Farrel- Vengeance in the Mushrooms Woods

For in-universe game play. Journey through both familiar and foreign settings, explore lost ruins and forgotten cities, and try to bring light to the darkness of the world... or, you know, blow stuff up. Either way.
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Graybeard
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Re: Farrel- Vengeance in the Mushrooms Woods

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[OOC: Not quite understanding how Jade could see Leo, since the airship resumed its invisibility magic once it got clear of the magic eaters, but stranger things have happened in the Errant World, so ...]

"Ace! Land this thing! My damsel's in distress!"

The man is mad,
thought Ace. He wanted to go into the chaos below? But then he thought: I'd do the same thing for Layla. Besides, he paid well for this. So ...

"Can't land it," he called back, "but I can get you there. Get ready to debark the hard way." He turned a knob on the airship's controls. The ship's rapid climb stopped, as the thaumatic lift was quenched, and it started to drop.

Ace looked at his two "clients." It was impressive; they didn't seem to be getting airsick from the violent roller-coaster ride, even though he himself was about to punch his cookies despite all his years as an airship pilot. Well, they're motivated. The airship dropped as close to the treetops as he dared take it. He twisted the knob again and pushed a stud.

Instantly, a rope ladder, redolent of magic, unrolled from the hatch and snaked down to the ground. It might not be invisible from below, but it would have to do, and the ship itself would remain cloaked.

"All ashore that's going ashore," he called. "And don't worry. The thing comes hard-wired with a Slow Fall spell." Despite the setting, he chuckled. "It even works. Usually."

=====

On the ground, Khoo was surprising himself. The embrace of his -- girlfriend -- was getting his personal energy back, to the point where he thought he could risk some spellcasting. It would be tricky, but ...

All the sand in the air was giving him the raw materials for a makeshift shield. He cast an Air Sprite. The magical form gathered sand, forced it into a protective barrier in front of Jade. It wouldn't provide complete protection, and he wouldn't be able to hold it long, but with any luck, he wouldn't have to.

Beside him, Anna-Lisa was getting her own composure back, and a characteristic Fireball hurtled out in the direction of the tree man, accompanied by a whoop of Anna-Lisa's own.
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Jack Rothwell
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Re: Farrel- Vengeance in the Mushrooms Woods

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OOC Oops, must've missed that detail. Gimme a sec and I'll adjust./OOC
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Re: Farrel- Vengeance in the Mushrooms Woods

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[OOC: No prob, it works just fine by voice. Meanwhile, there are two parties present who haven't been heard from, so for your added enjoyment, let's get 'em in the picture ... I presume that Leo and maybe Eve are going to descend the rope ladder; if not, let me know and I'll retcon this at the obvious point.]

Udo had been carrying a "less reputable competitor" to the more reputable battlemages' Yuuki staff, one of the reasons for that lower reputation being that it took some magical skill to use. However, it didn't take much magical skill to misuse it, as events of the next few seconds would demonstrate.

"I wanna go HOOOOMMME!" Fumiko wailed, for probably at least the hundredth time since she'd emerged from Anna-Lisa's Pocket Dimension pack like Venus from the sea. (Well, not quite, but close enough.) She'd been draped all over Udo (whose reaction to being thus used is probably best not described) ever since the magical monsters had started their way, keeping him from doing anything magical about them. This may have been a good thing; it may have been a bad one. What followed now, however, was definitely not in the "good" category.

Leo and Eve had just about reached the ground when Fumiko's latest wail was emitted, coinciding with her gripping Udo even more tightly ... and in the process, bumping a stud on the not-Yuuki staff. A gout of magical flame burst forth and arced into the sky not far from where the rope ladder descended. There was a sudden sound of thaumatic engines powering up to full emergency power; the rope ladder retracted like a snake's tongue, its Slow Fall spell depositing Leo and Eve gently if unceremoniously on the ground; and a strange breeze filled the air where the ladder had been ... and then there was silence, at least in the sky.

=========

One reason for the complicated design of modern airships, Ace knew, was so that a single fiery blast, magical or otherwise, wouldn't bring them down. The non-magical part of the lift was supplied by gas in multiple cells; a hit to one wouldn't rupture all. This careful bit of design redundancy [OOC: btw, a feature of real-world blimps, dirigibles and zeppelins dating all the way back to World War I] probably saved his life.

The blast from the staff had scored a direct hit on one of those gas cells, emptying it of the lifting gas. Immediately, built-in safety features kicked in. More ballast was automatically jettisoned to compensate for the lost lift, so that after another sickening jolt, the airship shot into the sky. Next, Ace's own reflexes kicked in, and he drove the propulsive power up to full military boost. Almost before he knew it, the ship had sped away from the scene of the battle ...

... Leaving Leo and Eve at the scene.

