Fantasy Hunter's Moon [IC] [CLOSED]

[Dmaster]

Camille held her sneer, even as the Duke pointed at both her and Francis. She spread her stance, not backing down an inch as he conversed with the lich. "Do not get so caught up in your grand delusions that you do not see your actions for what they are." she spat. "Do not talk to me of respect when you know nothing of how I treat those I hunt. I grant them a dignified end to their miserable curse, and vengeance for those they have harmed."

Standing straight she pointed her rapier at him accusingly. "You talk of a world of respect and love, yet to get there you have dealt with demons and slaughtered countless innocents. Do you think yourself absolved simply because you lacked the tenacity to perform the atrocities yourself? That blood is on your hands - and it does not matter what drove you to do it, who you've lost, all you have done is continue a miserable cycle of pain and loss!"

"All you've done is become a terrible monster for your lost loved ones to look upon with shame, their deaths only remembered for the slaughter you've tarnished them with."

 

[K0mori]

Francis stood straight and proud as the Duke admonished him. When Camille had finished speaking, he replied for himself. "You'll get no flowery backtalk from me. I am the man who'd break into your house and kill you, that's true. Funny enough, that's almost what I'm here to do right now... I've seen so much this past week, I'm not even worried about Sazak. I'd choose a demon to run this world any day over the likes of you."

 

[Infab]

"Oh, but I DO know of how you treat those you hunt, you pompous whore." spat Joseph. "I've heard the stories from Escaria. Your name as well as your titles and the stories surrounding them. You're nothing but a gods damned hunter out to prove herself better than the rest. I know you've killed innocent vampires. You killed three of my friends in Escaria whom wouldn't have harmed a butterfly, much less a fucking human. They weren't suffering, and they were feeding from cattle and sheep. You're no avenger, you're a fucking murderer too." His voice seemed far different than before, speaking with a volume and force that didn't match his rage filled body. He took a breath, calming himself slightly. "The world will not change without force. People will die. Some of my fellow vampires and creatures of the night will die. There will be disorder and chaos, but that will be replaced with a new order. And you and your kind will be nothing but memories as the world proceeds forward."

He then looked to Francis, giving him a glare. "...You remind me of the zealot I spoke of before. You simply lack the plate armor he wore. I'll enjoy ripping your spine out."

 

[joshuadim]

"You can make that world, perhaps. But at what cost? How many lives must be destroyed? How much blood shed? How many corpses piled upon the earth?" Ethraeil asked, taking a step forward towards the Duke. "I agree with you, humanity is filled with such cruelty and hate. So much bloodlust towards themselves and others. But doing this... you justify their hate in their eyes. They see not your ideals, not your dream. But the blood you spill. And in time, you will hate yourself for the atrocities you commit, believe me I know."

He pointed to Valeria, but not to her specifically. "As a slave to Sazak as the Lich King, I did innumerable cruel things to innumerable numbers of people. And I hate it all to this day. But I try to do what is good and for the betterment of all. Because, like you, I believe in a better world. But this is not the way to go about it, believe me." Ethraeil said to the duke.

 

[Dmaster]

"A utopia built upon the bodies of the innocent, then? Where have I heard that before?" she said back, only slightly unnerved by his voice changing as it did. "I personally don't remember your friends, but considering your track record with those close to you perhaps I did them a favor. A hatchet cleaving their neck is far more painless and quick than sucking the life out of them with some ring, oui?"

Camille certainly had to respect Ethraeil's attempt to diffuse the situation, but she knew that there was no reasoning with him. This song and dance, she has heard it all before. Yet the vampires who performed it always decided to start small in their own homesteads, not use demons to get an ancient tool the gods used to see it through. "I have seen too many of your kind perform terrible acts to sit idly by. My desire to be the best is secondary to who I can save by doing what has to be done."

 

[Infab]

"This is something humanity has brought upon themselves. I will pile the bodies of the guilty as high as I need to across the continent if it will force them to see the error of their ways. And will I hate myself in the end? No. I won't. If I make the world a better place with what I've done, then I'll be happy." stated Joseph to Ethraeil, before turning his attention back to Camille. "The people you killed were my friends for longer than I knew Ser Edmond. They were kind, gentle souls. You did no favors. You murdered them. If the terrible acts you speak of is simply their existence in this world, then you are just like the man next to you. And you will die just the same."

 

[joshuadim]

"Would you say that about the people's of Oar's Rest?" Ethraeil said, anger spiking in his voice. "Innocent fisherman, their families, who know nothing of all this. Done nothing. Did they deserve to be turned into undead abominations? Same with the people of Porthcrawl?"

