Port Lorrel- Puppet Masters (part 2)

[Graybeard]

Khoo, who had been tagging along quietly as usual, chose this moment to clear his throat. "Uh, question? When should I put this thing on and activate it?" He showed the amulet he'd bought at the clinic. "Because when I do, it's going to keep us safe from their possession magic ... but it's also gonna have some side effects."

[Alberich]

"Not 'til after the attack starts," said Jargalan. "We need you at full strength to start with, but once they get a light up, they might notice you."

"And I'll stick by you," said Udo, "so it can cover me too, and I can keep 'em off of you."

[OOC: Ready to set the stage whenever other folks are. I think the weapon demonstration should be fully catered, with lots of custard pies and whipped cream, but it occurs to me the Ralkin may not see it that way.]

[Jack Rothwell]

Thus far the demonstration was going well. Eli listened in with half an ear, his attention divided by the mouse-like creature he was steering around the back of the barn. Commander Garald wrapped up his opening speech and made way for the blacksmith, who now seemed quite pale at the crowd's sudden attention.

"T-thank you Commander. Yes... the... umm... mana rifle allows for a long range, accurate strike as the private will now illustrate..."

The silkas turned a corner and beheld a bored looking Myra now parked with her back to the building. Eli heard the low-pitched whine as the black guard volunteer knelt in the dirt and pressed the charge button on his weapon. Behind the barm, Myra turned and saw one of the little rodents staring at her.

"Allow for a penetrating strike due to... err... tighter focus of energy." Jade speaking from in front of the half-elf.

"Buggroff rat." Myra snapped, and pitched the empty bottle in her hand at the half-elf's silka. Eli twitched involuntarily in his seat as the thing darted away from the former bandit's attempt to kill it.

"Guess she didn't want to be disturbed." He muttered to Tim.

A moment later the mana-rifle hit its target.

Jade had suggested that the Black Guard use some of the empty metal drums from the back of the warehouse for targets, and it proved to be sound advice. The container tore open with a loud, tortured squeal and backflipped like a drunken circus tumbler before hitting the earth with a clang. Some of the crowd gave an 'ooh' of appreciation. A brief smile lit up the red-haired woman's face.

.......

Tamina's ears pricked up at the bang which had come from a handful of blocks. She cleared her throat, her nerves in full jangle.

"Sounds like they started." She grinned despite the tention she felt. "Should be distracted!"

[Alberich]

More shots tore more barrels. The visiting "dignitaries" of Port Lorrel were rapt -- this was a new kind of power and it bespoke considerable wealth, as did the numerous mercenary guards. These newcomers had a different, cleaner style from the old Eisenfaust and were showing a friendlier face, but this showed they had a mailed fist to go with the open hand.

There was still plenty of skepticism here. Pessimism ran deep in the political rivers (some would say "sewers") of Port Lorrel. A man with a fancy new rifle in his hands was still vulnerable to a dagger in the back, and if there was one thing the Eisenfaust could manage, it was daggers in the back. But those who were most afraid of that were not here, or had sent representatives who were reliable, deniable, discreet, and expendable.

Tim took his silka a different way from Eli's, "to cover more ground" he said. In fact he brought it around to watch their own backs. He was full of worries. Eli seemed to be less than serious about assassins here, more likely to look up skirts than watch for cutthroats, and then there was this demonstration. Even normal rifles made an armored man less than safe. Against these things a man might as well carry a heavy sack of straw as wear armor - useless to protect him, a gift to the enemy that slowed him down. The Church should have these, not these devil-worshippers, but if they kept making things like this - would they need to call Luminosita himself to smite them? Silka-summoning made his fears grow, and what he was seeing gave it fear to feed.

And then the storm broke.

A sudden hurricane blast, born of Tsuirakuan and elven magic but itself just air, swept into the square, tearing away the lamps and smashing them, some on the ground and some on the side of the warehouse (which in time would burn and light the square again). Guards, demonstrators, barrels, spectators were blown every which-way, tumbling into each other or taking cover as best they could. Myra was saved by her drink-loving boredom, as she was still out of the square when death came, pulling on a bottle or relieving herself from her prior pulls. Tim nearly vomited as the wind swept up his silka, but his reflexes were heightened by silkafear, so he winked it out of existence, grabbed Eli, and hit the ground with him, getting up a shield around the pair of them. Which he hoped Eli would augment with a shield of his own.

