Seaside

[quillpleasant]

Fortress Bay

Lenny tilts their head curiously at the dog. Two-person, huh. Sure, why not. ("Yes, two-person. Also looking for weather. Two noses are better than one.") They give a playful woof before clambering back to two feet, shaking the mud from their hands.

That frog smell is interesting. Lenny's read The Book of the Damned, and is quite familiar with the concept of raining fish and frogs- but this isn't that. This just smells like that. Which is funky, and a little confusing.

"Yeah, yeah, a magician. There's actually a particular one I've been hunting for years, so I've been training in preparation for when I finally track her down. Dealing with stuff like this helps me keep my edge." They scratch their ear absentmindedly. "Can't say I've ever encountered any hyenas though."

[Keeper]

Butterfly Bay

”Oh. This isn’t like, normally an- nevermind.” Best not to embarrass Owena by finishing that question. Maesda sounds like it was Serious Business all the time.

Inside Henry’s present is a black dress, along with a white blouse and black pants. All of the sort of fancy, gothic style that Henry’s fancy clothes are always in, and definitely also made of spider silk. But Henry did say his sister made it.

”…I think we might have had the same idea.” he says quietly as he looks between the two sets of clothes, a chuckle added for good measure.

[Rebonack]

[Fortress Bay]

The elder pauses to ponder the details and then replies to Green Beard, "The weather had been completely clear before that. Not a cloud in the sky and unseasonably warm. The sailors had taken it as a good omen that the fishing would be plentiful and easy this year. But then the ominous storm rolled in and has been squatting atop us like a toad on a puddle since."

Terrible.

"Normally we would seek the wisdom of Crag but no one has seen her near shore, nor have any had the fool-hearty courage to leave the bay. Not after the Thraon brothers vanished."

Meanwhile, Jon and Lenny complete their very important greeting ritual.

The drifter raises an eyebrow. "Do magician? Sure. Why not. Does the magical dog know where to start looking? Normally I would assume there's an old weather control spire that's half-working and causing trouble, but I haven't seen any of those nearby."

Knowing the Nexus there could be one right over the ridge the village is nestled in front of and no one has noticed it.

Now down by the docks, Leah contemplates a real problem. Maybe she could hurl rocks at the sky until it stops being so slimy and gross? That might be a viable solution.

"All of our little ones," Harriet confirms. "But they haven't wanted to speak about them. They just awake in the middle of the night screaming about the frogs."

Henry, meanwhile, continues his work of getting his boat ready. He's heedless of any potential dangers out on the sea.

"There's a few waterfalls running through the lava tubes," he says, gesturing to the sheer cliffs surrounding the bay. Sure enough, several waterfalls can be seen pouring out of the dark pits in the walls and running down the stone into the bay. Several of them are striped with slimy green algae.

A perfect place to find frogs.

In the print shop, the old printer waves a hand toward the main road for Lady Sahn's benefit. "Just down the main road. In the village longhouse. You can't miss it, biggest building in the village."

There!

That was pretty easy, right?

[Reinholdt]

[Fortress Bay]

Leah looks over towards the lava tubes. Well... it's a start. And it'll be out of the rain at least.

"I see. Thank you. If I could recommend waiting one more day before going out to sea. I don't intend to take long." The longer this goes on, the more aggravated and annoyed Leah will be. This wrongness must be stopped.

She gives the boatman and his concerned partner a curtsy before turning to head back up the steps. Ugh, more steps. The catgirl daintily takes her time ascending them despite how she just suggested she would hurry. Leah suspects there aren't exactly easy paths to these cliffside holes in the wall, but if she can get above one, she can earthbend her way down to one without much difficulty. Carefully elevatoring down a cliff on a slab of rack will still take concentration and focus though and losing that could result in a disastrous fall. Leah's umbrella is not capable of flight like her half-sister Raven's umbrella is.

Regardless, step one. Go to a dangerously wet cliff edge.

