The Black Mages of Corneria (IC)

[Great Dane]

Oh you old dwarf, I'll get you to crack a smile one of these days, just you wait! says Raiden, grabbing a few pieces of fruit on the table and chuckling as he walks away.

Noticing Thina and Malreth in the study eyeballing the mysterious crystal, Raiden walks in and asks, I don't want to believe the old woman. Mind if I check that out? If this is truly one of the Crystals, it might react to my magic. Heck, the Crystals know my magic better than I do. Creating gentle waves of thunder with one hand, barely louder than a whisper, he levitates the crystal in midair as he sprinkles small bits of crackling, electric energy along its entire surface. Closing his eyes, he focuses his attention and waits for a response.

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Arcana check to detect any latent magic: (1d20+8)[20]

[DiscipleofBob]

Oh you old dwarf, I'll get you to crack a smile one of these days, just you wait! says Raiden, grabbing a few pieces of fruit on the table and chuckling as he walks away.

Noticing Thina and Malreth in the study eyeballing the mysterious crystal, Raiden walks in and asks, I don't want to believe the old woman. Mind if I check that out? If this is truly one of the Crystals, it might react to my magic. Heck, the Crystals know my magic better than I do. Creating gentle waves of thunder with one hand, barely louder than a whisper, he levitates the crystal in midair as he sprinkles small bits of crackling, electric energy along its entire surface. Closing his eyes, he focuses his attention and waits for a response.

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Arcana check to detect any latent magic: [roll0]

Raiden's Arcana check:

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It feels similar to a wand that's used up all of its charges. It could theoretically hold vast quantities of magical power, it may even have at one point in time. But now it's empty of any real power.

[Irish Musician]

Thina, Bard of Blue

After a couple of hours of researching and scrutinizing the orb, Thina lets out a big yawn. "Well I think we have figured out all we can about this crystal tonight. Lets go get some sleep." With that, she closes up some books and puts them back on the shelves, when she returns she slips the crystal in her pouch and shuffles off to bed. I will have to send this to father, she thinks to herself, He might know more clearly if it is, in fact, a crystal of legend.

[Great Dane]

After a few moments of meditation and feeling the crystal's reactions, he opens his eyes and notices Thina starting to nod off a bit. He grabs her attention as well as Malreth's.

This is going to sound weird, but this feels like it's out of energy. I feel like I could charge this thing all day and it would be nowhere near full -- in fact, the kind of power this thing could possibly have is on another plane of existance compared to the power I wield. Thina, I don't want to jump to conclusions, but this feels like THE empty Water Crystal.

[Great Dane]

Ears is right. What do I know? grins Raiden as he walks out of the study and toward the front gate. Propping himself against the wall and sliding down to a sitting position, he tips his hat over his eyes and starts to doze...but never ceasing to grip his weapons.

[Irish Musician]

Thina, Bard of Blue

Stopping her motion to her bed, she turns around and says what she is thinking. "Then I will have to send it off to the foremost expert in the water's world.....my father."

[Rausdower]

"Keep the chatter to a minimum, Sorcerer, as impossible a task that might be for you....there are people here at work who know what they are doing.", Malreth said to Raiden as he walked in.

As he spoke, Malreth interjected.

"A ridiculous theory. If this WAS the fabled water crystal, why would it be in the hands of such a meager being as what we faced? It's disapperence would not go unnoticed and to transport it freely would, in fact, draw the wrong attention. Nevertheless, send the stone to your father. I'll eat my finest silk if it is more than a mere rock."

With that, Malreth returned to his room to sleep till morning.

[Irish Musician]

Thina, Bard of Blue

Hearing Malreth's words, Thina smirks and yells back at him as he is leaving, "Better grab your knife and fork, then Malreth. Would you like that silk grilled or baked?!" Then looks at Raiden and bursts out laughing. "Goodness, I must be tired, that was much funnier to me than I had intended. Well, off to bed then. I will ask Motoya if there is a way to send this to him, posthaste. Good night Raiden." She says goodbye, and leaves with a wink. Then sleeps, though not very soundly, until morning.

[DiscipleofBob]

The party goes to sleep, and night passes without incident, except for one:

As Raiden is going back to his room, he sees Aki coming back towards him in the hall. Beet-red in the face, she storms up to him, fists clenched and slaps him across the face, "PERVERT!" She doesn't even give the sorcerer the chance to explain himself before she storms off to her room.

