2018-06-01: The Fall of Lastonbell
- Log: The Fall of Lastonbell
- Cast: Alisha Diphda, Thessaly, Ethius Hesiod, Seraph Ragnell, Garan Dantear
- Where: Lastonbell - Merchant District
- Date: 6/1/2018
- Summary: Alisha, Ragnell, Thessaly, Garan, and Ethius find an unlikely alliance as they escape from Lastonbell.
=====================<* Lastonbell - Merchant District *>===================== Lastonbell is one of the oldest cities on Glenwood, with a large bridge and belltower located in the very center of the city. Lastonbell's main street leads directly under this tower, which towers over the city, and a pair of ancient bronze bells hang from it, giving the city both its name and trademarked musical sound. The street, when approached from the west, is one of the hearts of commerce in the Rolance Empire. Shops, inns, and taverns line the main strip -- and the numerous caravan wagons passing through Lastonbell, to reach beyond. The eastern gate is always bustling with activity, and the crowded streets here can be a source of crime. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6Qv2JpBbGo
DG: A party led by Alisha Diphda is now entering Escape from Lastonbell. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
=========================<* Escape from Lastonbell *>=========================
========================<* CHALLENGE - Panicked Mob *>========================
|Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
When the wall comes crashing down, you happen to be on a street. You can see
it: a titanic explosion which shoots up, sky high, and then the collapse of
the immense stone wall on the city's eastern edge. A whole section of it
gives away, a thick cloud of dust rising upward. Then, shouts and cries from
Hyland's army -- and horns, ordering the advance -- echo through the
cacophany.
People in the street begin to panic. You soon find a growing mob rushing
towards you in a blind panic, crying out in their fear. You will need to
think, quickly, of how to avoid being caught in the mad rush hurrying
towards you.
=Dungeon Conditions: Stupify, Injure==========================================
<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.
Alisha Diphda had been hiding in Lastonbell. Her plan was simple enough: with a long siege, she would try to find a way to contact soldiers loyal to her, make herself known in Hyland's camp, and take command at an opportune time. Her plan seemed foolproof.
Then, the column of green fire and light exploded up the length of the wall. Alisha spins on a foot in the street. The princess isn't easy to recognize immediately, being that she wears a dark brown cloak over her garb, and less obvious plate and chain armor under it. She still stares up at it, and gasps softly.
She speaks to her companion in this mess; most can't see her, probably. "Oh, no--" Then, she turns to Ragnell, clutching the Celestial Record tight underneath an arm. "We need to--" The cries of the crowd erupt, as a huge boulder soars overhead. It slams through the wall of a nearby tavern, shattering it into so much stone. Then, people begin to run, in a fright, away from the fallen wall. "--we need to get out of here, quickly!"
-*-
Suffice to say, down the same street, a merchant stops. He looks away from Garan and Thessaly, staring up at the wall -- or where the wall is /not. "I don't... I don't know where Commander Strelka is, but for the Goddess's sake, I hope it's not here!" The merchant turns, and bolts away.
He vanishes down an alley -- taking with him the thin lead they had on the missing Sergey. The crowd wells up around them, too, even as another, smaller rock smashes into the ground.
-*-
Another slams into the ground near feet (though likely not boots) that tread on Filgaia and Lunar both. The piece of rock is interesting; it may catch Ethius's eye. Blasted by that green light, parts of it have glassed over on one side.
But the cries of the crowd can be heard -- and their rush may drive together a most unlikely alliance.
DG: Alisha Diphda has used her Tool Celestial Record toward her party's challenge, Panicked Mob.
<Pose Tracker> Thessaly has posed.
Lastonbell has fallen, and unable to cope with the strange technologies from the Blue Star introduced into the war, it is not surprising that Garan Dantear has been dispatched to the lines in an effort to quell the sheer disarray in Rolance's garrisons at the sudden complication presented to the empire. And, as always, he is accompanied by his ever present shadow - a quiet woman garbed in black.
But their other objective here is a little more clandestine, and they are on the very urge of finding what they need to when the sudden attack destroys the wall that they have been dependent upon to keep the surging forces at bay. Slender fingers lift, quiet arcane words spoken as an ethereal shield blankets over herself and her lord, resplendent in contrasting white plate chased with silver.
The merchant bolts. The hand that isn't holding up the shield to prevent them from getting crushed by far-flung stone lifts to fire a small spell towards the fleeing individual, recalled from the pages of her journal, desperation coaxing her to act. It will not hurt him, but it will brand him...and in doing so, enable her to keep track of him even if he gets lost in the din.
"My lord, we can't lose him," she tells Garan quietly. "And we certainly cannot stay here."
DG: Thessaly has used her Tool Thessaly's Journal toward her party's challenge, Panicked Mob.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius has had an eventful week or so down in Rolance. That foray into the nearby swamp left him with more questions than answers, but at least the satisfaction of some obscure purpose for his having been there. That other expedition - twice - to Fellkirk... he has much more to mull over as he finishes sewing back new patches of scrap cloth he has scavenged onto the Hot Air Sack. (For whatever reason, he seems to insist on using cloth scraps undocumented on any shop inventory?) There have been increased hostilities between the warring nations of this continent. He suspects he will not have much more opportunity to do what it is he seeks here, if the blue-coated soldiers - Hyland - get much further in.
He knows a certain someone whose presence he holds interest in is still in the area. He has kept watch on their movements best he's able. He knows they know he's present. He also knows that a direct confrontation is not in his favor, and one he would rather avoid in these environs. Still, he has his ways of keeping watch. He retrieves the Spectral Lens from under the hood he wears, discreetly kneels behind some of the local scenery to hide the lights that would result from a successful cast, and zaps the item with a small focused charge of electrici--
His eyes track towards one of the walls. He hears something. Every muscle in his body commands him to move.
BOOM
The next few seconds are a hazy rush of washed-out colors - lots of bright green, which is strange. There are distant sounds, and a throbbing headache as he finds himself down in a kneel behind cover. His other hand descends upon a curious, extraordinarily hot rock glassed over on one side. (This same rock just beaned him in the head.) He is compelled to pick it up and take it. He doesn't quite have his focus back when the cloud of dust rises, the people scream, and stampede. He only has a basic instinct run through his head.
Leave.
He turns his back on someone who is trapped under a fallen sign from the blast, unable to get up under their own power. They reach out to him, yelling. Help, help. He does not seem keen to listen.
As Thessaly finishes her branding spell, in the distance, she may take notice of an oddly familiar set of eyes she had only seen once prior. The set of eyes of a man who covered half their face with his hand, deep within the bowels of Lacour's coliseum, in a pitched life and death battle that threatened to endanger the well-being of her keeper while he was indisposed in glorious combat. He did not explain his presence then. He didn't stand around to explain it after the fact, to anyone.
It's him. What is he doing here? Does he have anything to do with this event?
He has the advantage of already being near an alley off the main drag - a prospective path to a safer position... and maybe to chase down a person of interest. Whether he is aware of her presence or not, he helps himself down through this alley. Depending on how people have been moving to evacuate, this may not actually be a viable shortcut.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Spectral Lens toward his party's challenge, Panicked Mob.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Plans are never foolproof. There are so many fools in this world, and they're *ever* so inventive.
The defensive wall of Lastonbell *shatters* and falls in a column of green fire and light. Ragnell, who had been strolling through the streets next to Alisha whistling a calm-town sort of ditty, the kind that relaxes one and keeps one focused, had stopped a second or two beforehand and frowned. "What's that sound?" she'd asked, right before getting answered in the most violent way possible. Now she spins around and gawks at what *used* to be the town's main defenses.
"Well, *that* ain't good," she remarks in glorious understatement. As Alisha likewise states the obvious, Ragnell shoots a look down at the people beginning to panic around, then around at their surroundings, mind speeding through options. She and her eyes settle on a certain tower next to them.
Specifically, it's the tower that houses the famous bell for which Lastonbell is named. Invading forces will *probably* not attack it, it being a centuries-old, almost millennium-old cultural treasure. Alternately, it may be one of the next things they attack in order to demoralize the local forces and force an early surrender. Either or! It's a gamble, but Ragnell feels she usually has the right of human groupthink at times like these.
So she jumps up the belltower wall and starts scaling it, evading the throng by going *up*. When she's enough feet off the ground to not get knocked off, she turns and offers a hand to Alisha. She doesn't offer an explanation; either Alisha will understand what she's thinking, or she won't, and if she doesn't, either she'll trust her, or she won't. It's all up to her.
DG: Seraph Ragnell has used her Tool Tarnished Harmonica toward her party's challenge, Panicked Mob.
<Pose Tracker> Garan Dantear has posed.
