DKDragons/SessionSixteen
17:54 [Kalan] It is a simple enough matter for Kalan to find Keshin again, to his amusement; it is simply a matter of following the bloody smears along the floor. He opens an office door without knocking, to find Keshin leaning back against a couch, Striking Sparks checking his wounds. Her head is bent unneccessarily close to his, and Kalan's face grows stern at the sight of them.
17:55 [Kalan] "If your...examination....is �quite� done, Sparks, there is a search to organize," he drawls, flicking his fingers to the door.
17:57 [Keshin] Keshin looks away at the interruption, and then flexes his arm. "I can move now, I think. What happened? Take care of them?"
18:00 [Kalan] "The demon is dead. The sorcerer had already. escaped. There was an open window; I've sent search parties out, but as I've heard no screams, I suspect they haven't found much"
18:01 [Kalan] Kalan stares steadily at Striking Sparks as he speaks. She sets her jaw in visible rebellion, turning instead back to Keshin. "Sir?" Her hand presses against his knee.
18:05 [Keshin] He stares at Kalan, internally cursing his weakness. "Right. If we can't find it, then we should try to cut off its likely plans. Why would it stay in its rooms do you think? Perhaps it was trying to prepare something there? It seemed to be quite intelligent, so I don't want to assume that it was just staying where it had been animated." He pauses, thinking. "Sift throught the rubble, see if you can find remnants of a spell or some such. I will go and direct the search."
18:10 [Kalan] Kalan raises his eyebrows. ".A zombie? Likely it had no stimulus to persuade it to leave. I won't argue however," there's a hint of a sneer to his voice. "Come, Sparks. I will need an expert...sifter."
18:11 [ST] Striking Sparks raises an eyebrow, rising and dusting her hands off on her pants. A smear of blood comes away, and she seems not to notice. "Didn't get paid to go digging through Dragonblooded love-dens," she grumbles.
18:12 [Kalan] "Indeed. You get paid for obeying orders." He jerks his head to the door, salutes Keshin sarcastically, and heads out.
18:14 [ST] "Let me know if you need anything, sir," she says, following Kalan out.
18:14 [ST] Night has fallen, the skies deepening over a quiet city through one of the Shatterspear's narrow windows.
18:19 [Keshin] Keshin makes his way slowly down the tower, testing his body as he goes. By the time he reaches the search parties, it was almost unnoticeable that he dabs his left hand to the wall every step he took on that leg, to keep his stability.
18:20 [ST] Jorj's apartment remains in utter shambles. The savaged corpse of the Ghanite woman lies sprawled over an overturned lacquered end table. Blood smears the floor and walls, and the air is heavy with the smell of human waste. The study stands empty but mostly intact. The bedroom itself is in ruins, the floor gone, a massive collection of detritus and stone covering what was once Striking Sparks's room.
18:27 [Kalan] Kalan pokes around idly. He sorts through the papers on Jorj's desk, rifles through the drawers, and searches for the remains of arcane expermiments, or at least Talek's monkey, with little expectation of discovery.
18:28 [ST] Sparks's contribution to the effort seems to be to hang back, shooting the occasional glare at Kalan while halfheartedly poking around. As he sifts through the wreckage, Kalan inadvertantly steps in a puddle of something under the desk. Urine. Fairly fresh. Zombies, for all their hideous faults, do not void themselves.
18:29 [ST] The papers in the desk are strange - the ones near the bottom seem to be spell lists, thaumaturgical recipes, practical jokes, and notes to and from those Jorj has had dalliances with.
18:29 [ST] The ones on top are crumpled and torn, smeared with blood in strange sigils that look nothing like Kalan's ever seen before. Some kind of sorcery, perhaps? Talek would be a good person to ask... if he hadn't disappeared somewhere.
18:31 [Kalan] Kalan's lips draw back from his teeth. "...Keshin!" he curses, easing his once-pristine boots away. He could abide bloodspatters; somehow urine was so much worse.
18:32 [Kalan] "Striking Sparks, take these to Tansy, see if she can make anything of them." He hands her the crumpled papers.
18:33 [ST] Sparks takes them with a look of marked distaste, holding them away from her body as she slips out.
18:36 [ST] Kalan's search continues apace, going deeper and deeper into the mess of materials Jorj has left behind. He finds little but random scrawls he thinks are spells, perhaps ones Jorj knows or wanted to know. Most of them he's never heard of, not being a fan of sorcerors and their ilk.
18:36 [ST] What kind of spell name is "Flying Guillotine", anyway?
18:37 [ST] Focused on the search, he doesn't see the body in the other room, the one so recently risen and put down again, convulse once more.
18:38 [ST] But this time, it does not rise. This time, it is not vessel, but portal. The corpse splits down the middle as a luminous form rises from it, glowing slightly in the early night.
18:39 [ST] Its eyes are mad with hunger, its face stretched wide to form a set of slavering fangs. Its skin has grown hard and knobby like articulated armor here and there, and its fingers end in long, wickedly curving claws. The eyes, black, dead, nevertheless shine with a certain cunning and malevolence.
18:40 [ST] Beneath its bare head lies only glowing plasmic flesh - there is no brain to hold memories or think of new strategies. But some part of it does remember the man rifling through the desk. The man who killed it, when it was greater.
18:40 [ST] "KALAAAAAAANNNNN!" the po of Peleps Deled shrieks, charging
18:42 [ST] The thing is atop Kalan before he realizes it, scooping him off the floor and into the air like a child, crushing him close in a bone-breaking clench. Its smell, cold and alien, fills his nostrils as he is pinned against clammy flesh.
18:44 *Kalan is gagging from the stench almost before he knows what's happening. "Wasn't killing you once �enough�?" he snarls, bursting into flames.
