Chapter 1 - Denandsor

A sea of white surrounded the platform, Lightning at the controls.

10+1 (specialty)+2 (stunt), lowering TN to 4 for 3m. Spending 1WP.

The member 'CodexGigas' has done the following action : Dice roll

'd10' : 10, 1, 6, 4, 1, 2, 6, 7, 10, 8, 5, 5, 7

Based on their information that Denandsor was within the time bubble, Lightning plotted a course that would bring them into Creation a bit west of the city. Their ship "sailed" for five days and five nights, until at last, the sea of featureless white salt around them faded, giving way to a lush green expanse of forest that spread out like a carpet beneath them.

Their Platform then began "sailing" eastward through the sky, approaching the empty City of Makers. They could see, with increasing clarity as they drew closer, that the weather was as Sarat had predicted: a black sky, filled with lightning and torrential rain, hung ominously between them and the city gates. Judging by the few miles they had yet to go, it was a very localized, very violent storm caused by the pile-up of clouds against the time hole and the increasingly rapid flow of time as one approached it.

The wind around their craft was beginning to pick up, pushing them toward the rest of the storm. It was doubtful that the storm could damage their craft - whether through lightning, hail, or flying debris - but a strong enough wind might blow them off course, make Lightning lose control, or even smash them into something hard enough to do damage. If Lightning were going to change course and try to avoid the storm, sooner would be better than later.

"I'm going to land and anchor the platform, then we'll see what we can do about the inconvenient local weather."

"I guess we'll have to go in on foot, but at least nobody saw us come in."

Lightning landed near a cottage-sized boulder--far enough away to not be smashed against the rock, but close enough to hide the platform from anything watching from the city.

"Ropes are the most important piece of equipment, but tent pegs are a close second," Lighting said as she secured the ship to the ground. "Or maybe tent pegs are third, and camouflage is second? In any case, we have all three." She tossed some netting twisted with drab scraps of cloth across the roof, eyeing the skies.

"If the weather is natural, I might be able to do something about it, but given that it's a storm above a cursed first age city in the middle of a massive fate error..."

"May want to tie the camouflage down too, wouldn't want it blowing off in this weather," Xiang said, stretching his legs. While he couldn't really complain about the mode of transport, five days of being cooped up tended to make one stiff. "I'm going to have a look around, see if there's anything moving nearby. I assume I'll know shortly if there's anything to be done about the weather."

He unslung his weapon, flipped the hourglass over and hung it from his belt, and strolled out from behind the boulder, shielding his eyes from the wind with a hand. In a town that was supposed to be dead as a doornail, anything out of sorts should hypothetically be easy to find - but then again, with the storm about, anyone who might be here may be taking shelter. Caution was, as always, of the essence.

((per-aw, 9 dice, seven successes))

The member 'AlaskanWyvern' has done the following action : Dice roll

'd10' : 7, 8, 10, 5, 1, 7, 9, 1, 9

Shielding against the wind with a hand and squinting past the rain, Xiangfan did a slow lap around the ship and boulder, moving from tree to tree for cover from the wind. Hearing anything was a lost cause, but he methodically checked his surroundings by sight, as he was trained to do and as he'd been doing for many years. It was dark, especially in the direction of the city, but through a little bit of good luck that surely had nothing to do with being a Sidereal, Xiangfan was able to close one eye every time lightning was about to flash, preserving his night vision.

Slowly, he checked every waving tree branch, every flash of movement. No animals could be seen - they had probably (wisely) sought shelter - and no people were there except the Sidereals themselves. Xiangfan didn't see any other beings, either, though as a veteran operative he was aware that there might be something dematerialized and watching. Not much else would brave the storm, he thought - it was good his cloak was so heavy, or he'd be soaked already.

The hourglass at his belt didn't seem to be doing anything yet, but the sand was slowly running from one end to the other. Judging by the almost total lack of progress, it would take hours or more to finish.

As Xiangfan ran the perimeter, Lightning readied a prayer strip and a hunting knife. As the paper fluttered into the air trailing a shower of starlight, the Old Realm script and streaks of blood twisted into a stylized map of the local wilderness.

She eyed the nearby boulder. Not ideal, but it would do. Her hand moved to form one of the hundred Wilderness Taming Mudras and she struck the rock, setting its pattern vibrating. Another blow, and the pattern started to shift to Lightning's will, a rocky outcrop reaching overhead as the bottom of the rock slid beneath the platform. By the time Xiangfan had returned, a cave had already half-formed.

"I can offer the committee the following options: moving our shelter up to the city under cover of storm, weather-proofing the committee and going in on foot, or trying to clear the skies."

(Wilderness-Commanding Practice, 10m, 1wp, 1lhl. Dreaming the Wild Lands, 5m.)

Over the course of an hour, the boulder seamlessly made its way toward the city, appearing just as it always had been. By the time it approached the walls, Lightning had already woven the fates of her committee with that of the land.

(Activating Becoming the Wilderness for 1WP/character that leaves the boulder.)

Xiangfan returned to the newly-formed cave, rain dripping from his traveling cloak. Reporting his meager findings of "mostly rain," he laid back and waited for the cave to make it closer to the city. Once there, he flipped his cloak over his cannon and, looking back and forth across the road, headed for an awning so as to be relatively inconspicuous. "Anyone have an idea where to go more specifically?"

"If we are supposed to liberate the treasures of the city, perhaps the armory or the treasury? And given this city's history, chances are that treasure is locked up in one of the blank spots on my map."

The group of Sidereals finally came within sight of a wall of blackness, which they realized a few moments later was the time hole. The winds around them were hurricane-force, the rain poured down in constant sheets, and the clouds above roiled angrily against the blackness at unnatural speed... but the sand in the hourglass at Xiangfan's belt continued to trickle slowly and steadily from one end to the other.

Nothing could be seen inside the hole.