Moonglade is possibly the place Cirice has spent the least amount of time. Not for any particular reason, just because she has not really had a reason to spend a lot of time there. Last time she had come through she had fought giant bugs with Blue Rasperry- who now calls themselves Wolf, she reminds herself- on her way to Gerhart’s house. But ever since leaving her training date with Gerhart she hadn’t really had a reason to come back through. That is, until now.

She’d heard Astrid was nearby and they hadn’t caught up in a while, what better opportunity for them to see each other than this? Maybe she can convince her young friend to come visit Veliky with her and apologize to her about nearly losing her father. Well… that last part did not sound very fun. Oh and she needs to compliment her house, Astrid hadn’t been home when she came by. After all Astrid is an adventurer, she is hardly ever home. The only surefire way to find and adventurer is to find them on the road like this. Or find danger and they’ll be around.

Speaking of danger, there is a commotion on the road ahead, wagons stopped and people shouting. What could that be? Bandits? Monsters? Freak weather? She pulls Hitia to a stop and hops off the wagon. Best to go check it out and see for herself if she can help.

SPOILER: Click to show

Quest Name: The Rocks that Roll
Participants: Two or more
Location: Moonglade
Post Requirements: 5 post per person, 200 words per post
Reward: +1 Renown, +1 Stone, +1 Earth Catalyst
Description: Some dumb archeologist were digging out in the glade, and without investigating first, tunneled into a nest of Geonids. The disturbance caused the nest to scatter, trying to flee for safety, which was further complicated by the researchers trying to hit them with axes and picks. Now 500 of these small rock like things are just everywhere, disturbing travelers, getting into homes, and just being an overall pain. Your job is to go in, and some how round these things up. Use force if you need to, but the longer they stay out the more danger they are to others and themselves.

It doesn't take long for Cirice to hear the chaos from the wagons in the form of a young girl shouting in frustration.

"I said get OFF!"

There's a loud crack! then suddenly, a rock the size of a sports ball gets flung over the wagon directly at Cirice, narrowly missing her as it flies past her into the brush.

On the other side of the gathered wagons, one Astrid Stormstone flails about, covered by strange rocks with little arms and legs clambering on her. They don't seem to be hurting her, but they are quite heavy. There are dozens of them on the ground all around, and a few people, presumably who own the carts, are struggling to collect the heavy rocks and pile them into crates in the backs of the carts. 

"Ah, ya little buggers are real annoyin', ya know that?!" Astrid laments, waving her war hammer around as she struggles, which consequently makes it more difficult for the clambering locals to help her. "What'd ya say these thin's are?" she asks. 

One woman with a lopsided pair of spectacles and dirty but durable clothes with many pockets heaves one of the creatures up off the ground. "They're geonids!" she says through her exertion. "Harmless, really!"

"Can someone help me get 'em of-" Before she can finish the sentence, the weight of all the rock creatures takes her off her feet.

Cirice’s eyes light up and she lets out a small gasp as she sees Astrid, laden with rocks and waving around her massive, wicked hammer like it's nothing. It had been quite some time since she’d seen the half-dwarf and after thinging about her so much it was nice to finally meet again.

And then Astrid tumbles to the ground from the weight of the geonids. She laughs at the silly sight and trots over to Astrid, leaning over her head with a smile, “Well hello there Astrid Stormstone! Long time no see! You look like you’ve got quite the fan club, they must like you because you’re a stone too!” She jokes, leaning down to help remove the clinging elementals from Astrid’s chest. “How have you been? What are you doing? How’s the house? And Cantio??”

She asks questions rapid fire, plucking the rocks off Astrid with great difficulty due to their weight and insistent hold. It’s almost like picking burrs out of a cat’s fur they cling so, and it takes a bit before Astrid can be fully freed from their clutches. As the geonids are pried away they start clinging to Cirice’s boots.

“Gosh, they’re kinda cute, aren’t they?”

