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Cairns on the Wine River [FIN]; [ST05][Signups Closed]
Topic Started: Sat Sep 17, 2016 1:22 pm (8,277 Views)
Tanya
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As more people filed into the room, the earth outside cracked open. Heavy ethereal disturbances rocked the HQ. Inside the blueprint room, several powerful fighters eyed one another warily.

The blueprint room wasn't nearly large enough for the crowd it had accrued, and Tanya's lack of clothing was drawing a surprising number of lewd glances, considering its piecemeal composition. She decided it was time to cut her losses and give in. The company policy in these matters was to never resist arrest. Scrubknot was excellent at finding loopholes in the law, and it was far easier to do business in a city while fighting a court case than while harbouring a fugitive.

She smiled as innocently as a mouthful of viciously sharp teeth allowed her to. "I'll come with you, but there's a couple of things I need first, both for the sake of discretion. First, can we keep this quiet until I've had a fair trial? You know how rumours are. Secondly..." She flushed and looked at the floor. "Er, can I have a coat or something?"

The Sheriff was strangely unwilling to give up his coat, but Tanya was more concerned with his response to her other question. "A fair trial? You think you're entitled to a fair trial after everything I've seen you do?"

Before Tanya could reply, Tian made his own attempt. Before he could finish his thought, however, a mesh of spikes came out of the walls and skewers him in place. Another person, this one wearing the uniform of a guard, entered the room and addressed the Sheriff. Roman didn't respond. It seemed he'd had enough of their questioning.

Tanya coughed and narrowed her eyes, addressing her next comment to the wall. Her limbs were worth thousands of notes to the right buyer. She had no desire to have them damaged by being too aggressive. "No fail trial? I had hoped Balefire meant to deal with its crime problem, not exacerbate it with corruption."

The idea that she wouldn't be offered a fair trial wasn't entirely bad news. It took the option of going along quietly off the table, but it meant that there were any number of ways to spin resisting arrest into a heroic act. If the government was arresting people without trials, it was a tyranny - or at least could be spun to become one. If it was a tyranny, anyone who opposed it wasn't a terrorist. They were freedom fighters. Madame Tanya, fighting to preserve the rights of all beings while still maintaining her company's philanthropy by supplying grafts to those in need. Gosh, what a hero. We should look into buying from her. She deserves the business, and I like companies that stand by their principles even in the face of opposition...

It could work. It could be great, especially since she expected an awful lot of the Balefire residents who opposed the cleansing would be needing her services in the near future. But before any of that could happen, she had to deal with the more immediate problem of escaping Roman Hatiri. The vampire had already proven himself a dangerous foe.

She turned to speak to the four others in the room. "Do any of you have clothing I can borrow, since our local law enforcement refuses to help?" The newcomer shrugged off his coat and handed it to her. She accepted it and covered herself. "Thank you. It's nice to see that some in this city retain a degree of decency."

She shot the Sheriff a sharp look, though the disapproval wasn't the most harmful part. A bolt of lightning shot from her left eye and zagged at his face. She didn't wait to see if he was able to block it, instead bolting for the door. If he tried to grab her, she'd dodge or fend him off with her hands. She'd only need to hold him off for a second before she could step through the remains of the door and bolt.

She held onto the box as she fled. The information in it was valuable, which meant both that she could sell it and that Wine River would hesitate to use overpowering force for fear of destroying it. Assuming it actually contained the schematics. But if it didn't, there was nothing she could do about it. If worst came to worst, it would just be a good tool to use to bash someone in the head.

The room full of magicians outside was her next obstacle. She tried not to draw too much attention from them. She had a Wine River guard's coat, after all, and there was enough chaos going on that she doubted anyone would look too closely. If any stray bolts were shot at her, she'd just have to practice her dodging.

There was window in an office just outside. She'd seen it during the break in. That was her destination. If she could make it there, she'd stick her head out the window and fire another bolt of lightning into the sky, signalling Nazareth for extraction.

OOC


The damn enkaida was getting in Nazareth's way again. She was trying to see how many loop-de-loops she could do in the space of a minute, but the bird kept trying to level her airship out and keep it flying steady. The damn thing had no idea how to fly. It still thought the point of flying was to get from point A to point B. Nazareth knew it was the other way around. The whole purpose of having a point A and a point B was that you got to fly between them. Otherwise, they'd be pointless.

As she was wrestling the airship in another tight loop, an explosion sounded through Balefire's dark sky. She let the enkaida level it out and looked at the city. It was in chaos. Half the city was on fire. A whole fleet of Cascadian airships passed overhead, aiming towards Balefire.

Nazareth grinned. "What are the odds that has nothing to do with Madame Tanya?" it asked the bird.

It clucked its beak. "I am not sure. I am good at flying. I am not at other tasks."

"Well, here's a crash course." The demon angled the ship after the Cascadian fleet and began to follow. "The odds of Tanya having nothing to do with an explosion? Approximately zero percent." She scanned the city, looking for the bolt of lightning that Tanya would shoot when she needed an air extraction.

Airship


Caelum was still sitting in the tavern when he heard the explosion. He leapt to his feet and bolted out the door, his mind filled with images of Tanya's broken body. The sound had started at the airshipyard. Everyone around him was panicking as much as he was. Fires had broken out across the city.

As he approached the yard, he saw a couple of the members of the infiltration team, Zuraw and Alex. Most of the airshipyard guards had their attention fully occupied by the half-wolf tearing any who approached her apart, but one of them, presumably having his desire for vengeance overcome by his desire not to go up against Zuraw, split off and challenged the air elemental.