[Ironsmith]

Butterfly Bay

”Oh. This isn’t like, normally an- nevermind.” Best not to embarrass Owena by finishing that question. Maesda sounds like it was Serious Business all the time.

Inside Henry’s present is a black dress, along with a white blouse and black pants. All of the sort of fancy, gothic style that Henry’s fancy clothes are always in, and definitely also made of spider silk. But Henry did say his sister made it.

”…I think we might have had the same idea.” he says quietly as he looks between the two sets of clothes, a chuckle added for good measure.

[Butterfly Bay]

"...Yeah." Owena smiles softly, that red glow coming back to her cheeks. "Yeah, I think we did."

Henry will then find himself on the receiving end of another hug, this one much tighter than the first.

"...I love it." She whispers happily. "Thank you."

When she finally breaks away, Owena grabs the box under her arm and sets off toward the other room. "I'm going to go slip into this real quick." She says, still smiling. "...And make that phone call."

[Shadowcaller]

[Fortress Bay]

The lady gives him a curt nod. "I'm going to talk to them then and see if I can help them finding people to deal with this. While I of course hate to cut our business negotiation short I can't in good consciousness delay this with the conditions of the village deteriorating before my very eyes."

She raises her hand and takes a step away. "I won't be gone for longer than an hour or so. Perhaps two if fate is unkind. But if you excuse me now, I must now make haste."

And she will leave the book shop and step into her electronic carriage. However, before she does she will take a good look at the storm above to get a good picture of it in her mind. Then as the carriages door closes behind her she will close her eyes and focus on that mental picture. After a few minutes of what seems to be meditation, where upon her carriage has probably already arrived near the town hall, her consciousness expands out towards the storm.

She will gently prod at a smaller cloud which makes up the storm, trying to see what will happen once she attempts to make it move like it had been an ordinary cloud. Since that is something she can do.

[[brackets lover]]

[Fortress Bay]

"Your wiseman may have acted in foreknowledge of these events," the green-haired man says plainly, stroking his beard, "But I digress. You speak of mysterious disappearences? Where was the last place these Thraon Brothers were seen?"

---------

Jon shakes his head at the drifter. ("Don't think spire. Or magician. Weather gives bad instinct. Something... alien?")

[quillpleasant]

Fortress Bay

"A weather control spire? Eh... surely people have explored the environs, they'd have found something like that by now. No, I think this is something new." Lenny taps the side of her nose knowingly. She actually has no clue, but confidence is everything.

She leans down, listening to Jon before slowly nodding. "Well, my pal here thinks its something alien. And I'm inclined to agree. My guess? Frog god. Probably hidden in a cavern that's only visible when the tide goes out." That's where Lenny would hide something by a seaside village.

She licks a grimy finger and holds it up to the air, as if sensing something in the breeze. Then she points at the beach. "I say we look around and see if there's anything like that- weird rock outcroppings and stuff. Ideally, we can find a boat to rent, because going out on the water might give us a different perspective too." She hesitates, then glances down at Jon.

("You probably want your person, right? Maybe we can meet.") From a distance, she had seen the two of them walking together, so presumably they're allies.

[Morty]

[Bird Hunting]

Krayger sits there on the branch for a bit, eyes closed. After a minute he speaks more clearly.
"Does that work better?" he asks. His voice sounds much more like himself, which is in a way also funny, coming out of the mouth of an otherwise mostly normal bird.
"...and is there anything else that I need to know for proper...bird-ing? Ugh." This really is a situation he's gotten himself into isn't it? Asking a god to give him lessons on how to do otherwise normal things like they're his father.

"Don't overthink it. Your new body knows what it's doing. But take it slow with flying for a while." Havsken's voice is in equal parts amused and helpful. "And I can teach you how to change back and forth whenever you're ready."

