Fantasy Mountain Magic Mayhem (Luc/Sazz)

[St. Clover]

Anshelical

Milianor frowned, eyeing the floating box in front of her. Arcane energy swirled around it, shifting and churning in a colorful cascade of infinite potential, drawn from the four torches sat around her on the mountain's peak. High above the clouds rumbled and flashed, lightning streaking across the sky in great arcs, illuminating the gloomy midday air. Wind howled and blew against the trees down the pathway, filling the area with the creaking of a hundred flexing wooden bodies. To many, this environment would have been one to avoid. Not to Milianor, though. To her, it was perfect.

"Come on, you stupid thing!" she groused, shifting in place where she sat on the old stone platform. "We're right in the middle of a storm! What else do you need?! A tornado?!"

Sat out in the middle of an ancient ritual site, a place of power, Milianor attempted once more to enact the spell needed to awaken the phylactery before her. Beyond it she could make out the great mountain range ahead of them, and the forest below. Nothing but miles and miles of it. If the ancients could've picked a more isolated place to harness the power of nature, she couldn't imagine how much worse it could be.

Behind her the satchel she had laid out shifted and rumbled, threatened to be blown away by the wind, and down the long stony path she'd taken to get there.

 

[Anshelical]

That long and windy path was still an attraction for a band of human travelers, that of the self-renown "Travelers of Huujar." Carrying their rusted canisters of water, their torch holders and wax containers, hauling up those endless canvases, too, each of the four-member group conversed on the history of their walking scene. One of them nudged into the thin figure, causing the latter to drop his already worn satchel as the shoulder strap ripped.

"Heh, sorry," the traveler said.

"We're in the mountains. You really want me to lose all this stuff here?" The thin hands snatched up the bag and slung it across his back. "It's far enough broken."

That particular fellow is Liernoine of Huujar, a self-proclaimed veteran of knighthood to the Governor of Huujar, his long-forgotten friend from childhood. Liernoine brushed his knotty curls back, feeling the chills of the steepened elevation, but was more so curious in the activity toward the the range's innards.

"You see all that wind?" He said. "We're getting closer."

 

[St. Clover]

As if to punctuate the man's remark, a crack of thunder roared out from the clouds above. The winds intensified for the briefest of moments, before returning to their former gusty selves. The storm continued to churn itself as more and more winds blew in from the far edges of the mountain range. Trees, far below, were blown about like matchsticks. Some even went as far as to snap in half. Rain would be following anytime now. It was only a matter of time, one only needed smell the air and feel the coolness approaching.

This was also felt by the dragonborn sat upon the platform still. She frowned and wrinkled her snout in frustration. "Of all the times..." she growled, reaching down into her coat pocket. Palming around, she brushed the holstered sidearm in the secret pocket aside and grabbed her desired prize.

Withdrawing her hand she produced a small vial of clear blue fluid, which she opened and promptly downed. She nearly lost her lunch from the sickening taste of the magical elixir, but knew it had to be done. Her own magic simply didn't appear to be enough to finish this ritual, not by itself.

 

[Anshelical]

"Getting closer alright," another traveler said. "More like too close." No, it was just the cue of the lightning that scared Iso of Huujar.

"Well, we've been turning back all this time," Liernoine said. "Wanna turn back again and be another day behind?" No objections. The travelers threw on their raincoats, strapping down the wrists so they wouldn't blow like those weak trees down below. Iso sure was scared now, feeling the chilling invitation as they trudged forward, the trail elevation getting steeper.

"Can we at least wait until this storm's over?" Iso said.

"Well, leader?" Liernoine hinted to the quiet, muscly one strolling in the back.

"I would have had you all split ways. But clearly there's a torrent storm coming. So."

"So what? We've got to make a decision."

"We already did. We don't want to turn back. The site's just around that ridge." Leader Vine glanced to Ino shake his head. "It is."

"You're saying flying trees and a nicely timed lightning strike isn't suspicious -- and I hear a lot about this magical place."

"It's like you forgot that you have a wizard, a knight, and a blood-born traveler on your side," Liernoine said. "You don't have to worry."

"Your wizard skills aren't even up to par. I mean, you already let someone fall to their d--"

"Let's continue in silence," Leader Vine said. "The less complaining we do, the more we'll enjoy our reward." And thus, the travelers left glares into each other before turning their way again, being quite cautious of the storming landscape and choosing the right steps. Liernoine knew he made mistakes in the past with his self-claimed whatever, but as long as he could become the jack-of-all-trades, then he could redeem his reputation.

