Don't have a full idea of exactly where everyone is standing in relation to everyone else...but that always seems to happen so I'll just sort of bumble along and make do, lol.

Dusk Rat is silent for several moments, staring down at the carnage below. She momentarily casts her gaze down, staring at the neck of the kraan she's riding. Eventually she looks up and, in answer to Swift Fox's question, points toward a group of Acolytes who aren't currently assisting in the chaos.

"There." she says. "Frost Ferret, Sabre Fox, Silver Raven, Sun Fox...and a fifth I'm unable to recognise."

Hornet slightly shook his head. "Just wrestling control of the snakes from whatever holds them in the water will be difficult - I'm not sure I can order them to attack Acolytes. But, more importantly, the attempt to gain control over the reptiles will cause a fierce reaction, I think..."

Water Hornet paused, but then made several steps forward. "In any case, seems this is our best chance - I will try to do my best, we just need to pull the boat towards us quickly."

Sun Fox shrugged at that, flexing her right hand's fingers.

"That's easy enough to do - the hard thing would be to do so without actracting the Acolytes' attention. You're sure your diversion will work?"

"With any luck they will believe it's the Ceners" fox said. " either way the Acolytes will be hard pressed to attack both us and the Ceners. Regardless we could use the ice rafts during the confusion to get across, using our. Nexus abilities to increase our speed"
This message was last edited by the player at 17:36, Thu 30 Jan 2014.

"I wouldn't be so sure - in a storm, lightning can strike at more than one place at once."

And, as if to mark her words, the high priest unleashed another such strike, this time not hitting any one target but causing the Vazhag's formation to break apart, making it easier for his own men to handle. Sun Fox flinched at the sight.

Upon Sun Fox's question whether Water Hornet was sure if his diversion would work, the Magnakai snapped his head towards her. "No," he replied, maybe a little too sharply, but Sabre Fox's following words covered the possible surge of tension.

Hornet turned to Sabre Fox when he mentioned ice rafts. "That would indeed allow us to hide behind the temple as Frost Ferret proposed," Water Hornet nodded to his Kai battle-brother.

Hornet looked worriedly at the dark clouds that looked very unnatural in the enclosed space of the cave. "Seems like our best plan...?" he looked inquisitively at each of the Kai, "I will do my best to create even more chaos among the Acolytes without them noticing where it is coming from...and then let's hope the crossing of the lake goes swiftly and smoothly." The doubts were almost palpable in Hornet's tone, but his expression was one of determination.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:53, Fri 31 Jan 2014.

OOC: Does that someone else can make an ice raft too?

Ferret looked up sharply as the newcomer started to concentrate on the water (?). "We should be moving." He looked about at his fellows. "If the snakes will not attack then yes, we should hold on to pieces of ice to go across. But not from here."

Ferret set off towards the other side of the temple from where the priest stood.

No, nobody else can freeze the water but you, Frost... well, no other player, at least. Silver Raven do has the power, so he can help you with it if it's necessary.

Everybody who's moving now should roll for Caomuflage; the Dc for Frost Ferret and the ones following him to circle the lake is 2, while Sun Snake, you need to beat a DC 4. Those who fail will end up being noticed by the combatants... and I'll let you guess on what that will mean. :)

Swift Fox, Dusk Rat, if you want to move, now might well be the time - I already told you that reaching the Temple's roof by kraan unnoticed requires a DC 6 Camouflage check - but, of course, you're also free to use your knowledge of everybody's positon to come up with more creative plans.

Silver Raven nodded at Frost Ferret's suggestion and added, his tone practical:

"We should move - I don't think the Ceners will last much longer, and we want to be out of the Temple by the time this battle is done for."

Then, without further comments, he quickly moved to follow his disciple.

Rerolled two poor rolls to get a 5. No more FP left now.

