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

[letteropener]

[She pulls herself back to the here and now with a force of will, her wingbeats strengthening as she works to rise over the worst of the ash.] Not only that, but harder to breathe. The sulfur in the air is incredible.

[priforprince]

[ Hibiki holds a hand to her own face to try and ward off some of it. The stench....

But this, too, is but a thorn in the path which Shikyoin Hibiki must tread. ] Our quarry should be moving on the mountain's surface....

[ So as long as they can both still make out that...they should be fine. Hibiki squints. Hibiki is an expert squinter. She has been squinting for the past ten years. ]

[letteropener]

We think, at least. It is a good place to start. Hibiki, do hold on tight!

[A veritable cloud of ash and smoke is coming right for them -- but being indeed a cloud, she can manage it readily enough. Her warning given, Celestia twists in midair, then lashes out with her rear hooves to kick the cloud into dissolution.]

[priforprince]

Hh.

[ Hibiki hunches over Celestia's back, heeding the warning. No mount has ever thrown her before, and it shan't be one this magnificent!

Now - break through! To yet-unseen heights!! ]

[letteropener]

[Celestia breaks through! Directly forward into the breach! Without putting on any height!]

[Actually she descends slightly! So they have a better view!]

[This is the downside of free-willed mounts!]

[priforprince]

[ .....Well.

It's.

Easier to breathe, anyway?

Hibiki keeps her body low over Celestia's back, but begins focusing on tracking any movement upon the volcano's surface. Somewhere. Somewhere.

It's a pity she only has the one butterfly. ]

[letteropener]

Oh dear. [Celestia's thoughts are elsewhere, as is her gaze, as she spots a fresh vent spilling lava out down a new pathway.]

That one is going to be trouble. We must come back to it soon, or else it will reach the temples.

[priforprince]

That far?

[ Hibiki tracks what Celestia's seeing, and....it's true. She pulls out her tablet and punches in some commands.

A bunch of spygoats start pushing a wall towards the volcano. ]

[letteropener]

[Given their earlier performance -- Celestia is not sure what to say. She slows her midair pace once again, watching their progress to make sure they do not all melt into uselessness or run away again.]

[priforprince]

[ The wall stems the lava flow!! The goats hold firm!!

....The lava begins oozing around the sides of the wall.

Hibiki can be heard making irritated noises against the backs of her teeth. Had she already succeeded in revolutionizing the Far Shore and therefore fully bringing in PriPara's (easily-manipulated-by-genius) system, all her plans would work. ]

[letteropener]

I... am not certain those goats are good at solving this particular problem.

[Please pick up the very gently-implied criticism, Hibiki; this is all so very awkward.]

[priforprince]

.....

[ .... ]

....Let's tackle this side event.

[ Hibiki can't bring herself to let temples be endangered. But no one will ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever,

EVER

hear her say that.




ever. ]

[letteropener]

[And yet Celestia seems to take it as a matter of course.]

We indeed should. Have you an idea?

[Celestia sweeps here wings back, dropping them into a slow descent towards the glowing streams of lava. Her plan is, of course, magic and power -- so best to let Hibiki offer her suggestions first, so she can accommodate them.]

[priforprince]

If barricading [ she may have just wanted to say that word ] won't work, then....

[ Hibiki puts a hand to her chin, thinking. If this were PriPara, she'd construct an all-encompassing protective shield around the area she wished to preserve. That route is closed to her here, but what others are open...?

Wait. Open...open...The lava had found a way around her wall - it can be diverted.... ]

Steal its options.

[letteropener]

Redirect it. [Celestia nods her agreement, understanding this to be what Hibiki means.]

Scout me a path!

[She rears back slightly, gathering power in her horn to unleash in a radiant bolt that churns up the ground in a slash just in front of the lava's path. As dirt and rocks fly about chaotically, the lava spills over the new trench's lip, welling up inside.]

[priforprince]

Leave everything involving directions to me!

[ Even though Hibiki is taking this seriously, there's always time to grandstand.

And, in this moment - ] Send it left!

[ Her gaze flicks across the scenery, instantly intuiting the safest route. Ad-lib depends on a moment's judgment. She excels. ]

[letteropener]

[Wings outspread to their fullest extent, Celestia banks left, the beam of light plowing a deep furrow through the earth for the lava to follow. Unlike her rider, she is not intentionally grandstanding; she is merely a large, powerful alicorn, the Princess of the Day, and as such tends to be inherently elegant.]

[priforprince]

[ So does Hibiki, much of the time - but why do what one can overdo?

She watches the path form, scouting ahead with her eyes. ] Curve it there. There's a depression it can fill.

[ And then just be a little lava lake, of no danger to anybody. ]

[letteropener]

Excellent eye! [She is glad she asked Hibiki's help. (No, really. She is. Honestly. Why is that so strange?) With grace, she banks in midair once more, the bolt from her horn swooping around to lead the lava into that dip.] If the flow is not long, that should suffice!

[priforprince]

Indeed. [ Hibiki checks the lava flow, a faint dubious hint in her voice until she can confirm that this will hold. Even though she knows it was the best possible plan, being a plan she thought up, Hibiki is not always known for her optimism that anything but her - including physics and the ground itself - knows what they're doing.

Still, the coast looks clear. She breathes out. ]

Haphazard and unfortunate. Like this Heaven itself....

[ She had plans for today, and this pity party is warranted. ]

[letteropener]

You could not be a hero without a crisis. [She tries to offer what support she can, even as she works to raise the rim of the crater so that it can accommodate more lava.] Hibiki, I am loathe to suggest this, but perhaps we must split our efforts.

[priforprince]

Divide and conquer, hm?

[ Hibiki considers this. Celestia can do many things she can't. She can do many things Celestia can't. That's how they were able to stop the lava.

But. The most fitting tools must be used for each project, and the sight of Celestia may surprise Hibiki's quarry....And Hibiki knows she's less able to prevent damage. Illusion powers hold no sway over an unseeing, unhearing force. ]

Agreed. Let's pursue our common goal from the angles best suited to us.

[letteropener]

I shall contain the lava. You seek and quell the cause. They shall face us together... just not physically. [Celestia chuckles just a little, amused at the thought.]

[priforprince]

An admirable duet. [ Hibiki tends more along the lines of "small, immensely self-satisfied sniffing", but, yes, to each their own. ]

...Then, deposit me there.

[ She's found a place where the rocks are all still solid and it doesn't look like there should be too many vents scattered about. ]

[letteropener]

[Celestia tucks in her wings, swooping down in a rush to the pointy Hibiki indicated. Despite the sudden speed, she remains a solid and stable presence beneath the woman, never putting her in the slightest danger of slipping.]