middleofsomewhere | Adventure On: Finale and Conclusion

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Adventure On: Finale and Conclusion

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Nah." He chuckled a little bit. "Unless there's something I need to learn. Magic stuff maybe." He didn't know how many points he had, he'd have to check later.

"Wish it worked that way, but it doesn't, we're stuck with my memory. Or were anyway, Francois' clearly more experienced than I am. I'm not going to complain."

"Complaining might offend them, and they wouldn't deserve it anyway," Gen said wryly. He laughed a little. "I do wish I wished more from Francois before I was kidnapped. It'd be useful right now."

"We'll manage, even in a strange place. I'm glad you're here, even if it took you being kidnapped which is less than ideal but..."

He'd been kind of on his own and he was facing a long road to getting anywhere with people on the train. He knew that. He wasn't afraid of it, but Gen would help.

Gen hesitated, but he laughed softly. "I'd rather neither of us were kidnapped, of course. Can you imagine what would happen, if time was actually passing at home? I know many said it wasn't, but ..."

He smiled a little. "If time's standing still and no-one is missing us? You're here to help me figure out how to solve this train problem. It's in my own best interest if you're here with me."

"Ah, yeah, that would be something of a problem, but like I've said to others if I couldn't make it back, I have faith that they'd take care of things." Senku believed in their team, that was just a fact to him.

"It's probably going to be difficult and take forever to figure out." He grinned. "So, it's interesting enough."

Their food came and he took a sip of the ale and picked up the fork to take a bite. He was hungry enough, they'd been working hard after all.

Gen ... had faith in the others, but he and Senku played vital roles. Even if he wasn't taken at a point in time that explicitly placed others at risk. Their friends would miss them. Especially Senku. Gen was a lot less important to them, but ...

"See, at least you aren't bored, my dear," Gen giggled.

He tore into his food - Gen wasn't kidding about being hungry before. Even if he was curious, "I wonder what meat this is?"

"I am, a little, when we're stuck on the train. Being off the train isn't boring at all." Senku hummed. "And we got so much great stuff." He was going to have to do something about storing it all, honestly.

"It's pretty game-y, which is probably why it was in the stew. Hard to say." He shrugged. "Tastes pretty good, so I won't complain."

"After we parted ways and I took your money." He smirked a little bit. "I gave some of it to Haibara. You might not have met her, she's maybe six or seven? She's the one who was helping me encourage people into stocking the medical supplies. Anyway, she said she needed some things so I figured we didn't need more than what we got."

"Perhaps we should poke a little more at the mystery of the train itself, then," Gen mused. "If only to keep you entertained."

Gen hummed in agreement. He wasn't worried about what the meat was, it was still delicious. Hunger made the best spice.

"Actually," Gen smirked, "she's one of my roommates. Smart girl. I can see why you like her, my dear. Something really spooked her when I first arrived, but she never told me what that was about."

"Yeah, yeah, that's right." He said, waving his hand a little bit. "Of course I like her, but since she calls me Ishigami, I doubt she would've told me either."

He also wouldn't have asked.

"But I figured the jobs we did might've been too hard for her to do anyway. All of them were physical enough." He might be a little concerned about small children.

Gen was just as worried, honestly.

"There's children on the more ... active teams, as well," Gen said quietly. "I met a boy who's on the Blue team. They're ... I'm not really certain what the train is playing at, bringing little guys like those kids here along for the ride. Surely it's more useful to kidnap people like us?"

"I'm sure they're capable." It wasn't about that, and he trusted Suika after all, she was as capable as anyone. "But regardless of that, they will still face certain limitations by being children alone." He pointed out.

"You're right, we're better candidates than they are, but the best we can do is keep an eye on them." He huffed lightly. "Even after I scolded that woman for asking people to do that." He flicked his glance aside.

"I only told her that because you can't trust people to look after other people for you. I thought she should've given them their own tools to keep them safe and she disagreed." He didn't trust everyone to look out for kids, even if he would.

"Mmm, as capable as they are, I still think it'd probably be a bit daunting," Gen mused. "Dear little Suika gives me enough of a fright sometimes, but I know better than say no to her."

More like, it wasn't possible for him to say no to her. She had him wrapped around her little finger, and he wasn't ashamed of that.

He tilted his head. Knowingly, he asked, "What kinds of tools did you suggest?"

"I suppose that's true." He couldn't tease Gen for that, he was in the same situation.

"I didn't get that far, she was very adamant they not be armed. I get the sentiment, I just think if she, who was presenting herself as their caretaker, is going to let them run into dangerous situations alone because they insist...it seems unwise." Senku hummed.

