Through the storm he forged, for no reason other then he could. Azrael had seen the endless blizzard that had whipped up through Polaris, a storm unlike any he'd ever seen, and decided on the spot that he would defeat this blizzard. He would defeat it and prove himself powerful enough to defeat even this unlikeliest of natural disasters.

It wasn't easy, even for a creature his size, but his thick fur and naturally high body temperature kept the cold mostly at bay, which meant that it was just pushing through that was the most difficult. For a while, he thought this would be the only thing he'd be doing - throwing himself against the wind and snow, when he heard a cry in the distance.

TO ME, GEMBOUNDS!

He turned, eyes narrowed against the snow. Up there...a fight! A creature and a golem, and others were running for it as well. He felt the flare of wild joy at the prospect of a fight swell in his chest and he let out a deafening roar as he lunged forward, pressing hard against the blizzard.

The demon sprinted towards the fight, sucking in a huge breath of freezing air, which burst into flames within his belly and, as he got close enough, blasted the fire straight at the golem from his jaws with another roar.

Ari

Hope is but a waking dream

Aristotle had heard from his daughter that something strange was going on in one of the other caverns that she had explored. Apparently it had grown so cold that it had snowed and that great winds were whipping about in the cavern. These things had peeked the lion’s curiosity. So here he was making his way to the place that Comet had spoken of, he had gotten directions from her at the same time she had been eagerly spouting off about how wonderful it was.

His daughter had left for several days and he was beginning to wonder where she had gotten off to. So he decided that it would be best to check the place she had been so eager to show him. Perhaps now would be the perfect time for him to explore it and find out for himself just how strange and wondrous these things were.

The snow was cold as his broad paws sank into the soft frozen drifts. He could see his breath with each one he took, it came out in little white clouds in front of him. He was following Comet’s scent around the edge of the cavern, he could tell he wasn’t to far behind the girl as the snow hadn’t completely refrozen from her tracks. He would catch up to her soon.

Suddenly as he was making his way toward what looked to be another tunnel, he caught a glimpse of what he thought to be Comets form darting down into a tunnel. Quickly the lion picked up his pace and began to go at trott. But then his rounded audits caught what had made her pick up her own pace. A voice calling to him. A strange voice he had never heard. However he was compelled to start running. His paws started speeding up without him telling them to. Now he was at a dead run and barely behind Comet, he kept catching glimpses of the young girl in front of him. As he came upon Comet he found himself in a group of other gembound. He had not been the only to hear the call for help. On instinct the lion moved to stand beside his daughter though he had an offensive spell he could use. However he was unsure if plants would answer his call in this frigid environment.

The lion watched for a few second before he called upon his magic. He was assessing which one it had been that had called for him. Seeing the winged creature fall he knew who had called him and reared up and slammed his front paws down in the snow sending out his magic. It seemed that the cold would hold back his plant friends as they barely awakened to answer him. Roots sprang from the ground and attempted to ensnare one of the back legs of the bear golem.

If Comet wasn't a cycle old, he would have been a bit more fine with her wandering off for a few days. But as it was, she was, and he couldn't understand how Ari wasn't more anxious about this.

Trotting along nervously, he followed behind Ari. He'd only been here once, and had a nice vision with the Spire and a conversation with Khloros that had gone... well. Ish. Not really. It was rather embarrassing, actually. Even now his cheeks flushed hot at the thought of his rather shameful demeanor, so flustered and stuttery that he hadn't known what to say.

Polaris had changed completely, as he finally came across it, eyes wide and ears perked up. He immediately shook his head and searched for Comet, galloping forward through the snow as he turned towards the golem.

"Comet," he said, trusting her magic to aid them, "The snow is water, it's just cold. If you can melt it, you can use it to your advantage."

Why did the pup have to get into so much trouble?

A wisp popped into existence, flaming up for a moment before relaxing. He got ready to launch it, eyes narrowing. Wisps may be harmless, but not with the new spell he'd learned. They burned.

enter stage right ...

a black-and-white silhouette wove in and out of sight, half a ghost as she dipped her way through swirling flurries of snow. this was a flier at one with the wind, and she rode it deftly, even as colossal wings beat it into a hurricane below. but there's just one problem, isn't there? your — lungs — are — broken. and this was killing them. damask huffed and panted, drinking in oxygen with her jaws open wide, misty plumes bursting back out. with every breath, the jasper in her chest threw another lash of pain. oh, she didn't look it, but rest assured: she was struggling.