 

[St. Clover]

Like a deity revealing its wrath to the world, the storm above continued to rage on as the travelers made their way to the ancient site of mystical power. Lightning flashed and thunder roared even more frequently as they ascended. The trees howled and creaked, some breaking while others endured and bent here and there. The storm only seemed to grow in power as they continued on, drawing closer and closer to their destination.

Milianor could feel it. Both the churning in her belly and the tingling sensation on her scales told her that the ritual was now back on track. Her own magic wasn't enough to channel the powers needed for it, but augmented by the potion, she knew it would suffice. It would have to, as her own power wasn't even comparable to that of a true mage. She grunted, clenching her eyes closed, and cursed the fact her growth was stunted once more.

Before her the phylactery began to chime and sing a melody of reeds.

 

[Anshelical]

Iso clenched to his satchel, praying to himself as he winced to every one of nature's imminent threat. Leader Vine observed the region about with a glint of greed in his eye, catching sight of the ritual site.

"There it is. See it?" He said.

"Yeah!" Liernoine bent forward to charge, but then Erro, the final traveler of the group, took his wrist. "What's wrong?"

"Don't run down like that. It's too dangerous."

Iso looked up to the reptilian creature ahead. "Ngh?! What is tha--?"

"What do you mean, 'What is that?'" Liernoine snatched from Erro's grasp. "Have we not heard stories of these creatures? We're finally going to meet one!"

"I bet that's the one making everything here go south," Vine watched a tree swivel in the air.

"And the point is, let's go south to talk to it. And then we'll worry about if it's 'dangerous' or not." Liernoine's excitement blinded him from all the surrounding threats, including the eroding rocks thereon, as he hasted down. A flying rock barely missed them above.

"Please spare us," Iso prayed again.

 

[St. Clover]

Twitching at the unfamiliar feeling of so much magic flowing around her, Milianor clenched her jaw and focused on directing the element's power into the phylactery. Even closed eyes couldn't hide the brilliant light of the device. Her scales were electrified at this point, every nerve ending firing and tingling, leaving her entire body barely able to handle the sensations assaulting it. One thing she'd always prided herself on was her ability to channel great amounts of magic, even if her own ability to generate it were limited.

"Just a bit more..." she whispered to herself above a crack of thunder that screamed out above the mountaintop.

Forcing herself to direct the flow around her with even greater efficiency, the dragonborn tensed every muscle in her body, exerting physical strain alongside the metaphysical force. Just a bit more...

 

[Anshelical]

The travelers were heading down the shaky rocks, eyeing the phylactery ahead. Their light chatter ended with that clap of thunder, scaring Iso enough to bump into Liernoine, who bumped forward onto a rock that slipped to his toes.

"Whua!" Liernoine fell.

"Lier!" Leader Vine tried to grab Liernoine's hand, but then he ended up slipping on his own rock, too. "Tchn!"

Iso stood at the back on a safe rock when Erro chose between the lesser two evils, or so he thought, taking Vine by the shoulder to pull him back onto his stable rock. Liernoine rolled down the mountain, grunting with each thud as he tried to grab his dagger that fell out of his spilling satchel above. His hands couldn't stop the speed, his vision couldn't focus as he tumbled with the objects about. Before he knew it, his body fell faint as he left a bloody trail behind.

The three of the other travelers stood above, staring down at Liernoine. And, as they always did, they argued on whose fault it was and whose responsibility it was to go get Liernoine. Iso lead the way.

 

[St. Clover]

Ear fin twitching at the unexpected sound, Milianor frowned and tilted her head to the side. What was that? No one else was supposed to be up here. Not somewhere this isolated, in the middle of a storm, no less. She strained to hear anything concrete above the rush of the wind and the thumping of her own heart in her ears. It was just there, at the edge of her perception, but sure enough she heard something. Or rather someone. It was someone yelling. Someone yelling and their voice was receding, and quickly at that.

"What the hell?" she said, opening an eye to look over her shoulder at whoever had been making the noise.

To her surprise it wasn't just a someone, it was multiple someones. A whole group from the look of it. And in no time she spotted the source of the shouting, a man falling down the side of the trail.

"Son of a bitch!"

