NationStates Jolt Archive

Now Closed. All those who have posted, are in.

OOC: Anyone can enter, so long as they don't mind magic, and psionics, and all sorts of other things that science cannot explain, and therefore is normally ignored on the forums, like me.
Keep it reasonable, keep it clean. and have fun.
IC:
------------------------------------------
A castle, night has fallen upon it, and the strange yet beautiful land it was built upon.

A king known by the name Cromyr was in a temple in the tallest tower of his castle. He was beset on all sides by enemies, and despite every effort of peace, was doomed to destruction. Reason could not be found, so in desperation, he turned to something that needed no reason, Chaos.
Up in the tallest tower of his castle, in his private temple, four signs lay on the floor, one devoted to each of the most powerful Chaos gods. Cromyr prayed, and did everything he could think of to get one of them, any of them, to come to his aid, for hours he tried, be he failed to evoke even so much as a no, he was completly ignored. Casting them aside, he sent his pleas blindly into the Warp itself, begging for someone, anyone to come to his aid.

To his joy, before him the Warp opened, and out of it, came a single sign, a skull, split down the middle, one side white, one side black, and it rested on the floor. King Cromyr picked it up and looked at it, who had he raised to answer his plea? Suddenly, the empty sockets burst with light.

In her bedroom, the young Queen Latvia the first lay upon her husbands bed waiting for him to retire for the night. Something in her heart stirred anxiety. She got up, threw on a robe, and went looking for her husband. In their private tower, no one was allowed to enter, but she was sure of her own skill with a mace. She heard a noise around a corner, sounding like a very big wolf growling.

"Who, or what's there? Cromyr, this is a very bad joke, stop it!" Latvia called as she neared the corner. Suddenly, it moved, but what it was she couldn't tell, because already, she was blacking out.

_______________________________________________________

Young Queen Latvia the 23rd was all of nine years old, and knw only a few things. For starters, the past 22 generations of efforts of appeasing the dark force choking their lands was not working.
Secondly, Chancellor Listh'vis was a very creepy man that looked at her in many creepy ways, and never once bothered to listen to any of her ideas.
Third, if she was going to save her kingdom by any means, she was going to have to call on someone from the outside world, someone not yet drained by the ever present forces of Chaos.

So it was that she went to the top of an an old tower where once it was said a large explosion of Raw Chaos energy started the whole mess, and sent out an enchanted peace of paper, letting it fly upon the wind.

Upon it were words written in her prettiest script:

To whom it may concern:
The Kingdom of Itselzier is currently hiring brave individuals to seek out the source of the Chaos that has been plaguing our land.
Benefits include having your name go down in history as our savior, a sack full of gold, and rare treasures that you may or may not find.
Please apply at The Bloar Boar Inn in Itselzier.
Yours,
Queen Latvia the 23rd
P.S. Please don't tell Chancellor Listh'vis.

She knew the innkeeper, he was actually her distant cousin, and they both had the same ideas most of the time.

The letter copied itself multiple times, one flew to the Innkeeper at The Blue Boar Inn, the rest left Itselzier, and drifted upon the tradewinds, randomly falling down here and there, and drifting through Magic Gateways to all sorts of interesting places.

The Bloar Boar Inn was at the very edge of Itselzier, on its southren side, which was the only way to get into the kingdom. The rest of the nation had a habit of eating intruders.

The sign itself contained a picture of a rare itselzian Blue Boar. The boar loooked down the road, and seeing no newcomers, settled down for the night to rest for another long day of frollicing in the sign.
This was just the smallest of Chaos effects.

Inside the inn was a roaring crackling fireplace. A little lion made of flame pounced and played with its brothers and sisters, while its mother prowled around on the logs clawing on the grate looking for a way out.

Chairs sat about dusting themselves off and keeping themselves clean, for the Barkeep had stopped fighting the Chaos magic, and simply employed the chairs. It was cheaper, and less of a hassel. the barkeep himself stood behind the bair, his mugs were all nice and polished, and was expecting his first customers of the night.

OOC: This is where you come in.

With a horrific shriek, a magic portal opened in the middle of the sitting room. The lions looked up and, spooked, ran off into the distance. Slowly, something began to form from the bolts of lightning that emanated from the portal.

The shriek wasn't from the portal, however, it was from the form that materialized. It was almost humanoid, but it had a pair of bat like wings and a tail with a spiked, venomous tip. Its skin was a dark shade of red. If anyone had been close enough to look upon its face, they would have seen small, vestigial horns on its forehead. And it was covered in oozing slime.

It fell upon the floor with a whelp and a gurgle, and stayed there for a while, catching its breath. The carpet that it had landed on was not amused, and wriggled it off onto the hardwood floor next to it--which was also not amused. In fact, the floor didn't stop writhing until it patted the floor softly with its hands, kissed the floor and began thanking the hardwood floor profusely in a horse voice.

"Wow!" it said. "I'm alive! Won't ol' Slaboflab be in a bad mood tonight!"

He was a Red Gargoyle Demon, the Underworld's Intelligent Infantry. Sometimes, they were too intelligent, in fact, and had to be disposed of before their warlords' plans could be turned against them. This particular one, Marvel by name, had served in the Diplomatic corps of a demonic warlord by the name of SmashMouth until the warlord had decided that he knew too much and fed him to the all-consuming maw of another demon named Slaboflab. But Marvel had known SmashMouth too well, and had placed a magic portal right in Slaboflab's gullet. It had brought him here, to the inn, with nothing more than the loincloth that he wore and his skills as a soldier, diplomat and illusionist mage.

As he raised himself up on his arms, a piece of paper casually floated by and landed on the floor in front of him.

It was a good thing that he knew how to read.

------------

OOC: I'm keeping things simple and limiting my character's power because I don't want to have an all-powerful magician godmodding around the thread. HINT.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii50/citationxiv/sealgovernment-heavenlasts.png
_________________________
Official Communiqué

Classification: Restricted
From: Office of the Minister, MEA (UIK/COV)
To: Queen Latvia XXIII of Itselzier
Subject: RE: Chaos Incursion

To Her Majesty, The Queen Latvia XXIII of Itselzier, Greetings and Salutations,

His Serene Majesty's Government is in receipt of your letter, undated, requesting assistance in dealing with otherworldy forces that have taken root in your kingdom.

I regret to inform your Majesty that, due to pressing concerns and commitments in other areas, His Serene Majesty's Government is unable to directly lend any resources or commit to offering any direct assistance to your nation to resolve the issue at this point in time.

However, I assure your Majesty that we shall monitor your progress most carefully, and are confident that this matter will be resolved in the near future.

Kind regards,

[signed]

The Lady Justina Valdir
His Serene Majesty's Pan-Imperial Minister for External Affairs
United Imperial Kingdoms of Macisikan
(acting on behalf of the Covenant)


*****

The message, dropped into a fractal rift, would take its time to wind its way back between the worlds to the sender... but find her it would.

Aradia Victrix (http://www.atddm.com/victrix1a.jpg) had stayed away from the fish that had been the dinner at the previous nights inn. She never trusted fish anymore - alive or dead. So she knew she wasn't having hallucinations when a tattered piece of paper floated sirectly, and seemingly deliberately, down into her lap - she had been taking a well earned afternoon nap in the secluded glade while Shadow Sun, her equine companion grazed on the sweetly scented clover that filled the clearing. Bumble bees, heavy with pollen, droned here and there, just as lazily as she felt. Tasman (http://www.atddm.com/caracal2.jpg) her fyrecat familiar - well he wasn't exactly a familiar, being a sentient being in his own right - was so deeply asleep that when a brilliantly hued butterfly landed on his nose he never even twitched.

Further she knew a Summons when one opened a gate not ten feet infront of her. Well, she'd been wondering what she'd be sent to deal with next.

No Shri'vraen - a Warrior Adept - a Battle Mage - got to rest on the laurels from their last predicament long, and as just about the youngest one around, Aradia tended to get sent on more missions than most. Though she was only two decades over a hundred she was fully 'tested, trialed, and tattooed' and had proven herself to the Order no few times over.

"Upwards and onwards, we're being sent somewhere..." Aradia stood and shrugged a bit, to settle her soft leather armor comfortabley about her. Tasman stretched and shook his rich cinnamon hued fur into place, then trotted over to the Portal and took a look though. "City, don't recognise it, but I smell Chaos."

"It's the right place then" Shadow Sun agreed, though his mind voice was surly And that means me staying in a stable with probabaly stale oats he grumbled as Aradia gave him a quick grooming and threw her saddle on and cinched it up. Then her saddle bags and bedroll followed. Most of her possessions were tucked in a square of depthless ebony in an inner pouch of her belt, so all she had left to grab up were her Shr'iSword (http://www.atddm.com/shari.jpg), Crystal pistols (http://www.atddm.com/mmp1.jpg), other weapons and mount up.

Tasman had disappearted though the Gate and Shadow Sun snatched one last mouthfull of the rich clover and ambled though. No elfhorse would deign to wear a bridle, no knowedgeable rider would risk their life trying to put one on an Elfhorse. but he did enjoy a hackamore adormed with tassels and matching tomed bells . In bronze and gold thank you. They stood out better than silver did.

Aradia read the note as she rode and when they had finished passing though the Gate and it had disappeared behind them, looked at the city and blinked. "Oh yes I think that Chaos indeed has a toe hold here." She commented as she watched a cobblestone pick a passersby's pocket. Looking about she noted the Blue Boar asleep on it's sign and looked again at the note. Thats our initial destination" she told Tasman and Shadow Sun.

El'Hilth was clairvointly watching over a local crith's treasury, trying to root out the cause of unacoutned for losses, he found a human in the room taking some cinnabar. He alearted the crith's guards to the humans actions and told the crith that he had found the thief, when the thief was brought before them the siafu guards had already taken all the human's belongings. There was the cinnabar ofcorse, a knife, some moldy bread, crude lock picks, and a peice of paper with some writen in the human language.

El'Hilth took the peice of paper hoping to find out if the human had some good reason for stealing from the crith's treasury. After reading that it contained no propable cause he confrunted the theif, and found that the theif could not even read. The crith thanked El'Hilth, payed him, and with the thief captured his job was complete.

The next day El'Hilth along with his Werneri bodyguard Drulk set out into the capitial of the crith'jal, he chose to fallow up on the note he had taken from the thief. He came to the shop of the most well known Threadradon healer he could find.
"What is it that you require from me." The healer asked as El'Hilth and Drulk came into the shop.
"I am a powerful mind mage, do you think we can get a teleport."
"Teleportations are dificult to say the least, can I assume you can create an astral projection."
"You can, can I assume you can link life threads together and to a astral projection."
"You can, but it won't come cheap."
"I can pay." El'Hilth took out four pounds of cinnabar wraped in silk, almost all of his payment from the crith and put it on a table. "Four pounds of cinnabar and two square yards of silk payment satisfactory."

The healer said nothing, they both knew what to do, El'Hilth created an astral projection in the shop, the healer tied the mantid and the Werneri's life threads to the projection, El'Hilth sent his astral projecetion to the inn and a second later their bodies fallowed.

OOC: Kath'Jal factbook - http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?p=12750625

Dastardly Stench;13399768']~snip~
The barkeep looked visably shaken to see a Gargoyle of any kind appear in such a manner in his Inn.

"Umm, that is to say uh, What I mean is, is, welcome?" the barkeep said nervously. He had always fancied himself a brave man, but when push came to shove, he was actually a coward. He appeared to be all of 15 years old, and was developing quite nicely into manhood.

"I'm not sure what to offer a Gargoyle customer, I've, never had one. What do Gargoyles drink?" The Barkeep said, hoping the Gargoyle was not here to eat him.

~snip~

Chancellor Listh'vis scowled as the offical letterhead pryed itself off the paper and ran off with the ball point pen. Taking out an old fashione Quill pen and inkwell, he penned a reply.

On behalf of her majesty, I assure you we have the situation well in hand, and are just as confident that this situation will be resolved within the next six months.

Yours,
Chancellor Listh'vis.

It was quick, it was simply, and it did not inform anyone how enraged he was that the Queen had acted without him.
He would wait until later, then he would deal with her.

~snip~
Outside, no one bothered the newcomer, each person heading to their homes, before it got too dark. The barkeep could see her from where he was, as one end of the bar was aligned with the front door. He hoped frevently she would come inside, then he wouldn't be alone with the terrifying creature that had just appeared out of a screaming vortex of things he really didn't want to know more about.

~snip~

As the giant insectoids appeared, The barkeep poured himself a tall shot of whiskey and downed it in one shot.
"Are you with this, this horror from someone's nightmare? Maybe even offer you a drink?" the barkeeper said.

Then, moments later, the room shook slightly as a young lady appeared. She had a glowing Aura visible to anyone and everyone that looked at her, so clearly she was a Warhaven Magekiller, but, she was so diffrent from their classic personna. For one, her Aura radiated like a beacon of light. Her hair was blond, her eyes were green, she was very pretty, and her smile made her all the more pretty.

"Hiiiiiii!" She said in a friendly tone waving her hand at everyone. Most magekillers whispered, she talked normally. Most inspired fear, but she inspired courage.
"I'm Maggie, of the Clans of Destrudo. I found this strange piece of paper asking for help and it said I should go here, anyone know what's up?" Maggie asked. She was dressed in tight fighting leathers, white leathers, that ended in a skirt that only went half-way to her knees. Thigh high Stockings adorned her legs, and they were black, she wore boots that were as white as her clothes. Her leather top was sleevless, but she wore gloves that went most of the way up her arm, made out of more leather.

The Barkeep, bolstered by her inspiring Aura, straightened out his posture, and seemed a little more sure of himself.
"why yes, I do know more. At least I know somethings. What did you want to know?" he asked.
He cracked his knuckles, and poured Maggie a glass of milk.
"My name is John by the way, its a pleasure to meet you." he said.

OOC: If your refferring to the Magi-masters, they became one with Omni, and are refferred to only in a historical sense. Maggie is by no means my most powerful Magekiller, but is an experiment. I needed a way to assist ICly without being too obvious about what to do, the concept of her just seemed to go hand in hand. If it succeeds, I'm going to make the Destrudo family branch and segment and develop differing clans, each with their own specialty.

Where there is Order, Chaos is always only a moment away...Where there is Chaos, order is always bloodly enforced.
-The lost words of Neitze

For one moment there was nothing but air...a moment later there was a door...a door in the middle of emptyness with a rather large carved dragon's head above it...the door opened reavling a blinding light...then the door closed...then the door was gone.

But there was someone there now. A figure in a white cloak who was wiping snow off of her hat and trying to shake it from her backpack. She was looking down the road away from the inn. She paused and scratched her head then turned to look back up towards it and shrugged.

She turned and strolled up to the Blue Boar and tred inside, snow still clinging to her coat and the scarf she wore over her mouth.

She began to unwrap her mouth and stated in a dry accent, "Barkeep I need something strong..." She dumped the wet scarf on the bar as she did so.

Where there is Order, Chaos is always only a moment away...Where there is Chaos, order is always bloodly enforced.
-The lost words of Neitze

For one moment there was nothing but air...a moment later there was a door...a door in the middle of emptyness with a rather large carved dragon's head above it...the door opened reavling a blinding light...then the door closed...then the door was gone.

But there was someone there now. A figure in a white cloak who was wiping snow off of her hat and trying to shake it from her backpack. She was looking down the road away from the inn. She paused and scratched her head then turned to look back up towards it and shrugged.

She turned and strolled up to the Blue Boar and tred inside, snow still clinging to her coat and the scarf she wore over her mouth.

She began to unwrap her mouth and stated in a dry accent, "Barkeep I need something strong..." She dumped the wet scarf on the bar as she did so.

The barkeep nodded, and poured her a pint of Dwarven Ale. the face on the pint hiccoughed occasionally, it was not good at holding liquor.

Maggie sat next to the newest newcomer.

"Hii!' she said in her usual bright cheery manner.
"Are you here about the strange paper too?" she asked, still waiting to be told more about it.

The barkeep nodded, and poured her a pint of Dwarven Ale. the face on the pint hiccoughed occasionally, it was not good at holding liquor.

Maggie sat next to the newest newcomer.

"Hii!' she said in her usual bright cheery manner.
"Are you here about the strange paper too?" she asked, still waiting to be told more about it.

The young woman continued to drop off her cold weather gear...gloves droping on the bar as her eyes looked at the mug that was apparently consuming her ale.

As she picked it up Maggie pipped up. The woman took a sip while she tried to judge her new 'friend'. After downing most of the ale in a long sip she put down the mug and turned to Maggie with an open questioning gaze "You mean the one for the all girl orgie? She turned her head and looked around the room with her green eyes, the pony tail of her hair dropping snow puddles on the bar "You mean that is here?"

She paused for a second and then whispered in a conspiritorial manner "Is the gargoyle here just to watch or is she in on it too?"

The young woman continued to drop off her cold weather gear...gloves droping on the bar as her eyes looked at the mug that was apparently consuming her ale.

As she picked it up Maggie pipped up. The woman took a sip while she tried to judge her new 'friend'. After downing most of the ale in a long sip she put down the mug and turned to Maggie with an open questioning gaze "You mean the one for the all girl orgie? She turned her head and looked around the room with her green eyes, the pony tail of her hair dropping snow puddles on the bar "You mean that is here?"

She paused for a second and then whispered in a conspiritorial manner "Is the gargoyle here just to watch or is she in on it too?"

"I think that's a he." she whispered just as low, remaining unheard by anyone but the young woman.
"what I was refferring to was this paper that drifted down out of nowhere asking for help from freeing this nation from Chaos, although I must admit All Girl Orgies are fun, especially with my cousins. I'm Maggie, what's your name?" she asked.

John the barkeep meanwhile had disappeared to the back to dig up a book that would help him explain what was going on.

El'Hilth replyed to the bartender "I'll have a glass of wine and a shot of wiskey for myself, and my bodyguard will have a pint of ale." He then realised that he had no cerencty from this place and that if he wished to pay we would need to bater. "I don't have any money per say but I can pay you in cinnabar, worth it's weight in sliver it is."

El'Hilth replyed to the bartender "I'll have a glass of wine and a shot of wiskey for myself, and my bodyguard will have a pint of ale." He then realised that he had no cerencty from this place and that if he wished to pay we would need to bater. "I don't have any money per say but I can pay you in cinnabar, worth it's weight in sliver it is."

"And what pray tell, is Cinnabar?" asked John as he walked out from the back lugging a thick black book with him.

"I think that's a he." she whispered just as low, remaining unheard by anyone but the young woman.
"what I was refferring to was this paper that drifted down out of nowhere asking for help from freeing this nation from Chaos, although I must admit All Girl Orgies are fun, especially with my cousins. I'm Maggie, what's your name?" she asked.

John the barkeep meanwhile had disappeared to the back to dig up a book that would help him explain what was going on.

The young woman scowled when she looked for the barkeep. "Well Maggie, I thought it was the Blue Board in Panama City that was putting that little show on." She paused and smiled at Maggie, bracing her tall frame against the bar. "The name is Kuri and I can say that I have never followed the directions on mysterious pieces of paper that appeared from thin air." She pushed the mug for a moment with one hand.

"So who supposedly sent this note? The International Order Against Chaos? The Brotherhood of Uniformity? The Elks?"

The young woman pulled a rod from under her coat. The wood was dark, and it seemed to shine in a muted rainbow of colors from within the grain. At the far end was a head of a fox in silver holding a red stone. She placed in on the bar and smiled at Maggie.

"But usually such notes are from the people you don't want them to be from at all...So the question is Maggie...Is there really such a thing as a magic note?"

"It's unrefined quick-sliver, quite valuble and safer to handle than then pure quick-sliver, although you would still want to keep it wraped in cloth." Replyed El'Hilth noting a suspicious tone in his voice.

~snip~
"That note was sent by my distant cousin, Queen Latvia the 23rd. She's only nine years old, but she's trying." John said.


