Huddled at the tunnel exit with Aniyu and Lucien, the smell of a particular kind of pestulance slowly waffed off of and permeated around Steiner. A few small maggots fell off of him and onto the two as his breath came off ragged, almost like he was claustrophobia hyperventilating.

That is, until Lucien moved forward. Following closely behind him, the moment he stopped the warrior addressed him "Whats the plan?!" his voice was unnecessarily loud, even when considering that he may have been talking over the sound of the storm.

 "Get to the Spire without getting a bolt. Then go from there." he says loud enough to be heard, but not so loud that he seemed like he was intentionally yelling.

Aniyu didn't think the storm was 'permanent', just a normal aspect of nature. He was perfectly content to wait for it to blow over.

That was before the others joined him, and then dashed out into the storm!

With a sigh, he ran after Lucien and Hardcore.

Sheltered in the magical tunnel as he'd been, he hadn't felt the full fury of the storm... or the other thing.

He was almost instantly soaked to his skin as the wind and rain lashed out in fury.

"It's not natural!" the Druid told the others. "I think it's an elemental!"

"Never thought it was natural. Assumed it was a spell or something." he responds. "Do you have a way to talk to the blasted thing? Otherwise this is gonna get hard quick." he yells as he keeps pushing for the Spire itself.

In reply to Lucien Soulban (msg # 7):

looking around the area, "I can speak to it, if its a lightning elemental, maybe I can if its some other kind of elemental." practically shouting in luciens ear, his eyes watching for wayward bolts.

  "Well give it a whirl. Tell it we are the Chosen of the Green Star. Hopefully that will calm it down." he yells back.

"No, I can't speak to a lighting elemental," Aniyu responds.

"I'm kind of doubtful if it's been here all this time. I mean, raging like this for 500 years. Maybe creating the tunnel activated it... woke it up? Summoned it?"

"I know about normal lightning and storms."

Scractching the backing of his helmet as if to scratch the back of his head... the plume shaking and dancing from the vigorous motion. Then, giving a small sigh, he sucked in a deep breath of air and then seemed to put a great deal of effort into offering back "well, it would be important to know that lightning elementals arent much for talking. maybe if we offer out that we are part of this prophecy we will have a chance?"

His eyes charged with magical energy and scanned the area. Using detect magic, he tried to grasp onto any potentially strong or perhaps divine energy to see if he could catch sight of strong elemental summoning magic or any other such powerful spells.

Oh, yes, Hardcore picks up a powerful aura of summoning. So, clearly, the lightning elemental was summoned, though he has no idea when that happened. If it wasn't when the tunnel was formed, which seems likely, then it might have been when the eruption took place.

 "Probably has something to do with it yeah. It doesn't matter if it has been an hour or an epoch. We still gotta deal with it. And since I'm the one in a lightning rod more than a little concerned about that."

"If we just say we're the Green Stars or whatever, maybe that's enough to get it to go away," Aniyu suggested.

"Can we check this spire for secret compartments or something?" he added as he tries to keep the spire between him and the lightning.

In reply to Aniyu (msg # 14):

For about 3 seconds, Stein looked between Aniyu and the storm... back and forth his head went, the sort of popping sound made when one sucks in there lips and then blows them back out is heard. finally, he groaned out and started walking further into the storm... shouting one phrase over and over again "(gm hasnt made languages so insert words in auran here)"

There are a couple of lightning strikes around Stein but they are rather small, and he gets the distinct impression that they are meant to... discourage him.

When he doesn't stop, there's one last strike right in front of him that leaves a green star burnt into the ground. And then the storm just fades away.

"Is it me or was that rather anticlimactic?" Lucien wonders out loud.

"Now what? Do we look for the staff in some hidden place in this spire of rock?"

"Well, remember, the other items were wrapped in lead to keep them from being detected by magic," Aniyu responds.

"Maybe it's in the ground right where the lightning bolt struck last!"

