You lose no time and run towards the southwestern district following the spirals of smoke.
Plumes of smoke rising from minor fires have become an unfortunately common sight, but for now it seems that none of them are too large for the citizens to handle themselves. Not so the billowing wall of dark smoke rising from behind a nearby row of buildings; even now licks of flame can be seen rising dangerously high.
As another fissure opens in the avenue and hot red stones explode out, you quickly understand the reason of the igniting fires. People run out of the way, many coming out of the buildings on fire.
A group of citizens come to you, they look desperate, all talking ensemble and coughing "The Petrovs and the Robinsons are still trapped in the topmost floors, we do not know where, but we fear they need help to get out of the burning building!"
"I c-can fly up and s-see what I can s-see from the windows," Marigold is quick to volunteer, pulling on a strange-looking mask as she does. "This'll let me s-see through the s-smoke!"
And she proceeds to do just that.
______________
JJ nods. Knowing that the normal flames are not a major threat to him, he dashes into the burning building and heads for the stairs.
Wow, flying is so handy.
Kikinnin gains the immediate ground of the building afire, retrieving his Rope of Climbing for the second time today. Snapping it knotted as far up as it can go, the black beard targets an upper window, and begins climbing, again, seeking the protections of the open air against the inner fire.
When Kikinnin reaches a 'topmost' floor window, he smashes at it from the Rope, with his Axe, hoping to gain entrance to the building.
Kythel following along with his companions Air Walks to the top floors as well.
As he does so, he casts Protection from Energy - Fire - Upon himself.
With her flight, Marigold reaches very fast the top floor and sets a mask to clearly see through the smoke. She quickly locates a couple of unconscious men in the floor, but the area is suffering from severe heat.
JJ quickly dashes into the building on fire, looking for any remaining survivor. Despite the burning air, he does not seem to suffer the fire on his lungs, still the smoke quickly starts to choke him. He guides himself to the source of coughing but can hardly see through the smoke.
Kikinnin though has to invest a couple of rounds setting her rope and climbing high enough. Entering the building will cause trouble due to the heat and smoke.
Kythel goes up climbing in the air and protects himself against the flames. Still he will need to search in the darkness of the smoke to help locate citizens.
Searching through the smoke JJ looks around desperately for the source of the coughing sounds.
"I can hear something...."
Marigold manages to resist hacking and coughing on the smoke that permeates the building, though only just. She can feel her armor quickly heating up but pushes the pain aside. After all, this isn't her first rodeo with a fiery inferno.
"H-here! I s-see some p-people here!" she calls out, though she's not sure if any of the others are close enough yet to hear her. She tries to move toward them as best as she can, but the going is slow, much slower than she'd like as the flames dance all around...
If I can just get them to the window, maybe I can fly them out or send them down tied to a rope or something!
______________
Kikinnin follows Marigold's lead, positioning himself under the window the halfling lass sets her sights on. When he gets up to her height, he struggles to see what she sees through the window, and waits for her instructions to locate the victims inside. The Rope of Climbing waits for use as exit strategy, as the black beard pulls himself through the window, and plans for placing the victims within his radius of effect.
"Tell me where they are, miss Marigold! I need them to be within thirty feet of me, so I can heal them!"
The black beard uses Abadar's healing to hopefully set some folks on their feet, and heal his injuries from the fire.
JJ cannot hear any citizen, but he decides to bump through the flames to accelerate his search. Incredibly, the flames deal little damage to the man who after a few seconds wildly moving around the house, suddenly stumbles with three citizens, one of whom is unconscious. The one that appears to be the mother shouts desperate at JJ as he arrives as a ball of fire "Please, help my child!"
JJ takes the child while the mother and what seems the grandfather follows him. The young man starts opening a new way through the flames with a body over him.
Marigold advances more carefully, trying to avoid the flames, but her smoke sight allows her to locate citizens faster. The burning air overheats her lungs while her armor starts to overheat.
Fortunately she turns out to suddenly find five citizens in two adjacent rooms.
Kikinnin follows Marigold, quickly channeling energy and helping the two unconscious men to evacuate the house through his rope of climbing while Marigold searches for the other citizens.
Marigold tries to lead the five last citizens out to Kikinnin.
You cannot hear any more screams of agony within the building, but you will still need to get everyone out of the building.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"Follow me, stay close..." instructs JJ as he hefts the unconscious mother onto his shoulders.
"It's hot, but I have friends just outside who can help. But we need to get there first."
