BountyOfTheSeas/Session8

BEGING CHAPTER 8
Okay, you all have staged a daring raid on the island that holds not only a major slave compound, but the personal estate of Lao the Gilded, reputed member of the Black Snakes.
Whilst Zeleny rallied the slaves to revolt, Callidora infiltrated Lao's compound with the help of a diversion courtesy of Verdant Waves.
Inside the central chambers of Lao's palace, Callidora ran afoul of Lao himself, as well as a deadly archer ambush.
Verdant has quit IRC (Connection reset by peer)
(DAMNATION.)
<Callidora> Actually, can I ask one quick question?
<Callidora> This keeps bugging me: Lao means "old" or "respected" in chinese, is Lao either of them?
<Callidora> (S is feel to correct my Chinese if I'm making an ass out of myself.)
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<Callidora> (or if I make an ass of myself for other reasons.)
(I picked the name at random, Alex, as I will for all Chinese-sounding names henceforth. Don't analyze it too much.)
<Verdant> (sorry, comp froze, did I miss anything?)
<Callidora> no, we waited for you.
<Callidora> That's cool, I wasn't criticizing you, I just keptwondering about it.
(But yes, he's old enough to pull off one of those Fu Manchu mustache/beard combos. And I suppose he's wined and dined enough powerful people to be "respected," after a fashion.)
(To continue...)

When a deadly looking stranger revealed himself, the captive Irisa in tow, Callidora had no choice but to flee amongst a deadly storm of arrows.
We rejoin our heroes as they gather on the battlefield, where the slaves' numbers have been stalemated by the guards' superior training and equipment.
The land entrance to Lao's palace, not coincidentally, serves as an excellent fortification for the guards to make their final stand.
...who gape as a golden bolt leaps over their heads and across the battle line, to where the blazing corona of Zeleny's power can be witnessed. Callidora alights...
(Take it away.)
<Verdant> A ball of wind slams into the ground near Zeleny, disspating in a surge of wind, revealing Verdant Waves, his anima shining and mathematical equations whirling around him.
Verdant stands up. "How's it going captain?"
<Zeleny> "We hold the ground, for the moment," Zeleny replies. "And your own errand?"
<Callidora> "The good news is, we know he's got Callidora"
<Callidora> "the bad news is, he's apparently sold her to a Deathknight,"
<Verdant> "I presume you mean Irisa."
<Callidora> (sorry, typo, yeah.)
Verdant looks puzzled. "A what?"
Zeleny turns sees Callidora there. He too looks puzzled.
<Callidora> ::more clearly:: "A Deathknight"
<Callidora> "Anyway, they're all camped out in there."
(Hold up a sec.)
<Callidora> (tell me when I can start up again.)
<Callidora> "I'm hoping we can take the Knight captive and interrogate him."
<Verdant> "I heard you the first time. What is a death night?"
<Callidora> "Although, having him in there is going to make this about 1000 times more difficult."
<Verdant> "Some augmented zombie?"
Callidora looks at you like 'the fuck?'
<Zeleny> "A deathknight." He reacalls vague, frightened whispers in a tavern. "Something from the Skullstone Archipelago?"
Verdant returns Callidora's expression before turning to Zeleny.
<Callidora> "err....
<Callidora> "Some people think they're Zombies."
<Zeleny> "Oh?" Zeleny's expression lightens. "Zombies won't be too difficult." Unnerving, certainly.
<Callidora> "They *might* be Zombies. That's as good a theory as any."
Callidora ponders some more, then shrugs again.
<Callidora> "They come from the Shadowlands, and they're rumored to be very powerful."
<Callidora> "I figured it was mostly exaggeration, but then I saw *him* holding Irisa like she was nothing."
<Callidora> "Now, Irisia wasn't as mighty as Phyrra, but none the less...."
<Verdant> "Urk. That's not a good sign. Though she's probably been drugged, I figure that's how the mortal assassins managed to get her, but still..."
Callidora looks up.
<Callidora> "Hey, where is Phyrra anyway?
<Zeleny> "She has not been seen on the battlefield." His expression is calm, say for a slight tightening around his eyes.
<Callidora> "you know, if Deathknights are some form of ghost..."
<Zeleny> (*save for)
<Callidora> "And Irisa was takean at night...."
<Verdant> "Someone nonchalantly holding an Exalt is either very cocky or very powerful."
<Callidora> "Maybe the Deathknight slipped through to the land of the living, abducted Irisia, and then took her to Lao through a shadowland."
