315 replies to this topic

[mike_]

Morion and Rom brandished their weapons towards the metal monstrosity, repeating crossbow and black-bladed longsword and titanic axe, respectively.

The strange apparition did not charge the party, instead standing ominously amongst the still-writhing remains of the Vyre it had destroyed. Morion couldn't describe what it had done as slaying - that was too kind. This new beast had torn the barbaric creatures limb from limb, ripping sinew and meat and breaking bone with horrible ease.

Rom stared it down. The foreign-looking contraption appeared to be constructed of a strange, undulating metal that was forged with rigid runes and signs embedded into it. The eerie, sickly green light flooding from its chest gave it a ghostly appearance.

Standing a comfortable distance away from the newcomer, Morion turned to the knot of veterans in the middle of the group, composed of Theria, Zhar and Tom. Illyriel was off to the side, as were Bazric and Vithar. The 'shadow-man' shouted to the trio, 'Hey, stripes? Theria? The hell is this thing?' Morion turned his attention to Zhar. 'What about you, clicky? Any idea what this 'guardian' is?'

[Vithar-133]

Vithar looked curiously at what he would've called a construct. He started to draw his blade quietly. Either he wasn't as silent as he wanted to be, or the glow gave him away when the construct stared directly at him.

:This is far from good. Most definitely far from good.:

[some_weirdGuy]

"What it is? Weren't you listening the first time, its a guardian, it... guards" he spoke as if addressing a simpleton
"shocking i know" he said lightly but sarcastically " well, go on then, i don't want to stand around here all day" he prompted, motioning Vithar to go forward and do away with the creature as if it were of no consequence, Vithar looked a little anxious
"don't worry" replied Zhar "I'll be perfectly fine", a wicked little grin lit up Zhars features, but in that moment there were greater problems. The metallic skeletal creature attacked!

[Rafv Nin IV]

Great benefits were to be had with discreet movement and small size. Shava Kartaan crept along the darkest black of the black cave--light from Vithar's glowing weapons and more that trickled through the collapsed entrance had illuminated where the rest of the group braced themselves for the creature's inevitable onslaught. Once far past the guardian that guarded whatever it was that was worth guarding here, Shava let loose a pent-up breath quietly and began to relax. She fidgeted momentarily with the amethyst pendant running on a silver chain around her neck and lifted it to brush her scarred lips against lightly to thank her good fortune. Upon first noticing the ghastly figure that threatened her companions, Shava had determined that the skeleton had been formed entirely from magic and inanimate material--ergo, the being had no sentient or even instinctual thoughts that the gnomess could exploit. Without emotions or even cold, calculated logic, the Arap Datrebili lieutenant could not exercise empathetic control. This guardian did not live to kill, as some in the party must have assumed; the skeletal figure no more tried to murder than a cliff or a raging river. Therefore, as a clever individual would have ability to climb down the cliff or ford the river at a different location, so a clever individual should discover a way to skirt this obstacle.

However, Shava's life experiences had yet to contain a paternal character, directly after teaching about bridges to cross brooks, explaining how to avoid a death-dealing skeleton apparition. The gnomess knelt softly upon the rock floor of the cave, and feverishly sought a solution to the problem.

[Vithar-133]

Vithar bit his lip slightly. This construct, and whatever forces had constructed it, were probably not looking out for the good health of a group of assorted adventuring persons, such as themselves.

"Brute force probably isn't that effective against this...thing...Anyone have any potential ideas?"

Vithar looked back at the construct.
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((For the record, Rafv, Vithar's weapons don't give off enough glow to light the area the group is in. Kinda like fireflies. And glowsticks that are nearing the end of their span. Nothing like FB in BfME, though, not even close to that bright.))

[mike_]

Ignoring the black-mage, Morion smoothly responded, 'I might.' And changed out the small box of bolts on his repeating crossbow for a single one with a bulging head and heavier weight, stepping down the corridor and into shadows in one smooth motion. The construct followed the man in black with unseeing eyes, then physically following his progress with a strange lumbering gait.

Morion suavely murmured, 'Hope you lads don't mind.'

There was a light click and all Hell broke loose. For a single second the entire area was illuminated with a bizarre blue flame, not entirely unlike that which coated Tom's swords from time to time. The metal man did not really react to the attack so much as it was engulfed in the torrent of suddenly-appearing flame, emerging from the blast zone a superheated mess.

