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Posted: Sun May 27, 2007 6:29 pm
Well, so far for that plan. Time for Plan B. The necromancer touched the ring on his left middle finger and vanished before Maximos' deadly fist could reach him, appearing on another rooftop across the street, behind Maximos.
"Now!" he cried.
Three drow sprang up onto the rooftop Maximos would now be on, surrounding him, daggers drawn and hand crossbows held. They didn't hesitate to fire, shooting their bolts at the vulnerable spots of his torso (if he's wearing armor; forgot if he was or not).
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Posted: Sun May 27, 2007 6:41 pm
"Wunderbar!"
Those previously-mentioned people would stay behind with the puppet. The rest of the joined forces doubled back into Barton, Descant having taken her place on her teen's shoulders. Her personal numbers were looping the 3rd Movement and everyone with her was singing it, some managing to continue a potentially strenuous dancing through the streets. As would have happened with KChain, hearing their approach was just as dangerous as the approach itself.Quote: -- Symphony of Souls -- The symphony has four movements, each which follow in order. Once a Movement is in full play, her personal group of ghouls can sustain the song at its current level. She has to personally advance or end it.
Mvt 1. Soothe: Listeners nearby do not regard her as suspicious, no matter her actions. In times of intense panic, she will likely be ignored, or at least regarded as nobody special. [3, infinite loop]
Mvt 3. Control: Seizing the listeners' very will, she controls them as a puppetmaster does a marionette. [3, infinite loop] Meanwhile, she was looking out for Moonblade's body.
[1/3]
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Posted: Sun May 27, 2007 6:58 pm
Hmph...That was going to be an issue. He saw that slight motion, that tap of his ring. And he had no intention of letting that repeat itself. His claw slashed through the air, Maximos immediately knelt placing his left hand flat on the rooftop. A small rune resting on the ground. The drow were no real surprise. He had his soul sight active, which is to say that unless there was a building between them. He could see them, and as was the nature of his soul sight. He could tell a drow or a zombie drow, from a human, or a zombie human. The only surprise was their method of attack...arrows. Arrows? That was a joke, right? Quote: Arian Training - Arian soldiers are trained from the day they are able to hold a sword to fight. There lives as humans are sacrificed in order to make them killing machines. Customarily the second eldest boy is taken and placed in live combat with his father, and the village healer. The boy is forced to face his father in real no holds barred combat. At the end of each day the healer returns the child to healthy status and the training begins. The child is forced to endure arrows and projectile weapons, at first being taught to withstand the attack and later to catch the weapons in both, and then one hand before the weapons reach you. As a result, Maximos is able to dodge and or catch most projectile weapons of a simple nature. The man cannot dodge bullets or most modern projectiles. But against a bow, a throwing knife or anything of the sort he is most agile. This was quite possibly Maximos' oldest ability, even before his supernatural shadow manipulation had been displayed, this ability was old. He caught and dodged arrows in his sleep, literally, Arian training makes for vicious nightmares that plague him to this day. He knew the sound, the feel, and if there was one, he would know the smell of an oncoming arrow. The follow set of actions was entirely dependent on the distance between him, and the drow. If they were wielding daggers, then they were assumably very close. But, if they were a distance away then with practiced agility, he ducked, dodged and rolled through the mess of arrows as easily as he might run through fresh air. Those he could not simply dodge his left hand came up to knock aside with practiced ease. There wasnt a hint of drag in his chair, the arrows never even pinged as a nuisance. However, as he entered range, he swung his massive arm to rip the nearest drow to shred, before he immediately moved on to the next. If they were close, he dodged in place. His body moving with the sort of fluidity that made water seem solid. His defense made easier by the fact they were all aiming for similar area's if me moved the area once, it was moved for all of them. For their sake hopefully they were not standing in a circle, or they would have to dodge their own arrows. And if they were anywhere with in that 7ft range, as their crossbows finished their volley he was already sending his arm into a wide slash to take out the entire group. Its size did nothing to slow it it, and there was asset for which Maximos held pride, it was his speed.
