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Vulture in a Coal Mine

Scene details

Setting: The Star Chasers have passed through the cactus-ridden desert and reached the dormant volcano at the center of the isle, where seemingly insurmountable cliffs loom before them. With Reize, Hero of Vulturekind, having rejoined his party, our heroes elect to hazard the ancient lava tubes in the hopes of ascending up and through the darkness, seeking safe passage and the mountain's treasures.

Log


 Sandstone crumbles between Ivo's gliding fingertips, scattering to the dusty rock outscropping on which he stands. Above, cliffs tower, their rosy hues glowing almost invitingly in the sun despite their forbidding height. Here, in the shadows of the isle's central mountain, the merciless desert has been left behind. Yet further challenges await our adventurous friends, shrouded by the darkness of the tunnel that yawns before them.
 "Even if we could make the climb, or otherwise ascend," the Cosmopolitan is saying, gazing up at the looming volcano, "the winds that keep surging down are just too dangerous."
 His gaze inclines downward toward the cavern that leads into the cliff, then back to their sand sail sledge parked nearby, megamarmots grazing on the occasional scrub flower that sprouts from cracked stone.
 "Reize's vulture friends seem able to bring us back to the coast to recuperate or reorganize when necessary," he then observes, "but ideally, we can at least ascend high up enough through the tunnels to gather some resources and load up the sledge. If another wind elemental like Reize describes awaits up on the peak, and they're a cause of the winds that trap us here, I want us to be sure we're ready to face them."
 And that, you know, there's ore here with which we can fix the Romancing SaGa's engines. That will also be important, eventually, once their little sea monster problem is dealt with too.

> BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_G6s-NdQGk

Reize has (delicious?) vulture friends and Ruidosa dislikes this because they took him away and then they ghad to go rescue him.

But then they found out about wind elementals and there's these dumb mountain and a tunnel and--

"This is just the Pits of Avarice but there might be lava and fire involved." she says gravely. "And maybe less skeletons..."

"I mean. There better be less skeletons." says Ruidosa.


  The group can only look ahead of what's to come in their adventure. This new trip leads them into what appaears to be a looming volcano. The boy's eyes furrow as he looks up, mind slowly drumming back to the Southern Continent. He cannot help but wonder what Kyrius is doing right now.

  His mind snaps back as Ivo comments on the wind. The remark around Scirocco earns a nod. "Scirocco is very powerful, so we'll have to keep our wits together once we approach."

  He cracks a grin, "Shall we begin?"
 

  • Character: Iris
  • 5 months, 4 weeks ago


LAST TIME, ON STAR CHASERS: THE NEXT GENERATION

 While everyone else was having merry adventures, Iris the runesmith had a little adventure of her own: cleaning, curing, and then shaping the hide-carapace of the giant aphid that she and Ivo had felled in their quest for water. This being a careful and consuming task, she was effectively out of the picture while our heroes went about their usual escapades, but it DOES mean when Reize finally came back he MAY have observed her in the distance, having used vines to lasso a giant sand vole while surfing behind it on some sort of shell-like vehicle.

AND NOW, THE CONCLUSION:

 The smith went out of her way to be sure she was here for the trip up the volcano, however. After all, the thing she supposedly came all the way to this godforsaken place to find -- pyroclastic ventite, a rare elementally-charged ore which could only form in a biome like this island's distinctive geography -- is almost certainly found there. "Well, it can bloody well take a number. This place has been fun and all, but I've got things to smith." She DOES sound a mite impatient, come to that.


 Ivo has sauntered over to the sand sledge's storage and seems to be sorting through it as Rui anticipates the likely prospects for what lies within.
 "Skeletons of what, big marmots?" he quips back to the vampire girl, grinning for a moment before pausing, a driftwood torch in each hand. "I hope not," he then adds, having the sense that with their luck, this would be an all too probable foe. The torches he is holding down are wrapped in scraps of what looks like salvaged sailcloth, redolent of palm and coconut oil. It smells nice, actually. "These might be smoky, so take care if you want to hold one. I'll bring up the rear with one to avoid clouding the vision of those in front."
 They've done the best they can with the resources at their disposal thus far. But if they can find any on the way up, this is their opportunity to at last regain some of the comforts of civilization by way of lumber and ore. Iris is not the only one excited for that, if the smile Ivo flashes her is any indication, though the dilettante puts on a better performance of patience.
 "Watch your step if you're walking," he advises as he approaches the tunnel entrance with torch lit. It really does smell nice. "I haven't noticed any obvious volcanic activity, so I don't think we'll have to contend with an active lava flow, but at the very least, the floor is likely to be especially smooth--"
 Ivo promptly nearly slips mere meters into the tunnel. Unlike a typical cave, the stone is almost glassy in places, with only the weathering of time providing some purchase. He begins to advance slowly, trying to brace himself with one hand against a curving wall that itself doesn't offer much help.
 "It-- may be slow going at first," he observes, but valiantly tries to advance into the darkness without slipping and accidentally slidetackling anyone else. Even if the risk for doing so is only bruises, it would be an ignominous start.

