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The Depths of the Infernex

Scene details

Setting: Having scaled the perilous cliffs into the island volcano's caldera and descended beneath the tempestuous winds and toxic gases, our heroes confront the threats that lie in the heart of the Infernex.

Log


 PREVIOUSLY, ON STAR CHASER STORY MUSH
 Our heroes have descended the perilous cliffs into the island volcano's caldera, the crater left by its long ago eruption, and have narrowly managed to descend beneath the raging winds and toxic gases of the terrible Infernex. In search of its heart, where they might activate the Tempestquell beastkin relic they salvaged from beneath the ocean waves, they have been surprised to find what appears to be an abandoned settlement hidden beneath the noxious mists...
 Before them, the settlement that was a mere outline below has come fully into view, and is revealed to be largely fashioned of an arresting pale green crystal. The soil beneath their boots is thoroughly polluted, all vegetation having long since between decayed to dust, but the crystalline architecture seems to have grown as though it were vegetal itself, fashioned into edifices as one might coax a tree into an artistic shape through careful pruning, some mystical topiary once at work.
 "Could this be... the village of the wind elementals?" Ivo's eyes are wide, as though the threat of the Infernex has already been forgotten, walking forward to gaze about with vivid wonder, admiring the aesthetic sense and keen ability on display. "Centuries of sapients dwelling in an isolated paradise of their own making... treating with pirates and adorning their works with treasures... until their conflicts could no longer be contained..."
 It is hard to say if Ivo is piecing together clues or spinning a tale of his own fabrication. But as he looks about, it is the others who may notice, admist the relative stillness, ripples of wind beginning to gather. In alleyways between crystalline walls, in nooks and crannies, vestiges of similarly pale green beings, half-substantial, features traced with the mottled purple of the Infernex, are forming, their eyes unseeing yet baleful. The spirit of ancient conflict propels these elemental vestiges to repel intruders.

BGM Change: https://youtu.be/uUM1dEdMft0

 As Reize shouts a warning, Ivo is thankfully stirred from his reflective reverie to see these baleful spirits coalescing. Drawing Hauteclare in alarm, he glances at its hilt, where its makeshift sensor is located, and grimaces.
 "Fried," he murmurs. Using Hauteclare as a lightning rod to protect their maneuverings earlier took a toll. "I can't tell what they are. There's no eidola effect... but then..."
 Sapient elementals are both rare and often uncooperative, and scholarship on their nature is limited. How it is possible for a consciousness to inhabit a body composed of a single element is a matter of scholarly dispute. But in principle, anything with a soul and a body can, if the body perishes or is corrupted...
 "...these must be..."
 ...become undead.

> The Vestiges of Gale approach with ill intent!



  As the group find themselves faced with the corrupted elementals, Reize keeps both boomerangs drawn and he starts to call out towards Ruidosa.

  "Ruidosa! Throw your dark magic my way!"

  Gripping tightly to the boomerangs, he raises them into the air. As if responding to his wishes, the boomerangs give a glimmer of light. It soon radiates a bright glow before the runes etched onto it activate.

  It is pulsing, awaiting to collect the magic and become imbued.

  Reize cannot hope to face the elementals without an enchantment. So, he'll count on Ruidosa for that.

 "Let's give it everything we got, everyone!"

 

Ruidosa La Crima is faced with corrupted elementals. Well that's bad. She can sense that, and as undead goes, they're too many levels above what she might be able to control. Maybe if they we're fleshy zombies or something.

Still, she flips through her tome rapidly to try to see if there's anything she can do right now, eyes scanning pages. Uh. Nope. Nothing in here about corrupted elementals. Well Good news. She can add it later! Bad News, she knows norhing! ;_;

Still, thusly, she does as she's asked, muttering a few words under her breath and throwing a wave of dark energy towards Reize.

Now she's hoping he's catching it with his boomerangs and not his face.

Ivo Galvan rolls 1d20>12.
Comment: Improvized Hauteclare repair/empowerment
Roll(s): 5. Total result is 5. This is a failure (by 7).


