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The Rise of Felskein [Completed]
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<blockquote data-quote="Iron Sky" data-source="post: 4584323" data-attributes="member: 60965"><p>Session 15, Part 1</p><p></p><p></p><p>Kezzek flew out of the whirlwind and landed hard in the rubble. He stood, grunted, and brushed himself off as the little tornado drifted off to the west.</p><p> </p><p>Around him, the city was blown flat, except where bits and pieces had been tumbled together or dropped. Ash blew past him and various bits of debris occasionally fell from the sky to land around him. </p><p> </p><p>It was the giant black tornado farther west that really caught his attention, it's roar audible even from what might have been a mile. The tornado was so large and the city so flattened around it, it was hard get a real sense of its scale, but it had to be immense.</p><p> </p><p>Half-watching the rubble under his feet and half-watching for the rubble that occasionally rained from the sky, he worked his way towards the giant column of twisting wind. He had only traveled a couple minutes when he stumbled upon the bizarre combat.</p><p> </p><p>A giant splintered jumble of obsidian was locked in mortal combat with what he assumed was the whirlwind that had carried him. The whirlwind blasted and gusted at the heap of glassy rock, occasionally sending bits and pieces flying, but apparently having little effect on it. There was sense of desperation to the whole thing. </p><p> </p><p>Then he saw a where a fist of obsidian shards extended into the whirlwind, keeping it pinned as the animated rock-pile slowly smothered it.</p><p> </p><p>With a roar, Kezzek drew his quor'rel and charged, sending flakes and jagged bits of obsidian flying from the thing as he slammed his blades into it.</p><p> </p><p>He had a sense that the thing had turned towards him, though he couldn't be sure what it was that gave him the impression. It exploded towards him, razor-sharp blades of obsidian sliding to jut out of its surface as it slammed into him and sent him flying into a pile of loose brick. He got up, spitting rock-chips and bleeding from a dozen cuts, and leapt aside as it drove a rocky limb into the brick-pile, sending fragments flying in all directions.</p><p> </p><p>With another roar, he brought his quor'rel down, severing the rocky limb from the main body of the thing, the rocks that composed the limb tumbling apart into the dirt. It released the whirlwind, which immediately flew off into the blackened, churning sky, and shot two jagged spear-head sized bits of rock out.</p><p> </p><p>Kezzek managed to parry one, bits and flakes of obsidian flying, but the other pierced deep into his side. Snarling he stumbled back, then lunged back in, driving his quor'rel straight into the center of the elemental, his gauntleted arm plunging deep into the rough jumble of rocks. The thing froze for a moment, as if in shock, then compressed like a vice on his arms. He thought he heard something pop, then his arms were free. </p><p> </p><p>There was no time to even so much as raise his hands to protect himself when it slammed full force into him, sending him falling back, the roar and blackness of the giant tornado seeming to fill his senses.</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>The fire erupted suddenly, sending steaming-hot fragments of rock raining all over Harold. He scrambled up the scree as another vent opened up, the blast of heat that billowed out from it drenching him in sweat instantly. Then he was clear and sat panting and wishing he hadn't dumped his waterskin on the ground for that annoying scrap of flame, or left his other two skins on his horse when he sent it back.</p><p> </p><p>He wiped his brow and turned back to his climb, senses hyper-alert to the change of temperature or shift of the rock that warned of another vent opening beneath him. </p><p> </p><p>Finally he reached the last lip of the cliff, free-climbing a short ways before hauling himself up over the edge and crawling a dozen feet to be sure of the rock before standing – and discovering he was surrounded.</p><p> </p><p>They were shaped roughly like candle-flames, though some were as tall as a tree or wide as a house. They flickered in all colors of flame, most reds and oranges and yellows, some flickering blues and whites and purples. An unmistakable sense of hostility emanated from them – aside from the heat.</p><p> </p><p>He raised his hands, thinking quickly. “I come in peace, don't be hasty. I bring food.”</p><p> </p><p><em>Thank the Crystal Towers for our superior equipment,</em> he thought, pulling one of his many javelins from his quiver. He turned to the largest elemental, a monstrous bluish flame the size a small tower. “Here, food,” he said, tossing the javelin to it sideways. A lash of flame shot out and seized the javelin from the air and pulled it into the core of the flame. Surprisingly it didn't burn instantly to cinders like he would have expected, instead slowly blackening. <em></em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Maybe it's savoring it</em>, he thought.