Ryli's youthful face doesn't hide her irritation well. "And the fact that I couldn't find Olympus means what, exactly? That a druid of my caliber can't keep her companion under control?"
"I think it means that he took refuge when the weather got bad," Jeevika replies gently. "It wouldn't be unprecedented. From what Setsuna told me, he ablely weathered that storm at Hook Mountain by himself. He clearly has strong survival instincts."
Ryli stomps her hooves in agitation. "He does. It's just my instincts that are highly suspect." She eyes the door, thinking on the terrible blizzard and beyond that, her foal that she left with what amounted to strangers. She squeezes her eyes shut and hugs herself.
"I'm sorry. Being young means... Being headstrong. Hot blooded. I don't mean to be so... immature."
Yawning, Zoli says, "At this point it's so late I wouldn't mind sleeping a bit...but how could we if Olympus is lost out there? Let's go!
"Do any of you have spells that might aid us in finding him?"
"...I must also apologize. My own stubbornness ruined a decent window of opportunity we had to retrieve those bones," admits Jeevika. "And I completely understand. I might seem old, and technically speaking, I suppose I am. However, if you normalize our ages, I am barely older than Setsuna."
"I can commune with nature once more today. It's not the powerful one that lets me understand nearly a full continent, but it should help me find Olympus. Unless he and the ship are outside this strange weather phenomenon that is keeping us in and everything else out."
She looks at Jeevika with a wry smile. "And depending on how you look at it, I'm either just days out of childhood, or ancient beyond measure."
"It makes no difference to me really when we leave, it will be unpleasant in any of the scenarios on offer. The recent slight worsening of the storm makes me think that the longer we let this go on, the worse it may get. Therefore, I say we make the trek now. Olympus can take care of himself until we end the storm."
And if he can't, our mission is more important than any one animal. Even one so dear as our mascot.
"Ok then, let's see if your Communing helps...and then either way, get moving and find Ollie!"
"Very well. Give me a few minutes."
Ryli begins chanting and making elaborate gestures once she steps outside and moves to the most sheltered side of the cabin. After ten minutes, she gets an idea of the general animal population, presence of powerful unnatural creatures, and the general state of the natural setting.
Seeing that she's outvoted, Jeevika shrugs and prepares to depart when the others are ready.
"There's an apex predator nearby; hopefully Olympus. That doesn't bother me. What does is the presence of three powerful unnatural creatures in the area."
She renews whatever castings have expired, then gestures for everyone to follow her outside. "It's time. Let's go get those bones." The centaur grows larger and larger, huge tufts of shaggy hair spilling over her form. In an instant, Ryli is a huge wooly mammoth. She turns her head and uses her trunk to assist everyone except Lorthan to climb aboard.
Eugeni flies up and tucks himself behind one of Rylimammoth's giant ears, gripping her fur with his three hands.
Zoli does a running leap, landing on the trunk with her hands, and cartwheels up to sit beside Eugeni, grinning.
Once everyone's aboard except for Lorthan, who can take to the air and follow along closely, Rylimammoth trumpets once to lift the mood. She starts moving north, pushing her bulk against the howling winds and using her form's natural adaptations against the wintry elements to good effect.
The short trek through the mountain eventually becomes hindered for another reason. The trail leads to a very narrow passage rock pass, leaving just enough room for someone to carefully tread sideways with their back pressed to the sheer cliff face in places.
Zoli says, "Thanks for the ride, Mammo-Ryl. Seems like it's time to change tacts.
"That squeeze doesn't look so bad. I'll take the lead."
Zoli jumps down off the mammoth's back and begins to carefully lead the way forward.
Ryli shifts back to being a centaur, then looks at the ledge with a shake of her head. "I'm part horse, not mountain goat. Looks like it's air elemental time for me."
With that, she shifts into a huge air elemental and stays close to Zoli.
"Oh no! A ledge! Whatever shall we do?" cries Jeevika in horror as she plucks the Orange Prism from its orbit around Ryli's head when the druid briefly turns back to normal.
One Communal Air Walk and returned Ioun Stone later, Jeevika (and whoever else needs it) is casually trotting through the air.
