A snap of a finger by a mysterious mage causes all the Agents to be teleported away but the spell-casters during a mission. Suwan, Sejad, Reks, Dylan and Louma are left standing in the ruins of the floating city of Nym. The mysterious mage laughs and summons his mage brethren.
A magic fight breaks out. Suwan erects a force field around Louma as a crimson mage attempts to cut him down with a rapier. Louma counter attacks the crimson mage with ice spikes. A short scholarly mage with a codex in his hand stands next to the mysterious mage protecting him. Eldritch tendrils from Sejad’s staff strangles the scholarly mage. Suwan throws bolts of unaspected Aether at the scholar and throws him magically across the ground. A blue mage tries to use a bad breath spell, Reks deflects the incoming curse with his holy water. Dylan pumps his fists forward and impales the blue mage with earth, while Suwan curses the enemy with biolysis. Sejad runs up and punches the mysterious mage before he could cast another starlight spell.
The villainous mages are subdued by the Advent casters. However they all become silenced except for Louma as a woman appears. Further chaos ensues as the woman summons her star-globe, a Prism Stone attached to it, she starts to cast a limit break. The Prism Stone’s power radiates and empowers all the mages indiscriminately. A newly empowered Suwan levitates and encases his allies in glowing force fields, his eyes blazing white. Sejad uses his Magic to strengthen Suwan’s barriers. Reks casts a protective water dome. Louma creates ice shields. All the mages layer their magic barriers preparing to nullify the full force of the limit break.
Before the limit break is cast, the woman releases the Prism’s full power which further bathes the Advent mages in its light. Suwan falls to the ground unable to stop hearing loud voices from the collective unconscious. Sejad’s Aether erupts like magma within him. Louma relishes in the Prism’s light, once again in contact with its addictive power. Reks’ magic eye glows with power. Dylan becomes base and instinctively summons a hurricane which interrupts the woman’s limit break. As she is vulnerable the other mages combine their empowered spells to cast her out. However, the woman cancels all their collected magic curses and attacks by using Reks’ protection spell as the nullifying catalyst. Then the woman suddenly vanishes along with the prism stone. This leaves the mages burnt out from the prism stone’s light.
Zaius, Natja and Nhara collect the mages and they are treated in the Advent Medical Ward. Nikolai is then given a mission report.
(( TY for hosting and ss of suwan @berrodtherapscallion ))
Ol’ Harper takes himself a lengthy chug from an unmarked jug, the brown and foul-smelling contents pouring down his intangible gullet and dribbling all over the inside of his ribcage and onto the ground. With a resounding smear of the back of his bony wrist across his teeth, he lets out a satisfied sigh and turns his gaze back upon you.
“Now where were we... Ahah, that’s right, the gang had just dispatched them dwarven rangers like the fools they were, and made their way to the great Loch...”
ON THE MOVE: LOCH MODAN - PART II
With the dwarven rangers taken care of, the Fence’s adventurin’ party made north with great haste! But to our heroes’ dismay, their progress was steadfastly impeded by a giant wooden barricade spanning from the Loch itself to the mountain range borderin' on the Mo'grosh ogre tribe, stacked to the gills with Ironforge’s least pleasant dwarves. This, of course, made makin' a beeline straight to finding’ Tavish utterly impossible. The Fence Macabre had two choices:
They could try to brave what remains of the waters in the Loch to cross it, riskin’ their wagons (and therefore their entire dang livelihoods) in the process. But if it worked, they could bypass the barricade and the ogres both!
Their other option? To travel to the Mo’grosh ogre settlement and either fight or barter their way through... or maybe them ogres could just eat ‘em and take everything anyway. Shoot... I would, if I was one!
Put between a rock and a hard place, the Fence Macabre resolved on tryin’ their luck with the ogres. Cautiously, they drove their crew up the path to the Mo’grosh camp and spotted their would-be hosts and/or hostiles... And them ogres sure were mean lookin’, far more so than they had a need to be for anyone’s sake. As they entered the camp to seek parley, the stench of burning hair burnt their nostrils as they noticed the fresh Dwarf on a spit-roast... Possibly another one of them rangers from before, even.
Greeted by the local brutalitarians, the Fence announced its intent to broker trade... and at that, they were taken directly to the Mo’grosh’s chieftain, the old and surprisingly stately-lookin’ Drozog. As he looked upon his visitors, ol’ Billy Highman couldn’t help but bow politely before a man of state. It seemed this simple gesture meant a great deal to the ancient Ogre, as the air around him immediately began to simmer down as the old chieftain lowered his head in return.
