Duty Session 420: A Dark and Stormy Night

Ah, *this* quest. It's seasonal, really, like the storms accompanying it -- and where there's terrential downpours and dark clouds, one should not be terribly surprised to find a Sea-Witch, taking shelter in the same tea house as anumber of other adventurers.

She is sipping her tea when the quest-prompt from an arriving Lander, a middle aged Spriggan whose wings are deeply soaked, appears on her interface. A glacnce to the others as she indicates her acceptance.

    Miyako had been sitting around herself, sipping a cup of hot tea, as she waited for Kotono to get back from her own questing. Wherever her partner had gone. Maybe something quick to pass the -

            *DING*

    Well. Someone just got a quest prompt. How interesting. She looks over at Jazuhanze. "Why not?" she asks, casually.

With the quest accepted, the Spriggan begins giving his routine opening monlogue about facing down the air elementals, finding them before the storm ends, hope written all over his face about leading the adventurers, all two of them, to where they can face them down and put a stop to it. Facing the storm won't be easy, he says, but that's all there is to it.

"...great," says Jazz after he finishes. A glance at Miyako.

"Well, there's two of us. That ought to be enough for this quest. Right?"

Her tone is mildly hopeful.

Mildly.

It reads more like 'yeah, probably doomed'.

    Miyako nods, "I... think so. We did something similar last Storm Festival, but, well... we had more people. And ... well. But we've both gotten stronger since then, right?" She shrugs. And then looks out at the driving rain.

        Well ol' Noah looked out through the drivin' rain
        Them unicorns were hidin', playin' silly games
        Kickin' and splashin', while the rain was pourin'
        Oh them silly Unicorns

    Miyako sings softly, almost inaudible above the noise of wind and rain... but the wind seems to listen to her, and alters its flow around her, guiding most of the water away so that she can walk without being blinded by rain in her face or frozen by more rain soaking her clothes.

Biting wind and pelting rain may well be the weather that suits Jazz's persoanlity best! A torrential downpour? There she is!

Still, the water can be woven together by the Sea-Witch and this time she's not about to allow herelf to be buffeted around like no tomorrow by it on account of being twee. It works, this go around.

"That we did, if I recall right," she agrees. "There's been a whole lot of fights and monster slayings and what not since then," she admits. "Sometimes, it blurs together a little."

Still, its enough for the moment, right up until the storm sees them plunged into darkness.

Jazz glows faintly from her own bioluminescence, rippling up along the sides of her body and face. Mostly obscured by her hair and clothing, it isn't enough to make a diference against the storm and the night. "...erf," she says, tripping over and planting herself face first in the mud. She pushes herself up out of it, glancing towards Miyako with a weary look.

    Light is not a magic Miyako has ever done much with. Small illusions? Sure. Enough to light their path through the storm? Nope.

    "That there has been," she agrees, stumbling as the storm picks up, and her spell starts to weaken in its protection against the wind and rain. "Wish I had my old camping lamp," she adds. "Or one of those crazy sixty-skillion-LED things the Nero guy was talking about."

    She shrugs and, scowling, does her best to conjure a light. She manages a brief but bright flare that surrounds her hand... then explodes! It knocks her back, landing on her rump in the mud, and she even skids back a good foot from the force of it.

    "W... what?" she stutters. "I... oh. Damn." She lets the rain pour over her hands for a minute before she rubs at her eyes, and only then does she get slowly and carefully to her feet.

    "Thought I was goin' blind for a minute there..."

"Gwah," says Jazz at the explosion, scrambling back in the mud further and getting even more soaked by it. She is going to need that hygene command later. A lot of it. She groans, then picks herself up and produces a small vial. Then another vial. combinging the two, she applies them to the wick of the Lander's lantern and then breathes a little magic into it to light it again. They, at least, now have light. "Are you okay?" she asks Miyako, glad for once the person blasted back and sliding around that much was not, in fact, her. She offers her a small hand to help her to her feet, but it's unlikely to be of much assistance.

As they traverse well out of the township now and into the plains that surround it, the lightning strikes that begin to appear are coming perliously close.

"Oh," says Jazz, "..great."

    "I will be," Miyako answers. "Just... well, the amount I know about Light and Fire magic, you can write on my little toenail. With a big sharpie." She sighs and shakes her head. "Vision's clearing up quick. I'll be ok."

    Or maybe she won't. She comes to a halt at the edge of the plains and stares.
    Lightning. Open plains. Adventurers with lots of metal. Not. A. Good. Mix. "Ugh. Welp." She shades her eyes to keep the rain out as she looks out, watching the lightning dance, planning her route. "Shall we?"

    And then she takes off running. A quarter of the way. Half way. Two thirds. Three quarters. Almost there.

