The Father of Waters

Game Master Fighting Chicken

Imix's valiant struggle to escape is essentially pointless against the massive muscles of the enormous dragon.

Doing what he does best, Drazan attacks hoping to trade blows with the enormous long necked fish.

Round 1

The emergence of the huge water-borne monster fills Istiel with untold delight. She points towards its hulking frame and shouts "A dragon!" just as Imix is snatched up in its gaping maw.

With untold glory waiting to be claimed and her companions in danger, Istiel concentrates. The pressure in her temples increases until it feels like her head is about to burst from the sides as she attempts to manipulate the powers over Time that her ascended master had bestowed upon her. The river of Time, ever-present but invisible, drifts over head now, connecting them all.

Usually she would slow down the flow itself, granting her reaction speed beyond that of a mortal body and mind, but this time she feels herself pulled in a different direction. The line drifting from the "dragon" hovers in front of her, fat and glowing a ghostly incandescent white. She "squeezes" iit with force of will alone, reducing its connection to the river above to a mere trickle.

While not sure whhhat she had done, it felt... right. Istiel then leaps from the balcony into the water, quickly swimming to join Drazan in battle.

Oios just kind of waves his spear about.

Round 2

The beast lifts Imix out of the water and then just... slows. Smashing its jaws down onto the Suriname, the creature drops Imix and turns slowly to find Drazan slashing into its side. The "Dragon's" reactions muddled, the Suriname tumbles into the water as one large eye focuses on the Man From Fire Peaks...

Round 2

Swimming towards the "dragon" like a woman possessed, Istiel braves its snapping jaws until she has closed into striking distance. While unable to use the ground to brace herself and deliver her usual punishing blows, she still begins to hammer the creature's tough hide with her equally tough fists in rhythmic succession.

Imix, hurting badly lashes out with his pick. His keen mind considers alternate strategies - but Suriname magic is just too slow for such close combat.

Drazan continues his reckless slashing, hoping to stain the water with the creatures dark blood. It would be clear to most that Drazan isn't raging, and that it greatly changes his fighting style if it weren't for his elemental form blending with his surroundings.

Round 3

The beast's reflexes, dulled by Istiel's magic, don't save it from the brunt of Oios's fiery blast, which explodes into the face of the "dragon." Istiel punches at the beast's neck, feeling scales and vertebrae crack under her fists, while Imix and Drazan fail to pierce the creature's armor, their weapons skipping harmlessly off the beast.

Turning its attention to the warrior-monk, the "dragon" lunges at Istiel, but again its timing is off balance. The creature's snapping jaws find nothing but water, one bloodshot eye staring directly into the warrior-monks own as its attack passes by...

Drazan continues his measured and conservative chopping.

Oios directs another blast of fire at the creature.

Round 3

The beast's slow movements were easy for Istiel to dodge, even when the water restricted her movement. Twisting out of the way as jaws snap at water near her, she looks into the dragon's eye for the briefest moment...

Then she punches it.

Fetid water drips off of her knuckles as she draws back her fist from the surrounding pool. The monk lunges forward with a powerful, kick-driven swim, smashing her hand directly into the "dragon's" eyeball. As the blow connects she focuses her life energy into the muscles of her right arm, pulverizing the reptilian iris with super human force.

Round 4

Imix's pick sinks deep into the "dragon's" neck, while the energy sphere flies through the air, blackening some of the skin along the creature's neck. Drazan's attacks again glance of the beast, though siezing the moment, Istiel lands a solid - and squishy - blow.

The creature's eye explodes, and it lets out a quaking roar. Whipping its head to the other side of Istiel, it snaps its jaws at the monk, latching them around her arm and twisting...

Round 4

Caught off guard by the creature's sudden burst of aggression, Istiel cries out as her arm is suddenly in a dagger-filled vice grip.

