DKDragons/SessionTwelve
17:53 [ST] That evening's meal feels hushed and bleak. Citing the urgent need to begin the expedition, Mara departed shortly after her conversation with Kalan, although the look in her eyes told him it was as much a reckless escape from him and their situation that anything else. Avaku, the godblooded mercenary Striking Spark and her forces, and a contigent of slaves-turned-soldiers departed with
17:53 [ST] her, yeddim-yoked wagons in tow.
17:54 [ST] If all goes well, they should return in a few days.
17:54 [ST] The rest of the group is currently gathered in the Shatterspear's dining room, along with most of their mortal lieutenants. The larder still has enough stores to last this place and its inhabitants for weeks, but the food is a bitter reminder for some that the city will soon starve.
17:55 [ST] "I haven't been able to find Deled," General Grandidi admits, looking sheepish even in his dress uniform. "I've asked, and he keeps moving... keeps being shielded by the citizens. I'm afraid to trust my own informants."
17:58 [Kalan] "He is a viper in our midst," Kalan says bitterly. "A fool who wishes to lead a revolt even as the city teeters on the brink of annihilation. Try �harder�."
17:59 [Keshin] Keshin listens to the discussions going on around him, mechanically spooning food into his mouth. He didn't feel like eating, but he knew that as soon as he got into battle, his apetite would return to taunt him. Better to force it down now.
18:00 [ST] "What am I supposed to do? He is a Prince of Earth!" The old man sounds more exhausted than petulant. "Even if I found him, he'd only tear me limb from limb."
18:01 [ST] At the far end of the table, Leen sits quiet and inscrutable behind her mask, her food almost untouched. The weird, elongated utensils of the Ghan rest before her.
18:01 [Kalan] "Kneel at his feet," Kalan advises him dryly. "He's fool enough to buy it."
18:02 [ST] "I don't think I want to take that chance," he sighs. He cocks a thumb at Leen, his disgust evident. "They're also a problem. The citizens don't want them here. They say they're... ill fortune."
18:03 [Talek] "I'd say its a little late for goodluck"
18:04 [Keshin] He laughs grimly. "They survived so far. Thats luck enough I'd think."
18:04 [ST] "Some among us suggest these citizens would be welcome among their fellows in Ghan," Leen says quietly. "I approve of this."
18:05 [Kalan] "Just so," Kalan agrees cooly, though whether with Keshin or Leen it is difficult to say. He flashes a hard.smile. "Let it be known that I will be eager to hear the Citizen's complaints when they have given up the known malefactor Peleps Deled."
18:07 [ST] "We'll all be dead soon enough," Quiet Sapphire supplies. She has replaced Dirn as the leader among the slaves. She is of half-Arczekhi stock, with wild eyes and a mouth that seems just slightly too large, full of teeth that seem just slightly too sharp. "The sooner we accept that, the more damage we will do on the way out."
18:08 [Kalan] Kalan' s eyes narrow. "Citizens cannot survive without their slaves," he muses. "Does word filter down from the household servants?"
18:08 [ST] Grandidi nods, "I shall try. Sajet is wroth with them. He cannot sleep. He stalks the halls, they say. Asking about... that woman."
18:09 [ST] "I have heard nothing," Sapphire answers. "But many of the wealthiest of the Old Citizens have ordered their slaves to stay away from us, on fear of the lash. They fear... contamination."
18:10 [ST] "They are right to do so." Her fingers curl into a fist on the tabletop.
18:13 [Kalan] Kalan's face reddens a little at mention of the Maiden, and unconsciously turns his head to exchange a glance with Matara.
18:13 [Kalan] Sajet would require handling.
18:13 [Kalan] "But do they obey?"
18:14 [ST] "Most," she says. "There have been rumors, but they may be planted. Some say that Deled has taken refuge in one of the great Academies in the District of Arts."
18:15 [ST] "It isn't likely he's in a private residence," Grandidi admits. "None of the families would willingly bear him so close."
18:16 [Kalan] "Wise of them. It will be investigated." Kalan drums his fingers on the table. "Who becomes prince if Sajet dies?" he asks abruptly.
18:16 [Keshin] "If Deled gathers against us, he will have to find a reliable supply of food. There are few enough that we should be able to find him through it."
18:17 [ST] "Uh... ah..." Grandidi seems quite taken aback.
18:17 [Talek] "What my comrade says is wise. If Deled is going to cause a fuss, he'll have to cause it soon, before all of his potential followers starve to death"
18:18 [ST] Matara, who has not looked up from the table since the mention of the Maiden, speaks up, "It is officially an elected position. The Old Families choose one family, and that family chooses the prince. Before, the Cynis always determined who it would be in reality. Now..."
18:19 [Kalan] "Now, If the Peleps decides to assasinate Sajet, we could lose support from the Defenders."
18:20 [ST] "Possible," Beauty leans against the wall, eating an apple with rather more relish than anyone should be in this time of potential famine. She still chews with her mouth open. 'That's the least of my worries,' she had told Vash once, when he tried to reprimand her. "Also, these are the oldest. The richest. If anyone's got food hidden, it'll be them. I'm thinking we might find ourselves
18:20 [ST] hungry, 'less Mara and the rest get back sooner than they expect."
18:23 [Kalan] "Have we any labor projects requiring vast strength and size?" If they did not, he supposed he could order the building of an inner wall.
18:24 [ST] "Nothing," Grandidi supplies. "Other than the guard duty the Defenders are on at the moment."
18:25 [Kalan] "That will keep them busy," Kalan says thoughtfully. "Has Sajet held a dinner for the leading citizens?"
18:26 [ST] "Words he will give them, and little else. He does not want them in his home." Grandidi says.
18:26 [ST] "He is wise." Sapphire says dully. "They have less love for him than we."
18:27 [ST] "But not than I," Leen adds.
18:28 [Kalan] "If I invited the leading Citizens tfrom each of the families to a....dinner and consultation on defense plans here in the Shatterspear, would they come?"
18:30 [Keshin] "You are thinking of holding them against their families cooperation?"
18:30 [Kalan] "Naturally."
18:31 [ST] "I do not know," Grandidi says. "Some certainly would. Others would feel a morbid curiousity. Others would stay away. Most likely you would catch those most disposed to working with you."
18:31 [ST] "In any case, if Deled were removed-"
18:32 [ST] The door slams open. Vash enters the room, dragging a bedraggled teen.
18:32 [ST] "Sorry to disturb you, sir, but this boy says he's-"
18:32 [Talek] "Oh, this ought to be entertaining...."
18:33 [ST] "Seen him!" The boy protests. "Up on the roof. Starin' at the sky, like he was waiting for something. Glowing with blue light. A monster. An Anathema!"
18:34 [Talek] "Blue?"
18:34 [Kalan] Kalan smashes his fist against the table. "Perfect. Which roof?"
18:35 [Keshin] Keshin smiles, and starts shovelling food into his mouth to make up for the time lost planning.
18:35 [ST] The boy thrashes in Vash's grip, looking suspicious. "What're you gonna give me?"
18:35 [Keshin] He was hungry now.
18:38 [Kalan] Kalan adroitly snags a leg of chicken off of Keshin's plate and tosses it to the boy.
18:39 [ST] The boy bites down, gnawing like a feral beast. The leg is gone in a few seconds. "More'n that," he grunts, grease running down his chin. "You gotta let me stay here."
18:40 [Kalan] Kalan's eyes narrow in suspicion. "Why?"
18:41 [Keshin] Keshin gives Kalan an amused glance, while tearing into the rest of the chicken, noting the abundance of food left on Kalan's plate.
18:41 [ST] "Cause you got food and I ain't," he says. "And you got walls and I ain't, and I ain't going back to the Screamhou-" He stops abruptly, as if aware he's said too much.
18:42 [Kalan] "The Screamhouse?" Kalan asks Sapphire.
18:43 [ST] "The Sonorous Academy," she says. "It is in the district of arts. They say they make singers there."
18:46 [Kalan] "Very well," Kalan agrees. "You will serve as my squire, and your duties will include scrubbing, cleaning, and let us not neglect scouring."
18:47 [ST] "Ain't nothin' I ain't done before," he says. Then, as if reluctant. "Thanks."
18:47 [Talek] "Wait, wait."
18:47 [Kalan] There is a sudden burst of light as Zip suddenly flares into the material realm, darting about the boy's head in a friendly way. "You will also be responsible for keeping the fire elemental out of trouble."
18:47 [Talek] "What's in the Screamhouse?"
18:47 [Talek] "Why don't you want to go back?"
18:50 [ST] "'m a slave there," he says. "ain't a good place to be." He glances up at the flickering flame in annoyance. "Fine, he's better'n the overseers unless he's meaner'n he looks."
18:50 [ST] "The Sonorous Academy would be a good choice," Grandidi muses. "Thick walls, gates, guards..."
18:53 [Keshin] "Boy. Does it have any significant food stores? Or does it buy from the town regularly?"
18:53 [ST] He shrugs. "Didn't see much of it. They got storerooms, don't know where it comes from."
18:54 [Keshin] He raises an eyebrow. "Never worked in the kitchens?"
18:55 [ST] He shakes his head, unperturbed. "They made me clean the blood."
18:55 [Talek] "A singing academy?"
18:56 [Talek] "Why do they have a lot of blood to clean up?"
18:56 [Talek] Talek puts his goggles on. "Don't lie to me now, I can see your mind with these on"
18:57 [ST] He looks at Talek as if he's grown another head.
18:57 [Keshin] He is careful not to roll his eyes. It takes some effort.
18:58 [ST] "They say that one who has been through the Sonorous Academy has 'sung for the Yozis'," Sapphire supplies. "The academy prides itself on producing only the most quality singers. They compel this. I take it you understand."
18:59 [Kalan] Kalan's lips quirked. Strange that a graduate of the Heptagram- a Mnemon- would be so naive. "My grandfather took similar measures to keep us at our lessons," Kalan says dryly.
19:00 [Talek] "Its an academy for slaves? They whip the bad ones? How vulgar."
19:01 [ST] "I wonder," Sapphire answers Kalan, staring at him strangely.
19:01 [Talek] "Yes, well, the Mnemnon children do not need such immediate reminders. At the Heptagram they showed us creatures who had literally sung for the Yozis. It was sufficent encouragement"
19:04 [Kalan] Kalan stands. "We should go. The Peleps may not be waiting long. Beauty. I want fifty soldiers. Give them orders to wait at a distance unless called for."