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Posted: Sun May 27, 2007 7:10 pm
The drow were standing about 10 feet away from him on all sides, positioned so that if he dodged the missiles (which people seem to usually do), they wouldn't be shooting each other. Unfortunately, Maximos struck the first one before he could drop the hand crossbow and draw out his other blade. As the first drow went flying through the air and off the rooftop, armor and flesh torn from the strike, the other two dropped their hand crossbows and drew out another dagger, dashing in swiftly to take him from behind, one coming in low with daggers poised to pierce his back while the other leapt into the air to take him down from up top.
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Posted: Sun May 27, 2007 7:41 pm
Success. Carnage took on a whole new feel when it was between ones own fingertips. A hand arguable the size of Maximos' body with razor sharp talon like fingers, possessing far over superhuman strength. Flesh bones...try tissue and twigs.
As the swipe completed his left hand smacked the floor again, another black ground forming where his hand met roof tile. His arm was heavy, as heavy as it was powerful. And while it provided his shoulder with the strength to wield it without trouble it did not provide his body with anything near the same strength. Swinging a few hundred pounds of metal takes it toll. A streak of blood formed a circle on the ground, where his boots failed miserably, and his body was forced into a 180 by the sheer momentum of the 7ft long monstrous arm. The rough roof tile had visibly torn the palm of his hand with the vicious expedient motion.
The Drow did more than he could have ever hoped for...they came to him. The fingers of the Atra Manus expanded wide, maximizing his range allowing to viciously slash at both the lower and higher drow simultaneously, while shredding a deep streak across the roof tile with his "little" finger. His range far exceed their daggers.
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Posted: Sun May 27, 2007 7:51 pm
They couldn't hope to contend with the massive thing, being swatted back through the air like flies. The necromancer, watching from the rooftop he teleported to, levelled a wand at Maximos. Then he lowered his aim and discharged several fireballs into the base of the building, hoping to collapse it and take Maximos down with it.
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Posted: Sun May 27, 2007 8:19 pm
Maximos was prepared, entirely ready for an assault from the next 7 Drow, when explosions filled the air. The Necromancer teleported to a rooftop behind him, and as he had aimed his fireballs down, the building began to collapse toward the evil wizard, as opposed to away.
The Shadow broke into motion, as opposed to simply flying away he ran against the fall, up the hill. His boots just barely leading the collapsing roof. A good 10 feet up, his right hand dug into roofing tile cementing his position as the roof moved to a straight vertical position and began to descend into the wreckage.
His left hand smacked against the chunk of roof leaving a third black rune on the tile. The chunk of roof quivered as violet bolts of energy coursed over his boots, and pools of black began forming beneath his feet. His teeth gritted, as his chunk of roof fell into a cloud of debris, his hand opened, and in a single blast of expedient black he rocketed across the street directly at the roof now home to the necromancer. His left hand laying on his chest, and a rather large chunk of rock tightly grasped in his giant hand. One he aimed to smash directly into the necromancer, crushing the man into paste.
Or so he hoped.
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Posted: Sun May 27, 2007 9:49 pm
The necromancer watched Maximos scramble along the rooftop as the building collapsed. Then he stared, somewhat in awe, as he leaped from the falling rooftop and across the span of the street, toward him, with a chunk of the rooftop in his enlarged hand, swinging down like a giant mallet to crush him.
"Bollucks."
SPLA-- BOOM!
A mighty explosion came from underneath the slab, hopefuly with enough force to send Maximos falling down to the streets below. The necromancer, however, was no more.
With the zombies no longer under anyone's control, they would begin attacking any living thing that was nearby. The golem, likewise no longer under anyone's control, would continue to act under its last given order - KILL. Good thing it couldn't fly.
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Posted: Mon May 28, 2007 12:04 am
[continued from the Northernlands]
Inside the Love House, things had just gotten a little crowded, as Drae'shli'yi'anah supplied Barton's invading force with a reinforcements. She hadn't sent her allies on the council a large group, but what she had in mind, didn't take very many pawns to carry out.
