Fantasy Mountain Magic Mayhem (Luc/Sazz)

[Anshelical]

Vine made his last pull on the rope count, walking his squat legs toward Milianor. "Ngh!" He threw his hand forward. "Here!"

"If he comes out alive," Erro said, "Don't do anything silly, Iso." And when he didn't get a response, he pursed his lips and sighed. "Please. We're trying to get out of here."

"You don't understand," Iso said. "Diger was more than a friend to me, so you don't."

 

[St. Clover]

One flail. Two flail. On the third flail Milianor managed to grab the man's hand and held on for dear life. Her grip was more akin to an industrial vice than any living thing. She wasted no time in surging forward with one last bit of effort to all but leap up to safety. The moment she felt safe, solid ground beneath her feet she collapsed to her knees, depositing the man as carefully on the ground as she could. She then joined him on the cold, grassy stone as she heaved out the breath she'd held those last few seconds.

"Oh... Shit..."

 

[Anshelical]

"Haaa!" Vine caught himself with the last pull, dropping the rope. Erro released the rope and unhooked it, throwing it down toward them. What a save!

Liernoine laid in the most comfortable position his unconsciousness knew how, and with Milianor's steady care, he was able to ease a bit from a long period of awkward posture. Iso glared down at this weary celebration, wondering why his comrades, or so as such he thought, could not work as hard as they did here for their own.

"She might not bite after all," he said, watching Erro climb down to them. "Considering she'd save anyone."

"Great job, leader," Erro said, then smirked to the dragonborn. "And Miss."

"This..." Vine said. "Well done."

 

[St. Clover]

Milianor waved a hand. "Just... Doing my job. Thank me later when you guys have something to... Drink," she panted out, throwing her arm over her eyes as the adrenaline in her system gradually faded. "...Wait."

She stopped her panting for a second and rewound what she had just heard.

"...Okay, no, I'm good. Thought I heard a bubbling-" She didn't get more than a few words out before she bolted onto her elbow, and puked out a mixture of sapphire blue fluid and her lunch.

 

[Anshelical]

"Ngh?" Erro cringed in disgust. Vine beside him suppressed an inner fascination as he gazed to the vomit. "Here," he glanced over both shoulders for his satchel then shuffled to it, squatting as he pulled out a canister of water. He then handed it over to Milianor. "Need some water?"

Erro stepped back, watching the rocks below with each step and glanced up at Iso, who crouched and stared afar.

 

[St. Clover]

Nothing came from the dragonborn initially, save for an unnatural torrent of increasingly blue fluid. Once her system was thoroughly cleansed of the stuff, Milianor wretched and coughed. She snatched the offered canteen without a word and jammed it into her snout. Turning the thing skyward, she gulped down as much of the water as she could in a single go. When she finished nearly a third of the contents were gone, and she flopped heavily onto the ground, heaving.

"Oh gods... I freaking hate... Heights," she complained, wiping her mouth of the excess water and arcane fluid from her little incident.

 

[Anshelical]

"Didn't seem like..." Vine huffed. "Didn't seem like it. You were brave, Miss." He rolled his head back to Erro. "Get another canister. I'm thirsty." And Erro went to do so, slinging to his wrist his satchel abandoned at the jagged rock edge above and pulled out the half-useful canister. "'Bout empty."

Liernoine felt the cold ground through his hair locks, drifting to wake as wind chilled his eyelashes. His thoughts clouded without awareness.

 

[St. Clover]

Milianor shook her head weakly. "Bravery and fear go hand in hand, usually. Least in my experience," she groaned out. "Scared to death of something, but face it anyway cause it's gotta be done. Rescuing people from an angry imp or from the side of a mountain, makes no difference. Though I'd be lying if I said the first wasn't pretty fun. Y'know, when there's not a whole bunch of 'em anyway."

 

[Anshelical]

"So you're like a warden of this area," Erro said. "Good thing you were here." He raised his eyebrows to Vine, who rested a fist on his hip as he quaffed the long-awaited quench. Erro nodded, "And Lier will really be the one thanking you."

Iso huffed, strolling down to the rest of them, but proceeded with caution still, glancing to the place where Liernoine slipped in the first place.