19:06 [ST] She snaps off a salute, slipping away. "On it."
19:14 [ST] The Sonorous Academy can be heard long before it can be seen. As the Dragonbloods make their way through the District of Arts, the sound of voices rising in song permeates the air, high and haunting. They say it can be heard around the clock here, as the shifts of singers replace each other.
19:15 [ST] The neighborhood itself is calm - the streets are clean for a Second Age city, and only a few patrols are needed to move through and keep them clear of vagrants. Here the violence occurs behind the closed doors of the giant academies and shuttered homes.
19:16 [ST] At last, the Sonorous Academy rises out of the night, a low, squat building made of blocks of roughly-cut stone. A tower stands at each corner, ornamented like the garret of a country house, but armed figures move inside. An iron gate twice as tall as a man is shut and barred.
19:17 [ST] It looks less academy than prison, which is at least honest.
19:20 [Kalan] Kalan looks up at the roof.
19:22 [ST] Nothing up there but shadowed gables and a slate roof. A couple of guards patrol there.
19:24 [Kalan] Half a hundred troops wait in orderly rows down the street. Kalan bangs on the door with his fist. "Ho!"
19:26 [ST] There is a rustling above as the guards casually shift position in their towers to cover the door. A tiny window opens in the metal door, and an old man peers out through the bars.
19:26 [ST] "Yes, o Princes of Earth?"
19:27 [Kalan] "We have business with your masters. Open up."
19:29 [ST] "What do you require of them?" The door doesn't budge.
19:30 [Kalan] "Possibly compensation for a new gate," Kalan coldly replies. "I don't explain myself to mortals."
19:31 [ST] Beauty pulls a face back in the shadows, but the Dragonbloods can't see it. After a moment, the old man steps back.
19:32 [ST] There is a grinding of gears, and the gate swings open, revealing a courtyard beyond. At a stage in the center, row after row of slaves in white robes stand in ordered rows, singing softly.
19:33 [ST] They fall silent as a figure in dark, elegant clothing makes his way across the courtyard to stand before the gates. The man's thin mustache and sunken cheeks give him a gaunt look, his dark hair striking against pale skin.
19:34 [ST] "I am Prass Goldin, Master at this Academy," he says, drawing himself up. "To what do we owe this honor, o Princes of Earth? Do you wish to examine our wares?"
19:36 [Kalan] "We've heard reports of an Anathema laired in your compound. We are here to investigate.".
19:36 [ST] His eye twitches. "Vile rumors! Spread by one of my rivals, no doubt."
19:38 [Kalan] Kalan bows politely. "No doubt," he agrees. "Nevertheless, we must ask for your full cooperation."
19:39 [ST] He sighs. "Very well. Perhaps at least it will give you a taste for our wares. Leos!" he shouts, and the old man cringes. "Show them whatever they ask."
19:40 [ST] Leos bows. "Very well, master."
19:40 [ST] "Unfortunately, I have business to attend to," Goldin says. "But you may seek me out if there are any difficulties."
19:42 [ST] He bows before excusing himself. As he makes his way across the courtyard, the overseer handing the slave choir bellows, "START SINGING!"
19:44 [ST] They do.
19:45 [Kalan] Kalan whistles sharply, a harsh, discordant sound that resonates unpleasantly with the music, and twenty-four legionaires in brightly polished breastplates jog up. "Four search teams of six," Kalan orders Beauty without glancing at them. "Leos, I will require escorts for my men as well. Take me to the roof."
19:48 [ST] Leos nods, moving to grasp a lantern from a shelf by the door. as he grasps the device, it becomes obvious that the wide sleeves of his robe conceal several missing fingers.
19:48 [ST] "The others will find more guides within the compound. I shall take you to the roof."
19:50 [Keshin] Keshin stalks behind them, eyes darting about trying to see enemies that his ears might not pick up over the singing.
19:51 [Kalan] "Has the compound had any secretive visitors recently?" Kalan asks as the little groups sets off.
19:51 [ST] Leos is old, but knows where he's going; he leads the way swiftly up the tower stairs, along one of the exterior walls, and across a covered bridge to the roof itself.
19:52 [ST] A pair of guards move along paths carefully marked by discolored tiles on the angled roofs, shortbows in hand, otherwise, no one seems to be around.
19:53 [ST] "None more so than usual," Leos says, stepping out of the way so the Dragonbloods may walk to the roof. "Many here come as buyers for discreet individuals. If Goldin allows them in, I do not trouble myself."
19:54 [Kalan] "Any tall men with shaved heads?" He glances at the old, bent man, his eyes narrowed. "You need not fear to tell the truth. I always have room in my employ for...helpful individuals."
19:55 [Kalan] He steps idly onto the roof, glancing about it in the manner of one untrained in investigation techniques.
19:56 [ST] "I have not seen such a man," he answers. "But I do not man the gate unceasingly. I am allowed periods of rest." He does not respond to the other offer.
19:59 [ST] The roof is largely bare, and doesn't seem to contain anyting of note, least of all an angry Dragon-Blood.
20:00 [ST] Zip appears in a burst of flickering fire, appearing very agitated. The guards start with alarm, raising their shortbows.
20:02 [Kalan] "Take us below, Leos." Zip makes a sparky, squeaky noise, and Kalan compromises his dignity enough to stroke the living flame comfortingly. Zip dives towards him to huddle under his breastplate. Leos stares. Kalan glares at him. "Below!"
20:02 [ST] "Below? Princes... with all respect... you do not wish to see..."
20:03 [Kalan] "We do," Kalan answers curtly.
20:04 [Kalan] As the Leos turns his back to lead them down, and Keshin stares at the gravel on the roof, he surrepitiously whispers to the quaking fire elemental nestled in a hearthstone slot, "You were very brave."
20:05 [Keshin] Keshin stalks across the roof, taking a last look at it, trying to find something pointing to the anathema. He finds it. "The tiles are cracked here. Something jumped down. These are thick too, this was something big or unusually strong." He runs back to rejoin the others, already leaving.
20:07 [Kalan] Kalan glances over the side of the roof.
20:07 [ST] The trip down to ground level is uneventful; the halls are quiet, most of the overseers and more priveledged slaves having retired for the night. In a distant wing of the academy, a bobbing light can be seen as one of the search groups moves along the dormitory halls.
20:08 [ST] The courtyard below gives no sign of any disturbance, although if someone above had jumped down, they must have landed here. If they did so, it was with unnatural grace, leaving no mark at all.
20:09 [ST] Shortly, Leos leads the group through a small door into one of the academy's other wings, down a narrow hall, and through an antechamber where two guards wait, their eyes wild.
20:10 [ST] The door they guard is stone, set closely with the wall. A strange hissing seems to issue from around it.
20:10 [ST] "They want to go below," Leos says wearily. "Master says they are permitted."
20:11 [ST] "Better not be lying, Leos," one of the men smiles, revealing blackened teeth. "I'll cut off the rest of your fingers and take your daughter and use 'em-"
20:11 [ST] "I'm not lying," the old slave says dully, not even rising to the remark.
20:12 [ST] The other guard moves over to the door, turning a heavy metal handle. There's a grinding noise as the door unlocks, and then he smiles. "Enjoy yourselves, oh Princes of Earth. Had a Cynis who used to like this place."
20:13 [ST] He swings the door wide, and that is when it becomes apparent that it was not hissing on the far side, but screams, rising up a narrow staircase, overlapping and earshattering, muffled by stone.
20:14 [Kalan] Kalan does not dignify this comment by noticing it. His eyes flicker involuntarily to Matara as the scream echo up the corridor. He begins a descent into hell.
20:16 [ST] Leos leads the way; when the group is halfway down the stairs, the guard slams the door shut again. The hall beyond is wide and low; rooms are located on either side, and it is from these that howls, screams, pleas for mercy issue.
20:17 [ST] Matara looks visibly, violently ill, shuddering beneath her armor.
20:18 [Kalan] It was easy to see, Kalan reflects, why the boy was so eager to escape.
20:18 [ST] As the Dragonbloods walk past individual cells, screams become briefly more audible.
20:19 [Keshin] Keshin follows closely, nervous in this tight stairwell. It was hard to concentrate on the present. His subconscious kept telling him that the insane defenders of Ghan were behind them. But they were dead now.
20:19 [ST] "I can sing it, I know I can! I can! Listen, just listen just please-" A slightly off-key note sounds, becoming a strangled scream. There's the sound of metal sawing upon bone, a harsh laugh.
20:19 [ST] "The lower registers suit you better. I'd remember that."
20:20 [ST] Leos has gone very pale.
20:20 [ST] "I do not know what you hope to find down here," he says. "Men and women mostly come here to lose things." The stumps of his fingers flex.
20:20 [Kalan] Kalan's face is a stern, rigid mask as he walks past the doors of whimpering, broken mortals, glancing neither right nor left. "A good place to hide something, then," Kalan says briefly.
20:21 [Kalan] He reflects that a chorus of screams would mean very little to Peleps Deled.
20:23 [ST] No sign of Deled, although from the look on Matara's face she has seen more than she wanted to. At last, Leos comes to a stop before a hole in the floor and a narrow flight of stairs leading down.
20:23 [Kalan] "What is further below?"
20:23 [Talek] "This does remind me of Malfeas." Talek muses
20:24 [ST] "The Black Cells," he says. "Those who go down these steps never return to the Academy. They are scourged, unable to sing, to speak. The Silent Ones. The Fair Folk take them, sometimes."
20:24 [ST] "Whatever you seek, it cannot be here."
20:24 [Talek] "What reason would you have for making a singing student unable to sing?"
20:25 [ST] "They were poor students," he says baldly.
20:27 [Kalan] "Is your daughter a student here?" Kalan asks, staring at the darkness below as if to make a show of his indifference to the answer.
20:28 [ST] "Yes. As I was, once." He takes a few steps down into the darkness, not wanting to look back.
20:30 [Kalan] Kalan follows him down.
20:31 [ST] This hall, by contrast, is very quiet. As the Dragonbloods descend the staircase, the screaming from above mercifully fades.
20:32 [Keshin] Keshin glances into each cell as he passes them by. There probably wasn't a need to double check, but he did it anyway. Most of it sickened him. He understood the purpose of harsh training, but this place didn't even train peoiple to do anything useful.
