[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/bgTgeDd.png[/img][/center] Things had gotten much, much worse as they approached the final stretch leading to the 12th node. The storm outside grew more violent, angrier and almost ravenous. Thunder howled around Benea’s area of clam as lightning hammered down to attempt to wipe it from reality. Enough was enough. Xavior set aside Benea’s pride and strode forth into the chaos to spare both her and the mortals. Or well, he snuck out the back to avoid walking straight into the focus of the thunder, and only then raced ahead, aiming to reach the node as swiftly as possible. At first his smaller form could avoid the storm, which focused on the bubble, but as the goddesses and their charges pulled away and headed instead for the next node, it found him. Yet he only had to protect himself, and so the god could afford a smarter way to handle the raging storm than simply standing firm as Benea had done. As he approached the node he left a trail of fried malicious metal objects in his wake, each one tossed to the wind to draw the lightning to strike them instead of him. Yet as he approached, the storm turned into something else. Crackling energy, mountains of it, coursed through the sky and around the node. So close to it, the god himself could not see the shape of the titan bearing down on him, yet to the north, trailing behind the others, the horned Annie could see it in full: A roiling mass of cloud and lightning moved like a predator, one that towered over the landscape, that flicked from form to form in an instant. Like a fox it pounced upon where the god stood, great spears of electricity hammering down on Xavior’s position. Like a viper in struck when he dodged, like a wolf it hounded him, like a lion it leapt and then like a dragon it disgorged a torrent of thunderous breath to scorch the land clean. Into this a retaliatory storm of steel retorted, a shower of metal that punched up into the beast, warping it as it struck compulsively at the fragments within itself until they were naught or fell to the earth. Having expended most of his power, the god reached for the only other power available to him. The node. As the predator reformed he ran for it like salvation. The monster chased him, bearing down atop him. And then his hand hit the node and the land turned to his will. The ground cracked in thousand and one places and torrents of molten metal burst from it, sapping the lightning from the air, drawing it down into the earth. The beast stumbled backwards as the source of its power was sapped by the god, but it clung on and tried to steady itself to strike, only for a mountain erupted from beneath it. A volcano that exposed the magma of the planet's core to the titan and spat smoke and ashes into it, sapping its power and beating it back. Then another erupted, and another and then finally a towering mass of stone infused with metals of all kinds burst forth and finally, at last, drew down the lighting, scouring its surface with lightning and killing the beast for good. Xavior, panting, hand held to the node, slowly straightened himself. He briefly glanced at the note from Benea, skimmed it and then tossed it aside. It was time to leave a mark on the world. At the rear of the human mass a bout of jubilation was ongoing at the slaughter of the titanic beast and an end to the storm when Xavior’s vision of the world washed over them, turning what had once been barren green, and from atop the small hill they found themselves on they could see it all. [img]https://i.imgur.com/qCkcpMT.png[/img] Beyond the node to the south where they had pilgrimage across to where they were now vast meadows and grassy fields, crisscrossed with rivers that were fed from hundreds of tiny rain filled ponds, bubbling aquifers and roaring geysers. Dotting the land where a few lingering wounds where lava churned, but outnumbering those were hot springs by the dozens. To the west across a great river, this land was mirrored, yet at this moment it was drowning in ashfall from the three great volcanoes that had struck blows against the titan. These ashlands would bloom even richer than the west thanks to the fertilizer in time, though the periodic ashfall would present a challenge to any who would live there. Across these fields grazed hares, horses, iguanas and goats a plenty, while around the magama rifts and hot springs giant lizard sail finned lizards, Edaphosaurus, bathed in the heat. Hunting these were lone coyotes and packs of beautifully feathered velociraptors. Soaring above them all where tonnikala, a species of truly flying fish. The great river splitting the ash dusted lands from the ones the pilgrimage had crossed wound its way down from a grand lake that itself between the Node and the first volcano. This in turn was fed by numerous rivers filled with fish and fished by herons, spinosaurus and bears. One was grand and flowed from a massive lake tucked behind a short pale stoned mountain range to the east, while the rest were smaller, trickling down from numerous lakes tucked away in the the the northern parts of the forests that surrounded the edges of the region and now stood in the way of the goddess’s intended path. Living in those forests where deer and pheasants to hunt, olives and fruits a plenty to pick, but also wolves by the score. And among these wolves were some that were larger. Stronger. Smarter. Their eyes holding the lingering spark of a titan of chaos not quite as dead and buried as Xavior had hoped. Forest kings in the making, who’s may coordinated packs would become a terror of the lands on either side of their forest domain. That, however, was in the future. For now the humans stood a gasp at the landscape that had been forged around them in but moments. A silence that was broken by the bleating of a nearby goat, its horns mighty, its fur black as midnight and eyes red as flames. Its imposing appearance did not prevent it from taking off at a run when a hundred eyes wandered to it in response to its first vocalization, its leaping gait taking south, it towards the far distant node. “Come on! Let’s go already” Annie, first of Xavior’s followers, suddenly shouted and, taking this as a sign, took off on a jog after the goat and towards where her patron awaited. A trickle started to follow, those in the god’s service or who were grateful for/had bartered for his aid at first. Then after them went the curios, the ambitious and the desperate but most of all went the tired of traveling. Within a handful of moments about a third of the humans had broken off from the pack, and where heading down the the shores of the great lake and the node that lay there, ready to brave one last stretch of the journey on their own, to end their pilgrimage and make themselves a home here, in the 12th realm. The rest remained, too faithful or fearful to leave their goddesses' side. Considering the giant fish eating dinosaurs hanging around some of the rivers, that second point was entirely valid. [hider=Benea’s note] Claim the node and then... Make a gentle landscape filled with meadows and flowers as well as babbling streams aplenty. A veritable garden for a civilization to grow. Ring the borders with woods for the animals. Spend 0 might on the stone age era Spend 1 might on the Chalcolithic era Instruct the mortals to devise a town around the node and have them gather stone to put the node into a temple complex Make sure the ecosystem has plenty of small mammals such as wild hares and goats to tame, pheasants and deer to hunt, and a stable population of wolf and coyote to balance it. Black bears and berries! [/hider] [hider=Summary] Inorder to prevent their bubble of calm from being overwhelmed, Xaviro leaves Benea, Monica and the humans behind and races towards the node on his own. The lightning that has been hammering them then coalesces into a great mountain sized predator of lightning. Xavior, low on might, mainly runs, then he shotgun blasts it with metal to disrupt it and makes a run for the node. There he uses landscaping to earth the storm of chaos into the ground, leaving it geothermally active, and then hammers the heart with 3 volcanic eruptions and finish it off with a giant metal field mountain. Then he finishes making his realm, one consisting mostly of grassy fields dotted with geysers, hot springs, rivers, lakes and the odd spot of lava all surrounded by a forest at the edge of the node. It is filled with a mix of life, some modern but a few oldies sprinkled in there for flavor. One thing he did not intend to make however, were big intelligent wolves capable of wrangling many lesser packs into sudo kingdoms. These will prove a threat to early human civs in this and the surrounding nodes. Seeing all this, about a third of the humans break off from Benea's flock and head south to join Xavior and make a home in the 12th realm. [/hider] [hider=Might] 1 might gained from the quiz and used to yeet a shotgun blast of metal objects at the predator storm 1/5 remaining [/hider]