the crystals' apparition had pushed her into high alert, pacing and patrolling the edge of the storm, eyes and ears trained on its depths; when thunder and stone clashed from within, her sirens had gone off all the louder. then: "TO ME." booming, howling, utterly unquestionable. damask had heard the summons and answered at once, even as her airways dried and tightened in the cold. at that point, she'd known with certainty that one of the combatants would be an ursine golem — and that after the battle, a new destination awaited reclamation. but something's wrong. very wrong. this was it, the fight they'd been waiting for, and yet ... astraea had never rallied the caves. a call to arms hadn't come until now, and outside of those in polaris — those in earshot — no one knew what was going down. after cycles of planning, the other bonebound couldn't even be here to contribute — nor could the seven, the sentinels, or any of the other heavy hitters, from what she could see.

the accipiter circled overhead, scanning the battlefield, weighing her options. maybe she could ... stay and help — ? no, come on, you won't last another minute. you really wanna be a hero? here's what you do. she sucked in a ragged breath. a little extra volume would've been real helpful right around now ... but with her stone the way it was, a red-hot knife this close to outright bloodlust? she didn't dare. no spellcasting; had to keep it acoustic. "i'll spread the word," she called out to the others — straining, trying (and just barely succeeding) to raise her voice without breaking it. ah! too quiet, as always. surprise, surprise. but not inaudible. this done, damask whirled on her pinions and raced off, gasping for breath, fighting hard against a coughing jag. auré might or might not send aid, and it might or might not be necessary. the golem was in rough shape, and mismatched as they were, this turnout might actually have it covered. she knew what she would've done, but — don't you slip!, just you remember ... yeah, yeah, she got the picture. what she would've done didn't count for anything. now fly.

to canis.

... exit stage left

raid: winter in polaris

[ boss encounter: ursa — room boss ]

BEAR GOLEM

ursa room boss

AZIGH

guardian of pegasus

SKAHAN

architect of the caves

GEMBOUNDS

character stats and info

bear golem

ursa  room  boss

▼ ENSNARED

125 / 300 HP    41.67%

Its thoughts were merely hunger, greed; it had lay dormant in its room for so long, but just beyond the icy tunnel was more. More magic. Tons of it, free in the air and in the rock, free to be consumed. It had spent cycles—eons, eras, an eternal everlasting—eating at the magical ice ward that blocked it from Polaris. It started as any other golem before it grew, and grew, and grew. It became more than it was, an amalgamation of the other golems in Ursa.

They became. They were born: the great golem, the great bear... Ursa. They were one, together, a collective hivemind under the chilly thumb of Order.

They devoured their way to Polaris, breaking free from their prison. Ursa's tumutlous winds exploded into the Core, a feeding frenzy blizzard, and with it, the golem. It began feeding on the magicka-rife crystals at the entrance of Tunnel B, where it alerted others to its presence. Namely, Azigh, the Guardian of Pegasus, and Skahan, the Architect of the Caves.

azigh

guardian  of  pegasus

243 / 500 HP    48.6%

The golem reached out with its rock jaws and clamped down onto the hands of Azigh; the winged guardian held the beast in this position, condensing the air around its hands and arms to protect himself from suffering too much damage. He winced, but was determined to keep the bear distracted long enough for others to come and help him. Not long after his voice rang through Polaris, they came: the Gembounds. With fire and fists, they descended upon the golem—and ignited latent pools of Pyrogel from a previous explorer, causing a large explosion—and snared its back legs with vines.

"Yes!" cried his voice, echoing through the winds. "Just a little more!"

ROLL 14

Azigh attempts to Cast Spell — Barrier ( HOLD, DEFEND ) Successful!

skahan

architect  of  the  caves

500 / 500 HP    100.0%

He'd felt it, the chill of the mountains and the bite of the bear, and he bore through the walls to find it. It was filtering through the vents like poison and his lungs suffered the cold, venting it through his skin as his scales breathed up and down. It worked well, in a way, complimenting his natural cooling mechanism. But still, it was unnatural and threatening in a way he could not define. Its magic was crisp and neat, perfect by design, and so Skahan had released himself from sleep to find it and dispose of it. The initial quake of Ursa opening shook loose the path to Gemini, and he bore through there toward Tunnel A, where his body bit and ground the crystal to expose the Core and the fighting within.

