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Text of the page (random words):
as they entered the gloomy industrial district the place was dominated by the fulgoria or lightning harvesters which absorbed the electricity generated in the magically generated stormclouds and stored it in arcane batteries windmills and water reservoirs also dominated the district along with associated machines many of them gnome built the streets themselves however were quite uncrowded a handful of individuals passing through the district could be seen along with a few technicians and others employed at the generators the citadel of the perpetual storm hovered over hex like some small but ever present moon perfectly still swathed in clouds heavy with rain illuminated by flashes of lightning while a handful of flying craft carefully warded against the storm came and went from the floating citadel the chief means of access was a single rather precarious looking cable car which extends from the street up to a tiny entrance near the bottom of the chunk of floating rock on which the citadel is built the citadel of course was the university of evocation in centuries past this branch of magic was most associated with warfare fireballs and lightning bolts and the like and this military aspect had never been fully expunged as evinced by the dour stone keep that dominated the flying castle these days however the elementalists and weather witches trained at the citadel had a different focus namely energy production creating winds water fire and lightning and then using these elements as power sources has helped to catapult hex s industrial ambitions transforming it from a small university town into an economic powerhouse and a marvel of engineering in addition the faculty at the citadel managed the weather around hex to ensure bountiful harvests clearly something had gone rather terribly wrong the normally near deserted streets grew suddenly crowded as the party approached the cable car station a sizable mob of people had gathered about the small station enraged the crowd seethed besetting a hapless pair of evokers uniformed in the livery of the stormguard blocking the entrance to the station along with a handful of warders the city s elite arcane police they re responsible for this they re experimenting on us like rats in one of their labs one of the mob cried out raising a cudgel rain and wet snow pattered off the assembled dissidents some shielded by umbrellas most drenched to the skin we need to go up there and make them stop they re killing us i assure you we re doing everything we can to change the weather back to normal one of the citadel wizards insisted if it weren t for us you d all be buried in ten feet of snow liars a woman shouted and someone else hurled a rock several warders growled an incantation and the stone thrower was paralyzed chains of magical force wrapping themselves round their limbs another warder conjured a ball of swirling vapour holding the spell ready to cast the tram up to the citadel is currently closed the warder stated teargas ball at the ready a fresh faced but tough looking man with gleaming spectacles please disperse the crowd roared in agitation we need to get through somehow alabastor said thinking i ve got an idea yam said get ready to move wait what garvin said but it was too late yam had conjured a flash of illusory lightning followed by a cantrip to add a thunderclap a moment later the crowd shrieked and dispersed madly shoving and tripping the party hurried forwards armand was seized his finery perhaps inciting the ire or greed of the distinctly working class crowd but garvin having hastily conjured shadows to pass through the crowd without trace grabbed the sorcerer and pulled him through the crowd to the station our thanks one of the stormguard said that was a sticky situation we ll overlook the improper use of magic to start a panic the bespectacled warder said now what do you want we re here to see octavia greyleaf armand said presenting melchior s letter the guards seeing the seal relaxed very well you can go on up one of the stormguard affirmed inside take the elevator up and head right for the weatherspire the group gave their thanks and hurried inside the damp cable car station packing into the warded car one of the evokers pulled a switch and the car began to move the rickety cable car slowly made its way up towards the citadel of the perpetual storm the lightning playing about the flying castle growing louder and brighter as it ascended the car s tinted windows shielding the party from the worst of its flash as the car got higher and higher a view of the city spreads out below snow covered rooftops extended in every direction while the ice on the radula river glistened coldly smoke rose from thousands of chimneys as the inhabitants of the city burned through vast quantities of wood and gas to keep themselves warm the cable car was swallowed by the floating rock on which the citadel of the perpetual storm was built and came to a stop in a large room carved out of stone a short walkway led from the car to a platform with an elevator beyond guarding the lift wee two mechanical automata that seem to be possessed by elemental spirits one seethed with steam and fire its furnace glowing orange while the other crackled with electricity a generator humming and sparking both had the appearance of ornate suits of armour and carry massive swords state your identity and the purpose of your visit to the citadel of the perpetual storm the guardians intoned elemental guardians as illustrated by bronwyn mcivor caulis player we re here to see octavia greyleaf on behalf of master melchior armand repeated again presenting the invitation the guardians scanned the sigil then assented the group hurried into the lift and took the elevator up through several levels arriving in the bailey of the citadel from here they made their way to the weatherspire a tower fashioned from a glittering fulgurite a massive tube of glass formed from where a lightning strike hit the earth the gleaming crystalline mass had been carved with windows doors and balconies reinforced with metal within a spiralling stair led up to an observation platform where a number of exhausted looking wizards and other spellcasters were casting a steady stream of spells into the surrounding clouds apparently attempting to change the weather from its wintry conditions they found octavia greylead the leader of the weather witches at the very top of the weatherspire in a large chamber in which an illusory map of hex and the surrounding countryside has been conjured complete with weather patterns the map seemed to update itself in real time and was being projected by some sort of gleaming iridescent device that looks to be of librarian origins the woman studying the swirling mass of clouds intently looked basically human but her eyes shifted slightly in colour every few moments and her slightly pointed ears marked her as a changeling her hair was bright silver gathered back in a tight bun she looked vexed who are you she asked warily we re here to help yam proclaimed help with what the winter what you re here to help with the winter what are you talking about we re here on the recommendation of master melchior armand said handing octavia the letter she opened it and scanned it with her ever shifting eyes ringed with dark circles well melchior seems to think you re capable enough she said i suppose we can use all the help we can get at this point the party introduced