The cry of pain turns into a yell of unbriddled fury as her other arm whips around to strike the "dragon". Using her own bitten arm as an anchor for her body, she smashes her fist into her attacker's mouth. Knuckles harder than stone smash into the dragon's jaw, obliterating its hide and shattereing the bones below.

With Istiel demanding the things attention Drazan shoots through the water to set up the flank with Istiel and Imix before striking at what looks to be gaps in the incredibly think armor. Even large creatures struggle when up against numbers and Drazan didn't put much value in honor or fair fights.

The creature's teeth grind across Istiel's arm, but the monk is focused, smashing her fist time and time again into the creature's mouth, shattering teeth and bone. Then, in a fury, the monk reaches up and digs her hand into the beast's remaining eye, and squeezes, goo from the "dragon's" mangled orb shooting from Istiel's clenched fist.

Meanwhile, Drazan's baneaxe finally finds purchase, and sinks deep, again and again, and the creature's head comes loose from its neck, as if the Man From Fire Peaks were hewing down a tree.

The creature's neck sinks below the murky water, whilst its head hangs limply from Istiel's arm, threatening to pull the monk below the water. Wriggling her arm free, the beast's head joins its neck below the water.

One door along the balcony leads into another bedroom, its contents long moldered into indistinguishable rot. Delving into the water below the balcony, you find that Floodwaters fill this chamber to the roof, the current pushing the ragged remains of the curtains to and fro. Sheets of algae cover the lounge chairs and end tables along the walls. To the north lie three doors, a small one beneath the marble staircase which leads to the balcony and a larger one on either side. To the west and east, immense windows, long since shattered, look upon the submerged landscape beyond.

Even as the dragon sinks beneath the water Imix is striking again and again, an exhausting flurry of frantic energy, rather than the Suriname's normal cool, cruel fighting style.

"Who shall heal?" Imix pants at Oios, when he finally comes out of his rage. "Once again our damage is... significant. I suggest I go first, as all of us are injured." True to his word the Suriname gathers his fellows around him - and out of range of the dragon, just in case.

"For the record - were it not for the irreplaceable nature of our aquatic enchantment I would insist we return to base. Let us do this quickly and depart."

Istiel manages to swim away just as she is beginning to sink with the beast, keeping her head above water for the time. Her blood mixes with the cursed water, but it is far outmatched by the geyser of red pouring from the dying lizard's neck.

"We have slain a dragon!" Istiel announces as it sinks towards the floor below. "There is nothing that can stand before us." The warrior-monk is clearly filled with vigor, embolded by their victory and the glory she had gained. It was one more step closer to godhood, her feet firmly planted on the back of several mythical beasts.

Convening for healing, Istiel briefly looks at the holes in her robes where the beasts short but razor-sharp teeth tore at the silks covering her entire body. "I will scout the area." She says while poking a fingerr through a ragged hole that exposes her moon-pale skin below.

Emerging a little while later, Istiel treads the surface of the still red waters. "Nothing of note here. There are three doors to the north. One leads here. Two others are unknown. I will investigate."

A slow black streak among the water, Istiel chooses one of the two larger doors by the staircase at random and opens it, trying to see inside.

[spoiler=ooc]If it's too dar kto see, she will light a Candlerod before looking inside./[spoiler]

I am strained for the day. It shall have to be you Imix. Oios says in an exhausted tone of voice.

A barnacle-encrusted heap of rubble makes up the western wall of this flooded room. Remnants of an elegant rug peak out from underneath the debris, the fabric rotted and worn from years beneath the water. Pieces of demolished furniture have been wedged into gaps between the collapsed beams, forming a crude barricade. Behind the barricade, five fish-like humanoids float. Covered in green scales and with large, piscine blue eyes, the creatures duck behind the barricade.

Istiel floats at the entranceway, gripping the crumbling doorway with one scarred hand. She watches the fish-like humanoids carefully, but sees no intents of violence.

Looking up and back, she waves in Imix to translate.

Imix translates "They want to know why we are here."