 

[St. Clover]

"Not from around here my dude, not by a long shot," the dragonborn explained. "Was actually the reason I found this place to begin with. Was trying to use that stupid thing over there," She waved towards the ritual site. "to make a way home. Was doing a job earlier today in the Quarantine Zone, got caught in the middle of a... Something. Planar hiccup I guess you could call it. One second I'm in the sewers, wading through waist high ooze, the next I'm falling into a pool of water."

 

[Anshelical]

"'Stupid thing,' huh?" Vine said.

"So you've come a long way," Erro nodded. "Where are you from? No..." He chuckled. "What's your name? We never introduced ourselves."

"Is he awake?" Iso said.

Vine turned his head to Liernoine lying flat, his eyes open halfway with no blink. "Can't tell."

 

[St. Clover]

Milianor cracked open an orange eye, regarding the man briefly. "...Depends, you want the full title or just my given name?" she asked. "People usually call me Scales, sort of a nickname at the Guild. Name's Milianor, though. Sort of weird, but it's the best you're gonna get. Draconic doesn't translate well into Common... And he better be awake. Or alive at least. Otherwise I'm dragging his ass to a cleric and we're having a long discussion about falling off cliffs and dying like punks."

 

[Anshelical]

"Haa," Erro scoffed. "Looks like we're gonna have the talk. He's not awake."

"Mghn," Liernoine shut his eyes tight and returned them wide, staring to the sky. "I'm awake."

"Hurrah!" Vine raised the empty canister. "No talk!" He ambled over and extended his hand to the awoken, who took a light grab back and sat up. Iso stood to the side, contemplating.

"Well, it was good you were here, Milianor," Erro said. "Hopefully we wont' have to trouble you again."

Liernoine turned over his shoulder to the new voice, but then grimaced as agony shot down his neck and spine. "Ack," he rested his hand over his neck.

"You hurt?" Vine said.

"Oh yeah..." But, this agony was simply in the way of his ambitions, one he just caught sight of that brief moment. He pulled his legs in and tried to turn his torso, trying to avoid a peep, but his grimaces showed.

"Hey, hey. Take your time." Vine shook the canister, but woe, remembered he drunk every drop.

 

[St. Clover]

Hearing the agonized sounds coming from the unfortunate Liernoine, Milianor waved her hand in the air. "Probably got a spinal injury, nothing too serious from the fact you're moving. Won't leave it go, though. Someone go get my satchel, will you? Sitting by the... What was the ritual site," she groaned out. "Have a couple things in there that might help. And yeah, no, you're definitely troubling me again. I'm not letting any of you out of here unguarded. One of you slipped off and died I wouldn't be able to live with myself."

 

[Anshelical]

Vine swatted his hand. "Erro, go. Now." And he smiled to Milianor as Erro rolled his eyes to Vine's excitement, going to retrieve the satchel. Vine said, "Oh, your assistance is much needed. Even though I'm supposed to be the leader of this band, I still need a second eye... and these three don't have any."

Liernoine felt an immediate purge of guilt, hearing Milianor's inability to live if someone died in her care. That could had been him, just like Diger, where he was too busy trying to defend the band from a hungry dragon with his flawed fire spells. And Iso seemed to tie the feelings with him, staring at each dirt hair lock at the back of Lier's head.

"I sincerely thank you, Miss," Liernoine said.

"It's Milianor," Vine said. "Right?"

 

[St. Clover]

The dragonborn nodded, groaning when she felt the storm in her stomach rumble again. Above them the thunder clapped, albeit weaker this time. "Yeah, that's right. Draconic for 'Little Spark'. Parents apparently meant for it to be endearing... Turns out it was a curse instead," she complained. "And you." She pointed a finger in Lier's direction. "Watch where you step from now on. Got it?"

 

[Anshelical]

Liernoine wanted to blame Iso for bumping into him, but he admitted with a nod. "I'll try." He could had tried harder to save himself, but he needed the time to rejuvenate after using all that energy on the dragon, and thus marred his ability to even catch his fall.

"'Little Spark,'" Vine nodded. "Anything endearing is fit for fearing."

Erro stretched his hand out with Milianor's satchel, approaching. "This one?"

