The Southern Continent (part 2)

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Graybeard
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Re: The Southern Continent (part 2)

Post by Graybeard »

[OOC: Great to have Angrist back! And to celebrate his arrival, a bit of random chaos...]

"SENSEI!!!"

That, Khoo would later reflect, was not the time to disrupt his spell preparations for the thaumatobaric bomb, and it certainly wasn't the thing to say to do it, either.

The term had a rather different meaning to advanced students at Sashi Mu than it did to soldiers(?) like Udo. First-year graduate students were assigned a mentor bearing that title whose job nominally was to help the newcomers fit in. Needless to say, "helping" played absolutely no part of the role a sensei really played ... unless "helping" meant "bombarding the stupid new kid with itching-powder spells, conjured fire ants, and summoned genital crabs until he went crawling on his knees to the sensei to bribe him to stop." At least that was very much the way Khoo's relationship with that asshole Nagatani had started, and from everything he could gather, he wasn't alone.

At the mention of this word, Khoo spun hard to his right to see if Nagatani had somehow materialized in this Weave-forsaken place, and as he did so, the Wind Sprite that was the first stage of his T-bomb started spinning also. Spinning very rapidly. And taking on a much more organized form.

And careening off in the direction of the incoming Ralkin, picking up debris from the jungle as it went, until it bore a striking resemblance to a full-strength, if rather small, tornado.

"Uh, incoming?" Khoo called weakly as soon as he figured out that the Sensei he feared was nowhere around; he wasn't sure who was in the path of what he'd just set loose, but the good guys would probably be able to hear him and the bad guys, on the other side of the howling whirlwind, wouldn't, so a little heads-up could only help, and couldn't hurt...
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Jack Rothwell
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Re: The Southern Continent (part 2)

Post by Jack Rothwell »

There was much screaming and running around in the village as Khoo's experiment tore a messy path out of the settlement in the direction of the Ralkin forces. Some of the more unfortunate residents saw their homes demolished as the spell made it's exit, a few of the even more unlucky residents found themselves picked up and hurled several yards through the air, before the wind tore a hole in the fortified walls and was gone. The groans of injured humanoids marking it's passing.

Tamina ran to an overlook on the upper floor with the elf to track the thing's progress, wide-eyed in disbelief at the unexpected turn of events. She opened her mouth to curse at Khoo for causing such chaos in her home but a loud cry cut across her words before they were articulated.

"<They're here!>"

The village was galvanized into action at the look-out's warning. Hunters ran to man the walls unable yet to hear the approaching footsteps over the howl of magic wind.

.........

"Incoming!"

Gabriel saw the sprite cutting towards his men, he could hardly miss it after all. The Ralkin Captain barked orders for his troop to scatter moments before the tornado of unrooted vegetation made contact. A handful of men too stupid or slow for self-preservation were sent crashing through the trees with loud metallic clangs as their armor collided with branches and other soldiers.

The men regrouped, shaken but, their Captain was pleased to see, angry at the sudden assault. He pointed a finger to the near-distance, and the ramshackle wall of vegetation the mages had erected around their target.

"Riflemen! Covering fire!" As he spoke the Captain drew the stick he'd stuffed into his belt, looking up and catching sight of Tamina and Drusia in their elevated position. He raised the hand carrying the artifact and called mockingly to the elf.

"Recognize this, you pointy-eared bitch?" He asked. "You should, it was made by your people after all!"

A flash of energy ran down the length of the ornate 'stick' as the man spoke, a blade, razor-sharp and long, extended from the handle like an accusatory finger. The Captain twirled the durus blade with a shark-like grin as the first of the bullets began to fly.
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Graybeard
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Re: The Southern Continent (part 2)

Post by Graybeard »

If nothing else, the magical whirlwind accomplished one thing before it dissipated: it deprived most of the attacking Ralkin of cover, most of the ones who survived the impact of tree limbs, debris, etc. Good. Now maybe Khoo could do what he actually meant to do.

The little ... interlude ... had done one other useful thing, too; now he was focused. (Prospects of immediate death tend to do that.) He poured energy rapidly back into another Wind Sprite. The next step was the hardest. He had to break the barrel of booze (not all that hard in itself) and transmute it into a chemical form more suitable for an explosive. I hope I remember my thaumato-organic chemistry, he thought; it had been part of the first-year graduate curriculum and he hadn't done anything with it for a while. However, the enticing aroma of a highly alcoholic distilled beverage gave way to a different one, a faintly sweet odor that certainly didn't smell like anything a sensible human would want to drink. (Still should keep the residue away from Udo, probably, he thought.) Yes, this seemed like the right stuff, and maneuvering the wind sprite to disperse it and carry it toward the Ralkin mob wasn't too hard. (Out of the corner of his eye he noticed that one of the Ralkin was away from the main body, and already starting to battle Drusia. Well, they'd just have to take care of that one themselves; he most definitely did not want the elf in the area of lethal effect. If the blaze of magical fire didn't kill someone trapped therein, oxygen deprivation would, and that would work on an elf as surely as on a human.) A few seconds later, the last step of the T-bomb, a simple Fireball, leapt from his fingers...