"Especially if, as she said, no one is watching them."

"Well ... sentiment overrides rationality sometimes, my dear," Gen pointed out. "You have to remember that the idea of children fighting - even if they'd be forced in that situation anyway - is a terrible taboo to most people."

He shrugged a little helplessly. "Perhaps she was thinking of more fantastic assistance. If someone could simply magically protect them? I'd think that's a stupid idea, most of the time, but with the people here ..."

"Do you think I would encourage children fighting? I'm not a monster you know." He would protest more about Suika, but she got herself into and out of most situations and had already won their respect. He wasn't about to throw someone like Mirai into the fray, for example.

"However, if they're truly that vulnerable, well, science is the great equalizer. It's meant to give power to those who don't have their own." He commented, because he believed that.

"I'm not sure anyone volunteered to do such a thing."

"Of course not, Senku-chan," Gen didn't think Senku really believed he thought that about him. Did he?

He hummed, tapping his spoon against his bowl for a moment. "Perhaps we should volunteer, instead? Regardless of that woman's objections."

"Unless you've been holding out on me, I don't think you or I can create magic barriers." Senku hummed.

"I don't think we have to declare intent, just...keep an eye on things. We can do that fine enough."

He'd probably given Haibara too much money, into the spoiling her territory, but he didn't mind. They wouldn't have a use for it. It wasn't like they could store that much on the train anyway, and he already got them a lot of what seemed like luxury items - blankets and spices.

"Not yet, anyway!" Gen said, cheerfully. "No I was thinking we could build them something that'd help protect them. Even arm them. I don't want any of them to have to fight either, but ..."

He sobered a little. "What if whatever frightened little Haibara was someone who'd just come on the train with me? What if it was something that happened on a previous mission? I'm certain they're tough and capable for children, but ..."

"I could certainly do that." Senku agreed with a little hum. "I wouldn't want to give it to them without at least showing them the basics. We'll have to think on it."

He didn't fundamentally have a problem with that. The thing was, the world was pretty tough and they were out of their element. If it was the modern world, Earth, most children would never find themselves needing something like that. He was pretty sure the children in the village all learned to defend themselves growing up too.

"I get it, I get it. I don't know her well enough to speculate, but keeping an eye on her may be the best we can do, unless you find out otherwise."

"Either that, or body armor," Gen thought they could all use that, really. "Which isn't a perfect solution - but if they can convincingly play dead, that's enough for most opponents.

Gen shrugged a little. "I'll do my best, my dear, but I'll understand if she's unwilling to trust a strange adult quickly. I'd say it's a smart choice, most of the time."

"Body armor, huh." He said, looking like he was at least considering it. "I'm not sure what I could do there. You may have found something that would merit more research, especially for a child. It would have to be flexible enough as clothing, but light enough they could wear it. I'll think about it." He hummed.

"Yeah, I'm not suggesting you do anything creepy." Senku snorted as he took another sip of his ale. "Mm, this isn't bad. Better than anything I can make." He commented.

"Mmm," Gen hummed and nodded. "It doesn't have to be bullet-proof or something, I suppose, though wouldn't it be nice if it were? But I think any additional protection we could give them would help."

Gen laughed softly. "I've worked very hard to seem harmless and charming! Of course I won't be creepy."

Then, Senku got another happy nod. "Or me. I really do need to practice my cooking now. It's such a pain."

"We haven't had that chore yet." Senku pointed out. "Someday it will be orange's turn, probably." He commented.

"Aside from anything we scrounge up for ourselves as it is. We'll make some ramen when we get back on the train." He took another bite or two, sometimes he talked in the middle of eating like he forgot he was supposed to do that.

"Aside from that, we've got those flowers and mint to dry, oh! Roland collected a bunch of samples for me to examine." He grinned.

"Probably," Gen agreed, with good humor.

He ate as Senku talked, but he'd already made good work on his food. The stew was filling, at least. He'd sleep well tonight with a full belly.

"Roland is doing a good job as Chrome's understudy," Gen teased, just kidding around. Roland would likely have his own unique role to fill for them. "What sorts of samples did he find?"

"Ha, he wishes he was as useful as Chrome." He grinned, at least in that capacity, Chrome had him beat.

"He brought me some samples of animal skins, different plants and tree barks, more rocks and sticks." He looked quite satisfied though.

"Lots to keep me busy looking at them for awhile." He took the last few bites, and set his fork down. He could eat fast when it called for it.

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