The wind brought pain, darkness, and the filthy grit of Port Lorrel's streets. Behind it came death. Jargalan struck first from far off, blasting blinded guards and magic riflemen with a merry heart and a deep indifference. Tamina was the fastest and came next, with Drusia and her durus right behind. They knew where the traps were and dodged them easily. They also knew there was something large and terrible in the warehouse, and when it broke forth it would not take them unawares. Whether Angrist, who had been observing, would join in -- and save lives with his nonlethal precision attacks -- only Angrist could say. Far to the rear, Udo stood with Khoo, unable to see as he had never learned darksight. But he had assumed a protective position in front of his countryman, and if the enemy did get a light up, no one was getting past him without a fight.

The wind gone, Tim stayed on the ground and reacted fast. "Galdy!" he whispered - and his fingers traced the pattern that'd been stamped into him by Aleron, and in moments he had eyes that could see in the dark, beyond the flashes of death that were striking from beyond. That just seemed to be a wizard with a staff far away, but someone was attacking nearer, and what was it? A black blur and...an elf. That elf. That child-murdering, Tim-humiliating, imperious elf. This was looking like the moment Tim had been hoping for - but if she was around then Eli was lost. He whispered fast - "That elf's here!" - and sent his galdy speeding forward to leap upon her. A casual sweep of her durus split it in half and it died in the magic flash of a summoned thing.

[Jack Rothwell]

"Drusia..."

Eli shook off the shock from the sudden attack and shoved to his feet with a light spell firing from his hand, the augmenting effect of his amulet turned the sphere into a small moon, casting blue shadows over the sudden battlefield, and giving sight to the surprised soldiers. The half-elf grinned savagely, manically, the bastards were finally here. He grabbed the priest and pulled them both backwards into the recovering and now, panicking, crowd of spectators. The people provided a temporary cover as the half-elf drew a bead on their attackers. A cover which Drusia, at least, would be reluctant to jump into until it was clear.

The people in the cover of the barm-sized building were, for the most part, uninjured, although the magic wind had flung them from their seats and deposited them in crumpled heaps which would have been humourous under different circumstances. The only one who'd remained unruffled in the whole experience was the robed figure who'd sat far behind the body of the crowd before the demonstration had begun. And sat he remained, apparently watching the scene dispassionately.

Outside, Commander Garald had taken charge of the Black Guard as soon as he was back to his feet. He barked directions and targets to the soldiers as the crack of rifles announced the Ralkin footsoldiers began returning fire. Myra appeared at his side brandishing a pair of short swords moments later. Jade, the blacksmith, was up and looking around with a mixture of bewilderment and fear on her face.

"Rank up! Firing lines!"

The aging soldier didn't get another word out before a black and white blur collided with him with talons tearing. Garald grunted in surprise and flailed at the kobold with his unpinned arm at the snarling creature. It was Myra who saved his life, delivering a kick which tore Tamina free and allowed the Commander to struggle to his feet. Tamina rolled to her own, baring her teeth and hissing at the banditwoman as the civilians finishing exiting the barm. A brief flare of fire magic at the entrance encouraged the last of the stragglers on their way.

Eli's voice carried easily to Drusia as she made her way towards the unrepentant errant.

"Come and get me bitch!"


OOC Only a couple of soldiers are using mana-rifles atm btw (wtf bbq), not all of them have been paraded around for the spectators benefit (on a completely unrelated note, anyone who wants to follow Eli and Tim into the warehouse should pm me first).

Can I request that we don't throw too much action (or moves, if you like) in individual posts for this part, there's a lot of characters and I don't want things getting too chaotic. So, to add a little clarity, currently the Black Guard have formed into squads (rifles and swords as last time), Myra's facing off against Tamina, Garald'll have a squad to guard him as he commands, as will Sergeant Carlson (who'll be moving to protect Eli/Tim if anyone wants to put that in before my next post), the civilians are trying to get out of the battlezone, they'll be bodyguards for the dignitaries in the crowd too, although they won't be threat unless the attackers get too close, the lights are up enough to see, and Jade doesn't know what the hell is going on. /OOC

[Browncoat]

Angrist was hanging by his fingertips. He had arrived just in time for the wind to toss him off the roof. Now hanging from a windowsill, Angrist was trying to figure out his next move. Between the lighting and the spells, it made sense to use the mage sight to see instead of normal vision. The magical signatures of Drusia and Tamina were easy enough to pick out, but there were several unfamiliar ones, and where were Udo and Khoo?

A couple of the soldiers managed to grab some of the new weapons and were shooting wildly into the dim light.

{What the? Focused energy, but not shaped like a spell? How does that happen?}

The board of the windowsill creaked and started to shift.