18:49 [Kalan] He struggles in the embrace of the monstrous, twisted thing. Smoke rises from where his flesh touches the dead corpus, smelling putrid.. The monster startles at the flames, and it's just long enough for Kalan to get his boot firmly against the monster's torso and kick it away against a wall.
18:50 [Kalan] The po slams against the wall, shrieking into a post.
18:52 [Kalan] Kalan tumbles desperately to the right, grabbing his direlance and bracing it against the floor like a pike as he comes to his feet.
18:52 [Kalan] "�WARE GHOST�!" he bellows.
18:54 [ST] The ghost slams into the wall with a crash, a splintered chunk of ornamental jade stabbing into its corpus. It seems not to feel the pain, wrenching itself violently sideways and tearing out a chunk of the wall as it goes. It looks at Kalan for a brief moment before leaping backwards in a tremendous spring... out the shattered bedroom window.
18:55 [Kalan] "Damn it all...." Kalan gives chase, jumping recklessly out after it.
18:55 [ST] Keshin is just preparing to depart with the next set of search parties when he sees the glowing creature spring forth from the window. Kalan follows a scant moment after.
18:56 [ST] Both seem to hang suspended for a moment before beginning to plummet toward the earth, hundreds and hundreds of feet below.
18:57 [Keshin] "Shit. You - go, look. If you find it, help will be nearby." He dashes off towards the bottom of the tower, using his drawn daiklave as a cane for now.
19:00 [Kalan] Kalan jams his direlance sideways into the side of the building, slowing his descent even as his momentum forces him ever downward. A spray of dust falls from the long, narrow groove the direlance cuts as he falls.
19:02 [ST] The ghost lands with a tremendous crash atop the lean-to where the Ghanites have set up shop. Its elastic form ripples for a moment as it strikes the ground, spreading out a bit before loosely flowing back into shape. Masked figures scream, darting away.
19:08 [Keshin] He reaches the open space around the tower bottom just as the ghost did. He held his place until the wave of frightened people broke past him. At least they knew Jorj hadn't exited the tower the same way - that would have caused just as much commotion.
19:10 [ST] The Hungry Ghost tears itself from the wreckage with a growl, tossing aside the broken corpse of a masked child. Its eyes narrow at Keshin... who watched... who could have done something... and it screeches in bestial rage, leaning forward on oversized clawed forearms like an ape.
19:14 [ST] The scream rises and rises, seeming to shiver through the bodies of those present. A coldness settles into the Dragonblooded's breasts... and at the edge of hearing there is something like a voice... a Whisper?
19:16 [ST] Wisps of black smoke rise from the voids of Deled's eyes. Tendrils of purest darkness creep from his mouth. A thing something like a cloud and something like a many-limbed, grasping octopus forms around him, seething towards and around the Dragonblooded. The Black Breath, the touch of Oblivion.
19:22 [ST] The tendrils extend, groping knowingly, seeking warmth, life. A ghanite screams shrilly as one of them loops around his waist, pulling him towards Deled's spectral form. Another darts right through the breastplate of a Cathak soldier, dragging him forward. Another seizes a Ghanite child, and another seizes Kalan's Urchin, wrapping around its throat tightly. More are snared, and more, at least a dozen, all of them being pulled slowly towards the core of the creature's form.
19:23 [ST] The Dragonbloods evade the grasping things, narrowly.
19:25 [Kalan] Kalan burns brighter as he falls, sorching the side of the Shatterspear, a dozen yards above the beast, he suddenly plants his feet against the walls, yanks out his spear, and tumbles backwards.
19:25 [Keshin] Keshin gathers himself, pushing essence through his muscles as he had been trained to do, so that when the tendril finally reached him, he could dart about it in the blink of an eye, speeding towards the ghost. He was awkward, but it worked. Apparently they was useful, which they damned well better be, recalling the lectures and practices he had gone through to learn the appropriate charms. It had frustrated him enough
19:27 [Kalan] Kalan is a fiery mirage, and a terrified Ghanite man, too scared to run looks upward. To his tear-blurred eyes, there seem to be four, not one, flying at the hungry ghost from every direction.
19:30 [Kalan] Flaming direlances bludgeon against the tentacles simultaneously. The ghostly blackness bursts and shreds like ordinary flesh, and severed tentacles drop writhing to the ground with their prey. They make a squishy plop when they hit the ground, squirming for moments more before fading like mist in the morning.
19:34 [ST] Kalan's furious attack severs a number of tentacles, and the flames that chase his direlance seem to dart all throughout the creature's body, sizzling away at the roots of the vile cloud. Deled's ghost jerks its head back suddenly in a bestial motion, left with only a flaming, flapping tongue.
19:36 [ST] The bodies of those grasped fall limply to the ground, motionless.
19:41 [Keshin] Keshin runs back along the path the tendril had taken, and then past the mass itself as Kalan dealt with it, charging directly to the ghost of Deled. It had been easy enough to accelerate, but he didn't trust his legs to hold up oin a quick stop, so he tried nothing indirect, just a solid downslash with his weight behind it, and a backhand when the first allowed him to regain his balance.
19:46 [ST] The creature is too slow to block, but its rubbery corpus seems to absorb the cut, bending inward only slightly before flaring back out again. Deled's po gives a screeching, piercing laugh.
19:51 [Kalan] Kalan lands, panting, amid dust and dirt. He clambers out of a collapsed tent, picks up his direlance, and smiles. The ghost's back is to him. He steps carefully over the sobbing Ghanite man in the mask of an ox, lines of his direlance, and jumps.
19:52 [Kalan] One red, fiery image of Kalan strikes at Deled from above, two others from the left and right, and the last strikes from below, boiling upwards in a shower of dirt.