Ritual continuity be damned, Milianor sprung to her feet and broke off into a sprint towards the men, leaving the phylactery to fall down onto the ground. The power flowing through it flew out of control and promptly achieved critical existence failure. A loud thump sounded out across the mountaintop as the entire ritual site went up in flames and sparks.

 

[Anshelical]

"Tyaaa!" Iso shrieked, seeing the reptilian creature approach as he hid behind Vine. Vine demanded him to continue the path, but Iso was so scared even of the exploding scene. "We're gonna die! I knew it! We should had turned back!"

Erro stared down at Liernoine's figure in an abused curl, gashes upon him with some of his daggers and journals sprawled about him. And Vine pointed in Iso's face. "We're not going to die. Or I'm not." He lead the way down the firing path for Erro as Iso stood behind.

"I'll j-just wait here," he said. "No point in all of us dying without a testimony to the city." But he backed instead.

Vine shook his head, seeing the ritual destroyed. "He ruined it. Now we can't see what it was going to do."

"She," Erro said. "It looks more female than not."

"He, she, it, we," Vine muttered. "Hey!" They proceeded with caution as the spoken waved. "He's with us!"

 

[St. Clover]

"Yeah, I can see that!" Milianor shouted back as she approached the group, slowing down from her breakneck pace to a reasonably mannered jog. "Is he okay? Heard him shouting over the wind! Didn't sound good, either!" she added, glancing down towards the man to try and assess his condition as best she could. She wasn't a trained medic by any means, but she knew enough to tell a dead man from a 'beaten the shit out of' one when she saw it. On the job experience, like any good adventurer.

 

[Anshelical]

The wounds upon Liernoine were on his most extreme areas: his hands, his legs, his forehead. However, since the trail's gradual steepness and light weathering over time was quite forgiving, Liernoine's unconsciousness was the greater area of concern after a rock's blow to his spine. He lied unresponsive, yet breathing still with a shaky gasp.

"I'm asking that myself," Vine said. "Just kinda slipped and fell." A flash of a previous travel member who fell off a cliff clouded his mind, dwelling on the moment right after when Liernoine masked an unexpressive gaze to the destination ahead as though nothing occurred. "Knew it was too dangerous here." He glanced back at Erro who crossed his arms, then observed the scales upon Milianor. "You looked kinda busy up there." We need to get to that site now. He thought.

 

[St. Clover]

Milianor cast a glance back at the ritual site, ear fins drooping at the sight of the smoke rising from it. "Yeah..." she started slowly, before shaking her head. "No, not important right now. Can deal with that later, right now your friend needs help. Any of you got some rope with you?" she asked.

Her mind already worked to figure a way to get down to the man, preferably without injuring him further. Another glance told her she'd need to move him with care, more than she could probably provide and get them back up the hillside with just one rope... If they had any at all. Contingency plans were not her strongsuit.

 

[Anshelical]

Vine pulled his satchel forward and felt around for his rope's frayed surface. "Yeah, right here." He lent the rope over as Erro said, "Man, what a pity. We're sorry, madam."

Iso fiddled his fingers at an upper part of the mountain, staring down to the situation with a blame to himself. Liernoine didn't deserve Erro's rejection like that. But, then again, did he?

 

[St. Clover]

"We can cry over spilled milk later, right now I need you to find someplace stable and secure this thing," Milianor responded while taking the rope.

She unwound a length of the rope and wrapped it around one of her thighs, before going about the process of creating an impromptu harness for her impending journey. For once, she thanked her dad for taking her away from all her pulps and games as a kid. This stuff really did come in handy when you least expected it.

"Once I get down there I'm going to try and get him secured, then I might need some help getting back up. I'm strong, but I'm no orc, okay?"

 

[Anshelical]

"Affirmative," Vine saluted and then pointed back to Iso's direction. "Go get that around a hook or something." He watched Erro take the other end of the rope and take his gradual climb up the rocks, until he found that nicely solid and sharp edge to wrap the rope and suspend with another. Vine turned back to Milianor. "I'll help pull up. He's not the heaviest, so my other guy can stay up there and watch."

 

[St. Clover]

Milianor nodded. "Just be sure you can help pull the both of us. Shouldn't need much extra muscle, but I'd rather not have to go after two people," she half joked, looking down to the rope now firmly secured to her legs. She gave it a cautionary tug before shuffling over to the edge of the slope.