"That's certainly a possibility," Lucien responds. "I suppose, in a way, that makes sense, but I can't help wondering what would have happened if we'd attacked the lightning elemental and defeated it."

"In any case, I did not bring a shovel with me to dig in the dirt. What about you, Stein? Can you turn into a shovel?"

"I hail from a wintry environment," Aniyu explains. "We don't tend to need shovels very often, which is why I don't carry one. If we need to move snow, there are usually other better ways to do it. Same for the spell Dig."

"I suppose we can always use a dagger or other weapon. That's always the last resort. Perhaps, though, we should consider other options, like, what if it isn't in the ground at all?"

In reply to Lucien Soulban (msg # 19):

With a scoff and a laugh, "well, by these two hands and helmet... We are sure we can manage to be a shovel... unless you mean ACTUALLY turn into one, but never met anyone who can just turn into a shovel... let alone would. Can YOU turn into a shovel?"

"Of course not," Aniyu replies to Stein. "I can only shape-change into living creatures, and I've never heard of a living shovel."

"Come to think of it, though, I can turn into a burrowing mammal, such as a mole or a prairie dog or a gopher or even a rabbit. I've nothing against doing that, but how much area do we have to dig through to find the Wonder?"

"That's why I suggested coming up with another option. Is it concealed within this spire? It could have been shape-changed into something small and more easily concealed."

In reply to Aniyu (msg # 22):

Nodding as if he had been agreeing the whole time now, "well, we can search a lot of surface area pretty well... better then most, but not underground... not unless its an underground cavern. Maybe you can turn into a living creature that can see into the ground? I hear there are elementals and exotics that can do this." He looks towards Lucien

"If I held up a stick, and used the spell Polymorph Any Object, I could turn it into a staff," Lucien comments. "Likewise, I could take a staff, even a magical one, and turn it into a stick. It'd still function like the magical staff... it'd just look like an ordinary stick."

"I don't actually know that spell, so I don't know what it's limitations are, but I'm thinking this spire, for all the 'naturalness' it appears to have, kind of looks like a staff. Could the staff have been transformed into the spire?"

"Of course, that then begs the question, how do we take it back with us... or how do we get it turn back into a normal staff?"

"That's a good point, Lucien," Aniyu replies.

"If that's the case, and it's starting to look more and more like that is the way of it, it would  normally follow that you would need the same spell to change it back. Barring that, however, a Dispel Magic spell might do the trick."

"However, that seems way too specific to have been an option. I doubt Esmeralda could have foreseen that whoever came seeking the staff would have those spells handy."

"No, I'm thinking that it's probably something more... generic. Like, maybe any transmutation spell? Hell, for that matter, ANY spell might do the trick."

"Ha-ha-ha! Just had an image of someone who didn't know about the Wonders casting a spell at the spire and it suddenly turns into a staff!"

"That let's me out. No spells in my repertoire. I doubt if spell-like abilities will do the trick," Jimmy responds.

"Guess it's up to you two to try that trick. I'll consider other options while you do so... just in case."

"I'm not nearly powerful enough to cast the spell indicated," Aniyu states, "and I only have one spell from the school of magic."

"I don't see any point in wasting another spell to see if it'll work only to find out that it doesn't and then I'd have to cast a transmutation spell anyway. So, I'll just cast Stone Shape right off the bat. It normally can't affect anything as large as this spire, so let's just hope there's a contingency built into it."

He then casts the spell.

As he casts his transmutation spell at the spire, not quite sure what he's targeting, the huge spire of rock suddenly starts to shrink.

As it shrinks, it also begins changing in shape, losing some of the angles, turning a different color as well. It takes a full minute for the spire to reduce in size and alter form to that of staff.

It's a purple-hued metal staff about 6 feet long topped with a clear crystal. There appear to be runes etched along the top foot of the shaft, just below the crystal.

It's standing upright.