RP:Diamond in the Sky
Part of the Agitation Arc
Summary: Josleen has started an argument with some of the Mage's Guild member when Linn walks into town. At his arrival Josleen attempts to get him to take her side, though he's disgusted with the argument as a whole and gave no support to anyone, something Josleen was quite peeved at. The two were about to go their separate ways before an explosion in the distance heralded Kang with his chaotic, flaming companion, and a lot more. The chaos magic mutates local fauna into new monsters who now run amok in the area (ctrl+F Lemming King for insomnia). As they deal with that one of the sinister storms kicks up, beginning to rain the black ooze down on everyone and the town well boiled dry, while Kang's tiger is overjoyed to eat the creatures covered in corrupted material. One of the results was a chaotic mutating vortex that Linn decided to try neutralizing, making the result arguably worse. After magic winking out for a brief moment over the whole town and a massive explosion cratering the town square, everyone involved was left with quite a bit of nightmare fuel (in the shape of some other-planar monster) while everyone not involved was coming to see what had happened.
The Dancing Destrier
Things have been quiet in Xalious as of late. After a series of terrifying, magical storms, a calm has settled, but Josleen doesn't trust it. She has yet again another theory, and she needs to run it by her partner-in-crime-sniffing, Linn, the strange big man who is down to openly speculate about things based on scant evidence -- just like Jos. Their investigative integrity may be lacking, but hey, they get results (probably; jury's still out on that one). She asks the barkeep if Linn is up in his room. Whether he comes from a room or the street, by the time Linn arrives, Josleen is in the middle of a political debate with two local mages of The Guild. Josleen has spent her down time sewing the seeds of political unrest, and her target is The Mage's Guild. The tenor in her voice rises as she declares emphatically, "I can NOT just trust in The Guild! Yes, it has worked in the past, but the haphazard success of a faulty system does not magically make the system any less faulty!" Linn is by now familiar with Josleen's argument: The Guild does not represent all of the people in the village, its internal workings are opaque, and yet it is the de facto government of the village. Josleen wants representation and transparency.
The barkeep mentioned that he hadn't seen the strange armored man in several days. Instead Linn came walking into Xalious from the direction of the mountains, having been in Frostmaw dealing with the affairs out west there. Josleen's shouting voice in the center of the town was the first thing to catch his attention as he neared before he got a view of the two mages who seemed to be the recipients of the harangue. With a shrug and a sigh he approached, knowing that having to deal with the guild was inevitable given how close they were working to it. His gaze flickered between the three participants in the argument as he approached before he spoke up to join in, giving a brief nod of greeting to Josleen. "Hey there, soo... what is all of this about right now?" he started casually. It probably was dealing with the recent events and storms, though he at least wanted a bit of context before trying to argue anything. Large systems of people with politics were almost always inefficient; that the mage's guild was faulty at points didn't really say anything new to him.
As soon as Linn shows up Josleen throws up her hands and gestures from Linn to the mages and says, "You deal with them. I have had enough of this willfull stubbornness!" She starts to walk away, but this stubbornness isn't unique to the mages and soon she's pivoting back on her heels to confront them at Linn's side. Her body language suggests she expects Linn to act as her echo chamber, and, if necessary, body guard. The second expectation is perhaps best exemplified by the boldness with which her tongue loosens -- a boldness she would not possess when alone. Linn has done well to clear his reputation in the eyes of Josleen, but everyone comes with a pricetag. "I wonder if the real problem here is that your self esteems are so wrapped up in your status as Guild members," she continues to the two angry mages, "that any compromise on The Guild's power is felt to the likes of you as nothing short of emasculation!"
Linn twisted and turned back and forth to and from Josleen’s half-departure and the mages as she decided to come back for another bite, the fury of which was very much unappreciated. As she finished her part of the rant he gave her a stern look that only said ‘Shut. Up.’ With that he breathed a sigh and turned back at the mages, quite irritated at what he had just walked into. “Now before fireballs start getting thrown I at least want to know why I’m in the middle of them.” His glance shot between the two mages and Josleen behind him, awaiting an answer from one of them before he continued.
