Ambrosia Software Web Board: The Tree of Life (TS) - Ambrosia Software Web Board

Naturally the group had no look of fear and there eyes and (reluctantly) followed Rapierian down the trail, who occasionally would say, "Wait is the trap here or there..?" with a smirk which made everyone jump and shoot dirty looks.

----

Meanwhile up ahead. "Hug, I can't take much more of this boss! We've been walkin for 8 days straight with no break, and are only orders have been to keep walk'in! Not to mention our brothers who 'aven't returned, this ain't look'in to good for us...", "Shut your mouth! You best hold yur' tong and stay in line or we'll send you off a cliff! Besides our little problem behind us has already been taken care of, the boss told me 'emself 'e did. All we gots to do now is wait for all this to be over and we get our pay! So sit tight and shut'it!"

The ruffian party hammered on non-stop until they came to a clearing. At the edge of the flat sat to strangely armor men on horses. Their armor was a deep blue, they were guarded enough that not an ounce of their body could be seen, at their waste were swords almost the size of a full grown man.
The ruffians grunted and slowly approached when their leader strode forward on his steed. "Settle down men, no need to raise your arms.", saying this their leader went over to the blue knights and shouted back to his men. "Thank you all for your hard work and dedication! I know it has been a long and strenuous journey, but know now that it is over for you now. I shall part with my new escorts and my prisoner. Speak to no one about these matters or the pouch taken from that- Oh wait *Smile* I guess I won't have to worry about that part. Here take this as a parting gift," their leader through the chief ruffian Yomu's pouch, "I have taken what I need from it, wait here for the rest your reward. I bid you all a fond farewell!", and at that the two blue knights and the ruffians former leader started to stride down the mountain side.

"Wait for our reward? What does he mean by that?", one ruffian said scratching his head, "Oy! who cares just as long as I get gold and I nice foot stool to rest my feet on! Not to mention he already gave us an advance! I'm sure it'll be fine.", "I don't know... something just isn't right... Why on a mountainside? Why not back at the road? E-gad this place is gonna explode just like that cabin he rigged isn't it!", at this the ruffian started running around franticly looking for glowing runes. "Settle down damn it! This is no time for foolishness-", as the chief ruffian started making his speech his men's jaws started dropping. "Oh god, look!" The ruffian pointed into the sky, what he saw was terrible indeed.

----

"Good news! We're almost there!" Everyone let out a sigh of relief except for Yomu. He had heard a cry what had sounded like a bird song was actually the far off cry of a foul beast Yomu had run into long ago. "No good.", he said running to the front. Looking off into the distance they could see the scene of a battle, no, a slaughter. Gasps were heard throughout the group, "What.. Could have done such a thing?!" someone said. "A wyvern.", Yomu said quickly followed by a loud screech from the sky.

This post has been edited by Two Jacks: 16 January 2008 - 07:01 PM

Bly looked up when he heard the screech. The sight just about took his breath away. The wyvern was big, as long as 4 horses from nose to rear, not counting the tail. It had wings, and clawed feet that looked like a cross between the talons of a bird and the feet of a lizard, with the claws of a bear.

The beast was protected by armored scales on top, and ridged plates on the bottom. Arrows would simply bounce off the thing. The wyvern's tail was long and flexible, like a whip. The length of three more horses, the tail was armored as well, ending in a barbed hook that could easily kill a man if he got it stuck into him.

At that point, events started catching up to the party, very quickly. The wyvern started to glide, as though it was coming in for a landing. It dropped right in front of the party, and started to talk. The stench from the creature's mouth was unspeakable.

"Friendsss or foesss?"

No one answered. After a while, someone, a bit nervously, said "Friends."

"What is your businesss?"

Again, no answer. Finally Bly decided to try the truth. After all, if this was what had destroyed those ruffians, it might be friendly, right?

"We seek the kidnappers of the Wizard. Will you--"

Unfortunately, this was the wrong answer, as the wyvern immediately cut Bly off.
"Enemiesss! Like I wasss warned! I SSSHALL DESSSTROY YOU!"

Then, the wyvern leaped into the air, and dove straight at the party.

This post has been edited by SoItBegins: 31 October 2007 - 11:32 AM

Muse continued walking along completely oblivious to everything else other than the contents of the book she was indulging in. She didn't even hear Silver's mutated version of Cinderella, which normally she would have been compelled to correct.

