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Scirocco, the Playful Wind (Part I)

Scene details

Setting: Our heroes venture at last to the caldera rim to seek the second of the two wind elementals who caused the raging Infernex, Scirocco, and discover the nature of Wuther's nemesis.

Log


 Winds buffet, an oppressive force and a deafening cacophony. Electricity crackles, singing hair and numbing the skin. Toxic plumes of noxious subterranean gases mingled with aetheric corruption assail the senses. And deep within the caldera of this misbegotten isle's central mountain, an unearthly roar, the product not of some monster or defeatable foe but of a natural phenomenon pushed by elemental magic to preternatural extremes: a hellish superstorm, eternally raging.

> BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7dy3cKt1e0

 "Everyone alright!?"
 Ivo is taking cover from the tempest behind a rocky crag on the volcanic rim. To reach Scirocco's lair, as indicated by her fellow sapient wind elemental and apparent nemesis Wuther, our heroes have little choice but to navigate a narrow lip that descends into steep cliffs on either side. To their left, the swirling and crackling winds that dwell within the caldera basin; to their right, the open sky, a precipice that would send them tumbling all the way down to the deserts below and toward which the furious gale constantly threatens to drive them. Moreover, the mere proximity of the poisonous winds and the unpredictable lightning that lances through them has made approach by flight, such as with the aid of Reize's new vulture friends, an extremely dangerous prospect.
 "I'm not sure I've ever seen lightning concentrated so close to the ground," the Cosmpolitan is observing, somehow still pondering about lore under these circumstances, though his words might well be lost in the wind. "Could the elementals' battle have stirred up magma from the volcano and heated the air to that extent...?"
 Whatever the cause of this persistent hellgale, Wuther was convinced that, since he is no longer contributing to it, Scirocco is the only one who can stop it. There is one more obnoxious elemental with whom the party must contend to quell this tempest and at last, hopefully, free themselves.
 They need merely safely navigate this caldera rim.



  In order to be able to find a way out of the isle, the stranded travelers would have ot take the advise of the sapient wind elemental and navigate through the narrow lip that descends into the steep cliffs. After all, the one person halting the progress is the other sapient wind elemental, Scirocco.

 



  In order to be able to find a way out of the isle, the stranded travelers would have ot take the advise of the sapient wind elemental and navigate through the narrow lip that descends into the steep cliffs. After all, the one person halting the progress is the other sapient wind elemental, Scirocco.

  Reize grimaces as he uses his hands to shield his eyes while the scarf covers his face. "Yeah! We're alright!" Reize, on the other hand, finds himself on the other side of the rocky crag.

  As they deal with the Infernex, the young explorer lets out a sweat as the heat emanates. He brings a hand to his gauntlet and he looks ahead. "Let's deal with Scirocco!" They have no choice but to push through, which Reize begins the downward traverse.

 

Ruidosa La Crima is here, hiding against a crag from the wind, opposite Ivo and Reize as she grimaces and peeks out and looks for a way forward. She can't merely fly up through the hellgale. She grimaces as she winces at lightning strikes and considers.

"I can't shield us through that many strikes!" she yells out.

"Uhm.. I vote we use Ivo as a lightning rod!" she says, joking? Who knows!

"Is it striking in a pattern?" she yells across the way.

Ivo Galvan rolls 1d20>=10.
Comment: Magitech Improvization: Lightning Rod! What could go wrong?
Roll(s): 19. Total result is 19. This is a success (by 9).


