|
The group races in to stabilize their fallen comrades and examine the circle. It does not seem to be active and the runes are unintelligble to you all. As you search around, another warpwave stikes. Ember is buffeted by it but it does not harm her further.
Peering up through the chaotic waves and mist into the circle of lightning above, you can barely make out the interior of the tower you were in before.
As Zephyr waits for the chaotic waves to subside, he heals Rhyol again.
Ember rushes over to help with healing almost in tears as she can't hear anything. "Oh please be temporary. How can I tell my stories if I can't hear?" she thinks to herself.
"NOW WHAT!" she yells too loudly, not being able to hear her volume level.
|
|
Ember races down to heal and is struck by the warpwave as it passes through, this time weakening her to her core. Many of you try to determine the significance of the rune circle, to no avail.
Rhyol starts to wake up and after another few flicks of the wands, has enough strength to move on her own. Targos can be stabilized as well. The warpwave returns and burns through Ember again, but she steadies her mind from damage.
Octaris - 16 damage
Jamila - 5 damage
Targos - 7 damage - unconscious, stable
Krakos - 5 damage
Zephyr
Ember - Deafened
Rhyol - 57 damage
Rift Spinner (green) - 107 damage - dissipated
Fire Wysp (red) - friendly
Air Wysp (pink) - friendly
Earth Wysp (brown) - friendly (sacrificed)
Water Wysp (blue) - friendly
Warpwave
"Let's escape through that ring! It seems like the only way out of here."
Jamila makes sure to include the friendly wysps in their escape.
As Jamilla flies back up, Octaris calls out to her. "There's a ring right here! Besides, we've already gone through that last one. Let's try this!" The small mephit moves around the ring, concentrating on any magical energies latent within it. Then he tries to impose his will on that energy, forcing the ring to activate.
Shaking herself conscious again, Rhyol looks up at Ember and Zephyr.
Thank you very much. the thoqqua says. I'm sorry you saw me like that. I can fight when needed, but that was not me at my best.
Looking around, she notices the three wysps hovering around the stormy skies and suddenly her clear mind recalls the events right before her fall. The earth one she hisses solemnly in Auran to the air wysp. What was his name? He was very brave.
After she gets an answer, Rhyol looks around as Octaris and Jamila seem to be flying back through the floating ring. So I guess that protean was causing the problems. Well he's gone now, so it should be good now, right? Turning to the three remaining wysps, she asks Do you want to fly back through with us? This place is very dangerous. The Plane of Air is a bit scary with no ground, but its much nicer and brighter!
|
|
Octaris tries to activate the ring of runes on the rocks but they seem to be long dormant.
The wysps circle around Rhyol.
Then they fly up and through the electric ring. You can see their vague forms in the tower through the hazy lens of the portal.
"I shall name you Microburst," Zephyr says to the wisp in Auryn.
"Please, lead us away from this place," he requests.
Octaris sneers at the ring of runes. "Well, that's just rude! Hmph."
He looks up to the water wysp and flies up, speaking in Aquan.
|
|
Rhyol and Krakos free themselves of the gravitational pull of the strange rock and lunge toward the electric ring. They burst through the other side and now everyone finds themselves in the tower again. The storm still brews outside, but has significantly dampened. You are making progress.
When you look back at the cyclone in the center, it begins to mutate. The roiling incursion of color slows and contracts upon itself, forming a vibrating sphere. Although the disruption beyond its otherworldly borders has abated, the tenacious rift remains.
Jamila says, "Everyone make sure to help each other so we can destroy this thing once and for all!"
Jamila flies all around the rift, examining it from every possible angle.
She rifles through her memory banks from all her journeys across the planes for anything familiar.
Maybe it's magical in origin? she wonders.
She uses her daily ability to produce food and water and pours the water on the rift but is quick to dart away.
She also chats with Krakos about it.
Zephyr closes his eyes and tries to tune himself in with the winds, sensing even the slightest shift.
Where do you blow from? Where would you lead us?
Octaris flies towards the cyclone. He gets as close as he dares to the swirling winds, trying to force the magic around him to conform to his will. "Stop it! I command you!"
|
|
Zephyr moves in first to study the sphere and determine how the winds are affecting it, or how it is affecting the winds. A sudden burst of energy from the sphere signals that the chaos will not die easily. He is filled with a feeling of confusion, but powers through it.
Ember races up to the sphere and with Rhyol, Krakos and Jamila's help figures out that by forging together the groups' magical energies, they can weaken the edges of the planar rift, but it will take one of them to mold the rift and try to shrink it. Octaris steps forward and volunteers.
As the rest of the group (augmented by the wysps resonance powers) casts raw spell energy into the void, Octaris struggles to force the edges of the sphere together. His body bends as the rift fights back.
Ember, sensing his struggles, casts a spell on him. With a surge, the sphere shrinks to half its original size.
"Keep it going!" Zephyr shouts, noticing the chaos and winds subsiding noticeably.
-----------------
The group continues their plan of attack and the spell energies continue to batter the shrinking rift. With a final push, Rhyol and Octaris are able to push the rift together into nothingness and the vacuum created knocks everyone down. The cyclone collapses, releasing a sound reminiscent of a loud sigh. Only the hole where the upper floors of the towers once stood lasts as a testament to the planar intrusion that once threatened. A "clink" echoes through the now silent tower. A single red gemstone lies on the ground where the rift once was.
--------------------
With the nearby storms waning rapidly, the group heals a bit more and makes their way outside. With a smile, you shoot the flare gun off and wait a few hours before a familiar looking ship appears into view.
Nix and Kyrthis lean over the side as they approach.
"Looks like you've had an interesting day!" Nix laughs. "Hurry, get aboard, I'll get you fixed up right quick."