{...Of course}

Quickly, Angrist slipped off his ankle weights. He was reaching for his wrist when the board gave. As he fell, Angrist pushed off the wall with his feet and by bouncing between buildings, made his way back to the roof. Angrist tore off his arm weights as he ran along the roof. When he reached the end of the roof, Angrist dove off over the crowd aiming to land near Tamina.

[OOC: Somebody else can cover his landing if they want. The reason Angrist is unsure of Udo and Khoo is because they aren't being overly active and everything else is pretty chaotic; like trying to hear a whisper at a rock concert.]

[Alberich]

When Eli's light when up, Udo snapped his rifle to his shoulder and took down an enemy rifleman with a lucky shot. But he couldn't fire fast after that - he was determined to pick his targets and shoot only armed enemies. If they focused his way, he hoped Khoo would give them some barrier cover, and if they didn't, he hoped the wind-wizard would give their friends some supporting fire.

* * *

Jargalan, standing alone away from Udo and Khoo, had no such compunction. He'd killed several of their thirty-or-so guards in the precious moments of darkness before the lesser errant got his light up. He knew these errants would be a hard fight all by themselves, and the thing was to take down their animal allies before the real fight got started. The only thing he wouldn't do was fire where Drusia and her allies were -- he trusted her enough to take out anything close by, and mistrusted her enough to avoid killing her pets, lest she go for some upper-class revenge afterwards.

"Rank up! Firing lines!"

The elf almost laughed. The silly cattle! When you were fighting primitives, you "ranked up" in close order so they couldn't penetrate your formation. When you were up against his kind of magic, you used extended order so their area magic wouldn't catch too many at a time. And oh, look, they had a giant light behind them to give him some beautiful silhouettes!

(He wasn't being fair - the enemy had had no notion of what was going to hit them after all, or even what was hitting them, or from where, and were in fact doing as well as anyone could under the circumstances.)

Raising his stolen staff and extending an open hand, he fired a wide blast of roasting fire to burn most of a squad of scrambling mercenaries who were not tangling it up with his allies of the moment. Several innocent spectators -- well, "innocent" by the standards of Port Lorrel politics -- screamed as they, too, were burned or their clothes were set on fire. Those who'd escaped the square ran faster and those who hadn't rushed madly to do so, making it harder for Garald and Carlson to move their troops around.

Jargalan was ready to counter any blast from the errants or their shooters, and if there was nothing to counter he'd do more of what he'd just done.

* * *

Tim, meanwhile, got behind Eli and kept the shield up as they backed into the warehouse. He could defend his friend, sure, but he was no good for attacks. Except summoning galdies. Another sick-looking cat-thing bounded away from him towards Drusia, but she sliced it out of the air with practiced ease. (And in recent days, her ease at slicing galdies had grown very practiced indeed.)

Jargalan had warned Drusia, but no one had warned Tim, of some kind of magic thing stalking back and forth in or near the warehouse. The broken-lamp fires on its side had not had time to grow large, and so would not affect its tactical value for a while yet.

* * *

Angrist hit the ground by Tamina, unweighted and almost up to his full speed. He ensured Tamina a fair fight, and saved lives besides, by quickly knocking out the nearest couple of guards with blinding-fast strikes. He could save many more lives by knocking out more guards, if that was in his mind.

[OOC: Okay, not moving any one person too far - my post is this long because I have three characters in play, and because I took Browncoat up on his invitation to describe Angrist's landing.]

[Jack Rothwell]

Myra snapped an elbow into the face of a limping spectator who'd gotten too close and shoved him into the charging kobold's path. Tamina jinked around the man, causing her swipe to go wide. The bandit made her pay for it with a lengthy scratch to the back of her arm. Tamina growled, turning to charge again, only to find the woman rushing towards her in a flurry of flashing blades. The kobold ducked, and turned a roll across the slate to avoid the onslaught but the bandit stayed on her, bringing up a knee into Tamina's jaw as she came to her feet and Angrist began laying waste to the nearby Black Guard. The kobold snapped her head back with murder in her eyes, and kicked the banditwoman's leg from under her with a spray of crimson from the claws on her feet. One of her blades went clattering from her grasp.

Myra scrambled upright and cast her eyes around, spotting the new arrival taking out her allies. She also saw Jade nearby, holding a revolver in one hand and her long thin blade in the other, the woman was standing-off from the fight, clearly unsure of the best course of action.

"For fuck's sake woman! They're trying to kill us all! Help!"

A burst of flame struck the battlefield a moment later, temporarily driving the fighters apart. Myra turned and caught a glimpse of Eli disappearing into the warehouse.

........