Huh? That's a familiar voice, one that Astrid hasn't heard in a long time. Sheesh, how long has it been? Not that Astrid's really been keeping up with the time that's passed. Things are far too busy for all of that. She has to stay busy. When a geonid gets pulled away from her face, Astrid gets a good look at the person calling her name and confirms that it's Cirice!

"Oh, hi!" she says, breath muffled by the weight of the elementals clambering all over her. "Aye, it's been a while. Wouldn't call them a fanclub or nothin'." With each geonid removed from her chest, Astrid finds herself able to breathe more easily. "Thanks." Just as she manages to sit up, the sudden flow of questions starts, and the girl can't exactly keep up. "I've been alright, I s'po- I've been adventurin', same as usu- House? Aye, there's a house, it's fi- Cantio?? He's good."

Astrid feels dizzy and lies back down, having expelled all her breath as soon as she got it back. It doesn't take long for the geonids to cover her again. 

The bespectacled woman with tussled hair pulled into a messy bun comes to help Cirice get the creatures off of Astrid. "They are, but certainly pesky. We were digging at an archaeological site nearby and disturbed their nest, unfortunately," she explains. "They've gotten absolutely everywhere, even into town. We're trying to collect them up and return them home, but they're slippery."

Cirice giggles, leaning down and scooping up a couple of the little rock guys so Astrid can breathe again. “Aww they got displaced! Astrid are you just gonna lay there and snuggle the rocks? Maybe we can catch them all while you’re there. You seem to be attracting them. We need a net or something!”

“If these guys make nests then let’s gather them up and take them home. They’re probably just scared and wanting to go back. At least they’re nice. If they weren’t that would be a problem.”

She turns one of the rocks over, inspecting it carefully, and finds the hole where the gangly limbs retracted into, little eyes peeking at her from within like a goofy turtle. They glow softly, twin lights in the darkness. “Hey little guy, we’ll get you home. You don't have to be scared. How many of you can there be just roaming around?”

“There were hundreds… they scattered.” The woman says. “The men panicked and hit them and they started running all over the place.”

“Oh… Not sure how we can hold that many… We would need a MASSIVE net for that! Any ideas Astrid?”

“I ain’t snugglin’ with ‘em!” Astrid shouts in protest from below the blanket of boulder-like creatures. One fist barely rises up from below to shake at the sky or at Cirice. One of the two.

“I-I’m not sure a net will work for capturing them but perhaps for transporting them,” the archaeologist woman says fretfully. She pushes her glasses up her face, adjusting them as they’ve fallen down as she works. “We’re loading the geonids into these crates as best we can, but there’s just so many…”

“Bl- Wolfe would be great fer a project like this,” Astrid murmurs, sitting up again and trying to get to her feet. She pulls her cape around her and plucks the geonids off and sets them in a makeshift basket made of her cloak so she can carry them over to be loaded into a crate. Each full crate has to have a lid strapped down lest the geonids try to force their way back out.

“We’ve gotten a hundred or so already,” the archaeologist says. “They’ve made it all the way to town, I fear. Perhaps you could start there and funnel them back in this direction? The dig site isn’t that far away. They aren't dangerous at least, just troublesome and can cause a bit of damage in their curiosity."

"I don't s'pose ya have any magic good fer carryin' a lotta stuff, do ya, Cirice?" Astrid asks, looking at the cleric. "I can get us a few extra hands, an' Charles is good at carryin' a bunch."

Astrid’s antics never fail to amuse Cirice. It had been some time since she’d seen the half-dwarf but its nice to see she’d still as spirited and silly as ever.

“I saw Blue Wolfie not too long ago!” She grins, taking the couple of geonids she’d grabbed over to the crates as well. “We fought some bugs together.”

“Um… Well I don’t know that I have magic to carry a lot of them… I could use telekinesis I suppose. And make a few of me to do it with. That might work. OH!” Her eyes sparkle with an idea, “I could make a wall of light to use as a sled of sorts! We could pile them on it and bring them back here!”