Smiling grimly, Morion slid the crossbow into a thong hanging from his shoulder and hid it in his cloak. He grasped his sword with two hands, and said to his incredulous companions, and Rom, 'Incendiary rounds.' Silence followed, and he continued, 'Purely experimental.'

Then he said, 'And now for step two!' The construct said nothing in return. Morion shrugged, murmured something inaudible, then lunged forwards, his greatsword coming down and around in a smooth arc. The constructs own blade met it, but the weakened, superheated metal was swiftly consumed and shattered, Morion's strange weapon cutting through it and the hand holding it like hot butter.

However, before he could follow up with a finishing strike, the constructs other hand came up in a blindingly-fast fist, the red-hot ore of its closed hand meeting Morion in the chest. He screamed and was thrown backwards by its superhuman (indeed, super-Minotaur) strength, his chest baring a flaming mark on its surface that burned down to his skin.

Rom rushed to step over him, the foreign construct appearing to rapidly cool and somehow regenerate both the lost hand and sword. It stood, waiting, eerily.

Looking down at his friend, Rom said, 'What did Morion say?'

The wounded man groggily replied, 'En garde.'

[some_weirdGuy]

Almost conversationally Zhar, eyes fixed on the metal creature, Rom and Morion, leaned towards Bazric (who just happened to the the closest at hand) and whispered
"interesting creatures" He paused and looked down at Bazric, (being only half the mages size after all he couldn't look at him any other way)
"golems can be quite versatile, truly a most useful servant" he smiled, and then cackled when the creature struck the somewhat smug morion from his feet, a joyless spiteful chuckle that grinded on the ears.
"See, what did i tell you?" Bazric looked up at the mage with a frown, Zhars devilish and somewhat gleeful face met his gaze unabashed. Zhar then checked quickly behind him to see where the wall was, and promptly leaned back against it, with obviously no intention of lending assistance, and a nasty little smile on his lips.

Edited by some_weirdGuy, 08 August 2009 - 08:50 AM.

[Copaman]

Tom looked up at the thing with a sense of awe flowing over his body. Not only had it killed a group of Vyre in mere seconds, but it had survived an attack from Morion, who used some form of magic or trickery to produce an incredibly hot flame around the thing. And after surviving the attack, it managed to follow up with a shockingly strong punch. Were he a human, Tom would have been incredibly scared. But he was more than human and, in a way, more than deathknelven.

"So the thing doesn't like fire? I can figure something out."

He approached the thing, sizing it up as he walked nearer to it - he knew that if it had a brain, it was sizing him up somewhere as well. With a thought, Tom sent blue fire flowing down from his hands to the bottom of his swords. The thing stood there, waiting.

Tom leaped forward, determined to remove this obstacle so the group could get moving. As he traveled, he sent an arc of flame spiraling out from his sword - it caught the thing in the foot and began to work its magic. It was not concerned by the fire at its foot, however, and caught hold of Tom's strong-hand sword. With an incredible display of strength, it hurled him into the nearest wall, and then ran towards him to finish the job.

Tom did what he could to collect himself in the second after he hit the wall. This thing could be my match... but I can't let it. He rolled away from the golem as it came closer, and then jumped to his feet. He saw his attack, how it would block and parry, and how he would kill it. It turned to face him, and then he began his assault.

First, he slashed wildly to draw its block; this opened the door for him to stab with the off hand. It grabbed the stabbing blade and twisted, wrenching it away from him. This is not good. I need speed of two single hands, not the strength of one set of two hands. He slashed upwards, then across, and then down at a diagonal, scoring the thing's forearms with bits of flames. With a quick flick of the eyes, he could see its ankle beginning to melt. A matter of time now.

The two swapped blows, each able to parry the other's attack with frightening speeds - and then its ankle melted. The thing looked down when it was no longer able to walk towards Tom, and Tom simply smiled. He walked around the thing, and took careful aim before stabbing through its spine and into the strange green glow in its chest. He wiggled the sword around a little, and then let off a burst of flame to ensure the golem had passed to the next world.

Panting and exhausted from the duel, he retrieved his second sword and sheathed the two. "Well then," he managed to gasp, "let's get moving."

[some_weirdGuy]

The creature began to liquefy, and before anyone could react it skimmed across the ground and reared upwards in front of the groups path. It stretched to create a barrier across the corridor, then solidified.