The ledge in question is near the mountain’s peak above. Trailing to a 5-foot-wide shelf to the northwest and southeast, the ledge deepens into a large flat area in the middle. The ground here is rough and uneven, covered with rubble and rocks and counting as difficult terrain. Further, a layer of thick fog to obscures the ground. This fog extends out over the cliff and down 30 feet from the edge.
Near the eastern end of the ledge, a small number of gravestones protrude from the mist. Near them is a mound of snow that stands out from the rest of the area. Also, a very large section of earth and stone shifts near the center of the ledge.
__________
Zoli scratches her head at the clumsily moving mound of snow and earth.
"Any idea what that is? Maybe a new friend, come to help us give this poor spirit his final peace?"
"If we're going to encounter those unnatural entities, it'll likely be here, and soon," Ryli whistles as softly as a huge air elemental can. She then goes through the motions of casting call lightning storm.
"Yeah... After nearly getting eaten twice today, I would rather have someone else investigate."
With that said, Jeevika takes another moment to cast a spell.
Seconds later, a handsome white-feathered roc that absolutely dwarfs Olympus appears before Jeevika and looks down at her expectantly.
"Super Olympus, fly over to that moving mound over yonder. If it attacks you, feel free to defend yourself."
Eugeni readies himself to blast anything agressive off the side of the mountain with a battering blast. "15 gold says it is a white dragon hidden under the snow. Any takers?"
"I hope not. The last one we faced was almost too much for us. Well, when it attacked us without warning. And it slaughtered an entire village."
As the summoned roc screeches out and moves over towards the shifting earth and snow, it erupts violently revealing a huge worm-like creature with large mandibles opening up in a chittering roar. It looms menacingly over the ledge!
As it emerges, so too does a ghostly form of a dwarf from a smaller mound of snow at the eastern edge of the ledge. It's mouth is filled with fangs that drip streamers of blood that fade away to mist before they strike the ground. A rime of ice forms along the surface of the ground where he emerges and hovers.
__________
The huge elemental that is Ryli moves away from the party and along the side of the ledge. Her airy form casts a spell and reaches out with a wispy tendril to bestow a powerful enchantment on the roc summoned by Jeevika.
Since she suspects the worm is living, she speaks to it. Please, frost-burrower! Do not attack us -- what is the unliving thing there? That cannot be your friend, right? Why not help us defeat the death-thing?
Now a Colossal monster, Super Olympus is no longer Super Olympus. Nay, he is now Mega Olympus! And like any big bird, he decides it's time to get the worm...
With her summon distracting the worm and Eugeni having the ghost within his sights, Jeevika opts to conserve her strength for the moment.
As usual, Elthariel casts her Abundant Ammo spell and prepares to fire a volley. She is thankful that she had the foresight to renew the spell earlier in the day.
The roc grasps the worm in a talon and bites it with its beak, but fails to strike with the second talon. The worm chitters out a roar and manages to rear its head towards the large cluster of things bothering it and lets loose a blast of ice and frigid cold from its maw that washes over everyone except Ryli!
__________
[/ooc]Half[/ooc]
Despite the bitter cold doing extra harm to the half dragon, Lorthan moves forward and breathes a cone of fire back at the ice worm.
Oblivious to the deep snow, Zoli charges right across the air and takes a swing at the worm...but (embarrassingly) she miscalculates how it will feel to run in the air, and misses wildly.
The massive worm reels from Lorthan's fire breath, but cannot do anything about it just yet while in the bird's talons.
Meanwhile, the spirit flies forward, glaring at Lorthan with hungry eyes! It surges straight for him and reaches out thrusts it's hand in his chest near his heart! Lorthan winces and recoils, his scales turning darker, and his frame weaker! He looks around at you all with cloudy, fearful eyes, before collapsing into the snow!
__________
A ghost, eh? Luckily my battering blasts should affect it just as well as a corporeal being.
Eugeni makes a quick gesture, and five magical force missiles strike the ghost.
Then he goes through the longer gestures of a battering blast spell, before fling six more much large spiked balls of force at the ghost.