19:54 [ST] The ghost slides back smoothly, luminous form wavering as it darts away from Kalan's strikes, claws flickering up to intercept his blows.
19:54 [Kalan] Kalan growls as his attacks fail, dancing backwards.
19:55 [ST] A crowd of mortal troops has begun to gather, milling about uncertainly at the edge of the fighting.
20:00 [Keshin] Kalan's pretty display had distracted it. Keshin moves forward, waiting for it to engage kalan's images, then pounces from the side, swinging wildly and repeatedly, hoping to slip one blow past its defenses as it scrambles to keep up with the barrage.
20:03 [ST] The creature jerks sharply to one side, ghostly bones bending like rubber as it seeks to avoid the strikes. The last catches it across the face, shearing its nose off neatly. The hole pulses gouts of pale blood.
20:04 [ST] There is a sudden flare of essence, behind and above... way above, atop the roof of the Shatterspear. Columns of flame rise into the air nearly twenty feet, hissing and snapping at each other.
20:04 [ST] Such a display could only be a work of sorcery.
20:11 [Kalan] "Keshin!" Kalan calls. "Take Jorj. I'll....try....to handle this thing." Though if the creature managed to sidestep his attacks again, he supposed he would not last much longer.
20:13 [Kalan] He smiles at the po. It snarls, opening its jaws. Saliva drools down. "...perhaps not."
20:14 [Keshin] "I'll stay. We deal with this, and then that. The extra time almost surely won't matter, as long as it will take to run up there. Why the hell did no-one think to look up from the window?" he grouses.
20:16 [Kalan] Kalan shrugs. "Looking up is for mortals," he says. He circles the beast slowly. "Remember me, Peleps?" Kalan asks, stepping around a severed hand. "We fought a duel. I killed you. The Dragons loved me better than you." He taunts it as one would taunt a child.
20:18 [Kalan] It had little more intelligence than that, he suspected. "In a hundred years, when they remember you, it will be as the beast Cathak Kalan slew!" The hungry ghost roars and charges, slipping through the mud.
20:18 [Kalan] It was angry. Angry enough to be clumsy, Kalan hoped, though as tons of ectoplasmic muscle bear down, Kalan wonders if it was entirely wise.
20:19 [Kalan] He raises his direlance in salute, and it bursts into flame. He spins the direlances so fast he creates a whirlwind of fire, and Deled steps into it.
20:21 [Kalan] Kalan whitens as the hungry ghost is...unharmed.
20:22 [ST] Deled bludgeons aside the flaming assault with a growl, but the heat forces the creature to retreat slightly, hissing, spewing spittle.
20:22 [ST] �"I. HATE. YOU."
20:23 [Kalan] "It's a popular opinion," Kalan smirks, to cover his fear. He'd need to fight defensively the rest of the battle...and this was a difficult opponent to whittle down.
20:25 [Keshin] This was not going well. "Host! Attack." Fodder might help. At least it should distract him. Grim, he unleashed another attack against Deled, more to annoy and harass than to kill. This was going to take time, unfortunately.
20:27 [ST] As Keshin's attacks are batted aside by the po, Quiet Sapphire heeds his call, leading the troops in a vicious charge toward the ghost. They fall in around it, hacking raggedly at its extended limbs with sword and spear, too disorganized and panicked to form ranks. Too many untested, two few veterans.
20:29 [ST] Sapphire leads the charge with a vicious howl, her mouth opening too wide, revealing the pointed, fanglike canines that are the only thing her Arczekhi father ever gave her. The others move in at her flanks, slashing and chopping
20:31 [ST] Assailed on all sides, the creature is unable to block in time. Crude the mortal blades might be, but they are plentiful, and the tiny nicks and cuts they carve in the beast's hide begin to add up, slowing it, shaving it down to nothing bit by bit.
20:31 [ST] A ragged cheer rises among the mortals as the ghost falls back - and suddenly falls silent as flame bursts anew from atop the Shatterspear.
20:33 [ST] A trio of flaming snakes move out from the crown of the tower, intertwining, snapping and hissing at each other in showers of sparks. They come together as if mating to form a massive fireball in the sky. For a moment it hangs there, burning like a second sun, before it coalesces into the shape of a bird of prey, its wingspan twenty feet across.
20:34 [ST] It gives a warbling cry, spreading its wings, panning over the courtyard below in a wide circle. Then, it flattens its wings and flies toward the ground and an impossible speed, too fast for the eye to follow, impacting on the spectral form of Peleps Deled himself.
20:35 [ST] There is no time for hope to rise, for when the strange bird hits, it blossoms into a massive explosion around the creature, a rolling carpet of flame that consumes those locked in battle with it.
20:38 [ST] Ghostly flesh melts like tallow, dripping from Deled's monstrous form. The mortals gathered around him ignite, hair flash-frying away, armor fusing to their bodies. Most don't even have time to scream.
20:38 [ST] Sapphire drops, still smoldering, screaming in agony as her armor scorches its maker's mark into her flesh.
20:41 [ST] A few of the more cowardly soldiers throw their arms aside, fleeing with shouts of alarm. Most waver, but hold firm, staring at the scorched remains of their companions with horror. A contigent is already running back to the Shatterspear to report the attacks from the roof.
20:44 [Kalan] Kalan tried to shield himself with his arms, but it is little use; the unnatural sorcerous fire sears his flesh and blackens his armor. All pretense of mirth is gone from him as Kalan lowers his hands plants his spear to the ground. The ghost twitches. Baked bones crack and smolder beneath its shifting feet.
20:44 [Kalan] "Hold your attack for my word," Kalan orders in a voice drained of emotion.
20:46 [Kalan] He charges forward, essence imbuing his direlance with unnatural force. Clouds of dust rise from his footsteps. He levers back his arms and Tongue of Flame lashes vengefully at joint smoldering and weakened from fire.