"I'll give the signal when I'm ready. In case anything goes wrong, don't try and be a hero. That's my job."

She grinned, then proceeded to begin her slow descent down the slope towards the man, not bothering to wait for a response.

 

[Anshelical]

"Haha, got it," Vine chuckled, watching the descent.

"I-Is she helping us?" Iso said to Erro up higher.

"What does it look like?"

"She... she could be trying to hook us so she can eat us."

"Just stay up there and don't say anything else. You're in the right spot. Just need to be quiet now." He felt through his hair as his eyes were on Leirnoine down below. Iso fluttered his eyes, watching the "monster" helping them.

 

[St. Clover]

One foot behind the next. Left, right, left, right. Just keep your eyes focused on the task and hand... And not the potentially, absolutely lethal fall waiting to happen. Milianor trembled ever so slightly as she moved her way down towards the man, finding the task of keeping her mind clear more difficult than she imagined. She bit her lip and moved a bit quicker, taking care to ensure her boots were always someplace she trusted. "Damn it, damn it, damn it..." she swore on the way down.

Almost a full minute later she touched down beside the fallen Leirnoine, probing the ground with a claw to test its stability. Satisfied as best she could be, the dragonborn eased more of her weight down onto the slope. Kneeling down beside the man, she took a moment to paw him over, looking for any previously unseen injuries.

"Hey, you with me?" she asked during the examination, prodding his cheek with the backside of a claw for good measure.

 

[Anshelical]

Liernoine's dusty, wrinkled, scarred face was a collection of this bath-less expeditions, including the new scars-to-be about his cheek and forehead. He lied flat, breathing slow, steady breaths through his open mouth.

Iso's hand clenched the leather handle of his satchel. "He shouldn't be helped."

"That's cold," Erro said. "Good thing you weren't down there."

"Erro, he let Diger die and didn't even care."

"... Yeah, he didn't. But we can't afford to lose someone else."

"Diger was more useful than him. And he was definitely more caring and not self-centered."

"Cut it out," Vine pointed. "Like the girl said -- 'we can cry over spilled milk later.'" He stooped to get a glimpse down below. "How's it coming?"

 

[St. Clover]

"Well he's alive!" Milianor reported initially, pausing when she noticed the existing scars. She briefly wondered what stories this guy had to tell about the impressive collection. "Going to try and get him ready for transport! It's gonna suck, too!"

Oh boy was it going to. Reaching down to scoop the man's head up carefully, followed by his knees, Milianor worked to gently lift the man up from the slope. She had to be careful, she noted, that back injury would be made worse if he was jarred around too much. And she doubted her potions would fix it much if she went screwed him up even worse.

 

[Anshelical]

"Alright! Just give me the cue!" Vine called.

Iso dwelled on his anger, his thoughts immersed in the moment Diger slipped off the cliff, the worry in his widened eyes with a twinkle of betrayal as Liernoine's sporadic fire casting failure blazed past. Iso had enough. After traveling with Liernoine so long, he wanted him to pay for all the false glory he earned in Huujar.

Erro watched the rope make a few sways upon the sedimented hook, then caught it to press it in place.

 

[St. Clover]

Tensing her draconic muscles as she lifted the unconscious Liernoine up into her arms, Milianor prepped herself for the journey in front of her. She sucked in a breath and tightened her grip on the man. "Here we go!" she shouted up, followed by her first boot slamming into the rock-face. Then the other. And another.

Slowly but surely she began to make her way back up towards the others, with all the awkwardness a no hands climb could bring.

 

[Anshelical]

Vine pulled the rope with the dragonborn's each ascending step, his veiny hands over each other. Erro held to the tied knot tight onto the jagged rock, huffing with pressure. Iso buried his guilty resentment in his dazing face to the horizon afar.

"Hghn!" Vine pulled.

 

[St. Clover]

With harsh effort, plenty of swearing, and more than a few near slip ups, Milianor slowly ascended towards the heavens. Or at least, it felt like it from the exertion she was giving. Every step felt like she was moving through a sea of molasses, slow and about as appealing as this situation. Her legs were on fire after the first minute, muscles screaming as they were forced to bear the weight of two people.

"Son. Of. A. Bitch!" she swore aloud once she drew closer to the edge of the slope, throwing a hand out the moment she got within range, not trusting her legs to hold them another second.