DKDragons/SessionSeventeen
17:45 [ST] Night lies upon the city of Kushan, and all seems, for the moment, still.
17:47 [ST] Fears of food riots have been alleviated by the surge of fish caught in the now-cleared harbor. Faithfully, the trawlers still remaining go out each day, and their catch, though diminished, is enough to help feed the city's inhabitants, especially considering so many have fled.
17:48 [ST] The Citizens that remain have grown quiet if sullen. Credit to the hard-headed, long-haired, and hawk-faced Ravos Celice. Her reputation for frigid truthfulness, and the corraboration of the others she has brought with her, has convinced those Citizens that remain. If still unwilling to labor happily alongside former slaves, most now see the necessity.
17:49 [ST] Hordes of urchins, pickpockets, and looters comb through the shattered ruins of Silk Row, so recently destroyed by Kalan and Deled, looking for still intact bottles of perfume or swatches of fabric.
17:50 [ST] And in the Orphan's Way, deep below the city streets, Iron Spider slams his fist in frustration against a door that remains, for the moment, completely locked.
17:50 [ST] "It's all right," he whispers. The Vermin huddle behind him in the dark passages. He says it as if to reassure himself. "It's all right. We still have the Pyreflame."
17:51 [ST] Leagues away on the Kushan plains, the army that means to be the city's ruin staggers onward.
17:51 [ST] And in the Shatterspear...
18:01 [Kalan] Kalan waits impatiently for the others to arrive, exchanging the occasional sneer with Striking Sparks. His face is red and flushed- not unusual in a Fire Aspect- and there is a half-full glass already in his hand. He salutes Clever Tansy with it as she walks into the room.
18:03 [Kalan] "Where are they, damn it all? Don't tell me Keshin is helping build the wall with his own two hands." The disgust is evident in Kalan's voice, and he takes a swig of wine inelegantly. This business of being first to a meeting was an unwelcome surprise to him.
18:03 [Keshin] Keshin walks in not long after the time the meeting had been called for, then scowls seeing he wasn't the last in. "You'll sober up for the fight" he mutters to Kalan as he passes by, moving to stand by his place at the head of the table in the room.
18:04 [Kalan] Kalan smiles at him, eyes glittering. "Will I?"
18:05 [ST] Tansy shakes her head foggily. She's a bit skittish after being dragged and dropped by Kalan earlier. Silken Whisper follows a moment later, taking a seat near her, and then Vash. Behind him come the representatives for the citizens, General Grandidi and Ravos Celice.
18:07 [ST] Finally, a young boy of about sixteen, his thin frame revealing him as a slave, his eyes behind rare and expensive spectacles, comes in. He must be a skilled scribe indeed to warrant the expense.
18:07 [ST] "Quiet Sapphire's one big oozing burn from elbows to asshole," Striking Sparks begins unceremoniously. "Her troops have asked me to command for the moment."
18:07 [Talek] Talek wanders in, with bags under his eyes
18:09 [Keshin] "I will approve that appointment."
18:09 [Kalan] "We need to go over plans for the defense- that is, if you are all quite rested," Kalan says scathingly.
18:10 [ST] She gives a brief, casual salute. The wink is not included in the regulations.
18:11 [Kalan] Kalan narrows his eyes at her.
18:12 [Keshin] Keshin smiles tightly. "Most of them can stand straight, which is good enough. I've checked over the wall, it should hold. Talek, how much progress have you made with the Terrawurm?"
18:19 [Keshin] "How are the food supplies? We should be buying some of the fish coming in and drying it, to supplement the armies rations. We have to be able to feed our army even if the fish supply is cut off."
18:21 [ST] Surprisingly, it's the boy who answers.
18:21 [ST] "Th-the food supply is.. secure enough, sir. They're putting down the excess fish in salt as they collect them, and there are fewer mouths. With the food already stored, we should be good for nearly a month. And long before that's up, the enemy will..." He swallows.
18:21 [ST] "The enemy will be at our gates."
18:25 [Kalan] "Iron Spider doesn't strike me as having the patience for a siege," Kalan says, swirling his wine. "Especially not one long enough even the Realm might bestir itself to send reinforcements."
18:26 [Kalan] He gulps the sour red. "He'll try for overwhelming force or trickery; either way he wants it done fast."
18:27 [ST] "He's not gonna have trouble with the overwhelming force part," Sparks says. Tansy blinks slowly.
18:29 [Keshin] "I think you are right, still it is worth planning for a siege if it costs us nothing. Talek, how much progress has your Terrawurm made?"
18:31 [Talek] "The Terrawurm is working steadily. It hasn't told me how much progress its made. The Terrawurm is a notoriously incommunicative beast." Talek coughs loudly
18:33 [Talek] "But I believe it is done."
18:33 [Kalan] "With any luck, the sinkholes it built under the army will deny Spider some of his forces," Kalan shrugs. "I made a deal with the Kri." He struggled for a moment to recall its name; it had made such a fuss earlier. He abandons the effort.
18:36 [ST] The scribe speaks up again. "The cliff walls will protect us from attacks on the flank, and it's unlikely he'll go overland. The forces will most likely come straight at the walls. But..."
18:36 [ST] He shrugs sheepishly. "They're not strong. They're replacements for First Age construction. They'll hold out most normal armies, but..."
18:38 [ST] "I recommend we station the Defenders there in force," Celice adds. She is the one who commands them now. "Or immediately behind, along the secondary wall. They won't do much good scattered through the city."
18:39 [Kalan] Kalan glances at Keshin. "Have you ordered the evacuation of civilians from the district nearest the outer walls?"
18:43 [Keshin] He grunts. "Not yet. I assumed they would be smart enough to do it themselves. Someone see to that."
18:43 [Kalan] "There's a 'Someone' sitting at this table?" Kalan asks silkily.
18:45 [ST] "Maybe you should've suggested 'Jackass,'" Sparks tells Keshin with a grin.
18:46 [Keshin] He glares. "You can deal with it then."
18:49 [Keshin] Keshin lays out a small copy of the city map spread across the table, pointing at the extra lines and notations. "I've noted down some retreat routes for falling back from the outer walls. Comments?" Grimacing, he passes the parchment to Kalan directly, as his was obviously the most valuable opinion there.
18:51 [Kalan] "Very well." In the proudest tradition of the Legions, he hands off the task mmediately. "Silken Whisper, evacuate the civilians not participating in defense or construction to the Prince's Quarter, starting with those in the Warrior's Quarter and working your way to the docks. You can take Dawn Star's regiment of soldiers. Move our food surplus there as well."
18:51 [ST] Silken Whisper nods, but something strange clouds his expression as he rises.
18:53 [ST] "I fear... accomodations will be... snug." He says.
18:53 [Kalan] He glances at the plan. "It's solid. I think we should consider making plans to....." he raises his head at Whisper's movement, and frowns.
18:54 [Kalan] "How snug?"
18:55 [ST] "We've lost some, due to flight and... attrition, but... to fit the entire city's population into one district... they could perhaps survive it for a night, two... but they cannot live in such a state, not for long."
18:56 [ST] "Some may not fit."
18:57 [Keshin] "Just get them away from the walls at the main axis off attack. The districts of Labor, Arts and Sighs should be enough, yes?"
18:58 [ST] "I will do what I can... and try to prioritize the Prince's Quarter if possible..." He still looks troubled.
18:59 [Kalan] "Then move the disabled, young, and infirm there; the rest towards the docks. If the worst happens, they may escape on boats or along the beach."
18:59 [Kalan] "What ails you?" Kalan asks bluntly.
19:00 [ST] "He doesn't want to choose who goes," Tansy says quietly. And remarkably clearly. "It could make a big difference who lives and who dies."
19:04 [Kalan] Kalan nods shortly. "If you wish, I can assign Vash to the task," he says quietly. Such things would little trouble a veteran soldier. "But I can think of no one better for the task than you, to choose kindly but clearly." The monk had always been more compassionate than was good for him; more compassionate, certainly, than the Immaculate Order approved.
