DKDragons/SessionTen
17:22 [ST] In the hidden tunnel behind the tapestry, Little Scorpion thrashes halfheartedly in Kalan's grip, her eyes wide with fear, a trickle of blood still trickling down her forehead. The Fire Aspect holds a makeshift gag against her mouth, muffling her cries.
17:22 [ST] Avaku looks on with an expression of muted disgust. Leen's expression is unreadable behind her now-filthy mask, caked with spots of blood.
17:25 [Keshin] Keshin ignores the proceeding, tasking himself with keeping watch while the . . necessary action was taken.
17:27 [Kalan] Kalan prods the back of her shoulders. "You're going to take us to the Crucible of Wood now," he reminds her. Children were sometimes forgetful, he remembered hazily from hearing of his own daughter's progress in the Immaculate Doctrine.
17:29 [ST] Little Scorpion nods slowly, but is hesitant to comply. She doesn't know the way through these tunnels, after all.
17:30 [ST] Leen speaks up. "I am not certain if there is a passage between the towers. We may need to exit this tower and cross the courtyard. Most likely there is a passage to the other tower somewhere below, but the creature that lives there is now enraged, and the way broken. Going into its lair again might mean our deaths."
17:31 [ST] She cocks her head to one side. "This perturbs me less than it would have before you saw my face."
17:34 [Kalan] Kalan grimaces. "We could kill a a few Defenders and don their armor," he suggests without great enthusiasm.
17:35 [Kalan] He tightens his grip on Scorpion. "Or squash a few vermin."
17:36 [ST] The girl writhes against his grip.
17:36 [Keshin] "It would certainly be easier to fight our way through here than try to pass by Legion."
17:38 [Kalan] Kalan nods "Then we find a few to kill," he says.. He squints through the wall.
17:43 [ST] The corridor beyond is quiet for now. Leen beckons the group ahead down another winding passage. For several moments, the Dragonbloods move through the tunnels looking for an opportune target. After climbing a few levels, Leen gestures to a viewing slit in the wall.
17:44 [ST] On the other side, six of the Vermin are gathered around a door. Two seem to be standing at attention - the others are involved in a lively game of dice, a variation on the old Thorns rules called Winter's Bastard.
17:45 [ST] "We'll be in trouble if Spider catches us at this," one of the ones by the door protests. "There's commotion down in the courtyard. We should report-"
17:47 [ST] "Spoken like a true baby," the stout faced woman bending over the dice counters. "You're as green as grass, Louse. I was in the Thornguard. I don't care who the hell is in charge of your army, you don't volunteer for �anything.� Be glad he forgot us."
17:48 [Kalan] Kalan pushes Scorpion to the floor, and she lands with a thump. He catches Avaku's eye, and indicates one of the men by the door.
17:49 [ST] "Hells," another of the gamblers, his lips pale with qat, answers. "Be glad we ain't gotta wear one of them suits. They don't work right."
17:49 [ST] Avaku nods silently. His daiklave whispers from its sheath.
17:51 [Kalan] He makes a gesture to Leen, and as the door swing silently open he bounds through it, his spear opening a geyser in the chatty door guard's throat before he even sees the invader.
17:52 [ST] "Hey, did you guys hear someth-" The man with the qat lips starts to say. As he sees the body fall, he falls backwards off his haunches. The dice clatter out of his hand.
17:54 [ST] Avaku springs through the gap behind Kalan, his reaver daiklave as nimble as a twig in his hand. He lashes out with it, chopping into the middle of the other door-guard's head. Everything above the man's eyes shears away in a burst of blood.
17:55 [Kalan] Kalan spins, the tip of his direlance tearing out a hunk of flesh from the man's throat and spraying blood across the floor. "Remember," Kalan calls to the others. "Hit them in the throat or face."
18:01 [Kalan] As one of the seated men yanks frantically at his sheathed sword, Kalan whips his direlance around horizontally and crushes his head, sending him careening into a woman raising an axe. She yelps as the tip of the direlance follows, slamming into his head.
18:02 [Talek] An arrow slices cleanly across the jugular, sending blood spurting onto the cards, before hitting the dirt floor and impaling a rat as it skitters by. "I hate vermin"
18:02 [Keshin] Keshin moves into the room once the others have cleared the door. He immediately identifies the one closest to his own height and size, and engages him, swinging at his neck with his blade reversed, trying to crush his neck. The armor would be uncomfortable enough without being covered in blood.
18:04 [ST] Keshin's attack strikes the man across the face, breaking his neck with a loud crack. His head jerks sideways, a gout of blood spewing from his mouth to strike the far wall and remain there, livid, as the man falls.
18:04 [ST] The anteroom has rapidly become an abbatoir, the bodies of the Vermin lying broken and still.
18:05 [ST] The sound of quiet, muffled sobbing comes from the passageway. Little Scorpion.
18:12 [Talek] "Leen will you slap her across the face for me?"
18:12 [Kalan] Kalan crosses the room to the where the man with the crushed head lay all entangled with a woman. He sorts them out, and unsnaps the armor hastily. It would fit, he guesses. Its owner lays sprawled awkwardly in a white shift, dead eyes staring.
18:13 [ST] Leen only grunts, kneeling over the girl's prone form, her knife drawn. Her presence does not seem to be adding much to Little Scorpion's comfort.
18:13 [Talek] Talek strips down and puts on the hideous, stained armor with great distaste. "There are 100 kinds of life living in in this armor, most of them bacterial, but there are a surprising quantity of insects in the lining."
18:14 [Talek] "And I believe a rodent of some nature in the toe of that suit." he says gesturing at the armor Kalan had selected
18:15 [Keshin] Kalan peeled it off its dead owner. It stank, but at least it wasn't sticky with blood. The owner hadn't been sweating recently, so the lining was crusty rather than damp. It would do.
18:15 [Kalan] Kalan shakes his armor and a little white mouse tumbles indignantly out. It squeaks in irritation, and disappears under a table. Kalan grunts, and dons it, slapping his red jade on the table.
18:16 [ST] Avaku dons a suit of dented armor silently. It's a bit too small, but it hadn't fit its previous owner, either.
18:17 [ST] He flexes rust-flecked gauntlets. "Good enough. Our equipment?"
18:18 [Kalan] "We've seen a few Vermin packing up. Drop it in a couple crates and carry it to the Crucible."
