[Year 1, Water] No Dragonblooded Left Behind [Lighting A Fire]

Arna


"Definitely the workshops seem like the most likely destination," comments Arna. "Remember that this is also about learning the academy; the workshops are a much more important destination than the chapel will be for most students, I imagine," she continues, shrugging. Of course, I still don't fully understand the faith of the Realm, but it doesn't seem like most people are as concerned with worship, being as they all but are the objects of worship...
 
Everyone - Off To The Workshops


The workshops for the new students were attached to the main tower by a short, curving corridor covered by a framework of iron, jade, and glass so clear that it might as well not be there.


While the students had been hunting through the inside of the building, the sky had been taken over by leaden-gray clouds, and a fairly heavy snowfall was beginning, the kind that promised quite a bit of accumulation overnight.


Just as they approached the doors to the workshops, they swung open, and a pair of students stumbled out, followed by a blast of heat and the sound of hammers ringing on metal, both of which cut off as the doors swung shut again. The two newcomers - both girls, part of the first-year class - collapsed to the ground, backs to the cool glass walls and wiping sweat from their faces.


After a moment they noticed the other students, and the taller one looked up, brushing a sweaty lock of blue-white hair from a similarly-pale face. "Oh! Sorry we d-didn't see you there. I'm Nellens Lin and this - " she nudged her dusky-skinned partner, who's pink hair dotted with tiny green leaves make clear her Aspect, " - is my dorm-mate V'neef Samira. Who are all of you?"
 
Ledaal Coreen


Coreen was startled at the sudden appearance, but since they seemed amiable and Coreen herself was friendly enough for a bucket of puppies, she quickly switched to meeting-people mode. (Fortunately, this didn't involve slobber.)


"Hi, I'm Ledaal Coreen! It's really hot in there, huh? But I guess that makes sense, except usually people use artifacts and stuff to cool stuff off or move the heat elsewhere, but maybe they're broken, 'cause it's chilly in the hallways. We're from Wood Five, how about you?"
 
Tepet Arna


"Arna, nice to meet you," responds Arna briskly, politely stifling her laughter at Coreen's "energetic" greeting. "We thought we'd check around here for the Earth glyph; I take it you had a similar idea?"
 
The taciturn Ledaal Larissa is much of Syme's mind; she nods civilly to the girls, but her gaze is already roaming past them to the closed doors from which the telltale noises burst. Her fingers twitch briefly as if they grasped an implement.
 
Outside The Workshop


Lin looked rather overwhelmed by Coreen's rapid-fire greeting. "I, um, we're from Wood 3." She made a face. "Our other suitemates are trying to organize some sort of shindig, but we wanted to do a little bit of work, at least, you know?"


Samira nodded and added in a quiet, husky voice, "You would be welcome to come, later tonight? Cynis Takai - "


"One of our boy suitemates," added Lin with a waggle of the eyebrows.


Samira gave Lin a look and continued. "Cynis Takai said that a distant cousin of his would supply some 'proper victuals' tonight."


To the less-interested students, the door still beckoned.
 
Hai-Feng


With a proper bow and a simple kiss to the backs of their hands, a reaction so automatic that by the time he had caught himself doing it he had already ended up standing back and smiling the smile that made Cynis men greatly desired.


He soon cleared His throat and took a less imposing, or provocative for that matter, stance. So help me if Grandpa hears about me acting like the others. I might barely get to see him during my time here. And I don't want to end up corrupt like everyone says it makes the Cynis men. Damn


His thoughts now more so in order for his liking he greeted them both. "I am Cynis Hai Feng. A pleasure to meet you. And be careful of Takai, he can supply the proper victuals, but he also tends to spike the wines. Drink it at your own risk.", he causally shrugged as if this was everyday conversation having little to no frame of reference for normal.
 
Ledaal Coreen


"Ooh, a party? That's so cool, we'll definitely come!" chirped Coreen, having been fortunate enough to be behind Hai-Feng when he bowed. It's nice to have something so nice to look at, nice nice nice oh wait! "Um, does the party happen after lights-out?"
 
Ledaal Larissa


Since Coreen seems capable of going on indefinitely, Larissa begins edging towards the double doors, pushing them open when she gets close enough.
 
The Corridor Outside The Workshops!


Lin nodded happily at Coreen. "Yeah it's after hours, but Takai says that according to his second cousin, Sesus Sira, there's only one demon bound as Wood Hall's monitor, and he's pretty easy to get around. It's going to be in the first basement of Wood Hall, there's an unused classroom in there our suitemates are already repurposing!"