20:47 [Keshin] Keshin remains still, quiet. Now was not the time to argue rank. ANd besides, Kalan was the experienced commander here. But he would be damned before he would draw attention to himself under the circumstances, to be more publicly useless than he already was.
20:50 [ST] Kalan's spear burrows under the creature's armpit, sinking in deeply. Ghostly flesh sears away with a smell like rancid butter and incense intermingled. Deled roars viciously, his dark eyes promising murder.
20:52 [Kalan] Deled flies back from the force of the blow, landing in the mud with Kalan's spear pinning him down. The joint cracks. Kalan plants a foot on his chest, struggling to keep the monster of its feet.
20:52 [Kalan] "�NOW!�" he roars.
20:59 [Keshin] Keshin waits for the mortals to surge forward, then joins them, a shark hidden in a school of minnows. The first few peck at the thing as it wriths on the ground, trying to minimize the blows, and then he is there, blade ringing slightly as it runs down the direlance, using it as a guide to Deled's pinned shoulder.
21:02 [ST] Keshin's blow smashes into the marbled spectral muscle of Deled's shoulder with a wet squelching sound. When he pulls it away, it seems to have done little damage at all... but a moment later, the arm flops away, severed completely by this last strike.
21:03 [ST] The mortals clamber atop the fallen creature, screaming in rage for their lost companions, stabbing ferociously with spear and sword.
21:08 [ST] The ghost tries to block their onslaught, but Keshin's final blow has left it utterly defenseless. The mortals swarm over its fallen form like a horde of ants, stabbing furiously, and ghostly flesh first retreats then yields under their attack. Deled's po loses almost all cohesion, melting down to nothing, a single clawed limb extending up as if to tear at the sky.
21:08 [ST] "�Forsaken.... forgotten.... I.... HATE... YOU�...."
21:08 [ST] The arm dissolves, the creature falling to pieces completely...
21:09 [ST] ...and above, another display of essence begins as Jorj starts weaving another spell
21:10 [Keshin] Keshin glances to Kalan, and breaks into a run for the tower's nearest entrance, expecting the other close behind.
21:11 [Kalan] "Well done! Now SCATTER!" Kalan bellows. "Present no grouped targets!" He pauses long enough to drag Quiet Sapphire to her feet and push her to cover.
21:12 [Kalan] She is still weeping in agony, falling back against the shelter of a balcony. He glances quickly about him to make sure everyone's at least moving, then follows Keshin into the Shatterspear.
21:14 [ST] The Shatterspear is a hive of activity, people running this way and that in utter confusion. As the Dragonbloods race from one staircase to another, Tansy emerges from a side room, holding the sketches.
21:15 [ST] "Necromancy," she says, in a voice entirely too placid. "Necromantic runes."
21:15 [Kalan] "To do what?" Kalan demands, pulling her roughly along. She can run and talk.
21:17 [ST] Her feet virtually drag the ground - he pulls her after like a child. "Ghosts..." she says, looking around idly. "Summoning Ghosts... other things, maybe, couldn't tell."
21:20 [Kalan] "Ghosts," he grunts. "If he was responsible for summoning Deled...."'
21:21 [ST] "Deled?" She shudders, stirred even in her opium haze, and her hands flex. "He was... here?"
21:24 [ST] As the Dragonbloods pass the halfway point in the arduous climb up the tower (far above any of the actual inhabited floors or even the essence cannon implacement), a curved reaper daiklave falls past the window, spinning end over end.
21:26 [Kalan] "Dead. Again. Go."
21:27 [Kalan] A voice rings down from above. A Cathak soldier, reporting. "We've checked all the rooms- nothing but spiders, dust, and old sex manuals." There's some sniggering and Vash says hotly, "I keep telling you, I was drunk-"
21:28 [ST] Tansy staggers away as Kalan releases her, falling gracelessly on her ass. She blinks.
21:29 [Kalan] Keshin almost bulldozes over him as he rushes past the landing, and Vash flattens himself againt the wall in alarm, sex manuals and drunken encounters with Tansy on the fourteenth floor forgotten.
21:30 [Kalan] Soldiers scatter, bringing up swords and shields. "VASH!" Kalan growls, pouncing on him. He grabs the man by the elbow and yanks, as if he were a kennelmaster with a stubborn dog.
21:30 [Kalan] "-what-"
21:30 [Kalan] "Run now," Kalan pants. "Talk later."
21:30 [Kalan] Cathak soldiers exchange alarmed looks, and as one rush up after them.
21:30 [ST] Outside, a breastplate falls past the window. Then, a pair of greaves.
21:31 [Kalan] �Matara...
21:32 [Kalan] What did it take for the girl to stay out of trouble?
21:32 [Kalan] He runs faster, catching up to Keshin.
21:33 [ST] The race up the stairs continues. Vash, although pulled along by Kalan, at least has the benefit of his speed - the Dragonblood moves so quickly that his feet rarely touch the floor.
21:35 [ST] The others move as quickly as they can, panting with the effort. One drops back, falling upon the stairs with a painful cramp. Ten more floors go by, and a pair of boots and shin guards fall. Five more, and spaldrons tumble through the air.
21:36 [ST] And then, as they top the next floor, Kalan sees Matara herself fall, a strange smile on her face as she plummets toward the ground at impossible speeds.
21:36 [Kalan] "Matara!" Kalan yells, making a frantic dive for the window.
21:37 [ST] She's already out of arm's reach by the time Kalan makes it there, and as he watches, she falls, and falls, and falls...
21:38 [Keshin] The others are behind him, and farther behind them. Some faster than he, but they slow as the ascent takes longer and longer, and he draws strength from each step, as his feet hit the centuries old stone beneath them, while they lose it.
