An undetermined amount of time later, Blake finds himself awakening from a dream.  The crystal clear memory quickly fading into vagueness.  His mind recounts the dream for him.

I stood at the foot of the mountain and watched the fire descend.  The earth trembled.  Smoke filled the air.  I heard the sound of a trumpet calling me, calling me into the darkness.  I ascended to the top of the mountain.  I stood in the center of the blaze, yet I was not consumed.

I was not consumed.

One thing remains clear.  A sense of urgency.  Like an opportunity to prove something very important was quickly passing.

---

This message was last edited by the player at 06:32, Thu 15 Apr 2010.

As Reverie steps into the daylight, her eyes see a horrific sight.  An angelic voice sings to her as she witnesses a falling star crash into the city.

Witness a blinding flash
Sudden bright light from a blast
Pulsing radiation
Moving through cracks under skin
Feel the fire in the wind
Deadly kiss of scorching sands

Not a prayer of hope
Or redemption in your eyes
Hell exploded on this earth
To take all that's alive
Standing at the face of death
Terror stealing your last breath

Watch the firestorm
Incinerate you into ash

All that you know burns away into dust
So many lives
So many innocent
Burn...

Every particle returns
To it's natural form
Ashes into ashes
Blown away, just like the dust
Heaven burning with the sky
Hell is not the reason why

Feel the firestorm
Melting your spirit into glass

All that you know burns away into dust
So many lives
So many innocent
Burn...

When she recovers from the vision, Unity is unharmed.  Another strange thing dawns to her: the city she saw destroyed was noting at all like Unity.

  A dream of fire and doom shortly after their encounter with... Whoever, to be henceforth referred to as Mr. Crispy.  Suspicious, but not something to discount offhand as completely false.  It is difficult to ignore entities of other planes just as it is difficult to be an atheist when Kord descends from the heavens to give their Cleric's a High-Five and then smite someone in the face.  They took hold of their spellshard (hey, shut up, Eberron setting, It says Spellshard, not Dragonshard we can buy them if we feel like it) and put it's capacity for arcane words of power to more mundane use as notebook.

  The needs of hygiene and clean clothes were dealt with, they consider their course of action for they day beyond the obvious everyday needs and further dealings with Unity's bureaucracy for work.  They had a decent chunk of money even after their go at personal item crafting, but if they spent it on nothing but Inn rooms and three basic meals and drink a day, it would only last... Almost half a year.  A month of such running about the same cost of a year's legal Unity citizenship.

  Okay, so upon consideration the luxury of talking half a year off if he suddenly needed to was comforting.  But wouldn't exactly get them anything or anywhere.  Of course, there were other issues to deal with first he had been trying to ignore on his desk.

  <familiar>"Uh, Hello?"</familiar> Case in point, the six inch tall winged imp on his desk. <familiar>"I'm your Familiar."</familiar>

  "I highly doubt that." Blake muttered, considering using their vicious rod as a blunt instrument, if only to make sure he didn't set the desk on fire (he had paid for the room in advance).

  <familiar>"Of course I am! Why wouldn't I be!"</familiar>
  "Because that's my familiar." Blake said, pointing next to the imp.  Of course, there was nothing there.  The Imp started to point out this fact when a finger length coil of wire with eyes popped into sight.

  <familiar>"It looks like you are trying to convince a Warlock you are their familiar. Help topics for this suggested are I will cut you, so bad, you will wish I did not cut you so bad imp.</familiar>
  <familiar>"What?"</familiar>
  <familiar>"What?!"</familiar>
  <familiar>"What?"</familiar>

  Blake facepalmed.  Familiars, unable to understand or be understood by anything except their master aside from a few exceptions such as the Raven variety. The phrase 'what in the Hells do you want' is probably appropriate here."
This message was last edited by the player at 11:13, Thu 15 Apr 2010.

Reverie pats herself, looking over her arms and finding they no longer have cracks in them or a glassy appearance. She doesn't let out a sigh of relief. Rather, she hurries to the window to look outside and see the people to remind her that there are still living beings around. She's going to likely be afraid of Blake or at least his powers for some time to come. For that matter, she might not like campfires much after such a vivid dream / vision.

