Heading to his meeting with Professor Reading, Oneiro hears something that makes him look down a hallway to see Vai and some other students running from a group of very angry lycanthropes. Pulling several sheets of paper from his sleeves and throwing them down the hallway, Onerio creates several paper-wolves in the hopes of slowing down the lycans.
Gustav kept pulling on both Krays and Vai. Why was Krays so distracted, and Vai acting like she was about to fall asleep? "C'mon, you two, you're the ones who said go to the art room!" He manifested another Wall of Ectoplasm behind them, to slow the lycans down. Perhaps if you carried them? Inspiration said in Gustav's head. "She's too heavy for me to carry very far..." the boy muttered out loud. He concentrated, and two astral constructs began forming . The large, burly figures picked up the scaly kobold and the elven girl, and three people began running down the corridor again.
"She's too heavy for me to carry very far..." the boy muttered out loud.
Vai spots Oneiro down the hallway as she's running. "Oneiro! Run! Eeep!" Vai exclaims as the construct scoops her up, initially fighting to break free before she realizes the constructs are helping them. She takes a moment to catch her breath before turning to look at the pack chasing them.
Taking more paper out of his sleeve, Oneiro is soon held aloft by large wings and flying above the group.
"Why do you have lycans chasing you?" He asks Vai.
Vakkler exits his office, having finally finished grading a large pile of assignments. He sighs with relief. "Nice to be on top of things for once."
"Full moon tonight? Who knows? Who cares? But we're not allowed to kill them in self-defense!" Gustav yelled as they ran. Looking behind him, the boy concentrated, putting a near-invisible wall of sound behind them. "That should sting a little. Protect yourself against silver, will you?" the mountain youth said nastily. He concentrated again as they turned a corner, and a wall of flame popped into existence, the flames roaring in the other direction.
Gustav turned back to facing ahead of them...and ran straight into Professor Vakkler. The boy and the kobold went flying with Gustav's inertia, both landing hard on the stone floor, the professor underneath the human.
"I think they were trying to kill Gustav here... but either way, we're all caught up in it now." Vai says as Oneiro flies above them, a little jealous that he can fly so openly in public.
"What's all thaAAUGH!"
Vakkler goes tumbling. He looks around. "What the--running in the hallways?! "
Vai looks extremely sheepish as Gustav rolls over the Professor. She's suddenly very quiet, remembering her embarrassment earlier in the day falling asleep in his class.
"Uuuuhhhhh...." Gustav started, but the breath was knocked out of him. Gustav's voice spoke telepathically to everyone as the astral constructs holding blonde Vai and kobold Krays came to an easy stop around them. Twenty or more were-wolves and other weres are chasing us. The psicrystal continued. I would not stop here, they are strong enough to not be hindered by anything Gustav has put up to slow them down. Gustav rolled off of the kobold teacher, still gasping for air as he got to his knees and hands.
Vakkler shakes his head at first at the telepathy. Then the words register. "Were--oh. Uh-oh."
The kobold gets up. "Yes, we should run. What's this all about?"
"Elder, there is apparently a coup among the were-kids. They are trying to get revenge on Gustav here for the altercation the other day..."
Takes the second or two to cast remove fatigue on Vai
"Oh thank you Krays. I can run now Gustav." Vai clambers down from the construct and begins running alongside the rest of the group, glancing again over her shoulder at their pursuers.
"So he mad the lycans mad? Not a smart move."
Gustav, still wheezing as he got air into his lungs, pointed at the two pink-silver astral constructs resembling burly half-orcs holding Vai and Krays, and the flying Oneiro. "Jussstt...ussss." he croaked on his hands and knees. He got to his feet and began staggering back down the hallway, following Vai.
Gustav looked at the construct formerly holding the blonde, and mentally gave it a command. Get behind us, stop, face the other way, and prevent anything from following us. Gustav began breathing deeper as he lengthened his stride to an actual run.
Must've had the wind knocked out of him. Vai hesitates, then stops and offers Gustav her hand. "You okay?" She flinches if he takes the assistance, but she refuses to let that dissuade her.
Vakkler also starts running, drawing his heavy crossbow as he goes and reaching into a quiver.
"I think so." Gustav said, taking Vai's hand, but dropped it as they turned another corner. "The Professor's really bony, though. Like falling on top of a wooden chair." Gustav then realized Professor Vakkler was A.) right behind them and B.) holding a heavy crossbow. "Maybe I should make another wall." he told Vai and the others.
"Well. It's nice of you to at least admit that I was not mistaken. You have exactly ten seconds to convince me that letting you succeed is a good idea. After that all bets are off," she says flatly, pulling a small whistle out of her pocket and blowing it.
"We must check the cafeteria to see if Krays and Gustav are alright, then we may need to go to the art classrooms to help the one lycanthrope who may be able to make the others stop doing this."
They make haste downstairs and toward the Cafeteria, keeping eyes and ears alert for any commotion on the way.
Enre puts his face up to the air as Fei and he run to find the others.
"Wait, back up a second....are you telling me that Taron is trying to destroy Agartha? What the hell??!?"
"I can do a wall..."
Casts a spell, and the hallway is filled floor to ceiling with spinning blades made out of metal and bone bits.
As he runs, Vakkler loads his crossbow with a silver-tipped bolt. "Good thing I stocked up on these..."
"Ok then! I'll go find the one in charge, maybe you can 'influence' her to stop. I'll leave a clone with you here..."