Caelum's battleaxe appeared in his hand, composed of the same swirling winds that made up his body. He swung it in an underhand strike at the guard, but it was blocked. As he went for a second blow, another explosion rocked the city. His grip on the battleaxe loosened, and it dissipated back into the air. Caelum's breathing quickened, and clouds swirled around his head. The noise was too much. He slumped to the ground, his ears pounding. A blurry guard raised their sword, but he couldn't focus on them except to acknowledge that it was pointed straight at his head.

Before they could thrust forward, though, a pale, fanged face appeared over their shoulder and plunged towards the guard's neck. A look of agony passed briefly across their face. Their eyes glazed over and they slumped to the ground. Caedis wiped the blood from his mouth offered Caelum a hand. "I'm glad you're here. Everything's gone to hell. We've got to get to Madame Tanya."

Caelum took the vampire's hand and climbed to his feet. The world was starting to come back into focus. "I know. She'll know what to do. She always does."

Caedis frowned, but didn't contradict him. Together, the two headed for the headquarters, watching each other's backs and looking for any sign as to where Madame Tanya might be.
Edited by Tanya, Sun Sep 25, 2016 10:28 pm.
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Anci
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It was a serene sight of sorts, watching the silent destruction play out. Anci’s lips pursed when the damned place didn’t fall. This was something different, something she didn’t know the nature of. It looked like the place was alive. When the color alterations started rolling through her heart felt like it had skipped a beat, momentarily she thought something had triggered and she was getting a bleed out effect from the other side. The variations suggested otherwise, but it was decidedly something not natural.

The next unpleasant turn of events came from an attack from building itself. She tried to force the thing into an evasive maneuver but it was too ungainly, the tendrils too fast. They cut right through its hardened body with no resistance. She knew it was gone at that moment. Through will and her planar connection to it she forcefully ripped out the core of essence keeping it alive on this side. A crystalline shard with wavy surface patterns burst out of the creature’s center and plunged towards Anci as the tendrils finished off killing it. All she’d done was accelerate the process by a few moments.

Without hesitating she impaled the avian creature with it, the shard striking at the join between two of its plates and sliding into the black, metallic flesh without resistance. Digging in deeper, the shard merged with its own core. The very need to evolve and overcome was imprinted on them from the place they had come from, it could draw on the echoes of what had happened to the other creature. Changing its composition in response to this threat.

The plating shed, leaving the sleek body unarmored but lighter. The frame bulked up, its legs elongating and the joints becoming more flexible in their movements. Metal rods sprouted out of its spine, rapidly growing black metal chasing the sudden growth and covering it to for a tail. New orifices opened up between the shoulder blades, small pipe style openings that contracted and expanded as if breathing. Gently the heads of newly grown tentacles emerged, dripping a silvery and sticky liquid. Anci took a guess that it had decided that since there was no feasible way of overcoming the damage directly, the next best option was to avoid it altogether.

She’d spent too long observing the changes, quick as they were. Looking back at the dying carcass of the other creature Anci was startled to see a tendril hurtling from its body towards her. Sweeping a gesture towards a half eaten lamplight, its surface flowed like wax and glided through the air and snaked around her person as she was pushing off to go perpendicular to the tendril’s path. The sheet of metal angled itself as the attack came, shattering instantly from the impact and sending fragments everywhere. More than a few burrowed themselves into her body. She could feel Rasaki stretching himself underneath, working to stop the shrapnel from punching through into her organs.

The force of the near miss had sent her into a fall, she arrested it by going into a hand plant and pushing off of that to land on her feet facing where the tendril had made impact. It was disorientating watching all of this going on with out being able to hear anything. It took precious moments to find where exactly the head of the tendril was while pulling her other creature towards her. Now she could feel it railing against her bindings. Some of them had even snapped in its struggles to get away. Rasaki was in her hands, the dark purple metal flowing into the shape of a long spear shaft with a series angular edges meant to deflect attacks away. After how easily the tendril had shredded the aerial predator, she had little doubts as to what it might do to her.

Noiselessly from seemingly nowhere Lore emerged from the inside of a nearby building, saying something. She looked battered and bloody but she was still kicking. She also distracted Anci from keeping her eyes on the prowling tendril. Once it made another attack, she’d try to parry or dodge it and in that moment get aboard her surviving summon and book it with all the speed it had between its claws, wings and tentacles.

Things n’ stuff
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Mobster Man
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Everything went to hell. This entire damn thing was a setup, he figured it was either one of their own or their employer, and now the entire damn place had become a twisted war zone. Of course to make matters worse one of the worst people had to just show up. So it was time for a deal.

'Ethereal, buddy, help out a fellow shadow-planar... or... well.. half shadow-planar. I know I can't get anything for free, but we're kinda like kin right? Mind giving me a discount? I really want to get out of here without... ya know... getting caught. So... please show me the way to get outta here or how to get outta here.' Yurim thought.

The Ethereal offered him a deal... one that would cost him an arm or a leg or some organ. Yurim frowns, 'A god damn limb or organ? You're playing me the fool with that kinda deal. You want something then name a fair price. If I'm to hurt or injured from you taking something from me or if it impedes me to much, how am I going to make future deals? So try again. If it's sweet enough when I get my revenge I'll give you whatever I cut off that damn traitor or employer.'

