered to
think about it and would give word this evening. After Pond left, Raschid sought out Sven.
It didn't take him long to find the dwarven enclave and the
golem foundry. While he had to wait a
bit he did get an audience. He inquired
with Sven about the idea of tunnels below the town. Sven agreed that they existed but his family
had plumbed their depths many times.
They had built the foundry in them and
while
Pular was as insulting as described, as well as wild haired
and stumbling around on a case, even though his leg was wrapped in a metal
casing. In between his bitching he
reaffirmed that no tunnels led from the town to anywhere, especially south near
the river (who builds tunnels near river?
Idiots! Maybe goblins...they like
to live in muck and shit.). Raschid
waded politely through the vulgarity until Pular finally nodded off and then he
made his escape. He wandered the town,
inquiring (poorly) with any scruffy character he could find about smuggling and
underground paths.
While Chiktik continued his digging, Úzgar found different
fun to get involved in. Eating and
drinking had started to get boring so when someone dropped by and asked if he
would see Conn, the Sun God Priest, he decided to go out of boredom. He took his weapons and drug along the
hardened femur he had liberated last week.
In hindsight, it was a good thing he did.
Conn had been working the last couple of days on find a way
to destroy the mist using the power of the divine. Focusing his power over the sun's light, he
had found that he could enhance it to burn away the mist. After trying this with objects and whatever
random animal he could find that didn't get away first, he was ready to upgrade
to something a bit more mobile. Namely a
volunteer. Úzgar didn't even bother
to let him finish before motioning for him to continue. Conn limned him in fiery light and bade him
enter the nexus
While everything was being prepared, Conn reassembled his
shrine to Saren, adjusting it to focus even more power on the two. He then called over the two and bade them
pick up doors someone had taken from one of the buildings nearby. He was going to not only light them but the
doors as well. That way the two of them
could break through more mist than just by pushing with their bodies. While a bit uneven in height they make it
work, clearing a wide corridor towards the downed ship.
The first sign of success was when they began to come across
debris. Chunks of the ship embedded in
the ground with great force. They also
found an occasional body, or at least what looked like one. All were horribly burned nearly to being
unrecognizable. While slow, they made
progress until they were interrupted.
They had no warning or they would have grounded the doors and pulled
weapons. As it was, the metallic tiger
came over and around Anlorn's door before he could blink! He got lucky and it ripped ragged gouges in
the door instead of him.
Úzgar was first to react and threw down his door while
simultaneously unlimbering his axe. He
brought it high and around, embedding it solidly in the beast's back. It cried out, wrenching the axe from his
hands. It also sprayed its acidic blood
in his face. He felt his skin and eyes
boil and a cry of pain dropped from his lips.
He dropped back, cradling his face before he felt the burning flames of
the sun sear his face and he cried out from a different pain. It burned away the acid and healed his wounds
though it vastly dimmed his light.
The incredible pain sent Úzgar into berserk rage and he
ripped the bone weapon from his back while shoving his hand into one of his
Owlbear claws. He leaped on the metallic
feline, just as it opened up Anlorn's side.
A blink seemed to go by before he came back to his senses, standing over
the smote remains of the metal tiger. He
could hear the cries of those running from the town and the pain filled
whimpers from Anlorn. The tiger had
coughed up a great amount of bloody acid on him and he was literally burning up
from where it pinned him down.
He helped them free Anlorn and drug the metal tiger back to
town. Conn was exhausted but staggered
to his feet to assist them. Úzgar he
sent on with only the barest of healing.
A slow healing that took a lot of time, food, and rest. Conn was saving his remaining power to
rebuild Anlorn's badly burnt body.
Seeing little else to do, Úzgar and under orders to eat until he could
no longer, Úzgar left to do just that.
He couldn't name the place, even if he could read the stupid
human scratch that adorned it. The sign
had a scrawny looking chicken on it. At
least to his eyes and that was good enough for him to find. They plied him with food and beer and he
ate.
Meanwhile, Raschid found his attempts to find information
hunger inspiring and stopped in at eatery that looked to hold the type of
people he was seeking. He was unhappy to
find that dinner came with company.
Mainly Pond. Who spent a few
minutes insinuating that his feelings were hurt that Raschid didn't trust his
word about the underground pathways.
Their verbal sparring led to Raschid holding the position that he would
need to talk to his friends first. That
they were a necessary part of his decision.
Pond, in turn, indicated that he didn't care for such obstacles. That Raschid may not even have a choice. With that, Pond departed, leaving Raschid
with a sour taste and a desire for better company. Better company did arrive in the form of Talara. Dinner was improved hundredfold at that
point.
