• Event • The Orange Crush

[Winston]

Leaf kaiyote

The Clinic was doing all it could to treat the burns victims, but they were numerous and infection was a high risk. Most people that got serious burns in the Dust Quarter would normally simply die.

"Jost tell me what yuh need

James

, mun."

The man considered his wish list for a moment before speaking.

"Clean places for people to go and something to treat burns... on mass. Like some Yellow Dragon Tree Leaves or something."

That rang a bell inside the little ferret's head...

"Yellow Dragon Trees?"

"Yeah, they treat burns really well."

The young man explained, as he counted out the few remaining clean rags they had to hand.

"We gat dem en Sweetsang, me shar af et. Dem grow all ova Scalvaris."

He replied with excitement.

The medic's eye's lit up.

"Can you get some?"

His words suggested that he might bight off Winston's arm if he could.

"Yuh, mun, Saiore willing, me cun."

The expression of relief on the man's face was explosive as he patted the ferret on the back.

"You're a gorram god-send."

And he left to tend to his patients as best he could as Winston set about asking

Alex

to liase with the Order of Adunih and begin to get some supplies of the Leaves gathered ready for collection from Scalvaris Town.

As he filled in Praetorum on his plan as he received Vivian's offer of assistance. He replied to her gladly.

"Dem es trying tuh pull in resources fram Scalvaris at de moment, bot afta de pirate attacks, supplies are tin an de ground. Me gat sum cantacts me might be able tuh pull an

ef we need mar fud

, bot Ef de council cun 'elp gettin' Isonomia in touch wid de right peepal en Rharne, dat wud 'elp us out."

He paused for a moment before continuing to plant a seed with the leader of people.

"Naw might nat be de time, bot Isonomia 'as ships, Scalvaris needs relief supplies, fud, building materials an' soch, an Rharne needs, de same... Right naw, Leaves. Wateva yuh might be able to do tuh get my man

Alex

access tuh de trade peepal dat need tuh talk eachodda tuh make dat a mare permanent arrangement would be great distance towards 'elpin' a lat af peepal."

It was certainly not like him to exploit a situation, but facts were that Isonomia was going to help regardless and wanted access to offer aid long term. Also, right now he was being asked what they wanted... He felt like there was very little to lose by being honest.

He paused and begun to address Praetorum.

"Chief bass-mun! Me gatta leave me post far a bit wid yuh permishun. Me need tuh go back tuh Saclvaris tuh get some supplies. Me will be gan a break at mot are return widdout et an' Chest and Shinwa will remain 'ere far supplies an' de ghosts."

Assuming this was met with the great lizard's approval, Winston took himself and a few volunteers off to Scalvaris using his City Gate Portal from Sairoe's Mark.

Using

Isonomia's funds and influence

to make what purchases he could, he brought up as much of the leaf as they could. Sold openly on the Sclavaris open market,

he used what sway he could to get the best possible price

. Managing to get bags and bags of the leaves, with Alex left in charge of Leasing with Vivian to ensure a continued on-going supply, he returned as quickly as he could with the leaves, handing them over to the medics that knew how best to use them.

He let Praetorum know he was back and then continued with his work.

Actions

Winston spoke with the healers and asked for help from Vivian with any supplies the council could offer.

He organised the Isonomia teams to get Yellow Dragon Trees Leaves.

He went to Scalvaris and collected said leaves and handed them over to the healers using Saiore Portals.

Mod Input Please

Getting the Yellow Dragon Trees Leaves. Isonomia is paying and is Tier 10 Wealth. I also invested a personal Small Reward for a 50% discount on a one-off purchase to improve the deal we managed to get on such short notice.

Winston is happy to throw WP at it if necessary to get a good supply, but as these are only Tier 4 in Scalve and considered quite common there, I hoped to be able to assume to have gotten lots with relative ease.

It would be great to have a call from you on what the result of this effort bore, i.e. how many leaves in term of 'not enough/plenty/more than needed'.

All template credit, love and admiration goes to Pyrre Ej'qy

[Pig Boy]

Saun 20th-21st 723:
Day five-sixsixsix

The relief efforts were going well, for a time. Dandelion dug the graves, doing the grim work of ensuring that every deceased person had a properly dug resting spot. They could worry about memorializing the fire later, for now it was a matter of life and death to remove the dead and decaying from the general populace, to avoid the sperad of disease.

