Gansu's eyes flicked from Abi, to Jakunta, to Aleks and then back through them again and he frowned. "Alright, what's wrong? You're smiling at me like you're putting on a show as her alter ego, Griz is making a grim face even grimmier than normal, and D-eye is staring you like he stares at Coalition targets. So what's wrong? What happened?" He looked back and forth between the three of them, hands tapping along his thighs. "Cause I'd normally chalk this all up to post battle stress, but its been a bit too long for that to not have left your system by now." He strode past the three Sarvonians and scooped up the fallen glass, examining it. "But, this is the kind of thing you make after you've already recovered from that stress, plus the odds of you being suprised by me suddenly yelling is slim to none given that my sudden yelling is a staple of our crew, so that's clearly not the reason." He put the glass with the disgusting mixture back on the counter.
"From where I'm standing everything is hunky dory. We're about to go back on leave, we've pushed the Coalies back, and we successfully saved the princess! That's a medal for any other group of soldiers, but just another day on the job for us! A fairly successful day, nonethless, but a normal day on the job for the 7th." Gansu crossed his arms, making his way back over to the front of the three Sarvonians. "So, why are you three acting like we're three miles behind enemy lines, out of our MAS, with a squad of Fenrir's hunting us? Everything whould be golden and shiny for us, and you're all acting like we just found out that we've just been ordered to charge the Coalitions capital adn die in a useless suicide charge for propaganda because we pissed off the wrong royal."
Faeril has thrown a knife to Raddek and is trying to rouse the rest of the group, because there's a monster attacking and he feels that deserves more attention than it currently has!
Faeril woke up to the crashing with a start and was immediately on his feet, long knife out and pointed towards the door. He'd made sure to keep his knife under his pillow and his crossbow nearby, paranoid from killing the boy. He'd done his business in the marketplace as quickly as possible, selling the basic crossbow he had had and turning the coins from that into clothing that wasn't filthy, a sturdy pair of boots, and a sturdy cloak. All of those things would be needed for if they went back out into the wilderness, and even if they didn't it was better to have clothes that didn't look like something a bandit would wear. Throughout all of the transactions, Reyvadin's included, he found himself looking over his shoulder. He kept expecting guards, thugs, or something else to show up looking for the boy. Or, worse, looking for whomeer had killed him. He wasted no time leading the way back to the Ubrico Soldati at a rapid pace.
Faeril couldn't shake the feeling that there was something else going on with the job. It looked like a simple job on the surface, but something about it made him nervous. He'd learned to trust his instincts long ago. So he made sure that he had a weapon that he could use immediately and that his crossbow was on hand, just in case something followed him back to the inn and wanted to seek revenge or justice or whatever for killing the boy. That was the first thought that went through his head as he followed Raddek through the door, similarly dressed in only his trousers. That he had been followed and the assassins had mistaken which room he was sleeping in.
The monster that he saw, being pummeled by both Beren and Raddek, was certainly not what he had been expecting. At seeing the grotesque thing, Faeril felt his bile rising and forced it down with some effort. Prayers to Morimando and Hildegur ran through his head, for surely it was a corrupted spirit that needed to be laid to rest. Shaking himself out of his disgust and his stupor, Faeril looked at the cramped quarters with the two humans fighting the monster, and then at his knife. He wouldn't do anything but get in the way at this point. "Raddek! Stab the fucking thing!" He yelled at the human, tossing the knife to him as soon as Raddek was paying attention. He ran back into their room and grabbed the crossbow and a quiver of bolts. He back up towards Lorcan and Reyvadin's room, slamming his fist on the door. "Reyvadin! Lorcan! Get up! We've got trouble!" Turning his head to the side, carefully keeping the fight in his peripheral, he yelled at their burrahob companion. "Migi! Get up! There's trouble!"
Hopefully they were just sleeping, and hadn't already been murdered by whatever this thing was. Faeril moved forward again, muttering prayers to Morimando and Hildegur, aiming his crossbow at the monstrosity. He fired and cursed as he saw it miss. The darkness and moving shapes didn't do him any favors, and he could only hope that while he missed the monster he hadn't hit one of the two humans trying ot kill it instead.