The problem with a foolproof plan is that the world is always creating better fools.
What makes it all the more distressing is that, having travelled to Filgaia, several individuals now on Lunar are well equipped to say that it's true no matter where you go.
As one of the Imperial Knights remaining in Rolance, since the return from the other world, Garan Dantear's presence has gained a certain symbolic weight he's not entirely comfortable with... It's that weight, perhaps more than any personal ability on his part, that's brought him to Lastonbell, that's put him and Thessaly both in the middle of all this chaos. It's times like these that the red-haired knight wonders if he isn't one of those fools, the way he keeps finding himself in these sorts of situations. His sword is, at the moment, of little use... But armor and shield serve well enough against a panicked crowd (until they panic too much) and what debris the black-clad witch's magic can't protect them from. The problem, of course, loops back to that same symbolic weight of presence: Garan is clearly marked out, as is Thessaly. Their mission might be on the clandestine side, but neither of them blends in. In the chaos, it might not matter. Or it might.
"I know," he tells Thessaly, to both of her statements. They need to move, but struggling too much against the press of the crowd will just end up in more violence, either them torn to shreds or a massacre of terrified people. They need to move with it as much as they can, like a fast-flowing river that might dash them against the rocks at any moment, and so Garan focuses on that, on keeping them moving towards Thessaly's sorcerous mark, while also keeping her safe from the not at all symbolic and in fact very much literal weight of all those frightened bodies.
DG: Garan Dantear has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Panicked Mob.
=========================<* Escape from Lastonbell *>=========================
========================<* CHALLENGE - Panicked Mob *>========================
|Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
When the wall comes crashing down, you happen to be on a street. You can see
it: a titanic explosion which shoots up, sky high, and then the collapse of
the immense stone wall on the city's eastern edge. A whole section of it
gives away, a thick cloud of dust rising upward. Then, shouts and cries from
Hyland's army -- and horns, ordering the advance -- echo through the
cacophany.
People in the street begin to panic. You soon find a growing mob rushing
towards you in a blind panic, crying out in their fear. You will need to
think, quickly, of how to avoid being caught in the mad rush hurrying
towards you.
=Dungeon Conditions: Stupify, Injure==========================================
====================<* Escape from Lastonbell - Round 1 *>==================== ==========================< Results - Panicked Mob >========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Alisha Diphda 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Celestial Record 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ethius Hesiod 0 --(10)--> 10 Fail Spectral Lens 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraph Ragnell 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Tarnished Harmonica 2 Wits Effects: Stalwart ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Thessaly 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Thessaly's Journal 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Garan Dantear 0 --(10)--> 10 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Alisha Diphda 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Injure(2)|Stupify(2) Effects: Enlighten(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Alisha Diphda has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.
"A good plan, Ragnell!" Alisha cries out, and she starts after the Seraph. She grips her hand, using her strength to push herself up. She scales up to a tier, pulling herself onto it and looks down at the sea of humanity, fleeing in their panic. Her mouth opens -- and then she closes it, gritting her teeth. "That explosion... it wasn't..."
It wasn't something she thought that Hyland could do.
The pathway leads to an alley -- and Alisha looks at Ragnell. She nods, and then she drops down. She lands before Thessaly and Garan, and turns her head -- and finds herself staring right at Garan Dantear. Her head is illuminated by the fleeing merchant, who has a nimbus of white-blue light around him, as the arcane mark takes hold.
"Sir Garan!?" Alisha whispers to her erstwhile opponent, and then looks over his shoulder -- eyes wide with recognition at Thessaly, then narrowing at Ethius, as he approaches too.
The air is split, a moment later: the warhorns of Hyland's army, as they surge through the newly made breach.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Ragnell half-smiles at Alisha, then gives her a curt nod. After that first helping hand up, Ragnell lets the Princess climb on her own, then looks down with her at the panicking throng. Then she looks over at the blasted wall. "Looks like my hunch 'bout a new weapon was right," she murmurs.
There's no way out but forward. The two of them climb up, then around towards a pathway that leads into an alley. The two exchange a glance and a nod, and Ragnell hops down after the Princess... right in front of, of all people, Garan and Thessaly. Ragnell shoots a glance down towards the magically-marked merchant, then over at--oh hey, there's Ethius too now.
"Fancy meetin' y'all here," she drawls. Apparently even imminent war is insufficient to push her out of her typical lackadaisical attitude. She does at least frown when she hears Hyland's army's warhorns, and adds, "An' if we don't want it to soon turn to a partin', we'd best get a move on."
<Pose Tracker> Thessaly has posed.
With Garan leading the charge, she follows, visually tracing a bead on the arcane symbol following the merchant that they need to speak to. In passing, her violet stare catches sight of another familiar, but equally mysterious form; the last time she had seen Ethius Hesiod was deep in the underground levels of Lacour's coliseum, and that sharp, keenly observant stare follows his wake into the throngs of people determined to escape Lastonbell.
What was he doing here?
She isn't given the time to contemplate this when a blonde figure in familiar gear lands in front of them, accompanied by another well-known face....especially moreso. She is reminded of questions that need asking, when Seraph Ragnell shows herself, feeling the weight of a gem - no, a fragment of pure magic - resting somewhere within her hidden pockets. But who she is accompanying has her stopping with a visible start, even with her face veiled as it is.
Alisha Diphda, by all accounts, has been missing for quite some time and now...
....and with plans set in motion, this meeting can't be more fortuitous.
She says nothing, of course, leaving the greetings to her lord.
"This way," she says instead, pointing at where the merchant has disappeared. It also seems to be the clearest path out, and that was lucky, too. They cannot lose him, and risk him getting killed in the crush of desperate bodies pouring through the city.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Try as Ethius might, the alley isn't the route to as clean an escape as he hopes. Whether the route itself, or the realities of having to deal with another wave of people trying to flee with their lives, his route ends up along with the group.
He is bleeding from the forehead, but has already moved to push the cloth of his hood against it as to not allow even a single drop of his blood to spill the streets. (Maybe he's picky about having his shed blood shared with all the rest that'll be painting the paved roads soon enough, the snob, and would rather it spilled somewhere just for himself...)
In his hand, a rock with smoke rising off a fresh, glassy surface from the wall itself. Which one can only see for a split second before he turns his hand inward to cut off one's ability to look at it.
He doesn't stop to say 'hello.' He has had previous dealings with Alisha, from a business perspective. There are no friendly words for her. No movement to defend her from the scrutiny of Garan and Thessaly. No acknowledgement of the Seraph among them.
Between Thessaly and Ethius, the depths of their sharp stares have few rivals (same for their penchat for hiding their faces). His does not seem to be focused exclusively on her, as he looks beyond. The hand against his hood seems apt to move down to one of the two satchels on his belt, up until Thessaly points out a 'this way.'
He straight up bolts into a dead run past them, with no spoken questions or concern to their well being. His hand returning back to keep his hood pressed up against the wound, his thoughts are clear on the subject.
Leave.
He does not appear keen to wait around for their sake.
<Pose Tracker> Garan Dantear has posed.
Were you to have asked Garan before he arrived to make a list of people he expected to run into while in Lastonbell, it would be safe to say that the Hylandian princess wouldn't have cracked the top ten.
It's a funny old world, though.
The Imperial Knight registers surprise quickly before moving past it, dark red brows knitting at the presence of Alisha and subsequently Ragnell. Ethius, as an unknown quantity, the knight kept himself aware of: They were in a dangerous situation, an extremely dangerous situation, so there was no time to waste on being shocked at surprise meetings, and less to spend indulging in social niceties. The sound of Hyland's war horns, and the presence of the princess forces Garan into a moment of cold calculation, considering Alisha. The symbolic weight of her presence, and how it could be wielded for or against her home, but...
"You certainly pick strange places to pop up," he tells Alisha, amicably enough. Cordial, for the moment. That could always change. Besides, Thessaly is reminding them of where they need to go. "Best we stick together," he directs at Alisha and Ragnell, the other man having already bolted. Hard to blame him, what with the war happening on top of them.
<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.
"I should say the same of you and your companion," Alisha says to Garan. "An explanation is owed, but perhaps after we've began to move." The princess turns on a foot; her eyes turn from veiled Thessaly to Ethius, as he walks away. "Don't get too far ahead!" she commands. "We had best stick together. You indicated to the west, my lady."
Away from the Hyland army, which -- it seems -- the princess does not intend to join. She looks at Ragnell; her expression is wary, but she nods. "You're quite right, Ragnell."
About the weapon, too, she thinks.
She takes off in the direction that Thessaly indicated.
DG: Thessaly has drawn a new Challenge.
