The road south from Sky Peak Village was finally clear. After dealing with such an influx of refugees escaping to safety from the disasters plaguing the world, the line of wagons and travelers was all taken care of and the road was empty for the first time in a while. The camp site was cleared out as everyone was moved into actual homes and the merchants in wagons and carts found places to stow their wares or left to other places. It had been exhausting, but it had gone rather smoothly thanks to everyone's help, including Astrid and Blue Raspberry.

But now, another problem was occurring. A large cloud of ash, visible all the way from the village, had spewed from the volcano to the south and started filling the sky. Everyone just hoped the ash wouldn't spread all the way across the Cradle. That could be disastrous. Well, more disastrous than it already was. What if the new home they'd finally found was also about to be destroyed by whatever was happening to cause all of the disasters happening now? Earthquakes, violent space orbs, and now a giant cloud of ash? Just how much was everyone going to have to suffer?

Blue stood at the gates to the Village, looking out at the cloud of ash. They didn't know how to help with this one. They looked at Astrid, wondering if she had any ideas. She was crafty and liked to solve problems with machines and stuff. Maybe she could come up with something if that cloud became a big problem.

SPOILER: Click to show

Quest Name: Storm Rattled
Participants: Two or more
Location: Dragon's Cradle
Post Requirements: 7 post per person, 200 words per post
Reward: +1 Renown, +1 Feather, +1 Lightning Catalyst

Description: While there is normally a massive cloud of ash and soot above the Ash Lands, strange volcanic activity has caused this cloud to grow in size, now breaching the border between the dry wastes and the electrically charged Cradle. This intrusion of ash has disturbed one of the regions mightiest creatures, the Arcuila, a massive elemental bird similar to a phoenix. A pair of these have been wildly attacking and even killing travelers as they pass through the area. These are extremely powerful creatures and must be handled with caution, but if something is not done their rampage may harm more innocent people. Find a way to eliminate or subdue the creatures.

To say that the last few weeks had been tough would be putting things lightly. At first, Astrid wasn’t sure if she should stay home – after all, there are a lot of other things happening around the world, but in this case, she’s glad she did. Whatever is happening in the Ashlands can’t be good. The cloud above the volcano seems to be growing by the day. Something is cooking in that molten caldera, but there’s no way to tell what it is. Maybe those researchers struggling at Mount Drakolt were on to something.

With the number of birds she’s seen fleeing the area along with other wildlife has become more and more concerning. Namely, amongst them, some of the refugees said they saw giant red storm birds attacking travelers. What information she and Blue could gather about them said that the birds, called Arcuila, are typically peaceful elemental animals. This cloud must have disturbed them. Nothing lashes out for no reason.

So Astrid packs a bag with Blue Raspberry and heads to the edge of the village, taking in the sight before them in the distance. They’ve been up close and personal with an Arcuila before. They’ve felt one’s power up close. Who better to deal with one than a pair of electromancers?

It’s going to be a long journey to the edge of Dragon’s Cradle, so Astrid brings along Arcus and climbs into the saddle, strapping her legs in. Then she looks at Blue, the shapeshifting ooze knight, and the two of them launch off into the sky towards the looming cloud of ash in the distance.

---

Bringing pets:
Arcus - pegasus (reindeer)

Blue nodded to Astrid and then began to shift their form, morphing and stretching into their usual giant bird form. Their arms grew and stretched out into wings, their head elongating into a pointed beak. Their armor was mostly engulfed and absorbed by the blue feathers, but the plates of their cuirass adjusted and remained attached to the bird's torso to offer some protection to the ooze even while transformed.

They took flight, Blue Birdberry flying alongside Astrid on her Pegasus as they soared toward the cloud of ash in the distance. The skies of Dragon's Cradle were their usual cloudy grey and threatening to turn into a storm at any moment. As they approached the mountains, more and more ash started to drift through the air in a heavy smog. The animals had fled the area, not wanting to breathe in the stuff. The peaks of the mountains were starting to be enveloped in the smog as the ash cloud slowly settled toward the ground, more ash rising from the volcano to keep the sky continuously filled.

