Plotlogs
Whackadragon Helsinki Knights Sr Selina 241120
In a critical conflict against the fire spirit Gonthorian and his cultists, a diverse group of characters, including Sam, Elora, Isolde, and William, unite with a common goal: to stop the spread of devastation and secure a powerful ritual that could potentially eliminate Gonthorian. The showdown takes place in the visually stunning but treacherous landscapes of Finland, specifically within the Lohikaarma Luolaseura or Dragon Caves, which serve not only as the backdrop for their quest but also as a battleground fraught with danger and mystique.
The team coordinates an initial plan to ambush cultist groups converging on the Dragon Caves. Utilizing their unique skills—ranging from brute force and magical illusions to tactical sniping—they successfully neutralize a four-man team despite being outnumbered and facing harsh environmental conditions. However, their victory is short-lived as they come face to face with the gravity of their situation; Gonthorian is not only a formidable opponent but also manipulates one of their vestige alliances, Ingrid, bending her will to his destructive desires.
In an urgent bid to preserve the crucial ritual and save the lives of the remaining researchers, the party braves their way back to the research chamber, only to find it engulfed in flames and chaos. The scenario turns grim when they discover that Gonthorian has caused significant casualties among the researchers and seems poised to obliterate the ritual's knowledge forever.
With the stakes higher than ever, the group races against time to salvage what they can from the ruins. Isolde's ability to manipulate ice becomes crucial in suppressing the fire, while Sam, William, and Elora frantically recover any semblance of research left intact. In a final, desperate act to buy them time and perhaps end Gonthorian’s reign of fire, Ingrid makes a sacrificial choice that shakes the very core of the mountain.
As they escape the cave with their precious cargo of recovered research, Ragnar and Jorgen, the surviving researchers, offer a semblance of hope in the form of a thumb drive containing all their notes and findings, a testament to their fallen comrades and the lengths to which they would go to stop Gonthorian.
Their return to Haven is marked by a somber recognition of their losses yet a steadfast resolution to continue the fight. The battle on Mount Halti serves as a poignant reminder of the costs of combating ancient evils and the unpredictable sacrifices required to preserve hope and safeguard the future.
(Whack-A-Dragon: Helsinki Knights(SRSelina):SRSelina)
[Tue Nov 19 2024]
In the Lohikaarma Luolaseura, or Dragon Caves, in Finland
Mount Halti, Finland's highest point at 1,324 meters, rises from the arctic wilderness, marking the border with Norway. Its rugged slopes and windswept tundra stretch over vast valleys, glacial lakes, and snow-covered plateaus. During summer, bursts of wildflowers color the stark landscape, adding beauty to the otherwise barren surroundings.
Within the mountain lies the mysterious Lohikaarma Luolaseura, or Dragon Caves, a network of hidden caverns largely unexplored. These expansive chambers, carved deep into the granite, are cool and damp, with impressive formations of stalactites and stalagmites. Their isolated location and vast size evoke a sense of ancient legend.
Perfect for a mythical dragon's lair, the caves offer seclusion and shelter, with narrow crevices leading to the outside world. Should dragons ever return, these caves would make an ideal sanctuaryremote, majestic, and untouched by time.
It is about 50F(10C) degrees.
Isolde bows in greeting to Sam with her rifle, "You were at the Inn. Kim is easy."
Sam nods a little, ticking a two-fingered salute. "Yo. Selina mentioned yer working tonight. Just point me at em, and I'll punch shit." He pauses. "Sam. Hand." He taps the bracelet around his right wrist.
"Mmm." Isolde confirms with a pleasant tone and a dry face.
Elora arrives by Pathing. The mysterious forest she leads the group thing is briefly visible behind her as she leads the smell group out into the thin air and frigid temperatures of Finland. As the cool hits her, she unzips her duffel and gets her equipment on while Sam and and Isolde talk idly even as she surveys the area to better understand where she is and whether there are any people here to greet her and the others set on ending the fire spirit's multi-month history of trying to bathe the world in flame. For once, her hair is not its usual colorful turquoise and neon. She wears a wig. Long and black haired, black raven wings. "The things to punch, if they arrive, will be cultists most likely -- I can't imagine the servants of that fire spirit would want us to have what we are here to acquire."
Isolde does a weapons check; ensuring the bolt-handle only gets jammed two times out of 5, ensuring there are bullets strewn in her cargo pockets, and last looking down the barrel to make sure the gun's loaded.
The party arrives just outside the the Lohikaarma Luolaseura (Dragon Caves) at the base of Mount Halti. The current temperature is freezing cold at this time of night in Finland, and the mountain air does little to warm things up. Thankfully, the wind is not too harsh at the moment, or the chill would swiftly slice through most garments. The entrance to the caves is relatively close, and upon getting inside, the group would find heaters and lights to guide their way deeper into the otherwise labyrinthine caverns beneath the mountain. After a bit of walking, the group would eventually arrive at what has affectionately become known as the research headquarters for the Covenant/Knights/House of Odin researchers. And within, they find a large chamber with a long table, covered with books, tomes, parchments, maps, pages, trinkets, and an occasional electronic device that has been rigged up to somehow work half a mile below ground. The occupants of this place have become quite well known as 'Goldilocks and the Three Dwarves' for reasons that become readily apparent. Ingrid, the blonde-haired blue eyed woman in the mix, wears patches for both the Covenant and the Knights, and she is seldom seen these days without the company of the three older men: Kristoff (hungrily eating some soup), Jorgen (taking a power nap nearby in a chair, snoozing softly), and Ragnar (who is arguing loudly with Ingrid over something or another). When the team arrives in the chamber though, Ragnar quiets down and grumbles as he takes his seat. "Velkommen," Ingrid greets the team, and she is echoed by two of the other men. Jorgen snoozes on for the moment, despite the volume of Ragnar's argument. "You came at a good time. Word has it we will need some reinforcements soon," Ingrid says, checking one of the electronic devices for a few moments.
[OOC: Welcome to Whack-A-Dragon: Helsinki Knights. If you have any questions, feel free to use STalk or replies via Tells. Please make use of the Think, Internal, Feel, Recall, and Attempt commands on this adventure. These will greatly enhance your experience and immersion, while also speeding things up for others. I try to do one post per person rotations, but if you want to do short bursts of rapid banter in appropriate situations, feel free. Text that is all colored in this color will be private, for you to act upon ICly. Buckle up, and we will begin shortly. Thank you for letting me be your SR for this evening's festivities.]
Isolde arms are bare to the cold- the vest, in a fashion, seems to be the only top adorning her. "Velkommen," she mouths, tasting the words.
Isolde says "You are welcome."
Sam shivers, the jock being clad in clothes that were cold back home in New England. Here in Finland, he is outright under-prepared. He adjusts his armor some, ticking an up-nod to Ingrid.
"Yo." He ticks a two-fingered salute to the blonde, opting to let those more in the know do the speaking.
Elora strides a bit ahead of the group, taking a leadership position among them. Her back, a bit stiff. "Velkommen," Elora echoes back, copying the others in their greeting.
"Unsurprising," Elora lilts out, cool teal eyes regarding Ingrid. Her scarf helps to ward off the chill, but if the cold is bothering her at all, it doesn't seem to show on her features. "If ever there was something that he and his cultists would want to stop, it is what we are doing now. Thankfully, after his failed incursion in Haven, his forces are likely much weakened compared to what they once were."
William follows behind Elora and Isolde down into the caves, glancing around at the improvised camp down the mountain and giving a little nod at the men and the woman as they all arrive to the base, already wearing a vest and weapon in hand, seemingly seemingly unbothered by the cold "Hey"
Isolde looks out over the mountain range with the empty nostalgia that grandma holds onto last before senility finally takes it from her. Two pools of black make for a poor window to the soul veiled, too dark. It's through that lense that she views those down below: Imperious and eldritch in spite of herself.
All three of the men are dressed in simple, plain robes. Kristoff and Jorgen have ZZ Top length beards, but all hairs between them have long since grayed with their advancing years. Ragnar looks a bit more haggard than the other two, because he has, somewhat recently, shaved all of the hairs above his neck off. While growth has occurred since he did it, the evidence remains that he no longer possesses the biggest, bushiest, longest beard of the trio.
"The Princess said she would get us some reinforcements as quickly as she could, but I did not think she could manage it so quickly," Ingrid says as she looks over the team that has arrived. She looks like the only one that would be able to hold down any sort of fighting. She is wearing comfortable clothing for hiking though, aside from her combat boots. Her jeans and flannel certainly are not armor. But even as that becomes apparent to the group, she reaches out toward something on the table. Her shadow stretches over to pick up what she is after and delivers it to her hand. "Yes. We think we have the ritual figured out, mostly. But obviously, we still need to bring it all together. But, we've been receiving alerts already about Gonthorian's agents being seen within two miles of here. We have not finished putting everything together. If he attacked now," Ingrid says, trailing off, shaking her head.
She holds out the map to Elora as the apparent leader of this particular troop, by rank within the Knights at least. "This map shows where the agents were found and their predicted path to the entrance of the caves. If you could find some ways to stop them, we'd appreciate it. We should not need much longer," she says, watching Elora with a little bit of fear in her eyes, despite the fact she is obviously an accomplished arcanist.
Isolde turns to address the band.
Isolde says "Are there others on this mountain? Should we care?"
nods seriously. "It would be a disaster. Especially if the lead researchers or their research notes came to harm," Elora lilts out in response to Ingrid as she accepts the map from her. "We will try to delay them as we can. If we can't it might be best to evacuate. For those of you back here? It is worth questioning the fact he knew of this research at all. One doesn't choose such a remote location without the hope of some privacy and its clear that security measures with respect to that were breached. I expect you to look into that. Privacy is important. Especially in matters so delicate. If there is a mole within your team, deal with it." Elora as always puts privacy before other matters. Only once she has addressed that does she look over the map. As she does she doesn't just look. Her focus glows as she wills an illusion to form for the others present. It creates an illusory vista of the map for everyone to see, ensuring that even though Elora has the map, everyone else can see it as well. The illusion would shift in response to her understanding of it, becoming three dimensional as she tuned the map to reflect her conception of what the elevation legends suggested was present. "If any of you have any suggestions as to how to approach this, please speak up."
William stares at Isolde for a couple seconds after she asks, letting out a bit of a sigh before glancing towards the illusory map, tilting his head at Elora "Worst case scenario, if we have any explosives- Well, we are in a mountain after all, maybe there's a way to cause an avalanche..." He comments, putting a finger to his chin, before addressing the woman he assumes leads the other group "I am guessing we do not know any of the names of any cultists that are headed here? If we knew a ritual or two could get some advantage to out side..."
Isolde stares vacantly at the image. "I am not good at hunting. If I am walking around on mountain I probably just stand out and die."
With a shrug, Sam checks the magazine on his glock, looking up to Elora. "Meet em head-on, pick their numbers off, distract them. Slow them down."
At William's suggestion, he grins. "If yer faster in that shit than I am? I'm pretty tapped out on ritualism for the day, sadly." He looks at the illusionary map, and grins. Nice trick, that." "
"Our base is well-known through the supernatural world. The Knights claimed this territory months ago, so it is no surprise at all the eidolon found out," Ragnar grumbles from his seat before reaching over to punch Jorgen in the shoulder to wake him up.
Kristoff looks up as he finishes off his soup. "The cave is glamoured and such, but it is mostly to stop mundanes from wandering in or seeing dragons," the hungry man explains before setting aside his bowl and spoon. He picks up some papers and starts shuffling through them, looking for something.
Jorgen listens for a few moments to get caught up and then says, "We'd prefer to keep them outside the caves properly. Explosives in here could damage other projects. Including the hatchery a couple levels down." The three men nod solemnly in their agreement on that front. Is there actually a real dragon hatchery in this place? If so, that may actually be worth more than the research on the ritual to destroy the eidolon, at least to some segments of the population.
