Fantasy Fading Flame (In Character)

[QizPizza]

Taryn the Exile

Location: Ruins - Left Side
Status: Suspicious
Disposition: Slightly Evil
Interacting With: Spireshade
Mentioned: Unwavering Knight

Taryn paid no heed to the knight's words as they encountered the man in the ruins. This was curious to say the least. What kind of a person would be out here this far and still be alive? They were clearly not a normal person, and that means, they were a potential threat. Taryn's hand tightened around the spear as she inspected him. The man was covered head to toe in a dark cloak. He wanted his body to stay concealed for some reason. Similar to Audun in a sense, but definitely not to hide any Dark nature, though a malevolent nature it still might be.

As the Succubus looked him over, she noticed the scent of blood seeping from the person. Faint? yes. But nonetheless present? Yes. It was the smell of all sorts of blood, with human being one of them. This man was definitely dangerous. Taryn opted to leave a hologram where she was standing and turn invisible, just in case they got any ideas. Thankfully, with all the Light Aymeline granted her, Taryn didn't have to worry about conserving her energy. Summoning a hologram and going

The hologram strutted towards the cloaked figure, until it was close enough to touch. The hologram took a noticeable sniff of the man and Taryn prepared to channel her voice through her hologram. The Succubus defaulted to flirting with the cloaked figure. Male, female, or neither; it didn't matter. As long as it kept them distracted and vulnerable, it worked for Taryn. "You smell interesting. There are not many people who make it out this far. Care to show me just how capable you are... Oh! I forgot introductions. You can call me 'Beautiful', and what should I call you?"

 

[Kabboom]

Jericho

And everyone had gone their ways, as quickly as they had arrived. A stampede charge into the unknown, led by some of the weirder people Audaton has met over the years, left the outpost in the dust, and the boring guardsmen simmered down. The new arrivals quickly got into shape from a few orders coming from Lieutenant Motley, and a few wily guardsmen are perched atop the walls, staring at the women adventurers as they departed and making all sorts of nasty remarks, much to the disgust of the nearby guardswomen. The Guardian himself had simply waved his unseen goodbyes at the groups, wishing them good luck. The settlement then resided in its slumber of inactivity, with the rounds of patrols resuming, and the birds shitting on the pavement as they fly ahead. Guardsmen sit with their legs dangling off the edges on the walls, snugly covered in their blankets as they sit beneath the cover of the battlements, away from the howling winds coming over right above them. One of them dutifully peer through a periscope installed directly onto the stone using copious amounts of tape-paste, allowing him to look over without exposing himself to the winds. A monotonous day, to be sure.

Inside the boundaries, it was no better. The quartermaster was now occupying himself with Maria's shortsword, trying in vain to replicate the flying effect she promised him earlier. The local stooges of the unit: Moe, Larry and Curly, have come to watch him fling the weapon into the air in the hopes it will stay there, with no success. The men had been worried when their 'project', the 3-sword was taken away, but thankfully this occupied the troublemakers' limited minds, and made for entertainment as the three ran around, trying to dodge the sword as it came back down. Sculley himself was no fool; it was quite obvious Maria had some sort of power that enabled her sword, but he decided to train his flinging arm anyway. Besides the rats were also watching, and not actively chewing on everything in the warehouse, and that was cause enough for the old man to be liberally distributing swords into the sky at noon. The new arrivals were watching as well, but in terror. Jericho wasn't sure about the few in his group that decided to stay, seeing as they kept more or less to themselves, but he figured they could use some lone time. In the meantime, however, he was going to go find a good view.

Up on the higher levels of the outpost, namely the middle level, the air was less playful. The granite surfaces of the stone face feel unusually slippery to the touch, in stark contrast even to the stone staircase Jericho took up here. The winds were in full form, blasting and gushing all over the place in their unseen splendor, shredding and tearing at the ears as they smack against, or are violently disturbed by, the walls and battlements. Everyone not inside a secure tent is strapped to at least two ropes, slung over and secured against the nearest object deemed safe to fasten oneself to, as was the case with the ten or so guardsmen strapped to the battlements. Their ropes were purposefully long, and had simply been slipped down to one of their legs, allowing them to lie down right at the base of the battlements, away from the winds like their comrades on the lower floor. The men were all sleeping cozily, their helmets pulled overhead to cover their eyes from the sun directly above, while cotton-plugged ears drown the howls of the breeze coming over their faces. One man lied awake and facing the staircase, seemingly acting as the squad's watch dog, and soon spotted Jericho coming up. Hastily, he reached over to a Lightvoxer unit lying next to him, and then dialed a few numbers. The actions resulted in a small rock lodged into the wall's surface near Jericho to glow blue with a magical glyph, no doubt the work of a generous mage visitor. Grabbing the rock and then moving behind one of the tents to grab some respite from the wind, he pressed his ears against it to hear voices.

"Glad to see ya here, sir! Heard you were our new acting commander here and just wanted to give you a few heads-up, if that's fine with you, Guardian sir!" rang a garbled, but earnest voice through the glyph-rock. Given acknowledgement, the guardsman then resumed. "Boy, am I glad to have you commanding me now, sir, we've been waiting on word from the outside for days! We're 140 men strong, give or take a few. Not very big for an entire Rank, but most of our Groups have taken a beating, so excuse our disorganization, sir. Below, you'll find the quartermaster and the fruit storage as well as the garden. On this level, you've got the lieutenants' tents, and the damn wind. Before ye ask too, all the Captains have died in battle, so the lieutenants, sergeants and that damned Rank Commander is all we've got left. Above you'll find the RC's office and the lookout. That's all, sir; glad to have you here!"

After the little briefing, the glyph-rock faded its colors, and flew across the air back to its original spot in the wall. With a salute from the prone guardsman, Jericho made his way upwards again, catching a glimpse of the lifting cranes being used to hoist guardsmen over the wall's face to scrub Dark ooze off of them. No doubt the result of the past battles, and the traces left no room for Audaton's imagination as for the state of the battles these men must endure. In order for the Dark to even stick as if they were material matter, at least dozens of their rank must've died at the same spot for it to be even a liquid. To be a near-solid ooze substance, is to indicate hundreds. Mounting a rather-oversized ladder, which must've been installed at the behest of a Giant such as Aymeline for ease of access to the top floor, Jericho had no problems with the winds' colds as he stayed warm jumping upward from rung to rung. The only other way up would be through the stone spiral staircase indoors, which he had a slight feeling led directly to the RC's room.

The view had struck him as much as a surprise as the gust of wind that nearly blew him back down. After a second, more careful approach, Audaton manages to get up, and make his way towards a battlement, where guard railings have been bolted into the stone itself. The wooden watch tower above was undergoing some sort of new tool refit, with a guardsman hung over the side, precariously held by rope, and replacing a small searchlight's faded glass core with the new quartz crystals that the rock-girl exchanged for some dynamite earlier. The vast valley he could see underneath, along with the seas of green that extend beyond the eye's reach in all directions, were almost wondrous, if it were not filled with dangers. The clouds themselves were drifting by fast, unlike their normal selves: the big bulbous chunks of white and grey darted by like stallions across a field, with many of them tenfold bigger than the entire outpost, and many of them drooped low enough to engulf the top level in mist, if given the right occasion. It would've been a sightseer's heaven; but Jericho didn't come this far just to gawk at the splendors of nature.