 

[Dmaster]

Her expression softened a bit, not too certain on what to say about the vampires ended by her hand. It was hard to recall how things exactly occurred in that slaying, and it certainly didn't help that so few vampires cowered in fear in her presence. Many chose to fight back and that helped spin the narrative that they had it in them to kill. "You speak of the guilty and gentle souls as if you can pick them out at a glance. I would not have killed them if I did not see enough reason to. I stand next to a vampire who has saved my life, and I will not hunt him down to kill him without reason."

Ethraeil spoke of exactly what she was thinking, still fixated on the Duke as he brought those innocent lives into question. "Is your judgment always accurate? If I were to allow a vampire to live when I could have ended them, am I not responsible for what they choose to do with that life? They could murder an innocent, or perhaps even become as grotesque as you. I am not guiltless, and I am human and can make mistakes. Does that justify your actions? Do you feel compelled to make thousands suffer for my sins?"

 

[Emperor Sagan]

Aleister felt his eyes dampen as words were exchanged between the Duke and the inquiry, and he had to wipe his tears on his sleeve. The vision the Duke had in mind was one many dreamed of. A world where there was peace between the races, and even open love and friendship. Not hidden affairs in the night that would, if discovered, send a pack of bloodthirsty wolves upon them. He didn't care if people like Francis were killed. And Camille... he felt the most conflicted with her. There had been moments of light shining through where it seemed she had a soul, even one wrapped in a thorn bush, yet if the Duke's accusations were true, it made her far less noble than he had envisioned her as. Perhaps he was simply deluding himself into thinking she was different because he had traveled with her and they had spoken well. He wanted to believe the Duke was simply lying, but that tone of voice, his emotion... it were characteristics he knew far too well in those who had lost people they cared about to the pointless violence which ensnared the continent. What made this all so much more painful was the fact the Duke would commit atrocities to build this ideal world, one which countless vampires and the like would flock to.

"You intend to make a garden out of a mass grave," Aleister managed, his voice slightly hoarse. "Look at the ages of the past. No empire has ever stood to last. Don't you realize what your methods will do to our kind? Whatever fleeting safety we have will never last so long as humans live on, because the crimes you wish to commit - the destruction, the genocide, all the chaos of war - they will never forget. And when our time of safety and ruling is over... we would be hunted to extinction. You know this to be true. What of the ancient races that we no longer see? Elves? Orcs? Tell me, sir, who stands here today in their wake?"

"It isn't... it isn't too late to stop now. End this cycle of terror you wish to unleash. The world you want is what all of us want, but not at the expense of the innocent. It cannot be done this way. You'll be the end of us!" Aleister said pleadingly.

Camille's following words stung at his heart, and he looked at her with an expression of near betrayal. She wouldn't hunt him down to kill him... without reason. How could one ever say such a thing? They may not have been friends, but comrades, at least given all they had gone through. He could never even speak of killing a friend or anyone near it. Would she not assume him to be innocent before being guilty? Or would she sooner kill him to ensure that he wasn't a possible risk. Like whoever the Duke's friends might have been.

Aleister took in a sharp breath. What of his own family? His sisters and the woman who had turned him. They were pacifists and lived alone on the estate, keeping peacefully to themselves. And yet rumors could easily start. Rumors that they were bad people, that slain people nearby were their fault. Would anyone like Camille even care to find the truth, or would they simply do what they always did and slay the vampires, as if they weren't people too. What Camille called mistakes were the loss of people that others held dear.

 

[Infab]

Joseph paused when Ethraeil spoke of Oar's Rest and Porthcrawl. "...I didn't want what happened in Oar's Rest and Porthcrawl to happen, but it did." he then stated. "If Sazak had told me where the sword was, I wouldn't have allowed Wallace to quarantine Porthcrawl. If you and the rest of your inquiry had given up earlier, Oar's Rest wouldn't have happened. The Devonshire twins did that to try and stop you, and they died before I could punish them for it. Things could have been far different, but you continued to prod into things. And Sazak continued to be Sazak."

He then looked back to Camille. "...I'm a pureblood vampire whom has lived for several centuries. I believe that I've developed quite a decent judgment of character over the years." he replied, before pausing again. "...Victor Visconti, Sylviane Boulet, and Clélia Boisselot were good people. I knew them for hundreds of years...since I became a pureblood. Victor and Clélia raised horses north of Vinmont. Sylviane was an amazing painter. Some of her art likely hangs in your home. I visited them almost every year. They lived peaceful lives, and didn't bother anyone. And you killed them, likely because you heard a few nasty rumors about them spread by gutter scum."

He then stood there in silence, as Aleister spoke up. "...I can't give up. I won't. If I DON'T stay the course, we'll be driven to extinction anyway by people that believe in Velin's ideals. The ones that believe all creatures of the night are monsters that should be killed. Those ideals poison the mind, and its what harms us. I will teach the world differently, and I can only do that through force. I will not let what happened to me happen to anyone else. Ever."