=========================<* Escape from Lastonbell *>========================= ========================<* CHALLENGE - Orc Hellion *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Malevolence is in no short supply here. The scene of a battle causes it to rise, to infect those nearby. As you run down the street, you find a small square -- with battered and broken bodies of both Hyland and Rolance soldiers, and a few fleeing citizens. A man who has shifted into a massive, green-skinned creature with a tusks coming out (if one has the Resonance to see it), stands in the middle. A huge, blood-soaked maul is in his hand -- and he whirls to face you! =Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Bad Luck==========================================
<Pose Tracker> Thessaly has posed.
"Questions are plenty, but as you said, can be answered later once things are not quite so dire," Thessaly affirms, moving with the rest of the party as they flow into the alley. She manages to keep up, but her steps are already faltering at their dead run - her endurance was never the best.
But she is given a reprieve when the alley opens up to a decimated square, smoke rising in pillars and the scent of blood and steel thick in the air - and something else. Malevolence is a thing that the entire party is aware of - nothing that is clearly visible, but a presence easily felt - like invisible oil slickened over skin, the oppressive weight of it stamping into their senses. Bodies of the dead are scattered all around them, insignias denoting fallen soldiers from both camps, and the source of it right in the middle of the carnage, clawed fingers ripping the head off an Imperial Knight of Rolance. Crimson spills fresh from the stump.
The helmet and the skull it contains drops and rolls towards Garan's feet.
The creature turns to face the party, tattered clothes and exposed, green flesh matted with the life blood of his victims. There is a roar, and for something so large, it is fast.
It is upon them as if by magic, the maul cleaving a dangerous crescent above their heads.
DG: Thessaly has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Orc Hellion.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
By virtue (...or fault) of having chosen to run ahead of them, Ethius is among the first to encounter the enormous creature as he flees out into the blood-soaked square. Death surrounds him. Blue-colored cloth of Hyland or red-hued insignia of Rolance, they all bleed the same color. He halts his run to size up the creature, whom has already decided they have no need of measure of anything - only to inflict lethal harm, maybe even harm beyond one's mortality (as the case is with that rolling head).
The mysterious hooded man doesn't even draw his weapon... but there is nothing of his body language suggesting paralyzing fear. No shortness of breath that can be picked up from beyond his bandanna. No quaking of knees, no flinching, as the deafening roar announces the green-skinned creature's intent to aggress upon them.
A split-second difference between life and death passes as Ethius tumbles underneath the swing of the maul. Now would be a perfect time for him to deliver some well-crafted sorcerous counterattack. Maybe even get one of the satchels on his belt he seemed ready to pull on the three (actually four) of them.
He does no such thing. He continues running. He doesn't look back their way. He doesn't call for help. He appears to give zero regard for whoever or whatever survives the encounter, beyond himself.
This may be especially curious for Ragnell, who has seen him appear to previously acknowledge the Malevolence, and Hellions. Orcs like this fellow stand out like a sore thumb! He can't be willfully ignorant to its existence now. He should know that letting it go unchecked is going to claim that many more victims. What gives?
Is he just that interested in saving his own skin that he won't take a moment to throw down some smoke cover for the rest of them?!
The whole time, the thought keeps repeating in his head: this is not my concern.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Orc Hellion.
<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.
"Yes," Alisha answers Thessaly. "I agree. I--gh!"
Her feet slow to a stop, as she finishes her run into the broken, bloodied square. She feels her throat lock up at the sight of the orc, with a bloodied helm in its hand. She tenses for a moment longer, and her eyes shift to the side -- to Garan, then to Ragnell. Then, she sees Ethius rush in and go underneath the maul, and her eyes widen.
"Wait! Are you--are you ignoring us!?" she calls out after Ethius, before she snaps her head to look at the orc. She pulls a spear off her back; a plain spear, not the trademark one that she lost upon Filgaia. She goes running in, darting across the bloodied ground. She looks at Garan. "Right!"
She shouts it, then she jumps -- and goes left, clearing the way for him. Her spear stabs, hard, for the orc's midsection. Then, her other hand comes to her side. She yanks free a glass bottle -- a thumb knocks the cork off.
A blast of white light, repulsive to Hellions, pours from the Holy Bottle.
DG: Alisha Diphda has used her Tool Holy Bottle toward her party's challenge, Orc Hellion.
<Pose Tracker> Garan Dantear has posed.
Despite the armor he wears, the silver-chased white plate over a red leather gambeson, Garan hardly seems to notice the weight of it. Partially, this is simply a matter of manufacture: Armor that sit poorly and tired out the wearer would be useless on the field. Partially, this is a matter of physical training, of hard-earned endurance and strength. There was little supernatural about the red-haired Imperial Knight, beyond his ability to apply the Blessing... But as anyone who'd watched the Lacour Tournament of Arms knew, he got by just fine.
In the square, the hooded man doesn't stop despite Alisha's orders, which gets a glance from Garan.
"It seems your friend has goals of his own today," he notes, while she calls out after the departing Ethius, and then the princess is looking at him. Well, they both know what to do in situations like this. Another Imperial Knight is dead, and surely he isn't the only one. A brother in arms, along with the other warriors fallen, brought low by the Hellion. Alisha goes left, and Garan moves shield-first to the right, a battering ram of steel and muscle aimed into the creature looking to crush them with its tremendous maul, before he starts the work of carving into it with his blade. It's butcher's work, but Lastonbell was already a charnel house.
A little more wouldn't make much difference.
DG: Garan Dantear has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Orc Hellion.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
When Ethius dashes past without slowing for even a split-second, Ragnell watches him with a raised eyebrow and a hand on her hip. Then she nods to Alisha and Garan, then follows Thessaly in the direction she leads at speed.
They don't get far before a Hellion blocks their path through a bloodied square. "That sure didn't take long," she mutters, eyes narrowing at the sight of the porcine orc and the head it just ripped off an Imperial knight. Ethius, again, doesn't even hesitate--he simply runs right past the Hellion. Hmm. That's unusual. It's understandable that a civilian's first priority would be to get out of town, but Ethius is hardly going to suffer by taking out some obstacles before moving on, especially when that obstacle might turn around and slam him in the back with a cudgel. Especially when he has perfectly good smoke bombs that could help cover his *own* escape. To prioritize fleeing so heavily... does he know something about the nature of this attack?
"We shouldn't let 'im get away," she tells the others, reaching into her pack for a grenade. "But first, we gotta get *this* guy out've our way!" As the speedy Hellion charges at them, Ragnell back-steps, then hurls the grenade forward, ripping the pin out as it goes.
"Knock the bastard on top o' that grenade!" she calls to the two knights as they engages with the Hellion. Then she shoots Thessaly a glance, in case she needs help running once running becomes an option again; she noted the way she'd flagged earlier, and for various reasons, it would not be great to let her fall here.
Hopefully Alisha and Garan will manage, and the grenade will blow the Hellion up but good when it unleashes its plasmic lightning force. Or else a bunch of dead bodies and stone are gonna get blown up instead. Fun times!
DG: Seraph Ragnell has used her Tool Plasma Grenade toward her party's challenge, Orc Hellion.
=========================<* Escape from Lastonbell *>========================= ========================<* CHALLENGE - Orc Hellion *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Malevolence is in no short supply here. The scene of a battle causes it to rise, to infect those nearby. As you run down the street, you find a small square -- with battered and broken bodies of both Hyland and Rolance soldiers, and a few fleeing citizens. A man who has shifted into a massive, green-skinned creature with a tusks coming out (if one has the Resonance to see it), stands in the middle. A huge, blood-soaked maul is in his hand -- and he whirls to face you! =Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Bad Luck==========================================
====================<* Escape from Lastonbell - Round 2 *>==================== ==========================< Results - Orc Hellion >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Alisha Diphda 5 --(5)--> 10 Pass Holy Bottle 3 Combat Effects: Liability and Stalwar ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ethius Hesiod 10 --(10)--> 20 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraph Ragnell 5 --(5)--> 10 Pass Plasma Grenade 3 Combat Effects: Embolden and Liabilit ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Thessaly 5 --(10)--> 15 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Garan Dantear 10 --(5)--> 15 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Alisha Diphda 20 --(10)--> 30 Pass Conditions: Bad Luck(2)|Injure(1)|Stupify(1)|Wound(2) Effects: Embolden(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Alisha Diphda has passed this challenge! The party gained 10 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Thessaly has posed.
Despite the disparate composition of their present party, they manage to move like experienced combatants that have been working with one another for years - Ethius elects to disengage, opting to flee instead. Alisha and Garan split from one another, the thrown holy bottle finding purchase in the corrupted creature's center mass. Light explodes from impact, sending the beast howling, clawing at his eyes, rendered blind by Alisha's thrown projectile. It is the opening Garan needs, when he surges forward to draw his sword across the hellion's middle. There is no blood, but some kind of ichor, hissing upon contact of the Imperial Knight's blade.