(Drozog, cheiftain the Mo’grosh)
Drozog then implored upon our heroes to make their offer for safe passage through their hard-fought and won territory... and so the Shal’dorei Shit Chef herself, Ami Vieredreaux, offered her legendary culinary skills to give his tribe a feast, expertly crafted, in honor of their new friendship between tribes.
With quiet approval, the cloudy-eyed chieftain agreed to the exchange... but on one condition: No weapons, and he’d supervise. The Fence had no choice but to comply, and so Ami set to work makin’ the best damn gourmet ram-meat banquet that they never did have, and may never a chance to experience again. Remington and Loira dutifully pitched in, actin’ as assistant chefs while Drozog kept the rowdy, hungry ogres at bay... but even his stomach was moanin’ louder than a cow gettin’ branded on its birthday!
The feast laid out, picturesque and ticklin’ their noses with them magickal aromas, the ol’ cheiftan Drozog himself had the first bite. And boy... that morsel was so damn soul-affirmin’ that he shed a single tear right then and there on the spot. His tribe cheered with excitement, as they dug in to the grub, the air filled with happy grunts and approving shouts and... little flecks of half-chewed gristle.
With this exchange, Drozog allowed the Fence Macabre to gather their weapons and head north into the Wetlands, bypassin’ the Dwarven barricade altogether without a single drop of blood bein’ spilt. Well... except for them tasty, tasty rams, of course.
And so our saga continues, our heroes trudgin’ through the swampland to enlist the aid of Tavish Barleytoe, a retired Explorer’s League excavator and Titan Tech specialist. With his help, maybe they can make sense of that damaged Titan disc what turned everything around it to gold back at Camp Tombstone...
Not finding Chi around the house, Roger takes a peek over at the cove right next to their house. Chi stared out at the water, her sketchbook beside her. The two talked about planning their bonding, her brother and resolutions for the future. The two big ones that each had was to find Chi’s brother and their bonding. Chi also had a desire to learn self defense, she even had Roger give her a few pointers right there on the beach.
A knock on Ritsu’s office door, she doesn’t even bother to look up. “Enter.” She keeps her focus on the papers in front of her.
The elezen enters with a slight hesitation, bowing. “Lady Arlow.” He pauses. “You asked to be kept abridged of any unusually activity. Well, there was an incident in the far east that may be of your interest.”
She raises her eyes up to look the man over. “Oh? And what would that happen to be?”
He clears his throat before reading his report. “Sosui Island, at around the 3rd bell, the inhabits reported a strange rumbling, flickering lights and strange humming sound. None that they ever have heard of before.“ He sets the report on the corner of her desk, along with a child’s drawing. Ritsu picked them up, looking them over. The man hesitated before speaking again. “There..was also a report of a blonde hyur. One that fits the description that you have mentioned before.”
Ritsu’s eyes grow cold. “Each time. Faster and faster…” she murmurs as she sets the papers down. “Fetch me an airship, I shall be departing within the bell.”
He curtly bows. “Very well.” He quickly departs the room.
Ritsu pulls out a sheet over paper, quickly writing a letter. She hesitates before removing her link pearl, setting it on the letter. She touches the letter once, before quickly leaving to get her affairs in order.
Several suns later. The island was a mess, whatever did this had real power behind it. Slowly coming into her view, the structure. Surely Garlean design. Or possibly Allagan. She can only hope it is the former. She starts to climb up the rocky surface, pausing as she sees a familiar tuff of blonde hair come into view.
The /lighthouse/ was made more evidently clear to be of Allag in design. Just the feel, the smell, the colors of the place. The blonde man was masked, but the stance and structure, she knew who this was. He stood at a control near the entrance. Blue screens floating in the air around him. His hand was steady on a small device, making slight movements as something moved around what looked like a map. "Well now this is an unexpected surprise. Isn't this far east a little but out of your hunting grounds my dear?"
She pulls herself up on a rock, no longer making an effort to move forward. "What can I say..I am branching out." She pauses "You came back quite quickly this time. Any reason for that?"
