The Weekend Update
Eventually, we took wing. These wolves didn't have any shamen nearby to support them and they could not follow us into the sky.
Bellos and I prepared to rain hell into the furry blot on the forest floor. But once we were airborne, the wolves melted away back into the forest.
We stayed aloft for the rest of the day and when we landed, we started running, Chatham's beat propelling us west and north to the area where Uripedas said the lightening elementals were causing trouble.
"We did not escape them you know," Ffutkuhg said as we ran along unimpeded. "It was a token effort at best."
"What do you mean?" Bellos asked.
"That was nothing for Olgah," He said. "I have seen her do things far far worse. If she wanted to catch us, we'd be talking to her right now."
Merideth and I looked at each other. Olgah must still like us.
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"Okay Uripedas, where is it?"
We expected carnage similar to the destruction wrought by the depredations of the lightning bird that was summoned in Tuoma. The woods and land were pristine and the town sat behind its high wooden walls undisturbed in its bucolic isolation. With no trouble in sight, we gathered several miles from the town to confer with what sent us here.
Uripedas wasn't moved by the picture of peace, "It's here. I don't know where, but its here."
He wasn't any help, "Fine, we'll go into the city."
Chatham and Ffutkuhg elected to remain behind. Orcs weren't loved in the north and they did not want to provoke any excessive festivities involving pointy things.
Strolling leisurely to the town gates, I halted mid-step. Magic was here. Magic strong as the stuff Kithios used. I let Merideth and Bellos move in front of me while I invoked my magical senses. I approached the city hesitantly.
The spell pattern resolved well before we hit the gates. I'd read about it somewhere before. It was a powerful enchantment, a spell that was beyond even Kryiotes. When the spell is triggered, four giant air elementals are summoned, forming a protective dome of immensely powerful winds over the city. I wasn't too sure about how it would do against magic, but non-magical projectiles would be hedged out. It was powerful magic that took a whole lotta grapes to squeeze out.
I told Bellos and Merideth about the spell before we entered the city. The skyline was dominated by two huge arcanist towers. Steel was in use everywhere, especially on the guards, and there were a lot of guards. Their weapons were steel and they even wore steel armor. Everyone in the town carried a steel sword or knife. Some well dressed members were wearing weapons of something else. It looked like steel, but it was a duller color, like tarnished silver with a patina of jagged lines along the surface.
"What is that metal?" Bellos asked.
"I don't know, but I want some," I replied. "Let's see if we can buy some and see what we could find out about the lightning birds."
We ambled into the first blacksmith shop we came upon. We did not have to feign wonder and at the sight of the walls full of shiny weapons and bits and pieces of armor.
Prior to entering we decided that Merideth should talk with the shop keeper.
"Why me?" She had asked.
"Because you can be incredibly vapid when you want to be and it would let him underestimate you and maybe reveal something," I replied.
"What?" she asked.
I replied, "It's true and you know it."
She punched me in the arm.
Once we got to the shop, she turned up the flutterhead act and immediately struck up a conversation that covered a million things and said absolutely nothing. Eventually, she got around to asking about the lightning birds. He replied hurriedly that he nothing like that was around here. Then she started asking about the strange metal.
The shopkeeper said the town has a mine that everyone has a share in and it produced iron ore as well as the ore for the dingy patina metal. When prompted why,He told her it was stronger and lighter than steel.
"Can I get armor made from it?" I blurted.
"No," he replied. "We only make armor for the city guard."
"Then how about a weapon?"
"No."
"A knife?"
"No."
"A sample?"
"No."
Thoroughly plussed, we left the town.
"That was damned useless," I groused when we got back to Chatham and Ffutkuhg.
"No it wasn't," Merideth said thoughtfully, "They are hiding something."
I nodded, but Bellos looked distracted. Now that I thought about it, he was looking a bit out of sorts while we walked through the town.
"Bellos," I prompted, "Are you okay?"
"No," He said unsteadily. "You stay here. I'm going to go scout the area." Then he stepped into a tree and vanished. We stared at the tree for several moments.
Bellos was gone for bit, reappearing from a different tree. His face was troubled and his eyes wet. "I found them he said. They are at the mine several miles from here. Here's a sample." He tossed a bit of ore to me. It was the same off-silver color with the jagged line pattern.
"What's wrong with you?" I asked. "Why are you upset?"
Bellos half scowled in thought, "I found their mine. The lightning birds are bathing the rock with lightning which turns it into that metal."
"They're controlling them then?"
"No," He replied. "They are working of their own free will. The smaller ones doing the work are under the control of a big one. That must be the one Uripedas was talking about."
"Okay," I nodded. "You still haven't explained why you look so...hurt."
He paused for several moments, "Because of my enhanced connection to nature, I sort of feel it when the earth is injured. Their mine...their mine is a huge gash in the earth. I can't believe the dragon of this area has not dealt with it."
The new "caring" Bellos was weird.
"Well," I said, "We know where they are, so we'll go stop the lightning elementals."
Bellos cleared his throat and then looked very, very guilty.
"Bellos, did you do something precipitous?" I asked.