The grenade that Ragnell falls tips into the ground somewhere behind it, and that is when Thessaly acts, hearing the Seraph's directive within the din. A hand extends, palm flattening against invisible air, and she pushes the disemboweled creature with her magical might, letting it fall upon the incendiary so strategically placed there. Another explosion erupts, muted by the massive body that drops on top of the grenade, but it does the job.
...it's pretty gross, though.
With the hellion in pieces, the path before them is clear, and the black-clad mage continues forward with the white knight of Rolance, and the acquaintances they've come across along the way.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has drawn a new Challenge.
==============================================<* Escape from Lastonbell *>============================================== ============================================<* CHALLENGE - Lock the Gate *>============================================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | -----------------------------------------------< Challenge Information: >----------------------------------------------- Lastonbell has smaller walls threaded throughout the city, some of which have small gates of their own. While these are unlikely to stop the soldiers of Hyland in their tracks, these gates could slow them. As you hurry down a side street, the shouts of Rolance and Hyland soldiers echo through the air. You can smell fire and smoke in the air, too. Closing this gate could cut off any pursuers -- but it will take shoulder work and, worse, valuable time. =Dungeon Conditions: Tire, Slow===============================================
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
The massacre around them by that obliterated Hellion is a tragedy. For even just one Hellion, that is many a life lost in the war. This bloody scene is but one of many through their histories, and it will not be the last. The only silver lining, if one would be callous enough to call it a blessing, is that their act of wonton violence and bloodthirst has already done well to clear their way to the nearest gate.
A gate that remains functional. A gate that remains open.
From a side street, there are further cries for movement inward, Rolance and Hyland soldiers looking ready to reposition and come this way. If the group hurries through to the other side of the gate and operate it fast enough, they might be able to cut them off - but no matter which 'side' comes first, someone will be leaving their countrymen behind to die.
...Speaking of leaving people to die...
Ethius comes to a crouch behind the gate, once again pushing the hood against his forehead. His head still aches from the impact of that stone against his head. He gives its glassy surface another cursory look. His gloved thumb runs across it. Smooth, and smoking hot - even with gloves on. It's good that he's taking the time to do this instead of, say, close the gates on the other three (four). At least he's not that craven.
Faint praise, that. Everyone will be able to make it to the other side of the gate in time, and figure out what they'll do from there - but he appears to pay them (nor the gate) any mind. There might not even be much time to give him a piece of anyone else's mind, but at least he is right there for that end.
<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.
"I noticed," Alisha answers Garan, with a frown. She keeps moving -- falling in next to Ragnell. Her expression is one of mounting worry, as she moves after. She slows, though, as she sees the open gate. Her brow furrows -- and then she looks at Ethius, as she moves through.
She looks back at the others. "We may need to close it behind us. It will buy us time--and it may buy the people here time." It may, also, trap Hyland's or Rolance's soldiers. She can live with that.
She still hates it.
"Shall we?" she asks, as she cracks her knuckles and makes ready to push it.
DG: Alisha Diphda has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Lock the Gate.
<Pose Tracker> Thessaly has posed.
"We will do what we must," Thessaly tells Alisha quietly. "There'll be no hope for anyone if we are all dead."
It sounds cold, callous, even, but it is the unvarnished truth and while there are times for selfless sacrifice, that time is not now. Once to the wall, there's a glance inclined towards Ethius, though she does not address the silent man - she does, however, take a special interest towards what he is doing, before taking a step towards the nearest surface and brings out her sacrificial dagger.
She drags the tip of it against craggy rock, veins of black-purple entropy crawling from the scratch she has made, blossoming like a spider's web in the middle of the construct, pulsing once - to make it easier for those who are taking up the job to push.
DG: Thessaly has used her Tool Sacrificial Dagger toward her party's challenge, Lock the Gate.
<Pose Tracker> Garan Dantear has posed.
It comes back to that cold calculus. That's the nature of battle, of war: Sometimes one must make terrible decisions in order to survive, or to keep others alive. From a young age, Garan Dantear was trained to survive these sorts of situations and to keep others alive. Since those youthful days, he's seen the face of war, the ugliness of it. The terrible things it can expose in the hearts of men. He may not like it, but he will do what he must, just as he did on Filgaia, just as he did when House Trevelyan fell.
He'll do what he must, and he'll sleep well at night no matter how much he dislikes it. Maybe that's what makes someone a soldier.
Force was required here, and force was something the Imperial Knight had a surplus of: Sword and shield stowed for the moment, he instead draws the heavy axe from his kit, the half-moon blade on one end balanced by a heavy hammerhead opposite. The heavy tool is enough to clear rubble, to obliterate any obstructions to closing the gate, before the knight throws his main strength into forcing it closed.
DG: Garan Dantear has used his Tool Sledge Axe toward his party's challenge, Lock the Gate. DG: Ethius Hesiod has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Lock the Gate.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
"Rest in pieces," Ragnell drawls, adjusting her hat, as Hellion bits rain down. She ducks in between them, moving onwards. Perhaps it would've been better to defer to Alisha, let her attempt to purify the creature, but given that this town has become a war zone, that Hellion probably would've either been cut down as a human or gone right back to being a Hellion in short order.
Curious. Ethius ran ahead, past a gate, but he doesn't seem to have closed it behind him... yet. She notes the rock he's holding--it seems strangely smooth, like volcanic obsidian--but otherwise dashes in and makes room for the others.
"Nothin' like bein' practical in a life-or-death situation, eh?" she remarks to Thessaly. She gives Alisha a nod then. "Let's shall." Then, once Garan clears away the rubble that might obstruct the gate's closing, she lends a foot in towards kicking it closed.
DG: Seraph Ragnell has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Lock the Gate.
==============================================<* Escape from Lastonbell *>============================================== ============================================<* CHALLENGE - Lock the Gate *>============================================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 | -----------------------------------------------< Challenge Information: >----------------------------------------------- Lastonbell has smaller walls threaded throughout the city, some of which have small gates of their own. While these are unlikely to stop the soldiers of Hyland in their tracks, these gates could slow them. As you hurry down a side street, the shouts of Rolance and Hyland soldiers echo through the air. You can smell fire and smoke in the air, too. Closing this gate could cut off any pursuers -- but it will take shoulder work and, worse, valuable time. =Dungeon Conditions: Tire, Slow===============================================
=========================================<* Escape from Lastonbell - Round 3 *>========================================= ==============================================< Results - Lock the Gate >=============================================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Alisha Diphda 10 --(8)--> 18 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ethius Hesiod 20 --(13)--> 33 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraph Ragnell 10 --(13)--> 23 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Thessaly 15 --(13)--> 28 Fail Sacrificial Dagger 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Garan Dantear 15 --(8)--> 23 Pass Sledge Axe 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -------------------------------------------------------< Party >-------------------------------------------------------- Leader: Alisha Diphda 30 --(15)--> 45 Pass Conditions: Bad Luck(1)|Slow(2)|Tire(2)|Wound(1) Effects: Strengthen(1) ===================================================< Dream Chasers >====================================================
DG: The party led by Alisha Diphda has passed this challenge! The party gained 15 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
The three (four) of them are all of the same mind once they cross to the other side of the gate. They need to close it behind them. There's no telling who, or what, might come their way - but the only way to help ensure the survival of those beyond this gate is to shut it. Thessaly enchants the construct to make things easier to get it all moving - and to her credit, it does loosen up a bit of rust that would otherwise hold Alisha back from closing the gate.
Garan gets to work at clearing away rubble and debris that would keep the gate open. Ragnell mostly just kicks the thing for kicks, but the way it shakess and rattles, it might have had some beneficial effect in seeing the metal construction slam down against blood-soaked stone.
Just in time to watch a small disparate squad of Hyland and Rolance soldiers alike, yelling in equal parts anger and fear as a large, muscle-bound tiger-man Hellion barrel into them. The gate closed, they cannot flee their eventual fate. Malevolence swirls around one of them as the tiger-man Hellion clamps down on a shoulder, bringing forth a Lizardman Hellion for all the world to suffer as they fight to the death.
Ghastly, all-around.
Ethius does not turn to face them. He does not address their glares. He does not look behind at the carnage. He only secures the glossy rock inside his clothes somewhere, and takes off running again without a spoken word. No thanks, no apologies, no assistance, nothing.
As though his very existence were, on some level, separate from the conflict and the chaos that is blossoming all around him, divorcing himself entirely from the drama unfolding in the latest chapter of the war that's ravaging Glenwood once more.