Muse was always a quick learner and competent reader. She was already on lesson 3 and rather excited about it. Finally she was going to learn how to manifest her powers. She had a feeling they really wanted out.

She had just begun reading the lesson when the group stopped. Unaware of this, she kept walking until she bumped into someone, dropping her book and nearly falling over herself.

"Oh God, I'm sorry" she said in a surprised and apologetic voice. She picked up the book and backed away. Everyone was looking up at something.


.....it's a....Dragon?



Muse's eyes widened and she felt the color drain out of her face.
The dead silence created by the appearance of this created allowed for other things to be heard quite loud.
Muse heard and felt her own heartbeat pounding against the inside of her chest. She was afraid the thing might hear it and come after them. Then, as if it had read her thoughts, the creature flew towards them and landed and began...speaking.

Muse contorted her eyebrows. It talks?


Bly was brave enough to speak to the creature, but somehow seemed to piss him off, for before she knew it, it roared in apparent anger and went in to attack.

Muse ran for cover, clutching the book tightly to her chest.

s###, if only I'd gotten to this lesson earlier she thought desperately to herself.

Fire did seem like a good thing to have right about now...though on the other hand...this thing looked pretty tough...would fire really do anything to it?

As he catapulted himself toward the wyvern, Silver had no thoughts of being able to actually bring down the fell beast, but a diversion might be useful to the other heroes. The Wyvern was ill-prepared for an attack from that quarter, & Silverfish was able to dig his daggers deep into it's scaly hide before it shook him off. The wyvern's hide was too thick for any -real- damage to be done, but it was annoyed with the little flying creature, which gave the other heroes a few more seconds to prepare for the battle.

A spell that -ought- to have been powerful enough to destroy 6 wyverns struck the wyrm, apparently to no effect. Momentarily surprised at the entire lack of effect, Silver rushed back in to attempt another strike, but the wyvern opened its maw, & Silver was overcome by the dizzyingly nauseating smell of... pine needles.

Rapierian looked up at the wyvern with annoyance: he hadn't even gotten to provoke it himself. The necromancer figured that it would probably make a boring adversary.

Observing the creature's seemingly high degree of magic resistance, he tried an experiment and flung a bolt of lightning at it when it opened its mouth.

Silver barely got out of the way in time, and the bolt sailed right into the creature.

The wyvern stopped for a moment, gasped, shook its head, and dove in for another attack.

It seemed that the beast's degree of magic resistance was high indeed. Granted, a concerted attack might still be enough to bring it down.

Rapierian shrugged and began to sift through his cloak, looking for a potion. Maybe he had some sort of concoction that would prove useful, although it would be hard to get such a thing to the beast and it would be unlikely to kill it...perhaps, it might injure it though...

Things were starting starting to heat up, literally. The giant beast reared its head up and after a mighty inhale shot forth a stream of fire. Silver was just lucky enough to have managed to whip up a metalic shell around him just before the dragon breath was released. Yomu, who unluckily was right in front of the wyvern, quickly rolled of to his left to dodge the incoming inferno, however with the dodge came a stumble, then a roll. Yomu crashed down the mountainside like hail down a roof, until finally he slowed then came to a stop. Yomu started to recover from the fall, his legs were damaged and he could barely manage to walk. Getting up onto his feet he saw where he was, the scene of the previous slaughter. All around lay blood, limbs, and other battle remnants, among these he spied the reason he had decided to join this journey, his pouch. Walking as fast as he could he reached his pouch, which was laying on top a rock.
At last he was finally reunited with his belongings, his life. A loud screech came from behind him and he remembered just what had been going on. Reaching into his pouch he knew what he would need. Out he pulled a strange metal object, it had two leather straps attached to a metallic plate, and linked to this plate were two large slanted metal boxes with one side missing. Following this he pulled out a long pole, at the end of which was a thick silver blade, Yomu finished pulling it out and tapped it on the ground, as soon as he did this the blade sparked and it seemed that a current was running through it. Yomu slipped the strange object onto his back and said, "To the Heavens.", with this Yomu soared into air spear in hand. He charged at the foul flying creature with his spear ready to strike. *SHEUNK* Like an angel of judgment Yomu flew around striking the mighty Wyvern again and again. The charge from the spear made the Wyvern scream with pain, "Foul humans!" it cried readying another blast of fire.
It was no good, even with Yomu's strength and spear he was hardly hurting the Wyvern at all. They would need to weaken this foe somehow, it hit him, the Wyvern's tail swayed through the air and as it did, it encountered Yomu. It hurled Yomu towards the ground but he did not make contact, the magnetic power generated by the device drove him back up, repelling him away from the iron in the mountain. Bouncing back Yomu was hit yet again, not by a Wyvern's tail but by an Idea. Rapierian, he was quite an alchemist and was sure to have some sort of potion that would be able to weaken the- wait usually potions were made to human size proportions and this Wyvern was easily twenty to thirty times that size. It did not matter now, he had to try.