She hurries off to look for a familiar face and taps her finger nervously against her lips, looking around. But seeing as Blake isn't out of his quarters yet and everyone else is not at the inn Reverie slept at, she finally lets out that held breath and sits at the dining area. The waitress thinks Reverie is slightly scary looking, but kinda exotic in a good way too.

<common>"Well I guess that gibberish proves that this... thing... truly is your familiar,"</common> the imp surmises, <common>"I had almost forgotten about that private language bit about becoming a familiar.  Whatever.  I'm not bound buy such silly restrictions.  Dunno what wire-face here offered you, but I can tell you plainly that I have information that you may be interested in."</common>
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:19, Thu 15 Apr 2010.

  "If you have any... I suppose familiarity could be a poor choice of word.  If you have any insight into my methods so far, then I'm sure you realize the possible significance when I say my Familiar follows the trend."  Blake takes a moment to eye the coil of wire,

  "While it could be considered less impressive, it certainly would draw a different sort of attention than if you were following me around.  Now, what is it you had to tell me.  You can save time and see yourself out if there's a 'I'll only tell you if you take me as your familiar' angle."

"Nope," the imp answers, "Don't know you from Adam.  And no, no deal.  I was told by a muckety muck to keep an eye on you.  I assumed they meant 'become his familiar' since that's usually what us imps do with warlocks as a sort of quid-pro-quo deal in spite of the language limitations.  The message is simply thus:  'Stay the hell away from my burny mountain or I'll be very angry.'  Then a lot of elaboration involving claws and teeth and something about entrails and neckties.  Or words to that effect.  I didn't have a pen and paper handy at the time."

  "A nonspecific burning mountain involved with a nonspecific entity.  How wonderfully informative.  Do you have any idea how Many Volcanoes there are, let alone geological formations with such?"

  <familiar>"Locations of Volcanic scenery include, Chessenta, The Great Dale, The Nether Isles, Thay-"</familiar>  "Aside from you."

  Blake eyed the more obviously infernal Imp. "Are you done now? Go away."  They could explode this Imp without effort (due to the lack of effort required to explode his own Familiar, Cursed Familiar goes boom, Imp goes boom with Autodamage outpacing their fire resist).  The potential problem would be whether or not the Imp would be no more permanently inconvenienced by it than his Familiar.

OOC Style: Rest, THEN we get paid and go shopping? <.<  >.> It's been over a month since I had it posted that Blake already got his shopping/Item crafting dealt with without it being an apparent snag.
This message was last edited by the player at 10:19, Sat 17 Apr 2010.

Liberty is walking along when she overhears rumors about the latest investigation into the recently caught criminals being a failure. She had sensed the doubt sowed in the people around her as they so quickly forget how successful Unity was to catch the criminals that they have in the first place. Enraged by how cowardice these people are, Liberty takes some deep breaths to calm herself, remembering what her adopted parents and her psychologist have all taught her about getting things accomplished. She weighs her options:

1) Intimidate the people into submission. It would allow her to vent her frustration AND possibly get the results she wants.

2) Remind the people Unity is large and in charge. That the criminals are caught and it's only a matter of time before their masters are caught also.

3) ....all of the above.

Liberty speaks up:
"I've been hearing some concerns. I've been hearing people say that evil won't pay. That the masters of those we caught will get away. Well I'm here to tell you: The enemy doesn't stand a chance! When hate and misunderstanding tried its hand on Unity generations ago, it fell at the people's feet, discarded like a dirty old rag. When racism rules the hearts of ALL other lands, what do you see here in Unity? Only one race with sprinkles of one MAYBE two other races? No! You see everything from the familiar allies to familiar ENEMY races to even exotic races most of you never seen before! This city crushes evil like an ant under its foot! Evil has a habit of failing horribly when it goes against unity and outsiders are not immune to this fact. This has been proven just two days ago and already you bunch are doubting the power of Unity to follow up with another success? Suppose your right. Suppose Unity's finest don't find and catch the one who sent those criminals. Then what? I'll tell you what. That person will be running like a coward, forever afraid of his shadow and jumping at the sound of a leaf scooting on the ground because whoever it is will know Unity is on the job! And while this person runs from the law, are you folks going to be afraid of such a coward? What does that make you? Honestly! Prove me wrong! Prove to me you bunch have not turned into such whimpering belly-crawling cowards that you would sow doubt about Unity, your own HOME!"