18:19 [ST] The fighting has knocked the door ajar, revealing a room full of barrels, crates, and boxes. Some kind of storeroom, obviously.
18:20 [ST] In one corner is an odd contraption of bone-and-soulsteel, leaning against the wall in a collection of thin struts and plates.
18:21 [Keshin] Keshin cuts holes through a carfully positioned stack of boxes to get his Daiklave hidden properly. He makes sure the top of the top crate is loose, so he could get at the hilt in need, and then packs his armor carefully around the blade.
18:24 [Kalan] Eyeing the thing warily, Kalan drags out a long deep box that is revealed to be full of long, thin iron spikes. He drops his direlance inside, the armor on top, and then the iron bar. He narrows his eyes as he realizes the tip of it poked thorugh. He'd have to kill anyone who got close.
18:31 [Talek] "Do you think this armor was meant to be worn by Exalts or mortals?"
18:31 [Talek] "I can't understand why they would give magical armor to mortals"
18:31 [Talek] "Or how they would attune to it in the first place."
18:34 [Keshin] "It looks like it was designed to be worn by mortals. An Exalt's armor wouldn't interfere with him like that. Too risky, with too little benefit I would guess. But they wouldn't care at all about the mortal wearer of this."
18:35 [Talek] "But then how the hell does this Craven person manufacture enough suits for a decent sized mortal force?"
18:36 [Talek] "She can't be making them all by hand if she's just going to give them away to these jokers" he nudges a decapitated head with his armored boot
18:36 [Kalan] "If they have one they'll have more," Kalan says, kicking his crate closed. "Only freaks and monsters serve the Mask, it seems."
18:36 [Keshin] "We just destroyed a machine that produced thousands of artifact books. She could have made something similar for these."
18:37 [Talek] "But that's just a book! Why I could make a printing press myself in an afternooon. But armor?"
18:37 [Talek] "I want to know how she's doing it."
18:39 [ST] As the Dragonbloods file back into the passage, pulling the corpses after to hide them, Leen hauls the prone and sobbing Scorpion up violently and pulls her after as she takes the lead once more.
18:39 [Keshin] "I would hazard to guess that she is better than you at this."
18:43 [ST] With the extra encumbrance of the boxes, traveling is somewhat more difficult, but these passages seem built for aesthetic comfort almost as much as they were espionage. Soon enough, Leen opens another secret passage into a small, deserted storeroom.
18:44 [ST] "This is the closest I can get you to the ground. You should only be a few floors up. I will wait here, and hope that you are successful. Will you be taking the child?"
18:44 [ST] The unspoken alternative hangs heavy in the air.
18:45 [Kalan] "We'll tie her up and knock her on unconscious," says Kalan, succumbing to cowardice. "Leave her in the tunnels."
18:46 [Keshin] "Leen, you deal with her if she starts to wake."
18:46 [ST] Scorpion shakes her head frantically, clearly not wanting to be left with Leen.
18:49 [Keshin] Keshin quirks an eyebrow. "And you will be good if we bring you with us?"
18:49 [ST] She tugs at the gag, pulling it down. "I-... I... I promise."
18:55 [Kalan] Kalan ruffles her hair idly. "Remember what happens when you aren't," he tells her. "Let's go."
18:56 [ST] She nods. "Just don't hurt him. Don't."
18:56 [Keshin] "Good." He pushes her towards Talek. his bow was in a long flat box. It would look more natural for the two of them to be carrying it together than for anyone else to be holding her.
18:57 [Keshin] "If they don't notice us, we won't have to kill them."
18:57 [Keshin] Possibly.
18:58 [ST] Talek takes one side, bearing the brunt of the weight, and so goes ahead when Little Scorpion takes the lead, through the door, down a narrow hall, and down a broad flight of stairs. Vermin make way for her and do not question her passage - her position as Iron Spider's favorite has garnered her that much.
18:58 [Kalan] "They won't have an opportunity to kill us, you mean." With a grunt, Kalan heaves his long box on his shoulder. "I have no objection to killing them."
18:59 [Keshin] Keshin balances the pile of three boxes in front of him, holding them from the bottom, and peering about the right side as they topped his head. He just grunts in reply.
19:00 [ST] The courtyard is a riot of activity, with Vermin dashing this way and that, shouting commands to the Defenders and the Harrowed, those residents of Ghan who have recovered from their initial bout of madness and set about other, strange duties.
19:01 [Kalan] Kalan keeps his head down and walks with the kind of surly hunched stride common to soldiers stuck with hauling duty. He would have whipped a legionaire who showed such disrespect, but he didn't expect such high standards among the Vermin. He keeps a wary eye out for Iron Spider; the last thing they needed was the girl indulging in a burst of optimism about her chances.
19:02 [ST] Massive undead war machines amble through the crowd, driven by Nemissaries, the ranks parting before them. One, half Yeddim and half-Landserpent, spikes of slowly rotating bone jutting from its rotting scales, passes close by in a gust of foul air.
19:04 [ST] Passage through the crowd seems to go off without a hitch until there's a sudden shout. "Little Scorpion!"
19:05 [Keshin] Keshin holds the rear in their line, once having to race forward to pass in front of a formation of soldiers, not wanting to get trapped on the other side from the rest of their party. THe soldiers just laughed at the comedy of his short scurrying figure.
19:05 [Kalan] Kalan's hand twitches, as he imagines curling it around Scorpion's throat.
19:08 [ST] One of the older Vermin the Dragonbloods have seen shoulders his way through the crowd. He's in his thirties, with a short, dark beard. He's flanked by a young man with a prominent facial scar and a willowy blond woman. "Iron Spider has been looking all over for you. He wants you to return to the Citadel."
19:09 [ST] For a moment, Little Scorpion stands still, silent. Talek can feel her trembling because of their joint grip on the box. "Leech, I... can't yet. Gotta take this stuff... to the Wood Crucible."
19:11 [ST] "Are you sure?" He looks askance at her. "Lamprey or Flea could go. Igrash is there, Spider said you were scared of it."
19:12 [ST] "I'm NOT scared of it," Scorpion insists. "I have to go."
19:13 [ST] Lamprey reaches down to ruffle Scorpion's hair as the two groups pass. "I made stew. You should come by for some later." The girl grunts something inaudible in reply.
19:15 [ST] The group moves away, allowing the Dragonbloods to meld back into the throng again. The Wood Crucible draws ever nearer.