A short distance from the storage structure, Commander Garald accosted a pair of men as the squad guarding him fanned out and focused on the closest available targets. The Black Guard were quick-studies of Jargalan's disposition towards making explosions and adjusted their strategy accordingly.

"Get reinforcements!"

He sent the men half-stumbling, half sprinting towards their horses to fetch the help the organisation had in the area. The patrol routes emblazoned in the head officers mind put the nearest reinforcements at three minutes away. A six minute round trip before additional men arrived.

'Time is relative.' Thought the old man grimly.

If things proved too difficult, well, retreat was always an option.

.........

Eli dropped his glowing palm and jerked his head at Sergeant Carlson to get his men inside the structure. He waved them over to the weapons rack where the body of the blacksmith's work was stored. The soldiers armed themselves with the remaining five rifles and dropped into a perfect line facing out to the battlefield and the approaching invaders.

"Shield them between shots." Eli instructed Tim. "Keep the pressure on. The old man and I have work to do."

The cowled man remained sat as the half-elf briefly glanced back at him. He nodded.

"Fire."

OOC Now would be an excellent time to duck, or dive in slo-motion through the air, no walking away without looking back at the big explosion though, that's for the end of the movie.../OOC

[Browncoat]

"Fire"

Angrist felt the charging of the rifles match the whining sound they made. To the surprise of the soldiers he'd been..."battling" wasn't really the right word... Angrist sprang back and swept Tamina's feet out as he slid over almost lying flat. He caught her in one hand while bracing the ground with the other. The shots flashed overhead. Angrist popped Tamina and himself back to upright. He nodded to her, shrugged off his weight vest, and dashed toward the shooters.

[OOC: I'm wondering exactly how much physical force Tim's shielding can withstand. And FYI, Angrist is keeping his magic in reserve if he can help it; he doesn't want Jargalan to know all of what he can do.]

[Alberich]

He sent the men half-stumbling, half sprinting towards their horses to fetch the help the organisation had in the area. The patrol routes emblazoned in the head officers mind put the nearest reinforcements at three minutes away. A six minute round trip before additional men arrived.

Udo snapped off a shot at one of the horsemen and missed. It didn't matter. Once they were out of sight, they ran into an Eisenfaust ambush, such as the criminal lords of Lorrel specialized in. They might not be much for stand-up set-piece battles, at least not if they could help it, but when it came to dry-gulching...they were the masters. Not that Udo or even Jargalan knew that was happening.

[OOC: Then he sent for replacements / For his wounded and lame / But the troops that were comin' / Never came, never came, never came...]

Word would get around eventually - after all, there were civilians fleeing on foot, and word would move from house to house and tavern to tavern - but not with any six-minute turnaround.

* * *

Angrist's wonderful slide rescued Tamina from certain mana-blasted death, and Drusia, the other nearest target, avoided hers as well - lateral teleport, like as not. Jargalan caught one bolt on his shield and laughed. Actually, he had little reason to laugh - it hit harder than he'd expected. From his attitude you'd think he considered his opponents less than human and nothing could penetrate that view. But that wasn't so. The truth was that, to him, there was nothing "less than human."

Udo hadn't been close or noticed enough to have been a target of that first mana volley. Seeing the tactical situation, he decided to try his favorite tactic. He pointed at the wide open warehouse and called out to Khoo in Tsuirakuan, "<Block that doorway!>" Khoo, in his obliging, bemused, go-along way, did so [OOC: If I'm wrong, correct me] --

"<BARRIER!>"

The broad doorway was blocked. The next volley from Carlson's rifles would doubtless take the barrier down, but in the meantime precious seconds had been purchased. Jargalan used them to kill any guards he could get a clear shot at, this side of the barrier. Maybe Drusia and Angrist would do something similar.

* * *

"Shield them between shots." Eli instructed Tim. "Keep the pressure on. The old man and I have work to do."

Tim did exactly that. He was loath to permit this dark summoning to happen, but he just couldn't carry out his true intentions with the elf so close. Besides, those rifles were so powerful he'd never be able to get Eli away without being killed.

* * *

Nearly everyone who'd started in the square was dead or fled, and there were few on the Black Guard side to carry on the fight. It was through excellent training and coordination that Sergeant Carlson had gotten his five rifles inside the warehouse and shooting back so fast; the same thing allowed Commander Garald to gather his last few swords around him. Even an orderly retreat under this mass of magic would be a truly heroic feat of leadership, and probably for the best - after all, so he thought, reinforcements would be here in six minutes or so.

What the fearful Jade or the drunk, enraged Myra were doing - that would soon be clear.

More to the point would be what Eli and Aleron were doing.