Zeleny glances up at the midday sun. "It's not night now, and you say you've seen him."
<Verdant> "I was there when she was being taken away. I don't know how they subdued her, but they definitely use powders and such. Otherwise we'd still be Hoark with Irisa."
<Callidora> "Lao could have turned his throne room into a Shadowland."
(In case I forgot to mention it, Irisa's eyes definitely made it look as though she was heavily drugged.)
Verdant folds his arms. "While I appreciate the chance to stand here and recover some Essence...I don't think time is on our side."
<Callidora> "Maybe if we attack during the day, he won't be able to leave the room where I saw them?"
Niehan jogs up to the Solars, drops to one knee in salute. He is bleeding from numerous small wounds, but they don't appear to be slowing him down. "Captain!"
<Callidora> (I don't think Callidora saw that.)
<Zeleny> "Yes."
Zeleny turns immediately.
Niehan: "The liberated men are losing courage."
Zeleny nod, and excuses himself from the others.
Niehan: "This stalemate won't last long. If we lose many more, they will break and run, to be sure."
Zeleny 's eyes narrow thoughtfully. "Perhaps they will. Unless the mercenaries can be persuaded to abandon their cause, and flee..." His fingers flex.
Niehan wipes some blood out of his eyes. "Er... yessir."
Callidora looks up at Zel. "What sort of above sea life is there in this area?"
<Zeleny> "Birds. Small mammals...."
<Callidora> "There's no one below who might help us, but mortals care about each other, so they might help."
<Callidora> "I was thinking more along the lines of people."
<Zeleny> "There are no more than our allies- and our enemies- and perhaps a cowering merchant or two.."
<Zeleny> "Callidora. Attack from above. Verdant, take the flank, if you will. We're going to break the stalemate." There were only forty of the enemy, after all.
<Zeleny> Rev: Callidora: attack from above. Verdant and I will take the front. We're going to break the stalemate." There were only forty of the enemy, after all.
<Callidora> "hmmmm.....why don't both Verdant and I attack from above? You'll have the slaves with you, after all."
<Zeleny> "As you wish."
<Callidora> "I think I might be able to get Verdant up on the walls with me."
<Verdant> "Captain...I have one other option."
<Callidora> "Although getting down could be a little more....exciting."
Zeleny turns. "Oh..?"
<Verdant> "I've got enough for another spell. But, I've never actually cast this one. Should work, might not."
<Zeleny> "What does the spell do?"
<Verdant> "If it works, I think it will turn the tide."
<Callidora> "how will that help?"
<Zeleny> "But what does it do?"
<Callidora> "The tide is all the way down there!"
(*"Three Stooges" sound effects*)
<Verdant> "If it works, I will direct a wave of death towards our foes. Get your men out of my way."
<Callidora> (someone had to....)
<Callidora> "Err, what sort of wave of death?"
Verdant turns a tired gaze at Callidora. "The sharp variety."
Callidora annoyed. "Is it the kind of wave of death you can cast form behind cover?"
<Callidora> "Because if not, you're going to have adozen archers shooting at you while you chant.
<Callidora> "Someone's going to have to run interference."
<Callidora> "Actually...hey, that'll be fun!"
Verdant taps his bronzed skin. "I'll have to rely on this, and anything else you have in mind."
<Callidora> "Zel, you know how to catch arrows, right?"
Niehan, already nervous from the anima flares of his leaders, is obviously perturbed by Verdant's plan. He says nothing, however, instead running off to coordinate his men.
Zeleny nods sharply.
Zeleny need hear no more. roars orders to his men, firming the lines- and orders an orderly retreat, back twenty yards. The unnerved mercenaries let them go. His freedmen disentangled, Zeleny is about to give the nod to Verdant to begin his spell, when he sees- Dell. Kneeling on the sandy earth, cradling a bloody head.
<Callidora> (I was thinking more some *Hero* action.)
<Zeleny> Zeleny had ordered the young man to stay on the Brilliance- or rather, he realizes with slight guilt, should have ordered him. With a curse, Zeleny charges forward again- vaulting over a man wielding a wicked-looking axe, and kicking aside another with a chain wrapped around his meaty fist. He grabs the slight boy bodily, and carries him to the lines, and waits for Verdant to cast his spell.
(Whoa.)
<Callidora> (whoah.)
<Zeleny> (slight pronoun confusion, sigh. Just so it's clear, it's the merc with a meaty fist.)