And not just himself, it seemed, based on a nearby glyph-rock's activation. Picking it up, Audaton was surprised to hear a familiar voice: Clanus. "I'm comin' up, ser." The scoutsman stoutly announced, followed by his actual appearance from the ladder, with a glyph-rock in hand. Slowly approaching, Jericho could spot the bags under the man's eyes, along with a slightly-reddened nose. Clanus' eyes shifted with no tears, although one could practically touch the sorrow and grief within his irises, and as the scoutsman grabbed hold of the guard railing near the Guardian, his exposed knuckles bore red callouses, telltale signs of punches thrown with wild abandon, perhaps in search of an answer for the unending anger within the man. His voice was still more or less normal, but the tone had changed. "An' before ye ask, one of the guardsmen show'd me how to use this'ere device."

Jericho snapped out of his observing trance, and responded through his own glyph-rock; the wind was too loud for them to be heard otherwise anyway. "Ah, right, good work, scoutsman."

An awkward silence ensued. Somewhat foolishly, Jericho decided he would start. "...Hey. I'm sorry about Edela Detachment, Clanus."

A subtle crack could be heard through the glyph-rock's garbled transmission as the scoutsman spoke. "Thank ye, ser. ...Permission t'speak freely?"

"Granted."

With a small inhale, Clanus spoke. "I don't get it, sir."

Audaton shifted his eyebrows. "You don't get what, Clanus?"

"Why do they all have to go? The good people? Y'know, they used to have a girl in Edela Detachment. A girl named Edela, who'd figure? Always eager for a fight, an' she was always the first one ahead of t'group. She'd always be complainin' about her hair gettin' stuck on trees when we had friendly cross-unit race competitions an' such. She was always such a clumsy 'ead, I didn't even know if it was a joke or not that she blew herself up on some dynamite to safeguard the unit's retreat durin' a scouting mission gone sour. I miss her, sir. An' all my friends too. My brothers-in-arms, who'd always given me shit over bein' sentimental with the elves and cruskies an' such, but would always be there for me when I need 'em. I miss 'em so much, sir."

Clanus had broken down at this point. But no tears fell, as he simply just stood there, paralyzed. His voice was running shaky, and the eyes had slowly drooped downwards onto his bare knuckles tightening themselves on the guard railing, gone white from the pressure. "But they're all gone, sir. I couldn' be there for 'em, when they woulda needed me th'most, and I blame myself for it, sir. I wish it woulda been me instead. I wish I-"

A pair of arms wrapping themselves around the scoutsman, Clanus almost staggered backwards from the shock of it all. A tight hug, from a well-accomplished and famous, if not infamous, Guardian, to a lowly scoutsman who simply didn't understand it all. For but a moment, the wailing waves of air dulled their screeches, and both of them felt some warmth through the wind-blasted steel armor on the chest, colliding against each other awkwardly. Reaching his left hand further to reach the glyph-rock up to his mouth, Jericho spoke back.

"So do I, Clanus. I've lost friends too, too many to count. Same with you, I don't understand why they have to go. Same with you, I've wished it was me instead. Light damn it, it should have been me instead. But Clanus... All this grief and suffering won't bring them back. It won't change anything, except you. You've lost them, but don't let us lose you too. Hang in there, and stay with us, Clanus. Alright?"

The answer was but a silent nod; not seen, but felt, as Clanus' chin lightly struck against Jericho's left shoulder. The two simply stood there, in some kind of shared suffering. Through Clanus, Jericho felt a few things. Firstly, he'd never activated Clarity, and the feeling of having instilled calmness in someone, rather than placing it there for them, felt much more satisfying than it should've. He felt what Clanus had once felt, being the new guy in Anvil Team. But on the other hand, Jericho had rediscovered his fear. Fear that the faces of those he had failed would now come back to haunt him, in his moment of weakness. That he had dared to feel. An invisible hand tugged at his chest cavity, its cold touch permeating through his ribcage. It almost hurt, but made him felt worse, like his own feet were beginning to vanish, bit by bit.

Frightened by this touch of the unknown, Jericho slowly removed his arms, and returned to just standing on the railing. Clanus did the same, and the two enjoyed some sort of silence together. "Anything else?" Asked Jericho.

"Uh, yes sir. M'lads sent me up 'ere to do a visual map a' the area 'round 'ere." Clanus answered, returning to his normal voice as he produced a pencil and parchment. It probably wouldn't be too hard to flatten the thing against the wall and begin drawing, but the scoutsman might want to watch out for his drawing flying out from under him nonetheless. Jericho stayed to the help the man, and the two had a fun while planning out possible future routes and making predictions about the rain situation for the next few days. A temporary respite from the perils of the world, and the foolish endeavor the two had been put in charge of; a naive scoutsman, and a naive Guardian. Quite the duo, given the circumstances.

CrowOuttaHell hostage SCSaya06

​

anOtHeR wALL oF tExT OOoooOOOOOooOOOOoOOOOooO
jk it's the GM part

The Hunting Grounds:
The Cavity barely even had the chance to twitch in response to the pious crusader propping a one-ton cross cannon hybrid onto the ground, before it was engulfed in an interior flaming shell, incinerating its inner workings within an instant. The ground itself shifted and croaked, with a few chunks of dirt jutting out like crudely formed termite hives due to the size of this Cavity, and the thing let out a tongueless screech that none could hear but the most imaginative, as it thrashed around in an all-consuming flame. The guardsmen themselves slowly walked up to take a look, taking slow steps as they were fairly certain there were still other Cavities around, albeit not being as careful as they would otherwise be. After all, this thing just got lit on fire, if there were any others nearby, they would also have panicked from the heat.

Unluckily, one of the guardsmen then immediately stepped onto a Cavity. The small beast was just big enough to munch his foot whole, making him scrape around in panic as he quickly found his left foot deep inside the ground. His comrades quickly took note and pulled him out before the thing could snap its mouth shut, much to the man's relief, but the realization crept upon them immediately. How are they gonna clear these things?

A quick musket shot downwards at the foot-muncher quickly revealed the answer: these things were flimsy after all, as proven by the thing immediately going limp. The guardsmen then collected in a collective hum of thought, and decided that they had not nearly enough brain neurons between them to come up with a way to safely clear this place of Cavities. "Anyone got any good ideas?" One of them immediately asked. No one had an answer, but they were waiting very much for someone who did.

RubyZoo -robert- LuciTheGreat

The Ruins:

The noise had attracted the attention of virtually every entity within the house Cris had scouted. As soon as the clanking ceased, a figure immediately struck it, further collapsing the decades-old stage. The figure then rose up with a devilish snarl befitting that of a Darkborne fiend, and snapped its head backwards almost perfectly to face the door, but not quickly enough to spot the seemingly innocuous owl making its way towards a spot in the roof. With a hiss, its 'friends' quickly scampered into the darker corners of the house, waiting for an ambush, as the one on-stage stood perfectly tall within the noon's light that bore down at its dark face of death.