20:33 [ST] The only light is provided by flickering torches on the walls. Cells lie empty on either side, and keshin's further examinations reveal nothing.
20:33 [ST] Then, at the end of the hall, the Dragonbloods spot it. A direlance, leaning against the wall. A small traveler's pack, the barest heap of straw.
20:33 [ST] Someone has slept here.
20:35 [ST] Leos sighs heavily, turning to face the Dragonbloods.
20:36 [ST] "I am sorry."
20:36 [ST] There is a massive crash from the staircase, the sound of stone on stone.
20:36 [Kalan] Kalan hisses, reaching for his direlance Tongue of Flame.
20:36 [ST] A harsh wind darts through the passage, snuffing the torches, plunging the hallway into darkness.
20:37 [Kalan] "Zip!" shouts Kalan, and as always, the litttle fire elemental answers, darting from his armor and flares into a blaze of light and heat.
20:38 [ST] Zip's frantic motion throws flickering patterns of light and shadow around. There is no sign of anyone but the group, and the cringing Leos.
20:38 [Keshin] Keshin shifts quickly, instinctively, crouching and shuffling back and to one side. There was no purpose to that direction, just the desire to be somewhere other than where he had last been vesible. His daiklave left its sheath quietly.
20:38 [Kalan] "Is he here?" Kalan demands.
20:39 [Kalan] A dart of fire flares from his fingertips, and slam into his companions with a painful jolt.
20:39 [ST] "No," Leos rasps. "Not any longer. He left, seeking challenge... not an hour before you arrived..."
20:40 [Kalan] Kalan grinds his teeth. "They are fools, then, to spring this trap."
20:40 [Keshin] "And you waited to tell us this because he asked you too?"
20:40 [ST] "Goldin told me only to bring you down here, eventually. To give the rest of you the run of this place."
20:40 [ST] "Then-"
20:40 [ST] A voice rings out, issuing from a small hole in the wall. Goldin's, strange and tinny from its journey down through nearly a hundred meters of stone
20:42 [ST] "You will not escape, touched though you are by the Dragons. You are sealed beneath tons of stone. Trapped. And as for your companions-" There is the sound of a tolling bell behind him. "They will be far too busy to look for you. Leos did not lie to you, not entirely."
20:42 [ST] "No one ever comes back to the academy from the Black Cells."
20:42 [ST] There is a loud grinding, the sound of stone sliding against stone.
20:46 [Kalan] "They're flooding the place with water," Kalan says after a moment. "I can hear a trickle of water."
20:47 [ST] "They're going to drown us down here," Matara moans, eyes darting back and forth.
20:48 [Keshin] Keshin moves back up the stairs, trying to see how far he could get. The mechanism closing them off would probablt be the weakest point in this prison.
20:48 [Keshin] "Thats more than a trickle. We need to work fast."
20:49 [Kalan] "They will not," Kalan says, his steady voice testament to iron control. "Talek, can you summon the kri? We have �souls� to feed it now."
20:49 [ST] Keshin makes his way all the way to the foot of the stairs, where he finds what seems to be a solid block of granite rock filling the entirety of the stairway. It's as if a mountain stumbled down them and lies there still, blocking the way.
20:50 [Kalan] It was time to consider adding one of the elementals to the staff.
20:50 [ST] Keshin's right; the water is now pooling around everyone's ankles. Leos wails piteously.
20:50 [ST] "I am sorry. I did not want to do this. My daughter- they said she might avoid the punishment-"
20:52 [Kalan] Kalan turns to stare at him. His hand twitches on the long handle of his daiklaive, itching to kill him, but there was little point to it. He would die soon enough anyway. And anyway-
20:53 [Kalan] "I understand," he says, turning away again to regard the stairs. "I have a daughter too."
20:53 [Talek] "Yes, if it will still answer. I have had litle to spare for it these past few days."
20:53 [Kalan] "Would blood help?"
20:55 [Keshin] Keshin uses the hilt of his daiklave to ship at the slab, create some real handholds in it. It was worth a try, trying to shift it. That done, he dropped the weapon, and hunched into the block, pushing upwards, and pushing essence through his body into it, commanding it to move.
20:55 [Talek] Talek's right hand turns to wood, and roots spring from his fingers. He pushes it down through the stone and sings harshly in Old Realm. The tune is deliberately dissonant. Talek smirks a little at what the headmaster would think of the spellsong.
20:56 [Talek] "Hold him" he says in High Realm to Kalan
20:57 [Talek] his left hand reaches up, bends backwards at an impossible, monsterous angle, and then reaches out further, all bent and stiff like a branch.
20:57 [Talek] The roots extend into Leos chest, and tightens around his heart.
20:58 [Talek] "Kri" he coos "I have essence for you - and blood as well."
20:58 [Kalan] Kalan grips his shoulders, but the old man doesn't struggle, or even move, except to gasp and spasm as the root pierces his chest.
20:59 [ST] The slab creaks as Keshin applies all his force, but it doesn't budge. Matara slams into the stone beside him, straining in tandem.
21:00 [ST] With both Dragonbloods at it, the stone slab actually rises a foot, quivering.
21:00 [ST] Water slops around the thighs of the trapped.
21:01 [ST] Leos moans, slumping back against Kalan. The strength seems to be leaving him.
21:01 [Keshin] Blood runs down his arms from the stone cutting into his fingers, but he presses on. "I think its about to shift," he gasps out, hoping more help would come.
21:02 [Talek] The blood trickles down Talek's arm, across his chest and into the ground. "There is more to be had here, oh Kri. Oh yes, there are many here who I shall feed to you."
21:03 [Kalan] Kalan holds him almost gently now. "Stop," he tells Talek abruptly. "The kri has had a taste. There is no point to killing him."
21:03 [ST] Leos gasps once, eyes rolling back in his head. "Take my daughter," he wheezes. "When you-"
21:03 [ST] He falls, dead weight now.
21:04 [Kalan] It unsettles him, the mortal's wheezing death, though there was no reason it should. The man was treacherous, after all.
21:04 [Talek] "And your feast shall be not only their bodies, but the prayers of those they enslaved."
21:05 [ST] Matara screams in rage as she sees the man fall, tearing herself away from the stone block. It shifts violently downward now that Keshin's grip alone holds it.
21:05 [ST] "Why did you do that?!" she shrieks
21:05 [Kalan] Kalan lowers him to the ground. He floats gently, his blood staining the water around him like red ink. Kalan lunges forward to join his strength to Keshin's in Matara's place.
21:05 [Talek] "They shall sing for you, Kri, you who gave them freedom. Yes, they are good singers. You will feed as the gods feed, from the praise of mortals.
21:06 [Talek] Talek ignores them
21:06 [Keshin] "Idiot. Forget about him. Get back to the block Matara."
21:07 [Kalan] He grunts as the stone's weight, his muscles straining. He returns a cold answer to Matara. "Whatever it takes."
21:07 [Talek] Talek's finger-roots writhe and open the wound bigger so that more blood may flow out of the dead man's body
21:07 [ST] "IT WASN'T HIS FAULT!" she screams. Trembling with rage, she fumbles for her still-sheathed daiklave. She has to reach under water to do it, and the waves lap around Talek's waist
21:08 [ST] Keshin's redoubled efforts, together with Kalan's contribution, cause a massive groan to issue from the stone block. Slowly, inexoribly, it begins to rise.
21:09 [Kalan] "Matara!" Kalan snaps. "Now is not the time. We will discuss this..." he grunts, putting his shoulder to the stone. "...when we return to the Shatterspear."
21:09 [ST] Meanwhile, the water froths violently in front of Talek, and the Kri rises through it, pinioning Leos's body on its curling antlers, blood sluicing down its muzzle.
21:09 [Keshin] "Yes it was. He had a choice. He could have just told us, and counted on us to save his daughter. Hardly more of a risk than relying on the mercy of that bastard. Now get back her and help!"
21:09 [ST] "�I have come."
21:10 [Talek] Talek stands and pulls his roots back, appearing human once more but for a green glow to his eyes from the expenditure of essence.
21:10 [ST] "It was for no reason," Matara shouts, enraged beyond measure. She throws her back back into lifting the stone. "We could have done it. We- we could have-" She seems inconsolable, mad with rage.
21:12 [ST] As Talek stares down the Kri, the efforts of the other three Dragonblooded finally pay off. The massive block rises higher and higher, until they are actually lifting it over their heads.
21:12 [Talek] "Thank you, oh Stag of the Earth." he smirks at Matara. "Carry me and my companions out of this doomed place into the hallway above. There are those there who I would have dead. Shall I slay them and feed them to you, or do you perfer to eat your food raw?"
21:13 [ST] At the top of the stairs stand a trio of mortal guards, shortbows held at the ready with arrows nocked.
21:13 [ST] As they see the Dragonbloods lifting a multi-ton stone, they gape for a moment before someone screams, "Shoot them!"
21:14 [Keshin] Keshin groans, and walks forward, placing himself in the gap opening under the block, wedging it open with his body.
21:14 [Talek] "Oh, bother." Talek rolls his eyes and draws his bows.
21:14 [Talek] *bow
21:15 [Talek] "Do you really think that you can face the wrath of the Princes of the earth" he shouts, switching back to the barbaric local dialect
21:16 [Kalan] "Can you hold it up alone?" Kalan asks Keshin urgently. He pulls the Earth Aspect vulenerable stomach away from the arrows with a hooked leg, and the arrows slide past Keshin .
21:17 [Keshin] "I . . think so. Someone grab my weapon. Don't leave it behind."
21:17 [Kalan] He jams an elbow into Matara's side, forcing her away from another black whistling death.
21:19 [ST] "Gods!" the scream comes from the top of the stairs. "Get the oil!"
21:19 [ST] A third arrow smashes into Kalan and rebounds off his breastplate.
21:19 [ST] The Kri watches all with a bemused grin.
21:19 [Keshin] He straightens his legs, hunching down a bit to make up for their extra length. Locking his knees helped him maintain the block at its current height, now that he didn't need to shift it higher.
21:20 [Kalan] Kalan lets go of the block, and the others stagger under the additional weight. He grabs Keshin's daiklavie from the staircase and rolling under the gap to send it whistling across their throats.
21:22 [ST] Two of the soldiers reel back, gore exploding from their throats. As he rolls to a stop, Kalan sees a massed group of bodies turn to flee down the hallway.