He turns back to the fishmen.

He turns to Oios and waits to act as translator.

Uninterested in dealing with fish-people that posed no threat, (and thus, no glory) Istiel swims off in disinterest. She opens the other nearby door, peering inside for anything that could act as tribute.

We are newcomers to this place and are here to explore. To see what is here and to make new allies. Oios says We are people of Damballah and come from upstream. May we know of you?

One of the fishmen swims to the top of the barricade and crouches, eyeing you warily. In Aquan, it addresses Imix.

"Who is Damballah? Is it a threat to the Wavewhisper tribe? I saw visions of your coming. You've defeated the dinosaur, yes? It ate half our tribe, and we retreated to this room. I had faith that you would show up before we starved."

After sticking her head in both nearby doors, Istiel floats back to the first one. She briefly disappears out of sight by entering the first door she opened.

Oios, weary almost to the point of fatigue, replies through Imix. Then we are glad to have saved you from your hardship. Does your tribe live here in the ruins of other peoples? Above the waters the land suffers from a drought and we have been charged with retrieving items that will help bring the rains back to replenish the lake. Will you allow us to take some of these old abandoned items for that purpose?

Drazan idles nearby Oios and Imix as they talk to the fish men, just in case they would get aggressive.

The fish-person relaxes, and so does its compatriots. Giving you an elaborate bow, it - she, it turns out - turns to Oios and addresses his questions, in Aquan.

"Indeed, we are grateful for your help. Please consider us friends. I am Ketheero, and my peoples here are all that are left of our tribe. We do not live here among the ruins of other peoples. We migrate with the seasons, but last year, horrific creatures began swimming the waters of our ancestral homes, and so we fled. Alas, we moved into this blighted land; the waters are not pure like our home, and the storms that lash our waters - and the land above it - do not happen here."

"And so we planned to continue on, but stopped here for safety. Only to find these waters were the hunting grounds of that monster. It killed over half of us that remained, and we barricaded ourselves in this room."

More refugees from ancestral homes. A common and shared tragedy, Drazan muses.

Overrun by horrific creatures? In truth our people are in the same predicament. We were a settled peoples but were overrun by a great evil that forced us to migrate. We are glad to have helped fellow refugees. Perhaps we can talk of what happened? It does not seem to be a coincidence that both our peoples were turned out of our homes recently I fear a great terror is engulfing the whole world. We used to live in a valley to the north. Where were your homes? Imix, Drazan, can you continue the conversation, I must investigate the rest of this place as it seems we are free for more... salvage.

While they are speaking with the Fish-people, Istiel reappears from a room, black robes fluttering in the water as she slowly carries a vibrant oil painting. It is of a city that looks very similar to the water-choked ruins the beastmen inhabit. She leans it up against a nearby wall, intent on taking it as tribute.

Catching part of ttthe traanslation, Istiel comments: [b]"A land of pure waters? Great beasts are no match for us. We could take the Flight and reclaim their homeland ourselves. Share the land as they take the water."[/b

Having said her two coppers, the warrior-monk disappears behind another door.

Drazan almost pounces on the opportunity to interrogate the fish people,
quite eager to know more, he requests Imix to translate, Ask them what they know of the poisoned waters too. And the Raincallers, and of the Place of Towers where the Flight is now. Can the waters be purified? Oh, and ask them what other visions it has had. I want to know more about these visions.

Ketheero puts a hand to her chest and cocks her head listening as the questions are translated rapid-fire. "The Waveswhisperers come from the south, down this cursed channel which splits into smaller rivers. Our home was an alpine lake, cold but clear. The beasts that came and destroyed our tribe, and the others like ours, were from not here but beyond. Friends of the stout ones. We took the spring rise from our lake, and rode it down to this cursed channel, and chose to go north instead of south. Perhaps we made the wrong decision?"

"As for my visions, I get them from time to time. It is my place in my tribe to see things not as they are. Is there something you seek, tall bald one?"