19:04 [Keshin] "Draw lots if you can think of no better method. But first we should prioritize the family of those in our army. We need as many as possible to join us on the walls."
19:06 [ST] "Very... well," he nods shortly. "Service to the Dragons must be rewarded." He leaves without further comment. Tansy stares after him for a moment before shooting a look at Kalan.
19:06 [ST] "You know that's not fair." She says, falling silent again.
19:08 [Kalan] "He will do his duty, and do it well, however it troubles him," Kalan retorts, ruffled by her minor rebellion.
19:09 [Kalan] He turns to Keshin. "We should consider burning the outer districts as they fall. The inner walls will act as firebreaks."
19:11 [Keshin] "The more men fighting for us the more we should be able to save. If he can't think to make the necessary decisions, then I will need someone else to do his work." He nods at Kalan's suggestion. "That is sensible, although we will need to time it properly. I don't want to burn our rearguard."
19:20 [Kalan] Kalan cracks a cold smile. "Perhaps our favorite pyromaniac and her people will be of use, then." He smiles unpleasantly at her. Zip had returned; perhaps the elemental would be of use as a firestarter. He was bright enough not to burn their own troops; brighter than the Striking Sparks, certainly.
19:21 [ST] "Burning you need, burning you'll get," Sparks says rakishly. "Too bad most of our dust went up with the harbor. Not to be helped, I guess."
19:25 [Keshin] He nods to her, confirming her assignment to that post. "Right. Does anyone else have suggestions or complaints?"
19:29 [Kalan] "I made a deal with the Kri," Kalan interjects again. "He's built a tunnel through the cliffs, sealed at the end."
19:30 [Keshin] "From where, and why?"
19:30 [Kalan] He grits his teeth. "With your - �permission� - I'll to take a force out behind enemy lines and hit them from the rear. A mixed group of former slaves and Defenders."
19:32 [Kalan] "At the very least, they should do some damage before retreating; with any luck, we'll drive some of them into the trenches Talek's serpent has made."
19:36 [Keshin] He stares at him coldly. He should have asked first. "I'm not letting you lead troops out drunk. Sober up before they arrive, and then lead your attack."
19:39 [Kalan] "Oh, I'm not really drunk," Kalan assures him, smiling. "Merely....pleasantly warm. You should try it." He lifts his glass in a toast.
19:41 [Keshin] "You are too fond of warmth."
19:44 [ST] "It might work," Sparks allows for the plan. "If you don't mess it up."
19:45 [ST] "He won't," Vash replies tightly.
19:49 [Kalan] Kalan lifts an eyebrow. More to nettle her than anything else, he adds, "I want ten of your mercenaries too. Firewalls will come in handy should we face the undead and not the living in the reguard."
19:50 [ST] "I don't have that many to spare. If you want us to set the fires in the city, you can't keep taking my men." She gives him a steely glare. "If Keshin says its necessary, I'll allow it."
19:51 [Kalan] "It's neccessary," Kalan says bluntly, not turning his eyes from her face.
19:53 [Keshin] "How many men do you have left? And hopw many do you think you will need to fire the city?"
19:55 [ST] "Fifty-four left. As for how many I'd need to reliably fire the city? A hundred." She shrugs. "But I could make do with less, if you believe it's worth the cost. I don't trust him."
19:55 [ST] "My men don't either."
19:59 [Keshin] "If you have anything specific and further to tell me about his trustworthiness, out with it. Otherwise, he is to be accorded the necessary respect. Send five men with him, that should not affect your operations too much here. You can use the slaves to carry supplies and do simple tasks, that should help you set the fires."
20:01 [ST] "Fine," she says, obviously stung by the rebuke. "He'll get his five."
20:01 [Kalan] Kalan curls his lip at her. "Is there anything else?" he asks Keshin.
20:03 [Keshin] "No, go, deal with your assignments everyone." He can feel the essence he had pumped through his body fading away, leaving a more natural weariness in its wake.
20:04 [ST] "Wait," Tansy says for a moment. "The warstrider... I mean... Peleps Deled did hurt me for fixing it... and I did go to all the trouble... surely..."
20:04 [ST] She trails off into a mumble.
20:06 [Kalan] He had almost forgotten the warstrider. He stiffens, looking at Keshin. "I could use it," he offers immediately. He had checked the tunnel; it would be a tight fit, but manageable.
20:08 [Kalan] "And a lightning box," he adds thoughtfully. Surely he could kill a few war machines between the two. "The other should go to Talek." Little as he liked the man, sorcerers went thorugh essence like Cynis through bedslaves.
20:09 [Keshin] He hesitates. I should have remembered it. "Yes. I have no experience with such things, so you are the natural choice." Was Sparks right? I may be trusting him too much.
20:10 [Kalan] "Remember what I have to gain," Kalan says softly, guessing the trend of his thoughts.
20:13 [Keshin] He locks eyes with the man and nods. "Go, get to your tasks." It should be about more than his own gain, but he is the tool I have.
20:14 [ST] "Let me know if you need anything," Sparks tosses rather too casually over her shoulder. It seems almost as much designed to annoy Kalan as to flatter Keshin. Vash shoots her an ugly look as he follows in her wake. The rest of the commanders begin to file out after her.
20:14 [Kalan] Kalan stands, gesturing to Tansy to follow him.
20:15 [ST] Tansy does so, looking more and more alert by the moment, an unusal mood for her.
20:16 [Kalan] "The warstrider is working?"
20:18 [ST] "Yeah, you were here when I ran the tests myself," she says, fingers flexing at her sides. "I told you the armor plate had to go, and the strength would be diminished, but that it should work."
20:18 [ST] "At least for as long as you're going to need it."
20:18 [Keshin] Keshin sits down finally, at the chair that was his for the meeting. He was tired. He would look over the deployment plans again, and then head for his bed.
20:18 [Kalan] He nods. "Then catch up with Silken Whisper. Tell him....tell him he knows what is right."
20:20 [Kalan] It was a petty sort of powerplay; but then, Kalan reflected, he supposed he was a petty sort of man.
20:21 [ST] "Why don't you leave him alone?" She snaps suddenly, whirling to shout at him. "You're always such a son of a bitch! He didn't do anything to you!"
20:21 [ST] "Why him, of all people?"
20:24 [Kalan] "Why not? It's a task that needs doing; it's a task I trust him to accomplish. If he has to make hard decisions, that's not different than the rest of us." He smiles at her. "I know you have a kindness for him since he tried to stop Deled. Do you mean to coddle him like an infant?"
20:27 [ST] "You could have sent anyone," she says sharply. Her clenched fists tremble. Her entire body seems to tremble now, Kalan notices, and her eyes are sunken and hollow. "You could have picked one of your soldiers, you knew it would be worse for him. You KNEW it. You're just as bad as my master always told me the Dragonbloods were. You-"
20:27 [ST] She seems to be working herself into an ever more violent tirade.
20:29 [Kalan] "I did," Kalan says sharply, cutting her off, "because he will at least �think� about what he'd doing. My soldiers are brave and loyal, but they'd be likely to cause a riot if they tried herding people."
20:30 [Kalan] He was privately rather impressed. He hadn't realized Tansy buried this much rage beneath the opium.
20:31 [ST] She sighs heavily, slumping against the wall, and something seems to go out of her. "Fine," she says, sounding suddenly exhausted. "Whatever. Have it your way. Is that all? I need to... glyphs. I need to write some protection glyphs for the walls."
20:33 [Kalan] "Go ahead," he says, watching her leave.
20:33 [Kalan] He missed Beauty.
19:06 [Kalan] In a fit of adventure, Kalan goes to inspect the walls for himself. He left his bottle in the conference room; it had served its purpose largely already in annoying Keshin, and soldier's morale could ill afford a hit at this point. He salutes Bakal of Gem, and climbs the wall. The wind whistles sharply along it ruffling his hair.