"It's unrefined quick-sliver, quite valuble and safer to handle than then pure quick-sliver, although you would still want to keep it wraped in cloth." Replyed El'Hilth noting a suspicious tone in his voice.

"I see. Alright, I guess it will be okay. Five bronze, which is to say, half a silver." John said.


-----------------------------------------
John cracked the book open.
"Alright, the story behind this is, twenty-three generations ago, under the rule of Queen Latvia the first, The Chaos first appeared. No one knows why, no one knows how, but it repelled the armies at our borders, and for that, we were grateful. But then, the Chaos made demands, demanding the sacrifice of innocents, and needless bloody wars, and in time, we were unable to meet these demands. However, it was always the current Queen, that knew somehow just what was needed to appease the Chaos. I don't really know much more than that, but there are some that say, that each of the ten Chaos temples accross the and hold a fragment of a skull that came from the Warp one night long ago, and if these fragments were broght together, a way to banish the chaos might appear." John said.

He had the book open to the young Queen Latvia 23rd. She had Black hair, and black eyes. She wore a red dress.

Kuri turned to look at the bartender again. "Ah so your the Queen's represenative here?"

She returned the staff to under her cloak and produced a small square envelope which she held up. "If you are, I am to give this to you."

El'Hilth gessed that a sliver ment an ounce so he took out his cinnabar pick and broke an ounce size peace in half. "I'll try to sell the rest for some local curancy tomorrow along with some silk that I have." He turned his attention to the two young humans and what the barkeep was telling them, after the barkeep finnished his history lession he decided to reveal his purpose hear. "Well now, how strange, I myself came hear because of a peace of paper that came my way and it fits that description to a tee."

Kuri turned to look at the bartender again. "Ah so your the Queen's represenative here?"

She returned the staff to under her cloak and produced a small square envelope which she held up. "If you are, I am to give this to you."

The barkeep took the envelope.

"She does not trust Chacellor Listh'vis." John said, as a note of warning.

He opened the envelope to see what was inside.

It hadn't taken Aradia long to work a deal with the nesrest stables. Shadow Sun would get the finest grooming - the brushes and curry combs would do it themselves, for reasonable pay, but the hoofpick wanted to be bribed and Aradia wouldn't - pay a bribe that is. She had done it herself- it wasn't as if she hadn't done it before and would do it again- making sure his hooves were in good order. His feed was fresh and that pleased him to no end, especially as the hay turned out to be good densely green alfalfa.

With Tasman by herside and her sasddlebags and bedroll over her shoulder Victrix entered the Blue Boar Inn, after first asaking the now awake Boar what he thought of the inn. He'd assured her that none of his kind were served with in- he'd not have stayed otherwise - but the food was good, the rooms secure and the bed linens clean.

She entered quietly and as her eyes adjusted - she was only half sidhe so they weren't as sensitive to light changes as a pur blood, but her dark sight wasn't as good as a full blooded sidhe. Once she had the feel of the place she moved with atheletic gracefullness over to the bgar, and caught the bar keeps eye. She could see he was busy with another customer, and was content to wait until he was free.

Salutations

I send my fellow priestess to aid your cause in the name of the Goddess Athena against out mutual enemy. Although many say that my enemies enemy is the enemy of my enemy, nothing more and nothing less, your plea for assistance has directed our mistresses hand to send what aid we can.

Unfortunatly we live in a land of Chaos and Destruction ourselves, as such we can scarce to send weapons, and those skilled in their use, to distant lands. However, I have sent one of my younger sisters who is skilled in the use of an ancient wepon to your aid. All I ask is your assitance in keeping her supplied and supported as she assists you against our common foe.

Nara Var'nasar
High Priestess of the Athena's Temple in the Outer Sands

(OOC: It's actually dark fantasy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_fantasy) steampunk (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunk) here based on Slavic Mythology mostly, hope it can fit as well. And I was inspired by Arcanum (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcanum:_Of_Steamworks_and_Magick_Obscura) as well. My character will be a "technomage" specialized in Conveyance(teleportation and telekinesis) basically, with the magic skills much more developed than the first)

"Kill the witch!", the captain shouted as a small group of 5 riflemen armed with Spencer Repeating Rifles (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spencer_repeating_rifle) and bayonets were accompanied by two 3 meters tall electric automatons (http://www.bigredhair.com/electricman/em.front.tn.jpg) armed with 30mm revolving chamber cannons, who rushed through the temperate forests of the main land of Soviet Steam, located in a continent where events like this were anything but uncommon: the forces of magic and traditionalism and of technology and revolution were in a constant conflict there.

The technological People's Republic of Soviet Steam and New Russian Republic and the magical Theocracy of Perun (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perun) and Yaga (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baba_Yaga) Kingdom were constantly warring for the both coal and magical amplifiers rich territory and no man's land known as The Badlands: flying beasts against airships, ironclads and steam submarines against sea beasts, the 57mm cannons of steam tanks (http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/ww1/images/3g11079.jpg) against Baba Yagas' powerful spells, rifles and gatling guns (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/Gatling_gun_1865.jpg) against enchanted swords and repeating crossbows (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repeating_crossbow). Such clashes characterized the bloody, lifeless and scorched environment of the Badlands while secret polices and the military hunted those who delved into occult or worshiped pagan gods inside the territories of the technology-based nations as much as technologists and atheists were hunted inside the magic dominated countries. But some people sometimes simply born at the wrong place to develop their innate affinity with either magic or technology.

´ Yelena Praskovya (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/58/Natalya_Simonova_by_Izabella_Scorupco1.jpg/200px-Natalya_Simonova_by_Izabella_Scorupco1.jpg) was one of them. Daughter of a proeminent member of the authoritarian but willing Communist Party, she accidentally teleported a tiny beam of light through conveyance magic when she was playing with her friends when she was only 5 years old. Was not the love his father had for her, she would have been killed right there as a "magical aberration", but he conveniently used his power to make everyone forget it. After that he prematurely putted her against her will in a polytechnic engineering school, from where her education was since the beginning focused on the learning the principles of general engineering and science. During her less than willing course of 13 years of studies she never again was involved in other incidents involving magic, as she graduated in Electric Engineering and started to work on the research of new, more efficients means of transmission of electricity and better steam powerplants to replace those which engulfed the capital Blanquigradd (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Auguste_Blanqui) into an eternal cloud of black smog. She almost forgot the existence of magic after working for 5 years into scientific researches. She learned a lot about the principles of electricity during that time, to the point she even designed and built an electric rod (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/Electric_cattle_prod.jpg) for herself to personal defense. However in a normal day, she simply... vanished from sight. Her father tried to find her for 3 years, search through the entire nation and nothing. She simply vanished...

"Welcome to our coven! young girl!", a decrepit, old woman said as she was now not in her bedroom, but in the middle of a pine wood forest where two other old witches also could be seen, in the less industrialized regions of Soviet Steam territory where the pollution did not yet destroy every living thing besides humans.
"But... what? How did I get here?", she asked as she held the electric rod tight, fearing those old crones could be a threat, confused and disoriented from the strange sensation she felt, as if she simply has ceased to exist for a fraction of seconds.
"Girl, you did what you wilt to. You were born with the gift of conveyance and you tried to suppress it for years. But instead of suppressing it, you only strengthened it in the hidden and invisible parts of your soul", the old woman said, she was dressed in a large, beaten brown trenchcoat and brown pants, she had a liss and long grey hair, several wrinkles in her face and blue eyes that seemed to have passed through many experiences. They did not had the fancy wizard robes described in those banned fairy tales, they were in fact just like any average citizen of Soviet Steam asides from their skills.
"But, I am not a witch! I am an electric engineer graduated as one of the best students of Blanquigradd Polytechnic University! And where am I?", she frowned at the old woman as she replied. The old woman seemed to pay attention at Yelena's electric rod as she did a wrinkled smile to the young woman:
"So is this what you use for focusing your will and casting spell of the Conveyance School? The fact your magic focus is a piece of technology is very, very unusual. And welcome to the woods of the northwest border to the Badlands! This place has several magic amplifying elements which make learning much easier. And don't walk further through northwest girl. Now... think on it, Yelena. Did not they force you against your will to learn everything you know until now? Did you not always have something that bothered you when dealing with technology?"
She simply nodded in silence.
"You were born with a natural affinity with Conveyance magics, you managed to cast a teleport spell through only your will by using your repressed desires by technology. Think about it? I also was born with the gift... and I almost died because of it, but I can teach you just like the one preceding me taught me the Art. Join the coven, you will want to, it's in your soul."
When she finally shrugged "There is no soul, when we die, we die".
The old woman simply laughed softly: "You know, when I was younger I also was an atheist, but I've seen enough to know there's more than flesh and laws of physics. Now do you want to join us? I can teach you anything from moving pebbles, pushing a threat away from you to teleporting yourself to anywhere in the world", the woman said.
From where Yelena simply replied... "Yes, I do".
´
That was 15 years ago. Now at 37 years old, Yelena has already mastered much of the infinite potential of bending space and what she always knew as kinetic energy to her will. However now an urgent problem was ahead as she, in desperation concentrated to focus her will in a random teleportation, as she knew nowhere besides Soviet Steam, where she would never be safe. She could hear a captain shouting "Kill the Witch!" and the sounds of the automatons stomping on the ground nearby her small wooden hut. A tiny rift started to open in the middle of her room as she focused her will more and more as she pointed the electric rod to it, until a huge circular portal opened. It was like a mirror floating through the air, reflecting her face and where it led to could not be seen. She then shouted:
"Прощание Самодержец!"(Farewell Autocrat!)
Jumping through the strange portal she just got there in time before a bullet could hit her from one of the closest soldiers who fired.
"She is gone! At least she won't come back to our Soviet, let's head back to our previous patrol!", the captain ordered as they left the cabin behind.

At the same time a strange, mirror like and thick-less sheet of mirror spawned at the Blue Boar Inn in Itselzier, and soon a strange brown-haired woman dressed in a brown trenchoat (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:WWITrenchcoat.jpeg), brown pants and black boots, some type of clothing that probably wasn't much known in that place, and wielding a strange wooden rod with two small metallic plates coming from its edge and with an old pistol (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Scottishflintlockwiki.jpg) tucked in the right pocket of her trenchcoat, while she also had some round lead balls and black powder with her. She appeared from the reflective surface as she landed on the floor of the inn, in a spot in the middle of a row of tables. She soon looked around the inn, with eyes as wide as those of the people who saw her coming out of that strange portal of reflective surface, which then immediately vanished. ´"This does not look like what I would expect of the Yaga Kingdom or of the Theocracy of Perun, it looks like it has a different cultural origin, this architecture isn't Slavic"´, she thought as she noticed the prevalence of magic in that place. She immediately spotted the barkeep, and trying to look inconspicuous in that strange land of magic she asked him as she approached the counter and guarded her electric "wand" on her left pocket, hoping he would know her language:
"Где я?"(Where am I?)

"He! Yes, I'm a male...," the demon said. They're talking to me...about an orgy? They don't know...how my kind...

This could be interesting! He smiled brightly.

"...but I'm perfectly willing to help with the orgy anyway! You wouldn't believe how I can spice up a party!"

As he walked across the floor, he read the note that had dropped down beside him...and his expression changed to one of wonder. Ohhhh! They think I'm here...for this. Maybe I am. I have no currency, and don't even know the value of my skills.

It was quite a motley crew that was forming up--but he could feel the magic in all of them. It didn't take him long to realize that, though he was a fair to middlin' magic user, the others in this room could make him look like an amateur if he wasn't careful. Even The Bugs.

He looked at the barkeep.

"I don't have any currency right now, either," he said, "but I can work off my tab. I can...entertain."

A small figure appeared on each of his shoulders. Both had his features. The one on the left had a white robe, halo and wings; the one on the right wore a black leather harness and had a long tail and a pitchfork.

"What're ya doin?!?" said the li'l devil. "You're an illusionist! All ya gotta do is make a fake coin an' use DAT ta pay da barkeep. He'll never know da difference!"

"That's hardly the way to endear yourself to your new hosts," the li'l angel retorted.

"Ahh, who asked ya?"

"The same guy who asked you!"

"Joik!"

"Boor!"

"Homo!"

"Miscreant!"

"Boys," Marvel cut in.

"Priss-priss!"

"Maladroit!"

"BOYS!!!!!"

"Yes, Mr. Marvel," they both said in unison.

"Thank you, but I can handle the negotiations myself."

"Awwww. OK."

The both faded out, the li'l devil muttering something about getting stuck with this gig as he did.

"What do you think," he asked the barkeep, "can we maybe work something out?"

Aradia twitched an eyebrow as the strange brown-haired woman dressed in a brown trenchoat, brown pants and black boots appeared out of a mirrord portal and puched up to the barkeep without even looking to see whom he might already be dealing with.

But it wasn't in her nature, or in the precepts of her Order to be rude in return, besides a bowl of popcorn had waddled over to her and it was fresh, well buttered and very tasty. Patience was a virtue after all.

She giggled to herslef as the demonic spoke of orgies. Of course he would assume it's all about one. She rolled her eyes. Not that Aradia had a problem with orgies, she most certainly didnt, but there was a time and place for them. And on a mission generally wasn't!

However it seemed as if everyone here had been Summoned and too many crusaders confused the issue. She might well be not needed.

The barkeep did not know the new woman's language, however he reached under the bar, and pulled out a talisman that was obviously magic. It looked like a fish, and when he squeezed it, it translated her words for him.

"You are in the kingdom of Itselzier, a land twisted and darkened by Chaos." The barkeep said, then, he squeezed the fish again while pointing it at her, and it translated his words for her.

Looking at Maggie, he said "Its called a Babelfish translator talisman."

-------------------

Looking over at the gargoyle, he looked him up and down.
"You could scare the hell out of most of the rougher customers. Be my bouncer for the night, and your rounds are on the house."

__________________________

The Barkeep put the babelfish Translator Talisman inside another, which was simply a small cone, and put it to his lips and spoke. His words were easily heard by all, in the language they heard best.

"People, it seems to me that your all here for the same general purpose, escaping trouble, looking for adventure, and answering a young queens plea. I advise you all spend the night here, I'll give you some rooms on the house, and then in the morning, TOGETHER, leave and visit each of the ten Temples. If the Chaos sources are smashed, and the original skull source brought back together, destroying the original source, then your quest is finished, and you'll have a very grateful queen willing to do many things for you. Do not travel this land seperatly, such travelers have a tendancy to disappear, never to be seen again. I know, that's how I lost my father.

Breakfast begins at six, and ends at nine. be nice to the beds, they have a tendancy to attack dissenters. Their real cooperative to your needs if your pleasant." the barkeep said.

OOC: Lets begin to move this along. Lets say, one post describing your night, finishing with your morning, Then, I'll give out maps of the land, and we can go on to the temples. The barkkeps warning of seperation is bad, is not neccessarily true, as some temples will require multiple split ups. I can promise many intresting challenges, each with successive difficulty, following the principle of the Final Fantasy series, with the last source of Chaos being the most difficult battle of all. Along the way, I'll share snippits of Itselzier's past, and what happened that fateful night King Cromyr prayed to Chaos.

(OOC: More Slavic Mythology, and those parts between ´ ´ are actually past events or memories I use to give some depth to the background of Soviet Steam mythical creatures that I'll use again for future RPs, adding it to its "factbook")

´It was night as Yelena sat on a wooden chair inside a cabin, practicing a new will to power (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Will_to_Power) form of witchcraft and hearing tales told by the oldest of the witches about the nightmares of the Badlands as she looked at her with weary brown eyes. Her hair was entirely white like the flocks of the snow that started to fall over the temperate forest outside. The flow of cold, chilling air was kept outside as Yelena focused her will on keeping a flame burning brightly by delivering a constant additional influx of air through it besides the naturally occurring movement of air flows for as long as it would be possible, which was a time she wasn't sure of. The old woman ahead of her asked:
"Yelena, remember when I always told you to never head northwest where the Great War is waged upon?"
She simply nodded to avoid breaking her concentration.
"You must know the Soviet do not recruit woman in the Army. But although they might have several official explanations, the truth is much more sinister. The badlands have more than only humans using either magic or gunpowder against themselves. They are a place which slaughter wasn't unnoticed by those who are devoid of flesh... or of soul. Among one of them is the one known as Кащей бессмертный(Kashchey the Deathless)."
Yelena nodded again, curiously, as she never heard about this Kashchey or that non human beings existed before. This perhaps was a secret Soviet Steam cautiously hid from its people, in fact not even her father knew about such things. Or perhaps it was just a dark fairy tale.

"Kashchey... he is a very evil, powerful, twisted, old and ugly wizard, yes... and he has a daughter and witch, as wicked and heartless as him, she is known as Kashcheyevna. He is so old, much older even than me, that he is almost like a skeleton in appearance, with bones clearly visible which are almost directly below his skin full of scars, with muscles so thin that it seems his skin hang directly to his bones. He exists in another realm which is directly linked to ours as if it was part of it... his own hidden kingdom... he is the secret ruler of the Badlands which are his realm. And he has a lust for capturing and owning as slaves young and pretty women, like you. That is why woman cannot join the military."
Yelena stopped focusing her will on that airflow as she heard it, or more exactly, her will stopped to have effect over it, meaning that the magic energy was for now depleted after doing that for hours, following that she looked at the old woman and asked, as the room temperature was already dropping slightly:
"What is his domain?"

"The domain of Kashchey is life and death. His will to live is so great that he has cheated many times his own death, separating his own soul from his body as part of his larger scheme to become immortal, and not only that, but he also knows the secrets of necromancy and can communicate with the dead as easily as with the living, and use the spirits of the dead for his bidding. Using his powerful will to bend what you know as scientific laws, he putted his soul inside a needle, the needle inside an egg, the egg inside a duck, the duck inside a hare and the hare inside an iron chest, everything buried inside one of countless green oak trees of the island of Буян(Buyan) to the north of the Badlands and of our continent. With the separation of his soul and body through magic, he never again died. Every time a part of his body is damaged, an entirely new one grows healthily on its place. You could burn him, cut him into pieces but he would not die as long as his soul remains hidden and safe. The only way to kill his mortal shell is by finding the tree among thousands where it is hidden, and breaking the needle.", the old woman explained as she covered herself with a mantle, Yelena repeating her action as the temperature dropped.