Ivo Galvan rolls 1d20+2>=10.
Comment: Slippery walking check (being careful bonus)
Roll(s): 11. Total result is 13. This is a success (by 3).

Ruidosa La Crima rolls 1d20>=10.
Comment: Slip and Slide? Y/N
Roll(s): 19. Total result is 19. This is a success (by 9).

Reize Seatlan rolls 1d20>= 10.
Comment: Careful footing through the tunnel
Roll(s): 19. Total result is 19. This is a success (by 9).

Ruidosa La Crima takes a torch and doesn't light it, because she has nightvision as a vampire. She walks carefully down the tunnel with supernatural grace. Because she's supernatural. She's a vampire, durrr. She carefully follows along, winces when Ivo nearly slips, but continues along the curve.

"If we encounter giant marmot skeletons."

"I'm eating you whole, Ivo." she says, eyes narrowed, looking ahead.


  There is a thought that passes Reize's mind, particularly Ruidosa's mention about the Pits of Avarice. He has a large sweatbead on his head, lifts a finger. However, he decides not to address it, lowering his finger.

  Back to the cliffs, Reize walks towards Ivo to take one of the driftwood torches. "Gotcha! I'll be careful!" As they enter the tunnel path, he does notice the pleasant fragrance of the torch as he slowly steps around to avoid falling. He lowers the torch to get a good sight of his footing, then he steps along the tunnel. He even tests a footing on one ground that looks more depressed than the others.

  One footing carefully notes a depression that could spell him slipping, but he navigates through it without too much issue.
 

  • Character: Iris
  • 5 months, 4 weeks ago

Iris rolls 1d20>10.
Comment: Obsidiocy
Roll(s): 10. Total result is 10. This is a failure (by 0).

  • Character: Iris
  • 5 months, 4 weeks ago

Iris rolls 1d20>10.
Comment: Rolling with advantage because this is my personal subquest
Roll(s): 10. Total result is 10. This is a failure (by 0).

  • Character: Iris
  • 5 months, 4 weeks ago


 Careful? CAREFUL IS FOR SMALL CHILDREN AND THE ELDERLY.

 Ivo's near tumble, Rui's threat to treat Ivo like a protein shake, and Reize's uncharacteristic avoidance of an easy pratfall are one thing, but Iris came all this way for a REASON, and so she strides confidently into the cave, not at all concerned about the glassy obsidian surface. What's the worst that could happen?

 Well, for starters, she could slide across it like Han Solo across a slippery Death Star floor and head toward a curve in the path that almost certainly leads down into a magma chamber. This is, in fact, exactly what happens.

 However, as the smith appears to be just shy of Wil E. Coyote-ing off to a fiery death, the group is reminded of her ability to create necessary tools out of thin air by magic, which is why right as she's about to careen off the side, Iris is suddenly holding one of the more exotic polearms, a lucerne hammer: a long-hafted hammer with a big honkin' spike on the end, which she casually rams into the rock wall, leaving the haft extending outward from the volcano's side like the flagpole for a penant. Knitting her brow, the runesmith swings back and forth a bit before hopping back onto the path at a crouch, just in time for the hammer to crack free of the wall and then fall.

 It is quite a while before any sound of it hitting a solid object comes back up.

 "Well, that was fun," she says, turning to the rest of the group, as if nothing had happened.


