SJE/Session80
Session 80
When Exalts Collide
1st Ascending Earth RY769
As the Perfect’s allies and solders filled the throne room, Nascent and Alana were completing the 'Paragonese Educational Tour for Make Benefit Glorious Perfect' they had gratefully accepted as a means of avoiding the mulch of dinner. From the twenty-storey tower that topped the palace they surveyed the endless rows of grey stone blocks that comprise Paragon, broken only by statues of the Perfect exhorting his citizens to greater efforts.
<OOC> – Am I getting a North Korea feel from this?’ asked one of the players. ‘Well, I like to think I was inspired by all the tinpot dictators, Turkmenbashi, Hitler, Stalin, its all in there’ said SJE SJE/OOC>
“You look, the architecture has been developed through the undying wisdom and understanding of his Perfection and is established to achieved the overtone sympathetic chords as expressed according to his philosophy given through his wisdom to main masons. Blessed Islanders prostrate in feeble awe of ruler when they look at this municipal housing grandness’ explained the guide in broken Flametongue, as he led the two Solars over a great lightwell at the top of the tower. Far below them, through numerous glass panels, they could see the Perfect’s throne. In the middle of the bridge, the guide suddenly ran and from shadows floated the dark winged shape of a deathknight dressed in a hooded, furry cape. He popped razor claws from his skin and, smiling under his mask, introduced himself as ‘Bat Clad in Sable’. On either end of the bridge, squads of attack mimes appear, blocking escape.
Bat-Clad-in-Sable charges at Nascent, who dodges easily and struck back, his fist radiating essence beams of the sun’s castigating judgement. Bat-Clad-in-Sable avoided the blow by leaping onto the bridge's railing as Alana flared her anima. Its purity sent Bat-Clad-in-Sable reeling and Alana leaped to grapple him, but was pulled over the edge with him. Faced with an army of mimes, Nascent shrugged “What the Malfeas” and leapt after them, as Bat-Clad-in-Sable broke through the first of many, many glass panes on the way down the well.
In the throne room, the various combatants faced off against each other, and it seemed the enemies of the Sun were gaining the upper hand. Despite his wounds, Meticulous Owl started to come back against Ravitsu who snarled ‘I have killed many Abyssals – you are next’.
‘Then the bounty on your head must be high’ retorted the Owl. ‘My Lord does not yet have a lunar pet and will reward me well when I present you in a muzzle. I hear Lunars can regrow body parts, lets test that’. With a deadly combo his blade cut at Rav’s extremities, the first three blows were deflected but the final blow sheared off the Lunar’s right arm.
Low on essence the Captain was stunting like crazy. His charm-fuelled muscles carried him to the ceiling where copper braziers held burning incense. He tore the brazier from its place and threw the burning coals onto the banners blanketing the troops below. As the cloth caught fire, he swung from the chains to one of the throne room doors and sliding between door and wall, pushed with his legs slamming it shut in the face of the reinforcements. Incensed the Perfect gestured with his staff and that Captain was plucked and thrown from one end of the throne room to the other, his charm-strengthened skin cracking the marble walls and adding more bruises to his collection.
Screaming in pain and anger Rav leapt back to open the Deathknight to attack by others in the party. Shizu spun and twisted from Shania’s attacks, seeking refuge by invoking Spiderfoot Style to stand on the ceiling. With Brand providing a brief distraction from Shania’s assault, Shizu fired an improvised slingshot at the Perfect. It vanished in a puff of smoke when it hit the wards. Shizu tried again with a phantom arrow of pure essence. It ricocheted into a nearby wall.
Realising his fight with Shania was pointless, she couldn’t hurt him but he couldn’t hit her, Brand broke off to engage Peleus. As he joined the fight the Roseblack commanded “battle plan – Queen to Pawn 1”
Believing herself safe from Shania given the height of the room, Shizu was caught unawares by her Striking Serpent Combo that covered the distance between them and struck him from eight yards, doing 50 bashing! Shizu’s unconscious body collapsed to the ground, to be swept up by her betrothed.
High above the throne, the descending trio crashed through plate glass after plate glass, Alana desperately grappling with the Deathknight to ensure it is he that hits each pane first, while Nascent steadily powered up charm after charm in preparation for the very terminal end of this descent. Their fall was slowed by the Deathknight’s cape, which magically spread out to the form of a bat. A ghostly voice echoed from the cape ‘Warning, recommended weight of glider exceeded. Your warranty is now voided in respect to any claims bought to the for damage sustained as a result of improper use. Please enjoy the rest of the flight.’