"We will collect what we can and get it sorted and ready for transport. But it will take time, and not ... everything we have can be transported at all, let alone easily, as Jorgen has said," Ingrid says, nodding to her research companions. She looks over the team of four for a few moments and says, "I imagine you can handle them if you use tactics and strategy, rather than rely on strength of arms." She lifts one hand to double tap her right temple with her right index finger.
Looking at the map, the team would be able to identify a couple of choke points. There appears to be four different groups of agents converging toward the cave entrance at different angles. Two of them may be heading for a gully to the east, while the other two are approaching from the west along the base of the mountain and from the south along the trail that leads up to the cave normally.
"I would be good at gully, probably." Isolde remarks sourly.
Isolde says "I would be at elevation. They having to look up or something."
Sam just sort of looks over to Elora, squinting lightly. "I'm best up close and personal. Didn't really bring nuthing for longer range." He shrugs. "I'm just here to support, y'all know each other's strengths better."
Elora doesn't actually look over her own illusion like the others might. Her attention is on the map and her illusion shifts with each bit of understanding she gleans from it, making it more real, filling in details. "If they group up we might be in quite a bit of danger of being defeated in detail," Elora muses. Her projection shifts, showing strike teams moving through the mountainous terrain. The little figures of men and women trudging are misty, sometimes shifting to show three, other times, four Sometimes as many as six. "We do have some advantages. This is a cold place. Cultists of his aren't going to be well adapted to this sort of environment. I like the idea that William had. Triggering an avalanche on the groups in the gully would let us move in for cleanup afterward." She looks to Ingrid. "Is that a viable plan? Do we have the things necessary to trigger such?" She pauses. "I figure that potentially lets us create a pincher later for the group moving more directly for the caves. You and the others here can hold them off and then as we return from dealing with the other group your people can be the anvil on which a hammer breaks them." The antiquated military metaphor slips from her in the same lilt she usually adopts as she tries to stay icy.
William nods his head "Well, yes, but if the other group is using the natural path to get here, they probably will arrive sooner, no? So they are a priority I think- We don't need to think how to get rid of them efficiently but how to keep them out of here" He thinks outloud, still watching the map while idly tapping his lips "Some of them we might not even have to even fight... We could trick them with illusions to keep them at bay"
Isolde says "Does anyone know how to avalanche? "
Isolde begins to open up a small copy of the Bible, or, one of them. A blank paper card is caught by the wind- and off goes her bookmark. She steps closer to a wall to avoid page and hair tousling.
Elora looks to Ingrid, Jorgen and Ragnar for their input.
Isolde slams her book shut and stows it away with a sigh into the wind.
The researchers get quiet and start quietly talking with each other as they start organizing notes and books into neat and tidy piles to try to prepare for transport. A ritual of this magnitude takes considerably more than just a few drops of blood into a summoning circle on the floor. It has to coordinate energy from the Gate and the amassed energy of multiple millions of people around the world into a delicate and precise knife against the intended target. Such matters require significant understanding of the way the world works, especially with relation to ley lines, mystical ebbs and flows, infused locals, and even in some cases, powerful and well-established entities and aspected domains for large groups of people.
As the group discusses tactics and such, some scouts move through the caves toward an armory to get geared up and disperse through the network of caves beneath the mountain. While they may be able to handle some activity within the mountain, they are likely not equipped for prolonged conflict with determined enemies fueled by an eidolon. The scouts move quietly, but they are, much like Elora, favoring stealth and ambush tactics.
As the discussion continues, the temperature rises sharply, well past what the heaters could maintain against the frigid night air. This temperature shift is followed by chuckling that sounds much like an avalanche unto itself. "This is the pathetic group that is supposed to stop me? More ants to be scorched into ashes," comes a gravelly, low voice from directly behind Elora. "I will bring this mountain down on top of you," the voice promises before a scraping noise echoes through the chamber, like scales brushing along the floor, heading toward the exit. "Stay here and wait. My agents draw near," the voice assures the group before silence reigns in the chamber.
"Boy with boy, girl with girl." Isolde declares, readying her rifle, "Just pick side. We should have been thinking about this days ago, not come here being briefed now."
Elora has a map more and more depicting a complex network of caves with expansive caverns. Much of it is left hazy.
"Well, anyone can really, the rever-" William begins to say to Isolde, but stops mid sentence, starting to breath a bit more heavily as the temperature rises, picking at the neck of his clothes as he listens to, pressumably, the Eidolon itself, quieting himself as they talk. He then looks towards Elora, shaking his head "How are going to hide now? The thing is watching us- And I pressume it has ways to contact his followers... Can we even escape the gaze of an Eidolon?"
Isolde says "Ehh? Why are you thinking about it?"
"We are not splitting up. Two against six twice over is just a quick death waiting to happen. We have allies in these mountains. We will move between each group, attacking them one by one. Four against three or four against six in four separate fights is much better odds then two against six twice," Elora says, discounting Isolde's suggestion immediately. "We should move now, I think. I had thought to use illusion, but with that dragon here, it is not a safe option. He will just take control of me. Give away my position. We need to attack before he can relay our plans to his agents."
Sam nods, stepping into action near William, grabbing his gun and hunting knife. "Aight, Elora, lead on." He smirks. "Guess we're meeting em head-on, then, ain't we, Bill?"
"OI! Flame-fucker! We's comin' for ya!" He smirks, seemingly quite happy at the prospect of violence.
Elora frees her bow from her back while consulting the map and unless something happens to change course would begin moving to lead the group toward those in the gully.
Plenty of punches to roll with in the future, no doubt. But for the moment, Ingrid gives everyone a nod and says, "Good luck. We'll get ready and path out of here. We'll send a scout before we depart." With that, the researchers get back to what they were working on.
Back outside and at the base of the mountain, anyone without icy magic mastery behind them, feels the sting of frigid temperatures anywhere they have exposed skin. Thankfully, it is not so cold as to be lethal, and the group is about to start getting some exercise to make it to the gully in time, which will majorly combat the cold with added body heat.
The gully is a good fifty feet deep and thirty feet across, a small creek is frozen along the middle of it, barely three feet across. Just enough to slip and fall on it if one were in a hurry. Thankfully, the ground is not covered in snow. Yet.
The team might have a couple of minutes to setup and get ready to ambush the first group that should be arriving soon.
[OOC: Feel free to showstat night vision or show me any light sources. It is night time out here, and visibility would be limited. Along with that, feel free to post any preparations you may be making for the coming ambush. Please use ATTEMPT after your post to show what stat/disciplines you will be using for this. I'll wait till everyone has posted to show results.]
William lets out a sigh as his only response to Sam, instead looking at Elora as he follows behind her, rifle still in hand "If we are not using explosives in the end like the group here asked... We probably want to catch one of the groups before they even arrive at the gully- If those two groups converge, they are one single group twice as big, and we might not be able to act even with the height advantage"
clicks her tongue at the black world beyond. "I have nothing on my person that would help fight in the dark." Isolde remarks with the first upbeat in a rather down evening song. She lies down on the rocks and looks out. "See, like... They are all supers- even if I am poking my head out, they are seeing me."
"I can at least make sure they ain't see as much as we do." Sam smirks, tapping what seems to be a human finger-bone around his neck, held by a silver chain. "I'd need a line of sight on em, though, so maybe it's best if I distract em up close-and-personal, slow em down, make sure they ain't so organized when they do make it to us, yeh?" The jock just sort of spitballs cague ideas, clearly not really letting a lack of combat experience stop him.
"That sounds like a good idea-Sam." Isolde states, folding her arms around herself as she lays prone at elevation.
William gets in position, readying the rifle as he watches the creek, studying it for a moment and the surrounding area, he doesn't really have many means of seeing in darkness, so he seems a bit uncertain about a front confrontation "Maybe they use fire like the dragon? It would make them easy targets... Otherwise- I cannot see in the dark, and Kim can't either... We lose our advatage if we have two people unable to see what they are shooting at"
Isolde says "We don't have time. Pick a direction and be quick about it. William, start shoveling snow on me, don't ask."
Isolde attempts to find some amount of snow to caterpillar under, hoping the heat wave hasn't melted most of it.
Elora speaks in a low voice, "One of the things an illusionist can do is light up a target. It is cold. It is dark. They will not see us well. I will be lighting them up for you to take out. If combat is entered more fully and they understand what is happening then I can provide you with will o wisp lights to see by." She moves about the group as she talks in a low voice and tries her best to help them prepare and remain hidden, selecting a good sight for their ambush. For her part she readies her bow and if possible moves a bit away from the group to form a pincer
Elora says "If it glows? And it is not one of us? Kill it."
Sam nods to William and Isolde. "I'll even the odds on seeing, doncha worry."
Isolde lifts her vest slightly off her shoulders, laying it atop herself like a bullet proof tarp- using the rocky decline to cover her body.
William tries to get a proper hidding spot around, shaking his head slightly and sighing to himself, eyes stuck on the gully "If we were to block the gully... Is there any route nearby they could take to access the caves? Or would they have to retreat to take the same path the other two teams are taking?"
Sam says, dryly, "Who's Aveline?"
William glances towards Elora "It's... Not that easy... Anytimes anything happens it's emotion tied... Not will"
Utilizing the advantages of surprise, arriving first, a quick bit of plotting, the team is ready for when the agents of Gonthorian arrive. Initially, there is not enough light, but soon, one of the four-man team cries out, clutching their head as Sam's magic goes to work on them. That seems to be the signal for Elora to make that target glow enough for William and Isolde to start taking shots at it from the edge, where they are provided some cover from the team on the ground. The first enemy falls under the combined fire before their companions fully realize they are under attack. Soon, the three remaining agents spread out to try to keep from being taken all at once.
But the initial blow greatly diminishes the team's efficacy, and in the seconds following, Elora creates lights for everyone to see, and the group manages to focus fire down each of the remaining combatants in short order, much like shooting fish in a barrel, or asshole lizard agents in a gully.
The bad news is, some of the light and certainly some of the noise is likely to have been seen by the other bands. At least, by the other one near the gully. The group may need to relocate and reset before the next batch of agents arrives. They may have a couple more minutes to do so, or they may only have precious seconds.
While the gully agents may have shot back at the team, the elevation advantage kept everyone safe and unwounded for this round. One set down, three more to go potentially. Smooth sailing if they are all this easy. But plans rarely go that smooth... Especially with an insane red dragon eidolon also somewhere in the mix.
"Eat shit, dragon fucks!" Sam gleefully smirks as blood blinds some of the cultists. He looks up at Elora, and cracks his knuckles. "Just say the word, boss!" The jock breathes in deeply, his nostrils flaring. Seems the man enjoyed that surprise attack... or maybe the emotions radiating from the fallen cultists.
Isolde begins to shake herself from out beneath some of the snow, mostly soaked from the ice. As the lights diminish she looks around through the white sparks of gunfire still littering her eyes, blinking in more-muted blackness. "They probably stupid to push this. We head back and cover trail or base of mountain?"
William slowly rises his body from the ground after they successfully shoot down the entire group, shaking his head at Isolde "There should be another group coming here... And I don't think there'll be much delay, if we are thinking like their side, the ideal is to have them go closely together, or join forces at some point, yes? Not appear an hour later to either meet the same end or do a cleanup"
"Shadow above gully to those who listen. One group was taken out in the gully. The shots were loud. I expect we will soon receive retaliation from a nearby group. No wounds or casualties to report," Elora says into her communicator. "Four enemies down. If you have anyone close enough who can get into the gully without notice consider getting their communicator and spreading confusion in their internal communications. I cannot at present without potentially surrendering higher ground. Shadow, over"
With the central command informed of what had happened, Elora is killing the lights that she had summoned before, casting the world back into a snowy darkness. "We need to reposition a bit away from here, preferably near natural cover. There will be people coming to investigate. We need to move, now," Elora says. She is not waiting for the others as she begins the trek to a different location with natural cover. To her communicator she says, "Do the scouts have an update on the enemy positioning?"