19:17 [ST] Ten Defenders and a pair of Vermin guard the doors, the latter leaning rather heavily against them. One smokes a hand-rolled cigarette.
19:19 [ST] "Useless," he says, blowing a curl of smoke. "They brought in the last set of Feeders an hour ago, and that thing'll nosh 'em in a few more minutes. Going to all this trouble is stupid. Bet you a dinar it's just because Iron Spider had a crush on that Ivory cu-uh, hello, Little Scorpion"
19:21 [ST] "No one's supposed to go in right now. Spider's orders."
19:24 [Kalan] "Why d'you think he sent his pet?" Kalan says in a sullen mutter.
19:25 [ST] "I'm not his PET!" Scorpion screams with real, shrill anger. If anything, this enhances the performance.
19:25 [ST] "Like hell you're not," the man with the cigarette says. He takes a drag and blows it in her face, laughing when she starts to cough. "Whoops."
19:26 [ST] "Guess I don't want to hold up the boss man's wishes. Take it in." He seems fairly disinterested in the entire process. Discipline is not the Vermin's strong suit, it appears.
19:27 [Kalan] Kalan grunts. "Open the door?"
19:27 [Kalan] Their hands were conspiciously full.
19:29 [ST] "Right," he says halfheartedly, giving it a rap with his heel and sending it gliding open. He flashes a smile full of black teeth. "Don't let ol' Igrash get you, Scorpion."
19:29 [ST] Head down, the girl marches in.
19:30 [Keshin] Keshin waddles behind them, playing up his awkward posture. His pride wouldn't help here.
19:31 [ST] She leads the Dragonbloods down a hall, around a corner, and past several patrols of Defenders to a small, cramped storeroom.
19:32 [ST] "I-if you leave this room, it's down this hall, then down the hall to the left, through the big doors," she gasps, trembling. "I- don't like it. I don't want to see it."
19:33 [Kalan] Kalan nods. "Very well," he said and knocks her smartly on the head with the box on his shoulder.
19:34 [ST] She falls to the floor with a soft rustle, out like a light.
19:35 [Keshin] Keshin sets down his set of boxes, and gets to work rearming himself immediately. After so many trials since they were last safe, his armor was at least as dirty as that they had borrowed. But it was his.
19:36 [Kalan] He nudges the crumpled girl with his boot to make sure she was out. He'd stolen a pair of boots from the same source as his lamalar armor. They were stained with a suspicious brown substance and pinched painfullly at the toes
19:37 [ST] Avaku takes the rancid Vermin armor off hurriedly, as if eager to have it away from his skin. He is back in his suit of plate shortly after, Daiklave buckled at his waist. "Looks like this is it."
19:37 [Kalan] He drops his box to the ground when she doesn't react, and drops his filthy stolen armor to the ground. He outfits himself with his red jade, and grunts something to the air. Zip flickers in the air, and disappears.
19:39 [Kalan] "Yes," Kalan agrees cooly.
19:39 [ST] Off in the corner Talek finishes rearmoring and arming himself.
19:43 Quits: Talek (Ping timeout)
19:44 [ST] There is a sudden burst of bright light as Zip flares back into existence. The tiny sprite darts back and forth sharply, throwing crazed shadows across the wall, spitting and shedding sparks. He is more frightened than Kalan has ever seen him, and if he could speak his words would be frenzied screams.
19:44 [ST] IT SAW ME IT SAW ME IT SAW ME IT SAW ME IT SAW ME IT SAW ME IT SAW ME IT
19:44 [ST] From down the corridor there is an earsplitting roar.
19:47 [Kalan] Kalan curses savagely and whirls, direspear at the ready as Zip dives behind him. "No more subtlety," Kalan says grimly. "We go, we fight."
19:47 [Keshin] "Right."
19:47 [Keshin] Keshin pulls out his pebbles again. "Shall we?"
19:48 [Kalan] A wash of fire flares up around him, and sparks fly off him to strike Keshin, Avaku, and Talek. "Indeed," Kalan says, reaching out a hand without turning his head from the doorway.
19:48 [ST] Talek and Avaku step forward, joining hands with the others.
19:56 [Kalan] Kalan pulls his hand away sharply as he feels the strength of stone rush into him like the quake of an avalanche.
19:58 [Keshin] The ritual done, Keshin pockets the pebbles again, smiling quietly at their humble value. It was a good thought to take with him into the fight.
20:01 [Kalan] "Time to die," Kalan tells the others coldly. His heart hammers in his chest, and he wonders how often a soldier can embrace death before being driven mad. Zip flickers nervously behind him. He kicks open the storeroom door.
20:01 [Kalan] He was in a mood to kick.
20:02 [Talek] Talek begins to chant....
20:14 [Kalan] Kalan walks down the corridor towards the doors. He scorches the walls as he passes, and a burned-out torch sputters into sudden life. Zip bobs anxiously in his wake.
20:14 [ST] A trio of Defenders stand before the door at the end of the hall, monolithic and silent, massive battleaxes gripped in their metal fists. They make no move to advance
20:20 [Kalan] "Arrows," Kalan says softly, stopping some distance away.
20:24 [Talek] Flowers defiantly blossom in the ground around Talek. They look surreal growing in the dead muck
20:25 [Talek] A green glow around him burrows into his ches tand then sprouts out as four perfectly wooden arms
20:30 [Kalan] Kalan walks calmly towards the Defenders, his direlance still held loosely in hand. He takes advantage of their stupor to aim carefully as he slides his direspear into the weak joint of chain armor at the Defender's armpit.
20:32 [Keshin] Seeing the mutual pause end, Keshin charges forward, aiming a heavy slash at the leftmost Defender's offhand.
20:33 [ST] The Defender doesn't move, doesn't even attempt to parry, opting to take the fury of Kalan's attack. The spear sinks deep, releasing a flood of crimson. The massive figure sways, but does not fall.
20:36 [ST] As Keshin moves in, the Defender takes a step back, bringing up the haft of its axe to block the attack, but it is unable to arrest the Dragonblood's momentum.
20:36 [ST] Blood wells up around the seam of its gauntlets.
20:37 [ST] Avaku springs forward, leaving the ground for a moment. His daiklave makes a shrill, keening sound as it splits the air, descending upon the helmet of the center Defender.
20:38 [ST] The helmet caves in with a sickening crunch, sending a gout of blood spraying from the visor. The massive figure topples to the ground.