"And what are the other threats of the Badlands?", Yelena asked, curiously.
"Oh girl, the badlands are not known as a no man's land for nothing.", she said with a soft laughter, adding: "Should you bypass Kashchey and his spirit minions, you might end up being split as food among the three draconic heads of the Zmey Gorynych (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/%D0%97%D0%BC%D0%B5%D0%B9_%D0%93%D0%BE%D1%80%D1%8B%D0%BD%D1%8B%D1%87.jpg), his green scales being the last thing you would see in this life, or of another equally powerful dragon. Or end with your neck hugged by the ugly one-eyed Likho until it led you to drown yourself of desperation and then you would become a Rusalka (http://en.wikipedia.orwikig//Rusalkas). That if the Veelas did not send a thunderstorm against your head first, or you could end being married by force with one of the many vampires that feast on the fresh blood left in those battlefields and have a dhampir (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhampir) as a child to kill you in your unlife. Or even have your soul trapped in a porcelain cup by a Vodyanoy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vodyanoy). And finally there are the old hags who live in a cabin wooden logs with chicken legs surrounded by palisades of skulls, and flies using a large mortar, using the pestle as the rudder and sweeping her tracks away with a silver birch broom. One would probably not get you, as they have a preference for young children, they are the Baba Yagas and one of them is actually the queen of the Yaga Kingdom, where every firstborn is offered as a sacrifice to her", the old woman explained as Yelena paid lots of attentions to her tales of those creatures, however she clearly exhibited signs of disbelief about everything she was told. She never saw anything of those things in her life, and the existence of magic was something she believed in, however she was still an atheist after all and only believed in what she could witness herself, and the fact a place continually disputed by 4 nations in a bloody war had any type of ruler on it who did nothing to stop the war ravaging his own lands was absurd to her as well, she then replied:
"Thank you for those dark fairy tales, Irina, but to be honest, I do not believe in any of them. I need proof of their existence first."
"Yelena, I am afraid that most of those who witnessed those beings did not come back alive to tell, and I advise you to not come there, even if you do not believe in the entities of the Badlands, because the great war continues being as real as before and I do not think you would fare well there, as young and pretty as you are in the middle of a place where desperate warriors fight to death, because sometimes a man can be much more dangerous than any of those spirits and creatures.", she explained as she seemed a bit disappointed by the fact Yelena did not believe in her tales.´

----------

A known effect of teleportation on its user is a few seconds of disorientation and distraction from details which otherwise even the most dim-witted would notice as most of the accumulated magic energy inside one's mind, or according to those who believe in the old gods, soul, dissipates to the point anything more complex than levitating a pebble cannot be done for the rest of the day except for one case, which wasn't something any witch with a degree of sanity would dare to do. Such effects only did not happen on magical immaterial beings like Veelas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavic_fairies#Vila) and Rusalkas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rusalka). It was no surprise Yelena did not notice the strange demon, or the waiting line of the bar as she went straight there and asked it. But now the words of the barkeep started to make a immense whirlwind of confusion inside her mind as it was too much for her to believe...
´"Ten Temples? Darkness of... Chaos? Itselzier? Original skull source? This make less sense than a secret kingdom which ruler lets four other nations war for the wealth of his own territory!"´, she thought as she finally noticed the others and that demon, which she glanced at curiously, as her distraction has passed, she tried to apologize as she looked at Aradia and said, hoping that mind magic of translation would still be working, she seemed less skilled with words, maybe because being secluded practicing either engineering or magic wasn't too healthy for social skills and neither was being the last 3 years alone as an hermit as the older witches finally passed to the world of the dead, or maybe it was the way she was still startled by that place that led her to speak such way:
"I am sorry I... I did not notice you or... I am so confused about this place and... teleports drain too much energy that they distract anyone and this one which was entirely random as emergency escape ... and as I arrived I just looked at the bartender... and I asked because I had no idea there were... people on the line....", she finally got a hold of herself to speak in a more understandable way then as she added: "I am Yelena, Yelena Praskovya, specialized in conveyance will to power magic and, against my will", she said with a clear disgust as she mentioned it "electric engineer graduated by Blanquigradd Polytechnic University", and then she explained the events, always keeping her look on the demon: "I was in the Northwest woods bordering the Badlands of my continent and the witch hunters of the soviet were after to kill me as I jumped into the portal just in time to escape as the domovoi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domovoi) of my home came and protected me by keeping them occupied with him for enough time for me to get away.". Then she took another look at the place as she looking at the barkeep, said, it was clear she was a bit uneducated as she again broke her line on the bar to talk with him, interrupting whoever could be there, however considering her state of surprise it wasn't something unexpected:
"I... I do not want to help, I want just to find a safe place to continue my studies of the nature of the will where there will not be people to hunt me. I will have to try it again with another random teleport until I reach the right place. I just... I am not an hero, I am just interested on the study of my form of magic, not on getting inside dark places where might exist", she said with a shiver, "sp... spiders", giving away her phobia of spiders and overall lack of bravery as she talked, which she preferred to believe that was "smartness" rather than fear. Finally she offered Aradia a firm handshake as she looked at her eyes.

A known effect of teleportation on its user is a few seconds of disorientation and distraction from details which otherwise even the most dim-witted would notice as most of the accumulated magic energy inside one's mind, or according to those who believe in the old gods, soul, dissipates to the point anything more complex than levitating a pebble cannot be done for the rest of the day except for one case, which wasn't something any witch with a degree of sanity would dare to do. Such effects only did not happen on magical immaterial beings like Veelas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavic_fairies#Vila) and Rusalkas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rusalka). It was no surprise Yelena did not notice the strange demon, or the waiting line of the bar as she went straight there and asked it. But now the words of the barkeep started to make a immense whirlwind of confusion inside her mind as it was too much for her to believe...
´"Ten Temples? Darkness of... Chaos? Itselzier? Original skull source? This make less sense than a secret kingdom which ruler lets four other nations war for the wealth of his own territory!"´, she thought as she finally noticed the others and that demon, which she glanced at curiously, as her distraction has passed, she tried to apologize as she looked at Aradia and said, hoping that mind magic of translation would still be working, she seemed less skilled with words, maybe because being secluded practicing either engineering or magic wasn't too healthy for social skills and neither was being the last 3 years alone as an hermit as the older witches finally passed to the world of the dead, or maybe it was the way she was still startled by that place that led her to speak such way:
"I am sorry I... I did not notice you or... I am so confused about this place and... teleports drain too much energy that they distract anyone and this one which was entirely random as emergency escape ... and as I arrived I just looked at the bartender... and I asked because I had no idea there were... people on the line....", she finally got a hold of herself to speak in a more understandable way then as she added: "I am Yelena, Yelena Praskovya, specialized in conveyance will to power magic and, against my will", she said with a clear disgust as she mentioned it "electric engineer graduated by Blanquigradd Polytechnic University", and then she explained the events, always keeping her look on the demon: "I was in the Northwest woods bordering the Badlands of my continent and the witch hunters of the soviet were after to kill me as I jumped into the portal just in time to escape as the domovoi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domovoi) of my home came and protected me by keeping them occupied with him for enough time for me to get away.". Then she took another look at the place as she looking at the barkeep, said, it was clear she was a bit uneducated as she again broke her line on the bar to talk with him, interrupting whoever could be there, however considering her state of surprise it wasn't something unexpected:
"I... I do not want to help, I want just to find a safe place to continue my studies of the nature of the will where there will not be people to hunt me. I will have to try it again with another random teleport until I reach the right place. I just... I am not an hero, I am just interested on the study of my form of magic, not on getting inside dark places where might exist", she said with a shiver, "sp... spiders", giving away her phobia of spiders and overall lack of bravery as she talked, which she preferred to believe that was "smartness" rather than fear. Finally she offered Aradia a firm handshake as she looked at her eyes.

Maggie Destrudo stepped over to Yelena. A natural effect of Maggie's Auric body was that it always bolstered the courage of those around her.
"I know of such a land. Help me clear this Chaos, and I will personally take you to it. My homeland is very accepting of less than scientific practises. My very birth was the result of such less than scientific activities, which explains why anyone and everyone can see my Aura. I can promise you land, comfort, and security, if you only help me." Maggie said.

"The Queen could make you a similar offer, if you help free her land. Something for something, very few things worth having, are ever given away for free." John the bartender said.

Meanwhile, the Chaos fed on Yelena's fear of spiders, and from the ceiling dropped a very large spider indeed, nearly three feet accross. Niether Maggie nor the Bartender saw it in time to stop it from dropping into Yelena's hair.

Maggie Destrudo stepped over to Yelena. A natural effect of Maggie's Auric body was that it always bolstered the courage of those around her.
"I know of such a land. Help me clear this Chaos, and I will personally take you to it. My homeland is very accepting of less than scientific practises. My very birth was the result of such less than scientific activities, which explains why anyone and everyone can see my Aura. I can promise you land, comfort, and security, if you only help me." Maggie said.

"The Queen could make you a similar offer, if you help free her land. Something for something, very few things worth having, are ever given away for free." John the bartender said.

Meanwhile, the Chaos fed on Yelena's fear of spiders, and from the ceiling dropped a very large spider indeed, nearly 90 centimeters across. Neither Maggie nor the Bartender saw it in time to stop it from dropping into Yelena's hair.

´"Her chances of surviving are very slim, the smallest spiders have the most dangerous poisons and I fear your daughter might not resist"´, was a brief thought of Yelena as she reminded the horrible 2 months she was between life and death after being poisoned by a spider which took residence in one of the dust-filled electric gadgets she usually dealt with when she was an engineer. It was such experience that brought her such fear, the chronic pain, the agony that lasted for so much time. It was anything but ironic that such spider was the result of the adaptation of a previous, not as dangerous species, to survive in the highly polluted environments of factories, another reason for her to disdain technology besides being forced to learn it.

Before she could shake Aradia's hand or reply to Maggie, the touch of six large hairy legs grappling her head while something heavy landed on her head could be felt as a sensation of immense fear came through her. It was in those few seconds that Yelena simply became immediately paralyzed of fear as the spider, larger than her head was above her. The sensation of that thing above her head, of its legs touching her face, it was too much for her to overcome as she simply felt on the ground in a state of shock with that creature grabbing her face, colliding her head against the wooden floor of the inn as the creature held itself tight over her head. She was losing her mind to the point of muttering nursery rhymes in Russian, the vision sparkling several bad memories as she remained there still, incapable of reacting to such unwelcome surprise attack. She was there, no matter how shameful or pathetic it was such scene, she seemed completely incapable of defending herself or standing against it and was simply scared to death, her hands and her entire body trembling like if she was in a sub-zero environment without gloves or winter wear, her hairs tingling and sweat coming from her head as she remained immobile.

El'Hilth understud the young girl's disorentation all too well and wished to offer his assistence. "My name is El'Hilth, I am also a magister of the mind, and I understand all to well the stress that teleportation puts on you, if I was not so very worn out myself, I would read your mind, but I am afraid I will have to ask your name. I sure hope you decide to go along with helping out this poor kingdom, it would be good to have another clairvoyant on-board with us."

Maggie doubled up her fist and punched the spider off the top of her head with such force that it went splat all over the back wall, which was a good fifty feet away. The spider was in such a position, that yelena would only feel the air pressure of her strike, but be unhit by it.

"I am the sort that fights up close and physical. If I am to free this land, I will need one that does not need such close ranges. You help me, and I'll protect you from all the spiders we run accross, even the little ones." Maggie said.

Kuri shook her head and then stepped up on the other side of the Engineer on the floor. "Maggie, may I suggest you discuss it with her in the morning. She's a bit...er...paranoid at the moment."

Kuri knelt down and pulled a small satchel from an interior pocket. "And see needs a good rest before deciding to join anyone on any quest." She opened the small pack and pulled out a vial of blue liquid, placing only a drop on a finger.

In her accented Russian, "Now then, the spider is gone, and no one here is your enemy. Here is a drop of medicine to clear the fear from your mind. In the marrow we can deal with your problem."

She held out the drop to just above the engineer's lips and let her take the medicine. "It is a sleeping draught, I suggest you let her share a room with me...unless any one else here speaks Russian."

Maggie doubled up her fist and punched the spider off the top of her head with such force that it went splat all over the back wall, which was a good fifty feet away. The spider was in such a position, that yelena would only feel the air pressure of her strike, but be unhit by it.

"I am the sort that fights up close and physical. If I am to free this land, I will need one that does not need such close ranges. You help me, and I'll protect you from all the spiders we run accross, even the little ones." Maggie said.

Yelena simply remained paralyzed on the ground and did not reply, shaking of fear as she reminded of the months she struggled to survive the poison of a spider, as the words started to sound foreign again to her, the trauma of that large creature leaping against her head still tormenting her mind as she could almost feel again the agony of her past experiences with spiders.

Kuri shook her head and then stepped up on the other side of the Engineer on the floor. "Maggie, may I suggest you discuss it with her in the morning. She's a bit...er...paranoid at the moment."

Kuri knelt down and pulled a small satchel from an interior pocket. "And see needs a good rest before deciding to join anyone on any quest." She opened the small pack and pulled out a vial of blue liquid, placing only a drop on a finger.

In her accented Russian, "Now then, the spider is gone, and no one here is your enemy. Here is a drop of medicine to clear the fear from your mind. In the marrow we can deal with your problem."

She held out the drop to just above the engineer's lips and let her take the medicine. "It is a sleeping draught, I suggest you let her share a room with me...unless any one else here speaks Russian."

Yelena was still trembling when Kuri reached her, when she heard her words she simply said in an erratic manner as she moved her eyes towards the figure of Kuri and said with a voice which shown signs of weakness and fear:
"Вы. Я думал Я шел умереть"(Thank You. I thought I was going to die)
Her dry, cold lips and her very dry throat were refreshed as she drank the sleeping draught. However, as it reached her throat she reminded of its taste, then it simply, in a few seconds time, flew off her mouth as a cube of liquid being held by an invisible container or force, which simply felt on the ground splashing into it. Yelena then slowly got up as the fear started to diminish but have not yet left her as she constantly looked at the ceiling for spiders. However she was also looking at Kuri with suspicion now. She thought it was too convenient that only she knew her language and she could not take any risks. She wasn't sure about the effects of the portal magic she used due its randomness, it could have branched into another area and perhaps she could have involuntarily opened another portal towards that Inn nearby a witch hunter location from Soviet Steam. She had drained all her magical energy for that day now to avoid being put asleep by a potential witch hunter, as her mind imagined. She was very weary, but the image of ending in the fearsome secret rooms of the secret police coupled with the recent event made her extremely alert to the point of paranoia as she now was looking around frantically for both spiders and secret police forces in disguise that did not exist.

Kuri shook her head, "Well that was unusual..." first she said it in her native English and then repeated it in Russian. "Well that was unusual...very good defense against poisons I suppose." A native russian would have realized she was well trained in the lanquage but the accent was off. It was like someone from South Africa speaking russian, the emphisis on the sylables was off.

Kuri rose and held out her hand to help the engineer rise "I think we should get you to bed and then....excuse me but I can't recall the word for after the sun rises."

Kuri waved one hand in the air. The movement of someone who couldn't remember a word of a lanquage that had been drilled into her at an early age but not used in some time.

"Sleep, yes that is what you need most."

El'Hilth watched as the young laides went about chit-chating, sleep was what he needed, he turned to his bodyguard "come on lets go to our rooms, perhaps in the morning the gargoyle will provide us with some stimulating conversation, he seams to be the only other amoung us that is nither female nor human." They went up to their rooms and got a good nights sleep.

"I am sorry I... I did not notice you or... I am so confused about this place and... teleports drain too much energy that they distract anyone and this one which was entirely random as emergency escape ... and as I arrived I just looked at the bartender... and I asked because I had no idea there were... people on the line....",

"Don't worry yourself, yes it can be disconserting at times" Aradia didn't get to say more or take the hand being pro-offered...

Aradia had watched in stunned fascination as the spider had materialized out of thin air and dropped on the young woman's head. The apparition has left her stunned and not acting fast enough - another had dealt with the monsterous spider. She wasn't able to speak any of the languages the other one's were speaking - fortuantely Tasman, being a fyrecat, had the gift of Languages and as he was mind mated to her he provided her with an instantaneous, precise to and from translation. It saved her from having to cast a chantery, and as she did not know how fast she would regain her mana in this strange Realm...

Others crowded round the newcomer as she collapsed, Yelena was her name, each trying to help so Aradia took a few steps back so as to not interfere.

The bartender's words about the reason for them being here, and knowing exactly what must be done had her wondering-though in her homelands... most bar keeps were just like him - belonging to the mystical Order of the Keg & Cask seemed to do that to it's members.

Sleep sounded like a good plan, but a bath sounded much better. Quietly she found the Inn's buckets, tub and other necessary items. She offered some mending and polishing 'chants in return for them bringing her up a tub full of steaming water. She couldn't help but grin as they eagerly took her up on the trade.

Once Aradia had gotten to her room- she was first up the stairs and chose the one at the furthest end, where it'd be the quietest - she complimented the bed on the cleanliness of the sheets - it wasn't too big a flattery - then she offered to use a cantrip she knew to remove all insect from it, and to freshen the dried lavender buds that scented the matress. It was most ameniable, and the magery minor. Soon the room was filled with the sweet, clean scent of lavender

Smiling a little cat smile she luxuraiated in the hot water of the bath, until every worry had fled. Then she checked the newly bonded gems that had been inlaid amid her tattoos. She was a full Companion of the Order now and it had not been an easy journey. She was very young for the honour. Then she washed her long thick hair. Her mother had gifted her with several minor 'Ment's last Winter's Fest - one of the gifts being a pair of warming towels. With one wrapped snugly about her torso, she took the other to her hair.

Sleep came easily and Aradia intended to take full adventage of the real bed. She hadn't had much chance lately to sleep in one. She wouldn't be the first awake, but not the last either...

"Drained? Mind?" the demon said. "Honey, you've GOT to let me show you how to cast a portal!" When he said it, he put a glamour on himself so that the words could be understood no matter what the listener's language. He thought of walking up to her and helping her up, but he was still covered in the slime from Slaboflab's maw, so he didn't really want to touch much of anything. He quickly refreshed his appearance, so that he at least looked clean--and, while he was at it, made himself a little taller and his muscles a little bulgier.

She never replied. Just stayed in that funny little world of hers. Maybe it was for the better. Still, Marvel vowed to start swappin' spells first chance he got.

The group seemed to be bonding quickly. This made Marvel all the more suspicious. From what he had gathered, they were all goodie-goodies, and he was fresh from Hell. Still, for some reason he couldn't fathom, he sorta liked every one of them. Each one seemed very trustworthy--and the barkeep had actually placed some trust in him, something that Marvel would not have done if confronted by his own visage that night.

Smiling his ratty little smile, the demon called upon some of his other talents and, as the evening wore on, made song and music for the whole troop. When the last of the new tenants finally left the bar, the demon took his pay, a bottle of the barkeep's finest, warmest-tasting whiskey, went to the front porch of the inn, and, downing the bottle in one thursty chug, promptly got so drunk that he was soon sound asleep, even despite the cold.

What else could he do? He couldn't afford a room tonight. And he didn't want to sleep in the same room with another one of the guests. Too much temptation for him and his...unusual form of reproduction. It seemed that he, too, was starting to like these folks.

Kuri shook her head, "Well that was unusual..." first she said it in her native English and then repeated it in Russian. "Well that was unusual...very good defense against poisons I suppose." A native russian would have realized she was well trained in the lanquage but the accent was off. It was like someone from South Africa speaking russian, the emphisis on the sylables was off.

Kuri rose and held out her hand to help the engineer rise "I think we should get you to bed and then....excuse me but I can't recall the word for after the sun rises."

Kuri waved one hand in the air. The movement of someone who couldn't remember a word of a lanquage that had been drilled into her at an early age but not used in some time.

"Sleep, yes that is what you need most."

Yelena was still a bit, distracted, as she finally noticed Kuri's accent as she seemed a bit more calm, but still staring at every corner of the ceiling for spiders as she got up. Each movement of her seemed to be very slow and her eyes were wide open, as if at any moment something would appear from nowhere. She then reached for her electric rod with her right hand and kept it lowered as she carried it as a precaution. As she looked at Kuri her expression seemed to be a combination of fear, shame, suspicion and surprise as she spoke with a trembling voice, still visibly shocked from the events:

"Оно Утро. И я хочу исключительную спальню для меня."(It is Morning. And I want an exclusive bedroom for me)

She also observed Maggie, immediately noticing the strange aura surround her and, Yelena seemed to find the way she was dressed a bit unusual as she stared at her clothing for more time than one would normally, although she refrained from doing any comments as a sign of respect because she remembered the type of woman who would wear such style of clothing in her nation, and soon she also yawned as she headed to the bar, pointing to one of the keys. The bartender had no reason to avoid her from taking it as she reached for the key and grabbed it with a quick and agile movement, while her fear was finally becoming bearable. As the demon commented something she assumed to be a mockery about her abilities, she simply yawned and shrugged as she answered him with a timid smile, delighting on the possibility he would understand nothing of what she said:

"Я смог закончиться в другой планете. Или возможно выровняйтесь пойдено к прошлому или будущему. Случайно teleportation может вести меня где-либо, и он всегда требует такого же количества энергии, никакого дела, even if он teleported я к такому же месту, котор я был раньше. И вы не охотились 2 автоматонами и 5 воинов, были вами?"(I could have ended in another planet. Or maybe even gone to the past or future. Random teleportation can lead me anywhere, and it always requires the same amount of energy, no matter, even if it teleported me to the same place I was before. And you were not being hunted by two automatons and five soldiers, were you?)