Josleen glares right back at Linn. He failed to back her up. Woe be unto him! As soon as he asks what happened, she cuts off the mages and says, "We, as in you and I, Linn, are barred from entry into the Mage's Tower and Library." The mages raise their voices as they retort, cutting off the last of Josleen's words, "Because you are working to undermine The Guild!" "Asking for a government that represents non-mages is a reasonable, progressive request!" "This is not a formal city or township but the property of the tower!" "The nature of this land has changed in the years since the tower was built! You cannot hide behind deeds when there are livelihoods at stake!" "The Guild is just as invested as you are in discovering the culprits behind these strange events!" "Then why cut us off from resources! And this goes beyond what is occuring now! The change I want is long-term!" "And that is exactly why you are barred!" And on and on in circles they argue, lean left and right to glare at each other on either side of Linn's large and heavily armored body.
Linn released a slow, strained exhalation over the course of the arguments; if steam could come out of his ears it would have right now, his expression positively disappointed in the whole situation. “Politics” he spat out in disgust, staring past the mages at nothing in particular. He took another breath to compose himself before cutting his way in the moment he found a break in the argument. “We should be more worried about actually trying to deal with who’s behind all of the storms and the fallout from it than bickering about who’s undermining who.” Just as one of the mages raised his hands in an objection he was cut off by the spellblade’s continuation, his tone dead even with steel. “I don’t care whether or not you already have people working on it, or even whether or not you approve of us trying to figure it out ourselves. I’m all for working together to solve this problem, but if the guild won’t cooperate then we’ll just keep working on our own. It’s not about who should be solving the problem. It’s about solving. the damn. problem.”
The more senior mage lifts his nose and sniffs at Linn. "Do what you will, but do not use our resources. Good day." He and his colleague strides past the spell blade and bard. Josleen's lips purse humorlessly as she stares up at Linn. Her cheeks hollow and brows tense in a peeved expression of extreme displeasure and disapproval. She waits for the door the click behind her, counts to five, then turns and walks out The Destrier's only exit to the village square.
Xalious Village Square
Linn snorts in response to the farewell. “So it’s that game…” he murmurs as they make their way out. Josleen’s peeved expression was only met with the same irritated stare that the mages got before she stormed out as well. He breathed a deep sigh, rolling his eyes at the situation before walking out after her, knowingly jumping right into a (figurative) fire trying to talk to Josleen about the whole thing.
Josleen didn't plan on waiting for Linn. She was going straight home, but she is stopped in the square by a friend who forces small talk on her. She spies Linn's exit from The Destrier but doesn't say anything to him. Her look says it all.
Linn just sighs and stops in the square, deciding it better to avoid pressing the issue further after getting –that- look. He broke away towards the outskirts, looking for whatever might give him another idea of where to go on his hunt for the mages.
A loud explosion sounds off in the distance with Kang sprinting in a direct intersect with Linn's path, all the while murmuring rapid curses in Chthonic. Linn probably heard the words, "stupid kitty" as the heavily armoured preklek narrowly misses colliding with him. He stops, bows quickly, and apologizes for his sudden and rude entrance. "Sorry, mate. I know you probably don't like seeing me here, but I believe we have a mutual problem." The preklek releases a piercing whistle that echoes through the area. A dull roar from the area around the explosion races towards them, gaining volume and speed as it approaches. "Steady, steady. . ." Kang braces himself as the wrecking ball of flame splashes across him in a flash of warmth. That's right, the flames don't burn the area or the creatures that scamper about in terror. The flames shrink and swirl until they are no more than a spark. "My ally here is a little too greedy for his own good." The ground begins to rumble, pebbles dance as something very large follows the heat signature back to where Kang's incendiary friend had fled.