Morning comes. The bright sun lighting up the academy is a welcome change from the night before when every shadow could conceivable stab you in your sleep. Those who get up will find Matoya at the front gates, as a broom is trying to help her with a spell. "Blast it, if I had my notes I could easily do that spell. Now I'll just have to improvise from memory. You better have the brooms like I asked for." she scolds the broom. The broom nods, not that Matoya could tell, but curiously there are only six animated feather dusters beside it. She addresses the students who come out, "Ah, good timing. I was just about to conjure you up some horses so you can skedaddle on out of here. Here we go!" she mutters some powerful arcane words and magic flows from her fingertips around the featherdusters until there's a bright flash of light.

There are no longer any feather dusters.

Nor are there any horses.

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Instead, there are six giant yellow birds standing around. "WARK!" One of them cries cheerfully.

"That's a weird-sounding horse," Matoya comments to herself.

[Irish Musician]

Thina, Bard of Blue

After getting up, and getting some breakfast, Thina joins the others in the courtyard where Matoya is standing. She is talking to her broom, again, which Thina silently giggles at. Thina then watches the spectacle, and then can't help but let out a laugh once Matoya is done. These creatures look like huge canaries. "Umm, master, I........are they supposed to look like birds....or is that an ascetic choice?" She then walks over to one, and puts her hand up so the poor thing can smell her, get her scent, and trust her. She starts talking to it in Elven, a trick her learned from her woodland brothers and sister, and coaxes it calm and lets it know she isn't going to hurt it and asks if she can ride it.

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Nature check to interact with the....Horsebird (1d20+14)[34]

[Great Dane]

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If anyone notices my slightly-red cheek, I'll say, This is what I get for being the good guy!

Raiden, having witnessed this entire scene play out before him, could do nothing except shake his head and chuckle. Just when he thought he'd seen it all, the old woman summoned horsebirdthings. He swore he'd seen their yellow feathers here and there in the tower...now he knew the source.

Raiden walked up to the wildest-looking one, hopinig to tame him and turn him into a beast of war. Hearing and recognizing Thina's elven, Raiden looked into its wild eyes, petted his face and whispered in Elven as well,

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You're a good bird, just misunderstood. We're perfect for each other. Let's stomp some heads today, shall we?

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Nature check: (1d20+2)[3]

[DiscipleofBob]

You all have never seen a Chocobo in real life, in fact they were thought to be extinct, but you know the name of it at least, and know that they're supposed to be almost universally friendly.

Thina's bird immediately takes a liking to her and actually squats down to help her up on its back. Also, there's something else that's different about this bird than the others:

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You could also swear from the other birds' reactions to it that it's the alpha of the... pack? flock? You aren't sure of the proper term.

Raiden tries to get on the chocobo of his choice, however, and not only falls off the back as he's bucked off, but as he's lying on the ground behind the chocobo, he feels something warm, wet, and sticky plop on the back of his neck.

[Rausdower]

*sigh* "Somehow, I feel this is a perfect metaphor for what happens when that one tries to make friends. If you try any of that with me, I will personally have you over a fire in time for dinner."

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Nature (1d20+4)[19]

[Great Dane]

Raiden lays on the ground for a few seconds, blinking. He calmly stands up, brushes his clothes off, takes one hand and thunderblasts the...whatever was on his neck away and turns to the chocobo. Stepping to its side, he placed a firm hand on its back before mounting the creature. Taking ahold of the reins, he leaned forward, cocked his head so Thina could hear, and whispered in Elven into the earhole of the chocobo:

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Strike one, Feathers.

He flashes a grin to the rest of the group. See? No trouble at all.

[Irish Musician]

Thina, Bard of Blue

Thina watches Raiden walk over to his mount, get on top of it, and then fall right off the back of it. And before she can issue a warning, the birds lets out a big, steaming pile of...well whatever it is and can't stop laughing. She giggles for quite a few minutes, until Raiden gets back on the Chocobo, when she is still slighting laughing here and there. She hears his words, and winks at him, giving him a big smile. She then motions the bird over to Matoya, "Master, two questions before we leave. One, is there any way you could transport this egg to my father? As King of the sea, I would like him to look it over and see is he can't make anything of it, while we are gone. He can send it back through the waterways, I'm sure, but could you get it to him? Also, the bird I am riding is grey, not like the other birds' yellow, what does that mean?"

[Gillric]

Ezekial

Ezekial watches the others mount with varying degrees of success before looking for the brightest or most colorful of the beasts. This one he then attempts to mount.

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Nature: (1d20+5)[4](9)

[The Crash Man]

Jykil approached the chocobo with soldier-like determination. "Easy, now," he rumbled, hoping his low, gravelly voice wouldn't startle the bird too much. Slowly he began to mount it, constantly reassuring it like a captain to his subordinates.

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(1d20+3)[7]

[DiscipleofBob]

"I ain't your damn courier! Whatever sort of egg you have you can just transport yourself. The only egg I'm interested in is one for an omlette. And what are you talking about birds? I conjured horses not birds! Now get going the lot of you!" Before anyone can explain the little mixup, she storms back inside to her chambers.

