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Dantalian

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As for Skad, he found himself agreeing with the alchemist's reasons, and one more reason... when Skad was finished with the adventurers, it would be great fun to take out Irfam as well, and that would be simplified if the alchemist was around.

“Very well,* grunted the warrior. “I will carry out your contract. Get me to them.”

“Right this way****. Hellreighn,” said the alchemist, walking out of the room and motioning for Skad to follow.

Skad rolled his eyes at the “Mr. Hellreighn” but said nothing. He just mentally added it to the reasons to kill Irfam when this was all said and done. "He appears in the Form of a Man with many Countenances; and he hath a Book in his right hand. His Office is to teach all Arts and Sciences unto any; and to declare the Secret Counsel of any one."

30-Oct-2014 00:06:44

Dantalian

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The metal “land ship” inched it's way through the city, entirely oblivious to the two people watching it from the ruins of a nearby tower.

“That's where they are?” asked Skad, “I think I could've found them without your help!”

Irfam shrugged. “But, could you take the ship on your own?” he asked. “That thing has more weapons than a fortress bordering the wilderness.”

Skad snorted. *What do you propose for taking it then?” he snapped.

The red-robed man smiled and began to chant whilst doing what, to Skad, seemed like the most ridiculous dance. Ridiculous or no, the dance seemed to have some effect, as no sooner had Irfam finished then small portals opened all around the ship and myriads of creatures began pouring out.

Small, creatures that looked to be formed of windswept clouds with faces sprouting from all parts of their wispy bodies appeared above the ship and moved toward it with incredible speed. Translucent, slightly blue creatures, looking like finned snakes, slithered toward the same, leaving wet trails in their wake. Larger creatures, that looked like boulders carved into rough humanoid shapes rose from the ground under the ship, smashing into its underbelly. And six-legged lizard like creatures made of pure flame appeared on the ship itself, licking the air with fiery tongues.

“There,” said Irfam, “An army which can more than draw their attention while you get in, then reinforce your attack.”

Skad grunted, but internally made a note of Irfam's power. Without so much as a word, he leapt from the tower and landed on the ship's surface with a loud thud. "He appears in the Form of a Man with many Countenances; and he hath a Book in his right hand. His Office is to teach all Arts and Sciences unto any; and to declare the Secret Counsel of any one."

14-Nov-2014 03:18:33

Dantalian

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Inside the ship itself, the adventurers were jolted by a loud, resounding alarm. While the group tried to guess what was happening the door opened and a cultist marched in.

*What's happening?” demanded Hekate.

“We're under attack,* the cultist said bluntly, “I've been sent to keep an eye on you while we deal with the attackers.*

Puzzled looks were exchanged- no one was quite sure who would dare attack a weapon like the ship, nor who could hold out long against it. "He appears in the Form of a Man with many Countenances; and he hath a Book in his right hand. His Office is to teach all Arts and Sciences unto any; and to declare the Secret Counsel of any one."

14-Nov-2014 03:18:57

Dantalian

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Far from her “guests” Calin stood in the control room, her knuckles white from gripping her desk. In front of her, luminous displays showed the ship being swarmed by creatures she recognized as elementals. Lightning flashed from the wispy flying creatures, striking at the hull and weapons, damaging the former and destroying the latter. Ice from the snake-like ones disabled other weapons. Below, the stone creatures were simply smashing themselves against the ship's levitation apparatus, making the risk of the ship falling to the ground- and thus grinding to a halt, very real. And to top it all off the lizard creatures were slowly melting their way through portions of the hull.

The ship had defenses, of course. Rockets made short work of the cloud creatures, particle beams and laser boiled away the snake like ones, and cryogenic bombs and beams made the lizards vanish almost on contact. The **yon had, after all, brought this ship to do battle with magical creatures, and had made certain they were prepared for such battle. Having said that, Calin was still worried about the fight- there were far more creatures than the ship could reliably beat, and the stone creatures under the ship were a great concern. Normally, such creatures would be best dealt with via rockets or explosives, but, realizing that using either below the ship would render it unusable, the **yon had only equipped that portion with powerful guns. These guns could mow down infantry that got underfoot, but took significant time against beings made of pure stone, being forced to chip away the rock little by little.

As she mulled over the odds of a victory and tried to formulate a back-up plan, a cultist ran up to Calin with the news she least wanted to hear.

“My lady,” he gasped, “The hull has been breached!”

