Swift frowned at Frost's signal, clearly only understanding the part about handing over the axe and using her dagger instead.
This time her look was less of gratitude for his help and more of a silent suggestion of "I hope you know what you're doing!"

She handed over the axe hesitantly, clearly reluctant to give up her only useful weapon in this fight and reached instead for the Jade Spike.
Her movements were more tense now, lacking the eagerness to attack she'd had before...


OOC: Going to hope Frost has a plan here.  Feeling a bit defenceless now :(
Wonder if I have the option to come back and haunt Frost later if I get killed here ;)  hehe.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:21, Mon 25 Feb 2013.

Well, you could have your next character be obnoxious to him, I guess! ^_^

"When it's distracted," Ferret hissed insistently as he grasped the haft of the axe, unusually finding that he sensed his fellow's uncertainty. He stepped nimbly to one side giving Swift Fox room to manoeuvre, as he did so almost closing his eyes to the scene of the badly injured blonde Kai and the helghast now regaining its feet. Through slits, he looked beyond their arena of battle to the remaining kraan, concentrated hard on visualising one of the flying spawn and willed arcane forces into the sky.

OOC: Yikes. posting on here really is almost impossible on my phone. Bit of tidying up now at home.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:10, Mon 25 Feb 2013.

The sudden sound of swishing wind caused the helghast to look up, the burning flames within its sockets pointing at the creatures in the sky that seemed to be diving down from the sky and toward it, the saddlebag around it brimming full of shining explosive crystals.

The Helghast didn't showed any oputward emotion at the sight of the approaching creature, instead jumping backward and grabbing the still shocked giak by the head. Then it turned suddenly and threw it toward the best's open maw, in a clear effort to fulfill any desire for meat it might have and thus stopping it's ill-considered attack... excpet that the giak went straight through the body of the monster, revealing it for the illusion it was even as the giak's corpse ended up falling into one of the still burning fires and started to roast.

Realizing it had been tricked, the Helghast started to look around the area, trying to regain any bearings on the two Kai who had quickly exited its sight...

Quickly stepping almost within reach of the helghast, Frost Ferret summoned the last of his mental reserves. Trying to bend magical forces to his will for a second time in quick succession sent jagged, icy pain lancing through his body and it felt as though a huge crystal vase smashed between his eyes. Nevertheless he was able to hold the energy in check and direct it through himself towards the ground under his feet.

Levelling his silver gauntlet at the helghast and raising Swift Fox's axe as dramatically as he could, Ferret began to rise into the air. "The creatures created from our brothers have been defeated," he told the helghast as emphatically as he could; "it is sensible to assume that you will also be destroyed."

Ferret's raised arm rocked back slightly as he prepared to hurl the axe directly at the helghast's head.

When Frost Ferret took flight, the Helghast took a step back, the burning globes in his eye-sockets looking at the Kai Lord, although it was impossible to fin an expression within the decomposing face.

After a moment, however, it raised its hand toward him and snarled, its voice filled with malice:

"You really think that little tricks like that will manage to scare me, human?"

However, before it could do anything else, a blade glowing with a erie green light suddenly exploded out of its chest, and the monster only had time to look behind himself for a moment to see the small, blonde figure of its own killer, before the flame that were its eyes disappeared, and it started to slowly decompose around the blade of the Jade Spike.

Well, the distraction was successful! Congratulations to the both of you, Swift and Fox - you managed to win a battle beyond your own skills by the power of teamwork. Well done! ^_^

This message was last edited by the GM at 18:25, Wed 27 Feb 2013.

As the Helghast died, Swift lowered the hand that had thrown the Jade Spike moments earlier.
Now that the danger was over and her inner rage and adrenalin rush had subsided she seemed suddenly wearied, running on little more than whatever willpower was driving her onwards.

She moved forwards, reaching down to pick up the dagger.  The green luminescence from the runic jade carvings in its hilt subsided as she cleaned the Helghast's black blood from the blade and tucked it back into her belt.
Her tired gaze met Frost's and a smile crossed her face, although it wasn't the usual wry sarcastic smirk she often employed as a replacement for something she had forgotten how to do, this one had more warmth about it.
"Impressive display there" she remarked.  "Thanks for the help."

