"Well then, it seems none of you are afraid of danger or the unknown," Sorus said, standing up and silencing the two others. "Thus, this will be both an exploratory mission, and hopefully you will return with the gem as well. After all," he continued, looking meaningfully at the mage in red, "our efforts have yielded nothing on the location thus far, perhaps simply going there and looking at it will be more productive."
Motioning for you to wait there a moment, he went off to discuss some things with several figures, including the two from earlier. More emphatic discussion was heard faintly, before he finally returned and several of those he was speaking to hurried off somewhere.
He then gestured out a particular direction, down a main road, and led the way himself. Not long into the trip, he began to speak.
"There uh, there is one other thing... This city around you is, as you've probably surmised, long since abandoned. We'd like to change that. In fact, acquiring permanent residents is actually necessary, we believe, to correcting our issues.
Now obviously, we can't have just anything living here- any residents must be fully willing to cooperate with and yield to our authority under any and all circumstances. However, if you do happen to discover any such individuals, especially talented ones, consider escorting them here for inspection.
Oh! That reminds me." He paused a moment, arms slightly off from his sides, eyes closed, as though meditating. There was a faint trace of magic, presumably casting of some spell. Then he continued on as though nothing had happened.
Finally, you arrived at the gate out of the city. Well, arch out of the city- you didn't notice any actual doors or portcullis on it. Beyond it, though, was a narrow, knuckled arch of shiny, dark grey stone, comfortably larger than a person but quite the size of a large doorway. A handful of mages were standing around it, somewhat frantically reading papers, talking, thinking, or otherwise doing mage-things.
Handing you a device, much like the one you saw earlier, only of dark green and blue metal, Sorus proceeded to explain its function.
"Now, the more important part is, as I've said, having it near a reliable source of... water-ness from a local tribe. You'll have to figure out what exactly that means, but I'm sure you're all quite adept at improvisation. Now, there's two other functions it possesses. The more important one is the actual crystallization. To achieve this, you'll need to focus a bit of water magic on the orb for a sustained interval; this will trigger the device and, if there's sufficient energy, finalize the crystallization. On the off chance that none of you have any skill whatsoever in water magic... well, I suppose you can find someone there who does have some. It's a tribe known for being water-like, after all, I should suppose some of them can cast water spells.
The other, less obvious feature, is the ability to open the device. I would strongly advise against this, but for one reason- if you come across some token that radiates water magic, in theory you can plant it within the device to harness its power. You must remove the remnants afterwards, however, and this feature is... somewhat experimental. Endeavor not to use it unless the reward is very high! To do this, focus water magic at the divide between upper and lower.
Well, that's that then. Oh and I suppose we'll give you rewards upon your return, I've been told adventurers are fond of rewards. And please wear these! They'll allow us to track your progress. Hopefully."
With that, he hands you all a bundle of necklaces... simple rope, with what looks a lot like a crystal eye at the bottom- a cloudy, round white stone of about the right size, with what seems to be a much smaller black round stone set inside at one end, forming a pupil.
Finally, the mages begin their preparations, and with a flurry of magic...
[4] The portal sprang to life. You walked through it, and after a moment or two of hurtling through an obviously magical tunnel, stumbled out the other end. [6] Strangely (and conveniently) enough, you'd just exited an exact copy of where you'd entered. In fact, it seemed brighter than the other one.
The region you emerged at was dark, presumably for being night, and windy. You stood upon a grassy knoll overlooking a mildly stormy beach. The region behind you seems to be windswept grassland, about ankle or knee-high.
Well... now what?
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Topic: Darkmoon RTD [Turn 24: Poison and Pain] (Read 48961 times)