White light filled the universe as the T-bomb found its target and exploded.
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Re: The Southern Continent (part 2)

Post by Alberich »

Happily, the blockades previously knitted up by Leli gave the village some cover from the bullets, and Tamina and Drusia someplace to duck while Khoo's bomb wreaked havoc on the enemy. (Or, at least, for the curious kobold to be pulled down before the light could blind her.)

[OOC: "And glittery fireworks spelled out the words, 'Go Sashi Mu! Beat Baka Ryu!'"]

"Way to go!" hollered Udo, not knowing in fact who or what had gone which way where, but it seemed like the thing to say.

Revived, he was looking for the likeliest place for the enemy to storm the walls, so that he and Sensei Angrist could get into the thick of the fray. What we really need is Jamie and forty bullets, he thought. But then, hadn't their leader said he thought Jamie was here...?

"Hey, Jamie!" he yelled. "They show their heads, you pick 'em off!" Whether that bluff would work he didn't know, but it would sure make him shy about going over the top.

That 'boom' sounded like something to take advantage of - but it was Drusia and Tamina, who were already watching, who'd have a chance to take that advantage before Udo (or, hopefully, the enemy) could do anything meaningful.
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Re: The Southern Continent (part 2)

Post by Drusia »

One of the things I love about mooks - most of them don't think to scan for invisibility spells.

Any elf, half-elf, or Tsuirakuian could see through this magical cloak like a child wearing a sheet over her head, but for these idiots? The leadership will be a different story, but for now this is far easier to maintain than repeated gatings. I stick to the flanks and use my steel blade so that the hum of my Durus doesn't give me away.

I see an enemy soldier about to finish off a fallen kobold. I slip around behind him, grab his shoulder, pull him off balance, and open his throat from ear to ear. The wounded kobold blinks in surprise and confusion as the the man's corpse falls to the ground. I slip away, looking for my primary target.

-- Drusia

OOC: Okay, I'm back. There didn't seem to be a good place to jump in, so I'm explaining it like this. Drusia is out there killing the enemy invisibly. Anyone who can detect magic can see her (as is standard for the Poe-verse), but the rank and file have no idea. Feel free to have such a notable enemy close in on her.
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Re: The Southern Continent (part 2)

Post by Alberich »

It didn't take Udo long to see that the hole torn in the wall by Khoo's tornado was the likeliest point for the enemy to storm it. "C'mon!" he called to Angrist as he ran for it.

That new gate was a gap he could plug with his defensive shield and his body. But if some of the enemy got through first - or they had some visible magic up front - then he'd have some improvising to do. Any enemy who got inside would have Sensei and a village full of angry kobolds to face.

He wasn't planning to fight Gabriel himself if he could help it - that guy was a disease for Drusia to cure. He didn't see that Drusia had dropped outside the walls and was now invisibly slaughtering enemy survivors (though he would've heartily approved had he seen it), nor did he see where Tamina and Khoo now were, nor just how much damage Khoo's bomb had done.
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Re: The Southern Continent (part 2)

Post by Jack Rothwell »

Gabriel fanned his forces wider, spitting a curse as Khoo's t-bomb punched a hole in the line with a gory shower where a half-dozen unfortunate men had stood. He ordered his riflemen to unleash a return volley through the gap, bullets struck a group of hunters on the other side of the breach before Udo's barrier took effect, Tamina hurried to the wounded and set about doing whatever she could to help.

The Captain wheeled and gestured to a group of men near the back of the troop, the rasp of flints mixed with the clatter of arrows raining down on thick armor and raised shields. At the edges of the Black Guard a man gurgled as Drusia made another quiet kill.

"Burn the walls down! Shields!"

Some dozen soldiers, armed with lit torches and buckets of tar, set about the wall at even intervals. Between their proximity to the blockade, and the men who protected them, getting a clean shot was a near-impossiblity, as an unfortunate hunter discover when he craned out of cover and caught a bullet for his trouble.

Gabriel turned his attention to the barrier. The fat-shit was obviously not in the best of health, he'd seen the man carried off by his companions, and his injuries and the short interval between the two confrontations would wear him down quickly enough.

