The town of Baden's Bluff was modernized and nationalized at some point in the centuries before the coming of the military. Now guards stand at their posts, with rumors indicating the watchtowers are manned to grant a beautiful sweep of the terrain. Before the military broadened its search into the fertile lands in the Jungle of Aruun, the rocks faced crashing waves several miles to the southwest. Demigraphically the city then became bolstered by the military, with several of the military garrisons electing to have queues and plumed hats, in a gesture of style in keeping with the strident and yet diehard military presence. The population sat at 30000 in the third century BK (before Kronos) and the political nature of the city means the four gates are always welcoming in fresh streams of individuals. Once the harbinger of illicit trades, the city is now more streamlined and faces magical trials all in their due purpose. The gods have been paying especial attention to the city, given its growth over the years from 30000 to 130000 today. This means, given the chronology, that it is considered a metropolis. It was the sole city to be literally erased from the pencil drafts of Izrador's minions, and the gods were unable to detect what the servants of Izrador were cooking up in the tunnels beneath the city. Nestled into the surrounding hills, the ground is a fine light green, often glowing amber as the wind sends its currents through the plants, which are well known for speaking in obscure tongues. The coffers are currently low but the chancellors are using their numismatical skills to channel a grudge against the "haves" in the outside of the city. Upon the coins are inscribed letters similar to Phonecian, and many postulate that these coins are the work of collaboration with Meeru and the demodands, solidifying arcane control of the city. It erupts once every ten years, forcing residents to pay homage to myths like Pompeii to maintain their grasp on the environment. Meanwhile the water sits unrippled, pond scum radiating a similar energy to that in a Roman bath or the speaking plants far-flung.

The coins that you spent have an image of Posiin, a legendary ruler who travelled from the lands to the southeast. He has a fishhook pitted against his mouth, and the angler's guild is well known for supplying magical food to the population from the center pond and indoor pools. Demographically the city is highly stratified, with magic in the hands of only an elite few.

Izrador's presence in the realm of the gods means he has been sealed up, but not water tight. When gods mess around with bodies, there's no telling when there might be danger exuded from the pores of even a city tree, which are bent around the city like spokes on a wheel. One myth postulates Posiin rolled up the city like a snowball of dough and rolled it into the latest modern craze: the bowling alley with magically resetting pins. The gods are decked out in magical style, but the presence of the fallen one goes way back into the past, his forme changing as the years brushed his scaled dragon-like carapace. There is a natural dilemma resulting from his attempt to control the power nexuses and explosions resulting in fire elementals at sites where his attention warps into place like a broken pipe. Currently the gods' followers who directed you to pay some attention to the city from your travels from Huxtable, marking a new era in the jockeying for power that is the pantheon. Spontaneous combats break out when individuals resort to openly displaying magic items or trinkets. The glow of trinkets is much lower, however, and the triangulation harbors deep desires from the crisp leaves that can be folded into magical origami. Some use these as spies, and the rumor about missing children means that the origami will glow in tandem with telluric currents, but the city's riot takes the attention away from the disappearance.

A man with a plumed visor with white marks on it and rainbow ponytail-like plumes darts around a corner after the coins get ripped open by someone exploiting the riot. Screams soar all around amidst the chaos, and you're able to get magical entrance, having sensed the masonry of alabaster whispering cries of terror. The slope seems to tug at your feet and a fire elemental darts around the corner with its amorphic form stitching together a hike to pursue the man with the holy book in his hands. He blasts the man with enfeebling ray, causing him to tip over, and you hear the clanking of his coins as the cobbles greet death from below.

Looking all around, Birahu is unsettled, thinking it might be safer to leave and never return! It looked daunting to him! "Well good gentles, what do you think?" he asks the others in his party. "Lady Maevre? I'm out of my element with all of this. There are just too many and many are much more powerful than I. Elementals flitting everywhere."

Aranea looks around a bit and in her hybrid form facial expression is only slightly modified by the mandibular fangs that fold out from her jaw; there are still segments that may as well be lips- and those are being bitten. She spoke her thoughts though, "I am going to cast Magic Aura to hide that aspect. I can probably find a decent path unless they really are everywhere. The chaos should make it easier to move around unless someone does something drastic. I am very much not effective against elementals. If we can find their summoners though, I'd be happy to deal with those. I'd rather be in the forests than the city but this is a bit extreme."