themselves properly identifying some of their affiliations such as umbral university can you tell us anything about the storm garvin asked you seem to be trying to control it trying and failing the cold weather isn t just persistent octavia said it s magical and i ve come to believe sentient beneath her grim assessment she almost sounded a bit giddy excited to be explaining this strange theory if this weren t so potentially cataclysmic this would all be fascinating it s been clear for some time that the weather won t just dissipate that something out there is generating these strange weather patterns but it s more than that every time we strike back every time we try to engineer some counter effect to shift the winds to warm the air or cool it the weather responds reacts in ways that shouldn t be possible it moves around us avoids our every attempt to make it stop this she gestures to the snow covered vision of the city this is the best we can do a stalemate an unstable equilibrium we re desperately countering every move this thing is making but it s getting wilier it s adapting i swear learning our techniques compensating faster than we can stop it it s not just that the winter isn t ending soon it s going to get worse a lot worse it s also clear that this long winter is purely a local phenomena nornhold tetractys erubesence verdigris they ve all had mild short winters it s only here that it s sticking around what could be causing this alabastor asked i have well i have a theory she said i think it s an elemental in fact several elementals somehow fused into a single gigantic being a sort of gestalt air obviously is the main component but there s water as well and even fire to create the warm fronts needed to help generate so much snow the resulting spirit is massive distributed and infinitely cunning and it s only getting stronger if i m right we can t wait this winter out and we can t rely on our normal means of changing the weather if this winter is alive we need to kill it where exactly is this coming from caulis asked the storm is blowing in from the north octavia says she twitched her fingers and the illusion shifts moving northwards to display a rugged country of dense woods crags hills and sharp peaks troll country alabastor s eyes narrowed like most gnomes he had grown up with many stories of trolls and their depredations for trolls and gnomes have an ancient hatred the former often hunting and enslaving the latter he knew them as they had appeared in his parents stories as gigantic brutes flesh eaters cruel and stupid he had met trollbloods in hex of course but had always avoided them monsters alabastor muttered caulis as a scholar knew more of the trolls and their history with hex hundreds of troll tribes dwelt in this harsh unforgiving lands north of hex some of them having interbred with the local hillfolk while in past centuries troll raids were a severe threat to hex and made trade through this region difficult hex s growing magical might eventually drove the trolls back into the depths of this land sending many fleeing into the caves that riddle the area and wind down towards the sunless realms below some of the friendlier troll tribes such as the goretooth tribe had even become allies of hex albeit tentative ones rewarded for their support of hexian interests with goods and favourable trading agreements others had been appeased with treaties offering the trolls token sovereignty and safety in exchange for their non aggression caulis knew also of the terrible magical weapons hex had used in its subjugation of the troll tribes acid rains gorgongas eldritch contagions madness inducing mists conjured volcanoes and other arcane cataclysms such weapons had left troll country scarred and in places near uninhabitable you said it s an elemental or a bunch of elementals yam said like some sort of elemental orgy well i suppose octavia said how could this sort of elemental spirit be created garvin asked there are two types of elementals octavia said assuming the tone of a lecturer feral and conjured if this is a feral elemental or a group of elementals that have somehow intermingled then it s totally unprecedented in size and power feral elementals form when some ambient magical energy causes inanimate matter to self organize become intelligent alive for a feral elemental of this size to form there d have to be some absolutely massive source of ambient magical energy i don t know what could be generating that kind of power but it should be pretty damn obvious like a downed librarian spacecraft or something yam s eyes widened the others exchanged looks several thinking of the book of stars on the other hand there are conjured elementals elementals that someone a spellcaster has brought intentionally into being if that s the case the caster might be able to dismiss the elemental or if they were killed its possible the entity would disperse but such an individual would have to be immensely powerful so have you sent anyone to look into this armand asked we sent a team of stormguard and warders north several days ago but lost contact with them after they passed north of wilderwatch and into troll country proper we don t know what happened to them if you can find out the citadel would be grateful if we follow them where should we head first garvin asked i d head to the goretooth village octavia said pointing on the illusory map the chieftain there gyrd is reasonable enough and friendly to hex we ll need an interpreter caulis pointed out none of us speak giant is there anyone here that could help octavia hesitated well she swallowed there aren t many here who ve studied the tongue except well my daughter vanessa she s an officer and new graduate of the citadel but she s young and a little brash we need someone to translate armand said we re capable alright alright she can go with you but take her no further than the goretooth village at least she can provide some supervision here alright alabastor said we ll also need transportation i saw some dirigibles well now that you seem to have become an official search party we can help you in that regard an airship the fuschia is heading to wilderwatch later today anyway you can catch a ride until the blizzard abates getting any further north is too dangerous by air where can we find vanessa armand asked she s down on the observation platform octavia said her voice somewhat strained but resolute do you need any other equipment healing potions and cold weather gear could be useful garvin said we can provide you with both i ll have them loaded onto the fuschia vanessa greylead as illustrated by bronwyn mcivor caulis player the party next headed down to the observation platform here they found vanessa greyleaf amidst the group of weather witches casting spells into the storm vanessa armand asked the woman turned revealing an eyepatch over her left eye her right eye shifted in colour like her mother s that s me she said we re heading into troll country caulis said your mother told us you could act as our translator she wiped sweat from her brow finally some people ready to do something about this i m in after equipping themselves with cold weather gear and healing potions from the citadel s stores the party boarded the fuschia a dirigible warded against the perpetual storm the captain a jaunty gnome introduced himself as jeremiah catseye any advice for travelers heading into troll country yam asked the fuschia as illustrated by bronw...
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