As she turned her back to the gargoyle and headed upstairs ignoring further comments. She stared at the key constantly as she headed upstairs, to the point and sometimes could swear her peripheral vision saw a spider instead of a key she was carrying. As she opened the room, she quickly locked it and sat on her bed as she took her flintlock pistol and started to observe it. It had a shot ready to fire, as she had reinforced the trigger group to avoid accidental fires, she soon putted it on a small table near her bed, from where she could reach for it quickly and undressed herself from the trenchcoat, boots, pants and shirt as she got herself into the blankets. An impeding fear however led her to struggle between becoming awake and let her basic needs as finally, after 45 minutes observing every single detail of the bedroom from the bed... she felt asleep. The more she slept, more magical energies she would have for tomorrow. Some believe will to power is actually not a pure spellcasting practice, but a combination of innate psychic abilities with magic. The headache and light fever that Yelena had during her sleep, not acute enough to wake her up could be an evidence of this point of view.

Maggie herself purchased a modest supper, dined, and then retreated to her own room, where she dreamt that she was the first of a new clan of Destrudo.

There were some regular customers, but due to the presence of Marvel, were exceedingly polite, and even paid their overdue tabs.

John unfurled the tarp outfront to keep the rain off the Gargoyle, and even let the fire lioness and her three cubs sit in a cage beside him to keep him warm. He went about his clean up business with the air of an old man, placing everything just so, and finally, when he finished, offered to let Marvel sleep in the main sitting room for free. Then he too retired for the night.

That night, as everyone slept, the chaos intensified in the otherwise peaceful inn, and fed upon the worst fears of each of the sleepers, locking them in a nightmare that would seem to go on for days, and no amount of magic freed them from their nightmares.

This was but one effect of the twistedness of time. As they slept, tomorrow became yesterday, and today never came. Maggie awoke at 5:30, and spent a half hour doing various exercises in her room. When she went downstairs, her glow was muted, and she seemed in a very fowl mood, as was evidenced by the fact that instead of the courage her aura inspired yesterday, it now inspired fear, and she kept her fists clenced most of the time. When she spoke, it was only in a whisper, but was easily heard by everyone who heard it.

"Good-morning." John said quietly. He was exausted by his nightmare, the inn came to life and ate him alive.
"Eggs, Ham, Sausage, Orange Juice, Toast, and milk, with a side of a stack of flapjacks. The only thing good about this morning is the fact that it finally came. If I ever discover who put that nightmare spell on me, they are dead. I had a nightmare that the clan turned on me simply for being a little diffrent. Over and over they fought me, each one beating me in turn, and then my father, Gods my Father, Destrudo Clan-Leader, the current leader of the clan, due soley to the very great skill he possesses. He brought me to the point of death several times." Maggie said, recounting a nightmare, that to her, was very horrible.
"Oh, you'll get used to that in time, then you'll discover just exactly what you do and do not fear." Innkeeper John said.
"I'll, WHAT?!" Maggie said in a very threatening manner.
"Yeah, that sounds about normal. Good dreams are a rarity. Do you have any idea what happens to you, when you dream nothing but nightmares? How much it drains you, destroys you? Couple that with the odd state of time, and you get living hell. I'm 80 years old, yet I'm stuck in this body. Its not as youthful as it looks. Do you have any idea how grateful I would be, just to drop dead right here and now, just so I didn't have to suffer this mess? I can't leave, no Itselzian can, we just randomly re-enter the country at another part of the border." John said.
"You poor man. All I had was one night, and already I'm in a fowl mood. You've lived in it. that you can be a civilised decent human being at all is nothing short of a miracle." Maggie said, her mood picking up considerably.

"Well, I've got a map and several copies. If you can free us from this Chaos, I can be at peace finally." John said.

El'Hilth and Drulk came down the stairs in the morning "Well that was one hellish dream, glad to see I am not being burned just because I am a mantid and not a ant or a cricket." Looking around he saw that the only other ones up where the barkeep and one of the young human females, he took a momment to read her mind so find out her name, 'maggie'.

"I don't care what you give me just make sure it has orangano on it." He told the barkeep. "My body guard with have the same but with basil." He sat down beside maggie "So you're hear to answore the queen's plee too, I guess that means we'll be traveling togeather."

El'Hilth and Drulk came down the stairs in the morning "Well that was one hellish dream, glad to see I am not being burned just because I am a mantid and not a ant or a cricket." Looking around he saw that the only other ones up where the barkeep and one of the young human females, he took a momment to read her mind so find out her name, 'maggie'.

"I don't care what you give me just make sure it has orangano on it." He told the barkeep. "My body guard with have the same but with basil." He sat down beside maggie "So you're hear to answore the queen's plee too, I guess that means we'll be traveling togeather."

John ran off to the kitchen to fix them the same variety Maggie had, with their unique requests of course.

"Its going to be quite an experience, that's for sure." Maggie said. She was slowly getting in a better mood, her aura slowly brightening. It seemed impossible for her to remain in a bad mood for very long.

Minutes later, John put out their breakfast.

"So, you fellas pass an agreeable night, nightmares aside?" John asked.

As the demon commented something she assumed to be a mockery about her abilities, she simply yawned and shrugged as she answered him with a timid smile, delighting on the possibility he would understand nothing of what she said:

"Я смог закончиться в другой планете. Или возможно выровняйтесь пойдено к прошлому или будущему. Случайно teleportation может вести меня где-либо, и он всегда требует такого же количества энергии, никакого дела, even if он teleported я к такому же месту, котор я был раньше. И вы не охотились 2 автоматонами и 5 воинов, были вами?"(I could have ended in another planet. Or maybe even gone to the past or future. Random teleportation can lead me anywhere, and it always requires the same amount of energy, no matter, even if it teleported me to the same place I was before. And you were not being hunted by two automatons and five soldiers, were you?)



"No, honey," the demon replied, "I was CAUGHT by something like that--then, I was thrown down the throat of an eating demon named Slaboflab. He can't move, but he's got a big, long tongue that he wraps around things and hauls 'em into his mouth with. THAT'S where my portal came from." And they all think I'm dead, so they won't be coming for me, ha ha!!!

Damn, I'm good!

-------------------------

It wasn't exactly late in the morning when Marvel, too cold and waaaay too sober, sneaked, invisible, into the kitchen with the intent of siphoning off a little extra food that nobody'd miss anyway. Slaboflab's slime had hardened on him--he'd never gotten that bath that he had wanted--and he itched all over.

Nevertheless, he did manage to get to three eggs (eaten whole), a quarter pound of sausage (digested, then eaten) and about a pint of orange juice (slurped right up out of the container) before the cooler became indignant and the door began to close on his foot-long, hollow tongue.

"Ohhhh thit."

WHAM!

"AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"

Marvel was a gifted illusionist. He had even thought to put a silence rider on his invisibility spell, so that no one would hear him walking around--but it was no match for the shriek that came out of him when the door did its work. And it was certainly not up to the string of oracular language that he used when he found that it refused to open again. Of course, by then, he had long since ceased to think about what affect it all might have had on the occasional cook who might come in to look things over...

Dastardly Stench;13406762']"No, honey," the demon replied, "I was CAUGHT by something like that--then, I was thrown down the throat of an eating demon named Slaboflab. He can't move, but he's got a big, long tongue that he wraps around things and hauls 'em into his mouth with. THAT'S where my portal came from." And they all think I'm dead, so they won't be coming for me, ha ha!!!

Damn, I'm good!

-------------------------

It wasn't exactly late in the morning when Marvel, too cold and waaaay too sober, sneaked, invisible, into the kitchen with the intent of siphoning off a little extra food that nobody'd miss anyway. Slaboflab's slime had hardened on him--he'd never gotten that bath that he had wanted--and he itched all over.

Nevertheless, he did manage to get to three eggs (eaten whole), a quarter pound of sausage (digested, then eaten) and about a pint of orange juice (slurped right up out of the container) before the cooler became indignant and the door began to close on his foot-long, hollow tongue.

"Ohhhh th---."

WHAM!

"AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"

Marvel was a gifted illusionist. He had even thought to put a silence rider on his invisibility spell, so that no one would hear him walking around--but it was no match for the shriek that came out of him when the door did its work. And it was certainly not up to the string of oracular language that he used when he found that it refused to open again. Of course, by then, he had long since ceased to think about what affect it all might have had on the occasional cook who might come in to look things over...

John looked back in the kitchen and sighed.
"you could've asked ya know, it was still on the house from your work last night. you should take a map so you know where the temples are." he said.

Maggie meanwhile had finished eating, and set to brushing her long luxurious hair. Little flecks of gold just seemed to jump out on occasion.

OOC: That's all for me tonight, tomorrow, I move it right along with our first encounter, and then, the first temple. It seems like there's ten, but there's really only three.

Kuri shrugged at the engineer's antics and also took a key. She gathered her items and took a room with a small window.

The darkness called to her...demanding...wanting...to bring pain...to bring blood...to destroy all...the fangs of death....the fangs of eternal damnation...laughter....laughter between those blood soaked fangs...she was no longer her....she was now one...one of the dead...one of the dead who refuse to die....
she lusted after life...after the power...after the joy...all came with the warmth...the warmth that was not hers...children...mothers...fathers...old...young...they all were claimed
For her...for her yearming...for her lusts...for her eternal sins....for damnation...

Hunted...like a dog...worse than a dog...a rabid rat...less than that in their eyes...

the eyes screamed traitor...the eyes screamed hate...the eyes of those she loved...the eyes of those she had served...

Eternity....death would not bring respite....only a worse fate...Eternity...Eternity of death...an Eternity of blood...an Eternity of damnation...

Kuri appeared in the morning looking like Death. Not death warmed over, but Death incarnate. Her look could freeze magma at thirty paces; siberian winters were warmer. Her uniform was crisp as a razor, the cloak over one arm while she carried her pack and weapon belt in the other hand.

Her gaze locked onto Jhon and she snarled, "Breakfast and be quick unless you want to be my meal..." She paused for a second, "By Athena herself, that was the worst night I have ever had. People couldn't get paid for sleeping here."

It was a very long nightmare, one that did not involve the supernatural or scientifically impossible. Yelena's nightmare was simple and mundane compared to others but brutal. She relived half of her last month of struggle against the spider poison that almost killed her, an experience that had weakened her mind against the sight of such creatures and imbued her forever with a severe phobia of spiders, but that ironically, at the same time led her to develop a better immunity against poison. For outsiders it could be considered a sign of cowardice, but they did not suffer what she did during those two months... and now in one of the longest nightmare possibles, she relived 15 days of such horrible moments as if they were entirely real rather than a nightmare:

´The feeling of blood at her throat, a strong fever with constant headaches, a chronic, unbearable pain at every inch of her body and innards, contrasting with the comfortable bed she was laid down upon, but even the touch of her back with the bed led her to pain. Nothing could be seen clearly by her blurry vision as she agonized of pain. Yelena was very sick after that spider bit her and to add to the problem, a grave infection took advantage of her already weak immune system by the poison, and her suffering became more and more horrible as each day passed... it was almost a month and her situation, although stable, which did not mean it was good at all, has started to get worse as a doctor was nearby observing her state as he took regular exams of blood samples, blood pressure and temperature from her. With nowhere to seek help during such torment, Yelena said in a very weak voice, with intervals of coughing as blood came out from her mouth:
"Doctor... I... I cannot... stand... I want to... die now... I am going to... die anyway... please kill... me"
The man has observed that patient for a long time, and being the daughter of an important member of the Party always brought her more attention than that given to other people, even though the government demands that all be treated equally by the public services regardless of being in the government or not, an ad-hoc sense of status has developed inside Soviet Steam. He simply spoke, his voice being distant and words difficult to understand as the pain kept her mind less aware of reality than it should:
"I am sorry Yelena. I know that by the Constitution of the Soviet, you have the legitimate right of asking help of a doctor to end your own life, but your father would not approve this. And please, stop speaking, you need to avoid doing any effort as your condition is not good at all Yelena. And I am deeply sorry I can do nothing for your suffering, but all analgesics we know would react badly with the chemicals and bacteria on your body."
There was no doubt in her mind such painful wait was for her death. Not even a faint possibility of surviving such turmoil was considered as her suffering only became worse as she insisted on using whatever forces she still left to speak, every word she spoke was painful as an acute pain came from her throat, but still she continued speaking:
"He is not... responsible... for me... I as a... member... of the Engineering... research council... Blanquigradd... demand you...", and then she suddenly shouted with a raspy voice, regardless of all advices for her to not do that:
"KILL ME!"
It was almost like if several needles pierced her throat the pain that she felt after shouting such words. In fact it was so horrible that her conscience started to flicker as her eyes became even more unfocused. The doctor quickly ran towards that room, bringing a glass of water as he threw it at her face, afraid of the consequences of her losing her consciousness. The water also dissolved a significant amount of blood that was expelled from her mouth as she shouted.

It was like if someone threw boiling oil against her face the amount of pain she suffered from such a small difference of temperature between the water and her currently boiling red skin. She wanted to scream as the acute pain was felt coupled with her chronic pain, but she had to not scream or otherwise it it would only get worse. The doctor could notice the agony that Yelena felt, he knew it should be something horrible. He then left all of a sudden without giving her any word. The minutes seemed like hours as she continued suffering, immobile on that bed as each movement gave her the same sensation that she would have if someone stabbed her in the region of the body she moved. There was no definite way to know how much it took for the doctor to return, but when he did, he said:

"I heard you like stories of magic Yelena. Do not be afraid about it being forbidden. People can write stories involving magic any way they want, they just cannot practice it because the real magic is a threat to our collective economy and industrial civilization, but I think you already know it, let me begin the story of..."
She could not hear him anymore such was her critical state of health, as then the suffering has surpassed the frontiers of feel. She could almost swear she could smell, taste, hear and see the suffering in such moments. And thus this repeated agony continued, it never seemed to end and she had no forces to speak, or to cry as it inevitably crippled her emotions as well... this was everything she could feel, for fifteen days´

Her blankets were wet with a sweat that came from her for the entire night. Her body lied limply with her back facing the bed and she seemed to had some type of struggle. Soon she raised her torso from that bed in panic as she shouted in a desperate and very loud tone of voice, not noticing the nightmare was over:
"Кто-нибудь убивает меня!"(Somebody kill me!)

Kuri closed her eyes when she heard the engineer scream. "Bloody hell, I do not need some piss-ant twit on my hands this morning."

She dropped her gear on the table and said, "The twit wants to die...who wants to kill her?"

Chancellor Listh'vis scowled as the offical letterhead pryed itself off the paper and ran off with the ball point pen. Taking out an old fashione Quill pen and inkwell, he penned a reply.

On behalf of her majesty, I assure you we have the situation well in hand, and are just as confident that this situation will be resolved within the next six months.

Yours,
Chancellor Listh'vis.

It was quick, it was simply, and it did not inform anyone how enraged he was that the Queen had acted without him.
He would wait until later, then he would deal with her.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii50/citationxiv/sealgovernment-heavenlasts.png
_________________________
Official Communiqué

Classification: Restricted
From: Office of the Minister, MEA (UIK/COV)
To: Lord Listh'vis, Chancellor of Itselzier
CC: Queen Latvia XXIII of Itselzier
Subject: Re: Chaos Incursion

Your Lordship, greetings,

His Serene Majesty's Government thanks you for your prompt reply and reassurances on this matter.

I am in receipt of advice from the Secretariat of State for Aid and Humanitarian Efforts that, as of next month, we should be able to offer limited food aid and medical assistance to your civilian population, without obligation or indemnity; we should therefore be in a position, in the very near future, to offer you direct, non-military and humanitarian-oreintated, assistance in this affair.

The office of the Secretary will, through the MEA general communications office, keep you informed of additional developments.

Regards,

The Lady Justina Valdir,
His Serene Majesty's Minister For External Affairs
UIK/COV

******

Minister Valdir considered it strange; have the letter sent through the normal routes to the Port of the Covenant, where the hardcopy was rolled up, and thrown into the fractal rift, to drift between worlds until, for some reason, the letters always reached the people they were addressed to. The original letter, like the Chancellor's reply, had simply fluttered out, and drifted straight to the MEA Central Liaison Office in the city.

That said, she thought the matter was merely unusual, though not unheard of; it was, really, the norm for notes from such realms. On the other hand, the thing that happened to living beings from those realms she thought qualified as "cruel, and highly unusual".

The door opened. The demon's tongue snapped back into his mouth. Slowly, as the pain began to recede, so did his gasps.

The new blue streak on the cooler door, where his breath had touched it while he was swearing, remained, however.

--------------

OOC: Chaos is FUN. :) :) :)

There were times - few but there - that Aradia regretted not being full Sidhe, and this morning was one of them- Sidhe didn't sleep save when recovering from near lethal wounds. Tasman was snuggled up against her purring madly, doing his best to dispell the after effect of the massively nasty dream he'd been unable to prevent. He, being a type of cat hadn't had one, one of the minor joys of being feline. But Aradia cried for a long time, eventually though even sobs wrenched from the soul must end...

Aradia curled up, still shaking and sniffling, around him basking in his unconditional love and stroking his harsh sleek fur. "That wasn't any fun at all. I don't want to find out if thats an every night thing or just a randmon visit by a nightmare" she hiccuped slightly and searched blindly for a handkertchief. Her nose felt like it was running a temperature, and so did the rest of her.

Tas nuzzled against her. "We'll have to ask Sun, if it were a true nightmare, he'd know. And if it was we can set him to guard against any more visits.

Eventually she climbed out of the bed- her stomach was telling her it really was time for breakfast - and thanked it for being so comfortable. Once dressed - after bartering for a second bath - she did not want to appear as less than rested -she headed downstairs and noted that the insects, Maggie, and another whose name she did not know, were awake and breakfasting. None of them looked especially chipper and the scream ringing out from upstairs didn't help matters any.

"The twit wants to die...who wants to kill her?"

That comment earned a cool remark, for Aradia didn't care how forbidding the woman looked, or how bad she felt "Do your own slaying." But internally she readied herself for combat. She would not allow the slaughter of innocents just because they were annoying. However she couldn't find it in herself to go check on the young woman

Maggie heard the poor young girls scream and stood, she had something of a motherly side to her at times, and simply teleported her way upstairs, with just a minor shake of the walls.

"Hush now, its okay, your awake." Maggie said.
Realising that the young woman could not understand her language, she simply held her close, as though Maggie were the mother, and Yelena were the child. She used every ounce of her Aura to instill in Yelena a since of peace and calm, even a spot of bravery to face the day.

____________________________________________
Meanwhile, as Chancellor Listh'vis greeted the morning sun with a smile on his face, he recounted the pleasant dreams he had last night involving the new chamber maid. Chancellor Listh'vis was an exception to the universal Nightmare syndrome affecting the nation, for he had given himself over to chaos entirely and was rewarded for his faithful service.

Spies told him of the strange newcomers at the Blue Boar inn.
Wannabe heros were not something to be allowed to remain in the nation, too much of a chance for them to become real heros, taking him out in the process. He climbed to the top of the southrenmost tower of the castle, and traced a symbol in the air. The Chaos energies in the air magnified the Blue Boar inn in his vision.

"So, they think their powerful do they? Well, lets find out just how powerful they are." He said.

He cracked his knuckles, and his neck, loosened his muscles, and breathed in deeply, then he spoke again.
"MYXXPLE NXXLPFEDD DREIONCK NESHECKLE FRKLE MOTHHEB SOAC DWTES!" which sounded like pure gibberish to most people, but twisted in the powers of the warp, they changed, shortened, lengthened, and compressed.
__________________________________________________________

At the Blue Boar inn, Maggie sat bolt upright as a sense of danger filled the air.

All throughout the Inn, the light changed colors, first blue, then red, then green, then white, and others, changing over and over again. Then it stopped, and for a split second, peace, the calm before the storm.
Then the walls began to shake violently, and a great bloody roar filled the air.
"Great Beast of Chaos, slayer of my enemies, come forth from The Warp!" a voice said all around them, Chancellor Listh'vis's voice, and the gibberish he spoke earlier, given its true form.