The smoke inhalation potions went out, as did all of the relief and ghostly help to find the missing and kidnapped folks around the city. The ghosts had their informatio, that there were several pad wagons within the city, parked outside of sewer entrances, however nobody had acted upon that intelligence, without the proper authoriization, orders, or even direction. So for a day those pad wagons remained, unmoved and unchecked. He had his excursion to Scalvoris, to negotiate for Golden Dragon Leaf. There happened to be a great amount of demand, but Isonomia was able to get plenty for their purposes in Rharne.

This would, however lead to greater demand in Scalvoris, that many would take advantage of, effectively increasing the price of Golden Dragon Leaf, and possibly damaging the trees in a gold rush to seek out their leaves. The growth and health of the Golden Dragon Trees would have to wait for another day, however, as people had burns that needed treating.

Perdita, after making her heartfelt plea on behalf of her mother, went back to drawing faces and identifying lost loved ones, as was best suited to her talents. She used them well, and many faces were tied to either the living who were badly burned or covered in soot, or dead. At the very least, she ensured that many of them were identified.

However there were issues with those who engaged in areas that were beyond their ken and known skills. Seira had begun to go on her own, to find the nearest abandoned and collapsed building, of smouldering rubble. As her feet tramped on the wooden floorboards, she could just about feel the heat, and a strange creaking sound that felt like the basement was caving in beneath her. Then, without warning, oxygen flooded the unseated rubble she was sorting through. The fire that they thought they'd vanquished had merely gone to ground, and exposed to the air suddenly burst out with a vengeance.

Seira was blown back, and then a piece of rubble fell on her. Yet that was not all, her face was half scorched by a raging inferno that was bursting out of the basement.

The fire ignited, landed on the pit of slime, and began revitalizing it. However, the slime had been cut into thousands of little pieces. Only small parts of the slimes were viable. These now crept out, small pocket sized and jelly-bean sized slimes with little teeth, for gnashing and snacking. They couldn't grow, by dint of the copper and lightning that had wounded them initially, but they were becoming pests, scurrying and hopping out into the streets like a plague of rodents.

All the while, Praetorum's mercenaries, and the knights had already left by the time this happened, and were on their way toward the townships that were the namesake of the three Gates of Rharne.

Meanwhile, in other parts of Rharne...

[Pig Boy]

The Warlock

Acothley passed the salt to Hermoine Westcott, as they sat at the table with Seriel Shiryu, looking at a dinner that one of Acothley's servants had prepared for them. It was mostly cordial, well on Acothley's part anyway. Hermoine was beside herself, having been rough-handled on the way into the pad-wagon, and then out of the city, through some strange dimensional portal and subsequently removed from the wagon by means that were hard to reckon with in her mind.

Seriel was defiant, as she was prone toward being. She stuck her chin out at every time that Acothley spoke, which set Hermoine on edge. The woman really didn't know what the girl had it in her head, did she imagine she was in control of this situation?

Nevertheless, Seriel for her part during the abduction had been thrashing and screaming most of the time. Shouting that her mother would hear of this, and that she was not fit for capture, and other such nonsense. Before too long they got it out of her that she was the daughter of Vivian Shiryu, and from then on, her circumstances changed from just another kidnapped victim, to a guest of honor at some strange man's house. She was spirited out of the pad wagon that held her and Hermoine, and brought to this large, well-appointed cottage.

"You really should eat, poor woman." Acothley said to Hermoine. "You'll need your strength."

"Oh no, what do you want with us?" Hermoine pleaded, "My husband, my daughter, they both have money, I'm sure they'll pay well for my return..."

Acothley smiled at her, and then turned to Seriel who was defiantly refusing to eat anything. "My servants went to a great deal of trouble to bring these foods to you. And you refuse?"

Seriel said nothing, but gave him a hard-nosed harumph and crossed her arms.

Acothley sighed, "Very well. I suppose it's better that way."

"Please... we have money..." Hermoine repeated.

Acothley shook his head, "This isn't about money. I'm going to send a message."

Seriel blurted out, "Kidnapping people is a stupid way of sending a message. Have you ever heard of parchment and pen?"

Acothley chuckled. "This is a very serious message. And one that will cost one of you dearly."

"Oh no..." Hermoine sobbed.