19:07 [ST] The plains stretch empty and peaceful north of the city, seemingly untroubled. Somewhere out there, the army meant to smash Kushan asunder advances.
19:08 [ST] There's a burst of brimstone, a flicker of light, and a flame the size of Kalan's palm appears behind him.
19:08 [ST] It tremors in place for a moment before shifting form, expanding and reshaping itself. It becomes a humanoid figure, smooth, featureless, and apparently sexless.
19:09 [ST] The closest Defender turns wordlessly to examine it through the slit of his massive helm.
19:10 [Kalan] Kalan starts, jerking back in spite of himself. "....Zip...?" he asks, working hard to keep his voice steady.
19:10 [ST] �Yes. It is me. I have changed.
19:12 [Kalan] "You have." Kalan's face hardens. "You left. Now you have come back. Why?"
19:13 [Kalan] He was damned if he would show the elemental his hurt. It had been little more than a pet, a nuisance and a spy, and now-
19:14 [ST] �I was frightened.� Zip touches his chin, tilting his head in an oddly human gesture. �As much by what was happening to me as what happened to Beauty. I'd never understood that before... not death. I never thought anything I liked could die, really. It all seemed like a game. I was barely aware of what I was, and what you were. I saw, then.
19:18 [Kalan] "What are you, then?" asks Kalan. All the times he had coddled and goaded the fire elemental through the fear, all the times he sent it into danger again and again... a game?
19:20 [ST] Zip takes a moment, silently regarding Kalan. The Defender at last turns away again, satisfied the creature is no threat. Zip actually speaks this time, the voice sounding strange, fresh. New.
19:21 [ST] "Did you never ask yourself where I came from? Why I followed you? Did you think the service of an elemental was something to be won lightly, when Exalted sorcerors do favors to placate our kind?"
19:24 [Kalan] "No," Kalan admits. He had only been deeply, shamefully grateful. Zip had come to him after Thorns; after Mara had turned to ice all at once as he told her his dirty little secret. "I never wondered." To the extent he considered it all, it seemed some merciful providence of Heishesh.
19:25 [ST] "You are my father," the creature shakes his head. "Surely you haven't forgotten the flame butterfly...?"
19:25 [Kalan] He tilts his chin up, unconsciously arrogant in readiness for the blow he was certain was to follow. "Were you some spy Cainan sent-" he breaks off all at once.
19:26 [Kalan] �"�What�?�" he thunders. He gropes for the wall. "That---that isn't possible--"
19:28 [Kalan] He remembered the butterfly. She had tasted like smoke and honey on his lips; they had spent a pleasant fortnight in dalliance, before her erratic interest had turned to poems and stars and his a fresh young clerk in his battilion.
19:28 [Kalan] "How?" he asks weakly.
19:31 [ST] There is something almost like wry humor in his voice when he shrugs. "She had heard an ode a few weeks before, about the auspicious birth of Daan'd. She wanted to have a child, and you were the one she chose. I suppose she did not tell you."
19:32 [ST] "She doted on me for some weeks, then grew tired of me and left me smoldering in a cave. I tried to follow her, but the trail ended in coldness and death at the edge of the Walker's Realm. I could sense you, distantly. I came to you without even knowing how I did so, and there I stayed. Until now."
19:37 [Kalan] A son. Zip was his �son. He had a child, besides Aran. A fire elemental. A swirl of emotions wash through him. He almost smiles. He lifts his head at Zip's final words. "Until now?" he says bleakly.
19:38 [Kalan] No doubt Zip felt much as Aran did now that he had left infancy. It was almost...amusing.
19:38 [ST] "Father, I have returned to tell you... I have gone to see the local spirit court. It is in disarray, broken... they have fled before the army that comes toward you. You cannot face this. If you remain here, you will die."
19:40 [Kalan] Kalan narrows his eyes. "Have you taken lessons in war while you were away? It is not hopeless. We have many soldiers- stout walls-"
19:41 [ST] "The dark one they call the Abyssal comes with them, Father... and behind her, a horror vast beyond imagining. They would tell me no more. Despite what you may think," His outline wavers. "Despite what you may think, I do not loathe you. You are a difficult man, and harsh, but you cared for me in your way. I speak now out of concern for you. Give this city up. Flee now, while you can."
19:47 [Kalan] "I ran from Thorns." Two years before the invasion, but he must have known it was coming. That was what Cathak Cainan had said. Pride, as much as anything, makes him lift his head and glare at his son. "I will not run again." He laughs, a strange, strangled bark. "And what would my life be worth if I did? No, I will stay here; and fight; and perhaps the damned Ledaal will not die and I can box him up and gift him to your sister."
19:48 [ST] "My sister... would she know me?" Zip wonders. "You are all that remains, otherwise. This is why I do not want you to perish."
19:53 [Kalan] Almost, Kalan reaches out to grip his shoulder. He sympathized; he did not want to perish either. But he is too much a Cathak for that, and the Cathak raised their children without tenderness. Neither does he rebuke him for cowardice, as his own mother might have. His voice is harsh. "You know my direlance , the Tongue of Flame."
19:54 [ST] "Yes." Flames flicker and dance across the smooth expanse of Zip's face.
19:58 [Kalan] "If I ....when I have perished, take it from my corpse and bring it to your sister. She will know what it means." He hesitates, struggling to say the needed thing. "She is...generous. Introduce yourself. She always wanted a sibling." When she was six years old, she had begged him, weeping, for a friend to play with. He had ordered her beaten for that. A Cathak did not demean herself with such displays.
19:58 [Kalan] "And I will know you are both taken care of when I am gone."
19:59 [ST] Zip stands for a moment, then nods, a gesture that looks very bizarre. "Very well, father," he says, winking out.
20:41 [ST] The next two days pass much as the others. There are preparations to be made, populations to move, weapons to sharpen.
20:42 [ST] The city is a bustle of determined activity. Under Talek's direction, the Terrawurm and the Kri tunnel and dig beneath the earth of the plains, carving hundreds of pit traps. Sharpened, scuplted rock become the stakes in the bottom. The massive trench that rings the city grows larger and deeper.
20:43 [ST] Zip is nowhere to be seen. Perhaps he has fled forever.
20:44 [ST] Both Mara and Matara are out of bed, though not completely healed - Matara's left arm is bound tightly to her body, and Mara walks with a noticable limp.
20:45 [ST] Silken Whisper looks more pale and troubled each day as he finishes relocating the civilians, and Tansy's ugly withdrawal makes her seem to suffer nearly as much. They remain together much of the time. There are rumors of broken vows, but what's the difference, now?
20:46 [ST] More and more slave soldiers volunteer, hearing the rumor about protection for their families. The ranks swell, but with untested troops.
20:47 [ST] Striking Sparks propositions Keshin. Salted fish are laid down. Tansy's glyphs scribed on the walls. Beneath the city, Iron Spider finishes work on the Pyreflame bomb. The days of pitch darkness have begun to unhinge all of the Vermin.
20:48 [ST] And then, at noon, Talek's Agata returns to warn him of the approach of the massive army. It will be there by nightfall. The rumor spreads its wings and races through the city on the wind of ten thousand whispers. Shutters are locked. Prayer candles are lit. Incense burns in the streets, soldiers bid farewell to loved ones and take up arms, and Defenders stand in silent rows, seeming to comprehend none of it.
20:49 [ST] Nightfall comes early, in the form of a massive, disc-shaped cloud that completely blots out the sky, covering the city and the plains outside from one end to the other. Flashes of green lightning shoot through it - it is evil, something decidedly not of Creation.
20:50 [ST] In the flickering green witch-light of the Underworld lightning, the horde becomes visible - first, the three towering corpse frames, and behind them rank after rank of strange, exotic war machines, the Craven's creations.