Yomu made his way over to Rapierian, "Up here!" he called not being able to hover close enough.

This post has been edited by Two Jacks: 01 November 2007 - 01:01 PM

Bly was not having a good day. Again.

The wyvern was immune to most sharp objects, and it seemed to be highly resistant to magic. It had a huge, prehensile tail, which it was using in a manner not dissimilar to a whip. To cap it off, it could fly and breathe fire. Bly spent most of his time healing anyone who was injured.

Then he had an idea.

The beast was resistant to magic, but resistance would only be so good-- eventually, someone could come up with a way to overpower the creature, if the mage in question was powerful enough. Powerful enough... to level things when under stress, maybe? And with Rapierian fumbling around with a potion... if that potion wound up on the wyvern at the same time as the blast of magic hit, the results would'nt bear thinking about.

Or maybe they would.

Bly ran over to where Muse was, a ways back from the dragon. "Muse!" he said. "Take all your magical power and visualize throwing it at that thing! Don't bother putting it in a tangible form, just throw ALL of it at that thing!"

Bly started to mentally improvise a spell, one that would take an ongoing magical working, and use a second mage's power to amplify it. If this worked...

This post has been edited by SoItBegins: 01 November 2007 - 02:06 AM

Rapierian rummaged through his robes..... no wrong potion..... here it is
The vial glowed a sickly red Rapierian steadied his hand and threw the potion at the foul beast.
The vial spun through the air and landed in the things open mouth, it crunched down. bad idea.
The wyvern shuddered, took a step back and then lifted its head and screamed.

not quite enough thought Rapierian. he looked through his cloak again

Laughter...

He heard it off in the distance... than again this time closer..

On the side of the battle a tremendous roar of power rushed through and struck the wyvern on its left leg,
Muse stood behind the gushing torrent of energy by her side stood Bly his hands glowing a soft blue.
The force of the bolt tore off the leg of the beast whilst also removing half its side...
It flapped it's wings and screamed again. Bly gasped! The thing was still alive!
It screeched "Petty Humansssssss YOU SHALL DIE!"
The wyvern flew forward ignoring the obvious pain it was enduring, Muse gasped, the wyvern reared its talons extending, Readying
for the killing blow...

A talon struck forward and hit something...

Laughter echoes around the forest and the talon that was going to kill muse was frozen... a ripple of what seem like water rippled through the air...
Behind the ripple stood a small woman hand outstretched, her head tilted to the side... she looked ghostly.. tears streamed down her face...

Friends.... help Wizard... he needs you....

She looked up at the wyvern

Cant have you.... getting killed.....

The ripple of air hit the wyvern and it exploded in a cloud of red blood....
Satori fell to the ground, mist trailing her every movement..

see you...... see me.....

The wind howled and Satori faded and then blew away like dust....

Bly, while gaping and trying to figure out what had just happened, felt it. His improvised spell had taken its cost, and he was going to be very tired for a while.

His first thought was to turn to Muse and say 'Wow. Great job.'

His next thought was to lurch a little ways off, so he wouldn't fall on anybody.

His last thought was

Note to self: Improvised amplification spell really takes it out of the useeeee.....

Then Bly went down: asleep, drained, and spark out until further notice.

This post has been edited by SoItBegins: 01 November 2007 - 01:09 PM

Rapierian watched Bly collapse with some degree of amusement. Turning to Muse, he found that she had fared little better and was about to collapse as well.

"Who was that?" Muse managed to gasp out.

"Oh, her?" Rapierian answered. "Some person that journeyed with me once. Tried to kill me and everyone else, then blew herself up. She somehow came back a little bit ago—and you all think that I'm crazy. Seems she's back again."

He shrugged and headed back to the carnage that the wyvern had created earlier.

Here, Shanadar was examining the ground with a grim expression.

"Horses," he stated bluntly. "It appears that all of them are now mounted."

Angrily, the Enforcer stood.