Elora belated adds, "Shadow, over."
"I can shoot from under the ice," Isolde supplies with a shrug.
Isolde says "Well, like- Have inside. Pop out."
Isolde says "Probably not shoot gun in water."
Elora hustles
A brief pause, and Sam slashes his knife across his palm, drawing a rough triangular shape into the snow in blood. He then follows Elora, smirking as he clasps that finger-bone with his free hand, briefly holstering his gun to do so. "Aight, same tactic?" He cracks his knuckles. "Kinna wanna smack in some heads, gonna be real withya."
Isolde purses her lips at the shape in the snow, and continues to move.
Elora looks at the triangle drawn in blood then at Sam.
Elora looks away from Sam continuing on her way. "You may engage in close combat. Attract their attention, if you wish it," Elora lilts out. "The rest of us, we shall support you from cover, as is sensible."
Elora has a grim tone.
Sam just smirks, runes on that focus glowing lightly. "Don't worry 'bout it." He winks.
William follows the tiny Elora, shaking his head at Sam, but not commenting on that regard "We should not take this too lightly... The first team might have gone down easy, but- Well, dragon spirit..." He comments as he glances around the place, in the darkness "What do we do if he possesses someone, or lights our locations on fire?"
"I will see you soon!" Isolde remarks hurriedly, and then hurries off down the path. This time, for her, it's not about elevation. It's not about being next to allies either- only seeing what they spot. She chooses a point with a wide view- that also may stand to put her in some for of view- shoveling snow into her bag and holding it close to her comparably warm chest. She gets it to melt. When she's found the position, she dumps the ice-water over her head- and a faint blue glow later it solidifies over her in an icey sheen, blending with the rocky white landscape.
And it's cold. Extremely cold. Incased in ice after being stuck in snow is a problem for even the most adapted mammals to the cold. The body has a particular system that allows one to freeze- to make mistakes, to fight, and to flight. Isolde saves a final ability to suppress such idiosyncrasies.
Elora likely has a kitsune which has arrived, orange furred and two tailed, it would be sticking close to her for now. Those with more acute senses might see the spirit posessing it, a spirit which would likely look at William constantly, though whether it could see him is another question as the grave cloth wearing girl has nailed out eyes.
Communications with the mountain base come out as only static, as if somewhere, nearby, there is some form of jamming unit piping out noise to block radio communications. That leaves Elora without any additional information to use for the battle she is engaged in, and much like soldiers trapped behind enemy lines with no way to call for rescue, the team finds themselves potentially in a trap of Gonthorian's designs. Three other teams out there have a good idea of where the Knights and Hand member are out on the chilly mountain side. And they likely are being coordinated by an eidolon that can literally see through the eyes of three members of the team as they make their preparations for the next group. While Elora can help everyone stay hidden, the other gully squad slowly comes into view on the correct side of the gully to not give the adventurers that same advantage. Thankfully, there are rocks and such to use for cover instead, but this match is a lot more even.
Unfortunately, the crew coming down the same side of the gully as Elora's side seem to have the ability to see in the dark, whether from supernatural dark vision or night vission goggles. Before the team can really respond to them fire streaks through the air, splashing against whatever cover Isolde has hunkered behind. Molten motes sprinkle down upon her, singing her and her clothing. A split second later, a flash bang goes off and smoke spews across the field between the two parties, obscuring even those with night vision for several seconds thereafter. When the smoke clears, the enemy combatants have all ducked behind their own bits of cover and start peppering the party's position with plentiful sprays of bullets, mostly suppressive fire. Their tactics, their methods, and their actions clearly state their singular goal: They want to pin down Elora's group long enough for their companions to arrive to mop up.
[OOC: Feel free to post your responses/actions for this round, then take a ten minute break, since this is about the middle of the show. Try to be back by 650 Haven time!]
"SON OF A FUCKIN'!" Sam yelps, ducking low to dodge shrapnel, then covering his eyes at the flashbang. He hisses out low, the flash-bang seemingly bothering the jock quite a lot.
Once the shock clears, he lets out a low hiss, dashing forward to try and reach the attackers. While he tries to stay in cover, such a head-first approach is unlikely to be healthy. However, most glancing blows seem to grow shut pretty quick, though he does wince in pain at them. His knife is at the ready, and as he approaches, runes glow angrily on that fingerbone, the jock seemingly aiming to at least cover his approach slightly.
The sound of ice chunks ripping off with bullet fire- whatever blessing the arcana provides as to the efficacy of its durability, is generally discomforting. Being by far the most discernible in the group in her chosen position, but being prone, Isolde very calmly- fear removed by arcana, drops her gun and enters the fetal position with the ballistics vest held out in front of her. She continues to harden it with her cryomancy, blankly blinking at the chance of sudden death.
William seems awfully affected by the flash-bang as well, and the loud impacts here and there seem to be doing something as well even if they don't land on him. For a good couple seconds he seems completely out of it, and even in pain, like there was something bothering him that wasn't outright visually evident.
When he manages to somewhat recover, he takes a deep breath to try and calm down, pressing his back against one of the rocks and remaining there, under coverage for a couple more seconds, showing his head briefly from a side of it for a couple seconds before hiding it again, trying to get an idea of where the attackers are at
Elora summons will o' wisps that cast out white and blue light, sending them up and above the cover of the suppressing enemies fire in order to make it easier for her compansions to see whatis happening.
Elora notices Sam charge.
Elora grimaces as Sam charges and a blue glow resounds from the ruins of her focus shining lightly from within the white material a werewolf's hide in subtle runes carved into it. Illusionists have a talent for confusing enemies and in this moment she directs that to focus enemy attacks heading toward the obvious target for anyone firing now that someone is leaving cover. She directs them to target whichever person in the enemy squad is farthest from the others, hoping to provoke the enemy into picking each other off. In the same breath her hand motions toward the fox beside her and then points to the enemy. The fox yips, then charges out across the battlefield. For her part, she settles in beside the cover and draws an arrow from her quiver as she looks for a suitable target and judges distance to see if she can take anyone out.
Elora would shout out during the ensuing fight, "Its time! Turn on them now."
Elora would ensure that the next attack she fired seemed to come from one within the enemies number turning on their companions.
hears the warble of voice with the tinnitus in her ears. The flash bang and a lack of ear protection for her rifle has created a conflux of being simply deaf. Deaf, and mostly blind aside from the white spots of muzzle flash in her vision, Isolde continues to fetal.
Spread apart like a triangle, Gonthorian's agents try to pull everyone's attention to separate quadrants of their vision. But one of the shooters is a little further from the other two, and Elora lights him up in order to receive focus fire from William and Isolde whenever they can take a shot. Elora's arrow manages to get there just before Sam, though it deflects off the rocky terrain. When Sam arrives, the fight is quick, and over mere seconds later. But it leaves Sam open to fire from the farthest combatant, the one that originally splashed Isolde. This gout of fire is a long, thick lance directed at Sam. On impact against the rock beside him, it explodes like a grenade, showering the area on sparks and embers. The pyromancer's companion suddenly turns and shoots at him, and the pyromancer gets knocked down behind the rock. Elora's minion throws some ice toward the pyromancer, but the rock mostly blocks it.
From out of nowhere, a scout flops onto the ground beside Elora and starts taking pot shots at the other shooter while they are still exposed. "Gonthorian is inside Ingrid in the chamber. Three others and Kristoff are dead already," the scout reports, continuing singular shots with the bolt action rifle.
In the darkness around the gully, hollow laughter rings out in the air.
Once everyone has recovered from the flash bang though, the two remaining agents offer little resistance to the team. Aside from some singed spots on clothes and a few minor burns though, the team seems to have made it through this part mostly intact. But what about Ingrid and the other researchers? The hatchery? The ritual?
Isolde lies still wondering if the lack of vibrations, the lack of ice spray, means that she's no longer being shot at. It simply doesn't pay to stand up and find out. Her mess of a deployment position is a scattered astroid of ice blue shards, black skid marks from bullets and a long arc of flame. It's as if she came from heaven- yet landed in hell.
"Fucking piece of god damned motherfucking DAMN!" Sam scowls, heavy new-york drawl on his tongue as the rock next to him explodes. He takes a little to regain his footing, ducking behind cover quickly.
"Fuckin ay..." Once the battle is over, the jock stands there, blood littering his face and shoulder, though beyond damage to the fabric, he seems, somehow, mostly okay. He turns to Elora, waiting for orders now as he trudges back to the rest, eyes wary for more enemies.
Isolde's limbs wriggle around.
's black clothing makes it hard to discern any wounds, but red snow might. Rattled, and more than a little war torn, Isolde puts on her vest and looks out.
William looks at Elora, still dizzy and looking out of it, walking towards her while trying to ignore the buzz in his ears "We need to go back... If he's inside, he doesn't need the cultists to arrive- He can kill and destroy the information himself with the body he's hijacked"
Elora tells the scout, "We have taken out both enemy groups moving for the gully. Spread word to the rest of our forces that they can concentrate on other threats."
Elora checks over her forces one by one to ensure they are fine.
Elora nods to William at his comment. "You're right. And if we take the obvious route back, we'll find two enemy groups falling on us in ambush no doubt. Twelve against four is not the odds I want and it is the worst case. If we're facing that, we don't want open terrain like this. The caves would be better."
Elora asks the scout, "Do you know the cultists positioning? Or have you only word of Gonothorian himself?"
Elora apparently has at least some doubt given her request for clarification.
Sam moves over to Kim, and holds up his phone, putting a hand on Isolde's back. The screen reads "Gontharion inside.We're moving, once we know more. Follow Elora." He gives a silent thumbs-up to Isolde, and smiles wryly, tapping his ear and giving an understanding nod.
Elora brushes some stray black wig hair from her face as the lights begin to die in the area as her wisps vanish casting the world into a cool darkness once more.
Isolde nods slowly. She picks up her gun barrel-first and then gives a single deadpan peace sign.
William turns his head towards Elora "I am taking Eidolons possess in a different way than ghosts? There's no banishing him from the body, right?"
Elora tries to recall whether she could banish an eidolon posessing someone with a ritual like she would banish a more typical spirit.
Elora makes a nck, nck noise and orders her kitsune to fall in.
"Gonthorian was in the research chamber, using Ingrid as a puppet," the scout repeats. The scout shakes their head slowly and then gestures to the west and a little south. "Group A is almost to the cave. Group B is still further out to the west. We're closing off as many of the routes to the chamber as we can, and trapping the rest. Stick to the main path," the scout explains to Elora, but then they head back into the field as fast as their feet can carry them before jumping nearly a hundred feet into the nearest bit of cover to continue back to the cave to continue preparations against the invading agents.
After the scout is out of sight, the rest of the team can head off toward where ever they want to go. If they head for the cave directly, they will likely encounter Group A, which could get reinforcements from Group B during the fight. If they delay, Group A may be in the cave before they arrive. If they deviate a little, they could potentially pinch Group A between traps and get into close quarters. If they are quick about that last option, they could get into the safety of the cave and lure Group B in for the last fight while still trying to reach Gonthorian and Ingrid.
Eidolon possession is -exactly- like ghost possession, except eidolons do not run out of energy usually. They can haunt for days without slowing down. And take direct motor control for short bursts. So it is likely that Ingrid's hands were used to kill the four people thus far eliminated in the research chamber.
