32 - Blow Your Top

[godsoffortune]

Who: Everyone!
What: A volcano eruption threatens the Western District
When: Jan 14 - 16
Where: The Western District of the Heavens
Summary: The Western District volcano is erupting again, endangering nearby temples and sending ash sprinkling down across the Heavens. Is it natural, or another attack? Those who dare climb the volcano can find out.






Earthquake Warning

On the morning of the 14th, an earthquake rattles windows throughout the Heavens. It's not strong enough to knock down buildings -- unless they're about to fall down anyway, like some of the older abandoned temples -- but it's strong enough to knock things off shelves and startle any late sleepers out of bed.

After the earthquake, strange sights abound around the Heavens. The poetic koi are swimming in organized schools in all of the canals, heading upstream towards the east. Springs of pure water burst out in some areas, and in others, normal springs or fountains have gone temporarily dry. Blue and green lights bob and weave across the landscape.

Falling Rock

The volcano begins erupting with a roar and a bright scarlet glow on the horizon. Ash and bits of rock fall across the Western district, and may even reach into the Southwest, Northwest and southern Central districts. Volcanic glass fibers that look like golden hair collect on trees, fences and buildings.

Trails and fountains of lava are also erupting from freshly opened fissures and wending down the sides of the volcano. Gods and shinki who live in the Western District are going to need some help clearing ash and glass from their roofs, trying to re-route lava flows (the good news is, if you cool one side down enough, you can turn them! the bad news is, that takes a lot of work) or just offering them a spare room to stay until things calm down.

Swamp Gas

It's not just lava and springwater erupting from mysterious new crevasses -- and it's not just mundane volcanic gases, either. Divine volcanic vents are blowing mind-altering fumes all over the Heavens. Anywhere across the Far Shore, but especially as characters get closer to the volcano, they may experience one or more of the following effects:

• Confusion
• Intense emotions
• Anger and irritability
• Impulsive behavior, loss of emotional control
• Hallucinations
• Unusually clear insight into other people and situations
• Coughing, eye and throat irritation, difficulty breathing
• Irresistible impulses to speak in poetry

Most symptoms will clear up after a few hours in fresh air, and all of them will be gone within 48 hours of the last volcano gas exposure.

Mountain Climbing

Natural disasters don't just happen like this in the Heavens... do they? Amaterasu's white-robed shinki are convinced that something is wrong, and they're organizing into search parties to go up the mountain and seek out the cause of this eruption. New and old gods and shinki are welcome to join them, or form their own groups. All of the hazards -- tremors, lava, ash, and volcanic gas -- will get worse as characters ascend the volcano. Strange little spirit flames, in shades of red and blue, dance on the rocks, dazzling, confusing and threatening to singe interlopers.

And there's someone up here, too. A mysterious figure with glowing red eyes is keeping watch on the intruders and vanishing behind boulders whenever someone turns his way. He won't let anyone traveling with one of the white-robed shinki get too close, but solitary gods or shinki might manage to lure him into conversation, if they try....

OOC: Please comment to the 'NPC REQUEST' thread below in order to talk to the mysterious figure on the volcano.

Those climbing the volcano will have a chance to battle the mysterious figure should their characters choose to do so. If you're interested in a fight, please comment to the 'NPC FIGHT' thread below before the top-level is posted. A top-level for the fight will go up on IC Jan 16/OOC Sept 4.

In Summary:

• Don't get rattled
• Help out the Western District with their volcano problem
• Watch out for volcanic gases
• Find out who's behind the eruption
• Have fun~

Comments

Falling Rock

[hellskitchen]

Rin can help with both evacuating and defending the safe zone from falling debris. He comes to the area prepared to help as well. So when he spots Suzaku, he feels like he remembers him from a while ago. Though he doesn't mention it right away as Suzaku points out that the lava is coming closer.

"All right! I'll check to make sure no one is left behind." There were a bunch of temples in the area. It'll take time to check all of them, but he's glad that someone else is there to lighten the load. "I'll come back here. We're going to need to stop the lava, at some point."

Maybe put up some sort of barrier to prevent the magma from seeping in. They're going to need more hands to pull that off as well.

[swordofzero]

Suzaku recognises his voice, they had spoken on the the Bullitin board a while ago. "I'll come with you. Two of us will cover more ground and we should stick in at least pairs."

Going off on their own was a sure fire way of getting killed. Pair up, stick together, do a sweep of all the temples in the area.

"Getting people out is the priority." Temples can be rebuilt, they have to make sure there are no gods or shinki stuck anywhere.

[hellskitchen]

Stick in pairs? It sounds reasonable. So Rin nods his head, willing to go along with Suzaku's lead. To make sure he understands everything, he repeats everything back to the older shinki. "Stick together, search the temples and the main priority is getting people out. I gotcha."