Josleen and her friend scream in alarm at the explosion. They head for cover: the friend runs towards the burrows, and Josleen, despite the argument with the spellblade, runs towards Linn. Her hand cups his elbow and us it as a pivot as she swings behind him as a human shield. She recognizes Kang and says, from her hiding spot behind Linn, "Hey. What's going on? Gigi?" She didn't remember Glasgow Grin being fiery.
Linn turns sideways to slip right by the dashing preklek, wide eyed with nervous expectation at what caused the hurry. “So you chose yourself. Wish I coulda seen it.” His eyes turn towards the direction of wherever Kang had come from, retrieving a strange violet crystal from the pouch at his side in preparation for whatever the rumbling was. Jumping away from the rushing ball of fire his attention flickered to its recalling right as Josleen ran into him. A brief glance was all he gave her before looking back towards the rumbling with a quick sigh and a rolling of his neck, expression anxious at what was coming, any names given lost in his focus. He drew the blade in his other hand to fully arm himself. “Got any of those creatures you mentioned coming our way?” he directed the best he could towards the preklek while keeping his vision forward.
"Ladies, I don't know what Sparky did, but big explosion means big problem." He taps the sides of his ivory staff and it morphs into a greatsword. As the ground reverberations grow, Kang gives Josleen an incredulous look. "You saw what Gigi did to me on her own. If she was here, we'd all be dead." He stares off into the distance. "This is just a minor annoyance that we might need to deal with." As if speaking summoned the beast, it steps into sight, crushing trees and rock in it's wake. Stony scales cover the creature's back from head to spiked tail, faint fumes rise from the claws, and the eyes show a complete lack of survival instinct. The preklek glares over his shoulder at the spark hiding behind him. "I told you to leave the lemmings alone, but did you listen? Of course not. Cursed predatory instinct. You'd chase anything that runs." Soon enough, the true danger appears. Lemmings don't travel as single individuals. The horde rages onward, a tidal wave of rocky suicidal energy.
Josleen gives Kang as exasperated look which says 'sorry I don't know the in-and-outs of your stupid pets, Kang.' All of that in one look. She has a very expressive face. Just a heads up: Josleen is absolutely useless in a fight. However, a little known fact about the bard is that she is an excellent strategist and even counseled Frostmaw during its past two wars. What more, she has a large catalog of knowledge on nature, both flora and fauna. She shouts over the rumbling, "We need to lead them over a cliff! The one by the tower!" They themselves (specifically, Linn and/or Kang) would need to jump over the cliff and somehow survive, but cross that cliff when we get there! "Linn, can you conjure a large image of mulderberry? It's their favorite berry because it is their only source of niasium in the wild." Made-up Hollow mineral related to the regulation of magic resistance. "My hunch is they'll follow it anywhere." Chances are they won't get all the lemmings, but slaughtering a good 3/4s of them in one fell swoop (crash?) would be a huge help.
Linn’s mouth hung for a second as the first beast made it into view. “Well then.” Then the rest of the horde arrived and his mouth shut, his expression narrowing in focus, giving a sharp breath at the knowledge that his armor probably wasn’t going to stop a trampling here. “Any idea how to deal with this?” Just then the answer came from behind, to which his expression lightened as the gears immediately began turning on how to make it happen, only to stop at the mention of conjuring. “Not a realistic one, even if I knew it well enough to remake it.” He gave a split second for though before muttering “Hope they like following magic.” He was about to cast a spell before he realized he had something that filled the exact need already, reaching into his pack to retrieve what roughly looked like a leather wrapped spike maybe just over a hand in length. The leather falling away revealed it to be a gaudy mash of brightly multicolored mana crystals that he held up for display, forcing his own magic into it to cause it to shimmer and flash like a beacon. “Best get going.” He waved the other two off to the sides before running in the direction that the horde was going, letting them gain until the distance had closed enough for his little display to catch their unwavering attention.
