Zalru’chat: Storm of Fire[/i][/b]
I had spent many months preparing for this assignment. I studied up on fire, its attributes, and the ability for a mage to control it once the spell was cast. I learned the whereabouts of all of the explosive and flammable stores in the city of [/i][/b]Zalru’chat[/i][/b] and knew exactly how I would strike. [/i][/b]
I was paired with two first circle mages new to the [/i][/b]Silken[/i][/b] [/i][/b]Tower[/i][/b]. I was to be their “mentor” and I wouldn’t have minded had I gotten students that weren’t so cocky and arrogant. [/i][/b]
We arrived at the city, my companions with a few burning hands spells, and me with a few flame arrows ready to cast. I planned, I took aim, and I fired…[/i][/b]
The library caught fire and went up in flames very quickly. Nearly half of the city rushed to save their precious novels, historical logs, and spell books. [/i][/b]
Much of the army organized near the middle of the city near the alchemical labs. Now would be the perfect time to cast the second spell. I chanted and slipped into my unconscious spell casting state and then an explosion the likes of which had never been equaled in the Underdark occurred. [/i][/b]
Bubbling green and purple acid was expelled from the buildings. A substance that burned intensely hot and would not be put out by water covered a third of the soldiers. The substance burned through cloth, leather, and metal, sinking deep into their skin and forcing the amputation of limbs to save themselves from the pain. [/i][/b]
The last of the damage occurred when the highest tower in the middle of town was struck. What I believed to be the armory but was obviously not exploded with a brilliant white radiance. The blast shook the cavernous halls and forced the skin on my face to tighten and dry with the intense heat. Like the consecutive after shocks of an earthquake multiple explosions of rainbow like color followed. Greens, blues, reds and purples, all exploding and forcing a new sensation to crawl across my skin each time. [/i][/b]
The intense cold and heat shook me to my core. Electricity crackled through the air and acid rained down from the ceiling like the god Corath spitting upon mortal drow. [/i][/b]
It was at this point I realized that it was not longer a matter of removing a rival city, but stopping them from removing a rival with whatever was in that tower.[/i][/b]
The fires had become uncontrollable and wild; the heat from the fire, tremendous even from hundreds of yards away. I began to make my way back to the [/i][/b]Silken[/i][/b] [/i][/b]Tower[/i][/b] invisibly while my young and foolish companions decided to enjoy the show. [/i][/b]
The fire however was spreading too fast and burning up oxygen at a pace even I hadn’t guessed when the strangest thing happened…[/i][/b]
Wind? In the Underdark? Impossible I thought, but it was not so. The fire was burning so violently that it was pulling oxygen down from the surface entrances. [/i][/b]
The hot gusts that swept towards the inferno that was once an inhabitable city was tremendous. Dust, small rocks, bats, and even small plants from outside the entrances to the city were being sucked in and instantly catching flame. [/i][/b]
My pupils were having great difficulty making their way back against the wind, they leaned in against it, and used the wall to help them climb back but it was not enough. Lifted off their feet with robes nearly aflame they flew back spinning round in the torrent of wind into the inferno. [/i][/b]
I was having much the same luck. Even as far back as I was I still felt the raging, scorching wind on my face, beckoning for my legs to give in and to allow myself to melt into ashes among the once grand city. [/i][/b]
At one time I may have given in and died in a mass of flames but I would prove myself to be stronger than the fools who died due to their greedy, evil, and overconfident ways. [/i][/b]
It took three spells to get me out of there, all of which helped to bring me closer to collapsing from exhaustion. Haste to quicken my retreat from the wind, bull’s strength to give my legs the power to fight the wind, and gust of wind, the spell I attribute to the life I now live. This spell, angled in the correct way, blasted me back several hundred feet and prepared me for the struggle ahead of me.[/i][/b]
I did eventually make it, as the fire died down. [/i][/b]Mission[/i][/b] accomplished with minimal casualties on our side. Our rival city of [/i][/b]Zalru’chat[/i][/b] had been destroyed along with whatever was in it by The Storm of Fire. [/i][/b]