 "Use me as a lightning rod..."
 Ivo sounds at first like he is thinking of some sort of quippy response to Ruidosa's maybe-joke, continuing to shelter in place against the buffeting winds as Reize begins to advance. But the Cosmopolitan is in fact contemplating the possibilities, and eventually, his eyebrows shoot up.
 "Would that work...?"
 He abruptly draws Hauteclare, sword singing against its sheathe, barely audible over the tumult of the Infernex below. Into its pommel, where he would load his standard elespheres, he places a purplish bauble the hue of the noxious winds and the toxic elementals that they sometimes spawn. This is the aetheric residue that he and Fabroxo had distilled from the remnants of those elementals, perfectly integrated Wind and Destruction, a vacuum-type elesphere with which he had created Reize's prize (and sometimes functional) Hook Shot EX. Now, he temporarily endows Hauteclare's blade with its power, and releases the floating weapon into the winds above.
 "Let's move!"
 After all, Reize is boldly moving anyway, so Ivo might as well give it a shot. And whether because the underlying principles are sound or the experimental attempt just gets lucky, Ivo succeeds in manufacturing a kind of lightning rod suited specifically to this storm. The lightning seems attracted not just to the metal of Hauteclare's blade, floating a safe-ish distance above our heroes, but drawn in by an aetheric vacuum, or perhaps like attracting like given that the elesphere was formed from the same essence as the Infernex itself.
 "Whew...!"
 Whatever the case, this seems to give Ivo sufficient cover to slide in behind another crag much further along despite lacking his allies' agility. They are significantly closer to the peak on the far side of the caldera rim where Scirocco is said to dwell. But as with Reize and Ivo's first venture to Wuther's abode, their path is becoming spotty. Parts of the rim have crumbled away entirely from wind and erosion, leaving narrow pillars of sorts as the only decent footing, precariously positioned between deadly cliffs just like the rim they've traversed thus far.
 "Can we make it?" Ivo asks his friends, trusting Reize's judgment on what acrobatics are possible for them more so than his own. Hauteclare is starting to quiver and smoke in the air as it absorbs corrupted lightning strikes, and the magitechnican glances up warily at it. They may just have to commit themselves to rushing on as swiftly as they can.

Reize Seatlan rolls 1d20>=10.
Comment: Evading the stray bolts
Roll(s): 13. Total result is 13. This is a success (by 3).



 When Ivo follows Reize's lead, the young explorer runs as fast as he can down the crag. It is through Ruidosa's idea that Ivo was able to put forth a risky plan that aid them. This provides a bit of safety for Reize as he's not in the trajectory of the voltages.

 As the corrupted lightning strikes around Reize, the boy slides on the ground, with great timing, to evade the strikes. "Whew!" He rolls along the ground, evading the next set of stray bolts. He then springs over towards some of the scarce footing, managing to balance himself.

  "We're close, everyone!"

 

Ruidosa La Crima rolls 1d20>=10.
Comment: Dark Orb Spam For Cover?
Roll(s): 5. Total result is 5. This is a failure (by 5).

Ruidosa 'laughs' as her idea is taken into effect. She says, under her breath "I knew you we're good for something.." she says as she starts to ''run'' forward. against the wind and land behind another crag with the rest of the group. Evading any bolts that Ivo can't absorb.

Still, it made things much easier.

"Whew. I don't think you can do that again, can you?" she mutters. "Well. Darnit." she says.

She thinks and thinks and nothing in her bag of tricks she can think of can defend against lightning strikes like this.

Unless... she tries just..shooting a bunch if dark orbs into the sky as she peeks over the crag she's hiding behind and tries to absorb lightning bolts this way...!

It doesn't work. The bolts strike too hard, too fast, faster than she can make orbs. She curses.

"Well. Fuck." she says. Very unladylike.

Ivo Galvan rolls 1d20>=10.
Comment: Supplement scarce footing with wind elespheres?
Roll(s): 2. Total result is 2. This is a failure (by 8).


 "One last push, then," Ivo says, flashing Reize a wry smile as their fearless leader springs across the scarce footing, doubtless capitalizing on his platforming experience. The boy seems to be doing well enough, but looking back, Ivo can see that Ruidosa is struggling to defend against the continuous elemental assault of the Infernex, and Hauteclare is clearly at its limit. "In that case..."
 Summoning the blade back to its hilt at the risk of lightning exposure -- the magitech reinforced metal looking as though it has started to melt from the repeated absorptions -- Ivo takes the risk of rushing out of cover to follow Reize.
 "If there's no footing... I'll make it!"
 Reaching into his small marmothide satchel for his stash of elespheres, Ivo withdraws a few green-hued wind aspected marbles and tosses them toward the gaps in the caldera rim. The potency of earth-aspected elespheres is not powerful enough to create stable land at will, tending to swiftly crumble, but wind elespheres can produce a cushion on which one can move, or at least fall slower, as Ivo managed with the Romancing SaGa during their initial pursuit of the Reizenapping Catgirl Mafia. Presumably he imagined something similar taking place here.
 "...aaaahhh!"
 But conditions are not exactly ideal. Ivo manages to run across air for about a second before the tempestuous winds blow away and disperse whatever gust he's managed to create with his first tossed elesphere, such that he hurtles much faster than anticipated and just barely manages to cling to the edge of one of the pillars on the way to the other side, where he dangles for the moment. So, now Ivo is dangling over a cliff (or two cliffs, technically) while poisonous winds buffet and lightning splays everywhere. Things are going well.
 On the bright side, Scirocco's lair is close enough that she might be observing this, and probably finding it very funny.

