Ambrosia Software Web Board: The Ruffian Encampment (TS) - Ambrosia Software Web Board

Talryn frowned, his trap went off a little early. oh well, at least the group can do their thing now. Talryn circled around the escort and group to help with the retreat. After making sure that the ruffians between the group and the wall were distracted, Talryn walked back towards the group.

After the group finished their task, they broke into a run towards the wall. Once past a couple of huts, the group stopped to rest and see who was with them. While panting for breath, Talryn waved to Wizzard. "So, who were you trying to rescue?"

Someone said a couple of seconds later, "For that matter where is Satori?" Talryn sensed a spell being cast and looked over to its origin, it appeared to be the one called Satori. Talryn 'dove' more into the aura of the spell, using his curse to find out what it was that Satori was casting. The amount of hatered was staggering. Thinking fast, Talryn called on the snow and water near by.

The water in the puddels begun to swirl up into the air and gather infront of the group, (in between Satori and the group) the snow also begun to funnel to a focal point. Ice started to spread out horizontally and vertically, creating a wall. Satori finish her raging spell. The wall barely touched the ground before it hit. Most of the blast was absorbed into the wall and the wall shattered. A small, but still possibly deadly part of the spell pushed on and hit Talryn. Talryn's spell stopped instantly, as he fell to the ground. Pieces of ice rained down on the shattered wall. The intensity of the snow did, however, continue to snow at a faster rate. The temperature began to lower, and water in the puddels began to freeze.

-Dark

This post has been edited by Dark Jet: 11 November 2006 - 11:28 PM

In the shadows some distance away, Sideline observed the team of adventurers apparently about to self destruct. He shook his head in disbelief, then returned to his intense study of the sealed building.

Traps. There would definitely be traps. What kind, though? Magical, or something more traditional? If it was magic, he'd have little option but to back off. Where would they be? Even the intensest paranoia had to bow to reality, sometimes; that meant the ground around the building had to be clear, otherwise any fool wandering by would accidentally trigger their doom. The walls? Possibly, but probably not, for the same reason. If someone casually leaned on the wall...

No, the traps would have to be internal. Probably on the concealed entrance itself, triggered if it was opened the wrong way. Could he disarm it? Probably, no way to be sure. He'd have to find the entrance, first. Time consuming. He was patient, but with that team assaulting the camp, time was a resource in short supply. Was that the best way to proceed?

No, the roof.

Sideline extracted a padded hook from his pack, and attached it to a thin, strong cord. He swung the hook three times in a loop, and sent it arcing up towards the edge of the flat roof. It caught, and held fast when he tugged it. He quickly and silently scaled the wall, pulling himself up to balance on the narrow palisade edge. He paused. There was some kind of low structure in the centre of the roof. A skylight, perhaps? A way in? Yet Sideline remained immobile, except for the dark eyes intensely scanning the surface in front of him.

There! Moonlight glinting on a wire.

Sideline grinned to himself. This he could handle.

This post has been edited by cache22: 27 October 2006 - 09:36 PM

Talryn was safe. He had apparently freed himself from his captors, and now he was joning the group. Wizard was about to greet him with a bear hug when Talryn asked a very important question, “So, who were you trying to rescue?”

Something was wrong. Wizard could feel it. Everything around him stopped. Someone else muttered something about Satori, but the words flew past Wizard unregistered.

Satori. Wizard turned around; Satori stood directly behind him. Their eyes locked. Wizard stared on in horror as he felt her emotions begin to build to unbelievable strengths. Traitors. . . they shall die for their ignorance. Satori’s thoughts struck Wizard as an arrow pierces the heart, and the words echoed in every corner of his mind.

They stood for a long while, staring at each other—Wizard didn’t even notice that Talryn had jumped in-between them and created an ice wall to defend the group. Then Satori unleashed her hatred, and it rippled through the air towards the group. It shattered the shield of ice, but was severely weakened in the process.

The remainder of the bolt flew on and pounded into Talryn. As Talryn fell to the ground, the spell began to take it’s affect. Wizard could feel the force of the hatred begin to tear him apart. Wizard grabbed Talryn, forcing the hatred entirely into himself. He pulled it towards and into him with his mind. He’d never tried to channel a spell through another person before, but he felt sure that he would be able to manipulate the barrier of pure emotion.

He let Talryn slip to the ground, focusing entirely on Satori’s blast. His eyes were still on Satori’s. Her expression was one of disgust. Wizard fought the malice. He believed that he could absorb it. Battling the hatred directly with his telepathy, and the affects of its force with his telekinesis, he could feel the inside of his entire body begin to try to pull itself apart. His countenance changed to determination, Stop, Satori. He formed a telekinetic enclosure around himself, hoping to block the affects of the spell. Stop it, his mind barked at her again. Satori continued to feed her anger, and the spell’s strength gathered inside Wizard.

Wizard closed his eyes, and his orb grew so intensely that it appeared pure white. The scars on the side of his face became very apparent again as his focus shifted. His appeance seemed to change a slight bit, and he appeared older and more frail. His telekinetic shield grew larger and larger from the force of his concentration until it surrounded the entire group. Unintentionally, the wounds that Talryn had sustained from what part of Satori’s bolt hit him were already beginning to correct themselves. Wizard opened his eyes again and looked at Satori. Their gazes were glued to each other for another moment before Wizard knew he had won. Satori came to her senses, What have I done?

Wizard’s telekinetic wall now shrank, narrowing in on the spell he was eliminating. At last he succeeded. After a moment, a huge shockwave was unleashed in every direction as Satori’s hatred was completely absorbed.

Several people were knocked over by the blast. Satori weathered it, and stood exactly as she had before, staring at Wizard. Thank you, his words came to her, and she appeared surprised.

Wizard stood for a moment, swaying, before he collapsed to the ground. He landed on ice, the result of Talryn’s freezing spell, which was still at work; Talryn lay unconscious behind him. Rapierian actually ran to help Wizard up. “Are you all right?” Upon seeing that he was only tired, “Woudln’t do to lose our oldest antique.”