DG: Seraph Ragnell has drawn a new Challenge.
==========================<* Escape from Lastonbell *>========================== ========================<* CHALLENGE - Arrow Volleys *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Rolance's garrison is doing its best to fend off the surging Hyland military. However, its forces have been fragmented, and that has led to some confusion. In this case, as you run down a street, you see the smoky sky darken -- as a volley of arrows is loosed. It comes careening over the nearby buildings, and then arrows rain down in your midst! =Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Injure============================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Ragnell may not contribute much to the effort beyond kicking the gate a little, but at least it *does* get shut. Oh well. It's not like her old lightning grenades would've helped much in this situation. She does think wistfully, briefly, of a certain hammer-wielding someone, but... haha, that would cause problems of its own.
She frowns as the Hellions on both sides attempt to devour each other. Then she nods to the others and chases after Ethius, who may well have the right idea. It's not as though they could stop a war, just the five of them, in a situation like this. Maybe if Alisha were more experienced as a Squire, and more to the point, had a Seraph to Armatize with... but there's no point in lamenting what one doesn't have.
She does, however, reach into her pack again as they're on the move. If they're going to escape, then they need to not get slowed down, and this group is, uh... not exactly the speediest bunch? So, she starts handing out her own homemade chocolate rusks. The twice-baked bread is chewy, crunchy, *and* delicious.
"This'll help keep ya from tirin' out from all this runnin'," she says to the others. "Eat it quick, 'cuz you never know--"
The group enters a certain street. There's a distinct chorus of *twangs* in the near distance. Then the sky darkens with incoming arrows.
"--*Scarper*!!" Ragnell barks before shoving her rusk in her own mouth, then making a dash for it. If you guys can't outrun 'em, hope you've got shields sturdy enough to cover your extremely squishy, piercable bodies.
DG: Seraph Ragnell has used her Tool Chocolate Rusk toward her party's challenge, Arrow Volleys.
<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.
The gate slams shut, and there is a regretful look on Alisha's face -- but not one that lasts too long. Those Hellions would have been upon them, otherwise. Still, her eyes narrow, and she turns quickly and starts running. Without a Seraphim to Armatize with -- and without the ability to purify -- she can do nothing about this. "It is true," she says to Thessaly.
She takes one of the chocolate rusks, and bites down into it. "Thank you, Ragnell," she says. "I--"
The arrows are loosed. She darts, bolting towards a barrel in the street, and tries to slide down behind it, for cover. But, even with Ragnell's chocolate, she isn't so fast.
She doesn't notice, ahead, a certain gleam: Thessaly's magical branding, and the merchant who bolts around another of the corners in Lastonbell's narrow side streets. He slips, but he gets up with a practiced motion and keeps bolting.
DG: Alisha Diphda has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Arrow Volleys.
<Pose Tracker> Thessaly has posed.
The homemade chocolate rusks taken, Thessaly passes one to Garan before shoving one in her mouth. It is probably the most unladlylike her lord has ever seen her eat, and she will probably be mortified later, but there's simply no time to follow etiquette and good manners when one is about to die.
Like Lunar's killer pigeons diving upon the unsuspecting, the skies darken under the weight of a multitude of arrows. With an arcane word, that ephemeral shield is called up once again - but she is less confident of her abilities at present when she has spent much of their assignment here running. She is already starting to tire.
So for additional protection, she sticks close to Garan so she can duck under his shield as well if need be.
She espies the man she has branded and her lips press together. To just run towards him now was to mean becoming a pin cushion, and she wouldn't be able to do what she has to that way. She will have to be patient, for now.
Thankfully, that is an art in which she is especially practiced.
DG: Thessaly has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Arrow Volleys.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius is already a ways ahead. He's been doing plenty of running. He's far off from where Ragnell's handing out delicious Chocolate Rusk. He may already be tiring of running, evidenced by how he's getting a harness up around one of his wrists. That patchy, old, raggedy sack thing. Even on the run, he seems well-practiced in the spell(s) he's casting, waving the fingers of the other hand as it sways mid-run. The chanting is hard to hear underneath the bandanna. The lights that shine upon the spell's completion says all - a Symbological spell in which to fill that sack with hot air.
Ethius gets a small lift by jumping onto a small raised wall, as though intending to maybe try to float between this street and another one of higher elevation. He might be of the mind to flee to higher ground for a better view of which way to go - or maybe to find someone he may or may not have eyes on. He must have heard the twangs in the distance, that they're about to be beseiged by a rain of arrows. He has a big, puffy patchwork sack-turned-balloon floating above him as a tempting target. (In fact, the latest patch he's applied kinda looks like a bullseye. A green one, but a bullseye.)
He might be in for a rude surprise if he has misgauged how much distance he has from the oncoming volley.
This is their matter to resolve, he has decided. I have greater concerns, he declares in the face of death, destruction, and despair surrounding him from all sides.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Hot Air Sack toward his party's challenge, Arrow Volleys.
<Pose Tracker> Garan Dantear has posed.
It's telling that the way Thessaly eats her chocolate rusk merits more obvious surprise from Garan than running into Alisha of all people in the middle of Lastonbell. Even on the road, even in the sorts of situations they found themselves in, he'd never seen the witch actually just stuff food in her mouth like that. He eats his own quickly, to be sure, but he's pretty sure Thessaly has got some chocolate crumbs in her veil, now.
Not that there's any time to point that out, since there are arrows.
This is one of the situations that the knight carries a shield for, of course, and that heavy slab of steel is raised overhead like an umbrella to cover the rather softer and puncturable parts of his body, as well as Thessaly's as she gets close. The cover provided, especially with the witch's own magical barrier, is good, but imperfect. They need more shelter.
He spots, eventually, something better, the wood and wattle facade of a upper floor already damaged by the battle, by the poor maintenance of years: A rope and grapple are thrown one-handed by Garan, catching well enough that he can pull, can apply force just so, enough to bring it loose, to fall until it rests slanted over the street, caught by the building opposite over a stretch of otherwise open street that would've left them vulnerable.
Of course, it was going to break and collapse onto the street, arrows or no arrows, soon enough.
So they probably ought to hurry.
DG: Garan Dantear has used his Tool Climbing Equipment toward his party's challenge, Arrow Volleys.
==========================<* Escape from Lastonbell *>========================== ========================<* CHALLENGE - Arrow Volleys *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Rolance's garrison is doing its best to fend off the surging Hyland military. However, its forces have been fragmented, and that has led to some confusion. In this case, as you run down a street, you see the smoky sky darken -- as a volley of arrows is loosed. It comes careening over the nearby buildings, and then arrows rain down in your midst! =Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Injure============================================
=====================<* Escape from Lastonbell - Round 4 *>===================== ==========================< Results - Arrow Volleys >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alisha Diphda 18 --(20)--> 38 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ethius Hesiod 33 --(20)--> 53 Fail Hot Air Sack 2 Agility Effects: Resilient -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Ragnell 23 --(15)--> 38 Pass Chocolate Rusk 1 Agility Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thessaly 28 --(20)--> 48 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Garan Dantear 23 --(15)--> 38 Pass Climbing Equipment 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Alisha Diphda 45 --(10)--> 55 Fail Conditions: Injure(2)|Slow(1)|Tire(1)|Wound(2) Effects: Cleanse|Quicken(1)|Resilient(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Alisha Diphda has failed this challenge! The party gained 10 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Annnnnd the arrows fall down, down, all the way to the ground. Ragnell, being the fastest of the lot, manages to evade the group, and Garan has his rope and grappling hook to pull himself to safety, but Thessaly and Alisha are pinned into place for excruciatingly long moments--and Ethius straight-up gets his balloon pincushioned. Maybe... the bull's-eye... *wasn't* a good idea...?
They'll get to the other side where Alisha and Thessaly had spotted the merchant, and do so in more or less one piece, but the price of doing so means that they've quite thoroughly lost sight of him. A good thing that Tess marked him with her spell, but it might take some time to catch up at this rate.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has drawn a new Challenge.
==============================================<* Escape from Lastonbell *>============================================== ============================================<* CHALLENGE - Catapult Shot *>============================================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | -----------------------------------------------< Challenge Information: >----------------------------------------------- As you run down the street, you hear a terrible whistling sound cut through the air. The source of it is a catapult shot, lobbed by a panicked soul who hasn't thought of the damage it might cause. The boulder comes crashing down -- smashing through the roof of a nearby building, before it falls straight at you. =Dungeon Conditions: Suffer===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Pffffeeeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwww~ goes the Hot Air Sack, as Ethius loses altitude, tumbles on the side of the wall, and then back down onto the ground with the rest. Behind the rest, now. He's something of an afterthought in comparison to the more important issue at hand for a number of those present here - that merchant they're chasing. Even with the spell marking, he's gaining more and more distance by the moment. At the speed he's going, he might have just hitched onto a carriage. They've got to hurry.