Sam looks to Elora, tilting his head aside. "If ya ask me, it's head-first into em, head to the Dragon as soon as we can, cut the head offa the snake."
A shake of his head, then. "I ain't the boss here, though, so I'll follow yer lead."
Isolde says "MMMMmmmm*mop*. "
Isolde continues make bilabial plosives with her lips.
"He likely won't let me get a banishing off, but those hurt and they're fast, even if it will cost me dearly," Elora explains to William. "Fall in people. We need to get back and stop Gonothorian from destroying the research notes if we can. "Move quickly. Every moment we delay is another moment in which they may find and destroy what we are here to protect."
Elora is a creature of ambush rather than direct attack. She would favor such and so would favor the last option -- getting in close, in the hope of potentially setting a trap. "We need to deal with the groups while they are still split up. Four small skirmishes, so we are not outnumbered." As she moves she asks the group. "How do each of you feel in a meelle is it a realistic option? Isolde I doubt your capabilities in this. I am asking more for William and Sam. If you two do not feel comfortable up close we ought not to go with this idea.""
[Fixed formatting] "He likely won't let me get a banishing off, but those hurt and they're fast, even if it will cost me dearly," Elora explains to William. "Fall in people. We need to get back and stop Gonothorian from destroying the research notes if we can. Move quickly. Every moment we delay is another moment in which they may find and destroy what we are here to protect."
Elora is a creature of ambush rather than direct attack. She would favor such and so would favor the last option -- getting in close, in the hope of potentially setting a trap. "We need to deal with the groups while they are still split up. Four small skirmishes, so we are not outnumbered." As she moves she asks the group. "How do each of you feel in a meelle is it a realistic option? Isolde I doubt your capabilities in this. I am asking more for William and Sam. If you two do not feel comfortable up close we ought not to go with this idea."
Isolde has no response as she stumbles after Elora.
Sam grins, lifting his bloodied knife. "I just ran into a hail of bullets, just ta avoid using my gun. I'm good. I go abouts... near toe-to-to with Novel on a good day." He shrugs. "My magic also favors up close and personal, so really? Melee, yes please." He grins cockily, though his eyes are dead serious. "I could help with the banishing, but I think our magics are not too compatible, so Ill trust ya know whatcha doing."
William sighs, nodding as he closes the gap between himself and Elora, almost expecting her to depart at any moment "I can do it... It'll be better if I can get visual- Yeah, I can do it" He simply resumes, not wanting to explain every bit of the process "I still think we should banish it... We are here, I think the four of us can cast- And we stop him from doing whatever he's doing with the information to destroy him"
"Brother, do not even feign interest in this casting. A banishing like this would kill you instantly were you to attempt it," Elora says, voice lilting out as she covers ground with speed, her fox trotting after her.
Sam says, simply enough, "Sure thing. Just tell me where ya want me. "
Most days, Isolde has trouble standing up straight for long periods of time without falling over. Long bouts of anemia, frequent bike crashes, and dream dancing have produced a creature that, as it jogs through the snow, frequently cramps up and falls over.
The recent warfare might have something to do with the sudden lack of energy, but who can say? Not Isolde, intelligibly anyhow.
"William? Support Isolde," Elora orders, if at any point Isolde appears to be slowing the group down, which, apparently she is.
Isolde, statistically, probably is.
Hauling ass back toward the cave, in spite of Isolde's limitations, the team manages to get there before Group A gets to the cave. Perhaps they ran into trouble. Perhaps they regrouped with Group B to give themselves a fighting chance. Maybe they wanted to do the pincer technique to the Knight-Hand party in the close quarters of the cave. Regardless, the team has another choice to make: Wait/Ambush Group A and possibly B, or plunge back into the caves beneath the mountain to try to rescue the research team and the ritual notes to get rid of the troublesome eidolon.
Those more familiar with Gonthorian might recognize some degree of desperation in this scenario. Previously, he acted aloof, above the efforts of the 'ants' scurrying about beneath his notice. But in the research base, he is acting, directly, surely as an acknowledgment of just how close the Knights are getting to ending his existence. Could it be the eidolon has finally felt fear over his tenuous existence? Or is he merely raging and lashing out as best he is able?
What other surprises might the evil red dragon eidolon have in store for the group before they manage to get back? How many bodies will be on the floor?
William glances at Isolde for a moment, letting out a sigh and moving over to Isolde, placing one of her arms over his shoulder and trying to prop her upwards a little to have her at least catch up a little bit "Tag the two sick people together..." He mutters more to himself than to Elora
But as they reach the cave, he looks around, confused, squinting his eyes slightly "There's no one here... Nor signs of people... Shouldn't they be already around here? Do you think they are hiding like we did- Two quick shots as we enter the caves and we are out"
Sam trudges along, quiet as he looks to Elora for direction. He checks his gun, the magazine, unused, still firmly in place. He then cleans his knife off on his armor, eyes darting into the darkness that William and Isolde can't see. Not a word out of the jock as he twists that runed fingerbone around his neck slowly between two fingers.
Isolde texts and displays as she leans heavily on William, .CAN ANYONE STEP THROUG.H THEIR SHADOW TONIGHT?
Sam says "Eh? "
Isolde feels a faint vibration through William's body. That's probably a sound. .IF SOMEONE CAN, MAYBE GRAB .SOMEONE OR SOMETHING LATER?
"We need the research protected and that means we need to go after Gonothorian," Elora lilts out.
"Brother? Use your blood to write beware land mines on the wall," Elora calls to William, gesturing to the blood splatter on him and then the cave wall.
Sam looks to William. "Ey, switch." He nods to Isolde, then to his back, trying best to convey to Isolde with charades to get onto his back as William might need his hands free.
Isolde pats William's shoulder in what may be a sisterly gesture, wherein her understands that, and then limps off to Sam.
William glances down at himself, groaning a little bit before, actually moving to the wall as he lets go off Isolde, tainting his fingers with the blood that was still on his body and writting the message as best he can. The drawing leaves a lot to wish for, the blood not being the easiest substance to write with, sometimes not having enough to paint with, others just drying too fast, or having the cold have it harden too fast, though, eventually, he manages to scribble something in the wall that resembles that message good enough
Isolde, in the lull, attempts to stretch her legs. The movement isn't accomplishing what she seeks it to. It's the lethargy that continues to cause the cramps, not a lack of post-workout. She makes a slight voicebox punching noise as she's picked up.
Sam squats down, then hoists Isolde up onto his back. He seems not too bothered by her weight, and shifts some to adjust Isolde, not unlike one would adjust a backpack. He nods at her, flashing a thumbs-up, realizing that words really are not that useful right now.
Cave option it is. With a lovely warning message for the incoming groups. The team funnels down into the caverns and, sticking to the main path as the scout suggested, manages to come into the main research chamber once more before any other skirmishes find them. Just as the step over the threshold however, they hear gunfire in the caves behind them. The only way out is through.
The chamber has changed considerably since the hour or so ago when the group was last in there. Almost everything is on fire. Including five or six bodies scattered around the floor at either end where openings lead in and out of the chamber. Kristoff's body has been impaled on a stalactite, scorched and dripping blood onto the central table. Almost all of the books, tomes, and other written works have been cast into the floor, smoldering or burnt. The air is thick with heat, smoke, and ash.
Ingrid stands above the forms of Jorgen and Ragnar, laughing her maniacal ass off, but with a deep, gravelly voice that is not actually hers. When she notices the group, she turns to face them. Fire is summoned into both of her hands, and she is just about to incinerate one of them when her body twitches and jerks to a stop. "Be quick," Ingrid says in her actual avoid. And then her shadow forms up to collapse around her, whisking her, and Gonthorian away to somewhere else. The team has a few minutes to try to make heads or tails of the scene, but Ingrid has done her level best to take herself and Gonthorian out of the situation. He can get back to the group any second now though, unless she does something incredibly stupid...
Ingid says in her actual VOICE.
Isolde serves as a cold wet rag with a rifle, at this point. Consciousness sits in her eyes- where else could it go- but the haze of exhaustion sits in as the adrenaline diminishes from a lack of stimulus and overuse of cryomancy that stills her heartbeat.
Isolde considers, briefly, the repercussions of shooting Ingrid.
Sam nods to Elora as he places Isolde down somewhere relatively save. "All right, walk me through it." He speaks, looking to Elora. "I'll try an' stick to gate magic, yeh? Less offensive to you, and likely better suited for bootin' the asshole back to wherever he belongs."
"Are we destroying or banishing?" He speaks, walking around the chamber, trying to discern if the team had gotten started on any of the complex magics to banish the Dragon yet.
"Isolde," Elora says, taking in the flames. "Put the fires out. That is your life from now until you collapse. The rest of you, figure out what is worth saving and save it," Elora orders.
Isolde shows a message to Sam.
Sam says, with a nod of the head to the message, "The hatchery, Elora? Kim's saying we should safe that."
William seems to weaken as well when entering into the now more than warm caves, coughing a couple times before covering his mouth to try and avoid the floating ashes. His eyes look around the burning books, if Ingrid had given them a chance, whatever they had to find was still around "We are not banishing nor destroying she said... Cost our lifes and all... We need to figure out what to take out of here"
Isolde's hair bracelet displays the Wiccan Cobalt, and mancing begins to affect the area.
William glances around the place, trying to find any tomes or documents that haven't been consumed by the flames, or any secret hidding spots in which someone might have put something in for safety- Anything really that screams important and might not be already ruined by the Eidolon
Elora is doing much the same as William.
"Is host destruction acceptable, if banishing fails?" Sam stops his rifling, and starts etching a rough circle into the cave ground, shaped much like an ourobouros: A snake that bites it's own tail. "As a last resort." He nods his head, slitting his palm again, to allow some blood to trickle into that impromptu binding circle. "Aight."
"If it comes to that," Elora states. "I will kill you all."
Elora belatedly adds, "Sorry."
YOU SHOULD LEAVE IF HE'S GOING TO POSSESS YOU. LET HIM POSSESS ME OR SOMETHING Isolde types, whining.
Elora has a fox that adds a happy yip.
Sam says, without a pause, "Likewise. I ain't attached much to y'all, full disclosure. "
William nods, as he continues searching around "Pretty much- No, you cannot kill us all, she can"
Ripples of arcane energy flood research chamber, followed by an earth-rattling howl of pain that vibrates up through the entire mountain. And then, the malevolent presence of the dragon eidolon is gone. Or perhaps contained. Or perhaps ... Ingrid went the extra mile to try to shred Gonthorian herself. There is, very likely, another body somewhere in the research base. One spent to give the team enough time to get what they need and get gone.
As the team focuses on putting out the fires, Ragnar and Jorgen start to wake up. After they realize what is happening, they scramble to try to college what notes they can, frantic to try to capture as much of the information as they can to send back. Sam and William manage to find several books only lightly singed and charred beneath piles of other things. Elora scores several parchments that managed to avoid being destroyed under the table. Ragnar and Jorgen collect everything they can together on the table and start stuffing the useful bits into a pack. They are far less careful now, under duress, than they might have been before. Toward the entrance of the cave, the gunfire has ceased. Any moment now, Group A or B, or both, could show up.
With as many of the resources collected as they can, Jorgen and Ragnar hand over several bags worth of materials. Enough to still require days of research to piece it back together. But Ragnar pulls out a thumb drive that he takes from inside one of the stones of the fireplace. He hands that to Elora. "That's everything we had out here and Ingrid's notes. Go, before they get here," he tells Elora, giving her a nod. Then he turns away and stalks toward the back entrance of the chamber. The visually astute would notice tears in his eyes. Jorgen nods and follows Ragnar with a similar look on his features. They know the score. And half their team died tonight for the chance to rid the world of an angry fire dragon.