 

[St. Clover]

Cracking her other eye open at the question, Milianor gazed out to see the item in question. About the size of a fanny pack and made of old, faded leather with steel claps on every conceivable surface. Yep, that was it. "Yeah, toss it over here and I'll see what I can do," she said. "Have a couple things that might help with that wound." She turned her attention to Vine. "You'd be right to fear it, alright. Magic may be stunted but I can still hurl fireballs and cut a bitch," she explained, raising her hand to emphasize her point.

Her claws abruptly pushed through the fingertips of her glove, parting the material.

 

[Anshelical]

Vine agreed with a chuckle, and Iso jumped to the claw's contraction with his eyes turned from it, while Erro tossed the satchel past him to Milianor.

"Oh," Vine rolled his eyes. "Never said our names. I'm Vinereté, but everyone calls me Vine for short. The man of the hour here is Liernoine -- or just Lier. Over there, Iso, and the satchel saver, Erro." Erro greeted with the raise of his hand.

Liernoine still kept the task of their journey at the back of his mind. "Miss, do you k--"

"It's Milianor," Vine said.

"... Milianor, do you know anything about the Dragon Stones buried in these ranges?"

 

[St. Clover]

Catching her satchel from the air, Milianor plopped it down in her lap and sat up to get to work. She unbuckled the main latch and opened it, rummaging around the contents quickly. "Dragon Stones?" she asked, pausing when she found what she sought.

Withdrawing a steel cylinder with a dark blue plastic button on the top, the dragonborn eagerly regarded her prize.

"Hey, slopes-mc-falls-a-lot, get over here. Gonna administer some righteous first aid to that bruise of yours," she declared. Then shook her head. "No, never heard of 'em. Why? They part of some dragon cult or something?"

 

[Anshelical]

Liernoine, after experimenting this whole time on his pain triggers with subtle movements, picked himself up with Vine's assistance and approached Milianor. "Something like that -- more like a legend of magic larcenists."

"She wouldn't know," Vine said. "She's not from here."

"She's not?"

"Yeah. Said it while you were out."

Iso sighed. "T-They're more than larcenists. They're folk larcenists, breeding some sort of family feud between each other. Each stone was the heritages, right?" He eyed Erro, the historian, for confirmation but earned a stale stare.

"They were," Liernoine said. "These Dragon Stones rumored about here were used for exchanging the magic among the families and alchemizing them into more breeds of spells, including for each diverse family member tree. But..." He swished his lip. "We're just here on behalf of our city to investigate it as all. And I think we've seen enough already."

"Yeah." Iso muttered. "We have."

 

[St. Clover]

"Sounds like some wicked crazy magic," Milianor commented as the man approached, prompting her to take the bottom cap off the cylinder. A thin needle appeared briefly, before retracting into the cylinder. "Turning stones into spells... I think that's what they're for? Or did I not catch it right? Also, sit down here. Anywhere you prefer to get injected? Neck or the arm's best, but some folks are mighty squeamish, gotta be careful, y'know?"

 

[Anshelical]

"Arm's good," Liernoine said. "I'm not quite the squeamish type, hmhm."

"Well, I think it's the family authorities passing down these magical stones to extend the alchemy heirarchy," Vine raised his head to the clouds above. "And they're somehow breaking these ties -- the heirarchy -- with the other families to use them for themselves." He swerved to Erro. "Hey, historian, get talking. This is your job."

"What else do I say? You all said it for me."

 

[St. Clover]

"Right, right. Just making sure," Milianor nodded as she reached out to take the man's arm. Unlike before her was infinitely smoother now, much more human like in its strength. She eyed a spot on his bicep for several seconds before pressing the cylinder against the muscle. "Going to press the switch and you're gonna feel like a bee stung you, okay? That's the needle. Afterwards the serum inside's gonna be administered, and unless your wounds are really bad, it should help patch you up. I got healing salve and patches for the fine tuning, and a couple potions if we really need 'em. With me so far?"

Her attention then diverted to the others. "Well, if that's what you're looking for, good luck. All I found out here was a place of power. Well, was... Not so sure how intact it is now, though."

 

[Anshelical]

"Still with you," Liernoine said. "Go ahead. And thanks for doing this."

"Damn it," Vine pinched his nose bridge. "Well, thanks for trying. You looked like you were from here considering there's a whole bunch of troublesome critters. Well, not that you're troublesome, though. You're the only critter who's wanted to help us so far."

"C-Critter." Iso mocked.