Verdant plants his feet on the ground, slamming his staff upright into the earth before him. He pauses, mumuring. "Do or die time. How did it go again? oh yes..." Raising his voice, he speaks the tongue of the Old Realm. "Earth below me," he begins, as his anima flares bright once more, the calculations that run amok through his mind displayed for all to ignore.
Callidora crouches off to the side of the gateway, ready to race across the gap between the archers and verdant if need be.
Seeing the lone figure stationary before them is too much temptation for the archers atop the walls, and they let loose with a salvo at the (relatively) defenseless Verdant Waves.
Callidora flips forward into the air, rolls into a sphere, spinning wildly.
Callidora wind whips around her, her speed is faster than the eye can follow. She leaps through the path of the arrows,
Callidora encompassing them in her vortex
Zeleny stands with his men. He watches Callidora, a slight sense of unacknowledged awe rising in him to see her effortlessly deflect the missles. Except for- Zeleny didn't know much about sorcery, but he did know that it was probably a bad thing to get hit amidst a casting.
Verdant continues chanting as a circle of white Essence forms at his feet. Essence seeps upward, forming a spasming ball in before Verdant. His face contorted in concentration, Verdant continues chanting, forcing the ball into a perfect sphere, that then turns darker as his voice becomes more confident, the equations begin to solve themselves, to coalesce into a slowly forming banner of Old Realm words above Verdant's head.
<Callidora> meanwhile, spasming ball is a good description of Callidora, as she lands on the ground and rolls a few more feet past the gate entrance
(Ha ha ha!)
Verdant 's anima banner whips about his body as he calls out, "and give my enemies the," and then he raises his voice to a roar, the words above his head sharpening into focus as his voice cries them out. "Death of Obsidian Butterflies!". The black orb in front of him shatters like glass, each fragment a beatiful work of art in its own way. Beautiful--and deadly, for each is a butterfly of obsidian, each one flies almost faster than the eye can follow
The Death of Obsidian Butterflies hits the fortification like a tidal wave, scouring men from their ramparts, scouring flesh from their bones.
Any man exposed to the spell has been killed outright, or is so grievously injured that he will likely never move from his resting place.
Verdant staggers backward, breathing heavily.
A few helmeted heads poke over the walls, fear in their eyes and blood on their faces. They are the few who were spared the ravages of Verdant's spell.
There is a stunned silence on both sides of the battlefield.
<Zeleny> "Surrender," Zeleny advises them simply. "Place your weapons over there..."
<Zeleny> He has to fight to keep his face impassive.
Then the ex-slaves let out a great roar, charging forward into the breach, eager for the heads of the remaining guards.
<Zeleny> "Halt!" Zeleny voice cracks like...well, like a whip.
<Zeleny> But he knows from experience- few things are more dangerous than a mob.
The mob screeches to a sheepish halt, almost against its will. A few, the forerunners, were unlucky enough to step on the shattered remnants of the Butterflies.
Their howls of pain serve as deterrent enough for the rest of the slaves. Their feet are bare or pitifully wrapped; the broken black glass forms an uncrossable moat for them.
<Zeleny> "You have one chance," Zeleny tells the few remaining guards. "You can surrender, now. Or you can be torn to pieces."
Shaken, and confronted with a glowing godling, the guards willingly toss down their arms and allow themselves to be bound by Zeleny's crewmen.
Callidora pulls the arrow out of her, wincing furiously. She stands up and starts to stalk around the corner."
<Callidora> "Whoever shot that at me is going to.....oh"
<Callidora> "jeez. Well, I guess that one's been taken care of!"
Callidora looks at Verdant, impressed and a tad frightened."
<Callidora> (err, no ")
Callidora mutters "I guess I should have studied math, after all."
Verdant leans on his staff, panting.
Zeleny nods. He had never seen such- instant devastation. Such total devastation. Before such powers....men were mere rag dolls to be torn apart.
<Zeleny> He doesn't look at Verdant. Instead, he calmly crosses the sea of broken glass and men's insides. He glances around for more opposition.
<Callidora> "Well, I guess we had better get going. I want to deal with the Zombie thing before night falls."
The courtyard is littered with the remnants of the palace's defense. Nothing living remains to be seen here.
If guards still live, they are Lao's personal bodyguards, and they are inside the palace.
<Callidora> "Let's go."
