Duty Session 210: A Dark and Stormy Night

The Storm Festival certainly lives up to the name. For the past week or so, dark clouds have covered the skies much of the day and night, blocking out both the sun and the stars. Tonight, however, a real storm has blown in. Thunder, lightning, and heavy rains pour down from the skies. Many Landers and Adventurers alike have sought the refuge of inns, taverns, or other locations to wait out the storm.

Mikage is sitting at a bar, looking as if she only recently came out from the weather. Her hair is damp, clinging to her face, but she still wears her hood up, covering her Were Fang tattoo.

With a gust of wind, the door opens, causing many to protest against the wind and water that comes splashing in from outside. A man in a hooded cloak enters, shaking off some water and then pulling back his own hood to reveal himself as a Spriggan.

To surrounding Adventurers, a quest prompt appears:
<< A Dark and Stormy Night >>
<< Accept Quest: Yes/No >>

Goldenblade is sitting in the bar, sipping beer, eating ... who knows what. It all tastes like gray mush, and she's not rich enough to afford cooked food all the time, and she's not a good enough hunter to hunt it, herself. She's mostly minding her own business at this point, but when a quest comes up, she'll click on it. Why not? She likes to get involved with everything, and this may be interesting! "This ought to be interesting," she declares, and having clicked yes, she'll rise to her feet and join the Spriggan.

As a bard Kauchemar spends a lot of time in taverns, and it's not to drink. She's usually the entertainment. It's a little gold on the side, and usually up on the latest gossip.

But the blustery arrival of a strange Spriggan and the pop-up of a strange unexpected quest is enough to pique her notice, and put her foray of drinking songs aside to investigate.

Estelle has a habit of collecting various foci. Some of them are usual, some them not so much - and, today, she's dragged out one of those 'not so much'. Propped up beside her, as she takes the time to have a meal and rest during her travels, is a parasol - which shows evidence of having recently been redone in a star theme, constellations sprawled across the laquered slats that make up its umbrella. She still looks a little miserable, though, given the sodden look of her trio of tails.

Still, she glances up from various papers spread across her corner table, as the Quest Prompt flashes across her vision. Her silver gaze turns to the Spriggan Lander, and then to the other, familiar faces who are moving to investigate... and she sweeps up her papers to tuck away, plucking her parasol up from the space beside her. "Well. Good day to you all, in this most dreary of seasons."

As the Adventurers begin to accept the sudden quest being offered to them, the Spriggan's expression shifts from worry to hope. He begins to flag them closer to him. "yes, come. Come here!" He manages to force a group of Landers away from their table so that he can lean forward, explaining to the group...

"I've been tracking a group of air elementals. They're drawn to the storms this time of year. They are one of the only sources of wind shards, so I need your help."

Mikage approaches, looking curious. She glances to the others, giving an incline of her head. "This is new. I've never seen a quest just spontaneously appear like this."

The Spriggan seems oblivious to her comment as he continues on. "I can lead you, but I can't fight them. Follow me!"

That is when he leads heads back to the door, leading them out into the storm. However bad it seemed from indoors, it seems worse when they step out into it. Cold rains, chill winds, and debris seem to be their enemies at the moment. "They're outside of town. This way!" He calls, leading them through the storm-blown streets.

"Talk about facing the elements..." Kauchemar snorts. So they have to go back outside in the storm? Great. The bard ambles over to the door. "How hard can it be?"
Of course as soon as she opens the door she gets blasted with rain and wet wind, making her sputter. That answers that. With a flustered snort she pulls up the hood of her cloak and walked out of the tavern.

"o/~ Blame it on the rain yeaaah yeeeah..."

As the wind whips around her on leaving the comfort of the bar, Goldenblade tries to concentrate, but the air around her is too full of rain and debris. A tree branch catches her across the face as she follows after this quest guy, blinking away the rain in her face. "Best to get the hard luck out of the way early," she grumbles as she tries to follow the others out.

"Air shards? Those sound useful, yes." The vixen muses aloud, as the situation is explained to them. "We could probably use some of those, ourselves, for various things..." She spins her (closed) parasol a moment, the compacted star patterns a meaningless mess in the motion. Then, as an aside to Mikage, she quietly adds "Probably a Seasonal one, popping up whenever there's a storm in various places."

But she follows behind the eager Spriggan all the same, a quick motion pushing the slats up and out so the umbrella's full, artistic glory can be seen. But it isn't enough, with how heavy /this/ storm is, to properly protect herself - let alone the others - so she reaches for one of her Artes in short order. "Oh Tiger of the West, with fur of shining white, I beseech you now to aid us in our plight. Lend me the winds of your domain, that I might show the world the strength of your reign."

A silver-shimmering wind bursts up around the group, pushing the water and gale back in a bubble... capped by the top of her parasol. Taller folk may need to duck to be entirely dry.

With a nod to Estelle, Mikage agrees, "Probably. I don't remember if there was anything like this, last year." As the wind whips up, Mikage pulls a scarf she must have borrowed from Cyrus up around her face, trying to shield as much as she can from the harsh winds. "This... is miserable." She murmurs, already still damp from her earlier escapade into the wilds, she is now soaked through.