            KRAK-A-THOOM!!!!!!!!!

    Did Miyako just get blown up again? Yes. Yes, she did.

    Sitting on her ass once more in the middle of a Miyako-shaped crater, smoke rising from her scorched clothing, she stares up at the sky. Drawing on her eloquence and rhetorical skills, she says,

            "... ... ..."

"...Miyako!" Jazz calls out. She, of course, is zig-zagging, trying to not get by the lightning. She skids to a halt at the edge of the crater which, well... it's muddy. Adding more mudd to Miyako-crater isn't really intentional, but ity's probably the end result of her speed. At least she has tiny feet so it's not a HUGE spray of mud as she does it.

"Are you okay? Oh my god your hair." She reaches out a hand to help Miyako up and out of the mess she's in, nervous glances upwards in the hope that they can avoid further lightning strikes. "Look at this way," she remarks, "lightning isn't likely to hit you *again*."

Still, they're able to pass thrugh the rest of the lightning unscathed, even if it does reveal the massive wall of debris, held together by the wind, rain, and corresponding ice they've generated that's going to block their path.

After their guide finishes explaining that tbis is the doing o the elementals, as if that wasn't obvious at this point, Jazz sighs.

"I could probably try to cut through this with a blast of ice of my own, but I don't think I'd even know where to start. Maybe if I raise the earth, I could pierce a hole in it long enough for us to duck under and through."

    Miyako groans as she's helped to her feet, and looks up into Jazz' eyes, then back out at their destination.

    "myth-b-b-busters... dis-s-p-p-p-proved that... in o-oh-n-n-n-nine..."

    At least she can still walk. Or stagger. Or something resembling movement. And does manage to make it across the plain without getting hit again. But then there's a fraggle-snagglin' WALL.

    "W-well /putz/." she mutters, then considers. "Oh-k-kay. Maybe I can... yeah. OUGHT to work. Done it before." She tries to focus, reaching up with a finger still shaky from the lightning-wrought damage, to inscribe the runes of a basic stone-shaping spell. Being a Druid can be hella useful.

    But with one rune misformed by her shaky finger, the spell just... fizzles. "Frak. Shoulda gone with 'Walls of Jericho'." At least she's not stuttering anymore. "Your turn."

Doing well in a stormy situation is a Sea-Witch's job, one might guess.

Still, she's able to do much what she said to Miyako earlier, granting them a barrier large enough to pierce the wall, shifting just enough of the debris thawt they can slip by it and get to the other side before it collapses back in place. Now within the eye, they are confronted immediately by the fact that there are a lot of air elementals present.

"...are there more of them than last year?" asks Jazz after a moments study. She traces her hands through the air, leaving trails of frost and ice in their wake as she prepares to defend herself from imminent assault.

"Welp. Let's do this, I guess."

    Miyako looks at the roiling cloud of spirits beyond the wall. "Right," she says. "Time to dig in." The item she retrieves from her inventory is a simple, if rather symbolic, bracelet, which she slides onto her wrist. The bracelet made not from gold or silver, but plain, if ornamental, black wrought iron.

        Gold is for the mistress, silver for the maid
        Copper for the craftsman cunning at his trade
        Nay! cried the cannoneer, upon the castle wall
        But IRON, cold iron, will be master of you all!

    Each verse of the classic poem sends another burst of blackness through the cloud of spirits, binding each it touches, until she concludes.

        Crowns are for the valiant - sceptres for the bold
        Thrones and powers for mighty men who dare to take and hold
        "NAY!" said the Baron, kneeling in his hall
        "For iron, cold iron, is the master of men all!"

Jazz is nut the greatest combatant in the world, if we're honest, but she can do it. Between her ghostly summons, the blasts of poisonous jellyfish and water, lighning, and defenses she's able to endure and outlast the blasts of the elementals while contributing damage of her own ,but really, it's Miyako that cleans up the situation faster, leading the way in the fight until the last of them are dispersed and the storm abates. As the Lander thanks them, Jazz blinks her eyes.
5r "Oh, I can't get two of the same reward," she says.

".. I really need to sort through my inventory later..."

    Miyako shrugs. "I don't do it for the reward," she says. "I mean, it's nice, but, well..." She shrugs again. "It's more... I can't sit around doing nothing, you know? I have to be doing *something*. Preferably something that helps people. Or gets me out seeing something new."

    She reaches up to wipe rain from her face. "C'mon, let's get back into some cover, shall we? Somewhere with a fire, and hot drinks, and maybe a nice hot bath?"

"Yeah, sure," replies Jazz, absently.

And then it'll be time for exactly that. Hot drinks are a plus, after all, and there IS the tea house they left behind to go stand in the rain.