“I never thought I’d say it to you of all people, but I appreciate the concern,” Wizard said as he climbed to his feet. He glanced at Satori again, then back at Rapierian. "We need to keep a closer eye on her. I don't want to have to duel the full force of her hatred. Even though my mind has never failed to defend me, I'm not sure who would win."

“Right. Let’s get back to our goal,” Rapierian moved toward the wall again. Medoc stooped to help Talryn. Wizard also turned away and went with the others. He felt sure that Satori would come with them.

* * *
Altérius sat in his room. He had looked out the window long enough to know that he had to think of a new plan. Fortunately, the group didn’t seem to be interested in him at the moment. They were busy with something else.

“Oh no,” he thought aloud, “the kesh. Master will not be pleased.” They were headed towards the building with no doors. He would have to stop them. Exiting on a side that he was sure he would not be seen from, Atlérius ran to the bunkers at the back of the encampment. He had been incompetent in his handling of this pack of vigilantes because he had underestimated them, a mistake he did not intend to repeat. He would have to gather all the available ruffians in the encampment.

This post has been edited by The Wizard: 11 November 2006 - 05:30 PM

The group approached the building with no doors quietly. Talryn had not yet woken up and had to be carried by one of the other group members. The fires that had earlier plagued the camp were out, but there was no sign of ruffian activity. Most likely, all had been gathered together and were now preparing to finish the group. After all the time that it had taken them to lose pursuit, it was now night, the sky had cleared, and the moon had come out. At about this time, Sideline was entering the building through the roof. He'd seen the group coming but decided to hold off on meeting up with them for a little longer, so that he would be in a good position to surprise the ruffians when an opportune moment arose.

No one in the group noticed any sign of traps, but all proceeded cautiously nonetheless. Wizard looked at the blank wall, frowned, and turned to Rapierian.

"I don't suppose that you thought of a way to get in here?" he asked.

"Well, I had thought that we could throw you at the wall until it caved in," Rapierian replied. "Or you could use your abilities to find the entrance."

"What about the roof?" Medoc suggested.

"I don't think that we have the time to reach the top," Wizard replied thoughtfully. "We might be able to trigger the traps with magic though."

After some further debate, the group decided to try the last. Rapierian slipped away and soon returned with another skeleton in tow. By this time, they had located the concealed entrance and had ascertained that it was indeed quite well booby-trapped.

Standing well away from the hidden door, Rapierian had the skeleton open it. The traps quickly activated and leveled the creature. Wizard then sent a telekinetic burst into the doorway, destroying the remaining traps.

"Puzzling," Wizard said, "at least half of the traps seemed to be designed to keep something in. If that's the case, that explains why it was relatively easy to disable them: whatever is inside is the building's best defense."

This thought was not particularly reassuring.

The group entered the building and quickly shut the concealed entrance behind them. They put a mage-lock on the door to allow quick exit for themselves and to prevent easy entrance by the ruffians, although all the ruffians would really need to do would be to set the building on fire.

Sideline hid himself in the building's rafters to watch the group.

The building seemed to be divided into at least two distinct rooms. The group had entered the smaller of the two rooms, which had only a large table, a heavy door made of some odd material into the next room, a closed crate next to the door, and the large device on the table, connected by some sort of pipe to the other room.

Rapierian instantly headed toward the device on the table—a device recognizable to most as a distiller but not any common distiller.


Rapierian carefully inspected the distiller. It was one of the most advanced that he had ever seen—more advanced even than Charax's equipment at Pnyx. Indeed, the only distiller that had been better distiller that he had seen was the lich Tavara's distiller in one of Tavara's strongholds. Rapierian himself was only a dabbler in alchemy, but he knew a work of art when he saw one.

"Marvelous," he murmured, "simply marvelous. I'd say that whoever set this up is better at alchemy than perhaps even Charax."

It was then that he realized that everyone was looking at him, obviously expecting an explanation of exactly what the device did. However, some of them knew something of alchemy as well and were already making their own guesses.

There were three distinct processes going on in the distiller—the products of each process were being dumped in buckets set at the end of the three pipes in which the three processes were being carried out. All of these pipes ran back into the one pipe that ran into the other room. Every so often an object rolled down this pipe. It hit the first parts of the distiller where it was broken into three pieces and then carried through the three separate processes.

The objects being manipulated were very recognizable to some.

"Those are harpy eggs!" someone gasped.

"Yes, as I suspected, I thought that I detected something to this effect earlier," Rapierian said. "Very well, I think that I can guess what this device does. As most of you know, kesh was generated by some sort of reaction involving a special brand of water and a special staff. While this device lacks either of those, its maker has somehow found a way to duplicate the process, creating ordinary kesh." He indicated the top process on the distiller and traced it down its pipe to the bucket which was beginning to fill with a substance that was obviously kesh. "However, our alchemist was not content with this. If he could reproduce ordinary kesh, why couldn't he make his own modifications to it? Hence, he experimented and eventually perfected a second process. I guess that this process produced the magic-dampening crystals, which it appears need to sit and harden for a little while, else we would have lost our powers on entering this building." Rapierian indicated the second process, walked over to the bucket that held the already solidifying kesh, and dumped it on the ground. "Wouldn't want this to harden, I think."

"What about the third process? What does it do?" Wizard asked.

"I don't know," Rapierian said regretfully.

Up in the rafters, Sideline smiled. This must be the source of Ulkesh that he had set out to find.

"And the harpy eggs?" someone wanted to know.

"I suspect that we shall find our answer through this door, but first I suggest that we each put one of the helmets—that I am certain we shall in that crate—on."

Sure enough, inside the crate were a bunch of strange helmets. Each of the adventurers put one on. Then, after working at the door for a few moments, they opened it and stepped into the next room.


Inside the next room were harpies, dozens of them crammed together. Each chained securely in place and with some sort of collar (made of the same material as the strange helmets) around the neck of each. Under each of them was a trough that sloped gently to pipe in the wall and into the distiller. Every so often, an egg would land in this trough and would be fed into the distiller.

When they saw the group, they began to make odd noises and to thrash wildly.

"Can you understand them, Wizard?" Medoc asked him.

"Yes, as a matter of fact, I think that I can broadcast the meaning to us all. I suggest that we hear them out: they could be of help to us."