But then, Acothley and Seriel disappeared blinked out of the dining room to elsewhere. A loud scream could be heard within the cottage, and thrashing and struggle. Then nothing. Hermoine's head bowed in abject misery.

Moments later, Acothley returned without Seriel. He took Hermoine by the shoulders, and whispered into her ear, "I have a message for you to bring to Vivian Shiryu. The Witch Doctor has been avenged. And the Warlock has risen to take her place."

Just then, the paper message was delivered to the cabin, and it opened up to show its message Where are you?

Acothley smiled at it, but then he knew well enough that a magical trinket used to seek out a person, could be used to follow them to the destination. His only regret was not putting more wards in place. But then, he wasn't attached to the cottage as much as he had been. It was time to let it go.

Acothley disappeared from the cabin, just as the lightning knights and other mercenaries were bursting into it. There, they found Hermoine, beside herself but physically fine. Upstairs, there was a horrible, painful wailing.

[Seira Shiryu]

20th Saun, 723

Seira moved slowly, and carefully across the wooden floorboards of the collapsed building towards the slight movement she had seen in the rubble. Or thought she had seen at least, for as she continued to watch the spot she had seen the movement come from, it did not come again. When she had been searching for survivors after the giant sink hole had opened up beneath the Dust Quarter, movement in the rubble had been one of the signs of a possible survivor, and as such, she could not ignore it now. There was a slight amount of heat coming from the wooden floorboards beneath her feet, but rather than being a source of worry, Seira believed it to be the charred wood slowly cooling now that the fire had been put out.

A strange creaking sound beneath her feet gave her pause, making Seira freeze where she stood. Was the floor about to give way? Seira took a few steps back in the hopes that if the floor was about to give way it wouldn't take her with it. Those few steps might have been what saved her life.

Suddenly, fire erupted from the rubble in front of her. Seira turned in panic, and tried to scramble backwards. Intense heat seared the left half of her face as she turned, and her left eye closed instinctively. A concussive force blew her off of her feet and sent her flying backwards, leaving her stunned and reeling as it did so. Pain erupted throughout her body as she landed hard on her back. A sudden cracking sound and more pain, this time in her chest came when something heavy landed on top of her.

For several bits, all Seira could do was lay there stunned, and try to process what had happened. One trill she had been searching for survivors, and had possibly found one. The next...everything had gone wrong. Her mind tried to grope after coherent thought so she could figure out what to do next, but between the extreme pain she was in, and the shock of the fire erupting out of nowhere and being hurled back by the force of the blow from the back draftcoherent thought eluded her. The left side of her face was a mass of agony. The searing, pulsating pain was unlike anything Seira had ever felt before, and it consumed her. Beneath that, she could feel the pain of her other injuries in a somewhat more distant way, but the pain of her burns drowned almost everything else out. A choked scream tore out of her, but the smoke clogging the air, and the stabbing pain she felt when she tried to take a deep breath turned the scream into more of a ragged moan followed by a series of harsh coughs. Her senses greyed out a bit, but she clung to consciousness rather than passing out from the pain.

When she came back to herself fully, the agony was still there. Still consuming. Coherent thought still eluded her. But as time passed, she found that while she couldn't shove the agony aside enough to think through it, thoughts skittered around the edges of the agony, and sometimes she could manage to grab onto one. The first thought she managed to cling to was; fire. The fire was back and it needed to be put out again before it could spread once more. People would see the fire and come to put it out again. People meant help...hopefully. She needed help.

The next thought that came to Seira was; survivor. If there had in fact been a survivor moving about in the rubble, they certainly weren't still alive now. That sent a crushing sense of failure rushing through her. She had failed to save someone who needed to be saved. Worse, since it was Seira's own actions that had caused the fire to erupt once more, it was almost as if she had killed the person she had been trying to save. If someone had actually been there at all. Seira didn't want to think about that too closely. But given the amount of pain she was in, it was far harder to cling to coherent thought than it was to simply let it slide away. So Seira simply stopped trying to hold onto that thought. Most important was the fact that she needed help. And she needed it soon.

Seira tried to shift the wooden planks off of her so that she could sit up. From there, she could make it to her feet, and once on her feet, she could make her way to the medical tent. Hopefully she would find someone willing to help her get there along the way. But first she had to sit up. Easier said than done when her face hurt so badly that it took an enormous effort just to think up a plan..such as it was...never mind actually doing something. Seira struggled to drag her mind away from the all consuming agony she was in and sit up. She had to make the attempt several times before she succeeded and her body began to respond. When it did, she realized that she couldn't sit up. She was trapped.

