Turn 233
Doktor Diabolical:
"You do realize that volcanic eruptions are more than just flows of lava, right? You'll also have clouds of gas and ash to deal with. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get to industry..."
Charsheet needs updating in Doktor Diabolical's case. Doctor Diabolical summons(-1) a pile of parts using a +1 POT essence, then makes 2 essences. Unless the mage comes at him, in which case, the mage gets a minerfistbot's fist to his face, an attack drone to the face, a bicycle to the groin, and a kick to the stomach(courtesy of Doctor Diabolical).
CMP [6+1-1=6]
POT [5+2+1=8]
CMP [2]
POT [4+2-1=5]
CMP [3+1-2=2]
POT [2]
Doktor did not care all that much about lava as it would take ages to reach him. Well, about fifteen minutes really, but he'd have to deal with volcanic smoke before that. Oh well, he knew how to do it, he had dealt with smog long enough to have methods for it. This pile of parts that he had just conjured would go a long way to dealing with it.
((Another sleeper hath awakened!))
Play essence roulette, because what better way is there to jump back in after a hiatus?
CMP [3+1=4]
POT [4+1=5]
CMP [2]
POT [2]
CMP [1+1-2=0]
LUCK [6]
Redrum continued collecting power, not minding too much about how much of it slipped out of it hands. In fact, it was somewhat of a good thing, as this could be chalked up as him doing his necromantic duty, making the world a deader place one patch of swamp at a time.
Form 2 essences and head north once more.
CMP [4+1=5]
POT [2]
CMP [3]
POT [6-1=5]
SPD [(5)/2+1=3.5]
Cuberac left the stones and the desert, moving northwards, away from all the heat. The heat did indeed lessen as he ventured, but now he was surrounded by humidity and mushrooms. It was not that much of an improvement.
go get my shovel, continue pushing the mud into the hole, searching for the other circle things as i do this
LUCK [10]
STR [5-1=4]
LUCK [7]
Seva went down the ladder and began looking for his shovel. It wasn't too far away, though half of it was submerged, mud still sticking to it and dragging it down. That shouldn't had been happening though... Unless there was something heavier than mud sticking to the shovel. Indeed there was. A heavy key of some metal alloy had been caught by the mud and stuck onto the shovel. Seva pocketed it for later and went back up a floor to finish clearing away mud. Soon, there was none left and Seva inspected glowing emerald he found in the dirt. Or at least it seemed like an emerald, they really weren't supposed to glow like this.
((All right, here goes. This is the full plan for stopping the volcano.
Viznor-speak will not be included in this post, because as nice as it is to not be a tad meta, it'd just end up giving everyone a headache.))
Time to coordinate the massive disaster-averting spell. Hoping to make a permanent solution here.
The affinities we have:
Aether (2X)
Summoning (2X)
Healing
Physicality
Blades
Luck
Glass (from item)
Use my yes/no book to check for subterfuge, as per usual. If anyone is hijacking or otherwise messing with it, disallow them from contributing and direct more power to parts of the spell that don't use their affinity to compensate.
With that in mind...
Let's weave a sort of magical shell around the portal-tree, essentially a construct designed to contain everything inside (and prevent outside interference). It should have...
Containment stuff:
-A physicality/binding system which keeps all material which exits the portal from leaving its immediate vicinity. This includes fire, gas, ash, etc. Physicality will alter the properties of the stuff such that it condenses itself and becomes exceedingly heavy. Viscous, too, if not outright solid. Binding is used to augment this and to prevent it from moving altogether.
-An aether system which prevents buildup via some sustainable means. Fold it into the aether if that's safe and secure, or just toss it into a useless world nobody cares about. Include a summoning outgrowth which actually extends into the portal and calls heat and excess material back from whence it came.
-A healing and binding system which aims to slowly repair the big hole in reality. Not the whole thing at once, just try and make something which will slowly wear it down at the edges.
Security stuff:
-A luck system which decreases the likelihood of system failure and/or other calamities from the plane of fire in the future.