</p><p> </p><p>“Take me to your leader,” he said. The flames sat flickering but otherwise immobile around him. He repeated it several times, turning to different ones each time. “You have a leader?”</p><p> </p><p>Finally, the big blue one started moving away from the others, deeper into the city. He looked around quickly and hurried after it, not wanting to be left behind.</p><p> </p><p>If it weren't a giant blue flame, he might have lost it in the smoky haze. Everything was blackened and singed, all the wood burned and even some of the stone melted here and there and even through the double-handful of cloak he had pressed against his face, his eyes watered and he coughed regularly. </p><p> </p><p>As they traveled he glanced about him, looking for anything that might be useful – to him or the Crystal Towers. There was nothing but a scorched and blackened ruin, not a trace of the fantastic wealth the gnomes of Steamport were said to have left behind.</p><p> </p><p>When the flaming pillar suddenly stopped, he nearly stumbled into it, singed some hair in the process. “We there already?” he said.</p><p>It didn't reply, instead spitting out a red-hot metal javelin head. He dodged out of the path of the glowing bit of metal and reached back into his quiver. “Don't worry, I have more for you here. Take it.”</p><p> </p><p>He tossed it to the thing quickly to avert it from taking it from him and burning his hand off in the process.</p><p> </p><p>Seemingly content, it moved out again across the rubble, occasionally deviating to pull in some scrap of wood or cloth that had somehow survived the hellish inferno that must have ravaged the place. It cost him four more javelins to reach the Rift.</p><p> </p><p>Even standing a hundred feet away, he could feel the heat rippling out from it in waves. Its edges blurred in the heat, but it looked just like he would have imagined it; like a tear in the fabric of the world to a place of pure flame, a giant column of fire and heat blazing out into the ruins and rising into the clouds. Directly beneath it, the rock had melted away and flowed slowly deeper into the plateau, venting gouts of sulfuric steam.</p><p> </p><p>Nearby was a giant green bonfire, maybe sixty or seventy feet tall. It seemed small compared to the giant rift that rose burning into the clouds, the giant blue flame that had guided him seeming even smaller.</p><p> </p><p>He approached as close as he dared and stopped, sweat running freely down his face and under his clothing as his guide drifted to the giant green flame. As it did so, he noticed a large metal cage nearby heaped with small figures that he assumed were gnomes. If they were alive, they were probably wishing they weren't at the moment, smothered by each other and the blistering heat of the Rift at the same time.</p><p> </p><p>The giant green bonfire seemed to take notice of him, working its way slowly towards him. Thankfully, it stopped twenty paces away. Any closer and he wasn't sure he could stand its heat.</p><p> </p><p>“It isn't a cursed one,” it said in Common, its voice like the crack and splinter of logs in a bonfire.</p><p> </p><p>“No, it is a human from the Crystal Towers,” Harold said, bowing before it. Slowly, he drew two more javelins and a couple spears from his quiver, tossing them towards it. “I hope these suffice as some small gift.”</p><p> </p><p>It reached out with an almost-humanoid arm and picked up a javelin, burning it to ash in seconds. Then its attention returned to Harold. “What does it want from Greenpyre?”</p><p> </p><p>“I have heard that the fire fights the water here.”</p><p> </p><p>It snatched up the other javelin, burning it apart in seconds. It held onto it until even the metal tip melted and ran onto the ground beneath it. “Water and fire are enemies. Water must close its Rift and leave the Hill of the Cursed Ones to the flame.”</p><p> </p><p>Harold thought quickly, clearing his throat to buy some time. “Well... I heard that Water was trying to ally Air and Stone against the Fire.”</p><p> </p><p>It suddenly burned hotter, forcing Harold to take several steps back. It motioned to the blue pillar of flame that had been his guide. The pillar moved to the cage and, at its approach, the gnomes began to squirm weakly. Somehow it opened the cage, and wrapped a tendril of flame about a gnome's leg, dragging him screaming from the cage.</p><p> </p><p>When it got back to them, it threw the gnome towards Harold and Greenpyre. The gnome landed hard and whimpered, clutching at the hideous burn on its leg as it tried to crawl away. Greenpyre approached slowly, watching the gnome writhe in its heat until finally Greenypire lunged forwards like a treetop fire in a strong wind, and engulfed the gnome. The pitiful thing thrashed once or twice and cried out, then burned away in layers until only the bones remained.