[Game Thread] On the Trail of a God

[Schniderman]

Watchfulness Haruka nodded once as Hal made his assertions about keeping himself prepared for whatever dangers they might encounter. "When the time comes for it, I know a mystic technique to allay our need for sleep and bolster our vigilance. It would not do to be caught unprepared again." So saying, the wolf woman drew her sword and rested the flat of the blade against her open palm. A mystic chant and a strange gesture passing over the weapon accompanied a momentary crackle of blue-white lightning as it arched between her clawed finger and the katana's cutting edge. After the whole process was done, she slid her sword back into place with a final *clack* as the cross guard met with the lip of the scabbard.   Casting Empower Intensified Shocking Grasp into my spell storing katana.

[Drakeblade]

Signalling Vel’kor to return to his companions. Durzo watch as the Airship lowered. Glad that it brought itself in range of his more mundane transportation spells. The plane that you traveled through while teleporting had always been slightly unnerving. Also their was the chance you would end up in the wrong spot all together, no matter how hard you concentrated. Eyes drifting over the wreckage once more.

The magical energy fueling the fire was almost enough to put himself into a trance. Durzo thoughts were interrupted by instinct however, as he heard the small whistle of air being sucked in somewhere his side. He quickly tensed readying himself to a defence pose he had been taught in the military. Suddenly a bright flash, accompanied by deafening roar burst from the wreckage. Smoke from the blast rising high into the sky. Concealing where Vatarin had been but moments before. Durzo almost started to yell out for him, but then saw the Kobold glide with ease toward Farash.

Approaching his companions Vel’kor shuddered, Durzo however glance toward them seeing nothing that would of caused this. “Have you found something? Everythi....” Durzo trailed off as he finally realised what Farash and now Vatarin were standing over.

Now he simply frowned, the female Orc looked charred beyond belief. “She looks fairly wounded, do you believe she is stable enough to be moved? If not it’s best that we do what must be done and be back to the ship.”He laid his hand on the Nodachi. Looking back toward the Silver Ring, not knowing how he would feel if such an act was deemed necessary. Choosing to lift his hand off the Nodachi.“Vel’kor has the strength to carry us all up to the ship. I’m afraid however their isn’t enough safe space to fit all of us and the Orc.” Imagining it would be hard enough to fit the four of them and they were all small. In comparison this Orc would probably took the same amount of space as two of them. "Can you make it from here to the ship Farash?"

[Panthas]

A little bit of Envy Dragging the orc as gently as he could from the wreckage, trying to simply pull her beyond the debris, Farash looked her over and shook his head a bit. The orc was in bad shape, he didn’t need to be a healer to see that. The flow of Vatarin’s magic seemed to help though. He could see the easing of breathing for the orc and vitality seemed to be flowing back into her after such a close call. As soon as her body was free of the disaster zone, he laid her gently back down on the ground. He turned his red eyes on the kobold at the words spoken at him and opened his beak slightly. [say] "Perhaps you mean better feathered one?" For those of you that can understand Draconic *cough*DurzoNomagqe wux jatil desta nasira ir?[say] The avian winked one of his eyes before he returned his gaze to the wounded orc. Around them the flames still raged, the crackle of hungry tongues of fire consuming all it could reach was filling the air and the air was definitely getting warmer than it should be. And they weren’t equipped to stop the inferno that this crash was setting off. He had to content himself with the fact that the green wood should keep the burning contained to just the magical leak area and he needed to remember to look into some good water spells. For the moment though his attention was drug back to the present and to Durzo as a warm wind ran questing fingers through the feathers on his neck. He caught sight of that hand laid on the weapon and he very calmly shook his head. " While I agree that a creature that is past saving should be removed from its suffering, this woman looks to be able to survive this if given rest and attention. Our rather versatile reptilian friend seems to have stabilized her from immediate danger." He said with a nod and an avian smile to Vatarin before he stood from his crouch over the orc. He looked back at the odd creature that was Vel’kor. " What do you think I keep that lump of feathered attitude over there around for?" He said as he motioned his head towards the roc that was sitting on the fallen mast of the ship preening its feathers. "I can get back, and if I can get enough time away from this magic mess I could actually prepare a spell to bring the orc down to a more transportable size, but it will take some time as I don’t have it prepared at the moment." He shook his head, envying at times the sorcerer’s quick ability to pull spells from their bag of tricks.