"We're never going to catch them on foot now." With disgust, he looked at Rapierian. "I'm afraid that we might have to take his suggestion and try heading them off after all."

The necromancer smiled.

"Well, isn't that nice?" he replied and then turned toward Muse and Bly. "What about those two?"

Shanadar pulled out the vial of smelling salts that Rapierian had given him earlier and approached Muse and Bly. Once again checking the vial, he waved it in front of them until each of them jerked awake.

While they all took a brief rest, they discussed what to do next.

In the end, they decided that one of those who could fly would continue to follow Wizard's kidnappers, while the other who could fly quickly scouted out the trail that Rapierian had suggested. Meanwhile, the rest of the adventurers would also take this trail.

Both of those with flight would use their mobility to keep all in the group in contact with one another.

Having made their decision, they all quickly prepared to move out once more...

Muse's legs were shaking.
The tingling feeling was completely gone...it seemed she had spent all that magic that had been stirring inside her.
Not knowing anything at all about magic, she desperately wondered if it would ever come back to her.

She sat down next to a collapsed Bly, unable to stand much longer.
She was in a bit of a state of shock. She and Bly had somehow managed to mutilate the dragon thing, then all of a sudden it spontaneously combusted, sending blood and chunks of steaming flesh everywhere. Seconds later Muse had realized she had been saved from a gruesome death by some ghostly lady.

Rapierian explained who she was to Muse....Not much longer after that Muse dropped, now completely lying on the ground. She was exhausted...however, it seemed the others thought she had passed out as well, as she was soon forced to stand again by the repelling stench of smelling salts.

"Gah, I'm awake I'm awake!" she called, stumbling to her feet and dusting herself off. The salts had managed to at least make her a little more alert, and her adrenaline now was keeping her from feeling tired.

It seemed everyone had decided upon following Rapierian's idea.

Muse picked up the book Bly had lent her and followed the group as they began their trek once more.
She wished she could fly now...
Looking down at the book, she flipped through the pages, wondering if it was possible for Mage's to learn how to fly.
She almost didn't notice the slightest tingling sensation begin to come over her once more. This time it was much more subtle, smooth and controlled.

Muse turned to Bly.

"Can we fly?" she asked hopefully.

"Or at least get weapons or something....I feel kind of...vulnerable"

The wyvern attack had made Muse realize just how vulnerable she really was.

"Up here!", Yomu had yelled to Rapierian. Rapierian got the idea Yomu was trying to convey and through a soft potion into the Wyverns mouth, the Wyvern closed it's mouth quickly noticing the incoming potion but before it could do so Silver grabbed the potion and darted down into the Wyvern, not a very pleasent job. Within moments Bly and Muse worked together and blasted the beast, however due to the shots inaccuracy they were only able to take a leg. But to everyone's releif from the shadows a ghastly women apeared and with a swing of her arm destroyed the Wyvern.

Now that the battle was over Yomu got as close as he could to ground and muttered, "To the Land.", and at that he fell and landed on the crag below.
Noting that Muse had a helpless look once more he walked over to her, "Here", he handed her the spear he had used on the Wyvern. "You'll grow into it, don't worry.", Muse took the heavy spear and said, "Thanks?", it was rather tall for her but somehow it did feel comforting to hold it. "Um, who are you?", Muse asked weighing the spear in her hands, "Yomu.", "Nice to meet you Yomu I'm Muse.". There was a pause for a moment, "Thank you, nice to meet you as well.", Yomu said somewhat slowly. Just as Yomu was walking away he over heard Muse say something to Bly (who was resting from the great magic expultion), "Can we fly?", Yomu was about to turn around and answer but he decided not to, he thought it best for her to learn on her own.
Yomu offered his help in scouting, however he could only obtain high altitudes in areas with high concentrations of metal and if they started to head off the mountain Yomu could only fly fifteen to twenty feet high. It was decided that since Silver (who was now noticed more often, and also the better of the skys) would follow Wizards kidnappers while Yomu would scout out the trail ahead, but only after the plan was discussed further.

This post has been edited by Two Jacks: 02 November 2007 - 12:39 AM

Quickly, the group finalized theirs plans and headed out.

Yomu went in front of them to scout out their path, and Silver, after looking at a map that Rapierian had drawn in the dirt, continued down the trail left by Wizard's kidnappers.

