28: Temple of Wind.... and Coins?

General Summary

Even while traveling to the location of the next genie on the map, the Crimson 8 remembers the mysterious group that thwarted their attempts to retrieve the Earth Gem from the Dao. With this group in mind, they oftne ask questions around town and in correspondence to those they've met on their journey. Recently, Vash learned that a flying ship is a very rare thing in the Shatterlands, but that one had been seen coming and going from Ember Island Village, right under their noses! More interestingly, he learned that the ship belonged to another group of adventurers, much like themselves -- how very interesting indeed.
With all these factors lining up, Vash was certain this must be the group who snatched the gem away. He learned of their rented abode and decided to pay them a visit. When they did not answer his knock, he knocked even harder and accidentally knocked the door right off its hinges. This of course gathered the attention of nearby villagers, who fetched a member of the newly created Emberguard. The guard that showed up was easily charmed by Vash, having easily recognized him as one of the heroes of the island. With Rowan's help (arriving disguised as Jasmina), they convinced the guard they were doing an inspection of the building. With his request for Vash to sign his shield complete, the guard left them to their business.

Unfortunately, they learned that nobody was home. They left Stellen, Kedar's psuedodragon familiar, behind to tell them when the other group returned. Meanwhile, they also learned from villagers around town nothing but good facts about the group, such as that they spend time helping the orphans or donating to the Temple of the Broken God. How strange.
After a few weeks on the seas, the Efreeti's Fortune neared its destination. Suddenly, the ship was darkened by a shadow from the sky. Looking up, the crew saw the cause--a flying ship! From the ship, flying down on a cloud, game an ethereal young woman. The group surrounded her, rather aggresively, and bombarded her with questions. The timid lady tried her best to assuage their anger and uncertainty, explaining who she was and that she was there to take them to the Wind Temple. Zephyra, she called herself, the Wind Princess--a Djinni Genasi. Ember seemed taken by her immediately, though she paid him no mind.

Zephyra lead the group to land, speeding up the travel with her powers over wind. She lead them across the snow and ice to a portal, which lead them to a floating temple far above the clouds. There, the party split up into two groups as directed to tackle two separate sides of the temple, working in tandem to defeat enemies and open doorways for the other side. They solved puzzles and directed wind through pipes to the end room, where they discovered the wind played a tune.
Unfortunately, something went amiss, and the tune was all wrong. With some backtracking, they were able to get the pipes tuned correctly. Then they repeated the tune on the organ, which opened the final door of the temple. Zephyra walked out, congratulating them on completing the temple, albeit a bit slowly.
At that very moment, the sound of ripping fabric echoed out in the chamber, followed by what felt like an endless stream of coins clattering across the stone floor. Looking over, the group witnessed a panicked Jin-e on his hands and knees, scooping up a ridiculous amount of gold that was spilling forth from his magical satchel.
Before the absurdity of the situation could register, some of the coins began to move on their own, crawling across the floor, skittering like horrid, golden spiders. Combat ensued against Jin-e's golden hoard. One of the coins was enormous, apparently having fed on the hafling's treasury for a good while. At first, most of the crew just watched in amazement, in amusement, but after a few attacks from the coins, it became clear that this was no simple foe.
The coins joined together, growing in power. They skittered across the ceiling. They attacked in piles. The piles molded together to form an enormous golem of treasure. With breath of acid and painful thwomps from tentacles sprouting from gold, the creatures made their stand. In the end, they were defeated, with much of Jin-e's treasure lost, seemingly forever.
A woman's scream pierced through the temple. Zephyra, panicked, pounded on the stone door, desperate for it to open so she could return to the person on the other side. Crying, she pleaded for help. The group, taken aback by the passion of her meltdown, failed to help for a moment before gathering themselves and playing the melody once again, causing the door to open. They ran down a short hallway and found another of the coin mimic creatures, which they dispatched, before climbing up a ladder.
As they climbed out onto the roof of the building, they witnessed the very end of a shift from darkness, purple hued and terrifying, like that in the Shadow Realm through the portal in Modiminir, back to the light of day. There stood a cloud giant, her beautiful white hair of wind blowing about. Zephyra ran towards her, but stopped dead at the strange, cold look in the giant's eyes.
"Makani..?" she questioned softly.
Makani attacked, and the group had no choice but to attack back, to protect themselves, despite Zephyr's desperate pleading otherwise. It became clear that Makani the Cloud Giant was fighting against something, and Kedar probed her mind, growing terrified upon learning that Shar's presence was there, controlling the giant, instructed to end their lives.
With the power of flight and wind on her side, Makani was a force to be reckoned with. Their location high in the sky made the situation far more dangerous, and it was a mixture of luck and skill that brought the group to the end of the fight with their lives in tact.
In the end, Makani was able to fight off Shar's influence. She knelt before Zephyra, pulling her into a tight and tender embrace. Most of their words went unheard by the group, but it was clear that it was a final farewell. Zephyra was distraught, but declined to have her Makani reincarnated when Aralia kindly offered. "We live a monk's life here, and she would not want to be brought back," Zephyra explained.
The wind genasi accepted the offer to return with the group to their ship for now, unable to face her own crew after such heartbreak, and admittedly interested to learn more about the heroes.
Yet another coin jumped off of where it had hidden itself in Jin-e's clothing. They defeated the coin, and this one shattered into an unbelievable amount of gold coins, coming from seemingly nowhere. Though Jin-e gathered most to himself, each member of the group managed to grab a decent amount for themself as well.
As they recalled home, Jin-e stayed behind to "loot" the Cloud Giant's body, removing things from it such as its toes. Aralia caught sight of this horrid act and had had enough of the halfling's actions. She began to cast Geas on him, to control his evil urges. Jin-e saw her casting her spell, but paid her no mind.
She finished the ritual to cast the spell and commanded Jin-e to speak with her before taking any action. Satisfied, she recalled back to the ship, followed shortly by the somewhat bewildered Jin-e, who was determined to ignore the orders, even if doing so caused him a large amount of pain.
The spell was short-lived. Aralia, after having some time to consider her actions, decided that taking control of the other halfling was not the right way to go. She ended the spell, and instead wrote him a letter to apologize, but explained that she was fed up with his actions, with him using her as a living shield, and warned him to watch himself.
Zephyra used her power, buffed by the power of her father's wind gem, to bless the Efreeti's Fortune with the power of flight. Though pleased with this blessing, the crew was frustrated that yet another gem was "taken" from them, in a sense. Zephyra explained that the wind Genie, Djinni, her father, had passed. She explained that she would be keeping the wind gem for now, and whichever of their team of heroes 'reached the end' of their journey first would get the gem to use to save the world.

Zephyra learned much during her time on the ship. Vash, despite his initial hostility towards the girl, seemed to have warmed up to her, and offered her great support during such a hard time. Ember offered her his room, and his beloved Mirri for comfort. She greatly appreciated this, especially since she missed her own guardian so fiercely. After a few days, she was surprised when her own guardian showed up, riding the wind to see her.

The ship made its way through the air towards the next Genie, Marid, of the water. Zephyra spent her time split between learning about the group's journey's, teaching the crew how to fly, and time alone, to mourn her great losses.

Missions/Quests Completed

Wind Temple - Complete
Wind Gem - Location Known

Player's Present

• Kedar - Melissa

• Aralia - Katie

• Vash - Juston

• Rowan - Ernie

• Jin-e - Armando

• Ember - Austin

Report Date

10 Sep 2023

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