[Keeper]

Bird Hunting

"Well, it's true that I probably don't want to fly into any glass windows." Krayger raises a wing to scratch an itch with his beak, shaking his head and returning to making eye contact. Sometimes it's just like this; some people accept the blessing and take ages to get used to it, and some just accept it as second nature without trouble. Mortals can be very versatile.

"I think doing that sooner rather than later would be nice. But maybe not when we're in a tree." Krayger hops down, gliding to the ground so he doesn't fall four meters upon changing back.

[Rebonack]

[Fortress Bay]

Thankfully for Leah, getting to the top of the cliffs isn't too difficult. And by not too difficult we mean there are more steep, slick stairs to ascend. But those stairs are important, you see, since they lead to a small complex of shrines on the top of the cliff.

Just little houses made for spirits, mind.

Not a Shrine in the empyrean sense. That's a very different thing.

Normally the top of the cliffs would make for a pretty nice view of the ocean, if not for the fact that it's cloudy and wet and smells terrible. From up here, looking down at the village, one almost gets the impression that the storm is just squatting over the town like a fat toad. She'll also have a reasonable view of what can only be a small group of adventurers down in the village conversing with each other. No doubt they also plan on trying to put an end to this meteorological morbidity.

Meanwhile, back in the longhouse, the green-haired man is given a long suffering smile. "Crag is not of our people. She's a whale who speaks; ancient and very wise. As for the brothers, the set out to sea shortly after the storm rolled in. They haven't been seen since. I imagine they were setting out to fish for the bay shrimp."

Everyone likes bay shrimp!

The book printer bids Lady Sahn farewell, certain she should return shortly. As for the clouds, prodding at them is a strange experience to say the least. The clouds respond to her prodding, though likely not as she would normally expect. It's like prodding at a stubborn frog that doesn't feel like moving. Cold, wet, and kind of squishy. There's an alien will bound up in these clouds and it has no interest in obeying Lady Sahn's instructions.

In fact.

It reacts much as most frogs do when they're doggedly harassed.

By leaping away and leaving a mess.

A huge drop of 'rain' falls from the sky directly above the carriage, likely splattering all over it and leaving a stinking mess of stagnant, algae choked water.

Down at the main street, the drifter starts when he hears another sludge bomb falling from the sky. Thankfully it lands over there on that fancy carriage instead of on them. Then he turns his attention back to Jon and Lenny.

"A frog god? I guess that isn't any stranger than an ape god. Frogs usually don't care for salt all that much, though. Or at least none of the ones I've ever met do. Usually you'll find them somewhere fresh water pools," he suggests, looking this way and that. Eventually his gaze falls on the catgirl climbing on top of the buffs on the other side of the bay. "Like maybe in those water-weeps coming out of the side of the cliffs there? It looks like she might have the same idea."

[Morty]

[Bird Hunting]

"Hmm, yes. It's easy to forget sometimes how larger bodies work." Havsken once again gives Krayger a one-eyed bird look. "You need to think about what you can do in your natural body but can't in this one and focus on a desire to do it. Your body will follow your mind's direction."

[Shadowcaller]

[Fortress Bay]

That was unpleasant.

But at least only her property got hit because of what she did and not a random townsfolk's livelyhood. It makes doing more experimentation dubious though as it would likely cause more of what these clouds contained to fall down upon the town.
But then again, it would do so anyway and it seemed to be brewing up something worse than stinking algae.
So she's going to try something else.

Namely, she starts channeling the nearby winds. Slowly but surely causing the winds up here (and not down in the town) to increase in intensity. Let's see if she could blow these clouds away.

[Reinholdt]

[Fortress Bay]

Ohhhh noooo. Adventurers. The last one of those she met was Matilda and she was just the worst. The definition of a murder hobo trying to cause a cataclysm. Leah wrinkles her nose. One could mistake it for her repulsion at the smell though.

