EVENT ★ POKAREKARE ANA

[futurologists]

NALANNI Now as weak as any mortal, Nalanni only needs one person to dispatch her. Though Jason has been selected for the sad deed, it would be smart not to let him go it alone. Once Nalanni ceases to be, the ground quakes and roils. The planet's rock and earth can feel the loss of its mother, and with Ryba still living, the power imbalance throws the world into turmoil. Monsters stream forth from the cave Nalanni had been held on the risen Dakal island. But unlike before, when Pomarr blew through the side of Nalalona and left lava creatures in her wake, these monsters are made of stone. And they are gigantic. Ranging from five to nine meters (roughly 16-30 feet), the stone golems are slow-moving but powerful, capable of crushing anything in their path with their feet or powerful fists. The golems cannot be spoken to or reasoned with; all they feel is the loss of their mother and the vacuum of power she has left behind. Their mindless anger makes them easily distracted, so teamwork is the best way to keep them at bay. Roughly formed of rock and hardened mud, they are weak to water. Luckily, halfway through the day, a light rain begins to fall. The golems will continue to come forth from the earth until Ryba is defeated. Upon her death, they will simply collapse into inert piles of stone. RYBA THE DEVOURING ONE Pomarr stays true to her word and draws the sea goddess to the shore of the deserted island that once housed the Dakal. Without comment, Pomarr turns and steps into an ALASTAIR rift, leaving your team to its business. Ryba is impossibly large, a mass of twisting, searching tentacles with no discernible body. She is especially weak to electrical attacks, but can otherwise be defeated by simply wearing her down with brute force. Now that you've got your collective powers back, it should be a piece of cake. Right? ATTACKS: TENTACLES. Ryba's initial attack is waving her massive, numerous tentacles around to try and keep combatants at bay. Despite their size, they are surprisingly quick -- capable of snapping at anyone who dares get too close, whiplike, or simply crushing those who stay still for too long. Her tentacles are seemingly endless, impossible to count, and move about in a nearly hypnotic way. THE STORM. After enough damage has been dealt, Ryba will grow more desperate and begin to use her connections to the sea itself. Though the battle is near the shore, sudden winds whip at the recruits, pulling them away from the shallows. Drowning becomes a real danger: the waves are high and fast, and intensely swirling waterspouts crisscross with intent to sweep recruits up, scrambling them. SHARKNADO. Ryba's last-ditch effort calls upon the creatures of the sea as well as the wind and waves. She creates a swirling vortex with her massive body in the center in attempts to shield herself from attacks. But that's not all -- spinning around her at high speeds with the vortex are sharks. A lot of sharks. And they are all angry. If characters attempt to speak with Ryba through the battle, she will respond in a calm, dark voice throughout: she has nothing to say to the invaders who would dare take her from the peace of her trench, except that they must destroy her or she will kill them all herself, before the world crumbles to nothing. Once Ryba is defeated, her massive body will simply cease moving. Goddess or not, it seems her form is as physical as any other creature of the sea. ISLANDERS During the day-long battle, characters who choose not to fight are advised to stay behind with the Nalawi to keep them safe. Though the battle rages far to the west, on the once-sunken island of the Dakal, the storms may travel to the westernmost edges of the Nalawi islands. Recruits may attempt to temporarily evacuate the westernmost Nalawi, though there may be considerable resistance. After the battle, the Nalawi can instantly tell that their goddess is gone for good. Where there was once confusion and desperation in the face of Nalanni's disappearance, there is now only sorrow and directionlessness. All recruits are invited to return to Komo, the first island at the start of the mission, for a somber memorial for Nalanni: the Nalawi don't blame the recruits for what has happened, and only expect them to join in their grief. For the rest of the time on Nalawi, characters may spend their time as they wish. The locals will need help learning how to cope without their Gifts and how to live without the goddess on whom they had come to rely. They will need help learning all sorts of trades, from fishing to pottery to plumbing, so characters who have knowledge in the mundane will have their time to shine. But the Timeline is always in need of tending, so recruits can't stay here forever. Say your goodbyes, because soon a rift will open and you'll be headed back to Oska. OOC INFO Mods will not be NPCing the Ryba encounter, so you are free to NPC her attacks yourself. Please remember that defeating her is a group effort; no one person will have the "killing blow." The battle against Ryba will take one full day. After she is defeated, recruits will have 13 days to say goodbye to the Nalawi before departing for Oska. If characters wish to temporarily stay behind in Nalawi, see here for details.

Comments

[grunehexe]

[In her own world, magic had been a science. Things were all related, cause and effect, and she had known what things caused what reaction, what amounts and what circumstances... even now, she approached magic in the way she always had.