Chiktik found his way to the side of the building. And something more. He found an aperture he was sure he could
manipulate to let him in. That sent him
back to his makeshift workshop to craft something to simulate what it
expected.
Úzgar now, he was eating prodigiously even for him. Must have been the priest's magic. When someone bought a round he didn't even
bother to notice when more mugs slammed on his table. It tasted odd, though, not that he
cared. Not much existed that he couldn't
eat, be it fair or foul. When he saw
someone do it again and add something to the drinks, he got suspicious. When he confronted the weasel looking man, he
fled. It seemed a good time to work off
some food, so he gave chase.
Chiktik had formed a wooden hemisphere bound with
metal. He's pretty sure it can be used
to trigger the sensor if he can get the size right. He wrestles it into the hole and is setting
it up when he sense dirt dropping into the hole. Not a little either. He moves to leave and is hit with a shovel full. Chiktik scrambles past other flying mounds of
dirt to find a golem trying to fill his hole.
It ignores him when it commands it to stop so it rips out its circuits
and shuts it down. He's above ground
when he hears a commotion. One with
Úzgar bellowing.
After
a brief glance at the hole, he jumps to a nearby building. There he sees Úzgar chasing a thin
human. The skinny human ducks around a
corner with Úzgar hot on his tail. They
don't get far before 9 people boil out of nearby buildings and alleys to
confront Úzgar. It seemed logical to
assist and so he leaps into the melee.
Blood flew fast on
the wind and in a short time 2 men are down, shredded by Chiktik's nail filled
gun. Úzgar bloodies several others
before two others join the melee, this one a man of power. The mage quickly freezes Chiktik fast and
holds him still. The others, seeing him
no longer a threat, go after Úzgar.
Except for two. One had a steam
gun and points it at Chiktik. The
superheated water both boils and nearly drowns Chiktik. Held by magic he can do nothing but throw his
will against it to break the domination.
Úzgar, pissed at the odds, goes berserk.
One of his foes gets lucky and cuts his achilles tendon. A few others get hits in but he cuts down 2
foes in short succession. The mage tries
to extend his domination over Úzgar as well but it's too much and he
fails. Chiktik shakes loose and between
him and Úzgar they defeat them all.
Chiktik takes the steam gunner and his guard prisoner. Then he executes the guard to teach the other
man a point. Úzgar, heavily hurt (again)
falls over. He's barely alive thanks to
his earlier beating and now this new one.
When people from the town show up (finally) they are requisitioned to
carry him to Conn, the Saren priest for healing. They take off with him and begin policing up
the bodies.
Raschid and Talera show up in time to take control of the
prisoner. They drag him to a nearby
abandoned building (no one wanted to live near the metal building). Inside they try to get him to talk but are
interrupted when someone tries to assassinate the prisoner. Raschid shields him while Talera tries to
foil the attack. His shield was an
invocation of chaos and when the next arrow flew to kill him it disappeared
instead. The prisoner rewarded Raschid
by punching him in the unmentionables.
Raschid manages to hold it together, though and forms manacles and gyves
with his runeweaving. They lose track of
the assassin. Unable to get him to talk
they go back out to the street. In short
order they run into golems and Phelan.
He had come to find out what had happened.
When
he hears of the planned assassination, he takes control of the prisoner. Grimly he tells them that someone had
assassinated Conn with an arrow to the throat.
It seemed to come out of nowhere, striking him where he fallen in an
exhausted sleep after tending the wounded.
He promises them that he will get the prisoner/would-be assassin to
speak. Enough time in the belly of a
golem will make anything speak. They try
to find Chiktik but he's trapped the opening of the tunnel he had made near the
metal building with his blunderbuss.
Unwilling to try it, they leave him alone. Unbeknownst to the others, he succeeded in
opening the metal building and was pulled inside.
The day passed with some anxiety but no further attacks
came. Úzgar got back on his feet with
some help from Dwarven alchemists. While
no match for Conn's divine healing, their potions were extremely
effective. Unsure of how to deal with
Pond or what he will do, they craft a deal with Filimine. She agrees to capture him in return for a
hefty price in well made jewelry. Pond
had asked her to kill Raschid's companions anyway and she had turned him down
out of loyalty since they had all stood during Triangularus. She agrees to let on to a change of heart and
see if he will try to hire her again.
Concerned about Úzgar, both Raschid and Talara visited. Talara used her mental powers to re-align
Úzgar's mental image of his form.
Usually this forced the body to resume a more healthy alignment. Unknown to her, Raschid boosted her power
with his chaos rune, causing runaway regeneration to build in Úzgar until he
was healed and some. Unhealthy and
powerful energy surged in his body.