Zeleny turns back to his men. "Niehan. You're in charge of the camp. Keep them organized, and fortify the compound as well as you can. Toad, see if you can get the ships operational again, and organize crews. I'm going inside."
The lieutentants salute, perhaps half-heartedly.
Verdant uses his staff as he tiredly walks, following. He knows his resources are depleted. But there is no choice, only duty. The job must be finished.
As the slaves realize that they have won their freedom, a cheer rises up.
They very studiously avoid looking too closely at the inner courtyard as Niehan's men herd them back towards the beach, where they may finally rest.
Zeleny watches them go, and sighs. He suddenly feels very weary. "Ready?" he asks Callidora and Verdant.
Verdant sighs. "As I'm going to be. I've got one shot left captain, if that."
<Callidora> "Let's go."
The inside of the palace is deserted, and eerily silent.
<Callidora> "Try to leave Lao and his buddy alive, I'd like to chat with them later."
The cushions of the harems are vacant, the opium dens are no longer filled with smoke.
<Zeleny> "Leave them alive?" Zeleny does not seem enthusiastic about this plan.
<Zeleny> He walks through the luxurious, empty rooms with an expression of undisguised contempt.
Callidora insistent. "Yeah. If you don't want them, I know some people who would like to have a chat."
<Zeleny> "I do want them. They should die. They have earned it a thousand times over."
<Verdant> "There's a large number of reasons they should be punished most severely and permanently just now celebrating the fact they have their lives and freedom back.
Callidora not convinced. "Listen, you can't liberate all the slaves in Creation personally.
<Zeleny> "Can't I?"
Callidora stops walking, looks at Zeleny, puzzled.
<Callidora> "You're kidding?"
Verdant lets out a tired chuckle. "Hey, I said he's a world-changing Exalt of the most eccentric sort earlier, remember?"
<Verdant> "What part of 'world-changing' didn't sink in?"
<Callidora> "God like power may be new to you, but I grew up around the actual *gods*."
<Callidora> "And as great as we are, we need to see the big picture."
Zeleny looks suddenly austere. "Slavery is an abomination. I will fight it, and I will end it." He kicks a small, exquisitely carved end table across the room to shatter against a wall. "How large is this damned palace?"
<Callidora> "We've got all the learning of the Inestimable Court and a might Sorceror, and we don't have a slightest clue what that *thing* in there is."
Zeleny gives her a look that says so?
Callidora leaps up into the air, kicks the chandlier in the same manner.
Callidora Arn't you curious as to who or what can kidnap a Solar Exalt?
<Zeleny> "We find it. We kill it. Though I fear Lao may have escaped us." He opens another door violently, and proceeds through it.
Callidora "Arn't you curious as to who or what would kidnap a Solar Exalt?"
Callidora instantly recognizes the room that Zeleny has stumbled into. This is the receiving room, where Lao had sat not 20 minutes earlier.
Callidora furious "God damn it! I'm not going home empty handed!"
Callidora looks up. Seeing the empty room takes the wind out of her.
Callidora Somehow, she had been expecting that they would be waiting for them.
Zeleny glances at her. "This is where you met Lao and the - 'deathknight'?"
Verdant looks about. "Gaudy," he murmurs.
Callidora Cheers up a bit at Verdant's remark. "You should have seen the knight's armor. All black and whispering."
Verdant whips around at that remark. "What? It spoke?"
Callidora "Not spoke, just whispered."
Zeleny 's eyes move over the furniture, rest on the doors.
Callidora "I think it was some small God of death he had bound into his service."
<Zeleny> "We're not through yet." Zeleny begins to run, kicking through a door at random.
Verdant looks a bit ill. "Did it sound like more than one voice?"
<Zeleny> And another, and another.
<Zeleny> "Where the hell are you hiding!" he roars.
<Zeleny> Whirls suddenly.
<Zeleny> "Callidora. The sea door. Where is it?"
<Callidora> (I don't think there is a Sea door.)
<Callidora> (st?)
(That would presumably be the way that Callidora came in - the ocean entrance. The docks.)
<Zeleny> (that's what I meant, yes)
<Callidora> "Right!"
<Zeleny> "What fools we are. They're getting away."
Callidora sprints off inanother direction.
Zeleny chases after her.
(Another direction? As in, one chosen at random?)
Verdant sighs and follows as fast as his tired body will let him.
<Zeleny> (as in, towards the docks, I think)
(South, then.)
