Chapter 35
The Priestess of Undine Leonaria has retreated to the hut of the village elder and said you can come and ask her more questions there but she is limited on what she may tell you at this point. It seems the party are going to have to try and fix the Waters of Undine and the Song of Siren on their own based on the clues she has already given the party.... Penny paces a little, her hands folded behind her back and the shortened length of her tail twitching back and forth in what would be, were the whole length present, probably a more graceful back-and-forth flick, "Soooo... Where do we start, anyway? Or, how do we start? Would going back over what we know help any?"
Raziel watches the priestess head off and considers for a few moments before he looks over at Vazkor, Kier and Penny then to Thaylorn and Talen. "I think since we have a solid idea of where to begin with repairing the Waters of Undine that we head to the beach and start looking for the fountain. Once we've that perhaps we can focus on the Song of Siren." He, after all, had been too far from Kier's boat to oerhear that man's suggestion. "Any problems with that?" Waiting for the rest of the group to assemble, Kier watches the mouse pace her way back and forth before he looses a bit of a sigh, and shifts his hunting kit along his back, "The spirits attract to natural phenomena, Raziel..." Eyes flicking towards Talen for confirmation, "The waters were probably a fountain built over a natural exit point for a spring made from runoff water coming from the mountains and down into the forest. The Song probably refers to a cave that the winds caused from the weather blow through, creating a harmonic. Like a wind chime." Instead, he points towards the forest, and then the mountain, "We should look in the woodlands first for a fountain, and see if we can find the spring caverns under it... and trace it to the blockage... which is probably someplace on or close to the mountain." His fingers trailing up towards the peaks, and then starts to check over his sodden bowstring, "You can ask all the villagers you want... but their fresh water comes from underground, else they would have died already. Salt water will kill you."
Vazkor stands a bit off to the side, the ebon skinned swashbuckler just listening and waiting, one hand resting on the hilt of his Katana, the other holding his ornate Meerschaum pipe, the man blowing the odd ring of spicy smoke. Looking to Raziel then, he nods a bit at the Aegyl, and answers in a casual tone, "Whatever you think will get all of this done, dear." Before he's distracted by Kier a moment, glancing to the man and then nodding some again, "Probably makes sense."
Talen grins, watching Penny pace a bit, before tugging gently on the swishing tail. "It's always good to look over everything we know before acting, especially since we are between a rock and a hard place, a hard time line and a sensitive, put-out spirit." He nods at Raziel and Kier, "That's a good plan, Raz, and I think Kier's reasoning is sound. Thaylorn said he hit, or ended up in, a fountain during the crash. So perhaps he can lead us to the starting point." The viera pauses to fiddle with the rings in his left ear before continuing. "If Kier's reasoning holds, there will be something of the spirit's resonance around where we need to go. It'll feel different in some way."
"We should move at once back to where our ship came down, that's where the fountain was that was shattered by the ships impact, and probably the best place to start." Thaylorn offers to the group, wanting to get their search underway as soon as possible. He hmms for a moment at Kier's thought though "It could be a possiblity, the airship could have caused a cave in." He nods again though "It's probably under that first fountain we hit."
Heading away from the town the party enter the Jungle, the heat of the day trapped beneath the canopy making it all quite humid and sticky as they wander along looking out for clues as they follow the wandering, meandering sandy pathwways that weave around the trees. You page, "You both see lots of trees and sandstone benches and the odd dry fountain they are like every 200 yards along these paths." to Talen and Penny.
Talen pauses in his meandering, and looks about. "There seems to be a plethora of fountains, now that I look more closely. Every two hundred steps or so there's a dried up fountain." The viera walks closer to peer into one. "Hmm hmm hmm. They're all damp, but is it from the rain, or the humidity of the rainforest... or did it just recently empty?" Talen fiddles with his left ear once more. "Any thoughts?"
Penny, perhaps rather predictably, squeaks and jumps slightly as her shortened tail is tugged, the mouse spinning about, blushing slightly and glaring at Talen, hands behind her in an attempt to protect her tail, "Please, sir, don't do that. It isn't proper, and besides, I've not been keen on people touching my tail since loosing most of it." But other things soon take up her attention again as the group sets out and enters the jungle. She nods in agreement with Talen's observation, "I've noticed that too... I would say damp from rain, personally, since it's been several days since the crash, but that would just be a guess on my part."
Vazkor idly saunters along those winding jungle paths amidst the others of the group, the man staying silent as he studies the surrounding greenery, and soon starts taking note of those fountains. As Talen and Penny stop to study one then, he peeks inside of it for a moment, before he nods, looking around around and turning slowly to take everything in, "It seems they're arranged in three circles that spread out in different directions... There, there and there." The man pointing each way, "Might mean something."
"Well, it seems to be mostly caused from the rainfall as they've been emptied for a bit otherwise." Thaylorn remarks in reply to Talen as he observes a fountain that they're near before nodding thoughtfully "Well, the underground source seems more likely I would think, but does that mean we'd have to head up further into the mountains?"