20:52 [Kalan] Under the green flickering light of the unnatural night, Kalan suddenly pauses in the stream of orders he is giving. "Urchin," he says quietly, and the creature looks up at him inquiringly, grateful for the momentary rest. "They are closing the gates to the Prince's Quarter in an hour. You may go there, if you wish, and take safety within the walls. You have served me well."
20:53 [ST] The creature regards him strangely for a moment. "'m a girl, you know," it says at last.
20:55 [Kalan] "What?"
20:56 [Kalan] He looks the creature up and down. Dirty as it was- strange, he thought he ordered Vash to clean it-her. "Why?" he asks, nonplussed.
20:56 [ST] "...safer to pretend to be a boy," the creature (she?) says. "Guess you're alright, though."
20:59 [Kalan] "Oh," he says, still staring at it-her. It was stupid, he told himself, to be warmed by the lukewarm approval of a ragged piece of street trash, whatever its gender. He doesn't ruffle her head; he imagined a swarm of vermin arising. Still, he smiles at her. "I'm leading an attack. There is shelter available for you."
21:00 [ST] "I'll go. Save some food for me later!" the disheveled child races off at top speed, bounding down the stairs and across the courtyard, where every Ghanite that is neither child nor elder stands, girding themselves for war.
21:02 [ST] The sky growls ominously, and a few troops look up in alarm.
21:03 [ST] For the moment, the massive army seems to have halted before the trench. From this distance, a horde of milling figures can be seen racing about the ankles of the great machines.
21:04 [ST] There's a high-pitched whine, and the cannon on the Shatterspear fires a blast of white, radiant energy... that fizzles and comes apart before it crosses the trench. Tansy, jumping the gun again.
21:06 [Kalan] "Order the men into ranks!" Kalan yells at Vash, and begins to strap on the warstrider.
21:07 [Keshin] Keshin pushes his way through the ranks of soldiers waiting behind the wall, then climbs to its top. There was nothing more for him to do, but wait for the attack to begin. They were as ready as he could make them.
21:08 [ST] "Lorimar! Hutch! Chan! Assemble your teams!" Vash snaps. "Now, now, now!" Soldiers dart to and fro below.
21:10 [ST] Thunder growls again, and the first drops of rain begin to fall with loud plops. One lands on the back of Talek's hand, one on Keshin's upturned face. The rain, even for this time of year, feels unusually warm - sticky...
21:10 [ST] A moment later, as more begins to fall, it becomes clear that it is not rain at all, but blood.
21:10 [ST] And then it begins to crash down with monsoon force strength, drenching everyone and everything, and soldiers everywhere begin to retch loudly.
21:11 [Keshin] "Talek!" He roars. "Get up here - can you do something about this?"
21:11 [Kalan] "Maintain ranks!" Kalan bellows from his position perched atop the warstrider, as a row of slave soldiers wavers.
21:12 [Talek] Talek sniffs it. "No."
21:13 [Talek] Talek stares at it through the goggles. "Its.its....."
21:13 [Keshin] Keshin curses vehemently, then points to a runner - "You, get all the rain collectors covered. I don't want our water supply contaminated."
21:13 [Talek] "The Mask! He is here! Or his Sorcery is, dragons."
21:13 [Keshin] If it were normal blood he might try collecting it. There were tribes who survived on blood. But they couldn't trust this.
21:14 [ST] Soldiers run stricken this way and that, hastening to obey Keshin's orders. Everyone is streaked with gore now, and it runs in rivulets down the wall, puddling in the low places. The smell is horrendous, a vile slaughterhouse stink. Only the Defenders seem unaffected.
21:24 [ST] As Kalan and his forces depart, the downpour continues. Torch after torch gutters and dies, and darkness begins to descend, somehow deeper than any before. A cold wind howls, and on it can be heard the screams of ghosts and spectres.
21:24 [ST] It as if the Underworld itself has opened to disgorge these hordes.
21:25 [ST] The giant machines across the field begin to move. The first stumps to the massive trench and pitches forward, trying to claw its way across.
21:25 [ST] The motions tear huge pieces from the blood slick earth, and it pitches forward, sliding down into a bloody morass of mud, losing itself in the trench.
21:28 [ST] A ragged cheer rises up from the walls, and then the second machine moves forward, throwing down a rough ramp of crudely hammered iron, spanning the trench. It kneels clumsily to hold the device in place as troops race across. War machines, smaller than the massive corpse frame but still huge, follow after, and soon a force advances towards the city.
21:33 [ST] The commander is no fool, and sends the most expendable troops, the maddened remnants of the countryside and Ghan, charging in first.
21:35 [ST] They run afoul of dozens of pits, smashed lifeless, piled in so deep that they overflow. Larger machines too fall victim to the cunning traps, tumbling into pits end over end.
21:35 [ST] Strange screams issue from the depths. Pyreflame-powered reservoirs crack and explode in violent green jets that make the falling blood sizzle and steam.
21:36 [ST] Even when most ways seem clear, cleverly constructed traps spring up anew, crushing machines and men asunder. The ground itself becomes muddy and vile, and the quagmire mine pulls scores to a soupy demise.
21:36 [ST] All told, the advance across the trapped stretch of earth costs the enemy literally thousands of troops.
21:36 [ST] But the enemy has thousands to spend.
21:37 [ST] A blast from the implosion cannon splatters a giant, spider-like war machine into gore, but another advances, dragging hordes of screaming Ghanites and more composed war-ghosts in a train behind it.
21:38 [ST] The angle is too low for the cannon now, it will reach the wall.
21:40 [ST] When the Walker had sent his Deathknights into the Fire Basin to retreive a lost artifact, they had come upon a tribe of semi-feral Dragon Kings. Walker had ordered these unique creatures captured, studied, and dissected. The Craven stretched their flayed flesh over a soulsteel framework, making The Creeping Beast, a long patchwork snake, studded with twitching, vestigal limbs.
21:41 [ST] It crawls now to the base of the wall, rearing up effortlessly to slam its blind head into the battlements. And then, as the head unfurls like a vile flower and a horde of screeching, skinless humanoids dart from within, it becomes apparent that no part of the Dragon Kings went to waste.
21:21 [Kalan] Kalan leads his force of soldiers through the rough walls of the tunnel the Kri had built or them. It is barely tall and wide enough to admit the warstrider; the armor scraps against the walls often, and it crouches forward to avoid banging the helmet constantly on the ceiling.
21:22 [Kalan] Behind, a rank of Defenders march stolidly forward. Kalan had borrowed two hundred from the walls to be the core of his force, and the remainder are equal numbers Cathak troops and armed slaves.
21:23 [Kalan] These give each other nervous glances, whisper prayers, and clutch tight to the slick wood of their torches. In the packed corridor, the smell of blood is overpowering.
21:39 [Kalan] Kalan comes to the end of the tunnel; it ends in stone, as promised, and the Kri emerges from the granite around. Its eyes glow lambant green in the flickering torch light. It does not speak, but stone pulls away to reveal a hidden doorway.
21:41 [ST] Beyond, lightning flashes; the ground is sodden with gore.
21:41 [ST] The enemy army is visible, perhaps half a mile away, slowly filing over a metal ramp and into the city.
21:42 [ST] Kalan's journey has taken some time - the enemies have crossed the trap-strewn earth and there are sounds of fighting from atop the wall itself.
21:51 [Kalan] Kalan waits for the wall to close behind his men, and scans the bulk of the army.
21:56 [ST] The machines that clamber over the ramp are mostly siege weapons, covered with weird hooks and assorted apparati to scale walls. Some of them look more baroque than useful, but all are making a clip toward the walls. Two of the corpse frames remain, one anchoring the ramp that the other forces make their way across. A mixed force of Vermin, other mortal troops, and hardened war ghosts shields the arrangement as war ghosts pour over the ramp. Several... things... that look like warstriders made of bone also screen the advance.