Samira tried to get up to return Hai Feng's bow, but was still too wiped from the workroom to do so. Instead, she settled for a polite nod of the head. "I thank you for your warning, Hai Feng."


The Workroom Itself


The workroom is shaped like a long rectangle sloping downwards, with a mix of benches (to watch demonstrations) and a scattering of workstations, and a single bright-burning forge - a forge that was in use. Three massive animated statues swung great sledges single-handedly, hammering at some complicated piece of red-hot metal. Pieces are removed to cool and eventually replaced, and it's clear that underneath all the glowing ironwork is the Earth sigil, but it's only being revealed a bit at a time. Even back at the entrance, the room is oppressively hot - up by the golems, where the sigil could actually be seen, it must be incredibly hot.
 
Ledaal Larissa


Larissa's eyes widen at the sight. Looking back over her shoulder, she interrupts Coreen and Hai Feng's conversation with the other students -- "You have got to see what's in here! You won't believe it!" Her expression is excited and eager, a stark contrast to her normal reserve.


She looks again at the laboring golems, and licks her lips. Fishing in her pocket for her small bag of auspicious stones, she sorts through them and picks out a quartz crystal, transparent as water and cool to the touch as if it had spent the past few hours at the bottom of a mountain stream. Putting the bag away, Larissa closes her hand firmly around the quartz as she inches closer to the glowing forge and the living statues, bright with anticipation.
 
Ledaal Coreen


"Oh, 'scuse me," said Coreen, dropping a little half-bow to her new acquaintances before ducking into the workshop. "Wow, those golems are super-neat! I wonder how old they are? Grandmother said some golems are really really ancient, like before the Dynasty ancient, but really a lot of them don't have any original parts left but the sorcery holding them together still works!"


"Whatcha doing, Larissa? Be careful not to get burned! It's like a volcano over there!"
 
The Workshop


It was, in fact, incredibly hot where the golems were working. The air rippled like a curtain as the artificial men hammered, welded, and forged, revealing the sigil only in bits and pieces. It remains to be seen whether Larissa could take the heat long enough to see everything...


------


We're gonna call it a Diet Bonfire - an environmental effect doing 4B/action, with a Trauma of 3 - meaning you need to roll more than three successes on a Stamina+Resistance roll to endure the heat for one action. If you fail, natural soak can be used (to a minimum of one die). Last for 6 actions and you'll have seen the whole thing! If you have any Resistance charms you want to make use of, do so now.
 
Ledaal Larissa


Those who would walk in the path of He Who Illuminates Both Worlds, murmurs the remembered voice of the ancient abbot,[/i] must ascend to the pinnacle of understanding before they can embody the peak. These are the three roots of the mountain...[/i]


As the air grows ever more searingly hot, Larissa feels the weight of the quartz steadying her hand. Rather than being heated by her touch, it makes her palm cool, bringing memories of alpine streams and glaciers never touched by summer's warmth.


She moves closer and closer to the forge and the sigil -- they glow brightly, but not so brightly as the sun upon fields of snow. Beside the memory of that blinding glory they are only the work of human hands, which a daughter of Pasiap is born to understand and master.


Her eyes water. Her skin begins to hurt. The scars on her back awaken again, reminding her of who she is and how she came to be.


The mountain is patient. Waves break against it, and yet the mountain endures. Wind blows upon it, and still, the mountain endures. Wood covers its slopes, yet the mountain endures beyond all trees and does not yield to the axe. Fire comes roaring, leaving smoke and ash in its wake, and always, the mountain endures.


Glittering motes of Essence explode from Larissa's skin and hair, surrounding her in a swirling corona of white and gold like sunlight on the slopes of the Mountain, making her one with the stones of the floor and the earth beneath and the pounding hammers and the automatons that wield them...


------


Stamina (3) + anima power (2) + Strength of Stone (1) + Resistance (3) + specialty (1) + Resistance Excellency (4) = 14 dice! *crosses fingers*
 
The Workshop...DEFEATED


The forges glow red, then yellow, as the golems pour on more heat as they redouble their efforts. The heat is literally blistering, but Larissa stands without flinching - an avatar of Pasiap's enduring nature. As if they were offended by her resistance, the automatons increase their speed even more. The vents at the top of the forges are screaming, smoke and ash billowing into the sky as sparks rain down from the frenetic hammering, and great gouts of steam rise from where strange metal shapes are quenched.