Much more interesting are these shrines actually. She delays her plans to going cliff surfing and instead intends to go through and examine the shrines. It's not unusual for local shrines to worship animal and elemental spirits. Perhaps one or more of these shrines have become defaced or desecrated. If it has, then it is possible that the solution involves mollifying the enraged entity who has been slighted.

[Rebonack]

[Fortress Bay]

Lady Sahn will make another startling discovery at this point.

There's no wind.

Not in the town.

Not in the sky above the town.

For miles around the air is utterly still and no amount of prodding seems sufficient to cause it to budge. Doldrums. The bane of sailing vessels and now a curse allowing the stagnant clouds to steadily heap themselves up.

Not a welcome discovery.

But interesting that the air doesn't react as the clouds did. Whatever will is at work here is simply excluding the wind rather than infusing it.

[[brackets lover]]

[Fortress Bay]

The green-haired man gives a sagacious smile to the elder, "Intriguing. I will advise the dog to search for shrimp as well, in so doing he shall solve the mystery of their disappearence, like as not."

--------

Jon tilts his head at Lenny. ("Jon forget person. Guild give Jon 'handler' for mission. Handler go talk people for Jon.")

He closes his eyes and lowers his snout in musing at the drifter's statements. ("Frog god bring more territory for frog? Make big water fresh? Upset nature. Many death. Much suffering. Jon prevent.")

[Rebonack]

[Fortress Bay]

So Leah has several important things to consider here. First? How terrible adventures are. Second? What's up with these shrines. The offerings don't offer clues to what kinds of spirits they're for. Before them are typical food and votive offerings. But guessing that they're small nature spirits probably isn't wrong.

What is wrong, though, is-

"Reeeeeeeeep!"

-the frog sitting in one of the shrines. It isn't very big. A little slimy green guy with bright red eyes and orange feet. It watches Leah, somehow displaying far greater cunning than a frog ought to have.

Also it smells of rancid algae.

The frog croaks again, ballooning out its throat pouch at the cat girl.

[Shadowcaller]

[Fortress Bay]

No wind? Just another thing to add to the odd-pile of this 'storm' she supposed. At least this experiment didn't result in more algae falling down. She could conjure some wind but that would need more investment and she wasn't sure if she wanted to do that yet. Not until she knew more about this phenomena.

So she opened her eyes and returned to her carriage. Now feeling that foul smell of whatever had been dumped on it.

Letting out a small sigh, she opened the door and went outside. Heading for the town hall to find the elders or perhaps adventurers looking for them. Either would work for her purpose.

[Keeper]

[Bird Hunting]

"Hmm, yes. It's easy to forget sometimes how larger bodies work." Havsken once again gives Krayger a one-eyed bird look. "You need to think about what you can do in your natural body but can't in this one and focus on a desire to do it. Your body will follow your mind's direction."

Bird Hunting

Krayger glances at the raven god, tilting his head as he considers options. He actually sits there for a few minutes, not seemingly having much luck.
"Do people usually figure this out right away? I'm not really getting anything. Um I-"
Something seems to occur to Krayger, and he suddenly grows into his normal self in a burst of black feathers.
"...right then." mutters the minotaur, clearly not going to elaborate on what he was thinking about.

[Keeper]

[Butterfly Bay]

"...Yeah." Owena smiles softly, that red glow coming back to her cheeks. "Yeah, I think we did."

Henry will then find himself on the receiving end of another hug, this one much tighter than the first.

"...I love it." She whispers happily. "Thank you."

When she finally breaks away, Owena grabs the box under her arm and sets off toward the other room. "I'm going to go slip into this real quick." She says, still smiling. "...And make that phone call."