-Use aether, physicality, summoning, healing and binding affinities to make a physical anti-tampering shell (which should also act as a last line of defense if the magma is too much for the containment systems to handle). Let's go with summoned adamantine, melded together and made as durable as possible by physicality. Aether affinity is used to counteract magical interference or attacks, and healing will ideally make it repair itself if by some miracle there is a breach.
-A knowledge system which coordinates the various other systems, plus sends out alerts on the council video channel if something goes wacky.
Join the tower congregation and contribute to the spell! 5 +1 pot and 5 +1 cmp essences!
participate in the ritual combined spell
5 +1/+1 essences
Flicker through the active mages on the orb, checking for anyone that might be directly responsible for the calamity.
Participate in the spell, increasing the chance of ritual success and decreasing the chance of the tower or inhabitants thereof being harmed. 5 +1/+1 essences.
Consent to the spell.
Blah blah join the spell blah blah
CMP [6+2+1=9]
POT [1+2+1=4]
CMP [6+1+1+5=13]
POT [2+1+5=8]
CMP [1+1+1+5=8]
POT [6+1+5=12]
CMP [2+1+1+5=9]
POT [3+1+1+1+5=11]
CMP [1+2=3]
POT [1+1+1=3]
CMP [6+3+1+1=11]
POT [4+1+1+1=7]
Total POT:45
Disasters, they were so good at bringing people together, even if the people were mages who had come here to kill each other. Deathmatch could be resumed after the encroaching fiery doom was averted. Even if they disagreed on who it should be, most agreed that there should be a winner in this whole matter.
Coordinated by Viznor, six mages began sending magic in a huge spell to ward off the danger. A cocoon of physicality and aether appeared around the tree, cutting it off from the rest of the island. Minor portals appeared on the inside of this cocoon to siphon away anything troublesome back into the plane of fire. A link was established between the cocoon and Viznor to warn him in case anything began to damage it. Tiny siphons formed around the edges of the portal within the fire tree, slowly cutting away at the edges, mending the gap that was sending endless fire through. With this, the portal was effectively sealed, almost nothing would be able to get through, and nothing at all would be able to get through before Viznor noticed and had a chance to fix things.
There was only a minor problem. The ominous feeling was not caused by anything
inside the portal. With the continuous source of aether cut off, the aether draining dome around the fire tree emptied of any remaining aether. Just above it, the mass of aether continuously drained from the dome reached the maximum amount the dome could hold up without collapsing. The gradient was too much, the dome fell and mass of mix of fire and water fell like burning oil. Since it was not affected by gravity but rather more mysterious magical forces it fell slowly and flowed slowly, like magma. It covered the cocoon around the tree completely, setting the spell ablaze and continued downwards, retching earth and starting to spread all around. It was slow, but it wasn't stopping.
"Limui power... Have it tried to stave me off the path of calm self-reflection and improvement? Was I too lax in my mental defenses after seeing the wonders of the Tower and forsaking carefulness?"
Ao shook his head a bit, disappointed in himself:
"Soul shards are a trap devised by nature, for greedy and ambitious to be lured into. Even my previous training was not enough to prevent distractions from a true path."
It was decided then. He would not go for the shards and Lumui power that required them. Instead...
Next moment, there was a slight tremble in the air and then voices of other mages came, all at once, as if some kind of veil obscuring their messages had been ruptured. "Disaster", "Volcano", "Prevention", "Tower", "Ritual"... It took a while for voices to subdue and for Ao to proceed them.
"A pity my affinity is ill-suited for working alongside others..."
Then, his gaze fell upon the sword.
"Might it be the Tower itself offering help in this endeavor? If so, I will gladly take it."
Take sword and walk outside, where I may be of some help to other mages. If things go disastrously - use ethereality and appropriately empower myself using 5 essences (+1/+2).
{I don't know what enchantment would be appropriate here. Tell me and I'll edit it in.}
Ao took the sword from the water and marveled at how the sword had left a wound in the water's surface. There was a pit into which water refused to flow. How strange. Outside the tower, however, there were even stranger things afoot. Where the tree under the purple dome used to be now was a smaller dome glowing orange. The orange was spreading.