21:38 [Kalan] He turns away before the end, too much a coward to face it. His face is frozen. A panting Cathak soldier catches up, and leans gratefully against the wall.
21:39 [ST] From far below, there is a sickening �crunch.�
21:39 [Kalan] Kalan glares at her ferociously. She straightens up nervously, still gasping deeply. "What are you resting for, soldier?" Kalan asks quietly, and all the more frightening for it.
21:40 [Kalan] He flinches, almost inperceptibly, at the sound.
21:40 [ST] Keshin tops the stairs first, emerging on the floor nearest the top of the tower. Up here, it's cold, the wind that isn't even blowing below howling through chinks in the stone with a loud whistle. One more flight of stairs rises up to the roof of the structure.
21:41 [ST] The soldier shakes her head, forcing herself away from the wall, and begins to run up the steps without another word. Others follow.
21:42 [ST] By now, over half the soldiers Kalan picked have fallen out of the march, cramping or collapsing from the immense strain. But he picked well, and more than he needed, and Vash and twenty or so of his best are still with him as he joins Keshin.
21:42 [Keshin] Keshin stops, taking a moment to gather himself. Part of him had noticed that Matara had already died. So there was no reason to run up the final steps. He looked at the structure of the roof above him, and waited for the others to arrive.
21:47 [Kalan] Kalan assembles the soldiers into some sort of order- shields and swords ahead, spears behind, javelin-throwers last- and nods to Keshin.
21:48 [Kalan] "We're as ready as we we'll be," he says, once the soldiers have had a minute to gather themselves.
21:49 [Keshin] "Right. Lets go." As speeches go, it felt inadequate. But that was appropriate after all. He trudged up the last stairs, daiklave before him.
21:51 [ST] Jorj's injured hand, wrapped in a bandage and having only two intact fingers, lies at the top of the stairs, along with a good portion of his forearm and an arc of blood.
21:52 [Kalan] Kalan stares at it, cold as death.
21:53 [Kalan] He nudges it aside with the butt of his spear and walks on.
21:53 [Keshin] At least she had done something before dying.
21:53 [ST] The roof of the Shatterspear was once a floor like any other, until the great cataclysm of the Usurpation. Now, like a broken crown, its walls jut jagged and broken, the space between them scoured bare. Only the warding circle cut into the floor and meant to keep intruders from entering suggests that the roof is ever used for anything.
21:54 [ST] Jorj himself sits on a broken spur of the wall, his left leg cocked up jauntily beside him. His left arm is missing to the elbow, and he stares in a strange sort of fascination as tendrils of spectral energy creep from the stump, forming a new, wavering hand. As the others arrive, he looks up, grinning.
21:55 [ST] "I remember when I was in the Heptagram... Tepet Elana was there for a semester, trying to learn sorcery. That daft bitch couldn't so much as whip out Emerald Countermagic, but she was so full of herself..."
21:56 [ST] "Back in those days, no one had heard of the Bull... no disgrace for the Tepet at all. They were on top of the Dynasty, the favorite of the Empress, it was said... and so, of course I had to put the fire salamander up her skirt."
21:57 [ST] "You should have seen her run down the halls, heard her squeal. They say she couldn't sit down for a week, not even on the privy. Now... I've played a lot of pranks, but that was the best one, till today."
21:57 [ST] He chuckles a bit. "Matara? Now that's the best one ever."
21:57 [Kalan] Kalan doesn't even listen as the fool babbles. He makes a motion with his hand, and the soldiers fan out silently.
21:59 [ST] "I just wish Fraed could've seen this one." Jorj shakes his head. "The bitch cut my arm, so I used the ol' Shadow Eyes on her. Now Avaku... he's a good guy, but he couldn't keep his mouth shut when he thought he was going to die in Ghan. Told me to be nice to her. Her parents were slaves or something ridiculous like that. Minstrels? I can't remember. Anyway, her parents."
21:59 [Keshin] Keshin waits for them to reach position, shifting slightly, so that Kalan wouldn't interfere with the room he needed for a full sing.
21:59 [ST] "Anyway, after I'd put the eyes on her, I told her they were waiting across the bridge, and she'd have to take all her armor off and throw it over the side to get on, and then she said she still didn't see the bridge, and I told her it was invisible, made out of air, and all she had to do was," He laughs. "Walk across it!"
22:00 [ST] "Is that a good one, or what?"
22:00 [Kalan] They are Cathak's best. In the front, each soldier; carries sword and saber. The pikemen stand silently behind, the shafts of their spears resting on the shoulders of their brothers.
22:00 [ST] He laughs insanely, displaying many missing teeth.
22:00 [ST] "I NEVER used to have fun like this before I got bit. Losing those two fingers, why that was the best thing that ever happened to me."
22:02 [Kalan] "Be. Silent." Kalan tells him emotionlessly. He raises his direlance, takes careful aim, and swings it crushing against the sorcerer's knees.
22:03 [Kalan] He listens carefully for the sound of bones breaking.
22:03 [ST] Jorj springs away lightly, a smile lighting up his face as Kalan's strike smashes the stone to powder. He lands atop a jagged spur of rock on one foot. "Fine, Kalan, if you're gonna be like THAT, we can just fight!"
22:06 [Kalan] Kalan shakes his head. "This won't be a fight," he says. "Javelins, ready." He roll into the center of his ring of soldiers, and as he comes to his feet he is already swinging the butt of the spear against the sorcerer's knees, battering at them.
22:07 [Kalan] Matara had smiled as she died. Death was never a victory, he had told her.
22:08 [Kalan] The fool had never listened, except when he told her he was a traitor.