UNDEAD APPARITION! Oios screams as he taps the last of his waning reserves to bring the wrath of his whole pantheon on the unnatural undead creature that has attacked the reckless monk.

Drazan holds up a finger to the fish people, Hold there a moment, the others have gotten into something. Then without waiting for a reply, Drazan jets to and through the doorway toward where he had watched Oios swim off toward.

Round 1

Istiel feels the frigid hand clamp down on her calf through her robes, sending the unfortunately familiar feeling of her life force moving out of her body.

Snapping her head down to see the ghostly fingers passing through the table and her robes, Istiel grits her teeth and focuses her ki, redirecting it away from the apparition's hungry hands and towards her hands. The warrior-monk had killed Yid with a similar technique, and intended to employ it again. Another ghost, banished to her ever-growing list of glorious achievements.

She launches herself into a somersault, spinning in the water and slamming her fist down into and through the undead hand while pulsing her ki into its lifeless form.

The monk's rock-hard hand collides with the rotting table below and smashes through the wood, sending her backwards in the water towards the ceiling. Robes fluttering, she spins briefly before perfectly orientating her body such that her feet connect with the top of the room; honed thighs flex and she ricotes off of it, smashing fist-first into the table and any ghostly parts sticking out of it.

Round 1

The wraith pulls its hand back and into the table as Oios's staff thuds into the sodden wood, before it and its companion rise through the table. One steps forward to Oios and lunges at him, while the other concentrates on Istiel, reaching out a wispy, grasping hand.

Both heroes find their souls chilled to the bone and flesh blackened by the assault.

Istiel punches at the wraith attacking her, making contact against the apparition but finding her strikes blunted, as if they are only partially real.

The wraiths babble in their unknown, long-lost language, their voices the match to the maddening voices you met in the room above, though this time you can hear them a bit more clearly; one was once a man, one was once a woman...

Imix bubbles an apology and rushes along with Drazan, his suit perfectly built to flick through the water. Even his training fails at the site of the babbling dead, and he falters for a moment at the door with Drazan.

Istiel striking out at incorporeal spirit in the alien water scape comes into site and Drazan charges through the waves tapping into his rage to quickly end the spirit with Bane's magically shaped blade.

Round 2

The babbling voices fill Istiel's mind once again, causing a momentary lack in concentration as she attempts to banish them from her thoughts. During this moment one of the spirits grabs her, but she does not shy away even as her flesh crackles and burns beneath its grip..

"No." The warrior monk says as she redirects her ki away from the ghost's hungry fingers and into her own. She effortlessly taps into the powers bestowed upon her by Domnhall, time slowing all around her. For an instant a scene flickers before her eyes from the past... creatures of flesh and blood, remarkably similar to the wraiths before her, sit in dim bright light of the orrey, peacefully reading... but it was gonein an instant.

"BEGONE!" Istiel yells as she flickers back into the present, magically enchanced fists swinging into the ghost's forms in an attempt to dissipate the hateful energy that gives shape to their forms.

Feeling the freezing cold of the unnaturally unliving spectres seems to put a deep chill into the old man's limbs. He lashes out again and again at the one on him, to precious little effect. His staff seems to flicker as it fails to find purchase.

A chill deeper than any winter's night runs through Oios, just as Drazan's bane axe and Istiel's fists run through the wraith that had attacked Istiel. Turning the wraith grasps at Drazan, before lashing back out at the monk, its eyes glowing in the murky water.

The other wraith continues its assault on Oios, ghostly hand grasping at the Shadow's neck...

Oios's normally hale skin goes greyer and greyer, getting closer in color and texture to his hair. Imix's magic restores him though and he continues to swing again and again at the abomination attacking him. One hit seems to get through!

Your wretchedness ends here! Drazan challenges the angry spirit, shirking its deathly touch off with his enhanced elemental form, and bringing Bane down again and again ripping through the waves of water.