"Okay but be quick.  I don't know that I can last that long."

Reva kicks at the green-armored Jade Officer from behind. This one is apparently male, and he lets out a grunt of surprise as her foot sweeps him and he falls to the ground! Before he can pick himself up Reva's heel impacts with his chest, a hard enough blow to bruise painfully and knock the wind out of him (3L damage and knocked prone).

The other in the red armor, a shorter female, lets out a curse. "Where'd that come from?" she hisses. She pours a touch of flame Essence into her attack, swinging her power mace toward the strange disturbance in the air that struck her, but cannot seem to connect at all. "Don't think I've forgotten you!" she cries, thrusting the mace back toward the mysterious fighter, who dodges nimbly.

"Ugh..." groans the one still on the floor. He taps his comm device, uttering, "They're.. at the gate..." The Wood Dragon remains on his back for the moment, lashing his whip of green energy toward the blur that is Reva in an attempt to entangle her. The thrumming energy lash comes close -- but not close enough.

If Dashu starts moving now, he can get within combat range in 2 ticks.

---

OOC: actions (after Reva's surprise)
tick 2 - Dashu (attack), mysterious fighter
tick 3 - mortal guards (3)
tick 4 - Xurizu
tick 5 - Reva

[Private to Peleps Dashu: You rolled high for JB but you needed 2 ticks to get close enough to attack.]

[Private to Dyron Reva: Remember you've got -1 wound penalty. Anyway I assumed a DV of 7 with these last attacks (7 base, -2 flurry, -1 wounds, +3 BtB)]
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:36, Sun 16 Nov 2008.

"It's time to put these new toys to the test," Dashu thinks as he began to move towards the fighting.  He moves swiftly but is still attempting to remain as quite as possible, hoping the guards would be too distracted by Reva and the other fighter to notice his approach.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:17, Wed 19 Nov 2008.

Xurizu took a less direct route to the fighting than Dashu, moving to the wall the gate controls were on, and then along it swiftly, reaching it as soon as he could, trying to decipher the controls.  He'd never seen anything like this before, but still deeply buried instinct moved his hands as he tried to open the door.  And tried to ignore distractions from the fight.

The guards are apparently too busy dealing with Reva's sudden appearance and the continued threat of the mysterious fighter to notice Dashu or Xurizu's approach.

---

OOC: Lucky rolls guys, they're blind :P

Dashu can get a surprise attack on any target at tick 2, go ahead and post! However, Xurizu will not reach the door controls until tick 6. Until then he is all but invisible though.

Mystery guy will post soon ;) since he's on Dashu's tick.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:38, Sun 16 Nov 2008.

Dashu figures the strongest one is the one with the mace.  As such he decides to remove the immediate threat.  The stranger seems capable of taking care of himself, at least when it came to the mortals, and Reva is okay, as long as she is just dealing with the one guy she had knocked down.

As he moves towards the fight, Dashu's fingers move in an strange pattern twisting the shadows with them.  Dashu decides to take the high road to get to his target and jumped onto the shoulder of one of the mortal gaurds, he then pushes off and puts his other foot onto the wall.  All of this places Dashu 3 feet in the air behind his target.  Throwing his weight forward into a shoulder roll, he lashes out with his Dragon's Claws at the Dragon Blood's back.  As his attack lands, the shadows which Dashu had twisted appear to reach out and dance in front of his target's eyes.  Dashu chooses this moment to pivot on foot, jump and spin in the air like a whirlwind, all the while bringing his claw upwards in an uppercut.  As he came out of his spin, Dashu decides that his opponent would be much safer disarmed, so he lashed out at the Dragon's hand, trying to catch the handle of the mace in the space between the claws, and twisted.

[Private to GM:  Distracting Finger Gesture charm, 2 strikes and an attempt to disarm.]
This message was last edited by the player at 14:26, Wed 19 Nov 2008.

The woman in the red jade, caught between the masked attacker and the vaguely human-shaped blur that kicked her comrade, finds herself transfixed by a twisting pattern of shadow -- followed by a deadly flurry of black jade.

"What--aghh!" Dashu's claws bite through her armor, drawing blood. (3L total) She calls shrilly through her comm, "Ambush... damnit, ambush at the gates!" Her eyes go wide with disbelief as Dashu grasps and twists at her mace -- a weapon she has practiced and mastered over years of training -- and wrenches it away from her in the blink of an eye.

"You!!" A pillar of fire wreathes her body as she activates her armor's flame talons -- curved beams of white hot plasma projected from her gauntlets, with which she fully intends to harm Dashu... if she can manage to act!