As they run down the street, there's a whistling sound above. The sky goes dark, as the very sun's life-giving rays (this thought will be corrected a bit later down Lunar's history) make way for something else.
A great, big, huge honkin' boulder. Though difficult to appreciate now in the heat of the moment, historians of the future will note that a boulder of this size, of this very magnitude, was the largest projectile on record used by Hyland siege engines throughout this era of Lunarian history. They are all witness and company to this triumph of the era's engineering that allows their weapons to hurl items of this size.
No one can blame them for being unable to appreciate this in the now, because it is that big. A roof explodes into spraying tiles and debris to a great cloud of dust, as one may believe for a moment that the structure in the way will stop its momentum. It does not.
The road they're traveling is an incline. Enough of an incline that the boulder rolls forward. They all have even less than a second of opportunity to decide whether or not to go down this road - the shortest one to the fleeing merchant - and risk being flattened in the process, or to turn back and dodge into a side street to allow it to pass.
Ethius already seems to be electing to take the riskier option already, for his part. This is partially motivated by seeing a line of debris that are just high enough that he might be able to get a shortcut to some other part of Lastonbell, if he's willing to chance that small hole in the Hot Air Sack. (If? He completely is.)
He is but a footnote in the greater picture of this mess - do or die? Perhaps do and die - are they going to take that opening?
DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Hot Air Sack toward his party's challenge, Catapult Shot.
<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.
Alisha can't even remark that they lost him. She shakes her head -- and tries to shake her limbs out. She didn't take an arrow, but she had to spend far longer than she wanted hiding behind a barrel. She is, suffice to say, sore when she stands up. She looks around at the others. "Is everyone all right?"
She turns, though -- and begins walking.
She hears the whistling before she can really take in the sights of the city. She looks up -- seeing a roof explode, and then the boulder comes down. Alisha lets out a panicked shout: "RUN!"
She does, but she bolts in the risky direction, too. Her feet stumble -- but she tries her best to keep up with Ethius. "Who is it we are after!?" she calls to Garan and Thessaly.
DG: Alisha Diphda has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Catapult Shot.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
"Yeah, fine," Ragnell calls to Alisha from the other side of the street, past the arrow hail. "Are y'all gonna hurry it up or what?"
Well, it's a good thing they just had those chocolate rusks. Their treat magic should manage to continue to prevent slow-down for a while longer... barring of course things that can't really be not-slowed-down around, such as rains of arrows. Or, uh, flying and crashing boulders.
This plan might need some revision.
Regardless, Ragnell skids to a halt when she hears that whistling abovehead, holding out her arms to stop the others as needed. Well, others besides Ethius, who continues to do his own thing. A good thing; it smashes in, and then... uh... ssssstarts to... roll towards them.
Ethius runs in the riskey direction. Alisha does too. And hell, you only live once, and Ragnell has trust in her own speed and agility. She rolls the dice, metaphorically, to play chicken with a force of nature. Hey, she *is* a force of nature herself, so why not?
She keeps her ears open for Tess and/or Garan's answer to Alisha's question. Ragnell does kinda want to know that herself.
DG: Seraph Ragnell has used her Tool Chocolate Rusk toward her party's challenge, Catapult Shot.
<Pose Tracker> Thessaly has posed.
"A merchant," the young sorceress replies to Alisha. "With information we need to progress in our efforts here. Things have changed since we left, Your Highness, details of which you might be interested in hearing - but in quieter confines."
Garan's tactic with the sloping roof manages to save her life, though it doesn't prevent her wholly from getting nicked by a few arrows - they tear at her clothes, and cut through her flesh. She manages to stumble, however, into the protection that he provides, and as an entire roof comes down, she presses in behind him and squeezes her eyes shut - the better to prevent dust and debris from getting into her eyes.
When the cloud clears, she lifts her head, and is about to say something when the piercing whistle of something large and dangerous catches her attention. Eyes lift to rest on the growing shadow of a boulder that manages to smash the remains of an already dilapidated building upon landing.
RUN, Alisha urges and she can already feel her legs faltering at the effort. Her dress feels like a hundred tons, nevermind that they're made of the finest silks a noble can afford.
Jaw set and eyes determined, she pushes her body forward in an effort to escape the boulder - and she is clearly not devoid of moving laterally when she tries to get away from the boulder's path. Garan will probably do what he always does in his situations, however, but she doesn't want to act as if she expects it. She certainly doesn't want to take that for granted!
DG: Thessaly has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Catapult Shot.
<Pose Tracker> Garan Dantear has posed.
If there's anything they aren't, it's all right. Thessaly was injured, and in the normal course of things it would be time for Garan to use the healing Blessing he possesses... But also, in the normal course of things, thee wouldn't be a catapult hurling any boulders at them. Of course, he thinks to himself. Of course this is what would happen. Trying to track someone down in the middle of a warzone was surely a foolish endeavour at the best of times, and this was just the cosmos reminding them of that fact. His shield is slung over his shoulder, out of the way; he still has his grappling hook in one hand, and his other arm curls around Thessaly's waist as she tries to follow Alisha's instructions, as she tries to get away. White armor presses against black silks as the knight lifts the witch as though she weighed nothing at all, his grappling hook seeking something more secure this time, something that he can use to pull himself and Thessaly out of the path of destruction, at least long enough for the hurled boulder to pass them by and settle somewhere else, and to keep their own momentum moving forward, moving in the direction of the arcane mark they've been following.
"This merchant is either very lucky," he mutters to Thessaly, "or strong enough that we should be recruiting them for the Knights."
He doesn't mean it.
Probably.
DG: Garan Dantear has used his Tool Climbing Equipment toward his party's challenge, Catapult Shot.
==============================================<* Escape from Lastonbell *>============================================== ============================================<* CHALLENGE - Catapult Shot *>============================================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | -----------------------------------------------< Challenge Information: >----------------------------------------------- As you run down the street, you hear a terrible whistling sound cut through the air. The source of it is a catapult shot, lobbed by a panicked soul who hasn't thought of the damage it might cause. The boulder comes crashing down -- smashing through the roof of a nearby building, before it falls straight at you. =Dungeon Conditions: Suffer===================================================
=========================================<* Escape from Lastonbell - Round 5 *>========================================= ==============================================< Results - Catapult Shot >=============================================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Alisha Diphda 38 --(5)--> 43 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ethius Hesiod 53 --(10)--> 63 Fail Hot Air Sack 2 Agility Effects: Resilient ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraph Ragnell 38 --(5)--> 43 Pass Chocolate Rusk 1 Agility Effects: Cleanse ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Thessaly 48 --(10)--> 58 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Garan Dantear 38 --(5)--> 43 Pass Climbing Equipment 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -------------------------------------------------------< Party >-------------------------------------------------------- Leader: Alisha Diphda 55 --(20)--> 75 Pass Conditions: Suffer(1) Effects: Cleanse|Quicken(1)|Resilient(1) ===================================================< Dream Chasers >====================================================
DG: The party led by Alisha Diphda has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius just barely clears that opening, readying the Hot Air Sack as he holds it above. It's not going to hold air for long, with that hole. He just needs enough of a hover for a safe crossing of--
--nope. Part of the structure ahead collapses in front of him, cutting off that route of interest for him. That is his problem, and his alone. Alisha and (to the strange man, unseen) Ragnell, having taken that risk through the opening, now have a clear shot at following the route towards that merchant... which would require Thessaly's guidance, but a shorter route to safety remains theirs.
Garan and Thessaly, in the decision to go vertical, find that they have an excellent vantage point in which to track which way to go to catch up with the bearer of the arcane mark - and that of the city itself. The movements of the invading Hyland forces, the remaining holdouts of the Rolance soldiers. From there, the two of them could call the shots on which way they should go to achieve their various objectives.
All the while, Lastonbell, the City of Artisans, finds its beauty and splendor crushed underfoot. Unless a miracle happens, this city will be lost.
There does not appear to be a miracle headed anyone's way. Only war, loss, and heightened Malevolence in its wake.
DG: Alisha Diphda has drawn a new Challenge.
==========================<* Escape from Lastonbell *>==========================
===============<* CHALLENGE - His Majesty's Royal Blue Rifles *>================
|Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
As you run down the street, you see the opened gates at the west end of
Lastonbell. There are already people flooding through -- and a cordon of
Rolance's soldiers, waving them through. However, as you approach, those
soldiers break away, running ahead towards you. Except, they turn, and start
towards another street. They never make it.