The stampeding horde of dire lemmings locked on the light source, drawn inexplicitly to the brightness. A dozen, a hundred, who knows how many there were, shifted direction to chase the flickering crystals. Kang did his own part and tapped on the side of his shifting weapon, directing it to become part of the river of mutated lemmings. It herds as many as it can to the cliff edge and dives over. Like sheep, or perhaps the lemmings they are, they dove over the edge as well. The impact caused an earthquake that shook the area worse than the reverberations of the creatures. Kang braces himself, helping to keep his footing. He's no stranger to environmental bucking and mistreatment. Every so often, he whistles a few soft notes, asking the wayward spark to stay away from the rodents. Don't want them mutating into something worse. A dire lemming-king is not something that this world is currently prepared for. At least, this is one preklek that doesn't want to find out.
The world better be prepared for a dire lemming king because that now exists! Please describe this for the class, Kang! The dire lemming king, named Lemmiwinks, sees his people plummet to their deaths and stalks off into the wilderness to plot his revenge (aka, to show up in duel tourney soon). He hides behind a building and memorizes Kang, Linn, and Josleen's faces. With Linn leading the charge, Josleen finds herself in the odd situation of cowering behind a bulky preklek. The alien race boasts few heroes among its kind and many villains, but Josleen's options for living shields has thinned to one. "What is that thing?" she asks Kang of the spark. Perhaps it's the magic concentrated in this area, perhaps it's a coincidence, but suddenly dark iron clouds roll over heard and black, curvy lightning strikes in unnatural directions. "Oh no...." Josleen pales and her face grows long. She turns towards the direction the spellblade ran and shouts, "Linn!! The storm!" It's back.
As the horde got to about twenty feet behind him, clearly transfixed on his makeshift disco light he took a long step and hit the ground sliding on his feet as if skating on ice. Distorted waves coming off of his back were accompanied by faint booms as he sped himself along with a series of weak shockwaves, picking up speed to match the charging lemmings. At that point it was a simple matter of turning north and taking them right over a cliff, the enchanter leaning deep into a turn to go the –right- way. Looking forward he saw the clouds form above, his previously tense, focused expression distorted in a slew of cursing before he pulled the leather hood over his head, still sliding rapidly towards the cliff. The grass began to blacken and turn slick with the slimy substance, forcing a sharp breath from the new packleader. Lemmings first. Come on. Just don’t fall. Don’t fall. Not here. The cliff approached, fifty feet away, forty, thirty. He spun himself around and leaned straight towards the rushing lemmings, his motion slowing to a stop just as he dropped off the edge of the cliff with the lights, vanishing from the current view. His free hand clapped against the cliff face with his boots digging into the wall to stop his downward motion, shadows flickering from above as the lemming’s charge sent them clear over his head. A black droplet eclipsing the sky forced him to immediately duck his head, replacing his face with his hood with another slew of cursing. He didn’t have enough hands to deal with this right now! He reached around to attach the crystals to the armor on his back; them getting dirty was better than him dieing. With his free hand he put on the black iron gas mask that hung at his side over the hood. That stuff was –not- going to touch him today. Booming continued to echo from above under the storm of hooves(?), gravel being thrown from the cliff face by the impacts. The enchanter held on with his magic for dear life, surrounded by highly unstable and very heavy things of all sorts.
