Mouse slowly begins to move again as the Orc winds his key. Aware of the green monster at his back, the clockwork moves very slowly until Drot'ook steps away from his key. The automaton whirls around to look at his towering compatriot, but the scholarly orc is lost in thought. Mouse takes a moment to watch the orc work before relaxing its guard.
If the green giant had wanted to hurt him, Mouse assumed he would already have done so. As the machine silently watched, Drotook assembled a strange contraption that he assured the clockwork would help with his electrical problem. It tentatively grasped the strange instrument before expertly twirling it through the air and planting it in the earth. Electricity surged through it for roughly twelve seconds before the automaton withdrew the weapon and put it away, no longer sparking.
As Drot'ook hands him the bullets though, Mouse plays audio of several voices singing in a strange tongue.
As the machine mounts up, it kicks it's horse into gear with practiced ease and takes off with the others. The single eye of the clockwork carefully watches the surrounding forest, wary of enemies.
The scene is a dense forest. Up ahead about 50-100 yards is the fenceline (you can barely make it out between the foliage - and it blends in well with the fall colors).
Around you is some number of creatures, humanoid but with scales, hiding in the brush and the branches of the trees. Some are alone, some bunches up.
Everyone is up.
"Enemies all around! In the trees and the bushes!" Tess shouts in alarm. She slips off the horse and reaches for her holy symbol, intent on casting a spell. But she finds herself clutching one of the talismans instead. Strange words come unbidden from her lips, and she can feel the daemonic spirit worming its way into her soul. She doubles over and groans in pain as knobby growths appear all over her body!
Her eyes flash yellow and she grits her teeth, determined to master the spirit and not the other way around. Snarling, she readies her sword and shield!
Faster than anyone can blink, Mouse slams black powder and a ball bearing into his gun, closing it with a Snap! In a single smooth action, he pulls the reigns of his horse and fires the pistol into one of the lizard-folk. His horse rears up but doesn't buck the gunslinger.
Remaining on her shadowy mount, Kahtia casts a spell and places a hand on Tess' shoulder when she stands, inhabited by the daemon spirit. The woman, already transformed, is further filled with vigor, with zeal.
"Be careful!" she says to everyone, "We are surrounded!"
"By the grace of the New God, grant us the strength to survive the coming trials."
Charles remained on his mount, raising his hand and raising his obsidian shield up in defense.
Drot enjoyed the tune that played from Mouse's sound wave emitter, he made a note to discuss fixing him a proper voice box as well.
When they approached the fencing it was suddenly apparent to Drot that they were being watched, and further confirmed by his allies warnings. Drot yanks on the reins of his horse, and turns it toward a group of the reptilians that appeared behind the party. He calls out a spell that he picked up from the time he spent around Kahtia in the desert and directs it at the majority.
"Arcus; Potens; Fulgur!"
Tesswyn alerts the group to what everyone else already sees, and immediately her two lovers - both past and present - seek to protect her.
Mouse tells the entire forest that he's here to invade by firing a gunshot into one of the lizard people, killing it instantly. Blood spurts out of it coating a nearby shrub.
Then Drot moves in to a larger group of them and fries the entire group. Their electrically burnt corpses bring about a pungent odor to the immediate area.
Two of the diminutive reptilian creatures rush at the horse upon which sits Tesswyn and Kahtia. One leaps upon Tesswyn; the claws fail to dig in but the powerful jaw clamps down around one arm.
The other leaps upon the horse biting and scratching, killing the beast instantly. The magic forces it to pop out of existence and the women both unceremoniously fall to the ground.
Three other reptilians carefully approach, but they don't get close. Instead, frills pop out of their necks and they hiss a stream of fluid. One stream lands on Mouse's horse, melting the creature. Guts pour out of it's open side before it disappears into ethereal nothingness.
Another jet of acid sprays Philip. The mean screams in pain as his face starts to melt off.
The last spit of acid hits right where Mouse was, but fortunately his mount disappearing beneath him caused the reptilian to miss.
Other reptilians move back and form bigger groups.
The group is embroiled in full-on combat quickly -- Kaht's conjured mount is suddenly knocked from existence, and the woman is falling. She sees herself, though, landing heavily on her back, hitting her head... and as she sees this, as she falls, she is able to shift her body weight and turn -- and land on her feet! She makes note to thank Tesswyn later... for now, there is a battle to fight!