You really should try and go forward with the bad results sometimes, Sun Snake, to see where they lead! Take some risks, live dangerously! ;D

It didn't took long for the two men to circle the entirety of the battlefield, and they were lucky enough to go unnoticed until they finally reached the High Priest and his two bodyguards. The man hi8mself said nothing, clearly focused on directing the storm he'd called up, but the shorter of the two next to him, an athletic-looking man with dark hairs and several small scars on his face, looked to the two of them and asked, annotyed:

"Madayl, what are you doing here, and where's your patrol? You should be leading them into the melee, doing your duty, not wasting time."

Then, the man's brown eyes moved to Sun Snake's eyes and bore into him, his brows furrowing as if trying to puzzle out something even as he barked out, in a very intimidating manner:

"And who would you be?"
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:30, Fri 31 Jan 2014.

"Whoever I want to be," hissed Sun Snake, standing tall but giving the Bishop an equally appraising look. "And I try not to forget a face, you never know when the shade of it may be a useful shell. I have seen you somewhere, once. You were a sell sword, or some other lost human. You are now a bishop? How did you find true faith in Vashna? I am not the Helghast you should beware."

The last words were said in the secret language of the bishops and if an odd curse or osth. Sun Snake's eyes darted to the other bishop to see if the words were understood.

"Bishop Madayl's most faithful men were killed in an ambush by a fallen Kai abomination. The rest are unimportant. It was the abomination's plans that drew me to Madayl, and thus he here to the High Priest."

Forgot to ask, can Sun Snake sense where the others are at the moment? This includes hints of Alyne this close to the temple.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:34, Fri 31 Jan 2014.

Without further ado Water Hornet followed Frost Ferret. Every now and then he would look over his shoulder, checking what the trio of high-ranked Acolytes were doing and also looking at the lake.

Camouflage roll: 6.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:57, Fri 31 Jan 2014.

Ferret continued to concentrate on holding the illusion as he moved. It was becoming more difficult all the time, so getting the group out of sight of the priest was starting to be urgent.

OOC: Roll: 4

Hopefully I will eventually think of something to do...

Swift peered down at the ground below, squinting through the un-natural storm that was sweeping through the area.

"Can you sense what's happening down there?" she called to Dusk, pointing to Sun Snake's position.
"If the High Priest can sense he's lying about being a Helghast, he could be in trouble."

As she spoke, she reached to her belt and retrieved Sun Snake's sword, still trying to make out what was happening below...


OOC: I think we're playing the waiting game at the moment... :)

Hurlon glanced for a moment to the High Priest's figure before glaring at Sun Snake and answring, no trace of fear on his person:

"I was taught the truth, that's how I found it. And what do you mean, you're not the only Helghast I need to watch out for?"

"We have a saying in my country, 'of the Darklands. A child of Vashna who betrays our master for the Deathlord - the true owner of the Deathstaff - is lower than a Kai. Everell has not summoned his golems yet, has not launched his ranged magic yet, and appears to have eshewed the mental defenses he taught you for a Nadziran mental screen. Oh, and cannot understand a word we are saying.' It roughly translates as 'do your duty for the faith, and do not question Madayl's actions nor my own."

Sun Snake ensured his body drifted a moment so Hurlon would block Everell from view, then cast a meaningful look backwards.
This message was last edited by the player at 09:19, Sat 01 Feb 2014.

"Then let's go" Fox said simply

9 Camo roll

Bear with me, Swifty, while I try to gather the information ;).

Sun Fox took the tail of the group as they made their way around the lake as she said to the others, in a determined tone:

"Let's be fast with this, we don't just need to make it out of here, but to warn the others as well before they stumble into this death-trap."

They moved quickly, and they reached the opposite end of the Temple at about the same time Sun Snake showed up in front of the High Priest and had his brief conversation with Bishop Hurlon.

The man, after a moment, turned toward the High Priest's other bodyguard and asked him, quite directly:

"What do you think, Everell? Should I believe what he said, and act accordingly?"

The other bishop merely shrugged and answered, his tone neutral:

"You should do whatever you feel is right."