<Callidora> (as in towards the docks, but without pointing)
Bursting from the dim, heavily perfumed corridors of the pleasure domes, the midday sun is blinding.
The sea is a sheet of sunlight, on which the black ship seems an abomination, something that nature would not tolerate.
<Callidora> About how far out?
<Zeleny> (or still at dock? pretty please?)
Angling out of the docks but heading in the opposite direction is a ship so sublimely ostentatious it must be Lao's personal barge, loaded with his favored servants and bodyguards.
The barge wallows through the sun-soaked waves, but the black ship cuts a path so straight and true it is though it is being pulled by some inexorable force eastward.
Verdant jogs after his Circlemates. Looking at the two ships, he sighs. "Oh, great."
<Callidora> on the topic, where's *our* boat?
<Zeleny> (other side of the island)
(They're long docks, and the Deathknight's ship was probably moored in close. It just cleared the end of the docks. By the time you can race down there, if you've got some mondo Athletics leap, you might be able to reach the black ship.)
<Zeleny> Rage at Lao still burns hot in Zeleny, and he hardly spares a glance for the sleek black ship. Instead, he calls on the Sun's power coiled within him, and wraps it around his fist. Light blazes, and he chases it- sprinting across the docks, down the pier, and finally leaps across the small gap of water, and plants his fist into Lao's cheek, knocking him off the barge and into the water.
Callidora sprints along the beach like a cheetah after prey.
Callidora as she runs, she kicks up sand. The sand continues after her as she sprints along the docks
Callidora and leaps in an arc like a cannon shot off the docks and onto the black ship
The deck of the black ship is eerily silent. The only sound is the wind whipping through the angular sails and the water rushing past the sides.
It is a relatively small craft for long journeys, but this may be mitigated by its incredible speed.
Verdant pushes his body to its limits, gasping out, "Sun..*pant*..give..*pant*...me...*pant*...strength!" Nearing the end of the docks, he slams his staff onto the boats, using it to vault towards Lao's boat. "Captaaain!"
<Callidora> (ha!)
Zeleny turns. His fists are clenched, eyes wild.
(Hold up, lemme deal with the black ship first.)
Callidora looks around for a way to sneak into the ship's innards, preferably quietly.
As she stalks across the deck, Callidora discovers a single crewman, standing perfectly still near the bow of the ship.
Callidora Having grown up with nothing but noise and hustle, the eery beauty of the black ship is completly lost on her.
Though she has made no sound, the crewman turns slowly to look directly at her.
His clothes are austere and dark, and his hands and face are covered in white cloth.
<Callidora> Does he look like the earlier deathknight at all?
(No.)
Callidora At something of a loss for words.
The crewman makes no movement nor sound.
...but, as Callidora stands facing him, more crewman emerge silently from belowdecks.
The first was unarmed, but these have ornate long-bladed knives at their sides.
<Callidora> Are they vaguelly mortal?
Their clothes are identical to the first, and their faces are similarly obscured.
(Sure. They move and look like people.)
Callidora takes a deep breath, and prepares to do something extremly stupid.
"You're not preparing to do something stupid, I pray?"
Callidora Callidora charges the crewmen, jumps over to the stairway from which they're emerging.
Callidora leaps down it, 'rappling' down the ceiling of the stairway and into the hold.
Massive sword loosely held in massive gauntlet, the armored figure from Lao's palace stands in the same hatchway as the other figures. He watches, casually bemused, as Callidora vaults over his head and down into the ship.
<Callidora> Ok. I'm not stopping to sight see or chat.
Armored Man: "Ah. Quite sensible, I see. I appreciate your ardent desire to surrender."
<Callidora> I'm running around the hold like a bat out of hell, trying to find Irisa
As she races around the cramped quarters of the dark ship, the figure's rasping whisper carries down the hallways like a ghost on the wind. "There is only this exit from the ship. You are quite thoroughly trapped."
<Callidora> Visual images don't float quite as well, but if t hey did, the Deathknight would see Callidora flipping him off.
<Callidora> She keeps looking.
Finally, Callidora finds Irisa - chained very thoroughly to a bulkhead, and drugged or beaten into unconsciousness.
(Back to Lao's pleasure barge!)
Chaos reigns on Lao's ship, as some of his manservants attempt to fish him out of the water, others attempt to fight off the invaders, and harem girls run screaming in every direction.
Colorful pillows and their feathers fly through the air.
Verdant lands in a crouch with a large thump, the boards underneath creaking and groaning.