Raziel remains silent as the fountains are examined, his head tilting a bit as he loks them over before humming to himself quietly. "You know.. the three of them form a circle.. a rather large circle though." He examines one closely and looks up at it before chewing on the inside of his lip and then he points up to the top of the fountain, " There's some sort of.. funnel, for lack of a better word, atop them.. but each is facing a different direction. This makes me think that.." He tilts his head and considers before pondering aloud, "I wonder if there's a forth."
Kier stops at the next fountain and looks at it, walking around it slowly for several moments, and then sits down facing inwards, towards the mountain. Suddenly, the young hunter stands up and goes to a spot with some dirt... and pulls out his knife. From there he proceeds to do a diagram. One circle the farthest out, followed by a second one inside it, and then a third... finally with a central point. Leaning back for a moment, he regards this, and then proceeds to fill in the 'fountains'. "Raziel." He finally says as he narrows his eyes, "The island... IS... the gate. The waters fill the diagram. There is a central point... there." And pointing up with his knife, he brings everyone's attention to a series of conical sandstone structures towards the side of the mountains, "When the ship crashed... it disrupted the flow of powers... this is why the fountains do not flow." Standing up, he moves back so the others can see his work, "You were half-right. I should have listened... the fountains DO matter in this case."
It's a pretty diagram and as Kier has pointed out there are three circles, each one within the other and if you take into account where the Dao crashed,..... the outer circle and the middle are broken, there are at least three broken fountains Thaylorn has seen and maybe another you have yet to see. The waters are n ot flowing and the wind is not inging... It must be possible to get it working again without reparing the broken fountains or the Priestess would have never sent you all out here.. the question is... how?"
Penny steps over to examine the diagram Kier has drawn, cocking her head a little, "So... We just need to figure out how to get the power flowing normally again? And without actually fixing the fountains?" She scratches behind one ear, "I'll admit, I'm out of my depth, here. Civil engineering I might have some clue about, but... I'm not much of a mystic."
Raziel steps over to examine the diagram which Kier starts to sketch out. Nodding the aegyl straightens up and he looks off in roughy the direction which he assumes that the nearest broken fountain is. Loking to Penny then he murmurs, "perhaps it will not be all that difficult." The attempt to look on the 'bright' side fades immediately though as he adds, "thought probably not. Right now we're just pondering, lets go find the broken fountain. Once we're there things should become clearer.
"Better idea." Taking a breath, Kier stands up, and cleans the tip of his curved blade off on his pants leg, "Fly up... get as high as you can and look down over the island to see how the diagram works together. If this is magic, then it will take mages to solve. I am going to the central point." And with that he starts to hike up the trail and away from the others, towards the sandstone formations, Dust slipping from under his cloak to begin trotting along beside him, sniffing at the air and letting his fennec-like ears flick around and take in the sounds.
Vazkor looks at the diagram some... And then back up to the others, listening to everyone's suggestions and theories silently, the swordfighter not really giving any input on it, letting the people with experience in mystical and magical shenanigans handle the situation. Watching as Kier stalks off like that then, the man glances to Raziel, and simply says, "Tell me where you want me to go, and I'll do my best to help. Even if it just means handling belligerent water elementals or jungle creatures."
Talen ers and looks a tad bashful at being scolded by Penny, "Eheh, sorry about your tail, both my tugging of it and your losing the upper part. I hadn't realized it was even injured, some folks have smaller tails naturally, you know? I didn't mean anything improper by it either." After hearing what the other say, he rubs that ear again and is silent for a time. "It's designed with the loss of fountains in mind, so that you could quickly use the gate in emergenices, I would guess. What about those funnels on the top? Can we realign them to take the missing fountains into account? And the center one, perhaps we knocked it out of alignment?" The viera steps into the fountain and reaches up to the funnel... finding that they do indeed turn. "Heeeeeeeey."
"Well, it's probably not as simple as just lining the funnels up, but maybe one of us can try to use our magic to link them together by bypassing the broken fountains? Raziel, want to fly up and see what we can find?" Thaylorn questions towards Raziel on Kier's advice before looking back to the fountain "Least we could get a bigger picture then fo what's going on." With Kier striding off toward the mountain and Talen twisting the funnels some progress is being made at least! The funnels it seems will twist around, then click into place, twist around, then click into place, pointing in a total of four directions. And as they are talking the clouds open and the daily rain storm starts to pour down and soak the party!
Penny smiles and nods to Talen, in acceptance of his apology, though the smile is dampened, in more ways than one, at the onset of the daily rain, the mouse quickly soaked by the downpour. She sighs and does her best to ignore the wet, looking after the direction Kier went, and looking tempted to follow, before looking back at Raziel, "I'm with Mr. Vazkor, I think; just tell me where I'll be of most use, and I'll do what I can."