 Torchlight flickers on the glossy smooth cavern walls, evoking the impression of a mirror sheen, as the party advances with alacrity. At times the tunnel narrows worryingly, as though they are about to reach a dead end, but eventually widens again. Occasionally a branch emerges, revealing that there is much more to this warren of lava tubes that they are going to be able to survey in a single venture, but in each case, one passage gradually ascends while the other descends, making the initial choice a simple matter. The smoke from Ivo's torch curls idly along the stony ceiling as he follows his nimbler allies at a deliberate pace, providing illumination without obscuring their view. It also serves as the first clue that, after an interminable duration, the space that encloses them is expanding.
 "It's bad enough that she can turn me into a frog," he is quietly asiding to Iris, once he is sure she has safely recovered from her close call and the impressive display with which she avoided further danger, "but maybe what I should REALLY be worried about is her learning how to turn people in crabs-- hm?"
 Glancing up, Ivo notices that the smoke from his torch is disappearing beyond reach of its own illumination. Sweeping his torch out, it becomes clear that they have reached a more open space within the heart of the mountain. To their left, a path clings to the cavern wall, and to their right, a sheer dropoff descends into a bleak and seemingly bottomless abyss. Heat and wind issue from it, but no light. Even so, it is far more forbidding a dropoff than the one into which Iris almost tumbled before.
 "Oh? Oh!"
 Ivo, clinging to a wall thankfully roughened by the flow of air over time, is eagerly examining the rock face.
 "That's a vein of coal," he exclaims. "We'll need hotter fires if we want to do any proper forging-- ah," he notes as, brushing away dust, he uncovers a glassy crystalline outcropping. "And at least a little diamond too, I suspect." He sounds much less excited. Well, it would probably be harder to extract, among other isle-stranded issues.
 Ivo seems inclined to investigate the walls further and see what else can be discovered in this treacherous place before moving on. But the more perceptive among the party may note a different and unpleasant smell mingling with the aroma of coconut that issues from the torch. It is strongest near the edge of the abyss, where the hot wind blows from below.
 The fascinated Cosmopolitan distractedly shakes his head once, as though fending off a headache, and focuses on his investigation of the vicinity.

Ivo Galvan rolls 1d20+2>=10.
Comment: Crafting components hunt (complete focus)
Roll(s): 16. Total result is 18. This is a success (by 8).

Reize Seatlan rolls 1d20>=10.
Comment: Perception Check
Roll(s): 17. Total result is 17. This is a success (by 7).

Ruidosa La Crima rolls 1d20-2>=10.
Comment: Fly across chasm, penalty for thermals.
Roll(s): 6. Total result is 4. This is a failure (by 6).

Ruidosa La Crima looks down into the abyss. "Pfffbt. I can fly across this easily." she says as she turns into a bat and tries to fly across it.

Thermal heat rises and sends her careening up into the surface of the cave and she flaps wildly to get back. "I can't fly across that...easily.." she says, a little dazed as she poofs back into her humanoid form.

"I Knew this place was horrible."


  Although it seemed uncharacteristic for Reize to take a careful approach, it is best this way because it allows him to be more perceptive of his surroundings. They already have an end goal of wanting to find someone that the boy once encountered. Since he is the most familiar of that encounter, it's best that he leads the way and acts as the scout.

 However, he cannot help but become impressed by Iris's display.

 Moving closer to the top with Ivo, he frowns as the flame is quickly snuffed up as they approach the open space within the heart of the mountain.

 As Ivo announces his bounty, Reize cracks a grin. "Great job, Ivo! I'll survey around, I don't think anything will leave us unharmed..." He furrows his eyebrows.

 Sniff sniff. In fact, Reize wanders across the surface, "...Uhh... something smells..." He looks down towards the chasm, finding the smell more pungant as he approaches the edge. "Ruidosa! Come back!" --- which she does. The boy gives a sigh of relief. "I think something's down there..." In fact, the boy procures a slingshot that he was given from Iris and it served him well during his earlier trip.

 He procures a small elesphere, one of Ivo's flash ones. He is bringing the elesphere out towards the slingshot and he aims for the chasm, the source of the heat. He takes a careful aim...

 FLICK!

 The elesphere is shot straight towards the hole of the chasm to identify if there is a source of that 'heat'.
 

  • Character: Iris
  • 5 months, 4 weeks ago


 Just because she herself will walk face-first into danger without thinking about the consequences (or more accurately assuming she is functionally immune to them) doesn't mean Iris has 0 sympathy for other people. Plus she actually hadn't seen Ruidosa turn into a freakin' bat before, so you know, there's that part. Both eyebrows go up, and the smith gives a little 'mmm' in the back of her throat. "Well, that's a shame, but I bet that's a useful trick," she says, trying to be encouraging about it.