Rising to her full (and not terribly impressive) height, the mage casts Explosive Darts, girding the spell with entropic power as well, fueling the detonations further as she targets a pair of attackers. As the explosions sound, she calls over to Drot and his impressive display.
"Drot'ook!" she says gleefully, "You have mastered arcane lightning!"
Mouse tumbles from his horse and just before he crashes to the earth, he looses a shot into the injured lizard-thing. The clockwork crashes into the ground with a clatter, sparking and sizzling. Suddenly, a surge of energy floods from the downed machine and into the sky. There was a distant rumbling and the sky answers Mouse's call with a bolt of its own.
Tess barely feels the creature's teeth on her arm. She lashes out with her blade, slicing at one foe twice.
Drot smiles at himself when Kahtia notices his near perfect execution of the Arcane tradition. He mumbles his next incantation and directs it toward the reptiles attacking Tesswyn.
"Septem; Iaculum!"
Charles sees the retreating figures of the strange dragon men. He sheathes his sword and reaches into his bag, pulling out an incantation scroll as he centered himself at the group. "By Astrid's will, guide our blades and give us courage." the spell flares, giving everyone courage.
Between Kahita, Tesswyn, Mouse, and Drot, you bring down all the immediate foes. Except that one guy. That one guy was a stubborn bastard.
Philip, however, was not going to put up with any s!#&. He charged straight at it slamming his pick into the lizard's skull, killing it. He stayed there for some moments, breathing heavy as his face became more disfigured from the acidic spit.
Meanwhile, Mouse's lightning bolt from the sky have sent the clustered group scattering in every direction. Others try to fold back into the shadows.
Seeing the enemies hanging back, Tesswyn stows her shield and sword before drawing her bow. She fires two shots at the nearest foe!
Mouse stands back up, mud and dirt sliding off his metal exterior as he continues shooting at the gathered lizards. Electricity once more builds up in his body, surging forth from his left arm and splitting before striking at two different lizards.
Bang!
Kahtia could see from poor Phil's face that this acid was bad news -- they needed to keep these wretched creatures at bay. There are more pyrotechnics from Drot, there's lightning from Mouse, but the mage adopts a different tactic: area denial.
"The Emperor's Armada! Arise Flashing Swords!" she cries, reading from her new grimoire, then she's gesturing, weaving, casting, moving rhythmically as she summons a whole wall of slashing swords, swords that cut anything near them to ribbons!
Drot studies the lizards hiding around the brush skeptically. He scans the area all around his group looking for flanks or other dangers.
"I don't know if we have the resources to take on this many. They could overwhelm us at any moment if they weren't cowards, perhaps we should fall back and either bottleneck them or get back to camp and see if there was anything left behind that could help us in this fight..."
Drot readies himself to evade any incoming missiles from the hesitant forest dwellers.
Charles looked around at the group, seeing them take care of the growing troubles and then he noticed Phil, who was burning and his face was cracked and melted. "Phil, here. Drink this."
At Drot'ook's suggestion he turns and looks at him. "If we had time, maybe. The fact they can spit acid does little for us to bottleneck them. We'll keep picking them off."
Kahtia impressively summons a giant wall of swords in a magnificent display of magical power. Her spell kills many of the reptilians on the spot, but the few that survived were easily picked off by Tesswyn's silent arrows and Mouse's ear-shattering hand cannon.
After a moment, things god quiet. Except for the soft swishing of blades along the wall and the gentle breeze in the air.
Charles moved over to Philip to heal him, which helped ease the pain but didn't revert his disfigurement.
Behind the wall of swords, those perceptive enough can see the reptilians running full bore for the safety of their own wall.
Now that the lizards were retreating, Mouse wipes the mud off of himself and starts cleaning his gun. He plays a recording of a simple reed flute as he wipes the barrel of his weapon with an old rag. With a quick dash of oil, the clockwork polishes the gun to a shine and puts it away.
Kahtia, now on foot, approaches the wall of spinning, slashing swords that she's summoned. Raising one hand towards them, she looks to her companions.
"They look to have retreated, agreed? Shall I dismiss these blades, or leave them in place for a time?"
Charles felt some relief as the strange assailants backed away.
"Leave them in place. It's enough to make them hesitate and retreat We need to figure out how we're going to be assaulting them. That ability to spit acid is dangerous. I can temporarily obscure myself from attacks, but I don't have any way to get rid of more than one at a time."