22:09 [ST] As Kalan's strikes move in, a strange light, flickering and bobbing like a Will'O'Wisp - very much like Zip, in fact - coalesces around Jorj. As the Dragonblood's attacks come near, the flickering flame flattens into the shape of a hooked saber, attempting to parry the onslaught
22:10 [ST] Jorj waggles his stump back and forth, his spectral finger shifting from side to side. "Don't underestimate me just because Talek doesn't bother studying GOOD spells!"
22:10 [Kalan] Kalan edges to the side, giving Keshin plenty of room.
22:15 [Keshin] He takes advantage of it, dashing forward with a vicious forehand slash, trying to drive Jorj off his footing, and further into the jaws of the soldier's formation.
22:17 [ST] Jorj hops up lightly as his guardian of flame batters Keshin's weapon aside, landing on the other foot this time. A burst of essence flares around him as he activates a charm, surrounding him in a fiery, crackling nimbus of energy.
22:24 [Kalan] "Javelins!" Kalan shouts.
22:26 [Kalan] "Draw your swords!"
22:26 [Kalan] He gestures, and fiery sparks drift through the air, landing on the blades of Keshin and several soldiers.
22:27 [Kalan] "Ready your attack."
22:36 [Keshin] Channeling essence through his blade again, Keshin moves forward, bringing the daiklave down with both hands, trying to force his way through Jorj's magic.
22:39 [ST] "You're too damn slow, Keshin!" V'Neef Jorj crows as the Dragonblood moves in to strike. He springs away lightly from the edge of Keshin's blade, capering. "You swing that big clumsy thing slower than old people fu- ohhhh," He looks down at his hands wet with blood, and the vicious gash Keshin has carved across his abdomen. "Oh... Dragons...." He whimpers.
22:40 [ST] Essence wells up around his fingers; he begins scribing strange shapes in the air with his hands, leaving trails of essence behind. The Flame Guardian at his side bobs fitfully. "You're gonna... love this one... ohhh you've never seen its.... like..."
22:45 [ST] Kalan's mortal troops sail in, hacking and slashing furiously. The flame guardian stops most of them, but the last attack gets through; the soldier who stopped to rest against the wall comes in with a vicious backhand slash, laying open Jorj's ribs. He screams piercingly, but doesn't cease his spell shaping to hold in the rope of entrails that suddenly comes tumbling out.
22:49 [Kalan] Kalan steps up and twists his direlance around the string of entrails, wraping Jorj's insides around the spear like a child with a string of taffy. Then he...yanks.
22:52 [Kalan] Blood squirts across his expresionless face. He wipes it off absently as Jorj screams, and screams.
22:54 [ST] The flaming saber crashes down, severing the ropes of Jorj's entrails and cauterizing them closed at the same moment. It's a mortal wound, and he'll certainly die... in a few hours. In the meantime, his laughter blossoms anew as he takes a single step away, trailing smoke.
22:59 [Keshin] Bringing him in line with Keshins stroke, right to the neck.
23:01 [ST] Keshin's stroke sails in high, but the Guardian is there, slamming into the strike, shunting it aside and down -
23:03 [ST] -where it strikes Jorj in the abdomen, cutting him completely in half. His torso flies through the air, turning end over end, and as it sails out over the edge of the Shatterspear, through some quirk of essence, Jorj's final spell activates. Unstoppable Fountain of the Depths, it is called, a tidal wave fifteen feet high and as many wide, and Jorj intended for it to sweep his opponents from
23:03 [ST] the tower. Instead, as he flies in midair, it acts as an accelerant, sending him rocketing down into the courtyard below.
23:04 [ST] The warstrider waits silently there, a rusted spear that was once a flag pole gripped in its massive fist. It doesn't even shake as Jorj's short, extremely fast trip ends abruptly, impaling him on the massive weapon.
23:06 [ST] For a few brief seconds, the tableu is a grisly fountain, but as soon as it begins, the tidal wave of Essence emerging from Jorj's form fades away, leaving a score of drenched, staring Ghanites.
23:06 [Kalan] Kalan stands at the edge of the tower, and stares down at it. "We'll have to burn the corpse, after what happened with Deled," he says eventually. "Vash, there are ladders stored in the cellar. See to it he's burned to ashes."
23:07 [ST] Vash gulps, shaken by the ferocity of the attack. "You... you got it."
23:09 [ST] Many of the other troops fall where they stand, taking deep, pained breaths.
23:11 [Kalan] "Better burn Matara as well," he adds thoughtfully. "See to it her ashes are placed appropriately in a vessel for disposal in her home province. Corella, your squad has clean-up. Dismissed."
23:11 [Kalan] He waves them away, kindly not noticing as they limp with rather less alacrity than usual to follow their orders. The lucky ones, given nothing to do, collapse gratefully against a wall.
23:13 [Keshin] Keshin stares down at the remains, then trudges to the stairs. It was a pain now. He just wanted to go to sleep, but the necessary charm he had used had left him full of energy. He would have to use it, go back to work, to make the expenditure useful.
23:14 [ST] As Keshin winds down the stairs, passing knots of harried soldiers, Striking Sparks pats him on the back in passing. "Can't be that bad, right? Er... sir?"
23:16 [ST] There's an immaterial flickering at Kalan's ear. A voice, both familiar and strangely changed, sounds in his ear.
23:16 [Kalan] Kalan follows more slowly, glaring at Striking Sparks out of reflex.
23:16 [ST] �She's not dead. Not yet. We will talk later.
23:16 [ST] And then, just as quickly, it is gone.
23:17 [Kalan] ".....Zip?"
23:18 [Kalan] Kalan races down the stairs, shoving Vash and Keshin impatiently out of his way.
23:19 [Kalan] He breaks into the courtyard, and demands of the swarming masses, "Where did Cynis Matara fall?