---------------------
The return trip to Armun Kelisk is uneventful, the skies are as peaceful as the newest spring day. Nix remarks that word has quickly spread among all the airship captains on the talkstones that the formerly dangerous region of sky has calmed down completely, no doubt thanks to your efforts.
---------------------
Pulling up into the harbor in Armun Kelisk, the Wandering Mistral is met with cheers from the other ship crews and citizens gathered on the docks. Pulling back into docking bay 94, you can see Ashasar standing amidst the throng here to greet you.
"I knew I could count on your team to handle this dangerous task. Congratulations on a job well done. How did your mission go?" He shouts.
Octaris flies off the ship and towards Ashasar. He's laughing. "Of course, we did it! We're the best there is! We fended off creature who were trying to steal our stuff, and then I destroyed electricity traps which would have killed everyone else! Finally, we took on a Rift Spinner in a chaos dimension! But it was no match for our magic!" Water swirls around the mephit and he gloats from their victory.
"We even freed wysps who were enslaved to this chaos monster!"
It was pretty weird. Even before we fought a snake thing on the Maelstrom, there was a temple with all sorts of murals and drawings about. Maybe that place had to do with why all the elements were strange? Rhyol says as she nods to Octaris.
The thoqqua lowers her head. Well, not all the wysps. My mind wasn't strong enough, and one of them had to save me. He gave his all so we could keep going...
As the water continues to swirl around gloating Octaris, slowly his form seems to melt until it's clear that a different water mephit stands in front of you. "Ha! Ha! I did it! It wasn't Octaris this whole time! It was me, Aurathius, his cousin!"
"Obviously, my powers are at least equal to those of my stuffy, trumped-up cousin to have helped you all with this little adventure. I think I deserve a place among your Concordance, don't you? Or otherwise, when something like this happens again, where will you turn? Oh, and it'll be so delicious to show Octaris how I am finally his equal!" He bows to Ashasar and spins to elicit any reaction from the rest of the group.
Whaaaaaaaaaaa?
"Well you have certainly proven yourself capable in a fight, Aurathius. But I don't know how the Concordance will look upon your deception."
"Why would the Concordance admit such volatile winds?" Zephyr wonders.
"Lives could have been lost," he adds.
"But none were," Aurathius points out. "And who's to say that my cousin would have been more help to you? He's a stuffy know-it-all who can barely act if he hasn't planned it all out before hand. He would never have been able to bend the chaos cyclone to his will like I did."
The mephit spins around, still reveling in his deception and success. "Face it, you need me. At least as much as you need him."
|
|
Ashasar listens patiently to the report and when Ember is finished, he speaks again. "Yes, well thank you all for a job well done. Even you, gnome and dragon!" He signals to the captain and first mate on the ship. She waves back courteously. The dragon bows.
As the group turns and makes their way back to Ashasar's villa for final payment, he wonders aloud. "Well, that tower seemed to be a surprise, wasn't it? Yes, a tower dedicated to the exiled air lord Ranginori deep in the heart of a violent chaos storm. That was surely no coincidence."
"Ah well, no matter for now. You have all capably dealt with the rift, and no worse for the wear it seems. So now it's time to be rewarded for that. I had already made out letters of credit, but I suppose I have to amend at least one of them." He says, suspiciously eyeing the water mephit and frowning ever so slightly.
Seeing the large group at the docks, Ember's heart starts to race. "This is it, your moment. Relax and let them be amazed." She then takes a deep breath and speaks loudly so all can hear.
"Yes, the area is safe to travel once again. We had quite the adventure. After receiving our mission from the Concordance, our first objective was to find a ship to reach the area of the disturbance. Our group talked with many pilots trying to find one brave enough to make the risky trip. Finally we found an adventurous gnome by the name of Nix. Along with her navigator, Kyrthis, they manuevered their ship, the Wandering Mistral, as close to the disturbance as they could.
From there, we piloted the Mistral 2, which Rhyol helped construct. Just as we were getting accustomed to flying our new ship, we were hit with a violent wind, which sent our equipment, and us, flying in various directions. Getting our bearings after the crash, we found ourselves in a race to recover our supplies before a group of wyrd's got them. Our speed proved useful and we were able to recover most of the supplies first, although we did have to barter for our astrolab. With that crisis resolved, we moved on to a tower we saw floating in the distance.
What once must have been a magnificent white marble tower was in ruins, the top of which was engulfed in a black mass of swirling winds. Entering, we discovered a cyclone in the center of the tower, with strange crystals in each of the rooms. By examining various reliefs, we determined that the tower was dedicated to, or pehaps at one point home to, the lion-serpent, Ranginori. At this point, we must have triggered something as the crystals started buzzing with electricity and then, ZAP! The electical discharge injured many of us as we scrambled to figure out what was going on. Unfortunately, we had a short reprieve. ZAP, ZAP, ZAP. As the discharges continued, most of us had to flee the tower or risk perishing. Fortunately, Jamila and Octaris were able to avoid or withstand the discharges long enough to destroy the crystals and with them, the cyclone.
We then discovered a 10' wide colorful ring where the cyclone had been which we determined was a portal. Going though the portal, we found ourselves in another dimension. There we encountered a Naunet Protean who had 4 wysps under his control. As we fought the protean and tried to free the wysps, the plane itself warped and pummled us. Eventually, we were able to free the wysps, but the protean proved to be a worthy opponent. It was about to kill Rhyol, when the earth wysp sacrificed it's life to save her. Finally, a lightning bolt from Zephyr brought down the protean. Returning through the ring, we focused our magical energies to close the rift. In doing so, the storms in the area cleared and we were able to return."
She ends her tale, proud of herself for creating such a masterpiece. Although, she fights to hide her sadness as she can't hear the applause but can see everyone chearing.