Byron makes his way tiredly back to his home. He gives Eldon only the briefest summary of his activities before going to bed.
Fiordelise is tired when she gets home, but she sits down with her brother. He's been affected by what's going on, and has a right to know. So she tells him everything... he already knows a some of it, but it helps to get it off her chest.
Finally, her tale told she waits for a reaction. The words woke her up a little, removing the fatigue, telling stories or singing songs always had that effect on her.
Eventually, questions answered she returns to bed. First things in order, she will try and go back to the site, preferably with Byron and the others if they're available, if not she'll go alone.
She intends to test and see if the curse still holds sway, taking slow careful steps and awaiting any sensation that may indicate she'll burst into flame. It may seem reckless, but she has a burning desire to know if she can still access the chamber, or whats left of it, and she won't ask anyone else to be a guinea pig for her.
Osric will go back to his apartment and crash into his bed, barely remembering to lock the door. The last thought that drifts through his head is that as awful as the last few days have been, it's the least alone he's felt in years.
He wants to go back to the ruins as well, and will meet up with the others. He's not willing to risk his own hide like Fi, though, so he'll stop by the market first and pick up a dozen baby chicks to toss into the danger zone.
Later, he'll swing by the temple to speak with the inquisitor as requested.
Byron: by morning, the ruby (or ruby-like substance) is completely gone. You can take 10 or roll an alchemy check to analyze the substance - your choice.
Fi and Osric: Your individual experiments reveal this: the curse is still there, but it is significantly weakened. As opposed to bursting into unquenchable flame and dying, the results now seem to be akin to scorching your hand on hot metal. It is still painful, even penetrating Fi's fire resistance, but not immediately fatal. If you attempted to push through it, you're not sure if it would get worse, or if you would be able to survive the ordeal.
Osric, most of the chicks run away after get singed, but one was not so lucky. You are the proud owner of a cooked chicken dinner.
For once, Byron is cautious in his experiments on the residue, taking time to do things methodically.
"It seems to be as we expected. We weakened whatever lives down there but did not destroy it. I've tinkered with a new type of potion that might allow me entry if the damage is linear rather than exponential, but I am not entirely comfortable going in without backup. Perhaps I could teach the formula to Byron, who could share with the group tomorrow?"
Fi: 'Enzo listens intently, sipping at grape juice (he insisted you take a drink to confirm) to calm his nerves. He cries with relief that you are safe, and he tells you a bit more about the awful night when v'Manco tied him up and killed Karissa.
Karina has not left your side, and she adds in a few details as well. It is as gruesome and pointless as you imagined it would be. After Enzo excuses himself to bed, Karina asks if she could stay here for the night. "I just don't want to go back home without Karissa, Fi."
---
Osric: as you approach the Temple district, you spot the slimy sylph who angrily confronted you at the Makers the other day. He simply says, "The inquisitor is expecting you," and gives you a sneer.
---
Byron: The solution is versatile and powerful. You know for certain that a small amount of it would bolster some of your formulas, such as Resist Energy (fire), Bull's Strength, and your fire bomb damage. You would have to dedicate several more days of study to unlocking any more powerful secrets (could it be used for enchanting, could it be used in Eldon's project, or for any of your own projects, for instance)
---
Odebie: What is most on your mind right now? Just getting back into your duties and aiding the Slums, or something else?
The possibility of the solution being useful for replacing some of the more... difficult to acquire portions of Eldon's master's formula intrigues Byron. He dedicates most of his attention to this idea.
Osric would like to start with diplomacy, and then maybe work his way to less savory tactics as necessary.
The gist of his position is that he ultimately did the temple two favors. First, we took out V'Manco for them, and second, we made them look competent in the process. There's no need to be angry about any rumors that may have been going around, since the same rumors would've been going around anyway. Osric simply congealed them faster, just in time to make them look good.
After a solid twelve hours of sleep and enough food to build a house, Odebie trudges back into work. First, there's the backlog of backwoods Oreads who came to the city to do dump things; with Gad out of action (not as much of a hindrance as it should have been) there were a lot of blood feuds to settle. When he's not doing that, he's spending hours helping rebuild after the fires and the riots and studiously avoiding any of the political mess. At least some of the younger officers got to have fun making up excuses for where he was to the Temple.
He also takes a few hours and writes a letter to his father, a priest of the Grey Father, detailing what had happened and asking for his help. The two of them didn't always get along, but when you need advice...
Byron: Let's put those skills to use with a skill challenge.
Roll:
2 Alchemy
1 Know Arcana
1 Know Nature
1 Know Planes (untrained is fine)
1 Spellcraft
1 Use Magic Device
Results will determine how much headway you make on Eldon's project.