The next deal was just a pint of blood, much more reasonable. Yurim smirked, 'Only if it's a slow drain. If you're fine with slowly drawing out my blood then we've got a deal.' It seemed for a slow drain the Ethereal would take extra, that was still fine, once he was safe he could shadow jaunt to his hide out, eat some of his provisions, but the answer he got only made him want to slap his face. Of course the river was his safest way out, he needed to get away fast.

He broke cover, quickly and quietly leaping the side of the barge. His scarf wrapped around his body would slow his fall, there would barely be a splash as he entered. Next would be a test of endurance and physical strength. He needed to swim with the river, use other boats to hide and try to keep swimming underwater, taking breaks only when he felt he was safe or needed to. He just needed to create distance, the more distance the better. He needed to get home, get his armor, then disappear for a while, gather information, he needed to make sure he was safe first. Even if his allies knew his name he could always don the mask and become another person if he needed to.
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Alexandra
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Alex blinked, then stuttered as her excuse failed. "B-but I reall-" Zuraw tore past her. Ribbons of blood traveled through the air. Gore struck the street. Alexandra felt utterly hopeless. She sought deeper within herself to find something, straight towards the deep-set uneasiness she had since she came to Balefire. She gripped it...and then spoke to it.

I don't have the power to get home. I don't want Zuraw to get hurt or get killed because I'm too weak to fight for myself up close. This isn't going to get any better. I'm going to need your help, ancient. I'm not going to give up something as valuable as memory, so take a part of me.

There was resistance, but Alex urged it on. She slumped forwards, but rose up again a moment later. Her arm lashed out. She moved like she never had before, with celerity she hadn't touched since her days in Istani Army bootcamp. Memories flooded back. She could do this. She wove between guards, an impossible, terrifying limb lash out. Men fell around her. They rose, but wandered off. Her hand worked through a quick series of gestures, joining an incantation she uttered as quickly as she could. Smoke billowed out. Alex grabbed Zuraw with her real hand.

"Zuraw. Let's go!" Alex bolted into the alley across the street under the cover of smoke, and looked quickly for a warehouse or otherwise empty structure she could hide inside of.

OOC
 

Oh dear. Obscuring Smoke spell used.
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Storyteller[ST]
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One two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven.


Everyone

Wake up.



OOC
 
The next Storyteller post cutoff will be on Thursday, September 29 at 3:00 pm.

Please keep close track of the Discussion topic this round, as it'll likely explode with quick dialogue exchanges. I'll try to write in past tense third person this time so your posts don't do weird things. >___> That was my fault.

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Alexandra
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Alexandra awoke to screams. She decided it wasn't worth rushing awake. She knew where she was. Her eyes flitted open and without a moment to spare she went to work on the scrawny figure - Anci - resting against her bust. She raised her manacled arms to give her eyes a scratch. They itched terribly. Alex had stepped through the doorway, and for the first time in her life, she admitted she wasn't a normal person. The flame within her burned strong as her eyes slid from side to side. She needed to get home, get her sister to safety. Her fingers twitched through the motions to summon Mira's true form. She could at least use her as a messenger when the time was right.

She motioned Zuraw over to conceal what she was up to. and quickly went over the enchantments she could feel, and those on the exterior, before starting work. Any sign of an alert enchantment and she would try and bypass that first, then work on releasing it. But she wouldn't release it fully - just enough so that it was inoperable and easy to take off, but still appeared to be on.

"I watched your eyes. You know how to manipulate runes. Here's how." Alexandra reached over to Lorica, and repeated the process for each manacle, carefully teaching Anci how. As soon as Lorica was complete, Alex had Anci do it to herself with minimal guidance. "You two are helping me get home. I'm going to get that prison guard. Big lady and Zuraw, you grab her I get her close and get her keys off. Anci, try to get as many people as you can unlocked. When we are out, get that other cell open. More chaos is good."

Alex rose and walked across the miserable cell, careful to step around and over the appendages of her cellmates. She walked right up to the bars, and readied for the moment to snake her ethereal arm through and grab the prison guard the moment she looked away. She would hopefully then draw her close enough that Lorica and Zuraw could disarm her and unlock the cell door.

Spoiler: click to toggle
Edited by Alexandra, Thu Sep 29, 2016 1:26 am.
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Arthur
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Arthur barely made it to the bathroom before two thugs accosted him. Not wanting to be delayed he launched quickly into an nonlethal assault. His moves were fast too fast for the two thugs to counter effectively. Soon both were laying on the ground unconscious. Despite being made Arthur wanted as little blood shed as possible. Then he found the privy and shapeshifted and then as a fly dragon flew into Carmen's pocket.

Which surprisingly might not have been the best decision. Because somehow one the guards knew where he was. He reached down and pulled fly dragon Arthur from Carmen's pocket. He then unraveled Arthur's form and then placed a collar on Arthur and Carmen's neck. Then everything went black.

Arthur woke some time later in a cell. The others were there with him. Somehow they had all been caught. It would have been funny if Arthur wasn't with them. Arthur took sometime to unfuzz his brain and then he looked around. He then felt the collar on his neck. It had been a long time since he had a collar on his neck. It brought back bad memories he had to get rid of it. But how he felt if he tried any of his magic it was cause pain that he had not felt for a long time.

A few of them was already awake he did not remember who she was. She had an ethereal arm. And somehow she had unlocked the manacle. Arthur did not move from his spot lest he give her away as she went to the cell door to reach for the passing guards keys. He hoped he would be released soon. Then he could bring hell down on these people that locked him up.
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Tanya
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She reached the window and shot off her signal. Out of the corner of her eyes, she could see Caedis and Caelum being rounded up by a team of Sheriffs. She cursed out loud. That would complicate the extraction. She'd have to bust them out of prison before she left, ideally while the majority of the local law enforcement were still busy rounding everyone up.

