"I guess trying to sneak up on a god with two-faces wouldn't go too well," Grace observes to Dunwich.
She goes silent at the Hypnotist's prayer. When asked if ready, she stands and nods.
Æthelweard pauses, pursing his lips as he mulls a reply to both Silver Tiger, then Gracie, but allows his thoughts to dwindle as plans turn to the journey ahead.
He rises, with the grateful help of Sinclair, then limps forward leaning upon his cane;
"I am ready. I hope this Netherworld is for what will be wrought up on it..."
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Seven rises, pressing two fingers to her mask right at her temples. "Everyone stand still. You may experience some nausea or other discomfort. ."
The world twists and deforms around you, resettling into a strange new shape. No sun hangs above you; instead the entire sky churns with a dull fire of orange and purple. Ashen grey plants sprout from the rocky ground. You’ve arrived on a bluff overlooking some sort of riverside factory town below, and in the distance, impossibly tall and slender mountains stretch up disturbingly high.
Below you can see chalk-white figures rounding up villagers, dragging them into a rough circle, overlooked by two figures in black robes and a third in bright red.
The town that lies below you could be a well constructed set for a Harry Potter movie, or just a renaissance English town with some anachronisms. Beyond the town center there is a wide sluggish river, and where a mill might normally sit is a squat brick and concrete factory with tall brick smokestacks belching thick smoke.
Seven looks around, "Good, this should town should be largely beneath Una's direct attention. Look, there, something is happening in the town. I don't like the way they are handling those villagers..."'
One of the black cloaked figures is oversized, about 12 feet tall and with a lumbering gait.
Silver Tiger begins sprinting towards the cloaked beings.
Sinclair watches Seven's spell very closely, so he can duplicate it later. He lands in the Netherworld with slight discomfort, which passes like a wave. After he collects his bearings, he surveys the village below.
Hearing that Seven does not like the situation, it seems like that they were going to intervene or just get closer. Although, he is too slow for the martial artist. "Um. It seems we're going to that village and maybe intervene. Please wait a second. I plan to open a portal to the alley around the corner from the incident." He makes space among them.
Sinclair's hands wave and fingers articulate. "Open a Powerful Portal of Portheus," the young mage commands causing a pinprick of light to swirl and expand until a six foot diameter hole appears in space.
Grace had a swirling feeling of dread in her gut but wasn't sure that was due to the situation or aftereffects of traveling through dimensions.
"In the movies, peasants being moved into circles generally means 'sacrificial victim.' I might try to scratch out the circle." Grace muses. Startled by Silver Tiger's dive into combat, she nods at Sinclair when he opens a portal, and, calling upon Calesvol, hefts her blade and steps through.
And as you look down upon the village, you see 20 feet away from the main road where the roundup is taking place, within line of sight to you and out of line of sight with the chalk-white brute squad, you clearly see a six foot diameter hole appear identical to the one in front of you.
Clearly though impossibly, the two portals appear to be connected, such that if you walk through the one in front of you, you arrive 1,000 feet away near the villagers who need your help.
A splattering of the Dreamtime's dancing lights solidify into a flying platform. The Hypnotist steps aboard it and into Sinclair's portal. He zips by into a tactical position while maintaining cover behind the rooftops.
Æthelweard hesitates as Silver Tiger and Briareus move purposefully toward the pale figures that menace the villagers.
With a deep breath he haltingly limps through Sinclair's portal;
"Once more unto the breach and all that!"
Grace waits until the village-menacers are distracted by Dunwich and Silver Tiger's advance and then moves toward the circle, urging the villagers to flee while she tries to scratch out the circle with her sword.
As you arrive on the street, you hear a woman's voice say, "Cayrne, Myst, see what that noise is...Soldiers, bring the townsfolk here."
"Yes, Lady Kada'vrus," says a deep voice like stone grinding stone."[/b]
Silver tiger reverts course and runs then jumps through the portal, arriving where the group is.
Grace will move up and around the building to flank () with the rest of the group, with hopes of eventually getting to the circle without getting entangled by the nearest villains approaching the party.
Once elevated and behind cover, The Hypnotist focuses his sights on the lumbering pile of rubble.
Hypnotic Gaze: Cumulative Affliction 8 (1st degree: Fatigued, 2nd degree: Exhausted, 3rd degree: Asleep, Resisted by: Will, DC 18; Cumulative, Increased Range 2: perception, Insidious)
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Gylfir smiles.
"Ah, more abominations such as myself. In my experience they are usually much simpler to kill than my own body."
That said, he leaps through the portal, correcting course with another short hop to the nearest skeleton, bashing it with the haft of his axe.
He continues to leap around like a grasshopper on crack, smashing and bashing every skeleton within reach, never slowing down.
Once his momentum slows, he comes to a halt and points his axe at the ghost lady.
"'Unhand these villagers, vile fiend', I believe I've heard it said." he intones.
Deadman smashes the necromantic creations under the well placed blows of his axe. Only two remain after he has crossed the market square.