She glanced down the hill, looking for Dusk Rat and Brook.
"Anyone hurt?" she asked.


OOC: Yay, wasn't sure we were all going to survive that one :)

Yaay, nice kill :D.

"No." replies Dusk Rat.

Btw I imagine you've probably noticed by now, but for some time the "nearly at the 1000 post limit" messages have been coming up in this thread.

OOC: I've noticed that too, I'd assumed that fight was a nice place to round off this particular chapter :)  Still got room for a few more posts anyways.


Swift turned to face Dusk Rat, her gaze straying to Brook for a moment.
She raised a hand to scratch the back of her head, looking a little awkward rather than her usual look of indifference.
"Thanks for the help back there" she said to Dusk, indicating the scene of the previous battle at the bottom of the hill.
Her smile remained in place for a few seconds longer then she turned quickly and began moving towards the red tent.
"Anyway, I think we have a little time to relax here.  When I was here before, I saw a map in there that might indicate where the missing Kai are.  If they aren't there, maybe we can find someone there who can tell us where they are."


OOC: Swift actually being nice?  Try not to faint with shock anyone ;)
This message was last edited by the player at 21:09, Wed 27 Feb 2013.

Yep, as Swift Fox pointed out, I've not closed the thread because you're five or so posts from leaving this place - it'd make a better ending point for the thread if we could wait until then.

Do try not to make too many OOC posts, though - keeping the thread smaller than 1000 posts would be a positive thing. :)

Speakign of which, Swift Fox, consider yourself to have gone inside the Red Tent, picked up the map (which is a 1 slot backpack/special item) and any Crystal explosive you might want (each one is a 1 slot backpack item), before going outside, and showing off your findings to the others.

And picking your next destination, of course. ;D

This message was last edited by the GM at 21:35, Wed 27 Feb 2013.

Swift emerged from the red tent again, carrying a map which appeared to be of the Darklands.
She was studying the markings on it, but frowned and folded it up again.
"I think that creature said the Kai they were working on was in Azgazaad.  I'd assumed it was the place on the map, but now that I've seen it again I'm not sure."
She rubbed at her eyes and squinted off into the distance, looking tired out.
"I can't figure this thing out just yet.  I can barely even focus on it right now."
She grinned at her own joke, although there was also a hint of frustration at her own weakness in her expression.
"There's some sort of obsidian thing in there too" she added, gesturing towards the tent.  "I'm not sure what it is, but it's channelling some evil energy.  I don't know what it's for, maybe some sort of magical communicator."

She reached down to her belt and took a small brass flask that had been attached to it, concealed beneath her cloak.  Apparently one of the items she had found in the temple where she had picked up the diadem.
Taking a drink from it, she quickly reattached it to her belt again and looked towards the Kraan that had survived the explosive carnage and its aftermath.
"Do you think you can ask one of them to take us to Azgazaad?" she asked Dusk Rat, indicating the Kraan.
"If Silver Raven is the one being held there then I can't leave him behind.  Whatever that place on the map is, it'll have to wait for now."


OOC: Not enough WP to decipher the map right now.  But taking it to have a look at later :)

Hmm, do we reckon that obsidian-looking thing might be of any use? Does it look like anything any of us are familiar with? If it's some kind of communication device, it might be a good idea to keep it well-covered in the event that someone does decide to take it - we don't want it going all Palantiri on us and calling up the Magnamund equivalent of Sauron the moment we touch it, do we? ;)

Dusk Rat nods.

"They're from there, so they'll return if we free them." she says. "I can cause them not to notice that they're being ridden, should we take that option. Incidentally, that Helghast was trying to distract us by suggesting we might return to the Monastery - it seemed to fear the fact that we might go to this...Azgazaad place. It does indeed seem that they're creating one of their new creatures there."

She walks over to the rather messy corpse of the bestial creature which Brook finished off.

"Is there a way to preserve some part of this creature in order to keep it as evidence?" she asks. She looks toward Frost Ferret. "Perhaps you might freeze it?"


Mustn't go without the evidence that was part of our reason for coming here, eh? Maybe we can chop its head off or something, and take it with us well wrapped-up and stuff. Then present it to Banedon in the event that we get back to the Mage Tower thingy without getting eaten by Darkspawn and all that ;).

