Trial By Fire - Exalted 2e IC Thread

[Sounds like a plan, Stan!]

[Ready to roll!]

With the meeting over, the group makes its way back to the upper deck of the Flying Tower once more, however this time you are joined by Relza, Leeayta and Arrog. With everyone up at the landing deck, you are met by a half dozen Pteroks that seem quite intrigued at your presence, and are quite excited to see you. Relza offers to be the one to pay the Essence to power the transport globe, looking quite pleased to see a powered airship preparing to fly in the skies of Rathess once more.

With Aarog asking to join in your effort to cleanse the other Flying Tower, it is a tight fit for everyone to squeeze into the airship, but for the short trip over to the second Tower, it is not a big problem. With four of the Pteroks flying escort, the transport flies over to the top of the other Tower. At first glance, there is little difference between the two, except for the lack of Pterok nests up on the deck. As everyone is climbing out of the ship, you can hear the chomping sounds of the four Pteroks ripping into the few goblins that were up on top keeping guard.

Arrog draws his daiklave once more and looks over at the Exalts. "I am ready. Let us begin the work of restoring this city to its former glory."

"Yes. Here we go..." Annika said as she drew two of her throwing knives, holding one in each hand. After having a glance at each of the Pteroks as they "dealt" with the goblin guards, she looked around for a door, wondering if other Fair Folk would come running in from somewhere.

Viktor stepped out of the transport, hoisting up his daiklave and shield to pose them defensively as the others exited the globe. He noticed Annika glance at the Pteroks dispatching the few present goblins, and grinned at the Night-caste. "Those flying Dragon-Kings certainly can hold their own. I'd hate to be on the receiving end of their ire."

He waited for the others to move forward, ready to take up a guarded position at the back of the formation as Aredin had instructed earlier. Being so near to the edge of the flight deck, Viktor allowed himself a curious look over the rim towards the ground and felt his stomach flip. The crafter quickly pulled his gaze back to the tower entry ahead of them, and firmly planted his feet. Definitely don't want to fall from here, lest my Essence or Shard or whatever finds a new host a little sooner than I'd care for.

Darian quickly climbs out of the transport and readies her Chain Daiklave for a fight. Spending a few motes of Essence, she expands her awareness to try and be aware of any potential ambush before it has a chance to be sprung on them. "I am ready."

Aredin stows the globe in it's special pocket and draws the Daiklave at his hip. His caste mark burns bright upon his forehead, an unfortunate consequence of preparing himself for protracted battle with peons.

"It's gonna take a lot of essence to clear this place safely, be conservative with short-term use but don't worry about flares up here, stick to formation, and make sure you watch out for your neighbors. Slow and steady pace and we should have little to no problems. If we encounter the Solar...well let's hope he's more tired than we are. Given our allies, I have no intent to pardon his aggression toward them, so don't pull punches there either." Aredin stated flatly. It was clear he intended to enjoy venting anger against the Fae, but not so much when it came to dealing with the Goblin King.

With that, Aredin activates Infinite Melee Mastery for 20m 1w to commit for the duration of the venture and reaches the 4m anima level in doing so.

Sirocco smiles at the Solars around her, but a special smile is reserved for Heaven. She took back human form as they boarded the sphere, so as not to make it more crowded, but now, she relishes the chance for some combat. She kisses Heaven\s cheek, before taking a step to the side, and changing her shape. Even those who have already seen her change her shape can see that things are slightly different now.
As she grows bigger, and her wings flex, not only do her Smashfists merge into her wings to give them a silvery sheen, but her feathers seem to bulk up, and seem to be made out of rock, giving her a better protection against attacks. And then the big humanoid bird form crouches somewhat, her outstretched wings making small movements that seem to gather wind beneath them.
While this is going on, two more changes take place, that are not visible. Her essence floods her bloodstream as it enhances it to better heal her of minor damage, and her connection to Heaven deepens, and she knows that as long as they remain close, she will have no problem defending him from whatever tries to get to him.

Now ready, she scans the roof of the tower, and unleashes a cry of challenge to anyone nearby.