"Ha" said Zhar, despite the fact that this blocked his own progress as much as everyone eles'. The group moved forward not sure quite what to make of it. Tom was the closest, and the first to cautiously reach the barrier. At first he stood back a little, looking at it, when the others reached him they to stood back.
"Well, now what?" asked Illyriel
Tom without a word brought his flaming sword to bear, striking the barrier, a clang echoed around the corridor. At first it seemed there was no effect, then the area that he struck began to ripple, and suddenly a glob burst forward, seemingly trying to engulf Vithar, who quickly dived out of the way. However it became clear this was not the case. This second glob reared up just as the first had, blocking the corridor off behind them.

"Great" piped up Shava, who pushed herself forward between the taller legs of Theria and Morion.
they all stood now and an awkward silence began...

"Well, this is nice" remarked Zhar, and as if triggered by this word the two barriers began closing inwards, the group was trapped in what now revealed itself to be a big crusher
"no no no!" cried Rindar looking frantically, a move mirrored by most of the group. Zhar cackled manically and now both Morion and Tom were trying to hack away at the slowly moving metallic wall.

((ok, so we're stuck in the crusher! how will we escape. Please whoever does get us out, don't make it seem easy, its suppose to be quite a conundrum, not some simple affair of minute interest))

Edited by some_weirdGuy, 12 August 2009 - 12:22 AM.

[Vortigern]

The walls came closing in, slowly drawing ever nearer. Terror began to build in Theria's chest and head as the mercurial barriers crawled along on their incessant path toward death.

"Zhar, can't you do something?" she shouted, hoping against hope that the mage would have a couple of tricks up his sleeve.

"Of course I can," he replied. "I just wanted to see if you lot could come up with anything." He snapped his fingers, a quick little movement, and the walls stopped and shuddered violently, making chunks of masonry drop from the ceiling. Theria heard a muttered 'oof' as one landed square on Bazric's head. "Nothing to it," chucked Zhar, stepping closer to the quicksilver architecture and tapping a finger against it. "That's going nowhere now."

"So where are we goin', mage?" demanded Bazric. Zhar frowned.

"Ah." He paused for a moment, chewing his upper lip as he thought. "I really don't know." Bazric sighed heavily.

"Be thankful ye ha'e a dwarf wi' you," he muttered, holding his head close to the wall and tapping a finger, listening to the resonance. After a few moments he stopped a foot from a corner and began tapping his fist against the stone. "Mage, can ye blast us a hole through this part o' the wall?"

"Do bears shit in the woods, dwarf?" smiled Zhar, rolling up his sleeves. "I can do you one better." The stone began to fizzle and pop, then it melted down into the ground. Concentration creased Zhar's forehead as the effort began to take its toll, but after a moment the stone gave way to a dim light. Zhar let go of the magic with an audible crack, and the group trooped through the new gap in subdued silence, broken only by Rom's grunts as he briefly became wedged in the gap.

"Head on down now," ordered Theria, and, weapons drawn, they travelled deeper into the belly of the temple.


((There will be one more enemy, the nature of which shall be left up to your collective imagination. Remember, too, that the drakes are native to this isle. Then we'll be there and I'll write up our epic finale. Then stuff will happen.))

[Copaman]

((Dibs on creating the next enemy! FLUBBER! not really...))

The group walked down the circular stairway until they arrived at the bottom, a great antechamber with a massive pair of wooden doors on one side and the end of the staircase at the other. Upon first glance, there was nothing to the room, the stairway, or the door, but with further inspection it was clear that a smaller door had been set into one of the large doors.

"I wonder what that's for..." said Morion as he stepped towards the great pair. As soon as he planted his foot to step forward, the tile he stood on gave way beneath him and triggered some great machinery below the floor. Within moments individual tiles fell away into nothingness and a path of pillars was all that remained. "Interesting." was Morion's remark.

Great deliberation ensued - while a path of pillars was present, there was more than one route to the platform in front of the great doors. Tom was the first to jump out on to a pillar, and as if on queue, the small (ish) door opened and spilled a flood of what appeared to be spiders out on to the platform in front of it. He jumped another step, and a hideous fiend crawled out after its brethren. A monstrous spider as tall as a man began making its way towards Rethalar, taking advantage of its unique abilities to traverse the pillars with ease. Tom did not need further warning - he turned fully around and made the two jumps back to the group.