Swift looked back at the corpse of the half-Kai creature.
"Good idea" she remarked.  "I'm not sure which part would be best to take.  Perhaps its head.  I'm sure its mind has been altered somehow to make it so eager to betray the Kai."
Swift seemed uncomfortable with looking directly at the corpse and soon turned away to look back at the tent instead.  During the fight with it, she had displayed anger at it, but now she seemed more subdued.
Her habit of referring to the creature as 'it' seemed to suggest that she was trying not to remember that this was once one of their own.

"If we can use the Kraan to get to Argazaad quickly, that would help" she said, abruptly changing the subject.  "Though we should probably land before reaching it since flying directly in there would simply alert our enemies to our presence."
She cast her mind over the damaged Drakkar armour the undeads had been wearing as if considering using it as disguises, but shook her head, realising it was in no condition to be of any use.
"We should also explode the rest of those crystals too when we leave here.  Don't want to leave any behind for them to salvage."
She glanced back in the direction of the Durncrag mountains, a thoughtful look on her face.


OOC: Thanks Dusk, I'd forgotten about that, hehe :)
Yay for teamwork!

As soon as the helghast's form had dissipated, Ferret had fallen clumsily out of the air and slumped on to his hands and knees. Physically he was little harmed, but his mental exertions seemed to almost stun him for a while, although his mouth did quirk into an uncertain half-grin at Swift Fox's smile.

Once he summoned up the will to move again, Ferret's immediate concern seemed to be to dig inside his backpack for two small vials. One he carried over to Swift Fox. "Drink it now," he said bluntly before returning to pick up the second, unstopper it and swallow the contents.

After Swift Fox had retrieved the map from the tent, Ferret listened to his fellows' discussion, nodding thoughtfully at Dusk Rat's notion of his freezing part of one of the creatures.

At Swift Fox's assertion that the rest of the crystal explosives be detonated, Ferret finally spoke again: "If we are travelling to Argazad,* we should take a crystal each and an extra one to drop on this site once we're in the air." He looked across to where the remaining kraan were chained down. "We'll have to lay some crystals in the direction they're going to fly to make sure we trigger all the ones up here."

OOC: Swift - assume that the first thing FF managed to do when he got up was give you the potion - it needs to be drunk soon after your exertions to have effect, assuming you want to drink it.

Mr. GM - I guess FF can freeze the head, but I'm not sure how we could keep it frozen for very long, unless FF's magical freezing lasts for a long while even in above freezing temperatures....? Also, is there any water around, even if it's dirty?

All - should we rest? I'm not sure exactly how long we've been going, but I think it's quite a while.

*If I might settle the unconscious spelling debate. :) This is what it says on the map in The Master of Darkness, unless we're actually talking about Nadgazad or any of those other places with names ending in '-ad'. It's almost as if the Darklands - a massive country stretching most of the way across the north of the continent - was inspired by the Soviet Union. Leningrad, Stalingrad.... :)
This message was last edited by the player at 15:54, Thu 28 Feb 2013.

OOC: Retconned Swift drinking the potion along with the one in her own flask for now.  Between the two of them she's looking in much better shape.  Still tired, but less likely to just fall over at any moment. :)
Also as to the spelling of Argazaad, I was going by the way it was used by the half-Kai before.  I'd assumed it was a new place created for this game since I couldn't find it on the map.
I think the "-ad" sound comes from the Giak language which is used for a lot of names for things in the Darklands, like "Helgedad" which I think translates as something like "Dark City".


Swift retrieved one of the crystals from the tent, examining it cautiously.
"They could make a useful diversion later I suppose" she said thoughtfully, "although if we were targeted by enemy magic users, the magical energies could cause them to explode while we still carried them.  Do you think you could shield them somehow?"

She looked the crystal over for a moment longer, clearly thinking on something.
"You know if someone has been smuggling these weapons from Toran into the Darklands in these large numbers, I wonder if there would be any way to trace them back to where they came from?  Perhaps from armoury records or the purchase of materials used to create them.  If we make sure that Banedon knows of the presence of these things, it might provide more evidence and a way to track them back to the traitor who brought them here."

