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

[so_dark_a_road]

"Does anybody really know their father well?" he wondered. Fathers seemed to be a greater mystery than mothers.

And that was true, in many circumstances there were others who would protect a child, not just a parent. But would that stop a parent from worrying?

"I like your description of Castle Town." Even as an adult, he likes it. Games, sweets, and music, who could wish for more? Life has to be about celebration, at least periodically, or it is too grim.

"What happened to Castle Town?" he asks, quietly, curiously, and with empathy.

[wisdominshadows]

"I'm afraid I'm not the person to ask," she admits. Not that she had much of an impression of her mother either, mind.

Her stance stiffens slightly, just enough to be noticeable, at the question.

"Years ago, the King of Hyrule was overthrown by a man from the western desert. The man's name was Ganondorf Dragmire and he was both a warlord and a sorcerer of considerable power. But he had no interest in governing the city beneath the castle."

A normal usurper, she supposed, would have wanted Castle Town at least partially intact- to turn it over to their own followers, or to keep the revenue of taxation flowing. Ganondorf had done neither.

She had wondered, sometimes, whether malice or incompetence was behind that decision.

"The foresighted fled before things became too terrible... but the rest are still there, after a fashion. If one counts the undead."

[so_dark_a_road]

Not everyone has the luxury of knowing a parent well. Curufin can well understand that.

"I see. A usurper came to power, and he cared for nothing but power, and he destroyed the town. That is sad. What, the undead? He had a sorcerous power over the dead and used them for the purpose of ruining his foes' city? And many of the townspeople never escaped and so themselves became the undead."

He shakes his head. He himself had been a usurper, but he knows now that it was wrong, and anyway, he'd never have used such a sorcery, even if it had been within his grasp.

"But you escaped, it seems."

[wisdominshadows]

"I was fortunate."

She has told herself that for years; will keep telling herself that for far longer.

"My foster mother fled from the city with me before it was sacked."

Not before the castle was, of course. And not before her father was murdered... though who knew precisely when that was? She'd heard the castle's populace screaming in terror, seen the blood in the corridors, but technically she didn't know.

One day, that might stop being distressing.

[so_dark_a_road]

"Your foster mother kept you safe," said Curufin, softly.

It seemed that Zelda had no living parents by that time, though she didn't say so.

[wisdominshadows]

"For as long as she could," she agreed.

It was true, after all. Fate had led Impa from her side- to her own people, to Kakariko, and to the Shadow Temple in the end. But that had not happened until she was sure Zelda could take care of herself.

(Well. Sheik could- but that was another story. And Impa had always loved her best, no matter what other duties she had taken up. People had had less).

"And what of you, Master Curufin? Did your childhood feature puppets?"

[so_dark_a_road]

"She must have been a loving person," said Curufin, with a nod and a very sympathetic look.

"And as for me, yes, there were puppets in my childhood. We used to visit a neighboring city called Alqualondë sometimes, and they were dedicated to many of the arts, including theatre. There was a puppet threatre troupe that used to set up in their town square, and I loved going to see them. They staged plays that involved our history as Elves, including stories about the Long March, the journey of some of the first Elves from Middle-earth to the other continent, Aman, to dwell in the land of the gods, the Valar. I was born in Aman, and I found that history fascinating." He laughs. "Besides, I liked the puppets. I was too busy with my forge work and my studies to make my own, so I used to stage a puppet theatre in the livingroom of the house in the city of Tirion where I and my family lived. I'd hang a sheet in front of a couch, then put a bright lamp in back of the couch. Then I'd duck under the back of the couch in front of the lamp and use my hands to cast shadows on the sheet." He demonstrated by lifting a hand and curling three fingers and a thumb into the palm, making the head of a rabbit, leaving his index and middle fingers to represent the bunny ears. He spoke in a high squeaky voice, making the bunny speak. "Hi! I'm a rabbit. I live in the canyon below your fine city, along with all my rabbit friends."

[wisdominshadows]

"The most devoted of guardians," she agrees.

He wasn't wrong. It wasn't what most people would first think of when seeing Impa, but it was true.

"It sounds like a pleasant childhood."

Want to wrap this thread and catch up later?

[so_dark_a_road]

He's happy for Zelda that she had her foster mother to take care of her. It is an awful thing, to lose your parents young. And a very good thing, if there is someone willing to step in and help.

"It was a pleasant childhood, even though I had my anxieties as most children do. And even with the rivalries within our family and extended family, I still remember the love of my siblings and the friendship of most of my cousins with great appreciation. I sometimes had dark visions, but even those didn't keep me from loving my family, my city, my country, my life."

sure

[wisdominshadows]

"Something to be fortunate in, then."

She looks out- the children of the town are cheering; evidently, they missed something quite eventful during their conversation.

"Perhaps these children will experience something similar."