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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 2050169" data-attributes="member: 143">Things start to "heat up" this week... * * * * * Chapter 331On a normal day, it was a pleasant walk of ten to fifteen minutes from Obsidian Avenue, the outermost of Cauldron’s ring-streets, to the shores of the crater lake. On this day, it took over an hour, and the journey was far less than pleasant. The city was in a tumult.  Everywhere confused and frightened citizens ran about.  Some were hastily gathering their belongings, obviously intent on flight, while others were hurrying on errands of vital importance, checking on a loved one or rushing back to a home or place of business to see if the latest quake had ruined them.  And there were even more people who went to the streets for no reason, just a vague panic that grew and built off of every additional soul seeking answers. The companions could not stop to give those answers, even if they had known them.  But they directed people toward the gates, to leave the city as quickly as possible.  The city leaders would have more information for them, would escort them to safety.  Their words only spawned more questions, fear, even anger; but the Heroes of Cauldron did not allow themselves to be diverted for long. Despite their intent, however, they did find themselves facing distractions that they could not avoid.  While making their way down one of the sloping alleys that connected Ash and Magma Avenues (the city streets had taken on a grimmer allusion now, Mole commented as they traveled), they passed a three-story tenement that was leaning slightly out over the cobbled pavement below.  One look was enough for the dwarves to spot the cracks in the stone foundation of the structure, undermined by the quake.  A man stood in the street in front of the building, surrounded by a few bystanders, all focused upon another figure visible in the narrow window visible under the gables of the top floor above.  The man in the street was entreating the man in the window to come down, but even from several stories below the companions could see that he appeared to be mad, his eyes wide and darting wildly about.  He carried a burden against his body, and as they closed they could see the small arms and legs jutting from it that identified its nature. “Tomash!” the man in the street shouted.  “Come down... it is not safe, we must leave!”  Some of the other bystanders offered similar urgings, caught up in the drama of the moment. “He’s going to drop that child,” Mole said.  “I’d better hop up there and grab him.”“Hold a moment,” Dannel said, stepping forward, toward the concerned man in the street. “Who is he?” the elf asked, his tone reassuring yet infused with a gentle air of command. “Tomash,” the man said.  “My brother.  The big tremor, it shook everything... I rushed out of the house, but he would not come... The last tendays... So much pressure... I fear that his mind, it has been sundered!”The elf put a hand on the man’s arm, and looked up at the panicked man.  “Tomash,” he said, his voice cutting clearly through the din, the building background noise of fear and confusion, that now resounded through the entire city.  “Tomash, you must come down.  Your child depends on you.  Go into the house, and come down to the street, to your brother.”The words seemed to flow together in an almost melodic cadence.  The gathered townsfolk could not see the power of his charm person spell take hold, but even in the tumult—or perhaps, because of it—a visceral part of them could sense the presence of power in the air, and they watched with fascination as the man Tomash grew calm, and after a moment turned and disappeared back into the building. A minute later, he appeared in the doorway, with the child safe in his arms, and a second—a young girl, maybe six or seven—clinging onto the drooping tail of his disheveled tunic.  “Get these people away from the structure, and don’t let anyone back in,” Arun ordered Tomash’s brother.  The paladin and Hodge had given the sagging foundation a quick look, and it confirmed their earlier suspicions.  “One more tremor, and this building is going to be here in the street.”“The people are leaving the city,” Beorna added.  “Go to the nearest gate and wait for directions.”“But...” the man hesitated, turning back toward the building.  “Everything we have...”  “You have your lives,” the Templar said, harshly.  “Now, all of you... go!”Her tone was not one that would brook challenge, and the people went, fearfully looking back over their shoulders.  A few, they saw, ran into nearby buildings, no doubt intent on rescuing what they could of their possessions regardless of the danger. “Fools,” Beorna said, as they pressed on. Magma Avenue was in even more of a tumult.  The panicked neigh of horses contrasted with the cries of people dashing about; a half-dozen teamsters were trying to keep two trains of horses under control while people loaded the wagons behind them in a frenzy of activity.  A few people tried to push their way into the queue, carrying their own possessions, but steel-eyed guards were quick to intervene and prod them on their way.  It looked like a pair of shops fronting the street were coordinating the evacuation.  Arun grimaced as a trio of grimacing men, merchants by their dress, emerged from one of the shops maneuvering an obviously expensive but quite heavy and impractical oak desk toward one of the wagons. “What do these people think they are doing?” Beorna said.  “They’re afraid!” Dannel said. “There’s goin’ to be a riot brewin’ here, any minute!” Hodge said.  As if to punctuate his words, the ground shook beneath his feet, and a new surge of fear sliced through the crowd as people stumbled and fell to the hard cobbles.  This quake lasted only a few seconds, but it added to the ferocity of the scene, like water added to an already overflowing pot. “Over here!” Mole shouted, darting off to the right, down the street. “Where’s she going?” Beorna asked, at the same moment that Arun yelled, “Stay together!”  But they could now hear the screams that had no doubt alerted their keen-eared friend, and they hurried after her.  The crowd, despite its panic, got out of their way; three heavily armored dwarf warriors had that kind of effect. It didn’t take long to reach the scene of the disturbance.  A chasm, some fifty feet long and at least ten feet across, had opened like a great gash in the center of the avenue.  Wisps of volcanic gas rose from the fissure, and as they rushed forward to join Mole at its rim, careful to remain back from the crumbling edge, they could hear the desperate cries coming from below. “There are people trapped down there!” Mole yelled. As if the moment wasn’t intense enough, the ground shuddered beneath their feet, and the sides of the chasm shifted.  Drawing gradually—but inexorably—closer as the rumblings of the volcano began to push the fissure shut. Slowly crushing the helpless people below.</blockquote>

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