The loud, perhaps familiar crack of gunfire shots can be heard -- over a
dozen shots, and then the lance of Rolance's soldiers collapse in a bloody
heap. Marching out of the street are six men, decked out in silver
breastplates, blue uniforms, and tall black feathered hats. Each also
carries, inexplicably, a Gunsmoke ARM: an identical rifle, ending in a
bayonet. The group of riflemen turn towards you -- and take aim!
=Dungeon Conditions: Suffer, Wound============================================
<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.
The path through the route is a short and fast one. It winds through an alleyway, that emerges out into an opening -- and Thessaly and Garan go above. When they all reunite, it is on the plaza on the western wall -- near the gate, and leading out. There, they see their marked merchant. He stops at the gate, because he must: red uniformed Rolance soldiers are waving people through, but stopping a stampede. Until, of course, there are footfalls.
"Go!" one of the soldiers yells, pushing on the merchant's back. He starts to stumble, as the guards at the gate rush forward.
Then collapse, as an echoing report of gunshots rings out over the field. A half-dozen soldiers, clad in blue and carrying long rifles step out, rifles trained. They swing them around -- and Alisha's eyes widen.
"Why do they have..."
Except, of course, they don't recognize their princess -- not wearing a dark robe and plain half-plate armor. She yelps as a gunshot strikes near her head. Alisha ducks low, then looks at Garan. "Grab him! I'll try to distract them!"
She reaches into her pocket, and this time she hurls the entire Holy Bottle. It explodes into white light and mist, amidst them. A few shots ring out -- one slashes through her upper left arm -- before Alisha descends, driving her spear down to stab into one of the Hyland riflemen.
DG: Alisha Diphda has used her Tool Holy Bottle toward her party's challenge, His Majesty's Royal Blue Rifles.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
A merchant with important information, huh... Though what importance it has sounds relative. Thessaly specifies in their efforts here, after all, and Ragnell imagines many of her efforts have just come to naught. She keeps that thought to herself, though, instead chasing through the shortcut and coming to a halt when she spots the gates out of Lastonbell into Rolance proper.
"Hey," she says, pointing, "ain't that the merchant?"
Indeed, the man is on his way out, stumbling as a Rolancian soldier shoves him onward--but then *Hylandian* soldiers show up and gun down the defenders. Ragnell can't say she's shocked or even surprised--she figured something like this might happen--but it's a nasty discovery all the same.
As Alisha encourages Garan forward and chucks her *entire* Holy Bottle, Ragnell dive-rolls to one side, pulling another grenade from her pack. This one she counts the seconds on after pulling the pin; then, just before time runs out, she *chucks* it so that the plasma explosion takes place over, but not among, the Hylandian soldiers. Hopefully, this will scatter and injure them, possibly even knock them off their feet, without outright killing them.
This is entirely an unspoken favor to Alisha, but there's a practical aspect to it, too: this way, the escaping civilians won't risk getting caught up in the blast.
DG: Seraph Ragnell has used her Tool Plasma Grenade toward her party's challenge, His Majesty's Royal Blue Rifles.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius gets a sleeve of his tunic caught in some of the rubble protruding from the collapsed structure ahead of him. He only gives it passing acknowledgement as he thinks to put his other arm over it, but logistically this proves infeasible with all that's going on around him. Symbological crests, complex and arcane patterns unfamiliar to this part of Lunar, decorate his dark-hued skin. He crosses that arm inwards to hide it from the rest as they pass on through the winding alleyway. He can't outrun them. He can just let them by. He has no interest in their stories, their motives. None of this is of concern to him, he has decided.
He could have stepped up several times now. He could have helped fight off the orc. He could've assisted in closing the gate. He has done nothing but evade the lot of them, seeming to think only of his own well-being. He puts their various annoyances and curiosities out of his mind. He has no part in any of this.
That's sort of reasonable, from what a few know of him. He's not of Hyland nor Rolance. What should he care about their war? His steps are more careful and measured, as if to avoid crossing his path with theirs further. He finds a vantage point to watch some of the other movements from cracks of a fallen building. He appears undeterred by the dead bodies littering the street around him. His lack of discomfort in being around so much death is... inhuman, unto itself.
He hears something. His head turns sharply to the echoing report of...
...
...
...
His eyes narrow. He follows down the same path the rest have, more swiftly this time. He is filled with another idea. A desire? A compulsion? Maybe it is just how much more dangerous the situation has become, gleaning the idea that some powerful weapons have just been introduced onto the battlefield. No one would be faulted for choosing to turn and run before something like this. Ethius is running.
He is not turning.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Treading through the bodies of the wounded and the dead, Malevolence swirls about. It is hungry to prey on the negative feelings about this place of ruin. It tries to stab its icy grip into uncertainties, personal paradoxes, as Ethius passes by.
...
...
...
Some moments later after the electrical explosion, someone shouts a few syllables, slurred together so quickly they might be mistaken as being a singular one. A forearm crosses inward from a someone or something that leaps into the fray with such speed they're just shy of being a moving shadow. As it comes to a stop, crests glow with sorcerous power from the forearm of bare exposed flesh. Two of the riflemen take aim and fire at the obvious target, as lights shine around him.
To Ragnell's sight, he has that trippy electrical field surrounding him in wake of the patterend light denoting a Symbology spell being cast.
Two rounds are fired off. There are two loud electrical sounds, and two blinding flashes of light as both rounds seem to impact... no, bounce off of his bare flesh?! His flinching is less 'impact with something that should have run him through' and more 'someone pokes him sharply with a finger.' The same bullets that, on observation of the surroundings, appear to be able to pierce even the steel armor of the knights themelves.
"I will provide you cover." These are the first words he's said to any of them. These words, from a man who has showed zero interest in any of their well-being. Of anyone's well-being, today, who now steps forth and offers to provide them aid without petition or solicitation on his part. His gaze falls upon the Hyland riflemen who may be of the presence of mind to be horrified by what they just saw. "Make your way outside of the city limits." Oh, and now he decides he's in charge?! "I will discuss the matter with you further then."
Someone who does not appear to be able to be taken down by their advanced weapons that just chewed through the Rolance ranks. Someone who seems to be able to weather this even without heavy armor. Someone who still manages to talk calmly and rationally through all of this...!
The same someone who withdraws a satchel from his belt, slurs another set of syllables to the wiggling of fingers to activate the satchel's contents, and throw them down into the riflemen.
Dust explodes and swirls about, obscuring all from sight. At barest minimum, this guarantees them a chance to safely flee from this place. The smoke cover will ensure they cannot line up any further shots. The fine dust particles, alone, may render the rifles inoperable as they take root, depending on the nature of their construction.
Some may be lining up more shots at him anyway. No matter their level of experience or various tells, the strange man seems to be able to read their movements impeccably. His quarterstaff is drawn smoothly as he sways to the side of a shot that whizzes past his left side. He swings into and through the haze to move to strike at the rifles themselves, or at their very balance.
A man unperturbed by even the prospect of having a rifle pointed at him, moving with such decisiveness and precision no matter the amount of weapons pointed at him. It is not a matter of whether he will live or die with up to six (plus any possibility of reinforcements) armed soldiers trying to take him down.
It's more a matter of if they'll survive him, if he finds the opening to start putting together and flinging further Symbological spells to melt them with heat, shock them with electricity, or further drown them in dust.
All the while, for this seeming inconsistency in this man's motives and movements, the Malevolence does not find a place to hold.
DG: Ethius Hesiod has used his Tool Powder Grenade toward his party's challenge, His Majesty's Royal Blue Rifles.
<Pose Tracker> Thessaly has posed.
A strong arm manages to encircle her waist, and with the help of that grappling hook, they manage to reel themselves out of danger - the cord snaps taunt, but appearances can be deceiving, when it can carry Garan in full plate as well as Thessaly's more negligible form. It enables them to clear the boulder.
Through the haze of smoke and chaos, the bright beacon left by her brand catches her eye. "There!" A finger points to the others. "It's-- "
And there is the unmistakeable CRACK of gunfire.
Violet eyes stare disbelievingly at the line of approaching Hyland soldiers, armed with the weapons she has only seen in one specific place - and just like that, a dozen or so Knights of Rolance fall against the might of gunpowder and steel. "No! It-- "
Oh gods, what have they done? With the introduction of these kinds of weapons, their world will never be the same again.
Teeth grit together, but there isn't much she can do about that now. With Alisha taking the reins to corral her own people, she spins around in an effort to salvage the one thing that could make this all worthwhile. She fires off a spell towards the line while they are blinded by Alisha's holy bottle, to render the ground underneath them into sticky, cumbersome muck, and glue them in place for whatever Ethius and everyone else elects to do, before she spins around in an effort to find the merchant that has just disappeared behind their lines.