Wizard proceeded to do so.

Traitors! Killers! Die! DIE! DIE! the harpies screeched.

"Doesn't sound encouraging," Rapierian commented dryly, glancing at Satori. Her expression was unreadable; he couldn't tell whether she was planning to try to kill the harpies or not. Perhaps, she was taking Wizard's advice to listen to the harpies first.

We are here to help you, Wizard replied mentally.

YOU LIE! That is what the human who led us here claimed! He said that here we could be safe from those who took our children, but he lied. YOU LIE AS HE DID! But it won't help you! Other of our kind have followed us here the harpies screamed back.

The group glanced at each other. The mage that led this group had probably used telepathy to deceive the harpies into following him; if so, he was quite talented in that area.

We came here to disperse these ruffians and to stop the production of kesh, stated Wizard. Let us make a deal: we free you and your children, you help us defeat the ruffians, and return with the rest of your kind to the other side of the mountains. Quickly, he told the harpies of their trip here.

WE DON'T BELIEVE YOU! YOU KILLED SOME OF OUR KIND: YOU ADMIT IT!

"So?" Rapierian said speaking aloud. "Even if we are lying, this is your only chance: trust us and attempt to escape or allow the rest of your kind to walk into a trap by attacking this Encampment and your children remain as fuel for kesh."

The harpies hissed violently at him. For several minutes, they continued to talk with each other and occasionally with Wizard, who with the subtle aid of his own telepathy convinced the harpies that the group's story was true.

At last, they reluctantly said We accept your terms.

The group huddled together out of earshot of the harpies.

"They're lying. They gave in too easily," Phaedrus stated.

"I agree," Wizard said. The rest nodded.

"So what do we do?" someone asked. "We need their help."

"Harpies value their eggs highly, don't they?" Rapierian said after a moments thought.

Wizard nodded.

"Okay, I have an idea. There are already quite a few eggs in here, waiting for distillation. We'll turn the distiller off but leave the eggs in it. Someone puts a flame spell (which must be invisible to the master mage and someone must maintain access to his magic so that it could be activated) on the distiller, and, if the harpies double-cross us, no more eggs. If they keep their end of the bargain, we deliver the distiller to the last harpy to leave this side of the mountains."

The group agreed. They didn't tell the harpies what they had done. They would only tell them if forced to. Instead, Rapierian took one of the eggs under his cloak, warning the harpies that it would be destroyed if they tried anything. Naturally, the harpies were upset but at last agreed. As reluctant as the harpies were to agree, the group was even more reluctant to free them, but at last they did so.

Of course, there was the risk that the harpies might still think the group aligned with the ruffians and decide to sacrifice one egg for the many, but Wizard and Rapierian formed a plan for this contingency.

A battle plan was quickly established. Although the ruffians would be protected from the harpies, the harpies would call the harpies outside the Encampment to aid in the attack. The harpies would focus on destroying the magic-dampening fields so that the group would have power. Hopefully, with the group's help, their numbers would be sufficient to win.

The group also formed a plan to remove the crystals...

No sooner had they agreed on this then there was a noise outside.

"Surrender!" came a voice from outside. "We have you surrounded and outnumbered!"

This post has been edited by Selax: 11 November 2006 - 11:32 PM

With the plan's final details being set, a group member was sent to stall for a little bit of time. Talryn had barely begun to awaken, and he was full of confusion with a brewing hatered. Once the group was ready, the harpies flew up to the top and called for their companions and a few flew away to distract some ruffians.

The more melee members of the group gathered around the door and the casters behind. Part of the plan was to leave Talryn in the building unless it was caught on fire. The other harpies set about their task destroying the crystals in the courtyard.

The more melee members of the group rushed towards the door as it was unlocked and sent flying outwards by Wizard. The plan was to break the ranks nearby the door and then pincer around to the other side, killing the ruffians outside, and drawing out the rest that were sure to be readying defences against the harpy group.

The intail shock of the charge had worn off and the casters were letting loose a lot of spells. Once Talryn had climbed up to his knees, his rage that he could not justify, had risen and begun to take over his actions. His adrenline kicked in really fast. Since Talryn had cast two very exhausting spells, it was suprising that he could stand at all. Fueled by his rage, the gently but ever present snow storm began to turn into a blizzard.

Talryn stood in the doorway, extremely angery and gathering mana for his spell. The sensible part of Talryn was trying to regain control and tried to figure out where this seemingly endless amount of hatered came from.

This post has been edited by Dark Jet: 11 November 2006 - 11:28 PM

The battle started quickly, as battles often do. The mages were instantly using their creepy powers, and the sound of swords striking each other filled the area. The mages at first held against letting the ruffians into the building, but within seconds, several ruffians had slithered through.

Retsy had no idea where her groupmates were by the time she started swinging a sword around. One ruffian seemed interested in killing her, so her attempt was to be victorious over him. They clashed swords three times before the ruffian cut her leg, and she collapsed.

Toreon appeared out of nowhere and knocked Retsy's ruffian over. "Are you okay?" he asked her.

"I don't want to stand up anymore," Retsy replied. Toreon disappeared from her sight again to take another attempt at being useful. "Hmm. . ." Retsy muttered, surveying her leg, "ow." And she lay back, lying down on the floor.

At best, Toreon served as a distraction for the ruffians until someone else could attack them. He gave a few ruffians owies, but he doubted any of them were dead. The battle seemed to last forever to Toreon, and he envied the mages because at least they got to do something more interesting while they fought. At last the ruffians had been driven outside of the building, and while the others continued the combat, Toreon went to check on his sister.

Retsy was still lying on the floor. "You alright?" Toreon asked.

"Nalkii? I think my leg is a little messed up."

Toreon glanced at her leg, which honestly didn't look very threatening at all. "Nah, you're fine."

"Okay," Retsy replied; she got up and limp-followed Toreon outside.

The battle outside was not going as well as it was inside, and the reason for this seemed to be the mage who was standing behind the ruffians. Neither sibling had any idea what kind of magic he was using, but they knew that he was giving his ruffians an advantage.