</p><p> </p><p>With a flicker, Greenpyre hurled the bones back to the rift, where they flashed like a wood shaving in a forge and were gone.</p><p> </p><p>“Air and Stone will never stop, as Water and Fire will never stop,” Greenpyre cracked and rumbled. “The one before me will bring us more Cursed Ones, so our vengeance for their slavery and cruelty can get its fill. Will it bring us Cursed Ones?”</p><p> </p><p>It moved towards Harold again, sending him scrambling away from its heat. He raised his hands to placate it. “Yes, yes! I'll bring you more gno- Cursed Ones!”</p><p> </p><p>Just as quickly as it had been advancing on him, it was moving away, back towards the Rift. “Fire Pillar will escort it from the Burning and it will not return unless it brings us more Cursed Ones.”</p><p> </p><p>Harold sighed and wiped his brow again, wondering where he could find water in the ruins. <em>Non-hostile water that is,</em> he thought, following as Fire Pillar's blue flickering mass moved past him and deeper into the ruin of Steamport. </p><p> </p><p><em>Scratch one faction off of the Crystal Towers list of possible allies I guess.</em></p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>“Take us to biggest rock,” Suniel said, or hoped he said as he thumped on the ground and clattered rocks against each other. As Keeper approached, the construct had what Suniel might almost interpret as a quizzical expression on his face. “I'm trying to talk to this earth elemental in Ignan,” he said, motioning to the boulder that had almost flattened him.</p><p> </p><p>“Yes, that is what it looks like,” Keeper said.</p><p> </p><p><em>Was that irony?</em> Suniel thought, staring for a moment at the inscrutable construct. Finally he gave up and turned back to the boulder, banging his rocks and stomping for several more minutes. Just as he was about to give up, suddenly the boulder shifted, sending scree skittering a Suniel and Keeper's feet, and began rolling uphill. </p><p> </p><p>“Look at that, it's almost absurd,” Suniel said. <em>He said to his sky-metal lightning-eyed friend, </em>he thought, rolling his eyes.</p><p> </p><p>“Come along Keeper, with any luck, it's taking us to the leader of the Stone faction, assuming there is a leader.”</p><p> </p><p>“As you say,” Keeper replied. Suniel glanced over his shoulder and squinted at Keeper.</p><p> </p><p>“You know, the problem with you, is everything you say is with a straight face,” Suniel said.</p><p> </p><p>“My face is molded in the rough likeness of a humanoid,” Keeper said. “Though there are twenty-six surfaces on it that could be labeled as straight, depending on your definitions and margin of error.”</p><p> </p><p>“Exactly my point,” Suniel said. “That's exactly what I mean.”</p><p> </p><p>After that they climbed in silence, following the boulder as it rolled up the side of the plateau.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Iron Sky, post: 4584323, member: 60965"] Session 15, Part 1 Kezzek flew out of the whirlwind and landed hard in the rubble. He stood, grunted, and brushed himself off as the little tornado drifted off to the west. Around him, the city was blown flat, except where bits and pieces had been tumbled together or dropped. Ash blew past him and various bits of debris occasionally fell from the sky to land around him. It was the giant black tornado farther west that really caught his attention, it's roar audible even from what might have been a mile. The tornado was so large and the city so flattened around it, it was hard get a real sense of its scale, but it had to be immense. Half-watching the rubble under his feet and half-watching for the rubble that occasionally rained from the sky, he worked his way towards the giant column of twisting wind. He had only traveled a couple minutes when he stumbled upon the bizarre combat. A giant splintered jumble of obsidian was locked in mortal combat with what he assumed was the whirlwind that had carried him. The whirlwind blasted and gusted at the heap of glassy rock, occasionally sending bits and pieces flying, but apparently having little effect on it. There was sense of desperation to the whole thing. Then he saw a where a fist of obsidian shards extended into the whirlwind, keeping it pinned as the animated rock-pile slowly smothered it. With a roar, Kezzek drew his quor'rel and charged, sending flakes and jagged bits of obsidian flying from the thing as he slammed his blades into it. He had a sense that the thing had turned towards him, though he couldn't be sure what it was that gave him the impression. It exploded towards him, razor-sharp blades of obsidian sliding to jut out of its surface as it slammed into him and sent him flying into a pile of loose brick. He got up, spitting rock-chips and bleeding from a dozen cuts, and leapt aside as it drove a rocky limb into the