RP One Shots

[Philote]

Your growing party of three travels through and escapes the gardens, heading out into the city beyond. Riven, while you do not get the chance to use your remarkable bowman-ship skills in the garden, none of you end up being alone once the garden is left. Elves of both sides face off all over the streets. The white and gold banners of Hiranel's men clash against the bronze and brown banners of the unknown rebelling faction. Through the collective knowledge of the group, you know that the mausoleum lies outside the city and that going through either the wood or water gates, or going over the wall itself are your options for reaching it.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

"I say we head for the water gates. We're less likely to get ambushed then going through the woods, and someone would be able to see us getting over the wall."

[Marvelous Miscreant]

"I agree, its best we stay out of sight as much as possible."

[Philote]

The three of you angle off to the north west, setting a path to lead you to the Water gate. Between you and the gate, however, is a city filled to the brim with war. Hiranel's forces still maintain formation and defend the small sections of the city that they have control of, but these are becoming scarce and divided as the invaders run them over. Most of the city has been evacuated where the fighting is heavily concentrated, but rarely you will see elves retreating behind friendly lines or fleeing from one burning house to hide in another. Between the remaining peasants and the soldiers, there are many that are in peril should you choose to take the time to help them. First though, before any heroics can be enacted, a troop of twenty, waving their banner boldy, sets their sights on your small troop and aim to add some more heads to their list of slain enemies.

[Ericus Europaeus (Bug)]

CONTENTS DELETED

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[Gentleman Vaultboy]

Hiram narrows his eyes upon seeing their banner, something unlike the regular banner of the rebellion he'd seen so often while sneaking into the city. A skull. The right side of the skull was typical, not many humanoids had skull structures that differed very much. But the left side... a single horn protruded from the top of the head, the teeth became sharp canines, and what should have been the empty black socket of the eye burned red.

The Legion, they called themselves. Just the Legion. Another mercenary company, and the scum of the earth according to most of the others. Siege experts, infamous for the lengths they would go to break a city and the swaths of brutality once they had. Founded by a Diabolist name Archibald Faust, it's said that all men of the Legion form a pact with a demon to increase their power. After being on the losing side of a few of their sieges, Hiram believed it.

If Faust was in the city, that meant it was more important than ever he get this ring away from it and out of his hands. He takes the halfling that was under his arm, put her on her suitcase that was under his other one, puts her on it, and throws them up into the air. Then he draws steel and charges. Some of the men in front seem monetarily distracted by something, clutching at their necks. He charges there, looking to break their formation.

[Philote]

(Bug: it's alright, you are all supposed to be pretty strong)

The forefront of the charging force falls over gacking and holding their necks, allowing Hiram to rush into the heart of the enemy forces and show them why he was known as the one and only Fighter.  The legionaries circle around Hiram, allowing the others to have some freedom to act as he held their attention. All is going well as Hiram deflects and returns blow after blow until one blade slips slightly further through Hiram's defenses. No blood is drawn, but as some of Hiram's clothes are torn, a quiet ringing can be heard as The Ring of King bounces across the street.

[Ericus Europaeus (Bug)]

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[Zaleramancer]

This was entirely too much. Carted around like a sack of potatoes and now people trying to stab each other.

This-This-

Jelia caught sight of the banner and broke into what, for lack of a better word, could be called a smile. She looked down at herself, then said three words and clapped her hands.

The thunderous sound echoed across the battlefield- though it ended curiously once it passed the last warrior in sight.

Where Jelia had once hovered, there now stood a woman in black.

She stood at least seven feet tall and wore robes so black that they seemed to eat light itself. A voluminous cloak billowed dramatically behind her, and she held a black staff with a horned skull on the end.

Fools! She said in a voice that echoed to every ear, You dare block MY path? I SHALL SHOW YOU THE ERROR OF YOUR WAYS!

She raised her staff into the air with both hands and shouted DOCTOR FAUST'S DEMONIC CONJURATION!

Ominious chanting filled the air. The smell of ozone began to rise as blue lighting crackled from the woman. The earth shook slightly as a crack opened in the midst of the battlefield. Green fire erupted from it, and a burst of heat danced across the senses of those near it.

Then, from the pit, came a terrible howl- a sound more unsettling than a bag of angry cats. It was like the sound you imagine a monster from your childhood would make, brought to life just to hunt you again.

And then the woman began to laugh. It was a not a happy chuckle or even a cackle. It was the deep laugh of someone who'd hit insanity so hard that there'd been cracks.

A bad wizard was never really that bad, because that just meant they were terribly selfish. You could trust a bad wizard to not do anything to stupid, because they'd be the first ones to suffer.

But a mad wizard was far, far worse. Because a mad wizard would do things without any regard for their own safety. Like summoning demons without making sure they could control them.

And this woman sounded nuttier than a tree full of squirrels.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

Hiram fights in the middle of the group, unharmed. It didn't look like he was on the defensive. In fact, it didn't even look like he was trying to dodge. It was just that, wherever an enemy thrust their spear, Hiram was not there anymore. As though, in moving forward to exploit a weakness in defense or momentary lapse of attention, he was by coincidence avoiding the enemy strikes.
It was like watching water fill a container, shifting its shape to accommodate a vase, a cup, a twisting tube. He simply filled the space that they left for him.

It wasn't even all contiguous on his part. He was almost acting on autopilot. Moving this way had become second nature for the man. Such was a technique born of experience, which no talent or borrowed power would ever be able to match.

Yet still he was aware, had felt the tip of a spear slide through his bag, heard the precious cargo he carried bounce away along the cobblestones. But going after it now would only do two things: Alert the Legion to its importance and break the flow of his technique. So the silver sword flash onward, cutting one man after the other. There would be plenty of time to retrieve it when all these men were dead. No one would be stupid enough to try and retrieve it now. It was safe, perhaps safe at this moment then when he had been carrying it.