Epiphany BioshockRP Midrick Vyseryx Unwavering Knight Spireshade QizPizza

The Ridge:
The Darkwolf fell, screaming its deathly roar as an axe intended for Inuin slammed into it, slaying it instantly. The birds from the canopies immediately flocked away, a foreshadowing of what's to come. The trees begun to creak as the winds shifted direction greatly, managing to fell a few trees around and behind the group. Some two hundred meters vaguely ahead of the group, within the forest, a host of what appears to be, gigantic frogs strapped with wooden mechanical tools, could be heard, accompanied by the usual audio distortion iconic of the Darkborne.

Immediately, two sizeable fireballs propelled themselves through the air, snapping out the branches and leaves in the way as they cut through the canopies and culminated in close impacts near the group. They appear to be ranging shots, and the next volley would not be far off...

QizPizza Soviet Panda Sybil U UnbelievableCow Albion

 

[Epiphany]

Aymeline

With Cris' report and a good sense of what lay in store, the Giant frowned slightly at the noise inside. No doubt the Darkborne knew they were there, now, and were perhaps readying a surprise attack. If this group would be successful, they would need every advantage possible.

So Aymeline lifts the White Warcry and, with a thumb, reconfigures it into its pickaxe configuration. She swings the mighty weapon in an underhanded arc and hooks one pick end into one of the main support beams holding up what's left of the roof of the ruined building. With a tremendous flex of muscle, Aymeline uses the White Warcry to lift and tip the entire roof of the building right off, dumping it off to the side and exposing the interior to the sun and the warriors she had waiting with her.

Kabboom BioshockRP Midrick Vyseryx Unwavering Knight Spireshade QizPizza

 

[Trappy]

Hearthfall Season - Morning
Maria
The Ruins, Darkwoods​

• Maria
• Interacted / Mentioned

• 
  
  Maria listened to Aymeline's detailed description of the power she'd imbued her comrades with. Her blue eyes scanned the giantess, occasionally shifting towards a dark corner among the smaller ruins they passed by when the guardian thought she saw something moving in the unusually blinding darkness that shrouded areas well-hidden from the radiant sunlight. As the mage had rightly assessed, the overwhelming presence of Darkness haunting this place could be felt. As confident as she was as an experienced warrior, Maria couldn't help but feel cold shivers running down her spine, and only the presence of powerful allies managed to draw a nervous smile on her face, reassuring the girl. Still, the guardian found her grip tightening on the bardiche, and eyes peeled, for it doesn't matter how powerful or confident you are, the Darkborne have the numbers.
  
  "Oh no, that'd be...least preferred." Maria replied to Aymeline, specifically to her mentioning the probability of revealing thoughts through the link. The guardian wanted to see nothing from the succubus's mind, as one may expect it to be truly nightmarish.
  
  As the group walked, Maria could notice some faint signs of... recent activities. Well, 'recent', they were all dusty and crippled, only somehow appeared... less dusty and crippled than their surrounding. The guardian halted, and moved closer to inspect. However, before she had a chance to, one of the group members examined a nearby building with his ability, before throwing inside an object. His purpose, presumably taunting possible occupants of the structure, was soon replied, as slithering Dark beasts revealed themselves from within the room. 'Finally, they've shown themselves!' - Maria quickly returned to her comrades, her bardiche posed, ready to strike. A sudden display of immense force was witnessed, as the giantess used her weapon to lift and remove the entire roof of the ruined building. Maria watched in awe, as she channeled her power and drew debris from the flinging-away roof to form a heavy shield floating just above the armguard on her other arm. Aymeline's move exposed the beasts to sunlight and causing them to hiss violently. 'They seem stunned, we shall take the offensive!'
  
  "Comrades, with me!"
  
  Having harshly assessed the situation and deciding to grab the opportunity, Maria positioned her bardiche and charged at the beasts, covering herself with the improvised shield from any potential attacks. The guardian dashed towards some rubbles on the floor, before getting into her preferred distance and leaped towards the closest beast. Her shield split into two smaller ones to protect her flanks as Maria raised her large bardiche with two hands, and struck down the beast's forehead with all her might.
  
  
• 
  Interacted: Epiphany
  Mentioned: Epiphany Vyseryx BioshockRP QizPizza
  

 

[Spireshade]

"I- uh," He was barely able to stutter as he was assaulted with a barrage of questions. He expected a much more hostile greeting, especially from the large, armored figure, but instead received a strangely warm greeting. Raethe gave a slight wave, merely raising his hand limply in greeting before being tackled by the sing-song speech of the otherwise intimidating knight, if it weren't for the fairy, or the colorful lance. He seemed to be a rare breed, this one.

"I did find something here, so far." Eagerly, he fished out his prize from his inner folds, the charred cover shedding ashes as he gingerly held it between a gloved index and thumb. He brushed the excess nonsense that accumulated on the sweet thing, and read the cover aloud. "Introduction to Fine Dining!" He glanced back at the ruin. "It's no ghastly creature, but I'm sure if we venture deeper, there'll be-" His jabbering stopped when he was sniffed. Sniffed. That's a first. He turned his attention to the group when his immediate vision was obscured by the other tall member of that quartet. Immediately, he took a step back.

She was definitely alluring, but most strange, was that she hadn't a presence. She was close enough that he would be able to feel her heart, caress the inside of her lungs, stab at her stomach from within, but there was nothing there, nothing at all. People had a presence, animals and beasts too, even the darkborne, but she didn't, not at all. Not one creature he encountered lacked a presence for him to manipulate, so this one unlucky encounter must mean that there's more of these soulless creatures, right? That is a she in front of him right now, they could be breeding, whatever this strange, hollow species is. Was this death? Was she here to claim his soul? This thought shook him from within. Maybe they were here to kill him? He would simply just have to entertain this group until they decided their niceties would end, and drag their blades upon him.

He gripped his walking stick just a little tighter. "P-please take a few steps backwards, I enjoy my personal space." He hurriedly spat, before recomposing himself. It was fine. He had his walking stick with him. Everything was fine. He drew his hood a little closer over his face, the concealing magics of the cloth only darkening his already hidden features. "Apologies. I don't get the pleasure of people often." Raethe shook his head nervously, before taking a shaky breath. "I am a lonesome traveller, but you may simply call me Raethe. What brings you out to these..." He gestured weakly to the ruins behind him, careful to not take his eyes off the soulless monster that stood directly in front of him. "Husks of nothing."

Interacting with: QizPizza Unwavering Knight

 

[Midrick]

Pat strolled along with Big 'Ay, the new member who seemed to pop out of thin air. They continued on a cautious walk through the the ruins of the once thriving town. He couldn't help but wondered what the place had been like before the darkborne had found the place. Which led to the question of what happened to the people, most likely they were wiped out, and then a fate worse than death probably happened, they turned into whatever those things were. Pat was a hard man at such a young age, but he wouldn't wish that on anyone. In the middle of his musing Cris disappeared into a building, after a short period of time he returned with a report of what to expect.

After he had informed them after he disappeared back into the building again, Pat looked up toward the giantess as she pried the roof off the decrepit building that had fallen into decay. "Hot damn, If I ever need to breach a house I'm calling you 'Ay." he said as swung his two handed axe off his shoulder and into both of his hands. He watched as Maria charged the darkborne in the center of the building she created two shields using her powers, but it wouldn't help if she got swarmed by the group of the beasts. He sprinted behind her seeing a monster slithering behind her for a sneak attack he transferred his hands toward the bottom of the axe shaft towards the pommel for increased force behind his initial swing, it would be slow, but the ugly fucker wouldn't see him until it was too late. He swung the axe with all his might towards the thin, unarmored midsection of the serpent like being, hoping to cleave it in half. " Time to die Mother fucker!!!" he bellowed before unleashing the cleaving strike.