"I'll see if I can offer us some kind of protection." She pulls a blue stone from her pocket and slots it into a circular indentation in her sword, then sweeps her hand over the flat of the sword, channeling air and water magic which matches the storm. Then, she slices it up into the open air, creating a disc of condensed wind energy that seems to blast back some of the rain pelting against them.

"It won't last long, but it's at least something." She lets out a breath.

The combined efforts of both Mikage and Estelle's magic allows them to get through to the edge of town, where most of the city lights fade into the background. This leaves them in almost pitch-black. "Could use some of that Adventurer magic right about now. Maybe some kind of light that will hold out against the storm?" Their Spriggan guide asks.

Ah darkness. Now they were getting back into Kauchemar's comfort zone despite the harsh weather. Hooves dig into the wet ground to use her physical strength to brace against the winds. Equines actually have very developed senses of hearing and scent, that combined with monsterous nocturnal vision makes it easy for her to find her way.

Goldenblade grumbles as the rain soaks her, chilling her and drenching her gear. But the darkness is a slightly more significant problem, so she draws one of her blades as the darkness closes in around her. Flame springs up the length of her blade, and despite the wind whipping the flames, it sheds like like a very large torch, illuminating the area around her.

"Just keep close, and allow my umbrella to help cover you." The magical one, not the physical, Estelle means. Still, the talk of light and how dark it's growing do have her leaning the handle back against her shoulder, pulling a few things from thing air (her inventory) to mix together, before capping it and giving it a hard shake and a touch of magic. A cool, blue radiance bursts to life inside the bottle, and she uses a bit of string to tie it to the spokes of her parasol - combined with the other light sources, it'll help light their path.

While some, like Kauchemar, might be able to navigate without the need of any supernatural light source, that doesn't seem to be the case for the others. Luckily, each of them has been an Adventurer long enough to have their own unique forms of light.

"Ahh, perfect." The Lander comments, showing a grin beneath his rain-soaked features. However, light becomes less of a concern as they travel further. Lightning flashes begin to crackle out of the sky at regular intervals. Some coming dangerously close to the party.

"Ha... haha. That was close." The Lander sounds nervous as he edges a little closer to the party.

Those lightning strikes grow closer and closer, meaning that they'll have to find some way of dealing with the danger they present.

Kauchemar doesn't even flinch as the thunderbolts start striking closer and closer. Fear of Lightning isn't a phobia she's worried about. "I guess its time to Ride the Lightning and Reap the Whirlwind," she remarks, and then takes off. The Nightmare dashes with such speed and grace that she's almost impossible to see in the stormy night, save for when the flash of lightning strikes briefly shilouette her.

Now that we can all see our way, we can see just how close the lightning strikes are, and Goldenblade jumps as one strikes a bit too close. And now they're coming faster. "Holy crap," she swears, and says, "Let's get through this as quick as we can." She sprints off, in a matter not unlike certain Deloreans, leaving a trail of fire as she dodges and weaves and outruns the lightning. Or at least avoids where it's about to strike.

Estelle's main talent in divination is astrology - nephomancy is not one of her fortes, though perhaps she should brush up on it... or maybe it's just the unnatural manipulation of the storm from the Elementals throwing her off? Either way, she has to take a much more careful path then the two speedsters of the group, and it's pure luck that only has her scraped up a little by shrapnel from exploding trees and struck rocks. She's rubbing lightly at some of the struck areas as she finally gets out of the danger zone, grumbling softly.

What is it with Mikage and being zapped by high voltage electricity these days? This is the second time in short order that she has ended up knocked on her ass, twitching, and minus a decent amount of her health. At least this time she wasn't kicked by a horse in the process.

Eventually, she gets to her feet, wincing. "Maybe I need to get Cyrus to invent me a lightning resistance potion." She grumbles.

"Just a little further!" The guide explains, leading them beyond the lightning and towards what looks to be a tall vortex of clouds spinning in the air. Debris has built up here, creating a makeshift wall out of downed trees, pieces of Lander houses, and other miscellaneous objects.

"I've seen this before." He explains, "They're inside. When enough of them group together, they can creative massive walls around the eye of the storm. There has to be a way through."

Goldenblade peers at the massive walls of debris with the experieced eye of someone who's spent 50 years in construction. "It's probably weakest here," she declares, and tosses aside some of the larger pieces comprising the barrier. The larger pieces seem to anchor sizable chunks of wall, and it's comparitively easy work to start clearing a low path that we might be able to crawl through.

The vixen spends long moments considering the situation ahead of them. "This is the second stormwall we've dealt with this season." She complains to the others, shaking her head and lashing her tails about. Still, Goldenblade identifies a weakpoint that just needs a bit of... extra work to help get them through, and she waves to catch the woman's attention. "Step aside a moment, Goldenblade? I think I have a more... effective method of exploiting that."

That 'more effective' method is an Arte, of course. "Oh Bull of the Heavens, I beseech thee! In this time I need I make my plea! With the ancient gods' might, raise, raise the land to the heights!" It manifests as a pair of spectral bull's horns, as Taurus' imagery strikes the ground and then throws its 'head' - heaving up stone to clear the way, and help shield the noted path.

