The other teams out here were soon tracking our progress, by dint of the fact that everywhere we went, everything died.
Having the Obelisk with us to serve as a relay for our phones meant we could check in at the various stations and receive updates. Twice we got calls for help, zipped over within ten minutes, and pounded and extinguished our way through a besieged situation where a kill-team was bottled up in a canyon or atop a hill and surrounded by a legion of fiery creatures... and attracting more.
Another team called us while they were being chased by a relentless Fire Lizard that didn’t know enough to back off as they raced away, towed behind their flying wizard, and stirring up other trouble that quickly grew into a long train of fiery creatures.
The group pulled them into a devastating crossfire we had set up; arcs of cold bounced between them, killing the smaller creatures outright, and wounded the larger ones enough that massed Coldphasing fire punched them full of black, cold holes.
The team, Boulder Station Team Four, was sent off with half the gems from the slain fire creatures, as well as the blood, hide, and bones from the lizard, which alone would make them enough money to cover all their expenditures and at least a goldweight profit each, so they were quite happy.
Other than that, there was plenty of fiery excitement over the course of the night, and it didn’t let up much when morning came around.
Still, we pulled back and found a place for the others to Meditate and regain their magic after Natural Renewal. Unlike a typical Shroudzone, the Fireborn didn’t get brushed away by the sun... but they found it increasingly cold and uncomfortable the further they went from the Firezone, and even if the ground was burned black, it wasn’t actually hot this far out.
We had a long way to go, and a lot of things to shoot. We had hundreds of gems of various sizes already, and there was no reason not to use them up on appropriate stuff.
I’d kept the Fire Lizard’s skull, and swiftly molded it down for use as a Baneskull. It would serve for Magical Beasts or Fire creatures, and Father Bower expressed interest in Powering it up to use.
Everyone had Naming Karma done, so most of them were using the chance to upgrade the Fire Resistance of their personal devices with the Corestones. As their offensive Weapons were upgrading with use, they worked on their defenses, and Fire Resistance was the #1 thing needed out here.
All my killing of these creatures went into my heart, where tiny little burning Runes began to materialize, echoes of another life, and the Ritual of the Burning Heart began to feed on pure fire elemental power and the Karma derived therefrom.
I’d probably still have to visit the seven fire Nodes in the volcanoes out here, but that was one of the reasons I was here, after all...
Using the remarkably accurate rendition of the huo lung, I cast Locate Creature, and marked its vector and range... and had Helix send out a general alert to any and all teams in that area that it wasn’t a wurm, it was a young Oriental dragon, with defenses against cold and probably Health Qi, and they should probably get out of the area, because it was hunting Powered for food!
Acknowledgements came back to him quickly about that, and we moved out in that direction.
While there was plenty of talk of dragons, nobody here had actually seen one before, although there were rumors that certain linnorms had gathered in northern Europe, and that at least one legendary linnorm was active in the Arctic and northern Atlantic. Nobody talked about dealing with them, however; the Draconic language was actually only known by terms included in the Arcana language used to scribe spells, and that gained by people dealing with very unwholesome beings.
Given the mutual hate/hate relationship I recalled with dragons, I wasn’t particularly upset by that. Yes, dragons were grand and majestic and powerful and wise and mighty... and they considered humans just another prey animal, albeit a clever one.
One coming from a Cultivation system would love them some Powered food above all else, too... except maybe other Cultivators, but it was probably a toss-up. Of course, if you weren’t Powered, then you were vermin, so their attitude never changed regardless, only their view of you being a delicacy or a waste of space.
Our path also led us that way, but we were also diverting to take care of anything and everything of Fire that we came across on the way, no exceptions. Big, small, single or numerous, we were shooting it all as we moved, collecting our ‘pay’, and continuing on.
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Night 72...
Everyone knew to be smirking as Dusk Renewal came around, and something would happen with me.
The Karma we’d gained over the last twenty-four hours didn’t rival that of Mexico, but it didn’t have to. It was still far more than most of them needed to gain a Level, and it was definitely more than Briggs and Sama had been able to earn in a very long time.
Another day, and the non-Powered would have Bane/Fireborn up on their Weapons, too, which they’d all enjoy.
Ding ding da-ding! Yes, you will be taking the Level we want you to, hapless minion ours, thinking that because you Cast at Ten you’re all that!
I looked at my Assay fatalistically.
Arcane Theurge/3. Okay, continued merging my Wiz and Sorc abilities, spells, and Caster Level up to III’s; that was fine. Add a Valence III Spell Known from the Wizard list to Sorcerer, cool.
Purchased Feat and Mastery: Extra Spell Known and Extra Spell Slot for Sorcerer Valence III.