Whichever mountain the Arcuila had been nesting on, it wasn't looking very welcoming anymore. The snow was stained black with soot all around. It was no wonder the birds were angry, but they couldn't be left to vent that anger on random passerby.

On the road through the mountains down below, a small group of a couple of wagons passed along. Probably merchants just trying to continue their business.

---

Shapeshifter Plate

The air grows thick and sour with brimstone as they travel closer to the edge of Dragon’s Cradle. Darkveil is its own brand of ashy, and for that to spread across the continent could surely spell some disaster. Given that they have some friends in the Ashlands, Astrid worries about them, especially with all the earthquakes and having received some refugees from Zeinav. But their friends are capable. They can take care of themselves.

Astrid keeps her eyes peeled on the mountains and the horizon. A giant red thunderbird couldn’t be too terribly hard to spot amongst the dark sky and snow-speckled mountains. She sees the wagons below and decides that it’s in their best interest to keep an eye on them in case they come a little too close for comfort with the Arcuila. Loathe as she is to admit it, they could be good bait. It’s a terrible thought to think, but they’ll be ready to jump in if they need to.

“What d’ya think we’ll do with the Arcuila when we find ‘em, Blue?” Astrid asks. “Sure we can fight ‘em, but they’re usually peaceful. I’d hate ta hafta try an' kill ‘em…”

Blue hadn't really put much thought into that. Not any at all, actually. What were they going to do with the rampaging Arcuila? They were nice. They'd even touched one before. Killing them would be sad. Of course, not fighting or killing them also meant not eating them. That would make dealing with them a bit more difficult. Fighting was a lot more of the ooze's strong suit. Trying to think of any solutions to a problem more complicated than putting it in their stomach could be a bit difficult for them.

"I don't know..." Blue spoke, their voice altered in their avian form. "Take them and put them somewhere else?"

They would have shrugged if they weren't busy using their wings to fly, but their tone definitely suggested just how unsure they were of their own proposition.

While they flew above, the wagons below kept moving along. A couple of riders spotted the giant bird and winged horse in the air and pointed them out curiously, not sure what to make of the unexpected company. They didn't know if they were friends or foes, so one of them that looked to be dressed like a guard gave a wave, trying to get their attention and communicate.

“They’re pretty big birds, Blue,” Astrid says with a doubtful laugh. “I don’t think we can just put ‘em somewhere else.” She notices the guard down below waving, so she gives a wave in return. “Maybe they’ve seen somethin’? Let’s ask!” With that, Astrid directs Arcus down toward the road. The winged horse swoops down, gliding along the road while his legs move to catch him upon landing, continuing the forward momentum with a jaunty trot up to the group of wagons.

“Hi there!” Astrid says, waving to them again as she approaches. “Not here ta be a bother, just lookin’ fer a coupla Arcuila that have been attackin’ folks. Have ya seen ‘em at all?”

The guard certainly seems surprised to see a kid in armor on a flying horse looking for a giant lightning bird. “Uh, yeah, we heard they were attacking people on the north road, so we took the south road,” he says, clearly perplexed. “Are… Are you by yourself? Have you ever seen an Arcuila? They’re nothing to play with.”

“Oh, I know,” Astrid says with a confident grin. “I’ve touched one before.” The man looks even more shocked. “Anyway, ya said they’re along the north road?”

“Y-Yeah…” He decides he’s not going to ask more questions.

“Great! Thanks, mister! Be safe!” Then she kicks Arcus into gear and takes off into the sky to meet up with Blue again. “He said we should check the north road,” she reports. “Come on!” Just as she turns Arcus around to charge forward, she notices a strange, metallic taste on her tongue. It’s different than the taste of blood, though, or at least she thinks it is. Her fingers feel a dull buzzing, and something crackles in her ears. There’s something weird going on. It feels like–

It feels like the time she got struck by lightning.