"This is not good," he said. "Not good at all."

[Fire Ze Missiles!]

"I don't know about that," commented Illyriel, drawing his bow, "I should think between us we have enough fire power to knock them out without-" at this juncture he loosed an arrow, which flew towards the great central eye of the large arachnid. The creature reared up and spat a spray of scintillating colours into the air in front of it which the arrow sailed into. Nothing emerged the other side of the cloud.
"- Oh," said Illyriel, put-out, "it's like that is it? I see." He slung his bow and instead unsheathed his faithful blades, striding forwards onto the first pillar.
"Illyriel, wait!" called Theria, but he did not heed her. He knew they would have to step out sooner or later and had no intention of standing around while that abomination gloated. He heard Tom sigh and leap out after him - he was inwardly glad of the support though he did not turn to show it.
Illyriel's elven poise held him in good stead as he walked and jumped confidently over the fathomless depths, his eyes fixed on the creature that had scorned him. It sat, waiting, it's steely eyes implacable, the multitude of tiny minions surrounding it. Illyriel allowed a slight smile.
Suddenly he turned his gentle hop into a tremendous leap and, tucking in, a spin. He landed squarely on a pillar but a few feet from the monster and swept his blades out to either side of him, sending the smaller creatures spinning into the abyss. Their mother roared her anger and leapt forwards, releasing a cloud of the deadly gas as she did so. Illyriel ducked and threw himself under the creature, grabbing its spiny abdomen. As he swung himself around it to become sat atop the monster a single rogue though crossed Illyriel's mind - 'This is what I live for.'

[{IRS}Athos]

Rindar was about to fire an arrow into the cloud of color when he saw Illyriel dart forward. He managed to spit out a few choice words in Minotaur (learned from eavesdropping on Rom) before the monster managed to cross the chasm. Illyriel was clinging to its back, his swords clutched in white-knuckled hands. Rindar drew his own sword and, side-by-side with Tom, charged at the beast.

We're working together, thought Rindar. Well... how odd.

[some_weirdGuy]

"Bump" cried Zhar suddenly, unbidden and for no perceivable reason. Internally he was overcome with the need for action, not his own action as really he was to have no significant part in the current event, but of the action of others, a desire for activity, for interaction on the part of the other members of the group.

----------
[/slightly_subtle_hint]

[Vortigern]

((SWG, if you want to push this along, post a contribution to the storyline. You can't just expect everyone else to do everything. Zhar can happily play an active role if you want, or at least be an observer. Worthless posts gain you no favour.))

Bazric took a tentative step towards the edge, then scuttled back, face set and grim.

"Bazric?" enquired Shava. "Are you alright?"

"I dinnae like heights, lass," he murmured. "It's a dwarf thing." Shava smiled at him. Doubtless she understands too, he thought. "Spiders, now," he continued, doing his best to cover his fear with bravado, "them I can deal wi'. Gimme a spider and I'll kill the wee bastard wi'out a second's hesitation. But ye cannae fight gravity."

"Zhar can," replied Shava, somewhat irrelevantly, at least in Bazric's opinion. He raised an eyebrow, and the gnomess blushed slightly. "Sorry."

"Rom will help," announced the Minotaur, grabbing Bazric by the collar and hefting him like a rock.

"Wha-" cried Bazric in the moment he had to think and draw his mighty sword before Rom sent him hurtling across the gorge, towards the belly of the beast. With a startled squeak, quite unbecoming for a Paladin of his stature, he hurried to find himself some sure footing. The colossal arachnid turned to look at him with a head covered in beady little eyes. Bazric lunged at the face, doing his best to poke out several of them.

Something tickled at his hand, and he instinctively swept it away before looking down to see the ground beneath him swarming with tarantulae. Though not particularly scary alone, they in their numbers provided a sight Bazric could have done without seeing. He began to stamp all around him, clearing a little patch of ground of spiders. Well, of live spiders at least. As soon as he had enough space he uttered a brief phrase in the ancient language of the dwarves, and a bright flash lit the cavern for a moment, carrying the little spiders away in their scores, hurling them into the abyss. The light barely even touched the great spider at the centre of it all, which reached down with one hairy leg and hauled Bazric bodily into the air for the second time in less than a minute. He reached up to hack through the leg before catching a glimpse of what lay below him: oblivion. Hurriedly sheathing his sword, Bazric clung onto the spider's leg for all he was worth.

