Adventure On: Finale and Conclusion

[voidtreckermods]

Blue

The Mountain

Once they get close enough everything is storm, ice swirls around them, stabbing them like knives. Winds seem to be actively pushing them away, no matter what direction they approach from. Still the crystal wolves walk on, heads down, paws silent, climbing upwards.

The higher they climb the colder it becomes. So cold that ice forms on eyelashes, that air seems to freeze as it leaves their mouths. So cold their chests hurt. They would not be wrong to assume that the only reason they can withstand this at all is because of the SCA around their wrist.

Ice tumbles down around them often, shaking the ground. The crystal wolves know the way and they keep going, steady on the path. They have spaced themselves out, to be in sight of all those who follow.

The Summit

As they finally reach the top of the mountain they reach a calm space, outside of the swirling storm. Domed across the summit is a fire cage, larger by far than any they have seen before. In the middle of the giant fire cage sits a dragon. White and blue, scales that look as if they were made of ice themselves. Their head was bowed, eyes closed but they are breathing, breath escaping in clouds of freezing mist that evaporated in the heat of the cage.

Around the cage itself are ice elementals, outside the storm these can be seen by the snow they whirl around inside them, each is about three feet tall but fly in a whirlwind as they attack. Like those in the storm they try and push people around and attack with shards of ice. These corrupted spirits seem to have no reason to their attacks, they are just as likely to push a combatant closer to the cage then they are towards the raging storm.

They can be fought, fire works well against them just as ice and cold magic works well against the fire cage itself.

A Sovereign Freed

Eventually the cage stops fighting, fading away into the snow before them. The crystal wolves spring forth, nuzzling at the dragon until they raise their head. Piercing blue eyes look over the group and the dragon bows their head once. They take a deep breath and breathe out over those assembled, cold fire washes over them, healing any hurts that they have, easing their fatigue som

The crystal wolves bow their heads too, a thank you. Aerlie flaps their wings, rising high into the air. Another breath of cold fire flies out around the area, clashing with the storm for a moment before overtaking it. Around the mountain the storm calms, the ice elementals stop and seem to sink into the snow or fade into the air. The mountain descends into a calmness.

The crystal wolves will approach all those who helped free them, nuzzling into their hands, a personal thank you before a shimmering gate opens for the adventurers to step through.

Red

Final Siege

It’s been a tiring three days of protecting the crystals from the creatures that sought their power. But now, as their power is fully recharged it is time to return them to the border. That is going to be a tougher job than getting them to the volcano’s heart in the first place!

They thrum with power and that power is a siren call to the creatures of the area, fire dogs, lizards, fire sprites. Just as the mountain attacked inside the heart, here the spirtes join with the rivers of lava to flood pathways, block routes, making it harder to cross already treacherous territory, or even driving them into traps of waiting fire dogs.

The heat is oppressive, heat from around them, heat from the crystals seems to sap the energy from those carrying them and so the duty is best shared.

Eventually though they arrive at the border, a mess of melted ice and frozen lava. Each of the crystals need to be replaced.

Restoring the Border

Replacing the crystals is a little more complicated than taking them was. Each one needs to fuse with the holder it sits in. It doesn’t take any skill, just someone to hold it in place for a moment whilst the two fuse together and the magic is channelled into the ground.

Holding a crystal in place is a little more difficult when being attacked by the creatures. The fire creatures keep up the attack until all of the crystals have been replaced.

The Land Repaired

When the last crystal is in place there is a ripple across the land. An invisible line, an ancient magic, connects the crystals, seperating the two lands. Ice recedes from lava and the melted snow refreezes. The borderlands of slush undergo transformation as the two elements separate from each other once more. A land of fire and a land of ice, with a pulsing magic separating the two.

The firedogs and lizards retreat, fire elementals calm and join with the lava streams once more. A shimmering gate opens.

Orange

An Important Message

The Huma birds have been carrying crystals and helping the harvesters, protecting them from the blighted birds and encouraging them to work hard.

But those returning to the floating islands on the afternoon of the eleventh day of Horseshoe come bearing black cloth bags in their talons, each has a scroll attached. The Huma birds will make it very clear they are to read the scroll first.