22:02 [Kalan] Kalan gives his orders, and the men buzz for a few moments before settling down again. "We're going to attack the ramp," he tells them curtly. We'll need to fight our way through ghosts and men and monsters to reach it. The enemy will be taken unawares; we may be able to push them over the brink; we have more room to manuever than them."
22:03 [Kalan] He takes a breath. "I won't lie to you. This is a dangerous mission. In all likelihood, none of us will survive this assault. But for every machine we keep from crossing that ramp, for every ghost we slay and every vermin we push over the edge, we buy time. Time for the civilians to escape, for reinforcements to arrive, for our brothers fighting on the wall."
22:05 [Kalan] "We are no longer fighting for ourselves. Nor even for the Realm; it is for Creation itself we fight, and everything bright and unspoiled in the world. Hold your loved ones close to your heart, and fight for them!"
22:07 [Kalan] It was, Kalan reflected, awkward giving motivating speeches from a warstrider; but men often resisted being lead to their deaths without them. He pounds his chest in a salute; the soldiers answer it, all save the Defenders.
22:07 [ST] The Defenders seem not to notice, but Vash, at the head of the Cathak troops, nods gravely. The slaves behind him are filled with manic determination.
22:07 [ST] "Let's go, sir," Vash says, blood dripping from his half-shorn head.
22:07 [Kalan] He forms them into a wedge, the inhuman Defenders at its core, and leads them into the midst of the enemy.
22:10 [ST] A spectral blue flare shoots up as a sentry marks the arrival of Kalan's force. Though cumbersome, a sizable part of the enemy force wheels to confront this new threat.
22:11 [ST] A pair of Bonestriders takes the lead, stomping towards Kalan with great, clumsy strides that churn up clods of gore-choked earth. A horde of ghosts and screaming madmen follow after. The approaching army is flanked by a pair of massive war machines that Kalan recognizes - variations on Igrash, the creature from Ghan.
22:13 [Kalan] Kalan roars in answer and then shouts to his men, "Onward! Onward, and through!" The Defenders break into a lope, axes swinging before them as Kalan moves to set himself in the midst of the Bonestriders.
22:16 [Kalan] He wastes little time on preliminaries, charging forward howling. His feet send great sprays of muddy blood behind him, spattering his Defenders. He moves between the bonestriders and braces himself in the mud, levering his arm back to send his direlance whistling towards the great ivory Crane mask of the taller one.
22:20 [ST] The blow smashes directly into the bonestrider's elegantly carved face, splitting it asunder in one violent concussion. Chips of ivory and bone fly as the necromantic war engine staggers backward, clawing at itself. The canopy on the front falls open, revealing a nemissary sliced neatly in two, and then the entire conglomeration tumbles into ruin.
22:22 [Kalan] Kalan turns to face the other one, direlance raised warily.
22:23 [ST] The other bonestrider slips up along Kalan's flank, lashing out with a massive daiklave with a blade as wide as a warhorse at the base of the warstrider's neck. It is almost as if the creature is aiming for a nonexistant jugular.
22:28 [Kalan] Kalan curses as the first falls, and his clever plan is revealed to be instead extremely foolish. As the massive daiklaive begins to shear through the patchy armor of his warstrider, it seems to crumble inward, red jade darkening and turning to smoke, and the blade swings uselessly through a storm of fire.
22:29 [Kalan] The fire flashes away and reforms into jade, and as the bonestrider stumbles from the momentum of its swing, Kalan's direlance slams into its back in karmic rebuke.
22:32 [ST] The tip of the old, but powerful spear creeps between two armor plates, but the nemissary is already moving his weapon forward, controlling it as almost an extension of his own body. No sooner has the direlance pierced him than he tumbles away, coming up with massive weapon leveled.
22:33 [ST] Around the two titans, a horde of war ghosts clashes with the Defenders. The massive war machines amble along the flanks, moving towards Kalan, and more forces begin to orient themselves to block his attack.
23:15 [Kalan] "Forward!" Kalan bellows to the Defenders. He couldn't let them get bogged down in a skirmish; their only hope was punching through. War ghosts shriek and fall back as Striking Spark's mercenaries fire bolts of flame over the Defender's shoulders. Vash's troops protect the flanks, canny and cautious as armed slaves flail around them, falling upon ghosts like shrieking madmen.
23:16 [Kalan] Kalan backs away from the bonestriders, closer to the battling mortals, and suddenly turns, lashing against the crowded reserves racing to meet the Defenders. His direlance sweeps up whole fangs, sending them screaming and shrieking through the air.
23:19 [Kalan] He flings ghosts against the remaining bonestrider and they spatter like particularly squishy pebbles against the smooth surface of the bonestrider. The battle is red, red; the air is thick with it, and so the bonestrider doesn't immediately notice that one of the ghosts flying towards its helmet is not flung, but impaled on a red jade direlance; and the direlance has all the force of the Dragons behind it.
23:21 [ST] The Nemissary in the Bonestrider takes a step back, Daiklave rising perfectly to intercept the blow.
23:22 [ST] --and the effort is useless as the strike shears directly through the blade, shattering it with a crack like lightning. The massive blade pinwheels away through the enemy forces, cutting swathes of troops down. Eternal Embers, the pilot, does not even notice. He has lived long.
23:23 [ST] He walked Creation when the Contagion struck, as his green flesh can attest. He has fought in the army of one ghostly nation or another as a mercenary for hire longer than the Dragonblood attacking him has been alive, and it avails him nothing.
23:25 [ST] Hardened armor shatters like glass before Kalan's strike. The Bonestrider does not fall so much as explode, its fragments falling for a moment around Kalan's warstrider like the gory rain.
23:27 [ST] The two warmachines made in Igrash's image advance over the ragged ground, their massive blunt feet kicking aside parts of their own army as they come. These seem more durable than the other model, plated and banded in soulsteel, wicked, buzzing drills humming at the ends of their arms.
23:29 [ST] One holds back as the nemissary in its flesh recognizes a Dragonblooded opponent. The other bulls forward, attempting to crush the Warstrider in a bear hug. Bones snap like branches beneath its feet as it trods over a carpet of corpses
23:34 [ST] The giant creature hooks one arm underneath each of the Warstrider's arms, levering it brutally upward, pulling itself around and behind it to lock it in a full nelson hold. Servos scream and flesh strains as the two battle against each other for control. The troops below gasp in horror.
23:44 [Kalan] Kalan twists this way and that, jabbing his elbows against the Igrash's sides. Spurs dig into the war machine's flesh components, leaving ugly bloodless rents.
23:46 [ST] There's a horrible sound like a weapon being pulled from a wound, but magnitudes louder. And another, and another. One of the slave-soldiers screams
23:46 [ST] "Gods, it's moving. It's �moving!�"
23:47 [ST] Behind the grappled Kalan, the third corpse frame steps forward with heavy strides towards the army. This one seems different - a little slower, a little scorched, as if it's been damaged before.
23:47 [ST] Vash recognizes it, and that recognition is enough to freeze the veteran in place.
00:00 [Kalan] Kalan struggles with the beast, ignorant of the new threat behind him. He grits his teeth at the clumsiness of the warstrider, and as the Igrash continues to squeeze, Kalan suddenly manages to free his arms and grab it by the head. He pulls, roaring, putting all the warstrider's strength behind it, until the Igrash squawks and hurtles forward. Kalan picks him up, turns twice, and sends him hurtling against his brother.
00:01 [Kalan] The Igrash skips like a stone across the massed combatants, flattening scores of ghosts before toppling into the other Igrash.
00:05 [ST] The massive war machines crash together with a loud shriek, staggering to a stop. The corpse frame staggers on, covering the distance in remarkable order, and slaps clumsily down at Kalan with one massive, shovel-shaped fist.
