Challenge #01528-D067: World-threatening

What do they eat, anyway?
::snort:: Anything. They don't care. They're roaming, poisonous, armoured, Dark Magic-spawned garbage disposals. -- RecklessPrudence

"Dark Magic is extinct. It's been extinct for thousands of years," objected Thaldrik.

"And they've been around that long," said Maester Kadfel. "Possibly longer. It was their creation that lead to the uprising against Dark Magic and its subsequent elimination." She tapped the illustration. "For now, they seem content to remain in the calderas of Mount Seethe, and eat... whatever they find there. Alas, Dark Magic made them nigh indestructible. They've been living there and eating everything for some significant time."

Thaldrik considered this. "Isn't this a cautionary tale to make certain everyone stays clear of Mount Seethe? What proof is there that these..." he had another go at pronouncing the name, "Rav-in-ger-i... exist?"

"Rav-in-jer-i. With a soft 'juh'. But well done. There are a few pickled specimens in the Museum of Greater Arcana. As you may surmise, the Ravingeri are extremely hard to kill, so none of them are in any kind of good shape. Even this," tap, tap, on the engraving, "is a patchwork of sightings and studies of those specimens. They are dangerous creatures, Thaldrik. Nothing can beat them."

"Not even dragon fire?"

"Just annoys them. They have a thick coat of fireproof fur."

Thaldrik stared at the engraving, trying to picture the complete creature. "If they're so unstoppable and so unkillable... why do they stay inside Mount Seethe?"

Maester Kadfel smiled for him. "That is a very clever question. You must understand that nobody's been able to study them. Unstoppable killing machines and all. The best scrying has only been able to determine that they like Mount Seethe because it is a constant cauldron of new rocks. Minerals and suchlike. They eat a lot of sulphur and drink the poisonous waters from the very heart of the earth. And when they're not doing either, they just... loaf around in there." Maester Kadfel shrugged. "I think they like it in there."

"Lucky for us," said Thaldrik. "Just one could lay waste to an entire city. There's hundreds, you said, all living in the mountain's caldera. If they decided to get loose..."

"Worry not, apprentice," said Maester Kadfel. "The council of elder mages has been keeping that volcano seething for some... very significant time. It took eons to learn how much they liked volcanoes, and further centuries to lure them all in. The only cage they can't eat their way out of is one they want to be in, eh?" A laugh that ended in coughing. "Now. To your scrying. Look into the caldera of Mount Seethe and see what they're up to, if you can."

Thaldrik added a couple of very important drops to the potion, swirled the vial in his hands, and then downed the contents. "Ugh. Tastes like overripe cherries." He smacked his lips. "How long until the potion takes eff--"

Maester Kadfel gently pushed her apprentice into a chair and placed paper under his hands, then charcoal into his fingers. "Draw what you see..." she urged.

There's an exercise in hand-eye co-ordination that involves peering through a pinhole at a picture and simultaneously drawing what the eye sees without checking what the hand is doing. This was a lot like that. Thaldrik's eyes were seeing something some enormous amount of miles away whilst his hands were busy doing things much closer to home. It was only through the guidance of Maester Kadfel that anything recognisable came out at all.

And besides, Thaldrik was not exactly the best of artists, anyway.

It was a vary scribbly drawing of a steaming lake and rocks around it. There was not a single Ravinger in sight.

"You didn't see any Ravingers at all?" begged the Maester.

"No. And I looked all around like you said. But there was a big hole over in here," Thaldrik added some elementary shading to a wobbly circle that could have been a rock, but was now a tunnel.

"They found something to go after," murmured Maester Kadfel. "They may well be headed... out."

"Uh oh," said Thaldrik. It didn't seem to cover the exigent circumstances.

[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / georgeburba]

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