He then pointed to the sword that Valeria still had gripped tightly in her hands. "It is because of that bitch Velin that I have suffered for centuries. That others like me have suffered. If she was erased, along with the Church, the Vigilant Order, and Velin's Order, then that would be one large step in the right direction...and that's where I'll start."

 

[joshuadim]

"So you blame others, is that it? It's never YOUR fault? It's never because of YOU is it not?" Ethraeil said, shaking his head.

"You don't get to decide the fate of millions because of your vendetta. If you can't get that," he then said, forming blades of ice in both hands, "then I will beat it into you."

 

[Infab]

Joseph shook his head at Ethraeil's threat. "Not if I break your phylactery first." he simply replied. He then looked to the rest of the group. "I'll make sure your deaths are quick...except yours." he then said, looking to each of them before pointing to Francis. "You die slow."

Castle Ellisgate - Keep Rooftop - FINAL BOSS BATTLE
Duke Joseph Ashwood

Duke Joseph Ashwood (Duke of Grimtham Isle, True Pureblood) (Final Boss)
200 HP
Trait 1: True Pureblood - Regenerates 5 HP every two turns. Can attack multiple targets a turn (up to four.)
Trait 2: Ring of Adona - Immune to Holy Magic and Dark Magic. Sword of Velin does 20 DMG against Ashwood.
Trait 3: Pure Determination - Does 5 DMG instead of 1. Cannot score critical hits.​

 

[joshuadim]

Ethraeil rushed around the duke, seeking to find an angle to strike him at while the others attacked from other angles. Once finding a suitable spot he moved in and sliced at the Duke with his blades with all his might.

 

[K0mori]

Having grown tired of all the soapbox speeches, Francis was almost relieved when the Duke promised his doom. However, rather than simply trying to shoot the man, Francis began by retrieving a thin bottle from his pack. Instead of a cork, the opening was covered by a rag which was stuffed deep in the bottle and tied to the shaft by a thin ring of wire. He put the tag on fire before tossing the bottle in the Duke's direction.

As it shattered on the ground, the tag ignited the solvent within the bottle, which erupted into flames.

 

[Emperor Sagan]

Once people got moving, Aleister took a few steps back as he always did. This was madness and he simply wanted it to be over with. He figured the Duke would be going right for Valeria like Edmond, so he raised his hands towards her and tried to formulate a magical shield to help block strikes against her. There was no way she would be fast enough to stop every hit that he sends her way, and at least this may help stop any tricks or oddities the Duke summons. There was no telling what that ring could do.

 

[Dmaster]

She couldn't allow the accusations to still her fury or get her to falter, even if there was some truth to his words. Of course she would believe the word of the public over a vampire's own if it was all she had to go off of, but that hardly mattered now. Camille chose to keep her distance, tossing two quills the Duke's way as Francis lit off his flaming concoction. Seems like she made the right choice in not pushing so far ahead. This was all to test his no doubt absurd reaction times, and it was obvious that she was fighting on edge.

 

[Breadman]

Theodore could feel some sympathy for Joseph. Willing to sacrifice his own humanity or what was left of it for a better future was a common folly for many however. A regrettable truth that made swallowing the bitter truth that he had gone mad much easier. He aimed his gun towards the duke's hand. Lets see if he could shoot off a finger.

 

[Infab]

Castle Ellisgate - Keep Rooftop - FINAL BOSS BATTLE - TURN 1
Ethraeil = 2 + 2 (4, The Lich King.) Misses Ashwood.
Francis = 6. Does 6 DMG (The Cleansing Flame) to to Ashwood. Ashwood is now on fire for a turn. Ashwood HP = 194.
Aleister attempts to shield Valeria. D6 used. Chance Roll = 4. Chance successful. Shield will partially negate damage against Valeria.
Camille = 5 + 1 (6, Infallible Focus.) Does 3 DMG to Ashwood. Ashwood HP = 191.
Theodore = 8 (Calculated Risk.) Does 8 DMG (Calculated Risk) to Ashwood. Ashwood HP = 183.
Galina attempts to stun Ashwood (Shatter-wail.) D6 used. Chance roll = 1. Chance Failed.
Wesley = 2, 6 (Multi-shot.) Does 1 DMG to Ashwood. Ashwood HP = 182.
Valeria = 7 + 3 (10. The Prince and the Puppet.) CH Roll = 5. Does 27 DMG (Senior Inquisitor, The Prince and the Puppet, Sword of Velin) against Ashwood. Ashwood HP = 155.