From glowing spark, the chaotic creature grows and morphs into it's favorite form, that of a glowing tiger. It roars in adulation at the drops of black liquid falling to it's back only to be absorbed harmlessly. By coincidence, or perhaps clever design, the creature stands protectively over Kang and the healer who stands behind him. The preklek answers her question without batting an eye. "It's a fire tiger that followed me from the chaos lands. It feeds on the puddles, but as you can see, mistakes were made." He shrugs as if it's not a hugely dangerous development. "It chases things. Sometimes it catches them, and they get corrupted by the ooze around his mouth." The horde of dire lemmings continue to charge to their deaths, save for the dire lemming-king. Much like it's smaller variation, it was formed when several lemmings were standing too close together. Unlike that same variation, this one was fused together by the tarry black ooze and chaotic energies given off by the playful and carefree chaos elemental. What once was seven normal lemmings has become a creature, fused at the hind-quarters with seven minds that work in sync to make a creature more intelligent and dangerous than the others. The eyes stare every direction, seeing all, judging it for destruction, making it nigh upon impossible to sneak up on it. Even should one succeed, mithril ore coats the mountainous spikey back of the deadly creature, rendering most attacks harmless, and possibly harming the attacker in the process. As if that weren't enough, the dangerous fumes rising from the poison sacs beneath the claws of -this- creature are colorless. This is the creature that even a preklek might fear in battle. ((ooc: armoured poisonous dire lemming-king, as requested. Based on the rat-king story I read somewheres))
Josleen cannot be touched by the ooze droplets either. She steps into the nearest building's vestibule, and leaves the door open so she can still communicate with the preklek and his... fire tiger. Right. She stares up at the beast who seems to regard her as an ally -- or so she hopes. The bard isn't fluent in chaos beast body language. During the shuffle they near the town well whose water level now rises and begins to boil and steam. The trees that litter the village center decay into ooze. The islands of grass collapses into a blanket of ebon gunk.The seep over the cobblestone pathways and turn them to... is that ice? The storm casts a deathly gray pallor over the village center that is now clear of residents. It resembles a ghost town, not unlike the ruins west of Frostmaw. The similarity sends a chill down Josleen's spine. Could that be the destiny of her home? If these events are not stopped, perhaps so. Two robins covered in ooze dart through the air to escape the storm. Their trajectory takes them dangerously close to the fire tiger, who may opt for a snack. If so, they may fuse the way of the seven lemmings and create yet another foul beast to plague the village. Josleen helplessly watches her home endure yet another storm. There is nothing she can do but witness it, and when it is over, act against its perpetrators.
Linn was busy dealing with not getting crushed where he was, the rocks of the cliff were beginning to shake loose from the repeated impacts and had started falling down in steadily larger chunks. He was just about to make his way to the side to get out from under the horde before a loud crack and grinding of stone pierced the air, a huge slab of rock coming free and beginning to slide its way down into the pit below, which just so happened to be the slab of rock that the enchanter was currently sticking himself to. He barely had time to scramble his way upwards and off to the side to make it to a section of the cliff that was still intact before with a booming crunch it struck an outcropping hard enough to split it in two with a massive jolt. He scrambled along the side of the cliff stuck to it like a gecko, making sure the stampede had died down before he got back up with his mana crystals. The masked and hooded head poked up over the cliff probably thirty feet from where it had gone over before he pulled the rest of his armored body up over the ledge again, a massive chunk of the cliff torn out from his previous position. Not a single square inch of skin showed on him now; he could pass for a golem if he had a proper mask at this point. The mana crystals were dusty and blackened by the bits of ooze and rock that had come over, but still in one piece, remaining pinned to his back as he sprinted his way back towards the two. He rushed over to Josleen with an urgent shout, feet beginning to slide on the ice which caused him to throw out his hands to balnace himself. “You ever figure out why their spell hasn’t completed yet!?” came from under the mask before it turned to look around for the three mages that were there the last time these events happened. Hopefully he could cause a disruption of it all if nothing else.
