"I'm Chief Katun of the Central. It is an honor to meet the Tower Master of Minas Mar," the menacing-looking fire spirit two times the size of Valint said with a slight bow. It was not just his size that differed, but the cooled stone shells that resembled armor were much more rugged and showed signs of damage from fights and weapons.
In the end, the bard only had to wait 15 minutes before Valint Scor actually returned, followed by the apparent Chief of his tribe or people. He wasn't sure yet how they would call themselves. Refugees?
"Seth Smith, nice to meet you, i think," the blacksmith reciprocated with a slight bow. he was still unsure what to think of this. They didn't seem hostile, despite being evidently invaders that were trying to settle in their world.
"Young Valint, said it was urgent and I had to meet you. he said you had questions which were better answered by me..." Katun said a little hesitant. it seemed like Valint didn't quite explain the situation. Not that there was much of a situation, yet.
"Yeah, they became a few more after you appeared, but let's start with the ones I asked him. Are you guys responsible for Mount Robere's sudden increase in volcanic activity, or do you know why it started increasing?" the bard repeated.
Although it was normal for an active volcano not to just die, he guessed, but according to Simon and the others, the magical reason the volcano was about to explode in an apocalyptic event had already been diffused by the magic formation,. Even though the formation was gone, the original danger was too, so it shouldn't break out.
After hearing his question, Katun was staying silent for a moment. he seemed to be humming in thought, while twirling his extremely long and bushy beard made of flames. Ultimately, he nodded with a determined expression.
"Yes, you could say that is our fault. We have been working on keeping the embers alive and reigniting the Earthfurnace in the stomach of M..M- Mount Rob-ere," he admitted resolutely, stumbling at the urthan name of the volcano. There was a world Seth didn't quite understand, but this sounded like a pretty solid confession to Seth.
"But rest assured, we do not intend to let the volcano break out!" he hurriedly added when he saw the bard squint at him. " We are just trying to keep a constant temperature for our people," he tried to explain.
"Thanks for opening the second can of worms. Who even are you people?" the blacksmith asked. Considering the Affiliation he saw in Valint's status, they were not necessarily invaders, but remnants of a kingdom didn't necessarily mean refugees.
"This is a long story..."
"I've been up and down the mountain all day, listening to a long story is just the right thing now. I hope you don't mind me eating something in the meantime," Seth insisted on hearing their story while having dinner.
He could have gone on a murder spree. he had done so with the weasel people and he would do it again. But these guys were fundamentally different. Apart from rebooting an end of the world natural disaster, they not not directly harmed anyone as far as Seth knew.
Katun didn't joke when he called the story long, as the chief actually felt the need to start at the very beginning. The Kingdom of Immolat used to be a powerful kingdom in a different world, but the traits that made them so powerful ultimately became their weakness.
Fire Spirits could only prosper in places with strong fire elemental mana, like subterranean magma flows or very active volcanic regions. As such, they usually lived below the earth, where they normally competed with dwarves, monsters, and demons for resources. Since their territory was usually deadly to any invaders, they had a great defense and a powerful offense, meaning they lived a good life.
That was until the fire energy in their kingdom started waning. Not just their territory, but fire energy receded in all the known lands of that world. They suffered this fate for decades, constantly declining until their king decided that he could not watch any longer and sent their people out into the Pathworks.
"So you were sent out into the unknown, your life and death decided by not much more than the roll of a dice"? Seth asked when Katun described their treacherous journey through the passages of the Pathworks.
"Not fully. We trusted our diviners and traveled through routes that promised at least slight chances of survival. As long as some of us survived, Immolat wouldn't completely die," Kutun said solemnly.
But Kutun was not done with his story and continued form where Seth interrupted. Apparently, they had been much more numerous, when they arrived in the far east of Urth even further east than Seth's home town.
"We had managed to find a region of rich mana and fire elements, where we tried to settle... but disaster struck. A bald man, wielding powerful skills, suddenly appeared one day among us. Shouting about demons and eradicating evil, our warriors were embroiled in a fight with the man and ultimately killed him," Kutun said, melancholic.
"That was a mistake," Seth summarized. The blacksmith caught on to the hints. They arrived in the east of Urth and suddenly met a powerful man spouting bullshit, it had to be a cultivator. If Seth learned one thing, that cultivators had the almost suicidal urge to take revenge, even if it killed them. At least some of them did. Kutun nodded.
"Soon after, more bald people appeared, calling us demons and attacking without mercy. We could only scatter and escape into the mana flows, abandoning our newfound home."
The next part of the story was what one would expect. One way or the other, the fire spirits found their way to the central mountains, following the signs of the thing called the Earthfurnace. Here, not just Mt. Robere had awakened. After the magic formation spread out the magic power of the massive volcano to diffuse it, it activated smaller sleeping volcanoes in the surrounding.
At first, they couldn't get close to Mount Robere, while the formation was still active, but this problem solved it self thanks to Merkraut Sar. This was when Katun revealed something Seth was unaware of. Apparently, the formation was actually already disabled several months ago, not just right before Chrona left.
"Only then were we able to approach the remnants of the Earthfurnace. Recently, we started nurturing it so our scattered people could move here, to the Central, instead of staying at the colder, smaller peaks, " Kutun finally explained why the volcanic activity was on the rise. These guys were expanding.
"B-but although it had almost extinguished, it would have slowly recovered. Even without our help," Kutun quickly added to avoid a misunderstanding. So, if Seth believed what they said, then their original thought of the Peddler of Ruin leaving a not-so-nice surprise for Spatia became very likely again.
"What is that Earthfurnace? You mentioned it a few times now," Seth asked after he held back during the story. At this point, he had gotten a rough idea about their circumstance,s and it didn't seem like Kutun was lying, Something the blacksmith would have Ray judge at a later time. He also had a vague image of what the Earthfurnace did, but no idea what it was.
The fire spirit seemed to be a little put on the spot, as he didn't quite seem to know how to explain.
"Do you know about elementals?" he finally asked, mentioning what Seth falsely thought they were in the beginning. The blacksmith answered with a "kind of".
"Technically, there are two kinds of elementals. Those born on the elemental planes and those born natively. Like how World Trees sometimes give birth to high elves, locations like the Earthfurnace or the Heart of the Ocean can give birth to native elementals. It is a potential birthplace for fire elementals," Kunlun explained.