Castle Ellisgate - Keep Rooftop - FINAL BOSS BATTLE - TURN 1 (ENEMY)
Ashwood = 6, 8 - 1, 10, 10 - 2 (7, 8. True Pureblood, Grand Duelist, The Lich King.) Targets Francis, Camille, Valeria, Ethraeil. Chance for Francis to negate damage (Iron Man.) D6 used. Chance Roll = 4. Chance Successful. Francis takes no damage. Does 5 DMG to Camille, 5 - 1 DMG (4, Aleister's shielding) to Valeria, 5 DMG to Ethraeil. Camille HP = 20, Valeria HP = 16, Ethraeil HP = 20.

---
​

As the group made their attacks, the Duke didn't move at first. But as Ethraeil neared to swing his icy blades, he was shocked to see the Duke easily avoid it. His speed was incredible, matching that of Cassandra's back at the mansion. He then felt a sudden, powerful blow to his chest, as the Duke delivered a shattering punch. The impact sent Ethraeil flying through the air, before hitting and sliding across the stone roof of the keep. His attention still on Ethraeil, Ashwood failed to notice the device that Francis threw at his feet. It shattered, busting into flames and coating the Duke's legs in fire. Joseph simply grunted, looking back over to the group.

Then, Camille's needle like daggers embedded themselves in the Duke's chest, which he simply snatched out and tossed on the ground. Theodore's revolver shot connected, hitting the duke in the center of his hand instead of his fingers where he had wanted. Ashwood looked to his hand, wiggling his fingers, before lunging at the group. They didn't have time to prepare, as the Duke simply disappeared for a brief moment and reappeared upon them. A fist collided with Camille, sending her into the stone wall next to the door they had just emerged from, while another collided with Valeria, Thankfully, Aleister's magic had worked, creating a thin shield to absorb the Duke's blow. It didn't absorb it all, however, as Valeria slid across the stone. Clutching her chest. Still, remarkably, she stayed standing. A moment later, he shoved Galina away as she rared back to deliver one of her powerful screams, silencing her before she could get it out.

Another blow was delivered to Francis, but somehow, the man's scrap metal armor absorbed it all. Leaving a massive dent in the torso plating. Ashwood frowned at the sight, before feeling Wesley's rapier stab into his side. Wesley yanked it back out a moment later and attempted to stab yet again, but the Duke swatted the blade aside upon the second attempt. As he was about to hit Wesley too, a far worse pain hit him. Valeria had carved a gash out of his back with the thick blade of Velin's executioner sword. The wound burned more than anything he had ever imagined, as the power of the god's blade poured into him. "You BITCH!" he spat through gritted teeth as he stumbled forward.

 

[joshuadim]

Ethraeil grunted as he stood up, taking note of the Duke's sheer power. He hit hard and moved fast, as the cracked bones in his chest showed, but that accursed blade was doing work against him. This time, Ethraeil took aim and threw his swords straight at the Duke.

 

[KRIY]

As the Duke stumbles forward from Valeria's hit, Wesley saw this as an oppertunity. He set his form up and pulled back the cloak's fabric from his right forearm, revealing the steel gauntlet that he picked off a fallen Vampire Knight when they were scurrying the castle.

Using his vampiric strength to his advantage. Wesley sends his fist towards the Duke's jaw.

 

[Viper Actual]

With a direct attack proving far from successful Galina turned towards other means.

She focused on the Duke and whispered. The words had no meaning to her yet something inside her encourage her to utter them.

Slowlt a feeling of dread would setlle over the Duke alongside hallucinations. Perhaps it would be enough to gain a momentary advantage.

 

[Dmaster]

Camille had the wind knocked out of her and no doubt sufficient damage to her midsection after being punched into the wall, yet she bit down and slowly rose back up to her feet. Moving back into her dueling stance she began to rush back into the fray, standing in front of the Duke before delivering a series of slashes punctuated by a stab.

 

[Breadman]

Theodore switched from the revolver to a bomb. If he couldn't shoot off the finger, he would melt it off with whatever he had. He aimed and tossed the concoction at the duke.

 

[Emperor Sagan]

Aleister had hoped his shield would have been stronger, but it was a simple party trick compared to the Duke's power. He wouldn't help much with that. Like Cassandra, he moved at incredible speeds that even he had a hard time keeping track of. Slowing him down would be to their advantage, yet doing so was barely possible.

He began to cast several moderately sized glowing orbs, modifying their intensity on one half rather than the other like a lantern. Perhaps these could distract him or lessen his accuracy if they were rotating quickly around him while flashing. The Duke still had to see, after all.

 

[K0mori]

Francis yelled in surprise as the Duke threw a punch into him that dented his ramshackle armor and sent him wheeling back on his heels. He dropped to the ground and snatched up the first gun he could wrap his fingers around, which proved to be his own shotgun. Grimacing, he regained his composure and took up aim, finally firing the barrels at an offset interval in hopes that he could catch Ashwood with one or the other.