Reize Seatlan rolls 1d20>=12.
Comment: Big Hero Moment - Back to Grab and Escort Ruidosa while Braving the Bolts
Roll(s): 14. Total result is 14. This is a success (by 2).



  When Reize looks back to see Ruidosa struggling against the elemental assault of the Infernex, he spins around and he runs back towards her. He immediately reaches for her hand to pick her up to her feet and he starts running.

  His eyes become more alert, squeezing her in his arms as he starts to push his feet off the ground to leap from crag grounding to the next grounding. As the lightning attempts to strike himself and Ruidosa, the boy takes a daring leap of faith to spring over the gap of the caldera rim.

  As he closes in on the pillar, he pushes himself off of it and he springs up. "Rui! Let's fly!" He tries to push up, but he knows that he won't make it up to the cliff on his own... ... so he'll rely on her.

 

Ruidosa La Crima tries to find a path forward. That's when Reize takes her hand and they run out and she 'woah''s a moment behind him. She blushes as he grabs her arm and follows along with at a good speed, before Reize jumps and she 'eeks!'

Reflexivly, she turns into a bat, which Reize is now holding onto, as she flaps furiously upwards, bringing her and Reize up the cliff as she flaps for all she's worth!

Squeak! She lets out!


 Ivo, despite his evident predicament, can't help but grin as, looking up, he witnesses Reize's heroics and Ruidosa's strenuous bat-form efforts. As the reliable (citation needed) older brother figure of this party, he must not be the one to drag them down. His allies are already doing all that they can. Taking a deep breath, Ivo musters his resolve and tries to show some of the grit that his father always accused him of lacking.
 ...Speaking of whom, it occurs to Ivo that Gilbert had better not find out that his son just part-melted Hauteclare.
 "Hrrn...!"
 Grunting, Ivo, boots scrabbling at the cliffside, struggles to lift himself up onto the pillar from which he nearly fell as the lightning pursues his friends.
 "...uh?"
 And the stone crumbles in his hands. The resoureceful magitechnician can only blink in bemusement as he loses his grip and begins to plummet. For a moment, his mind simply goes blank. No thoughts of strange elesphere experiments or bladedancing arts emerge. As he watches his friends disappear out of view, Ivo feels himself out of tricks.
 It only happens for a moment, such that perhaps his friends will even miss what has happened, before an intense gust of wind, impossibly, buoys Ivo up back onto the pillar rather than driving him out into open space, the tempest reversing direction for just long enough to bring Ivo to safety. The stunned scholar stares into the middle distance for a long moment before the shudder of thunder from the caldera stirs him to wakefulness. Whatever happened doesn't matter. He needs to advance.
 "Hup...!"
 It's gotten easier, somehow, but he doesn't question it. Ivo, despite his comparative lack of swiftness, is able to spring from pillar to pillar, one of them half-crumbling a moment after he moves. It may be difficult to go back the way they came, but that too is a problem for later.
 "Here...!"
 At last, our heroes are united on the far side of the caldera rim, and able to take shelter at the mouth of a great cavern. Similar to Wuther's abode, they are at last sheltered from wind and lightning. But there is no mound of junk here. The entrance to this elemental lair is quite neat and tidy. As the party catches their collective breath, they may notice that the cave mouth is framed by what look to be glowing purple torches, only to be revealed upon closer examination to be actively flowing aether, seeming to morph from liquid to gas and back, that peeks from the craggy stone wall and thereby resemble a kind of sconce. Some intelligence able to control the energies of that raging tempest, at least to some extent, constructed this artifice.
 "Well," Ivo finally manages to gasp out to his companions, wiping some sweat from his brow, "at least some sapient elementals have taste."
 Indeed, whoever this Scirocco turns out to be, she is clearly of a different sort of character than the tiresome Wuther.



  When Reize nearly loses his footing, it is through Ruidosa that Reize is able to get up to the cliff. As he finally climbs onto the cliff, Reize turns over towards Ivo, who is struggling.

 "Ivo!" His eyes widen, reaching out for the 'reliable older brother' of the group. He reaches out for his hand until...

 ... Ivo falls.

 "IVO!" Reize calls out, eyes widen in shock. He is about to try to dive down or even reach out for his satchel to procure the hookshot. There is a desperate moment to make it work----

 ---And he is launched in the air. "Buh?"

  Reize watches Ivo's return and up to the pillar.

  Once they are at the far side of the caldera rim, he sighs in relief as they all made it safely.

