Helluva Hailstorm
And that is why you dont mix weather magic with demonic summoning rituals.Oh, this was bad. This was very very bad. He had warned her, he was NOT the best person for the job. Dwarven runes were hard enough to keep straight, much less the sigils that they were using for the experiment. He just had no head for geometry. Stencils were the way to go, he was always saying. No way to mess up with a stencil, but nooooOOOOooooo, tradition says to do the new sigils by hand, then only make a copy when the experiment was successful. Well this experiment had successfully done something, all right. As he made his way across the catwalk to the western tower he noticed that the clouds had taken on a distinctly red tint and the smell of sulfer was getting stronger. The howling, at least, still sounded like it was just the wind. Definitely just the wind. There were no voices, or shrieks, or gleeful cackling, that was just his imagination. Just the wind, and the clatter of tree branches on walls and windows, and the occasional CRACK of thunder. Nothing at all to be to overly concerned about. There wasn't even a funnel cloud this time. He finally made it to the western tower, cracking the door, only for the wind to wrench it out of his hand and slam it into the stop. There was startled voices and cries from inside, but he couldnt make out what was being said as he struggled to pull the door shut behind him. Finally another pair of hands joined his on the oversized handle and together they were able to drag the door closed. A pair of delicate, elven hands with distinctive ice-blue nails...*gulp. "Ma'am," he said, not daring to raise his head as he turned slowly from the door towards the tower interior, "I think I may have messed up the sigils."
"YOU THINK! Do you have ANY idea HOW MANY YEARS WE HAVE WORKED TOWARDS..." "Oh, leave off the poor lad, Selene. He told you he wasn't meant for sigil work. No one to blame but yourself. And have you SEEN the mana crystals. The data we are getting, I dare say I hope this doesnt get too bad. If his sigils are intact we may well win awards for this. People will celebrate our genius the world over..." tap...tap...taptap tap ratatatatata tat PING tat tat tink CRASH "...after we pay for damages to..." GONG! "...the college and the..." GONG! "...town. Wait, is that, *sniff* brimstone? Oh gods boy, what have you done now?! On second thought... we should start packing. Forget the sigils. Some of the hail is on fire, and I think it is targeting people. EEP!"
The Event, later cannonized in school lore as the Helluva Hailstorm, caused tens of thousands of gold in damage to the school and the city of Doceancot. While no demons or devils actually crossed over, apparently through some poor sigil work, what was supposed to be a comparatively simple ritual to control the weather summoned a hailstorm straight from the lower planes, where it does indeed rain (or in this case hail) fire. Luckily, Doceancot is made mostly of stone with tile roofs, so the overall damage was minimized, although many crops and several fishing and merchant vessels were lost.
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