00:14 [Kalan] A slave shrieks,throwing down his spear in panic and running screaming across the field. He runs desperately from the ghosts, from the terrible raging barghasts that eat flesh and bone with equal abandon. He dashes madly towards the nearest open space, and only too late realizes the reason for this peculiar desertion of landscape when he looks up- and up- to see the looming corpseframe towering above.
00:15 [Kalan] Its fist sweeps down towards the warstrider, and the slave whimpers, snot and blood running down his face. "Master," he whimpers, crouching down, "Master, I'm sorry, I didn't I'll couldn't, I'm so-"
00:16 [Kalan] For a moment, it seems Quiet Rushes prayers are answered- almost the hand swooshes above his head- but Kalan sees him, there is no mercy in his heart. The warstrider flashes in front of him, and he is swatted like exactly like a bug, limbs splayed akimbo.
00:19 [Kalan] The giant hand lifts, shaking the splatted man off in puzzlement and perhaps vague disgust.
00:20 [ST] Warning klaxons begin to blare around Kalan; indicators on the inside of the armor creep suddenly into the red, and movements are more and more difficult. The entire frame seems to be stiffening up.
00:26 [Kalan] There was no more time. Panicked, Kalan glances second corpseframe. In reach, but barely, if he was any judge. The warstrider would collapse, and he would be alone among a thousand enemies.
00:27 [Kalan] He would have to abandon his men.
00:29 [Kalan] The bridge had to fall. He takes a breath. He would survive. He would find a way. As klaxons blare and whistle piercingly in his ear, Kalan crouches down at jumps straight up onto the corpse-frame's shoulder. The warstrider rocks unsteadily, but Kalan can see it all, the whole battlefield.
00:32 [Kalan] Eyes narrowed, he grips the corpseframe to steady himself, ignoring the myriad zombies biting uselessly at the warstrider's feet and fingers. His jump is not reckless, but careful, aimed; it sends him soaring above bonestriders and war machines to tumble to a landing scarcely a few dozen yards from the second corpseframe.
00:35 [ST] Behind Kalan, the Igrash-monsters fall upon his forces. The giant corpse frame stomps, smearing men across the earth in a ragged arc... and the other Corpse Frame looms ahead, holding the metal bridge in place as troops continue to stream across.
00:49 [Kalan] Kalan raises the warstrider direlance for the last time and mourns that he never gave it a name. He lashes out with it to either side in front of him, sending mercenaries to either side flying into the trench. They crunch satisfyingly.
00:50 [Kalan] He kicks an Igrash out of the way and it rolls over the edge, grasping desperately at crumbling earth, and then he is beside the corpseframe.
00:53 [Kalan] The dying warstrider kindles like a flame from with in, the blank dark eyes of its helmet glowing orange. Flames lick out from between the cracking armor plates as incandescent light fills all its darkness.
00:53 [Kalan] Even from the walls they can seem him, a glowing like a torch among monsters and darkness.
00:53 [Kalan] It shakes the direlance, fire dripping onto the bloody earth, and attacks with a roar.
00:54 [Kalan] Five fiery giants smash into the corspe-frames legs, blood rain boiling often them into red mist. Five fiery giants seem to splinter and break apart into pieces, whole pieces of armor disintegrating in the heat. Straps break and buckle as Kalan strikes, until he is alone in the center of an inferno.
00:59 [ST] Kalan's first blow carves a tunnel through meters of twitching flesh directly into the heart of the creature, the sheer momentum actually cracking the Soulsteel spine. The second shatters the spine entirely, and the rest seem to turn to pure fire as they strike the creature's midsection, becoming elemental bursts of energy that travel up and down the interior of the hollow spine before bursting forth from a thousand pinprick holes.
01:00 [ST] Dead flesh boils with a hideous stench as the war machine cooks from the inside out - blackening, flaming zombies twitch wildly, sending the massive device into otherworldly death throes.
01:01 [ST] It flails out once, smashing the metal bridge to splinters, then throws its head back, clawing at the heavens. Jets of flame a hundred yards tall spray from its eye sockets, and then it explodes, becoming a vile inferno. Bits of smoking flesh join the gory downpour, smoldering, falling about the crouching Kalan.
01:02 [ST] As the massive frame crashes down, the troops around the burned device draw back, hesitant even in death, before pressing forward again. Kalan is cut off from his men; he cannot see them - they could be alive or dead.
01:05 [Kalan] Kalan straightens as the last of the burnt zombies that had constituted the monster falls at last into the ground after being flung high into the air. Kalan stands at the edge of the trench, and can feel the ground crumble a little under his feet. He grins raggedly at his enemy, a brave show of confidence, and lifts his hand.
01:05 [ST] The ghost at the head of those who advance looks ancient; he wears shogunate era armor, and his flesh is the green of the Contagion dead. His laugh is bitter.
01:05 [Kalan] From the walls of Kushan, burning like a falling star, comes Tongue of Flame, fire licking the haft. He spins it in his hands.
01:06 [Kalan] "Is there much to amuse you here?" Kalan asks idly.
01:06 [ST] "I thought that Dragons like that no longer lived in this world. But it is over, now. We outnumber you, we will smother you. You know this to be true."
01:07 [ST] "The living pass away, and take new form, and never increase their numbers. The dead accumulate."
01:07 [Kalan] He had considered hiding among the corpse bits, but it had only taken a moments reflection, as corpse-bits rained in gobbets around him, to realize it would be useless, a mere craven display.
01:08 [Kalan] "You do," he acknowledges. "Rather like vermin in the-" he whips his head around, eyes widening. It cannot have been useless-
21:51 [Keshin] Keshin stands at the wall waiting for the machine to arrive. The head crashes down, and Keshin fights against the crowd pushing him back, slashing left and right before stepping slightly to the side to clear himself for an attack on the head itself. His daiklave crashes down, sending a pulse of essence into it, trying to destroy the snout where it crosses onto the wall.
21:59 [ST] Keshin's first blow strikes the head from a skinless, screeching lizard and sends it tumbling over the battlements to the earth below; his second shears another in half and sends it tumbling into the courtyard of the Shatterspear, still screaming and thrashing. The Ghanites fall upon it almost as one, weapons rising and falling, but Keshin is no longer watching as he slams his weapon down into the head of the Beast that Creeps.
22:00 [ST] The stroke splits the stump of the head lengthwise; a gout of dark blood bursts forth, pushing the sides of its shattered head out of the way. A choking roar emerges from it... and something green sparks deep in its guts.
22:01 [ST] The undead dragon kings slip through the sheets of falling gore, trailing it after them in violent roostertails as they attack. One launches itself at Keshin's back, attempting to grapple him, while another comes in low.
22:01 [ST] Behind him, a mass of them descend upon the shouting defenders. Two bunch their legs and spring, hurtling over the front rank towards Talek, their clawed, raw fists clenched.
22:05 [Talek] Talek leaps backwards, landing on a pile of twice killed corpses, zombies baked by a stray bolt of essence
22:05 [ST] Talek evades the attack effortlessly, skipping away from the creatures. One lands a light slash across the back of Keshin's neck, but the other, in positioning itself to attack, staggers directly beneath the flailing leg of the Beast that Creeps and is reduced to pulp.
22:06 [ST] The creatures attack furiously, crashing into the line all atop the blood-slick wall, but the Defenders hold, pushing the enemy back with wordless grunts.
22:06 [Talek] The pile of crispy corpses isn't quite solid, and something crunches under neath his feet as the Prince of t he earth throws out his arms to catch his balance
22:13 [Talek] Talek finds his balance on a particularly sturdy spine and a kneecap.
22:15 [Talek] He sights at the second spider machine, rapidly approaching the walls. He puts an arrow in half of its four ectoplasmic legs, aiming for the eyes of the ghost ghannites. He never liked the masked people
22:21 [ST] Talek's blows hamstring the creature, causing it to collapse on one side, thrashing. A blast from the Implosion Cannon eradicates it in a violent eruption a moment later.