"Let me spearhead our formation," Tesswyn says, her voice coming out as a raspy snarl. The knobby growths across her oaken body give her a distinctly unsettling appearance. "I can handle most of what they throw at me. Keep me healed and slay them from a distance while I hold them at bay." Her speech patterns seem a bit more stilted and formal than usual.
Drot continues to spot the group's flank for a time but makes his way towards Kahtia and her wall.
"Kahtia! This spell here, it's quite interesting to me that the empire was able to recreate the effects of the battle tradition with their own calls of passion. Perhaps the delivery is what caused the blades to dull and the spirits to falter."
Drot pulls out his notebook, with near identical markings to the one from before the catastrophe, it more organized and pleasant to the eye for the time being. He flips through pages with dense writing and detailed tradition of magic, but as he gets further along the writing becomes sparse until most pages had simple phrases scrawled on them.
"Although I haven't perfected the corresponding energy structure or the shape of the lay line draws, the phrasing my ancestors used to call on this spell comes naturally to me. See it here?"
Drot reveals his book to the mage, an impressive document prepared to take on dozens of entries of spells, flora, animal life, and cultural commentary. He directs her attention to an unfinished spell, the orc then clears his throat unceremoniously before barking the spell as if in the midst of combat.
"Ah-hem! Uruh! Like so, ERHEBE, KÖNNTE, GEFALLEN, BRÜDER!"
Suddenly the forest seems eerily quiet now that he was done. Drot stood with a face of concentration waiting for the mage's input.
Charles eyes widened as he looked over at Tesswyn, his fears for her were suddenly justified. She had never acted so rashly in the years he had known her, something had happened to change her. A pang of guilt shot through him as he realized he was too late and should not have given up after searching only two cities.
But then, would they have not come back if he and Drot'ook weren't in danger? he didn't know the answer. The view of the mural from up above popped into his mind. A horrible depiction to those in the moment, a strange sense of completion once it was all said and done.
The eyes that were not his own made him aware of the clockwork that seemed out of place but he wasn't sure what to make of it yet. Drot'ook distracting Kahtia with some sort of arcane questioning. The eyes that were not his focused on the woman, a scar now marred her once flawless image. He wondered if perhaps the day he had cursed her to damnation was responsible. He wasn't sure.
He shook his head and looked back at Tesswyn. "Fine, let's go."
Kahtia watches Drot'ook approach, then she listens to him essentially lecture her -- and smirks when he finishes. The casual listener wouldn't hear it, but sharp humor lurks at the edge of the orc's words.
"Perfect, Drot'ook, better than I was taught at the Tower. I will incorporate your inflection when next I cast a master spell." Leaning in close to him, almost touching his chest, the mage adds, "In truth, your expert casting of Arcane Lightning all but drained this location of its mana. I should have known better than to fight through your wake."
When Tess calls to move forward, and Charles agrees, they begin to move out. Kahtia walks beside Drot'ook and smiles up at him. "Jesting aside, you have improved, Drot. And I realize now how much I missed you."
Drot looks around and puts his hand into the air, spreading his fingers wide. Then he breaths in slowly and deeply, focusing on his senses.
"Hmmm... I did not consider that... Even with a sharper focal point in our traditions the spells still need adequate fuel... Thank you Kahtia, I will be more sensitive to that variable!"
Drot inspects the wall once again and makes a few notes in his book before giving the mage an awkward bow and shuffling away.
After the brief tête-à-tête with his fellow magician, Drot regrouped and agreed with moving forward. After a moment of walking he finally notices his sister's on-going state and shoots a worried look at Charles and Kahtia, then at Tess again.
"You seem Bersss...Enraged Tesswyn. Will you be alright?"
"A new set of 'gifts' from the Seer," Tess growls. "I am in control of the daemon, for now."
You make your way forward through the thick brush, bramble snagging at your clothes as you push through. The bitter cold day sneaks its way in as your cloaks get caught.
Still, you manage to push forward ever closer to the wooden fence.
Suddenly, three reptilians emerge out of the brush and spew acid streams at you.
Mouse did not understand the ramblings of Drot and Khatia. Despite the similarities of the arcane lighting to his own electricity, they seemed to be the result of chanting and strange hand movements. The automaton supposed their talents would not prove much use in taming the energy leakage he was experiencing.
Suddenly, as the lizard creatures leap out of the bushes, Mouse leaps back in surprise... before freezing in place. It seems like Drot may have done a poor job of winding him.