A voice from the crowd, Cryogen, shouted a weakness and Skahan hurried toward them and spared no moment for greetings or pleasantries, instead diving directly into the collection of rock and magic with the very drill-like twists he used to bore through the cave itself. A roaring and crunching of rock spit from the golem's side, with Skahan constricting around its abdomen, his jaw grasping the back of its neck. This Hivemind... it did not belong here.

ROLL 20

Skahan attempts Physical — ROCK EATER ( +11 BONUS DAMAGE ) Successful!

sebastian (knocked out) 33/100	tahi-shei 89/100	wyvern 89/100
sora 89/100	comet 89/100	carja 89/100
madhukar 87/100	rainstorm 89/100	cryogen 89/100
azrael 89/100	aristotle 89/100	james 89/100

[ ACTION LOG ]

> BEAR GOLEM takes 31 DAMAGE from SKAHAN.
> BEAR GOLEM is ENSNARED by ARISTOTLE!
> BEAR GOLEM takes 18 DAMAGE from AZRAEL.
> MADHUKAR takes 2 DAMAGE from FAILED ELCTROBALL.
> BEAR GOLEM takes 8 DAMAGE from SORA.
> BEAR GOLEM takes 11 DAMAGE from EXPLOSIVE BACKFIRE.
> GEMBOUNDS takes 11 DAMAGE from EXPLOSIVE BACKFIRE.
> SEBASTIAN takes 67 DAMAGE from EXPLOSIVE BACKFIRE and is pushed out of the magical wards, knocking themselves out!
> AZIGH CALLS THE GEMBOUNDS.

> AZIGH suffers 257 DAMAGE over 4 rounds from BEAR GOLEM.
> BEAR GOLEM suffers 107 DAMAGE over 4 rounds from AZIGH.

@Tahi-shei @Wyvern @Sora @Comet @Carja @Madhukar @Rainstorm @Cryogen @Azrael @Aristotle @James

James flinched back from the sudden firestorm, a wing raising, wincing as his feathers singed and burned. Damn it. He turned back to the golem and stepped in front of Comet, though careful not to block her view, feathers fluffing up angrily. Um. Excuse me, that was his family that just got toasted!!

He readied his magic and took a hold of the wisp, preparing to launch it at the creature. He inhaled and let the wisp release like an arrow from a bow, the magic whizzing through the air with a firecracker-like whistle. A grim smile was brought to his lips, and he amused the thought of using the wisps for a light show later.

Shaking his head, he focused on the fight, ignoring the stench of burning feathers.

Tahi-shei watched in shock as a massive snake arrived to help. This had to be some kind of elaborate hoax, right? Well, the licking of flame at his heels certainly made it seem otherwise. He straightened himself up and cleared his throat. This was a golem, right? Well... he knew how to deal with those. Or, at least, draw their attention away from others (hopefully). "HEY GOLEM!" Tahi-shei yelled, already starting to dance away. He'd try casting magic later, but he had a feeling that it wouldn't care amongst all this chaos -- it looked like several Gembound were casting magic already.

Carja yelped at the explosion of fire and shied away for a moment, the heat stinging against her scales. Ouch.

She looked around at the chaos for a moment, eyeing everyone there. Some she knew, others she didn't. She shook her head and narrowed each of her eyes, trying the spell again. This time, she'd make it. She had to! She had to help everyone defeat the thing.

Her scales hardened and she grinned, teeth showing. She was big now, nearly fully grown, and she knew that when she hit, she would hit hard. She tucked her wings in and dove down like a falling boulder, aiming to slam into the golem with her newly hardened body.

Wyvern, on the other hand, had little concern for the serpent's approach. Well, no -- she had no concern until those wicked fangs came into play, and then... well, then she was mostly just impressed. She'd have killed to have those. Meanwhile, though... there were more important things to be done. Namely...

The creature made an attempt to drop down out of the sky and onto the back of the golem's neck with sharp talons. Specifically she was aiming for a weak point, but any old chunk of rock would do -- Wyvern reasoned that every animal's weak spot was the back of the neck, and this golem was certainly looking like an animal. Certainly, it had to have something useful for snapping in that general region.

It was the fire that distracted her -- or, that's what she'd tell you later.

Sora honestly didn't care one bit for her surroundings. She didn't even notice the sting of the fire. All she knew was that slamming her body into a rock hurt quite a bit, actually, and that it made her angrier. She rammed into the golem again, in much the same way she might have rammed into one of her siblings in an attempt to pin them down. Not that she was... big enough to keep this thing on the ground, but maybe she could knock a leg out from under it or something in exchange. At the very least, inflict the status condition.