She knows where he is, gravitates towards it like a missile. Unless stripped of the brand, he won't be able to get away from her.
That is, if his present circumstances don't kill him. THAT, she must avoid. At all costs.
DG: Thessaly has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, His Majesty's Royal Blue Rifles.
<Pose Tracker> Garan Dantear has posed.
At last, the man they're trying to find. Soldiers of Rolance, as well, and the gate out of the city. There's a twinge of relief in the red-haired knight, who takes a moment to check on Thessaly now that the immediate danger seems to have passed. They can get out of the city's chaos and regroup, they can find the merchant and learn what he knows, they can... They can...
It's one of those moments that fortunately people experience rarely: One of those moments where you know what's happening, know what's about to happen, but you can't do anything about it. Everything is too slow. You're too slow.
"No!" shouts the Imperial Knight, as his nation's troops are felled by gunfire. By ARMs. ARMs that, in the due course of things, turn towards them. Honestly, if he hadn't spent that time on Filgaia, it's quite possible that these new weapons would've dismayed him. That they would've caused Garan Dantear to miss a step, as he distantly hears Alisha urging him to go, the mystery man offering them cover.
Instead, he's already moving.
Instead, his mouth pulls into a smile, a broad slash of teeth. It's wolfish. It's unfriendly.
The offers of distraction and cover are all very well and good, but there's more than just the mission to consider, here. So, before, the disparate little group had faced a boulder crashing towards them with inexorable force. Now, the Hylandian riflemen are faced with something just as unstoppable, as Garan Dantear moves to crash, in the midst of all the other violence being heaped upon them, THROUGH their lines to get past them, to chase after the merchant. Boots hammer on paving stones, steel sings in the air as he seeks to bleed them, to batter aside their bayonets, to shatter bone with his heavy shield and pure momentum.
There are times, after all, to fight defensively. And there are times to turn that defense to offense, and show the riflemen that it will take more than a few guns to break Rolance.
But the merchant is the important thing. Get to him, take him in hand, and above all make sure nothing untoward happens before they can get the information they need from him. So, the Imperial Knight keeps moving.
DG: Garan Dantear has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, His Majesty's Royal Blue Rifles.
==========================<* Escape from Lastonbell *>==========================
===============<* CHALLENGE - His Majesty's Royal Blue Rifles *>================
|Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
As you run down the street, you see the opened gates at the west end of
Lastonbell. There are already people flooding through -- and a cordon of
Rolance's soldiers, waving them through. However, as you approach, those
soldiers break away, running ahead towards you. Except, they turn, and start
towards another street. They never make it.
The loud, perhaps familiar crack of gunfire shots can be heard -- over a
dozen shots, and then the lance of Rolance's soldiers collapse in a bloody
heap. Marching out of the street are six men, decked out in silver
breastplates, blue uniforms, and tall black feathered hats. Each also
carries, inexplicably, a Gunsmoke ARM: an identical rifle, ending in a
bayonet. The group of riflemen turn towards you -- and take aim!
=Dungeon Conditions: Suffer, Wound============================================
=====================<* Escape from Lastonbell - Round 6 *>===================== =================< Results - His Majesty's Royal Blue Rifles >================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alisha Diphda 43 --(10)--> 53 Pass Holy Bottle 3 Combat Effects: Liability and Stalwar -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ethius Hesiod 63 --(10)--> 73 Pass Powder Grenade 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Ragnell 43 --(10)--> 53 Pass Plasma Grenade 3 Combat Effects: Embolden and Liabilit -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thessaly 58 --(10)--> 68 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Garan Dantear 43 --(10)--> 53 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Alisha Diphda 75 --(35)--> 110 Pass Conditions: Suffer(1)|Wound(2) Effects: Embolden(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Alisha Diphda has successfully explored Escape from Lastonbell!
==========================<* Escape from Lastonbell *>==========================
====================<* CHALLENGE - The Flight to Pendrago *>====================
|Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
It takes care and caution, but you manage to escape from Lastonbell. As you
leave, you can see smoke rising up from the city. A banner comes down from
one of the remaining towers -- and then a blue one rises, marking the city
as the holding of the Kingdom of Hyland.
Your escape is not alone. You have found your way to a group of merchants --
who are eager for an escort, and for assistance, in making the flight
towards Pendrago. They will spare a little coin for that escort.
=Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Alisha Diphda has posed.
The riflemen are dangerous. They quickly turn, but before another volley can be loosed into the massed group, Ragnell's plasma grenade explodes. Two soldiers go flying; they slam into the ground, rolling brutally. This gives ample time for Ethius to rush in. A couple of shots are fired off at the man, as he gets close. The satchel flies.
Dust explodes. The soldiers begin to yell and cough as it erupts between them -- and when one soldier fires again, his gun jams with a loud, terrible ka-click noise.
Which is when the ground under their feet becomes sticky. One yelps, and turns his rifle around. He aims for Garan -- but Alisha slashes the spear up, smashing it through the rifle barrel. Which lets Garan crash through them, smashing and sending them to the ground.
A few shouts come from down the street.
But they move, the lot of them rushing from the gates of the city. They come up to find the merchant keeled over, breathing hard, hands on his knees. He looks over his shoulder, as they approach. His eyes widen -- and then he falls over, flat on his rear.
"You... you--" He stares. "--I-I didn't know. I thought... I thought it would be fine, if Commander Strelka wasn't here. We just... we just charted the ship, that took him away, and--and didn't think that the war would ever reach this far!"
Alisha's brow furrows. She looks sideways -- at Ethius, finally talking, and then Garan and Thessaly. Finally, to Ragnell.
"...I think," she says, "he has some explaining to do."
<Pose Tracker> Thessaly has posed.
With Alisha and the rest taking care of the riflemen, it leaves Thessaly to corner her mark. As he stumbles to sprawl backwards on his rear end, the young woman continues to move, a dark shadow wreathed by fire. The words he utters are absolutely damning, for reasons that only the sorceress - and her lord - knows and the words themselves darken the look of those gemlike eyes. Her torn silks rustle against the stagnant, smoky wind like war banners ripped apart by battle.
But her shadow. She is a delicate thing, slender and lithe, the way she is clothed only emphasizes the fragility of the body underneath - however, her darkness seems to encompass nigh-near everything upon the ground, stretching out, like the numerous legs of a monstrous spider, or the spread-out wings of some gigantic avian. Violet irises seem to burn with fell light.
'I think he has some explaining to do', Alisha says, somewhere behind her. Thankfully, veiled, hooded and cloaked, with her back turned to the princess of Hyland, she will not be able to see her expression.
The merchant, in his lonesome, carries the full weight of that.
"Yes," she says, softly, quietly - but it is only the finest velvet blanketing the sheer terror she can visit upon the poor man if he doesn't provide her the answers she is seeking.
"Yes, Your Highness. He does."
She takes another step forward, her shadow engulfing the man on the ground.
"And I am certain that he will be very cooperative, and tell my lord what he needs to know."
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius makes certain there are no survivors among those that moved to engage. His actual teamwork is sloppy, understandably, as he had just inserted himself right into the thick of the team's efforts to fight off enemies of superior power availed to them, but the end result is the same. By the time he has to turn away with the rest, he has ensured (in tndem with the efforts of the rest) that not one of those fighting them now will live to tell the reinforcements at home as to what happened.
This, to him, is key. The situation is far too out of control for the four (five) of them to resolve. It is time to leave Lastonbell behind and regroup.
He throws down a second dust cloud as a safety measure as more gunshots are heard, expending both Powder Grenade satchels right on the spot in order to secure their escape for certain. He starts to hold out a palm as though preparing a spell to take down the merchant...
...
He lowers it, allowing Alisha and the rest to handle the matter of interrogation as he folds his arms behind his back like some sort of soldier in waiting.
After he takes another moment to press that hood of his against where his forehead still bleeds, of course. Where Alisha gives that sideways glance at him, and Thessaly regards that their mark will be very cooperative, he remains far too cool and composed for a man that has just narrowly escaped death several times over. Even his idle breathing feels suppressed to make himself seem nearly motionless, like a statue.
There is much at stake, Ethius acknowledges. Time and time again, he would remind others of this fact as they let themselves get caught up in whatever fancy that grabs them. There are priorities that must be upheld without delay nor compromise.
A part of him recognizes, without hesitation or question, that this entire matter unfolding before him is one. The context may be lost within the scope of forgotten memories, but he does not need that context to know his feelings are true.
This has my full attention, he inwardly declares.