Soon, Yomu returned and reported that the trail did indeed cut across another one further on. In addition, it was surrounded by nests of boulders—an ideal place for an ambush, assuming of course that they were able to catch the ruffians off guard. However, they figured that they had at least a fair chance of this. The ruffians would likely think that they were behind (unless they thought one of them knew the mountains), and, if they did suspect the trap, Silver would be able to warn the adventurers.

Yomu went on ahead once more. He planned to check for other points at which they might ambush the ruffians, just in case.

Buoyed by this good news, they quickened their pace...

Altérius was pleased with the way his plan was progressing.

From the onset of his quest, he knew he would be followed by that group of “heroes” who would want to rescue Wizard. His solution had been to bring along a party of ruffians to serve as distractions until he was able to destroy their pursuers. He now considered that task complete.

After that point, the ruffians served no further purpose except to severely impede his progress up the mountains. Having known in advance that the latter part of his journey would be in the mountains somewhere, he arranged well in advance for the disposal of all remaining ruffians there.

Now he had been joined by his elite rogue mages, and the entire company was on horseback. All that remained was for him to force Wizard to reveal the exact location of the Tree of Life.

* * *

“I told you! I don’t know where it is!” Wizard shouted in anger, blood streaming down his face.

“Liar! LIAR!” Altérius yelled right back in Wizard’s face with such a shrillness that it pierced deep into his ears.

They had stopped on the mountain path for a brief while so that Altérius could convince Wizard to tell them the location of the Tree.

To that end, Altérius had placed several large kesh crystals around Wizard, and each was taking its toll upon the ancient sorcerer. A human simply does not live to be Wizard’s age without the aid of magic; now that it was being suddenly denied him, his appearance was rapidly changing. The wrinkles deepened on Wizard’s face, his hair whitened and thinned, old wounds began to reappear, and many new cuts stretched across his body as the magic holding him together began to break. Kesh crystals could indeed inflict more damage to Wizard than any ordinary wound.

Wizard forced a smile on his aging face, “Looks like you’ve wasted your time. . .”

“I have not! I know that you know where it is! Tell me!”

He began to chuckle here, “You planned this whole operation, far in advance, contingent upon my knowing where to direct you. Well I don’t! I can’t! And I won’t willing lead you anywhere.”

Altérius was not pleased to be the target of such mockery. “Idiot! Your foolishness will be your end!” He threw another kesh crystal at Wizard. “If you won’t tell me, I’ll go and get it!”

What he said was true. Wizard could feel Altérius telepathically pushing into his mind. Normally he would have blocked it, but the kesh crystals were restraining him too much. Wizard wondered how Altérius could have become this powerful.

His eyes lit up like flames as he stared at Altérius, “Soon, Altérius, very soon. . . I will repay you this hospitality.”

Altérius seemed very intent upon his purpose. “You did quite a bit of research on this subject, didn’t you?” He continued to break Wizard’s mental blocks. “Ahah. There we go. . . YES! In the southern mountains, not very far from where the harpies dwell, that is our course.” Altérius stood and walked over to his guards, “Prepare to set out again. We go south.”

With that, he re-gathered his kesh crystals and pulled Wizard to his feet. “I want you to accompany us a little longer. At least until we reach the Tree. There I will kill you, but don’t worry. You won’t be alone.” Altérius burst into a cruel laughter, “This entire island is going to burn!”

Wizard’s body began to resume its ordinary form with the kesh crystals gone, but he said nothing.

* * *

Not long after they set out again, a much larger number of rogue mages rendezvoused with them.

Wizard rode in silence for a long while afterward. He had to spend time rebuilding the mental walls that Altérius had shattered. He also needed to think. Altérius now knew the location of the Tree of Life.

I have betrayed the entire island and everyone on it to their destruction. . . he thought. His only hope now lay in the group. Could they catch up and stop Altérius? It would help if I could get these ropes off, he mused while he again struggled with the ropes.

“Altérius,” he suddenly spoke.

“Yes?”

“I have a question for you. You didn’t answer it earlier, but perhaps you will now since you have what you wanted.”

“Ask away. I will answer if it is worthwhile.”

“How did you survive the explosion of the Ruffian Encampment and how did you become so powerful?”

Altérius glanced at him, “Why, I don’t know.”

“Don’t play with me now! You’re already assured victory; I’m no threat to you.”

