Wystic Weather Woes - Session 9

Session 9 - 06/30/2024
***the story so far***
 
I thank the professor for his time, and he lets me know he lives in one of the Teacher's Hall. I can also knock on his door anytime. He lets me know his name - Professor Vishara, Department of Mystek Technologies.
As I head over to the Geomancy Wing, I spot Roger and Diaga hanging up posters for the music competition. I give them a thumbs up and a little wave.
Mercommernaut Era ?
I reach the Geomancy Wing, and I see most of the classrooms are closed, lights off, but there's one hall that is filling with students. There seems to be a class in one of the lecture halls. There's a bunch of students lingering around, wearing college student garb with leaflets. I walk into the class with a little bit of pomp & circumstance, a little bit of a strut underneath my feet. People look at me odd as I pass through the doors, but nobody really seems to throw any hands. I seem to be drawing unnecessary attention to myself, but whatever. I sit in the back.
As the lecture begins, there's an announcement that a special guest from the Khudaldaa's Ustgelt Weather Institute. In walks a very old blue dragonborn man, with a thick Southern accent. As he begins a lecture on runic arts and their relation to geomancy.
Geomancy is specific an evolution of runic arts hidden away. specifically, it is the HONING of different types of runic symbols on top of them that amplifies them into one desired output. Geomancy, in sigil circles, though often having to be strengthened by certain symbols on corresponding sides, often only have one set or two sets of symbols that actually power the determined output should be. He starts drawing a ton of symbols on the whiteboard of the classroom.

.
The lecturer talks about his position at the Weather Institute, and how it sits on top of a giant fantasma crystal platform. The Weather Institute tries to harness these weird weather phenomena for military or transport reasons. He talks about the symbols they've studied, and demonstrates how they could change weather outputs (cloud, rain, acid rain, etc etc).
As he draws them out, he draws them one at a time, so its clear how the combination works

Water: Fire on top, Cold rune on bottom -> creates Water

Cloud : Water symbol modified with Air symbol in middle -> watery cloud of air -> cloud

It seems this combination of runes allows for the modification of weather.
This lecturer specifically talks about lightning, and how it relates to the weather phenomenon mentioned earlier.
He shows the crafting recipe for Lightning In A Bottle: captures electrical current in a bottle.

TO CRAFT, 2 red & 1 green.

the quality of the materials DOES NOT MATTER

The professor ends off his lecture, and gives each student who attended a FREE Lightning In a Bottle.
As I make my way through the students filing out, the professor meets my gaze, and thanks me for attending. His name is Professor Ijisé, Head of Ustgelt Weather Institute (president equivalent).
I remark to the professor about the interesting lecture, and ask him the works of combining other runes, using Force and Bludgeoning as an example.
The professor responds that while its a little out of my expertise , but for the purposes of the argument, because I'm from Khudaldaa, there is a machine that is operable called a Reconstruction Machine, using Force and Bludgeoning to autonomously make materials. It would sort of work like a factory press, except without a fuel source (the runic symbols being the "fuel" themselves).
I probe the professor about Runic Symmetry, for example flipping Water, he remarks laboratory efforts that would make Steam (if Fire bottom and Cold top, the Fire reaction is unstable and instantly makes Steam. the Water reaction with Cold bottom and Fire top is more stable and more controllable.
Regarding unstability, the professor looks to the side, and is unsure how to answer, simply remarking it takes years and years of experimentation. If you were to try to get a stable rune of Steam (using the orientation of both on the side), in that situation the specificity of how you would have to draw the symbol for the Steam to NOT strike you immediately would be much more precise than flipping the runes and letting the reaction occur slower. It takes experimentation on the forces that govern our world. The professor remarks, "not everyone should play God"
The professor laughs a little bit, remarking about the controversy about the Storm Elementals - it seems like everytime he hosts the lectures, someone asks about the old Weather Institute experiments that allowed giant Elementals to descend from the clouds. He's not sure how they gained consciousness, chuckling. (eyeball emoji INTESIFIES)
I thank the professor for his time, and the professor remarks that he's going on a lecture tour, who will be going to
The professor will be arriving at the city of Jordmässig in 5 days, the agricultural center for Vomethenda (regarded as the secondary research institute, who does more art on the Runic Arts, whereas Utdanning focuses more on Mystek). He mentions he is heading to the Küvüagaar Research Institute. (Küvüagaar is the God of Engineering/Ingenuity that we learned about from the church cult).
The four of us meet up again at Uta's apartment building. We go up again as a group, and make our way through the dark oak hallways. This actually seems like a pretty modern apartment building all things considered, with Mystek lights strewn about. There's construction noises close by - it seems like Uta is actively working on something. As Diaga rings the doorbell, the sawing begins to stop, and Uta remarks her doorbell chime is really loud.
Uta opens the door, and she is covered in grease and sawdust. We're apparently early...
Uta's excited to show us a statue she's been working on, and lifts off a cloth cover to reveal a large steel-clad monolith that's in the shape of an iron maiden. Its.... complicated.
Uta remarks how tensions in the city are high, and that if we want to leave town, we should leave soon.
After a lengthy discussion, we decide to head Eyju, the town in the middle of Lake Insjö.
Over the course of our three day journey to Lake Insjö, on day 2 as we head towards the lake we begin to get a very strange feeling, almost like a tradewind breeze blowing you towards the lake. It gets harsher and harsher the closer we get to the lake. At the apex of the wind's strength, we reach the edge of a massive cavern - we're at the top of the foothills surrounding the lake. Down below, we see a thick layer of fog covering the top of the lake, and a few spires poking through the rolling fog.
 
Once I reach the town of Eyju, I manage to gather the following materials:

1 silver (+1)

1 hardwood (+0)

1 vine (+0)