The air around Kadavrus crackles with black energy as she lifts off the cobblestones, rising 60 feet above the street. She stretches her hand toward Deadman, "What an interesting sort of dead man, I must have it..."
Dark energy leaps from her hand to Deadman's chest, forming a tether between the two.
Cayrne shambles down the street, crushing one of the villagers against his avalanche of tomb rock. He comes around the corner, finding a motley band of outsiders lurking in the street.
"There be a flock of outsiders here, Kada. Want I should smash 'em."
He crushes one hand menacingly into another.
The ectoplasmic one moves more quickly, finding Gracie alone. Her ectoplasmic form surrounds the young hero. Gracie finds herself enveloped in the thick gas, and Slymme attempts to pour herself into Gracie's lungs.
The skeletons continue dragging villagers toward the green circle.
The air around Kadavrus crackles with black energy as she lifts off the cobblestones, rising 60 feet above the street. She stretches her hand toward Deadman, "What an interesting sort of dead man, I must have it..."
Dark energy leaps from her hand to Deadman's chest, forming a tether between the two.
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Briareus hadn't known that anyone could use the portal, but when he saw everyone going through it, he tried to quickly change directions, almost tripping over in the process and looking quite un-titan like in the process. Good thing there wasn't anyone around to notice.
Looking around, he sees the odd dead-man saving villagers, and determines that's a fine enough thing to start out doing.
His hands shoot out to try and clean up some of the skeletons he missed.
After everyone finally enters the portal, Sinclair crosses his own portal into town and lets the portal dissipate. Evidently, their moment of surprise was done, when the huge animated pile of rocks lumbers around the corner. When he hears it ask a question, he decides on his action.
Waving his arms and wiggling his fingers, he pronounces, "The Mists of Morpheus muffles minds," to the pile of rocks hoping it has a mind to muffle.
Gracie coughs and waves her sword as if to fan away the gas, but manages to stay alert. "Oh, sod off, you giant fart!"
Gracie rethinks her plan to run around the buildings and instead considers heading straight up the street, especially since Deadman is helping clear the way more quickly than she realized possible.
Ignoring Myst, she sets herself ready to charge toward the circle.
Fueled by delicious mediterranean food and adrenaline, she sprints effortlessly toward the circle, and she thrusts her sword at the nearest skeleton.
The air around Kadavrus crackles with black energy as she lifts off the cobblestones, rising 60 feet above the street. She stretches her hand toward Deadman, "What an interesting sort of dead man, I must have it..."
Dark energy leaps from her hand to Deadman's chest, forming a tether between the two.
The air around Kadavrus crackles with black energy as she lifts off the cobblestones, rising 60 feet above the street. She stretches her hand toward Deadman, "What an interesting sort of dead man, I must have it..."
Dark energy leaps from her hand to Deadman's chest, forming a tether between the two.
Gylfir snaps to attention, completely overtaken by the pull of the necromancer's power.
Three skeletons are crunched by Dunwich, their bones clattering to the cobblestones.
Max finds that there is, indeed, a mind animating the shambling stones. It stares at him, befuddled by the power of his spell.
Dunwich 31
Deadman 21
Hypnotist 21
Silver Tiger 16
Gracie 12
Foes 12
Aethelweard 10
Sinclair 6
The dark energy of Kadavrus' magic blots out the normal glow of Gylfir's eyes and he stiffens.
As combat is joined in earnest Æthelweard quickly realises that his frail frame is not the best placed to survive this encounter.
"Oh My Giddy Aunt! Time, I think, for a more salubrious locale, and leave the oaf to enjoy the hospitality of this realm!"
Slightly panicked from the melee erupting before him, the good Professor stumbles backward and invokes an incantation most familiar;
"FEE-FYE-FOE-FUM!
OF MORTAL SUMMONS AGAIN SUCCUMB!
FEE-FYE-FOE-FUM!
MIGHTY EOTEN AGAIN DOTH COME!"
However as he utters each line, the expected ethereal cage fails to manifest around him... Instead funnels of thick smoke is drawn from the sooty chimney's of surrounding buildings that billow thickly around the academic....
... before dissipating to reveal the hulking giant.
Beady eyes glare from his heavy brow, as the brute takes in its surroundings and clamour before it...
dést = doth
crypel = cripple
Mac continues the ocular assault. His eyes sharpen, sending lullabilic rays to the craggy curmudgeon.
"Rockabye Baby," he whispers.
"I trust you three can take care of this pile of rocks," Seven says to Eoten, Silver Tiger, and Sinclair. "I'll see what I can do about the necromancer."
She flies straight up, higher than the building, even higher than the Hypnotist. Looking down into the square, she unleashes a bolt of yellow energy at Kadavrus. "I call upon the MAGIC OF MODRUSSUS"
The magical bolt is channeled harmlessly away by a shield that surrounds Kadavrus, melting the street below.
Cayrne sees in the eyes of the Hypnotist a glimmer of his life before his spirit was trapped in this form. His arms hang heavy.