Kabboom Trappy Epiphany BioshockRP

 

[QizPizza]

Taryn the Exile

Location: Ruins
Status: Filled/In Combat
Disposition: Slightly Evil
Interacting With: Spireshade
Mentioned: Epiphany Vyseryx BioshockRP Trappy Midrick Unwavering Knight

The cloaked man was hiding something and secrets were dangerous. The way he looked at her, clutched his cane, spat, and pulled on his hood we all offsetting to Taryn. She was curious and wanted to peel this man's shields away. A meal and entertainment. Taryn certainly hasn't had much of that lately. However, she didn't have much of an opportunity to pry at the mysterious mage, as the connection from Ay granted her a wave heightened stress and the impression that she was in combat. The other group encountered Darkborne. Taryn's hologram took a step towards the man and reached out to grab his hood. Right as the hologram's hand touched the fabric, it dissipated into thin air, but not before it said, "Alright, mystery man. Play nice and help us out with the Darkborne, and I'll consider letting you in on a secret."

By the time the hologram dissipated, Taryn was already on her way towards the other group. At the house, she found Aymeline tearing down the roof and the other's already diving into combat. It would be best not to charge straight in. Instead, Taryn summoned two holograms that flew straight towards the Darkborne. It would serve to be a nice distraction as she picked off the stragglers.

 

[QizPizza]

Audun the Fallen

Location: Ridge
Status: In Combat
Disposition: Generally Good
Interacting With: Sybil Soviet Panda U UnbelievableCow Albion
Mentioned:

As the first barrage from the Darkborne artillery impacted the ground beside them, Audun used his wings to shield the group from dirt and embers. Against a real attack, they would do little but this was just minor debris. At least with the initial attack, they were able to confirm the location of the Darkborne emplacements. Now, all that was to be done was to destroy the batteries and slay the Darkborne without mercy. Audun sheathed his swords, given that long ranged engagement was the game now. He readied the cannon in his arms and began to shout at his allies. "Get moving! The next barrage will come in mere moments. We can't stay clustered like this."

The Nephilim took off down the clearing, with cannon in hand. When he got closer, he would begin to fire, but as it stands, he was too far away to hit anything accurately, especially when compounded with the fireballs raining down on the group. "Desmond! Arthur! With me!"

 

[Soviet Panda]

Buras was quick to react and took off towards the felled and dissipating dark wolf. Wrenching his axe free, he continues on his furious sprint in the direction the fireballs had come from. He could see something through the trees, but could not quite make out what it was aside from shape. Squat, with something on it, that was all he knew. But he had little time to ponder what the thing might be, as more dark wolves appeared from the shadows. So this was where the rest of the pack was. Well, pack might have been putting it lightly, there were far more than a pack of wolves would ever have. That did not stop Buras, however.

He met the first wolf to pounce at him with a roar. With a quick spin, Buras brought an axe up and, with the quickly built up momentum via the spin as well as the shear size of the axe, cleaved off the creatures jaw before burying itself in it's chest. Without hesitation, he followed through with his swing and used the still squirming corpse as a club to batter aside another wolf that had leaped at him. He then used the momentum of the corpse to wrench his axe free and set him back on his course towards the artillery pieces. He did not go out of his way to kill all of the Darkborne, but he was intent on carving a bloody path straight to those fire launchers.

 

[Unwavering Knight]

Pryonn & Kaatl

"My!" the knight uttered, helmeted gaze affixing itself on the dirtied cover, scuritinising the cooking-book presented by Raethe as he called with exorbitant excitement "A foliant of exquisity! A font of knowledge from which to draw!" With his voice reaching a certain volume, the fairy took her focus off Taryn's lascivity to give a slight tap upon Pryonn's helmet, causing the knight to quieten down just a little as he reined in his vigour "Ah, but my manners! Introductions are in order-" Making a sweeping gesture over the rest of his companions, the knight named them in turn "You already met Taryn, maneater at night, flower-girl at day! Then there's Lady Margot, mystery-mage-magister extraordinaire! And then there's my Hearted One, milady Terra, fairest of them all!"

Having motioned to each in turn, the knight pointed towards the fairy "The one on my shoulder is my dear friend, good girl Kaatl, with whom I've ventured upon a great many adventures already. I am Sir Pryonn of the Silver Repiners, knight of Lady Terra, fairyfriend and Slayer of Fleshgiver." Taking heed of the bond granted to them by Aymeline, the knight and his peers picked up the sure signs of undetermined hostility near the other half of their group, helmeted head swerving to where he could sense their estranged companions.

Still addressing Raethe, the knight hefted his banner and drew his flail "As for our mission's purpose, why we're here - understand that I can not be quite so freely indicative of that with a stranger. But there is a way for you to find out, gain our trust:-" despite the alarming situation, the knight's voice remained light-heartedly talkative "-A bit off in the distance, the other half of our questing-group persists, threatened by as-of-yet-unknown foes, likely darkborn-creatures of some kind. Accompany us, fight by our side, and we can talk clearly, having proven yourself a true ally to our cause."

Setting himself into motion, the knight hurried off towards the budding commotion, intent on aiding his companions just as surely everyone else was going to do.

Addressed: Spireshade
Mentioned: QizPizza Vyseryx Kabboom

In Ruins Group: Midrick Vyseryx Trappy BioshockRP Kabboom Epiphany QizPizza

 

[Kabboom]

Ruins

evry1 gets dieded. teh end The first Scrapper stood no chance, with the full swing of a bardiche bearing down right onto its forehead. A head-splitting crunch, followed by a sickening screech as the being faded into oblivion, its crimson eyes going in two different directions due to the newfound gash on its forehead. The chitin plates had given way to the Guardian's bardiche swing, and the Darkborne being fell without further resistance. But it had just done its intended job.

Almost as quickly as the thing smacked against the wooden stage floor, two more flung themselves from the shadows, striking downward onto Maria, one on the right flank, and another facing her head on. Their 6 scything claws, along with their voracious maw bearing full fang at the sight of fresh prey, the one on the right found itself caught on a piece of rubble the Guardian had set up as shields on her flanks, while the one on the front hit her head on, bringing all of its weapons down upon her. Its atrophied claws, due to not enough negative emotions welling up nearby to hone its material being, do not fare well against the woman's armor, but its teeth could prove catastrophic if she does not evade it properly.

The warrior Pat had already found targets for himself, particularly a Scrapper that had maneuvered itself behind Maria, poised for a strike. The warrior's plan was sound; his execution, flawless. But all in all, the common tactic of screaming insults at your next target, especially when said target is supposed to be unaware of your attack in order for you to deal damage to it, is a flawed one, and the Scrapper caught wind of Pat's swing before it had contacted its midriff. Propelled forward by instinct, the axe found itself severing the tail section of the Scrapper and impacting against the wooden floor. Screeching in pain and anger, the tailless Darkborne spun around and swung all three of its left claws at Pat, aiming at center mass to deal deadly wounds.