20:40 [ST] The Defender wounded by Kalan staggers forward, impaling itself deeper on his spear as its arms rise above its head. It gives a wet grunt of exertion as it brings the axe down in a vicious chop meant to take the Dragonblood's head from his shoulders.
20:45 [Kalan] Kalan ducks, leaving a brief sparkling afterimage of fire. The axe whistles over his head and bites deeply into the other Defender's neck. The head falls slowly and sloppily to the side, connected by only a thin slice of meat.
20:45 [Kalan] The nearly-headless slave topples messily forward, blood pumping out of the wound and showering Keshin.
20:47 [Keshin] It was almost tempting to change back into the Vermin armor. It was as if the blood had corrupted inside the Defender's body.
20:48 [Kalan] The Defender stares stupidly at his fallen comrade, and from his crouched position, it is the easiest thing in the world from Kalan to slide his direspear right up through his chin into his brain.
20:48 [Kalan] He steps hastily back to avoid Keshin's predicament, and the Defender falls from his spear with a meaty thump.
20:49 [ST] The way lies open.
20:49 [ST] Beyond the door is a short, narrow hall, ending in yet another door. The group is halfway up this hall when the sound of many, many footfalls becomes audible from behind.
20:50 [Kalan] "Faster," Kalan hisses, breaking into a run "We'll bar the door behind us."
20:50 [ST] "Guess they heard that scream outside, too," Avaku says grimly, stepping back to stand in the doorway by the shattered Defenders. "There will be many, but only a few can come at me here. Let me hold the passage." There is a crazed look in his eye, as if he wants to die. After what he's been through, maybe he does.
20:53 [Kalan] "Don't be a fool," Kalan says coldly.
20:54 [Talek] "Don't worry, you fire aspects will have an opportunity for suicide later"
20:55 [Talek] "And if you don't find one I can provide you with hemlock."
20:55 [Talek] "C'mon! let's get in and close that door!"
20:56 [ST] "This thing must be done," Avaku says. "Did you count them? They will smother you in bodies if someone does not hold the way."
20:56 [Keshin] Keshin runs forward, ignoring the bickering. Avaku's plan was probably the best, and he wouldn't let them sway him in any case.
20:58 [Kalan] "Die then," Kalan says, and leaves him behind.
20:59 [Kalan] His shoulders are tight as he walks away, his face expressionless, because he knows it should be him.
20:59 [ST] "Perhaps," Avaku says, closing the first of the doors. He waits, listening to the other close behind him.
20:59 [Kalan] And he is glad it is not
21:00 [ST] When they pass through the other door, the Dragonbloods find themselves in the lair of the beast.
21:01 [ST] The room the Dragonbloods have entered is long and tall, taking up perhaps half of the tower's diameter at ground level and extending up for several floors. Shadowed galleries look down over the length of the room. At the far end is a raised platform with a flight of steps at either end. The floor where the group enters the room is elevated, dipping down between row after row of stone benches.
21:01 [ST] A theater, once, in the First Age, and again in the Second, but in the latter its displays were violent duels to the death between Defender trainees, watched by their cheering masters.
21:01 [Talek] "Damn fools"
21:01 [ST] Now, the display that goes on is macabre beyond imagining. A long queue of twitching, listless mortals extends from a door on the far side of the room down the length of the chamber, hugging the wall and winding up one of the staircases onto the stage at the far end. The rotting corpses of the Kushanians who had been here have been cleared away, but traces remain - shattered jewelry, pools of blood in the aisles, a severed hand...
21:02 [ST] A thin rank of five mortals stands in front of the stage, wearing suits of the bone and steel armor that the Dragonbloods discovered earlier, their faces hidden behind skull-helmets with glowing green lenses, their bodies shielded by monstrous, curving ribs... and behind them...
21:03 [ST] It is a corpse made of many corpses, a hulking thing three times as tall as a man and many times as massive. Its feet are blunt clubs of meat. Its arms end in pinching steel claws rather like, Talek thinks, massive garden shears. Its massive form is banded by iron and steel. Only its head is bare, and that is unfortunate. Its forward- sloping, almost wormlike form has no nose and no mouth, but dozens, hundreds of human eyes, clustered in strange patterns, budding next to each other. It is Igrash, made in forgotten days of the people of that damned and destroyed city ground under the Walker's heel, and there is small wonder that it saw Zip.
21:03 [ST] Beyond them all is the Forsaken Life Engine, a hulking clawed horror of soulsteel and sinew and gnashing teeth, standing on four spiderleg struts, venting steam. As the group enters, it reaches beneath itself with one cooked claw, impaling one of the waiting mortals and scooping it into its razor maw. Blood splatters the stage. A gust of steam erupts from the top of the device... and the room feels just a bit colder.
21:06 [ST] The mortals start at the arrival of the Dragonblooded, raising straight swords before them in defensive postures. The blades are trembling; the soldiers are frightened. Then, one by one, they flare with dark essence as gasp as the armor activates, stabbing spikes deep into their spines.
21:06 [ST] They seem to move... differently, more corpselike and jerky, yet they are so fast that their limbs blur with every motion.
21:09 [Kalan] Kalan falls fluidly into Five Dragon Stance, tilting his head back haughtily. It was, he thinks, almost a parody of the Immaculate progression; each horrid blasphemy eclipsed by a greater monstrosity.
21:10 [Kalan] He need not feel relief at his escape after all.
21:12 [Keshin] Keshin relaxes into a battle stance, putting his fear and anger aside. He would endure, or if he fell, he would land on his opponants and crush them as an avalanche. The corrupted humans were first. The suits they wore gave them power, but sacrificed balance and structure for it. THey would be fast and strong, but uncoordinated. They would fall. For now that was what mattered.
21:21 [Kalan] Cathak Kalan bounds forward, vaulting over the shambling mortal blasphemies with the point of his direlance, ascending like a creature half flame and half eagle He tumbles at the apex of his leap, rolling acrobatically to the side as Igrash tries to snatch him from the air with his rusted blade-hands.
21:21 [Kalan] He lands on his feet with his direlance clutched in his hand, surrounded by enemies. If he would die, Kalan decides grimly, he would die emulating the Dragons. He would die burning. A roar of fire rises from his throat, and Kalan attacks like lightning, darting at Igrash from every direction at once, all at the same moment.
21:21 [Kalan] The creature bellows at the sting of fire and smoke.