Kang has no idea what's going on, and his tiger is much to large for him to corral, so, yeah, things happen. The tiger takes a swing at the two robins and the strike sends them spinning farther into the storm. Faster and faster they spin, until they are no longer recognizable as birds. Winds pick up, creating a vortex that draws drops sideways toward the gaping maw. The preklek grabs the enormous paw and drags it back down. "No," he tells the flame beast. "Playtime is later, when things aren't so unstable." Of course, telling this to a creature born and raised in chaos is futile. The tiger simply flings Kang away and continues to splash in the puddles. Stone and wood gets drawn in along with the two ill-fated robins continuing to fuse everything together in spinning madness. The weight of the growing monstrosity slows it enough to allow a discernable form to develop. A grinding spiral, centered around what used to be birds, it arcs upwards tornadoing out of sight. From his landing area, Kang can be heard cursing quite loudly and fluently in Chthonic. His armor steams with the falling black drops, but he sprints to duck beneath the tiger once more. He punches it in the ribs, and chastises it thoroughly. "Bad kitty." It simply ignores him.
Josleen gestures for Linn to get in under the vestibule quick! She is careful not to touch the ooze the coats him. "I have no idea." Wham! Kang goes crashing onto the ground as the tiger swats him away. Josleen winces and grits her teeth in sympathy. Watching the storm and preklek, she talks to Linn quickly, suddenly having an idea. Her initial response was knee-jerk. She isn't operating with full faculties at the moment. The situation is getting out of hand. "They're amateurs. And they're tinkering with an ancient, dark magic. They don't know how to control it yet." CRUNCH! Wood and stone splinters and swirls in a tornado. "Linn, we need to get out of here. We can't stop this. Need to take cover." What about Kang? She shouts into the chaotic storm, her strong bard's voice penetrating the audible violence. "KKAAAAAAAAAANNG!! Let's go!"
Linn had is attention immediately torn from Josleen by the growing chaotic vortex, the masked face turning to see what that ungodly sound was. A curse best left unsaid came out from his armored figure, as well as something about not wanting to know what it was going to be, the exact words lost in the noise. He paused for a second, analyzing it for a second, he didn’t have anywhere near the power to stop it himself… Though he certainly had enough of it lying around. Reaching around to the cluster of mana crystals on his back he broke the tip of it off, holding it in a fist for a second as his head turned down in focus. It had to do one thing: break this thing before it became something else. He looked up and with a hop and a skip he pitched the small chunk of material straight towards the growing vortex, causing it to glow brighter and brighter as it neared before accelerating into the monstrosity, shafts of multicolored light streaming out from the hole it made. The mass began to shrink slowly with a small jolt inwards every now and then as something physical gave. Suddenly the tornado ended as the mass fully collapsed inwards into itself and reality fractured and tore around it, reducing it to a tiny sphere of impenetrable black that steamed jets of multicolored light out in all directions, many of them bending back into the singularity, only causing it to spit the energy back out more furiously, his enchantment that caused it to collapse only drawing on the concentrated energy to strengthen itself. Whatever he had just done definitely obliterated whatever those crows were turning into, though whatever new result he had just made wasn’t going to be pretty either. “RUN!” was the only thing Linn was able to spit out as he began sprinting away from the hole in reality as fast as he possibly could.
Kang hears their cries and runs to follow them, calling at the tiger to follow. It continues to ignore him, glowing ember eyes locked on the swirling void and the flickering bits falling towards the center. While the preklek follows the others out of the danger radius, the chaotic tiger stalks the steadily growing area of unpredictability. It dives inward, jaws gaping and locks it's fangs over a piece. Seeing that it can't devour the entirety, it shifts into a giant mouth to swallow the dangerous conglomeration of animals, ooze, and crystal. The flickering of magic darkens, while the flames on the tiger do the same. Soon, the tiger is nothing but a dimly glowing maw closing around the whole mess. It shifts down into tiger form again, turns to where it remembers the trio being, and promptly explodes. Embers soaring in every direction and growing in intensity. The firey meteors strike animals and trees, incinerating them on the spot. At least, that's what happens to the lucky ones. Eventually, the chaos tiger will reform, but for now nothing but it's trail of destruction remains. Kang turns to look back and murmurs under his breath, "Bad Kitty."