21:23 [Kalan] A cold smile curls around his lips as he remembers the screams, and the Dragonblooded gives chase.
21:24 [Talek] "Fool" Talek puts an arrow into the eye of the remaining soldier, who falls back screaming
21:26 [ST] The man claws at his eye for a moment before lying still. The Kri ambles up the stairs almost casually, warping aside the stone that Keshin strains to hard to hold aloft.
21:27 [ST] Matara comes last, casting a baleful glance back at the corpse floating in the water. She looks pale, lost. Zip darts around her alarmingly.
21:28 [ST] Kalan falls upon the stragglers mercilessly, and soon three more corpses decorate this part of the hallway. Everything seems empty, quiet... save for the moaning coming from the cells on either side.
21:29 [Keshin] The last had passed. Anyone in the cells down there was drowned already, and probably better off dead. He shifts slowly keeping the stone above him while edging to its other side. When he gains its other edge, he dives out from under it, letting it crash back to the stairwell. Hopefully it would seal properly and the flooding would be contained.
21:30 [Kalan] "Talek. Check the rooms. Stabilize the patients, if you can."
21:30 [Kalan] "Zip. Find our soldiers. Give them the signal for 'hostile' and retreat and regroup."
21:31 [Keshin] He pauses to get his breath back, and then lurches up the stairs after the others. He pulled his dagger, pitiful, but all he had for now. The empty sheat slapping against his back felt like a travesty. Hopefully the killing would slow Kalan down enough for him to catch up and retrieve his weapon.
21:32 [Kalan] Kalan has paused at the second set of stairs. He tosses the daiklaive back, taking his own direlance in hand. Keshin's daiklaive is red and wet with fresh blood.
21:33 [ST] The stone door atop the second staircase is closed. There is a great deal of commotion coming from behind it -- or in front of it, really.
21:34 [Keshin] He catches it awkwardly, one handed until he sheathes his knife. The blade smacks his shirt, leving a red strak oven his already stained clothes and armor. The water hadn't been very clean.
21:35 [Kalan] "Kri!" Kalan shouts as he slams his shoulder against it.
21:36 [ST] The Kri leaves off snuffling at the essence of the corpses on the floor, leaving visible hoofprints as it climbs the stairs.
21:36 [ST] "�Effortless�," it rumbles. "�Stone moves aside like clay for a sculptor as grand as myself."
21:37 [Talek] Talek almost giggles
21:37 [ST] A toss of the Kri's muzzle, and the stone of the door bubbles.
21:37 [Talek] He draws his bow as the Kri pushes the door aside
21:37 [ST] A neat hole forms in the center, opening wider, the door sinking into the walls, revealing-
21:37 [ST] The muzzle of a Firedust cannon, at least two feet across, pointing directly down the stairs.
21:38 [ST] "FIRE!"
21:38 [ST] A sheet of unbroken flame spews down the narrow stairwell.
21:39 [Kalan] Kalan spreads his arms, blocking a much of it as he can as he bursts into flame.
21:42 [ST] The Kri, engaged in his work of art, is unable to move quickly enough to avoid the attack. He bellows, thrashing against the walls, spraying chunks of superheated stone back over the Dragonbloods on the stairs below.
21:42 [Keshin] When he sees it, Keshin lets his right leg fold as he sprints up the stairs. without that support, his left leg turns him, and drives him into the wall. He covers his head with his left arm, as much as he can, and huddles there.
21:43 [Keshin] Hed forgotten the daiklave, still in his left hand. It blocks his head more effectively than his arm alone. Finally some luck for him.
21:43 [Kalan] Fire crackles around Kalan, embracing him. It whispers in his ears, warm and comforting. It feels like the touch of a friend. He laughs.
21:44 [Talek] Talek laughs and ducks in one of the side rooms. He stares down at a young man chained up with the phrase "play faster!" carved in his chest as a reminder.
21:45 [ST] A burst of flame appears around Matara's slim form as she darts to the side, pressing herself against the wall to one side of the staircase.
21:45 [ST] There's a moment of silence.
21:45 [ST] Then the voice from above.
21:45 [ST] "Did we get 'em?"
21:45 [Keshin] He feels the flames wash over him, but it is too brief for it to work through his clothing. His exposed hand blisters, but the rest of his skin is covered. He stands up far more angry than hurt.
21:47 [Kalan] Kalan sends an answer. The tip of his direlance slams through the fragile muzzle of the gun, splaying it down the middle like a peeled banana.
21:49 [Kalan] The gunner cries out as Kalan pushes his direlance deeper as he walks up the stairs, the speartip investigating the man's guts.
21:49 [Keshin] Keshin rushes in behind, vaulting over Kalan, leaving the cannon to him. He lands in a roll, sweeping his daiklave in front of him, angled up the stairs, cleaving through the legs of the mortals clogging them.
21:50 [ST] The soldiers massed there take one step back, then another, drawing slashing swords. Their hands tremble so much that the blades seem about to pop free.
21:51 [ST] Lowering its head, the wounded Kri bellows and charges, knocking part of the first rank aside. They slam into the stone walls, bones breaking.
21:51 [Kalan] Kalan yanks out his direlance with a spray of blood, and thrusts into the sides of soldiers on either side of Keshin, raising it swooping over the other Dragonblooded's head when he feels he has pincushioned one side enough.
21:52 [Keshin] keshin edges to one side of nthe stairwell, letting Kalan around him. He trudges up the stairs methodically slaying the few who hadn't run yet.
21:53 [ST] Matara battles with a rage most unlike her, splitting guards from crotch to shoulder with long, swooping cuts of her Reaver daiklave, a woman all but possessed, and Talek comes after, a force of nature in his own right.
21:54 [ST] In a very short time, the room beyond the door has become an abbatoir, and a kind of silence falls.
21:54 [ST] Above the stifling and muffling stone now, the Dragonbloods can hear the sounds of a tolling bell, the clash of arms, shouts; a battle outside.
21:54 [ST] Zip has not returned.
21:55 [Talek] Talek takes a moment to free as many of the prisoners as can still move
21:55 [Kalan] "My soldiers," Kalan snarls, and hurtles up the stairs.
21:56 [ST] That amounts to most of them. They emerge from the cells almost frightened of their newfound freedom, wary and untrustworthy, gathering in the corner and regarding Talek suspiciously.
21:56 [ST] All of them are marked in some way - their faces untouched, their hands and feet are missing digits, their torsos burned and scarred in strange and painful patterns.
21:56 [ST] Such things could be covered easily; it is the voice that matters.
21:57 [ST] Only one is untouched, a pale young woman of about twenty years, her hair hanging in dirty ropes past her shoulders. She looks bewildered.
21:58 [ST] "Where is my father? I saw him with you."
21:58 [Talek] They limp forward supporting each other. "You're free to go, so far as you can. You have been liberated in the name of the God up the stairs" he gestures at the Kri, who lashes his tail contendly as he devours the dead soldiers. "Sing his praises every night, so long as you have voice left."
21:58 [Talek] "He was killed in our escape" Talek tells her
21:59 [ST] She bites back a sob, seeming to collapse in on herself as she sinks to her knees. "It's my fault," she wails. "I should have sung better. I should have..."
22:00 [Keshin] "He brought you here and nothing that has happened since would have changed the result."
22:01 [ST] Kalan, Matara burst out into the courtyard and a scene of violence. Bodies lie here and there, legionaire and guard, intwined in death. The battle seems to have moved on from here.
22:02 [ST] Across the courtyard, the iron gate lies open. There is no movement either in the towers or on the roofs, and the corpse of one of the guards dangles from a gutter, pinioned by arrows.
22:02 [ST] "Sir!" A slave captain with half of his head shaves runs across the courtyard, ducking low. A few arrows still hiss by from the odd window. "You've survived!"
22:03 [Kalan] Kalan has gone pale with anger. "Yes. Where is the battle?"
22:03 [Talek] "He sacrificed himself to save you. That's very heroic of him. Now, you seem reasonably sane, try to lead these folks out of here in some sembelence of safety, if you don't mind."
22:03 [Keshin] Kalan and Matara had outrun him up the stairs. Typical. He gained the top soon after, joining them in the courtyard.
22:04 [ST] "Mostly over, now," he says, a touch of pride in his voice. "We've forced them back to the East Wing, they don't stand and fight well. If they hadn't ambushed us, they wouldn't have stood a chance. Eunuchs, the lot of 'em."
22:04 [ST] "I was with the backup forces. When the bell started to ring, we tried to get in, but they had the gate barred. Someone opened it from the inside."
22:04 [Keshin] "Lets try to find the kitchens. A place like this will probably have a good amount of supplies. If so, then something good will come out of this travesty."
22:05 [ST] The woman stands, shaking, and nods, her lips pressed into a white line. "Go on. I will do what I can." She pauses for a moment.
22:05 [ST] "Thank you."
22:05 [ST] Some of the others shout strangled words of praise to Talek. Most of them just stare blankly.
22:06 [Kalan] Kalan nods. "We will allow them to surrender. They are as much victims of this place as anything. What of their leader, Goldin? Is he holed up with the others in the East?"
22:06 [Talek] "Oh, don't thank me, thank the Kri!" Talek tries to say it as solemnly as possible.
22:07 [Talek] He follows the rest up the stairs
22:07 [ST] "I don't know," the captain answers. "We've swept the rest of the place, but I couldn't tell you what he looks like."
22:09 [Kalan] Kalan nods. "Very well." He waves to the others, and move briskly to the east wing to take charge of the troops.
22:10 [ST] By the time Kalan and the others get there, the battle has wound down. The battle went the length of the east wing's top floor, ruining three studies, a bedroom, a pleasure chamber, an observatory, and finally, a bath house.
22:11 [ST] Goldin and a handful of survivors, having surrendered, are being led from the shattered baths in chains when Kalan and the others arrive. There's still no sign of Zip, nor most of the troops Kalan came in with. They must have been pulled out by the reinforcements.
22:12 [Kalan] "You piece of filth," Kalan greets the man.
22:13 [ST] "You came seeking this..." he snaps. "Heretics. Traitors. Peleps Deled knows what will save this city. That is why we gave him sanctuary."
22:14 [Kalan] "A fool and a fanatic," Kalan says disdainfully. "Give me the names of your conspirators, and I will not kill you."