21:28 [ST] As the Dragonblooded's attack strikes to home, Igrash's dead flesh literally begins to boil. It bubbles up in liquid forms around the seams of its hideous armor, flowing in hot, reeking rivulets of fat to the ground. The tip of the Direlance gores the creature deeply in the side, and the tendons supporting one massive arm fray and sever. Dozens of eyes pop from the heat. But the creature does not fall.
21:29 [ST] The mortals fan out, three moving towards Keshin, a pair towards Talek. They cover ground at an enormous pace, moving in stop-frame jerks, and before Keshin is aware of it, the three of them have flanked him. Their short, ugly blades rise and descend as one, silently.
21:31 [ST] As Keshin contends with this assault, two others move towards Talek, one slipping to each side before they suddenly dart inward, paths crossing in a vicious X that rakes their blades across the Dragonblood's belly
21:31 [Kalan] For a moment, Kalan had been as five Dragons, striking in the perfect harmony of Exaltation. Five balls of fire coleasce, and he is one again, and diminished; panting, he stares at his foe. Its many staring eyes are moist, as if with tears, and they blink at him. A chill runs down his spine as the mortals leave to attack his comrades and he realizes he is very much alone.
21:38 [Keshin] Keshin brings up his Diaklave desperately to interpose it, but their jerky movements throw off his timing completely.
21:40 [ST] One of the blades slips inside Keshin's guard, hacking a ragged cut down his cheek.
21:43 [Talek] Talek plants his legs firmly and bends backwards, his extra arms touching the ground as he wat ches the blades slice over his head
21:45 [ST] The second comes in low, carving a bright red smile across the Wood Aspect's thigh.
21:47 [Talek] Talek grabs him with one of his arms and hurls him across the room
21:51 [Talek] Talek's extra arms hurl him againist a wall. His armor twitches a few times, the soldier's face shows horror as his limbs twitch without volition
21:51 [Talek] Talek turns to fire arrows at another
21:52 [Talek] The arrows slump into his chest. The man grimaces in pain but his armor propels him onward
21:53 [ST] Bellowing, the monstrous war-machine Igrash takes a lurching step forward. Its injured arm falls away and strikes the ground with a wet, meaty splat, spraying rank blood over the gathered and catatonic mass of mortals feeding themselves into the machine.
21:55 [ST] The other arm angles sharply inward with the sound of screaming tendons, its massive claws tightening around Kalan's armored midsection. Then, with a violent motion, the creature hurls the Dragonblooded to the ground and slams the bladed claw down upon him. Its two tines dig deep furrows in the floor on either side of him as the creature bears down with all its weight. Sparks fly from the tortured armor.
21:58 [Kalan] Kalan holds the shaft of his direlance two-handed as the claw bears down on him. His muscles tremble, and Igrash pushes the direlance relentlessly down, until it is inches from his chest. Sweat rolls down his face.
21:59 [Kalan] He tries to roll to the side, and yelps as a new tine shoots out of its meaty fist, inches from his face.
22:01 [ST] The armor on the mortals begins to hum audibly, the eyes to glow even more brightly, becoming incandescent green torches now. Their movements grow even more rapid, more erratic, as more and more necromantic energy is pumped into their bodies.
22:02 [ST] The one Talek has already wounded pulls an agonized face, staggering, falling to his knees.
22:03 [ST] "No..." he moans... "it's too much... it's... I can't... I... AGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!" The ribcage plating of his armor tightens suddenly, violently, caving in his chest. His entrails spew from his mouth in a vile torrent as he falls to the ground, flopping.
22:07 [ST] The war machine Igrash bears down, its moist but unblinking eyes shining in the light of Kalan's flaring anima. Flames dance up its wrist, charring the raw meat there black as the creature leans its weight on the Dragonblood.
22:10 [Kalan] Flames roar as Kalan fuels his blaze, choking on the noxious combination of rotting meat and cooking pork. Zip appears at Kalan's nose, quivering with terror but bold, adding his heat to the fire.
22:13 [ST] The intensity of the heat sears through the creature's grasping limb, melting it to foul tallow and sending the claws sloughing away. Igrash rears back, flexing its stump... and a moment later, a massive, rotating bone drill sprouts from it, internal mechanisms whining audibly.
22:14 [ST] The mortals begin to laugh maniacally as the necromantic energy courses through them, pressing the attack. Noting that Talek now faces no opposition, one moves to engage him, while the other two flit around Keshin.
22:15 [ST] They flicker back and forth for several moments before resolving into visibility, one swinging a blade for his neck, the other at the back of his knees.
22:16 [ST] The other bolts at Talek, springing high and descending in a whirlwind of lashing steel
22:20 [Keshin] This time he is more ready, timing his sword movements to their metronomic ticks. The pauses help him keep track of their inhuman speed. Still, his defense was not perfect.
22:20 [Talek] Talek falls back and pivots on arm, leaping under one, but the fancy move sends him flying into another's path
22:21 [ST] The tip of the second's blade just grazes the back of Talek's hand.
22:21 [Talek] He lands on his own feet with an ungraceful spluuurch as he lands on entrails leaked out of a decapitated t orso
22:22 [ST] Despite Keshin's best efforts, one of the blades carves a shallow cut along his calf.
22:26 [Talek] Talek tosses his bow to one of his extra arms, which catches it and loads three arrows. One of the mortals on Keshin falls over, arrows in his side. pus flows from the wounds to his armor.
22:27 [Talek] Talek turns to face his assailant and punches him in the face, then kicks him in the shins and tosses him onto the ground
22:30 [ST] The first soldier collapses, a pair of arrows in his side, and simply lies there, twitching and insensate. The second rolls as he hits the ground, hopping up smoothly despite his now-shattered arm.
22:30 [ST] And then, the humming coming from all of the armor begins to increase, becoming louder in pitch.
22:30 [ST] The man knocked unconscious by Talek wakes suddenly as the eyes in his skull helmet begin to blaze, spitting out cones of light a foot long.
22:31 [ST] He screams as eldritch energy bursts from his mouth in a green wave, his skull burning, and then he moves no more.
22:32 [ST] The man injured by Talek's attack similarly sinks to his knees, howling and clawing at his head. There's a wet sound, followed by the tinkling of glass, as the lenses in his helmet shatter, revealing twin sprays of gore. He falls, twitching.