Josleen's jaw drops as Linn's crystal collapses and sucks in the tornado, storm clouds and the black ooze closest to it. The black drops further away are sucked of their magical potency and rendered inert. The black hole isn't in earnest a black hole like those found in outer space, but functions much the same. It's area of effect on mass covers several yards and the very air around the hole is sucked of its substance. But the hole has a secondary effect, invisible to the naked eye. Magic in a two-mile radius momentarily stops. In this moment, any spells cast by mages in Xalious fizzle out. Patients at the clinic who rely on magic to survive risk death (indeed, one dies). The Mage's Tower's subtle aura flickers several times before shutting off completely. Kang would have the vocabulary to compare this magical outtage to a power outtage back on his home planet which uses electricity. (Perhaps this too explains the chaos tiger's dimming, as his own magic is disrupted?) The bard runs alongside Linn She is no longer in danger of being burned (or worse) by the black ooze. She glances over her shoulder periodically to witness this event, and to ensure Kang is going to make it. But what she sees outpaces even her imagination. A creature starts to rip through the black hole Linn created. An insectoid-shaped head with a lipless human mouth where the pincers would be pushes its bald head through the hole's energetic veil, as though the hole were giving birth and the creature is trying to break through the caul. It has no eyes. Its flesh is covered thickly in blazk ooze. A slender proboscis unfurls from its toothless mouth and tongues the energy-caul to break it. Just as the membrane starts to tear with an electric sizzle and glow the tiger morphs into a mouth and eats it. Thank. Sven. For. That. Josleen faints. Hopefully someone protects her from the tiger's explosion. Much appreciated, gents. The fiery chaos bits scatter wide. Who knows what foul folly of creatures will be born today.
Linn’s been running before the tiger even leapt for the portal, though his trick had managed to rip energy from a much larger area than it’s physical repercussions implied. As the magical power that had infused him was ripped away, he found himself overcome with a sudden weakness, stumbling forward to a knee where he had to take a couple seconds to catch his breath. He managed to get back to his feet slowly to look what was pulling itself through the portal; his look of sheer horror and despair that he may have finished the summoning lost under the mask. The tiger seeming to eat it arrested the figure for just enough time to allow the enchanter to maneuver over to Josleen as she fainted. Shards of fire bounced off of his armor as he knelt over her. Another look back revealed the creature to still be there. It cuts the veil that divided the realities, the rest of its form shadowed by the dimensional rip; though its own manipulations looked to be the last straw. Energy poured out of the hole it had opened only to be sucked right back into the enchantment he made, strengthening it even more. The ground had begun to swell under it as it started to lift before everything came crashing down. Suddenly the slice in reality deformed around the black hole before it shrunk yet again to a tiny pinprick of black. Everything stopped for a split second before the enchantment gave way, a massive explosion of splintered light and chaotic energy booming from where the crows had been first transmuted. Josleen’s amulet flashed under the assault, absorbing as much of the energy as it could to keep it away from her. Linn, suddenly washed over by the tide of energy was knocked from consciousness and fell over just to her side, fortunately not right –on- her. That would have hurt. A lot. The final aftermath would be a glowing crater under the site of the explosion, grass mutating and recoloring itself around it, among who knows what else that might have been altered by the surge of energy. And likely a lot of angry mage’s guild officials. Can’t forget about them, right?
Kang uses his staff to bat the errant fireballs away from himself, all the while keeping his focus on the creature ripping it's way into the world. The concussive blast of the black hole giving way knocks him back a step, but he recovers quickly. Staring over at where the action had been reveals a smoking crater. Had the creature made it through? Did it get pulled back through the vortex? So many questions race through his mind, but first check on the others. Kang jogs over to Josleen's prone form, Linn right next to her. They're still alive. That's good. He debates pouring water over their heads to wake them, but discards it as rude. Not to mention that he doesn't have a bucket of water. Soon enough people will come to investigate, so he drums a slow cadnece on the side of the staff and it melts over his body, creating the outward appearance of an old, sagely elf. He seats himself to watch over the duo, and wait for curious (or angry) villagers to arrive. They'll be less likely to lynch an elf than a preklek, he thinks.