Verdant stands, looking about for the other source of the sun's light on this ship...
Two meaty guards throw themselves on top of Verdant Waves, short swords still sheathed in these close quarters.
<Verdant> "I don't have time for you." Verdant's staff emphasizes his point.
Blood and teeth decorate the colorful deck, and one of the guards is flipped over the railing backwards into the sea.
Verdant bellows out, "Captain! Zeleny, where are you?" as he looks about, trying to find sense in the chaos.
Zeleny is standing on one side of the barge, an oar in hand. He has pushed Lao deep into the water, and under the barge, where Zeleny expects he will drown. He knocks another guard aside, and says "Yes?" His voice carries easily over the din.
Callidora has quit IRC (Ping timeout)
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MeiRen is now known as Callidora
Verdant draws upon the strength of desperation and runs to Zeleny. "Captain, why did you board this ship?"
(Sorry, had to go AFK for a sec.)
<Zeleny> "Lao was getting away," Zeleny replies mildly. "After what he did- what I saw in that camp- " He grits his teeth, and drops the oar.
<Verdant> "Great. We need to go. Now."
<Zeleny> He seems to have calmed down since his wild charge, but appearances can be deceptive.
Zeleny frowns, is about to say something cutting, and suddenly notices- "Where's Callidora."
<Verdant> "That, among other things, is why we need to go. You see that black boat?"
<Zeleny> "Yes. Moving fast."
<Verdant> "Want to guess where Irisa and Callidora are?"
<Zeleny> "Damn her," Zeleny says without heat, as he realizes Callidora decided to assault the black ship without aid.
<Zeleny> His eyes narrow as he calculates the distances. It was possible he could....
<Verdant> "That's right. She tried to save a fellow Exalt. Now, let me tell you something."
<Zeleny> "No time," Zeleny interrupts him.
<Verdant> "I'm running low, but I do have one more shot. You want to be on that boat?"
<Zeleny> "Yes."
Callidora frantically starts picking the locks on Irisia
Irisa moans faintly.
Zeleny 's hands tighten. "Can you get me on the ship?"
Callidora stares incredulously at the chains that bind her companion. They appear to have been forged around Irisa's wrists and ankles as solid pieces - they have no locks to pick.
<Callidora> hmmm....what is she chained to, again?
(A bulkhead, whatever that is.)
<Zeleny> ("Hey, the chains may be soulsteel. But the hull isn't!)
<Callidora> I'm not trying to let her move so much as grab her and run.
<Callidora> good question. anyone know?
<Verdant> "That's what I just said I can do. I won't be able to do much else. It's all up to you captain. Show them the Sun's strength." With that Verdant begins chanting, calling the winds about himself and Zeleny.
<Verdant> Once more, the Stormwind Rider takes flight, rocketing after the black ship, leaving twin waves in its wake as it roars across the water, carrying two Exalts into battle.
Verdant manages to speak quickly as he directs the spell. "No time for a slow landing! Brace yourself!"
Masked figures await the two Solars, arrayed on the deck in a fan, wicked knives drawn and ready.
Callidora meanwhile, a smiling sprite sprints under the deck
Callidora flits up the stairs
(The stairs where the deathknight waits?)
<Callidora> The deathknight is right at the top of the stairs?
Verdant sends the sorcerous conveyance screaming into the masked creatures, the winds shoving two aside as the Solars land, crouched, on the far side of the figures. Solars and figures alike whirl about to face each other.
<Callidora> I've got that right?
(Right at the bottom, until the Stormwind Rider lands.)
<Callidora> (perfect)
Zeleny leaps, a dervish from the whirlwind. He pulls khatars from his boot as he spins in the air; opening the throat of one as he slices through the gut of another.
<Callidora> The Deathknight sees the Callidora race up in a blurry. A mischeivous face stops pauses before him for a split second.
The first masked figure nearly has its head removed by the khatar, but Zeleny catches only air on his second attack.
Callidora Callidora reaches her hand forward and reaches her hand through the chinks in his armor like water flowing through rocks
Callidora's magically augmented theft is fruitless - if Irisa's chains have a key, it does not exist on this creature.
Verdant sweeps his staff, hitting one of the figures in the legs before swinging the staff up, and down onto the masked creature's head.
The deathknight stares down at the unfathomable woman before him.
With a casual backhand, he sends her flying across the tiny room, before turning to deal with her intrusive companions.
<Callidora> I scream something insulting about his genitals.