23:20 [ST] It's a Ghanite that finally dares to point the way. Kalan finds her in a broken heap in the middle of a tented stall set up, of all things, to sell fruit from one of the city's walled orchards. A day or so later, and the fruit might have been gone... as it is, Matara lies in a tangle of canvas and ruptured oranges and her own blood, motionless.
23:25 [Kalan] Kalan kneels down and touches her hair, sticky and matted with pulp. It was unbelieveable. Perhaps the Cynis' luck had finally changed. "You're alive," he says, and laughs quietly. He kisses her, because she's too injured to stop him and he can. He pulls her over his shoulder, and breathing in her smell of blood and oranges..
23:25 [Kalan] "You too will need to put up with me a while longer," he tells her, amused.
23:25 [Kalan] She could share a room with Mara.
23:26 [ST] "Mph."
23:31 [Talek] Talek wanders in, looking dazed.
23:32 [ST] Fresh from his meeting with the bizarre Shi-Ma, Talek doesn't notice that the walls don't have any guards... but it's hard to miss the scene of chaos he walks into.
23:32 [ST] The lean-to that previously sheltered the Ghanites has been shattered as if by a massive impact
23:32 [Talek] "I leave you people alone for one second...."
23:33 [ST] A few dozen smoking corpses rest in the center of the courtyard, their armor fused to their bodies like ghoulish works of art...
23:33 [ST] And a series of ladders are arranged around the warstrider at the far end of the court
23:33 [ST] Men atop them are trying to dislodge something up there... a body?
23:33 [ST] It's only as they lever it off and let it flop over that Talek recognizes Jorj's face
23:34 [Talek] "NOOOOOOOOOO"
23:34 [Talek] Talek runs over "Dammit, out of the way"
23:34 [Talek] "Out of the way! I'll kill you all, get out of the way!"
23:35 [Kalan] "He threw Matara off the Shatterspear," Kalan says behind him, very coldly. Two soldiers are preparing a makeshift stretcher for her from canvas.
23:38 [Talek] Talek stares,shocked, at the dead essence. "How did he die?"
23:39 [Kalan] Kalan smiles. It's ugly. "Keshin cut him in half. Then he....fell." Less from pity than a sense of propriety, he adds, "The wound in his hand drove him mad- like those in Ghan."
23:40 [Talek] "And you, oh warrior prince of the earth, you couldn't have restrained him and called me to cure it?"
23:41 [Talek] "He was a sorceror, not a warrior. He would have been easy to subdue."
23:41 [Talek] "Instead you murdered my friend and left the sorcerous defenses of the city entirely in my hands."
23:42 [Kalan] "Murder? You did not see him, laughing. A flaming sword parried all our attacks, he summoned oceans to sweep us from the tower, and his essence seemed bottomless."
23:43 [Kalan] He smiles humorlessly. "Of course, had you been here, some things might have been different."
23:45 [Talek] "You handled Avaku easily enough." Talek says coldly
23:46 [Talek] "I suppose you managed to get Matara killed in all this too?"
23:47 [Kalan] "Not after handling a demon and then Peleps Deled's hungry ghost, I didn't." His eyes glint, narrowing. "Heal her. You can ask her yourself, after."
23:49 [Talek] "Oh, so you managed to save your little toy I see."
23:49 [Talek] "Very well. where is she?"
23:50 [Kalan] He gestures.
23:51 [Talek] "Come. We have much to discuss."
23:53 [Kalan] Kalan raises his brows in brief, austere, and utterly hypocrtitical surprise. "I didn't realize the whores in Freetown were worth discussion," he says, gesturing to the soldiers with Matara's stretcher to follow.
23:59 [Talek] "I know little about whores," Talek says, with the accent on the I
23:59 [Talek] He leans over Matara, and starts idly plucking herbs and flowers out of the ground, weaving them through her like a child making a potholder
23:59 [Talek] "I was visiting the Goddess of the city."
23:59 [Talek] "She is quite mad"
00:00 [Kalan] "Then doubtless you were overcharged," Kalan says coldly, watching.. "What goddess? Why have we heard nothing of her?"
00:02 [Talek] "She was plotting to destroy herself, and the city." he says, plunging a dangelion through Matara's intestines
00:02 [Talek] "The Mask of Winters had promised to throw her into the void, in exchange for allowing his forces into the city."
00:03 [Talek] "I convinced her that the Mask would not fulfill his part of the bargain. If you meet her, I would try to reinforce that notion."
00:03 [Kalan] "She told you this? Openly?"
00:03 [Talek] "She is quite mad."
00:04 [Talek] "Apparently, I am the first visitor she has had in many years who could penetrate her sanctum."
00:04 [Talek] "It is of First Age construction, you see, and warded"
00:06 [Talek] "I convinced her to help us defend the city, and promised to help her find an Anathema who could slay her. they have the blasphemous power to kill Gods."
00:08 [Kalan] "An Immaculate would be easier." Kalan's lips twitch. "They have a...righteous power to kill Gods." His cold eyes bore into the back of Talek's head. "How did you find her?"
00:09 [Talek] "Have you ever looked for her?" Talek counters
00:10 [Talek] "Although hidden to the uniniated, her sanctum is a locus of essence flow"
00:10 [Talek] "I followed the dragon lines using my goggles."
00:10 [Kalan] "No," Kalan admits. "I had no idea she even existed." He looks down at Matara. "I would have assumed the god of Kushan would be some obese fellow, an admirer of whips and chains."
00:11 [Talek] "Ah, you see, she dates to the First Age. Some mad Solar built this place as a city of orphans. Laudable, eh, but a city of children is not very practical."
00:12 [Talek] "And so she is a mother goddess."