Swift still seemed tired, although she didn't appear to be thinking about making camp here...


OOC: I'm not sure if we're supposed to be setting out before we hit Post #1000 here, though it's not like Swift would be thinking that, hehe.
In-character, she looks as if there's something driving her onwards, even though she obviously needs resting.
You could always try to persuade her to slow down a bit though :)

OOC: Expect you're right about the giak word, Swift. My Magnamund Companion's not very get at-able right now or I'd have a look. I was thinking that the 'ad' sound was maybe consciously reminiscent of all those Russian cities seeing as back when the books were written the Soviet Union was the big bad. Like Barrakeesh is just like Marrakech, Hammerdal and Holmgard are/were real places and so on.

"It's more likely that the mage brought the knowledge of how to make the crystals out to the Darklands and they were made here," said Ferret. "It would have been too great a risk to try and take such huge quantities out of Toran undetected unless he had a large proportion of the city guard under his control, which doesn't seem likely."

Ferret eyed the crystal that Swift carried. "I can't shield them from magic. But we should take some with us and leave them somewhere to use if we need to."

I'd actually thought it was the beasty-monster, not the hybrid, that we were supposed to take bits of, so I'd had Dusk Rat going over to that one instead. But either is good, I suppose - maybe both is even better, I dunno...
And do we want to do anything with that obsidian-looking widget in the tent? Is there any kind of "Identify" skill to tell wtf it is?

To identify the item, you'd need knowledge of right-handed magic, and none of you has any of that. All you can tell by studying it is that it lets off a pretty strong aura of darkness, as if it came from Naar's itself.

You can take it if you want - it's not hurtful in any fashion, at least right now. It's a 1 backpack slot item.

Unless you all have anything else to say, perhaps you should take flight now? As I said, I'd like to end the thread on that note, and for it to be smaller than 1000 posts. :)

Swift glanced around at the camp one more time then turned to head for the tent again.
Examining the obsidian crystal for a moment she picked it up and stuffed it into her pack before returning to the others.
"I'm not sure what that thing is, but Banedon or someone else at the Guild might be able to figure it out.  Perhaps it's some kind of Seeing Stone, in which case we might even catch a glimpse of our true enemy."

She pulled the pack back onto her shoulders then headed for the Kraan.
"Well, let's head out" she said.  "Perhaps we can get some rest as we fly.  I don't want to wait around too long.  If it is Silver Raven being held captive there, I won't sit around here while he needs my help."


OOC: Unless anyone else has something to say, Swift is all for taking flight :)
Guessing Dusk already got a piece of the monster thingy?

If not, she can do so in her next post. :)

Frost Ferret, Dusk Rat, unless you have anything else to do that would stop you from getting on the kraans, you can make your next post much like Swift has, mounting on them. You can have your character taking care of anything you need to - like cutting the head(s) or hand(s) of the monster(s) and freezing the stuff for safe transport - within that post, and close it with your character mounting the kraan and preparing to take flight.

Also, as Swift suggested, you can decide to sleep on the saddle if you want; it won't be a fitful sleep, so you'll have to choose wether you recover END, or reroll your CS (which, as always, can be substituted with recovering WP). Also, anybody who doesn't sleep will have to reduce their CS by 1 due to fatigue. ^_^

Once your posts are done, I will make one last, conclusive post, and then close the thread, so we can open the next one... I can't wait to have you all within a Darklord's fortress, and to see how you'll manage! ^_^

Well, I only have a couple of puny knives so I'm not sure I can successfully cut the head off either of these things (do we need the beasty-thingy or the hybrid, or both?). Who had the axe? Also, how much space will this body part take up in our bags? I only have one slot left. And is Frosty freezing it going to work or will it mess with our stuff having this cold thing stored next to it? Maybe Frosty should take the body part(s) as he's the one who can preserve them (if he has space)?
I just want to get those last things cleared up before I post myself leaving.

This message was last edited by the GM at 20:05, Sun 03 Mar 2013.

About the cutting, yes, you can leave it up to Frost Ferret, Dusk Rat; just take care of the Kraans, and that'll suffice. ^_^

This message was last edited by the GM at 20:16, Sun 03 Mar 2013.