“Right you are, but I’m not playing. As I lay there dying in the cold mud, I could only think of one thing: revenge. Revenge on you, revenge on that stupid necromancer who shot lightning at me, and revenge on everyone else. Then, everything went black. I thought I had died. But I hadn’t. I suddenly felt life again, and I owe it to a member of your group.”

“My group? We were the ones there to kill you.” Wizard was astonished by this bit of news.

“Yes, I know. Your people leveled that whole area. Everything there was destroyed, except for me. I felt a mass of vengeance and hatred, the very feelings that had fueled me, wash over me in an explosion of energy. And I was alive again.”

“Satori.”

“Satori. I now carry part of her powers. They have amplified everything I do, from laying runes to telepathic probing. I really should be thanking you instead of abducting you because, you see, I never would have become this powerful if you and your other heroes hadn’t tried to stop me.” Altérius’ mouth had contorted into an evil sneer.

Wizard was suddenly aware of another presence: the group. So they had caught up!

“This can’t be!” Altérius exclaimed as the adventurers sprang from behind several rocks.

This post has been edited by The Wizard: 17 November 2007 - 07:27 PM

Soon, they reached the point that Yomu had described.

Yomu was already there, waiting for them and informed them that this place was the optimum point for an ambush.

Quickly, they finalized theirs plans and completed their preparations.

When everyone was safely hidden and ready, they settled down to wait.


Still following Wizard's kidnappers, Silver had gotten close enough to watch them, although he remained a safe distance behind.

Several other mounted guards had joined the two already with Wizard's kidnapper.

Silver could see Wizard as well. He was tied up, but, after a few moments of watching, Silver realized that he had almost managed to work a hand free.

Quietly, Silver began to sneak closer, hoping to help the old man escape and to aid in the upcoming ambush.


The small band of kidnappers had just entered the ambush point, and the adventurers sprang their trap, catching their enemies completely by surprise...

Silver rushed forward to cut Wizard free before any of the enemy could react, but Altérius was quicker & had knocked Wizard unconscious by the time Silver reached them. Silver bit Altérius on the arm with razor-sharp teeth, then dived back & cut the ropes off Wizard.

As he was cutting, Silver realized that he couldn't feel the painful tingling of a magical battle around him anymore. He wondered what could have caused that as he carelessly dropped the cords that had bound wizard. Silver *yarp!*ed as the mana once more slashed through him.

Silver wanted to figure out what made the difference, but he was distracted by a stray hoof rapidly approaching Wizard's head. He blocked it, & roared as a spell hit him full-force. Mage-arrow. Altérius laughed at him, & vanished into the chaos. Silver carefully dragged Wizard out of the melee, desperately hoping that no more spells would hit him.

Wizard's kidnappers would be regretting that they had left their bandit allies to their fate, the Enforcer and his compatriots would see to that. Nevertheless, the en-horsed posse of rogue mages were formidable opponents. This would not be an easy fight to win, although Shanadar was convinced they would.

The city-guard-turned-rescuer made his move, the first to do so after the audacious Necromancer, Rapieran, cast the first spell to begin the melee. Literally tackling one of the villains off his horse by leaping from his position on the rocky high-ground, he seized possession of the unlucky adept's staff, and began breaking the legs of the horses, so that the Enforcer's enemies might not make a mounted escape as before.

Whilst the mages were proficient at using their staves as the foci of their magic spells (a fact to which the Enforcer had a number of burns to attest to afterwards), Shanadar used the wooden shaft in ways that the wayward spell-casters were wholly unfamiliar with. After all, the stave was his weapon class of choice.

After beating several of his foes senseless, he turned about to find--and hopefully free--Wizard. Noting that Silverfish had caught up and was dutifully attending to Wizard's rescue (despite being repeatedly hit with a number of notably powerful spells), Shanadar tasked himself to defending the short-statured adventurer while he worked. It was about this time that the Enforcer noticed the perpetrator of the whole affair, who he recognized as having hit him in the gut with Wizard's staff back at the Tavern, and attempted to make chase. But he was blocked by a number of the more skilled survivors, and it was all he could do to defend himself as he watched the architect of the most recent series of events slip away from the chaos.

Frustrated that the opponent had made his getaway, Shanadar turned his attention to aiding Silver tend to Wizard as the others mopped up the remaining mages. The metallic fellow had carried the unconscious Wizard into a nearby cleft with strength belied by his small size, protecting them both from the spells and projectiles. Careful that his movements would remain unnoticed, the Enforcer made his way over to join them.