Panic set in as Seira's mind tried to wrap itself around the fact that she was trapped. If she lifted her head, she could see a raging inferno where she had been standing mere trills before. In her panicked mind the fire quickly grew until it blotted everything else out; a giant wall of flame tall enough to burn the sky. The fire roared hungrily; a deafening sound that eclipsed all others. She needed to escape; now.

She tried to call for help, but all she managed was to trigger another coughing fit when she breathed in too much smoke. Her right arm was free, but her left was pinned under the wooden planks that had fallen on top of her when she'd been sent flying by the force of the fire. Panic lent her strength as she fought against the wooden planks that she was pinned under, but all she managed to do was to shift them a little. That left her no worse off than before, but she wasn't any better off either. She was still trapped. Pure panic drove her beyond her pain as she struggled again and again to free herself. It wasn't until she had started to tire herself out with her efforts that she was able to stop panicking. For several bits, she just lay there, trying to catch her breath and regain her strength.

Seira did not try to call out for help again. The smoke that had made it harder to breathe before the fire had exploded from the rubble was even thicker now that the fire was back. The cloth that she'd been wearing earlier to help with the smoke was covered by soot when she'd been thrown back by the fire, making it even worse. She simply couldn't take a deep enough breath to shout for help without triggering a coughing fit due to the smoke. Her chest hurt every time she tried to take a deep breath, and that didn't help matters either.

What she did do was use try to use her right hand to brush off some of the soot covering the cloth she was using as a breathing mask. She was met with limited success since even the slightest touch to her face awoke new agony caused by her burns. But it did seem to allow her to breathe a little more easily, so she'd take whatever success that she could. She tried to use the breath control she had learned as a singer to build up air in her lungs the way she would before singing a long line of lyrics that didn't have a break where she could breathe. It was more involved than simply taking a deep breath since such a breath might be audible to her audience while performing.

Once she had enough air, she began calling for help as loudly as she could. There were pauses between her cries for help as she ran out of air, but she found that using the breathing techniques she used when she was performing helped to cut down on the coughing fits caused by breathing in too much smoke. It also helped with the sharp pain in her chest each time she breathed too deeply. She just hoped that someone would be able to hear her over the roar of the fire.

ooc

The giant wall of fire and deafening roar are products of Seira's panicked mind flashing back to the she perceived the original fire before it was put out, not a reflection of what is actually there.

Current injuries: From the fire - smoke inhalation, and the left side of her face is badly burned (2nd degree burns) from just below her eye down to her chin.

From being blown back from the erupting fire and the rubble landing on her - bruising (moderate to severe), and a broken rib.

[Perdita Westcott]

Fire in the Dust....

The people were kind - Praetorum put a comforting hand on hers and Perdita did everything she could to be brave. She knew that, while no one was relying solely on her that she had a job to do here. It made a difference, no matter how small. The Lightning KnightVivian spoke kindly to her and she did something which might mean they could find her mother. Perdita didn't know what the magic paper was, but she felt a swell of gratitude to the woman in question.

"Thank you. Thank you so much."

She heard the hoarse and emotional nature of her voice but, in this moment she didn't care. Her father, too, was quick to reassure. "If there is a ransom, we will pay it. " He spoke softly, but firmly, and he put his hand on Perdita's shoulder. She lifted her hand up to his and nodded, but said no more.

"I'd like to go with you, if you're going to find them.. her."

Perdita said. She looked between Praetorum and the woman he'd called Vivian and Winston who was newly back in the room. Her eyes were wide and she knew that she had no combat experience or skill.

"If I won't slow you down."

She couldn't quite bring herself to think about the possibility of her mother dying. Hermoine was a kind and gentle woman and Perdita couldn't cope with the thought, yet it kept permeating in her mind. If her mother was dead then she would have to attend services and she would need to wear things and worry about sandwiches and people. She'd have to watch as her mother's body floated away and people would expect things of her. She couldn't do that, she was sure and she tried not to think of it, to will her mother alive. Her thoughts were muddied and scattered but she frowned, suddenly.

"There shouldn't be graves,"

she said. Her voice was sharp, just as it had been when she spoke to Seira - who she assumed had gone to the medical tent.

