Bonfire of the Dragons

Erendriel is doing something for fun. Reminiscent of something that would be done in colder weather in her home village, she'd paid off some local merchants to bring bales and bales of hay. piling them up, higher and higher in the festival grounds. Then she calls out "Step back, step back, stay away, keep your distance," before stepping right up to the stack, and letting out a blast of fire, causing the 20 foot tall stack to be engulfed in flames.

Azog is here doing some training, smacking around a normal training dummy with a wooden sword. When they bonfire goes up, he will watch it thoughtfully for a moment. But it doesn't seem to have been caused by evil cultists, so it's probably OK.

There's a dark-haired, dark-eyed man watching the bonfire as he comes out of the temple of district. The district itself has been... quiet. Though quiet is too kind a word for the feeling. He watches as the fire blooms upwards into something more than it was before and his raven goes up into the sky, cawing loudly enough to be heard by all in the square. It sets a more ominous tone than the fire itself might have by itself. Seemingly oblivious to this Karasu himself steps closer to the flames, drawing forth several envelopes and beginning to slowly toss them one at times into the fire.

Erendriel isn't evil! Whether she's a fire cultist is a question left for another day. The fire goes up, roaring and huge, the flames licking at her face. But she seems personally unaffected by it, as she then runs around it, arms out, taking in the warmth and the light. Onlookers do approach, but of course the heat keeps them back to a safe distance.

Theenvelopes make her stop, and look to Karasu. "that are you throwing in?"

HORSIE has arrived.

Azog continues his training for the moment, eying the bonfire warily. But Karasu has found a good use for it, he sees.

Eeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!! Is heard shortly before the elf turned dragon-butt-taur, dragon-taur, whatever comes running into the area, it's going great! Then she tries to turn! She goes sliding sideways, then well ends up sliding rump first toward a cart, then ends up flipping over said cart...

There's a pile of fruit there now covering her, just her tail sticking out and twitching...

A moment later Kae's head pops out, she's well bigger than a normal elf, that's what happense when you grow a small dragon's butt and an extra set of legs! She blinks and peers around curiously... She also reaches out of the pile and pays the poor farmer for his fruit... She's got a veritable fund going with that one...

Karasu turns at the sound of Erendriel's voice and nods to her politely. "They are-" Then there is... Karasu isn't certain /what/ it is, but whatever it is it causes quite a ruckus. More so than a bonfire and that is saying something. He blinks several times at the person who has been unfortunately half-turned into some kind of lizard and shakes his head. "Prayers. They are prayers for the dead." Black eyes meet Erendriels; showing he hadn't been /that/ distracted by the comotion.

Verna has arrived.

Azog has left.

Verna goes South .

Verna has left.

Erendriel looks to the ruckus, but is a little distracted by the fact that well, she has a huge fire going on that's really amazing. She then looks back to KArasu and smiles faintly. "Interesting."

Kae peers and looks around, her head just sticking out of the pile of fruit. Sloooowly she walks out of it;... She peers at the fire and well blinks a few times before suddenly turning and peering at a dot created by a reflection! A short pause and she's flailing over her head "Gaaah! Crazy chase instinct thingies!" She calls out to no one in particular, then finally she notices Erendriel and the other and wanders toward them curiously "Hiyooo!" She says, the goofy artificer as cheerful as ever, even with a mellon skewered on the end of her tail....

This gets an eyebrow raise from the woman and she starts to turn, the tail moving naturally to balance that and she picks up speed more and more and more and finally, thud, she's on her side, but she grabs the melon and yanks it off the tail!!! Another pause and she waves up to Erendriel and Karasu again "Oh Hi! Dun mind me! I'm figuring things out!>>> Kinda!"

Erendriel's response gets an arched eyebrow from Karasu, but the man doesn't have a chance to answer before the strange creature is wandering in their direction. "If you will... I am Karasu, and this is Erendriel." He motions his hand toward the woman at his side; clearly speaking to the strange personage before them. It seems that their brief meetings in the past are enough that he remembers her name. "Are you perhaps cursed?"

Erendriel looks to Kaely, and tilts her head. "Um, yeah. You should slow down. you keep getting stuck, and I can't always be around to grease you out!" Then to Karasu. "I wish I knew what was wrong. There are people changing all over the city. Me though, I was cold today so I'm warming up good." She then make santoher lap around the fire before coming back to Karasu and Kaelyn. "Like it?"

From over head there's a rumbling like thunder that ends in an explosion far louder than a storm. The crack that echos through the area is loud enough to deafen people, the shock of light enough to momentarily blind. And the ground shudders under an impact like the boot of a God slammed down to the land of Ea in one shuddering thump.

