Cold as Ice Event Start

[plungeintofire]

In the forest, a chill started to blow through the trees and slowly making its way towards the city. The chill only getting colder and colder as the day ran on until eventually, it was cold enough that ice started to form along the ground seeping out from the forest, slowly creeping along the ground and up the walls.

As soon as the ice started to form howling along with other noises one can only guess as to what animal it came from started to echo. Within hours the city soon found itself with ice and icy like creatures roaming the streets.

What is going on? Where did the ice come from? The only way to know is to figure it out.

[OOC: I will be tagging in depending on what people do to either give hints if it seems to be going that way or anything else.]

Comments

[youfool]

[OOC: let me know if I'm stepping over bounds for the NPC's]

[Wolves, eh? Per their usual nature, Ted let them draw in close, encircling him from all sides as they exhaled bursts of hoarfrost. Call him crazy, but he's detecting a significant ice theme here, so he'll apply an elemental, protective charm to himself to that effect.

They pounced, and he reacted. Threads lanced from his form, embedding into each attacker. Next, a small piece of kinetic crystal was drawn from the void into the frigid beasts, implanting itself where the threads struck. Finally, all in a split second of action, he punched the crystals, producing a burst of kinetic force that the connecting threads would divvy up between each attacker. It was more than enough to cause the crystals to riotously expand, bursting each and every ice-wolf from the inside-out.

A messy attack, but at least he'd get to see what they're made of.

The lesser threats dispatched, Ted thought he had a good idea of how to proceed. Should he fail to discern where the temperature was lowest, perhaps the motion of further monsters on a motion tracker would avail. Where the monsters were thickest, there might the root of the problem lie.]

[plungeintofire]

[Further along more monsters. In an clearing the numbers seem to be close to the hundreds, and as some poor unsuspecting deer would find out, they had a pack mentality all pouncing at once on the poor thing. It seemed like going in solo could result in a very quick and painful death.

However studying from afar there seemed to just be a clearing, nothing that seemed out of place. Just seemed empty and filled with monsters. But why were the numbers much higher here than anywhere else?

If one pays closer attention might notice that they seem to not cover one specific area of clearing so appeared to form a giant circle around it instead, but the numbers were still rather high around them.]

[youfool]

[Solo? #YOLO!

Well, not just yet. If pressed, Ted could, alarmingly, pull out the equivalent of a nuke and decimate all life, natural or otherwise, in a large area. But maybe he didn't have to be noisy just yet. No harm in observing. He could clear out the beasts later. Eye on the prize: why are they there?

A circle's a suspicious shape, especially as the threes have thinned out and all but disappeared. He'd thought the forest was pretty thick in Fayren, going in all directions for a ways. Yet this was barren, with the monsters forming some sort of epicenter, like a bulls-eye.

He sent one furtive thread silently out towards that center; one black, think serpent that dove a few inches underground, seeking the center and digging therein to see what secrets these monsters gave the impression of guarding.]

[plungeintofire]

[It appeared the thread wasn't able to reach the intended center. An invisible force seemed to be keeping it at bay.]

[youfool]

[Now that's strange. Were the monsters guarding something, or were they after something they physically could not reach? Well, no one puts up invisible force fields for nothing. What's certain is the importance. He'll make a note on his GPS for this very spot.

Even if the monsters' goal and his are alike, Ted decides to try and destroy the barrier anyway. Doing nothing won't stop this unnatural cold. First, he'll have the thread pull something out of the void: his nundu cloak, an anti-magic sheet of fabric whose anti-magic properties would ruin just about any wizard's day. He'll try and apply it to the force-field, again with the thread yards away from himself, and see what happens.]

Wrong account

[plungeintofire]

[Considering a cloak isn't invisible, the creatures seemed to have spotted it and are currently attacking it, claws extending, fully intent to destroy.]

It's k!

[youfool]

[Oops! Darn, if only he'd wrapped it around something first, it really would be invisible. Well, better not lose it. While he's applying it furiously to the barrier, Ted will cover every other inch of exposed surface area in the void, letting all attacks go harmlessly through into literally nothing.]

Re: It's k!

[plungeintofire]

[Rock, rock and just more rock seem to be shown before quickly being repaired and looking like there had been nothing there at all.]

Re: It's k!

[youfool]

[OOC: How do you feel about him involving more peepz? Such as...]

[Huh. So it's clearly magic something, but any headway he makes with the cloak will be paved over. Ted figures he'll have to disable whatever's powering it if he wants the goods. Whatever those are. Who can he call to assist? This would be so much easier if he didn't hate the very idea of getting help with anything dangerous ever. Desperate times...he withdraws the cloak to the void, and makes a few calls. Calls also cloaked imperceptibly in the void. assuming he can still get reception in there]

To Uai: Hello Uai. I assume the increasing chill and general, if artificial, malevolence is nothing new to you.

I'm calling because I've come across a large outcropping of monsters surrounding an impenetrable, magical dome of I know not what. I'd like to dig further and see what the fuss is about. What do you know of impregnable arcane hemispheres?

To Koishi: Good afternoon, Moon. Have you caught wind of Fayren's troubles yet? Do the monsters seem at all susceptible to your soporific ways? I ask because lulling them to sleep may put a dent in what I'm after. Or at the very least be more elegant than blowing them all to pieces.

[ubiquitously]

[Of course Ted would get involved in Fayren’s affairs. Uai had mostly kept to the city itself, since he was more interested in guarding the citizens. He figured that other adventurous types would go find the source, so he should focus on his job... It isn’t a surprise to receive a message that implies Ted is one of those types.

It’s also concerning. Ted isn’t someone Uai trusts to use his power well.]

GPS coordinates? [It’s with a sigh that he texts back,] I’ve been to hundreds of worlds with hundreds of magicks. I should be able to do something.

No blowing it up.

[youfool]

[The coordinates are sent. He wasn't aware Uai was that familiar with the occult; that could come in handy since Arro, his other pseudo-friendly mage, was AWOL.]

Well if you insist on taking the fun out of it. Again, there's countless of the frosty devils here. Can you arrive with absolute subtlety, or should I send an escort for you? Give me your coordinates if it's the latter.

[ubiquitously]

[Uai responds promptly:] one sec.

[And then literally appears a second later. He’s familiar enough with Fayren’s layout to know where to go based on coordinates and his own map. Uai hovers in the air, having teleported high up so as to avoid appearing on top of someone, and then gradually descends to Ted’s level.]

You’re worried about being subtle? [...] Describe what you’ve observed so far.

[youfool]

[Lord, Ted hopes Uai comes invisibly or something. There were hundreds of these things, as he'd find from afar. Ted had taken the opposite tack, being little more than a small, voidy hole in the ground, beneath notice.]

Yes, and more for your sake. They're all like-minded, acting in unison, and will attack all that moves. They've formed a perimeter around the aforementioned area, and I've made little headway. The abjuration is somewhat permeable, though I couldn't go very deep. Seems to be made of magically reforming rocks.

[ubiquitously]

[Nope! No invisibility! Uai is coming as much to screw things up as he is to help clear them up!

He lands in the snow, calmly accepting the threat of being attacked by a hoard of angry ice monsters. This is fine. Uai is already altering the gravity directly around him, to slow any physical attacks that may come his way.]

Unfortunately for them, they've made the mistake of attacking Fayren while Azura is its Guardian. Are you able to move quickly if I clear an opening?