Ok everyone! I hope you enjoyed the update. You will have until the 23rd to respond.
All of the women (Jaina, Emmaline, and Migi) are awakened if they weren't already. The men need to roll perception if they were asleep, or intuition if they were awake, to see if they notice any of the ruckus. You can also roll intuition and be told if it's even a good idea to go out into the hall (which is why I recommend rolling on anything. Feel free to do more than charm and perception!)
Imagine not sleeping with a weapon right next to you at all times. For shame Raddek, for shame!
The thrumming power in her head, a voice that did not speak and had no words. And yet she began to listen. A purpose revealed through the chance of the opposition, revelation by the negation of all else. Her thoughts were easy to hear and know, but this sense, this thrumming was not.
She fled from its strength and sought refuge in its weakness, she probed and screamed and fought for meaning within it, and yet she could drive non out by force alone.
But when she gazed with sighted senses on the wet rock that enthralled her peers, the spot where she had found she had to flee to weaken the thrumming pounding sense in her mind and essence- at that moment did she tease out an idea from the sense. Cracking the shell or squeezing out that vital little idea by taking sense of the world, and it came forth when things aligned.
Yoliyachicoztl dived towards the mass of energy being so guided by the earthen giant, coming apart from her wanderings towards the wet rock she could see movement and actions brimming clear as she would soon grow close to that world…
Voligan nodded in thanks to the goddess of luck and the god of fortitude as they came and went, lending him their power. The mass of energy grew with each piece of divine power that entered it. It was a swirling mass of energy, straining against his control and eager to be released upon Galbar. “I thank you, brother and sister, for your assistance.” He rumbled, patiently waiting for the next gods to arrive. The next to catch the large earth god’s attention was the god of knowledge, making his decrees much in the same way Voligan himself had. Epsilon, he called himself, and in his hands he held a codex that many gods would come to and write the fabric of the world into. Voligan made a note to add his own mark upon the book, but later. Right now he could not risk the energy being released recklessly upon the world. “I will join you soon, Epsilon. The canvas must be painted first.”
A god of souls came and went without so much as a word to anyone aside from their father. Rude, certainly, but Voligan could understand the sense of urgency. Not that he was doing much with that sense of urgency, but maybe he was merely looking for a suitable place to do so. The goddess of mana, Aethel, and the god of wine both seemed exhausting. Filled with energy and a need to move recklessly. Voligan wished that they would move with more consideration, but knew a lost cause when he saw one. His attention turned to the goddess of the hunt, as she created the first life in the universe. It was a bold move, after she added to Epsilon’s codex. Creating things in the Monarch’s domain when he had explicitly said that only Galbar was to be shaped was courageous. And, perhaps, foolish.
He would watch carefully to see how their father reacted. That would tell him much about their creator and monarch. Darkness was the next to arrive, preferring to address their father than to interact with the world below. A worthy cause, especially since the Monarch would be ruling over them. Another god was born, and the goddess of revelry was just as exhausting as mana and wine. Cartwheeling through the cosmos without so much as a care in the world. The god of industry landed with a more violent explosion than even Voligan’s own arrival, and already began polluting the ocean. The goddess of water would not like that. Not at all.
Right as he was thinking that, salt made her appearance. With an even bigger explosion than industry before her, she made her mark upon the world. Salt spread about through the crust of Galbar, and the water from her crash froze in the atmosphere above the planet. As unnecessarily explosive as the whole event was, Voligan had to admit that she was at least doing more than most of their siblings for the creation of their canvas. Most seemed content to wait until he and the others had made something for them.
With a sudden and wordless arrival, catching Voligan by surprise, the god of planning unleashed raw divine energy upon the energy in Voligan’s hands. Far more than previously added, it threatened to spill out of Voligan’s control and spread chaotically across the planet creating things at random and with only the personality of the god who had created the divine energy to dictate what the power would do. Well, most of the energy given. Voligan could already sense that the power that the god of planning had given would form a very specific landmass, no matter who was guiding it. The plan was set, and it would not be deviated from.