The area's eerie quiet after the explosion gives way to the curious pattering of feet. The villagers come to survey the damage. A couple come to Josleen and Linn's aid. The spell blade has been around long enough, and has performed enough heroic deeds, to be considered in their care. Magic returns to the Mage's Guild tower, too, and Linn as well one would assume. The villagers ask Kang the Sagely Elf what happened? What happened to that preklek? Did the preklek do this? He ran into the village and then the chaos followed. Kang the Preklek quickly becomes the local scapegoat. Is that preklek also behind all the storms that have been occuring in the area as of late? Kang, the supreme villain mastermind? Josleen slowly wakes. Her eyes flutter. Her breath shudders in and out. She sits up and eyes the sagely elf watching over her and Linn. She's too disoriented to ask who he is. Instead she gently shakes Linn. "Hey, wake up. Linn." As she shakes him she glances over each shoulder. "Where's Kang?" Belatedly she recognizes the elf's staff as belonging to the alien. "Where did you get that?"
Linn rolls his head a bit in response to the shaking before his eyes opened up to see Josleen telling him to wake up… again. He moved his limbs a little bit to make sure everything was in proper order; the weakness that ailed him seemed to be gone already. If anything he felt… refreshed? “Yeah yeah I’m up.” He muttered as he sat up to see the gathering crowd. He follows her gaze to find the staff-wielding elf, flashing a smile before remembering to take the mask off of his face. Looking around he seemed satisfied that all the ooze was gone, allowing him to remove it and throw down his hood to reveal a face that was stony with more confusion than anything; he had no idea what to feel right now. With another look at the crater and bright, discolored grass that had formed around it his eyes widened a little before he breathed a sigh of relief. Whatever creature had tried to crawl out of the tear must have gotten pulled back into it before it exploded. That was going to hurt for sure. A long look around to take in the crowd, the crater, the cliff that had partially crumbled, man, there was a lot to explain. Seeing the gaudy cluster of mana crystals he reached out to pull them back to himself before shoving them back in his pack. Welp, now people are gonna know he had that. He wrapped the events up in the best way he could for right now. “Well. That was crazy.”
The sagely elf, ae, Kang, nods along with Linn's version of events. He also nods the affirmative to all the questions. Of course the preklek is at fault. Who else but a preklek could cause this much damage? Death an destruction on such a level could only be Kang's work. In reality, the only fault Kang holds here is not controlling a chaos elemental. Then again, who -can- control chaos elementals. He rises to depart from the area, but peers over his shoulder to reply to the healer's question. "I got this staff from the shadow gnomes, and they were loathe to part with it." The staff's abilities mask his appearance but it cannot mask his voice. Perhaps Josleen recognized it, or perhaps not. Either way, Kang must get back to his temporary base of operations. He fervently hopes Gigi hasn't eaten another babysitter. They're expensive, and the mess she leaves on the floor takes forever to clean.
Josleen, aka Linn's personal alarm clock, snorts in agreement with Linn's summary of events. "Yes. And this village is ill-prepared to handle crisis like this. Something must be done." Read: Josleen is going to take this project upon herself, as she did with the investigation in the first place, and pretty much every challenge she comes across. Kang's voice is instantly recognizable. No elf sounds that gruff and reptilian. She purses her lips at the preklek-villifiers, but cannot fault their instinct. Instead of defending Kang now, with no evidence to clear his name, she decides to add that to her to-do list in the future. To the 'elf' she says, "If you are friend to Xalious and ever need a place to stay, don't be afraid to get in touch with me. My name is Josleen." Hopefully Kang gets the message. If he needs to comeback, Josleen will find him a safehouse within the village. She nods knowingly to Kang as he goes then turns to Linn. "Let's debrief, after a hot meal and cathartic scream into the valley." She's only half joking about the screaming.