What Lies in the Icy Mines (Closed)

by **Valkyrie** on September 6th, 2012, 8:20 pm

The miners exchanged looks as Coren reported his observations of the creature. The concept of a lifelike ice creature was unnerving especially since it was found down in the mines. What if there were more? What if this was just the start? It was a worrisome situation for the miners. Pauma looked at the pile of icestone for a while, rubbing her chin and thinking about the options.

“Well, if you want to capture and study it then that’s up to you. We want no part in such nonsense. We will level out the rubble a bit so you can get back there and do what you need to in order to contain the creature, whatever it is. “ Pauma said and signaled to the other miners to begin shoveling the icestone chunks. The miners swiftly worked their shovels around the top of the mound and brought masses of icestone cascading down to pile at the bottom. The opening at the top was widened sufficiently to allow a person to comfortably pass over while ensuring that the creature did not have an easy escape.

“That should be good. Well, good luck. After you make it over I will wait at the edge, just call out if you need me.” Pauma said and resolutely gripped her shovel. She was a strong woman and apparently brave despite the troubled creases around her mouth and forehead. She paused for a moment and looked around at the other miners.

“Let us state here and now that word of this creature doesn’t leave this tunnel. I will speak to Lor’eno for the best course of action in case there are others. But we don’t want to bring unwanted attention to the mines so for now…. Let’s just keep it to ourselves. Besides. I don’t want to know any more about the creature then I must.” Pauma admitted and gave a hard look at each of the miners and Coren. The miners slowly nodded their heads in agreement. They were comfortable with the fire shows and ice feats that occurred regularly in Avanthal but an ice creature that moved and squealed was more then they were prepared to handle.

by **Coren** on September 9th, 2012, 6:36 pm

Coren honestly didn't find the idea of a new kind of life very troubling, quite the opposite it was quite exiting for him, so he didn't really understand the dour looks on the faces of the miners after he had reported what he had seen. It was something nobody of the group had even seen before, this was a chance to figure out something truly fascinating. Why weren't they exited at that prospect?
When Pauma said she and her team didn't want any part in capturing the creature he was really thrown for a loop. This was a creature made out of ice, something they had never heard of.

“Well, if you don't want to have a hand in capturing it I'm not going to force you. But if I'm going down there alone I would like some extra torches. I don't know how far down the tunnel goes, or how far down the creature has gone, and being trapped in the deep without light doesn't really sound very good for my health.” He responded to pauma after she sent her miners back to work still quite baffeled at the idea they didn't want to see something new. The men worked quickly and masses of icestone joined the pile at the bottom before long. Widening the opening above at a quite rapid pace. After a few chimes the opening was wide enough for him to enter the cafe comfortably, while making sure it wasn't very easy to climb out of from the other side.

After that pauma just stated the fact she would wait at the edge and that he should call if he needed help. “Thanks for that. Lets hope everything goes fine and I won't need to call out for help.” Coren responded as he walked closer towards the opening of the tunnel, letting the light of his torch shine down the tunnel, hoping to get an inkling of idea about how deep it went. Or at least get a look at the slick tunnel.

When pauma adressed the miners and him one more time, saying about how they should all keep this quiet for now while she addressed lor'eno coren nodded in agreement. Better keep the icewatch out of it.
“I'll make sure to keep this thing quiet then.” He muttered in agreement with the rest of the miners. He didn't fancy an icewatch banging down his door and taking this fascinating case of his hands. They probably would kill the thing just to be sure it wasn't a danger anyway.
He walked back towards the tunnel and slowly began to make his way over the slight heap of icestone rubble, making sure he didn't slip on the slippery mineral and went down into the tunnel.

by **Valkyrie** on September 14th, 2012, 2:07 am

When Coren made his way over the rubble and entered the last portion of the tunnel the fox-like creature would be still be calmly sitting. The creature would look up at him and shake its tail in that strange and stiff way. If Coren chose to move about the tunnel the creature would stay sitting where it was. He would not be able to see the end of the tunnel from where he stood at the rubble but if he chose to explore further he would find the tunnel ended twenty feet back after a slight curve.

The fox-like creature would stay very still if Coren got closer to inspect it. He might notice that the creature had carvings all along its body but they were so faintly carved it was impossible to determine what they were with the dim lighting and the tiny size of them. It was difficult to determine much more while the creature stayed so still. Was it capable of movement? If so, how? It seemed awfully calm though. Nice even. Perhaps it wasn’t a bad creature, perhaps it was a sweet thing. Perhaps….. perhaps he could even attempt to touch it? The choice was certainly alluring though this was an unknown creature anymore. What would he choose, assured safety or tempting investigation?

by **Coren** on September 16th, 2012, 5:03 pm

Coren wasn't intrested what laid further down the tunnel yet. Hes curiocity was firmly captured by the fascinating specimen sitting right in front of him and he carefully walked closer towards it, torch held up high to shed his light as far as possible. When he was a still a few meters away from the icy creature he stopped. He found the lack of movement on part of the creature quite strange. If it was some kind of wild animal why wasn't it running away from him? He knew it was capable of movement, having it seen thumping its tail and cocking its head at him. Was it even a wild creature at all? Maybe it was 'created' tame. Or maybe it wasn't truly a creature at all and just a weird quirk leftover from the djed storm. A little shard of ice that just had a few behaviors etched into it.
Just then he noticed the many small carvings all across its body. Now that made him pause, was it a creation of nature or the djed storm at all? Might it have been an experiment of a mage? But how did it end up in here in the mines then. He honestly didn't know. And only one way to find out honestly.