Butterfly Bay/Codebreaker’s Home

”I’ll be here.” Henry says with a smile, returning the hug.
As Owena leaves, there is a very quiet little, ”I love you~”

———Later———

Codebreaker and Kyrie return late in the night to a house as pristine as you could only get from a pair of do-good kids like Owena and Henry staying. There’s never even so much as a bottle cap left lying around.
Codebreaker smiles as he shuts the door behind them, shedding his heavy winter coat and flannel and flopping down into his fire-side chair.
”Seems like the kiddos had a good time.”
He eyes the waste paper basket, notably full of wrapping paper.
”Kyrie. I know we said no gifts. But it is Thanksmas. If there’s anything…well it’s the season.”
Naturally gifts between the two of them would always be awkward given the monetary situation. So they’d agreed not to worry about it. Or on their birthdays.

[quillpleasant]

Fortress Bay

"A frog something at any rate. The nose knows." Lenny nods thoughtfully at the drifter's insight. That's true, frogs aren't usually ocean dwelling. Even though they're fish. They're fish, right? Whatever they are, they're gross, but the distant cat girl does seem to be looking in the right place for them.

Lots of cat people around. Luckily Lenny isn't the kind to really care about that particular ancient rivalry. He crouches, sniffing the air as his eyes flick over to Jon.

("You think switch water? Bad.") Making the ocean water fresh would definitely have some big effects. Lenny's not sure what, but they'd be big. ("Come with, search for signs of frogs by cliffs?")

[Reinholdt]

[Fortress Bay]

Ugh. A rancid frog. Leah appears to be on the right track. But the question remains as to whether this was a cause, or an effect. She's guessing the latter, but it could even be a bit of both. She takes a closer look at the shrine in hopes to get a hint as to its exact purpose, at least compared to all the other shrines.

This may require removing the frog though.
"SHOO."
The sound Leah makes carries an element of purity, as if merely hearing it is enough to cleanse the soul and the mind. There's a power to it, something greater than a simple request. How cognizant of this Leah is may be in question. She's still new at being... more.

[Ironsmith]

[Codebreaker's Home]

It probably helped that Owena already worked here as a maid. She in particular would either be careful about potentially making a mess or diligent about cleaning it up before it became a problem. Mostly.

For his part, Kyrie's attention is on the neatly-folded robe on the back of the chair furthest from the door, where it'd been left as a matter of convenience while still being somewhat out of the way in case the wolves got home before Owena had a chance to do laundry again. This one in particular, Kyrie was certain his niece had been wearing earlier that night.

"...Hm. I would say they did." He remarks, with a hint of amusement.

At Codebreaker's mention of presents, the wolf-knight frowns again. They'd been over this before. Kyrie didn't even celebrate the day of his birth, not beyond the usual catch-all festival around the spring equinox. And Coffadydd- sorry, Thanksmas- wasn't the sort of celebration that really lent itself to last-minute gift-giving, especially given their standing agreement.

None of this really seemed to bear mention, though. Codebreaker knew all of that already. Or, if he didn't a moment ago, he did now thanks to Kyrie thinking it so intensely at him. There are times when having a psychic boyfriend is a bit of a boon in the communication department.

[Keeper]

Codebreaker’s Home

CB sits, warming his feet by the “fire.” There’s days he feels like he should really look into paw-wraps or something. Sometimes having wolf paws for feet doesn’t cut it.

He glances up at Kyrie, pulling at the undershirt he has on now that he took off the coat and flannel.
”I think the romantic thing would be to say ‘you’re the only gift I need’ or something like that.” he drawls, though Kyrie can feel the slight twinge of CB’s embarrassment as he says it. His powers are two-way, especially with someone he feels very comfortable with. Kyrie has been privy to his little secret of how much bravado most of the arrogant things he says are. It’s taken a long time for him to take the mindset he had to pretend to have to be Codebreaker and actually mean any of that self-confidence.

”But still, new year and all that. Anything you want to work on? I’ve got lots of time and you have even more.”
Technically Kyrie has less between his job and being locked to nights only. But well, immortality.

[Rebonack]

[Fortress Bay]

"Spirits be with you in your journeys, friend," the elder says to the green bearded man.

Which means he'll be leaving right about the time-
-that Lady Sahn is heading INTO the longhouse to converse with the elders!