Soon he was joined by another, striking down two of the group and cutting his way into the center. Hiram flowed around him, making room. Cicero, he thought. The kings thief. Took him long enough.

He was about to tell him how foolish it was for him to break into the middle of a melee when he heard her voice. He got a momentary glance in, caught only black billowing in the breeze. She said that name, there was an awful sound, and the ground began to crack. He grabbed Cicero and pulled him back, away from the unnatural distortion in the earth.

He heard a sharp metallic tinkling, his eyes winded and swiveled toward the ring. He was just in time to watch, in horror, as it tumbled off the edge of the crevasse and disappear into the earth.

[Ericus Europaeus (Bug)]

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[Zaleramancer]

The air next to Cicero seemed to whisper in a suspiciously familiar voice, "Shush! Let's vamoose while they're distracted."

[Philote]

The demon rises, a horrible mass of flesh and drooping tentacles still smoldering with green flames from its journey into the world, and with it, the ring returns, wrapped around a tentacle hanging from the creature's face. It turns and points towards Jelia, attempting to remove any chance that it might be sent back to where it came. Thousands of wisps of light begin to circle around the Ring of Kings like a field of traveling stars as the demon wishes for Jelia to be gone. Then something goes wrong, the wisps of light vanish, the sky turns dark, one of the stars above brightens and then vanishes, and a rush of chaotic energy is released. Jelia is weakened, but far from being banished as the demon intended. A stranger effect occurs simultaneously though as all throughout the city, products made of gold begin to heat and melt, running through the street like flowing gold rivers. With Jelia momentarily collapsed, the demon turns its attention back to the fighting and advances forward. The legion stops its fighting as well, knowing enough about demons to know that there was a common enemy to fight before the war could continue.

[Ericus Europaeus (Bug)]

CONTENTS DELETED

The author has deleted this message.

[Zaleramancer]

Well, this was starting to get scary.

Illusions that weren't doing what they were supposed to be doing usually were.

It wasn't the scary tentacled million-toothed demon or the fact that it had smote down her illusionary summoner, no that was supposed to happen. Scary wizard summons demon that turns on them and then goes berserk- that was the pattern it was supposed to follow.

The light show was not something she'd put into the illusion, nor was the shiny ring around the demons.. tentacles..

And an illusion going rogue was something that any properly trained illusionist feared. Oh, yes, some people said how could it be that bad, it's not like it can hurt anyone.

They're right, of course, an illusionary sword can't actually harm you- but it can make you think it did. The pain and shock and apparent bleeding would seem just as real as if you'd actually been stabbed, but once the spell ended you'd be fine.

Usually fine. A memory of one of her first lessons drifted into her memory, the story of Hemwald the Brown, who'd conjured an illusion of a demon to fight his foes. Oh, and it'd worked. The illusion had been so real that people actually died, their bodies so convinced they were dead that they stopped.

And then the illusion had turned on Hemwald. They never did find out how he ended up in so many pieces.

Oh poppysleep this was bad.

But her demon was hardly even phantasmal- the worst it'd ever been made to do was inflict migraines. Jelia snatched from her pocket a smooth stone covered in blue runes and held it to her forehead. The words to a spell left her mouth in a whisper.

Slacktady's Quixotic Vision!

Her vision blurred and then became more clear. Her eyes glowed with blue light, breaking through her invisibility spell to show as two glowing blue orbs about three feet off the ground.  

She could see the lines of power within the illusion. They glowed with blue-green fire, burning with more intensity than they should. Then she looked downwards and was almost blinded. There was something on the ground below the image of the demon that shone with dazzling light. Whatever was on the ground was leaking power into the illusion. Then she noticed the ghostly pearl-white energy that was flowing from the light.

The demon was rapidly becoming much more real.

Oh missed breakfasts.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

"Cicero!" Hiram calls after the man, looking up at the beast in front of him. "Tst, trusted thief my ass."

He hefted his sword up in both hands and started waling toward it. "Now then, ugly, you got something that don't belong to you." He charges in, amid the flailing tendrils, headed for the one with the ring on it.

[Philote]

(Due to a combination of my posts and Zale's I am ruling that the real ring is currently on the ground below the demon and that its magic is seeping into the illusion, making it real and thus the image of the ring that the demon is wearing on its tentacles is part of the magic seeping out of the real ring below.)

Hiram deftly charges ahead of the legion and with a resolve born from a man who had conquered every aspect of war, cuts the ring free from the flailing tendril that the demon carried it on. The ring however, does not fall into Hiram's waiting hand but reappears in on yet another of the demon's tendrils, thousands of wisps already forming.

A thick blue glow begins to form along Hiram's skin, magic coating him and trying to seep inside to eat away. As before though, something goes wrong with the casting of the ring and the magic turns, flowing back out to rest of Hiram's skin. Hiram is now invulnerable to any physical attack produced by human, elf, halfling, or dwarf hands. The demon is none of these and it raises a large fleshy fist to smack the fighter away.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

The demons attack ails toward him, slicing through where Hiram was standing. But there's no impact, no human going flying through the air.

Instead there was Hiram running up the creatures arm and screaming as he boosted himself off of it, arm outstretched for the ring.

[Philote]

Hiram grabs the tentacle and hangs from the creature's face but feels only flesh instead of the expected hard metal of the ring.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

Hiram growls and starts chopping at the creatures face, punctuating ever slice with a word screamed to the heavens.

"WHERE! THE! HELL! ARE! YOU! HIDING! IT!?!?!"