soul_logs | [Open] Hit the Slopes

Entry tags:

[Open] Hit the Slopes

Characters: Everyone!
Location: Mount Hood, Oregon
Rating: Varies
Time: July 28th - 29th
Description: Skiing! Hot chocolate! Snowball fights! Hiking! Folks of Death City say 'screw the heat' and decide to take a frosty vacation a few states away. COMMENCE MISCHIEF.

The discounted price came at a surprisingly good time. With the temperatures in Nevada climbing and no end in sight, it seems the owners of a Pacific Northwestern lodge took pity on the Meisters and Weapons of Shibusen and offered them a break from the heat. Despite it being July, the snow was still plentiful for skiing, snowboarding, sledding and innertubing! Dress warm, rent some gear or bring your own and have at it, they say!

From dawn to dusk, the mountain is lively on all sides, boarders and ski nuts to ski newbies enjoying a mid-week break while nature buffs take hikes over the trails on the greener side of the mountain, reachable by a short bus ride from the main lodge. Whether you're more into the powdery white or the vivid green, there's a spot for you to take a breather on Mount Hood.

The question is, where do you even start?

[I volunteered to put up the log for the Oregon trip, and here it is! Tag in to one, two, or all three of the areas noted and start your own open or closed threads within. Tag yourselves in (you guys know the drill), mingle, and enjoy!]

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Meenah and Psii? [She shook her head.] I don't think I've ever spoken to them. But I haven't seen Disciple for a while. Or the troll my partner and I rescued during the sandstorm either.

So, you could use healing magic... [That was something Lily was quite familiar with.] And a hex? I've never heard of spell to literally prevent someone from speaking. [The magic blocking hex she'd been a victim of once was more subtle. But he might realize it was a strange comment from someone who claimed to be from a world where magic was considered fiction...]

What could these mages you knew do? They're not here, are they?

[And with couple of little stones unearthed from the snow added as eyes, the pig looks about complete.]

Why? What spells have you heard of? [But whether that smile of his was a knowing one or a humorous one was anyone's guess as he aided in fine-tuning the pig's... rotundity.]

If only they were... many of my allies tried their hand at magic, but only a few could excel so. But one in particular... we owed many victories to her. She could mend the most grievous of wounds with a chant, stall time with a word, and call forth a barrage of lightning or meteors with another; by the end of our travels, she had gained such practice and mastery that her spells would dance across the battlefield, striking foes decided by some math known only to her...

[He pulled back with a sigh to inspect their work. It had been some time since he'd reminisced in full... or since he'd wished to hurry back to his old team. Would that they could have been brought over along with Agrias!]

To think, I still remember when she was struggling to carry potions at the knights' akademy.

...Oh, um, I had a friend who was into occult stuff, collected old books of spells. Of course, they didn't work. [She chuckled although it sounded a bit strained. There was more to it than she wanted to let on.]

This friend of yours could heal, bend time, and manipulate the weather? [She blinked, her tone a bit incredulous. It took a great deal of power to slow down time or control the weather. Lily fancied herself a decent healer, Aidan could draw in the fog, and Doura was able to make her move in slow motion. But this seemed far beyond what any witch in her world could do.] It sounds impossible for any single person to accomplish all of that! All of the power and focus and concentration it would take for any of it...

She was a mage of measure, doubtless, but naught unknowable or unthinkable, and certainly not without limit. [Come to think of it, he was a bit... grandiose in his mention, wasn't he?]

Mayhap I misspeak. I cannot even conceive of a mage who could call a storm upon a city or the bring world itself to a halt... but to summon a flash of lightning or bite of frost from the ether onto a foe, to have time quicken at an ally's heels or drag at an enemy knight's? Such magicks are the sort an acolyte would make their first study.

Then again... You were not the first to say world was strange enough for having magic at all.

[And she gave up on refining the snow pig to stare.]

Great balls of fire! Conjuring lightning bolts and manipulating time was considered basic magic where you're from?! [It was enough to make her feel highly inadequate despite being the most powerful witch in San Francisco!] I don't suppose you're going to tell me she could teleport, too, are you? [That trick she hadn't thought possible until meeting Lezard.]

Well... yes, but that was hardly a basic spell. [He blinked. Was it really that impressive? His ally wasn't the only time mage he had met who could do it, after all.] Were such things unheard of in your world and unwritten in your friend's books?

Or mayhap magic simply is a beast of a different nature in my world. Much like pigs. [He glanced down to their sculpture with a raised eyebrow. Well, it wasn't a bad sculpture of a farm swine...]

Some of his books spoke of things like summoning demons but they involved the proper preparations and rituals... Well, the type of thing you describe would have been the stuff of movies and TV where I came from. Fiction where someone could wave a wand and magic would happen. [She didn't think any witch back home could pull off all of the spells he mentioned. And perhaps, that was a good thing. She wouldn't have liked to think of Doura and her evil coven with the ability to throw lightning bolts as well! The hex that had dampened her powers had been enough trouble!]

Um, maybe. [If Ramza only knew what that "farm swine" truly was!] But if magic can do all of that in your world, don't you ever have problems with mages getting ideas into heads, fancying themselves in charge of things?