The others get on their chocobos with little trouble. The birds are quite friendly. It seems that Raiden on the other hand just can't catch a break. As Raiden turns and smiles to the group, the chocobo grabs his hat in its beak and runs off, quite quickly too.

From here, you can head south to Corneria past Bridgetown. Normally that'd take better part of a week, but with these birds you might be able to at least get to Bridgetown in one day. If you decide against that, you might also be able to reach the port town of Prontera to the east if you rode through the night.

[Great Dane]

Raiden watches as Matoya huffs back inside her keep and rolls his eyes. Circling up with the rest of the group after regaining composure of the little bastard of the chocobo he chose, he says, Well, if we HAD questions, there's no way she'll let us find her now.

First and foremost, we have to find her eye. We'll never hear the end of it and she'll make our lives living hells until we do. We stand a better chance of running into someone in Corneria that knows the name Ahriman than anywhere else, so I suggest we go there first.

Then again, Prontera will have ships that can take us to your father, Thina. I have a vested interest in seeing if this thing is the real Water Crystal.

So what'll it be gang...find Matoya's Eye and save our sanity, or restore this Crystal, and save the world?

[The Crash Man]

"Technically, if we go on a giant world-saving quest, won't we be too far away to lose our sanity?

And if the monster who dropped the crystal was in league with the monster who stole Matoya's eye, we'll probably find the eye along the way anyway.

I'd say the crystal's a safe bet."

[Rausdower]

"Whether my vote goes towards or against this mission to restore some long dead relics, I'd imagine you would like to return home, Thina? Thus, to avoid the inevitability of both a tie and wasting daylight, let us focus attention on the crystals."

[Gillric]

Ezekial

Looks like the crystals it is then, but I don't think after this school any of us needs to worry about crazy.

[Irish Musician]

Thina, Bard of Blue

Thina listens closely to everyone's decisions. She then thinks for a moment before casting her vote in with the others. "I would love to see home again and speak with my father, not only to ask of the crystal, but also for personal reasons. Thank you all for wanting to accompany me to my home. I am sure that my father will be able to enlighten us as to what, exactly, this empty crystal is. However, in our current state, I am not sure you all could get to my father. I can, because of being able to breathe underwater in my natural state. But all of you can't hold your breath for hundreds of feet and hours, you would just not survive. So, while I would love to go home since it has been awhile, I feel we should go for Matoya's eye."

[Great Dane]

Thina's got a point. And I'd rather not travel halfway across the globe just to find out that shadow-bat is in our own backyard.

[Gillric]

Ezekial

Well, we need to gather information before we sharge off anywhere. Information should be readily available if we go to either this port town or the capital, maybe even in Bridgetown which is the closest so I vote we head there.

[Great Dane]

Well, hrm...why haven't I heard of Bridgetown? says Raiden as he scratches his head. If it's close, as you say, I vote there too.

[Gillric]

Ezekial

Well, what are we waiting for then? Exekial then puts his heals to the chocobo he is riding and heads out across the bridge.

[Great Dane]

Whoa, slow down Brains! says Raiden as he HYAHS his chocobo as well.

[DiscipleofBob]

As the group leaves Matoya's academy, crossing the great bridge across the chasm, (and the opening theme music plays) just on the other side of the bridge, atop a tall pine tree, Raiden's hat is visible. The remaining chocobo rejoins the flock, giving Raiden occasional whimsical glances but staying away from the monk.

((Whether or not you stop to deal with that))

You would expect to come across some kind of monster on the way to Bridgetown, but you make good time on these Chocobos and your journey is thankfully uneventful.

Bridgetown as its name suggests is a giant, two-story bridge lined with houses, shacks, and shops. The second story of the bridge has a more crowded pathway, but also a greater selection of shops. The main path across is unobstructed but slow-moving, but the upper is even more crowded, has a wider variety of shops, and it would be impossible to take your mounts with you.

The day's ride has left you somewhat fatigued. It would be wise to get a room for the night.

Fortunately, Ezekial is surprisingly familiar with the place. He's able to find his way around with no problem, knows where the best shops are, and is pretty much a go-to source on anything you could ask here.

((Gillric, I'll let you flavor this however you want, but pretty much ask whatever you want about the city and I'll tell you what you want to know thanks to your natural 20.))

[Gillric]

Ezekial

Well, we should find a place to stay for the night and a stable for our mounts, I think I know the place. In the morning we can begin gathering information, or if we are lucky we might find something out by listening in the common room of the Inn we stay at over our meals.

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Cheapest Inn and Stable that has good food and service.