The entire front section of the inn was ripped off the building, and john ran and hid in the back room.
Outside was a creature possessed of at least nine Tenticles of diffrent lengths and colors, four heads, three eyes apeace, and more eyes all over the body, ten appendages, some hands, some feet, some that were as the claws of an insect, three winds, and no diffinitive shape or form, for it changed constantly, and even those details one thought one could make out clearly, were no longer true. Its very appearence inspired one to get violently ill, and inspired those with weak minds, and weak wills to go insane.

"What the Hell is that thing?" Maggie asked.

A mouth formed on it, and sprayed forth from it came a shower of highly corrosive acid covering everyone.

OOC: Due to the large numbers of us versus number of enemies, The following rules apply for this battle:

1) for your post, you may post the Chaos beast doing a single attack against you, it can be anything you like, just so long as it isn't something even a mere child could defend against. this is a serious threat, not some play thing.

2) post how the large group attack effects you, such as this time around, its acid.

3) you may not post a group attack, but you may suggust one oocly.

4) on my next post, either later tonight or tomorrow morning, I will do a single one on one post with maggie versus the monster, then, based on OOC suggustions, due another group attack.

5) after two to three such rounds of this, The battle ends, and you will need to make one last post, a killing post, in which you kill a section of the monster. In this fashion, we all get victory.

(OOC: She had 15 years of constant magic practice, exclusively dedicated to the conveyance school, hope this one isn't too much, she can do some significant things, but at a limited amount of times per day. And I'm available for a group strike. Basically what Yelena can do in combat is telekinesis by either generating or absorbing kinetic energy, besides teleportation. Throwing blades with magic and psychic skills, pushing gusts of wind against a highly flammable material burning in a torch towards it for an improvised flamethrower, countering the kinetic energy of a moving gas or liquid with the same force against it, and at most once per day, something like this (http://img2.timeinc.net/ew/dynamic/imgs/030411/16437__matrix3_l.jpg). Of course she has no defense against energy based spells like Lightning Bolt except for opening a portal to direct it to somewhere else, but then she would drain her entire magical skills for the day to do it)

There was no more pain or agony besides a minor headache, the nightmare seemed to be finally over as Yelena eyes opened and she immediately stood away from the mattress of that bed with Maggie at her side as she shrugged politely to let her get up from there, without saying a word, she had 37 years old and did not like, not even a bit the way she was being treated like a children by Maggie. Without any doubt, the first thing Yelena did was to grab her pistol from the nightstand and put it as close to her as possible as a possible precaution, followed by reaching out her electric rod. She only was wearing a brown lingerie and black socks when she moved that gun from place and took her rod from the pocket of her trenchcoat tucked into the ground, and she was still sweating despite the room temperature not being high enough for it. Her hands reached her brown pants, which she wore again, followed by her red suit and black boots, all of them which were before tucked in a pile on the wooden ground near that bed, including the shots and gunpowder still on the pockets of her trenchcoat laying on the floor. The fact everything started to tear apart illogically while she dressed herself did not stop her. In fact it was very strange that she was not afraid of it as she finally got dressed and had her pistol being held on her right hand while her rod was held by her left hand.

When the wall of he room was torn apart revealing that bizarre and large abomination a few meters away from them, she did not even blink: it was not a spider, after all. as its mouth appeared, she put her left hand forward with the electric rod pointed towards its direction as a splash of acid started to fly against her. Like a statue she did not move to take cover at all. Soon the ooze of vile acid was only a few centimeters to reach her as a part of it simply collided and was pushed back by an invisible countermeasure of pure kinetic energy throwing very strong gusts of wind on the opposite direction of that spray and pushing a part of it behind, although those streams of air covered nothing besides her own body and were shaped like it, and part of the acid felt on the ground, slowly destroying the floor near her feet, while other parts of the spray passed very close to her to the point a few droplets of the vile liquid splashed against her trenchcoat as she kept her concentration. She could not remove that coat from her even with all those droplets of acid slowly corroding it, the last protection she had to avoid it reaching her skin as the crisping sound of its burning continued to come as she maintained herself calm and took a deep breath as the spray stopped and she stopped that strange form of magic, now it was the time to show she could do more than running scared of spiders, as that was what she expected others to think. However she did not care about that place or its inhabitants.

Yelena had little to no interest on helping those people with that monster or the chaos of that place, she only wanted a safe place for her. Glory, fame, wealth, adventure were just delusions of foolish people who ended up as skeletons in dank caves for her. What she intended to do was to gain enough time as the others were busy with that creature to open another random portal to somewhere else. But maybe now she was caught into something she wanted to be no part of as the creature approached her location. And soon her thoughts were interrupted as something started to burn against her arms and legs. The pain was biting, and she could feel it dissolved parts of her dermis as she silently winced in pain.

The location was like a disaster waiting to happen, with its floors rotting and about to collapse and no safe place to step as pieces of the floor started to collapse. Yelena struggled against the pain to maintain her concentration as only a rotting beam of wood held the still standing tiny piece of wooden floor around her feet while several holes to the first floor were already being done. She bit her lips and struggled to stand the pain of the acid burning deeply on her skin.
It was not as worse as the pain she felt when she was crippled by spider poison and disease, but it was still a challenge for her to stand against it. If it was the first time she felt a pain of such intensity she would not be resisting.

Soon the floor collapsed as Yelena struggled against the pain to do it at the right time, during the middle of her fall. More or less during it she focused her will again on stopping the weight of her body a bit as a very strong flow of air started to raise towards her against her weight, almost creating a vacuum on the ground of the Inn, reducing the speed she felt through it as she landed with a crouch over one of its tables. The pain was stopping, not because the acid was neutralized, but because it started to damage her nerves and get even deeper. At this rate it would consume her body. As she landed on the floor she shouted to the bartender, trying to find any basket of eggs on that place. Her eyes were only half open as she struggled to keep herself concentrated despite the wounds:

"Яичко!"(Egg!)

Soon she saw a small basket with a few eggs and she pointed to them. There was not much else that she would expect to find as a base into an attempt of neutralizing that acid corroding her skin. At the same time the strange aberration was busy with others, including Maggie. She would, as soon as she got those eggs to drop the egg white on her burning skin, create another random portal to get out of that place and continent.

Kuri snorted when Maggie vanished. "If I did not know better I swear that one is trying to get laid the amount she fusses over that engineer"

Kuri sat down, and pondered why she had been given this task. Unfortunatly her wool gathering was interupted when the wall on the far side of the room vanished. The table and chairs she was sitting at panicked. The chair ran in one direction while the the table, with Kuri's weapons, ran in the other.

Kuri swore and jumped for the belt of weapons, ignoring what had just taken off the other side of the building. She winced as the small drops of acid hit her face and her hand as she landed in a prone postion. A moment later she jumped again at the table, which still had the weapon belt on it.

Kuri reached out across the table as the weapons went off the far edge as the table made a sudden change in direction because a chair blocked it's path. Her hand gripped one of the straps as the table suddenly bucked.

A massive claw had come at Kuri from below the table, snapping it into two halfs. Kuri was caught in the middle as the wood began to crush her from both sides.

Kuri was lucky that the fragements of table top distributed the weight of the claw across her body. Otherwise it would have likely just cut her in half. Still the effect of the crushing blow knocked the wind out of her, and she started to black out.

Kuri focused on the weapon belt in one hand and attempted to quickly move it about with her fingers. She could feel the darkness of unconciousness and the crushing pain begin to overwelm her. At the last moments she felt the end of the magic rod in her fingers. With what little breath she had she said 'adura' before the darkness faded even that from her memory.

The rod sent out a blast of force energy against the far wall of the inn and took out a good section of the bar. It also sent Kuri flying out of the claw's grip like a slick hot dog out of a bun. The remains of the table, suddenly deprived of its core, slamed together like a hinge and actually split into four peices.

Kuri's body smacked into the fireplace mantel along the far wall. Her weapon belt spinning from her grasp and hitting the wall near her.

Kuri's limp body dropped onto the hearth. She was barely concious suffering acid burns, a dislocated right shoulder, a broken left hand, several contusions, and a couple fractured ribs.

He saw the blue streak. It wasn't very funny. In fact, it was so UN-funny that he was about to tell the cooler exactly what he thought of it...when the whole building started to shake. The cooler had other things to think about then! It toppled over (and ruined the rest of Marvel's breakfast on the house)!

"Alright," he growled, walking into the dining hall, "which one of you--?"

And then the back wall simply fell away, leaving only a giant tentacle.

"Oh," he said, "it was YOU!"

And then, as something splashed on the walls and made them dissolve--something that was also shot out at the other patrons, but not at Marvel--he remembered. He was still invisible.

He was also rip-roaring angry! He hadn't come into this world because he wanted to be a hero! He was here by accident! He'd just been trying to get OUT of a demon's stomach! This was where he came IN--and he wasn't going to sit back and let some tentacled freak just repeat the process!

He walked over to the bar and picked up a flask of the strongest drink that he could find. Clear Falls Whiskey. Almost pure alcohol. Aughtta do just fine. But he didn't drink the stuff--instead, he spread his wings and flew out right past the thing. Unseen, unheard, unsmelled--he'd warded himself against all these things, and he'd doubled the silence rider in case his antics in the kitchen had broken the original one.

He pretty sure he wasn't going to be able to seriously harm the thing--it was much too big for that--but he could use his illusions to find out how it perceived--how it felt the world around it. Then, he could throw up illusions that would get it so confused that he could move around and pick off its weak spots--IF he lived long enough. He also knew that, sooner or later, he was going to get some backup. Not all of those hero wannabes were going to be cowards. Some of 'em would make pretty good fodder.

First, he got above and past the thing. Then, pausing at the top of an ascent, he took a nice, long swig of whatever was in that bottle and turned down into a power dive. As he came down, he brought up a spell that he couldn't do as well as most demons, but which every demon learns sooner or later. That would be a fireball.

The moment he brought up the spell, the creature's eyes turned toward him. Magic sense! I'm painted! It didn't take long for a tentacle to swing toward him, either. It was obviously a glutton for punishment.

Banking as he came down, just avoiding the outstretched limb, he spit out the brew, running his flaming hand to his mouth as he did. It hit like napalm, charring the creature's flesh. The painful recoil saved the demon's life, as a second tentacle that it had brought around to hit him from behind missed its mark.

Oh goodie. It doesn't like heat.

Marvel twisted, fluttered and pulled out of his dive. In a moment, he was back on what was left of the roof. It held his weight--for the moment. As he caught his breath, he saw another tentacle reaching up for him. Even better. I'm a priority target now. He laughed. Jumping off the roof, he set off a triplicate illusion--now, there were three of him, but only one was real. The ploy worked--the tentacle went for the wrong one. Sadistically, Marvel waited until it was almost in the creature's maw before he dissolved it.

In a moment, he was landing on the road a few hundred feet from the inn. He hadn't done any damage, but he'd gotten enough recon so that he could start the next phase of the operation. First, he'd have to draw it away from the inn. Then, he'd hit it with so many disorienting illusions that it would regret the day it was...however it was brought into existence!

"Well," he said, quite audibly, "it looks like there's someone else out there to whom size matters." He dropped his cloak of invisibility. Size matters, alright. It's Godzilla time.

Standing in the middle of the street, the demon clenched its fists. At first, the creature barely paid any attention to him. A tentacle lazily began to make its way toward the demon. Then, the demon's form began to grow. Larger and larger it became, until it was even bigger than the thing that had been sent to get him. Of course, it was only an illusion--the real Marvel was still in the middle of the street, normal size--but the creature didn't know that. Straining its neck, the illusion roared a challenge.

"YOU WANT A PIECE OF ME?" it asked in a huge, deep, ecnoing voice. "COME AND GET SOME!"

---------------------

OOC: Marvel really won't be able to handle this thing alone. In case nobody noticed, he really didn't do any damage to speak of. He just distracted it. I even left off the part where the creature goes for the Godzilla Illusion or not because I want other posters to have the opportunity to make decisions such as that one.

He has stronger illusions that he can call upon--he can blind the creature or make it feel tremendous pain, among other things--but I've again left off using those things because it's so early in the sequence. He can't really injure it, though, and, if left to himself to fend against the thing, he'd wear down and be killed. Working with other players, he can be very effective, though. He can draw the creature's attention so that others can get their shots in.

Aradia had prepared for combat, but not against what tore open the inn like so much tissue paper. Only a hurriedly conjured gust of wind kept the acid from coating her and Tasman - the chair and table, though they scampered away quickly, did take large amounts of the sizziling goo, and were screaming pitifully. The sound hurt the ears abominably.

And though she may have avoided the acid, her spine felt like a spike had been driven up it. The fleeing chair had dumped her acropper, Arradia having landed squarely on her tail bone. The pain that flashed up and through the backs of her eyes had them watering badly and she couldn't get a good view of the attacker. "Damn't it Tasman, I can't see straight, every thing is wavering,"

"Thats cause it is! Chaos at is ever shifting best." The Fyre cat growled and spit a strem of fire againt a questing tentacle.

The monster howled and flailed the injured appendage about fiercely. It managed to catch Arradia just as she was climbing to her feet, and took them right back out from under her.

"Ha! Doesn't like fire much!" Tassman yorowlled happily and puffed himself up to about three times mormal size...and he weighed in at a nicely sturdy 75 pounds already...

The painfilled oof that was wrenched from her was followed by disctinctly unlady like cussing. She was very certain that if her mentors had heard her they would have confined her to the temple for many more years as totally lacking in discipline. Aradia didn't care at this point - the pain was less than many she'd suffered before...but still so ealry into the mission? It was simply just too much!

Stiffly she hauled herself to her feet, wiping the tears from her eyes. "What did that strange little man call this...ah! yes ..Okay Tas time to 'shake and bake'."

Arradia's voice had gone dark and storm filled, as her eyes, and the skies around the inn had - the sudden hush and still before things got very nasty.. But before the lighting bolt stroked down from the heavens, one of the tentacles lashed out again, smashing her to the floor, scraping her across the floor to stop hard again the stone of the fireplace. Nearly iunconscious she lay half sitting up, dazed and not completely conscious.

However the lightening had been called and struck visciously, sending the creature into howling spasms as Tas's fire blasted it simultaneous with the strike. The frenzied writhing of the many tentacles as it reacted to the dual attack made it nearly impossible for Tasman to dodge their flailings and he too was tumbled whiskers over stub tail.

Because of their thick carapace El'Hilth and Drulk had less to worry about as far as the acid goes. At this time El'Hilth drew out his espada ropera and Drulk simply got ready to use his natural wepons. A tentacle came crashing towords each of them, neather had the time to escape and where forced to block, El'Hilth held one tentacle with the terzo of his sword, as another tentacle came to swipe at him the blade finaly begun to cut through the beast's thick skin and into the flesh, he made a quick flicking motion and severed part of the tentacle as he dodged the other tentacle. Drulk grabed the tentacle that went for with his claws and started crushing it before stabing his stinger half-way into it, a male's venom is weaker than a female's, but the sting has far more power behind it.

As the acid sprayed towards Maggie she used her impressive strength to stand the bed on its foot, (for that was the direction of the monster, and the acid,) and hid behind it letting it take the acid attack. Then she turned and kicked it with such strength that the dissolving bed hit the monster.

She was about to follow it, when, due to the strength of the other attacks, the monster leapt high in the air. She leapt nimbly to the ground below, and to her horror saw the beast flying, aiming itself for a crushing landing.

She saw Kuri fallen upon the hearth, and more than likely, experiencing worlds of pain. Maggie rushed over, gently picked up Kuri, and carried her out.

"He's going to crush the inn. Leave, or die beneath this fell things titanic weight." Maggie said, using her strange powers to ensure every living thing heard her. As the tables, chairs, and fire creatures ran for dear life, maggie retreated a safe distance, and set Kuri down.

Maggie placed her hand over Kuri's heart, and a portion of Maggie's glowing Auric spirit left Maggie, and entered Kuri.

"It won't last forever, but even at this level, My regenerative powers will heal you, my strength will fortify you, and if neccessary, my will power will defend you, for I have given up a portion of myself to heal you, such is my uniqueness among all other Magekillers." Maggie said, in the most comforting manner she could.

She stood, and turned to see the Chaos beast slam down on the inn with all its weight, attempting to crush all those within.

OOC: I used one of the Magekiller's abilities, transference of self, to in a sense, Amp up Kuri in every way possible. Maggie is unique in that she has self-regeneration. Not very strong, but its still there. Her Desendants will be known as very powerful healers. If I had to put numbers on her ability, I would say, it would heal her for two HP every few rounds, which is to say, its weak, and if Kuri had an hour to just lay there, it would completly heal her.

Kuri is increased by 5% in power in every way possible, this is the original intended effect of Tranference of Self when I made the ability, however with Maggie it also adds weak Regeneration. This increase and associated Regeneration will last you for two posts, but not more than Ten Minutes ICly. Maggie's intent was to heal Kuri to the point that she could at least get up and walk a safe distance away. And yes, Kuri is glowing just like Maggie, but noticably weaker.

(OOC: Yes, she got the thing almost killed and she has some powerful "one woman's artillery" types of magic, but at a heavy price... her severe vulnerability is going to be critical this time.)

-

´"Damn, he ran away!"´, was what she thought as she perceived that there would be no one there to attend to her request, Yelena would have to reach those eggs by herself.

It was a quick step to reach for the eggs. She ran as fast as she could during all that chaos, Yelena had little time as she stepped on each meter of the floor like if even a single delayed second would be the difference between life and death. As her arms moved together with her body and her legs started to move, she could feel the pain, but the need of survival propelled her forward no matter how painful were those seconds as she finally reached the basket with eggs and started to break a few of them as the beast seemed to still be somewhat busy. She sat down and stretched her legs quickly, dropping the egg white in small dosages over her wounds, on every of the ten points where the acid harmed her, four on her both arms and six on her legs. There were visible holes over her clothes revealing the red blood color of her wounds in those locations. Finally the basic chemical compounds present on the egg white neutralized the acid when they touched the still mostly intact hypodermis that was clearly visible from those wounds, but at the same moment she could see the beast going down to stomp her... then everything went black before its giantic and disgusting body could reach her, until...

´Blimps... blimps... blimps everywhere flying in a bloody crimson sky with the emblem of the Soviet in all of them. A scorched earth below where bloody battles and the silhouettes of trenches, tanks and automatons could be seem, they were definitively the Badlands. Multiple Maxim gun mounts being manned inside the titanic airships by highly disciplined soldiers and several strange, winged aircrafts with helices at their noses, definitively heavier-than-air, armed with Maxim guns at their noses were escorting them as several pilots drove them with prowess through the air. A rain of fire was directed towards a legion of magically flying wooden frigates and weird flying crafts shaped like large mortars propelled by pestles while several 57mm cannons were aimed towards that legion of magical crafts and approaching range. Far away a looming figure of a three-headed dragon was apparently leading that strike force. She could see everything from the outer area of one of the airships where, there were six soldiers manning Maxim guns and firing against the horde ahead of them. It was approaching. They all were dressed in uniforms of the Red Aeronautics, just as she was. Nothing made sense in that. Yelena in the Military fighting against a magical kingdom and piloting an airship? First was the fact she practiced magic, and then the fact she was a woman and women can only join the military in other continents where for some strange reason the laws of physics seem to hold stronger against attempts to bend them and magic is non-existent. But most strange of all was that she felt an alien sensation on her left arm during all the vision.

"Commissar Praskovya! We are in engagement range to burn the witches with the cannons!", a soldier shouted as in such strange vision something impelled her to say it. A shout with a voice that seemed to be that of command as at the same time she could feel reaching a a phone from her position. A command desk in that vulnerable. But Commissar? The rank of those directly responsible for hunting witches? Something was really weird on these visions.

"Focus on the Dragon! Kunetzov Squadron! Form on my wing, destroy anything that comes too close from the flagship!", she shouted as hundreds of wooden ships were coming closer in her horizon and some of those flying crafts with metal wings were ahead of the airship firing against the forces, while others were covering the airship she was commanding.´

It all went black again...