Moving on to the large bank of high speed elevators, the elevator car is large enough to fit all of you easily. Heading down into the Tower, Leeayta tells you that she has investigated the layout of this layer, and from her snooping about she can tell you that the bulk of the Fae living here are in the lower levels closer to the ground floor. "The total population is roughly one hundred goblins and other lesser servants, with a group of ten nobles that run everything. Not all of them are going to be a formidable battle threat, but there are enough of them to make any effort to clean out the Tower problematic. I strongly suspect that with this many Exalts there should not be any trouble with sweeping through the Fae here."

As the doors open up, you see a corridor that leads to a large chamber with roughly twenty of the lesser Fae in it, and four of the nobles lounging about on various couches. It looks like it has been set up as some kind of throne room, and the nobles are here holding court with their minions. The minions count as a multitude of extras, and the only real threat lies with the four nobles. But, with so many Exalts here, along with the two spirits and Arrog, there is little chance for the Fae to put up much of a fight.

Go ahead and describe your character's wanton slaughter of the goblins and four nobles, and we'll move on.

Aredin raised his blade as his steps echoed through the hall. The usual lively ring of the alloyed metal rose in volume and intensity until the metal hummed with a visible blur to it. Each stroke left a thunderclap to fill the air of the ancient halls as guts, gore, gossamer, and phantasmal imagery of consumed dreams and nightmares greased each of the surrounding surfaces in an amorphous paste, leaving bits of unreality wriggling in horror at what had just happened to the bodies they once filled.

Aredin could only smile as he saw his caste mark reflected in the ruin of their foes. It was a horde of darkness that no longer posed a threat to his people, mortal or otherwise. In this there was relief, but more vermin lay further down for extermination.

Darian is far from as martially skilled as her husband, but with her own training, she can easily hold her own against these rabble, leaving the more deadly opponents for the others to finish off. But, she was not above the application of a vicious shot into one of the nobles that run this Tower. "Before we relax too much, we must remember that there are more of these monsters in here still. It is a very tall Tower; they must be in another level, since we know that there are more of these Fae in here."

Much as she yearned to jump in, Sirocco reserved her strength, and stayed near Heaven, protecting him easily from the blows of the various minions, which she flung back, their bodies exploding into gossamer. But then, one of the nobles tried to slip an attack on Heaven, and if not for her defense, it would have caused some wound to him, but instead she reflected it, despite being busy with 4 of his minions, and began to tear him apart, his shrieks echoing around the chamber.

Annika took out two of the hobgoblins as they came charging towards her, throwing her knives straight into their foreheads. After that she drew her daiklaves and cut down any hobgoblins who came near her. After the fifth one had met its end, the hobgoblins stopped trying to attack her, but one of the nobles - a tall and impossibly beautiful woman with pale skin, red hair and pointed ears - dashed forward and swung down at her with a gossamer broadsword, forcing Annika to block the blow with her own two weapons.

"Who are you?! What are you doing here?!" The noble snarled as the two locked blades, sounding both fearful and furious.

"Didn't you hear? We're the new landlords of this property, and we're hereby evicting you. Failure to vacate the premises will be punished with death." Annika said with a grin, before breaking the lock with an outward swing of both her blades. The noble went for her neck with a horizontal swing, but Annika ducked under the blow and, finding herself behind her opponent, cut through the the tendons of both her legs, making her scream and drop to her knees. Annika dispatched her with two stabs; one through her throat, the other through her open mouth.

Withdrawing her daiklaves from the dead noble, Annika looked around to see how everyone else was doing, and how the rest of the Fair Folk were holding up.

~~Previously~~
Heaven tried to convince the goddess that he was more than capable of handling the powering off their transport, but Rezla insisted. As he climbed in, Heaven took one more opportunity to take in her beauty, before Sirocco's kiss caused him to stiffen. He sat back, a wide grin on his face.

~~Now~~
As the others advanced, Heaven hailed flaming arrows down upon every foe in sight. One after another, the fey fell, his burning essence turning them to pincushions. He nodded to Sirocco as she stepped in to save him, as always, before firing a quartet of arrows that put down the noble's followers. He exhales, and smiles at his Lunar companion.