In the throne room, the Captain slid across the room shouting ‘Lowly minion autumn leaves attack!!” grabbed two stunned soldiers and threw them at the Paragon. With a ‘Fsshhh’ both evaporated as they hit the wards. The Perfect once again telekinetically threw the Captain across the room, but he successfully grabbed a passing bannerpole to avoid contact with the wall.
The Roseblack struck at Peleus, but apparently overextended herself. Literally cracking a grin, the marble giant seized her arm, bellowing ‘EARTH CRUSHES’. ‘WOOD LIVES’ retorted the Roseblack as her arm splits under the force of the grapple. ‘AIR BACKSTABS’ shouted Tepet, giving Brand his cue as the two leapt on the defenceless back of Mountainshaker. ‘SOLAR KILL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!’ roared Brand, as both blades pierced cracks in the marble skin and broke the heart of the MountainShaker, which toppled to the ground shaking the palace foundations. ‘Now my name is killing word’ declared Brand, only to flail desperately against the sudden attack of Meticulous Owl. As the cursed blade pierced Brand’s defences he felt life and essence be sucked from him.
By this point, the falling combatants were three levels away. Alana seized a particularly large glass shard. With one blow she sliced the clasp of the cape and with another drove the shard deep into her enemy, leaving large aggravated wounds, on his pale flesh. Nascent blackflipped in mid air, his foot delivering the holy judgement of the Unconquered Sun on Bat-Clad-in-Sable’s jaw, whipping the head around with a lethal crack. Alana ripped the cloak from the corpse’s shoulders and tried to attune to it, or at least make a serviceable parachute. At the end of his spin, Nascent’s hand shot out and grabbed her ankle, holding on for dear life.
In the throne room, the Captain realised that Peleus had passed through the wards during dinner to serve the Perfect. He swung from the banner to the ground, easily picked up the stone corpse and adopted Fallen Enemy Ward Defier stance, throwing it at the Paragon. The body passed the wards and crushed the old man to his seat.
Shania leapt to attack the Captain crying ‘Die Demon’ and winking to indicate she was pulling her blow. With a double botch the Captain mistook her signal as a weakness ‘She has dust in her eye – when she next blinks, that is the time to strike’ he thought. Grabbing a spork from the table he Heavenly Guardian Defenced her attack.
By this time, all in the throne room were aware of the brilliant light that filled the chamber and at its core a dark shadow of a bat. With Shizu and the Roseblack out, himself, the Capt and Rav wounded and facing a millennia old crackpot, an unhurt Solar, an Abyssal and an army of brainwashed cannon fodder, Brand’s nobility came to the fore. Seizing the Roseblack’s daiklaive he stunted an instant attunement, leapt high into the air and struck at the Perfect’s staff, aiming for the joint. As he hit the wards so the combatants were treated to a single frame of Brand’s skeleton as it fell and his charred, barely breathing body hit the throne’s base. His sacrifice had not been in vain as the sceptre started to spurt red energy like arterial blood from a wound.
Having checked that Shizu was still breathing, Rav turned his eagle eyes to Meticulous Owl and, as the Abyssal gloated over Brand’s agony, swept into the air to pour an entire brazier of burning incense onto the surprised deathknight. His delicate cloths quickly ignited and he started to run in panic, but too close to the throne. With a blaze of energy he shared Brand’s fate.
As the last pane of glass broke in the ceiling, the Captain kicked Peleus’s sledge into the air, grabbed and spun it five times before throwing it at the prone Perfect’s head. ‘Fallen Enemy’s Armament Aegis Piercing Strike ‘ he cried. As the sledgehammer shot through the wards so it scattered the falling shards to embed them in the shape of a circle in the wall behind the throne, each one reflecting the light of the assembled solars. With a squelch the Perfect’s wizened head exploded and the deathknight’s corpse fell into his lap.
Alana gracefully guided the cloak to the ground much to the amazement of the rest of the party. ‘Where have you been’, ‘what took you so long’, ‘next time you can do the hard fighting’ said their unsympathetic comrades.
Return to SJE