For any witness she simply vanished with no visible magical portal or indicator of a spell being cast, and then popped back in the outside of the now entirely destroyed Inn. As the beast approached her she quickly surveyed the environment around her for any tactical opportunity, because whatever she did to shift her position in space consumed enough energy to impede her from teleporting away from there for the entire day. The acid only damaged her skin, and nothing besides it, it was something annoying the pain, but tolerable.

There was not much to run towards in that weird location tainted by chaos. She knew that it would be like running from the fire to the frying pan. And there was that thing there. But on the other the probably not so heavy pentagonal stones on the floor of the streets seemed to be less solidly attached to its basin than they should be. Aware of it, she sought to distract that beast. And the diagonal corner of those stones would be an effective improvise slashing tool.

´"I wanted to have one of those guns that fire lots of shots sequentially at a single second now"´, was what came to her mind as she remembered of the vision. The pistol was mostly useless against a creature of such dimensions, unless she could score a shot against one of its eyes. She was going to have to expend most of her capabilities on it anyway, and thus Yelena grabbed her electric rod and pointed it against those pentagonal stones. Like a maestro commanding an orchestra, she raised her rod above as twelve of those stones accompanied it levitating on the air, with their diagonal tips pointed against the beast which was busy trying to attack one of the others. Soon, with a quick thrust of her arm which brought an horrible pain to her mind as the damaged tissues flexed and her head started to ache heavily while the rod pointed straight against the overall direction of the center of mass of the beast, and she shouted in a command voice:

"Пожар!"(Fire!)

A simple block of stone is useless when threw by an arm. But those 15 centimeters diameter and 5 centimeters tall twelve pentagonal stones flew against the creatures at a speed only possible if they were cannon balls being fired from a 10-pounder howitzer. four of them missed, but most of them impacted straight against the beast, at a great cost of stamina to Yelena. Their tips opened gaps against the body of abomination of shifting flesh and apparently those stones were conveniently fragile enough compared to the thickness of its body to fragment inside it like projectiles from a flak cannon, tearing its entrails or whatever was inside it. But the beast was still alive, it's attention focused against her as it started to crawl, its tentacles dangerously coming closer as she winced in pain as she quickly guarded the rod on her pocket and drew her pistol, aiming towards one of its eyes. It shifted of position regularly but there was still a pattern to it.

Being in a military engineering school tends to lead someone to the learning of more than just the specialization in hand. Yelena's case was no different as she had Sunday classes of small firearms training or tactics, it was a precise, exactly timed pull of the trigger that ensured it. The projectile flew straight against the eye of the beast as it approached her, making another gaping hole on its body, the creature wanted more than to kill her this time, it wanted revenge. Then, in an expected event, spiders started to come out from the wounds Yelena provoked against it. They were not reaching her yet as she started trembling and to retreat desperatedly, drawing again the rod at the same time she holstered the weapon. It was pure luck that she slipped on the floor at the same time the creature attempted to bludgeon her with one of its tentacles as the spiders came closer and closer to her despair, from her left direction. She quickly drew the rod against the tentacle and pierced with its metallic conductive needles as she pressed it to electrocute the creature. Her focus on it distracted her enough, as suddenly she became paralyzed of fear again while she could sense the legs of dozens of spiders crawling on her left arm before she could get up. Eventually they covered her entire arm as she was becoming entirely desperate, a sensation of being defenseless permeated her mind as she did not even try to defend herself as those things touched her wounds. They were not normal spiders, and she would soon discover it.

"Aaaaargh! Нет! Стоп! Оно ушибает! Aahhhhhh!"(No! Stop! It hurts!), she screamed as the spiders started to feast on the flesh and bones of her left arm. It was perhaps the worse minute of her entire life, even worser than those months she was between life and death. The claws of the larger beast finished the job by cutting the limping bone of her left arm from her shoulder as a pool of blood was forming there. The spiders returned to the beast insides as of then.

"Моя рукоятка! Кто-то помогает мне!"(My arm! Someone help me!), she shouted as her senses started to fade, she was nothing besides a defenseless, wounded prey awaiting for the slaughter now. The creature was to give the final, crushing blow to kill her as the stump near her left shoulder was continually bleeding. If nobody distracted the seriously wounded beast about to attack the gravely wounded and now handicapped Yelena, she would be as good as dead. The creature now was vulnerable enough for a skilled combatant to finish what Yelena started, but her involuntary sacrifice was beyond what many would volunteer to do.

(OOC: I ask you to bring no "magical insta-regeneration of arm" type of stuff, she needs several good arguments to get the hell out of there instead of helping them anymore and I'm going for a darker fantasy theme that will be spoiled if everything can be easily. She still can do much with only one arm though)

The stinkin' thing called his bluff! Turned away without so much as a second glance from any of those eyes. Marvel watched in horrified fascination as it launched itself into the air and came down with all its weight on what was left of the inn.

So much for another round of breakfast.

Marvel killed the Godzilla illusion, spread his wings again and streaked back into combat. His invisibility couldn't completely defeat its senses, but it still helped. The thing couldn't lock on.

Before, he thought that others would be coming to his aid. Now, he was coming to theirs.

Another dose of ignited whiskey (what a waste of good drink) let the think know that he was back for more, and still as fresh as when he had started. This time, though, he had stayed farther from its grasp. This meant that he had less trouble getting through the thing's tentacles, but it also meant that more of the whiskey burnt up before hitting its target.

Red Gargoyle Demons were designed to be precision aerobats. In the air, they could out fly and out maneuver just about anything that there was to compete with them. This came at a price, however. The high-performance led to a lack of endurance. Angels could defeat him by riding him out and waiting until he started to tire. As he banked to survey the wreckage, he began to feel the first vestiges of fatigue starting to set in. But the sensation didn't last long, as he realized that...

"Oh no! It got Honey!"

Marvel watched in rue as a horde of spiders pulled away from the girl, taking her arm with them.

She didn't know it, but Marvel had taken a liking to her. Something about her made him feel that they had something in common, though he wasn't exactly sure what. And now, he was about to do something that he had never done before: stand between harm and someone else.

He landed, dropped his invisibility spell, and fireballed everything that moved. Spiders went up in puffs of smoke. It only made the creature madder--and Marvel got three tentacles this time. He didn't know whether to feel honored or scared. Right then, he was too busy feeling anger to care, though.

He checked himself. He was going about this the wrong way--playing its game instead of his. He couldn't cast a fireball, but...

He brought his hands together, one a fist and one flat. Lowering his head and closing one eye, he called up all but a small spark of the magical energy he had and put it into one big, desperate illusion. As he watched, the three tentacles lurching toward him appeared to catch fire. The beast screamed in pain as the fire spread to its other limbs. As the pain intensified, it tried to swat the flames out--but the illusion would not be so easily defeated. And the demon for once achieved his desired affect. It drew back for a moment.

He knelt down beside poor Honey and softly stroked her hair.

"Don't worry, Honey," he said softly. "You're going to be alright."

His tail swung around and a small spike at its end punctured her skin near the shoulder. In a moment, the demon's narcotic venom--a milder dose than normal--took over and helped to relieve the pain. Looking at her still-conscious form, he told her, "The venom should relieve your pain, but not completely. I've got to staunch the bleeding. I'm going to fireball your shoulder. That should cauterize it. It's my last scrap of magic. I'd be lying if I said you wouldn't feel it." And then, he set loose the fireball, and grimaced as she cried out.

He picked up her magic staff, then picked her up. His magic energy used up, he didn't have much time before his fire illusion faded. He spread his wings and launched into the air, hoping that he could get far enough away that the two of them would be safe--and that she wouldn't want to kill him for what he'd just had to do. In some covens in Hell, even touching a member of the royal family meant certain death, and this one was so valiant that she had to be important wherever she came from. For now, all he could do is hope that she would understand.

His luck held. He was out of range before the flames died, and the creature realized that it was completely uninjured. But Marvel understood it now.

It depended on all those eyes. Its sight was everything. Its huge size made its sense of touch sluggish, and it smelled so bad that it couldn't smell anything else. Marvel also realized something when it ignored his illusion's challenge roar: the creature didn't just ignore the message, it never even received it. The thing was stone deaf.

It was a hungry, thirsty, tired, sweating demon that set Honey down a ways off into the woods behind where the inn had stood--and not one all too keen on getting back into the action. All that he could do was continue to stroke her hair and ask her, in a forlorn voice, "please, please forgive me."

Kuri mumbled weapons when she was being evacuated by Maggie, but was too dazed to do anything else.

As Maggie transfered the energy, Kuri's body seemed to focus the healing power on the wounds caused by the acid that was still nawing into her skin.

Kuri opened her eyes and pushed herself up to see the beast land on the roof of the inn. The structure gave way in the middle and a huge plume of dust exploded out as the center collapsed.

Kuri only said "F***" as the dust cloud pushed over her and Maggie. Kuri pushed herself up in the dust filled air with her good arm. Ignoring the pain of broken bones in her left hand.

Kuri staggered for a moment, stedied, and then ran through the slow moving dust cloud, back towards the ruin of the inn. The dust was thick enough one could barely make out where anything was by sight. Everything was just a dark blob and visiblity had dropped to a few feet. It was also hard to breath, since the small particulates could get into, and irritate the lungs.

One could locate the inn by the sound of beams cracking as the monster thrashed about kicking up even more dust. For anyone not within five feet of Kuri, there was the sound of the creature moving over the remains of the inn, then three barks of a heavy hand gun followed by three small explosions and small drops of flesh falling about.**

(OOC: She is using the dust cloud as cover, unfortunatly that means no one else knows what is happening either)

**Kuri was sliently swearing, she was wounded, unarmed, and apparently now in debt to a lesbian lathero. Just great...bloody brilliant Kuri, now you owe that witch your life...I hope I am right about this.
Kuri found only one of the walls of the inn was still standing. The fireplace, solidly built had withstood the monster's attack and supported the sagging wall attached to it.

[i]God, I hope my memory caught that right.[i] Kuri poked her head through a window. The glass had been broken out by the concussion of the collapse. She looked down at the wall near the fireplace and smiled. Her weapon belt lay there, illuminated the prancing line of little fire lions that had escaped their pen and were now playing about, and quickly growing up, around the spintered remains of the ceiling that now lay almost verticle. The remains shook as the monster began to thrash about, apparently wounded or distracted.

Kuri picked a broken fragment of trim up from the ground, wincing at the pain in her left hand. She then used it to 'catch' on of the strap loops on the belt and pull it out of the ruins. As she lifted her arm to drop the strap down over her left shoulder, she had a sudden caughing fit. A moment later, the monster suddenly pulled the wall above her down.

Eyes full of anger, pain, and general hatred looked down at Kuri. Kuri didn't even pause. She turned and ran. She could hear the tentacales moving through the air towards her. She used her left arm to guide her right hand to the gun on the belt. Pulling it free she dropped to the ground and rolled, fractured ribs becoming broken. With the pain causing tears in her eyes she aimed at the three incomming blobs and fired.

The standard rounds of the Hubris SAS 45 was is a nasty explosive round who's only draw back was fairly low penetration against armored targets. Tenticals are soft tissue, the explosive rounds turned her targets into flying bits of goey mess.

The monster screamed out again in fustration and pain. The sound indicated it was moving towards her as the dust finally began to settle out of the air.

Kuri picked herself up and continued her escape. A small stone wall appeared in the disapating haze and she slammed into it. This time a fragment of bone peired a lung. But her momentum was enough to filp her over the wall, and out of range of the massive glob of acid that smacked into the other side.**

Pain, screams, agony, it was a depressingly disturbing vision. The demon flying towards her did not help either as her vision became blurred and the only sense she could get perfectly was the sense of pain. It seemed friendly, but in her mind, that was only one explanation for that visage.

´"I died... no! I am in Hell because... I was selfish!"´

She remained paralyzed of fear as the gargoyle punctured the stump that remained from her left arm. The muscles of her entire face contracted as a reaction.

´"Eternity... no! It is unfair! I never harmed anybody! God is a huge tyrant! God must die!"´

Her mind thought as she started to bash mentally in every way possible the idea of a God, until her thoughts were interrupted by a blaze which burnt the stump on her left shoulder, while her nerves received a so intense burst of pain that she raised her shoulder, screaming and shouting:

"Нет, я не хочу сгореть внутри Ад! Шестякино!"(No, I do not want to burn in Hell! Injustice!)

It was too much... Yelena already had overexercised her capabilities, lost significant quantities of blood, her head was aching terribly and now a fireball burned her amputated shoulder. After a quick, horrible surge of pain, everything went black as she finally became unconscious after all such excruciating pains, popping her head back to the ground. She could not do anything more for the remainder of this battle.

OOC: I never intended to heal you any more than you wanted to be healed. Since the wound has been sealed shut with fire, not even Maggie's weak regeneration could give you back your arm.

IC:

Maggie realised a single large group attack was needed to kill this thing.

She was about to share this realization when the thing itself changed.

Rainbows of color ran beneath its skin, wings faded away, legs sprouted, arms shrank, and more eyes opened. Tenticles grew anew, and now Horns began to show.

No longer was this thing weak against fire. This was evidenced because it willed itself to burn, and burn it did.

With a single roar it sent a wall of fire at each of its opponets.

Maggie simply smiled, as her Aura defended her. The Magekillers were originally bred for just such a purpose, to destroy magic, and those who used it, and as such, had extrodinary defenses against magic and psionic based attacks. As the wall of fire fizzled out against her Aura, she willed it all into her hand, every ounce of her remaining strength, and directed her aura to do one last devastating attack against this creature.

"EVERYBODY, ATTACK IT IN UNISON ON THREE!" maggie shouted.

"ONE!" She balled up her fist
"TWO!" She raised it up as high as she could.
"THREE, NOW!" She shouted, and punched the ground itself just as hard as she possibly could. Cracks appeared in the ground as her Aura moved through it, and caused a giant Stalagmite to shoot out of the ground at the same moment as the other attacks were happening, skewering the creature through the center and pinning it in place.

It bellowed in pain, for it knew, it was about to die.

OOC: Make it a good deathblow. I'll post the creature's actual death tomorrow, because there's one last part of it, involving this thread's arch-nemisis, Chancellor Listh'vis.

(OOC: I was wondering where Tanaara and Jagaro had vanished too but alright)

Kuri was caughing up blood as the fire smacked into the stone wall behind her. The smell of singed hair waffed into her nostrils. Some poor creature who lived in the wall hadn't been so lucky.

Kuri picked herself up slightly and looked at the creature. She saw Maggie apparently trying to orginize a group attack.

Kuri pulled a green autosyringe from the belt and placed it on the hot stones. She could only hope someone else would find it and use it. She then placed her right hand on the staff, and placed her left arm underneath to bring it to bear.

It took her a moment to stand, and drop the staff level towards the creature. Her voice could barely carry, she was dropping again into shock.
niurin cur rioeeaght er passed her lips.

The almost invisible beam seemed to shimer across the distance between Kuri and her enemy. It was not energy, but actually the absence of energy. Where it hit, the beam began to pull energy from molecular bonds, or magical constructs as the energy tried to fill the void that the alternating beams created.

The beam was impossible to see, but the damage was not. Where the beam hit, the flames vanished and then the creatures skin turned dark blue. It then began to slag away as a small ice crystals into the air. The attack formed a hole in the side of the creature that increased in depth and width as the attack continued, like a huge invisible drill with a tip dipped in absolute zero.

But this kind of power came at a price, and every ounce of chaotic energy within a mile was being sucked into the staff and then poured into the focusing crystal at its tip. It pulled the chaotic life energy out of the chairs and tables, forming multi colored arcs that looked like the offspring of a rainbow and a lighting bolt. There were so many arcs it looked like a static electricity toy. They formed between objects infused with chaotic energy and the conducting rod.

The living conducting rod...

The conducting rod known as Kuri...

(OOC: I give Kuri about a 5% chance of survival right now...depending on other players actions)

OOC: Sorry right now I can only post about once a day.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Aradia shook her head - moaning at the pain that it brought - and with a miraculously unbroken arm- she had fetched up hard - she managed to pull Tasman close to her.

"He's going to crush the inn. Leave, or die beneath this fell things titanic weight."

She could hear screams, screams that seemed to be saying that the creature intended to flatten the inn? Aradia wasn't quite sure but with a few seconds concentration her head cleared and a quick chant turned her and Tasman to mist and a gentle, but slow, breeze carried the mist over to the near by stables, away from the demons attack on the structure of the inn itself.

The mist disipated leaving the two lieing in itchy straw, but that ws of no consequence. Stiffly they both climbed to their feet and made their way out of the stable just in time to see the altered creature send fire aaint them. Tasman lept to intercept, absorbing the fire...he was a Fyrecat after all..

And with that he began to draw more and more of the creatures energy to him, sending it though him to the Real where all fire came from and yearned to go back to...and Tasman was the perfect, uncloseable ( when he chose to be ) doorway back home...and the fire knew it and stremed home in vast fleming streamers ...touching the Fyrecat and disappearing a joyful noise being sounded...and the creature now torn in two directions and pinned in place... could it sustain it'self?

OOC:

I interpreted SS's request to mean that he wanted Yellena's arm passable, but not regenerated. I did my best to fulfill that wish.

Forgive me if I use a different name for Yellena when Marve refers to her. He does not yet know her name--and one of his annoying habits is that he makes up names for everyone else anyway. He calls Yellena "Honey" because that's the first name that he used to refer to her. El'Hilth and Drulk are "The Bugs" and Aradia is "Crazy Cat Lady." BTW, please don't confuse my character's lack of decorum with a lack of respect on my part for anyone else as a writer. I find the quality of the posts in this thread to be quite good, and I hope that we can sustain it to the end of the story line.

IC:

Marvel wrapped his wings around Honey and shared his life force with her for a time. It didn't bring her back to consciousness, but it got her frail body out of danger. He was no healer, but he had been in SmashMouth's infantry, and he knew a thing or two of battlefield medicine. When he finished, she would live--and he was all but completely exhausted.

He could only hope that, when she was back among them, she would understand. It gave him a moment's levity to think that her Saving Angel was, in fact, a demon. Take that, featherheads!

He had to tear himself away, however. He left her outside the stables, in a bed of straw, and started walking as fast as he could--he was too tired to fly now--back to the action. From a distance, he could see that the others had rallied against the monster. As he watched, The Bugs crawled out of the woodwork and Aura Babe did some kind of earthmover spell and staked the thing once but good. Marvel made a mental note not to get on her bad side.

Then, he heard something move inside the stables. It was Crazy Cat Lady and The Fleabag! Not bothering to even make himself presentable--he didn't even have the strength for a cleanliness illusion--he rounded the corner and started to negotiate. He knew how he was going to go about it. He was going to make it personal.

"I need your help, lady," he said. "I'm out of mojo. If you can pass me a little, I can blind that thing, and probably help it die faster. The life you save may be your cat's. Can you help?"

---------------

OOC:

This is my third post. Please turn him down. He needs the rest.

El'Hilth had foreseen that the beast would crush the inn and thus the two kaths had promptly gotten out of the inn. El'Hilth could do little besides stabing the thing, his powers only alowed him to see the feture, other places, or the goings on in some-one's head and project an astral projection, he could not interact. On Maggie's call Drulk jumped from one of the near by buildings onto the beast and stung it's eyes viciously, El'Hilth did about the only thing he could think of; he sent an astral projection on beast hoping it would confuse it.

Maggie gasped as Kuri used energies familer to her. She had assosciated with many voidmages, and knew their powers well, despite being bred to kill magic users. She couldn't see the energy true, but a voidmage could. She didn't know anyone outside of Warhaven could so intimatly grasp the basic powers of the void.

As the attacks hit simultainiously, the beast let out one last roar, then great volumes of energy began to surge from its body, and into the sky, as it dissapated back into the pure Chaos energies it had originally spawned from.

As it grew more and more transparent, a final massive surge blew upwards, and it was gone. In its place was a man, approximatly 5'9, with grey hair, and wearing simillar colored robes.