Okay, I'll let Frosty decapitate whichever of the creatures (or both) we need for evidence and carry the lovely things around with him, 'cause then if we get separated we're not stuck with the non-freeze-spell person lugging around some increasingly-stinky body parts ;). As long as Frost Ferret as room, that is.


"Someone will need to unchain them." says Dusk Rat, referring to the Kraan as she looks over in their direction. "I'll ensure that they don't move until we're ready."

She approaches the Kraan, focusing her thoughts on them as she somehow manages to mount one and get Brook mounted in front of her relatively comfortably, so that she can hold onto him. She also drapes her cloak her his head so that he can't see what's going on.

Erm, none of these things have any nets or explosives attached that we need to remove, do they?

OOC: Apologies, chaps. Work and wedding-y stuff at the weekend, then work's been a bit mad this week.

Despite Swift Fox's hurry, Ferret insisted on taking a few minutes away from the campsite. Firstly, he carried several crystal explosives with him and laid them out in a line pointing in the direction that they thought the kraan would fly, then, staying away from the scene of the battle for a few minutes more, he sat down on the dusty ground, dug out his ocarina and played an aimless melody.

Upon returning to the campsite, Ferret used the axe he had borrowed from Swift Fox once more before returning it to his compnaion. He decapitated the creature they had defeated and with a considerable effort, used a spell to freeze it. Retrieving enough cloth from an enemy uniform to wrap the head in, he stowed it in his backpack. He did the same with two crystal explosives and also carried one in his hand as they went to mount the kraan.

"I can loose the chains when we're ready," Ferret said to Dusk Rat as they made their way towards the winged spawn.

The wisdom of going further into the Darklands without ensuring that any of the evidence they possessed made it back to either the Kai Monastery or the Guildmaster seemed uncertain, but Ferret was curious to discover that he suddenly had some measure of instinctive trust in Swift Fox that went some way to ameliorate his concern for to most rational course of action.

When they were all prepared for their flight, Ferret looked to the chains holding each kraan down and had them unravel, allowing their mounts to take to the air.

OOC: I think it seemed like the one that Swift killed was the more advanced 'prototype', didn't it? So it seems to make more sense to take the head of that one. I'm not sure how covering it in giak blood would help, because people/animals are made mostly of water, so will freeze anyway, but if smearing it in giak blood is useful - if kind of yucky - then assume FF did that too.

Ferret will sleep, and will take WP instead of CS reroll.

As soon as they were released, the kraans took flight, flapping their wings with eagerness yet without fear; clearly, Dusk Rat had really been capable of keeping them calm, for none of them seemed to notice their riders.

Once the flyingn beasts had found their bearing, they started to barrel forward at great speed. All of the Magnakai could easily tell they were heading north, and since Azgazad should be in that direction - at least, according to the Grandmaster's tales of his own Darkland's journey - they seemed to be headed the right way.

As they left the remains of the enemy's encampment behind, Frost Ferret looked down, quickly finding the shining trail of crystals he'd prepared, and then threw down the one in his hand with all of his strenght.

The moment the crystal hit the ground, it exploded immediately, spreading a wide cloud of blue fire that ignited the ones close by, in a chain reaction that expanded in the blink of an eye, until it finally reached the red tent on the hilltop. As soon as the flames enveloped the tent, a new explosion was unleashed, but ti was like none they'd ever seen before; the entire hill was neveloped in flames while a pillar of blue fire exploded high toward the sky, its light for one moment shining so bright that the darkness of the night was dissipated, and the human could see around themselves as if it was full day - although the light shed by the explosion was blue rather than white.

When the fire subsided, any of the three who dared to look back would see that, where the hill had previously been was now only a wide creater, its rocky surface darkened and almost melted in some points, while the ground cracked open some more; in normal circumstances, it would have been a nightmarish spectacle to watch, but in the middle of the Darklands, the wasteland around made it seem rather unremarkable.

And so, leaving suh apocalyptic destruction behind themselves, the three Kai on their flying mounts continued onward, further into the Darklands and toward the next step of their journey.

Toward Azgazad.
 
And with that, this thread is closed! The next one should be up shortly; just be patient a little bit, and then your adventure can continue... into even more dangerous waters than any you've swam through this far! ^_^