DO NOT OPEN THE BAG UNTIL NIGHT FALLS

Inside this bag are rare crystals. When they are exposed to the light of the sun they will cause the islands to sink back to the ground. After the sun has set tonight please distribute these evenly around the islands and then depart back down to the land below before sunrise. The lands natural magic will do the rest but we do not recommend being on the islands when they fall.

Thank you for your hard work.

The Adventurers Guild

With a long night ahead they may wish to rest for the remainder of the day.

Distributing the Crystals

If they do as they are asked then it will be a long night, there are many chunks of islands and a lot of crystals to distribute. The darkness makes it harder and the blighted birds seem even grumpier in the cover of darkness.

The wind sprites also are not resting and indeed seem delighted that playtime has been extended into the hours of night. Placing crystals is difficult when the Voidtreckers find themselves swept up into the air to dance around the trees.

Getting down by sunrise may be a little trickier than placing the crystals, especially if they have used up their flight potions, but hopefully there are enough people to help everyone get to safety.

Islands Fall

The sun rises, as the first rays of light hit the island they begin to vibrate, shudder. Then one by one they begin to fall, rapidly and chaotically. It is perhaps wise to not be anywhere near the crater as they do so.

They land in a crash of dust, which obscures the area. When the dust clears however they will see a perfect undamaged land. The pieces have fit back together, exactly where they should be, despite the chaos. The land is repaired and whole once more. Huma birds call excitedly as they dart through the air, their land restored.

A gate opens, for them to step through if they wish.

Purple

A Cure

It is day ten of Horseshoe when the first Huma birds fly into the village, they carry crystals either in bags in their talons or in their beaks.

The villagers clearly know what is going on for they welcome the birds and take the crystals thankfully. Anyone not currently fighting or purifying crystals is brought in to help distribute cures.

Actually curing someone is easy, it just requires the crystal to be touch an affected person or creature. The crystals are only good for one cure so those curing the blighted will be required to carry a few and run them to the villages.

Others can take crystals out into the woodland, looking for blighted animals to help.

A Final Fight

All but one of the golems have been found, defeated and restored. The final one has been elusive, not approaching the village or even the nearby woodlands.

The restored golems are back to standing vigil in each village, ready to deal with any attack that may occur.

But when an attack comes, it is not on a village, but on the shrine in the centre. A golem, three trolls and a host of animals, some blighted, some just angry. They attack in the early morning, the villages awoken by shouts and sounds of battle.

Luckily the blighted creatures can be healed, angry animals can perhaps be soothed. The trolls cannot be soothed though and will indeed try to rile up the animals again, to cause as much chaos as they can.

Peace Once More

Once the final golem is taken down, the crystal restored and the trolls defeated there is a quiet comes across the villages. Those who were blighted are cured, the golems are back in their place as guardians of the village and thanks to the adventurers the villages have gotten through this time with minimal damage.

The villagers thank the adventurers, tell them to come and visit whenever they are in the area. A gate opens, for any voidtreckers who wish to return to Royal Lake Hill.

Royal Lake Hill: All Teams!

They return to the tavern, each to the inn that they set off from. The town is a little busier now, more areas have recovered from the blight and it has brought more trade into the town. Everyone is still relatively elderly or young, non fighters. But the market is bustling, there is even a puppet show going on in the square.

Around midday a beeping of their SCA will show a dot on their map where the Voidtrecker Express has landed, not far out of town, and a message. You may remain here until sunset.

It is up to them whether they wish to return to the train or spend the rest of the day in the town. For those staying in town they will find word of their deeds have preceded them and they will find no end of young, wide eyed, budding adventurers ready to buy them a drink or two in exchange for stories.

Comments

[adregem]

He soothes him as best he can, unrelenting even as Inigo embraces him fully, the boy's voice tearful and hanging by a thread. Roland shakes his head, prays for fate to have mercy, for once. Every word Inigo says is a stab, twisting at Roland until he feels the bleed and the throb. That he's been tired all this time, but didn't feel the need to let any of it out because I just want to make people smile.