Smoothing out the coat in preparation for the next part of her escape, she noticed something she hadn't before. It looked at first glance like a small tear in the sleeve, and in a sense it was, but not in the material itself itself. It was a tear in reality, a portal into some pocket dimension. Tanya was sure Scrubknot wouldn't appreciate her using a mysterious hole in the fabric of spacetime as a spot to stash stolen goods, but there were some things that bureaucrats just couldn't plan for. She focused on the tear and shoved the lockbox inside. That should keep it hidden well enough, at least as long as there weren't any overly curious denizens of whatever plane she'd crammed it into.

She slipped out the window and landed on the ground safely, the impact of the fall absorbed by her powerful leg grafts, but there her luck ran out. Her airship had been recognized and shot down, leaving her with no means of escape. She ran towards it anyway, calling out. "Nazareth! Are you all right?"

The demon emerged from the cockpit and waved shakily. "I'm fine. Just a little too slow to--" Before she could finish the sentence, a group of mercenaries piled on her and hauled her away. Tanya started to move towards them, but a crossbow bolt slammed into the ground by her feet before she could take a step. She looked up to see a dozen more leveled at her head.

Much as Tanya liked liberty, she didn't like death much. She raised her hands in surrender. A moment later, something slammed against the back of her head and she blacked out.

She woke some time later in a crowded cell. As her vision cleared, she recognized the other members of the strike team lying around her. A quick headcount produced fifteen people to the cell: her team, the ten others who had been involved in the infiltration, and one silent, wolfish woman who she suspected of being Zuraw.

She stood, cracked her neck, and looked around at the others waking up. "Well, it seems we've had some unforeseen complications with the plan. Anyone know what went wrong? Other than all hell breaking loose, I mean."

Keter replied. She nodded, shrugged one shoulder, and dismembered him in her mind. "Should've expected it, really. He lied about this job from the start. It didn't bode well. But I didn't expect such a big crackdown, even if he turned on us."

"Well, I'm not interested in hanging around. Roman Hatiri told me we weren't going to get a trial, which means there's no reason to stay in here. You lot up for another job?"

Most of the members of the team seemed in agreement, but any verbal assent they gave was drowned out by the panicked wailing of the one remaining member. Several of the others in the cell attempted to silence her through various means. The successful one put her in a chokehold until she passed. out. Tanya tightened her lips. The violent scramble for food in the cell opposite was clear evidence of what would happen if they started fighting among themselves. "Dammit," she muttered as Carmen slumped to the floor. "Think straight. I'm not one of the people who thinks violence is never the answer, but it's not always the answer. And it's certainly not the answer in a crowded cell with a panicked person." She knelt beside Carmen. "I know there's not a lot in here, but let's try to give her some space when she wakes up. I have some experience dealing with panic attacks. I've seen a lot of them."

While the girl was passed out, a conversation with the prisoner in the cell opposite had been struck up. She listened in. The news wasn't good. Ansgar, as the man introduced himself, explained that they were zakona--they had lost all protection from the law, and their lives were less than worthless in Balefire. Tanya's face tightened. "Pleased to meet you, Ansgar. Are we just waiting for the bureaucracy to sort everything out so they can execute us, then?"

The man wasn't sure. Carmen woke up a short time later, and Tanya had to occupy herself trying to calm the girl down. She inspected the collars as she did so, but wasn't able to learn anything. Over her shoulder, she asked the others what they could find out from them. She also noticed that Alex had a new arm, of craftsmanship even she had to envy. She asked about it, but Alex didn't seem interested in discussing the matter.

None of them gave her any information, but she didn't think on that much. She had a much easier solution available. She was just delaying the unpleasantness as long as possible.

She passed off the task of comforting Carmen to Caelum, who was rather more awkward and ill-at-ease that Tanya but was at least not as crazy-looking as Caedis was getting, and looked at her shackle. She asked one final question of Ansgar, who had joined their party, and then went to work.

She shifted her right arm to fit into her mouth as well as possible and then bit down, hard. The dead flesh caused her no pain, but the mouthful of rot was decidedly unpleasant. She ignored the taste and bit through as much of it as she could before letting go and using her left arm to sever the few remaining threads of sinew. The arm dropped to the floor of the cell with the collar still attached to it.

She nodded to Caedis, and the vampire picked it up, wielding it almost like a sword. Tanya used her new freedom to heal anyone who needed healing before going to provide support to Alex. Her elemental arm could pass right through the bars to grab the jailkeeper if she had to. So long as Alex had it under control, however, she was willing to save her strength for dealing with the prison guards.

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Hearne
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Hearne itched at his wrists where the manacles rubbed at the skin. The skin around them was beginning to go black, as if ink stained and charred where the metal actually touched. They were playing merry hell and it was taking a conscious effort not to use magic and make his situation worse. His uniform had been stripped away and the changes to his appearance were reverted. His hair hung in front of his eyes as he opened them, reaching up to brush it back and itch at his beard.

"Lovely. We've landed ourselves neatly in a nice frigid Balefire cell. Always wanted mites." He growled, voice sounding like someone had dragged it through a gravel lot and rubbed vinegar into it. his eyes glowed dully, dim embers of coppery gold. Grimacing, he pulled back his magic even further. The dim light faded.

