IC - Axis Umbra Malthus

[arcanus]

'WE HAD AN ACCORD!' he bellowed into the howling freezing wind

"We have" rumbled the stone, a latice of glowing fragmented lines the deep orange of fire, stretched across the surface of the oberlisk.
Reminding Malthalmus Curren of looking down upon a city at night.

A sense of combined fear, wonderment and of something familiar, yet just out of reach struck the Crusader.
The stone seemed to be losing its inertia, Curren still pinned upon its forward face as it began to slowing fall.

Perception roll (Including GOI)?

[Curren]

Perception roll (Including GOI)?

27 16 10 9 9 5 4 3 2 1

Clucking Bell!

[Curren]

'Uh oh!' Curren's stomach rolls as the obelisk begins to decend.

[arcanus]

It ws then that Curren understood, he looked past the ediface bearing down upon him, into the stone itself, into the fiery energy that burned within its heart.
And he understood, the stone was an anchor, a solid construct within the empheria, truly a foundation stone.

He stood within Barofs cabin, the world still shook, trembling to it core, but Curren was calm, his hand upon the stone.
The stones surface alive fiery orange fractures.

The old troll stood upon his veranda, his thick white hair pummeled and lashed by the wind, he shouted, bellowing to get his voice above the chaos.

"NOW PULL EVERYTHING TOGETHER, TOO TRULY DESTROY YOU MUST FIRST HAVE LEARNED TO CREATE!"

[Curren]

Metamagic and Sorcery Rolls?

[arcanus]

Metamagic and Sorcery Rolls?

Yes indeed

[Curren]

Metamagic: 8* 5 5 5 4 1
Sorcery: 13 10 5 5 4 4 2

[arcanus]

Barof watched as the icy lake waters cascaded free from the dam, filling the toe of the dam, flooding it and then churning up in a spiraling arch of millions of gallons, hundreds of feet into the air.
The land around the deluge unable to contain it, the water exploded forwards towards the hamlet.

Hurricane force winds cut across the face of the cascade, forcing it in another direction, water spouts fired upwards, sucking up vast quantities of water and again deverting it from the homes.
The ground shook, quakes rippled throughout the hills, most if not all of Barof’s crockery had lost their perches and lay in a thousand pieces.
A great rent tore through the forest to the south west of the town, a canyon into which the waters flowed as fast as the territory reshaped forming a new river, the hillside into which the dam had sat rumbled and sank until it sat some hundred meters lower thans its previous summit.

Curren’s hand seemed fused with the stone, its fiery pattern now invading his limb.
He felt an emense pull, something resisted his power, it was straining against him.
Curren forced down sending his power into the stone and beyond, through the ether.

The cliff face reformed a natural buttress, the remaining waters now sitting above and slowing meandering down into the new river.
“Well done my boy” smiled Barof, a slight frown crossed his face as he spied his crockery at which point he shrugged, “You might want to take a stroll up to the top of the cliff”
Barof caught Curren as he began to fall, his strength left him, first his legs then the rest of him.

***

“Shit” shouted Black as the tremor threw him bodily across the room, he slammed into the wall of his Foundation quarters, his head swam. A cold bolt shot through his forehead, momentarily he saw a Knight in shining plate mail armour.
“What the fuck did I get myself involved” he muttered climbing back onto his feet

“Agggh” roared Drake in outrage, as a surge of freezing water flew out of the sink he’d been washing in.
The jet caught him under his jaw and threw him backwards across the bathroom.
Momentarily Drake saw a fiery pattern spread across the bathroom wall, then sensed a change in the link.

***

Malthalamus Curren stood upon the lakeside, from his vantage point he could see down into the new valley. He shuddered as he looked back at the familiar building upon the shore of the lake, the fetid smell of the corrupted waters.
Up here was decay while below was purity.
“Eventually it’ll seep down into the valley” said Barof “But not yet”
“Why?”
The troll regarded the human, but remained silent.
“Why, has Crab Orchard Lake come here?” Curren felt aggrieved, almost angry, but also upset.
“You understand the cycle now, creation, destruction and reconstruction, you were defeated here, killed! It’s the one that got away from you, defeated you and now you need to address that” he said solemnly
“You now know how to take things of power and purpose apart, harvest their essence and build something anew, you know that this takes patience” smiled the troll
“Well so will this” and he walked back towards the hill

[Curren]

Curren shook his head in shock. The memories of his defeat at the lake he knew would never leave him; and here was his psyche manifesting it again almost mockingly he felt before him.

His achievement soured as he saw the unfulfilled promise remain in its noisome dank pools and in its abomination to nature itself.

'Patience?' Curren mused bitterly. 'It will take more than patience to combat that power!' he thought.

Richard and Jenny had warned him that there was a greater power that resided there, and he hadn't actually encountered it.
'And god knows what it might be!' he shuddered as he turned away.

'Any chance of a cuppa?' he called to the troll as he began to follow him up the trail of the hill and put the desolation and decay behind him for now.

'At least all is well here' he thought as he looked warmly at the hamlet. 'I'm sure a few days peace 'an quiet will be permitted!'

'Barof! Wait 'fer me!' he called out as he quickened his pace. 'Sorry about the plates, I'll replace them!'

*************************************

[arcanus]

The valley was covered in a thick layer of snow, great fur trees wore their overcoats of white powder.
Free of their morning lessons, the hamlets children engaged in snowball battles and dared the steepest slopes with their sleds.
Artic blue arial forms swam through the snow flurry before sweeping up into the winter skies, since the ‘Foundation’ spirits of the sky visited often.

Barof smiled, drawing his scarf tightly around his kneck and ensuring that his handerchief covered his mouth and nose, to ward off the potent fumes that the swamp emitted, an odour that cut through the freezing air.
The old troll made his way, away from the valley side around the lake to the pods, Curren had told him of his battle, one that had cost him dearly, a battle with a malignant parasite, one that leeched the life from the land and poisoned its waters.
It seemed the parasite being of floral nature had spored, a number of sickly pods extended from ice covered skeletal reeds, each culminating in a fleshy sac, the easiest thing would be to destroy them now however earlier attempts seemed to have spread more seeds.

Barof’s eyes narrowed, a stalk lay flaccid upon the floor, its sac having disgorged its offspring in a great gout of disgusting ichor and flesh.
Slowly he circled, his senses still very acute after all the years of his existence, listening, feeling the land.

The young parasite sprang, resembling a pale yellow pumpkin, its membraneous skin throbbing and writhing, six crab like legs extending from its base each ladened with thornes.
He caught it with his walking stick, slamming it sideways.
Barof darted forwards, impaling the think black staff through the creature, he held it aloft safely distant enough for it to struggle impotently, he walked back around the swamp arriving at his fire and plunged the podling into its heart, holding the creature until its ash mingled with the firewoods.

The land had to be renewed, the poison burned away.
The Hamlet looked to Curren, however he was a child of the air, it would take a child of the earth to burn this away. He would have to wait until that child decided to visit the lake.
Still Barof had waited an age, a little more time wouldn’t hurt, with that he looked back grimly at the seedpods.