Raziel looks over at Thaylorn, "sure, but come with me. Your the one who is water inclined. I prefer fire magics. Also your part spirit being yourself, imp and all." His gaze flicks after Kier and then he looks at Vazkor and Penny, "alright we split up and try to align them. I'll go up to see if we can get them all pointing the right direction. Talen please go with Kier to the center, your a summoner so are suited to sensing spirit energies. Penny head to one fountain and Vazkor you go to the other. Once we get the lay of things Thaylorn I'll come back down to this one and Thaylorn can direct us whch way to turn our funnels."
Kier and Dust make a good clip towards the center of the formation and the sandstone formation, muttering something to himself as he looks over his shoulder and towards where the others might be...
Vazkor smiles at Penny some, and then nods at Raziel, answering simply, "Right." Before he glances up at the sky as it breaks out into rain... The water instantly matting his shaggy hair, though luckily for him, mostly being repelled by his well oiled leather armor. And he just shrugs then, before he turns and starts to head down one of the paths to where he's supposed to go.
Talen nods to Raziel and peers to where Kier went. "At least I know where he'll end up..." The viera takes of at a quick pace, his claw'd toes pulling up small chunks of dirt as he does so. "Be careful in what you do." he calls back, "You don't want to cross the beams or reverse the flow accidentally."
Thaylorn seems to enjoy the fact that the rains have come all of a sudden once again, a smile showing as he nods to Raziel "Alright, let's go see what we can find then, hmm?" He gestures upwards and simply takes off upwards, lifted by magic and without a thought of the more dangerous aspects of flying up into the sky during a storm!
As Kier and following after Talen approach the sand stone formation they weave up the path into the foothills of the tree covered mountain. The clearing is quite large and takes a good thirty minutes to walk up to. The formation itslef is a big fluted conch shell on a sandstone turn-table. One end of the shell seems to fit into a rocky column in the ground and the large conical open end points down the mountain. There is a big green crystal set into the base of it that looks like it could be depressed. Strolling through the woodlands Vazkor is able to find the middle circle and start looking at the funnels. They seem to be set up strangely, In sets of four there is a fountain pointing back to the outer ring, then to the left then to the right and then forward to the inner ring. This is repeated all the way around until he comes across two shattered fountains, a link to the inner circle and a link to the right. Penny meanwhile is totally lost... several trees had come down to block the path and in walking around them she is lost and a wandering amongst the forest until he ends up on the beach. Up in the air Raziel and Thaylorn are easily ablwe to pick out the three circles and 4 installations up ont he mountain
Penny nods to Raziel, watches Talen head after Kier, then Vazkor and Thaylorn leave as well, and jogs off through the rain down a different path, heading for a separate fountain than Vazkor, following the path, and detouring around fallen trees, and... ends up on the beach? She blinks, looking around and scratching her head, looking back into the jungle, totally lost, muttering to herself, "Oh, dammit all..."
Raziel peers up into the rain for a moment and then he leaps up, his wings snapping out and flapping quickly to help him gain height. Once up high enough that he can look everything over the man winces a little and shakes his head to Thaylorn, "can't make sense of it though there's somthing up atop the mountain.. some sort of device.."
There's a moment where Kier just stands there staring at the strange device before him, from the conchs arranged on top, to the obvious and rather dauntingly alluring button before him. Taking a breath, the man just rubs at the back of his neck as he looks around, and then mutters to himself, "I am really... really... going to kill that priest. Winds of the Siren... this has to be the most irritating and overly complicated contrivance I have ever laid eyes on. If I was a moogle, I might be doing indecent things by now." To which, even much MORE to his dismay, Dust hops up and lands... right on the button, mewling once in triumph!
Vazkor idly 'puffs' on his extinguished pipe, not bothering to light it in the rain, as he stands there and quietly studies the nearby fountains... The man looking from one to the next, and back again, peering up at each funnel and both ruined fountains, and trying to figure out a way that he might be able to turn each funnel to perhaps bypass the broken ones.
Talen stares peering into the conches and then the button. "Don't touch the button." He starts reading from the conches, "Siren's Wind. When called together will set the Waters of Lahkmi to dancing." Hmmm. "So all they need to do is align the fountains below and we push that ..." Sigh. Maybe Talen will get a nice set of desert-cat mittens to go with his lizard-priest leather slippers.
"HEY RAZIEL!" Thaylorn calls over the sound of falling rain as he points at the ground below. To avoid yelling, the Imp nears his flying companion and gestures to the top of the mountain and while pointing, draws a line from the very top of the mountain down to the furthest ring of fountains. "It's like the cart of a wheel, I think, the energy isn't flowing around where the fountains broke before. The circles all have to connect all the way about I think." He remarks to the Aegyl "We'll have to get the fountains to bypass the broken ones, so it all connects in a circle." He spins his hand about as he traces the furthest circle. He would begin lowering himself back down to the ground after explaining it a bit to Raziel with the intent of lining up the center circle of fountains.
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