His attention was focused on the map, and he shrugged. "Actually yes. Mayhaps I have your people and friends to thank for that. I had thought after all these years people would become the wiser, a clear miscalculation. Time has done little to quell the savagery of people"
She shifts ever so slightly closer. "Surely you are not blaming me for what transpired. I was not even present, nor was it on my orders. I was just as surprised to hear such Regardless, I am certain you could agree that this dance of ours has gone on far too long. How many years now?"
"Indeed, it has my dear. There was but one task that remained on my docket and then the song would have been over for us. But in such pretty paranoia, you and yours sought it fit to hide the auracite from me. Even once you all saw how unprepared you were for its effects."
Her jaw sets "It is far from paranoia. Regardless of what transpired, in your hands I fear it may have gone far worse."
"And what makes you the authority on that, my dear. You of all people should know I only ever had the masses well-being in kind." One of his monitors beeps red. He pushes a button to silence the alarm, but the marker still pulses on screen.
"A question I could turn right back on you?" she scoffs. "Well-being? Maybe at some point, some version of you. However, … now?" she shakes her head "I would not be surprised if you lose more and more of yourself each time you come back."
"On the contrary, my dear. It seems each time... each body... has unlocked more and more of what was my previous life. In some ways not knowing was rather peaceful. “The red blimp turns a bright green "A path, there you are..." He says to himself. Upon pressing another button, a bar appears on screen and seems to fill.
"More in reverse then?" she couldn't help but smirk. “Does that mean you were quite the asshole in that life?" she creeps the tiniest bit forward, nodding to his screens. "What might you be looking for anyroad?"
The bar didn't take long to long to fill, once it was completed he began hitting a number of commands, the platform and area around the doors began to glow brighter... its veins of lights focusing on certain points "Base insults there, Knoltros? I had thought better of you than that. But as seems to be the case, I have been wrong about all you people..." He pulls a tombstone from the console, all the monitors blinking out of resistance. There is a rumbling as the door begins to close and he slides towards it "No matter.. It was a pleasure, when we did get to spend time together my dear.... farewell." As he flicked a wave, a smirk on his lips. The veins of energy peeks, first two... then five, then twenty sparkles of light formed... until they each began to fire beams of energy towards Ritsu.
Ritsu’s eyes widen as the door began to creep open. “No, Canis?! Do not dare..” she tries to scrabble up the rest of the ledge, closing the distance between them. “Seven hells..” beams fire off around her as the doors started to close. She hesitated a mere moment before lifting her hand, aether swirled around her as she let off a fire ball large enough to destroy the door. She darted into the darkness..making her way after the man.
Content warnings: A couple mentions of murder but otherwise none
Summary: Finn storms home after his confrontation with Cedric and stress cooks a full Irish breakfast while Dallas and Jude try to convince him that a little therapy may be just what he needs.
Summary: Dakota wakes up in his own body and makes the mistake of surprising Darcy, who assumes first that he’s an impostor, and then realizes very quickly that Dakota made a deal with Albatross. Darcy mentally checks out and tries to go for a walk, which ends badly. The rest of the crew tries to deal both with Darcy’s broken arm and his dissociative state, which requires a little outside help. Dakota lies about what he had to trade away to Albatross.
Content warnings: Overall blood/gore, amputation (of a finger), bones being broken, the suggestion/memory of tooth pulling, discussion of Connie’s eye injury, needles/ear piercing, surgical needles/stitches being given, cuts/lacerations, body horror (by way of Embry’s healing factor), brief mention of Teddy’s torture/murder
Summary: Teddy gets kidnapped to be on Caine’s torture game show, but Embry steps in and offers to play in his place, due to their healing powers. However, because of how slowly their powers work, they’re still injured badly, and still feel pain. Caine feels bad and goes a little easy on them, even using his own powers once the game is over to persuade them the pain is less than they think it is. Caine and Teddy drag Embry back to Teddy’s apartment, and Caine peaces out, recognizing the place as where Connie (one of his cousins) lives. Teddy treats Embry’s injuries, and finally recognizes them as notorious serial killer and crime syndicate member Embry Ritter.
Connie and Teddy go on a mission to grab Chicken Nugget from Embry’s apartment, because Embry refuses to stay at Teddy’s without her. Caine returns to stay with Embry, due to Connie admonishing him over text. When Teddy and Connie return, Connie recognizes Embry as the person who stabbed him in the eye years ago, and faints. Caine drags Connie across the hall to his apartment, and Teddy admonishes Embry, but still allows them and Nugget to stay the night. As Embry falls asleep, he admits to them that he was murdered, and has been dead for four and a half years.