Later the same day word comes while they meet with Phelan
that a squadron of riders have come out of the mist into the town. The riders are from Talismondé!
In
quick succession they learn that the crown has been pushing riders along the
crown roads to the towns. Also that the riders
have crystals constructed by the College of Magic that can temporarily push
back the mists left by Triangularus and the Nexus Storm. This group was the first to push northeast to
Leiberton. They had imposing figure, a
Throon, one Sarlen the Fortold, Paladin of Xuanth, the god of fate and destiny. While the king's men and Phelan/Sven
coordinated, Sarlen went around the town.
He spoke to the people and followed the path laid out for him by his
god. When he came to the foundations of
one of the destroyed libraries he was pulled by the six-fingered hand of fate. Filled with divine power he invested the
locals with divine purpose. In short
order, people showed up and declared their desire to rebuild the library,
including Zuchin, who had stayed just to plumb their depths.
Once he was flush with the knowledge of the town, Sarlen
felt emboldened to do more. Hearing of
the crashed skyship, Sarlen went to the royal riders he had accompanied. He spoke to their lead until they agreed to
lend one of the crystals to him to take to the skyship. He swore upon his god that it would be
returned.
They agreed.
Armed with its power, Sarlen the Fortold cajoled the
townsfolk to join him in going to the skyship.
When none stepped forward at first, he tried again. Úzgar didn't wait long. Feeling a bit left out, so did Raschid and
Talara. They more than prepared and set
forth.
The mist pushed away like, ahem *magic*, with the crystal in
hand. In the path they walked, fields of debris
were everywhere. Some were huge, burned
out ribs of the ships or still smoldering remains that burned with lingering
heat. Unfortunate remains of those who
could not escape the skyship lay everywhere.
They checked those they could reach but none still lived.
As they progressed, the crystal seemed to strobe and
pulse. It pushed the mist farther back
in waves rather than a stable circle.
They were puzzled by the strangeness but proceeded on.
In
one especially powerful surge, it opened up a giant area. One that revealed what predators had moved in
to take care of the remains. Airsharks,
merely 7ft long on average, babies in truth, but more than 9 of them. They dived from the sky in waves, focusing on
the Throon more than anyone else.
The battle was short, but brutal. Talara hid under the frame of a nearby chunk
of the skyship. She used her mental and
magic powers to confound them. The best
was when she used fire to explode the bladders of one of the sharks, the ones
filled with gas that they used to fly.
Úzgar hacked and beat down the sharks with wild
abandon. Two fell between them all but
the rest were
Chiktik
made an appearance shortly afterward. He
explained little about what had happened and did not hint that he had been
taken into the metal building. Or that
he had spoken with its AI and that it had chosen to let him live in return for
using him as a means to better understand Arduin and those that dwelled here.
Things were quiet for a spell but in time, the riders needed
to depart once again on the trail. The
skyship crystal engine had been used with one of the crystals to clear a huge
radius around the town. It revealed to
the south a strange oddity, a titanic waterspout churning in the ground and
reaching into the cloudy sky. Given a
choice of leaving with the riders and checking out the waterspout, as a group
they selected the waterspout (and to stay).
Investigation of the area revealed a field of iron and rock
chunks that surrounded the giant waterspout.
It also got colder the closer they came to it. The ground was frosty with ice next to it. Recon also showed it was filled with deep sea
creatures that moved and swam without care.
It also showed that the rocks and iron chunks came from the spout. They were thrown every hour or so with wild
abandon as well as other random odd things from under the sea.
Raschid, feeling it was more magic than nexus in nature,
worked on unweaving it. He wrestled with
it for hours, nearly 9 in total before piercing it a little. The break in the magic was its undoing as
water squirted out in a long jet as it revolved. In short order it further destabilized and
exploded into a vast explosion that rained down for miles.
After
they recovered, they explored the debris field, finding many curious
things. A magical shell, the size of a
two-story house, surrounded by layers of magic.
Obviously some magic dwelling sucked from the depths of the ocean
somewhere in the world. It was sealed
tightly with magic. A long metal
shipping container. Numerous other
things of use and power. Not to mention
a lot of potential edible seafood, which Úzgar and Sarlen slurped up with
gusto.
Filled to the brim they return back to town. Chiktik bargained for wagons to move his
metal container. Inside he had found
crates. Within the intact ones he found
grenades of strange design but not beyond his intellect to fathom. Upon return he bargained to get a workshop
for 10 years in the town in return for the metal container (the dwarves wanted
the metal and to understand its alloys).
The rest found their own way and took a short respite.
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