22:15 [ST] "I will give you �nothing�," he snarls. "That you, who have taken everything, should ask tha from me is nothing less than ridiculous."
22:16 [Keshin] "We have taken far from everything from you so far. I think you will soon realize the truth of that."
22:17 [Kalan] "I will have the names regardless," says Kalan indifferently. "It will only be more painful for you." He tells the captain, "Take these prisoners to the Shatterspear under heavy guard and imprison them."
22:18 [ST] "What will you take it with? Your mob of undisciplined slaves? That lot would sooner rut all day than pick up a spear. You stand against tradition. Against righteousness. You will realize it is hopeless to resist soon enough."
22:18 [ST] The captain nods shortly, giving Goldin a solid tug out of the room. The others follow, silent and looking rather more chastized. Matara looks after, a sick expression on her face.
22:18 [Talek] "Shall I summon a few demons to torture them, or would you perfer do the job yourself?"
22:18 [Kalan] Kalan ignores the mortal's twitterings, and turns to Talek. "You were slow coming up the stairs. Was Leos's daughter among the captives."
22:19 [Kalan] "Do nothing, for now," Kalan answers. There was, he hoped, an intermediate solution.
22:21 [Keshin] Keshin sighs. He might be right about the slaves, but fighting internally was no way to help the situation. It was done now, all that was left was to support the decision to the hilt.
22:26 [ST] One of the newer troops, also a former slave, stops in the doorway, obviously wounded. "Uh... excuse me, sir. We're trying to clear the gatehouse, but your... uh... fire... thing... is in the way."
22:27 [Talek] Talek comes out of his reverie to adress Talek. "Yes, she's fine."
22:27 [Talek] "A bit bewildered"
22:27 [Kalan] He nods. "...Tarmek, is it? Escort her to the Shatterspear as well. I believe we have some sort of obligation to her to fulfill."
22:28 [Kalan] "I'll handle Zip." He heads for the gatehouse.
22:28 [Talek] "Suit yourself."
22:29 [Talek] Talek grabs a soldier 'Find Leos's daughter Tarmek and bring her to the Shatterspear."
22:29 [Talek] "The rest of the captives will have to fend for themselves, I suppose"
22:31 [ST] "We'll secure the larders," says one of the soldiers. "I doubt Deled will return, now."
22:32 [Keshin] "Good, but make sure to organize carts to move the stores to the shatterspear quickly. No need to take risks with it, and I want to be able to leave this place as soon as we can."
22:34 [ST] Kalan arrives at the gatehouse, a scene of fierce fighting. He has to step over the bodies of three of Goldin's guards to get up the stairs, and when he reaches the room at the top, he finds many more. Beauty is among them, one hand still curled around the lever of the gatehouse mechanisms, the shattered hilt of a spear jutting from her belly, a pair of arrows in her side, a dagger stuck in
22:34 [ST] her shoulder. Zip hovers above her face, darting fitfully.
22:34 [ST] It takes a moment to catch the gist of his angry communication.
22:35 [ST] �Make her not be dead. NOW.
22:35 [Kalan] "Oh, Beauty." Kalan sighs, and kneels down beside her, feeling at her throat.
22:36 [ST] Nothing.
22:36 [Talek] "Poor girl."
22:39 [Kalan] "Zip, I'm sorry. She's dead. There's nothing I can do." She and Zip had been great friends. Or at least, she had suffered his infatuation with bemused tolerance. "She was a hero, Zip. She saved the lives of her soldiers."
22:39 [Keshin] Keshin nods solemly.
22:42 [ST] �You should have saved her and not been in the ground. You knew she was my favorite. It's your fault and I hate you.� Zip seems different, as if the experience has changed him, somehow. �I shouldn't have left mother to follow you.� He flickers in place fitfully.
22:43 [Kalan] She had been one of his soldiers, but he had lost many soldiers. He lays her gently down. "I came as fast I could," he says. "I'm not an elemental. I couldn't dematerialize through the stone."
22:44 [Kalan] It surprises him, how much Zip's anger stings. His instincts did not normally lead him to be apologetic.
22:44 [ST] �No, you're NOT.� Zip wiggles fiercely. �You are not and I want you to LEAVE ME ALONE.� He winks out abruptly, vanishing. Off to sulk? Whatever elementals do.
22:45 [Talek] Talek cocks an eyebrow
22:47 [Kalan] Kalan's face hardens as he turns back to the others. He waves two more of the fresh slave-soldiers over, and they come running, saluting smartly. "Carry her back to the Shatterspear. She is to be burned with- full honors." He speaks steadily.
22:48 [ST] The nod sharply, moving to obey.
22:54 [Kalan] Kalan stands as Beauty's corpse is drawn away. He doesn't try to call Zip, or speak to Matara. "We're done here," he says without emotion. "Let's go home."
22:55 [ST] An explosion rends the night, the roar of shattering timber and flying mortar filling the air. Far to the east, over the ranks of buildings, a plume of blue light rises into the air, followed a moment later by a midnight-black spire of energy.
22:57 [Kalan] Kalan takes his spear to hand. "Nevermind. We have trash to dispose of first."
22:58 [ST] Another series of explosions ring out. Glass shatters. No... not explosions. Punches.
22:59 [Talek] Talek throws his head back and sighs, drawing his bow
22:59 [Talek] "I suppose that would be Brother Deled."
23:00 [Kalan] Kalan puts his hands together, and a warm glow of essence infuses him as he falls into Dragon Stance. "Come."
23:06 [Talek] Talek raises his hands to the sky "Stormwind! Carry us into righteous battle!"
23:07 [Talek] Talek snickers at the phrase, as he always did when casting Stormwind Rider
23:16 [ST] The Stormwind Rider's mystical winds propel the four Dragonbloods across the city, tearing their way down cramped alleys, upending locked-down merchant's carts, shattering windows, and tearing ornate shutters free to waft on the wind as they race toward the distant battle. Explosions sound every few seconds, and as they get closer, they can actually see geysers of wood, brick, and stone
23:16 [ST] shooting into the air.
23:16 [ST] The path of destruction begins in the district of sighs, and the Dragonbloods follow it through a score of smashed bordellos. It is as if a massive airship has fallen from the sky, gouging a trench through the city. Silks, heaps of bricks, and bodies lie sprawled about in the carnage, and the air reeks of shattered perfume bottles and fire and blood. At the end of the path of violence a crowd
23:16 [ST] has gathered. A tall man, his head shaved bald, his broad shoulders covered in scale male, stands surrounded by a nimbus of blue light. He stares down the crowd, eyes blazing.
23:16 [ST] On the ground before him writhes the shattered form of the Outcast, cradling her arm to her, her own swiftly-seeping blood forming a pool beneath her. The Outcast was always something of a juvenile at heart. Never used to being struck, to being hunted. Wounds do not sit well with her. Her screams would be pitiful, if her mouth wasn't caked with the blood of the innocent, if she wasn't
23:16 [ST] so obviously a monster.
23:16 [ST] "People of Kushan!" Deled roars, kneeling beside her. "I have conquered the Anathema and proven the righteousness of the dragons!" Her fingers clench in her hair, pulling her head up awkwardly and, if her groan is any indication, painfully. "Look upon the defeat of evil. The promise of justice! Follow me, and allow me to cleanse this city of its filth!"
23:19 [Kalan] Kalan looks down at the broken Abyssal. It does not move him ."The word 'Justice' sit strangely in your mouth," Kalan calls loudly. "When you have so recently arranged a cowardly attempt to murder your brothers."
23:21 [ST] "You are not my brothers," Deled snarls, not missing a beat. "Nor my equals. You are blasphemers, violators of the holy writ of the Dragons, consorting with demons and beasts, flirting with the dead, upsetting the natural order to throw this city into madness."
23:23 [Talek] "We Dragon Blooded still rule. That is the natural order."
23:23 [Kalan] "Yet you dared not face us in battle, but hid like a rat in this city, living in dark holes in the ground." Kalan stands atop a broken head of a collosal statue. It is the size of a yeddim, its expression calm and serene as a monk. Other pieces lay scattered about the plaza. "Put aside your ambition and lust for power, Deled," Kalan shout, his voice raised. "An army of the dead marches on this city! Now is a time for fellowship!"
23:23 [Talek] "Exactly. We should all unite to defeat the Abyssals"
23:23 [Kalan] "Join us, that we may strike down our true enemy together."
23:24 [Keshin] "It will just weaken us further to fight internally like this. We must stand together."
23:27 [ST] Deled's face is as impassive as stone. "And Pasiap stood with his untold strength against the Anathema, and his might bore them back, and shattered them, but the silvered voice of the Lunar Anathema Luris fell upon his ears, and she promised him her aid and her love with a tongue of silver and breasts the color of moonstone. She swore to aid him against the Anathema and love him eternally.
23:27 [ST] She spoke lies of honeyed poison and rightfully and righteously did he gather her up, cast her to pieces upon the earth, sow her blood that he might grow stronger."
23:27 [ST] "Speak not to me of compromises... serpents."
23:30 [Kalan] "You blaspheme against the Immaculate Dragons, Deled. We are Blood of the Dragons! If you have a quarrel with us, I will answer. In battle if I must, though it would grieve me to take arms against a brother."
23:30 [Keshin] "And you speak of Pasiap? You do nothing but destroy."
23:30 [Kalan] "But I will not endanger Creation and the mortals given to us to shepherd. Let it come after the Battle with the Dead."
23:32 [ST] "I destroy as Daana'd destroyed, a cleansing fire. I do not require your aid to defeat the Anathema." He lands a kick in the Outcast's ribs; she screams pitifully. "As has been proven. And the only danger is your own willfullness. Your corruption, the horrors you have brought into and upon this city. Demons, rioting, madness in the streets. You name me blasphemer. Me. Your madness is complete."
23:32 [ST] He looks at each of the Dragonblood's in turn, gaze hard.
23:33 [ST] "If you truly wished to aid me, to aid these mortals, you would surrender to me. You would put aside your madness, your slave armies, your decadence and your sorcerous mortals. You would submit to my authority as commander of the hunt. ANd yet, you do not. You challenge me, hunt the righteous who shield me, follow me to ground."
23:34 [Talek] "And your plan to defeat the Abyssals is, what? Defeat their army in single combat"
23:34 [Kalan] Keshin and Talek, Kalan reflects, were probably even sincere in their earnest entreaties. Whereas he was looking forward to nothing so much as grinding Deled's head against the pavement. The creature's insults were intolerable.