[mike_]

Chewing his cheek, Morion turned to Rom and said, 'I have an idea.'

The titanic Minotaur's visage turned grim. He replied, 'Uh-oh.'

Morion laughed, drew his sword, and said, 'Toss me. Like you did the Dwarf.'

'Morion heavier.'

'Is Rom weaker?'

Rom sneezed in response, reached down, grabbed Morion in one huge fist and hurled him across a similar trajectory to Bazric's. He laughed the entire way across, sword held parallel to his body with both hands, blade forward.

Soon Morion reached the huge spider's general area of occupancy and brought his black-bladed sword down in its back. His cape billowing out like the wings of a great bat, Morion dug the blade in further and further, slicing through the spiny carapace as if it were water. Greenish black blood flooded out of the wound, the giant spider bucking and jerking left and right, trying to rid itself of this annoying fly. All the while Bazric lay wrapped around its appendage.

Morion drew a knife from his boot and crouched down to its back, hacking into the enraged arachnid while holding on with his embedded sword. He shouted out, 'Can someone please kill this kecking thing already?'

[{IRS}Athos]

Rindar saw Morion flying towards him and ducked just in time. The man flew over him, laughing, with his sword drawn. His sword cut deep into its back, and he began hacking at it with his belt knife. Rindar set his teeth and dashed forward. He ducked left to avoid one of the flailing claws and overbalanced, sliding towards the edge. His fingers scrabbled for purchase on the floor, catching the edge of a flagstone several feet from the edge. Rindar, now under the spider, could not fully stand. Instead, he held his sword in both hands and stabbed upwards with all his strength.

Greenish-black blood fountained onto Rindar, blinding him, and he coughed and spat, trying to expel the nauseous liquid from his mouth. He felt one of the spider's claws punch through his lower leg as it skittered to and fro in its death throes. Rindar prayed that it didn't come towards him again: he knew that he wouldn't be able to roll aside in time.

((Hope I haven't overstepped myself... but hey, SAM-STYLE! ))

Edited by {IRS}Athos, 23 August 2009 - 01:06 PM.

[Fire Ze Missiles!]

"Whew!" exclaimed Illyirel, still sitting astride the collapsed creature's upper body, "I haven't done anything as stupid and ultimately pointless as that for a long while." He grinned back at Morion, also straddling the fallen beast some way further down it's scaly body, then turned to the rest of the group.
"So anyway, now that's been dealt with - door or stairs?"
'And all that's left,' he thought wryly, 'is for everyone who isn't an elf to cross the innumerable forest of tiny stone pillars...this may not go well.'

((VORT: I'm going to find some food, so one of you decide which way to go. ))

[{IRS}Athos]

Rindar managed to pull himself into a sitting position, holding his bloodied leg in both hands. He gritted his teeth. "I'm not going to be able to jump across with this," he pointed out. He felt blood seep through his fingers and grimaced angrily. "I would appreciate some help binding this."

[some_weirdGuy]

"You do realise mummy spider wasn't your only problem, right?" said Zhar, nodding his head above and below.
A number of the group leaned over the edge, while others looked up. Above them a few large arachnids were swinging their way down, their legs crawling in the air.

Zhar raised his arm upwards, without even looking upwards, he let fly a small ball of fire, it burst upwards like a firework, in a curving motion. It illuminated the ceiling that was obscured in darkness, and it became clear that it wasn't the cave roof, but a large net of spider web high above, with countless spiders making the web seem alive with movement. Obviously that mother had quite a brood in this cave, and the average size of the ones making their way down ranged in body size from about as big as a large dog to the size of a small horse or donkey, and that was not included the legs that reached outwards towards them.

As the flare fell away the roof was again obscured in darkness and now below them became illuminated. Similarly a vast net of spider web lay down from the collection of pillars, and most of the pillars sported one or two of the large spiders scaling up towards the group. The flare dimmed and fizzled out, hiding the bulk of the arachnid brood, But the ones climbing into sight were move then enough. On of the spiders seemed to let out a kind of screech and bared its fangs, a small spray of venom dropped from its mandibles.

Zhar smiled joylessly, more baring his teeth then anything else. The group needed to get a move on, or things would get very messy very fast.