There's no time to delay, so Rin starts walking toward the nearest temple, beckoning Suzaku to follow him. From the outside, the doors of temple appear to be wide open. As if someone burst out of the entrance, and didn't bother to turn back close the door. "They may not be inside, but let's quickly take a look around."

Rin doesn't recognize the temple, so he has no idea who it belongs to. Still, he feels a little weird entering someone's temple without permission or knowing who they are. However, he gets over it since it's a crisis. The temple only seems to be only one level, so they can easily pass through.

[swordofzero]

It does feel strange entering a temple without permission but this is an emergency and could potentially save lives. Suzaku looked around, opening doors to check no one was in any of the rooms.

"If anyone is here we need to evacuate this area."

It was not too likely that anyone would be purposefully not leaving. But some of the gods and shinki were young and fear might cause them to hide.

[hellskitchen]

Rin starts looking under things because you never know. For the most part, he doesn't come across anyone, but he does have this feeling that the temple isn't quite empty. He continues to search, going through some of the rooms that Suzaku hasn't checked. He then gets a thought to search in the bathroom. Sometimes, when there's a fire, people tend to run to the bathtub. Maybe because it's a place where they can surround themselves with water.

So Rin decides to check there, and he does find someone sitting inside the tub. It appears to be a woman with their knees up against their chest, looking afraid to come out. He then calls out to Suzaku. "Over here! I found someone!"

He then turns back to the woman and tries to calm her down. "Everything's all right. We're just tryna evacuate the temples. It's not safe here."

[swordofzero]

Suzaku rushes over when Rin calls out. When he gets to the bathroom he pauses at the door. He doesn't want to rush in and frighten the woman more so than she is.

"If you follow us we will take you somewhere safer, there are plenty of gods who have opened their temples to those displaced by the volcano."

[hellskitchen]

The woman lifts her head up, and she does seem a bit startled. Though she seems to be calming down a little, her shoulders that were up her ears seems to ease down. She starts getting up to exit the tub. Rin tries his best to smile encouragingly, but he can't say he's really good at comforting other when they are afraid.

At least, Suzaku's polite yet stern tone seems to give the woman some confidence in them. Rin brings up the rear as they lead the woman out of the temple. "Everything is gonna be fine. Everyone is doin' their best! You'll see! Everything will be back to normal before you know it!"

[swordofzero]

Suzaku led the way through the temple. Luckily it didn't seem that the earthquake had been strong enough to destabilise any of the buildings, the greater danger came from the approaching lava.

The woman seemed to calm as they led her out. It must have been frightening being alone and not knowing what was going on.

"People are gathering not too far away, you will be safe there."

[hellskitchen]

Once they leave the temple, the woman takes one last look at her temple, before listening to Suzaku's instructions. She then starts to run in the direction of the refuge. Rin is curious about what's going on. Wondering how much time they had left to make sure all the temples in the area have evacuated.

He then turns to Suzaku after making sure the woman will be fine. "I guess we don't have time to be standin' around. We gotta go to the next one."

Rin beckons the other forward as he runs over to the next temple.

[swordofzero]

Suzaku watched the woman as she ran, making sure she was heading the right way and there was no danger to her on the path. He nodded at Rin's words and followed the other boy keeping his eyes out for any stragglers outside the temples. The streets seemed pretty deserted though, everyone had left.

"Same again, a quick sweep of the place before we move on."

[hellskitchen]

"All right!" Rin starts heading over the neighboring temple. He quickly looks into each room. He doesn't really see any signs of people, but they have to be certain no one's there.

"Sorry for barging in! But if anyone's still here, speak up!" Rin exclaims, but no one seems to be responding, and there doesn't seem to be anyone inside. He turns to Suzaku to share his findings. "I don't think anyone's here."

[swordofzero]

Suzaku had checked a few of the more obvious hiding places, cupboards, behind the sofa. "Looks like it's clear." He nodded and headed for the door.

"I'm hoping that most people have evacuated already.

[hellskitchen]

Rin follows after him. If they both come up empty, then they probably shouldn't waste any more time there. It's true what Suzaku says, maybe people already left. Though he thinks back to that woman hiding in the bathtub of her temple. There might be a chance that other people are hiding out in their temples too.

"I hope so, but I know we both won't be satisfied until we make sure ourselves. Let's go to the next one."

[swordofzero]

"Yes, we should check them all." If there was even a chance someone was hiding inside rather than evacuating. Suzaku wouldn't risk leaving anyone in danger.

He led the way to the next temple and opened the door. "Hello is anyone here?"