22:33 [ST] The last mortal, standing before Keshin, begins to twitch as well, though his motion is vital, alive, as if electricity were coursing through his veins. Keshin can actually smell his breath, like burning copper. His lambent lenses flare brightly enough to sear the retinas.
22:35 [ST] There's a groan as the door the party entered though splinters. Avaku staggers into the room for a moment, bleeding severely, before hurling himself forcibly back into the breach. Screams blossom anew in the corpse-choked tunnel.
22:40 [Kalan] Kalan stands warily back from Igrash. His very bones ached, and the Dragon's fires within him dwindle into spark embers. His face twitches into an awful ghost of a smile. Avaku would die, and so would he. Heroes and traiters both.
22:41 [Kalan] Fires wash along his direlance, and he leaps upward again, this time rising vertically to draw the wildfire against its thousand tearing eyes and blunt head.
22:42 [Kalan] The image of the Dragonblooded slaming his direlance against mighty Igrash repeats again and again, and each time Kalan shrieks the same wordless blasphemy.
22:44 [Kalan] He lands the final time on Igrash's head, eyes boiling and popping beneath his feet, and the pale flesh bubbling and peeling away. He draws his firey lance back, and plunges it deep into the monster's head.
22:46 [Kalan] Igrash's head splits..unevenly, in two perfect halves, as the mishaped skull the Craven had assembled so carefully from woven ribs become undone.
22:48 [Kalan] The spine stays upright as Igrash's flesh falls away from it, pooling around its feet. There are...faces there, on the inside, of the dead men and women who had formed its corpus. They sigh silently together, and one sobs brokenly to see light again; and they die.
22:49 [Kalan] The pincers fall to the ground with an iron clang, and Kalan stands burning on a mash of organs and bone, staring at the horror below uncomprehending.
22:52 [Kalan] He jumps to the ground as the spinal column begins to crack, and Igrash squelches underneath his feet. He tries not to think about that.
22:52 [Kalan] "We have to destroy the machine!" he shouts to the others.
22:54 [Talek] "Well what do you want me to do, heal it to death? Keshin, do something!" The last standing mortal roars his blade at him and Talek casually downs it
22:54 [ST] In the ruins of Igrash's shattered body, its heart twitches. A tiny form, wreathed in mummification bandages. It looks almost like... a puppy...
22:58 [Talek] Talek gallops forward on his extra arms. "The heart of the beast...."
22:59 [Kalan] Kalan crushes it underneath his heel, and there's a little squirt of nameless liquid and a squeak. "Keshin. The Engine is a beast, but also a machine. Can you destroy it?"
23:03 [ST] The Forsaken Life Engine eats messily atop the stage, scooping in bodies as they come. Blood and offal stain the floor beneath it and slop over the rim of the stage
23:03 [Keshin] Keshin smiles slightly to himself. It was one way to defeat these things, to wait for their own corrupt nature to destroy them. But it was unsatisfying. The last hesitated for a moment, contorting in pain forced on it by its armor. He took the opportunity, sprinting past it to the other side of the chamber, a wild charge at the great war machine there.
23:04 [Keshin] A moment of thought, to plan his angle of attack, and then he was there, trying to break off the closest leg, sliding under its belly, repeatedly hammering at its mouth to at least halt its engorgement.
23:06 [ST] There is a great commotion on the galleries above the stage. Vermin mill there, shouting in alarm at the chaos below.
23:07 [ST] Keshin's first blow snaps off the feeding arm with a wrenching crack. His next few rock the machine heavily, dislodging teeth the size of his fist.
23:07 [ST] Suddenly, a figure hurls itself from the gallery, landing in front of the stage heavily before staggering to its feet, drawing a straight sword. Iron Spider.
23:07 [ST] "Stop!" He bellows. "I can't let you do this!"
23:11 [ST] "I don't know how you got in here and I don't care... but this ends now." His sword doesn't tremble. Much.
23:13 [Kalan] "You'll die, fool," Kalan says with a hard smile. He had told Avaku the same thing only minutes before.
23:13 [ST] "Spider! Don't! DON'T!" Little Scorpion screams. She has crawled through the tunnel of corpses made by Avaku. Blood and gore mat her blond -now red - hair.
23:14 [ST] She races to his side, tugging at his hand. "Please. PLEASE."
23:15 [Kalan] Kalan raises his flaming direlance, twirling it idly in his hands. "Get her out of the way, pestilent insect, before she is gotten out of the way."
23:15 [ST] With the Engine's feeding apparatus shattered, the line of mortals sways hypnotically, waiting.
23:16 [ST] "Stay behind me, Scorpion, I'll take care of them."
23:16 [Talek] Talek laughs.
23:16 [ST] "They promised," she blurts. "They PROMISED."
23:18 [Talek] Talek tosses his bow over his shoulder and grabs a sword from one of the fallen mortals. He strides up to Spider. "En garde, mighty warrior!" He swings it down ferociously "Really Very Angry Fire Strike!" he says in mock fury as Scorption parries desperately
23:18 [Kalan] Kalan looks at her unpleasantly, and the girl feels something she hadn't felt in a long time, not since Iron Spider - the Dragonblooded's gaze peels through her skin, showing her how ugly and worthless she is, just refuse-
23:20 [ST] Iron Spider retreats as Talek continues his game, laughing, toying with the mortal. He aims a careless cut which isn't really intended to injure-
23:20 [Talek] "hai! ya! Crimson Chakra Attack! Willow Graces the river strike!" he says, laughing
23:20 [Keshin] Keshin ignores the posturing and uselessness around him. At the point when Spider's sword was reaching him, he would care. Until then all that was important was destroying this machine crouched above him.
23:21 [Talek] "C'mon then 'Iron Spider', show us what you can do!"
23:22 [ST] -and Little Scorpion throws herself between the menacing Dragonblooded and Iron Spider, meaning to block the blow meant from him. Instead, the bright edge of the weapon slams into her throat, taking her head from her shoulders.
23:23 [ST] Her blood sprays across Iron Spider in a fine mist. He twitches.
23:23 [ST] The machine creaks and screams beneath Keshin's assault.
23:23 [Kalan] Kalan surprises himself with a laugh.
23:23 [ST] "You..." Spider trembles with blind, unknowing rage. "You... she was harmless... she was a �child.�"
23:24 [Kalan] "I didn't know you had it in you, Talek," he says as he raises his direlance to put it through Iron Spider's throat.