No more than any knight or noble. [Ramza had taken lightning bolts, meteors, explosions of unholy energy, and the wrath of ancient and powerful spirits on the chin before, after all...] For what it's worth, I'd fear more the sway of the latter than the spells of a magus in his court.

[But the mention of summoning demons was something a bit more... concerning to him.] ...I pray the rituals of summoning were but a fable. I would not wish that upon any world; my own suffered enough in the ritual alone.

Oh, why's that? Are all the sorcerers in your world so ethical that you'd worry about noble folks without the ability to cast spells more?

...Um, most likely. [But the answer was a little hesitant. Being a good liar wasn't one of her talents and she sort of had to summon a demon herself in order to exorcise it, the same one that had made an inopportune appearance on the network while all the strange things had been happening the other week. Dag nab it! What if he had seen that message? There were sure to be awkward questions in that case.] You've seen a demon summoning ritual performed? Did the person doing the summoning lose control over the demon?

It is not a matter of spell but of sway. A sorcerer may call down lightning and fire from his hands, but a knight or two can dispatch him in battle all the same. [Granted, in his world, knights could WITHSTAND said bolts of lightning and usually not suffer too badly for it...] But a king or baron with clout reaching far across the land leaves no means to fight back and little refuge from their sway. Magic is not the only force that makes for a powerful enemy.

[But as for the summoning of demons... that was a far more convoluted tale.]

...The means of summoning was bloodshed. The ritual was a war, its participants unknowing save a few, the orchestrators needing little more 'magic' than honeyed words. And in the end, they gave their lives for their fel master... she would have entered the world unshackled.

But if sorcerers are so powerful, they could harm, even kill, lots of folks by the time they're stopped! [People in her world generally don't deal well with being struck by lightning. And even though her magic can speed up healing, it's by no means instantaneous.] Surely, that's a tad more dangerous than just political influence alone?

[But it was the second part that caused her to stare, stunned for a moment before she could manage words again. Summoning a demon back in her world wasn't nearly so drastic. It was more drawing the proper magic circle and commanding the demon to show itself. She wasn't sure if she wanted to know what demon needed a war to be summoned.]

...An entire war to summon a demon? They didn't succeed, did they?

[How could he say it...] ... Certainly I've seen those who could, and who would; for true, a master of magic is a fearsome foe. And a wizard could put a man to death with a wave of his hand, mayhap even five... but a monarch or bishop could put a thousand or more to death with a wave of his. I have stood against both, and I know which I fear more at the day's end.

[But to speak of fear, her second question was one of a much more grave tone... it had been months, now, but the sight of the horrific, skeletal fiend in flesh was burned indelibly into his mind...]

...They succeeded. A girl was used as the medium to bring it into the world but through will she forced the fiend apart from her. A hideous thing- a winged, almost skeletal monstrosity- with magic and strength unlike any we had ever seen... but, in the end, it fell to blades and spells of mortal hands.

[Ramza looked to the ground... and the months hadn't made his worries for his sister and teammates any quieter. He let out a long, contemplative sigh, staring off into the fog of his breath as it swirled ahead of him.]

...I was sent here in its death throes.

So there still is a limit to a mage's powers in your world even with them being able to cast such destructive spells. That's a bit of a relief. But are the nobles of your world such tyrants that they'd likely do such a thing? [That's another troubling thing although more plausible to her. Witch hunts and other forms of mass killings ordered by leaders had occurred in her own world's history.]

[She frowned at the description, particularly at the mention of that girl.] ...This girl. Was she forced to be the demon's vessel by those summoning it?

[And again, BREW seemed to have the talent of picking the most inconvenient moments.]

Are you uncertain if it was defeated in the end?

[The first question... certainly it had been so, but a recent change in his world had left the kingdom with a new man at its head. And the fact that Ramza didn't have an answer- even yes or no- disturbed him.

but after a bit of quiet, he moved onto the other questions he was asked.]

...She was. But it was not their hand that selected her. She was 'chosen' by the host, or mayhap preordained so. [He tried to push aside all those memories of worry and loathing at having to chase her...] I could never have imagined such a thing would befall my sister, let alone wished it upon her...

[Its defeat, however, was another story. He raised his sight back to Lily.]

...Sent back to hell, if not slain where it rose. Doubtless it met its defeat.

This demon possessed your sister? That's horrible. If she was able to force it out, will she be okay? [Surely, mental trauma would come from such an experience and possibly physical harm too.]

Even if the demon was defeated, you must be worried and anxious to get back home.

She was well the moment she'd regained her will... she was always a strong girl.

[But the second question was one that gave him pause and a moment's deep consideration... it shouldn't have been so difficult a question to answer, and yet...]

...I know not. But for my friends and allies I would have no love for it.

...Other than them, you don't like the world where you came from? I always thought most folks would miss home and want to go back. [That was a bit of a surprise. Although if his world had just been through a war, it was likely a harsh life.]

I know I certainly do. [She gestured towards the snow pig.] To Oscar and my other friends. My shop and the things I have to do...

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[Open] Hit the Slopes

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