"This is Rharne. We don't bury the dead."

She looked at both Prae and Vivian and her focus was suddenly there, clear and sharp.

"If my mother.. is... if she's... I would hate for her to be buried. That isn't what we do."

People who had died all had people who loved them. People who had died all had people who would want a ceremony. They couldn't have that if they were flinging the Rharnians into the ground. She shook her head, firmly.

"You have to stop it. People have lost loved ones, you can't put them in the ground too."

She gestured out "there" to where the graves were being dug and Perdita saw something. She wasn't sure what she saw, because of the smoke and ash which was a real issue out there but it was like when rain started; first one drop came and you weren't sure but soon there was another and another.

"There's more slimes!"

She said, pointing. Copper had worked and that was good. So, she grabbed some of the remaining copper wire that she had from making the basket and she wound it tightly round and round a piece of wood which she wielded - badly. But still, she figured, something was better than nothing and if there was nothing else ordered (If Praetorum, Winston or Vivian gave an order, she'd follow it) then she'd go and try to smash herself some slime. Her father, for his part, would try and stop her but - when he failed to do that - he'd join her.

Art: GM
Appraisal: Expert (I guess this might be the best one for deciding what folks look like un-burned)

[Dandelion]

After the graves were dug, Dan gathered up a bundle of long sturdy sticks. He roughly cut one end of them to a point that would stab deep into the ground, as if he was making a digging stick, and cut a notch into the other end that would hold a name or a picture. They weren't much of a gravemarker, but they would at least indicate which grave was which so that if someone wanted to give one of the dead a proper send off later, they could at least find them.

That done, he began the grim task of burying the dead. They had to be placed where they wouldn't make anyone sick. A water burial was traditional, and Lovalus was big, but that many bodies all going down in the same area at once - maybe it would be ok, but equally maybe it wouldn't. It wasn't like he could talk to the lake and ask.

He began with those that had been identified and whose families were willing, fetching them from where they had been laid out and bringing them out to be laid in a grave. He was used to hauling dead deer and boar around, both of which were heavier than most of the bodies. He kept his face solumnly blank and his handling respectful, but the weight at least didn't bother him. Lay the body in the grave, place a stick with its marker in the ground at the head of it, let the family say whatever they wanted and then signal one of his people to begin shovelling the soil back in.

It wasn't long before he got roped into helping fetch the bodies that were slowly being unearthed from the disaster zone. They had a cart with water buckets and fire-fighting brooms wedged along one side and space for the bodies on the other. Wet cloths over their faces against the smoke. Occasionally there was a survivor to huddle on the cart's tail gate, but most had already been found. He kept his senses on high alert though, just in case, and that was when he heard Seira's calls.

He alerted the rest of the team to them and then, cautiously, followed the sound, testing the ground with a broom handle before he trusted his weight to it. When he reached her he also noticed the renewed flames and made an exceedingly rude gesture at them before he thought. The rest of the cart crew reached for the buckets and brooms to keep it back. Dan used the broom handle as a lever to heave the rubble off her and then crouched, resting a hand on her shoulder as he would to soothe a nervous pony. He checked her over as best he could for wounds and broken bones, then tipped his head towards the cart. If she could walk, he'd support her, if she couldn't, he'd carry her, but either way, they were leaving before the flames got any worse.

!

Message from: Pig Boy

Hi Dandelion. Unfortunately, I'll have to disregard the last two paragraphs of your post, and I'd ask that anyone else do the same. 1. Seira is under collapsed rubble, in the middle of a smoky ruin. 2. You're ignoring the slimes. 3. You have competent detection, that's not enough to hear her from where I supposed you were? 4. How are you communicating to the others? Are you shouting? I thought Dandelion only uses sign? 5. also this part: "It wasn't long before he got roped into helping fetch the bodies that were slowly being unearthed from the disaster zone. They had a cart with water buckets and fire-fighting brooms wedged along one side and space for the bodies on the other. " ~~ He would NOT be being roped into it - because he can't communicate. It's a little bit too summary and lacking detail how you're doing all this, which is unlike you. Your posts are ordinarily rich in detail.

"Signed words" Spoken words

[Praetorum]

Nodding at Winston’s plan to get some… burn… remedy plant thing, Prae turned to go, only to be stopped by a protest from Perdita. “You… don’t?” Prae asked, slightly startled. Somehow, the thought had never occurred to him—the bodies of the mercenaries who died in his service were released back to their families, and after that they were out of Prae’s hands. But… thinking back on it, Prae supposed he had never seen a graveyard in Rharne.