---
Odebie: Could you elaborate on what sort of help/advice you are looking for?
Also, what would Odebie say if he were offered a promotion to sergeant for his recent actions?
---
Osric: If you are looking into what's happening with the Gasp trade these days, here's a skill challenge for you as well:
1 Perception
2 Bluffs
2 Sense Motives
2 Know Locals
----
Fi: what are your top priorities in terms of these goals:
1) Keep an eye on Karina, the girl's had quite some trauma
2) See if the temple is accessible, hopefully the 'curse' is lifted as we were't
incinerated when leaving. Need to get back there before the news spreads and looters get in.
3) Repair her relationship with her brother, hopefully they can bond over mutual trauma
4) Meet up with Elfie, she was avoiding her while v'Manco was targetting her friends,
hopefully that was something that died with him.
5) Research v'Manco, not sure how much she'll get, records are likely a temple thing...
but if she can find out where he acquired the Ruby etc...
Karina and Enzo will honestly take up pretty much all your time for several days - neither are in any condition to go out and do much. If Fi is willing to do so, it would be a help to both of them simply for her to be there, and assist with simple things like meals and spending time with them.
In the rest of Hearth...
With the curse of the bizarre creature known as Corazon apparently ended, the Festival of the Changing Seasons is in full swing in the Eastern Marketplace. There are games, entertainers, free food, and huge crowds, despite the cold.
Byron is far too interested in his project for festivals.
"Take your time Karina, let me know if you need anything... I'm not going anywhere until you feel a little better."
Karina and Enzo are top priority, Fi will take whatever steps she can to make sure they're okay. She will try and get them to come out to the festivities, thinking it may do them some good. Though if they're adamant they would rather stay away from crowds she'll stay with them.
The promotion would be welcome, the extra paperwork would not be. Especially since Odebie didn't learn to read or write until he was already an adult.
Firstly, he's asking if the priesthood has any useful stories about ifrits since the library here seems heavily edited. Secondly, he's asking for advice on how to deal with the Temple without being thrown bodily out of the city.
He's most certainly attending the festival, likely with all of the members of his apartment complex if he's not working.
Odebie, you are officially promoted to Sergeant Odebie. Your duties are concerned with the areas around the Steams, and occasional patrols within it. You have three privates under you who carry out the daily patrols, checking in on locals, and helping with the rebuilding process. Given your recent heroics, you have been assured a great deal of leeway in terms of exactly what you are doing day-to-day, but they still expect you to perform your necessary duties.
Though you are a sergeant, you are not taking Gad's place - Ahtuno (his fingers beginning to heal from when Corde, the brutbreve player crushed them at the Plucked Vulture) applied for the job and is the new jailer for the Dims (he is only a private though). He told you that Dove laughed when Ahtuno compared the way he would handle inmates to the way he handled particularly dangerous earth elementals - 'respect them, but kindness is wasted'.
The letter to your father is sent. You will likely hear back toward the end of this two-week period, unless you are paying extra for a specialized courier.
---
Byron, you and Eldon shutter yourselves into your lab for several days. You toss a few coppers to a neighbor boy to fetch free daily ashbread and water for the two of you. The only light you see is that of the occasional luminescent compound created by your work.
You have completely deciphered the notes, and you are confident that you and Eldon can replicate the results, given the proper materials. You are less sure of how exactly to utilize the solution to maximum effect - your alchemical training simply did not prepare you for things like efreet blood and rubies. That being said, you are being careful and methodical - the worst thing that will happen is a dud. Even a 'failure' like that would give you ideas on how to improve in subsequent batches.
Finally, after what seems like weeks of isolated lab work -- you are thankful for Eldon's company and his aid -- you use your tongs to pull a small white sphere out of a smoking red liquid. The sphere looks identical to Eldon's, save it is a little smaller (about the size of your pinky nail)
---
Osric, you keep your ear open for any rumors of disappearing sylphs or reports of Gasp usage, and hear nothing. Your recent fame makes it a little tougher to ask discreet questions, however, so you are unable to positively confirm that the Gasp trade is on a downward spiral. In this case, no news may indeed be good news, but how satisfied you are with this is up to you.
---
Fi, Karina and Enzo are both up for forgetting their troubles for a few hours - they join you for the evening at the festival.
Fi and Odebie, it sounds like you two are attending the festival, while the more serious-minded sylphs go about their business.