Barging through walls, JJ does his best to get the small family to the stone stairs, and then down to where the smoke is not so thick.
"Keep up. I can carry two of you if needed." he says, trying to reassure them. Every few seconds he turns around, trying to make sure he has not left anyone behind.
Finally he bursts into the fresh air of the street below and looks around for a spot to lay his burden down.
As Marigold works to lead the last of the survivors out to Kikinnin and his rope she briefly wonders if they should try putting the fire out...and then dismisses the thought just as quickly.
Maybe once we get everyone out, but not a second sooner!
Kythel considers casting a spell to eliminate the fires but the spells are so offensive in nature they may slay the very people the Watchers seek to save so he must struggle through the smoke and heat...
He enters on an upper floor still air walking and begins his search.
Fortitude DC 15 -
Perception - Perception
Kythel gets close but then his Perception is blocked by the maze of fires in the buildings...
However, his allies call out and he follows their voices to the correct path and begins to assist in "air lifting" them out.
He also Channels Energy to heal any who may be injured from these flames - Channel Energy
Once he believes the citizens are safe, Kythel blasts the areas with the worst of the flames with spells:
1. Ice Storm,
2. Con of Cold, and
3. Holy Ice (the wall variety but laying the wall horizontal instead of vertical).
As JJ reaches the avenue outside, the family collapses to the floor exhausted by the effort, with many burns around and lungs poisoned with the smoke.
Marigold becomes the lighthouse of the other two families in the upper floor. Guiding them with her smoke-sight, she reaches the window, starting to cough herself unable to do more, but she has done the job, she took the people to Kikinnin and Kythel and both of them are able to work on bringing them to the street while the halfling makes a final effort to move herself out to safety.
With the building evacuated, Kythel conjures a storm of ice over the construction, followed by a freezing blizzard that quickly makes the temperature of the place to go down. The freeze quickly consumes the heat of the building and the flames are put out by the ice.
Without the flames to worry about, Kythel is able to quickly tend the victims ans his friends, channeling energy to cure the burns and expel the smoke poison out of the people lungs and blood.
"Well done!" smiles JJ, still coughing a little.
"But the whole city... how.."
He looks around at the devastation of his home town. "We have to still get everyone out of here. " Hardening his face he adds "The city can be rebuilt... but only if the people survive."
"Agreed JJ.
Lets hope we have now faced the worst of it, my options begin to wear thin".
"M-most of my m-magic is only g-good for fighting," Marigold agrees, still coughing a little bit. "Or h-healing. B-but we j-just have to m-make do with what we h-have."
Though she does relish the brief respite Marigold knows that there's still work yet to be done.
"L-let's just h-hope that Kythel's r-right..."
______________
Kikinnin shakes some ash from his beard, when the smoke finally clears, and their efforts show some success in avoiding further loss of life. He sighs with relief, while doing what he can to help in the healing process, then hopefully the evacuation process.
He looks over his companions with a quiet pride, as he witnesses their individual capabilities come to bear against the wanton destruction of the fires and the quakes. Praise Abadar. You've given me strength this long stretch, in more ways than one. In more than one person. I pray that we'll have the strength to see this through. I only ask that two more Cagewrights are dead by my hand before you welcome me home.
"Still feels like we've got more work to do in this district." Kikinnin spends a moment to retrieve his Rope. "Where to next?" He looks to the sky, only briefly, expecting the clouds to only look angrier.
With the worst burns healed by Kythel's energy the group starts to push citizens out of the district.
As Kikinnin stops a second to look up the clouds gathering in the sky, a steaming fissure yawns at the edge of the street, lit from below by an ominous orange glow. Instantly, the fire within surges, growing brighter and fiercer.
You barely have the time to rear back, but the fissure splits your group.
A spray of lava spurts from the fissure and spatters the surrounding area as a glowing appendage of flame erupts from within. A burning figure clambers out of the vent, howling in a voice that crackles and roars like an inferno.
"कस्तो ज्वरोले हाम्रो ज्वालामुखीको सतहमा निवास लिएको छ? यस अपराधलाई नष्ट गर्नुहोस्!" shouts the figure.
"What kind of squatters have taken up residence on the surface of our volcano? Destroy this offense!"
Then, with another explosion of rock and fire, more figures start to appear from the fissure as well.
The creatures distract themselves smashing at the surrounding buildings giving the Cauldron Watchers a chance to act first.