Well, they could complain about poor customer service later, Ace decided; he wasn't going to hang around to argue the point.
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Re: Farrel- Vengeance in the Mushrooms Woods

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Upon her comrades arrival Jade half-ran, half crawled over to Leo and crushing him in a brief hug. Eve rolled her eyes but said nothing.

"Tell me you brought one."

The handsome merc smiled. He unlimbered the rifle that had been resting over his shoulder and handed it to over to the techsmith, whose grin got considerable wider.

"I thought one of your 'babies' might come in useful if we got into any trouble on our trip. I guess I was right."

Without further ceremony Jade turned back towards the crawling monstrosity that was slowly closing the gap to the group. She coughed loudly to get everyone's attention.

"Ladies and gentleman!" She declared in her best saleswoman voice. "For your consideration for home defense, opening locked doors and blowing the heads off of weird plant monsters. I present to you..."

She pressed the panel on the gun where the hammer should've been; a low whine erupted and began rising in pitch. Jade aimed the weapon at the monster's face."

"...the mana rifle."

And fired.
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Re: Farrel- Vengeance in the Mushrooms Woods

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[OOC: Mainly just volleying it back to you here, but see the OOC at the end.]

As the sand of the mini-berm that Khoo had raised for Jade's concealment dispersed (it was no longer needed, since she wasn't in it, and Khoo judged that he was going to need his energies elsewhere soon enough), everyone watching the mana rifle's firing had different reactions to it. Fumiko, of course, just continued to whimper; that was what she did. Udo got a brief, almost orgasmic grin on his face until his attention was diverted again to the babe draped all over him. (An observer might have seen the combination of grin and girl as more than a little indecent. The observer would not necessarily have been wrong.) Almost before the leer wore off, he was at work "comforting" Fumiko, although he did take a moment to safety his own staff until he could scope out the tactical situation.

Anna-Lisa's reaction was similar to Udo's at first: "Oooooo! KEWL!" Her own Fireball hadn't accomplished much against the tree-monster, her still-wobbly condition being what it was. but this thing ... She had a brief flashback to her time working for Saiko Mesuinu, for whom similarly spectacular pyrotechnics were as natural as makeup. A similar flashback would have filled most people (including Khoo) with horror, but Anna-Lisa wasn't most people. She was energized enough now to start casting Fireballs or Force Bolts or whatever seemed right for incinerating the pieces of tree-monster that somehow still seemed to have life of their own.

Khoo's reaction, predictably, started with a cringe. He'd been in enough firefights by now, though, that his thinking turned to the practical. Magic seemed to be working once again, in at least parts of the compound where the magic-eating plants were dormant or dead or overly full of stolen magic (from the airship? who could know?) or something. That gave him a chance to do something he should have done earlier. Another Wind Sprite gathered up more of the sand from the second wave of ballast dropped by the now-departed airship, and heaped it against the breach in the building's wall that he and Anna-Lisa had made. There; that should keep whatever was inside from getting out so easily, and it would be easy for him to disperse if and when it came time to charge through the breach. This done, he settled in to watch proceedings, more confident now; in fact, he almost wished he had a bag of popcorn.

[OOC: And on that note, can we take a minute to review the tactical situation? Who's where? What nasties are still loose in the cleared area around the building, or elsewhere? For that matter, what do we know about what is IN the building? I had a difficult time making sense out of all that when Al was writing for the bad guys, and we may need to do that ourselves since it's not clear he'll be back. We're also going to have to NPC Udo, but we can do that; he never really accomplished much other than comic relief anyway. I think you're more or less in control there, although of course, scenario development will be collaborative as always.]
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Re: Farrel- Vengeance in the Mushrooms Woods

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OOC Good question. I think that everyone's basically behind cover either at the sparse treeline or behind the mounds Khoo created. For opposition, there's a bunch of magic-draining flowers, maybe some nasties in the building and the mushroom wizard himself. I'll double check and edit a reply in here either tonight or tomorrow when I get the chance. But my basic plan is eitheran all-out charge with evasive action or for the group to go wide and around to get to the buildings walls. I don't want to make the mana rifle too OP and use it to blow the flowers up; I had it disable the tree-monster thing because the weapon has a tighter focus and more penetrating power than a spell flung by a human mage and the monster couldn't absorb mana. Since magic is useless having the silver hands draw the wizard's fire would give the mages to close the gap as well.

That's about as far as I've gotten. If you've got any ideas I'd appreciate the input./OOC
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Re: Farrel- Vengeance in the Mushrooms Woods

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"Yeah. Woo." Eve sarcasmed at Jade's display. "Well, that solves the problem of the viners unless, you know, he happens to summon more of them."

Eve's eyes widened as she peered around the lonely tree she'd made a beeline for and stifled a yelp as a thorn the size of a dagger narrowly missed her face and embedded itself in the undergrowth.

"Any ideas how to deal with this prick?"

"We've got to get past those flowers!" Jade yelled, pointing at the still substantial bed on the open ground between them and the building. "They absorb magic, and this guy's yelling about a trail or something... like it's a puzzle to solve.