He holds him tighter. It finally dawns on Roland how much Reno's taunting could have traumatized Inigo given how much he was already hiding from others. To hear the very worst parts of you spoken out loud, even validated physically by getting beaten in a fight...It's no wonder Inigo retreated completely. It's no wonder he thought so little of himself, even now as he clings for help. I hoped all this time that someone would just come save me...

Roland swallows his own feelings down, shoves it aside for an instant response, swift and impassioned. "And I'm here. We're here. Help's come, Inigo. The cavalry's arrived. So you can be at ease now, son."

He won't have to keep himself locked away. He'll be stronger. He'll be loved. A hand makes its way to the back of his head, stroking his hair down to give him some semblance of peace. If rest is what he wishes for, then it will be granted. If becoming stronger is his desire, then Roland will pledge to that too. Inigo's kindness has always been what drew the chief consul to the boy's side, but he didn't see past the surface.

The halidom was a place that gave him scars for his kindness. It was unfair. It wasn't right.

So it falls to them to pull up a mirror for Inigo to see the truth - that his strength never left him. They just need to draw it out to the light.

[flatteries]

It's that final word that finally do make the tears appear. Not too many, but just enough for Inigo's eyes to grow watery as he still clings to Roland, for his hands to shake as the teardrops slowly start dripping down from his eyes to the ground as he looks downwards.

Son. Just that word makes everything Roland says so much more powerful. After all.. Isn't it what Inigo wanted all along, all this time? How many times did he lie there awake at night, too alert too sleep? Hearing the Risen in the distance, knowing that there would be no rest, and just desperately wishing for his father - the infallible Exalt - to magically reappear, to tell him that it was alright, that he'd help, that Inigo could for once finally be at ease?

It probably isn't right to project all of that onto Roland, no matter that the other willingly agreed to viewing Inigo as a son. But Inigo can't help it. It just hits too hard on an intense desire he's carried with him for too long.

He sucks in a shakey breath and finally tilts his head up to actually be able to look at Roland - yet not pulling too far away, like he doesn't want even the hand petting his hair to disappear right now.

"Can I.. Can I still be strong, even if I rely on others..?" It's part of what makes Inigo feel like he's so weak, after all. He always tried to shove down the desire of wanting someone to help him, to save him, because it didn't feel right. He had to be strong. He had to be the one to save others, and couldn't wish for the same himself. "I mean.." He closes his eyes, like he doesn't even want to visualize the memory. It's too much. "Reno said-- He said that I need to have my hand held since I'm a child.. Then that makes me weak, doesn't it..?"

[adregem]

Roland answers him quickly, making sure he could still comfort Inigo with a gentle touch, hair pushed down with routine strokes. These are the moments when his resolute nature come forth, even if he himself is prone to the same darkness which clouds the young man before him.

"If there's anything I've learned in all the time that I've served two kingdoms, my own and Evan's," he says, slowly and deliberately. "It's that people like Reno are the ones who're weak." His head shakes from side to side, hair loosening around his face. Signs of work, signs of struggle spread across a full week of unrest, but in this regard, he would always have something more to give. "They sow anger and fear in others because that's what gives them power - to see someone else break. To feel better about themselves because they've made others miserable."

"And let me tell you something, Inigo." As one story ends, so does another begin, with Roland slowly breaking a part of the embrace if only to hold Inigo's hands one more time, right over left. His gaze, piercing and full of fire. "You get stronger because you've chosen to let people in, to rely on them, to let them stay by your side. The hands that hold us up are the hands that will save us. Will keep us going. They're reminders that you're not alone. That's strength."

Words that are not entirely his own. He borrows a little from Evan, hoping the King's light can shine even here, in the depths of the void. For Inigo. Roland doesn't let go right away, lets it linger and settle. Eventually though, his brows furrow, and he adds something else.

"You want to beat him, right?" Roland looks serious, more so than usual. He grips his hands just a little tighter.