"The big one is an elder magma elemental... And the others are greater elementals. Immune to fire they can travel through the earth and pack a mean punch"
JJ steps up to the closest (yellow) elemental and whacks it with Alakast.
Kythel Quickens negative energy selecting out his allies from any of the damage.
Channel Negative Energy
He then closes his eyes and clutches one of his pearls of power.
Marigold's Round 1
Immune to fire, huh? I can deal with that.
Though Marigold can't quite recall anything specific about these beasts JJ's given her enough to go on, at least for the moment. She moves up next to JJ and adopts a defensive position as she begins to cast...
...and blasts Yellow with shards of ice!
______________
AC = 33/13/32
HP = 172/172
Weapon Equipped = Eldgammel
Condition(s) = None
Kikinnin charges the big Blue flame, unhappy that he's able to bring a real bite to the earth on fire...
JJ approaches the unaware elemental and strikes heavily with his staff. Despite the magic of the weapon, the hit deals less damage than expected.
Kythel raises his holy symbol damaging the creatures made of fire and stone.
They crack in multiple places, quickly noticing the presence of the Watchers!
Marigold finds no magical resistance and her shredding flurry of ice slivers bathes the first elemental and reaches the one behind.
They are both surprised by the attack and their lava body quickly downs in temperature due to the powerful magic. The creatures seem to take more damage from the coldness.
The first elemental barely manages to survive the freezing attack and solidifies, but still remains.
Kikinnin charges in, swiping strongly at the elemental and cutting a chunk out of it, but the creature still too hard that the axe is less effective than expected.
Noticing the danger posed by the halfling, the green and yellow magma elementals attack her with the overheat of their bodies.
The battering of fire and stone is terrible and Marigold is badly crushed against the ground.
The other side of the fissure sees the elementals attacking Kikinnin.
The dwarf blocks two of the attacks but the other two slam him down to the ground.
"Noooo" cries JJ as Marigold is slammed by the elemental closest to him. He brings Alakast around in a sweep and slams it into the creature, again and again and again. A he does so, he steps forward to block the path of the second elemental.
However while demons fall like wheat before the scythe, these creatures of fire and rock seem stubbonly resistant to the youths attacks. Just as the fire elementals from a few months ago were.
As soon as the ice leaves her hands Marigold maintains a defensive position as she attempts to bolster herself and JJ, at least a little bit.
______________
Marigold's Round 2
Yikes!
Marigold swiftly (or as swiftly as she can manage) rises into the air, trying to get out of the elementals' reach...albeit it's a taller order to do it while on fire.
Not wanting to leave JJ completely without backup though, she conjures a spiritual ally to give him (and the others) a hand down on the ground. It shimmers into being next to Green and Yellow and attacks!
Marigold accompanies her highly effective ice magic with a prayer.
With his first strike JJ destroys the elemental in front that already frozen by Marigold crumbles into rubble that falls through the nearby fissure. He steps over, striking four times more on the elemental, but the strong rock proving too difficult to crack , even Marigold's prayer results very noticeable in the resulting damage.
Marigold maneuvers as she raises in the sky, the elemental attacks her but fails to, and she overcomes the pain of the burning to cast a spell to help JJ confront the elementals.
The spiritual ally slashes powerfully with his whip at the elemental, striking both times, the force whip completely bypassing the rocky resistance to weapons.
Kythel calls upon Pharasma to summon javelins of pure holy ice (12 in all) to cool off these foes. As soon as they wink into existence, Kythel gestures and each flies towards the elemental in the middle
Javelin Attack #1 - - Damage
Javelin Attack #2 - - Damage
Javelin Attack #3 - - Damage
Javelin Attack #4 - - Damage
Javelin Attack #5 - - Damage
Javelin Attack #6 - - Damage
Javelin Attack #7 - - Damage
Javelin Attack #8 - - Damage
Javelin Attack #9 - - Damage -
Javelin Attack #10 - - Damage
Javelin Attack #11 - - Damage
Javelin Attack #12 - - Damage
AC = 33/13/32
HP = 151/172
Weapon Equipped = Eldgammel
Condition(s) = None
Kikinnin takes his wallops without complaint. The elementals are offensive, but you can't really expect hot rock to be reasonable, especially above ground. He stops his bleeding, then he tries to contribute to the return offensive against Blue.
The black beard leans back, examining his work, and shakes his head. "Sorry, folks. I don't seem to have any real threat to these brutes. This one looks a little more damaged, but you'll have to finish them off." Kikinnin waits for his punishment, for standing so close to volcanic anger.