“Alright,” he told Perdita. “Thank you for telling me. We’ll have to do something for the bodies who don’t get claimed but we won’t bury anyone whose family doesn’t specifically ask for it.”

Still, Prae’s concerns about disease from unclaimed bodies still stood. The frozen area they were currently using to store corpses was only so large, and with more corpses coming in, laying side by side…

That was a thought.

Trotting over to the gravedigging group, Praetorum relayed a change in plans. The graves being dug would not be filled in afterwards, but instead be used as vertical storage for corpses that went unclaimed for over three days, or that were burned beyond all recognition. The depth of the grave would allow a single froststone user to keep more bodies frozen at once, making the body storage area more efficient, and keeping them from having to search for even more people capable of using froststones or taking up too much space.

Once everything else was dealt with, Praetorum would arrange with the city for something to be done for the remaining corpses, in accordance with Rharnian tradition. It still felt odd to Prae, not to put a body in the ground, but to each their own, he supposed.

No sooner had he finished organizing that did a shout go up, people pointing and calling at the sudden reemergence of a fire. Whirling around, Prae cursed, and began to hurry towards the blaze, mind racing. “Where’d that fire come from?” he called, gesturing for some of the people he remembered as well users to follow him.

From the ground, seemed to be the general consensus from the few people who’d been looking when it happened. So now, it seemed, they had to worry about fires spontaneously erupting from already burned houses.

Brilliant.

Grabbing froststones and rubies of love, Prae led his makeshift firefighting team towards the blaze, only for yet another problem to rear its ugly head. Or in this case, tendrils.

If Prae had had hair he would have been tearing it out. “Everyone who can smash a slime, grab something, a stick, a frying pan, a torch, and follow Perdita’s lead!” He shouted. “Use copper, surround the slimes, don’t let them scatter! Push them back into the pit!”

Sending the firefighting team ahead to start smothering the blaze, Prae ran through his options. The slimes didn’t seem to be growing, thank the gods, but they were still dangerous looking, and all the mercenaries and knights were gone. Prae needed to get rid of them, and he needed to get rid of them now.

Lightning would do it, but only Vivian had the amount of lightning needed to pick off a hundred tiny slimes with lightning bolts—Prae merely had a few at his disposal every day. He’d have to get multiple slimes with one bolt, only, how could he…

His eyes landed on the copper.

Of course.

The majority of the slimes were still in the process of climbing out of the pit. Many were still in there.

Many were still touching the copper mesh.

But not enough, not nearly enough. What else could conduct electicity, what else could—

Water.

No time to call for a water bucket line, not with slimes climbing out by the second. Fumbling in his domain bag, Prae pulled out a crystal decanter, and uncorked it. It held more water than it looked… but not that much more, only four times its size. It would have to be enough—it didn’t need to flood the pit, only make a small layer of water at the bottom. Upturning it over the pit, Praetorum quickly emptied its contents over the slimes, shouting for people to kick the slimes back into the pit if they could. He also called for people to empty out any waterskins or water buckets nearby into the pit, but didn’t delay long, afraid that the slimes might start to reform or grow or escape or something else equally awful.

As soon as his decanter was empty, he slipped it back into his pack, and took in a deep breath.

Here went nothing, he thought, and began throwing bolts into the pit. If all went well, the electricity would get conducted by the water and the copper mesh, and electrocute all, or at least many of the little slimes. And if not…

Well, nine less slimes was nine less slimes.

Of course, the day wasn’t over yet. Three bouncing bolts was all he could muster, and he called for any Ilaren marked in the area to do what they could as well, stepping away with lingering instructions for people to smash any slimes that they saw.

Which was when one of the firefighting team Prae had just sent ahead came rushing back. “We’ve got the fire under control on the outside, but we heard screaming! Someone’s trapped in there!”

Fuck.

Racing towards the blaze, Praetorum wasted no time. A single house… He could manage that. Activating immortal scales to keep himself from harm, Prae quickly covered his nose and mouth, and dove into the flames. Fire licked at his scales, but between Ethelyda’s protection, and the froststone in his hand spewing cold into the air, he was able to avoid injury.