Their cell was decidedly cramped and smelled... interesting. He had a goblin on one side and a woman on the other, the latter of which began making sounds. They ramped up into a scream in short order. Snarling, he reached out a rough hand and clapped it over her mouth. "For the love of the gods, woman. Knock that off or I'll knock you off soonest I get the chance. We're all... allies here. Or we're pointed in the same direction, anyway. Pipe down and I'll give you a drink on me when we get out of this."

Glancing around at his partners in crime, he reached for his breast pocket before remembering he'd been redressed. "Anyone have anything like an actual plan? Soonest I can get these damned cuffs off the better." He inspected the metal. 'What I'd give to be free of this enchantment...'

Hearne released Carmen as Glug struck out, a dark look on his face as he regarded the goblin. It had been a savage thing, though that wasn't unexpected from one of his kind. He'd been suspicious of the "man" since spotting him on the job. Thankfully Lorica put the girl to sleep without actually striking her. "That was gracelessly done, greenskin. If you'd like to keep from being executed, it might be best to keep the allies you are going to be spending the foreseeable future with happy with you." He found himself wishing he'd brought along some of the nastier little charms of scrimshawed goblin bone.

Ears perking as one of his allies spoke to the large man the next cell over, it took him only a moment to place the accent. Hard to forget it after tagging along with Kingfisher. "You're a goodly ways from home. What did you do to get dropped in here with the rest of us dead men walking?" He stood up, flexing his arms and stretching the soreness his pseudoflesh had accumulated thanks to the situation.

Beckoning to the woman he'd given his coat and a Way earlier, he reached for her cuffs and brushed a thumb over the chain, reading rune paths by sight and feel rather than seeing the flow and weaves of magic around him. His skin was darkening and losing color where he was touching the cuffs, but it was a pain he could deal with.

Hearne studied the shackles closely as he listened to the Abnathean speak. "Met a couple of your countrymen not so long ago, spent enough time around them to pick it out. And that's a story I might be interested in hearing. I'll buy you a round of whatever you find agreeable in return for it. But we are a bit preoccupied." He ran a fingernail over one ring of etched enchantment and moved it over a minute binding. 'got it.' "Tell you what. You give me your word of peace and help us get out of here and I'll see about getting you wherever you'd like to go after this settles."

Bringing enough of his sight to bear to recognize what he was looking for, a toothy grin spread over his face. While the material of the shackles was sufficient to hold any physical force a prisoner could bring to bear, the enchantments tackled both the problem of arcane aid and addressed the powers of shadowdancers. The problem with an enchantment like that was the difficulty of pulling off both with the same weave. Bindings like this would be most effective in separate layers, but this particular model was flawed in trying to address both with the same.

"Found it." Gathering power, he began pooling it into a weave of antimagic, focusing the enchantment-eating power on that particular area of the weave. The shackles were burning against his skin as it was containing the magic he was radiating, but he didn't attempt to make a effort to manifest a spell and simply let thaumaturgical reactions do their work.

Soon enough he felt the weave weakening. There was still a good deal of pain, but he felt the part restricting his magic beginning to fail. "Might be worth a shot to try to regroup and figure something out. Give me a second and I'll see what I can do to find us an out." Bracing himself against the pain, he gathered his power, lifted both hands, and attempted to slash open a Way to the Gingered Mare. If that worked out, he could open a second on the other side of the bars for their new ally and any others who might be interested in a way out. Even if they didn't have any use to their group, they might find he had plenty of use for them in the dark, abandoned classrooms deep in the Cathedral.

OOC
Edited by Hearne, Wed Sep 28, 2016 4:09 pm.
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Carmen
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A drop of rainwater crept through the leaky ceiling and fell onto Carmen's face. Another splattered on her forehead, and her eyes fluttered open just in time for a third to land squarely between them. She jerked her head violently and moved her arm to wipe her face with her sleeve, only to recoil at the slightest touch of her new attire. The fabric was not the indulgent silk she'd been wearing; her toga had been removed and replaced with a rough, scratchy rag.

Her mouth fell open in disgust, realizing she was dressed in little more than a burlap sack. There was an iron shackle on her ankle, and its chain led into the darkness, perhaps bolted to the floor. Her jewelry was gone, her gloves and shoes stolen; even her underclothes had been replaced. The violation had her too inflamed to speak, and she breathed through her mouth like a woman possessed.

She felt the press of another body against her from the right, and then another from the left. Her elf heritage helped her eyes adjust to the darkness, and suddenly everything became much, much worse for the young heiress.

Men and women were all around her; the team she'd met in the tavern. They were all dressed as she was and forced in close by their confines. Just beyond them were the walls of bars. The room wasn't even three paces across, but a dozen people had been forced inside and chained in their sleep. Carmen's heart beat loud and hard in her ears like a pounded war drum. Her breath came in shallow, panicked gulps as her eyes flitted back and forth, searching for escape but finding none. Her small hands scratched weakly at her anklet, then at the bars, and then at her neighbors as her pupils dilated until they were wide as saucers.

Carmen's chest constricted, like she was being crushed, her dread suffocating. The bars closed in, the bodies pushed upon her, and a solid terror took firm hold of Carmen and did not let go.

There was only one escape from the cell; Carmen shut her eyes and squeezed them tight.


With her eyes closed, she found herself back in the oubliette on the Castile estate. There was that same dripping from the ceiling. A coppery taste tinted the air she breathed. Shaking in fear, she reached out a delicate hand, pushed open a door, and her eyes fell upon the true horror that was the Castile winery; its legacy, its present, and its future. Then the door swung shut and locked from the other side, imprisoning her.