Bellos nodded.
"How precipitous?"
"I let them see me take the sample and let them follow me in this direction before tree-stepping here."
"So they're coming?"
He pointed at the sky where an angry looking storm cloud with snaking tendrils was heading this way.
I preferred at least a little planning but now I had to improvise. I cast Stone Skin on Merideth, Bellos, and I. Ffutkuhg and Chatham pulled further into the forest. I prepared to cast Fly on Merideth (I still had my wings) but Merideth launched into the air under her own power. Bellos and I followed.
As we closed, the tendrils resolved into chains of smaller lightning birds flying in close formation. I summoned Uripedas and we climbed banking into towards the armada.
"He's here he's here!" the sun eagle called. "If we get rid of him the others will go."
The small elementals had started to vector in on our position.
"Go with him," Bellos said. "You and Merideth take out the big one and I'll handle these."
Not wanting to take the time to argue, however before we split up, Merideth touched each of us and suddenly the world looked very odd.
"You are seeing slightly into the future," Merideth said. "You can see what will a happen a moment before it does. It should help us out."
Merideth and I followed Uripedas towards the big cloud. As we approached, I saw a flicker of something that looked like hellish fire. That was all the warning I had (which was better than nothing) to avoid the column of lightning that blasted down from the cloud. And I do mean column, it was as large as the strike Gruhaa called on that poor giant a few weeks ago. I managed to avoid the brunt of it, and the Kithian membrane and Stone Skin absorbed the rest. My skin still sizzled and smoked.
I felt Merideth's touch and the char and blisters receded, leaving me pristine. We had to hurry, even with Merideth's healing, another strike may not be survivable.
Uripedas had already moved into action."You wait here while I flush him out," He said and dove into the cloud.
Merideth and I hovered almost motionless, watching, waiting and ready.
The cloud lit up with sunlight and the elemental emerged, four wings flapping madly, its neck caught in Uripedas' beak. I grabbed Merideth's hand and Dimension Door'd us onto the creatures back. It would have been funny if we weren't so desperate. Uripedas kept the head away from us while we sank Inflicts and Sunbolts into the creature's back. Then the creature dove and Uripedas followed, flapping his wings to increase the speed. Merideth and I fell back, whipped off the back by the sudden increase in velocity. Uripedas didn't let go, his beak firmly set towards the ground. We dove after them, but they were out of reach. I prepared to cast another Dimension Door when Uripedas' voice drifted up to me.
"Unsummon me!" He said.
"What?
"Unsummon me, unsummon me, unsummon me , unsummon me!"
They were getting awfully close to the ground.
"Oh."
I ended the spell and Uripedas disappeared moments before the lightning elemental crashed horrifically into the earth.
I cast the summoning and Uripedas appeared beside me grinning, "I knew I could depend on you!"
It was a quick battle after that. The monster never left the ground and soon it was dead and the sky cleared. On the creature's dun-colored carcass, Uripedas found a single red feather. When we pulled it free, the creature's form faded away.
"It's a feather from a Celestial," the sun eagle supplied, "It's what let it stay here without being summoned."
"Can you tell what Celestial it came from? Would it do the same for you?"
"No and Maybe," he replied.
I placed the feather against his breast and it merged seamlessly, forming a shock of red in his golden plumage. He waved his wings in the air and gave a fierce raptor scream.
"I'm all here!" He said excitedly.
"What do you mean?" Merideth asked.
"When I summon him," I said eyeing the giant happily capering bird, "I can only bring through so much of him. Now, thanks to the feather, he here at full power."
I stepped up to him and rubbed his neck, "And I don't have to summon him. He's here all the time."
A strange look crossed his face, and he let out another scream. The air began to fill with sunhawks. They looked like Uripedas did when I first summoned him so long ago. The air was alive with the chatter of hyperactive sunhawks.
"Alright you guys!" The huge sun eagle barked, "Go scout!"
They all looked at me.
"Whatta ya looking at him for?" He shouted with comic indignation. "Go scout!"
Reluctantly the sunhawks flapped off.
"Who're they?" I asked trying to stay calm.
"They're my buddies," He replied with characteristic enthusiasm. "Since I'm all here I can call them now."
I was processing everything when Bellos came swooping in. He looked a little scorched but none the worse for wear. Merideth healed him with a touch as he filled us in.
"There are more of those things coming," he said.
"More big ones?" I asked, my voice snaking higher.
"No," He replied, "just the smaller ones."
"The arcanists in the town must be summoning them," I mused. "Uripedas, you and your buddies go take care of those things. We'll take a stroll into town and stop this nonsense."
"They are gathering soldiers at the mine," Bellos added. "You two go to the town. I'll deal with what's happening at the mine."
We nodded. Bellos stepped into a tree and the rest of us took too the air again. Another storm cloud had begun to form. Uripedas and his posse, flitting about and glowing like overactive embers, tore away from our group, closing on the advancing cloud. We went to find out who was inviting more guests to the party.