The team prepares to leave and manages to get out just before the remaining Gonthorian forces flood into the chamber. The path back to Haven is surely solemn and bittersweet. [OOC: That brings us to the end. Give me a few minutes to do some administrative tasks to finish up. If anyone has any rewards they may want via help plot awards, let me know.]
The team coordinates an initial plan to ambush cultist groups converging on the Dragon Caves. Utilizing their unique skills—ranging from brute force and magical illusions to tactical sniping—they successfully neutralize a four-man team despite being outnumbered and facing harsh environmental conditions. However, their victory is short-lived as they come face to face with the gravity of their situation; Gonthorian is not only a formidable opponent but also manipulates one of their vestige alliances, Ingrid, bending her will to his destructive desires.
In an urgent bid to preserve the crucial ritual and save the lives of the remaining researchers, the party braves their way back to the research chamber, only to find it engulfed in flames and chaos. The scenario turns grim when they discover that Gonthorian has caused significant casualties among the researchers and seems poised to obliterate the ritual's knowledge forever.
With the stakes higher than ever, the group races against time to salvage what they can from the ruins. Isolde's ability to manipulate ice becomes crucial in suppressing the fire, while Sam, William, and Elora frantically recover any semblance of research left intact. In a final, desperate act to buy them time and perhaps end Gonthorian’s reign of fire, Ingrid makes a sacrificial choice that shakes the very core of the mountain.
As they escape the cave with their precious cargo of recovered research, Ragnar and Jorgen, the surviving researchers, offer a semblance of hope in the form of a thumb drive containing all their notes and findings, a testament to their fallen comrades and the lengths to which they would go to stop Gonthorian.
Their return to Haven is marked by a somber recognition of their losses yet a steadfast resolution to continue the fight. The battle on Mount Halti serves as a poignant reminder of the costs of combating ancient evils and the unpredictable sacrifices required to preserve hope and safeguard the future.
(Whack-A-Dragon: Helsinki Knights(SRSelina):SRSelina)
[Tue Nov 19 2024]
In the Lohikaarma Luolaseura, or Dragon Caves, in Finland
Mount Halti, Finland's highest point at 1,324 meters, rises from the arctic wilderness, marking the border with Norway. Its rugged slopes and windswept tundra stretch over vast valleys, glacial lakes, and snow-covered plateaus. During summer, bursts of wildflowers color the stark landscape, adding beauty to the otherwise barren surroundings.
Within the mountain lies the mysterious Lohikaarma Luolaseura, or Dragon Caves, a network of hidden caverns largely unexplored. These expansive chambers, carved deep into the granite, are cool and damp, with impressive formations of stalactites and stalagmites. Their isolated location and vast size evoke a sense of ancient legend.
Perfect for a mythical dragon's lair, the caves offer seclusion and shelter, with narrow crevices leading to the outside world. Should dragons ever return, these caves would make an ideal sanctuaryremote, majestic, and untouched by time.
It is about 50F(10C) degrees.
Isolde bows in greeting to Sam with her rifle, "You were at the Inn. Kim is easy."
Sam nods a little, ticking a two-fingered salute. "Yo. Selina mentioned yer working tonight. Just point me at em, and I'll punch shit." He pauses. "Sam. Hand." He taps the bracelet around his right wrist.
"Mmm." Isolde confirms with a pleasant tone and a dry face.
Elora arrives by Pathing. The mysterious forest she leads the group thing is briefly visible behind her as she leads the smell group out into the thin air and frigid temperatures of Finland. As the cool hits her, she unzips her duffel and gets her equipment on while Sam and and Isolde talk idly even as she surveys the area to better understand where she is and whether there are any people here to greet her and the others set on ending the fire spirit's multi-month history of trying to bathe the world in flame. For once, her hair is not its usual colorful turquoise and neon. She wears a wig. Long and black haired, black raven wings. "The things to punch, if they arrive, will be cultists most likely -- I can't imagine the servants of that fire spirit would want us to have what we are here to acquire."
Isolde does a weapons check; ensuring the bolt-handle only gets jammed two times out of 5, ensuring there are bullets strewn in her cargo pockets, and last looking down the barrel to make sure the gun's loaded.
The party arrives just outside the the Lohikaarma Luolaseura (Dragon Caves) at the base of Mount Halti. The current temperature is freezing cold at this time of night in Finland, and the mountain air does little to warm things up. Thankfully, the wind is not too harsh at the moment, or the chill would swiftly slice through most garments. The entrance to the caves is relatively close, and upon getting inside, the group would find heaters and lights to guide their way deeper into the otherwise labyrinthine caverns beneath the mountain. After a bit of walking, the group would eventually arrive at what has affectionately become known as the research headquarters for the Covenant/Knights/House of Odin researchers. And within, they find a large chamber with a long table, covered with books, tomes, parchments, maps, pages, trinkets, and an occasional electronic device that has been rigged up to somehow work half a mile below ground. The occupants of this place have become quite well known as 'Goldilocks and the Three Dwarves' for reasons that become readily apparent. Ingrid, the blonde-haired blue eyed woman in the mix, wears patches for both the Covenant and the Knights, and she is seldom seen these days without the company of the three older men: Kristoff (hungrily eating some soup), Jorgen (taking a power nap nearby in a chair, snoozing softly), and Ragnar (who is arguing loudly with Ingrid over something or another). When the team arrives in the chamber though, Ragnar quiets down and grumbles as he takes his seat. "Velkommen," Ingrid greets the team, and she is echoed by two of the other men. Jorgen snoozes on for the moment, despite the volume of Ragnar's argument. "You came at a good time. Word has it we will need some reinforcements soon," Ingrid says, checking one of the electronic devices for a few moments.
[OOC: Welcome to Whack-A-Dragon: Helsinki Knights. If you have any questions, feel free to use STalk or replies via Tells. Please make use of the Think, Internal, Feel, Recall, and Attempt commands on this adventure. These will greatly enhance your experience and immersion, while also speeding things up for others. I try to do one post per person rotations, but if you want to do short bursts of rapid banter in appropriate situations, feel free. Text that is all colored in this color will be private, for you to act upon ICly. Buckle up, and we will begin shortly. Thank you for letting me be your SR for this evening's festivities.]
Isolde arms are bare to the cold- the vest, in a fashion, seems to be the only top adorning her. "Velkommen," she mouths, tasting the words.
Isolde says "You are welcome."
Sam shivers, the jock being clad in clothes that were cold back home in New England. Here in Finland, he is outright under-prepared. He adjusts his armor some, ticking an up-nod to Ingrid.
"Yo." He ticks a two-fingered salute to the blonde, opting to let those more in the know do the speaking.
Elora strides a bit ahead of the group, taking a leadership position among them. Her back, a bit stiff. "Velkommen," Elora echoes back, copying the others in their greeting.
"Unsurprising," Elora lilts out, cool teal eyes regarding Ingrid. Her scarf helps to ward off the chill, but if the cold is bothering her at all, it doesn't seem to show on her features. "If ever there was something that he and his cultists would want to stop, it is what we are doing now. Thankfully, after his failed incursion in Haven, his forces are likely much weakened compared to what they once were."
William follows behind Elora and Isolde down into the caves, glancing around at the improvised camp down the mountain and giving a little nod at the men and the woman as they all arrive to the base, already wearing a vest and weapon in hand, seemingly seemingly unbothered by the cold "Hey"
Isolde looks out over the mountain range with the empty nostalgia that grandma holds onto last before senility finally takes it from her. Two pools of black make for a poor window to the soul veiled, too dark. It's through that lense that she views those down below: Imperious and eldritch in spite of herself.
All three of the men are dressed in simple, plain robes. Kristoff and Jorgen have ZZ Top length beards, but all hairs between them have long since grayed with their advancing years. Ragnar looks a bit more haggard than the other two, because he has, somewhat recently, shaved all of the hairs above his neck off. While growth has occurred since he did it, the evidence remains that he no longer possesses the biggest, bushiest, longest beard of the trio.
"The Princess said she would get us some reinforcements as quickly as she could, but I did not think she could manage it so quickly," Ingrid says as she looks over the team that has arrived. She looks like the only one that would be able to hold down any sort of fighting. She is wearing comfortable clothing for hiking though, aside from her combat boots. Her jeans and flannel certainly are not armor. But even as that becomes apparent to the group, she reaches out toward something on the table. Her shadow stretches over to pick up what she is after and delivers it to her hand. "Yes. We think we have the ritual figured out, mostly. But obviously, we still need to bring it all together. But, we've been receiving alerts already about Gonthorian's agents being seen within two miles of here. We have not finished putting everything together. If he attacked now," Ingrid says, trailing off, shaking her head.
She holds out the map to Elora as the apparent leader of this particular troop, by rank within the Knights at least. "This map shows where the agents were found and their predicted path to the entrance of the caves. If you could find some ways to stop them, we'd appreciate it. We should not need much longer," she says, watching Elora with a little bit of fear in her eyes, despite the fact she is obviously an accomplished arcanist.
Isolde turns to address the band.
Isolde says "Are there others on this mountain? Should we care?"
nods seriously. "It would be a disaster. Especially if the lead researchers or their research notes came to harm," Elora lilts out in response to Ingrid as she accepts the map from her. "We will try to delay them as we can. If we can't it might be best to evacuate. For those of you back here? It is worth questioning the fact he knew of this research at all. One doesn't choose such a remote location without the hope of some privacy and its clear that security measures with respect to that were breached. I expect you to look into that. Privacy is important. Especially in matters so delicate. If there is a mole within your team, deal with it." Elora as always puts privacy before other matters. Only once she has addressed that does she look over the map. As she does she doesn't just look. Her focus glows as she wills an illusion to form for the others present. It creates an illusory vista of the map for everyone to see, ensuring that even though Elora has the map, everyone else can see it as well. The illusion would shift in response to her understanding of it, becoming three dimensional as she tuned the map to reflect her conception of what the elevation legends suggested was present. "If any of you have any suggestions as to how to approach this, please speak up."
William stares at Isolde for a couple seconds after she asks, letting out a bit of a sigh before glancing towards the illusory map, tilting his head at Elora "Worst case scenario, if we have any explosives- Well, we are in a mountain after all, maybe there's a way to cause an avalanche..." He comments, putting a finger to his chin, before addressing the woman he assumes leads the other group "I am guessing we do not know any of the names of any cultists that are headed here? If we knew a ritual or two could get some advantage to out side..."
Isolde stares vacantly at the image. "I am not good at hunting. If I am walking around on mountain I probably just stand out and die."
With a shrug, Sam checks the magazine on his glock, looking up to Elora. "Meet em head-on, pick their numbers off, distract them. Slow them down."
At William's suggestion, he grins. "If yer faster in that shit than I am? I'm pretty tapped out on ritualism for the day, sadly." He looks at the illusionary map, and grins. Nice trick, that." "
"Our base is well-known through the supernatural world. The Knights claimed this territory months ago, so it is no surprise at all the eidolon found out," Ragnar grumbles from his seat before reaching over to punch Jorgen in the shoulder to wake him up.
Kristoff looks up as he finishes off his soup. "The cave is glamoured and such, but it is mostly to stop mundanes from wandering in or seeing dragons," the hungry man explains before setting aside his bowl and spoon. He picks up some papers and starts shuffling through them, looking for something.
Jorgen listens for a few moments to get caught up and then says, "We'd prefer to keep them outside the caves properly. Explosives in here could damage other projects. Including the hatchery a couple levels down." The three men nod solemnly in their agreement on that front. Is there actually a real dragon hatchery in this place? If so, that may actually be worth more than the research on the ritual to destroy the eidolon, at least to some segments of the population.
