"Are you sure that's entirely necessary? We just need to find out if we're actually going the right way. Plus, at the Grand Lodge, they mentioned divination spells weren't working up here. Seems like we're just in it for our own merits right now, Nagato."
The sands seemed to stretch on forever. Whatever secret held within the River of Sands, it was more well hidden than previously thought. All the desert seemed the same to Jacob.
The sun beat down on them for days on end. The night, however, was a boon upon Jacob during the excursion. Jacob had no qualms about using another casting of Mage's Magnificent Mansion. However, the properties of the spell to bring out food and drink seemed to be blocked. This weighed heavily upon them, but at least the group had significant shelter. It seemed that he was alone in wanting to explore during the night and sleep during the day. Reasonable enough, he thought. Weather, no matter how bad, was not that great a reason for messing up with everyone's sleep schedule. Still, it would've been nice.
The next day, the group examined a strange phenomenon. The collapse of several dunes seemed... odd. Jacob never often stayed too close to deserts, but he was rather sure that sand dunes didn't necessarily start falling over at a moment's notice. Sand, unless being acted upon by an outside force, did not tend to move like that. He turned back to the group.
"Is anyone else noticing this? I think there might be something under the sands. Seems roughly the size of what caused that crater closer to town." He raised a hand, gesturing it not unlike an Alkenstar native would brandish a pistol. "Would anyone mind if I blasted it?"
As the day wore on, Katja found that the heat did little against her hearty constitution. Fortunately, she feels no hunger or thirst due to her ring of sustenance.
When the party arrives at the craters being made in the sand:
"That does seem about the right size. Let me take a look. If it is, I'll call out and you can have all the fun you want."
With a strong flap of her wings, Katja does a fly by to try and notice what the creature (or thing) is.
Wanting to pull her weight, Mira alternates casting Mage's Magnificent Mansion with Jacob. Considering how little magic she typically spends beyond the spells she and Lady Nagato exchange, she does not find it too troubling. What does bother her is that some of her allies aren't protected from the heat like she and her mother.
Upon questioning Nagato about it, the Oldest Samsaran replies, "I suppose I can prepare Endure Elements tomorrow. Not to sound arrogant, but it's practically a cantrip for me these days."
After seeing Jacob and Katja sweating bullets throughout the next day, the Masked Monk offers to both of them, "Care for a dose of Endure Elements, you two?"
As Katja takes flight, Nagato watches the sand dunes crumble and begins to ponder the situation, "...I think whatever is collapsing the dunes is underground."
"I'm going to take that as a 'yes'. Let's see if we can get a bead on this thing from here."
With a flourish, Jacob casts Meteor Swarm upon what would appear to be the next dune to collapse. With his connection to the Dark Tapestry, opposed to the stars themselves, the ensuing explosion coats the area in cold instead of fire.
"...Don't you think that's a bit excessive, Jacob?" Mira asks as the blonde ex-priestess watches her fellow sorcerer rain down a massive storm of fiery death upon their unsuspecting foe. "I mean-"
The Razmiran woman flinches as Nagato abruptly begins chanting in a blend of Thassilonian and Samsaran. The Masked Monk then claps her hands together, causing the very ground itself to quake below. All Mira can do is roll her eyes, huff, and massage her temples.
"Well, seems like Nagato's got it right on the nose. Probably is excessive, but I don't know any spells that would be able to hit that thing except MAYBE this. Whatever that thing is down there, chances are we caught it's attention." Jacob examined the scene, smirking at his handiwork.
"Plus, at the very least, maybe it'll be cooler in the aftermath of those explosions."
"Good job, everyone. Nice hustle..." He strained his eyes to check over the scene. Jagged glass and filled out fissures lay before them. As far as he could tell, the dunes were no longer collapsing.
"Um... Did we get it?"
"Hold up there Jacob!"
Flying over, Katja comes in and hovers 100' above the collapsed fissure. She takes care not to kick up any sand or debris.
From her vantage point, she examines the buried "thing" to see if any movement occurs. After a couple of mintues of no movement, she lands and attempts to dig it up. Not having any natural ability to dig, she just scoops the sand out of the way.