 Meanwhile Reize slingshots something that explodes into the distance in the middle of a volcano, because of course he does. Presumably nobody gets blown to pieces, however.

 "I'd bring out the lodestones, but what would be the point in here?" she says, frowning. "Too much aspected energy. Also did the frog thing really happen?" Yep, she's one of those.


 "Could this be-- silver?" Ivo is scraping at the stone with a makeshift chisel wrought from scraps of one of the SaGa's busted engines. "No-- titanium? It's not iron, but if we can burn some coal to get the fires hot enough, it'll do for glass blowing tools. I can at least extract enough for testing-- hm?"
 He glances over his shoulder as Reize's player appears to press the wrong button and launch a small explosive projectile into the depths of the chasm. A burst of light in turn ignites a brief gout of flame that illuminates more of the abyss. There does not seem to be anything lurking there at the moment, but ripples in the air indicate the presence of noxious gases.
 "Of course," Ivo blurts out, sounding unusually abashed. "It should have occurred to me the air would be unsafe here. We'll only stay as long as we need to--"
 An approaching thunderous fulmination begins to drown him out. At first it may seem as though Reize's act has provoked some response, but in reality, the conjuncture of events is likely a coincidence: a burst of wind rushes through the tunnel, not coming up from the abyss but coming down from further on in the tunnel. The party must briefly brace themselves against it, but the sound of it coming at least provided some fair warning.
 "That's a good sign," Ivo says, his tone optimistic as though heartened by their metallic finds. "If wind passes through here, this tunnel almost certainly leads up to the caldera rim. I'll extract what I can and we can go check. Look," he continues in a more subdued tone as he turns back to the wall, "the frog thing is a long story..."
 But the perceptive Reize, now forewarned about the presence of toxic gas, is likely also to notice that the passing wind has left a familiar purplish trace, the same associated with the corrupted elemental with which they had earlier contended. Entangling with the foul air, something seems to be forming in the far reaches of what the torchlight reveals.

> A Toxic Elemental is manifesting. The party has initiative.


  There is a concentrated gaze at the heat, furrowing his eyebrows. Upon the erupting flames, Reize takes a step back to shield himself and Ruidosa, keeping her away from the flames. "Whoa!" This would put him in the position of pressing Ruidosa against the one of the cavern walls protectively.

  However, once the gout of flame disappears, he blinks as nothing seems to come forth. No ravenous creature lurking.

  "... Oh."

  He looks awkwardly and glances towards Ivo, Ruidosa, and Iris. He rubs the back of his head with a nervous laugh, "Looks like I got worried all for nothing!"

  His eyes drift over towards the purplish trace that becomes entangled with the foul air. "....Oh! Guys! We have company!" He points a hand out towards the manifestation at the far reach.
 

  • Character: Iris
  • 5 months, 4 weeks ago


 Well... heck.

 In fact: "Well... heck."

 Fun geology fact but volcanic dust and smoke are super harmful because they're full of stuff like chlorides and other gases that are pretty harmful in small doses. Additional fun geology fact: if those things become sentient and malevolent, it's a real bad time! Imagine if bleach wanted to actively murder you.

 Iris's hand drops into that 'about to summon a weapon' pose for a moment, and then she knits her brow and gives up on that. What the hell good is a hammer going to do against... that? Or a sword, or a spear, or any of the other perfectly usable but utterly mundane things she could think to conjure up.

 Quick, Iris! Invent the vacuum cleaner!


 "Hm?"
 Ivo, alerted to the presence of the forming elemental by Reize's observation, nearly stumbles toward the brink of the abyss as a chunk of ore comes free in his hand from his strenuous chiseling.
 "This is not an ideal battleground," he wryly observes, fighting off another bout of lightheadedness. "We could make a break up toward the rim, but we don't know if anything stands in our way." A pincer attack would only make this scenario worse. "Let's back off down the tunnel for now, before that phenomenon fully manifests."
 If they had a means of striking the Toxic Elemental safely, they could potentially eliminate it before it could respond. But without access to a wide range of elemental attacks, both the abyss and the explosive gases here render combat a sketchy proposition. The party may safely withdraw some space away to plan their next move -- and, if necessary, withdraw back to the base of the mountain with some crafting components in hand. Once they are ready to take them back to their base of operations on the coast, the upgrading can really begin in earnest.
 And really, isn't upgrading the best part of any adventure?