Charles was not taken by surprise at all as the lizard men appeared from cover. He took a deep breath and raised his shield activating the magics from within.
"Not good, we've got more company!"
p
Tesswyn raises her bow and shoots the nearest one.
Kahita, who has been talking quietly with Drot'ook as they walk, is on her guard as well when the next ambush is sprung. She is quickly casting a Destruction spell at the closest of their enemies no one else is targeting, her voice rising sharply as she gestures, then opens her palm with her dagger. "Shaaza Toch!"
Tesswyn and Kahtia make quick work of two of the reptilians before they even have a chance to act. The third spews acid at Charles, but misses completely.
Working together, you're quickly able to kill the last one.
Now, you're at the fence. It's 15' high. What do you do?
Kahttia says she's got this, and immediately casts two spells. A section of the wall blows apart violently, sending shards throughout the area. Everyone instinctively protects their eyes and ducks for cover, but fortunately no one is hurt.
When it's all said and done, Kahtia can feel two new bruises forming.
"Best get your friend moving again. Seems like we're going to need him soon."
Drot nods at Kahtia's handy work, fascinated with the focus and efficiency she repeatedly demonstrates with her magic. He moves up to the opening from an angle and stops next to it, back to the wall.
"Truly impressive as always, Kahtia."
He clears away the ragged edges left from the blast and slowly moves himself so more and more of the opening is revealed to him. Ready to dodge out of the way if he happens to spot anything recognizably hostile.
You burst through the fence and start to head inside. The other side has a short growth of trees before a clearing. It looks like they've cleared out a good hundred yards to the cave entrance.
There are fifty or more of these reptilians in here. Some of them are injured from your recent slaughter. They're all moving about frantically, preparing for the upcoming battle after you alerted your precence by destroying part of the fence.
There are huts scattered about. Pens with pigs, goats, people, chickens, and more.
The compound is a half circle with a 50 yard radius spread out from the cave entrance. All the trees have been cleared and used to build the fence, make small huts, and make pens for their livestock.
There's a total of six pens and nine huts.
From the rear, Kahtia, her brow furrowed, tries to spot where the captives are being held.
"We might spare further bloodshed on both sides if we can convince them to surrender, or at least stand down," she says to her fellows. To Charles, Philip, and Drot, she adds, "I do not see your people here. How many were there?"
Tesswyn sweeps the encampment, identifying priority targets and noting anything that seems unusual.
"We had more than 30 people, they're in the pens." Charles said, taking in the entirety of the scene before them.
He grimaced at Kahtia's suggestion. "Can you speak their language? I might have been able to do something before... but not anymore now that the remaining essence of the mask is gone."
Drot nods to the others.
"The may communicate with Dark Speech, or something specific to them. They seem easily frightened, that could be an effective short term solution. We may want to hurry, whatever we do, it seems we don't have much time..."
Drot readies himself for the coming fights as well; hammer and spells at the ready.
The compound seems to have a few dozen of the reptilians scattered about. As you watch, it seems like they're trying to retreat into the cave system. They're grabbing livestock and bringing it down into the hole in the ground that is the cave entrance. It is not a quick process.
You hear people scream and holler as the reptilians are also trying to move people out of their cages and towards the cave.
A few reptilians are standing guard along the outermost huts, keeping an eye out for Intruders. There seems to be 8 of them, spaced evenly around the edge of the "village."
What's your plan?
"It's worth trying, Drot'ook," Kahtia says as she moves into the compound, wary of more surprise attacks, eyeing the ground in front of them and other places of potential ambush. "And if we can get some of them to surrender, we can put them in the pens after we free the captives. Can anyone block that cave entrance?"
Casting a spell as she walks, her long jacket flowing, Kaht raises her voice to a shout as she commands one of the lizardfolk near the pens to release the prisoner it's holding, drop its weapon and get on the ground.
Mouse took a moment to focus himself before once again every surged from the machine's body and into the sky. The clouds darkened and mere moments later another bolt struck earth, this time right over the cave entrance. This second time seemed to drain the machine, as its movements became more sluggish than before.
Drot nods and clears his throat. He steps toward the closet guard, puffs himself up and barks at the creature in Dark speech. He is loud enough for most to hear him and more ferocious than you've ever heard, besides when The Berserker is in control; even now the flames in his eyes flair with excitement.
"No. Not easily anyway, and those perimeter guards will be a problem regardless of what we do."
"Astrid, guide my shot."
Tesswyn fires on the same lizardman Charles targets.