Calin's eyes widened. The lizards, while making progress, should've taken nearly a half hour to breach the thick hull. Turning to the cultist she asked, “Where? And How?” "He appears in the Form of a Man with many Countenances; and he hath a Book in his right hand. His Office is to teach all Arts and Sciences unto any; and to declare the Secret Counsel of any one."

14-Nov-2014 03:19:21

Dantalian

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Far from the control room, and fully unaware that questions regarding him were being asked, Skad got to his feet directly under a hole he had half melted and half smashed into the hull. From above, many of Irfam's creatures had begun swarming in and fanning out to wreck havoc on the ship's inhabitants.

Skad ignored them, he was here for mainly one purpose, the Monolith. And, he could already sense it.

Without looking around or hesitating, Skad turned and made his way directly toward the room where his prey unknowingly waited. "He appears in the Form of a Man with many Countenances; and he hath a Book in his right hand. His Office is to teach all Arts and Sciences unto any; and to declare the Secret Counsel of any one."

14-Nov-2014 03:19:32

Dantalian

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The landship was in chaos. While its **yon creators had anticipated the possibility of a hull breach, and thus given its interior defensive capabilities as well as its exterior, the latter paled in comparison to the former. In addition, fighting inside the ship practically forced close quarters combat, which in turn all but guaranteed heavy casualties.

Back in the control room, Calin was keeping an eye on a digital display of the ship and calling out orders over the communications system. Most forces would've likely fallen into panic by now, but the Cult of Order was nothing if not well disciplined. Rather than flee, they quickly formed into ranks and began seizing choke-points in the ship, putting the invading elementals at a distinct disadvantage. And yet, against the seemingly inexhaustible numbers, they were slowly being pushed back.

Give the chaos, it wasn't unsurprising that Calin did not notice that a single path had been carved through the defenses of the ship, making it's way toward her “guests” and by extension, the Monolith.

In said room, the “guests” were getting more concerned by the moment. Outside, they could hear the occasional explosion, the shouts of forces rushing into battle, and the screams of the dying. In one corner of the room, Hekate and Usha were discussing something in hushed whispers, while in another, Linksoma was keeping a steady grip on his weapons.

Still, all of them were caught off guard when the door suddenly burst inward, by sheer luck striking the twins and pinning them to the floor. Before anyone could react, Skad Hel*eighn had leapt through the now open doorway and sent his sword slashing toward Alex, who was only saved when Linksoma dove into him, knocking him aside. "He appears in the Form of a Man with many Countenances; and he hath a Book in his right hand. His Office is to teach all Arts and Sciences unto any; and to declare the Secret Counsel of any one."

28-Nov-2014 02:11:35

Dantalian

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The wind knocked out of him, Alex could barely do more than stare at the large **** in the floor where he had just been sitting. Skad, on the other hand, needed no time to recover, turning toward Linksoma and Alex and positioning himself to charge. But, before he could actually charge, Chris had ldashed forward and plunged his own blade into the warrior's back. The blow would've been fatal for a normal human, but Skad shrugged it off as if it had been little more than a bee sting, then turned to Chris and wrapped his hand around the young man's throat. For a moment, Chris looked as if he were trying to scream, then his eyes rolled back and he went still. The fiend dropped him, revealing that the extreme heat of his body had charred the young warrior's neck, leaving little more than a part of his blackened spine, almost comically small compared to the head and body it still connected.

Seeing Chris' gruesome death sent Alex into shock. He stared in disbelief at his friend's corpse, hoping for anything- a miracle, to wake up and find out this had all been a nightmare, to find out he was seeing things- anything that would make this not be real. But, even as he wished and hoped, his disbelief gave way to anger; Skad, the man he had previously seen as a mentor had murdered Chris without a moment's pause. As the anger boiled up inside Alex, the world seemed to blur. Soon, as far as he was concerned there was only him and Skad, or the monster that had once been Skad. Everything else faded from his mind; his friends, his allies, his quest, all that remained was that monster in front of him, and his hatred toward it. Without truly thinking Alex did the one thing he was sure would kill the murderer; he held out the Monolith and willed it to destroy Skad. "He appears in the Form of a Man with many Countenances; and he hath a Book in his right hand. His Office is to teach all Arts and Sciences unto any; and to declare the Secret Counsel of any one."

28-Nov-2014 02:11:52

Dantalian

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At this mental command, the Monolith flared to life, Golden light, now looking somewhat tarnished, shot from between the fingers of Alex's closed hand and slammed Skad into the wall. As everyone stared in surprise, cracks began to radiate from the tarnished light, first on Skad, whose body cracked radially before spiderwebbing, revealing a bright red-orange under the warrior's skin which hissed and sputtered like lava, then onto the walls, and finally through the air itself, wherever it touched the Monolith's light.