As for how to do that...

The Captain ran to the barrier with his bodyguards close behind him. As the arrows started to clatter on the metal raised over his head by the men who flanked him, he placed a hand on his chest and focused.

'Aleron?'

'I'm here.'

'Your assistance is requested.'


A sigh of mocking exasperation hissed through the Captain's mind, he screwed his face up in revulsion despite himself.

'Very well. Put your hands on the barrier, be a good vessel, and try to stay still.'

The Captain tried to ignore the superior tone in his benefactor's voice and did as he was bid. The moment his fingers touched the magic shield a violet glow began to emanate from beneath his breastplate. Gabriel entertained a brief moment of uncertainty, then it struck. A violent pulse of energy, shocking in it's suddeness, rippled through Averis' body, and began burrowing into the foreign spell.

'Human-made, weak. This is the work of a moment.'
Last edited by Jack Rothwell on December 9th, 2012, 6:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The Southern Continent (part 2)

Post by Alberich »

"Burn the walls down! Shields!" Some dozen soldiers, armed with lit torches and buckets of tar, set about the wall at even intervals. Between their proximity to the blockade, and the men who protected them, getting a clean shot was a near-impossiblity, as an unfortunate hunter discover when he craned out of cover and caught a bullet for his trouble.

Udo, standing in the wall-breach with his shield around him, saw that. He yelled in Tsuirakuan, "<Khoo! They're setting the walls on fire! Blow it out!>" He had no idea where Khoo was, or whether he had enough wind left in him to do any such thing; but he hoped so. At the very least a good wind might slow the process down, especially one of those "wind walls" he'd used back in the temple. Bonfires weren't a fast process in any case, or at least they hadn't been when Udo was a kid, so he hoped his adventurer-companions would be able to pull off plenty more before the whole enemy army had a chance to storm the village and rake it with fire.

Shielded in his barrier, Udo couldn't shoot or blast at the enemy - their ever-present, numerous, accurate rifles ensured he wouldn't last a moment if he dropped it - so he contributed to the war effort in the best way he knew how. Which is to say, by thumbing his nose at the enemy and singing "Neener neener neener!"

The Captain ran to the barrier with his bodyguards close behind him. As the arrows started to clatter on the metal raised over his head by the men who flanked him, he placed a hand on his chest and focused...The moment his fingers touched the magic shield a violet glow began to emanate from beneath his breastplate. Gabriel entertained a brief moment of uncertainty, then it struck. A violent pulse of energy, shocking in it's suddeness, rippled through Averis' body, and began burrowing into the foreign spell.

Udo saw what was going on. He might be foolishy reckless sometimes, okay, quite a lot of the time, especially when kobolds' lives were on the line, but even he wasn't dumb enough to just stand there while his barrier got blasted down. It wouldn't do any good, and besides, the enemy might wish to remonstrate with him for his gesture of defiance just now, and even bring up past matters, like just who was supposed to do what to which part of the donkey. So he backpedalled fast, peeling off to one side so Gabriel wouldn't have a straight shot at him, taking the barrier with him and retreating a few feet into the village. As he did, he yelled, "Hey, he's got a magic thingy on his chest! Maybe 'round his neck!" It might be useful for one of his companions to know.

For well he knew that Angrist was right there, beside the doorway on the other side, and if the enemy pressed close and followed him in, they might just get a little surprise from Sensei - at arm's length instead of rifle range! Even Gabriel himself, if he was chasing with his hands on the barrier, might be deprived of something he valued.

Besides, Udo thought that both Tamina and Drusia were still inside the walls, ready to pounce on Gabriel from some-whichaway if he got inside. He did not know - though it might've done his heart some good to know - that Drusia was outside the walls, running invisibly along from foe to foe, cutting throats and severing spines. The enemy's extended order was efficient for bringing rifle fire to bear and would've been an effective defense against another bomb - but it was also extremely convenient for the invisible elf assassin moving down behind their line. Tamina had often made short work of enemy combatants in this way. Drusia didn't have Tamina's magical bursts of super speed, but she did have invisibility, sharp blades, and centuries of experience. Also, she had the ultimate distractions to the front - the fires being set along the wall, the drama at the breach, the sounds of the battle, and the need to suppress kobold targets atop the wall. Several more marksmen died, without ever knowing what had hit them.

Once Gabriel and a few of his friends got inside, Udo would probably call out in Tsuirakuan for Khoo to seal the breach with another barrier - in the hopes that they could be killed before they were reinforced. That need was more urgent than saving the wall from a slow burn. If the enemy didn't follow him, then he'd drop his shield and blast around the "doorframe" to kill some and provoke a charge, then throw the shield up again and backpedal like crazy.