With a crack of thunder and an ear-piercing screech, the cloud of ash overhead gets blasted apart by one powerful gust delivered by the wingbeats of an enormous, red raptor. It descends upon Astrid and Blue. Arcus lets out a terrified whinny and pumps his wings to try to escape the crimson shadow. And if that wasn’t bad enough, another one comes diving through the parting of the ash cloud.

With Astrid handling all the talking with the wagon guards, Blue just stayed in their bird form for the conversation, circling in the air above. The guard was a little surprised to see the bird had no rider, thinking it must have been two people on two flying mounts up above, but only finding it to be one, or more like half of one since the one was a literal child. Unexpected, but alright. He just assumed the bird must have been a pet or something.

When Astrid rejoined them, they nodded. They were about to fly off toward the North road, when there was suddenly a strange feeling. It was almost like the feeling of their static field, an electrical buzzing in the air. But they hadn't used that just now, and didn't feel anyone cast a spell nearby. What was that? It was oddly familiar.

Oh, that would be why it felt so familiar. It was the feeling of being near an Arcuila! Looked like they'd found their target!

The wagons below started speeding forward, not wanting to stick around for the fight. The horses were being barely kept under control by the drivers, all of the guards quickly jumping back onto the wagons to escape. They'd leave this to the apparent expert they'd just met. They weren't prepared to fight an Arcuila, let alone two of them!

"What do we do? Do we attack them?" Blue shouted to Astrid as they dodged out of the way of one of the Arcuila diving at them. The other Arcuila wasn't far behind, about to attempt to grab at Astrid's mount with its giant claws. At least they didn't seem as interested in the escaping wagons as they were the two flying targets right in front of them.

Another thunderous screech throws Arcus into a panic. The pegasus flaps his wings clumsily as he tries to recover from the blast of wind generated by each wingbeat of the Arcuilas. When the talons come right for them, Astrid summons forth her warhammer and slams it into the Arcuila’s foot to knock it away before it injures her mount. Lightning crackles off the end of the hammer, harmlessly dancing up the Arcuila’s leg and into its feathers. The icy enchantment does something, but the Arcuila only seems annoyed.

“Uh– We should at least keep ‘em away from the caravan, don’t ya– AH!!” Arcus suddenly dives down towards the ground, dragging Astrid along with him in the saddle. One of the Arcuila’s swoops around, seeing this as its prime target, and screeches. Electricity crackles off of its form, gathering along its feathers and firing off behind it to propel it down like a diving falcon toward its prey. Astrid looks back and decides that lightning probably won’t work too well on a bird wreathed in lightning, so she decides to try something different, to at least give Arcus an edge at escaping.

Purple magic gathers around Astrid’s hand, and she throws it back at the Arcuila, striking it but doing no harm. That is until the Arcuila’s movement in chasing the flying dappled equine suddenly slows to half speed as if caught in a moment of slow motion. Then Astrid presses her hand against Arcus’ neck and puts the opposite magic into him. The pegasus’ speed suddenly doubles, propelling the two of them forward to get away and reposition. Astrid looks up only to see the other Arcuila going after Blue Birdberry.

Maybe two electromancers were not the best choice in fighting a couple of lightning birds.

---

Slow - Arcuila
Quicken - Arcus

The magically slowed Arcuila couldn't keep up with the magically sped up Pegasus at all, the enchantments making the distance between them grow quickly. This called for a change in tactics. Instead of firing lightning behind it to speed it up and let it swoop at its prey, it turned the lightning forward. No matter how slowed down lightning was, it was still lightning, one of the fastest things in the world. Red bolts of lightning shot forth, toward the escaping Pegaus and its rider.