"Well this looks difficult" Lady Maevre said "I have fought these Elemental's before and they were difficult. In groups they can summon and project fireballs. Unfortunately my most effective attacks are fire based, so as you might imagine that's less useful against fire elementals"

"We will not be able to move around unnoticed. We can and will try of course, but from what
I have experienced before Prophecy and mystic portents are working against us. I am not unskilled in the arts of moving silently and unseen, and I have had no success in avoiding contact"

"I suggest we move as a group. We do not know each other well in a fight, so I would ask 'who is capable of fighting'. Obviously our friend Garaxus here is going to be at the forefront. I also will be mainly in the fight. Birahu you look like a magician to me who would like to avoid such things. Aranea?"

"It looks like I will have to update my repertoire, I cast mostly fire based spells. Looks like I need water based and maybe acid based too, perhaps and energy conversion skill should be added."

"Cold if you can" Maevre commented "Given a choice Fire Elementals hate the cold. I know in Elemental Progression theory water .. acid ... has power over fire, but I don't think it works that way in practice."

"Should we retreat, find a place to rest up so that you can prepare?"

"Not a lot I can do against fire elementals, no matter how much I think about it. I can use Resist Energy to help keep myself protected, Magic Missile goes through, Ray of Enfeeblement will sap their strength I guess."

He casts Mage Armor on himself to raise his AC.

She finished that casting, "I have several liquids on me..." She said as two glass vials are brought out of her robe... By two independent left hands... Not the one in the sleeve. "Healing potions and antivenom are kind of a waste. I also imagine a throwing ax has little use against the elementals and biting them is also well out of the question... We need to go west to the coast and then south to the woods, or to a boat is our best bet."

The dulcet tones of the fire-breathing beasts match up with visions of the elves and the people flocking around you, moving in channels that put at odds the reason for maneuvering through the city. Riot rules mean that rolls of a 1-10 and 11-20 are processed with no modifiers. On a 1-10, the fire elementals roast through a significant portion of the inhabitants, and if it's 11-20 and explodes, you manage to use Mage Armor to protect not only yourself but the water in the atmosphere not to mention all the concomitant materials stuck on the person of Aranea.

If you roll a critical on the roll (kind of like a benny, this roll), then the creatures are pushed back, allowing for more spellcasting. If the numbers match on the second roll and the numbers are a critical, this creates a d20 situation in which the spread means:

1. Elementals move in on the priest.
2. Suffer STR and DEX hampering in the form of minus 2.

3. Elementals merge with the priest.
4. The crowd manages to put out the fire with clubs and other implements.

The buildings seem to dance with the fire, and the noise is deafening. The water sluices down from the box gutters in the form of a pleasant scene, aside from all the chaos. The buildings are seeming to lean towards the lake, where a lone mage seems to want to flood the city to get rid of the elementals.

OOC: coming from the "gathering thread."

IC: Garaxus steadied himself, it was the first time he had traveled by magic and it was like being on a tempest sea. Regaining himself he stood up. "Is everyone ok?....Eleni is it...you are most welcome."Then seeing the chaos all around, the roots and the fire-breathing breasts, Garaxus drew his greatclub.

"Let's try to find the Temple of that bastard Zeus and get the arrow we where sent for." He did not want to fight the beasts if possible, you couldn't wrestle it and what good was a club against sorcery and fire? Yeah if he had to face the beasts, he would.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:12, Tue 17 Jan 2023.

OOC: From the Gathering Thread

Eleni takes a moment to absorb the chaos around her, trying to see where they need to go and balancing that with the living flames causing the destruction they find themselves immersed in. Hearing Garaxus brings her focus to him. "Any idea which way we need to go? I am having difficulty seeing through the smoke and soot. My armor might give me a few moments of protection against the worst of the flames, but I think avoiding the animated flames is our best course of action. Just point me whichever way you want me to clear."
She armed up, drawing a short spear and a shield and settling into a slight crouch. It is clear she has had some formal martial training and knows how to use each implement.

In reply to Eleni (msg # 11):

Birahu casts two spells one after the other, Mage Armor, and Resist Energy: fire! and followed the others where they went.

"woo...mind the next step that one's a doozie" Maevre had recovered remarkably quickly from the sickness. Perhaps some fairie magic?

"Let me go aloft and see" Maevre suggested and rather pretty butterfly wings seemed to materialise around her. Mostly as though 'they had always been there but not noticed' than 'manifesting'. "That is risky, but perhaps not as risky as staying down here."

"It's going to be the one with lots of columns right?"