---

OOC: Red guard is delayed her turn for 4 ticks, so she'll act again at tick 9.
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:53, Mon 17 Nov 2008.

Moving without hesitation, the masked man in the unidentified armor immediately takes advantage of the surprise attacks unleashed by the new arrivals - almost as if he knew they would come. His initial sidestep meshes almost perfectly with Reva's attack, putting him into perfect position to finish what she had started.

As soon as the green armored man hits the floor, the masked figure plants a boot firmly on the fallen's chest, preventing him from getting up. Immediately, he turns his face towards the new arrivals, and the single eye on the right side of the face plate lights up a bright crimson, almost as if to acknowledge the fugitives' presence.

"You must hurry, your time is almost up." The voice is distorted and breathy, making it impossible to tell what it would sound like without the armor changing it so completely. "The door. You have to reach it, quickly. More are already on their way."

Without warning, the masked man brings down his arm sharply, extending it fully in the direction of the man pinned under his foot. At end of the motion, his armored hand opens, and two golden needles are released from it, both aimed for the helpless man's form...

There is no telling yet whether the needles have had any effect or not, for they are completely silent and seem to burrow within the man upon impact.

"Do not kill all of the Dragon Chosen. You need one alive. They are the key to the door you are going for, and lifeless bodies will not do."

[Private to Gatekeeper: Okay, pouring 3m into the initial martial arts move (to pin the guy down) to bring the TN of the martial arts roll to 4. Then two thrown attacks powered by Shadow Piercing Needle - So the action is split three ways, with pools like this: 10, 11, 10.]
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:45, Mon 17 Nov 2008.

The mysterious fighter's foot traps the green-armored guard, though he struggles to deter him with his essence whip. Outnumbered and on his back, he can do nothing to avoid the yellow-golden needles that pierce through his dragon armor as if it simply does not exist.

The Wood Aspect's body goes limp as he passes out, unconscious but still breathing shallowly.

The three ashigaru find themselves up against a team of Anathema, and raise their shock pikes bravely -- or foolishly. They won't abandon their leaders, so long as they still breathe: they've been trained that way. And when they're wearing the best Five Coils' military budget can buy, they certainly aren't going to waste it.

"Reinforcements are coming-- we've got to hold them here! Get 'em!"

They charge, seeming to miss Reva entirely, their eyes just skipping right over her. The first stabs at Dashu, taking the opportunity as the Solar completes his spin, while two strike vehemently at the masked man who just knocked out their green leader. One pike sears through the plates of the masked one's armor, dealing minimal damage. Dashu, too, cannot raise his claws in time to defend, taking 1L damage as well. [Private to Peleps Dashu: 1 shock pike attack went through with 2 sux. You have 1L, 2B damage total now.]

Meanwhile Xurizu slips past the chaos of battle into the control alcove. [Private to Ledaal Xurizu: Ok, you're there. You got a hint from mystery man, but you can also take some time to look over the controls. I'll allow pretty much any combination of a mental stat + lore for you to try to figure out what's what, just let your stunt reflect what you're using. If you need a visual... well, PM me and I'll try and type one up for you tomorrow.]

---

OOC: actions
tick 5 - Reva
tick 6 - Xurizu reaches door
tick 7 - Dashu
tick 8 - mystery man, ashigaru
tick 9 - red guard
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:31, Mon 17 Nov 2008.

Dashu decides to use the moment his technique gained to glean more information from the mystery armored man.  "So wait what you're saying we need to keep one of these two alive to open this door in front of us or a different door down the road?  By the way, for the record, if we're choosing who to not kill, I'm in favor of sparing the one you've got under foot unless those needles of yours made him 'unusable'."

[Private to GM: Can I try and stunt my dodge?  I need the essence anyway.  By the way, speaking of essence and stunts, did my last post qualify as a 2 or 3 dice stunt?  I don't particularly care if I got the dice.]
This message was last edited by the player at 14:18, Wed 19 Nov 2008.

PM [Private to Peleps Dashu: Sure, stunt the dodge. I'll adjust the previous post accordingly. You also got a +2 stunt from the attack, I already accounted for it in your roll, so get your motes!]

What Xurizu sees:

The alcove itself is not much bigger than a closet, maybe 2-3 square yards. The controls are basically a series of panels. The horizontal panels appear to be for entering input, all smooth rather than individual raised buttons. All the symbols are in Old Realm (so knowing Old Realm will definitely make this easier). The panels have Essence lines shining along them, in rippling patterns reminiscent of a sunlit stretch of water, radiating from different points to power various functions of the panels. There are also vertical jade screen displays at eye level, though they don't show pictures, just letters.