It didn't matter that it was very calm. It was an unkown variable, so the utmost caution was adviced in all aspects. He didn't dare getting closer and touching it with his real body. Those icy teeth looked pretty sharp. But he had another way of getting a feel on the thing.
He took a deep breath and let his djed course through his body,with the aid of the glyph's painted on his right arm and he easily slid out the astral body of his right arm, letting arm dangle next to his body as if it was a puppet who got his strings cut. He reached out towards the icy creature with his projected limb and gently touched the creature across its back, trying to feel for the carvings he had gotten a faint view off. Ready to bolt or yell for help If the creature attacked.

by **Valkyrie** on September 19th, 2012, 1:01 pm

OOCOk, so. I am not the most knowledgeable magic person in Mizahar so if you notice that I did something that seems... err.... wrong lol, feel free to point it out and I will gladly fix it.

Coren’s astral arm would feel the carvings and begin to recognize the shapes as runes. They were carved so small it was difficult to see with his eyes but the feel and shape of the carvings was unmistakable to a person who had worked with them before. While each wizard draws his runes a little differently, any experienced wizard worth his salt would be able to deduce the purpose of the runes to some degree. While some of the runes’ complexity put them beyond Coren’s immediate understanding he would be able to recognize a few. Rune groups to restrict and channel djed as well multiple barrier groups. There were several sigils that contained runes that Coren could not recognize. Or at least, could not recognize the purpose of. Those runes had the appearance and feel of focus glyphs but what could they be focusing? It would clearly take further study to determine the purpose of the sigil in its entirety. Unfortunately, further study would not available for Coren though it would not be needed.

“What’s going on down there?” called Pauma’s voice from the rubble. They had not heard from Coren for a few chimes and were anxious for a report. The distraction of the voice would be enough to delay his recognition of the events that would happen next.. As Coren was moving his astral arm was moving across the sigil it swept over and activated the trigger glyphs. Almost faster than Coren could realize the trigger activation disabled the barrier runes which released was stored in the focus runes. Fire flared glyphs with such force that several chunks of the icestone beast exploded in several directions, one flying in Coren’s direction and slicing his defenseless right arm. What parts of the creature that did not explode out from the force of the fire eruption was consumed with lines of flame. The fire dissipated almost as quickly as it had been released. The creature had dissolved into a pile of flakes, the icestone unable to stand up to the heat.

“What happened?” came a whisper behind Coren. If he turned to look he would see Pauma standing there with an ashen face and wide eyes. A small line of blood trickled down her face from a gash on her forehead. The chunk that had cut Coren had apparently found a second target.

by **Coren** on September 20th, 2012, 7:55 pm

Coren's eyes lit up with a bit of confusion as he felt the familiarity of the shapes the scratches and carvings on the icestone animal where forming. They where glyphs and they where containing something inside. Coren began to doubt that this thing was something nature made, or even the djed storm at all. This was evidence pointing towards that it was created by a mage.
Coren looked over his shoulder as he heard pauma's coming from beyond the and was about to jell a reply back. But he was quickly cut of by a massive blast that managed to knock him of his feet, kick the wind out of him and let his ears ring from the pure force of it. Coren groaned in pain as he tried to piece together what the hell just happened as he lied on his back through the pounding headache. Fortunally, or unfortunately coren wasn't aware what had happened to his right arm thanks to the fact he was still projecting that arm. Or otherwise he wouldn't even be able to collect his toughs half as well as he managed to do now. And that wasn't saying much.

After a few moments there came a whisper and he forced open his eyes and managed scramble into a sitting position. “I think...” He managed to say as he tried to focus. “That the creation was booby trapped for some reason.” It was a real shame, creation or not it would have been a pleasure to investigate how it worked. He looked over his shoulder, straight at the ashen face of pauma. “Are you alright?” He didn't need his projected arm anymore and slid it back into place. As the feeling to his arm returned the pain of the gash finally registered in his mind and a look of panick made it overs his masked face. He gave a quick glance to his right arm, afraid what he was going to see. His stomach clenched as he saw the gash, he wriggled his fingers, they seemed to still work, so it probably wasn't bad enough that he was going to loose the arm. But he wanted to get this to the healers as soon as he could he really didn't want to get it infected.
“I don't think we will get anything out of here anymore.” He gave a look to the pile of flakes. “Lets get out of here, I don't really think staying in an only half stable mineshaft when that just happenend is a very good idea.”

by **Valkyrie** on September 24th, 2012, 1:39 am

Pauma nodded slowly as Coren suggested they leave the area. That burst of fire was probably enough to destabilize the area. Icestone just couldn’t stand up to heat. She almost felt sorry for the creature’s poor end but she couldn’t shake the way that it had unnerved her. The biggest question she had was how the beastie had managed to make those squealing noises. Morwen, she was just glad it was over. Pauma helped Coren make it over the rubble blockage with his injured arm. When they reached the other side a man stepped forward with a strip of cloth that looked like it came from his own shirt to bandage Coren’s wound. They had no medicine to offer him but the bandage would help stop the rampant flow of blood down Coren’s arm.

“I think you should have this. We’ll get things cleaned up down here. You look as though you might need to go home and rest. Take care of that arm.” Pauma said after Coren’s bandaging was complete. She had a small strip of cloth wrapped around her head to bandage the cut across her forehead. She held out a shard of icestone to Coren. It was the chunk that had blasted out of the fox creature’s body and cut both of them. The chunk was round on one end and had a few tiny runes carved into it. The other half of the chunk tapered into a sharp point. Typical of icestone, the chunk looked as fragile as glass but was really as tough as any of the plain rocks found laying around near the coast or deep beneath the snow. Everyone who had witnessed the situation vowed again to never speak of the event to anyone. The miners hoped that this was the last time a piece of icestone ever came to life.

Character 1 :

You Will Be Collected if Worthy

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