But what she was doing was a horrible hodgepodge of magics from different worlds, something only enabled by ALASTAIR's gift, and she knew that no matter how careful she was, it was still the equivalent of mixing unknown chemicals and hoping they didn't blow up. It was for that reason that she always carefully tested her cobbled together spells, studied and worked them out proper, but... desperate times.

She was still holding her breath, unaware of the bead of sweat tracing down the back of her neck as the out of focus sea was slowly replaced with brief, shaky glimpses of faces- recruits... but just standing, waiting. For something... darkness, a tunnel, a flicker of flame, feet on stone-

That shook and faded into nothing, the image disappearing as the sphere slowly reverted to merely what it was, empty, leaving Sieglinde feeling drained and somewhat dizzy, half collapsing back, catching herself on a palm as she cursed under her breath. Was that the extent of her own power? Was something interfering? Was the lens not suitable for such a spell? She couldn't know just yet.]

I know they say scrying is a vague discipline, but...

[evantuality]

[Evan had focused with such intense interest on the images that teased from within the milky orb that his brow had slowly furrowed. By the time the last one fluttered and dissipated he was squinting and leaning towards the orb, as if it were simply a phone screen held too far away from his face.

He looked up in time to see Seiglinde waver and slump. He exclaimed in dismay and surged forward in his kneel to try and catch her, thinking she was falling, but she caught herself and he went to take the orb instead. She was so young, which was something he was getting better at seeing past, but just then she looked her age especially. God, it was such insanity that there were children along on a mission like this, that ALASTAIR was recruiting preteens.

Staring at her worriedly, he shook his head.]

I mean, we did just get our powers back. Maybe it takes a while for them to -- to settle in. [But that didn't quite ring true to how he felt, and his frown deepened.] Or perhaps it just takes a while to get back into the swing of it?

[He turned, taking one of the cups they'd borrowed from the Nalawi for the first-aid tent and dipped it full of sterilized water, offering it to the young witch.]

Are you alright?

[grunehexe]

Perhaps that is it...

[Sieglinde, for all she strove to present herself the way she had always been expected to- not as a child, but as the Green Witch, as someone women twice, thrice, and more her age had always relied on in her own village... She saw little point in putting on an act over something like this, gratefully accepting the cup of water and taking a sip, other hand rising to rest against her forehead a moment, closing her eyes against a lingering dizziness.]

I am fine- I just... Have only studied the spell on paper before, it was my first chance to put it to practical use.

[ALASTAIR may have granted her the ability to use the spells and magics of other worlds, but it didn't come naturally at all. It required study, an understanding of how the natives used it in order to then adapt it to the sort of ritualistic casting she was more used to, resulting in Frankenstein spells not as powerful as they could be... But they could get the job done.]

Magic has to be paid for- that's all.

[Nothing could be accomplished without paying the price, and she simply paid it in her own energy, tiring along with her spell use. Perhaps she'd not put enough effort into it, or put in too much... The fine tuning would have to come later, though. A battle was no time for it.]

[evantuality]

That seems like a very inconvenient price to be exacting right now.

[Evan was frowning, worried. Heavy on his mind now was Sieglinde's youth as well as her position as the head doctor in this makeshift first aid station. That was still an odd thought to him, but as far as he was concerned she'd already proven her chops as a better doctor than he, and no one of a more appropriate age had shown up. It wouldn't do to lose her to exhaustion before the fight even got started.

He took the orb, wiping its surface dry with his hand as best he could and going to tuck it back into the satchel. He was buzzing with questions about the spell, about its toll on her, but now did not seem the time, not when she looked so pale.]

Maybe best to focus on preparation right now. Is there anything left to set up?

[grunehexe]

It shall return... it seems we have some time.

[After all, if the brief glimpses of what they'd seen in the orb were any indication, the battle with Ryba had yet to start... Nalanni might yet be alive... for better or for worse. How much time that might mean they had, though... that she couldn't know for sure.]

- Until then, let us make sure we have sufficient anti-bacterial in the case our healers exhaust themselves.

[The terminology was still new even if the science wasn't, a bit awkwrd on her tongue but she was getting used to it.

As much as Sieglinde appreciated magic, relied on it for things science could not provide so quickly, she wasn't about to reject what she'd grown up doing and what it could do... even with magic, there were times it was needed. When magic wasn't available to them. When it was, but someone was not so wounded as to need immediate treatment, saving the magical energy for others not so lucky.

With a small sigh, more from disappointment that her spell hadn't proved as useful as she'd hoped than anything else, Sieglinde rustled in her skirts and came up with a bag of native snacks... well, balls of foul smelling seaweed. Wrinkling her nose, she popped one in her mouth and forced herself to chew- nutrition and energy was worth the awful taste in times like these.]

And once we are done with all of this, let us have a look at that eye.

[Until then, though- They had a lot of work to do.]