Hurlon nodded at that, and then, without any apparent warning, his hand flashed out, a weapon flying from his grasp and embedding itself in the middle of the other bishop's chest. The weapon stood there for a moment before glowing red, and molten lava started to leak out of it, immediately setting its target on fire while the few drops that fell to the ground ate through the rock immediately, the air itself turning uncomfortably hot and hard to breath while the attack's target screamed, his body losing Everell's features to assume those of a decayed corpse for but a moment, before being completely reduced to ashes by the sheer heat coming from the weapon.

Whithout any readable emotion on his face, Hurlon stalked to the place where the short sword had imbedded itself into the rocky ground after killing the Helghast and was slowly melting through it, recovering the weapon with a firm grip on the handle and then returning it to the empty one of the four scabbards he had at his side under the red robe, thus restoring the air to what it was before - although that did nothing to remove the vapour which had spread when the hot temperature caused by the contact of the rain with the magma.

That done, Hurlon turned a comptemptuous glare on Sun Snake and said, very matter-of-factly:

"Problem solved. Is there any other minor trouble you have to bother The High Priest with, fell creature, or are you now going to help our brethens bring Vashna's vengeance on these faithless Cener Druids?"
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:51, Sat 01 Feb 2014.

These bishops are quite powerful, are they not? Kinda scary to do anything around them! Remind me not to get Sun Snake drunk, where he mocks Hurlon about getting the man to kill a Helghast for him, and Madayl for killing his acolytes for him. Sun Snake might not survive that one!

Anyway, thank you for having all that duplicitousness pay off and have the Helghast killed off! Of course, you've just shown the other bishop is actually the worse of the two, and really we should have waited until the Helghast had surprise killed that bishop first.


Anyway, time to do something else stupid and dangerous...yell at the man who can slay you in an instant...


Sun Snake was stunned the moment Hurlon showed such casual power, slaying the Helghast. Luckily, his instincts - whether Kai-born or not - kicked in.


"Nooooo!" he yelled in consternation, clawing his hands, dropping his jaw as low as possible and using shadows to make it a little less than human, and burying his jaw in his throat to help make the utterance as gutteral and inhuman as possible. It also helped hide his more human reaction to the air.

"This...this face..." said Sun Snake, saying it in a sing song way and looking to Madayl as if for understanding, "he's..trapped me with this face. And the abomination...I'll..have to speak to that idiotic abomination again..." Sun Snake held his head in his hands for a moment.

Sun Snake turned back to Hurlon, apparently bringing himself under some form of control, co-incidenatlly when the air improved. "I approve of the skill and pain of the kill. But that traitor was the only intelligent link to the plan of the Deathlord cultists. The only other link is the insane Kai abomination that hates this shell's face. The Nadziran that created it use that compulsion to drive it. However as Madayl can tell you, even when I surrendered to it, allowed the indignity of being bound captured, it still believed this shell whose head I made fall off was some mastermind still orchestrating a trick. I...cannot shift my form and back for fear of being off with an eye or fingerlength if the thing is that paranoid of trickery. You've just killed the only thing we might have tortured for information that won't drive me insane to deal with."

Sun Snake shuddered. "Now this traitor by the High Priest's side is dead, the matter is less urgent. But you may still be infested by traitors supernatural and mundane. The Nadziran are looking to raise the Deathlord. Not a creature I believe will share space on this miserable world with Vashna. The traitors that they gave you to shepherd the Maiden of Sacrifice to the Monastery to retrieve the Dagger mysteriously failed, and only luck I presume saved us from losing her. And yet the Nadziran have a second Vonotar in the form of the second highest ranked Brotherhood mage under their thumb! They have attacked the Monstery themselves having been given a secret passage to Sommerlund, and stolen things from the Sun Vault itself. Did...we get the Dagger from them? They knew we wanted it, and owed us for the faiure that almost cost us her. A platoon of Drakkarim come here and steal the Sommerswerd from under our noses and walk away with it, having been told where Aki-amaz's* body is by the Nadziranim, yet...did they share this information with us? And the Agarashi trapped as a contingency sacrifice has been destroyed. Do you think anything other than the hand of Naar under one of his wizards could destroy something that ancient and defeat the security around it? All we have left is the Deathstaff, something we now fight the Cener over. And yet it is the tool of this Deathlord. Why did the traitor not stay in the temple and steal it away when it had the chance? I think the Deathstaff is a trick, to harm Vashna's rise, and then the traitors will take the staff away for its real purpose of raising this new pretender."