[flatteries]

The whole time Roland talks, Inigo watches him. He doesn't avert his gaze anymore, instead staring Roland straight in the eyes, even with the tears still lingering in his own. Even though the emotion is still so strong within him, he's quiet. And he listens, trying to make sure to really take in what Roland is saying rather than dismiss him. It's Roland, after all. He wouldn't tell him anything he didn't believe in.

Even though it feels hard to believe. That letting other people support you actually makes you stronger, when Inigo has believed all his life that he needed to hurry up and learn how to be more independent. To prove that he can stand on his own and not fall behind others. But he's trying, he really is.

And then Roland arrives at that final question, even before Inigo can say anything about anything else.

"I.." Inigo starts, then falls quiet. Roland looks so serious about this that Inigo wants to make sure to think about it, to give a serious answer in turn.

Because the answer isn't so simple. Inigo has never been a violent person by nature. Not even a competitive one - his fear of falling behind has much more to do with the disappointment it may cause in others than any natural desire to be ahead of the flock. He only became a warrior by force, because there was no other choice. Light feet for dancing and nimble hands for crafting turned into tools of combat. So there's no natural urge to beat Reno, but..

"To be honest, right now I'm dreading seeing him on the train so much.." Even though he wasn't afraid of Reno at first. But it's just that the other will be able to hold some very specific things over his head right now. His weakness. His inability to protect anyone important to him. Inigo isn't sure he can be confronted with that when he's already feeling like this now. "But I-- I don't want to live like that. I really do want to be strong enough to stand up to him. So people won't have to worry about me anymore. And so he can't hurt anyone else either."

It's not about Inigo. It never is. It's not about his fears, or his worries. It's about other people getting hurt by Reno too, either indirectly through worries about him, or directly.

"I can't just sit still after what he did to you." Calling Roland names. Trying to hurt Roland. Not Roland. Not his father.

[adregem]

There's something to admire about how much Inigo desires to be everyone's shield. It's a feeling that he's attached to. Like he's speaking to a part of himself, manifested in someone else. He was the same in many ways - and he would tell anyone who asks that if his life was required to save his people, save the people he cares about, he would receive that fate in a heartbeat. He already has. He will continue to.

But it has to be more than that. At least, for Inigo. It's a start; it can't be the end.

Besides, it's not Inigo's job to protect Roland. Not that he'll voice that out.

"Let me rephrase it, then." Roland says next. He doesn't fight the urge to rest his forehead against Inigo's, eyes narrowed in affection. "Thank you for wanting to protect us. But remember, you're standing up to him because you have to show Reno that Inigo is worth standing up for too."

[flatteries]

".. No."

The words sting. There's an immediate instinct to pull back at them. Away. But it's just so hard when Roland is close enough for their foreheads to touch, when he can see that look of affection in Roland's eyes so well. Inigo doesn't want to move away from it. He doesn't want to lose it.

But at the same time.. It's impossible to accept those words. Even if Inigo may be able to believe that relying on others maybe won't make him weak, even if he could start working on that.. This is a whole different class.

"That's.. I'm not."

With Roland this close to him, it's so easy to see the look in Inigo's eyes. It's not as hollow as before now the emotion has forced its way through, into them, but that just makes the fear clearer. The worry.

The endless pits of self-depreciation.

There was a reason Inigo didn't tell anyone about what was going on between him and Reno for the longest time, after all. Not even his closest friends. Not even Roland. Because it kind of felt like he deserved it. Or maybe even just that it was better if it was him over anyone else. Inigo will take the suffering of the whole world on his shoulders if it means someone else can laugh even one day more.

"I mean, I.. I want him to stop. But that's.. It still doesn't mean I'm worth standing up for." He pulls his head back just slightly, just enough that he's able to shake it without shaking Roland's head right along with it. "I'm not important. I'm no one."

It's very easy to hide behind the figurative use of that word, which is what he's doing here. Because he actually means it very, very literally - he's not the real Inigo, after all, so what does that make him - but that's something he really doesn't want to get into now.

"Please, father, I can't think that."

[adregem]

Thankfully, Roland doesn't think anything of Inigo's hesitations to accept his words. Perhaps a part of him already expected it wasn't going to be that easy anyway, such that when he draws back, Roland relents and allows him to gain that distance in more ways than one. He watches him intently, eyes never leaving his, even when he denies it again and again; a loop that will take a long time to break.