By this time, someone has told a guard. But you don't get a job as a guard of Unity by being anything but heroic. When the guard hears Liberty, he smiles. The man who tried to tattle gets annoyed and yells back to Liberty. "Who do you think you are to insult the people in public like that?!"

Liberty looks back at him. "Prove me wrong! I'm pleading you to! I've heard the complaints and impatience of the locals you are defending and I've had enough. Put up or shut up. And you know full well punching me in the face like you're thinking of doing won't prove me wrong. It'll just prove me right that you are too afraid of the truth to face it, so you would sooner pick on a girl! I'll tell you one thing, I'm only 14 and I have already signed up as a volunteer to help with the investigation. What, besides complaining are ANY of you doing about the very thing you are complaining about?!"

The man's anger grows, but Liberty's right. He walks away, furious and unable to do anything about it. He would NEVER sign up for something like that. However, another man nearby, a Genasi for those who care, has a serious frown on his face and says, "She's right! And nobody has to sign up to leave the city in order to help. There are many ways to help! Unity's justice department has always offered options! I'm going there to find a way to help, even if it's just to help with paperwork. Who's coming with me?"

(OOC note: Considering the urgency Bridget put on there being an outing right after the Mittens spar, I figured I'd insert that she would have been ordered to take a break while another expedition was sent to discover things. While they will bring some information back it will amount to mostly nothing. But it would explain why everyone has been training or what not for a couple days.)

Maybe not the best of people to show up on the scene, but Mittens enters the inn as the waitress offers a glass of water to the rattled Reverie.  Mittens spots the woman and makes a bee-line for the warlock, smiling brightly as ever, if a bit the worse for the wear from Justice's harsh training.

"You look like you've seen a ghost!" she comments of Reverie, tail wagging eagerly, "Something that rhymes with ghost... most.  I've missed your poetry most!"

"Bye," the Messenger Imp replies before flying off.

<Supernal>"He's ignoring the warning,"</Supernal> he grumbles to himself, <Supernal>"Good.  I don't have to be his familiar.  Even better.  I can't wait for him to die a horrible death when he goes to that volcano.  Hope I get to be there to see it."</Supernal>

(( OOC: "Your familiar doesn't understand other languages, but can parrot back what it hears, allowing you to understand anything it repeats back to you in a language you know."

The imp is making no effort to hide his words because he knows the familiar doesn't understand... and good luck finding someone who can translate for you.  ))

  Blake was all kinds of paranoid, but was still rather uncertain if there was any attempt to use reverse psychology or not.  However it would indicate it was for the best Blake used his own existing familiar if the Hell's Designated Book Imp didn't know obvious facts about their job.

  Such as merely having chosen a Book Imp for your Familiar gives their master fluency in Supernal.  They opt not to give a parting comment in such language and simply head out of their room.

  'I have the annoying feeling events will either find me at that specific volcano by happenstance, or reaching it will be surprisingly difficult if I want to for some reason Blake considers as they head downstairs, their Familiar out of view in a pocket.

  "Hello Mittens, Reverie.  I'd ask if your morning was going well but I suspect this may not be the case."

OOC Style: I'm fine with the suggested team setup at the moment.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:24, Sun 18 Apr 2010.

Reverie stares at the table, allowing herself to glance at Mittens and then Blake when he shows up. She sucks in her lower lip before thinking of how to answer.

"I had a dream last night
I watched a town ignite.

A star had fallen from the sky
Burning Heaven in its wake
All that lived began to die.
All the Earth began to quake.

I saw my skin begin to crack,
Felt my soul melt into glass,
and saw everything turn to ash.

But all of this felt real,
It was not just a dream.
I'm sure because I still
Can feel those people scream.

This was a vision, there's no doubt.
That's what this is all about."