[OOC: My understanding is the enemy started with about 60 troops. About 15 of them, including both wizards, died in the jungle. About 6 died in Khoo's bomb. Drusia has killed 2 on screen. Their armor is impervious to the kobolds' arrows so probably the kobolds haven't killed any since we got here; the enemy is about 50% riflemen so figure 18 rifles providing covering fire minus the "several" she just killed, all conveniently extended in a fanned-out line, plus 12 with tar and torches burning the wall and up to 8 more around Gabriel. Since the enemy wizards are dead, the only "exceptional" member is Gabriel himself, but his armor is magic-proof, his amulet gives him a link to Aleron and his magic power, and he's carrying a durus blade and a revolver and he knows how to use them both. The magic stones in his body heal all his wounds, and if the amulet serves as his power source the same as it does for Eli, he won't run out of magic power for his durus blade, if it even needs that, or any spells that Aleron channels through him.]

[OOC2: The kobolds started with about 30 battle-ready fighters; 7 died in the jungle; since the enemy reached the village, "a group" have been shot through the breach in the wall by a volley of enemy rifles, plus the one who was shot off the wall trying to stop the burning group. So at best they've got maybe 20, and that's not just their fighting force; that's their breeding population. Judging by the names of the dead they've been losing more females than males, which is going to make a recovery even harder. They are armed with weapons that cannot pierce the enemy's armor. They also can't retreat, because their cubs are all taking shelter in the village. Once their wall burns down, they'll be mostly helpless.]

[OOC3: Both sides have an unknown number of injuries from Khoo's tornado; the good guys have Leli and Tamina for healing, but Tamina is low on mana; Udo got an extra energy boost from whatever Angrist's healing packet was, but is nowhere near full strength now; Angrist is at full strength but is nearly alone. Khoo's tornado tore a breach in the wall; Udo has been defending it but is now being driven back; and the enemy's about to burn the wall down anyway.]

[OOC4: Conclusion: There is no shortage of the enemy to kill, and if the PC's don't do it it won't get done. Also, help!]
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Re: The Southern Continent (part 2)

Post by Browncoat »

"Hey, he's got a magic thingy on his chest! Maybe 'round his neck!"

{Good to know}

After seeing the state of things, Angrist had made a quick decision to remove his weights. The delay from Udo's barrier had been just enough time. As Gabriel pressed his advantage, Anrgist swung into action.

Gabriel was surprised to see a stranger suddenly step in front of the retreating barrier. The stranger pulled one of his hands next to his shoulder, palm forward. Confident of his armor, Gabriel made to ready to strike down this interloper. But instead of launching a magical blast, the intruder slammed his palm forward into Gabriel's chest. The impact sent him skidding back several yards, bowling over two of his men.

{I may have overdone that a little}

Even as the nearest riflemen were distracted, Angrist was attacking them. Quick strikes to the temples were enough to incapacitate most humans for at least a few minutes. As the riflemen fell, Angrist threw their weapons in Udo's direction. {He's probably the only one who knows how to use these things}

Turning, Angrist saw Gabriel was already recovered and striding forward again. But the walls were in danger and he didn't know where Tamina had gone. After a second, he took off toward the closest fire-starters. Busy with their task, they didn't notice him even as he knocked them unconscious. Before they hit the ground, he was rushing toward the next set.

{Udo, I hope you can stall him long enough. I'll be back as soon as I can}

[OOC: a couple notes; 1. Angrist only knows about Udo and Tamina so far, not the other allies. 2. A reminder that Angrist doesn't talk, I use { } to indicate his thoughts.]
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Alberich
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Re: The Southern Continent (part 2)

Post by Alberich »

Oh damn, thought Udo. Angrist's violent exit through the breach had taken down some of the enemy, always a welcome thing, but it left Udo himself decidedly...alone. Still, the enemy were outside and he could try to keep it that way. Mostly. Udo stayed back out of the breach and to the side, not rushing back in.

"<Ixnay on the indway!>" he yelled for Khoo's sake - no need for more "friendly wind" now! Of course, it may have been that Khoo had been in no position to blow the fires out anyway. What did Udo know?

What he did next depended on Gabriel. If Gabriel was staying outside and going after Sensei, then Udo would drop his shield and start blasting every bodyguard who tried to come in like there was no tomorrow. (Which, for them, there wouldn't be!) On the other hand, if Gabriel came charging through the breach to take down Udo's shield...as he'd come within a hair of doing last time....he'd call out in Tsuirakuan for Khoo to block the breach with a barrier behind him, and then himself do something insanely risky.
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