Roland's thumbs caress the skin under Inigo's eyes, where he sees the build up unshed emotion. Tears he is holding back, refusing to fall; an act meant only to comfort, and reassure. "You're Olivia's son, Inigo. And you're important to me." He draws him back into an embrace, now his turn to bury his nose against the crook of Inigo's neck, eyes closing tight. He doesn't want to think about it. He doesn't want to think about the reality they are all facing away from the void. Coming from Tidus's own admittance the other day, a world destroyed and now existing only through the mercy of a watch keeping him solid - Roland detests it. The fates of children born into lives that they did not deserve; where they should have been happy from the start.

"But that's okay," he adds hushed, breath against Inigo's shirt muffling his words. He knows it will be heard. "Don't worry about it. It doesn't have to be now. One thing at a time. One step at a time. You're not letting him get away with hurting anyone anymore."

Till then, I'll believe it for you. That you're worth standing up for. Inigo promised him, after all. That day, in the bathrooms, elbows deep in cleaning; that he would try, hard as it is to believe he was worth defending. Because he is his mother's son, the one she loved more than anything. Roland knows how strong a mother's sadness and love can drive a child - and he hopes that in Inigo's darkest nights, he remembers that to bring him back under the light.

For now, they are here in this moment, a promise once again made by a president whose heart has broken more times than he can bother to count. For now, it all boils down to taking that leap and getting Inigo the support he needs to overcome the beast that was his living nightmare packaged in snark and red-hair.

[flatteries]

There's relief. Even though Inigo is still doubtlessly terrified, even though he can feel his emotions spinning all over the place again. There's still some relief in the fact that Roland opts to not push him too hard right now. Inigo isn't sure whether or not he could take that after all the beatings his soul has already received the past few days.

Instead he's quiet. Letting Roland embrace him without Inigo moving away again. His arms slowly raising again to cling to the other guy in turn, taking slow breaths to try and calm down the panic he felt rising earlier in his chest. The pang he felt at his chest at Roland mentioning his mother's name.

"I.. I will tell you," he softly says. The words feel a little fragile, like they're important, but so incredibly hard to say. "Sometime soon.. I promise. I will explain to you why it's so hard for me to believe I'm worth standing up for, father."

Today it would be too much. And tomorrow will most likely still be too much, Inigo figures. His feelings and emotions are so raw, and he really needs to regain a slightly more normal state before he can even contemplate letting everything spill about his world, his problems, the scars on his body and his soul.

Not today.

"I.. I trust you, it's just.." His voice trails off as he tries to find the right word. ".. rough. It's hard for me to talk about. So.. for now, all I can promise you is.. t-that I'll try to rely on others. And that I'll do my best to somehow get stronger.."

[adregem]

"Then, that's enough. You're doing a great job already." He doesn't budge from his spot, not even at the slightest. Still comforting, still embracing, willing the past few days away. That despite his own words to Inigo, Roland will never truly erase from his own heart the imprint of guilt, a constant squall, heavy and unrelenting. Inigo getting hurt, blood on his temple, forced to go through a fight he wasn't ready for. All for what? Roland's temper?

He can't apologize for the tremor that wracks his limbs, slight and soft but present all the same.

"I'll cherish it. Whatever you give me, whatever story you'll tell. I'll listen. Just don't force it if you're not ready, not for me. My feelings won't change no matter what. I'll keep cheering you on until you become strong enough to tell me the words I want to hear." Roland, I don't deserve to be bullied!

Father, I deserve to stand up for myself!

Eventually his embrace loosens and his eyes creak open, moist but with no tears. He pulls away, readjusts Inigo's clothes from the force of his hug. Pats his hair down, fixes what he can to give the boy a semblance of dignity - not that he believes Inigo would find this embarrassing. He offers a smile, not quite creasing the corners of his eyes, and his hands finally fall back down to his sides. He waits patiently for Inigo to come back too, and from there, they'll move side by side once again. Forward. Always, forward.