She spreads her arms out in front of her, runes sparkling with lavender light beneath her gloves and summons a slab of light floating above the ground that is concave towards the center¹. A few of the nearest geonids that are scattered around float up and into the makeshift basket as she directs them with her hands².

“What do you think?” She looks to Astrid for thoughts, “I can hold quite a few like this before I get too tired.”

---

1 Wall of light
2 telekinesis 

Astrid watches as Cirice uses her magic to create a basket of light. That's a clever use of something usually used for defense. "Ya've learned some more magic since we first met, huh?" Astrid says with a grin. She thinks Cantio has that spell, she might be able to do the same thing... But for now, more hands are better than just her two.

After dumping the geonids collecting her cape into a crate, Astrid claps her hands together and suddenly there are two of her, both identical. It's impossible to tell them apart. But that's not quite enough. Both Astrids focus and create another duplicate until there are four Astrids standing there. 

"I learned some new stuff too!" all four Astrids declare proudly. With the basket of light holding the geonids securely in one place, all four Astrids scurry around collecting as many of the rock creatures as they can hold. As they fill up their capacity, they walk on air to reach the top and gently let the collected creatures tumble in. 

"Cirice, can ya lift it just a little bit at the bottom so all our archaeologist friends can put a crate below an' we can funnel 'em inta that?" one of the Astrids asks as she dumps a cape full of the little boulders into the cone. 

---

Replicant - 3 duplicates active
Step of the Wind

Cirice nods, giving Astrid an awkward smile, “Well you see I went into this dungeon and… And I wasn’t much help there so I… Decided I needed to learn as many spells as I could.”

She lifts the wall up higher, turning it into a funnel so they can fill crates below it. Creating a sort of machine with moving crates in and filling them quickly with the small Astrid army’s help.

“Yeah look at you! Walking on air! But I can do one of those things too!” She snaps her fingers and makes a couple duplicates of herself to help Astrid in the gathering. “I’ve learned quite a few tricks in the months since I’ve seen you. As soon as we get these guys cleaned up hop into my wagon and we can fly over to town for the others!”

Working together with quite a few extra pairs of hands they manage to clean up the surrounding area without too much fuss. She has the archeologists load empty crates onto her wall and walks back towards her wagon, stocking them carefully on the top of it.

“Hop in, we’ll get the rest done in no time!”

“Oh yeah, look at that!” the chorus of Astrid voices exclaim before the main Astrid continues the thought. “I always thought more heads were better than one. Makes it real useful fer testin’ the fit of certain stuff, ya know? I finally got the helmet Miss Veliky challenged me ta make completed, and I got ta test it on meself.”

With that, they scatter and get to work.

It takes a little while to gather up all the geonids in the area, but with the help of the replicants, they get them loaded up into crates for the archaeologists. The group of Astrids wipe their brows, and the main Astrid directs her duplicates to go with them to ensure they get unloaded back into their nests while she and the group of Cirices go to town to collect the rest of the geonids with all the empty crates on top of the weirdly useful Wall of Light.

Astrid makes her way to Cirice’s wagon and is surprised to see a very strange looking deer is the creature pulling it. Her head tilts curiously, having never seen anything like it before in her life. “What’s that?” she asks, pointing at it. “Is it friendly? What’s its name?”

“Oh that’s Hitia, my reindeer!” Cirice smiles and pats the creature’s neck, “He’s very friendly! He can fly too. He’s the sweetest guy in the whole world. He pulls my library for me so I can travel wherever I want and still be home.” She beams with pride at the ethereal abomination masquerading as a deer.

“The wagon itself is bespelled as well so it can help stay aloft.” She makes a flourish towards it with her arms, “I present to you Mother Moon’s Mystical Flying Library! Ta da!”

She stands there, grinning ear to ear, happy to show off something she’s so proud of. “You can sit inside or sit up front with me, its up to you.” She heads to the bench at the front and gathers the reigns. “The library is full of books so if theres anything you want to read feel free. Just leave Ars alone, he’s testy.”