"... After you." Estelle says in the wake of it, motioning ahead the sturdier sorts.

Kauchemar arrives at the edge of the wind barrier without much difficulty, and is already staring up at it while waiting for the others to catch up. "I did not expect that Reap the Whirlwind remark to come so true," she admits. Then shrugs. "No point in stopping now.". And leaps into the storm wall. She jumps from debris to debris a few times.... And then gets knocked off a chunk of floating land as something slams into her.

Something big, white and black and that can be heard wailing "Mooooooooo" as it swirls away in the winds again.

Kauchemar hits the ground fairly hard and groans. "Ugh, I got run down by a cowlamitous reference..."

"Woah." Mikage stares at the wall of debris, reminded somewhat of the wall of wind from the Kirin. This is different, though, more chaotic, it seems.

"Right... let me see if I can help move some of this out of the way." She channels some earth magic into her sword, then stabs it into the ground, some rocks rearing up to push some of the debris out of the way.

"There they are!" Their guide calls out, motioning at a group of air elementals who seem to be made out of shifting storms. "I can't help you here, but I'm sure you can handle it." He ducks behind some of the more solid debris, leaving the fighting to them.

Goldenblade will step aside as Estelle has found a more efficient way to clear debris. This is fine with her. As soon as a navigable path inside is cleared, she'll head through and see what there is to see. What there turns out to be, it seems, are some sort of wind elementals. "Bugger," she sighs, and she draws her swords. Blazing flames leap up from the crossguard of each, wreathing both blades in flames, and she dashes into the attack.

So, swords by themselves, not great against air elementals. Temperatures hot enough to melt iron, ... turns out to be pretty effective. She lays in with blazing swordstrokes, hacking at each one, the blades blurring as she strikes in a flurry, their HP sinking a bit further with each savage strike.

There's a wrinkle of Estelle's nose as she sees the mass of Elementals within. "Oh well. At least that means there will be more shards to gather afterwards..." Her tone is musing, even as she raises her parasol, head tipping backwards as if to look to the stars. Nevermind the umbrella in the way, or the clouds above, or the time.

"Scutum, shield of the skies, I bear you now to protect my allies. A bulwark of stellar might, to guard in the darkest night." She chants softly, invoking her Arte - and wrapping them all (even the Lander) in a veil of protective starlight, warding off the blows physical and magical from the elementals. Then she steps back, keeping to the edges of the fight, and lashes out with arrows of stellar light - a simply, quickly invoked "Sagitta strike hard and true." accompanying quick, sharp gestures of her free hand to launch them.

Kauchemar got up and dusted herself off. "At least I landed inside the barrier." Once she's back in order she turns her attention to where the old Spriggan is indicating. "Just like you said, a bunch of windbags with their heads in the clouds."

Her tail flicks as the nightmare angles back a leg to brace herself. "You might want to cover your ears old man," is the only warning she gives. The others have likely been around her enough to know what's going to come.

Kauchemar opens her mouth inhumanly wide and unleashes one of her arcanely amplified auditory assaults. The Nightmare Bard's powerful voice produces such intense sonic waves that they vibrate the particles in the very air itself.

Meaning not even elementals made of wind and fog are safe from the dastardly disruptive dirge that is Dark Resonance!

Goldenblade lays into the elementals with mightily blazing swordstrokes. Estelle protects us from their counterattacks with the blessings of the heavens. The Nightmare's voice rises above it all, her voice pounding into the elementals, making them flicker and fade, while Mikage drills them with precisely shot arrows that deliver more than might seem possibe from ordinary arrows. The combined assault causes first one elemental, the the next to fade into a zephyr, then swirl into nothingness.

The Lander comes out from where he'd taken cover, grunning widely. Where the elementals had fallen, there lies a series of small shards which he begins to collect. "These will be very useful to the Mage's Tower."

Once he has gathered them up, he makes his way over, offering one out to each of the Adventurers. "Thank you all for your help. I couldn't have done this without you."

He seems to avoid any questions on what the shards might be used for, simply offering them all a grin before he heads off into the night with his bounty of shards.

"... Hm." Estelle turns over the tingling, vibrating shard in her fingers, studying it closely for long moments. Then she tucks it away, and gives a self-satisfied swish of her tails. "Well! It was lovely working with you all again. There were a couple rough spots, but everything turned out well in the end." She gives a little twirl of her parasol, drops of water spreading around her. "Though, I'm rather curious as to what the Mage Tower does with all of the elemental material it gathers, during this season. The talisman from the Kirin, all these lesser shards..."

Kauchemar accepts the shard from the old man. Squints at it, but she's not as strong in Air as she is Water. "Probably will never know for certain my dear fox."

Goldenblade can only shrug to Estelle's question, herself. But she's generally clueless, so perhaps that's not so remarkable as all that. "Still, it's worked out all right, yes!" she says, agreeing with the Astrologian, her tone pleased. "Shame he weather's so awful," she laments, the weather growing a bit less nasty, though not letting up much.