 Ivo looks to the gathering shades, seeming to multiply in number by the moment as though spurred by the indignation of this blighted land at the further offense of their intrusion. He looks down to his magitech sword, blasted and worn by mistreatment. He looks to Reize, preparing his rune-enhanced boomerangs to receive an infusion of domain magic. And he has an idea that is, well, not the worst.
 "It's crazy," he mutters, fishing in the marmothide pouch that contains his supply of elespheres, strapped tight to him right next to where the green orb of the Tempestquell is secured, "but it just... might..."
 He withdraws and loads an earth-aspected elesphere into Hauteclare's pommel and then, gritting his teeth, gingerly cracks one of his and Fabroxo's special vacuum aspected elespheres over the blade before activating the weapon. As earth magic pulses over the weapon, the vacuum draws it in, seeming to seal some of the cracks and chips on its blade as well as empowering it with an energy hopefully antithetical to the drifting vestiges of the wind elementals here. He casts out his hand!
 "...whoops."
 And the blade, flying free for a brief moment, plummets like a stone, seemingly overweighted and unbalanced by the excessive fusion of earth, and lodges tip-first in the corrupted ground. Ivo looks to it, now, for a moment.
 "New plan!" he calls. Hopefully it's better than the last one. "If the Tempestquell can disperse the winds above, it should be able to lay these fiends to rest!" Sure, why not? "If you two can clear me a path, I can activate it at the village's center!"
 What are you, Ivo, a guest NPC?



  As Ruidosa weaves the dark aether into existence, he keeps the boomerangs high in the air. The runes of the boomerangs glimmer, radiating as it draws upon the aether. It starts absorbing the dark essence into the boomerang itself. Capturing the aspect of Destruction, it gives off an illuminating glow.

  "Okay!"

  Everything starts to become slow.

  Manifesting out of Reize's chest is a glimmer of darkness. It starts to shimmer onto Ruidosa as well. Both Reize and Ruidosa should notice that the glow radiates from the two.


>> Reize, as Ruidosa's Knight and Bond, the two are able to fight as unison.

 >>> Link Art: [Cataclysm Strike] is unlocked.

 >>> Dynamic Swap is unlocked.

  "Ruidosa, let's go in and buy Ivo time!"

  He starts to charge forward, moving towards the wind elementals and he starts swinging the boomerangs with the Destruction aspect following through. There is an after-image wave following suit of the slashes.



  As Ruidosa weaves the dark aether into existence, he keeps the boomerangs high in the air. The runes of the boomerangs glimmer, radiating as it draws upon the aether. It starts absorbing the dark essence into the boomerang itself. Capturing the aspect of Destruction, it gives off an illuminating glow.

  "Okay!"

  Everything starts to become slow.

  Manifesting out of Reize's chest is a glimmer of darkness. It starts to shimmer onto Ruidosa as well. Both Reize and Ruidosa should notice that the glow radiates from the two.


>> Reize, as Ruidosa's Knight and Bond, the two are able to fight as unison.
>>> Link Art: [Cataclysm Strike] is unlocked.
>>> Dynamic Swap is unlocked.

  "Ruidosa, let's go in and buy Ivo time!"

  He starts to charge forward, moving towards the wind elementals and he starts swinging the boomerangs with the Destruction aspect following through. There is an after-image wave following suit of the slashes.

Ruidosa La Crima looks over to Ivo, who screws up his attempt to do whatever it was he was trying to do. She grimaces and saves comments for later right now because facing down undead elementals(?) isn

Reize Seatlan rolls 1d20>=10.
Comment: Initiating First Strike
Roll(s): 13. Total result is 13. This is a success (by 3).

Ruidosa La Crima looks over to Ivo, who screws up his attempt to do whatever it was he was trying to do. She grimaces and saves comments for later right now because facing down undead elementals(?) isn't the time for snark. She looks back to Reize who uses imbued boomerangs to swing them around, good.

W#ith Reize enchanted and Ivo screwing up, She draws her hand up and blasts from behind Reize as some strange light imbues them with new abilities.

What's that about anyways!?

She frowns a little.

"Right! IVO START MOVING PLEASE." she calls out.

Ivo Galvan rolls 1d20>=8.
Comment: Picking up the pace!?
Roll(s): 15. Total result is 15. This is a success (by 7).