While Astrid and Arcus were dealing with one of the giant birds, Blue had their own attacker to deal with. The two birds swooped around, the comparatively small blue bird dodging out of the way of talons and sharp beak. With each near miss, red lightning arced between the two birds. The electric ooze had some natural resistance to lightning, but this was beginning to be too much. They could feel something strange happening to them, just like the time they'd gone and touched one of the giant elemental birds.

They didn't know if it was a good or bad thing happening to them, but they couldn't just stop it from happening so simply. The Arcuila wouldn't let up its attacks, and it they did manage to get away somehow, it might swoop down and go for the caravan or team up with the other one and attack Astrid. They couldn't let that happen. They had to do something.

As the Arcuila took another swipe at Blue, a hazy cloud of acidic blue gas suddenly erupted from the blue bird. The gassified goo stuck to the Arcuila and sizzling lightly. It clenched its eyes and screeched in pain and annoyance as its eyes and throat burned, not enough to do serious harm, but enough to be a real pain.

---

Toxic Cloud

The combination of Arcus’ increased speed and the Arcuila being affected by the slow allows the pegasus to get some distance, but the spells don’t last forever. Astrid looks back and sees the angry Arcuila starting to gain again then she looks at the panicked Arcus. She can’t let Arcus get hurt, not like this, so Astrid unstraps herself from the saddle and leaps off his back, turning around and collecting Arcus into the pocket dimension for animals. Reality warps around him and within an instant, he’s gone from sight.

Meanwhile the Arcuila is diving right for her, having picked up speed with the effects of the slow wearing off entirely. Astrid opens her wings under her cloak and tries to escape the Arcuila’s reach. Instead, the elemental slams into her, and she tumbles across its back. With each collision, powerful lightning, a natural hazard of the Arcuila’s existence, strikes out at Astrid. Each arc, each bolt, seems to seep into her very being. The shocks start at her fingers and toes and travel into her core. It’s incredibly painful. Some of her resistance helps lessens the pain, and her greaves manage to take one of the largest shocks, but she still gets hit with it all hard.

She tumbles off the tail end of the Arcuila and falls back into the air.

---

Pet Pocket
Bat Wings (post 1/3)
Lightning Grounded (Greaves)

The Arcuila Blue was facing screeched in pain as the gaseous ooze stung its eyes and burned its throat. It flew out of the cloud, its red lightning striking all around it. Flashes of red lit up the acidic cloud, conducting through it to continue striking at Blue Birdberry.

They'd driven it off a bit, but that wasn't much. They still didn't know how to deal with this. They didn't want to kill them, and they didn't know how to relocate them. If Blue and Astrid ran away, the Arcuilas might go after the wagon that was still too nearby. They were riding away as fast as possible, so maybe if they could just hold out a little longer before trying to lead the Arcuila away. Maybe they'd be angry enough to chase them to a new home.

What were the Arcuila so mad about? With the ash spreading over their mountain, why didn't they just find somewhere else to live? Building a new nest couldn't be that hard, especially for two creatures as powerful as them. They'd probably be the top of the food chain no matter where they went.

Blue emerged from the cloud of gas and looked over to see how well Astrid was doing with her opponent and saw her tumbling off the tail of the Arcuila. What happened!? Where was Arcus!? They dived toward her, flying under her to let her land on their back.

Astrid lands hard on Blue Birdberry’s back and nearly falls off, but luckily Blue is sticky, and she manages not to. Everything feels faint, and she’s dizzy from the shocks and the tumbling. Weakly, she pushes herself up. “Huh..? Blue…?” Oh, good. She lets out a relieved sigh and adjusts herself to sit upright again. Red static continues to arc off of her, and her connection to lightning magic feels… strange. But there’s no time to think about that.

The Arcuila are right behind them, and they’re angry. Astrid’s connection to space domain magic doesn’t feel weak, so she pulses more quickening magic into the ooze bird so they can try to make an escape. As they zoom away, she looks back and sees the Arcuila stop chasing them once they get a certain distance away, though the massive elemental birds keep a careful watch on the invaders. That’s…odd.