Three of the masked crewmen aboard ship have been bested by the Solars. The two that were knocked down have regained their feet, leaving four in total arrayed against the shining warriors.
...joined by the towering figure of the deathknight, sedately climbing into the bright sunlight, the wind running through his short, pale hair with little effect.
The black cloth that covers his entire face flaps with the passage of the wind, but never seems to reveal more than the tiniest patch of unhealthy-looking skin.
Zeleny kicks a masked creature in the chest, sending it stumbling into the creature behind it. He notes the entrance of the deathknight warily, dropping into a crouch, his punch-daggers held out before him like two fangs.
Verdant notices the deathknight. "I'm gonna guess that's the bogeyman there. The night death."
<Verdant> "Deathknight. Whatever."
Callidora Callidora, not happy, wearily picks herself up and walks towards the stairs.
He gives the tiniest inclination of his head, to acknowledge the shining marvel that is the resplendent Verdant Waves. "You may call me the Shroud of Nightbane's Venom."
He hefts his massive sword, dragging the tip along the deck of the ship with a horrible noise. When he stands with it by his side, it is nearly six feet long, and absurdly wide as well.
<Verdant> "Nice to know that you're a down-to-earth guy, no need for pretense. Excuse me." One end of the staff, then the other slam into one of the masked creatures that was attempting to sneak up behind Verdant.
The masked crewmen stumble backwards, each collapsing quietly against the banisters of the ship.
Shroud: "...stop."
The few standing crew cease all movement, knives held limply.
He turns his head slightly to take in Callidora, wearily trudging up the stairs towards him.
Shroud: "Stay there."
Zeleny waits in his crouch, every muscle tense as he waits for the attack he is sure is coming. "You are outnumbered," Zeleny observes.
<Verdant> "Somehow, I don't think he's going to invite us in for tea."
<Callidora> not wearily so much as pissed off.
<Callidora> Callidora doesn't really get tired.
Shroud: "You are outmatched."
(Touché.)
<Zeleny> He did not know what this deathknight was, but some buried instinct revolted from its presence. "But we will not permit you to hold our comrade, nevertheless."
Verdant mutters to Zeleny. "Careful. That sword and the armor are soulsteel. It's a magical material, I don't know what it'll do, but it can't be good."
Shroud: "And I will not permit you to take her. This small one-" He gestures to Callidora. "-stays as well."
Shroud: "She -is- one of the Sun-Touched, yes?"
Zeleny snarls. "She will not." And he lashes out with a power he did not know he had, until now; striking not with blades or fists, but with sheer sun-essence.
<Zeleny> (ack, forgot to de-italicize)
Verdant lashes out at another masked figure behind him upon seeing Zeleny's anima flare.
The lance of light, so bright it leaves afterimages even in the Solars' eyes, pierces the body of the deathknight. He does not scream: perhaps he can no longer feel pain. But he does hiss, and when the beam disappears after a split-second, he falls to one knee, suporting himself with his sword.
Shroud speaks, and perhaps his voice sounds slightly more cautious now. "An interesting trick, 'Blasphemous.' But not enough, it seems."
Zeleny 's grip on his khatars tightens. "Verdant. Callidora. Get Irisa out. Punch through the hull if you need to. I....will keep this thing busy."
<Zeleny> His voice shakes slightly- a crack in his imperturbable facade.
An alien noise emanates from Shroud's mask. Laughter?
Verdant glances at the sun, murmuring tiredly, "I hope you have something in mind, cause I'm already getting a bit old for this." His gaze jerks to the deathknight as it makes it mocking noise, then back to the sun. "Yes, I suppose that does require surviving that long."
<Zeleny> "I am not the one on my knees, creature." And Zeleny attacks, lunging forward and leaping over the enormous sword and jabbing his punch daggers down, to screech against the metal of the deathknight's armor.
With uncanny speed, the massively armored figure rushes the shining Zenith.
Verdant nervously murmurs, "Sun give me strength..." as he rushes at the stairway to below decks. As he passes the abomination, he lashes out with his staff, hoping to at least distract the creature as he dashes by.
Even as he moves against Zeleny, Shroud's massive sword flickers out to intercept Verdant's half-hearted attack.
Callidora A plan formed in Callidora's mind. Smiling, she walked back to where Irisa sat.
Callidora Calmly, she plucked a strand of Irisia's hair, and wove it around her staff.
Callidora quickly, she removed her magical dress and set it aside, leaving a loose slip beneath, showing off Callidora's surprisingly ordinairy body.