"So... copious amounts of fire power?" Leo interjected.

"Or we can create some non-magic cover." Jade turned to the group at large with a wry expression. "Anyone have an axe?"

Eve, meanwhile was smiling to herself and unlimbering her backpack...

OOC Just double-checking since something just occurred to me; are there smoke grenades in the world of errant story?/OOC
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Re: Farrel- Vengeance in the Mushrooms Woods

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[OOC: OOC Just double-checking since something just occurred to me; are there smoke grenades in the world of errant story?/OOC

I'd certainly think so. The Tsuirakuan type would be magical, and thus useless here even if Khoo and Udo were carrying any, which Khoo, at least, is not. But Farrel would resort to good old chemistry, so go for it! So while Eve is limbering up her throwing arm, let's see if Fumiko can actually be useful, improbably enough. [/OOC]

Fire ... non-magical fire ... thought Khoo, his pessimism back (if reduced) as Anna-Lisa's Fireballs and Udo's staff blasts sputtered out in the field of magic-eating flowers. As he was thinking, a not-altogether-unpleasant (just 90% so), if incongruous, odor reached his nostrils from the general direction of the still whimpering Fumiko ... and he had an idea. "Got any perfume on you?" he called to the young Tsuirakuan.

Fumiko paused in her whimpering long enough to blink at him. "Of course. I wouldn't leave home without it. But why?..." Her voice trailed off and she started whimpering again.

By now Khoo had seen enough of the girl to know several things. She would indeed have perfume; it would be cheap stuff, with a volatile base; and she'd probably have more of it than was altogether, or even remotely, tasteful. "Don't ask why. Just give it to me. All of it." He gulped as another thorn whipped past him. "Now."

His wildest dreams were exceeded by what happened next.

She blinked, nodded, opened the Pocket Dimension that (with Lucas Ravanel's unintended "help") had landed her here ... and extracted a spray bottle half the size of a gallon jug that reeked of what might have been something floral. Wordlessly she handed it to Khoo. Or at least wordlessly to start; after a few seconds she said, "Please don't waste it. It's -- very expensive."

Probably cost ten whole tsuis at a cheap flea market, Khoo judged, rather overstating the value; he'd known what some of the Sashi Mu students misspent their money on. "Don't worry," he said as reassuringly as he could under the circumstances. "We'll get you more later, and it'll be good stuff." Now if I can just remember how to do this ...

He could.

A minute or two later, he had the world's strongest-smelling Molotov cocktail in his hands, ready to light and throw into the "flower bed." [OOC: And how will that fit in with Eve's smoke bomb? I have no idea. go where you want to with it...]
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Re: Farrel- Vengeance in the Mushrooms Woods

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Eve saw the fire in Khoo's hand and grew a smile which wasn't entirely sane. She drew her own hand out of the pack to produce a couple of metal canisters. She handed one to Leo, who took it without comment.

"Great minds think alike!" She cried, batting her lashes at the student. "Pitch that bad boy into the middle of the field! We'll aim for either side!"

"You took my smoke grenades?" Jade asked. "There better be something left in my forge when I get back!"

"Calm your tits, Red. The rest in here is ammunition... mostly ammunition."

"Well, alright. If we go for a pincer attack through the smoke it should provide enough cover to get to the building... although what's waiting for us is anyone's guess."

"Battlemages know no fear!" Declared Udo, his expression of mania eerily similar to Eve's.

"Lucky you." The Techsmith muttered. "On three then... one... two... three!

The barrage which followed turned the deceptively peaceful looking meadow into a smoke blasted bonfire. Flames licked at the sky as if to declare that Fumiko's perfume must've been at least three quarters ethanol; the vine wizard's cries of outrage seemed muffled by the fog which had sprung up to accompany it.

"Watch out for his missiles!" Yelled Jade, standing up and dragging her mask back over her face. "Charge!"
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Re: Farrel- Vengeance in the Mushrooms Woods

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"Charge!"

Udo, of course, needed no particular inducement to do exactly that in his ... inimitable style, and to Khoo's shock -- and dismay -- Anna-Lisa fell in right behind him, brandishing a dagger (where in the world did she find that?). Khoo sighed, and picked up the rusty halberd -- but before advancing, he paused to do something that Anna-Lisa would give him all manner of grief for later.

He stepped over to where Fumiko was standing, near-catatonic with terror, and pulled her into the best what-passed-for-cover he could find. "Stay here," he directed, "and we'll be back for you if -- as soon as we can." Mutely, she nodded and sank to the ground.

This good deed done, Khoo joined the throng, not entirely unhappy to be at its rear.

[OOC: Can't really think of much else to do at the moment, you're kinda driving the train here. Did Al ever give you any hints about what was inside the building? He didn't give any to me. We'll just have to wing it, probably.]
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