Her eyes still shut, and her hands now clasping the sides of her head in hysteria, Carmen screamed as she had then. Her shriek was loud, jarring, shrill, and she did not stop even to take a breath. She was beyond reason, her sanity shattered like struck glass. She rocked back and forth in her mania, and would continue to scream until she passed out from lack of air, or someone did her the kindness of striking her unconscious.






Carmen's voice echoed and reverberated in her skull. The rest of the group woke, startled from their sleep by her screams. Consumed by dread and madness, she was entirely unaware of what was going on around her.

One man clamped a hand over her mouth, which stifled the noise, but didn't quell it completely. The monkey tried to silence her with magic, and was given a painful shock for his mistake. Then the goblin, fed up with the incessant din, struck at Carmen's throat, like he meant to kill her.

Lorica, sweet, blessed Lorica, stopped him short and yanked Carmen close. Carmen didn't even notice that she was being pulled by her hair, or that her carotid artery was being compressed. She kept on screaming, even as her brain starved for blood, right up until the very last moment, before finally letting out a wheeze as she fell unconscious.

Regrettably, most choke holds only disable their victim for a few seconds. How Carmen might react when she came to was yet to be seen.






When Carmen wakened she was on the floor again, this time being hovered over by Tanya. Carmen jerked and tried to sit up, only to have her vision spin like a top and she fell back down. Her eyes flicked around as they readjusted, taking in those same sounds, smells and sights as she had a few moments before.

The horrific realisation that this had not been a dream descended down on her like a blanket made of lead, compressing her, forbidding any hope of moving and crushing the air from her lungs. She inhaled, about to scream again, but Tanya swooped in to soothe and comfort her, providing just enough solace to keep Carmen from shrieking again.

Carmen jammed the knuckle of her index finger between her teeth and bit down hard. Her eyes shook and her body twitched the quivered with involuntary tremors. She pulled her knees in close to her chest. Her lips trembled as she murmured what seemed like nonsense. The few audible words that she repeated often were 'no', 'father', and 'so much blood'. Tears poured down her cheeks in tiny, ever-flowing rivers, and only Tanya's near-constant attention kept Carmen's sobbing relatively quiet.

Edited by Carmen, Wed Sep 28, 2016 4:25 pm.
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Glug Photall
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Distant…not so distant…closer…the wailing of a banshee on the hunt…

His one ear exploded with pain that surged throughout his head, threatening to crack his skull opened. He winced painfully, wrapped in a cocoon of unbearable audible agony. Yet someone was shouting…telling the screamer to stop…he focused, forcing his features to still. It wasn’t easy. He kept his eyes closed. He didn’t move. The smell of sweat and the stench of at least ten other bodies filled his nostrils, nauseating him. His skull throbbed and his heart pounded. He forced his breathing to remain quiet and even.

His clothes were gone. So was his neck-charm and his armour. He could feel that much. Bodies pressed in on him from every direction. It would have been nigh impossible for him to extricate himself from this mess. The steady drip…drip…drip of water coming from somewhere above was unmistakable but difficult to hear beneath the screaming. Finally, patient though he usually was, he couldn’t take it any longer. He slowly opened his eyes, letting in just enough light for them to adjust in the darkness. He found the screamer quickly, yet only slowly moved. When he struck, he did so with every reflex he had, aiming a blow directly for the throat of the woman. It was almost spasmodic, that blow, and he hoped to the Abyss it would SHUT THE WOMAN UP.


His blow was stopped by another, but the annoying girl was silenced regardless, for which Glug was greatly thankful. He rubbed his eyes as best he could in the crowded cage and stood, discussing his possible escape with the others. Trying to give himself a sense of whether he was anywhere near where he had been originally, he muttered the incantation of a small spell to himself - and almost immediately felt as though his spine was being ripped out of his body as violently as possible. His whole body tingling now, his spell to find the horse he’d picked up recently having failed miserably, he rubbed the back of his neck. The lock was on the back of the collar…it was awkward for picking. But Glug didn’t have any of his gear at the moment, and he’d lost his picks on a prior job, anyway. He drew in a breath and let it out slowly to steady himself.

So no casting spells. Well, he wasn’t much of a mage to begin with. So he was completely isolated, then…several people seemed to have their own solutions. One woman - the blonde arcanotechnician from before - did something with the collars. She didn’t get them off, but Glug thought he felt something loosen. He tried to cast his spell again. He felt the same pain, yet his mana flowed, albeit like molasses rolling uphill in midwinter. He felt no presence of the horse, unfortunately, so he let the spell go. He definitely wouldn’t be casting that spell again any time soon, but at least now he knew that he was nowhere near Balefire - or if he was, his spell simply couldn’t penetrate whatever prison he’d been thrown into.

With the woman quiet now, at any rate, he was able to pick up some information. It seemed that a zakona was an outlaw...Bridgetongue, it must be. And the name of the antlered fellow in the next cell was named Ansgar. Someone had struck up a conversation with Ansgar, though Glug was more concerned with his current predicament at the moment. Someone had betrayed them - either their “employer” or someone in the group. On the plus side, he doubted whomever it was would be able to kill anyone in this cell - at least, not very easily - assuming that was part of the job as well. Bearing that in mind, he turned his ear toward the conversation with Ansgar, testing his shackles as he did so.

"Good construction. They came prepared."