Naudia Creslin, a whore in the employ of the underground brothel operated out of the Love House, greeted her dark brethren. While it was true that she was part of Barton's illegal sextrade, her crimes ran much deeper than the sale of flesh. She was a trained seductress and assassin in the employ of a very scary woman.
She dealt in secrets, coaxing information from men's lustful lips forming a network of unsuspecting informants and occasionally orchestrating a disappearing act or two.
She was also Drae's Barton Plant. The one who would open the town to them from the inside out should they ever decide to visit one day... a day like, today.
Her silken black hair was pulled back into a braid that fell to her a** like a woven whip. Gold dangled from her ears and was draped about her neck, a red club top barely covering 'the girls' and a shorter than short skirt kissed her thighs, showing off garters. Her red eye shadow off-setting her green eyes.
"Welcome to Barton."
Amongst the soldiers, were four children. A little girl who looked to be about 6 stepped forward, her brother who was 10 grabbing her hand and stepping up beside her.
"A block to the west, go north over the bridge, four blocks. Go west again around behind the clothing store there's a windmill. You'll find your objective there."
"Affirmative."
The brown haired boy said to the woman. The little girl, whose hair was drawn up into two fluffy tufts atop her sandy blonde head just stared at her with big blue eyes before her brother tugged on her hand and they headed upstairs and out into the chaos that was happening in the streets.
The rest of the soldiers and the other two children were given quarter as Naudia filled them in, conferring with the two death mages and the necromancers who would be running the show.
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Posted: Mon May 28, 2007 1:29 am
Darshendros the Eternal "Fall back, call for reinforcements!" ordered the necromancer with the scythe.
They fell back with the four remaining drow, while the shadesteel golems, hastened now from the effects of the light energy coming from Ryugi, or his sword, whichever, pursued him swiftly, blending into the shadows and becoming invisible. One would suddenly appear before him, smashing through his barrier of crystals - the flames didn't harm them, and their shadesteel alloy would protect them from any damage the crystals themselves would inflict, if they were magical and used as weapons - slashing at him with its claws. The other golem appeared behind Ryugi, doing likewise, attacking him with ferocity.
The destroyed undead didn't need to be reraised; the necromancers had more corpses at their disposal, even more numerous than the zombies they came here with. While the necromancer with the scythe worked on animating the corpses of all the slain hostages, the second necromancer stood at his back, facing the direction Ryugi was, holding out his hands and chanting Words of Power. The drow lingered around the necromancers; someone needed to protect them while they busily cast their spells. [18] The golems might have been removed from sight, but one would think that these guys would understand that going invisible, really wasn't going to help against Ryugi's other abilities. Even if they were hidden from view, Ryugi could sense the energy around them, easily pointing them out, even while concealed. The crystals would bounce off, unharmed, and continue to spin around Ryugi. The golems might have been immune to magic, but the crystals would exude a massive amount of heat, as well as create an eroding effect on the golems arms and claws. While the crystals were magically created, they used physical means to attack an opponent, for the most part. If that didn't do much, it wouldn't really matter all that much either, for as the golem attacked, Ryugi would grab the golem's arm, and forcibly spin the construct around, throwing him with massive force into the golem that was trying to sneak up behind him. Sure, the golems might have weighed 1,700 pounds, but with Ryugi's basic strength stat raised by 50%, and then that strength doubled by the effect of Ragnarok, Ryugi would easily be capable of throwing 2000 pounds around. That taken care of, Ryugi would pulse the energy of his flame aura behind him, causing him to race towards the casting necromancers, the aura from Ragnarok preventing the dark energy from raising the bodies of the slain...