A fortuitous coincidence?

In the Nexus?

Never!

Up on the cliffs, meanwhile, Leah lays down a DICTUM whether she knows it or not. The frog "Reeeeep!"s again, with notable distress this time, and leaps away from her. This someone takes the scum staining the little shrine along with it. There's no reason why that should happen, physically speaking, but the presence of the frog appears to defile.

Which isn't great.

As soon as the frog is no longer occupying the little spirit shrine Leah will feel a gentle sea breeze rustling past. It's pretty feeble, almost as if its source has been getting smothered, but it's still notable. There hasn't been any wind to speak of since Leah stepped under these clouds.

Down in the streets, the drifter nods to Jon and Lenny. "I'm heading up the cliffs. It looks like there are some shrines up there, too. It'll be a good place to start. And getting down to those water weeps shouldn't be THAT hard."

It's a slick cliff face with little in the way of purchase for climbing down.

But then again he IS sort of catish so maybe he's good at climbing and jumping?

[[brackets lover]]

[Fortress Bay]

The green-haired man turns to the elder and nods his head. "Yes, as they always are," he reciprocates politely, turning back to exit. Passing by Lady Sahn, he nods to them and smiles courteously, continuing on his way.

--------

The green-haired wizard finds Jon once again, approaching the group he's with and glancing between them all before giving Jon a tired look. He presses the bridge of his nose between his fingers, his sunglasses momentarily rising. Notably, the whites of his eyes weren't visible from this angle. "One of the elders spoke of a prophetic whale that hasn't been seen recently and two fishermen that have become lost at sea. I trust you and your newfound companions can handle things from here?"

As if to say yes, Jon stands and starts shaking his tail.

[quillpleasant]

Fortress Bay

Lenny peers at the cliffs, then makes a tch sound. "Climbing that should be easy. I'll come with." Many hands make light work, and the drifter's arsenal seems a little more reliable than Lenny's claws should there be anything lurking around.

As the green wizard approaches, she looks him up and down thoughtfully. Obviously the dog is smart, but he still needs a handler for some reason. Odd. Maybe it'd be worth seeing if said handler might know anything about her quarry, but that can wait for later. "Missing whale, missing fishermen. Guess we'll be taking a boat later after all."

She purses her lips in thought. That's a steep cliff, and dogs aren't usually good at that kind of thing. "Anyone have any rope? For my friend here? We can make a harness or something." She gestures lazily at Jon.

[Morty]

[Bird Hunting]

"It can go faster or quicker depending on the person. Your speed of mastering it was about average, I'd say." Havsken gives an amused titter. "I will be... how do mortals say it? In touch."

[Shadowcaller]

[Fortress Bay]

The lady returns the nod and the smile and makes note of this man. It seemed likely he was one of the people coming here on the call of the elders. Exactly the kind of people she was looking for.

Which is why she got straight to the point as she walks in. "Greetings and excuse me for being so curt but was he one of the people here to help with this unnatural storm?" She gestures at the doorway from where the man just walked out. "I'm here to see if I can help out with recruiting a group to deal with it."

For reference she is dressed like this. Just without the boa right now.

[Reinholdt]

[Fortress Bay]

Oh! The breeze feels nice. And calls attention to the lack of wind. It's not something Leah would normally notice. The kind of thing you don't realize is missing until you find it. But she does suppose it's exceptionally unusual that there was no wind beside the ocean. Aren't beaches and cliffs notorious for their wind?

So this is a definite improvement and all the algae and frog-based algae or algae-based frogs are defiling all that is good and pure. Leah pulls out a handkerchief and cleans the shrine a little bit more.

Deciding it would be worthwhile to be sure, Leah decides to take some time going to each shrine and making sure they were frog free and kept clean. A well maintained shrine is a happy shrine and it's possible that these have been mildly neglected. Or frog slimed. Gotta check each to be sure.