Through her bleary thoughts, Astrid leans down so Blue can hear better. “They ain’t chasin’ us out here,” she says. “I bet they’re defending their turf or a nest or somethin’. Maybe they can’t go ‘cause of that.” Astrid sits up again and looks back at the enormous creatures. “...We should go check it out. Maybe we can lead ‘em somewhere outside of all the ash clouds!”

---

Quicken - Blue

Blue nodded and changed direction, flying in a wide arc around the Arcuila to get around them and back to the mountain. Flying above, they had a good vantage point to search for the giant nest the two elemental birds must have made there. Their view was just a bit obscured by ash, but with how large the nest was in order to fit the two gigantic birds inside, it wasn't hard to spot at all. Also not hard to spot, was the huge pinkish-white egg in the middle of the whole tree branches woven together to make such a huge nest.

So that was why they were refusing the leave their nest. They couldn't leave their egg behind. They'd gotten more aggressive to protect it, and this ash cloud must have felt as if something was encroaching on their territory and threatening them constantly. Maybe lashing out at passerby was the only thing they could think to do in this situation.

Blue swooped down to land in the nest. Maybe if they took the egg somewhere else, the Arcuila would follow them and build a new nest somewhere else. But, the ooze couldn't store the egg inside them. It might accidentally get digested and they didn't want to risk that. No, they'd just need to carry it on them. Blue looked at Astrid on their back and lowered a wing, holding it out like a ramp to roll the egg up onto their back.

They didn't have long. With a screech from above, they knew the Arcuila were already on their way to attack the ones trying to steal their egg.

Sure enough, they aren’t too far away from a nest. It’s absolutely enormous, easily larger than the average house in Dragon’s Cradle, and the egg is easily as big as Astrid. Of course, two absolutely massive birds would produce a massive egg. There’s no time to think about many of the logistics with the Arcuilas hot on their tails as they land.

With no guarantee that the egg will survive Blue’s inner ooze, Astrid uses all her might to roll the thing up onto their back. They’ll do their best to keep it safe, but it’s going to be hard to fly like this. If only she had time to make a contraption to transport it safely! But where the heck are they going to store the egg once they find a good spot??

“Blue, I dunno how we’re gonna convince the Arcuilas not ta just brin’ the egg back here!” she says as the gigantic shadow covers them like an impending stormcloud. Astrid looks around for some sort of solution. There aren't a ton of trees in this part of Dragon's Cradle, so will they even be able to make a new nest??

“...Do ya think ya can eat the nest an’ take it with us??”

Blue just looked around at the nest they were in. Their stomach was seemingly infinite, so holding all of it wouldn't be a problem, but they couldn't eat something that was bigger than them and this nest certainly was. They should be able to do it if they could break the nest apart into smaller pieces to eat separately, but that would take a little time and they didn't have much of that with the big birds already nearly here to defend their home and egg.

After letting Astrid roll the egg back off of them again, Blue transformed, not back into their armored self, but into a larger, vaguely humanoid shaped blob of ooze form. It'd be a lot easier to eat without their armor hindering them. They looked at Astrid, their faceless head turning to face in her direction, and gave a gooey thumbs up.

"Sure! Just give me a minute. Can you keep them busy until I'm done?" Blue asked, glancing upward at the approaching Arcuila. Blue's entire body grew larger, all the way to twelve feet tall and six feet wide. A snake-like tail emerged from the ooze's backside and wrapped around the egg to hold it while Astrid was busy distracting the birds and Blue was busy eating the nest. From their sides, a second pair of arms emerged.

With everything they could do to make this nest consumption finish as fast as possible, Blue went to work pulling out whole trees and large branches from the nest and shoving them into their own torso as fast as they could. They deconstructed the nest and consumed it, storing it away inside them.

---

Red Rogue's Coat
Prehensile Tail
Extra Arms
Space Pocket