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Eloquent Conversationalist
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Posted: Mon May 28, 2007 2:27 am
The heat nor the erroding effect would be effective against them, and as Ryugi grabbed the golem's arm, he would be raked across the back by the second one behind him before slamming them together. Unless his aura had an expansive area of effect, it wouldn't affect either necromancer until he was up close. Not that it'd stop them from doing anything, unless it was anti-magic or so saturated with positive energy that it would surpress necromantic spells, but then he'd have to be in close for it to take effect, which would be too late by the time he had temporarily dealt with the golems. The scythe-wielding necromancer was already animating the corpses of the slain hostages (+13 zombies), and the second necromancer had cast his spell. Ryugi would run smack into a solid wall of force interposed between him and them, half the distance between them. The golems, still hastened from the effect of his light energy, would be quickly at his back, attacking him savagely.Quote: Wall of Force Evocation [Force] Level: Sor/Wiz 5 Components: V, S, M Casting Time: 1 standard action Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels) Effect: Wall whose area is up to one 10-ft. square/level Duration: 15 rounds Saving Throw: None Spell Resistance: No
A wall of force spell creates an invisible wall of force. The wall cannot move, it is immune to damage of all kinds, and it is unaffected by most spells, including dispel magic. However, disintegrate immediately destroys it, as does a rod of cancellation, a sphere of annihilation, or a mage’s disjunction spell. Breath weapons and spells cannot pass through the wall in either direction, although dimension door, teleport, and similar effects can bypass the barrier. It blocks ethereal creatures as well as material ones (though ethereal creatures can usually get around the wall by floating under or over it through material floors and ceilings). Gaze attacks can operate through a wall of force. The Package touched down nearby, parachute falling off to the side. The crate burst open, spilling out a massive pile of bones, which immediately began to shift and assemble themselves. The largest piece was that of a skull of some great fanged beast, with the bones forming together into a serpentine form behind it.
A Boneyard, the common name for the abominable undead creature formed by the mass of bones, rose up into the air and let out a shrieking howl before moving toward Ryugi, hungering for his bones, snapping its massive jaws at him in an attempt to grab him between its fangs.
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Posted: Mon May 28, 2007 3:03 am
[20]
Ryugi had sensed the golem approaching from the rear, hence why he threw the other golem into it in the first place. He had whipped the golem over and around him, which effectively caused the other golem's strike to hit the thrown golem's arm, acting as a loose shield before the two forces collided. However, he still ran into a snag, or rather, a wall. Luckily, Ryugi's magic sense kicked in as the wall formed, allowing him to brace a bit for the impact. He watched the crate open to reveal the charging Boneyard, and sensed the golems approaching from the rear. He turned to meet the golems, and payed close attention to the charging hulk behind him as it raced towards him.
With a living graveyard moving to attack him, Ryugi had no choice but to go through the golems...or did he? He waited until the last second as both forces were about to have him surrounded. As the golems made ready to attack him again, he pulsed more energy into his feet and jumped up moving out of their attack range. Now, obviously, the Boneyard was still trying to clamp the warrior in his mouth, and as Ryugi jumped, the Boneyard would almost get him, almost, because Ryugi would pulse his heat energy around, moving him away, before using the creature's head as a launchpad, and leaping high into the air. With the height, he'd clear the wall in front of him, and immediately be upon the necromancers and their newly risen zombies, which would quickly fall apart under Ragnarok's aura.
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Eloquent Conversationalist
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Darshendros the Eternal rolled 1 10-sided dice:
7
Total: 7 (1-10)
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Posted: Mon May 28, 2007 3:23 am
The boneyard, relentless with its hunger, pursued Ryugi, springing over the wall after him.
"You are a bloody nuisance," the scythe-wielding necromancer scowled as his newly risen zombies crumbled apart, whirling around to face Ryugi with anger burning in his eyes.
The drow quickly attacked him before he could even land on the ground, attacking from the right, attacking from the left, then the right again, using hit-and-run tactics, slashing and then jumping away as another attacked. Then they all leaped away as the boneyard came diving out to snap its powerful jaws at Ryugi again.
The second necromancer backed up, gritting his teeth. He pulled out a black rod and pointed it at the wall of force, speaking a command word and unleashing its magic. The wall collapsed and the shadesteels were once again on his heels, if the boneyard hadn't already caught him in its jaws.
