Volaire Is Burning

The air pressure drops so violently it makes ears pop, instantly followed by the sickening stench of burning ozone and melted stone. Then, the sky over Volaire tears open.

It isn't a battle; it's an erasure.

A hundred-foot pillar of crackling lightning and searing, acidic green fire slams into the street. Zuigrii’s wards—already raised and humming—catch the brunt of the strike. The invisible barrier literally screams, bowing inward like thin glass under an ocean's weight. Sickly purples and necrotic greens bleed across the impact zones, throwing violent, bruised light across the living room. The heat radiating off the buckling magic is enough to blister skin. In the corner, the iron ward-jockey stands completely motionless, its cold metal claws gripping the ward key, utterly indifferent to the apocalypse as it waits for Zuigrii's next command.

Outside the shimmering dome, the slaughter is absolute, and the very geography of the city is changing by the second. Through the distorted, weeping magic of the ward, Volaire is being unwritten. Deafening blasts of elemental fury—gouts of unnatural ice and corrosive acid—shatter unwarded homes across the avenue, reducing centuries of history to splintered craters. In eerie, terrifying contrast, blinding pillars of pure, etheric white light touch down in complete silence, vaporizing entire intersections and leaving nothing behind but smooth, glowing glass. The air outside boils with ash and displaced magic.

Through this apocalyptic storm, the Leib-Olmaian death squads march in lockstep. Their heavy armor reflects the dying, neon light of the city, and the dark banners of the Shifting Scale hang heavy in the soot-choked wind. They don't shout orders. They don't roar battle cries. They just kill. A neighbor stumbles onto their porch from a half-collapsed building, coughing up ash and screaming to the planes, only to be silenced instantly by a volley of heavy crossbow bolts. The soldiers don't even blink, marching straight over the twitching body. Hide or die is the new status quo of Volaire.

Inside the warded living room, the air is thick with the smell of scorched fur and raw, primal terror. In the corner, Twitch—the youngest rat Beastkin—has his tiny hands clamped over his ears, his chest heaving in rapid, silent hyperventilation. Flip, the older otter child, is desperately trying to be brave, curling his own small body over his kin's to shield him from the flashes of neon death outside.

Reginald, the massive bear Elder, drops heavily to his knees, wrapping his shaking arms around both children. He buries their faces in his chest to block out the strobe-light horrors of the dying street.

"Hush now, my little fish. Hush, little mouse," Reginald whispers. His deep, rumbling voice cracks, brittle and wet. "It's just a summer squall. The thunder is loud, but the house is strong. We're safe. I promise you, we're safe."

But the tears spilling silently into his fur tell the truth. Reginald looks up, his hollow, defeated eyes meeting Fang's. The Pack Leader is pressed against the wall, his claws digging so deeply into his own palms that dark blood drips onto the floorboards. Every instinct in Fang’s body is screaming at him to tear the door open and rip out the throats of the invaders, but he is paralyzed by the agonizing realization that the moment he steps outside, his pack dies. Zuigrii, Nill, and Storm stand rooted in the center of the carnage, trapped in a glowing cage while their city is fed to the meat grinder.

The heavy, synchronized crunch of armored boots halts inches from the bleeding ward. The shadow of a Leib-Olmaian squad looms through the magical distortion. The screech of their metal gauntlets casually dragging against the exterior of the barrier sends a physical shiver down the spine."Keep moving," a dead-eyed voice barks just on the other side of the magic. "West, North, and East gates are locked down. Docks are secured. Nothing breathes, nothing leaves."

A second soldier chuckles, the sound muffled but horribly clear over the roar of a nearby acid strike. "Barely even a fight. Command says one of their baronies already surrendered. Just two more to go... those uppity false knights and the undead lovers. Then we burn the rest."

The boots march on, leaving behind only the sickening hum of the failing wards and the quiet, broken sobbing of the children. The city exits are choked, the enemy is at the door, and Volaire is burning. 

[Out-Of-Play Information: The Occupation of Volaire]
Status: Volaire is currently under Martial Law.

• The Sky is Still Falling: The occupation by Leib-Olmaian forces is an ongoing, active event. Unpredictable Elemental and Etheric strikes are continuing to drop across the city.
• Total Annihilation: Unwarded buildings are being actively leveled. If a character is unlucky enough to be caught in the compounding blasts of these strikes, they will be utterly obliterated. There won't be anything left to sweep up, let alone revive.
• RP is Open (Locally): You are completely free—and encouraged!—to roleplay within the specific locations your characters are currently hunkered down in. Feel free to trauma-bond, plot, and panic within the safety of your current bubble.
• 🛑 STOP BEFORE YOU WALK OUTSIDE 🛑: If your character intends to leave a warded area for any reason, you MUST contact a member of Plot before making the forum post. Do not hit submit on a post where you step past the wards without GM clearance first. The streets are a literal meat grinder right now, and Plot needs to adjudicate exactly what happens the second you drop your shields.

*the eruptions from the sky begin less than 2 days after Otani and Poppy begin traveling, and from as far as they have traveled they still light the night sky like a distant show of fireworks. Their eyes widen, as they both can gather what magic of that calibre is capable of. They look at each other, silent and solemn*

Otani…all the people…*poppy says, seeming almost on the verge of tears even thinking about it. She grips her portion basket* I…I-I’m a healer Otani! I-I can help with the- *she takes a step back in the direction of the city, but Otani blocks her, his face deadly serious*
you can’t. *he says gruffly* you can’t save or help them. 
B-but Otani! *she pleads helplessly, but he stays between her and the violence*
That, small one, *he steps aside and looks back at the city*…that, is why we avoid big cities. Politics, grudges, laws…war. 
*He crouches and his eyes meet hers* if we return to that city now, we will both die and save nobody and nothing. Keep moving. We did not know them as anything more than passing allies. I hope they’re ok, but we can’t exactly go back and find out. *he stands, scooping her up in one hand and placing her trembling form over his shoulders* we should head for Lieb-Olmai. They started this, and will be safer until this places gathers its strength to strike back. *his hand softly pets her head as he talks* when Volaire regroups and gathers its strength, we will join the fight. Until then, I am not so attached to that place that we ought both die over a feud we have no stake in. 

*they continue through the forest, poppy closing her eyes and trying not to sob as Otani walks forward with silent stoicism, not daring to look back.*