"We will collect what we can and get it sorted and ready for transport. But it will take time, and not ... everything we have can be transported at all, let alone easily, as Jorgen has said," Ingrid says, nodding to her research companions. She looks over the team of four for a few moments and says, "I imagine you can handle them if you use tactics and strategy, rather than rely on strength of arms." She lifts one hand to double tap her right temple with her right index finger.
Looking at the map, the team would be able to identify a couple of choke points. There appears to be four different groups of agents converging toward the cave entrance at different angles. Two of them may be heading for a gully to the east, while the other two are approaching from the west along the base of the mountain and from the south along the trail that leads up to the cave normally.
"I would be good at gully, probably." Isolde remarks sourly.
Isolde says "I would be at elevation. They having to look up or something."
Sam just sort of looks over to Elora, squinting lightly. "I'm best up close and personal. Didn't really bring nuthing for longer range." He shrugs. "I'm just here to support, y'all know each other's strengths better."
Elora doesn't actually look over her own illusion like the others might. Her attention is on the map and her illusion shifts with each bit of understanding she gleans from it, making it more real, filling in details. "If they group up we might be in quite a bit of danger of being defeated in detail," Elora muses. Her projection shifts, showing strike teams moving through the mountainous terrain. The little figures of men and women trudging are misty, sometimes shifting to show three, other times, four Sometimes as many as six. "We do have some advantages. This is a cold place. Cultists of his aren't going to be well adapted to this sort of environment. I like the idea that William had. Triggering an avalanche on the groups in the gully would let us move in for cleanup afterward." She looks to Ingrid. "Is that a viable plan? Do we have the things necessary to trigger such?" She pauses. "I figure that potentially lets us create a pincher later for the group moving more directly for the caves. You and the others here can hold them off and then as we return from dealing with the other group your people can be the anvil on which a hammer breaks them." The antiquated military metaphor slips from her in the same lilt she usually adopts as she tries to stay icy.
William nods his head "Well, yes, but if the other group is using the natural path to get here, they probably will arrive sooner, no? So they are a priority I think- We don't need to think how to get rid of them efficiently but how to keep them out of here" He thinks outloud, still watching the map while idly tapping his lips "Some of them we might not even have to even fight... We could trick them with illusions to keep them at bay"
Isolde says "Does anyone know how to avalanche? "
Isolde begins to open up a small copy of the Bible, or, one of them. A blank paper card is caught by the wind- and off goes her bookmark. She steps closer to a wall to avoid page and hair tousling.
Elora looks to Ingrid, Jorgen and Ragnar for their input.
Isolde slams her book shut and stows it away with a sigh into the wind.
The researchers get quiet and start quietly talking with each other as they start organizing notes and books into neat and tidy piles to try to prepare for transport. A ritual of this magnitude takes considerably more than just a few drops of blood into a summoning circle on the floor. It has to coordinate energy from the Gate and the amassed energy of multiple millions of people around the world into a delicate and precise knife against the intended target. Such matters require significant understanding of the way the world works, especially with relation to ley lines, mystical ebbs and flows, infused locals, and even in some cases, powerful and well-established entities and aspected domains for large groups of people.
As the group discusses tactics and such, some scouts move through the caves toward an armory to get geared up and disperse through the network of caves beneath the mountain. While they may be able to handle some activity within the mountain, they are likely not equipped for prolonged conflict with determined enemies fueled by an eidolon. The scouts move quietly, but they are, much like Elora, favoring stealth and ambush tactics.
As the discussion continues, the temperature rises sharply, well past what the heaters could maintain against the frigid night air. This temperature shift is followed by chuckling that sounds much like an avalanche unto itself. "This is the pathetic group that is supposed to stop me? More ants to be scorched into ashes," comes a gravelly, low voice from directly behind Elora. "I will bring this mountain down on top of you," the voice promises before a scraping noise echoes through the chamber, like scales brushing along the floor, heading toward the exit. "Stay here and wait. My agents draw near," the voice assures the group before silence reigns in the chamber.
"Boy with boy, girl with girl." Isolde declares, readying her rifle, "Just pick side. We should have been thinking about this days ago, not come here being briefed now."
Elora has a map more and more depicting a complex network of caves with expansive caverns. Much of it is left hazy.
"Well, anyone can really, the rever-" William begins to say to Isolde, but stops mid sentence, starting to breath a bit more heavily as the temperature rises, picking at the neck of his clothes as he listens to, pressumably, the Eidolon itself, quieting himself as they talk. He then looks towards Elora, shaking his head "How are going to hide now? The thing is watching us- And I pressume it has ways to contact his followers... Can we even escape the gaze of an Eidolon?"
Isolde says "Ehh? Why are you thinking about it?"
"We are not splitting up. Two against six twice over is just a quick death waiting to happen. We have allies in these mountains. We will move between each group, attacking them one by one. Four against three or four against six in four separate fights is much better odds then two against six twice," Elora says, discounting Isolde's suggestion immediately. "We should move now, I think. I had thought to use illusion, but with that dragon here, it is not a safe option. He will just take control of me. Give away my position. We need to attack before he can relay our plans to his agents."
Sam nods, stepping into action near William, grabbing his gun and hunting knife. "Aight, Elora, lead on." He smirks. "Guess we're meeting em head-on, then, ain't we, Bill?"
"OI! Flame-fucker! We's comin' for ya!" He smirks, seemingly quite happy at the prospect of violence.
Elora frees her bow from her back while consulting the map and unless something happens to change course would begin moving to lead the group toward those in the gully.
Plenty of punches to roll with in the future, no doubt. But for the moment, Ingrid gives everyone a nod and says, "Good luck. We'll get ready and path out of here. We'll send a scout before we depart." With that, the researchers get back to what they were working on.
Back outside and at the base of the mountain, anyone without icy magic mastery behind them, feels the sting of frigid temperatures anywhere they have exposed skin. Thankfully, it is not so cold as to be lethal, and the group is about to start getting some exercise to make it to the gully in time, which will majorly combat the cold with added body heat.
The gully is a good fifty feet deep and thirty feet across, a small creek is frozen along the middle of it, barely three feet across. Just enough to slip and fall on it if one were in a hurry. Thankfully, the ground is not covered in snow. Yet.
The team might have a couple of minutes to setup and get ready to ambush the first group that should be arriving soon.
[OOC: Feel free to showstat night vision or show me any light sources. It is night time out here, and visibility would be limited. Along with that, feel free to post any preparations you may be making for the coming ambush. Please use ATTEMPT after your post to show what stat/disciplines you will be using for this. I'll wait till everyone has posted to show results.]
William lets out a sigh as his only response to Sam, instead looking at Elora as he follows behind her, rifle still in hand "If we are not using explosives in the end like the group here asked... We probably want to catch one of the groups before they even arrive at the gully- If those two groups converge, they are one single group twice as big, and we might not be able to act even with the height advantage"
clicks her tongue at the black world beyond. "I have nothing on my person that would help fight in the dark." Isolde remarks with the first upbeat in a rather down evening song. She lies down on the rocks and looks out. "See, like... They are all supers- even if I am poking my head out, they are seeing me."
"I can at least make sure they ain't see as much as we do." Sam smirks, tapping what seems to be a human finger-bone around his neck, held by a silver chain. "I'd need a line of sight on em, though, so maybe it's best if I distract em up close-and-personal, slow em down, make sure they ain't so organized when they do make it to us, yeh?" The jock just sort of spitballs cague ideas, clearly not really letting a lack of combat experience stop him.
"That sounds like a good idea-Sam." Isolde states, folding her arms around herself as she lays prone at elevation.
William gets in position, readying the rifle as he watches the creek, studying it for a moment and the surrounding area, he doesn't really have many means of seeing in darkness, so he seems a bit uncertain about a front confrontation "Maybe they use fire like the dragon? It would make them easy targets... Otherwise- I cannot see in the dark, and Kim can't either... We lose our advatage if we have two people unable to see what they are shooting at"
Isolde says "We don't have time. Pick a direction and be quick about it. William, start shoveling snow on me, don't ask."
Isolde attempts to find some amount of snow to caterpillar under, hoping the heat wave hasn't melted most of it.
Elora speaks in a low voice, "One of the things an illusionist can do is light up a target. It is cold. It is dark. They will not see us well. I will be lighting them up for you to take out. If combat is entered more fully and they understand what is happening then I can provide you with will o wisp lights to see by." She moves about the group as she talks in a low voice and tries her best to help them prepare and remain hidden, selecting a good sight for their ambush. For her part she readies her bow and if possible moves a bit away from the group to form a pincer
Elora says "If it glows? And it is not one of us? Kill it."
Sam nods to William and Isolde. "I'll even the odds on seeing, doncha worry."
Isolde lifts her vest slightly off her shoulders, laying it atop herself like a bullet proof tarp- using the rocky decline to cover her body.
William tries to get a proper hidding spot around, shaking his head slightly and sighing to himself, eyes stuck on the gully "If we were to block the gully... Is there any route nearby they could take to access the caves? Or would they have to retreat to take the same path the other two teams are taking?"
Sam says, dryly, "Who's Aveline?"
William glances towards Elora "It's... Not that easy... Anytimes anything happens it's emotion tied... Not will"
Utilizing the advantages of surprise, arriving first, a quick bit of plotting, the team is ready for when the agents of Gonthorian arrive. Initially, there is not enough light, but soon, one of the four-man team cries out, clutching their head as Sam's magic goes to work on them. That seems to be the signal for Elora to make that target glow enough for William and Isolde to start taking shots at it from the edge, where they are provided some cover from the team on the ground. The first enemy falls under the combined fire before their companions fully realize they are under attack. Soon, the three remaining agents spread out to try to keep from being taken all at once.
But the initial blow greatly diminishes the team's efficacy, and in the seconds following, Elora creates lights for everyone to see, and the group manages to focus fire down each of the remaining combatants in short order, much like shooting fish in a barrel, or asshole lizard agents in a gully.
The bad news is, some of the light and certainly some of the noise is likely to have been seen by the other bands. At least, by the other one near the gully. The group may need to relocate and reset before the next batch of agents arrives. They may have a couple more minutes to do so, or they may only have precious seconds.
While the gully agents may have shot back at the team, the elevation advantage kept everyone safe and unwounded for this round. One set down, three more to go potentially. Smooth sailing if they are all this easy. But plans rarely go that smooth... Especially with an insane red dragon eidolon also somewhere in the mix.
"Eat shit, dragon fucks!" Sam gleefully smirks as blood blinds some of the cultists. He looks up at Elora, and cracks his knuckles. "Just say the word, boss!" The jock breathes in deeply, his nostrils flaring. Seems the man enjoyed that surprise attack... or maybe the emotions radiating from the fallen cultists.
Isolde begins to shake herself from out beneath some of the snow, mostly soaked from the ice. As the lights diminish she looks around through the white sparks of gunfire still littering her eyes, blinking in more-muted blackness. "They probably stupid to push this. We head back and cover trail or base of mountain?"
William slowly rises his body from the ground after they successfully shoot down the entire group, shaking his head at Isolde "There should be another group coming here... And I don't think there'll be much delay, if we are thinking like their side, the ideal is to have them go closely together, or join forces at some point, yes? Not appear an hour later to either meet the same end or do a cleanup"
"Shadow above gully to those who listen. One group was taken out in the gully. The shots were loud. I expect we will soon receive retaliation from a nearby group. No wounds or casualties to report," Elora says into her communicator. "Four enemies down. If you have anyone close enough who can get into the gully without notice consider getting their communicator and spreading confusion in their internal communications. I cannot at present without potentially surrendering higher ground. Shadow, over"
With the central command informed of what had happened, Elora is killing the lights that she had summoned before, casting the world back into a snowy darkness. "We need to reposition a bit away from here, preferably near natural cover. There will be people coming to investigate. We need to move, now," Elora says. She is not waiting for the others as she begins the trek to a different location with natural cover. To her communicator she says, "Do the scouts have an update on the enemy positioning?"