23:35 [Kalan] "This is more than a Wyld Hunt now, Peleps Deled."
23:35 [ST] "Righteousness is its own armor. And I have seen no army.. only this snarling whelp. The Citizens of this city, those who have not forgotten the lessons of the Dragons, will flock to me, and our march will be as unassailable and inevitable as the ocean's tide."
23:37 [ST] "You need not tell me that, Cathak Kalan. Courter of the dead, husband of the Ledaal witch, lover of a Cynis whore. Mnemon Talek, you truck with demons and bask in the light of your blasphemous grandmother." He pauses for a moment. "Ledaal Keshin. You could be a good man, but you serve with such as these. That makes your own sins worse."
23:37 [Kalan] "Tell me Citizens!" Kalan roars to the crowd. "Is that what you desire? To be smashed against the shore, to falling screaming and dying to the teeth of the dead for the sake of this man's �madness�? I have seen Ghan, and it is a slaughterhouse."
23:37 [ST] "No, this is not a hunt." He snaps. "It is a disgrace."
23:38 [ST] The crowd mills uncertainly. They don't seem exactly eager to side against him, but that might be because of the murderous rage.
23:39 [Talek] "My open minded Grandmother would be the savior of the Realm if she were allowed."
23:39 [Talek] "You will not defeat the armies of the dead with mortals, no matter how righteous."
23:40 [Talek] "More to the point, can we all put down our Direlances and retire somewhere civilized to discuss chain of command issues?"
23:40 [ST] "Better to pound against the enemy than to await them in this bitter stagnation. This criminal filth. This violation of the national order. These... heroes steal your property. Set your inferiors against you, arm them for battle. They would as soon turn those spears upon you. These lot speak of fallen cities, horrors, their heroism. I have shown you my might. Which do you trust?"
23:40 [ST] He whirls on Talek.
23:40 [Keshin] "I do only what needs to be done to preserve. These men offer more to save this city, the realm than you do. That is sufficient to me.
23:40 [Talek] "I'm a doctor, not a Priest, I'd rather not have to bury either of you."
23:41 [ST] "You will not ply me in your den of inequity. In the seat of your filth! We will speak here, beneath the open sky! Before the eyes of the judgemental and the righteous!"
23:42 [Kalan] "Deled! It grieves me, to take arms against you, but duty compells me. Commit yourself to the defense of this city with arms, or prepare to battle me here and now."
23:42 [ST] Deled throws back his head and laughs, a harsh, strange sound.
23:43 [Kalan] "Holiness alone is no shield, not unless backed by swords and armies, as Thorns proved so tragically. I will not permit Kushan to share the same fate, though it cost me my life."
23:43 [ST] "Very well, Kalan. If the three of you are convinced of your righteousness, then we shall prove it. Face me. Man to man. One against one. I will give the Dragons thrice the chance to confirm my glory. What say you?"
23:44 [Talek] "This is madness! The city is being besieged by armies of t he dead and you are fighting with each other!"
23:44 [Talek] "We should all being willing to be humble in our service to the greater good."
23:44 [ST] "The fire tempers the blade, Mnemon Talek," Deled says quietly. "It will be the better for it."
23:45 [Kalan] Kalan glares at him, calculation racing. He had spent some essence...but surely Deled would have spent more, duelling the Anathema. "
23:45 [Talek] "I propose that all of us stand down and give leadership to someone else."
23:45 [Kalan] "Who?"
23:46 [Talek] "Keshin!"
23:46 [Talek] "He is a man of virtue."
23:46 [Keshin] "You miss the point again. To you it is individual glory and achievement. But we form a solid base together. If it comes to that, the three of us will deal with you. Together."
23:48 [ST] "His virtue is tainted by association with you, Mnemon." He tosses his head, speaking as if Keshin is not there. "See how he seeks to undermine my honest challenge. The Dragons must judge."
23:48 [Talek] "You see! Keshin represents unity! Keshin represents strength!"
23:48 [ST] "You have defeated no Anathema," he says, as if that explains everything. "You have traveled with them, shared bread with them... perhaps your beds. You... are serpents. These people should trust you at their peril."
23:49 [Kalan] Kalan holds his breath. He did not think his endorsement of the plan would add any luster to it in Deled's eyes.
23:49 [Kalan] He is a for a moment torn. As little as he liked Peleps Deled, he would be a potent figure in the midst of the battle...
23:50 [Kalan] "We slew the Anathema Lyta. We have slain the Violet Witch of Ghan, who drove the city to madness. "
23:52 [Keshin] "Honor has no place here. It is a pretty thing, useless in the face of the tasks we must complete. You will assist, leave, or be dealt with."
23:53 [ST] "I hear only empty words. I offer you proof." He twists the Outcast's arm sharply, and it shatters audibly, her forearm sliding all the way around so that her fingers clutch blindly at her own shoulder.
23:53 [ST] Her eyes open, glazed with pain, and she screams
23:53 [ST] "KALAN! HELP ME! HELP ME PLEASE PLEASE IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS"
23:53 [Talek] "My medicine has repaired many wounds and even cured the madness which afflicted Avaku and Ghan, but I know no medicine which can cure you fools of your battlelust"
23:54 [Talek] Talek opens his eyes wide to stare at Kalan
23:55 [ST] Even Deled seems astonished. "This creature... knows you?"
23:55 [Kalan] "I do not know how you know my name, witch, but I have no dealings with Anathema," says Kalan with brazen indifference.
23:55 [Kalan] He curls his lip. "You fool. So long as the serpent lives, it will seek to divide us in service of its master. You play with evil when you should be ending it."
23:56 [Talek] Talek laughs
23:56 [ST] "Perhaps we should question this creature... as Talash the holy questioned the Anathema above the flames..." he twists sharply. The Outcast moans.
23:56 [ST] "How do you know this man, witch?"
23:57 [ST] The Outcast gasps fitfully
23:57 [ST] "Th.... Thhhhhhhhhhorns."
23:57 [Kalan] "You would heed the silvery, lying tongue of an Anathema?" Kalan says. His voice is very hard.
23:58 [Kalan] "You reveal yourself a hypocrite as well as a fool, Deled."
23:58 [Talek] "What - my Grandmother told me you were responsible, but I thought it was just through incompetence."
23:58 [ST] "Pain is the purest path to truth the Dragons ever carved," Deled says impassively. Her fingers shatter in his grip.
23:58 [Kalan] Kalan turns his head to glare at Talek, eyes fierce.
23:59 [Kalan] "Is it so?" asks Kalan. "Then let us prove it."
23:59 [Keshin] Keshin settles back, squatting and leaning on his daiklave. "Make your case then."
23:59 [ST] "...tougher... than... you said..." Outcast whines. "Should have eaten you...instead. Should have eaten... the woman in your bed...it HURTS"
00:00 [ST] Matara starts at Kalan's side
00:00 [ST] "You are corrupt," Deled says flatly. "You will cease this charade. You will obey me. You will stand clear of my way. Or you will die. That is my case."
00:00 [Kalan] He leaps from the head of the shattered colossus, landing mere feet from Deled. "The Dragons will prove my virtue. I challenge you to battle, Peleps Deled. When you die with your own blood on your lips, you will know the full measure of your foolishness. I pray you will then repent."
00:01 [ST] "Come then, fool," Deled smiles. "We shall see who the dragons most favor." His eyes dart to regard the others. "Your companions will stand aside?"
00:02 [Keshin] "And if we stayed clear of you - acted in parallel, but not interfering, this would be resolved?"
00:02 [Talek] "Keshin is wise. I once again propose we makehim leader." Talek back away slowly from the two combatants
00:03 [Kalan] "They will stand aside," he states with the force in him. His eyes blaze. "This touches on my personal honor now."
00:04 [ST] "I fear not, Keshin. You are a wise man, but a treacherously tainted one. In a different situation, your argument might prevail. But now... the rotted limb would kill the man." He turns to Kalan. "I shall amputate it."
00:06 [ST] Matara stands frozen, unsure. "Kalan..." she whispers, seemingly seized by the moment.
00:06 [Kalan] Kalan spins his direlance, and falls into a guard position.
00:09 [Keshin] "Perhaps you are right, and he is a cancer. Kill him now and I will not know. I will not accept you as my commander, but I will not interfere with you either. Unless you are harming the Realm, I have no fight with you."
00:10 [ST] "You should have been a monk, Ledaal Keshin," Deled says, falling back into a guard position. His limbs seem strangely fluid, light. "In a better world, perhaps."
00:10 [Keshin] The Outcasts words play in his head. Was Kalan really capable of consorting with that? If so, he needed to die. For that there was no excuse.
00:14 [Talek] "If you fools want to doom us all by murdering each other, then so be it. I shall not aid you in your suicide.Mnemnon Talek wipes his hands of this"
00:15 [Kalan] Kalan tests his fellow Dragonblooded's defenses, using his superior range to keep out of Deled's claws. He moves nimbly around the rubble, ignoring the small hand limp hand that poked out from a pile of bricks. Deled turns to keep him in view, utterly confident in his victory as Kalan lunges forward, his direlance tilted down."
00:16 [Kalan] The Outcast is at Deled's back now.
00:16 [Kalan] Shattered bricks fly from beneath Kalan's feet as he throws himself forward, and there are scattered screams as some in the crowd duck and scatter.
00:22 [ST] As Kalan's attacks come sailing in, Deled's claws flicker up to parry the strikes.
00:23 [ST] He dances back, a burst of essence rising and surrounding him. His movements grow more fluid, flickering before Kalan's eyes as he dances back amongst the rubble. At times he seems to have four, six, eight arms, like an octopus.
00:26 [Kalan] Kalan twists the butt of his spear around as Deled smacks his blows aside, slamming it hard against the man's breastplate as he retreats. Kalan steps on the Outcasts throat as he advances, crushing her windpipe.
00:27 [Kalan] Almost accidently
00:29 [Kalan] He rushes at Deled, and then rolls suddenly to the right, and Deled blinks, his hood and the smoke conspiring to cloud his vision.. For a moment, he loses track of his opponent, but it is long enough.
00:30 [Kalan] The colossus's broken arm lies together still, in three pieces, near enough a man might jump from one to another. The hand curves upward, great fingers still reaching for the sky.