That evening, the innumerable tents of the Marketplace flutter and snap as they are buffeted by gusts of wind. Suspended in the air above are hundreds of dancing lights casually conjured by the vendors, merchants, and street performers who possess the tiny spark of magic common to elenkind. Red torches, glowing blue crystals, and even bright yellow and purple sylphan fireworks all vie for the crowd's attention.
Mellow guitars, shrill flutes, deep orean drums, and exotic undine stringed instruments blend together with the roar of laughter and conversation. Ifrit bards take requests from passers-by to produce ghostly piano music, disembodied tiger growls, and heavenly choirs. Undine water-singers make water and ice dance, creating miniature tragedies and love stories to accompany their somber songs.
Red ifrits, blue undines, brown oreads, and white sylphs are all present in droves, and nearly all are bundled beneath winter clothing. The ifrits favor stylish, dark woolen coats, while the oreads simply add another layer of leather and fur on top of what they already have on. Sylphs appear deceptively bulky wearing scarves, gloves, greatcoats, and boots, all made from soft pale cotton. Undines, least affected by the cold, wear slightly thicker robes than usual, but otherwise give little heed to the weather.
Guards of all Watches can be found roaming the grounds, looking out for pickpockets, troublemakers, and drunks. Sweepers, mostly sylphs, can be found muttering to themselves as they coax the wind to clean the detritus of the festival off the cobblestones. Flaman can be seen almost everywhere - their smiling faces, warm kilns, and free ashbread a signature sight in Hearth.
Moving through the whirls and eddies of the mob of elens is a slow process, so there is plenty of time to take in the sights of individual tents. The food vendors are most active, showing off new recipes: hot chocolate with cinnamon, and a stronger spice; buttery roasted pogona legs; noodle soup from an undine chef; a hot apple-and-strawberry cider; mint ice cream with a minor prestidigitation to taste warm rather than cold.
Scattered throughout the streets are stone Tornarecasa playing boards, flanked by stone benches. Older ifrits flock to these, their breath steaming as cold hands roll dice and click the ceramic disks back and forth across the rows of brown and red triangles. Several informal games of brutbreve are played on the wide venues by children of all the races, their cheeks flushed by the cold. Some use worn-looking rubber balls, while others simply use large wads of paper held together with string.
Fi keeps close by Karina particularly, she's been through a lot, even compared to Enzo. She feels a little self-conscious wearing her armour and blade under her heavy coat, but feels the need to keep herself in a readied state.
Still she tries not to let her nerves show for the sake of her companions and wears a ready smile for the night... Even with her nervousness it is good to be out in the city and see how it bounces back even in these dark times.
Byron smiles slightly at the sample, feeling the rush of satisfaction that always accompanied a successful experiment. But he restrained his elation, knowing that this was simply another step in the process.
"Appearance is nearly identical but that is not proof of its properties," he comments to Eldon. "We will need to perform some tests which is likely to prove difficult given the necessity of employing it against hostile entities unless you happen to know of some other way?"
His tone suggests he doubts there is one.
Narrate yourselves awake after your week of activities, and make your way to the Watch to meet up.
Osric is satisfied that the gasp trade is not the threat it once was, and the fire dungeon still seems like a greater threat. With the temple appeased and the rioting halted, he gets some much needed rest.
He heads over to the watch to witness the ceremony where the temple will pay their bonuses.
Byron is somewhat reluctant to leave his experiments, but the possibility exists that something of use to the process might be left in the odd structure beneath the statue... and even if not, some lost knowledge of the past or other tidbit likely remained.
He leaves strict instructions with Eldon on what not to touch (and what to touch), then heads for the Watch to meet up with the others.
Fi breathes deeply in bed, reflecting on... everything. She had forced herself to stand strong for Karina and Enzo. But now they were, well, recovering at least.
Time for the next distraction. She rallies herself, dresses and clads herself in her armour, and heads out to meet the others, leaving a short note for Enzo, though she may be back by the time he wakes.
Happy to have been working with his hands again and whistling tunelessly, Odebie steps into the watch to greet everyone else.
Inquisitor Ky La, along with a few bored-looking functionaries from the local Coal's office, arrive precisely at ninth candle. The undine, smiling widely, individually blesses every single elen crowded into the foyer, taking a laborious ten or fifteen minutes to do so.
This accomplished. he holds his holy symbol--the blood-red triangle of Volcano--aloft, and casts a simple light spell on it. The glow is oddly menacing, akin to the light that pulsed angrily from the ruby-solution on the night you killed v'Manco.
"Volcano's light be upon you all. Indeed, it is incontrovertible evidence of Volcano's power that we are standing here today, our heroes having vanquished Corazon at the Temple's behest." He waits just long enough to be insulting. "With the Watch's valued aid, of course."