And Larissa endures. Her Essence settles around her, and it is as if the heat cannot touch her - she does not blister, or so much as be smudged with ash. Finally, defeated, the golems put down their hammers and stand aside.


She has won, and the Earth Sigil is revealed.


------


Larissa makes the environmental damage challenge her bitch.


14xD10: 7 6 1 6 9 3 1 4 2 3 9 3 3 2, 3 suxx


14xD10: 6 2 6 4 1 6 7 9 5 9 5 4 3 6, 3 suxx


14xD10: 1 4 2 6 10 4 5 8 3 2 7 8 6 8, 6 suxx


14xD10: 1 6 8 7 5 1 5 4 4 4 4 5 5 9, 3 suxx
 
Ledaal Larissa


Larissa fumbles in her pockets, finds no paper -- not that paper would do much good with her anima hissing and grinding around her like pebbles and sand -- and finally comes up with a piece of slate and a fragment of chalk. As she carefully draws a copy of the Earth Sigil, she glances curiously at the vanquished automata and whatever it was they were forging.
 
Tepet Arna


Arna gives Larissa a short round of applause. "Very impressive. That's our... third one? No, fourth one." Turning back to the others, Arna glanced over the group. "Anyone have any ideas where the Wood sigil might be, then? I'm guessing out in the area around the academy, like the forested area to the east. After all, it's important to know the outside, too, but I'll bet most of these students'd never step out of their labs if they didn't have to."
 
Ledaal Coreen


Coreen scrunched up her face, wiping the sweat from her forehead. "Either way, going outside seems good right now, 'cause it's really really hot in here! Besides, isn't it snowing outside? If the Wood rune is actually in the forest, we should go before it get all covered up!"
 
Ledaal Syme


Syme didn't do well in high temperatures. Being a twiggy little bookworm, he didn't do well in most temperatures really, so he was grateful for any opportunity to leave this workshop.


"I second... going outside. We should check the forest, but wood is also medicine too. If we don't see anything outside, we could always try the infirmary."
 
Hai Feng


"After all of this heat I am more than happy to cool down. Besides, I am not much of an investigator I have to admit, so I leave it to you guys."
 
On The Hunt For The Last Sigil


The Wood sigil and its challenge is probably the most obvious of the lot. The purpose of the scavenger hunt was quite clear - get the students to become familiar with the more important locales within the Heptagram - and the Wood Sigil's challenge was the goal.


Find it, in the woods to the east of the Heptagram's campus. That wouldn't even be that difficult - the sun was setting behind the heavy grey clouds, casting the forest in shadow and gloom, and making the distant green glow of the students' goal fairly obvious. Likely, it would have been rather harder to find during the day, perhaps requiring some tracking or something, but luck is apparently with the students of Wood Five.


Or, perhaps not. As the clearing is approached - and no longer in easy shouting distance of the school - it becomes clear that Wood Five isn't alone. Everyone notices a sixth figure, trailing along some distance behind the group, trying (and mostly failing) to be stealthy, though no one is sure when, exactly, he or she began following them.


Still, no matter; the sigil is right there, glowing softly on the trunk of a massive oak. Odd how the clearing is so quiet, though...and even odder is the iron chain, hidden beneath leaves and snow, with a snapped collar still speckled with blood at the end.


------


Everybody makes Per + Awareness rolls against a difficulty of 2!


Coyotekin: 5 dice, 5xD10: 2 7 10 3 3, 3 suxx


Arynne: 6 dice, 6xD10: 7 1 6 5 6 10, 3 suxx (!)


EotW: 7 dice (2 from excellency), 7xD10: 9 5 5 7 3 2 9, 3 suxx (!!)


Trowizilla: 6 dice, 6xD10: 2 7 5 4 10 6, 3 suxx (!!!)


BlondRobin: 3 dice, 3xD10: 10 9 1 (!!!!)


What the hell, guys. What the hell. Everybody sees the sixth dude or lady followin' along!
 
Ledaal Coreen


Coreen stopped herself just before waving to the person following them, her grandmother's admonishments against "treating the rest of the world like it's made of puppies," which was an actual quote except with all the swear words taken out. Plus, she'd just spotted the chain and collar, and she most certainly did not like the smell of blood that her pet breeze had just delivered.


"Um, is this creepy to anyone else?" she whispered, edging closer to Cynis Mond Haifeng in the hopes that all those muscles would be helpful against the Dangerous Unknown.
 
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