00:31 [Kalan] Kalan leaps from its fingertips, a wash of essence following him downward, his direlance stretched out behind him as he falls.
00:32 [Kalan] He brings it two-handed down on Deled's head.
00:34 [ST] Deled blazes with unearthly light, his form warping like a burst of water from a decorative fountain, forcing Kalan's spear downward and away.
00:38 [ST] The blade punches through the chest of the Outcast like a scalpel through tissue paper, spearing her through the heart. She opens her mouth to scream, eyes opening wide, and voids a jet of crimson, splattering Kalan's chest and face. Deled stands to take the followup attack, a grin curling across his face.
00:43 [Kalan] Kalan's first strike may have gone astray, but its momentum carries it further, ripping the corpse to shreds and slashing in a long curved arc against Deled's breastplate.
00:44 [Kalan] The smile on his face falters as he looks down and sees dark blood welling up from a deep cut through ihs armor. He touches the wound, as if not quite certain what it is.
00:44 [ST] "You... hurt me. You actually... hurt me..." He sounds partially angered, partially incredulous. He looks at his fingers, wet with blood.
00:45 [ST] And then, he smiles. "A challenge from the dragons worthy of me, at last."
00:45 [ST] He slips sideways through the jagged rubble, a flickering shadow, a twisting wisp of water. He feints, darts in to test an attack, shifts and rolls. And then, just as Kalan falls back into a defensive position, he opens his mouth, and screams.
00:46 [ST] �"BLASPHEMER!"
00:47 [ST] The very air itself seems to ripple around him, moving outward in an ever expanding wave. Pieces of rubble fly outward, turning into deadly pieces of shrapnel. Windows a city away tremble and shatter. Wildlife roaming the plains around Kushan fall stricken to the Earth by the force of the scream... and every erg of that force descends upon Kalan.
00:55 [Kalan] Kalan stumbles as the strength of the oceans pounds against him, striking at his very soul. He raises his hands against the blow, shielding his face with his arms, and pebbles and bits of stone pummel him.
00:56 [Kalan] A line of blood seeps from his side, and Kalan lowers his arms slowly, astonished to find himself otherwise unharmed.
00:56 [Kalan] Behind him, there is no more rubble; blown away into the crowd, shattered against the building.
00:56 [Kalan] He smiles slowly. "The Dragons answer," he says, spreading his arms wide.
00:58 [ST] Deled's face is implacable as ever, but his eye twitches. Something there... doubt?
01:01 [Kalan] "It is not too late, Deled. For you to recant your unfounded accusations. To work together as the Dragons intended. Do you think it coincidence that potent warriors of all five Aspects have converged here?"
01:03 [Kalan] He had to regain some ground with the public. There was little chance of Deled accepting. He lowers his direlance, waiting for Deled's response, for an opening.
01:04 [Kalan] The man was fond enough of grandiose gestures.
01:05 [ST] "The Dragons drove me here through shadow and fire... far from where I was meant to Hunt, it is true..." He narrows his eyes. "But perhaps they brought me here to purify, to destroy. We shall see."
01:06 [Kalan] "If that is your answer, I have no choice..."
01:08 [Kalan] He lunges forward again, fiery essence spilling down his legs as he runs, kicking up a cloud of dust and pebbles. The Peleps turns, expecting him to use the opportunity to strike unexpectedly again, and Kalan slams straight into him, hurtling his shoulder against Deled's and cracking the butt of his spear hard against Deled's jaw.
01:09 [Kalan] He darts back, spinning the direlance again to thrust at the vulnerable joint at Deled's knee.
01:12 [ST] Fire darts through Deled's watery anima, sending violet jets of steam upwards around him. He is all fire and water and mist, his body dissolving in the wake of the fierce attack
01:15 [ST] Just as quickly, he rebounds, diving low between Kalan's legs, twisting along the ground as he goes. He braces his feet against a shattered and once-fine marble bedstead and leaps, sailing over Kalan's head. His twin claws hook downward toward the Fire Aspect's face.
01:18 [Kalan] Kalan drops straight downward, rolling under Deled's attack. But one attack deserves another, and as Deled lands Kalan twists around with a flash of fire, thrusting his direlance straight at Deled's unprotected back.
01:19 [Kalan] The Dragons do not smile on the ignomious assault, and it passes harmlessly through him.
01:20 [ST] Deled shifts smoothly out of the way of the attack, springing free and turning in midair. He lands on one foot, resting atop a shattered stone column, and waits.
01:22 [Kalan] Kalan charges forward, head lowered like a bull. A coronoa of fire crowns his brow, and he slams headfist into the stone column, blasting it backwards.
01:23 [Kalan] As Deled leaps upward, spinning smoothly in the air, Kalan's spear darts upwards with the Dragon's own force beneath it, pinning the graceful Immaculate like a butterfly in midair.
01:27 [ST] Deled crosses his arms before him, fire and steam once more bursting from his tightly coiled form, flame welling around him as he focuses everything into dodging the assault.
01:28 [ST] As Kalan's attack falters and slips through him, the two Dragonbloods seem to briefly hang motionless in midair. Then, Deled whispers harshly,
01:28 [ST] "No."
01:29 [ST] He descends, fists trailing streamers of bubbling blue essence, hammering away at Kalan.
01:30 [Kalan] He hits only fire, as Kalan's flesh transmutes into its natural element.
01:31 [Kalan] He passes through Kalan's substance, steaming, and as Kalan reforms he turns, and takes his vengeance in turn.
01:32 [Kalan] The two Dragonblooded twist and turn in the air, pummelling at one another, until at last Deled is directly beneath him, and he need only fall with his direlance's tip pointed downwards.
01:35 [ST] Deled twists in midair, but too late - glowing with essence, Kalan's weapon cuts a gash in his side. Droplets of water suddenly turn red, and when he strikes the ground once more, fading back into visibility, a long wound mars his left thigh.
01:36 [ST] "The Dragons... test... the faithful..." he rasps. "Come die, Kalan."
01:37 [Kalan] "Do you think yourself wise, Deled? Then surely you should heed their message."
01:38 [Kalan] Kalan is enjoying himself now, and he twirls his direlance Tongue of Flame like a quarterstaff, leaving afterimages of fire lingering in the air.
01:39 [Kalan] He plants his feet against the earth, and the earth lends him its strength; the earth, and fire.
01:40 [Kalan] A painting, somehow tossed from an apartment building by the force of Deled's fight with the Anathema, is next to his foot. Two stylized Dragons twist around each other, as if in battle or in dance.
01:41 [Kalan] Neither Dragonblooded notice as the painting begins to burn from the heat of Kalan's nearness.
01:41 [Kalan] Kalan slams into his fellow Dragonblooded with a speed propelled by essence.
01:47 [ST] Deled backpedals smoothly, picking his way through shattered figurines and the ruins of a wine rack, his body wavering once more into intangibility
01:50 [Kalan] Kalan's direlance heats up, fire burning cheerily along its length, and the watery steam and mist begins to boil. With a hissing noise, Deled coleasces, the direlance still buried in his side.
01:50 [Kalan] "Giving up, Deled?" Cathak Kalan taunts.
01:51 [Kalan] "The Dragons have spoken." He jerks his direlance roughly from the water aspect's side with a misty spray of blood.
01:52 [ST] Deled grunts, lost in the pain, stars flashing before his eyes. He thinks of his uncle, and the words, and a long, endless afternoon of training katas, pain. �This is for Dragons.
01:52 [ST] He braces his feet, blood sluicing down his legs. �This is for Dragons.
01:52 [ST] He stomps down into the rubble, sending a box of decorative glass spheres flying upward. His fists slams through it, propelling them into Kalan's face, and he follows them in, pummeling furiously.
01:53 [ST] "THIS... IS FOR DRAGONS!"
01:55 [Kalan] Once more, Kalan's essence transmutes, flashing into a roar of fire, fierce and bright as a dragon snarling in answer.
01:56 [Kalan] Once again Kalan twists around to give the Dragon's rebuke, a spearbutt delivered to the back.
01:59 [Kalan] It hits solidly, sending him flying to crash against a the collossus's broken hand. It cradles him between its massive fingers.
02:00 [Kalan] "Peleps Deled, see reason. Heed the Dragons." Kalan walks forward, wreathed in flames, the thunderous beat of essence pounding in his heart.
02:01 [ST] Deled slams his foot furiously against the palm of the shattered hand, splitting it with a great crack. As it falls to ruin behind him, he twists in the air like a torpedo, claws extended before him, essence raging about him.
02:04 [Kalan] But Kalan is smoke, he is flame and fire, and though the wind of Deled's passage scatters him, it does not undo him.
02:04 [Kalan] He reforms, stepping from his fire.
02:04 [ST] Deled lands in a long, barely controlled slide, kicking up a roostertail of debris. He whirls, fists glowing, speaking in only wordless snarls now.
02:05 [Kalan] He does not have much left, but neither can Peleps Deled, and the temptation...it is too great.
02:05 [Kalan] Deled's temper betrayed him, but his mastery of essence....his Typhoon shout....It could shatter a company, break a charge...
02:05 [Kalan] It was too great an advantage to give up. Not unless there was no choice.
02:06 [Kalan] He speaks the poisonous words not gently, but without malice; forthright and honest as a shoulder. So that Deled would never guess- that no one could ever guess- that they were dealing not with a Dragon, but a serpent in truth.
02:08 [Kalan] "You were meant to fight with us, brother. Swear to defend Kushan with us in this fight and I swear- I swear by the Dragons, by the divine blood within my veins," the blood Deled had proven to have such difficulty spilling, he doesn't say, "I swear I will meet you alone in battle again, should you still quarrel with my methods."
02:09 [Kalan] He brings his hands together in a salute in the Immaculate fashion, sticking the butt of his direlance upright in the dirt. "It is what the Dragons demand of us. It is what I demand of you."
02:09 [ST] "Your word is... nothing to me..." Deled says. His voice has a certain manic rage in it. It's obvious. He's partially enraged because of his previous argument. But he's mostly enraged at the possibility he could lose.
02:10 [ST] "Spare me your false pity! Your mockery! I need them... not... now... I tire of this game."
02:11 [Kalan] "You have lost, Deled," Kalan says coldly. "I am all but unwounded while you sink near your grave. You are an Immaculate monk! A master of Water Dragon Style! You would have beaten me easily if that is what the Dragons intended."