The entirety is very seamless and contoured -- no wires or joints showing, no sharp corners, in keeping with a watery aesthetic. The construction itself is mainly adamant and black jade alloy, with touches of other MMs (not soulsteel, though).

The most prominent part of the touch panels appears to be something like a half sphere embedded into it. The metal around it has been crafted to appear like a three-dimensional swirl of waves, rising to envelop the sphere. This part seems to be surrounded by the most essence lines, and the half sphere is glowing a blue-green color right now (as is most of the rest of the equipment).

"The door just ahead is the one you need to be worried about. It leads out of this prison area. You are correct in your assumption: the vital data of one of the Dragon Chosen acts as this door's key." Quickly, he removes his foot from the chest of the fallen guard, and turn his one-eyed face to Dashu while fighting to repel the attacks of the remaining guards. "And this one is alive. I will carry him, if none of you can. But you must act quickly. I can fend off most of them for now, but in a moment, it will become too heated here to stay." He draws two more knives from his armor, then peers around quickly.

"Move on ahead, or you will risk your planned way of egress being cut away from you."
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:55, Mon 17 Nov 2008.

Xurizu bends his attention to the alcove.  The strange symbols on the controls frustrate him.  He feels like he should know what they mean, but that knowledge comes back blank when he reaches for it.  Another thing taken.  He bends himself to a brief study anyway, pressing several of the buttons before he touched the sphere, trying to discern a pattern in the behaviour of the lights or a reaction in the sphere even as he listened, all senses fully extended, for more distant reactions to his pressing.
[Private to Gatekeeper; Loremaster: Trying to stunt it to Per+Occult!]

Dashu sees the guard charging with his lance while he's in mid-spin and realized he might be in trouble.  "Damn it!  I have to move quick."  Dashu, with his momentum still moving upwards, throws his legs into the air and flips over the recently disarmed hand of the guard in red armor.  He then placed his hand on the guard's shoulder and pushed off, trying to cartwheel over the incoming spearhead.

Afterwards he takes a look to see that Xurizu has arrived at the panel.  "I'll take the our "key" over to Xurizu then.  Thanks for providing cover.  Would now be a bad time to ask what we can call you?"  Dashu bent down and lifted the unconscious Exalt and began moving towards to panel.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:08, Tue 18 Nov 2008.

She nods to the strange man's words, and then moves to take out the Fire Dragon. She unloaded a pile of driving punches.

[Private to GM: 4 Punches, 8,7,6,5 3L each. 4/5/2/1 Success]

[Private to Ledaal Xurizu: Sure, I'll give it to you. +1 stunt.]

The letters remain unintelligible to Xurizu, yet he feels an instinctive familiarity with the language and the controls that goes beyond mere mundane comprehension.

A flicker of memory -- he has definitely stood in front of one of these devices before, though not this one in particular. It is not merely a door control, but one of many nodes in the Five Coils Artificial Intellgence Network. Unfortunately, this is merely a slave node, so it retains only local functionality. From here, he can potentially open and close the outer door as well as the doors leading to the main corridor. He can control lighting in the area, send communication or request backup from local guard stations, broadcast a message throughout the facility, and relay data up the hierarchical AI chain.

As Xurizu touches the orb, the color shifts from a pulsing blue green to a bluish purple tinted with silver: the shade of his own anima. He hears a pleasant, though artificial young male voice speak into his head. Somehow, he understands the meaning, as if some inherent translation is made as the AI speaks. "Ledaal Xurizu, Chosen of Luna, identification A-202037." There is a pause, and a flare of light. He actually feels the device scanning him, and then red Old Realm letters appear on the screen in front of him. "I am sorry, but you do not have the authorization to access this terminal," the voice continues.

The blue-violet essence recedes, and the blue-green glow returns. A cursor blinks on the screen as if awaiting a further input.

---

OOC: note, I had to actually edit Xurizu's ID number... for an unknown reason! Mwahaha! *sekrit*
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:24, Thu 11 Dec 2008.

Dashu cartwheels right over the shock pike ready to pierce him -- at the same time pushing the red guard right into the path of Reva's flurry of punches. "D-damn you!" the guard spits angrily, flaring with Fire Essence as she positions her energy claws in front of her, trying to fend off the blows that seem to come from everywhere and nowhere at once.

But Reva's fists, wreathed in lurid violet, remain unharmed and untouched, blow after blow impacting with her armor and shattering her body within.