The Giantess Aymeline would soon have company as well, as five Scrappers soon found a much bigger, and Light-filled, target than the human-sized one that struck down their distraction comrade. Immediately skittering past the occupied Pat, two of them ran into Taryn's holograms, leaving two to pounce onto the Giant, while one dove right into one of her legs, biting and clawing at her armor in order to dig into her fragile flesh.

Trappy Epiphany Midrick Spireshade Unwavering Knight Vyseryx BioshockRP QizPizza
Ridge

Catching sight of an elevated target without sufficient cover, the Darkborne artillery quickly switch their aim, and focus on Audun. Five more fireballs, scattered around the immediate area of the aloft Seraph, impacting within the trees and the faraway ground behind him. Two had found their mark especially close, one crashing right into a tree in front of Audun, ejecting wooden shrapnel en masse, while another came close enough to singe one of the wings. As for the Darkwolves encountering the Inuin, they steered clear of his path, and immediately ran up behind him. Two daring Wolves immediately pounce onto the half-Giant's unprotected back, blood-curdling howls serving as a prelude to the carnage that would soon ensue.

QizPizza U UnbelievableCow Albion Soviet Panda

 

[Epiphany]

Aymeline

Tossing the roof away, the Giant gazes in admiration as Maria charges into battle and slays the first monster. What a Guardian!

The abrupt ambush ruins most of her elation for, despite knowing the location of their foes and despite revealing them to sunlight, the monsters moved with unnatural speed. Aymeline moves to help Maria out, only to draw her own enemies. Two Taryns race by her, surprising both herself and two of the Scrappers but three more still go for the Giant. At last, battle is joined! And while the monsters are lethal, they are rarely prepared for fighting someone twice the size of their usual prey.

She ignores the one savaging her leg for the moment. Its teeth could eventually pierce her mail but her Light strengthened anything she used it on, and she'd been using her armor for a decade. Its teeth would have to gnaw through her magic as well as the steel to reach her flesh. In the meantime, the two going for her chest are much more dangerous. So Aymeline swings the White Warcry. Configured as a pick to pull the roof off, she carries the motion she'd used to roll the rotting wood aside all the way through, bringing the great steel-jade weapon up in a wicked arc. With luck, the Giant-sized weapon's blade would punch all the way through one and pierce the other at the same time!

She hopes so, anyway. She has Guardians to save!

 

[Slop]

Ezra, the Mad Scholar
Location: Unnamed Ruins​

Where be the source of this god-awful commotion...

Clairvoyance. Detect Source.

"Aha! Further into this decrepit ruins, of course - how terribly convenient."

Dare I say, it's a miracle this ramshackle make-do stone-fort still stands; albeit barely..

Having plotted a vivid mental map of the ruins inside of his head, the Mad Scholar violently cocked his head to the appropriate direction ere shifting gears to increase his movement speed from strolling to brisking. Despite the sheer number of conveniently misleading twists and turns that stood between Ezra and the source of the racket, unfavorable circumstances were of no match for the scholar and his magical proficiency.

Clairvoyance's greatest kink is that unless you possess accurate information regarding what it is you seek with it; visual appearance included, it can only reveal to you its approximate location. Greater Clairvoyance, however.. is a spell likely not worth wasting on the detestable vermin that's responsible for that unholy screech.

After a pre-calculated period of time had passed (and finally breaking free from his train of thoughts), Ezra found himself standing before a pair of once-magnificent oaken semi-greatdoors that were then no more than a relative veil barely separating the room from the hallway; one that was in fact almost allegorical to the current state of the Empire. Sturdy, it most definitely was; though the creeper vines, questionable stains and vandalism that desecrated it did well to reduce its stature, turning it into nothing more than an ignorable piece of decoration that blended all too flawlessly with and when in unity with the rest of the ruins stood as monuments that embodied corruption, desolation and despair. Regardless, having heard the deathly shriek of terror let out by one of the Darborne inside said room, not a soul with sanity intact would have mistook that for anything other than what it obviously was. Allowing curiosity and recklessness to manifest him very briefly once more, Ezra barged through the door and into the room - swinging open both doors with his skeletal hand to lay sight on the contained pandemonium unfolding before him. Thankfully, despite being physically encumbered to a ludicrous extent, Ezra's physical age did little to impair his impeccable mental reflexes. Taking into consideration the fact that the Scrappers were in very close vicinity with the squad members (with several being in direct contact, rather), Ezra realised how detrimental using the most convenient spell for the situation was - though it would have merely grazed the giantess, target-seeking lightning strikes were likely to have incapacitated the two smaller squad members due to its area-of-effect characteristic. Moreover, Ezra's stingy nature prevented him from wasting his precious light-cells on lesser Darkbornes - which in turn made him settle for challenge over efficiency.

Spell Duplication. Magic Arrow.

On his command, seven arrows of pure light seemingly manifested themselves out of thin air ere firing themselves onto each of the Scrappers inside the room respectively.

 

[Unwavering Knight]

Raethe, Pryonn & Kaatl

“So…” The cowled man had just caught up with Pryonn, panting a little. He didn’t run often, which was a slight failing on his part of having been a former ranger. No matter, he thought. It was time to break bread with these strangers, especially this one, since he at least had a presence to begin with. He shook his head at the thought.

“Want some…” He rummaged around his inner pockets, before fishing out a strip of meat. “Jerky?” The jerky’s scent wafted up to the knight’s helm, having been dried only a few hours beforehand.

The knight, having been in as quick a run as the rubble-filled pathways permitted, came to a confused halt, the fairy on his shoulder fluttering her wings in a hurry to keep balance. Looking back at the robed figure that followed him towards the growing sounds of battle, he asked incredulously “...meat? Why… would you offer something so mundane in as grievous a situation such as this, man? We have no time for snackery, cowl-frame, there is heroism to be joined, comrades to aid!”

Raethe shrugged, and brought the jerky into his hood, bite after bite disappearing into the pitch black. “A boy’s gotta eat.” He said between mouthfuls, joining the large figure’s large strides towards the din of combat, rearranging his own esophagus and trachea to more easily breathe and eat at the same time.

Finding no more matter to talk over, the knight quickly set himself into a light trot, leading their way towards the battle. Emerging from a withered alleyway, the visored sight took in the proceedings, noting the darkborne creatures locked in battle with Commander Maria, who herself was being aided by Pat.

Further off was the Giantess Aymeline, one monster gnawing at her leg-armor, a duo more contending with her light-filled torso. A pressing situation, even if she was likely to fend them off herself.

“Less a battle, more a vermin-extermination, pity that.” the knight mused, noting the malnourished state of the darkborne creatures “Oh well, they’ll have to do for the day.” Shouldering his lance, the knight brought his flail to bear, spiked ball rotating on metal-chain as he charged towards the Giantess.

Quickstepping towards the fiend gnawing at Aymeline’s leg-mail, the knight’s flail smashed the spiked ball into the beast’s insectoid midriff, eliciting a surprised screech and a stomach-churning crunch as built-up momentum and forged steel struck the thing in twain. Both halves twitching as they impacted on the ground, the torso-bisection continued to wail in furious agony, prompting the knight to respond by making another step, raising a boot before smashing the steel-foot down into its fanged maw.