"I'll get you, I'll get you all!" He shouted at them before he too disappeared, nothing more than an illusion.

Maggie dropped to her knees, completly spent of all energy, panting heavily. She was glowing, but faintly, but even that may have been a trick of the light reflecting off her blond hair. Most Magekillers could've taken that fight, and still had the strength to appear as though it didn't phase them at all, exausted as they would've been.

No, Maggie was weak compared to other Magekillers her age.

She remembered, as she lay there, a time, in the past.

___________________________
"Your weak, collapsing after a battle. What sort of image is that going to give to your opponets if you collapse after every battle?" Her father had asked.

He was an imposing man, standing at seven foot tall, and weighing in at 400 pounds of solid muscle. Even without the boost of his aura, he could hit very hard. His hair, his eyes, and his aura were all crimson.

"Get up Maggie." he said.
She looked up at him and said, "I can't." She was after all, only eight years old.
"Quitter. Your not worth the air you breath if you give up that easily." Her father said, without a hint of sarcasim, meaning every word he said with utmost sincerity.
"But I can't dady, I can't. I'm too tired, I'm not worthless, just tired." she said with tears in her eyes.
"If you have energy to cry, then you have energy to stand up. You say your not worthless, then prove it, and reach deep down within, and STAND UP!" He shouted.
"I'm trying, but its hard!" young maggie cried.
_________________________________________
"I SAID STAND UP!" the memory bellowed inside her twenty-one year old mind.
Maggie reached within her, and found the last remaining strength within her, and stood up She was shaking like a maple leaf in a strong wind, but she stood, then realised it was only a memory.
"I hate you sometimes old man." she said quietly to herself.

"John." she said out loud, not knowing if anyone heard her or not, and stumbled, almost falling several times, to the remains of the inn.
Looking around, she stopped short, when she saw a single hand reaching out from beneath the wreckage, cluching some papers.

"John!' she shouted, kneeling beside the wreckage, too weak, too exausted to lift what would ordinarily be an easy task.

"Take these." he said weakly, handing them to Maggie. She put them in her little side pocket of holding.
"We'll get you out." She said, determined to save him.
"Don't bother, I'm dying, at last I'll be free." John said, then with a sigh let go of his last breath, and joined his fathers in the afterlife.
Maggie cried a little, and punched a nearby plank, rather weakly/

She stood, and faced the others.

"I don't like being attacked without knowing why. I don't like seeing innocent people suffer. As soon as I get my strength back, I'm going on a mission. I have a feeling whoever that geezer was inside that abomination doesn't want the Queen's plea to be answered, so I'm going to answer it, because I'm certain that sooner or later I'm going to meet him, and when I do, I'm going to yank the arm from his socket, and beat him to death with it, or maybe I'll roast him alive over a weak cold fire, and peal the flesh from his body and make myself a new punching bag with it, enjoying the screams of torment from him all the while. I don't know yet.

Who wants to go with me and get their revenge against him too?" she asked.

OOC: I'm certain you weren't actually intending to use powers similar to The Void, it just worked out that way. I'll ask you about it later, Icly.

OOC: Perhaps same orginal sources, a concept of zero energy and Dante's vision of Hell, which was frozen over.

IC: The problem wasn't the spell. The problem was the the termination of the spell. One moment there was a massive amount of magic energy plowing through Kuri. The next moment, there was no target for the spell so the spell stopped. This left a large amount of magical energy in a body with no magic ablity, resulting in a huge arc of magical energy going back to the universe through her like a massive electric short circut, or an electric chair.

The energy cauterized the wound in her lungs, but it also overwhelmed her nervous system. Kuri stopped breathing. Her heart stopped. She lost all motor control. She lost all feeling in her arms and legs. She lost all conciousness. At the same time, reminants of the energy was trapped inside of her, sparking across her brain, destroying even more. In eight minutes Kuri would be gone for good; killed by a lack of oxygen to the brain. Even if brought back by a necromancer or someother powerful wizard, the errant energy in her mind will make her a complete vegitable in ten minutes.

Kuri's lifeless body fell over the stone wall and dropped the staff onto the ground. No sound, just a dead man's drop after the beast vanished.

The staff seemed to be aglow on the ground. One could see the energy pulsating through the grain of the wood, luring many with its offers of power. Out of the wood dark shapes began slowly to emerge. They were voicelss, floating ghosts that seemed to be wearing ragged hoods over their faces and lacked legs. They varied in color from white to so black they were defined by an absence of light rather than color. Where eyes should have been were glowing red orbs, that seemed to indicate hate towards the living world they now inhabited.

Near Kuri's lifeless body stood a translucent vision of a boy. Unlike his fellows his body and clothing were distinct. His eyes were just jet black rather than red. He was looking around the scene with some intrest compared to his fellow specters that seemed to be aimlessly floating about.

OOC: The 'boy' is going to tell you not to touch the staff if you attempt to since your all magic users. Warning, TG if you want to interact with any of the other spirits besides the boy because they are Klatchian derived and from a NC-17 RP.

Marvel staggered over to the nearest column and used it as best he could to steady himself. Crazy Cat Lady just stood there. The demon moaned.

"Ohhh, can't you feel it? Two--no, three lives have just ended. No, wait. One of them never was, and one can be called back--but only one, and you've got to hurry if you want it." He wasn't a diviner. He didn't even know how or why he knew these things. Perhaps it was the chaos of this world starting to infiltrate his being. Regardless, the vision drained the last bit of energy that he had. He collapsed onto the floor, still conscious but unable to stand. "Oh, Honey, I hope you'll be alright."

He looked up at Aradia. "Now that the thing is gone, how's the Fle--the cat? What are your names, anyway?"

(OOC: Memories of ... brainwashing. And their song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTMQJi_wDi8))

´"That was a dark age, a time when our ancestors bowed to fearsome fascist witches and capitalists, when even seven years old children, like you were exploited as slaves by the burgeoise filth to work in dirty and polluting factories to make wealth and sustain those who did not work, it was just the dawning of the factories by then. Make no mistake kids: a wizard is in no ways different from a capitalist. This magic is not something any worker can learn with enough effort like technology. It is something that only a few who can learn and their sons can as well, like the wealth of the capitalist, and by having only a few who have magic at their hands, what happens to those who have not?"

"They become oppressed by those who have!", Yelena shouted at the class room. She never missed, always was the first to answer when the teacher asked a question, and never missed it, be it from mathematics or from the naturally biased History classes.

"Yes, that is exactly what happened Yelena. Your grand-grandfathers had very difficult lives, either under the iron fist of the capitalists or as slaves for ruthless witches and wizards. But the plight of the people cannot last longer. A few were brave to fight for freedom and dignity, but they had much to sacrifice in their fight. Those are the great, countless of unsung revolutionaries that gave their lives, blood and sweat so you could be born free from fascism, tyranny and capitalist exploitation. Let's all sing in honor of those who gave so much for what we see now to become reality, and in honor of the Paris Commune!", the teacher asked as all the students automatically got up, including Yelena. Magic was the monster, the aberration that oppressed the proletariat, the allied of the burgeoise and the enemy of the people, it was an obstacle to be surpassed before achieving a truly communist society. She sang in a chorus with several children and the teacher, in Russian:

Arise, you branded by a curse,
You whole world of the starving and enslaved!
Our indignant intellect boils,
Ready to lead us into a fight to the death.
We will destroy this world of violence
Down to the foundations, and then
We will build our new world.
He who was nothing will become everything!

This is our final
and decisive battle.
With the Internationale
the human race will arise.(Chorus)

No one will grant us deliverance,
No God, no Tsar, no hero.
We will win our liberation,
With our very own hands.
To throw down oppression with a skilled hand,
To take back what is ours –
Fire up the furnace and hammer boldly,
while the iron is still hot!

-Chorus-

Only we, the workers of the world-wide
Great army of labour,
Have the right to own the land,
But the parasites - never!
And if the great thunder rolls
Over the pack of dogs and executioners,
For us, the sun will still
Shine on with its fiery rays.

-Chorus-


"´Arise, you branded by a curse´", the phrase ringed into her mind, it seemed too strong to be ignored its ironic meaning. Branded by a curse... the curse of being born with affinity with magic. She never wanted it, in fact she still felt shame of it, she always refused to get into politics because of it, because all she knew was that those who had magic would inevitably oppress those who did not have it, but still she learned it, isolated from civilization where she could never have a chance oppress anybody. Yelena always wondered that magic would somehow corrupt her and turn her into an oppressor her people hated with such fervor. Where power corrupts, magic corrupts absolutely. Life in Soviet Steam lacked the wonders of consumerism. It was simple, ascetic, with little to no luxuries, but nobody starved and all have fulfilled the role of consumerism with a very strong personal lace of friendships. People built personal belongings from scratch, as those were not important for the people and they could have them. The flow of creativity of not having anything ready by "the market" for those who would in this theoretical supposition be able to afford it meant that improvisation and artisans were very common in Soviet Steam. But somehow she has resisted so far whatever secret taint of magic brought to its users turning them into tyrants and oppressors. Her battered body continued on the ground, breathing hardly, but suddenly its motionlessness stopped as she started to sing, with a clear and lyric tone of voice, the first stanza of the Internationale, as she reminded of all those stories of the struggle of the defeated Paris Commune to create the economic and social order achieved in Soviet Steam.

"Вставай, проклятьем заклеймённый,
Весь мир голодных и рабов!
Кипит наш разум возмущённый
И в смертный бой вести готов.
Весь мир насилья мы разрушим
До основанья, а затем
Мы наш, мы новый мир построим,
Кто был ничем, тот станет всем.

Это есть наш последний
И решительный бой.
С Интернационалом
Воспрянет род людской!"

She slowly opened her eyes as the music seemed to lighten the burden. The pain of her dismembered limb could still be sensed and she could swear she could still feel she had an arm before completely waking up. Soon her entirely damaged trenchcoat, with one of its arms missing as it was carried together with her own arm, started to agitate as she had a burst of energy. She lifted up by herself with the help of her magical skills, although she seemed entirely battered. But as she saw Kuri on the ground, maybe there was still a chance.

She did not know why, but she had a thing, a drive to try to help her. Yelena started to run, ignoring the wounds provoked by the acid and her overall condition. She looked at the lifeless body of Kuri, somehow the boy was ignored by her, she and whispered to herself:

"Никто будет думать я странн"(Nobody will think I am strange)

Her knowledge of medicine was not complete, and she lacked a cigarette, but she did what she knew to attempt to make Kuri's heart start again...
She started to compress Kuri's chest with her remaining right hand and to apply mouth-to-mouth breathing on her with intervals.
"Это будет наука!", she muttered as she continued trying it, trying it...

(OOC: It's up to Alcona and Hubris whether this CPR will work or not. And it has reasoning (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_CPR#First_attempts_at_resuscitation_in_the_18th_Century), this is why I mentioned a cigarette ;))

"I'm out of mojo. If you can pass me a little, I can blind that thing, and probably help it die faster. The life you save may be your cat's. Can you help?"

Arradia couldn't answer, she was locked with Tasman, backstopping him, useing all her consciousness to keep him here on this plane as he channeled the fire back to where it had come from. The abrupt disappearance of fire disoriented them both for a moment, but she quickly shook free...

"Now that the thing is gone, how's the Fle--the cat? What are your names, anyway?"

"Aradia and Tasman" She murmured absently, all of her attention elsewhere, drawn by something she couldn't quite put her finger on, then she was following that pull as fast as her feet could carry her.

She saw the woman who had been attacked by a spider the night before, seeking to help the one that had...had it only been a double hand full of minutes ago? -wanted to slay her? But she only had one arm and looked nearly as badly battered as the woman she sought to save.

No matter, in seconds she was on her knees across from Lena? She thought that was the womans name...

...and chanting...

Wake Kuri up inside
Wake Kuri up inside
I call your name, Kuri
(oh Goddess Arrianna she hoped she remembered the name correctly, she hadn't been paying much attention last night )
I save you from the Dark
I bid your blood to run
before you come undone
save you from the nothing you could become
Bring Kuri to Life
Bring Kuri to Life

There was a reason that Aradia Victrix was the youngest Shri'vraen. Her hair lifted on an unseen, unfelt breeze as power swirled and gathered in a glowing mist about her. The pigeon's blood hued ruby at her brow began to softly emmit a crimson light and her sapphire blue eyes lit as well.

Mist surrounded the three blanketing them in soothing, but not chilling,coolness, then with one surge - as if Kuri had taken a deep breath, it flowed into the dieing woman and held death at bay...and as Arradia chanted on it began to drive death away.

"For mine is the Word
and mine is the Will,
and MY will be done!"


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

OOC: A & H, you have to take it from here, your decission...

Aradia and Tasman. Those were their names. But which was which? "Aradia" sounded rather cat-like to the demon, so he guessed that it must be the cat's name--and he was sure that the human would correct him soon enough, should he be wrong.

In a few minutes, when he felt a little stronger, he got up off the ground and staggered back over to what was left of the inn. Basically, it was a chimney and a bunch of splinters. Fortunately, the fire lions had died out--no telling what they could have done with the place if they had been allowed to roam free, igniting everything in their path. It didn't come to that, though--in fact, it looked--and felt--as if pretty much all of the chaos energy had been completely drained out of the place. If so, so much the better--it meant that that stinkin' cooler wouldn't be tormenting the poor, innocent demon any more. Then again, it probably wouldn't be tormenting anybody anyway.

Then, he saw Honey and Tasman standing over one of the others, with Honey not far away. It looked like Tasman was using some kind of Intervention Spell. Well--there was nothing Marvel could do about it. He was still out of mojo...so, he walked up to the cat and, in his friendliest voice, said, "Hey, there, Aradia. I'm a little bit bored, so would it be OK if I pet you while we're waiting for the spell to take affect?"

----------------------

OOC: Aren't names wonderful?

Yelena's attempts at CPR did not completely save Kuri. They just gave her mind the precious oxygen it needed to live for a few minutes more. Likewise Aradia's magic would have been useless, the brain damage too great for any spell but a necromancers to animate. Together, they saved Kuri from the great unknown.

Aradia's magic seemed to take forever, but finally it pushed the chaotic energy from her motor cortex. Her heart and lungs restarted. Kuri coughed up some half congeled blood from her lungs but contineud to beathe shallowly. The gases she exhaled were so full of chaotic magic that they formed small humming birds that flew off into the air. Kuri remained unconcious, her body still suffered a broken rib, a broken hand, a dislocated shoulder, a couple more fractured ribs and enough brusing to look like she went twenty rounds with Mohamad Ali.

"Thy ministrations to this fallen amazon have saved her life from departing the mortal coil. Telleth me fairly, were doth one learn such mechanic art of preserving a soul by giving them your expelled breath and beating upon their breast?" The deep voice was from the boy ghost. The voice was mature and steady contrasting with the spector's apperence of a teenager with severe acne issues.

The 'boy' attempted to say something else but was cut off by a banche screetch that filled the air. A red eyed ghost had given off the wail as it was pulled back into the wood of the rod as though it were on an invisible bungie cord or spring.

OOC: Note there is an autosyringe containing a magical potion sitting on the wall. ;)

"Thy ministrations to this fallen amazon have saved her life from departing the mortal coil. Telleth me fairly, were doth one learn such mechanic art of preserving a soul by giving them your expelled breath and beating upon their breast?"

Before Yelena could reply the strange wailing sound coupled with a terrifying ghost came from inside the wooden rod. She had a quick goose bump and staggered, fearing a legion spiders, but as after a few seconds nothing else came, she wondered for a while. She did not believe in afterlife, but that what she was seeing seemed to disprove her initial skepticism. Now the question of how to explain it came, and unanswered it stood in her mind as such was the event that could not be explained through scientific logic. She was quick to reply to the boy, in Russian, she seemed to not like remembering what she was to say:

"It is a part of a Polytechnic Technological University teachings before the specialization fields, but I never tried it with a real person before. My expertise in science is another: electricity. That was before I started to tap my natural and previously repressed potential on the opposite fields of conveyance magic"

As she answered it a quick thought came to her mind: the thought that perhaps there was only one place where she could find a replacement to her lost limb, and she knew pretty well it: Soviet Steam, no matter what a feeling of missing it still came to her mind. And again... she missed her father she does not see for more than a decade. As she finally noticed the strange syringe, she used her right hand to grab it, and looking for a good vein on Kuri's right arm, she injected it, as her will pushed its contents into her veins. What were those ghosts was a question that puzzled her mind. And specially strange was the fact it seemed they were apparently trapped inside the rod.

Maggie stood. She hoped the contents of the odd Syringe would work, otherwise, she would have to use her most powerful ability, an ability granted to a Magekiller only once in a great while, an ability that once used, was rarely ever granted again.

She layed the map down on a table and looked at it, and was only slightly surprised to see the map itself twisting an changing. First there were ten, then nine, then three-hundred thousand, then three, and the landscape itself kept changing. First there were mountains, then there were valleys, then nothing but a broad grassy flat plain, then an ocean.

The landscape kept changing, kept twisting. Studying the map she came to the conclusion that there were only three temples, and the closest was possibly in a valley, or on a mountain, next to either a small city or a dense forest, and near either a large body of water, or a river. It was at least one day's walk away, and at most, five days walk away, based on the scale of the map.

Either way, no one was really able to do much of anything at the moment, beside catch their breath, recover their powers, and heal.

"I can give Weak Regenerative powers for minutes at a time, does anyone need to heal?" She asked, using what little of her powers had returned to ensure her voice was heard by everyone who had helped fight the monster.

She didn't say it would take several minutes more for her to regain the ability to give said powers, only that she could give them.

Marvel stopped petting Aradia. The specter in the staff had come out and gone back. This did not phase him. He'd seen more than his share of lost souls trying to get their bearings.

What got his attention was the other ghost--or, rather, that it seemed to be talking to Honey.

"If you'll pardon my asking," he said, eyeing the thing suspiciously, "why would it matter to you? Verily," he continued, satirizing the specter's idiolect, "methinks thou art not the sort to be breathing for anybody."

If he was lucky, he'd get the chance to sneak off to the side and ask Honey what her name was.

Marvel stopped petting Aradia. The specter in the staff had come out and gone back. This did not phase him. He'd seen more than his share of lost souls trying to get their bearings.

What got his attention was the other ghost--or, rather, that it seemed to be talking to Honey.

"If you'll pardon my asking," he said, eyeing the thing suspiciously, "why would it matter to you? Verily," he continued, satirizing the specter's idiolect, "methinks thou art not the sort to be breathing for anybody."

If he was lucky, he'd get the chance to sneak off to the side and ask Honey what her name was.

"Hey, there, Aradia. I'm a little bit bored, so would it be OK if I pet you while we're waiting for the spell to take affect?"


"You can keep up the petting, but she's" The Fyrecats tail uncurled from around Tasmans monster sized paws and pointed to the exhausted Aradia sitting besides Kuri's unconscious body. The chantry she had used , after such a battering as she had recieved, was not without reprecussions, and she didn't have the energy for further healing at this time. "Aradia, I'm Tasman. What's your name? You did pretty good against that gallumping lump o' Chaos."

The Fyrecat observed the ruins of the Inn with a dour eye. "You know what this groups needs is warm beds, sound sleep and decent food...and not a bit in sight, wouldn't you kow it."

Ahh but there was, if anyone decided to ask for it. The inn was at the southren most end of town, and the fighting had drawn a number of spectators.

"You people are AMAZING!" shouted one little kid.
"We haven't seen anything like that, ever." said a townswoman
"I'd be honored if you'd tell me the story." said a townsman.

Similar sentiments were expressed among all the spectators.

Maggie just smiled, and chuckled.

Maggie stood. She hoped the contents of the odd Syringe would work, otherwise, she would have to use her most powerful ability, an ability granted to a Magekiller only once in a great while, an ability that once used, was rarely ever granted again.

She layed the map down on a table and looked at it, and was only slightly surprised to see the map itself twisting an changing. First there were ten, then nine, then three-hundred thousand, then three, and the landscape itself kept changing. First there were mountains, then there were valleys, then nothing but a broad grassy flat plain, then an ocean.