More than one of Alex's companions shouted for him to stop as the cracks continued to branch out through the air, revealing impossible colors behind them, and glimpses into worlds and places that seemed like they should not exist. But Alex paid them no heed, his entire focus being on destroying Skad, with no thought to the ship, nor even the world.

As enraged as he was, he would've likely continued until there was no hint of Skad left in the world, had not something remarkable happened. His right hand, the hand holding the Monolith, burst into black flames, burning away the flesh down to the bone, and allowing the Monolith to fall through his limp, skeletal fingers, and into the hand of a man in red robes. Immediately, the light vanished, leaving Skad's body, which now had fissures going deep into its core, embedded into the wall. "He appears in the Form of a Man with many Countenances; and he hath a Book in his right hand. His Office is to teach all Arts and Sciences unto any; and to declare the Secret Counsel of any one."

28-Nov-2014 02:12:16

Dantalian

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The man looked at Monolith, and nodded. Normally, he would flee, but there was no telling what would happen if the cracks in the world were allowed to fester. Thankfully, he already knew a spell that could deal with them, though normally it would be nowhere near powerful enough to handle closing the cracks. Of course, normally, he didn't have the Monolith to amplify his power. And with that thought, he allowed the Monolith to flare to life again, this time with it's normal golden light, and cast his spell through it. The cracks were engulfed with an ethereal, blue flame, as were all the elementals on the ship, and many artifacts around the city of the Prantiqeth. The flames burned the magic of all these away, leaving behind only the mundane. Throughout the entire area, only one place remained untouched; the library, and that was only because the shield around it had intercepted the spell, and was burning instead of letting it pass. In the end, the spell was successful, though it had left him more drained than expected and wiped out his pets... not that it would matter for long. And yet, there was something different about the island now.

Usha and Hekate, who had just freed themselves from the door recognized it too, before they had even noticed that Skad was dead, his broken body lying still at its place in the wall, and more importantly, that I*fam Nejem now standing in front of them, the Monolith in his hand. "He appears in the Form of a Man with many Countenances; and he hath a Book in his right hand. His Office is to teach all Arts and Sciences unto any; and to declare the Secret Counsel of any one."

28-Nov-2014 02:12:31 - Last edited on 28-Nov-2014 02:12:45 by Dantalian

Dantalian

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“Irfam!” shouted Jen.

“A pleasure, as always, my dear,” said the mage, bowing. “I do have a little time to chat, and you look so full of questions, so ask aw-” the mage paused and looked off to one side, appearing troubled. This exact behavior was mimicked by the twins.

*What is it?” asked Linksoma.

“Magic,” said Hekate.

“Very unusual magic,” said Usha, growing more troubled.

Irfam shook his head. “No matter,” he said, “Curious as this is, I won't be hear for long. If you make it back, please do let me know what was causing this anomaly. Now, questions? “

Jen opened her mouth, not knowing where to start. She wanted a better explanation for this strange magic, and to know what I*fam's true plan had been. She stumbled over her thoughts for a moment, wondering what to ask, and then, she saw IT.

“IT” was a large, octopus-like creature, with a round head that bore six eyes, three on each side of a mouth bearing razor-sharp teeth the size of an adult man's fore-arm. It moved through the halls quietly, twelve tentacles swaying behind it, it's mouth stuck in a permanent grin*

****am, noting the horrified expressions in front of him, realized something must be happening, and turned, just in time to see one of the creature's tentacles reach to his chest and extend a long stinger from it's tip, plunging it into the mage's heart. With a small gasp, the mage wavered for a bit, and then literally fell apart.

With a fluid motion, the creature wrapped one of it's tentacles around the Monolith and started to “swim* through the air, back down the hall.

*What was that thing?” asked Jen.

“Definitely a magical construct,” said Linksoma. “And I don't want to think of what will happen if whatever made that thing gets it's hand on the Monolith.”

“The question is, can we beat it?” asked Usha, *It took out Irfam in one hit...”

“And it still doesn't tell us exactly what it is...* commented Jen, “Or how it fights, other than it's stinger...” "He appears in the Form of a Man with many Countenances; and he hath a Book in his right hand. His Office is to teach all Arts and Sciences unto any; and to declare the Secret Counsel of any one."

06-Dec-2014 05:06:09

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