Callidora held up her head. "KENAMI! Oh Merciful dreamer, we pray to you! Look upon this, your only begotten daughter!"
Callidora "Look how she is loved. The Courts of water honor her! The Lords of Death honor her!"
Callidora "the Unconquered Sun, Highest of all the Gods, has sent his champions to protect her!"
Callidora "The Sun, distant in his glory and impartial in his light, has chosen your daughter alone to honor!"
Callidora "Surely her mother loves her no less? Surely her mother will lift her great hand for a moment, to help her?"
Callidora "For it is the nature of all things to help their children. None could censor you for helping your daughter now!"
Callidora "With these sacrifices, I beseech you."
Callidora "Here, I give you my one weapon. Humble though it be, it is my protection and my light, and now I need it more than ever, for I am in a very dark place. But willingly I give it to you."
Callidora cracks the staff over her knee.
Callidora "And hear is my robe and my token of office from the Infallilbe Courts of Remembered Coral! Willingly, I give you this token."
Callidora tears up the dress.
Callidora "And hear, a strand of her hair, I offer you. I pray that this is all I may offer. For I fear that if help does not soon arrive, her body too shall be offered up to Hades on a funeral pyre."
Callidora Callidora touches the hair to her forehead. As her Anima erupts, the hair is burned in brilliant blue flame.
Callidora anima fills the room with wavering light. A golden circlet appears on her head. The room seems to be under a clean sea at noon, and the light wavers on the walls."
After Callidora's prayer, as her light fades away and Irisa's head lolls with the rocking of the ship, the silence is deafening.
Slowly, however, the outline of Irisa's body seems to change. It takes on misty appearance, as if not entirely solid.
As she begins to evaporate, the change speeds up, so that within mere seconds Irisa has disappeared. Her chains clatter to the floor, empty.
All that remains are a few lonesome bubbles hanging in the air.
Then they, too, vanish.
<Callidora> (awesome!)
<Callidora> (Would a spirit detecing glance be totally out of the question?)
(Not at all. But it reveals nothing.)
<Callidora> (Good, that's what I wanted to make sure.)
Callidora prostates before the pillar, starts bowing and thanking.
Shroud of Nightbane's Poison advances on his smaller opponent like a charging bull - to Zeleny's eyes, the deathknight appears as an onrushing mass of soulsteel.
Lightning quick, the giant sword rises, falls, and cuts across at neck height, but Zeleny weaves aside, deftly deflecting the blows with his khatars.
In the next instant, the armored titan whirls, sword held out nearly at arms' length. The flat of his massive weapon catches Zeleny squarely in the chest; he barely has time to absorb some of the blow with his khatars before he is hurled bodily from the deck of the ship.
As he surfaces, Zeleny can see the armored figure disappear into the depths of his nightmare vessel.
<Callidora> yay
Inside, Callidora and Verdant Waves come face to face with an undead engine of destruction. The only mercy is that in these quarters, his daiklaive is too large to use without tearing the ship asunder.
Verdant looks at Irisa's bonds. "All right, let's go back up to Zeleny so we can..." Turning, he sees the deathknight and draws up short. "Run!"
Callidora runs.
The only sound the deathknight makes is the massive plates of soulsteel clashing together, moaning their endless lamentations, as he gives chase through the narrow corridors of the boat.
Callidora and Verdant Waves have the speed advantage, however, and burst into the radiance of the sun ahead of their pursuer.
Verdant bolts. "Feet don't fail me now!"
Verdant looks at the sun as he runs towards the railing. "Boy am I glad to see you," he murmurs as he dives off the side.
Shroud's ever-peaceful voice rises up to the fleeing Solars. "Stop them."
The masked crewmen make to grab Callidora as she escapes.
Callidora leaps 30 feet up into the air at an angle, then jackknifes into the water.
Even those crewmen that had their spines broken or their heads smashed gesture feebly towards the scantily-clad Callidora.
As the Solars begin the long, painful process of swimming back to Lao's former island, they can see the dark ship rapidly fading into the distance.
It is little comfort, however; the Circle has had its first run-in with the greatest evil Creation has to offer, and two of their number are still missing.
And so the sun sets.
<Callidora> (with V's skin bronze, he walks heavily along the bottom, as Z swims tiredly and C darts back and forth, carrying messages and teasing the two men.)
(Heh heh heh!)
END CHAPTER 8