"That's him, isn't it?" Retsy asked, looking at Alterius. "That's the ruffian-mage leader who's going to kill us all."

*OOK*
Sorry for such the delay in posting, in a weeks time I am going to be free from the slavery of school for 3 months so I should be able to start posting more regularlly again. As usual, if there is anything that anyone wants changed or added, just PM me.
*BIC*

The group was slowly pushing the ruffian force out of the front of the hut. It was amazing how many ruffians that the encampment had, it was almost like the ruffian sect was larger than anyone had imagined (possible future TS). The harpies had seemed to have disapeared out of sight although they were still in earshot screeching a hundred yards from the encampment.
Overall the battle was turning out quite nicely, it was just a bonus that most of the ruffians weren't all that proficient at fighting, guess thats what happens when there are a group of people who pick on poor innocent bystanders. Some of the more sturdy ruffians were starting to enter the battle, send the pawns in to weaken them before they start sending in the main force. Although to the group the ruffians on their own weren't to much of a force but with Alterius standing at the back of the pack cashing spells, offencive and defencive alike, it was a bit more difficult. One noticable difference was that the ruffians had no fear which was a ruffians main feature. They liked to pick on others but when they get picked on they go running. On several occasions Wizard attempted to cast a spell in Alterius' direction a few times but with the sheer amount of ruffians between them he would have had to have taken out every single one of them which just wasn't plausable. Medoc tried to create several small illusions like walls of fire, something he was getting better at, but fearlessly the ruffians trodded forward. Even a small flying imp served only as a minor distraction and had no real effect. It seemed like they were going to have to kill each and every ruffian before they would be able to get to Alterius.
As the battle had progressed in the background it was evident that the harpies had gotten some reinforcements in, they were scouring the landscape in search of the dampening fields and neutralising them one by one. Even the harpies would have been useless in the fight simply because Alterius seemed to be taking all fear from the ruffians, effectively they were mindless killing machines.
The battle slowly plodded onwards with no end in sight.

*OOK*
I primarlly made this a battle post, there isn't really too much else to be done before they can capture or do whatever gets done to Alterius, just need to defeat the ruffians.
*BIC*

This post has been edited by Half Truth: 03 November 2006 - 07:34 AM

Curious, Rapierian thought.

It appeared that this mage leader was quite skilled at this sort of combat, helping the ruffians by removing their fear and by casting spells at judicious moments. He wondered if the mage would have the time to protect himself while supporting the ruffians. He was also curious to see how strong this mage would prove when the group had to fight him; something in him doubted that this man was a match for all of them or even in some cases just one of them. Something about that last thought didn't sit well with him, but he decided to examine that later.

Right now the important thing to do was to restore fear to the ruffians, and Rapierian was very good at instilling fear. The mage seemed to be using some sort of Rally spell to embolden his ruffians. Rapierian could try to remove the spell, or he could try to weaken the mage by giving him a lot more fear to remove. He also decided to see if there were any way to get Satori to go after the mage; something told him that would cause the man a great deal of difficulty.

He calmly bent down next to one of the wounded ruffians lying on the ground. The man was feebly trying to stand and return to the fight.

Rapierian put his hand on the man's forehead and, in plain view of the other ruffians, sucked the life from the man. All the while, he was laughing. He then turned to some of the bodies lying on the ground and concentrated. In moments, the corpses began to shake and then to stir. Three skeletons rose off of the ground.

Rapierian pointed at Alterius.

"Kill him. Make sure to smash all those ruffians between you and he," he ordered. Verbal communication was unnecessary to control the brutes and it might actually alert Alterius to the threat, but he decided that it was worth it.

The skeletons obeyed, tearing into the mass of ruffians with reckless abandon and heading straight at Alterius. Idly, Rapieran grabbed another ruffian and sucked the life from him. Then, he turned, and, using the simple spell of lightning that almost all mages learned, he idly sent a bolt of it into the first ruffian that he saw. For a moment, he wondered if he could find a more useful variant of that spell more suited to his tastes, but, alas, he had no time to experiment right now.

Turning to face the rest of the ruffians, Rapierian remembered the variant of the Fear spell that he had used earlier—the one that had made three ruffians literally die of terror. It was obviously only useful on small numbers and worked best on close ones, but he wondered how Alterius would handle it. Already, the ruffians were looking less sure of themselves; like most Cytherans, they too tended to have a slight fear of people like Rapierian already and now several harpies were beginning to gather behind them, preparing to attack. Of course, there was also Satori; almost anyone in his right mind would be frightened of her.

Curious to see how Alterius would react to his spell and the level of fear it inspired, Rapierian turned to some of the nearest ruffians and cast it on them.

This post has been edited by Selax: 11 November 2006 - 11:33 PM

Talryn's anger continued to grow. A blizzard had formed high above the encampment, while the battleground had small snow flakes landing down calmly. A darker side of him that had exsisted when he was willingly serving the DK begun to take over and his rage grew even more.

Once he noticed skeletons attacking, he thought that he was with the DK's troops and ebgun to unleash his spell. The blizzard came whirlwinding downand hit the right flank of the ruffians, freezing some and lifting up others. He slowly moved the whirl wind around and formed ice with extremely sharp points and sent those flying out wildly.

THe whirlwind stopped and snow and ice fell heavily for the next five minutes. The darker side of Talryn attempted to harness the hate projection ability that he barely gained from Satori. Weaker versions flew out, some barely missing party members and hitting ruffians. Tarlyn begun to walk forward, creating another whirlwind. He willed the snow to turn into rain. Once rain was falling again, he focused his hate more into the spell and soon just ice was falling.

Talryn had begun to laugh and the combined effects of Rapierian and Talryn's spell had distrupted any concentration Alterius could muster. The powerful spell soon began to take its toll and Talryn's darker side faded away. He fell to his knees and attempted to use every once of strength left to stop the ice and whirl wind before and of the party was injured. Talryn put down one hand to try to keep himslef up, and the whirl wind begun to slow. He put down his second and his arms begun to tremble. The whirl wind slowed greatly down to just a breeze.