Even though he didn't see anything, Jake couldn't miss the fervor Katja put into unearthing whatever she observed. He did his best to help with a casting of Unseen Servant and Telekinesis. "What'd it look like? he asked while sifting through the sands. He did his best to keep wary for whatever caught the dragoness's attention.
"...Hey, Lady Nagato?" Mira asks as she and her surrogate mother watch Katja and Jacob vigorously try to part the sand.
"Yes, Mira?"
"...Can't you just turn into that big badger thing and dig right through the sand? You know, the one with claws that can punch through solid bedrock?" the sorceress inquires innocently.
"...That would have saved us a lot of time and effort, wouldn't it?" Nagato mumbles to herself as she descends to the worksite.
Once grounded, she quickly shifts to a much smaller form, a big blue-furred celestial badger that stands at about the height of Jacob's belly. "Allow me," she says as begins slowly tunneling her way downward to the buried object.
Validk pats the neck of his phantom steed as he and Orsenn slowly trot around the area, ten feet off the ground. With gentle taps of his knees, he steers the steed next to Mira.
Did you see what caught Katja's attention? I was admiring the glazed sand and missed it. Just how fast can your mother burrow?
"I'm not sure what I saw. It was fairly large though.
She searches her memory of all things arcane to see if she knows what this might be.
"Val, if you wanted to see more of that, you just had to ask. Though maybe after we find whatever is down there." Jacob attempts to further scoop sand away under his spell's effect. "You were right about the sand, Kat."
"Looks like something is coming to investigate our activities. Be alert!"
With that, Katja takes off and moves to a height of 100'.
"...I regret nothing."
Nagato (somehow) curls her claws into a fist and slams it against against the scaled thing beneath her.
"Katja, wait up, don't head so far!" Under his own power, Jacob could only follow her up 40 feet in the same time period. As he climbed, he ceased concentrating on Telekinesis, letting the sand fall where it may.
Katja decends to 50' to meet Jacob.
"I wanted to be high enough to see what it is. Still not sure at this point."
Jacob looks at her bewilderedly. "What, the thing underground? Nagato's checking that out, why Di you need to be so high up for that?" He scratched his head, but quickly pulled his hood back up to protect him from the harsh sun. "Are you saying there's something else, now?"
"You're cute when you're curious. Look over there." she says while pointing at the disturbance coming in.
As the bulge in the sand moves forward, many questions come to Jacob's mind. However, only one comes to his lips. "Nagato? What exactly was down there...?" However, even as he was saying it, he was worried he already knew the answer.
Validk glances over at Katja, What do you see? Validk squints off into the distance, another mirage?
Sorry boss, I don't see anything either. Dragons are known for their keen eyesight though. Orsenn raises the magic carpet up several feet for a better look.
Feeling herself about ready to drown in the fast turning sand, Nagato quickly alters her form to something more suitable to the environment. Her form quickly first shrinks slightly size but becomes more durable. Blue fur gives way to solid rock, and badger shape alters to become something semi-humanoid. A few seconds later, Nagato rapidly expands in size to enhance her grit.
Once stable, the Masked Monk begins to ascend to the surface, pushing through the sand like a fish swims through water.
Jacob realized that whatever was down there probably wasn't good for anyone if Nagato jumped to an elemental of that size, especially a giant Earth one. With a panicked twitch, he began reciting the words and gestures for Haste. However, the once familiar spell felt different to him. The voice at the back of his mind seemed to be speaking through him now. He didn't ever remember feeling as spry after casting this before. He attempted to target as many of his teammates as possible.
Realizing that she has another chance to hit whenever is tunneling below, Nagato quickly seizes it.
Once she reaches the surface, the Samsaran Monk quickly shifts elemental forms yet again to allow flight and takes to the air.
Mira quickly uses the extra speed granted to her by Jacob to reach her surrogate mother's side and casts a spell on Nagato.
Katja circles to monitor the situation and assist when needed. She keeps an eye out for anything else unusual.
Jacob gulped. "Well, who wants to guess this made the crater in Manaket?" Even without directly seeing it, he knew a creature that displaced that much sand had to be large. "Anybody know of a way to fish that thing up?"