It didn’t take him long to find the injured girl, though through the smoke and the fire, he didn’t recognize her. More importantly, though, Prae could see the floor between him and her was shattered and unsteady. He couldn’t make it across without falling into the basement, not by walking. If only he could still fly…

No use thinking such things now. He couldn’t fly—but he could leap.

Or at least, he hoped he could. Vivian made it look so damn easy. Using Rising Lighting, Prae leaped across the floor to the most solid part of the other side of the room, and quickly lifted the rubble off the girl. Picking her up, he hunched protectively around her, well aware that she had no scales to protect her from the heat, and leaped back, as quickly as he could.

The floor was probably going to collapse behind him from all that jumping, but if he was quick enough, they wouldn’t be there when it happened.

If Prae fell into the basement anyways, Rising lightning would get him back out. If not, he would bring Seira out to safety, and use the scrap of Sevrath’s Will he had to heal her a little, before passing her on to the medical tent.

And even then, his day wasn’t done. Now that he knew fire might hide underground, he needed to combat it before another catastrophe happened. So he gathered the firefighting teams again, and set them to carefully poking around the ruins of buildings, finding basements and blasting them with ice until they were no longer at risk of bursting back into flames.

Then, and only then, did Prae collapse back at basecamp, tired to the bone.

Hopefully tomorrow would be much less eventful.

[Winston]

A pocket slime!

As Perdita expressed her desire to go with them, to search, no one seemed to respond immediately and so Winston did. He shared something from his own very personal experience of the Pirate Attacks, when the thing he wanted to do most was to rid Sweetsong of the villains assaulting his friends and family, but the one thing he could NOT do was exactly that.

"Unless yuh cun do et as well as dem, yuh presence may only slow dem down..."

His words were not harsh, they were caring and pragmatic and if he was any good at showing it, filled with the tone of someone that felt very much akin.

"Dear are odda things dat will slow dem down dough. Ting's dat maybe we CUN 'elp wid. Dat's wat me do anyway. Find tings dat me cun do dat lets dem be da best at wat dem do far de peepal dat me love."

He winked.

"Dat way, we know dat every chore me done, ensured dat peepal were bein' saved."

If she was willing, once the whole grave digging concern was resolved, he waved an encouraging hand for her to come with him.

"Mun, let's try tuh 'elp out wid dis slime prablem, no? Doh de pictchas yu ar drawing aft de missin' es, me es share, somtin' dat on one else 'ere might be abal tuh do. Ef yuh might draw wat sum af de bdly burnt peepal might 'ave looked like befar dem were burnt... Yuh cud attach dat pictcha tuh de bady tuh allow peepal tuh claim dare last ones?"

He offered a sympathetic smile.

"Et's OK doh, dat's a grusom jab dat me nat share me cud do."

With that, he set off to try to do just that.

Following the lead of Prae, whom seemed to be after keeping the things in the pit, he took Perdita's help as he lay out blankets around the lip of the basement. Every so often, he'd flick the end of the blanket, covered in tiny jelly-bean sized slimes, sending the slimes atop of it, hurling back into the middle of the pit.

It was not stopping every single one, but was, for him, much more effective than trying to smash them with his complete lack of combat talent. Buying time for Prae to electrocute them (once again cursing his foolish choice to exchange his Songforged abilities for a few bits of flight) so they could all focus on other things.

As he wandered over to Chest, there was still the occasional slime around, nipping at things. He summoned a jam jar from his friend and slapped it down on a few of the offending creatures. It took several attempts to get the things, but once done, he gave a little chuckle as the rather cute little things hopped about and sucked at the side of the glass.

He returned the jar to the depths of Chest before returning his attention to the larger effort at hand, of ensuring a Quarter in disaster had food!

At the end of the trial, whether he came for it or not, Praetorum would find himself being personally delivered a meal of gourmette quality, if not ingredients, as would everyone putting the needs of thoes around them ahead of their own nutrition. The ferret's ability to get the most out of a meager ingredient was matched perhaps by very few and the care and attention to detail that went into these particular meals was spared nothing as he put everything he knew into them to try and ensure that they had a full tummy and a restful meal.

