Chapter 8-219: If Wishes were Fishes... (1/2)
“...where rest the weary, and dream of the wind at dawn.”
Here in this land where day was currently almost all day long, and the wind wasn’t stopping, and carrying madness on it... and it all seemed to be channeling towards the South Pole.
Magnetic readings gave me a Visual File fix on the Pole via triangulation, and it was plain these mountains were curving towards it, having bent away from the Antarctic ridgeline a couple peaks back.
Even the Haze was responding to it, swirling in chaotic storms around the peaks that poked right up into their layers. The hate lightning here was subdued, as if drained away by those uncaring peaks, cold and aloof in their isolation and the darkness above the white of the eternal ice.
The air was totally dry here, so there should have been no precipitation except blown bits of ice, yet there were still occasional gusts of snow here and there, descending from the Haze... or perhaps carried up the mountains by these monolithic tributes to insanity and however they were warping the weather.
-Any dimensional bending going on? The landscape seems quite odd for such a massive disruption...-
Scout/4.Net +1 to all Stats. Nog Mastery, Strength to base 18. Yay, Perfect Body Amazon stat-line me. 44 Int, 32 Dex, 33 Cha, 24 Str, 30 Wis, 29 Con. Nogging all done.
My Secondary Matrices were gutted by the cost, but I didn’t much care. There wasn’t much I actually wanted out of Nogging other than the Stat line, but there were still things I could take out of it in the future if I wanted to.
Talent: Sniper’s Eyes, Sneak Attack damage on all ranged attacks from concealment or surprise. If they couldn’t see me, they could eat an extra +3d6, thank you. Well, for a Rogue Talent, it wasn’t bad, just more damage on the stack... and you never know when you need more damage.
Purchased Feat: Hidden Flight: Run or Charge while maintaining Stealth. Well, the former seemed much more likely than the latter...
Finishing out with Silver Mastery/4, d6 burn damage persisting for a round after being wounded by my Fire spells. Came with another Silver Smiting use per day, too.
Not particularly impressive on its own... until you combined it with other flaming Kicker effects that would persist, too. It would also really accelerate the vivic consumption of the dead, too. Feeding the Land even faster, yessirree...
At Master Fred’s question, I turned to look at the mountain jutting up into the Haze miles away.
There were literally a couple miles of ice beneath us, and that peak was thrusting right through it all, and up into the Haze, lost to view, but not to ear. That windsong carried for leagues...
-It’s all completely suppressed, but just based on ice patterns, the break was there.- A light gleamed along the ground about fifty feet away where there didn’t seem to be anything. -Regardless of the modulation harmonics, they can’t get the crystal patterns to line up. Test it with your tremblesense.-
He obligingly walked over, and paused next to the line of light, tapping his booted toe softly.
-Yes, there’s a clear break line here, fit together with geometric precision.- He looked left and right, and as a ball of Wrath appeared on his hand, he waved it through the air. -It feels like there should be something here, but there is not.- He looked up at the roiling whorls in the Haze above, spinning in different directions slowly from each peak, streamers of not-cloudstuff playing back and forth between them.
-Totally suppressed. Should tell you how powerful the Shroud is.-
-I am impressed,- he /agreed.
-Let’s get our discussion with the Bey over with, and see what he has to say.-
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“Bey ‘Azzar, if you could attend me.”
It wasn’t a request. Smoke swirled out of the genie prison in two streams, the Bey materializing, and his veil-clad attending lover hanging on his arm and shoulder.
There were two Disks waiting for them, Control Temperature had moved the temperature far above the freezing level, and the two of them hastily sat down when they saw me doing the same on my own Disk, with my main loot-carrying Disk flattened and forming an impromptu table for us.
“Lady Traveler, Mistress,” the efreet bowed precisely, before taking the Disk which could take his weight easily, and the succubus did the same, scooting hers up next to him. I gave her a look which suggested she be absolutely silent unless called upon, and that included telepathic games. She was smarter than the Bey, with even fewer morals, so yes, she had little problem manipulating him, and he probably thought it all good practice for efreet politics.
“I trust the Wishes I’ve been asking of you have not been too distracting, Your Grace.”
His face flickered in some confusion. I had not actually asked for a personally profitable Wish from him, especially one he was inclined to twist to punish me.
“Bey ‘Azzar, I request a Wish!
“I Wish for a proper seraglio in this genie prison for a noble of the stature of an efreeti Bey.
“I Wish for a proper wine cellar in this genie prison, assembled from alcohol otherwise lost or broken in conflicts or fires since the coming of the Shroud.