Wizard was, for the most part, in good shape, other than for the air of fatigue he exhibited, and the nasty bruise he'd received to his temple. Appropriating, again, the smelling-salts he'd confiscated from Rapierian before, Shanadar made to awaken his beleaguered comrade, but froze mid-motion. The Enforcer had sensed something; he knew not if it was merely a reflection of the hollow victory, or if something else, sinister and unseen, was a at work, but something seemed wrong. Nothing wrong with Wizard, certainly, but something was definitely amiss, as though an important matter had gone unrealized, or some force of evil stalked their every foot-step in such a way that every hair stood on end.

Shaking it off, Shanadar shrugged off his reverie. If there was anything wrong, Wizard would be the one with answers.

As the elderly adventurer awoke, a few mumbled words slipped out, muddled by the unconscious mind and the potent chemical fumes of the smelling salts. "What...kept...you?"

The Enforcer suppresses a chuckle, and replied to the still near-comatose spell-caster in a tone of utmost seriousness. "An Enforcer is never late. We've arrived to rescue you precisely when I predicted we would."

Wizard raised an eyebrow quizzically as his mind and senses returned to him, as if in askance.

Shandar dropped the gruff facade and let loose a wide smile. "It's good to have you back, friend" he said warmly before returning to a professional tone, "Now, who exactly was it that stole away with you, and what interest has he with the Tree of Life?"

Rapierian casually flung another bolt of lightning into the ranks of the surviving enemies. The golem that he had raised before the battle seemed to be doing fairly well.

The group had decided to capture some of the horses if possible—a risk if spells had been cast on them. However, with care, they felt that the animals would be of great use to them.

Thus, the golem was wading through the fray, crushing enemies but trying to avoid hurting any horses if possible.

Noting that Shanadar had Wizard, the necromancer strolled over, completely ignoring the battle.

When one enemy did lunge at him, the dark mage idly gestured, and the attacker fell to the ground, screaming and pawing at his head. In moments, he was dead.

Rapierian reached them in time to hear Shanadar's remark about timing.

"Oh, he's just making things up: he was lost," the necromancer interjected.

Wizard looked up and tried to lunge to his feet.

"YOU!" he managed to bellow.

"Who?" Rapierian answered, looking around. "Oh yes, you mean me. Well, you poor old Wiz goat, I got cleared of any charges against me while you were out getting captured."

The necromancer laughed, the sound echoing unpleasantly around them.

"Perhaps, though you might wish to speak at a later date? You might have more pressing concerns, don't you think?"

Still laughing, he walked away toward his former position.

Around them, the battle was going well...

Spectre sighed. The headache had worn off a long time ago, but she still couldn't think straight. Luckily, she hadn't needed to think much, the noise from the various battles was loud enough to be heard from some distance away.
It probably wasn't a smart move, setting off so late after the others. But at least they weren't very hard to track.
She paused to examine the marks of many pairs of feet.
Good thing, too. She wasn't really cut out for this sort of tracking. Following by sight was much better, but obviously, she needed to catch up with them first.

* * * * * * *

Enna and Retsy had watched the battle from the sidelines, but Wolfie had joined in, receiving a couple of minor injuries, but nothing dangerous. A small patch of grass a couple of feet from Enna was pulsing with a weird light and emitting a weird whistling noise, but apart from that, no major magical outbursts had occurred.
The second it was safe (or at least less dangerous), Enna had jumped up and ran over to where the group of adults were. Retsy followed.
Enna jumped at Wizard, and grabbed his legs in a big hug.

With Shanadar watching over Wizard, Silverfish hurled himself back into the melee. He didn't even attempt to plunge a knife into one of the enemies' heart, but more than one looked down to see what was tangling his legs, just when he should have been aware of his opponent's weapon. As the battle progressed, Silverfish was coated with a pale yellow gore that smelled sickeningly like day-old tuna, & a growing circlet of decorative spikes protruded through his scalp like a rhino's horn.

Bly was (still) not having a good day. The improvised amplification spell had left him as weak as a kitten, barely awake, and with a mind-splitting headache to boot. It was all he could do to get off to the side, behind some boulders. Somewhere he wouldn't be noticed.

Unfortunately, someone noticed him.

Something had been following the ruffians, a sort of jet-black blob about 2 feet in diameter. It crawled over the ground at quite a fast rate. As it passed by the rocks where Bly was hiding, it quivered, then suddenly jerked and headed straight for him.