Kae blinks and peeers thenshe's beaming and waving with both hands and forepaws.. she's on her side then back, not really standing, before she strugles to get to her feet.

Kae nods at Erendriel... "Oooh, I knows about that and I'm trying to be more careful, but it's kinda tough, it's like I'm a walking accident currently! Or a running one! So I dunno how long I'm gonna be this way so I'm trying to get used to well being this way! Part of that is running and walking and generally getting spatial awareness up!" There's a thump as her tail lashes and ends up knocking something over... Kae winces and motions with her thumb "See what I mean?" Kae is then flailing at the thump the rumble and the crack! "Eee! Gotta go check that out!" She calls out and runs off... There's a loud eeee, some scrabbling, then no crash "Ahah I turned!" Is heard shortly before a horse whinnies, and there's another thump and Kae calls out "I'm allright! Someone ran me over this time!

"

Smoke rises up, the opposite direction of Kaelyn's retreat but not far from the Festival grounds.

A raven comes from the sky, crying out loudly as it frantically finds Karasu's shoulder. The man himself has a strange knife in his hand. A thing that looks pointed as a spear might be but is clearly meant for cutting. It slides easily into his hand as he looks for the source of this new commotion. Many people are screaming and running. The strange woman is running away from the sound, and Karasu is inclined to disagree, moving in the direction that the sound has come from. "After the other day... what new problem could this be?"

Erendriel was trying to have that casual conversation, but now there's an interruption. "What is that?" she gasps. Still baskign in the fire, uncomfortably close to it for most people, she looks around. "Is someone casing lightning bolt? Trying to upstage my fire?"

GAME: Karasu rolls fortitude: (2)+2: 4

GAME: Erendriel rolls fortitude: (9)+4: 13

GAME: Ninjaide rolls 4d4: (12): 12

Heading toward it, there's a curious sensation, there's a mist in the air and breathing it in leaves you feeling like you just inhaled sand. The mist itself, as you breath it in, leaves you hacking and wheezing, all around you people are falling over with a gray sand spilling from their mouths as if they had breathed it in.

Karasu is one of those unfortunate people. As he moves closer to the source of the sound and commotion he feels a strange weight in his chest, and he finds himself coughing up sand. The hacking and coughing doesn't allow him to do more than motion for other people to get away from this disaster, and his familiar quickly burrows under his coat for safety's sake. He falls to one knee for a moment, the wheezing making it hard for him to move forward.

Erendriel looks back to see how her fire is doing, as she coughs and covers her mouth. Head up, looking around, ready to work a spell...

More and more people are falling over, unconscious if not dead from this random mist that spreads through the area. In one sudden moment, the rest of it seems to all come together and fall to the ground. Those who had already fallen to it melting away into dust themselves.

In the center of it all, there is a crater where once a building stood. The bit of wreckage strewn about, the fire that would almost surely erupted instead smothered by the gray sand. It looks like the building that was annihilated was an Orphanage. Though thankfully the children wouldn't be present at it in this hour, having instead left to learn of various trades and skills, or otherwise gone to other school lessons.

Erendriel looks around, still approaching the crater. "Someone," she trise to call out. "Get to the temples. Get help over here fast."

Karasu struggles to his feet, eyes wide as he watches people deteriorate before his very eyes. Stumbling forward he finally makes his way once again toward the wreckage of the orphanage. "Vardama preserve us." The whispered words are harsh in the growing silence in the absence of the people who have died. He would go to Erendreil's call but he himself is too weak. In fact he leans against the rubble, only stubborness keeping him upright. "What is this?"

GAME: Karasu rolls perception: (15)+6: 21

GAME: Erendriel rolls perception: (3)+19: 22

The both of you spot something in the middle of the crater, that once was, orphanage. A child wrapped amidst cloth, scales that shimmer to a myriad of colors, It could be Sith -- might even be -- it's hard to tell from this particular angle.

Erendriel is going to run up to the apparent child, and try to pick the kid up right away, looking to see if everything is alright. Even if it is warm around the crater after the impact.

Karasu doesn't even hesitate to move forward. What little strength he has carries him toward the child that he sees in the midst of this horror. Not taken into dust, but solid and... He doesn't reach the child before Erendreiel does, not at his speed, but he reaches their side and looks around for danger. "Come, is the child alright?" Karasu motions for Erendriel to carry the child away from the impact site.

The lifting works out okay! THE REST DOES NOT!

As Erendriel picks up the small scaled child it lets out a shrieking noise and from within the cloth wings rip free and start to bat at the air wildly. It's a small dragon that is trying to take flight to get away from the both of them. Making a shrieking sort of call in terror and panic.