The ice begun to revert to rain. A random shard missed Talryn's head by an inch or so. Talryn then cluch his side in pain as his will begun to detoriate(sp?). The druidic spell that was twisted full of hate rebounded inside, a consequence for willing the elements to do something so distructful. Talryn finally collapsed and one of the last shards of ice impaled him in his upper leg. He would've screamed in agony from the combined pain but he was already unconsious(sp?) and starting to loose blood.

OOC: Hope thats a nice balance out for all the powerful spells Talryn cast this TS BIC:

-Dark

This post has been edited by Dark Jet: 11 November 2006 - 11:29 PM

Rough hands shoved Wizard to the ground; his hands were bound behind his back,
The rest of the party was being lined up
His mind was reeling, it had happened so fast….

Talryn fell to the ground ice falling around him Wizard threw up a shield of heat, to protect the group while they battled the ruffians, Alterius stood behind his men temporally distracted by the storm, he once again began to weave his hands in an unconceivable pattern. The ruffians pressed their attack.
A small twinge itched at the back of his head and Wizard felt the familiar touch of magic
He turned and threw his hands up as a bolt of lightning came from behind, a mage was standing tall behind them a trapdoor was open wide, from the left of wizard came a cry of pain, retsy lay on the ground with a large wound across her leg, Toreon muttered something about it being serious this time. Wizard was worried two mages and now fighters falling, the group was weakening. The mage threw yet another bolt of lightning, Wizard blocked it yet again. Then he felt it a gnawing force that was intensifying,
He spun round just in time to face the wave of palpable hatred, he lost conscious.

Satori was standing nearby him she was not bound. He noticed something odd she seemed to look happy… her face was caressed with a smile, and she was gazing off into the distance. “You see I found that your little companion here was a rather angry person.”
Wizards gaze settled of the second mage, the one who had surprised them. “I thought one of your numerous mages would have figured this out by now, she is well in its simplest forms completely consumed by hatred, and as I also know all mages are taught how to at least amplify their emotions to persuade others. So all it took here was a little bit of my own anger to sway her into attacking you, and now all its taking is a lot of happiness to make her passive. Simple ey?” the mage was grinning obviously happy with himself.
“Although sadly I think that she will soon overcome this and will have to be executed.”
He barked an order and a ruffian wielding a large axe walked calmly over to Phaedrus
Just as he was about to reach him, the man gurgled and clutched his chest water dribbled out of his mouth. The mage raised his eyebrow in question, and then began to walk over to the group.
Wizard turned his head back to Satori and projected forth.
Satori! I understand, please help us, we need you.
…..I…am no,,,l..onger…
Please don’t let this happen…
Her eyes locked with his and her expression went black.
“run….” She whispered.
The bands went slack, Satori raised her arms and a white light emanated slowly surrounding Satori. The mages snapped around to face Satori they wove spells lightning struck forth, but just seemed to be absorbed by the light.
The group stood transfixed, Wizard came to his senses, “RUN!”
The group began to move towards the door.
He turned back and saw Satori raised slightly off the ground arms held to her sides, her face held sorrow and angers in an odd mix, a glint caught his attention. A tear lay on her check.

And he ran, the group bolted down through the encampment. Just before they hit the forest a giant boom echoed through the air. They fell to the ground as debris flew overhead, they waited until all seemed quiet and Wizard turned over, there was nothing left just a large circle of earth. They scrambled to their feet and gazed back….

This post has been edited by Pippin 3: 11 November 2006 - 05:01 AM

The second mage blinked open his eyes, staring up at the low, packed-earth ceiling above him from his prone position. Dust floated lazily through the air, tickling his throat as he breathed. He coughed, and winced as pain lanced through the back of his head.

"Hurts, doesn't it," came a voice from the shadows.

The mage turned his head, saw a man leaning against the dirt wall of the small cave, and cursed. "Sideline! I'll destroy you, for this!" He lunged at Sideline, only then realising he was securely bound. He laughed. "You think this will hold me?" He formulated a simple spell, starting in surprise when the ropes remained securely bound. He looked at Sideline, bewildered.

Sideline grinned. "What, you don't recognise your own handiwork?" He gestured at one of several crystals distrubuted about the walls of the small cave, the source of the dim light. "You know, I'd have thought you'd have shown more gratitude. After all, I just saved your life. If I hadn't coshed you from behind and dropped you back down that trapdoor of yours, that blast would have ripped you apart."

The mage scowled. "You don't know what you're meddling with, Sideline. Let me go, and maybe you'll be allowed to live."

Sideline laughed softly. "You know, in a way I'm grateful to you, Perdeus. I disliked you from the moment Berossus introduced us, and it's gratifying to know that my instincts were accurate."

Perdeus sneered. "It changes nothing, fool. Release me, or you'll pay the consequences."

Sideline crossed the room in two quick steps, and slapped Perdeus, hard, across the face. "Berossus trusted you. Didn't that count for anything?" He grabbed Perdus' left wrist, forcibly turning it upwards. There was a black tattoo on the inside of the wrist, a sword bisecting a crescent moon. "Now, tell me about this mark!"

Perdeus gasped, then slammed his mouth shut. The was a sharp splintering sound. He spasmed once, then fell limp. Sideline felt his throat, shook his head, let the body fall to the ground.

"Dammit."

After a moment's reflection, he glanced around the cave. Satori's explosion had done a thorough job of sealing the hidden entrance, and the crystals would be preventing any mages from detecting him - assuming any were actually looking. Only one chance remained.

Ordinarily, Sideline preferred the dark; but he couldn't suppress a grimace as the last crystal shattered, and the light went out.

This post has been edited by cache22: 06 November 2006 - 04:35 AM

The group made their way back into the ruins of the Encampement. Some wished to see if somehow Satori or someone else had survived. Others, like Rapierian, were much more concerned about the harpies and their eggs.


Rapierian strode briskly through the ruins. To his relief, it appeared that the harpies somehow had managed to survive and to shield the distiller containing their eggs from the explosion. Calmly, he tossed the harpy egg that he had taken to one of them and reminded them of their deal.