 Ivo was confident that his allies would be able to clear the way, but he didn't expect them to do so with such alacrity. Iris's rune enchantments surely contribute to Reize and Ruidosa's combined success. Though the vestiges brim with corruption, their aetheric balance seems delicate and easily unstabilized, perhaps for that very reason, and the excess of Destruction that imbues Reize's boomerangs and Ruidosa's blasts seems to cause them to melt away. That said, they still evidently pose a terrible threat: should they ever make contact, the noxious wind that swirls about their blurred form sears the skin and raises angry boils, as though an acid that undoes the very body were passing straight into one's flesh.
 "R-right!"
 Ivo, briefly distracted marveling at the effectiveness of Reize and Ruidosa's combined attacks at keeping their enemies at bay, begins to move in time with them, successfully staying in the center, neither impeding them nor rushing beyond their capacity to maintain a perimeter. But he can't simply allow himself to be yelled at without quipping something.
 "You two are so cute together," he observes blithely in the midst of this terrible melee. "Where's *my* bonded knight?"
 Isn't Ivo the knight? No, in a partnership, he surely wouldn't be. Anyway, clearly, the answer is Faruja.
 "Up ahead!" Ivo suddenly calls, pointing. Is it his bonded knight? No, it appears to be an odd shrine of sorts, a veritable hill of intricate green crystal in which steps have emerged as though carved, leading to a dais at the top. Around it is a clearing, as though it has been ritualistically separated from the rest of the settlement. But in the absence of buildings to break up the mob, the strange spirits are beginning to swarm thickly. Our heroes are in a race against time, but if they can clear a sizable portion of the pack all at once, they might be able to rush to the top and the more defensible position it offers. "That should be close enough to the center of the caldera...!"



  There is a risk that Reize takes by approaching these dangerous threats within melee range; their noxious gas can go into Reize's lungs and fill him with that scorching, acidic scars. He coughs as being in the very proximity of them is searing against his skin.

 Reacting quickly to the pain, Reize temporarily disengages from them by springing back to a distance. He starts running to the side to keep their attention on him. "Oooi! Over here!" Their purpose is to distract the dangerous Vestiages enough for Ivo to activate the artifact.

 Reize's role as Ruidosa's Bonded Knight radiates with a bright aura. The boy calls out towards Ruidosa.

 As his boomerangs shimmer with the glowing darkness, Reize calls out towards his partner.

 "Ruidosa!"

>> INITIATE - Link Art: Cataclysm Strike

 Reize launches from the ground and he brings his boomerangs to the air. There is a dark aura manifesting. It glows with a blade of darkness rising as high as the sky.

 "Let's do it!"

 He will draw upon her power for them both to strike the collected corrupted elementals with a single force.

Ruidosa La Crima looks to Ivo quickly, before looking back to the task at hand as she frowns hard. "R-right!" she calls out. "Let's try this, Reize....y." she says as she draws up her hand and starts to feed more destructive, dark energy into Reize's Boomerangs.

>> INITIATE - LINK ART: CATACLYSM STRIKE!

She's giving it all her all, feeding most of her energy into this one attack! It better be successful!


 A wave of unbridled Destruction wipes out a swathe of tainted vestiges before them. The darkness seems to not only disperse the undead elementals but destabilize their aetheric cores, some of them seeming to fold in on themselves and pulse before erupting, spreading explosions in a chain reaction. The result impressively clears the way and allows for Ivo to rush forward. Less swift than his companions, he exerts himself desperately, clambering the crystalline stairs, Tempestquell clutched in his sweat-dampening hands.
 "N... now...!"
 Gasping for breath, Ivo withdraws Lether's stolen key, the mysterious pirate relic, and inserts it into a notch in the otherwise egg-smooth orb, turning it effortfully. Even amidst the frenzied battle, the click seems to resound throughout the caldera. The glassy green orb glows, faintly at first, then, gradually, sun-bright. Flinching away, Ivo raises it above his head, more to allow himself to look away than in any sort of exultation. But the effect is visually spectacular regardless.
 A clarifying wind bursts forth in a rippling ring, as though a pebble had been dropped into a fetid pond. As it goes, the vestiges seem to slowly come done, first the purplish traces dissipating from them, their savagely tainted eyes clearing, something resembling humanoid features returning to their wispy faces, some taking on expressions of confusion and, then, relief, before fading. There is a sound so unfamiliar that it seems almost deafening: silence.
 The winds have stopped.
 And then the ground begins to tremble...

TO BE CONTINUED in the next episode of STAR CHASER STORY MUSH!