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empress:protagonists:isha:reports:report19

Chapter 19: Creature of the Deep

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Once the flying school was captured, the group hunkered down for a lengthy discussion to decide on some outstanding logistical issues.

Decisions made:

The citadel would remain where it was until a time appropriate to launch the allied attack on the Imperial Island. Even if Cecelyne knew where the flying citadel was, at present it seemed to be neither a concern of the Yozis nor the Empress so it was best to simply not draw attention to it.

The technique to increase casting abilities that came with this school would be passed on to the Sids and they would be instructed to get working on that. Priority to learning a higher casting circle would be given to the most powerful and down. Thus, Solars took priority (so the four of us…. since no others were allied at the moment), followed by Celestials, followed by Terrestrials followed by mortals. The Sids and the Imperial Terrestrials in the citadel would be responsible for digging up as many suitable hearthstones (rank 3+) as they could to accomplish this task.

The Sids would be informed about Cecelyne's knowledge of the citadel along with descriptions of her three Infernal lackeys (the only ones known to Isha and her comrades), with an explanation of her pledge (to oppose this assault by the other Yozis) and that they could show up at any time and should be prepared for that inevitability.

With all that taken care of, the group summoned Berrel and sent all this information back with him to be delivered to the appropriate folks.

Then, they headed out into the courtyard to have a chat with the air dragons hanging about. Wrath and them came to an agreement that the school would be parked above a manse so they could soak up essence in exchange for them obscuring the building as it was moved to the location of the Citadel.

Once Wrath put the control mechanisms on auto-pilot and pointed it in the direction of the Citadel and readjusted some of his spell set, the group set out from the school to the far west.

The solars rode upon a magical chariot to the town of Albacore on the western-most island under control of the Imperials. They stayed the night there, got the word on the street, and then the moment the sun peeked over the horizon, set out upon the magical chariot, racing across the western sea as quickly as the chariot would fly.

They reached the island that housed Abalone, their destination, but the chariot was only able to make it as far as a couple hours south of the city this day. They stayed over a night in a small fishing village and then headed up to the big city as soon as the morning came.

First, they hit up the library. Research in the library indicated we were headed for the “mythic” sunken city of Luthe, destroyed (self-destructed) during the Usurpation so that the Terrestrials would not be able to get their hands on the power it represented. It was supposedly guarded by a first age Lunar of the name General Leviathan, totem animal: orca. And he absolutely hated Terrestrials due to the circumstances that had unfolded during the Usurpation at the hands of the Terrestrials that had necessitated the city's self-destruction. As well as a super-drama tragic love triangle thingy they'd caused that left him mad/insane. Well, this should be fun.

As to the city itself… indications were that it was a lot like the citadel we currently controlled in the east. It was another one of the defensive citadels of creation. Well, they knew the citadels existed since they already had one, so this was probably accurate information. However, information seemed to indicate that this one was mostly non-functional so it would be more of a salvaging trip than putting a 2nd citadel into play. Possibly, anyway. It was the best they could hope for at least.

Information available in the library ended there, however. The location of Luthe was losts to texts, but possibly people could be found in the city who had more information due to explorations or whatnot.

They went to a dive bar near the docks and engaged a veteran sailor, who directed them to a crazy guy with a shop down the street full of relics pulled from the deep purported to have originated from Luthe. His name was Knapsack.

For a fee, he was able to give the solars detailed information that he had apparently researched for years and years on where Luthe would be located under the sea, as well as information about what equipment would be needed and such. They thanked him for his assistance and headed out to the docks to requisition a ship with a diving bell.

Isha assessed those available and chose the one that looked the hardiest, and then headed onto it and commandeered it with a charm, since none of them actually had the money to rent the thing for as long as would be needed. Once they found the city/citadel, she intended to bring them back some loot from it in order to actually pay for their services (hey, their families needed to eat too).

It took a day and a half to sail around the island to the coordinates specified on the edge of creation, into the transitional wyld zone. In the meantime, Wrath worked on summoning an air elemental. Once they arrived, the crew was instructed to wait three days before they gave up on the solars before returning home. The bell was lowered into the water, with the solars and elemental inside of it, and the dive 3 miles down began.

The dive was pretty uneventful until about halfway down when something clamped the hose attached to the bell. Isha unleashed her full anima (for light, identification, and combat benefits) and went out of the bell to investigate. Some anthropomorphic sharks engaged her immediately. After obliterating one, she noticed a giant squid floating above the bell. He was the one who'd clamped the hose, probably…. She rushed him and attacked but wasn't in time to stop him from completely snipping the air hose of the bell.

A moment later arrows started whizzing past her through the water and between Isha and Grant, the sharks were dispatched. The squid hoofed it out of there as soon as it could after snipping the hose, and Isha was unable and unwilling to catch it. Instead, once the sharks were dispatched, she swam back to the bell and rejoined her comrades on the way down as the bell continued to free fall.

About 30 minutes later, they came within sight of the bottom and stared in wonder at an underwater city inside a bio-dome. At the same time, toward them swam a gigantic orca with moonsilver tattooos all over it… General Leviathan, the first age Lunar.

empress/protagonists/isha/reports/report19.txt · Last modified: 2013/11/14 14:25 by tara