[Ziether]

GM Post

The Jungles Below Time seemed to stop for a moment, the sounds of the jungle eerily silent, the flames paused for a pair of heartbeats, it was utter peace. kaBOOOOOOOM!!! Whooooooosh! The broken carcass of the Touch the Heavens disappeared in a blinding flash, pure energy piercing the boles of the trees, slamming into the retinas of all around. A huge segment of earth dislodged from a small rise between the airships remains and the intruders from the sky. A boulder the size of an elephant careened directly into the body of the wight before anyone could even begin to react. The monk's body disappeared along with the rock, leaving behind the sickening crunch of pulverized bones and the wet smack of an enormous blunt object impacting on flesh. The missile rotated in midair, plowing into a hillock a hundred yards downrange, the pulverized corpse of Kerzumal clearly visible on the near side. His head was loosely connected to the rest of his body, and all of his limbs were in utterly unnatural positions, and a spike of rock jutted from the center of his chest. No major debris hit any of the others, and after a few moments, their vision cleared enough to see their surroundings. Where the airship had been, a smooth crater remained, all material withing simply obliterated. Trees were uprooted, flung dozens of yards through the air, clearing the ground for another hundred feet. The dragon's carcass was not further desecrated by the explosion, but the bodies of the fallen crew were largely destroyed. All of the mundane fires were extinguished by the rush of air, but arcane blazes still crept from bush to tree to corpse, growing in all directions. Sound returned to the world, but even that seemed unnaturally minimal. The heroes could almost hear each others' hearts beat. "Wha?" the female orc said, woozily, then her head slumped as she fell unconscious. Her breathing continued unabated, and her pulse remained fairly strong.

OOGM R.I.P. Kerzumal of the Silver Rings. Your overpowered mechanics will be missed. Feel free to progress as you wish. If you want GM interference, poke me.

[Drakeblade]

The first of the dead. Pat... Pat, pat, ... pat... Hands rapidly ran up and down Durzo's body. Bits of wood and dust came pouring out of his chainmail at each hit. Then the sounds of the world started creeping back into his head, accompanied by an incessant buzz. The ship, was gone, nothing of what was the hull of the ship remained. The everyone around the Orc seemed ok. Vel'kor was fine, and... the Silver Ring. "Well." Durzo let a deep sigh, the sight of the Silver Ring impaled the rock was a disheartening one. "I'm afraid we have lost our first companion, we should burn his body." Stumbling toward the body of Kerzumal, his hearing steal ringing. "He should not be left to fed on by the animals." Walking past the body of his comrade and finding a branch caught with magical fire. "We should return to the Herald with haste. Any last words for the fallen?" Preparing to burn the body and head back to the ship.

[Ziether]

GM Post

In the Jungle, the Mighty Jungle Even with the mundane fires largely extinguished, the blazes were too much for the intrepid companions. A tower of green flames engulfed the spot where the wight's body lay, consuming his dead flesh in a matter of seconds, turning his kit into nothing more than a pile of slag. The remaining adventurers made their way up into the sky once more, bearing the fortunate orc crewer. All were deposited on the main deck of the Defiance.

I'm on a Boat Once aboard, the ship's chirurgeon took charge of the rescued female, and the airship convoy got underway once more. "I have someone on each ship interviewing the crews to find someone capable of placing some sort of wards on our vessels to prevent such problems from occurring in the future. It was very unfortunate to lose a ship, but we don't have time for sentimentality. What did you discover down on the surface?" the Herald asked. He sat down at a large table on the command deck, indicating seats for the others. "Feel free to be seated. Doubtless, remaining standing at this altitude must be disconcerting." The ships reached their top speed once more and began angling across the jungles toward the border of the Yuyo Collective. The navigator called down that the border was about three days away, with the city itself another nine hours past the limits of the kitsune territory.