A clone appears and smiles at Nala, while Ryuzon follows the scent of the over eager lycans, invisibly. He sees the walls and the tactics they use, and sends back through the other clone...
"It appears to be the white haired one...Ssrena.."
Ryuzo watches a bit longer, then pounces, bursting into were-mole form, using his dimensional agility to pop in and out, targeting the mirrors only with adamantine claws...
Khassar moves back up the wall 15 ft. He then casts limp lash (no saving throw) at mystery.
Vai glances over her shoulder as the lycans easily dispel their barriers. "It's not working Krays we need to go faster." At the last syllable, Vai's hands suddenly crackle with arcane power, and she instinctively reaches out to touch her allies. Suddenly, everything around the group seems to be moving slower. Or they're just moving faster.
Feeling rejuvenated with Vai's spell, Gustav manifested an Ectoplasmic Shambler . A mass of multi-psuedo-limbed monstrosity appeared behind the five persons, and shuffled off to meet the howling lycans. "That should annoy them." Gustav mumbled, and sought to keep the pace with the others.
Woah, woah, woah, Agartha's going to be destroyed? Did I hear you right, or do I just have something crazy in my ear?
"Well. It's nice of you to at least admit that I was not mistaken. You have exactly ten seconds to convince me that letting you succeed is a good idea. After that all bets are off," she says flatly, pulling a small whistle out of her pocket and blowing it.
"Well, Lady Time, that's easier said then done, isn't it? Now, Agartha is a well enough place, but it is a prison. Maybe not for the first generation of refugees that came here, of course, but for everyone born here after that, the ones that didn't have a choice in the matter, it is a much a prison as a place with bars over the windows. That is why Agartha must be no more. By letting this place become what it has, your ancestors let the Dragon Empire succeed. They even managed to send in their assassins, so your safe haven wasn't even safe! This world was a foolish idea from the beginning!"
"Wait, back up a second....are you telling me that Taron is trying to destroy Agartha? What the hell??!?"
"That surprises you? When Kamenwati showed up and Taron's apathy vanished you are telling me you never felt how much he hated living inside this world? Tsk tsk, someone wasn't paying attention then."
Khassar moves back up the wall 15 ft. He then casts limp lash (no saving throw) at mystery.
"But there's so much more to the story than the obvious, Alton. How much do you know about Balance? It all connects."
"B*#!&~*$," Jiminy snaps. "Taron can leave anytime he wants. If he really believed that he was doing the right thing he would have told us about it himself so we could help him."
"Does it, Ephebe? Balance faded away a long time ago, and the job of keeping the realities in some semblance of balance was taken up by the other Patrons. Though considering how much of that story is hidden, even from me, perhaps you are planning to enlighten me?"
"B%@$+%%+," Jiminy snaps. "Taron can leave anytime he wants. If he really believed that he was doing the right thing he would have told us about it himself so we could help him."
::A prisoner how gets to vacation is still a prisoner.:: Taron's mental voice whispers to his siblings. He seems very far away. ::I might have been able to leave, but even my key could unlock the chain this place has on me.::
A group of ink black imps steps out of a portal.
"I must say that I am surprised that you called, mistress," the leader said with a bow towards Ephebe. "I was under the impression that you'd left the evil overlord business, more's the pity. You were so very good at it."
Ephebe raised an eyebrow. "I don't recall the terms of our contract specifying that I had to be pursuing evil in order to require your service. And before you start arguing, do I really have to remind you of the Akhenaten Incident?"
"Uuuuuuugh." The imps said in chorus, shuddering.
"Well, then, since you put it like that, what can we do for you mistress?"
"You see that guy?" she said pointing at the screen with Alton's face on it. "Also, all these statues and stuff? They're part of a scheme to destroy this world. I want you to afflcit them with as much bad luck as you can manage. I'm counting on you."
"Yes, mistress!" the imp said gleefully rubbing his hands together. "Ooh, this is gonna be fun!"
More and more statues are starting to grow brighter. A few much quicker than others.
"Oh, this is going to get interesting. Why do you think afflicting the statues will help?"
"Keep going, I'll slow them down." Oneiro says as his wings beccome normal sheets of paper again and he drops to the ground. "Thanks for the extra speed, Vai. I'll catch up later."
Turning around, Oneiro throws paper into the air again and this time creates a swarm of wasps and sends them buzzing menacingly toward the lycans.
"I'll send a few big guys your way!" Gustav shouted to Onerio as he kept running with Vai, Krays, and Professor Vakkler. Gustav made an Astral Construct with his mind, and behind him a silvery-pink Large humanoid creature formed in the hallway. The creature faded from sight as it moved to stand beside the student in the hallway, cocking one massive arm back, ready to punch the first target.
Gustav reacquired his psionic focus in order to send another astral construct as fast as he could to help Onerio.
"Does it, Ephebe? Balance faded away a long time ago, and the job of keeping the realities in some semblance of balance was taken up by the other Patrons. Though considering how much of that story is hidden, even from me, perhaps you are planning to enlighten me?"
"Not really. You irk me. Telling you would make you happy and I'm not really all about that right now. Maybe if you weren't making Keme seem sufferable, but as far as I'm concerned you can go on not knowing."
"Hey! Don't drag me into this!"
"Well, no matter. In about two minutes it won't matter anyway." Alton laughs. "Hey, mystery ally, do you want me to send help?"
"No."
"Fair enough, but you do realize that spell has your stuck in place, right?"
"... Fine, send help."
"On it."