Sun Snake looked defeated. "I will stay and watch the slaughter, but then I must track the abomination. I had called faithful to me, to find that thing and take it to me. And yet they do not come. And they were faithful." Sun Snake looked to Hurlon. "The abomination does not have your skill. Either it is exceptional at hiding, or else something else helps it and my kin are dead. Either way, the only lead to discover how deeply the Nadziran plot against us goes is not here."

Sun Snake looked to Madayl and motioned as if for the man to corroborate the story and make plans with his fellow bishop. Sun Snake instead turned his head to look the battle, as if enjoying the senseless slaughter between the two foes.




* couldn't resist :)
This message was last edited by the player at 19:58, Sat 01 Feb 2014.

Ooh, it's all kicking off now, isn't it? ;).

Hurlon looked perplexed at Sun Snake's reaction, then shrugged and commented, his tone bored:

"I don't really care about your troubles, fell creature - the High Priest will listen to your spiel once this battle is won, and then he'll decide what to do with what you know."

He paused, then added, smiling smugly:

"Which means you'll see these matters adressed sooner if you contribute in ending this... although perhaps you're not a fighting beast - you're the first Helghast I've ever heard of so concerned with aquiring and connecting information."

Madayl turned to Hurlon at that and commented, his tone clearly respectful:

"You would be well advised not to underestimate this Child of Vashna, Bishop Hurlon - he's just as much dangerous, cruel and lacking in empathy for others than himself as all of the other Children are. He's proven his dangerousness to me."

Hurlon raised an eyebrow at the other man's words, then shrugged and answered, his tone dismissive:

"Perhaps it's as you say, Madayl, but I think he's much too caught in acting out his emotions, as all them do when faking humanity, to be as effective a slaughterer as he can be in this instance."

While the two men were talking, and the High Priest directing the rain - it seemed as if whirpools were starting to form in the air as winds swirled and started to form miniature twisters - neither of them noticed as all the snakes in the lake started to move on their own, escaping from their aquatic habitat to start mixing among the Acolythes, their powerful maws dripping with magically empowered poison snappingn shut on whichever was closer and often killing their targets with a single bite.

The group of magnakai on the other side of the lake, though, did noticed, mainly because the snakes were all moving away from their position, cleaerly heading to the other side of the lake and the fight and thus leaving them a free path to cross. Sun Fox nodded at the sight and grinned, patting Water Hornet's back as she said, excited:

"Now that's what I'd call a great job, Hornet! You're just as good as always, aren't you?"

Sun Snake gave an unpleasant look to Hurlon. "When we seek information, you will never notice us. As I say, I have seen your face somewhere in the past. And our friend there was under your nose the whole time. It was our purpose under Vashna. That and battle."

Sun Snake hover looked to the battlefield speculatively. "I would gladly purge myself of this human shell and its mental stink. But it might not be my hands you need this day, but my eyes." He looked over to Madayl rather than Hurlon, as if considering him the more intelligent of the two. "After all, if the Nadziran planted at least one traitor here, perhaps they also planted traitors in the Cener to ensure both sides would fight and be weakened so as not to interfere later."

If I can't see what I say next because you can't see her from this position, let me know and I'll delete it.

Sun Snake made as if scanning the various factions the High Priest faced, then pointed to the one he knew well. "Interesting. The woman over there appears to have more right handed magic to her spells than I would expect from a Cener. And you will need to trust my fell eyes, but her skin seems too clear for one of those deep in the Cener ways." Sun Snake shrugged and made as if to move on, looking around in other places.


Nice to have a front row seat to all this cool carnage. Hope I don't become part of it!