All template credit, love and admiration goes to Pyrre Ej'qy

[Vivian Shiryu]

Vivian and a small group of knights had followed the paper that Prae had loaned Vivian. Much to their surprise, it had actually led into Rharne rather than out of the city. The cottage it led them too wasn't particularly noteworthy, but Vivian ordered them into it regardless, as all evidence said the inhabitants were holding people against their will. There were servants and the like, but they largely had the good sense to surrender when confronted by Lightning Knights and mercenaries armed and clearly not in the mood to deal with anyone's shenanigans. Vivian went through the ground floor until she made it to the dining room. There was one person there sitting, and Vivian was able to identify her as Hermoine by the letter she was holding.

She was also bordering on a state of abject panic, and she only somewhat calmed down when she saw Vivian and the others. She started talking, rapidly, about a man that had held them captive, how there had been another person, a younger girl, with her, but they had disappeared and when he had come back, he had given her a message for Vivian, though Hermoine didn't actually seem to immediately recognize Vivian. The message was about the Witch Doctor, and that combined with the screaming they were hearing from upstairs turned Vivian pale. "Send word to Praetorum and Winston, tell them that we've found Hermoine Wescott, they can tell her family." she said, before grabbing one of the servants they had detained. "Where's the stairs?" she said, her tone cold. The servant told where to go and Vivian took off at a run, followed by a few knights in case there was trouble upstairs.

There were a few guards as it turned out, but they dropped their weapons and surrendered as soon as the knights appeared, Vivian crackling with summoned lightning from Palenon that she was ready to use the moment a threat showed itself. She left them for the knights and ran past, towards the sound of screaming. She knew what had happened to the Witch Doctor, her hands and tongue both cut away from her. She was desperately hoping that wasn't Seriel screaming like that, not from those injuries. She knew the kind of messages these people liked to send, and how they liked to send them, but still, she hoped they'd been able to interrupt it.

[Pig Boy]

Saun 21st-22nd 723:
Day Sixsixsix-Seven

The Graves were marked and identified as well as they could be. Basic descriptions of the bodies contained therein were posted to the markers, in hopes that some might later reclaim the bodies for a proper burial at Lake Lovalus.

As the slimes were addressed by Perdita and several others that were commanded by Praetorum to wield pots, pans anything with a bit of copper in it, the slimes got smashed down to size, liquified by copper implements. These small pocket slimes were far less formiddable than their larger cousins. Their teeth stung a bit, especially when a few tried to defend their fellows by nipping at Perdita's ankles, they felt like little wasp bites, and might've caused a panic if she were not under the influence of Praetorum's command. Until he wasn't there anymore...

Praetorum made his way toward where Seira was. He heard from those dealing with the sudden outbreak of a blaze who said they'd heard her cries in the wreckage. When he found her, she was already unconscious, having fallen into that state from too much smoke inhalation and deprivation of oxygen, and just plain shock.

And the floor was rickety, Praetorum had trouble finding his feet around the way without giving way to another pocket of oxygen deprived chambers. Praetorum leapt with Rising Lightning, carrying himself over toward where Seira was laying beneath a bit of rubble. He had to make a decision, whether to quickly gather her up using his unarmed skill, or to more carefully extricate her. Unfortunately for Seira, Praetorum wasn't skilled in medical care, and had to be a bit rough in the drawing out of the fallen girl.

Neverttheless, he made contact with the floor, and just as he was jumping up and out of the ruin, the floor gave way beneath his wake, and sent another gout of backdraft from the oxygen deprived chamber below. More mini-slimes poured out of the wreckage, thereby, invigorated by the flames. Praetorum managed his meager healing ability on her, but this only seemed to deepen her stupor, putting her into a convalescent state of deeper rest.

However, as the day gave way to dusk, and twilight to the next day, what they'd accomplished by their actions was to decimate the population of the small minislimes, and they were mostly dealt with if not driven into the sewers by the time the 23rd of Saun arrived.

Winston kept everyone well fed, and made sure that the lines of supplies were caraed for and maintained between the Hospital, as well as lines of communication. The Ghosts still stood by, waiting for orders on what to do about the empty wagons, it might be that the trail had already gone cold, however. Shinwa contacted Winston, after having not received direction from any other. "Sir... What shall we do about these abandoned pad wagons? Shall we explore the sewers where they're parked beside, or...?"

!	Message from: Pig Boy
	Seira, you're incapacitated, and currently in a coma until someone who can heal a coma tends to her infirmities. This is something that would require either a player intervention, or an mod-NPC with high healing skills. Thus you're time-locked to starting no new threads after the start of the fire event.