“Hail again, Tall-Maiden. The excursion is proving fruitful, I see.” he spoke to the Giantess in talkative tone, butt-end of his standard-lance slammed into the ground, flail brought to rotation again as the battle continued to unfold.

Addressed: Epiphany
Mentioned: Just about everyone

In Ruins Group: Midrick Vyseryx Trappy BioshockRP Kabboom Epiphany QizPizza

 

[Vyseryx]

Margot
The appearance of the new monsters temporarily got Margot’s attention of off the new and highly suspicious companion, who had joined the group. As the giantess, knight and Guardian got rid of few of the monsters, sorceress noted the materialisation of the few energy missiles coming in their direction.

‘Magic?’ Margot thought quickly as she analysed the attack quickly and determined it was in fact aimed at the enemies. ‘A friendly one at that.’

As she dodged the claw of a monster, almost tripping over her own legs, Margot managed to circle her foot over the ground and sent a wave of magic under the surface.

“Don’t mind if I do,” she hissed at the attacker, as ground exploded under it, throwing the siren-spooder right into one of the magical missiles, that tore through it like if it was made of cloth.

“Jackpot, I guess,” the sorceress looked at the remnants of monster spattered around the place, before turning to the direction the missiles came from. “Show yourself, mage.”
She wanted to sound very threatening, but it came off as rather friendly. She would be truly rejoiced to meet another of her kind here.


Slop @Ruins

 

[Trappy]

Hearthfall Season - Morning
Maria
The Ruins, Darkwoods​

• Maria
• Interacted / Mentioned

• 
  
  The bardiche went down with all of the guardian's strength, making a sharp crunch on contact as the beast's forehead visibly split in half with the cold blade buried into the dark flesh. In the corner of her eyes, Maria saw two more Scrappers revealing themselves from the shadows, immediately flinging their slithering bodies at her, scything claws flexed to strike and razor-sharp teeth-filled maws wide open. Any unsuspecting prey would've been an easy target for such cheeky behaviour from Darkbornes - certainly not your usual aggressive pack of Darkwolves. But the day did not fare well for them, as their target this time was not such 'unsuspecting prey'.
  
  One Scrapper got itself stuck on an improvised shield made of debris covering the guardian's flank, while its companion was slightly more fortunate, its claws having struck the girl's torso and its teeth just narrowly missing the girl's face. They most certainly would've messed up her eyes if Maria did not dodge in time, still, it left a scratch just a few centimeters off her left eye, and fresh blood soon rolled down the guardian's cheek. Maria channeled her ability and managed to push back the attacker. Then, with a quick maneauver, she brought the weapon up from the first beast's dematerialising corpse and caught the Scrapper with the hook of her bardiche just below its large head. The guardian put extra force in pinning the dark beast in place, and with the help of her powers, Maria made a vertical swing upwards, splitting the beast's lower jaw in half. The Scrapper recoiled and screeched violently as the the guardian wasted no time and finished it with a decisive thrust.
  
  As soon as the fiend ceased its futile struggling, Maria begun raising more debris to shield her from any lurking dark beasts, and turned her attention to the one furiously striking against the shield in vain. Its position against the shield did not allow Maria to execute a clean strike to exterminate the dark fiend, so instead the guardian used her ability to add more debris to the shield and brought the entire thing down onto the Scrapper like a heavy solid slab, pinning it against the hard floor.
  
  
• 
  Interacted: none
  Mentioned: Midrick
  

 

[Midrick]

Pat watched as his strike hit the tail of the scrapper, his almost maniacal grin turning to a disappointed scowl at his failure to kill it. well shit. was the first thing that was able to formulate in his mind after the serpent whirled around into an angered strike. He was able to block the bottom two claws with the shaft of his axe, but the top, main claw managed to slip his guard and buried itself into his side. He roared in anger and pain, and the scrapper withdrew the claw in preparation for a fatal blow. It stabbed down but was surprised when his left hand shot up and stopped the downward motion of the claw. His formerly bowed head raised itself and his eyes burned with a savage hate that instilled a primal fear into the darkborne creature. Pat's left arm muscles seemed to bulge as the veins and arteries that could be seen in the exposed parts of his armor darkened into an almost pitch black against his skin. A terrible power radiated from him as a foreign energy was channeled to the scrapper through him. It writhed in his grip desperate to escape, but his grip was unyielding like a steel manacle. Then the scrapper started flailing in his grip looking for any avenue of relief at any cost. The beasts limbs started to contort in impossible angles that could come naturally, and screams of agony issued from its mouth. Distant popping and tearing noises could be heard as its bones and muscles were broken and torn, a liquid started gushing from its orifices as internal hemorrhages found their escapes.

He finally let go of scrapper and it fell to the floor, it twitched once or twice before finally stiffening into the grips of a premature rigor mortis. Pat stumbled backwards, stunned by what seemed to be magic, then a stream of blood trickled out of his nostrils. He regained his composure and leveled his axe in a fighting stance, arrows made completely of light slammed into some of the other scrappers inhabiting the room which evened the odds a little more. He advanced forward to stand next to Maria. "WHO'S NEXT!!!" he bellowed before sliding a thumb across his throat after pointing at one of the darkborne scum.

Kabboom Trappy

 

[Spireshade]

If the group weren't fighting the darkborne right now, he would've already had a pen in hand, journal in the other, writing just about everything he could about these newer forms of darkborne. But, alas, that wasn't the case, especially after hammers were dropped, spells were cast, and darkborne blood was splashed all across his robes. A trio of slithering scrappers had appeared from the hallway he had came in through, and though it seemed that the scrappers were undaunted by even their allies getting ripped to shreds in front of them, they wouldn't be getting the flank they so tactfully attempted.

The starving beings charged at the frail, somewhat hunched robed figure, eager to get in range of their talons. Raethe barely paid mind to them as he twisted the top of his walking stick, unsheathing a serrated, and heavily segmented blade. He waited for them to come into range, the slithering monsters baring their fangs and rearing their weapons. This wasn't anything he hasn't seen before, and with a quick flick of his wrist, his blade transformed from a simple sword to a toothed whip, the lost Dragon's Teeth. If he weren't wearing his hood, something of a smile would be painted across his face, his fearsome string of death arcing out over the lunging scrappers, the metal tearing through two, and leaving a third with one less talon than it had before. The creature shrieked as it got into striking range of the robed figure, a murderous scything arm readied to hit an opponent who couldn't strike back at an enemy who was simply too close, until it realised it had a strange feeling in it's torso.

His leather glove had fallen to the ground, a robed arm instead buried within the creature, a black slicked tendril piercing straight through the other side of the scrapper. Raethe brought his arm up, straight through the scrapper, and tore it out, the creature crumpling to the ground as it's chest crumpled in on itself. The white splinters that made up Raethe's hand receded, muscles appearing over bone, skin appearing over arteries, and soon fingers formed out of this, along with a new black glove just for occasions like this. His whip flashed again, turning itself into a sword once more for it's wielder. He wasn't always a fan of chopping things, but when it came down to it, chopping and whipping was always fun anyways.

Interacted: None
Mentioned: @Ruins Group

 

[-robert-]

Leafa

Seeing the cavity... face a circumstance so horrid, left the young elf with mixed feelings. She actually felt... bad for the mouth-creature, she could swear she heard a pain-filled scream as the creature gave in to death. However, the remorse quickly faded, as she was reminded of her unbearable hunger by her rumbling stomach.