The cosmos above him shook with unbridled, wild, power. The goddess of the dance was beginning to lose control, and all of reality was threatened. Before Voligan could, regretfully, use the gathered power to hopefully counteract the destruction of everything the Monarch stepped in and brought order to the chaos. The fever was brought under control by bangles (chains would be a more accurate word), no thanks to doom and prescience. Doom fled like a coward from the problem, hiding his fear behind his arrogance. Prescience attempted to blame, rather than help. Foolish and unhelpful. Both traits that were not suited for gods.
The next series of events happened so rapidly that even Voligan struggled to keep up. Wine smeared and scribbled across the codex, ruining parts of it no doubt. Doom and Prescience returned again, fighting with one another like scavengers rather than divinely ordained creators as they wrote in the codex. All of that paled as destruction made her appearance. As Voligan looked up, Ruina decreed that she would test the ocean. She gathered her destructive might, creating a massive sphere of energy and sending it plummeting towards Galbar. It split at the last second, before rocking the world with explosions. Voligan had to hunch over the energy he had gathered and wait out the torrential rain and waves that swept across the world. When it had finally subsided, he looked up at Ruina’s retreating form. “If your tests only ever amount to seeing if you can break whatever has caught your eye, you will find little friends in this world, Bringer of Destruction.”
His attention snapped to Aethel as they made their own proclamation, and he let out a sigh that sounded like thunder. It was getting a little tiring having all of his siblings decide to violently make their mark upon the world rather than working together. Aethel was no different as they stole mana from the palace itself (another bold move whose consequences would need to be watched) and created a tree at the top of the planet. With an explosion, of course. That seemed to be the theme of their family. Mark your actions with an explosion. At the very least they had made something. That was more than can be said about the majority of the other gods at this point. The tree was massive, and filled the world with mana. That was useful. Even the materials that had been thrown into the world had mana in them and could be used for something else. It was a start.
As things finally settled down, Voligan became aware of two of his siblings approaching him at great speeds. Salt and heat were on their way.
Twisting and turning around the form most would consider gargantuan, a serpent of heat danced far and close. She came nigh recklessly before settling into a varied orbit around the massive god, her form bringing more than simple warmth to the surroundings.
Words came from her in a flickering distracted way, her voice smooth and deep even as it kept her feminine tone, “Its almost peaceful now, without such pounding. It is right-wrong but more right than wrong. Colors and paint, more sculpture than canvas. Do you not think in similar shapes?”
Whatever Voligan might have spoken in answer to the curious question was cut off by the ocean around him beginning to churn and roil. Steam began to rise and the water around the vast form of the Earth God turned briny. Salt crystals began to grow on the vast beings' submerged limbs and thus heralded the Goddess of Salt rose from the waves as a flurry of gaseous salts clinging to and swirling around a figure that seemed to crumble with every movement she made.
With a voice like cracking crystal, tempered by the rushing of the water, she spoke her greeting, “Lord of Earth, Lady of Heat. I am the Goddess Sala, and it appears I find myself in splendid company, though perhaps less of it than I’d hoped. Have none of our peers answered the call in person?”
The crystal figure crumbled and regrew as she turned her head to regard Voligan, the God holding back the vast energies of creation granted to him. Sala amended her statement after a moment's consideration, speaking brightly, “But if they have chosen to endow the Lord of Earth with their power, I cannot help but see their wisdom. None could shape this greatest sculpture, as the Lady of Heat speaks of it, better than he. Surely.”
Yoliyachicoztl broke in fast after she had finished speaking, as if a dam had burst the words flowed, “You, a crystal beauty so speaks truth as my mind shapes it. The peers are with little matter for instance of now.”
Her head shook even as the air ignited around it, she turned back upon herself switching the direction of her orbit around the great form of Voligan. She continued louder, “Changing creation is no easy path and now we must set forth upon one," She turned upwards approaching the head of Voligan's titanic form as if inspecting it before diving back down to orbit around again. “That head is solid, as are good thoughts coming forth I can feel it. I am Yoliyachicoztl, I give my name's sound to you both. A gift for one's might and focus, and for the other's beauty and wisdom.”