I'm at a loss. Nearest I've seen was that nest of purple worms back in '54. Got half my team, they did. I think we could all transform into a form that could burrow into the sand. Unwise would it be to confront something in its own environment. Validk shrugs at Jacob.
Orsenn visibly shudders at the thought of just how large and powerful something must be to move that much sand as if swimming in a pond. So long as we be flying, we're up here, and its down there. On to our destination?
"Our destination," Jacob reiterated, "is south. This is a rescue party without a clue to where the people we're rescuing are." He hated to say it, but the situation did look grim. "What's it been, two, three days so far? Conjuration's been getting shakier and shakier the further we get into this desert. If the Mansion gets dispelled and we're all shunted out in the middle of the night, who's to say that thing won't decide to come around then? Especially if we're shunted out still asleep. I'd rather deal with this sort of problem as it lays before us, Mr. Orsenn. Unless you wish we keep camp in shifts in the future. Or don't even stop at nights."
He looked over the shifting sands again, a furrow deepening in his brow. "Plus, it seems to me that there's a good chance this thing was released on Manaket. Maybe even before the sandstorms. Could you imagine what would happen if we were to let it search for any other desert towns?" He grabbed his Metamagic Rod from his robe pockets and worked his magic. Soon enough, another great beating of wings came forth as Jacob shifted his form into a huge Brass Dragon, clutching the Rod between his teeth like a scoundrel would do with an errant toothpick. "If anyone else recalls, we were first and foremost tasked with the protection of the world. I would believe that this constitutes reason for a slight detour from the rescue mission. If anyone would like to join me, I've got a few forms that could probably get you down there."
"I'm thinking either trying to bait it towards the surface or cover it with Reverse Gravity. But help would be nice."
He thought over more thoroughly. "Speaking of help, does anyone happen to know of a way to 'see' underground as well?"
Validk thinks for a moment, well what do we know? They are big, we don't know how big, but we know that they took a chunk out of Manaket, pretty freakin' big chunk too. They swim through sand like it's water. And from what Nagato shared, they have a pretty thick skin and generate a lot of heat.
He shrugs his shoulders, going to them isn't a good idea, we have the means of being able to burrow down to them, but blindsense will only give us so much 'sight.' They obviously have a sensory perception that has some significant range. We need more information, that or we play around with trying to figure out how to draw it to the surface.
Orsenn looks over the edge of the flying carpet, if it ain't coming up here, and we ain't going down there, then lets just get going and find those missing people.
Jake looks on at the view below, disturbed by the news. "I guess you are right. Still, it's a shame."
Keeping his form for the duration, he resumed the trek due south. "We do have more urgent matters at this moment."
Jacob examined the outcropping to the best of his abilities from the air. "Think they may have set up camp down here?" He hoped greatly that the search may have come to fruition. It looked as though the desert was wearing upon the party greatly by this point, if not just upon Jacob himself.
"Perhaps we should scry them," Nagato offers, her voice slightly bored of all the aimless wandering. "I have a mirror. I can summon or become a water elemental to act as the focus. Alternatively, we use magic to locate water. Miracle will reduce the casting time to three seconds."
Sadly, Jacob shook his head. "Would've tried that earlier. But the Venture Captain of the Grand Lodge told me that all Divinations in the area had failed..." He had stopped, nearly stunned stupid. Within moments, he buried his face in his hands in varied parts of revelation and shame.
"But that SANDSTORM could've knocked out all the sensors! Oh, for crying out loud, I had USED Greater Prying Eyes upon my first night in Manaket! Ack, I could kick myself, this heat has made my brain soft!" He looked up at the setting sun at the horizon, staring at the sun and uttering some of the worst curses his magic could bring forth. Obviously, the spells could not reach their intended target, but the casting of them made his disposition slightly better via catharsis.
"Validk, did you ever meet your friend's wife? If so, please, please, please tell me you've prepared Discern Location today. On the off chance this doesn't work, the only backup I could think to find these people is trying to survey campfire signs in the middle of the night, and I'm relatively certain nobody else wants to pull a double shift."
"Err, that would also be very appreciated if you could give it a try, Lady Nagato. Let's set down by the rocks to get you a better position for that sort of thing."