The group began moving towards the ignited cavity, or at least what was left of it. Once there, they learned new information about the mouth-creatures, at the cost of one of the guardsmen foot. The cavities were extremely fragile, evidenced by how a single bullet was able to kill them. But now a question stood, how would they be able to completely clear the place of cavities? Or even harder, in a safe way?

"Anyone got any good ideas?"

No one said a word. For quite some time.

"Hmm... Oh! I have an idea! So, to kill the mouths, we first need to bring them up, right? How about this, someone goes running around the field, once the mouth things come up, the archers and the shooters shoot at them! Oh and Snow-Hair can do the boom boom again!"

Right after she spoke, eyes started to turn, in her direction.

"Oh."

LuciTheGreat RubyZoo Kabboom

 

[BioshockRP]

From above, the clouds drifted in a bird-like pattern, as if to signify a battlefield. A sly chuckle escaped Cris' mouth, while he steadied his blowgun atop the roof. May the Owl god watch him in the clouds, he thought to himself, when the first dart pinned itself to the fence. What connected between Cris and the fence laid a grass fiber wire, and then as quickly as it came; it snapped, torn by a beast. Suddenly, he transformed into an owl, gathering himself toward the chimney. Just around the corner's base, according to Cris' perspective, contained a darkborne.

Blown wind settled on his face, carrying the hair upwards in a tornado frenzy. The battles acclimating within the building seemed to ignite the air in a melody. Using his blowdart, he conducted the symphony. For an ordinary person, the jumble of sounds limited subtle movements, yet to Cris he waited in prone, listening for any oddities. His focus, his drive, and his discipline accumulated into the depth. CLICK; Afterwards, another dart stumbled into the scarab body that existed betwixt the corner and chimney. Even with Cris' intense concentration, nothing prevented the wind from wavering the shot.

Legs like spiders sprinkled their echoes along the entertainment house in a scamper uphill, while its snake-esque body coated with spikes carried it upwards. Sweat dripped from Cris' brow, hitting reddened clay roof tiles. And in that second, the beast's vision consumed Cris' body. Within that moment, the two hunters glared, poised to strike; hoping for one to hinder themselves by mistake. Patience became the key.

Sliding into a crouch, Cris concealed himself completely to the beast. Now fully invisible, Cris cautioned his boots when moving, knowing exactly that the beast contained phenomenal hearing. However, his steps crinkled the tiles, which resulted in the darkborne's claw tearing off cloth from Cris' chest area. The battle had begun.

Legs glided, as Cris jumped away, landing near the edge. In an instant, his body quivered in a shuffle, while his hands grabbed for the empty air, which later contained another claw. Pain etched into his mind, blaring his ears, while he belched at the monster's face. Pulled forward by the Darkborne, Cris found his hand glued to the beast's nails. With his remaining strength, he brought out from his belt pocket, a dirk, to which he gladly inserted inside the monster's elongated tail. "Reeee," shrieked the beast, when its blood poured onto Cris' face. Compared to any other creatures, Darkborne blood to Cris, tasted similar to chicken liver.

The slender man grunted, just as he heaved out the spiked nail, completely wrecking his left hand's muscles. As the two wounded hunters retreated, Cris applied a quick cloth torque, utilizing his ripped shirt. Blinding pain destroyed any chances to keep a track on the beast. Still, his eyesight could see through any entity. The erect tower also known as the chimney comforted the beast, but within; Cris noticed it all, as the darkborne's blood painted the insides of the tower's walls.

Out of the creature's visibility, he muffled his body in an aura. Now crouched in slow forward trudge towards the chimney, he spotted the tiles from the roof collapse into the building, as the battle heated inside. From the corner of his pupils, he illustrated an image of another beast in his optics. Below, a beast's friend entered the fray. Narrowly missing the spiked tail, Cris managed to ignore the potential clubbing, with another owl alternation. Yet, the beast's saliva dripped into his feathers, since he positioned his form underneath the second beast's mouth.

In a minuscule chance, Cris risked the opportunity, his feathers turned raw and crass by the saliva. Flying to safety, he shed a single quill, before alternating back into a human. At the roof's cross between a lower roof and an upper roof, he prompted his eyes to scan for the blood trail of his first enemy. Nowhere had the beast left its trail, so Cris sighed in relief. He allowed his thoughts to gather and his breath to mellow in order to formulate a plan. SNAP, the quill broke, when the spiked spider legs scurried along the upper roof.

Wild game always showed signs of desperation; therefore, monsters ought to experience a similar mindset. Heck, even Cris' own mind contemplated his own worries. Should a beast find a corner with which all remained hopeless, how would they act? The words spoken from his father long ago, "Animals tend to focus on a particular spot, when injured." It all stuck to his ears, and emitted from his blowgun. The metal tinge of dart struck the chimney, ebbing a sound to the darkborne's hearing. An oscillation generated from the cross point of two roofs would provide the necessary vibration in metal to illuminate a particular spot. According to Cris' location, the beast completely disregarded the chimney, and headed in a hurry to the cross point.

With only a few seconds to perform the maneuver, Cris completely emptied his body to focus on the task. He kicked underneath the cross point at the hallowed roof tiles, which contained a window. Glass struck his boots, but he continued, ignoring the pain. As the second sound shattered into the beast's ears, it transitioned its body to the tiles, scratching at the roof, hoping to reach for Cris' leg. Instead it caught at its friend, entering its nails into his friend's slithering form, as his friend's jagged teeth clenched at its claw. An odd combination no less to Cris, while his startled look guzzled the two entities.

Mixed in pair, the unification of two, one by maw, and the other by claw. The two Darkborne distributed themselves loudly onto the the ground; THUD. With the ordeal finished, Cris' gaze drifted to the fireplace that seemed lighted from the first darkborne's blood trail. Clearly, the first darkborne thought Cris to appear soon, so as it hid from the battle below, it clung to the wooden planks above. While the second darkborne followed Cris' shot, the first darkborne saw Cris' foot at a different angle than the second one. So in that particular moment, both attacked at the same area, and at the same time. However, how could Cris know? The short answer, he couldn't, since an injured beast would only ever focus on one spot.

After his own battle, he relieved himself with a sigh, and stared at his comrades, waving them, "All clear, up here." When finished speaking, Cris then removed the glass, and again stopped the hemorrhaging with another torque on his right foot. For the encounter in the house persisted, and Cris aided as the ever vigilant scout.

Midrick Vyseryx Trappy BioshockRP Kabboom Epiphany Unwavering Knight

 

[Sybil]

• Spessartite Phos, Ruins
• Involved and Around Mentions

• 
  The elemental was prepared to listen to one more round of arguments between everyone before she acted her own, which is why the appearance of darkborne creates the perfect way to end their bickering as she watched the beasts die from a well-placed ax.
  
  “Filthy things, let’s get this over with so we can make it easier on the outpost...” The elemental seemed to speak to themselves as she saw the wretched combination of crude machine on top of the creatures, stepping forward... and then willingly almost tripping themselves as they simply fell forward. Contrary to what anyone viewing would assume to happen she didn’t slam into the dirt, rather she seemed to just meld into it.
  