Ky La rambles through a prayer for a few more minutes, which somehow turns out to be more self-congratulatory than benedictory. When it is finally over, you hear the silent effort of fifty elens straining to not sigh in relief. The inquisitor quickly hands out the individual rewards to all the guards involved in the rescue and rebuilding of the Steams and the area surrounding it: half a year's pay to nearly everyone in the Watch.
The guardselens are genuinely thankful for what they perceive as generosity, and make their way back to their duties. The functionaries, yawning, cross the street back to the Coal's office.
The inquisitor, however, remains. With a merda-eating grin, he says, "And now, are we to make our way to the statue? I'm so excited to begin!"
Byron does his best to maintain a carefully neutral expression, but anyone looking at him could probably tell he's less than thrilled about this development. He glances at Osric, expecting the other Sylph to react.
Fiodelise' lips thin and she considers speaking out, but the last thing she needs is to make an enemy of the temple.
Its so nice that the temple has enough money to throw around to make themselves look good.
Osric nods at Byron's questioning face. "I invited the inquisitor to join us, as someone with his gifts may be useful down there. I'm not terribly talented at exorcising tenacious demon spirits, so it makes sense to bring in the professionals."
Krissina relaxes a little, it was somewhat more comforting that the Inquisitor was here by invitation and wasn't just sticking his nose in.
"Do you need any further preparations or shall we get this done?"
Fiordelsie relaxes a little, it was somewhat more comforting that the Inquisitor was here by invitation and wasn't just sticking his nose in.
"Do you need any further preparations or shall we get this done?"
Shortly after entering the Steams, a wretched-looking ifrit darts out of the mist and past Ky La, who is humming to himself absently. With surprising dexterity, the ifrit cuts Fi's coin purse and starts to sprint away.
With hardly a change in expression, the inquisitor says, in a conversational tone of High Ifrit, "Peccator es," and points at the dirty ifrit. He screams, drops the coin purse, and begins ripping and scratching at his face while weeping. Tears and blood stream down his face, dripping off of his chin. The inquisitor strolls up and observes this, head cocked slightly to one side.
Stepping forcefully between the inquisitor and the boy, Odebie kneels and lays a hand on the boy's forehead. Curls of opalescent roots branch out to clean the blood from his face, and his wounds knit quickly closed. "Breath easy, now." He rises, facing the inquisitor, and there is no glint of humor in his eyes. "You embarrass yourself, your order and your religion. Do that again, and we will no longer be companions."
Osric chuckles at Odebie's reaction. He remembers being filled with just such righteous indignation in his youth, but either the wisdom of age or the scars of trauma dull his sense of outrage.
"Relax, Odebie. I suspect that was no more damaging than the thump on the head any of us would've given him had we noticed. Besides, this is merely standard operation for the temple, and especially the inquisition. To reject this is to reject the city in which you live and serve."
Byron watches warily, trying to guess just what the inquisitor had done.
Fi bites her tongue, and retrieves her purse, pressing a coin into the ifrit's hand. "siamo tutti peccatori" she says quietly, to no-one in particular.
Inquisitor Ky La watches all of you. Smiling at Odebie, but talking to the ifrit, he says, "Dear boy, if you're looking for honest work, the army is always looking for more warm bodies. Or perhaps the Watch would like a few more criminals within its walls?"
Talking to no one in particular after the ifrit has fled, Ky La says, "I find it academically interesting that, in a town where everyone is given ashbread, water, and cloaks by the Temple, that elens still feel the need to steal." He ignores, or is unaware of, the hostile looks that most of you are giving him.
A few minutes later, you arrive at the statue. The same twisted stone efreet stares proudly into the distance. The mood is more melancholy than sinister with the odd tragedy of v'Manco still fresh in your minds.
Also to nobody in particular, "In my experience, nearly all theft does not have necessity at its heart, but rather envy. As long as one elen has what another wants, larceny will never leave us."
As we approach the danger zone, I'll chug a resist energy (fire).
Byron will also drink his resist energy extract.
As Osric, Odebie, and Byron partake of their respective drinks, the inquisitor murmurs a few words under his breath and traces a triangle in the air . He also takes a tiny purple pogona from one his his many pockets, and swiftly crushes it in his hand. Dark red blood drips between his light blue fingers.
"Mighty Volcano, lend power to our humble protections, so we may do Your will." All four of you feel a strange tingling sensation in your hands and feet, as if they had briefly fallen asleep.
Ky La tosses the broken corpse toward a side alley. He does not bother to wipe the gore from his palm. He descends the underground staircase with hands casually behind his back, taking in the sights with grinning enthusiasm.