Seething, the harpies at last began to head back west over the mountains. All of those had outside the Encampment had apparently arrived, so it would take some time before they were all safely gone over the mountains. As agreed, one remained behind to take the eggs. While Wizard kept on eye on the harpy and the eggs, Rapierian frowned and walked over to the center of Satori's explosion. Both he and Wizard had noted the presence of one of the magic-dampening fields here when they had first entered the remains of the Encampment. Obviously, the field had come from inside one of the secret tunnels under the camp, but it had now dissipated. Rapierian was curious how the field had come to be there and was planning to investigate.

The trapdoor entrance had been thoroughly sealed. He stared at it, momentarily at a loss. Then, he smiled and hurled another blast of lighting at the debris, blasting most it aside. Then, he heard someone on the other side.

"Are you crazy or trying to kill me?!"

"That depends: are you friend or foe? Would it be fun to kill you?" Rapierian replied cheerfully.

There was a moment's pause on the other side and then, "You must be that dark mage with the group from Cademia."

"And how would you know?"

"It's Sideline," announced Wizard, who had come over when he saw Rapierian cast the lightning spell. Being a telepath who had traveled with Sideline Pnyx recently, he could easily identify the man, even though he couldn't see him. "He's a friend—he went with me on an adventure to Pnyx recently."

With that, Wizard used telekinesis to clear the entrance, and Sideline emerged, shooting a disgruntled look at Rapierian.

Curious, Wizard asked, "What are you doing here, Sideline?"

Sideline gave a quick summary of his story, although, always cautious, he didn't tell them everything.

"Now, I plan to return to Cademia as soon as possible," he finished.

"Well, you are welcome to travel with us, although you might make better time on your own. It's up to you," answered Wizard.

Sideline pondered for a moment. "There's another stop I have to make before returning to Cademia, so I'll take my leave. Thanks for the rescue."


Later:

Berossus Leaned forward in his chair, closely examining the small glass phial that Sideline had placed on the desk between them.

"So this is the new Kesh, is it?"

"No," Sideline replied. "It's a substance that was being added to ordinary Kesh, to make something called 'Ulkesh'."

"Hmm, for 'Ultimate Kesh', I suppose. We'll have to get Palaestra to examine it, and determine its origins."

"Actually, I just came from Pnyx. Palaestra couldn't figure out much about it. She just kept muttering 'unnatural, unnatural', whatever that means. Personally, I find most of the things you mages do unnatural."

"Hmm. As do I, with your unnerving ability to come and go unseen. I have a feeling that we're not going to find an answer to this riddle any time soon, my young friend. Most perplexing. Still, at least the current source of Ulkesh has been eliminated."

"There's more, Berossus. Your apprentice, Perdeus, was the one running the show. When I confronted him, he killed himself rather than be interrogated."

"Killed himself? Most extraordinary! I had wondered at his absense." Berossus pushed himself to his feet. "I think perhaps it's my turn to show you something." He stepped to the door to an adjoining room, and pushed it open.

The most striking thing that Sideline noticed in the room was the dark woman, lounging at her ease in an armchair. Even seated, she was tall. However, it was the room's second occupant that captivated his attention.

"Perdeus!"

"Indeed yes," Berossus nodded. "Since you were otherwise engaged, I hired miss Katze, here, to look into Perdeus' disappearance."

Katze waved a greeting. "Found him being held in a cave, beneath Odemia," she commented.

Sideline's eyebrows reached for his hairline. "You investigated it all by yourself?" he asked Katze.

Katze grinned. "Must've been hanging out with you too long. I had a little help from some mutual friends, for the dangerous bits."

Perdeus was visibly emaciated, and wore an expression of perplexed bewilderment.

Berossus quickly recounted what he and Katze had learned. "It seems Perdeus was snatched some months ago, almost immediately after being appointed my apprentice. The man I worked with, and whom you briefly apprehended, was clearly an imposter. Another Undine shapechanger, do you think?"

"No, he was human enough." Sideline sighed. "I suspect his identity is another question we may never resolve, just like the source of the Ulkesh reagent."

Sideline considered sharing his concerns about the imposter's strange tattoo, the sword bisecting a crescent moon. "Better not," he thought. "I don't really know anything, anyway. It's just a gut feeling."

Besides, Katze and Berossus were both good friends, and that same feeling was telling him that just knowing about that mark could turn out to be very, very dangerous indeed.

Earlier:


Altérius was beginning to get worried. The group had apparently freed the harpies and sent them on a mission to destroy the Ulkesh crystals, because everyone was now casting spells , unrestrained.

Every time he cast Rally in hopes of steeling his men, something horrific and terrifying would happen. He could feel the morale of his troops weakening. One moment skeletons were charging every which way and whirlwinds were wreaking havoc upon his men, the next, necromancers were literally sucking the life from the ruffians nearby him and giant shards of ice were raining from the sky. In the distance, he began to hear the horrendous shrieking of the harpies—they were joining the fight.

“Perdius has abandoned me,” he said bitterly. He began to cast spells more vigorously.

* * *
Wizard knocked a ruffian unconscious with the end of his staff and then quickly ducked to avoid a small projection of hatred. At first he assumed it to be Satori, but a quick glance told him otherwise. This is becoming very disturbing, he told himself as he watched Talryn release blasts of hatred continually. There’s something darker in him than I’ve ever noticed before.

Another ruffian charged up behind him; it was only his quick turn and slice with his sword that prevented him from being pushed on the ground.

The fight went on and on without any visible end. Talryn had been casting several whirlwinds and other druidic spells, but then, he seemed to lose his strength. Wizard saw him fall to one knee. He felt Talryn focus very forcibly on a certain spell, “He’s trying to protect us,” Wizard thought aloud as he realized. He looked up and saw thousands of shards of ice whirling high over their heads, ready to kill everything underneath them. Talryn’s arms were trembling; Wizard sensed his desperate desire to stop the ice from falling, but he also detected much distress inside his body. Much of the ice was already falling. One large piece then struck Talryn’s leg, but he had already fallen to the ground unconscious.