Javelins with a frost point are sprung from Kythel's hands. Six of them strike on the elemental, but its damage reduction makes each of the spears ineffective, except for the cold damage which hurts the magma creature.
Kikinnin's wounds quickly heal while the dwarf slashes powerfully at the fiery rock in front. He manages to connect twice, the axe dealing quite less damage than expected, but still opening a clear fissure.
The magma elementals give back to the dwarf.
Two of the slams connect crushing him strongly to the ground and burning the dwarf with the volcano fires.
Seeing the halfling to high, the other elemental attacks JJ in the ground.
One of the attacks is very powerful and JJ cannot stop it, the rocks crack his bones and burn his skin.
The fire on Marigold's clothes stinguishes as she flies up in the skies of Cauldron.
Marigold's Round 3
From her vantage point up in the air Marigold flies over until she's hovering almost directly over Blue and then delivers another blast of icy shards before healing herself of some of her injuries.
All the while, her Spiritual Ally continues swinging at Green.
Kythel grimaces at the spells lack of effectiveness against these elemental titans and once more unleashes the power of negative energy against them, leaving out the same harmful effects to his comrades.
Channel Negative Energy vs Elementals
AC = 33/13/32
HP = 127/172
Weapon Equipped = Eldgammel
Condition(s) = None
Kikinnin bellows his frustration, a mixture of pain and anger at the circumstance, and the delay of getting elsewhere in Cauldron, where there might just well be other elementals coming to ground, and attacking citizens and burning buildings, like they're doing here and now.
The black beard ignores his singing chin hairs, and keeps at Blue, until the deal's done.
Marigold's shards freeze the magma to a static, lifeless, rock. Then she heals herself while her spiritual ally slashes at the other magma elemental, its force magic bypassing the damage reduction of the creature.
Kythel's pulse of energy hits hard the elementals, plenty of cracks appear in the green one, while the oldest and larger one completely shatters into tiny rubble pieces.
Kikinnin is forced to charge on the remaining creature to attack effectively. The dwarf blocks the incoming attack with his shield, then delivers a solid hit, but the stone makes it difficult to cause a lot of damage.
With a whirling staff, JJ strikes four times on the remaining elemental, although the rock is difficult to crack for him, with the last strike the creature just barely fissures and falls broken to the ground, thanks to the combined assault and the prayer.
With the elementals destroyed the people start getting out of the buildings and once again running out in the street, trying to avoid the large fissure in the middle of the avenue.
Kythel approaches Kikinnin and lays his healing hands upon the dwarf muttering a prayer to Pharasma.
Cure Critical Wounds
He then does the same for Marigold but asking for a lesser spell.
Cure Serious Wounds he frowns as not enough wounds close and follow up again with one more prayer.
Cure Moderate Wounds .
He takes a deep breath and looks to the northwest, "Northwest first and then southeast? I would suggest splitting up but it seems all of our abilities combined are needed to deal with these threats".
"N-northwest w-works," Marigold huffs, shooting Kythel a smile of thanks as he heals the rest of her injuries. "We can w-work our way around c-clockwise from there to the s-southeast. And n-no...I r-really don't think sp-splitting up is a g-good idea. M-maybe if R-Ryan and M-Maxim and a f-few more of our allies were h-here we c-could do it, b-but..."
"Praise Pharasma. Thank you, Kythel. I feel much less charred now." Kikinnin doesn't argue for direction. Feels like any direction they go, something awaits their strength with great need and desperately so. All of their strength and wits combined.
"Your magic still strong?" Kikinnin looks back and forth between Kythel and Marigold. "Not sure how much longer we can sustain ourselves in the face of all this danger."
The black beard takes a swig of water, his mouth thoroughly parched after breathing in the elemental radiant heat. "Let's keep moving. We all here? Ok, good, let's go." He starts moving towards the northwest section of Cauldron with the others.
"I'm st-still good to g-go," Marigold reassures her friend. "Th-this," she waves her hand, "w-was the m-most taxed my m-magic's been today b-but it'll take m-more than a few w-wily elementals and ravine t-traps to t-tire me out!"
"So far I have adapted what gifts Pharasma has granted me well enough. What other option do we have but to press on?"