Then someone came up with a half-mad scheme to get the bindings off. At first Glug thought the man was merely sadistic or trying to kill someone. But…if he or another could pick the locks on these, the pain would be worth it. Even if he didn’t get healed right away, he could deal with the pain. It wouldn’t be easy, but he could deal with it. He’d had broken bones before. He thought for several long moments very carefully about the request before finally coming to a decision, having weighed the pain of a badly broken arm against imprisonment in such close proximity to so many people at once and eventual execution - or worse.

"I always repay my betrayers in full," he said slowly, "and my debts as well. But there's no guarantee these can be picked."

He indicated the shackles by shaking them a little.

"Still...it's worth a try, I suppose."

He considered his arms for a moment before offering his right to the man.


The man seemed shocked that Glug was actually taking him up on the offer.

”You realize,” he said slowly and in a low voice, not sure if anyone else was even paying attention to his demented plan, ”that if I fail to remove these things this way, it’s going to be a while before I can do anything so grand as heal your wounds, right?”

The goblin hesitated momentarily, but he still valued freedom over painlessness.

Glug nodded, though his eyes had a dangerous look in them.

"Don't forget your end of the bargain," was all he said.

He then drew in a sharp breath and waited for the pain he knew was to come.


OOC
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Lorica
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A warm hand on her face. Lorica stirred, opening her eyes slowly. Anci was cradling her in their lap, staring down with concern. She smiled languidly. “What, no breakfast in bed? You're slacking off, Braids.”

'Bed' was a bit of an overstatement, in any case. 'Crowded, squalid cell' was more accurate. They were crushed together in cramped confines with a dozen others. It took her a moment to realize that they were the rest of the group gathered by Krupin. Lorica sat up, although she kept pressed close to Anci. Her body ached. She'd suffered various small lacerations and bruises during the attempted escape. The right side of her face felt warm and swollen from where the Grizzly had slammed it into the cobblestones. There was a snug collar around her neck which chafed uncomfortably.

The rest of the group was returned to consciousness by one of their inmates screeching in pure terror. Lorica grit her teeth in annoyance, but when one of their fellows went for a crippling blow to her throat she interceded. Her hand shot out so that the goblin's knuckles slapped against her palm instead of crushing the woman's windpipe. Due to the cramped confines, her elbow glanced Tian's forehead in the process. “Calm the [removed] down, alright? I don't wanna share a cell with a corpse. It smells bad enough in here already.”

Lorica stretched out grabbed the terrified woman by the hair and yanked her within arm's reach, pulling her body across several others in the process. “Sorry,” she said in an unapologetic tone before wrapping one arm around her neck in a simple choke hold. Within half a minute the woman would go unconscious. “See? Problem solved.” Someone chastised her for the violent reaction, but Lorica shrugged. “What, you think you can do better? Be my guest then. But if she starts screaming again I’m gonna put her out.”

Other members of the team started talking with prisoners in the next cell over, including a brute of a man with rune-etched antlers. Lorica got a bare bones of an explanation: they were zakona, which apparently made them legal pariahs within Balefire’s jurisdiction. “Well that’s just lovely. You know, some of us do business in Balefire. [removed]ing hell.” Another fellow inmate else made a comment that suggested they thought killing each other was the best solution to their troubles. Lorica’s only response was to give them a look of such utter loathing that it was miraculous they didn’t die on the spot. Yeah, [removed] that guy. If someone has to die, he’s gonna be the first.

Anci was leaning on the woman who’d volunteered to sabotage the sphereyard with Zuraw earlier, Alex. She proved her expertise once more, fiddling with her collar. She couldn’t get it loose, but she claimed that she should be able to use magic, at least. “Thanks, but I shouldn’t. Not in here. If I do…” She exchanged a loaded look with Anci. The Sulerian knew that if Lorica was forced to draw on the Wellspring… then things would get messy. She could probably break them free, but there was no guarantee anyone else in the cramped cell would survive the process.

Some of the others were discussing a plan to try and use broken bones as lockpicks, which sounded like pure idiocy to her, although she could do with the entertainment. Alex whispered a alternative: waylay the guard when she returned with their meal. From the sounds echoing down the hall, they didn’t have much time to waste.

“Alright.” She glanced at draconian man, who had introduced himself as Ansgar. “Hey big guy… mind shifting your bulk a bit? If you do I think she won’t notice me until it’s too late.” If he complied then his massive size should stop the guard from seeing her through the wall of iron bars until it was too late. She turned to glare at the rest of the prisoners, saving an especially suspicious look for Keter. “The rest of you… play it cool, alright? If one of you screws this up I might change my standing policy on corpses in the cell.”

If Ansgar complied Lorica planned on curling up in the corner of the cell with Zuraw, staying mostly out of sight behind his tattooed back, slumping as if she was unconscious. She could feel vibrations through the floor as the guard approached, letting her track their position without her eyes open. Alex was going to make the first strike using her weird, jet-black arm. The ethereal limb gave her the longest reach of anyone in the cell, plus its other properties would be useful for incapacitating their jailer.

Once she’d been reeled closer to the bars Lorica would strike herself. Even without the extra strength of the Wellspring she had quite a grip. She’d restrain the woman and choke her out, much like she had with the screamer. Zuraw would then be responsible for snatching the keyring and freeing them from this cell. If necessary, she knew Anci and Rasaki could kill the guard now that her collar had been disabled.