As all of the ice fell to the ground indiscriminately, Wizard did his best to protect the group from it as Talryn had tried. He threw up his arms and a telekinetic shield formed over their heads. The barrier could not hold forever, though. Fortunately, Medoc realized that Wizard needed help and shot as powerful a fireball he could muster into Wizard’s shield. Rather than resisting it, the wall absorbed it. Many of the ice chips began to melt. Wizard held it for as long as he could, but some splinters slipped through. One fell directly for his head; Wizard watched see it slowly descended towards him, but he was too busy trying to destroy the others to stop it. Rapierian acted the quickest and jumped on the old man, pushing him out of the way. The ice tumbled harmlessly into the mud.

* * *
Altérius had been distracted by the storm at first, but when he saw the other side expend a great deal of energy trying to stop it, he knew that it was time for him to push his attack harder.

He cast Rally again and then summoned several golems to help. They began to push the group back.

* * *
Phaedrus and Toreon were still fighting. Retsy was in the building trying to recover from a wounded leg, and Talryn lay on the ground. Satori was actually terminating several ruffians with her scythe.

Wizard was getting up out of the mud when a golem flew at him. Rapierian was still beside him, though, and shot the golem into a ruffian with a bolt of lightning.

“I thought you didn’t’ use light magic,” Wizard teased, truly grateful for Rapierian’s aid.

“Who said anything about ‘light?’” came the answer before he cast some other enchantment upon the nearest enemy.

Wizard attacked another ruffian, but he addressed Rapierian as he spoke, “Rapierian, I think we have to deal with the ruffian leader. He is making them win this fight.”

“How do you intend to get past every single ruffian to kill their leader other than killing them all?”

Wizard thought for a moment. The magic-dampening crystals were gone now thanks to the harpies, and that opened up hundreds of possibilities—Wizard selected one. “Simple,” he muttered with a gesture of his hand. Suddenly, he and Rapierian flew into the air and out of sight inconceivably fast; a moment later they landed next to Altérius.

The ruffian leader was surprised, which gave Rapierian time to cast fear on him. “You fool, I am not that susceptible to your power,” Altérius shouted. He was very quick, Wizard admitted, for in the first few seconds he managed to shoot a fireball at both Rapierian and Wizard. He focused on Wizard, who was already very tired from all the spells he had cast within the last few minutes, which was his mistake. Altéius dove on the old mage like a wild animal, shooting fire with one hand and cutting at him with his sword.

Rapierian had recovered quickly from the fireball and ran at the ruffian leader. He summoned up a skeleton to attack Altérius and stabbed at him with another bolt of lighting. Wizard managed to push the leader off of him. As Rapierian’s skeleton battled the leader, Wizard grabbed three nearby ruffians. With his mind, he convinced them that their leader was actually their enemy: he must be killed. A skeleton, three ruffians, and two mages were now attacking Altérius.

Altérius shouted a few incantations and raised a fire golem to defend him. The golem dealt with the ruffians easily enough, but when Rapierian and Wizard focused on it, it could not win. Altérius began to desperately cast spells. Lightning, fire, raising golems, and some ice spells, he exhausted them all. Wizard was having the most trouble, but Rapierian pushed nearer and nearer the ruffian leader. When he was in reach, he stretched out his hand toward the leader’s mouth. Altérius could almost feel his life begin to pull out of him and into the necromancer’s hand, but he retreated swiftly.

* * *
Medoc was a little concerned. Neither Rapierian nor Wizard were there to help them. The ruffians were pushing them further and further into the building where the kesh was made.

“Where’s Satori?” he thought as he looked around. He shrugged, maybe she was killing some ruffians elsewhere; he hoped that to be the case.

* * *
Rapierian shot more lightning at Altérius, who absorbed it. “You think that would kill me so easily?” he laughed. In truth, he was losing his nerve.

“No,” Wizard replied, letting go of his sword, “but I expect this might.” His sword telekinetically flew forward in Altérius’ direction. Without warning, though, and to Rapierian’s horror, his skeleton pushed its attack harder, stepping between Wizard and Altérius. The sword pierced the skeleton’s head, rather than the ruffian leader’s.

Altérius found this hysterical and burst into laughter. He immediately and inexplicably stopped, though. Both Rapierian and Wizard stared at him. His face went pale as he looked down. Through his heart, from the back, the tip of a harpie’s pointed tail protruded. He stared forward again and silently sank to his knees. Harpies began to pour by them; they had arrived with reinforcements and were ready for their revenge.

Rapierian turned with the harpies and began to push through the ruffians at the rear of their line. Wizard remained for a moment, gazing at Altérius, before he too left. Altérius fell face-first into the mud, dead.

* * *
Toreon and Pheadrus were indescribably relieved when they saw Wizard and Rapierian pushing through the ruffians in their direction. The fight looked as though it had a definite victor now. With the harpies, and the death of the ruffian leader, the group was winning easily now.

“Rapierian,” Wizard began while everyone was still fighting,” There’s just one thing bothering me.”

“What would that be?” Rapierian asked as he knocked a ruffian aside.

“Well, that man. While he was dying, I had enough time to quickly search his mind. He believed himself to be the leader of these ruffians, but don’t you think he was too weak. He didn’t even realize that a harpy was behind him. I don’t know about you, but I don’t know of any way that I could make that mistake.”

“Yes, I thought that was odd too. Do you suppose that there is another that is above him?” Rapierian thought for a moment.

Before Wizard could reply, a small twinge itched at the back of his head and he felt the familiar touch of magic. He looked over, Medoc had felt it, too.

He turned and threw his hands up as a bolt of lightning came from behind. A mage, the young man who had slapped Altérius earlier and had spent most of the fight inside his cabin, was standing tall behind them, a trapdoor wide open at his side.

From the left of Wizard came a cry of pain, Retsy lay on the ground with a large wound across her leg. Toreon yelled something about it being serious this time. Wizard was worried. The group was weakening. The mage threw yet another bolt of lightning, Wizard blocked it again. Then he felt it a gnawing force that was intensifying. He spun round just in time to face the wave of palpable hatred, he lost consciousness.

* * *
Wizard awoke. The battle was over. Though he was still a little bewildered about what had happened, he could tell that the harpies had retreated, for he could neither see nor sense them. They had lost, Wizard realized.