She waits for Astrid to climb aboard and then the wagon begins to rise, slowly soaring over the tops of the traffic on the road and towards the town thats beset with little rock invaders^1&2. From the air its easy to tell that there are tons of them, running around and congregating on things. Building speckled with grey dots and people shut in off the streets away from the annoying buggers.

“Oh my there are a lot… I hope we have enough crates.” She mutters, setting the wagon down as near to the center of town she can manage without landing on the little guys. As soon as the wagon settles a few geonids come up to cling to the wheels.

---

1 Reindeer
2 Red Rogue's Sleigh

"Whoa..." Astrid is admittedly intrigued and somewhat spooked by the strange deer. It definitely looks like something Bellighul would have around, which she's not sure she expected from Cirice. Then again, Astrid herself walks around with a hell hound, so she knows better than to think about how things look. Spicy Pawsage has perfect manners. 

She climbs up to sit with Cirice at the reins, her brow furrowed in thought. Oh yeah, Cirice is a cleric of the moon goddess, isn't she? For a moment, Astrid considers asking how she's been faring with everything that came out after the situation in Arid Mesa, but she knows that she doesn't want to talk about her own feelings about it, so she decides against bringing it up. Grandpa Belli was a pretty fervent worshipper too... Now that she thinks about it, she hasn't heard from him in a while. She hopes he's alright. 

With the snap of the reins, the wagon is airborne and flies through the air towards the town. Astrid decides against asking about the gods, and instead looks at Cirice with girlish curiosity. "So...when did ya meet Gerhart?" The question almost comes out of nowhere, but recently Astrid had a run in with the handsome adventurer who let her in on their deal. She didn't get a good opportunity to really ask him much before they were preoccupied with a fight. 

There are definitely a lot of geonids in town. This is going to take a while, but at least they can chat while they handle it.  

Cirice nearly falls from her seat when Astrid suddenly asks her about Gerhart, why would she ask that? Does she know that they’re dating? She remembers Gerhart mentioning his involvement with the Fighter’s Guild and she’s pretty sure she vaguely remembers him mentioning Astrid maybe once. Her cheeks darken into a deep purple, like a bruise.

“W-wha? Wh-why do you ask?” She stutters, straightening her windswept hair to try and hide the embarrassment plain upon her face, “We met some months ago in a dungeon… He-he saved my life more times than I can count…”

Astrid notices Cirice's fretting immediately. She's behaving in ways similar to Cantio. It's not that she's trying to make Cirice awkward or anything, just see how she's feeling about the whole thing. "I asked cause he said ya were datin' each other," Astrid says plainly. "I didn't even know ya knew each other, but he mentioned he'd been fightin' a mummy lord or somethin' in a dungeon."

She looks off into the distance, as if offering her some space without having to go anywhere. "I don't really know all that much 'bout datin' an' its specifics, but I don't really need ta. I bet yer cute together. He's a good lookin' guy, ain't he?" Astrid says things quite matter-of-factly. There's no judgment here. No, the judgment is reserved for Morrigan Moonweaver because they're in denial. 

"Ain't nothin' ta be embarrassed about," she continues. "Me gran's in a bit of denial herself. Kinda funny honestly. I'm glad yer not beatin' around the bush about it. Just have fun!" 

“We-we are, dating that is.” Cirice stammers on, “I didn’t know he knew you to even tell you. But… yeah we met in the dungeon fighting the mummy sultan guy… He was amazing!“

As Astrid looks away she bites her lip, “He is really handsome. And kind, brave and heroic. Like a storybook hero. A real knight. We-we are having fun. I really don’t know anything about dating either, he’s the first relationship I’ve ever had. Its just embarrassing to be caught off guard about it. Oh oh tell me about your gran while we gather the geonids. I’m not sure I can give any advice but I’m happy to talk about whatever…."

She pulls herself together and hops off the wagon, “But first we need to get these guys home.” Unloading the crates she sets them carefully down next to the wagon, lined up and ready to receive the elementals.