Voligan finally responded, his rumbling voice seeming to creep and crawl compared to the rapid pace of Yoliyachicoztl. “To answer your first question, Yoliyachicoztl, a sculpture is more literal but canvas more apt. Not all of our siblings are going to be physically shaping Galbar, as you can see from their lack of involvement.” He nodded in appreciation of Sala’s compliments, continuing. “No, many of our siblings deigned not to be involved. Some preferring knowledge, others to squabble, and still others to test our Father’s patience. No matter, enough of them have come to my aid that we can still continue with our great purpose. I thank you for your presence, and your gifts, but I must get started with our great creation. I sense the others are getting impatient, though why they are waiting is a mystery to me.”
With a roar the fiery serpent dove away from Voligan into the sea, and then back steaming she face the vortex of divine energies, breathing out flame and pure heat that mixed and melded with the careful plans and careless sharing of the energies.
Lazily now she floated near Sala speaking, “A peaceful sense restored, the thrumming ceases…”
Evidently she was satisfied by her last minute addition. Likewise, it drew the eye of Sala. The Goddess of Salt’s features weren’t easily distinguished behind the whirlwind of vapourized material surrounding her, but none could miss how she leaned forward to eye Yoliyachicoztl’s addition. That, and the great agglomeration of energy that Voligan wielded itself. Fascinated, the crystalline figure within her cloud crumbled and regrew in a mockery of motion as she swayed, ever seeking an angle to regard the energy more clearly from. It was only when the task seemed to escape her that Sala spoke confidently, “Present or not, I do think they'll remember this forever.”
The Goddess extended a fracturing hand and from it grew a crystal of a thousand salts. With the barest movement of her wrist it broke free, gleefully flying forward. A thing of more colours than there were words sought out the vortex and shattered to dust at its very precipice; the lurid cloud spreading out like a fog on water, encircling the energy. Salts orbited the vast singularity of power, both bound to it and endowed with final creative purpose, but ever separate and sovereign. Even if just. Sala lowered her arm and addressed her company, “My great friends, shall we begin?”
Voligan pushed the massive power of divine energy down into the waters. The intense heat from Yoliyachicotzl’s power caused the ocean to hiss, bubble, and evaporate as the earth god moved the power downwards. When Voligan finally reached the earth of Galbar, he paused and gathered his strength. Then with a purposeful shove, he forced the combined might of six gods into the planet.
Immediately cracks spread along the surface of the world, glowing multiple colors that shifted rapidly and chaotically. The cracks spread out with purpose and clarity, driven along by Voligan’s sheer force of will. They formed two large continental shapes, straight and organized. With a crack louder than Ruina’s explosions and a rumble louder than Voligan’s voice, the continents began to rise. They burst through the ocean as Voligan imagined, straight and sheer, a perfect place for life As they rose, the power of luck coursed through them. Their edges and topography changed from the straight and organized to random and unpredictable. Some lands were blessed with strong foundations, good soil for growing, or other lucky features. Others were cursed with sinkholes, fault lines, barren soils, or other misfortunes. Lakes and minor rivers were formed as land opened up to allow the sea in, and then rapidly closed in a random twist of fate. Luck split off bits of Voligans powers to form islands around the world. As the power of luck ran out, the power of fortitude spread through the lands. Natural harbors against the wrath of the sea were formed, and solitary mountains filled with natural caves for shelter rose into the sky.
The power of Shen Zhi Shu went forward without hesitation or wavering. Exactly as planned, a third continent rose and formed as the dragon god envisioned and was ready to be utilized as he, or other gods watching, saw fit.
Next, the power of heat radiated through the continents and Galbar’s crust. Dull red lines glowed as they spread throughout the world, forming magma tunnels. Occasionally they trailed up a mountain and filled it with the power and fury of fire, creating volcanoes around the world.
As with everything, the presence of salt would not be denied. Salt bubbled up from the mantle into several lakes, turning them from their natural water into even more salinated water than the ocean itself. In some volcanoes, the liquid salt was caught up in the rapidly moving magma and formed volcanoes that spewed not lava, but molten salt.