"We always have to option to join the evacuation. Some battles are fools' errands, and none of us should be lost to overwhelming odds. If we faced a dozen of those elementals, we should recognize when we're outmatched." Kikinnin nods when both wells of magic claim they're still full enough. "I'm not saying that moment is now, but we need to adjust our measure of the danger, should it grow beyond our abilities."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
As you walk northwest the heat of the city starts to grow as small fires begin to be more common. In the middle of the chaos you overhear the sound of glass breaking.
Running to see what is going on, you spot a group of brigands assaulting shops and workpshops in Magma Avenue. A loud boom like a storm suddenly interrupts their sacking. A blonde figure with a gun still smoking stands in between, chewing a stogie in between his teeth. A few meters behind him stands a group of dwarves carrying their few life belongings. Kikinnin recognizes his mother Mirna, and you also recognize Gralthar Nightshield and the gnome Hackbus Wyrdbore.
The sackers, surprised at first, stand against the blonde one "We are not letting this stuff be swollen by the volcano, and you are not going to avoid it" one of them picks a stone from the buildings collapsed and throws it at the window display that shatters into multiple pieces.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
" Why don't you p-put your skills to use h-helping your fellow m-man out of the c-city instead of t-taking stuff?" Marigold suddenly yells at the looters, her patience clearly frayed by the day's events. "None of that stuff'll b-be any use to y-you or anyone else if you're all d-dead!"
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Kikinnin sets eyes on Maxim, and a wash of understanding and relief rinses over his frame, kicking his walking pace up to a forced march. Joining his fellow dwarves, the black beard looks over the blond's shoulder, and waits to see what kind of new trouble they still have to face down.
"You been able to talk sense to the sackers? Lemme know if you need help."
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Maxim flashes a hard smile as his erstwhile companions appear as reinforcements.
Through gritted teeth he whispers a response to Kikinnin;
"Help is always welcomed Bror. Reckon yer mere presence will be persuasion enough."
The gun-mage levels his double-barrelled pistol toward the stone-thrower;
"You. Rock-chuck. I'm markin' you first. Now listen here all o' ye! This ain't a negotiation. I ain't askin' fir cooperation. An' you're right - I won't avoid it, an' y'all won't avoid my bullets iffin' it comes to it."
His stogie blazes bright as he's brow furrows;
"Ah'm all fir folk collecting that which is theirs, savin' what ye can. Hell's Teeth I've made wagons an' carts o' my own mercantile endeavours available fir such. But like Lil' Miss says this ain't yours to take."
He exhales a stream of smoke as he primes the hammer of his pistol;
"So. Begone. Save yirselves an' leave us Watchers to worry about what's being left behind. Or stay and face the consequences..."
Maxim jerks a thumb toward Kikinnin;
"Now if any o' ye are thinkin' I ain't got the bullets or stones to deal with ye all. Lookee here. This here is my Bror. A righteous warrior o' Abadar. Dealin' with looters is a holy duty in his books... So call it Rock-chuck and company... What's it to be?"
Maxim's gun is intimidating enough the sackers stop their break in, but they do not reel back either. Behind them you spot a halfling you quickly recognize. Maple points at you "You are the Cauldron Watchers! I have been closed in prison for months thanks to you muggins!"
One in the front, a crippled woman, spits to the floor "The Cauldron Watchers. You killed Feristin and cut my foot back at the Lucky Monkey"
Another man with a patch for an eye closes by and the sackers start to gather, a dozen at least but quickly gaining in numbers.
Kuthel Air Walks up into the sky above those aroused to violence, making sure he is 30' away from those he would not want to harm.
"If the Cauldron Watchers have struck against you and you believe their actions illegal, take it up with the politicians after the chaos.
We are seeking to save the city from the fiery doom that encircles us.
Disperse and save yourselves.
Otherwise I shall send you to the Lady of Graves and you can take your case up with her..."
"W-we're trying to s-save Cauldron," Marigold adds, her voice calmer but with a hint of steel for having recognized some of the faces in the crowd. "If you're st-still feeling sore about the p-past then come f-find us another d-day. B-but if you c-care anything about the c-city or your c-c-community then you'll st-stand down and either h-help evacuate or g-get out of our w-way."
Kikinnin sees the fear and anger in the faces, and knows how easy it would be to give into the anger, to push back against the accusations with brute force. Not only does he see that as a triumph for the Cagewrights, that the soon-to-be-slaves would rather fight among themselves than try and flee the region, but also that it's becoming a true threat, in the sheer numbers gathering. He tries to reason with the crowd.