23:28 [Kalan] "You planted a field of corpses, Iron Spider and filled them with families. This is your bitter harvest-"
23:24 [ST] But something is happening... something is... changing.
23:25 [Talek] "Oh no, I seem to have missed and hit an innocent bystander!"
23:25 [Talek] "Well, I wouldn't call her innnocent." Talek picks up the skull and talks to it in a baby voice "You're not so innocent, were you Ms Scorpion?"
23:26 [Kalan] "Talek, there's something wrong-" Kalan says, looking at the Forsaken Life Engine. He whips his head around as Talek plays with the corpse, repulsed.
23:28 [ST] Before Kalan can strike... deep within Iron Spider, once Jumping Cricket, something flares to life. Something... kindles.
23:28 [ST] The room begins to grow warm... and... bright? The howl of rage that bursts from Spider's throat is deafening, and he is suddenly shrouded in a column of searing golden light, throwing the room into sharp relief. A spike of essence a hundred feet tall erupts from his body, taking the form of a massive golden warrior. The scream that tears from his lungs grows in power and volume, shaking the
23:28 [ST] very walls, and a searing golden sunburst forms on his brow, throwing out a wall of white light.
23:28 [Kalan] "�Anathema!�" he shouts.
23:29 [ST] "�You... killed her," Spider snarls. "�You laughed.�" The light around him flares more brightly, and a savage wind begins to tear at the walls of the chamber.
23:30 [ST] Something in the light that Spider throws off distorts the operation of the Forsaken Life Engine. Coupled with Keshin's assault, the pressure is suddenly too much. The massive device gives one last scream, its legs splintering, and topples sideways.
23:31 [ST] It does not explode, but black essence crackles around it for a moment before erupting outward, washing over the Dragonblooded in a bone chilling wave before continuing out of the chamber.
23:31 [Kalan] Irony, Kalan reflects, is that while everyone brings about their own doom, it never feels deserved. "You are done with hiding behind little girls, then?" Kalan spits.
23:32 [ST] "Butchers..." he snarls. "You claim superiority over us? You are monsters."
23:32 [ST] The wave of energy gathers power, racing onward and outward in all directions.
23:34 [ST] Beneath the city, it ebbs over a series of ancient iron gates, overloading them with power, searing the runes from their surface. They give way with hollow metal gongs, bouncing away down the tunnels. There are things down there that hear them. There are things down there that have been waiting a long time to hear such a sound.
23:34 [ST] But none of this is apparent in the room far above, where a Solar confronts a trio of Dragon-Blooded
23:36 [Kalan] Kalan laughs again. It's ghastly. "She joins all your victims. Tell me," he mocks, circling around, "will you make her your special monster? Sew her head back on and let her fetch and carry, shamble after you like a puppy til her legs are rotted away."
23:36 [Talek] Talek looks dumbfounded
23:36 [Talek] "YOU'RE the Anathema?"
23:37 [Talek] "But Jorj said - I mean, we have no reports of this sort of thing!"
23:37 [ST] "She was a sister to me, monster. I loved her." He turns to look at Talek. "Not until this moment. Until this moment, I never imagined the power that could flow through me. My Second Breath is your harvest... and I mean to make it a bitter one."
23:37 [Kalan] Kalan's voice is transformed, vitrolic as acid. Some distance part of him, from a long time ago, before the slaves, before Thorns warns him is becoming inhuman. "We're the Wyld Hunt. Fate guided us."
23:38 [Talek] "She threw herself on my sword, you daft fool."
23:38 [ST] "Ahn-Aru believed in fate, and you slew her too." He sneers.
23:40 [ST] Avaku comes staggering back from the chamber, covered in blood. "The attack stopped," he gasps, looking at the floor, "Almost as if something had appeared-" He stops short when he sees the Solar. "What-"
23:40 [Kalan] "Well, she was at least not a hypocrite," Kalan returns genially.
23:40 [Talek] "I know you Anathema are supposed to be monstrous, but I at least expect intelligence! how dare you get self righteous about one little girl after slaying an entire city! You people are supposed to be smarter than that!"
23:41 [Keshin] Keshin pushes, pulls, digs himself out from under the collapsed fleshy machine, gasping with the effort of destroying it. The situation was so stupid. An Anathema, but hardly a threat to compare to the other they faced. Not to the empire at least. ANd yet they had to waste their strength against it now, and leave the Mask and his minions for later. If there was a later.
23:43 [ST] "It is not always a question of numbers, you fools," Spider growls. "How would you feel... if I told you that your friends in Kushan were dead? There are only a handful of them, after all, and you have killed many of my followers."
23:43 [ST] "I hope they are dead. I hope the Raven made them scream for mercy before she killed them."
23:43 [Kalan] ".....Raven?" Kalan says, as if from a great distance.
23:44 [ST] "The Raven that Plucked Creation's Eyes, you fools," he snaps, and then stops himself, aware he has said too much.
23:46 [Talek] "Your followers were brainwashed zombies who wanted to bring about the end of the world!"
23:47 [ST] "You're one to talk, Dragonblood. I hope the irony of your words may reach you, someday. I fear I have no interest in letting you live that long."
23:48 [Keshin] It was dispiriting. Another city lost, probably. But they had stopped the press. Without that it would have been lost anyway. It was an even trade at least. And from what he had seen of the Princes they had left behind, none of them was a truely valueable to the empire. Just more cracks in its ediface.
23:49 [Kalan] "They are not numbers to everyone." She had been shadowing Matara. She - she served among his soldiers.....Kalan smiles coldly. "I suppose," he says at last, "I would say I was unsurprised. I must say, I admire your callousness. There are few who can stomach such slaughter."
23:49 [ST] Avaku's roving eye settles ultimately on the decapitated girl. "What in the hells?" he says, utterly lost.
23:49 [ST] "I had good teachers," Spider snarls. "Or poor ones. In any case-"
23:50 [ST] And that is when the luminous sheet of writhing bodies flows over the rim of the gallery and into the room, howling, birthing tentacles as it comes.
23:52 [ST] "Legion!" Iron Spider screams. It attempts to flow over him, but quails at his anima. It seems to slow it little, however, and soon it is surging over him, blocking him from sight as it advances.
23:54 [Kalan] Kalan leaps backward, just outpacing the tentacles reaching for his feet. He thrusts his direlance desperately into the rushing mass, again and again, trying to slow its advance.