Bly tried to move away, but the blob was faster than him, and it squelched up to him, and crawled straight up. Despite his frantic attempts to dislodge the thing, the blob crawled up him (leaving a trail of black slime) until it sat directly over his forehead. Then, after pausing for a few seconds, it dropped off.

Then it began to change.

Though only barely able to think from the headache, Bly noticed with horror that the creature was taking on the shape of a man. The thing was rapidly solidifying, changing form, settling into its new appearance. Then, with even more horror, Bly noticed that the new form was an exact replica of himself.

Fake-Bly lifted his sword and ran towards the battle.

This post has been edited by SoItBegins: 14 January 2008 - 12:49 AM

In a few more minutes, the battle would be over.

Wizard had not yet been able to answer Shanadar. As he had been about to do so, a group of enemies had attacked the pair.

Rapierian wandered around the battlefield, casually scaring enemies to death, frying them, or stealing their life.

He momentarily glanced up to see a most curious sight: two Blys, one sitting stunned on the ground and the other rushing into the fight.

Thinking this might prove entertaining, he walked over to the Bly on the ground and asked him cheerfully, "Seeing double today, are we?"

Bly stared up at him, flabbergasted.

"No, I had nothing to do with your unique condition," the necromancer informed him. "And from the look on your face, neither did you. Although you might have and just be pretending to be surprised...I suppose that means you might be a double too...maybe, we should just kill all of you and hope that fixes everything? How does that sound?"

Ignoring Rapierian, Bly managed to stagger to his feet.

"We've got to find that double," he gasped out.

"Now? Why bother?"

Bly stumbled toward the almost finished fight and Rapierian followed. He didn't really care which Bly was real, but he figured this was probably the real one based on what he had observed so far.

*FWOOSH!* Yomu swirled around the battle, tilting himself right and left to change the the magnetic power of the wings. The armoured knight's swords weren't long enough to reach his body, and the the enemy mage's lighting spells were scrambeled into nothingness by the magnetic feild surrounding Yomu. While this protectiong was nice, it came with a drawback. Yomu had no weapon. The spear he had once had was in the hands of the girl Muse, who was shocking the knights as they passed by her.
Another setback was that Yomu could not get close enough to the ground to attack a knight even if he wanted to, the magnetic push of his false wings kept him afloat at all times. Not knowing any magic the most he could do was drop branches onto the knights with little avail.

This post has been edited by Two Jacks: 16 January 2008 - 07:03 PM

Suddenly, Yomu dropped a couple of feet as a grey blur somersaulted onto his shoulder.
"You steer, I'll ride shotgun!" shouted Spectre over the noise of the battle below. As she didn't seem to have a weapon, Yomu wasn't too worried that the grey girl could be dangerous, but he changed his mind when a ruffian below them suddenly fell, blood gushing from a deep chest wound.
Spectre grinned, not at the spectacle below, which, truth be told, made her feel slightly queasy, but at the fact that she could still do something.

Yomu surprised by the sudden impact of the small grey girl spun our of control... but only for a moment, though now he was flying lopsided due to the extra weight.

"Right." Yomu said with a grunt, the girl was grabbing on rather tight. The combination was deadly, unreachable by magic or blade, they made short work of the knights and mages below. The fight appeared to be heading for towards the end when many heros were distracted by something else, a Bly.
It looked like a vat of burnt pudding had spilled perfectly into the form of a man. It wandered around the battle feild wailing and screaming striking down onto both parties. "Bly is that you?!" someon shouted as they blocked the heavy sword bearing down upon him. The entity said nothing only wailed and push the man down. *SLICE* A mounted knight struck the entity from the back and split him down the middle through his head to his chest. No blood stained the ground, and nothing colapsed in the embrace of death. Instead the split continued down the enity and the two halves flopped onto the ground, quicklt followed by a strange sight. The open sides of the halved being started to jiggle, then wiggle and then out from the sides a new halve gushed out.
There was now two Blys or what seemed to be some form of him.

Yomu and Spectre soared above the battlefeild desemating all in their sights. They noticed the strange pudding man become two pudding men and headed over. *CRASH* Spectre fired a shot at one of the pudding men and vaporized the the top half of it's body. This time the monster did not duplicate but rather regenerated it's upper half. "Hmmm, vaoprization", Spectre muttered to Yomu as they circled over the action below.

This post has been edited by Two Jacks: 16 January 2008 - 07:05 PM