She spend a moment mentally concentrating before leaping aloft. Cautiously she used the roof of the nearest building: landing on it and looking around for the next high point. Fortunately the smoke provided excellent cover spoiled somewhat by her coughing and spluttering

The temple of Zeus shines magnificently, lit up during this night like a beacon in the meagrest light. It will take a solid hike uphill to get there, but there are massive rope-guided pulleys that allow you to glide over the slopes of controlled water, which would be a DC 15 Climb check, coupled with a DC 15 Concentration check to avoid getting distracted by the terraced view that collapses into a vast green surrounding the seven hills of the city.

The priest yells to you, as you slip away from the elementals' grasp, that he just can't tolerate being left behind, and you hear a desperate edge to his voice. With a DC 20 DEX check, and a Deflect Arrows spell (you all have a scroll in your pocket of this spell, level 5, with the effect of changing the trajectory either in a cone or up to five arrows fired in consecutive rounds) characters are able to maneuver them into the elementals, though they pass through to an unknown end. You also notice that your quivers dance with lines of fire, meaning the success you encountered while dealing with the riot will simply be channeled into another location. But now you have fire arrows, and you suspect that Apollo is behind the presence of the elementals, which are slowly pursuing you. But their profane forme is not permitted inside the naos of the temple, though you have before seen fire dance on the columns. The priest stumbles away from the elementals and starts chasing you, brandishing his cross. He speaks more Latin incantations and waves at Lady Maevre on the roof. There is a fairly even keel, assuming you either Take 10 or 20 on the Jump roll, which means you'll be encountering the elementals as they snake up the roof, or your companions won't be able to reach you for a time.

The rubble from some magically destroyed terrain blocks your passage. If you Featherstep (players with boots will move twice as fast over rubble [half move speed instead of one-fourth] and the elementals merge with a wooden bulwark in your path, setting it ablaze. You think it has symbolic worth, and can, you recall, be vanquished with a small amount of holy water, which the now emboldened priest runs toward you carrying.

You can avoid combat as the elementals are slow but the priest is catching up to you, provoking a glance left and right from a mysterious woman with black hair who taps her spear on the roofs (all of them flat in the immediate vicinity and as far as you can see) and shouts more Latin phrases. Interestingly enough, you suspect they cast glib tongues seeing as they have serpentine forked tongues to match the shocking grasp that they now pull over (lucky you discovered the source) from a ball of lightning now tracing the lip of the building two jumps away from Lady Maevre.

Garaxus begun climbing the ropes that lead to the temple of Zeus. It was an easy climb for the Savage and as he looked back, somewhat distracted, he was relieved by all the water. The fire elementals would have a hard time following them now.

He knew that Maevre could fly and would be right behind him, if not ahead of him before too long. He just hoped the rest of the group where good climbers.

Looking at the Temple of Zeus, he continued to move forward at a rapid pace.

OOC:
09:18, Today: Garaxus rolled 12 using 1d20+3.  Concentration .

09:18, Today: Garaxus rolled 27 using 1d20+14.  Climb check .
This message was last edited by the player at 17:40, Wed 18 Jan 2023.

Birahu attempts to follow Garaxus!

In reply to Birahu the Black (msg # 16):

As they start off climbing, Garaxus notices Birahu having a hard time climbing the ropes. Garaxus grabs hold of the mage and puts him on his back. "Hold on!" The extra weight was no big deal to the Savage as climbing was as difficult for him as walking or breathing.

OOC: Garaxus's Strength is a 21. An extra 150 lbs is no big deal to him. Considering, Garaxus has less than 34 lb of gear on him (he's only wearing leather armor)
This message was last edited by the player at 18:20, Wed 18 Jan 2023.

Ignoring the fate of the evil priest who had lightning bolted her comrades, Maevre found a good place, tied her rope to it and tossed it down. Rope made most things like climbing an awful lot easier

She wasn't even tempted to look at the view as there were things trying to kill them, and anyway this place was a little dull compared to the Glories she was used to.

"I have no clue what is happening" she called to the others "Please shout out if you have an idea what to do"

In reply to Lady Maevre (msg # 18):

Hearing Maevre's voice, while climbing with a mage on his back, he answers back to her. "Head to the temple, we'll figure our next step there!"

Aranea thinks the group progress might be well treated by less priest. She swings her crossbow around as she uses the usual number of limbs to navigate the rubble. She pulls the two triggers on her crossbow, sending a bolt through a bubble of gel that formed at the front of her bow headed toward the priest.