"Noo!!" The Fire Aspect falls, coughing a spray of blood, but her anima banner flares fully in a last ditch attempt to roast Reva alive! The flames bathe the Sidereal's body, but by some stroke of luck she comes out unscathed -- leaving her broken opponent to die, knowing she has failed in her duties.

Meanwhile, Dashu drags the unconscious green guard into the alcove. It's a tight squeeze with three people in there. [Private to Ledaal Xurizu: Xurizu quickly realizes that they'll still have to at least revive the guard -- and restrain him, forcing him to input what they wish.]

---

OOC: Dashu makes his stunt, takes no damage... Reva finishes off the red guard, narrowly missing damage from the flames. The mystery man is left facing the three mortals, and can answer Dashu's question or not as he wishes...

"Special Delivery," Dashu quips when he arrived at the console.  "Tall, dark, and armored over there claimed a living Dragon Blood could open the door.  Any idea if he's telling the truth?  Or will plugging this guy in blow us all to hell?  For that matter, do you have any idea how he got all that stuff and knows so much about the tech?  Another prisoner would have a hard time finding the equipment laying around."
This message was last edited by the player at 14:18, Wed 19 Nov 2008.

Xurizu is still staring at the machine when Dashu arrives, startling as the man speaks.  When have I stood before something like this before?  Why would it be so polite to a prisoner?

"It certainly won't open for me, said I wasn't 'authorized', so I don't think trying it with him will do much harm.  He probably needs to be concious for it though.  So we'd best get him out of his armour," as he speaks he reaches up for the quick release catches for the armour, intended to allow medics to swiftly gain access to battlefield casualties.

"As for tall, dark and armoured ..." he lets his voice fall lower, "If I were to come up with 'reasons for sudden failure of anathema containment', then 'sabotage by a well equipped provocateur or provocateurs' would have to be fairly high on the list.  Just who he is, or was, or what ends he could be working for, I don't know."

Dashu assisted in removal of the armor from the Dragon Blood by holding up the captive up while Xurizu unfastens the armor.  Once Xurizu is done, they both extract various body parts of the officer from their magitech shell.  All the while he continued talking to Xurizu in hushed tones: "Something in my head keeps screaming that we shouldn't trust "the Visors."  Not sure what that means but we can't guarantee our release wasn't a set up for something else so we should keep an eye on him."

"His motionless body will not serve you." One way or another, the armored man had found his way to the alcove, so silently it almost seems like he has just appeared there. A quick glance to their previous position reveals that the remaining guards have been subdued, their armored forms now lying on the ground.

Whether or not the stranger has heard the words exchanged between Xurizu and Dashu, he shows absolutely no signs of knowing.

"He has to trigger the code himself - while restrained, of course. Pressing his hand to the access input will do. But the system will definitely know whether or not he is conscious - the door will not open for a fallen Dragon Chosen." The armored man turns, facing towards the corridor, visibly waiting for something as he stands in a ready position.

"The alarm has already been triggered. There is nothing that can be done but make haste. Once you are on the other side, I will use the same method to close the doors. Do not turn back. Pursuit is coming in great numbers, but I will hold them here by breaking the mechanism behind you."

He suddenly drops his vigilant watch to gaze over Xurizu, the single eye on his faceplate glowing crimson again for a moment. "Before you leave, however, I have something of importance I must give you, Ledaal Xurizu. Please do not leave before I passed it on." Quickly, the stranger then turns to Dashu, and lowers his head slightly as the distorted voice speaks once more.

"You ask for a name, Peleps Dashu - I have little use for them. I appear when I am needed. Should you need to, however... You can call me 'Pale Gaze'."
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:52, Wed 19 Nov 2008.

As he glaced at the fallen guards, Dashu couldn't helped be impressed with the handy work.  "Wow, nice work Pale Gaze.  Again, thanks for the help."  Dashu then returned his attention back to the unconscious, unarmed, and unclothed "tool" in his arms.  "So we gotta wake him up?"  Dashu started lightly slapping the guard's face.  The blows couldn't possibly deal any damage, but hopefully would wake up the guard.  Suddenly he stops and looks around saying "By the way, has anyone seen Reva?"
This message was last edited by the player at 03:17, Wed 19 Nov 2008.

"I'm right here." As she spoke the mask around her was fading, she was slowly becoming visible again. Her charm was nearing the limits of its power, but the fight was over so that was fine for her.

(Sorry about poor posting! Will improve!)

"... Something of importance for me?" Xurizu can't help but blurt out surprised, having been much more focused on the dragonblood in front of them than the strange man.  "And thank you for your help," he says, before nodding to Reva's return.

What could he possibly have that was important to me?