OOC
Edited by Seele, Wed Sep 28, 2016 8:31 pm.
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Tian
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He took hold of the goblin's arm, held in a firm and powerful grip. Some things these manacles do not taketh away, he noted to himself darkly. But instead of doing the deed, instead of snapping the greenskin's arm and collecting an a piece of bone for his enterprise, he hesitated.

And then shook his head. It wasn't worth the cost. Oh, he would suffer nothing by way of injury or pain from the ordeal - that would belong to the strange little goblin - but it was a poor gamble. He was almost certain he could make a fragment of bone do the work, but he could not easily reach his own lock. Unlocking the goblin would be useless; he would be badly injured by the attempt. And, of course, he would scream. And that would attract attention.

He was aware of what was going on around him now, a certain air of tension and readiness. No, others had better plans than he did, and he would leave them to that. Casting a sidelong look at the murder machine known as Lorica, he grinned to himself. Very few of this lot do I consider to be equal to this task...but at least she is on our side. A mental pause. For now. Pray it remains so!

I have had a change of heart, goblin. He glanced around at the others, noting the other inmates in different cells passingly. It might behoove us to wait a moment and see what happens next.

Because if someone did manage to get free, and unlock the doors...well, he was unarmed but that hardly stopped a solid assassin. He could kill with his hands, and he could arm himself then as well. And once the necklace was off?

It would take a cleanup crew a considerable amount of time to clean the blood from the walls, ceilings, and floors.
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Keter
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At first there was simply darkness as the Black Monkey's consciousness faded back into being. The lack of light was comforting, the noise of life reassuring, lying on the ground freeing, and for just a moment he did not bother to worry about his memories but instead relished in the essence of freedom. Sadly that false sensation of freedom was lost as he felt the old familiar grip of a collar around his neck. Keter's eyes shot open as he sat up the a chorus of cracking noises coming from his body as cricks were forcibly moved through, hardly a pleasant sensation but at the slight threat of being imprisoned once again on Nalai through the haze of having just woken up, there was no pain that could keep the Incarnation from checking on his situation.

Just a collar. No shackles or manacles, just the scars from the many years he had spent sprung up in that accursed prison. Good. He was not free, but he had a better chance of escaping than back then.

Not so good was the silence in his mind. The Shade was not communicating, either resting, contemplating, or missing, Keter could not say for certain. It looked like for now he was on his own. Well, except for the crowd of people that were surrounding him in the small cell. Upon closer inspection through the dark it seemed that it was the Oxbrew group, all having been captured.

What was it again? Keter's mind grasped at the last memories of his consciousness.

Kuprin, that was right. Kuprin had spent about a century staying in the Sheriff's good graces, playing with him like an unwitting puppet. Then he brought in an assorted group of random mercenary type individuals to distract that old accomplice while he took to doing whatever it was he planned on. Yet that information was limited, Keter surmised that from the Sheriff referring to him as Keter Laluan, a name so far only given to caravans and taverns, yet so far proved an alien name to him.

The Nalaian's mind still wanted to register by the Black Monkey or Surya. That meant he had some secrets he could still hang onto.

One by one the rest of the group began to awake, one with an unfortunate ear-splitting screaming. Fortunately that was eventually quelled by one of the group. They also seemed to gather a new potential ally in the form of a cell neighbor, and all seemed to have some sort of vendetta waiting to fulfill just outside of the bars.

There seemed to be an unfortunate enchantment on the collar, rather than simply shutting off any abilities that the one it detained might have, it gave them a nasty little shock to deter them from trying again. Maybe that meant something deeper, but none of the Black Monkey's incarnations had the time to learn anything special about the arcane.

There was a lot of little bits of this and that going on, but Keter paid it little mind. The cold had been terrible right after waking up, but his pale hide was growing accustomed to its chill once more.

One of the fellow members made a comment that struck to the Black Monkey's mind, bringing up a memory, a deal, and a sensation. That entity referred to as the Ethereal, it had agreed to Keter's terms to let him tell it a story when there was enough time to do so, but since he woke up it had not pestered him for the promised information. To him that could only mean one thing: there was no time to tell that story, not even enough time to entertain the thought of telling the story. They needed to escape quickly.

Everybody was already antsy to escape, it probably would not be a wise idea to infer a time limit to their freedom.

It seemed there were enough people going for the keys at the jailer's side, so Keter just waited in his little bit of space, sitting down on the cold ground and counting the seconds until freedom was returned to him. Once the Black Monkey was freed from the inhibitive effect of the collar, he would take that opportunity to melt into the shadows and scout out the surroundings. Surely chaos was about to spring into life with so many prisoners biting at the bit for payback against the captors who tossed bread at them like animals, he could afford to keep an eye out for anything more interesting while they did the brunt of the damage to the guards.
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Mobster Man
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Yurim was useless. He woke up in the cell only to cough up blood and lay there. He listened to everything and tried his best to think of an escape plan... but even the slightest use of his shadowdancer abilities sent pain through his being. He didn't have the strength to break the restraints, he didn't have the skills to decipher the runes, and he sure as hell didn't have the skill set to kill the guards.

Yurim closed his eyes, listening to the plans and words of his allies, but he didn't find any hope. Causing Chaos would make the entire place go on high alert, it seemed the people in here wanted everything to go loud. Yurim regretted taking the job, he was someone that preferred things stay quiet, going loud meant being found and his skillset was all about not being found and avoiding conflict if he could. All he could do was sit up and wait, if his allies were having a hard time subduing the guard then Yurim could step in, what little skill he had in unarmed combat could help there, otherwise he'd just have to follow his comrades for the time being.
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