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Posted: Mon May 28, 2007 5:08 am
[20+2 Ragnarok] Quote: *Saturation- When Ryugi reaches his natural fully charged energy level (14-20) turns of energy, his body is said to be saturated with elemental energy. When his body is saturated, a thick burning aura of red and orange energy flows around his body. This aura is incredibly hot and can burn any unshielded/unresistant opponent who comes into contact with it almost instantly. The temperature of said aura in its beginning stages alone is even hot enough to melt stone, and weaken most metals. The heat coming off of this aura can be directed and forced towards any direction Ryugi sees fit, and can allow him to fly using the force as propulsion. He can also use the energy of the aura and the combination of it with the heat to attack opponents and defend himself without wasting any energy in the process. However, the aura only has a direct attack radius of ten feet in any direction, limiting its effectiveness to close range only. Flesh and bone were most certainly NOT part of a Shadesteel's body, and as such, the drow that foolishly tried to attack Ryugi would be met with fatal temperatures, and ripped to shreds by the torrent of crystals that swarmed around his body and aura, which at the moments was acting like a passive ability unless Ryugi called it into direct action again. With them out of the way, Ryugi would be allowed to focus on the mighty bulk of the Boneyard charging after him, but he ignored it. Well, not exactly. He kept it's position known to him at all times due to all that noise it made, and the magic that held it together, much like the now dead and destroyed skeleton warriors that Ryugi had faced earlier. With the drow out of the way, that merely left the two disgruntled necromancers, the two resilient yet irritating shadesteel golems, and one hell of a grumpy bag of bones. As Ryugi charged as the drow were destroyed, Ragnarok in his right hand, his left moved and touched the handle of Sol Blade once more as he let loose one of the weapon's special attacks. Quote: (Special) *Backlash Typhoon - Can only be used after several consecutive negations of magical energy have been completed. The blade uses the ambient energy left over in the air to launch a powerful backlash of energy towards the opponent. *Damage dependent on Negated Energy* The anti-magical energy from when Ryugi arrived, and when he had negated the casting of the tentacles would erupt into life once more, the energy from the tentacle area would then erupt up and around the Boneyard, effectively negating the energy holding the bag of bones together, exactly like the energy that had held together the skeleton warriors earlier. At the same exact time, the blast that Ryugi had used when he'd first arrived on the scene at the fountain would erupt up again, and wash over the two necromancers, preventing them from using ANY magical attacks for at least a couple of turns as the energy played hell with their powers. The attack would do no real physical damage to the necromancers due to the way they used their abilities, and due to the fact that Ryugi had not used enough anti-magical energy to warrant heavy damage. In the case of the Boneyard, the energy eliminated the magic holding it together, and while it didn't do any real physical damage, it would effectively destroy the beast and prevent its resurrection. And what was even better was that Ryugi would be unaffected by his own attack, because both attacks were directly aimed for the parties set forth, and didn't simply burst outwards in all directions as the Negation attacks had originally. The final verdict of Ryugi's attacks would be easy to see. The drow had been taken out, for the most part permanently, by Ryugi's aura and crystals. The Boneyard would be rendered useless by the Backlash Typhoon, as would any magical attacks made on the part of the necromancers. This meant that the wall would continue to stand for the rest of its duration, as the wave of energy would reach the necromancer who'd tried to bring it down, before his spell could take effect. This ALSO meant that the Shadesteel golems would be effectively trapped behind the very wall that had tried to keep Ryugi out and away from the necromancers. Afterall, the wall was "immune to damage of all kinds, and unaffected by most spells, including dispel magic" (which also meant Ryugi's anti-magic wouldn't have any effect on the wall)
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Eloquent Conversationalist
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Posted: Mon May 28, 2007 8:58 am
A little girl, seven years of age. Stumbled as she tried to get away from nightmares around her. Her tiny body trembled, she had run across town as fast as her little legs would carry her. Her face dripped with sweat, her hair plastered to her face as she looked around frantically her eyes wider than was normal.
Her pink jumper was tattered and torn from where she had fallen. Her knees were bleeding from scrapes and she had dirt smudged across a pudgey cheek.
Tears streaming down her cheeks, mingling with the dirt as she ran around the corner and smack dab into the middle of Ryugi and the Necromancer's fight.
A terrified shriek left the small girl's mouth as she whimpered and flung her arms up to shield her face, as if that would ward off the badies. Her tiny body paralyzed by the horror--
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