22:36 [Keshin] Keshin sees the Machine that he had just sent from the walls stir below. He keeps his feet planted, whirling his blade around him, keeping his small space of wall clear, the lizards split around him, but his concentration is on that.
22:41 [ST] Two more creatures fly away in broken heaps as Keshin presses the attack. The others give him a wide birth, creeping away to attack softer targets.
22:42 [ST] They fall upon the Defenders, tearing and rending. The force of the rush carries a pair over the top at Talek, hissing through rotting, blood-choked throats.
22:43 [ST] Another few Defenders are pulled down, and a former slave is decapitated with one smooth stroke, but Talek effortlessly avoids the attacks.
22:44 [Talek] Talek is vaguelly offended to be considered a "softer" target
22:45 [Talek] He leaps over their head, bow in hand, laughing at the zombies. He wondered if t hey were more skilled when they were alive
22:57 [Talek] Talek's got another few seconds until the dragonkin attack again. He looks at the monster crawling its way over the wall. Somehow, he senses germs.
22:57 [Talek] He hates bacteria. They are, he thinks, the most boring sort of disease to fight.
22:58 [Talek] He draws back his bow and pops four arrows into the thing's......back, near where the kidneys would be
23:01 [ST] Talek's arrows punch deep into the creature. They don't seem to hit anything vital, but they sever a pair of key sinews binding undead flesh to soulsteel frame. There's a shrieking whine as the thing's soulsteel joints fail and its legs collapse. It tumbles from the wall to impact against the ground with an earth-shaking crash.
23:01 [ST] A moment later, it erupts in a conflagaration of hissing, snapping pyreflame.
23:02 [ST] The advancing forces are checked, forced to go around it, and as the Defenders dispatch the last of the Dragon Kings atop the wall, a ragged cheer rises.
23:03 [ST] There's battling on the far wall, and another rank of war machines is advancing, but for a moment all is quiet along this stretch of the wall.
23:04 [ST] The blood continues to sluice down - in the courtyard below, it is now an inch deep.
23:07 [ST] It seems that rather than being swept down through the gratings, the blood is clotting there and pooling up.
23:08 [ST] Suddenly, from deep within the city there's a violent green explosion, a violent concussion.
23:10 [ST] Pieces of stone rise high in the air, but the location itself is out of the eyesight of those upon the wall. No sooner have the troops turned to look at this threat than a new group of war machines approaches the wall. Long, muscled tentacles lined with bony teeth curl around the battlements, and brave or crazed figures begin to scale them to the heights above.
23:26 [Keshin] Keshin whirls on the wall as the blast front reaches him, a wave of dust washing over his bald pate. "What the hell was that? Saboteurs?"
23:32 [ST] Flashes of flame rise out across the city, along with the distant sound of battle. It's difficult to tell with battle still going on right here, but it looks like Striking Sparks and her forces are clashing with others in the streets.
23:33 [Talek] "Dammit!"
23:33 [Talek] "A First Age Underground gate into the city! But it was fucking secure when I left!"
23:46 [Keshin] Shit. If the city was opened from inside they were all done. Most of the army would break. His gaze swept over the battle for the wall. They were holding for now. The incursion to the rear was important, and more suited to his abilities anyway. He could only lead from the front here, not meaningfully command.
23:46 [Keshin] "Mara! Take command. I'm taking half the reserves to close that gate." Talek couldn't be trusted with soldiers, and Matara just couldn't be trusted. Mara was wounded, but her mind should be enough.
23:48 [ST] Mara nods, limping heavily. "If they get between us and the Prince's Quarter, we'll be cut off - trapped!"
23:49 [ST] A screeching thing that looks like a River Dragon fused with half a dozen women clambers over the battlements near her - she extends a hand behind her and blasts it with a flickering burst of lightning, not even turning around as it plummets away.
23:55 [Keshin] Keshin jumps from the wall, quickly gathering his reduced command to him and dashing down the streets to the disturbance, his unit streaming behind.
23:56 [ST] The attack on the walls continues
23:57 [ST] Twisted bodies pile up at the base, and more and more climbers fall as the blood-slick walls grow ever more slippery. The blood is ankle deep below, sloshing loudly as Keshin and his troops move out.
23:58 [ST] Screaming ghosts attempt to scale the wall, only to falter, burning, on Tansy's hastily scribed sigils. The cannon above continues to fire, blowing undead monstrousities to pieces.
23:58 [ST] And admist all this, Talek's Agata comes winging down, humming happily in a long-dead language.
23:59 [ST] �Another of the beauteous wasps dances among us on crystal claws,� the creature announces. �Damaskenos Damaskenos Damaskenos the many, the large, the powerful, the poet. He is the best of the Agata at the 5-7-5-4 repeating form, a true artist!�
-- Sunday 22 April 2007 --
00:03 [Talek] Talek leaps onto the back of the Agata. "Wonderful. And who has the honor of riding this creature?"
00:03 [ST] Talek recalls, as he hears a deeper drone close by, that Damaskenos is one of the most well-known of the Agata, having lived long enough to earn his true name and become particularly prized among the Beautious Wasps for his longevity. As the drone grows still louder, he remembers that Damaskenos is not famous in himself, but for the grand burden he carries, the Second Circle Demon Octavian,
00:03 [ST] The Living Tower.
00:04 [ST] A whining buzz like a quivering harpstring fills the air; a shadow flits across the green-streaked clouds. Damaskenos comes.
00:04 [Talek] "Oh. Fuck. Fuck, Fuck, Fuck, Fuck, Fuck."
00:07 [Talek] Talek lowers his bow, and goes quite pale.
00:08 [Talek] "I have business to take care of, and then we shall depart
00:09 [ST] Damaskenos hovers lower - unlike the crystalline Agata Talek controls, he is dusky, his surface almost black and pitted with scars that are somehow still beautiful, welled as they are with puckered crystalline flesh. His wings are easily twice the length and breadth of Talek's Agata.
00:11 [ST] Astride him sits a massive form, corded with muscle, with broad curving tusks and a pair of beady black eyes. His skin is slick; oil drips from him constantly, falling to mingle in the blood down below. A massive staff of malfean iron is gripped in his right fist.
00:11 [ST] "Mnemon Talek, I have come to claim you. Your grandmother commands me to take you alive. Will you submit?"
00:11 [ST] His voice is a low rumble, metallic, like the hammering in a forge.
00:14 [Talek] Talek whispers something to the ground, then straightens and mounts his Agata which was, he thought, prettier than the famous one.
00:18 [ST] Far below, the Terrawurm hears and gives assent, racing off beneath the earth
00:27 [Talek] Talek sweeps his hand to encompass the scene. "Very well, Demon Prince, but will you allow me to finish my business here? The outcome of this battle affects the sanctity of Creation, which the Yozis long ago vowed not to challenge."
00:30 [ST] Octavian casually swings his staff in a windmill motion, fingers the size of ale bottles completing the graceful motion effortlessly. "The Yozis swore to obey our orders. My mistress... your grandmother... was..." He smiles, a ghastly thing through his tusks. "Most urgent. Perhaps if you come willingly, she will go easier on you."
00:36 [ST] Distantly, Talek hears the Terraserpent scream
00:36 [ST] �IT COMES THROUGH THE EARTH THE DEAD THING TEARING IT COMES IT COMES
00:37 [Talek] Talek leaps onto the Agata, stands on its back, and bows
00:38 [ST] "Shall it be the hunt... then?" Octavian asks. He seems to relish the prospect.
00:38 [Talek] Two arros slip into his hand, and he plunges them through his feet and into the Agata. "So be it." He commands the Agata to fly as far and as fast as possible
00:40 [ST] Talek's agata beats its wings furiously, bearing him up into the air like an arrow despite the pain coursing through it. It manages to find beauty in the sensation, warbling out a song as it rises, twisting. Damaskenos comes after it, Octavian laughing with the pleasure of the chase.