  What actually occurred was her simply displacing the sediment around her to a very exact degree, something she did not have to do consciously thank goodness lest she messes it up wildly with her terrible mathematics skills and lack of magic awareness. Once inside she burrowed down moving much faster than anyone could have dug, almost gliding through the sediment away from the fire of the artillery and towards the machines themselves. As long as they did not have any countermeasures should soon pop up on the ridge behind the weaponized frog things, readying to take out the explosive.
• 
  Kabboom QizPizza U UnbelievableCow Albion Soviet Panda

 

[QizPizza]

Audun the Fallen

Location: Ridge
Status: Lightly Injured/Angry
Disposition: Generally Good
Interacting With: Sybil Soviet Panda U UnbelievableCow Albion
Mentioned:

The Darkborne volley landed dangerously close to Audun. One of the fireballs crashed into the tree line to Audun's left. Dirt, embers, and splinters flew towards the paladin, and he instinctively brought his wing up to shield himself. The dirt and embers rolled off without an issue, but the large jagged splinters shot into his left wing. Lucky, they only hit feathers, causing a small plume of dirty white to roll off his wings. The same could not be said for the fireball that impacted to Audun's right. This one was much closer, sending bits of burning material towards Audun. His other wing went up to block them as he ran towards the battery, but the flaming debris managed to char quite a few feathers on his right wing. The white feathers were now black with ash and covered in dirt. His appearance was much more disheveled than he would like, but battle was messy.

A small pack of four Darkwolves leapt out of the treeline and made a dash for Audun. As the first one attempted to pounce on Audun, the Nephilim swung the cannon straight its skull, pulverizing the it with the makeshift iron club. The body of the first was sent like a ragdoll into the second, knocking it back. Before he could bring the cannon around again, the third Darkwolf pounced. In response, Aubun pulled the trigger for the cannon, sending the cannon ball straight through the Darkwolf and careening towards stunned Darkwolf on the ground, finishing it off. The move confused the last Darkwolf just long enough for Audun kick it to the ground and drop onto its head.

With three Darkborne and one cannonball expended, the Nephilim wasted no time in continuing his dash towards the Darkborne artillery, doing his best to reload the cannon as he ran. "Come at me, damn Darkborne!"

 

[Kabboom]

de ridgg
ahem
The Ridge:

The least noticeable member of the group, the headless Aoibhin, had been following the lead of the deadly warriors for the entirety of the trip. With the arrival of the fireballs, and the subsequent Darkborne, however, she took movement, unsheathing her whip quickly as she stuck behind cover, going from tree to tree. Spotting the Seraph visibly touched by black debris and shrapnel, she immediately took off after him.

The fireballs keep coming, three more impacting dangerously close to the Seraph as he darted through foliage and the disintegrating bodies of slain Darkwolves alike. More Darkwolves show up to the fray, intercepting the Seraph from the left at breakneck speeds. A reflexive whip lash from the dullahan strikes the jaw clean off of one, leaving only four for the duo to deal with, or try to outrun.

The chatter of a few Scrappers could be faintly felt for the underground rock elemental. These creatures typically lay in wait in shadows or, in this case, underground, and they have picked up the commotion. Digging furiously, one Scrapper collides with Phos head-on, fangs bearing to bite into hard rock, regardless of whether it'll break its jaw on it or not.

Soviet Panda QizPizza Albion U UnbelievableCow Sybil
The Ruins

Hissing profusely from the shadows, what remained of the Scrapper menace took their leave, scurrying outside. Their barbed tails allowing them to adhere tightly to the walls and ceiling, the coiled beasts spring out of the nearest crevice they could get to, with the majority fleeing out from the route that Raethe had just recently cleared of their brethren. The 8 or so remaining Scrappers fled to the opposite side of the ruins, into a slightly larger, yet equally decrepit ruin. The deceased Scrappers in the group's current building remain where they died, body slowly crackling and almost fizzling with leaking Dark mist as they 'decompose'. Flowing in an ankle-height stream of fog, the Dark energies seep out through the cracks of the stones. Respite, if only for a moment, descends upon the party once again. Shall they pursue the Scrapper threat endlessly, or take a breather?

BioshockRP Epiphany QizPizza Midrick Spireshade Slop Vyseryx Unwavering Knight
The Hunting Grounds

The group stared at the elfling for a while, and decided it was a good idea.

What?

Oh you expected more, okay. That is difficult, considering the stature and simple-mindedness of the guardsmen involved. They were mostly farmers and peasants, usually given only three to four Imperial silvers per a day's work. Such meager pay is barely enough to afford the daily bread and water, and with the extra deducted silver to donate to the permanent war effort against the Darkborne, the better part of a man's life would be spent bored and starved out of his skull, and always looking for more jobs to do. For most, if not all of the guardsmen present in the hunting ground, enlisting as guardsmen for the year was the way to go. With at least 30, 40, even 100 silvers per week safely delivered to their personal pockets (relayed to their families and loved ones in this case; there's nothing to buy at the outpost), and free food, a frontline outpost guardsman has nothing to worry about. Except for death. Maybe.

Slapped together from many different states and provinces, they are definitely not the brightest bunch. Due to the vastness of the Empire, many of these folks wouldn't have even got the chance to hear about the elves, up until their untimely enlistment. And, with the overall attitude of life in the forest outpost, they wouldn't lose anything by listening to little Leafa. After all, that's what their go-to plan is for every situation imaginable: send a dude out as a sacrifice. Works for more things than the average person would expect. Spikethrashers messing up the battle line? Send out a dude. Cerebrate inbound? Send out a dude. Quartermaster Sculley trying to find his legs? A dude. The viscount sleeping rather peacefully? Send out a dude, but with something that rattles and makes a loud noise. The only exception to this plan so far, is when Lieutenant Finn is physically present in the area.

The honorary and unenviable task of 'dude' was settled via rock-paper-scissors, and poor Kyden wished he didn't throw out paper every time he played. Maybe next time, the poor lad will figure out how to play rock-paper-scissors. Kyden took a deep breath, got himself ready, and ran like hell around the hunting grounds. Sure enough, 4 Cavities open up, taking a hasty snap at the fast target, and thankfully missing. Their undersides being left open, one of the guardsmen quickly yelled out the obvious. "There! Fire!"

-robert- LuciTheGreat RubyZoo

 

[Unwavering Knight]

Pryonn & Kaatl

Seeing the creatures make their slithering run, the knight turned to his allies as he called "We can not let these fiends escape! Rage and terror, my friends, don't stand there with your mouths agape! The beasts may have no room to scrape!" Raising lance and flail, Pryonn yelled "After the creatures in heedless flight! They can not stand before righteous might!" Taking off in full run, the knight's voluminous voice continued to ring as he pursued the beasts without the slightest care for danger. The fairy on his shoulder only barely kept her balance on his pauldron, wings fluttering rapidly to keep herself at least somewhat gracefully seated.


Addressed: Kabboom Midrick - come on, let's get this party on the road!

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[Albion]

Arthur lowers his visor and charges recklessly into the fray, attacking various darkwolves left and right. At one point, Darkbane flares up like a beacon thtough the fog, blinding multiple darkwolves and forcing the shadowy creatures to back away, giving Arthur and Cleon a moment to breathe before the fight resumed.
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