voidtreckermods: (train)
VoidTrecker Express Mods ([personal profile] voidtreckermods) wrote in [community profile] middleofsomewhere2020-09-21 05:44 am

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.
hisblueskies: Blond-haired boy leaning on windowsill, hands apart. (Leaning on Windowsill)

Re: Sovereign Freed

[personal profile] hisblueskies 2020-09-26 01:31 pm (UTC)(link)
A sigh, perhaps? Whether the acknowledgment is an answer or no, it leaves Alfredo feeling quite perplexed.

"As long as our return to the village isn't a trap... then perhaps we can trust we've done all we needed to do."

Saving people, as always, was more than enough for Alfredo's heart.

"The stakes of these missions - Romeo, were they always so terrible? We lost people, people who didn't even get to fight."

Or even necessarily have to fight.
myblueskies: (bittersweet)

[personal profile] myblueskies 2020-09-27 07:38 am (UTC)(link)
Romeo nodded sadly, "Yes. They can be really bad and scary because there are monsters or bad people or whole worlds that might explode..."

He looked sad for a moment, but wasn't that always the way? After all in the heavens they had helped people and stopped them from getting eaten by Ayakashi. They had fought giant monsters that humans couldn't see, often causing havok at festivals and hurting people. Here things are different, different threats but it's still the same.

"We got to work really really hard, because otherwise lots of people get hurt."

It wasn't really fair that Alfredo was here. He was just a kid. A proper kid, even if he was as dead as Romeo. But he wasn't a shinki, he had just been stolen by a train.
hisblueskies: Blond-haired boy stares 1/4 stage left, neutral expression. (Frown)

[personal profile] hisblueskies 2020-09-27 12:26 pm (UTC)(link)
"... This world didn't seem like it was going to explode," Alfredo offered after a moment, but his heart wasn't fully on the matter and it showed.

"Are we the only ones doing this kind of work? Is that why the- 'Voidtrecker Express' is acting the way it is?"

Recovering some, and with another nuzzle from a crystal wolf, he looked up over at his friend.

"Believe me, I don't mind doing the work! For both the big and little things. But- it's a special kind of unfair, isn't it? That if we weren't here, no one would or could help."
myblueskies: (sadface)

[personal profile] myblueskies 2020-09-28 04:51 am (UTC)(link)
"I don't know..." He shook his head, "We can't be... Because there's so many worlds and we can't be everywhere..."

Couldn't save everyone.
hisblueskies: Blond-haired boy looking off 3/4 stage left, looking dubious. (Concerned)

[personal profile] hisblueskies 2020-09-28 04:31 pm (UTC)(link)
Alfredo nodded his head a little, frown deepening.

"But we help the people we can."

No one seemed to be forcing them out of the train - but then there were other kinds of responsibilities.

Things that were harder to put down or ignore.

"We haven't ever gone to a world twice, right, Romeo?"

There were several meanings built-in to that question, but Alfredo was only concerned about one of them right now: whether the Voidtrecker Express had had to save a world twice.
myblueskies: (of course!)

[personal profile] myblueskies 2020-10-03 01:44 pm (UTC)(link)
"No. All the worlds have been very different and I think there was just one world people went to before I came to the train and that was different too."

He looked at Alfredo, still worried. "So we don't know how they are after we leave, we just got to hope they can keep on being okay!"
hisblueskies: Blond-haired boy stares slightly off-center, concerned look on his face. He is outside. (A mission!)

[personal profile] hisblueskies 2020-10-03 01:56 pm (UTC)(link)
It is some time before Alfredo speaks again.

"... Well, it wouldn't be a mission of mercy if we could come for just any reason. And if it were problems the people could fix themselves, we wouldn't be needed at all."

Here, the problem had been a sheer lack of people.

The last crystal wolf padded away, and Alfredo relaxed his shoulders, looking much more resolute.

Much older than his years.

"You're right, Romeo. We have to have hope."
myblueskies: (the world is beautiful!)

[personal profile] myblueskies 2020-10-04 08:59 am (UTC)(link)
Romeo nodded, if people could solve the problems themselves they wouldn't need help and if they helped people who didn't need it they wouldn't have time to help everyone else!

"Hope is really important. And I think the sovereign will work hard to make sure nothing like this happens to their wolf friends again.

Or any of the animals. They seemed like a good ruler, even if they had got trapped.
hisblueskies: Blond-haired boy looking off 3/4 stage left, looking dubious. (Concerned)

[personal profile] hisblueskies 2020-10-04 01:26 pm (UTC)(link)
"Then... I suppose that's as much as we can know, about the future of this world."

There was no way he - or Romeo - could know about what happened in the future of their world; perhaps it was like that.

"We'd better see how the others are doing, Romeo."

Time to redirect that worry into a subject he had a bigger chance of doing something about: checking in on their friends!
myblueskies: (eternal friendship!)

[personal profile] myblueskies 2020-10-04 02:23 pm (UTC)(link)
Romeo nodded at him, "Yes! Let's go see how everyone else got on!"

He was sure they would be fine, because everyone was so good at working together and helping each other out. But he still wanted to see them all!

He threw his arm over Alfredo's shoulder, even though he had to reach up a little, and began walking towards the gate.