  Once upon viewing the mouth of the cave mouth, he awes at the sight of the purple aether 'torches'. He looks over to the surrounding and he takes a few steps ahead. "... Yeah. The other place was very junky."

 

Ruidosa is on the far side of the cliff now, having turned back into her humanoid form as she pants and pants and looks at the mouth of the cave, and it's sconces and compared to the other place it's like an intricate palace entrance.

"I'm thinking we outta be on our best behavior here." she says. "Clearly this is a more refined taste." she says.

"Ivo, you're a noble, so I trust you to behave."

"Reize!..... just be polite." she says carefully.

She huffs and smooths out her dress.


 Ivo follows Reize, still in a bit of a daze from his close call earlier, and enters the cavern, the passage painted violet by the lights that shift and flow like lava lamps. He instinctively rests his hand on Hauteclare's hilt despite the sword's currently damaged state, only noticing then that his hand is shaking, momentarily numbed by confusion and desperation to the fear and adrenaline that is still coursing through him. Despite this, at Ruidosa's sharp words, he looks to her and grins. There is something reassuring about her manner.
 "Of course," he says. "Perhaps we may parley with this lady. One of such refinement may be willing to comport herself reasonably."
 "You enfleshed," an unfamiliar lilt replies, "are so very charming."

> BGM Change: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06NMfUTYbXQ

 The cavern before them resembles a temple set for a sacred ritual, shrouded at first in respectful shadow. Though fading into darkness in the distance, intricate lined designs have been carved upon the rock on all sides, giving one the sense that one is surrounded by a cross between a vast pictograph and a decorative maze to be navigated by pencil or pen. The stone is smoothed out beyond the capacity of mortal tools to accomplish, a grandeur produced by carefully managed winds. The source of the voice is not initially clear.
 "I never tire of your optimism, your hope," the feminine voice continues. "To think you'd try to leap across that chasm, despite your limitations! I couldn't bear to let you perish."
 "Then you..." Ivo replies, hoarse at first, before clearing his throat and bowing gracefully. If he were wearing his cloak, it would have rippled with quite the nice flourish. "Lady Scirocco, we Star Chasers are honored to be so welcomed and graced by your presence. We come to humbly beg a boon."
 "To lift the winds, yes? Ah, well..."
 The same purplish glow that had endowed the sconces without begins to flow through the maze of lines upon the smooth walls and thereby reveal the full extent of the cavern. There are all manner of tastefully appointed furnishings arranged upon the floor, purchased or salvaged, resembling an aristocrat's home, and local flora are arranged in charming vases and amphora. But the speaker is not to be found upon the ground. Floating in the air are lazily spinning purple crystals, concentrated vacuum aether of the very sort that Ivo and Fabroxo had themselves distilled, suspended by their own relative magnetism, arranged to hover perpetually as a kind of airborne decoration. And high above, in the center of the high cavern, is a sort of devan couch formed of solid gemstone, where a lovely tanned woman arrayed in purple silks and golden accessories gazes down with an enigmatic smile.
 "That is not within my power," she says, untroubled. "The Infernex has taken on a life of its own, and neither Wuther nor I may quell it ourselves. Only the beastkin of eld ever managed such a feat."
 "Then you know of how it may be done!" Ivo responds, before restraining his excitement in the name of decorum. "Please, if you would impart unto us this history--"
 "Even if I did," Scirocco interrupts, "I wouldn't. For you see, I find the Infernex quite convenient--" She gestures to the glow and gemstones about her. "--and harmless to myself. Besides, if you quelled it, then you could leave. And of all the enfleshed I have encountered, I have found you *most* amusing."
 She lifts a finger, and suddenly, a wall of surging winds of a sandy hue bars our heroes' exit. Scirocco's smile, high above, widens.
 "So then, if you must needs depart," she adds, "do amuse me until I am content. I know... why don't... you strike me once?"
 Dust devils begin to whip up before the party, the carefully arrayed furnishings trembling as more sandy-hued columns of wind begin to emerge on the ground floor and slowly advance. Above, the lazily spinning purple crystals begin to glow, and one may begin to feel an insistent pull from many directions as their vacuum essence is activated. It is clear why Scirocco looks so confident: it seems like any ranged attack up toward her is likely to be diverted by these many floating gems. And while they are large enough to perch upon, one who is stuck upon them might struggle to escape its pull and reach another.
 "If you continue to please me," she says, somehow audible above her own winds despite not raising her voice, "I won't let you fall."

> Scirocco, the Playful Wind, is attacking!