GAME: Erendriel used a Potion of Fly.

Erendriel reaches into her pack, where there's a potion right on top. Grabbing it, drinking it, she takes off into the sky. Well, once she does, she giggles in surprise at how... fun it is, but then takes off after the dragon. "Get back here!"

A dragon. Karasu stares at the creature in utter astonishment as it struggles to free itself from Erendriel's grasp. "Let it go!" He warns her almost harshly, but she drinks a potion and takes off after the little thing instead. The dark-haired man coughs harshly again, he feels weak and injured though he bears no wounds to the eye. "It will have a mother Erendriel, one that will not like our meddling!"

The cloth the dragon was wrapped in lays in the gray dust as it kicked it free and soared up.

Erendriel is able to keep up with it, but it keeps squawking at her and now snapping its jaws in her direction. It doesn't try to fly too far away though, instead it seems mostly to be turning one way and the next, lost, confused. It turns suddenly and shoots off down one of the side streets, the rainbow shimmer of scales making it visible to Erendriel, but being on the ground harder for Karasu.

Erendriel only gets five minutes of this, so she's going to make the most of it. She can fly 60 feet per second, hopefully that's enough to keep up. Zooming along, eyes open. "Get back here! You hurt people!"

While the dragon is difficult to follow, Erendriel is less so, so Karasu makes to take after her; following into the side street that she quickly zips toward. It's not easy, but he's getting used to the pain in his chest. Pain after all is an old familiar friend. The dark-haired man spills into the alleyway. "It is a child Erendreil! You are frightening it."

The Dragon makes another noise, looking behind and seeing Erendriel hot on its heels! It zips over top of some of the buildings, through an alley, trying to lose the fiery haired one that seems intent on catching up with it. This is almost definitely going to make it difficult for Karasu to keep up with Eren!

GAME: Erendriel rolls fly + 2: (10)+4+2: 16

Erendriel coughs and calls back to Karasu, though without looking at him, since she's watching the dragon. "Too late, already used the potion." She then keeps right on flying, hoping the spell flight will let her tire the thing.

Seldan has arrived.

There is simply no way for Karasu to continue to keep up with Erendriel in the injured state he is in. He slows, and slows, and slows. He keeps trying as long as he can though, does his best. Eventually he sends his raven upwards. "Watch her; be my eyes." The raven caws once uncertainly then flies upwards to watch Erendriel - at a distance. Now Karasu is left to watch them both from the ground though at least with his familiar in the air he has some idea of where they are.

Erendriel keeps sight of the little dragon as it dips and curves, trying to lose the woman until finally it heads toward a tower used by the GPS (Gryphon Postal Service). There's many nests and otherwise places for the Gryphons and this small creature decided this would be the perfect spot to rest as it wings its way inside and lands amidst the straw and cloth, trying to bury itself in the middle of it.

The Raven too can keep up, able to follow Erendriel.

Karasu, on the ground, can do what he likes! NO ONE IS THE BOSS OF HIM! HE DO WHAT HE WANT! :D

Erendriel is NOT going to fly into the next of a 500 pound aerial predator, oh no. But she'll circle around, watching where the dragon goes. "Got it trapped at least. Or safe. Or whatever you want to call it. We need to know what that is, how this happened, and how to keep it from happening again! That was awful. I hope nobody actually died from that." From her vantage point she'll then check to see if healers have made it out to the people on the festival grounds or not.

Karasu is slowly, very slowly compairitively making his way in the direction of his familiar. The raven on the other hand is flying in circles to mark the spot where the dragon and Erendriel currently are. He seems to be enjoying himself somewhat, careening close to Erendriel and then away again to be certain that Karasu can spot them both. Like Erendriel however he keeps his distance from the tower, not wanting to be a snack more than likely. Wuya is not a stupid bird.

Healers had, Erendriel asking for them to arrive brought a handful that were already out of the temples on their way to other tasks on the eastern end of the city. The rest from the Temples still would be trying to get here, it was not a one minute run after all.

The first responders were trying to help what few people there were, the majority of them were simply gone. From this view though Erendriel can see the slightly larger lumps of gray dust that signified where a person had fallen in the initial mist and succumbed to it. Erendriel did have it trapped -- per say -- but to what end is anyone's guess.

STAY TUNED FOR MORE!

Erendriel shakes her head. Drifting back to the ground, she flags down the nearest guard. Swallowing her distaste for the law, she informs him of what she just chased down, and tells him to inform his bosses that shey should get anyone they can, the city, the arcanists, to try to enclose and trap that thing." Then she drifts home to cry a bit.