Aranea rolled 23 using 1d20+9.  Crossbow shot.
Aranea rolled 3 using 1d8.  Crossbow damage.
Aranea rolled 3 using 1d6.  Strength damage if dc 14 fort is failed.

Before she tries to follow along with compatriots.

Aranea rolled 22 using 1d20+4.  Concentration check.
Aranea rolled 13 using 1d20+8.  Climb check dc 15

The rope's traditional +2 should actually raise her 13 to a 15 and pass but I'll leave that to the GM and plot.

In reply to Garaxus (msg # 17):

Birahu catches ahold for the ride to the top.

Eleni sees the priest and watches the crossbow bolt leave towards him. She decides the rope is probably the right call for her, using it and her natural climbing ability to ascend rapidly.

OOC: Eleni rolled 25 using 1d20+6.  Concentration.
Eleni rolled 18 using 1d20+12.  Climb.

Arenea and Eleni succeed to mount the building, while the others fail. Those who fail, your hands skid a little bit on the rope, which is crafted of the finest hemp, and 50 feet now dangle limply from a vantage point angled from the hook ranging this way and that as the rope's anchor. The priest seems to be your friend, he keeps mouthing good-feeling preludes toward you as you occasionally turn around to see if he's actually the one shoring in your reality with mantras from all radial perspectives. The temple is situated almost like an island, a beacon from the storm that sits at odd angles from the crashing waves that the Sea of Pelluria and the Caen River divvy up the spoils of with your tourist-like selves. The magic feels unraw because you're so new to the city, but there is reputedly a Power Nexus (which range from power levels 1 through 10) and this one is a level 7. Later on you can level up to 7 in a Heroic Path and the 7th spot will offer criticals in a range exceeding the standard 20, making it 18-20. This location is sacrilized by the gods, and you might be able to use Zeus' limp power to prematurely cease the fire elementals, whose gift to Apollo is their service, their sun-like shape now in your rear-view mirror.

The lady on the roof says, "My name is Jil and the prophecies spoke of you," to Lady Maevre. "The fire elementals may pay heed to Apollo, but their arrows will be of service in the allegiance to Zeus. Summon him and he'll erupt from the center lake, causing a natural disaster which will be digressed into yet more taxation, fixing these houses up. But it can be done using just magic, usually. Go, and wile your way into a fury before the gods, or we don't help you." As she says this, two elves catch their hands upon the gutters, hoisting themselves onto the roof. They had good climb checks, with a difficult DC given there is water now treating the city like Zanarkand.

Those who fail the check end up on their rear ends, with no other difficulties non-trivial. The facade gleams against those of you whose sight is low-light, for it is dark as night. But the light from the Temple is enough to illuminate your path. Ten rioters smash its windows and say to you, "You're not going to make it inside this temple, scum!" and they appear to lift the rubble that now constitutes the Areopagus from cairn-like piles. Those who climb up are able to create a link between the words offered in prayer here to the serpentine tongues of those now jumping toward the temple from the flat rooves. They say to Lady Maevre, "Some other time the Last Laugh will meet you at the temple. For now we retreat from this rioting."

Concentration was succeed by all and warrants a moment of pure bliss that lets you communicate with Zeus temporarily, with the spell command. You feel that the word will splash its way into the lake, offering the chance to literally use a word to vanquish the priest and use summon nature's ally to bring the priest down from his elemental prison to secure the safety of his soul in the form of a phrase. Together you're able to hear that a channeler is requiring a scroll of glib tongues and that you can secure it either at Skie's Treasury or from the Church of Wee Jas, both in the northwest part of town. Then you can align the spiders of the church with the priest's babble, creating something of a tower at the top of which is a gem-encrusted staff created with Craft Magic Item. The top of the staff, the top of the tower, the minarets awaiting your presence in which fire is the password for ascension back into the library where you will re-group. In addition to the riots you are able to channel anger into the staff, unleashing it to demolish a wall and let the water stream down in avidness, surrounding the temple with water in a fashion unbeknownst to the eagles of Zeus now floating around the city. Using the staff, you can unload the shocking grasp to retain it as a future prophecy in "ungating" the Nereid prophets, who are taking the form of serpents.

Aranea wants to help the townsfolk and secure the good will of some locals. A place to fall back to or the relics they may offer could well be worth some time and a few wounds helping them.

Maevre followed Arenea. Still a little lost she tried to make sense of what she had seen and heard. Who or what was the Last Laugh? Some of the others had communed with Zeus: something she would never do.

"Did we win?" she asked