And there, at the center of the left continent, a power that answered to Sala’s will alone made its mark. Salts, stranger and more beautiful than any before seen, grew in the depths of Galbar and found a way to escape. They hungrily devoured, poisoned and eroded the dirt above them until all that was left was a desert of toxic and endless salts. It expanded for miles, from coast to coast. Studded with shimmering crystal towers and embossed with basins of salts in brilliant green, purple, and red hues the desert was a great beauty upon the world. Or perhaps a blight, depending on your views.
-Voligan watches all of the gods and the happenings while waiting for his Might Vigor. Grumbles about so many people exploding things as they arrive.
-Sala shows up at some point and says nice things, calls everyone lord or lady. She wonders where everybody is.
-They chat and finally get the introductions out of the way
-Voligan, after gaining some more vigor from Yoliyachicoztl and Sala gets to making the continents
-The continents are made, with each power from each god adding something unique to their creation
Voligan: 1 Vigor, combined with 1 vigor from Ashevelen, and 2 vigor from Aletheseus to form two continents and give them very broad features. Natural harbors, a few mountains with caves suitable for sheltering life, sinkholes, islands, some lakes and rivers, etc etc. Combined with another 4 Vigor from Shen Zhi Shu to create his continent, and connect it to the nearest continent.
Yoliyachicotzl: Four vigor to make some of the mountains volcanoes and create magma tunnels by melting the rock as her power coursed through the planet.
Sala: 2 vigour spent to turn some of the lakes into salt lakes, some of the volcanoes into saltcanoes, and create her toxic salt desert of death.
Faeril took the five coins and pocketed them, looking around again. Nothing seemed amiss, and money was money. They were in no position to turn down something this easy. “You’ve got a place in mind for this? I’ll make it quick, but killing you in the middle of a market isn’t going to do me any good. No matter how much money you pay, I can’t spend it if the guards have arrested me or worse.” Faeril looked around to make sure there weren't any guards in the area, and to see if they were being watched by anyone. They needed to move without looking suspicious to the guards and the normal citizens. The kid might not care what happens after his death, but Faeril certainly did.
The child nodded dejectedly, clearly having lost all hope yet still unhappy about his situation. He looked about, and Faeril would be able to tell he was nervous. Hard to blame him, considering. He waved the dwarf to follow him down the street a few dozen paces to the east, past the furthest fruit vendor where the more expensive, non-aristocratic housing was located. There was a three way alley, obstructed by various used carts and merchandise men had not used in days. Clearly this was the sparsely used storage area.
Faeril looked around once more, his paranoia making him triple check the situation. It looked clear of anything that could cause problems. Empty area that no one used too much, if at all. Good choice for a killing. The kid had obviously put some thought into it. Faeril looked around and found a cart that looked like it had been untouched for the past few days, and a tarp haphazardly thrown over another cart. Those would both be useful.
He gestured over for the child to stand behind it, facing the wall. As the boy did so, Faeril grabbed the tarp and pulled it over there with him. It wouldn’t stop the smell from getting out once the body had been left long enough, but it would delay the discovery at least for a day. Provided no one went around investigating things they shouldn’t, of course.
Faeril got into position behind him, crossbow out. “Just pray to whatever god you want to kid, it’ll be over soon.” As he spoke he loaded the crossbow and took careful aim. Faeril murmured a prayer to Gaerim as he aimed at the center of the boy's head. Quick and clean. The boy paid for that much, and if he was sacrificing himself for his brother that was worthy of a prayer to Gaerim. Faeril didn’t know why the boy didn’t just exile himself to the north, or save his brother the five royals and kill himself. But Faeril hadn’t been paid to ask those questions, so he pulled the trigger. A quick hiss and a quiet thud later, and it was over. Faeril took a few crates and stacked them around the body before covering it with the tarp. The crossbow bolt could stay. Not like he wouldn’t be able to buy more with the money he just received.
Putting up his crossbow, Faeril left the alleyway a different way than he had come before working his way back to the marketplace. He still needed to buy new clothes and sell the bandit’s crossbow after all, and it just got a lot easier to do that.
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Auz
Lord Zee