His hands were bound behind his back, and new magic-dampening crystals had been put in place. He looked up and saw Satori standing nearby, not bound. In fact, she seemed almost happy

“You see I found that your little companion here was a rather angry person.” Wizard’s gaze settled on the man who had spoken. It was the mage who had shot lightning at him.

“It was you then? The other man, he was just your lieutenant?” Wizard asked.

The second mage replied, “What? Altérius? Oh, he was just a simpleton who I found to be convenient to recruit. I overestimated him, though. He nearly bungled all my plans; in fact, he would have had I not stepped in, with the help of your friend here.” He gestured towards Satori. “I thought one of your numerous mages would have figured this out by now: she is well in its simplest forms completely consumed by hatred, and as I also know all mages are taught how to at least amplify their emotions to persuade others. So all it took here was a little bit of my own anger to sway her into attacking you, and now all its taking is a lot of happiness to make her passive. Simple eh?” the mage was grinning obviously pleased with himself.

“Yes, very simple, but when she realizes what you’ve done, you’ll lose control. She’ll come after you with more fiery than you could ever prepare for.”

“Sadly, you are right. She will overcome this and will have to be executed, but not so soon as the rest of you.” He shouted an order to a burly ruffian wielding an ax. The executioner walked toward Phaedrus. As the ruffian was nearing Phaedrus, the young mage put his hand up, signaling for him to wait, and began to speak again, “You know, you’ve all cost me a lot. Firstly, you freed my personal harpies; fought my men in a battle, and killed many of them, I might add; and then, you kill my second in command; and now, you still hope to kill me.”

Phaedrus glanced up sharply. “Phaedrus,” the true ruffian leader said, “I don’t have to be a telepath to know that; it’s written on your faces. But yes, it was I who was troubling your sleep those nights when you were still traveling here. My, that seems so long ago now. . . Oh well, I’m sorry to have to kill you all. Had you minded your own business and not meddled in my affairs, I would have let you live.” He waved his hand and the ruffian neared Phaedrus. Suddenly he stopped and clutched his chest, water dribbling from his mouth.

The mage raised his eyebrow in question and walked toward Phaedrus. “That must be a powerful spell indeed to still be cast in the presence of this crystal.” He stared at the group for a moment before he addressed another ruffian, “Go, see if you can find any more crystals. I fear that those harpies have destroyed most of my stash.”

Wizard turned his head back to Satori, Satori! Satori, listen to me! I understand. We need you; please help us.

I...am...no...lo...nger

Please. Please, don’t let this happen. You can stop it. You know that one crystal can not stop you if you focus on it. You know that he is controlling you, and you know that we need your help.

For the first time since he had regained consciousness, Satori stared him in the face. “Run. . .”she whispered.

The bands that had been about his hands loosened, along with everyone else’s. Satori slowly raised her hands and a white light gradually began to emanate from around her. The ruffian leader snapped his head around, “What are you doing. No!” In vain, he shot lightning at her, but she absorbed it, the light growing larger and larger.

The group stood transfixed. Satori, completely enclosed in a shield of light, seemed to float a few yards from the ground due to the force of the spell she was preparing. Wizard finally came to his senses, “Run!”

As everyone else fled, Wizard took one moment to glance back at Satori. Her face held sorrow and anger in an odd mix. He didn’t linger long, but he did see one tear form over her eye before it softly rolled down her cheek, leaving a watery streak behind it. Run, he heard her mind thinking quietly. He turned and ran, sorrow on his own face.

The ruffian leader, Perdius, was too busy trying to stop Satori to be preoccupied by the group. “Satori, they have tricked you. They are your enemies. Satori. Listen to me!” He shouted louder and louder before he gave up. He turned to run; many of his men had already done so.

Satori gathered all of her power, all of her hatred. The force soon became too powerful to be contained inside her body and began to grow around her.

The group had reached the front gate and were running outside with all haste.

Satori now drifted in an aura of hatred and enmity. She turned her eyes skyward, her face filled with anguish, as she let it consume her. Her body became, in essence, a pure vessel of energy, of hatred. It overcame her completely.

Perdius took one look back, in utter horrification.

Satori relaxed her will. . . she let go of all the power she had amass. It was unleashed, everything, in an immense explosion. The intensity was so great that it flew out as a nova in every direction. The group had barely reached the edge of the wood when they heard the thunderous explosion.

It erupted outwards, incinerating everything. Fortunately for Perdius, Sideline dove on him, pushing him down the trap door he had come out of earlier. The force of her hatred was so great that it seemed to happen very fast, but Wizard sensed it as it worked its way outward. It infested every body, living or dead, every building, structure, blade of grass,or particle of dirt in its way. It tore everything apart so fast and moved on to the next that it appeared almost was unstoppable. All the ruffians that were running vanished behind the light, nothing left of them. The buildings were completely dismantled as the people had been.

In a second it had grown to the full size of the encampment, a sphere stretching high into the sky, and in the next, it was gone, along with everything that had been near it. Some of the trees on the outskirts of the forest had been pulled from their roots and been completely demolished into nothingness.

Though the explosion had destroyed much, there was some debris that was sent flying in every direction, whatever small amount had not been torn apart.

The group scrambled to its feet and gazed back in shock. They made their way back into the encampment amidst some rubble that lie about. Wizard walked to where Satori had stood and looked around. Medoc came up next to him. “It was a very noble gesture. There was more emotion left in her than I had thought.”

Wizard nodded, “Yes, there was.”

“Do you think she survived?”

He paused before shaking his head and speaking in a deeply sober voice , “I truly don’t know.”

* * *
Not long after, the harpies returned for their eggs, which miraculously had survived. As the harpies began to travel west again, one remained behind to collect the eggs. During this time, Rapierian found Sideline. Sideline set out on his own to wherever he planned to go.

Finally, the last of the harpies had left the ruins save one. The rest of the group had been waiting, Medoc treating wounds. Wizard gave the harpy the last egg. It’s been a pleasure, my friend, he told it as he handed the precious object to the creature.

Weary and sore, the group prepared to leave as well. “Ohh, it’s been a long day,” Wizard said with a sigh as they took their first step toward home.