"You know Sirocco, I thought finding a new home meant we could go on dates, take walks and explore. I didn't figure that said outings would be filled with so many dead bodies. Ah, well. It's plenty fun, and we'll still have dinner to look forward to after, yes?"

"My dear Heaven, I do think you might be enjoying it as much as a Dawn, and not a Twilight..."

Viktor made sure the shield strapped to his left arm remained mobile, blocking incoming blows before knocking them aside and slashing with his blade to punish the mistake-prone goblins. He tried to mimic the form Durke had display during their bout against the Terrestrial hit-squad. Though the crafter would have enjoyed jumping forward to engage the Fae Nobles, he stuck to the plan and stayed towards the back to prevent the numerous minions from completely encircling the group. It would not be sound tactics to rush forward and leave their flanks exposed, and Viktor would have been both embarrassed and remorseful if an ally were struck from behind due to his negligence.

The great golden shield sang with each strike it averted, and Viktor was easily able to outpace the smallest of the shaped monsters with his blocks and counter strikes. This gave him a great opportunity to test out his predecessor's blade, and as the crafter's essence surged his blows began to fall more accurately upon the myriad foes. He was glad to wield the same weapon Muramasa Akihiko once used in the Age of Splendor, viewing it as a chance to reintroduce this wonder of a bygone age to their current fallen one. His caste mark glowed golden and powerful as he released great flashes of essence, and at one point the silhouette of a large golden elephant appeared beside him as though aiding in his protective task.

[Viktor is going to subconsciously recover the 1st Melee Excellency as he attacks the Fae with his Orichalcum Daiklave; spending 8 exp.]

"Ah, well maybe a certain Lunar is rubbing off on me." Heaven replied with a wink, firing another volley of arrows at their foes.

Aredin pauses after cleaving the last noble through. The resonant energy that hummed in the blade quieted and the noble burst into naught but a greasy stain of pained images on the floor. He released a deep breath of relief before turning back to the formation and the accompanying goddesses watching their progress.

He spoke with a calm but somewhat cold tone, having refused to waste any words on the wyld-spawned vermin squatting in the ruins of far more decent peoples. "If there's none left here, we can move on to cleaning up the next group. The sooner this infection is removed, the better."

Aredin, stopped remembering he was supposed to be a bit more methodical about this and decided to try and check his impulses with a question. "Er... Actually, at a glance, you see anything here that might be of use here before we proceed, Viktor?"

"Hmm..." Viktor looked around as he returned his daiklave to the sheath on his back. The crafter laid his shield down so that it leaned against one of the walls, and crouched as his gaze swept across the ruins of the room.

[Can I have Viktor make a (Perception + Investigation) roll to do a quick search of the room and/or scattered bits of Fae?]

MasterDAF said:

[Can I have Viktor make a (Perception + Investigation) roll to do a quick search of the room and/or scattered bits of Fae?]

Click to expand...

Go ahead and either use Perception + Awareness or Perception + Investigation for your look around the room.

[Searching Room Roll: 4 Perception + 1 Investigation = 4 Successes]

After a quick inspection of the room and the fallen nobles, you are able to recover multiple gossamer weapons and armor, along with a multitude of mortal weapons in various states of maintenance. There are no artifacts of the five Magical Materials, but what Viktor does notice is that there are pieces and parts that you would expect to find in the cockpit from several airships. Probably from some of the ships up on top of the Tower. With the right parts, it will make a huge difference to Victor to be able to get the ships working once more.

Darian can hear the distinctive sounds of many clawed feet that are running in your direction, coming up the stairs.

Raising her voice up loud enough to be heard, Darian calls out, "We have company coming! From that stairwell, I can hear many clawed footsteps!" She continues to maintain her Charms that were active earlier, and swings her Chain Daiklave in a menacing manner.

Aredin took the front of the formation again while Viktor finished what he was tending to. His sword was in hand and extended charms still primed for another round of delivering punishment. "Clawed? Are these Raksha or Dragon Kings?" Aredin asked, assuming Relza could hear and respond.

OOC Can I make a Perception + Awareness roll to try and determine numbers and identity of the approaching beings?