*1.5 = 43
*1.5 = 49
*1.5 = 40
*1.5 = 37
*1.5 = 42
*1.5 = 46
*1.5 = 42
The spirit is blasted through the ground after the impacts of Eugeni’s spells, with the remaining orbs blasting away large chunks of snow, ice, and earth!
With the ghost blown to Kingdom Come, Elthariel takes her anger out on the worm. Even in the awful weather, she miraculously manages to land a couple of solids hits.
plus
plus
plus
plus
Amused by his prey's struggling, Mega Olympus briefly releases the worm to let it think it has a chance... and then proceeds to maul it further before grasping it again with his giant talons.
Jeevika dashes over to Lorthan and attempts to save him. Thanks to Air Walk, she trots right over the snow. While she would normally use her Heal spell, the Holy Vindicator isn't entirely sure if he is still alive. As such, she goes for a more moderate option.
The spirit is blasted through the ground after the impacts of Eugeni’s spells, with the remaining orbs blasting away large chunks of snow, ice, and earth!
With the titanic roc dealing with the ice worm and the ghost battered into seeming oblivion, Ryli turns her attention to poor Lorthan. She flits over to the fallen half-dragon and touches him with some of the small amount of healing she keeps ready for emergencies.
When you heal Lorthan, he rolls over wearily. His eyes are cloudy, and his body appears much older. His voice is weak as well, as he mumbles ”Tell...tell El I-“ then the worm lets out a chittering wail as thenwounds from Elthariel and the Roc rip it open. It flails about, spraying ice and spines everywhere! Everyone save for Zoli takes some cuts from the icy shards!
Elthariel collapses with a cry of pain, falling to the snow and bleeding badly. Lorthan, however, takes a particularly large spine from the creature through the side of his skull, killing him instantly!
__________
Before despair can settle upon the group, an idea strikes Jeevika like an anvil.
"Eugeni, use Breath of Life on Lorthan!" Jeevika exclaims. "Limited Wish! Breath of Life! Boosted!"
Seeing Lorthan fall, and hearing Jeeve's suggestion, Zoli hollers "Yes, good idea!
"Lest this end for him as in Gid Kuekue's tragicomic epic Worms On A Plain"
"Lorthan!" Ryli shouts as the worm explodes into cold and shards of ice.
"Poor, brave and tortured soul. I'll invite you to ride the Wheel when we get back to the ship," she says softly, but with the worm gone and the ghost blasted somewhere, she decides that it's time to get out of here.
She casts death ward on herself, and while Jeevika and Zoli tend to their fallen, she flies over to the bones where the ghost had risen. "Spirit, we shall bring you to your brother, where you can be warm and forget the awful nightmare of snow and hunger," she says to the remains. Then she uses her airy tendrils to scoop up the bones.
Eugeni flies over to Lorthan and uses some of his most powerful magic to attempt to revive the dragon-man.
Everyone converges on Lorthan, save Ryli who goes to collect the dwarven remains. Karivek’s body lies near a long-dead fire pit in the eastern portion of the ledge, frozen solid and preserved by the cold mountain air. The corpse still wears its padded armor, but is itself in frightful shape. Not only is it broken and mangled, as if it had fallen from a great height, but the body’s legs end in charred, blackened stumps where the feet had been burnt off.
Then the ghost lunges from the earth beside Eugeni, thrusting it’s hand into his heart as well as trying to take a bite out of him! Eugeni feels an icy ache through his body, and his joints stiffen some as the ghost’s touch supernaturally ages him!
__________
For a moment, just a brief moment, Jeevika is hopeful that Eugeni could save Lorthan. The dragon man's constitution is perhaps the strongest in the group, and Eugeni's magics are perhaps the most powerful. However, as the light of the spell fades and Lorthan continues to lay still, Jeevika sees that it is not to be...
When the ghost emerges from the ground, she sees red.
The ghost's sudden reappearance and attack on Eugeni has elementalRyli in vengeance mode. Lightning courses through her airy form, and suddenly a bolt lances down from the sky!