Elora belated adds, "Shadow, over."
"I can shoot from under the ice," Isolde supplies with a shrug.
Isolde says "Well, like- Have inside. Pop out."
Isolde says "Probably not shoot gun in water."
Elora hustles
A brief pause, and Sam slashes his knife across his palm, drawing a rough triangular shape into the snow in blood. He then follows Elora, smirking as he clasps that finger-bone with his free hand, briefly holstering his gun to do so. "Aight, same tactic?" He cracks his knuckles. "Kinna wanna smack in some heads, gonna be real withya."
Isolde purses her lips at the shape in the snow, and continues to move.
Elora looks at the triangle drawn in blood then at Sam.
Elora looks away from Sam continuing on her way. "You may engage in close combat. Attract their attention, if you wish it," Elora lilts out. "The rest of us, we shall support you from cover, as is sensible."
Elora has a grim tone.
Sam just smirks, runes on that focus glowing lightly. "Don't worry 'bout it." He winks.
William follows the tiny Elora, shaking his head at Sam, but not commenting on that regard "We should not take this too lightly... The first team might have gone down easy, but- Well, dragon spirit..." He comments as he glances around the place, in the darkness "What do we do if he possesses someone, or lights our locations on fire?"
"I will see you soon!" Isolde remarks hurriedly, and then hurries off down the path. This time, for her, it's not about elevation. It's not about being next to allies either- only seeing what they spot. She chooses a point with a wide view- that also may stand to put her in some for of view- shoveling snow into her bag and holding it close to her comparably warm chest. She gets it to melt. When she's found the position, she dumps the ice-water over her head- and a faint blue glow later it solidifies over her in an icey sheen, blending with the rocky white landscape.
And it's cold. Extremely cold. Incased in ice after being stuck in snow is a problem for even the most adapted mammals to the cold. The body has a particular system that allows one to freeze- to make mistakes, to fight, and to flight. Isolde saves a final ability to suppress such idiosyncrasies.
Elora likely has a kitsune which has arrived, orange furred and two tailed, it would be sticking close to her for now. Those with more acute senses might see the spirit posessing it, a spirit which would likely look at William constantly, though whether it could see him is another question as the grave cloth wearing girl has nailed out eyes.
Communications with the mountain base come out as only static, as if somewhere, nearby, there is some form of jamming unit piping out noise to block radio communications. That leaves Elora without any additional information to use for the battle she is engaged in, and much like soldiers trapped behind enemy lines with no way to call for rescue, the team finds themselves potentially in a trap of Gonthorian's designs. Three other teams out there have a good idea of where the Knights and Hand member are out on the chilly mountain side. And they likely are being coordinated by an eidolon that can literally see through the eyes of three members of the team as they make their preparations for the next group. While Elora can help everyone stay hidden, the other gully squad slowly comes into view on the correct side of the gully to not give the adventurers that same advantage. Thankfully, there are rocks and such to use for cover instead, but this match is a lot more even.
Unfortunately, the crew coming down the same side of the gully as Elora's side seem to have the ability to see in the dark, whether from supernatural dark vision or night vission goggles. Before the team can really respond to them fire streaks through the air, splashing against whatever cover Isolde has hunkered behind. Molten motes sprinkle down upon her, singing her and her clothing. A split second later, a flash bang goes off and smoke spews across the field between the two parties, obscuring even those with night vision for several seconds thereafter. When the smoke clears, the enemy combatants have all ducked behind their own bits of cover and start peppering the party's position with plentiful sprays of bullets, mostly suppressive fire. Their tactics, their methods, and their actions clearly state their singular goal: They want to pin down Elora's group long enough for their companions to arrive to mop up.
[OOC: Feel free to post your responses/actions for this round, then take a ten minute break, since this is about the middle of the show. Try to be back by 650 Haven time!]
"SON OF A FUCKIN'!" Sam yelps, ducking low to dodge shrapnel, then covering his eyes at the flashbang. He hisses out low, the flash-bang seemingly bothering the jock quite a lot.
Once the shock clears, he lets out a low hiss, dashing forward to try and reach the attackers. While he tries to stay in cover, such a head-first approach is unlikely to be healthy. However, most glancing blows seem to grow shut pretty quick, though he does wince in pain at them. His knife is at the ready, and as he approaches, runes glow angrily on that fingerbone, the jock seemingly aiming to at least cover his approach slightly.
The sound of ice chunks ripping off with bullet fire- whatever blessing the arcana provides as to the efficacy of its durability, is generally discomforting. Being by far the most discernible in the group in her chosen position, but being prone, Isolde very calmly- fear removed by arcana, drops her gun and enters the fetal position with the ballistics vest held out in front of her. She continues to harden it with her cryomancy, blankly blinking at the chance of sudden death.
William seems awfully affected by the flash-bang as well, and the loud impacts here and there seem to be doing something as well even if they don't land on him. For a good couple seconds he seems completely out of it, and even in pain, like there was something bothering him that wasn't outright visually evident.
When he manages to somewhat recover, he takes a deep breath to try and calm down, pressing his back against one of the rocks and remaining there, under coverage for a couple more seconds, showing his head briefly from a side of it for a couple seconds before hiding it again, trying to get an idea of where the attackers are at
Elora summons will o' wisps that cast out white and blue light, sending them up and above the cover of the suppressing enemies fire in order to make it easier for her compansions to see whatis happening.
Elora notices Sam charge.
Elora grimaces as Sam charges and a blue glow resounds from the ruins of her focus shining lightly from within the white material a werewolf's hide in subtle runes carved into it. Illusionists have a talent for confusing enemies and in this moment she directs that to focus enemy attacks heading toward the obvious target for anyone firing now that someone is leaving cover. She directs them to target whichever person in the enemy squad is farthest from the others, hoping to provoke the enemy into picking each other off. In the same breath her hand motions toward the fox beside her and then points to the enemy. The fox yips, then charges out across the battlefield. For her part, she settles in beside the cover and draws an arrow from her quiver as she looks for a suitable target and judges distance to see if she can take anyone out.
Elora would shout out during the ensuing fight, "Its time! Turn on them now."
Elora would ensure that the next attack she fired seemed to come from one within the enemies number turning on their companions.
hears the warble of voice with the tinnitus in her ears. The flash bang and a lack of ear protection for her rifle has created a conflux of being simply deaf. Deaf, and mostly blind aside from the white spots of muzzle flash in her vision, Isolde continues to fetal.
Spread apart like a triangle, Gonthorian's agents try to pull everyone's attention to separate quadrants of their vision. But one of the shooters is a little further from the other two, and Elora lights him up in order to receive focus fire from William and Isolde whenever they can take a shot. Elora's arrow manages to get there just before Sam, though it deflects off the rocky terrain. When Sam arrives, the fight is quick, and over mere seconds later. But it leaves Sam open to fire from the farthest combatant, the one that originally splashed Isolde. This gout of fire is a long, thick lance directed at Sam. On impact against the rock beside him, it explodes like a grenade, showering the area on sparks and embers. The pyromancer's companion suddenly turns and shoots at him, and the pyromancer gets knocked down behind the rock. Elora's minion throws some ice toward the pyromancer, but the rock mostly blocks it.
From out of nowhere, a scout flops onto the ground beside Elora and starts taking pot shots at the other shooter while they are still exposed. "Gonthorian is inside Ingrid in the chamber. Three others and Kristoff are dead already," the scout reports, continuing singular shots with the bolt action rifle.
In the darkness around the gully, hollow laughter rings out in the air.
Once everyone has recovered from the flash bang though, the two remaining agents offer little resistance to the team. Aside from some singed spots on clothes and a few minor burns though, the team seems to have made it through this part mostly intact. But what about Ingrid and the other researchers? The hatchery? The ritual?
Isolde lies still wondering if the lack of vibrations, the lack of ice spray, means that she's no longer being shot at. It simply doesn't pay to stand up and find out. Her mess of a deployment position is a scattered astroid of ice blue shards, black skid marks from bullets and a long arc of flame. It's as if she came from heaven- yet landed in hell.
"Fucking piece of god damned motherfucking DAMN!" Sam scowls, heavy new-york drawl on his tongue as the rock next to him explodes. He takes a little to regain his footing, ducking behind cover quickly.
"Fuckin ay..." Once the battle is over, the jock stands there, blood littering his face and shoulder, though beyond damage to the fabric, he seems, somehow, mostly okay. He turns to Elora, waiting for orders now as he trudges back to the rest, eyes wary for more enemies.
Isolde's limbs wriggle around.
's black clothing makes it hard to discern any wounds, but red snow might. Rattled, and more than a little war torn, Isolde puts on her vest and looks out.
William looks at Elora, still dizzy and looking out of it, walking towards her while trying to ignore the buzz in his ears "We need to go back... If he's inside, he doesn't need the cultists to arrive- He can kill and destroy the information himself with the body he's hijacked"
Elora tells the scout, "We have taken out both enemy groups moving for the gully. Spread word to the rest of our forces that they can concentrate on other threats."
Elora checks over her forces one by one to ensure they are fine.
Elora nods to William at his comment. "You're right. And if we take the obvious route back, we'll find two enemy groups falling on us in ambush no doubt. Twelve against four is not the odds I want and it is the worst case. If we're facing that, we don't want open terrain like this. The caves would be better."
Elora asks the scout, "Do you know the cultists positioning? Or have you only word of Gonothorian himself?"
Elora apparently has at least some doubt given her request for clarification.
Sam moves over to Kim, and holds up his phone, putting a hand on Isolde's back. The screen reads "Gontharion inside.We're moving, once we know more. Follow Elora." He gives a silent thumbs-up to Isolde, and smiles wryly, tapping his ear and giving an understanding nod.
Elora brushes some stray black wig hair from her face as the lights begin to die in the area as her wisps vanish casting the world into a cool darkness once more.
Isolde nods slowly. She picks up her gun barrel-first and then gives a single deadpan peace sign.
William turns his head towards Elora "I am taking Eidolons possess in a different way than ghosts? There's no banishing him from the body, right?"
Elora tries to recall whether she could banish an eidolon posessing someone with a ritual like she would banish a more typical spirit.
Elora makes a nck, nck noise and orders her kitsune to fall in.
"Gonthorian was in the research chamber, using Ingrid as a puppet," the scout repeats. The scout shakes their head slowly and then gestures to the west and a little south. "Group A is almost to the cave. Group B is still further out to the west. We're closing off as many of the routes to the chamber as we can, and trapping the rest. Stick to the main path," the scout explains to Elora, but then they head back into the field as fast as their feet can carry them before jumping nearly a hundred feet into the nearest bit of cover to continue back to the cave to continue preparations against the invading agents.
After the scout is out of sight, the rest of the team can head off toward where ever they want to go. If they head for the cave directly, they will likely encounter Group A, which could get reinforcements from Group B during the fight. If they delay, Group A may be in the cave before they arrive. If they deviate a little, they could potentially pinch Group A between traps and get into close quarters. If they are quick about that last option, they could get into the safety of the cave and lure Group B in for the last fight while still trying to reach Gonthorian and Ingrid.
Eidolon possession is -exactly- like ghost possession, except eidolons do not run out of energy usually. They can haunt for days without slowing down. And take direct motor control for short bursts. So it is likely that Ingrid's hands were used to kill the four people thus far eliminated in the research chamber.
Sam looks to Elora, tilting his head aside. "If ya ask me, it's head-first into em, head to the Dragon as soon as we can, cut the head offa the snake."
A shake of his head, then. "I ain't the boss here, though, so I'll follow yer lead."