brick-pile, sending fragments flying in all directions. With another roar, he brought his quor'rel down, severing the rocky limb from the main body of the thing, the rocks that composed the limb tumbling apart into the dirt. It released the whirlwind, which immediately flew off into the blackened, churning sky, and shot two jagged spear-head sized bits of rock out. Kezzek managed to parry one, bits and flakes of obsidian flying, but the other pierced deep into his side. Snarling he stumbled back, then lunged back in, driving his quor'rel straight into the center of the elemental, his gauntleted arm plunging deep into the rough jumble of rocks. The thing froze for a moment, as if in shock, then compressed like a vice on his arms. He thought he heard something pop, then his arms were free. There was no time to even so much as raise his hands to protect himself when it slammed full force into him, sending him falling back, the roar and blackness of the giant tornado seeming to fill his senses. *** The fire erupted suddenly, sending steaming-hot fragments of rock raining all over Harold. He scrambled up the scree as another vent opened up, the blast of heat that billowed out from it drenching him in sweat instantly. Then he was clear and sat panting and wishing he hadn't dumped his waterskin on the ground for that annoying scrap of flame, or left his other two skins on his horse when he sent it back. He wiped his brow and turned back to his climb, senses hyper-alert to the change of temperature or shift of the rock that warned of another vent opening beneath him. Finally he reached the last lip of the cliff, free-climbing a short ways before hauling himself up over the edge and crawling a dozen feet to be sure of the rock before standing – and discovering he was surrounded. They were shaped roughly like candle-flames, though some were as tall as a tree or wide as a house. They flickered in all colors of flame, most reds and oranges and yellows, some flickering blues and whites and purples. An unmistakable sense of hostility emanated from them – aside from the heat. He raised his hands, thinking quickly. “I come in peace, don't be hasty. I bring food.” [I]Thank the Crystal Towers for our superior equipment,[/I] he thought, pulling one of his many javelins from his quiver. He turned to the largest elemental, a monstrous bluish flame the size a small tower. “Here, food,” he said, tossing the javelin to it sideways. A lash of flame shot out and seized the javelin from the air and pulled it into the core of the flame. Surprisingly it didn't burn instantly to cinders like he would have expected, instead slowly blackening. [I] Maybe it's savoring it[/I], he thought. “Take me to your leader,” he said. The flames sat flickering but otherwise immobile around him. He repeated it several times, turning to different ones each time. “You have a leader?” Finally, the big blue one started moving away from the others, deeper into the city. He looked around quickly and hurried after it, not wanting to be left behind. If it weren't a giant blue flame, he might have lost it in the smoky haze. Everything was blackened and singed, all the wood burned and even some of the stone melted here and there and even through the double-handful of cloak he had pressed against his face, his eyes watered and he coughed regularly. As they traveled he glanced about him, looking for anything that might be useful – to him or the Crystal Towers. There was nothing but a scorched and blackened ruin, not a trace of the fantastic wealth the gnomes of Steamport were said to have left behind. When the flaming pillar suddenly stopped, he nearly stumbled into it, singed some hair in the process. “We there already?” he said. It didn't reply, instead spitting out a red-hot metal javelin head. He dodged out of the path of the glowing bit of metal and reached back into his quiver. “Don't worry, I have more for you here. Take it.” He tossed it to the thing quickly to avert it from taking it from him and burning his hand off in the process. Seemingly content, it moved out again across the rubble, occasionally deviating to pull in some scrap of wood or cloth that had somehow survived the hellish inferno that must have ravaged the place. It cost him four more javelins to reach the Rift. Even standing a hundred feet away, he could feel the heat rippling out from it in waves. Its edges blurred in the heat, but it looked just like he would have imagined it; like a tear in the fabric of the world to a place of pure flame, a giant column of fire and heat blazing out into the ruins and rising into the clouds. Directly beneath it, the rock had melted away and flowed slowly deeper into the plateau, venting gouts of sulfuric steam. Nearby was a giant green bonfire, maybe sixty or seventy feet tall. It seemed small compared to the giant rift that rose burning into the clouds, the giant blue flame that had guided him seeming even smaller. He approached as close