02:11 [Kalan] "Make no mockery of them by calling this contest a 'game' merely because you �lost�." His voice is acid.
02:12 [ST] "You do not know the ways of the dragons... trials... tests... fight me... or die." His rage has hardened within him. He would die before he would surrender willingly. "I will not fail their test."
02:15 [Kalan] "You fail them now, for the sake of your pride. Are you the Slothful Courtesean, to squander the great gifts the Dragons gave you on own stubbornness?"
02:15 [Kalan] Kalan's voice has taken on the scolding tenor of a monk, as he exactly imitates the tones of a tutor from his youth for his own amusement.
02:16 [ST] "Will you waste your breath for your own amusement? You mock our holy contest! Defend yourself, or face the fury of my attack," he snarls, darting closer.
02:19 [Kalan] Kalan grabs his direlance and holds it steady, ready to meet him. He darts closer as Pelep Deleds nears, ducking under the Dragonblooded's maddened, uncontrolled attack to strike at his side, and dig the wound deeper.
02:22 [Kalan] As he nears his elbow suddenly lashes sideways, knocking the Immaculate emblem pinned proudly to Deled's hood out among the rubble.
02:24 [ST] Essence blossoms around Deled once more, sending his anima raging out of control. He becomes mist and steam and blood, now, slipping around the assaults as he comes in for an attack
02:26 [ST] Screaming in rage, he twists sharply within the other man's guard, darting over the haft of his spears to rake at his eyes with his claws.
02:30 [Kalan] Kalan flips backwards, and Deled's claws rake only the Cathak's boots. "It is not enough, Deled," Kalan says as he lands, panting. His voice rings out over the disaster of rubble and broken buildings. "Your pathetic flailings only emphasize how wrong you are!"
02:31 [Kalan] "Do you surrender?" Kalan's last question is quiet, reserved only Deled, and strangely business-like.
02:32 [ST] "Never," Deled whispers, poisonous, defiant. He waits, arms crossed, for the end.
02:34 [Kalan] Kalan's face twists in anger. "You may well doom us all, you fool," he says, and touches the tip of his direlance to the water aspect's throat.
02:35 [Kalan] It was strangely difficult, this business of killing a fellow Dragonblooded; even one as twisted and monsterous as Peleps Deled.
02:36 [Kalan] All for pride.
02:37 [Kalan] Pride.
02:38 [Kalan] He swallows hard. "Do you surrender?" he asks one final time. His face is white, strangely strained.
02:38 [ST] "�Never."
02:39 [Kalan] Kalan laughs, and laughs, and laughs. It's a hoarse, ugly sound.
02:42 [Kalan] His direlance falls from his hand to clatter against the broken cobbles of street. "Then it seems I must," he says, and slowly, because it is difficult, his limbs stiff with resistance, he sinks to his knees.
02:42 [Kalan] He bows his head in surrender, placing his hand on his fallen direlance beside him.
02:43 [ST] "You are not vanquished... have you lost your wits, along with your convictions?" The unsteady tone in Deled's voice suggests that he might be losing his at this development.
02:45 [Kalan] He waits, stiff with tension. The red jade of the lance at his side is slick to the touch. He would sacrifice his pride if it meant victory, but not his life. Not at Deled's hands. "It is sacriledge, this business of Dragon fighting Dragon when so much is at stake," he says steadily enough.
02:46 [Kalan] "I will not kill you when you can do so much to defend Kushan. I will not sacrifice this city on the alter of my pride."
02:47 [ST] "You will yield to my demands, then? You have seen reason?" Deled takes a few steps closer. He does not mean to, but he thinks of Nikalas, the penetient, who once altered the immaculate texts by scourging himself for days on end before the holy temple...
02:49 [Kalan] "If you would not lower your weapon, I am forced to lower mine." He lifts his head, baring his teeth at his foe. "But I am not wrong. Not about the soldiers. It is blasphemous, the practices of Kushan- they presume to be as Dragonblooded to the slaves in their keeping."
02:49 [Kalan] "I am �right�, Deled. I �defeated� you," he hisses under his breath, eyes burning. "�Remember� it."
02:50 [ST] "The slaves will be disarmed, returned to their masters. This I have promised, and I do not renege on my word. And my defeat? I am not on my knees. It is not I who bend in supplication. I am unbroken."
02:50 [ST] He rests a hand on Kalan's shoulder. "Brother, if you would join me, you must admit your own defeat."
02:53 [Kalan] "Let masters be slaves and slaves become masters, if it will fulfill your vow. They are mortals. It makes no matter. Will you kill me, when for the sake of the Dragons and the Order of Creation I will not kill you?"
02:55 [ST] "That does not make you a holy Saint, Kalan. It makes you a fool. And it is not my place to tamper with that created by the dragons. They would not be slaves were it not their lot. Your interference has changed that. Accept this. Forsake them. What are they to you, brother? Only mortals, as you say. Leave them be, like a good shepard. Let them have what they have wrought, save where it
02:55 [ST] interferes with us."
02:55 [ST] "To strike against me for such a cause is beyond unseemly. It is disgusting."
02:58 [Kalan] "There must be a defense of this city, and the Citizens are incapable and too few. They are kept in power only by their monsterous Defenders, spawned by monsterous dabblings with the Wyld that itself spawned the abomination that now rules in Ghan."
03:00 [Kalan] He grates his teeth. "This is not the Order of Creation. This is a blasphemy. Surely the Dragons command the Citizen's unnatural rule over Kushan end."
03:01 [Kalan] "The city is near starving, an undead army marches - all, all a result of Kushan's blasphemy," Kalan says, chucking the Citizens wholesale into the stewpot of Deled's madness.
03:02 [ST] "They pay homage to their betters. Control their lessers. Worship the Dragons, and serve the Realm. Should I betray their trust, destroy them for the sake of Anathema-worshippers and heretics of the Hundred Gods? The Faceless Men of Ghan? Shall I trust the words of one who has walked with Anathema? I have heard the whisperings in the ranks of the Citizens. Your soldiers drink too much, see
03:02 [ST] too much. They told of your infatuation with... the creature."
03:03 [ST] "If the citizens are all you say, they shall face their reckoning in due time. But this satrapy has flourished for centuries and you... you, brother, are a new problem."
03:04 [Kalan] Kalan grates his teeth. "Speak to Keshin, then. He will confirm what I say; you yourself acknowledge he is a good man."
03:07 [Kalan] "The Citizens attempted to assasinate me. Mortals! They ignored our warnings of what was to come, consorted with the Wyld. Better an honest heretic than a hidden one."
03:07 [ST] "A good man deceived by your trickery. If you want my trust, it demands nothing less than your surrender; I have not been unclear in this. Your troops will be removed, your authority will be lost. I will distribute such things as I see fit. Your mortals will cease their meddling in the sorcerous arts... although I trust that one has already learned her lesson. Do you accept this?"
03:09 [Kalan] "The slaves will remain under arms, or this city perishes." The potential loss of his troop rankles, but they were not fools- the Cathaks at least. They would be loyal.
03:11 [ST] "They will disarm. I have promised. I will assess the danger myself. I think it has been exaggerated. This is my demand."
03:12 [Kalan] "I will not accept it," Kalan says harshly.
03:12 [ST] He turns away smoothly. "Then our duel is not finished."
03:13 [Kalan] "So it is." As Deled turns his back, Kalan rises smoothly to his feet and spears him in the back.
03:15 [ST] The spear pierces Deled through the small of the back, extending in front of him nearly a foot... but something seems... wrong. He steps forward slowly, his body warping like water, the horrible, killing damage of the wound sucked down and away... absorbed in the bottomless depths of the water dragon.
03:16 [Kalan] Kalan curses, yanking his spear away without ceremony.
03:16 [ST] "I hope," he says. "You have some essence left, or this shall be short. Bloody." He springs forward, his fists blurring into streaks of blue essence.
03:19 [Kalan] Kalan blurs into a sheet of flame one final time. Deleds blows slam through him painfully, but it is the direlance that saves Kalan., the half-materialized haft slamming down to crush Deled's fingers.
03:19 [Kalan] Kalan leaps backwards, fighting defensively, probing at Deled's defenses.
03:20 [Kalan] The waving tip of his spear drag now and then in the dirt, drawing a screen of glittering golden dust up in the air between them, concealing the final angle of the attack.
03:22 [ST] Deled staggers back under the onslaught, rasping heavily. His eyes glow with fury. "A test..." He grunts. "That's all. A test."
03:23 [Kalan] Kalan draws back his direlance two-handed, and sends the speartip slamming back down through Deled's chest.
03:23 [Kalan] He enjoys the crunchy sound of something breaking.
03:25 [ST] The spear dips a bit low, impaling Deled through the lower left gut. He grunts in pain... but then a line of determination sears itself across his forehead. He pulls himself upright, reaches forward. His fingers tighten around the shaft of the spear. "This... is for... dragons." He grunts, pulling, driving the weapon through his own body, moving closer to Kalan. He reaches for the other
03:25 [ST] man, trying to grasp him, entangle him, bear him down
03:27 [Kalan] Kalan staves off the man's flailing with the heel of his hand, contemptuously. Deled makes a squelching noise as he climbs up the spear, but it is futile, utterly futile.
03:30 [Kalan] Kalan demonstrates to him his loss. As despair enters Deled eyes, Kalan leans forward to whisper venemously in his ear, "You should have surrendered. The Outcast was telling the truth. I sent her after you, and like a bitch in heat, she went."
03:31 [Kalan] He slams his dagger, drawn from his belt, into Deled's heart, and watches the life leave his eyes. They stand there, embraced as close as lovers, for a long moment.
03:31 [Kalan] Kalan takes a moment to verify the mortals were too far away to see anything clearly, and then spits carefully in the dead monk's face. "For Tansy," Kalan says, and releases him.
03:33 [Kalan] He slumps, impaled on the direlance, until Kalan tilts it downward to shake him off.
ST's Notes: As may be apparent in the fiction here, Peleps Deled took a real ass kicking, and I remember being quite frustrated by it. Not because the player was successful (that was, after all, the point) but because Deled didn't come off as the credible and frightening threat that he should have, given his character and his build up within the campaign. He was reasonably well twinked, too, he just rolled, as I recall, TERRIBLY. I would find a way to have him remain a thorn in the PCs' sides.
