Expeditions to the Craters.

It is an early summer evening on the Frontier province, and, along with most of the Town of West Lake, you are knoll just north of town overlooking West Lake awaiting the promised fireworks for the Warden and Baron's son's Name Day Celebration. The best pryo-illusionist in the land, Dolfgand the Singed, has been summoned from the East, and now is out on Mushroom Turtle Isle in the middle of the lake warming up for the evening's show.

Vendor tables baring toasted nuts and other treats are set at the bottom of the hill and the crowd is in a festive mood as the sun sets. The festivities are about to begin.

A few minstrels entertain the crowd as the sky grows dark. Logs are piled for the planed bond fire and dance for after the fireworks. The Baron is on hand and will probably make some speech, but the name day boy and is probably back home with his mother.

Hmmm... is that roast turkey legs you smell?

*pop* whirrra-BANG

https://i.giphy.com/peAFQfg7Ol6IE.webp

http://www.animatedimages.org/cat-fireworks-492.htm

(had some problems with image tags)

The first 'attention getter' goes off above the lake.

Aylana exits the soothsayer's tent with a smile. The woman was good but not a seer. When the eight of staves came out, she was told she would be traveling. "You can tell that from my backpack as well," she pointed out. Next the seer said there would be danger in the mage's future. "What a surprise here on the wild border of civilization," Aylana exclaimed.

Eventually the seer threw the faen out. "Mock me all you want, faery girl," she said. "You are not the first to ignore my what I see in the cards. But I fear you may be the last. Mark my words."

Aylana was not sure what the seer was trying to tell her but it was certainly a fun way to spend a few moments sitting out of summer sunlight. The rest of the fair was just as insightful. There were side show "freaks" meant to frighten children and sweet treats meant to make children annoy their parents. No one seemed interested in discussing anything of substance.

As evening came, she found a tree with thin branches about ten feet up not far from the edge of the lake. Seeing a branch that was not easily accessible, she concentrated for a second on flight and lifted into the air. Perched as she was, she would have an unobstructed view of the magic display to come. Townsfolk filled in ground below her and all around the lake to watch the display, one or two might have wondered how she got up there. As the first fireworks lit the sky she cast detect magic so she could better analyze the techniques of the master illusionist. She could not identify every spell as it was cast, which she attributed to her neglecting the school of illusion during her training.

Inamar had so many questions.

Like...why was the 'greatest' pyro-mage nicknamed 'the Singed?' Didn't that imply that he was NOT very good at doing fire magic? Was it some nickname from his apprentice days that just stuck to him and now everyone called him that? And what was the deal with Mushroom Turtle Island? What the heck was a Mushroom Turtle? A mushroom shaped like a turtle? A turtle shaped like a mushroom? A turtle with a mushroom growing on the back of its shell? The island didn't look like ANY of those things to her. Just an island!

The food was good though. The leg of roast turkey in her hand was nearly as big as her arm, which was to say a halfling's arm, and she felt like she could just kind of bite a tunnel into it and crawl inside if she was so inclined. So juicy!

And, it was kind of a cliche', but the people out here on the edge of things were nicer than the folks back in the cities too. A little slow to trust...but lets face it, it wasn't like that was anything new. At least these guys were more open about it. Heck, they were more open about just about everything. You could make a killing rooking them, to be honest.

If, you know, you were into that sort of thing.

That wasn't why Inamar was here though. A new life! New possibilities! Newly 'not having to worry about when Grantz' goons would catch up with you!' That wasn't just cooked meat and acrid pyromancer smoke in the air. It was greatness waiting to happen.

She took another bite of the turkey and chewed.

So juicy.

(roll a gather info check. Keep game rolls in the IC tread. I run the gm posts as 'virtual table talk' and use the OOC thread for metagame discussion and such. )

Gathering info while munching on turkey!

[roll0]

(Hehe, clearly Inamar is more focused on asking the questions than she is interested in the answers )

The show starts in earnest. Whistling bursts of color, followed by images of dancing goblins fighting glowing outlines of angels projected on the sky.
(he must be using something to amplify the illusions to make them visible at this distance. )

Crag sits at the base of a tree on the outer edge of the festivities. "Pretty people, happy people" Crag thought. When the show started Crag leapt to his feet, startled by the flashing lights and colors, but that quickly turned to wonder and amazement. "Pretty colors" he thought as he sat back down and stared at the sky.

The display builds in intensity and variety. Bursts of color mixed with beams of light and branching lightening bolts coming from the island. Balls of light buzzing around is island. Images of fantastic creatures projected on Fog and smoke. The reports and zips grow louder and louder.

He even has some streaks of light shooting across the sky. (spell craft check)

These streaks also intensify, though they aren't as showy as the rest of the display.

Then two of the buzzing lights collide in the air....

https://giphy.com/gifs/fireworks-XJieiKtvblJZu

A shower of sparks is released as they collide. They spiral crazily away from each other leaving glowing purple-blue trails. One goes generally upwards as the other starts skipping across the water of the lake, some times returning to the air momentarily before splashing again, the water glowing energetically at every point of contact.

With detect magic active, Aylana becomes concerned that not all of the light show is illusion magic.

Inamar watches the lights bursting and colliding and roiling crazily around, having found a nice tree on a bit of a hill overlooking the lake. It's a good view, and an entertaining spectacle, but...on some level she's kind of had it with magic displays like that. It was less 'pretty' when you knew what that sort of power could do to a person. Just as bloody as a knife or an arrow...and sometimes far, far worse.