00:41 [ST] The Agata trims close to the Shatterspear, swooping tightly around it before racing for the open sky. Damaskenos follows, and -
00:41 [Talek] Talek, laughing, echoes its song for a second
00:41 [Talek] Then he raises his hands, bracing againist the wind, and begins casting a spell
00:42 [ST] There is a sound like the end of the world as the corpse frame which fell into the trench and has been steadily digging toward the city since then, rears up, shattering the street, breaking a huge chunk of the wall asunder as it rises, shedding stone like skin.
01:08 [ST] Behind Kalan, there is a horrific grinding sound as the Corpse Frame tears itself from the earth, surfacing among the city, shredding the wall to pieces.
01:09 [ST] "You see?" A voice rings out from beside Kalan. Cold, harsh, yet somehow familiar. "Your city shall fall."
01:11 [Kalan] A strangled growl of frustration rips itself from his throat. "No," he spits venemously, denying the truth more from obstinancy than anything else. He turns, direlance tilted before him.
01:15 [ST] The woman that stands there was a girl once, soft and boyishly charming. She had been known as Crow the Boy, when she worked in Nexus. When she was a Solar. After the rampage of Vorvin Derlin and the death of her crew, her new master had found her there, promised her a new life, changed her.
01:15 [Kalan] "Raven. You traitorous bitch."
01:16 [ST] Now she stands taller, more voluptuous, but somehow harder, and strangely androygenous. A feathered cloak drapes her shoulders, and her grimace is hard. Something like a daiklave crossed with a barbed whip dangles from one gauntleted fist. The Raven that Plucked Creation's Eyes.
01:18 [ST] "In the flesh."
01:21 [Kalan] His lips twist in contempt. "I suppose its too late to ask anyone of you not�to betray Creation, grotesque as you are."
01:22 [ST] "Take heart, Kalan. Your death may usher in the security of the East. The return of peace and prosperity, the defeat of the greatest threat in a generation. So much, for such a small... insignificant life."
01:24 [Kalan] He laughs. "The peace of a grave? Prosperity among the corrupted corpses? No. Thank you, but I have no attention of dying here." He spreads his feet and waits warily, looking from the Shogunate-era soldier and the Anathema.
01:26 [ST] "I wish I could say I'll make it quick," Raven says with a smirk. "But I'm going to peel you layer by lay-"
01:27 [ST] There's a sudden jerk under Kalan's arms; he feels himself being borne up and away at a rapid speed, hears the crackle of flame, feels a familiar heat. Zip.
01:27 [ST] The winged fire elemental narrows his vast wings, and the pair shoot forward like a bullet, back toward the city.
01:30 [Kalan] Kalan stares. "Zip-" he says, throat thick. His stupid bravado was more than bravado after all. "Thanks."
01:31 [Kalan] �Vash, he whispers. �Mission is accomplished. Retreat, retreat, retreats....
01:32 [Kalan] The wind rips the words from the air, and hurries them down to the battlefield; the Defenders might buy them some time. Time to return to the stone wall, time to run down the road-
01:32 [ST] Zip swoops over the troops Kalan brought. Though they managed to bring down the Igrash monster, the corpse frame caused absolute havoc amongst their ranks, spreading gore and broken bodies over half a mile.
01:33 [ST] As he looks down, he sees Vash, supporting another soldier, both of them limping away from the advancing enemy; they seem to be the only survivors
01:33 [Kalan] "Zip!" Kalan calls. "Pick them up."
01:34 [ST] "Father..." Zip hesitates. "I do not know if I am strong enough-"
01:36 [Kalan] "Bring us only to the wall; the Kri will open the door for us." He looks down at Vash, almost the last of his loyal soldiers. "Zip, I cannot abandon them."
01:41 [ST] "I will try, Father," he says, banking to dive for the wounded men. All around, the forces of the enemy cluster.
00:43 [ST] Bodies and stones fly through the blood-choked air, smashing against the ground, the walls, the Shatterspear itself. The creature lumbers forward, rising out of the shattered crater it was birthed in.
00:43 [ST] Even Octavian must take a moment to regard this new threat.
01:03 [Talek] Talek sings out the last word of the spell, and then ducks down close to the Agata as the sphere of Stormwind appears around the bleeding pair
01:05 [Talek] "Catch me if you can!" he calls out, his speed increasing fivefold from that provided by his Agata - or, he hopes, Damaskenos
01:06 [Talek] He zips towards the army of the dead.
01:07 [Talek] He ducks around a large souliron ballista and over the heads ofwhat appear to be a very esoteric, soggy, pungent sort of cavalary
01:08 [ST] Behind Talek, the giant corpse frame shrugs off the arrows of the soldiers on the wall, and even Mara's elemental blasts.
01:10 [ST] It ambles up to the Shatterspear, raising two hands as if to caress it... and then it leans forward, thousands of dead muscles twitching as one.
01:10 [ST] The ancient foundations of the tower give an ominous, rising groan. The Implosion cannon swivels back and forth, trying uselessly to get a bead on the thing that is killing it.
01:12 [ST] With a terrible, shattering scream, the Shatterspear breaks off at the ground, tumbling backward into the city. The Implosion Cannon fires once more, the shot arcing up into the sky at a severe angle before the feedback from the shattering of the ley lines pumps into the room, incinerating Clever Tansy to ash. It must be said that at least her death was quick.
01:13 [ST] Each drop of blood seems to fall in slow motion as the tower tumbles, shedding stone in its ruin. Screams blossom on the streets below, and with a sound like the end of the world, the Shatterspear crashes to earth, shearing through the secondary wall between the Warrior's Quarter and the rest of the city. Blood, held back by the retaining wall, bubbles around the fallen tower in a sickly waterfall. Screams rise everywhere, and the cloud of dust that rises obscures the city from view for a moment.
01:14 [ST] Octavian races out of this dust cloud, bent low over the back of Damaskenos, racing rapidly toward the fleeing Talek
01:16 [Talek] With a grin, Talek turns and circles back, using warmachines as cover
01:16 [Talek] He charges back into the dust cloud
01:18 [ST] Octavian is one of the greatest hunters in the Demon City - no mere bob and weave will deceive him. As Talek bears back, he hears the whine of Damaskenos's massive wings thrumming behind him. Gaining.
01:20 [Talek] "Dust, to obscure the eyes....."
01:20 [Talek] "The clanging of battles, to obscure the ears."
01:21 [Talek] "and essence, to obscure the Occult Senses."
01:22 [Talek] With a grimace, Talek looks down at his brilliant jade armor. It was built for him at his exaltation. It smells like him, it feels like him, animals who like him (few) have been known to rub againist it.
01:22 [Talek] He starts to unbuckle it. His mark of station. He had none now.
01:25 [Talek] He strips off his armor, revealing a skinny body, marked by the scars of hundreds of experiments he performed upon himself, mastering the medical arts on his Exalted body.
01:25 [Talek] He had read about a mad Solar who tortured mortals with experiments in the first age. What a fool, to use such weak material.
01:25 [Talek] He's coming up on the warmachine now
01:28 [ST] The Corpse Frame steps over the fallen ruin of the Shatterspear, from which crippled warriors spill like addled ants. Blood sloshes around its feet as it advances, gleaming wet in the sticky downpour.
01:33 [Talek] Talek whispersto the Agata. "Compose an ode celebrating the beautiful injuries a Dragon Blooded might suffer inside a corpse frame. Send it to your colleague, Damaskenos, for comment. And ask him to sing your praises in Malfeas!" he flies up and hovers in front of the corpse frame.
01:33 [Talek] It stares up at him, opening its mouth tos swallow the morsel
01:34 [Talek] And Talek kicks his Agata, laden with luggage, into the frame's mouth, then flies on, through the dead streets, hoping the rain of blood and the power of the necromancy will dull the mighty hunters senses
01:35 [Talek] The agata flits through a small hole in the wall and heads east, never to return.