Okay, that was fine. Being able to merge III’s was very important at this time. I had a lot more Casting Slots then Spell Engrams, after all...
I didn’t know why it didn’t give me Archwizard/4, as doubling my Wizard IV’s would have been MUCH more useful, but oh well.
“Sorc Spells, nothing revolutionary,” I told everyone, who kind of just smirked at one another. “I’ll just shift Fly to my permanent Sorcerer spells, and when we rest, I’ll have a surprise for everyone.” Courtesy of a Friendly Hut spell, which should also conceal us from locals if I handled it right.
There was some mental fidgeting. I’d long ago Meditated enough to regain my Valences... which, if I actually blew through all of them, would now take several hours to completely regain. 274 Valences was a lot of Meditating, even with my modifier, and that was without figuring in my Ki or Arcane Pool.
But it was night-time, time to seek out all the burning places, and extinguish them...
--------
The following days were remarkably pleasant, and busy enough for all of us, with lots of monetary income on the side.
The Fireborn weren’t organized in a military manner overall, although some of them, in particular the burning dwarf-like Azyr and the half-serpentine Salamanders, were organized and sapient enough to act like real soldiers. The former even had managed to design their own flame cannons which they hauled around for use against strike teams, and the heavy metal shields they used made gunfire an iffy thing.
Arcing Chain Shardrays, not so much. I could blow apart their formations, and Briggs and Sama were happy to go right into the thick of them and send stout brazen forms in Firemetal armor flying, or hack apart snake-legged flaming guys with spears eagerly.
The Azyr were particularly profitable, as all that Firemetal went for good money. Stripping them while vivus burned down the dead, and sending it all stacked up on Disks back to Camp Boulder with Sleipner was definitely a thing. The flame cannons were particularly valuable from a study standpoint, which might lead to more magical artillery of our own.
Other than those, it was mostly Elementals in a variety of neo-animal forms, or burning magical beasts of one sort or another. There was a cluster of magmen running around trying to find stuff to set on fire, and who instead got frozen; the chattering mephits of smoke, fire, and lava squealed and couldn’t flee in every direction fast enough once we opened up on them.
---
There was a Cinderstorm a couple days later, a hellish storm of burning rocks and ash raining from the sky and raging across the land, accompanied by occasional falling fireballs coming down and exploding here and there randomly. We sat in a Hut playing cards, Master Fred calmly powering up the Ward Wall above us to deal with anything falling while the Hut dealt with the burning wind.
Turned out Father Bower had quite the poker face, and a good run of luck, cleaning up nicely as everyone groaned at his shitass good cards. Two tables of euchre and one of poker were running, everyone having a decent time.
Sama joined me outside on watch, taking my turn at watch and making sure something wasn’t trying to approach us through the cinderstorm. Waves of burning orange and ash were burning the sky and ground together, but it looked like the creatures didn’t much like the wind, either, and were keeping to cover.
Never trust them ALL to do so, however...
“You’re getting a little red around the edges,” she told me.
“Ritual of the Burning Heart getting re-empowered,” I told her calmly.
She lifted an eyebrow, thinking back. “Damn, I don’t think I ever ran that one,” she admitted. “It took so much damn time and traveling all over the freaking place, all for a Quest Reward I couldn’t claim...”
“I am going to have to immediately make a trip down to Antarctica afterwards, if I don’t want to go around looking like a cooked lobster,” I sighed, but then smiled. “The inhabitants of that Frostzone are going to be so surprised to meet a Fireblooded Snowcaster using cold-enhanced fire magic on them!”
“Isn’t there a lot of really dangerous stuff down there?” Sama asked archly. “Like, Mythos stuff?”
“I don’t know about Mythos stuff, but there’s definitely a lot of shoggoth, and their little oozy friends. I’m hoping to run into a Lava Ooze here so I can carve its cooled carcass into a Baneskull for myself.”
“Blobs.” Sama smirked. “And fighting slimes is supposed to be easy...”
“Most of them can’t fly... but then, given the winds out there, neither can most of us,” I agreed. “A fully mature shoggoth is awesome Karma, you know.”
“I do. It’s also rated at a base of 20, and that’s if it’s not oversized. Did you see the reach on those things?”
“Do you remember some of them could fly?” I looked at her, she looked at me, and we both laughed softly.
“Okay, why are you going to the South Pole?”
“Have to get the Ceremony of the Frozen Soul to balance the Ritual of the Fiery Heart. The Cold Karma is required. Not all of us have a Racial Class that takes care of most elemental resistances like you do.”
“And which takes more Karma for a Level than getting to Ten from zero now,” she rolled her eyes.
“Says the woman who already has a 32 Con or something?” I rolled my eyes. “You have no sympathy from me!”