23:55 [Talek] Talek's four limbs begin to sway and make stange gestures. A green tree anima appears around him, not looking so majestic next to the gold in front of him
23:56 [ST] As Legion flows over the corpses of the dead mortals, it pulls their ghosts forth into its form, growing larger. Igrash's foul, shattered mass is beyond absorption.
23:57 [ST] Kalan's attacks damage the creature as he strikes, forcing it to shrink back, but at the same time it grows everywhere he is not. Even this deep within the Crucible, the sound of frantic screams can be heard from the courtyard outside
23:58 [ST] "The hallway," Avaku wheezes "We must flee!"
23:59 [Talek] Talek places one hand forward and one hand above, green essence snaking down to him and then flowing out his forward hand in a rush of brambles and blown petals. "Stormwind Rider!" he calls out.
23:59 [Talek] "Get in!"
23:59 [ST] Considering the way you came in is choked with dozens of corpses, this doesn't look to be a pleasant experience.
23:59 [Keshin] Keshin Moves to the left of the rest, trying to force Legion back along their axis of escape. "Leapfrog me. We have to keep fighting it back to keep ot from swamping the room before we can get out!"
00:00 [Kalan] Grimly, Kalan batters at it, keeping it at bay. There was a duty he owed. He stands over the body of the girl, and sparks from his spear drip down onto her flesh, catching hold in her clothes. She wore a little medallion . "Just a moment," he says, and hesitates a second before he rips the silver thing from Scorpion's corpse.
00:01 [Kalan] She's burning merrily now, an awful smell rising from her hair.
00:02 [Kalan] He holds Legion until she is charred; and then he joins Keshin cutting a route to Talek and the Stormwind rider.
00:05 [ST] The concentrated whirlwind was never intended to work indoors, but it serves its purpose admirably, blasting the bodies out of the packed hallway like a wind tunnel, bearing the Dragonblooded forward in a whirlwind of corpses and blood-raindroplets.
00:05 [ST] As the contained cyclone bears them down the winding halls of the Crucible of Wood, another luminous tentacle bursts from behind them, groping along the wall to consume the Defenders slain outside the hallway.
00:08 [Talek] talek spits out a piece of someone's rotting toe which has been swept up by the rider
00:09 [ST] The cyclone bursts from the tower into the courtyard, a scene of absolute pandemonium. Legion's tentacles, extending from almost all of the towers and from gratings in the ground, rake across packed ranks of Vermin, tossing them aside, taking them in.
00:09 [ST] The Yeddim-Snake thrashes, seized by a pair of massive tentacles, as dozens of finger-suckers pull it to pieces.
00:10 [ST] Beyond, more tentacles can be seen rising above the walls in the Second Ring. No one seems to be paying attention to the Dragonblooded at all.
00:17 [Talek] "This spell usually makes quite a splash" Talek comments
00:17 [ST] A lithe figure darts through the crowd, easily picked out from the rest due to her wooden mask. Leen. No one seems to be paying her any mind, either.
00:18 [Talek] "Well, I suppose we ought to rescue her. In case any of these tunnels are still useful with the Hektonhire in them."
00:19 [Talek] Talek swings the windy globe her way, bounces over a mob of screaming Vermin, and p ulls her into the stormwind. She bounces up againist the top of the strange, gravityless space. Talek, his arms still extended pilots it on. "So, where too?"
00:20 [Keshin] "Should we chance connecting up with Jorj, and using our original escape plan? Or abandon it entirely and fly away in this?"
00:21 [Kalan] Kalan grimaces. "Might as well burn the gates, if there's anyone still on them with oil," he said. �Jorj, do it� he whispers to the wind.
00:22 [ST] Scarcely thirty seconds later, flames spring up... but not in every place the teams had been sent.
00:23 [Kalan] In the end, they escape with a hundred Ghanites and Jorj, still pale and hollowed-eyed, grasping the stump where his hand had been. He'd tried to fight when the tentacles came, not understanding-
00:25 [Kalan] Legion had plucked madmen screaming from the streets, slamming huge, glistening tentacles a dozen feet wide across the exits, but it didn't like fire, and the Ghanites proved surprisingly resilient.
00:25 [Kalan] They fought their way out, and then they left the mortals behind, carried aloft on Jorj's Stormwind Rider.
00:27 [Kalan] �Matara, Raven is an Abyssal and Ghan is lost� he whispers to the wind, and a friendly breeze takes his warning home.
00:28 [Talek] The tentacles rip apart the walls of the city. Most of the Ghanites are crushed underneath the rubble. Those who manage to get above ground simply walk out of the city, astonished as the monster seemingly ignores them
00:37 [ST] The forces of the Deathlord fare poorly as Legion breaks free to claim his city once more. The situation in the Crucible is utter butchery, and the flames set near several of the gates prove impassable barriers. Some still try, preferring to be immolated rather than to face Legion, who claims those exits that do not catch. Of the three massive Corpse-Frames being built in the city, two have been completed and left the city hours before Legion's rise. The third, awkard and clumsy, has no hope of escaping his myriad clutches. It is borne down, rent asunder, destroyed, and with it dozens of other rare war machines, creations of the Craven's artifice woken from long tallow-packed slumber to engage in this latest and strangest campaign.
00:37 [ST] Legion's victory might have been complete if a Solar had not rallied the forces in the Crucible, cutting a path outward and to victory. Thousands of troops escape this way, as do some Nemissary-piloted war machines and a small number of the crazed. Many more remain, and most of those die, feeding Legion, making his body larger, stronger. Countless books burn, Rao-Ling's and others, and ash rains in the burning city...
00:38 [ST] The city does not fall into Shadow, into the Underworld. By day, its cities lie sun-drenched and silent save for the scurryings of those few crazed individuals who remain, worshipping the great beast that hunts them. By night, when the burning Sun moves away, Legion emerges, stroking the shattered walls of his realm with thousands of tentacles, waving to the night sky in meaningless patterns, probing through the walls and shattered streets for game. He... they... sing in a piping, harmonious, haunting voice, the songs of old Ghan and Kushan alike. For both its people now make up the Hekatonchire's form, united at last.
00:38 [ST] The city belongs to Legion, now.
ST's Notes: I maintain that the PCs earned every bit of the wrath they'd later face from the Vermin. Of course, being the unique brand of rotten that you have to be to be a good ST, I put them in exactly the situation to draw it. If they'd killed Iron Spider instead, Little Scorpion would've Exalted. I guess there was one just lurking in the area.