00:12 [Talek] "She is built to take care of people. She has been crying, I think, since the Usurpation."
00:13 [Kalan] "I congratulate you on your bravery in going alone," Kalan says cuttingly, having little interest in the tragedies of gods. "Notify m- notify Keshin before you disappear. This is not the first time your departion was...untimely."
00:13 [Talek] "Quite mad."
00:13 [Talek] "You could have whispered to me. I was within range."
00:14 [Talek] Talek stands up from Matara, who has vines and flowers sticking out of her. "There. That should dissolve within an hour. She will be in some pain until then, I fear, but I can not make it go faster. Her body is becoming resistant to my methods."
00:15 [Talek] He scowls. "She has had too many injuries"
00:15 [Kalan] That was true. Kalan looks away, stroking Matara's hair. "No time. No essence."
00:17 [Kalan] He shrugs. "She is too much a fool. Walking across a bridge of air, certain her parents are on the other side..." There's a sneer in his voice, and he pitches it so Matara can hear.
00:17 [Kalan] "To say nothing of the folly of attacking a sorcerer alone."
00:18 [ST] Matara's lips move, but no sound comes forth; she's still unconscious and in a lot of pain.
00:19 [Talek] Talek looks pittingly. "Kalan, there is something else."
00:19 [Talek] "The Goddess told me......Octavian is coming."
00:19 [Talek] "You know who that is, correct?"
00:20 [Kalan] He caresses her cheek, and resolves to save the jibe about her ancestry . There was little point while she slept. "A demon of some note, is it not?"
00:21 [Talek] He nods.
00:21 [Talek] "One of the Lieutants of hell. Anathema war sorcerors are fond of him."
00:23 [Kalan] "Our demon sorcerer is more powerful than we realized."
00:25 [Kalan] Kalan stands. "The goddess is an oracle?" Such a deity might know many things. The plan of attack- vulnerabilies-
00:26 [Talek] "No. She has recieved - you may find this difficult to believe - memorandums."
00:26 [Talek] "When a Demon of such strength enters, it disturbs the natural order of things, and the God's take note."
00:27 [Talek] "Powerful demons are legally obligated to notify the Gods of their purpose, by pacts sealed when Exalted fought againist Yozis."
00:27 [Talek] "Someone in Heaven passed on the message."
00:28 [Kalan] Kalan frowns. "Very well. Just what can she do for us, then?" It was something that she wouldn't aid their enemies; but one was rarely grateful for relief from a threat one hadn't know about anyways.
00:29 [Talek] "Very little."
00:30 [Talek] "I have asked her to emerge and give comfort to the people."
00:30 [Talek] "Perhaps she can conjure food, at least for the children."
00:31 [Talek] "I did get oen useful piece of information from her...."
00:31 [Talek] "The names of the Solar who built this city, and his Lunar spouse."
00:32 [Kalan] "Useful?" Kalan says skeptically.
00:32 [Talek] "We could call them here to defend their ancient work. Perhaps our enemies can fight each other?"
00:35 [Kalan] "They're �dead. If they aren't, they would slay us in an intant. No," he says, shaking his head. "We'll fight alone."
00:36 [Kalan] His lips curl. "I suppose I should expect suggestions to traffic with Anathema from a sorcerer," he adds. The previous hour had done little to endear the breed to him.
00:38 [Talek] "You may have noticed that we are fairly doomed."
00:39 [Talek] "A few extra monsters won't hurt. Even Octavian is more likely to slay our enemies, if only because there are so many more of them. The law of large numbers and all that."
00:42 [Kalan] Kalan shakes his head irritably. "With careful planning, this is prefectly surviable." He frowns at the sorcerer as if it were all his fault- which of course, it was. "Armies, even dead armies, can be beaten with strong fortifications and clever use of quagmires."
00:44 [Talek] "Do we actually have an army?"
00:44 [Kalan] "Octavian is coming to kill us personally. Depleting our strength for battles against the Anathema. We have ten thousand armed slaves, a thousand or so mercenaries, five hundred well-trained former slaves, and over a thousand Defenders."
00:47 [Talek] "Now that you cleared the docks, legions will be forthcoming?"
00:49 [Kalan] He sighs. "They are already within the city, Talek. Try to pay a �little� attention in meetings."
00:50 [Talek] "Ah, pardon me. I....must have dozed off."
00:55 [Kalan] In the distance, a fire lights, and grey smoke billowing against the sky. "Look-" Kalan says, pointing. "They're burning your friend."
00:56 [Talek] "What?"
00:56 [Talek] "I have friends?"
00:56 [Kalan] Charred bodies are packed like cordwood on the pile, and tumbled like trash atop the pile are the pieces of Jorj.
00:58 [Kalan] Little respect for a Dragonblooded, but the soldiers remembered the searing bolt of fire that had killed their friends. "I ordered it," Kalan says, not unkindly. "We want no more ghosts."
00:59 [Talek] "Thanks for pointing out that grisly little scene."
01:01 [Kalan] "He was your classmate. It is a custom to attend," he shrugs. "Do as you like." He bends down to pick Matara up carefully, cradling her close with a tenderness he never would have shown her when awake.
01:01 [Talek] "If Matara manages to die in this battle, I'll mail you a piece of her. Which piece would you like? I know you have no use for her brain."
01:02 [Talek] Talek strides to the "funeral."
01:02 [Kalan] Kalan glares after him, fire in his eyes.
01:03 [Kalan] The sorcerer wanted killing. Perhaps there would be a chance, when all the battles were concluded.
01:07 [Talek] Talek stares at the fire, scared. He had counted on Jorj to help him. The city was doomed. He had endangered himself for nothing. His damn pride, he couldn't just hold his nose and open the damn door
01:07 [Talek] He cries. For Jorj, and for himself.