[Panthas]

The long flight back gave the tengu ample time to think, the only sound around was that of the thudding wingbeats of Ialdo as he rose up through the air. It was a sound he was so used to that it might as well have not been there, sitting there in silence and the emptiness that is the air. Death had come among them, that silent force, slipping through the seconds of time to dam the flow of one’s life force, like removing the stew from the fire to cease its bubbling or weaver tying off the last thread. A violent and unexpected end, magic and nature crushing the life from a companion. He shuddered as he relived it in his mind and sighed, shaking his head. He wasn’t used to traveling with any companion other than Ialdo and now suddenly he had a bunch of walking accidents waiting to happen. From where he sat it looked best to not get too attached, there was no telling what dark deeds the servants of some mad deity had in mind for anyone that stood up to them. He turned his gaze back down to the shrinking sight of the fire that burned below and sighed, shaking his head. "A party of heroes to save the world and even a simple forest fire is beyond us, what ill luck does the future hold in its storerooms?" Shaking his head as his loyal companion carried him high into the sky, a chill wind ruffling his feathers as he simply let the feeling of emptiness flood into him for the moment.

When they landed he watched the poor girl being taken off to heal of her injuries, though how she would react to being the lone survivor was unknown to him. He turned his red eyes on the Herald and his voice was emotionless as he spoke. "Death" He croaked out, like the raven in a tree before he turned and moved to the railing of the ship as they moved off. He looked back down at the fires that were just specks in the distance and then were gone. The wind of their passing made his feathers all blow to his left, his body becoming a rippling mass of black movement. He stood there and Ialdo scooted over next to him, giving a soft call to the tengu, better able to detect his moods than most were. A black feathered hand reached up to stroke the back o the roc’s neck as he watched the land beneath flow by.

His hearing was good enough to still hear what the others said, but at the moment he had little desire to be near the Herald. It would seem he had a whole new group of people to protect outside of his own race, and he wasn’t happy about it.

[Schniderman]

Unfortunate Revelations Haruka had been waiting for the champions to return from the forest floor by the railing, standing away from whatever work the airship's crew had to do. She watched the arcane engine's final explosion, the fires that spread through the greenery below, and the gradual approach of the Tengu's roc and the Darkling's eldritch companion as they bore her allies aloft. When they had reembarked the Defiance and the Harald pressed on for what they'd found below, a silent sense of concern built within Haruka. She looked between those that had returned; Durzo, Farash, and Vatarin, along with a wounded Orc woman. The silver ring hadn't returned, and just as she began to suspect the worst, Farash gave his monosyllabic report. She found herself averting her gaze from the group, pulling her hat low so that the brim covered her eyes. The wight had, despite all her expectations, been a personable man. Of all the champions, he was perhaps the one that Haruka found most agreeable. Danger was inherent to their quest, but that made his passing no less regrettable.

[Winter Wight]

The scent of smoke clung to Vatarin. Despite the situation he was elated. A death was always expected. This was not the first time an ally had died and would doubtfully be the last. Such a pity that resurrection magic was so difficult to come by. Although if it was easy, Vatarin would likely be out of a job. Alighting upon the deck, Vatarin reoriented his focus upon the Herald.

"The wight is gone. He was caught in an unraveling aura and by a boulder. The dragon's dead too," he intoned. "We did however, find a survivor. She appears to be largely intact. The forest will burn but there's nothing to do about that."

The kobold's tail flicked idly. The light of magic still blossomed in his vision. Auras danced in the air, a rainbow of shimmering power. Beautiful and dangerous, as long as the kobold could see them he would be reminded how lethal his work could be. He silently cursed himself as he found his thoughts straying once more to the wight.

"Peace to youMartivir ekess wux," he whispered hoping the winds could carry his words to the truly deceased.