as he dared and stopped, sweat running freely down his face and under his clothing as his guide drifted to the giant green flame. As it did so, he noticed a large metal cage nearby heaped with small figures that he assumed were gnomes. If they were alive, they were probably wishing they weren't at the moment, smothered by each other and the blistering heat of the Rift at the same time. The giant green bonfire seemed to take notice of him, working its way slowly towards him. Thankfully, it stopped twenty paces away. Any closer and he wasn't sure he could stand its heat. “It isn't a cursed one,” it said in Common, its voice like the crack and splinter of logs in a bonfire. “No, it is a human from the Crystal Towers,” Harold said, bowing before it. Slowly, he drew two more javelins and a couple spears from his quiver, tossing them towards it. “I hope these suffice as some small gift.” It reached out with an almost-humanoid arm and picked up a javelin, burning it to ash in seconds. Then its attention returned to Harold. “What does it want from Greenpyre?” “I have heard that the fire fights the water here.” It snatched up the other javelin, burning it apart in seconds. It held onto it until even the metal tip melted and ran onto the ground beneath it. “Water and fire are enemies. Water must close its Rift and leave the Hill of the Cursed Ones to the flame.” Harold thought quickly, clearing his throat to buy some time. “Well... I heard that Water was trying to ally Air and Stone against the Fire.” It suddenly burned hotter, forcing Harold to take several steps back. It motioned to the blue pillar of flame that had been his guide. The pillar moved to the cage and, at its approach, the gnomes began to squirm weakly. Somehow it opened the cage, and wrapped a tendril of flame about a gnome's leg, dragging him screaming from the cage. When it got back to them, it threw the gnome towards Harold and Greenpyre. The gnome landed hard and whimpered, clutching at the hideous burn on its leg as it tried to crawl away. Greenpyre approached slowly, watching the gnome writhe in its heat until finally Greenypire lunged forwards like a treetop fire in a strong wind, and engulfed the gnome. The pitiful thing thrashed once or twice and cried out, then burned away in layers until only the bones remained. With a flicker, Greenpyre hurled the bones back to the rift, where they flashed like a wood shaving in a forge and were gone. “Air and Stone will never stop, as Water and Fire will never stop,” Greenpyre cracked and rumbled. “The one before me will bring us more Cursed Ones, so our vengeance for their slavery and cruelty can get its fill. Will it bring us Cursed Ones?” It moved towards Harold again, sending him scrambling away from its heat. He raised his hands to placate it. “Yes, yes! I'll bring you more gno- Cursed Ones!” Just as quickly as it had been advancing on him, it was moving away, back towards the Rift. “Fire Pillar will escort it from the Burning and it will not return unless it brings us more Cursed Ones.” Harold sighed and wiped his brow again, wondering where he could find water in the ruins. [I]Non-hostile water that is,[/I] he thought, following as Fire Pillar's blue flickering mass moved past him and deeper into the ruin of Steamport. [I]Scratch one faction off of the Crystal Towers list of possible allies I guess.[/I] *** “Take us to biggest rock,” Suniel said, or hoped he said as he thumped on the ground and clattered rocks against each other. As Keeper approached, the construct had what Suniel might almost interpret as a quizzical expression on his face. “I'm trying to talk to this earth elemental in Ignan,” he said, motioning to the boulder that had almost flattened him. “Yes, that is what it looks like,” Keeper said. [I]Was that irony?[/I] Suniel thought, staring for a moment at the inscrutable construct. Finally he gave up and turned back to the boulder, banging his rocks and stomping for several more minutes. Just as he was about to give up, suddenly the boulder shifted, sending scree skittering a Suniel and Keeper's feet, and began rolling uphill. “Look at that, it's almost absurd,” Suniel said. [I]He said to his sky-metal lightning-eyed friend, [/I]he thought, rolling his eyes. “Come along Keeper, with any luck, it's taking us to the leader of the Stone faction, assuming there is a leader.” “As you say,” Keeper replied. Suniel glanced over his shoulder and squinted at Keeper. “You know, the problem with you, is everything you say is with a straight face,” Suniel said. “My face is molded in the rough likeness of a humanoid,” Keeper said. “Though there are twenty-six surfaces on it that could be labeled as straight, depending on your definitions and margin of error.” “Exactly my point,” Suniel said. “That's exactly what I mean.” After that they climbed in silence, following the boulder as it rolled up the side of the plateau. [/QUOTE]
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