Isolde says "MMMMmmmm*mop*. "
Isolde continues make bilabial plosives with her lips.
"He likely won't let me get a banishing off, but those hurt and they're fast, even if it will cost me dearly," Elora explains to William. "Fall in people. We need to get back and stop Gonothorian from destroying the research notes if we can. "Move quickly. Every moment we delay is another moment in which they may find and destroy what we are here to protect."
Elora is a creature of ambush rather than direct attack. She would favor such and so would favor the last option -- getting in close, in the hope of potentially setting a trap. "We need to deal with the groups while they are still split up. Four small skirmishes, so we are not outnumbered." As she moves she asks the group. "How do each of you feel in a meelle is it a realistic option? Isolde I doubt your capabilities in this. I am asking more for William and Sam. If you two do not feel comfortable up close we ought not to go with this idea.""
[Fixed formatting] "He likely won't let me get a banishing off, but those hurt and they're fast, even if it will cost me dearly," Elora explains to William. "Fall in people. We need to get back and stop Gonothorian from destroying the research notes if we can. Move quickly. Every moment we delay is another moment in which they may find and destroy what we are here to protect."
Elora is a creature of ambush rather than direct attack. She would favor such and so would favor the last option -- getting in close, in the hope of potentially setting a trap. "We need to deal with the groups while they are still split up. Four small skirmishes, so we are not outnumbered." As she moves she asks the group. "How do each of you feel in a meelle is it a realistic option? Isolde I doubt your capabilities in this. I am asking more for William and Sam. If you two do not feel comfortable up close we ought not to go with this idea."
Isolde has no response as she stumbles after Elora.
Sam grins, lifting his bloodied knife. "I just ran into a hail of bullets, just ta avoid using my gun. I'm good. I go abouts... near toe-to-to with Novel on a good day." He shrugs. "My magic also favors up close and personal, so really? Melee, yes please." He grins cockily, though his eyes are dead serious. "I could help with the banishing, but I think our magics are not too compatible, so Ill trust ya know whatcha doing."
William sighs, nodding as he closes the gap between himself and Elora, almost expecting her to depart at any moment "I can do it... It'll be better if I can get visual- Yeah, I can do it" He simply resumes, not wanting to explain every bit of the process "I still think we should banish it... We are here, I think the four of us can cast- And we stop him from doing whatever he's doing with the information to destroy him"
"Brother, do not even feign interest in this casting. A banishing like this would kill you instantly were you to attempt it," Elora says, voice lilting out as she covers ground with speed, her fox trotting after her.
Sam says, simply enough, "Sure thing. Just tell me where ya want me. "
Most days, Isolde has trouble standing up straight for long periods of time without falling over. Long bouts of anemia, frequent bike crashes, and dream dancing have produced a creature that, as it jogs through the snow, frequently cramps up and falls over.
The recent warfare might have something to do with the sudden lack of energy, but who can say? Not Isolde, intelligibly anyhow.
"William? Support Isolde," Elora orders, if at any point Isolde appears to be slowing the group down, which, apparently she is.
Isolde, statistically, probably is.
Hauling ass back toward the cave, in spite of Isolde's limitations, the team manages to get there before Group A gets to the cave. Perhaps they ran into trouble. Perhaps they regrouped with Group B to give themselves a fighting chance. Maybe they wanted to do the pincer technique to the Knight-Hand party in the close quarters of the cave. Regardless, the team has another choice to make: Wait/Ambush Group A and possibly B, or plunge back into the caves beneath the mountain to try to rescue the research team and the ritual notes to get rid of the troublesome eidolon.
Those more familiar with Gonthorian might recognize some degree of desperation in this scenario. Previously, he acted aloof, above the efforts of the 'ants' scurrying about beneath his notice. But in the research base, he is acting, directly, surely as an acknowledgment of just how close the Knights are getting to ending his existence. Could it be the eidolon has finally felt fear over his tenuous existence? Or is he merely raging and lashing out as best he is able?
What other surprises might the evil red dragon eidolon have in store for the group before they manage to get back? How many bodies will be on the floor?
William glances at Isolde for a moment, letting out a sigh and moving over to Isolde, placing one of her arms over his shoulder and trying to prop her upwards a little to have her at least catch up a little bit "Tag the two sick people together..." He mutters more to himself than to Elora
But as they reach the cave, he looks around, confused, squinting his eyes slightly "There's no one here... Nor signs of people... Shouldn't they be already around here? Do you think they are hiding like we did- Two quick shots as we enter the caves and we are out"
Sam trudges along, quiet as he looks to Elora for direction. He checks his gun, the magazine, unused, still firmly in place. He then cleans his knife off on his armor, eyes darting into the darkness that William and Isolde can't see. Not a word out of the jock as he twists that runed fingerbone around his neck slowly between two fingers.
Isolde texts and displays as she leans heavily on William, .CAN ANYONE STEP THROUG.H THEIR SHADOW TONIGHT?
Sam says "Eh? "
Isolde feels a faint vibration through William's body. That's probably a sound. .IF SOMEONE CAN, MAYBE GRAB .SOMEONE OR SOMETHING LATER?
"We need the research protected and that means we need to go after Gonothorian," Elora lilts out.
"Brother? Use your blood to write beware land mines on the wall," Elora calls to William, gesturing to the blood splatter on him and then the cave wall.
Sam looks to William. "Ey, switch." He nods to Isolde, then to his back, trying best to convey to Isolde with charades to get onto his back as William might need his hands free.
Isolde pats William's shoulder in what may be a sisterly gesture, wherein her understands that, and then limps off to Sam.
William glances down at himself, groaning a little bit before, actually moving to the wall as he lets go off Isolde, tainting his fingers with the blood that was still on his body and writting the message as best he can. The drawing leaves a lot to wish for, the blood not being the easiest substance to write with, sometimes not having enough to paint with, others just drying too fast, or having the cold have it harden too fast, though, eventually, he manages to scribble something in the wall that resembles that message good enough
Isolde, in the lull, attempts to stretch her legs. The movement isn't accomplishing what she seeks it to. It's the lethargy that continues to cause the cramps, not a lack of post-workout. She makes a slight voicebox punching noise as she's picked up.
Sam squats down, then hoists Isolde up onto his back. He seems not too bothered by her weight, and shifts some to adjust Isolde, not unlike one would adjust a backpack. He nods at her, flashing a thumbs-up, realizing that words really are not that useful right now.
Cave option it is. With a lovely warning message for the incoming groups. The team funnels down into the caverns and, sticking to the main path as the scout suggested, manages to come into the main research chamber once more before any other skirmishes find them. Just as the step over the threshold however, they hear gunfire in the caves behind them. The only way out is through.
The chamber has changed considerably since the hour or so ago when the group was last in there. Almost everything is on fire. Including five or six bodies scattered around the floor at either end where openings lead in and out of the chamber. Kristoff's body has been impaled on a stalactite, scorched and dripping blood onto the central table. Almost all of the books, tomes, and other written works have been cast into the floor, smoldering or burnt. The air is thick with heat, smoke, and ash.
Ingrid stands above the forms of Jorgen and Ragnar, laughing her maniacal ass off, but with a deep, gravelly voice that is not actually hers. When she notices the group, she turns to face them. Fire is summoned into both of her hands, and she is just about to incinerate one of them when her body twitches and jerks to a stop. "Be quick," Ingrid says in her actual avoid. And then her shadow forms up to collapse around her, whisking her, and Gonthorian away to somewhere else. The team has a few minutes to try to make heads or tails of the scene, but Ingrid has done her level best to take herself and Gonthorian out of the situation. He can get back to the group any second now though, unless she does something incredibly stupid...
Ingid says in her actual VOICE.
Isolde serves as a cold wet rag with a rifle, at this point. Consciousness sits in her eyes- where else could it go- but the haze of exhaustion sits in as the adrenaline diminishes from a lack of stimulus and overuse of cryomancy that stills her heartbeat.
Isolde considers, briefly, the repercussions of shooting Ingrid.
Sam nods to Elora as he places Isolde down somewhere relatively save. "All right, walk me through it." He speaks, looking to Elora. "I'll try an' stick to gate magic, yeh? Less offensive to you, and likely better suited for bootin' the asshole back to wherever he belongs."
"Are we destroying or banishing?" He speaks, walking around the chamber, trying to discern if the team had gotten started on any of the complex magics to banish the Dragon yet.
"Isolde," Elora says, taking in the flames. "Put the fires out. That is your life from now until you collapse. The rest of you, figure out what is worth saving and save it," Elora orders.
Isolde shows a message to Sam.
Sam says, with a nod of the head to the message, "The hatchery, Elora? Kim's saying we should safe that."
William seems to weaken as well when entering into the now more than warm caves, coughing a couple times before covering his mouth to try and avoid the floating ashes. His eyes look around the burning books, if Ingrid had given them a chance, whatever they had to find was still around "We are not banishing nor destroying she said... Cost our lifes and all... We need to figure out what to take out of here"
Isolde's hair bracelet displays the Wiccan Cobalt, and mancing begins to affect the area.
William glances around the place, trying to find any tomes or documents that haven't been consumed by the flames, or any secret hidding spots in which someone might have put something in for safety- Anything really that screams important and might not be already ruined by the Eidolon
Elora is doing much the same as William.
"Is host destruction acceptable, if banishing fails?" Sam stops his rifling, and starts etching a rough circle into the cave ground, shaped much like an ourobouros: A snake that bites it's own tail. "As a last resort." He nods his head, slitting his palm again, to allow some blood to trickle into that impromptu binding circle. "Aight."
"If it comes to that," Elora states. "I will kill you all."
Elora belatedly adds, "Sorry."
YOU SHOULD LEAVE IF HE'S GOING TO POSSESS YOU. LET HIM POSSESS ME OR SOMETHING Isolde types, whining.
Elora has a fox that adds a happy yip.
Sam says, without a pause, "Likewise. I ain't attached much to y'all, full disclosure. "
William nods, as he continues searching around "Pretty much- No, you cannot kill us all, she can"
Ripples of arcane energy flood research chamber, followed by an earth-rattling howl of pain that vibrates up through the entire mountain. And then, the malevolent presence of the dragon eidolon is gone. Or perhaps contained. Or perhaps ... Ingrid went the extra mile to try to shred Gonthorian herself. There is, very likely, another body somewhere in the research base. One spent to give the team enough time to get what they need and get gone.
As the team focuses on putting out the fires, Ragnar and Jorgen start to wake up. After they realize what is happening, they scramble to try to college what notes they can, frantic to try to capture as much of the information as they can to send back. Sam and William manage to find several books only lightly singed and charred beneath piles of other things. Elora scores several parchments that managed to avoid being destroyed under the table. Ragnar and Jorgen collect everything they can together on the table and start stuffing the useful bits into a pack. They are far less careful now, under duress, than they might have been before. Toward the entrance of the cave, the gunfire has ceased. Any moment now, Group A or B, or both, could show up.
With as many of the resources collected as they can, Jorgen and Ragnar hand over several bags worth of materials. Enough to still require days of research to piece it back together. But Ragnar pulls out a thumb drive that he takes from inside one of the stones of the fireplace. He hands that to Elora. "That's everything we had out here and Ingrid's notes. Go, before they get here," he tells Elora, giving her a nod. Then he turns away and stalks toward the back entrance of the chamber. The visually astute would notice tears in his eyes. Jorgen nods and follows Ragnar with a similar look on his features. They know the score. And half their team died tonight for the chance to rid the world of an angry fire dragon.
The team prepares to leave and manages to get out just before the remaining Gonthorian forces flood into the chamber. The path back to Haven is surely solemn and bittersweet. [OOC: That brings us to the end. Give me a few minutes to do some administrative tasks to finish up. If anyone has any rewards they may want via help plot awards, let me know.]