By the time we arrived, the wind wall had been triggered, surrounding the town in a dome of whistling wind. Merideth and I closed and I took her hand. I felt her tense, preparing for a bumpy ride through the barrier. I traced the sigils for Dimension Door and we slipped into the astral plane and emerged unharmed on the other side of the shredding winds.
We were greeted by a hail of crossbow bolts, followed by spears. Between the stoneskin and the Kithian sheath they couldn't touch us. Our attention focused on the two figures on top of one of the towers in the throes of summoning.
"What do you want to do?" Merideth asked. It was a valid question. If we were assaulting orcs, I'd just toss a fireball into their laps, but I wanted to talk to the spellcasters and that required them being alive.
"I think I can manage it." I began the spell carefully. It was something I conceived when we decided to capture tribe members who attacked us. I felt the spell complete and a yellow-green cloud burst above the top of the tower. The noxious vapors drifted down, engulfing the two casters. We watched their silhouettes spasm and collapse. The cloud continued to drift down seeping into the street.
Merideth and I lit on the roof. I firmly resisted an urge to go ransack their library, we were already trampling over a sovereign town and I did not want to add "bandit" to my colorful resume. There were two arcanists, one old and one young. We decided to wake up the young one, on the off chance he'd be weaker than his friend. We were wrong. The bastard twitched his fingers and disappeared as soon as he was awake.
Cursing vociferously, I woke up the other guy and stood on his hands while Merideth held a spear to his throat.
We questioned him, but he claimed to not know anything about some sort of lightning elemental conspiracy. He said they had a deal with the big elemental to help manufacture the strange ore. The elementals also gave them the enchantments for the wind wall.
"Look," I said finally. "You're being used. The gods are at war and you've been dragged into this somehow and it's not for good."
The old arcanist nodded his head stiffly, "Indeed. But I'm sorry if I don't believe you."
"Ask your own elemental," I answered, "Summon a small one." I called coruscating sun streaks to my fingers but did not release them, "Don't try anything creative."
Merideth's hand crackled with green lightning, casting a shadow on his face and he nodded. Slowly, he traced the circle and a tiny serpent-like bird appeared.
"Hello," I purred.
The elemental would not speak, except to mewl pitifully, and it took some, ah, persuasion. The creature believed it was ultimately safe because it couldn't be killed on this plane. I countered that Uripedas and the other sunhawks would come find it on its home plane and kill it permanently if it didn't talk. Could Uripedas have done it? I don't know but the elemental seemed to believe it. It's tongue loosened, telling us how the large elemental was actually the mastermind of a plot to turn this town into the seat of it's personal kingdom on the Material Plane. The metal wasn't a transmutation, it was an exchange with some sort of celestial metal. He said the relationship was a mutual exchange and the people of the town were willing participants.
The creature's duration expired and it vanished and I turned to the man on the ground. "Look," I began with more conviction than I felt, "Something bigger than you is happening. You should not be meddling. We killed the master lighting elemental and if we have to we'll come back and kill it again and you too." I remembered what Bellos said about the mine. "I don't know where the guardian of your land is, but you should shape up that mine. It is a blotch on the earth. If your guardian does not make you clean it up, then our guardian will." I didn't exactly say we had a dragon with us, especially since I was talking about Bellos, but I wanted his imagination to run with what I said. "Tell your leaders what I said. Do you understand me?"
He nodded.
I gave him another hard look, then Merideth and I flew away, flanked by Uripedas and the hawks.
"He didn't believe you," Merideth said.
"I hope not," I groused. "Then he'll give me a chance to kill him."
"Aren't we bloodthirsty?" She asked raising an eyebrow.
"I'm just irritated. These bastards are mucking around with something they don't understand they're going along with it because they think it makes them powerful."
"Do we understand what's going on?" Merideth asked. "I mean, do you know why Uripedas was directed to bring us here?"
I didn't. I trusted Uripedas, but he wasn't the brightest star in the heavens and he also got information from Allas. I didn't trust Allas at all. "Lets go back to camp," I said. I prepared to Dimension Door us through the wall when Merideth seized my attention.
"Greppa,"
"What?"
She pointed at the town. At the base of the tower, the dead air cloud had spread into the city and people lay unconscious and it washed through the streets. The spell was still going, claiming the consciousness of anyone it swept over.
"What?" I asked again.
She looked like she wanted to smack me and I rolled my eyes. "Oh alright." I released the spell and it dissipated.
Then she smacked me.
We reconvened at camp where Bellos gave us some unfortunate news.
"I haven't been able to locate the dragon who's supposed to be supervising this area," He said. "I'd like to take two days to see what's going on."
I thought about the time we had. It was still winter and we had some time until summer. However two days shouldn't be that big of a delay.
"Sure," I replied. "We can keep an eye on the village."
Actually, we didn't keep an eye on village, Uripedas and his cohorts did. We agonized over the purpose of our side trip to the village. We scared them terribly all and completely shattered their sense of security because we had a nebulous information of "badness" in the area. We didn't have a concrete reason, but I had a theory. Xeras was setting these poor people up.
Only a few hours later, Bellos returned and he wasn't alone. He stepped out of a tree. Amalan, who appeared out of nowhere, was with him.
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