The landscape kept changing, kept twisting. Studying the map she came to the conclusion that there were only three temples, and the closest was possibly in a valley, or on a mountain, next to either a small city or a dense forest, and near either a large body of water, or a river. It was at least one day's walk away, and at most, five days walk away, based on the scale of the map.

Either way, no one was really able to do much of anything at the moment, beside catch their breath, recover their powers, and heal.

"I can give Weak Regenerative powers for minutes at a time, does anyone need to heal?" She asked, using what little of her powers had returned to ensure her voice was heard by everyone who had helped fight the monster.

She didn't say it would take several minutes more for her to regain the ability to give said powers, only that she could give them.

"We could use a heal" El'Hilth said "our exoskeleton ment that we could ignore the beast's acid for a bit, but it things have gotten bad" he said wiping the acid away with a scrap of slik "I can see my fleashy parts, not good."

OOC: Sorry I was waiting for Tanara's response to the recovery or the injection.

IC: The green autosyringe gave off a loud hiss of air and the contents vanished into her veins. Kuri began to glow and seemed to be covered in an encapsulating mist. Also Kuri began to float slightly off the ground. Studying the autosyringe would reveal the label.


Magi-Tek Recovery Pen
Directions: Apply to artery, remove saftey cap, press actuator button. Allow gas to completely escape, remove from vein. Will cure most major breaks, bangs, scrapes, and other near or non leathal damage.
WARNING: Do not use on the Undead, Un-Holy, Demonic, or those who suffer from arthritis as it may cause sudden uncontrolled do-gooding, or an inablity to stop dancing. Do not use if individual can not be unconcious for 24 hours or more. Use in battle is strongly advised against.

Potential Side Effects: Runny Nose, Ichy Eyes, Levitation, Speaking in Toungs, Permanent Amneisia, Bloating, Yeast Infections, Demonic Possession (Only west of the Styx) the ability to see dead people, and massive sexual appitite. Consult a Witch Doctor or Wizard if any of these symptoms last two or more years.

The boy ghost shook his head at Yelena "Yea, mine studies did not cover the laquages of the slavic people...perchanse thy can speeketh French?" But his attention was drawn away by the demon. "Thy speech is clear, mine soul and body hath parted company some four hundread year before. Yet foul demon mistake not mine intrest is that of a soul blessed by a happy afterlife. Thine kin and mine soul have not crossed paths these past four hundread years. Nay hath any true knowledge of the mortal relm come to me. Mine loins ne'r produced any kin, so any tales of the mortal relm hath come like gossip overth the vine of the grape to mine ear. As mine soul awaits the energy within the Fox's rod to disperse, shall I find amuse my mind with questions of odd mechanics I have not heard before." The ghost pointed to Yelena.
"For sooth, doth in this world now girls attend University? Hath the world gone mad, the ensuing rutting should populate the earth with bastards like the bibilical flood." Obviously he wasn't much for women's rights.

There were too many things to do.

"First--you can call me any name you want, boy. Sticks and stones may break my bones but whips and chains excite me." He flickered his tongue to press the point. "Second, she ain't from this world, moron. Thought it would be obvious. In HER world, they were...smarter." He rolled his eyes. "Third," he turned to Tasman, "I'm Marvel." He turned to Honey. "Which leaves you and," he pointed to The Bugs, "them as the only ones whose names I don't know but care to discover." He looked back at Darwin Award. "Never had kids, eh? Good to see that evolution is still improving the species."

That was just about it--he turned back to...oops! Nope, one more thing. He turned back to Honey. "Be careful with that life force I loaned ya, babe," he said with wiley grin. "Ya never know how it's gonna affect ya."

He turned to the crowd, folded his wings good and tight, and spread his arms. "Friends!" he said. "How can a guy refuse such a wonderful offer. Tell ya what--why don't we just make a nice big fire in the middle of town--I mean, it's not like we don't have enough tinder wood--and PARRRR-TY!"

He didn't wait for Honey or The Bugs. They'd introduce themselves sooner or later, he was sure.

(I won't put more stuff in Russian because online translators suck)

Yelena simply frowned at the ghost boy words and commented in her language, with a whisper as personally declaring her anti-monarchist point of view could be dangerous. After all, other than their hatred for those born with the gift of magic, she agreed with all the other ideological beliefs of the motherland, as she said in a dark, serious tone of voice:

"Those times of oppression were over since my grandfather, my grandmother and their comrades overthrew the corrupt kingdom and personally executed the pig who was known as the tzar in my land, replacing that outdated and corrupt government by a new, socialist elective dictatorship of the proletariat. Since them everyone is equal and we do not bow to kings, we kill all kings who try to enslave our people again with the invincible strength of the working class". She then showed to the ghost the palm of her remaining hand which had clear signs that in Soviet Steam engineers were also mechanics and had some hard work to do, both physically and mentally.

But as she heard the demon, she shrugged at him before he departed, also saying in her language, she wasn't sure on how he could understand her entirely, it was obvious she had conveniently forgotten everything to stand better the situation although still visibly shaken:

"Life force? Affect me? Tell me first before you leave, what are you talking about spirit? Did you do something with me?"

After hearing the answer she checked Kuri before following the demon towards the small crowd. Although the only thing in her mind was to try to hold her sleep, tomorrow she could cast a portal to get back to Soviet Steam.
´"I am not going to end up without both legs and arms!"´, was her thought that motivated such decision of leaving them to their own.

But as she looked at one of the kids, she tried to disguise her missing limb but could not. Her eyes seemed a bit sad due to the fact she lost her left arm. Although she could use conveyance to lift objects and was luckily right-handed, Yelena knew she would miss it dearly and that the chances of her finding a "replacement" were null. By all accounts, she felt herself like a cripple, like a handicapped, worthless individual for the moment. She looked at one of the townspeople and it was clear her sadness and depressing mood. At least she could be an example for people on how adventuring is a big, foolish idea. That was the least she could do for that people.

The demon turned toward the girl for a moment.

"I'm not a spirit," he said. At six foot three inches tall, he towered over her, adding to the statement. "I'm as real a living being as you are. And, when that...creature...knocked you out and tore your arm away, I was there. I fireballed all its little spiders and I pulled you out of the combat zone. You were going cold. I was afraid that you might end up like...him." He waved disgustedly at Darwin Award. "Then, over by the stables, I held you, spread my wings around you and infused you with my own life force." He faced her squarely, spreading his wings slightly so she'd get the picture--but he did not dare touch her. Not now. "It worked--you lived--but, as I'm sure Aradia will tell you, it wore me out so badly that I couldn't even stand up by the time I met her and Tasman in the stables. What is your name, anyway? I'm sure you're getting tired of me calling you 'Honey.'"

So...no nobility where she came from. In her mind, she was part of a giant working class. It was all just more propaganda to Marvel--the same kind of sham as the nobility, but just with a different master--but maybe she'd be able to stand knowing that he'd touched her after all.

Aradia ignored the ghost, as long as he was not attempting harm she would let him be. She really was too tired to mind him probably as much as she possibly should, but ghosts had never particularly offended her or the Order's sensibilities before so why should one now.

The strange green substance and the odd construct that had held it were completely out of her experience and so she simply took the contraption and tucked it in a belt pouch.

However she did have to grin at the demon's words. She'd have to remember about the whips and chains and not produce any, more excitement they didn't need. But a party? Now? ah, NO!

Tasman nudged her, headbutting her shoulder. "You take advantage of these good people, get some food, sleep and that one too" he twitched his luxuriant whiskers at the mist encapsulated Kuri.

He then proceeded to do just that- trotting over to the towns woman who had said

"I'd be honored if you'd tell me the story."

"I'll tell you the story, and more if you will loan my mistress a good bed and when she wakes, a hot meal. Her friend too is in need of attention."

Shortly both Kuri and Aradia were tucked into soft ,warm beds and Tasman regaling a growing number of listeners with the story of the Inn and some of Aradia's past adventures.

Yelena for a brief while looked at the demon and replied to his question as she shrugged, apparently it was no problem that such being touched her. On the other hand, she seemed anything but happy at the moment, and in fact it was a bit obvious she wanted to get out of that place. It was too strange and hostile of a world, she still had much to lose if she remained and Yelena never was one known for being ready to make a sacrifice for others. The only reason she fought that creature was because there was nowhere to run. A stump of her trenchcoat covered her lost arm and she seemed very battered overall, with several acid wounds and holes around her clothes.

"Yelena, Yelena Praskovya. And I do not like you calling me honey but I was too busy in my mind to complain before. Now I want only one thing in this world, it will be very good for me if I can find it. I want two things, if you can translate them to this people: First I need some new clothes because this acid has destroyed my pants, trenchcoat and shirt as it is obviously seen, second, I want to drink Vodka because I am not well and I do not want to sleep 'normally' again in this place. I want to fall again and drink the whole noon till tomorrow to forget this crap!"

She never got drunk before, but for some reason this time she really wanted to, perhaps it was because of the promises that it was something that helped people to forget what they did not want to remember, but it was clear Yelena sought to wash away the recent memories somewhere... with liters of alcohol.

The quality of the air was changing, Evil had been weakend. It was begining to smell nicer, sweeter, and inspired thoughts of happiness, of course, chaos was still chaos, but this was the nicer variety.

Maggie walked over to the bugs.

"I think I have enough to give you both a good five minutes of weak regeneration. Enough to get at least a small layer of Exoskeleton, maybe less. You'll have to help me, lay my hand on your heart, or as close an approximation as we can manage. The heart is the home of one's lifeforce, or so I've been told, and that is the best place for maximum transference. If you have more than one heart, please use your strongest, and or largest one." she said, honestly not knowing where their hearts might be.

She laid her hands on them, and after being directed to their hearts, transferred her aura to them, then stood. She watcjed with satisfaction as their bodies began to visibly heal, knowing they would have a feeling of relief.

She grabbed the map and turned to the townspeople.

"If you give me warm food, and a nice bed, I shall tell you my perspective of events, and on the morrow at this time, I shall set forth and right this wrong, more for personal reasons than because it is the right thing to do. A large party should be most suffiecent." she said.

Turning to the others.

"I will not wait. Tomorrow at this time, nine'o clock if I can trust the sun, I will depart. I have the only surviving copy of the map. Go your own way, or come with me, I care not, but I know I will find whoever did this to us over the course of my journey. I will not let him beat me, I will not run like a coward, like a child away from this, and I will get him." she said with an air of determination that removed the possibility of doubt.

Then without a further word, she walked away, as the townspeople scattered to contribute to a small feast. Others began breaking down the surviving planks of wood from the inn, and laid a bonfire in the townsquare to be lit when the sun fell.

The 'boy' looked a bit confused at the demon's speech. As though he couldn't quite figure out why he seemed to pissed at being called a demon.

He hated to admit it, but Darwin Award was right. After a week without a bath, a trip through Slaboflab's gullet, a run-in with (of all things) a food cooler and a couple of rounds with a who-knows-what...Marvel probably was starting to get just a tad on the foul side. He really hated that word, foul. Goodie-goodies had been hurling it at him for years and years--as if it was a crime to want to get something out of this world for yourself!

Still, he had a danzel in distress to think about. Maybe, when this was all over, he could get together with her and...

Nahhh. He'd need a female for that! And those were pretty hard to find in this world. Oh well.

Still, he knew what they had in common now. She wasn't a hero on some invitation-only quest--just like him. If he was lucky, he'd get the chance to explain it to her sometime.

So he just did what he needed to do to blend in and make himself useful. They don't kill useful folk out of hand.

He reached out and took the girl by the shoulder. "Ho--Yellena, it's good to meet you," he said. "Come with me, an' I'll see about those things you asked for."

"Friends," he said to the townsfolk, "a change of clothes for the lady, please? And some drink. She needs strong drink after what she's just been through."

He doubted that there would be any arguments.

OOC: The townspeople are NPC's, feel free to take control of one and RP with it.

IC: The town drunk somehow managed to produce a bottle of his favorite Vodka, Diaka Vodka, which in most places cost nearly one million Dollars a bottle, but he had gotten it free, from a friend, or so he said.

Still others waved those with requests over to help them out. They had a chance to be free, free at last from nights of horrors, and days of struggle, and they were going to take it.

Maggie meanwhile, sat on a stump and proceeded to tell all the children just what happened, from her perspective.

OOC: Diaka Vodka really is a real brand of Vodka, and really is about that expensive.
http://www.bornrich.org/entry/worlds-most-expensive-vodka/

Several people gathered around Kuri, after all she was floating in the area and quite green in color. One person attempted to pick up the Fox rod and was informed by the 'boy' (also known as Darwin Award)
"If thy have thee gift of magic, dare not place thy hands upon that staff, lest it part thine life from thy body, and trap thy soul within its grain for eternity." The boy scrabled away in fear.

"So what happened to you then?"

"I as the youth before thee, did touch the rod while in a fight with a cur. A fragment of mine soul was taken into its grain. So when that warrior doth called such power through it, the remainder of my soul returned here."

"so if I touch it?"

"Nothing good lady, for the commoner hath nothing to fear but its weilder"

The old lady proceeded to pick up the staff and started to carry it away. Another ghost vanished into its wood. "You there...yes you get over here and bring the glowing one inside. Can't leave her out in the rain floating about can we? And we'll get some food into that frame of yours, after this fight you'll need some good hot stew."

Sitting behind his desk amongst towers and pillars of moldy, moth-affected parchment was an aged old man. He was working feverishly with a feather quill. With a vengeance he stabbed the point of his delicate pen into the flesh of the ink pot. The runes he wrote in took a normal man several days to write, but with the old man’s practice it was like breathing. The scratching of pen on parchment resumed after another lance of ink was applied, accompanied by the sound of grinding teeth.

“Finish the 5,000 incantations of Amun-Rek for me birthday she says! Humbug. I’ll never do this again,” he mumbled. His teeth ground harder. “If ever I see that sorceress again I’ll show her what’s what!”

The old man’s proclamation was interrupted by a giant boom that emanated from the large ornate fireplace at the end of the room. His carefully stacked tiers of parchment went flying. Cursing the Goddess, the Moon, and all that was holy to Magic he fell to the floor scrambling to pick up the papers.

In his rush he hardly took notice of the woman who stepped out of his fireplace and moved in front of his large desk. When he finally got up he stared dumbfounded for a moment. Even though he’d known her for twenty years, each time he saw her voluptuous bodice, shining amber-black hair framing a perfect face, and powerful aura he couldn’t help but pause.

“Good evening Armenius how are you?” her sing-song voice asked.

“Lady Winter,” Armenius stood and bowed. He might curse her and wish she didn’t make him do such time-consuming tasks, but she deserved respect. While he, Armenius, might be a warlock to match the best of magic users amongst Men and Dwarves and maybe equal the Elves…Lady Winter surpassed them all.

“I do not have much time here,” she started. “I have a quest which you must undertake.”

“Anything you ask milady.”

“There is another rising of Chaos.”

The words hung in the air like a poisonous gas. Armenius’ teeth ground and his aura flared. Above all other things, those of the Order of Light hated Chaos more than anything else. They were constantly in contest for control of worlds, souls, and ancient lore. Here in the Empire itself Chaos had tried to invade from the North and West on many occasions. Only by great sacrifice and heroic defense was it ever defeated…nay, not defeated…only kept at bay for a time.

“I have no felt it here,” Armenius looked up into the Sorceress Winter (http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b184/Upum/Fantasy/Ye_Olde_White_Mage.jpg)’s face.

“It is in another world that it is rising. If it is allowed to fester there then it can spread to other worlds, including ours. You shall defeat them.” She lifted her hand and held forth a small glass ball. She whispered a word of power and dropped it. With a crash and a plume of smoke the ball hit the floor and disappeared. In its place, held firmly in Lady Winter’s palm, a staff stood. Its length of gnarled wood was inscribed with carving in the Old Tongue. Its peak was inset with a round clear crystal.

“And to do so I give you back your staff. I know how much you’ve missed it,” smiled Lady Winter.

Gingerly reaching out Armenius took the staff and closed his eyes. It was like an old friend returning to you. Like a lover returning from a long journey. A warmth rushed through his body and once more the papers in the room shuffled.

Without another word Lady Winter handed him a parchment with instructions. She then turned magnificently and with another great booming explosion, walked into the fireplace to disappear, leaving Armenius to consider his quest. Without hesitation he snapped his finger and conjured his robes and traveling gear. He read the parchment, a letter from some princess, and walked out of his large, moss covered stone tower. He’d need some help if he was to accomplish this task whole.

* - * - * - * - *

“Ach, get that durned arse out of ma’ way you fool!” growled a gruff looking dwarf as he sat perched atop the front of a large covered wagon. Standing in the middle of the road and blocking his path was an old merchant guiding a donkey. The man tugged uselessly at the reins of the donkey, his efforts clearly in vain.

With a deep grumbled the dwarf jumped down from his drivers seat and thumped over to the struggling merchant. “Ge’ oot of ma wa’ you dumb manling,” growled the dwarf. The merchant stared with wide eyes and an open mouth as the short dwarf reared back and sent a thundering punch into the side of the donkey’s head. The force hurled the donkey around, sending it flying five feet off the road. The dwarf walked over to it and checked it over. Not dead, but it wouldn’t be waking up any time soon. The dwarf walked back to his wagon, the impotent curses of the old man following.

“You could have been a bit gentler,” said a young warrior sitting on the other side of the drivers seat. “But then since when has ever been known to be gentle?”

“Ach, shut yer mouth [url=http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b184/Upum/Fantasy/Novice_male_warrior_by_shonensan.jpg]Alec (]Tyrec McBullen[/url),” Tyrec growled.

Without another word he picked up the reins of the horses and snapped them back into action. With a jolt the wagon got going again. Alec simply shook his head and went back to sharpening the edge on his sword. Just as he was getting into a smooth pace, something nudged him in the back.

“Garrick (http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b184/Upum/Fantasy/Warrior_at_peace.jpg), can you not lay still?” Alec asked.

“It’s not my fault,” cried another young human voice. “Atvar keeps rolling around. I’m trying to not be crushed under his huge belly.”

“You’re both being annoying, your whining and his shuffling,” added in a third voice. Jaim (http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b184/Upum/Fantasy/Warrior_by_subcity.jpg) must have been woken from his slumber as well.

“Alec, hold my sword up there and strap it to the side will you!?” asked Garrick. A huge hilt stuck through the line in the canvas, nearly taking Alec in the head. With a bit of effort Alec managed to pull the five foot sword out of the canvas and latch it to a side board on the outside of the canvas.

A deep voice tiredly spoke up from behind him. “Oh, good, thanks Alec. I was starting to think that I was sleeping on a twig or rock. Garrick watch where you lay that next time,” said the giant of a man lying out in the back of the wagon. Atvar (http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b184/Upum/Fantasy/Galdan__Tymora_priest_by_WillDan.jpg) went back to sleep.

Alec sighed at the continuous grumbling and petty arguing of his companions. They were all part of the same mercenary company that Tyrec led. They had just finished a job south of Phyros and were now on their way back to the capital of the Empire. They were quite the motley collection too.

Tyrec was a dwarf of some noble house who had decided to up and leave the north. Garrick was a bit of a mystery, but he’d been raised amongst mercenaries and was renowned for wielding his great sword and was also a good comrade. Jaim was a half-elf who had been raised near the Elven city of Niva, he was a master swordsman and wore a special robe that Alec knew marked him as a member of a holy order of Elven warriors. Atvar was once a member of a Cleric House but was discharged because of being too aggressive. Alec himself had once been an initiate at the Knightly Order of the Emperor, but he had left for reasons he’d never shared when he’d appeared at Tyrec’s doorstep. The last member of their company was of an even bigger mystery…

“You all talk so loud, I could have snuck up and slit your throats three times,” came a silky, almost cat-like voice in Alec’s ear.

The young man jumped, nearly out of his skin, and turned to see a figure hanging onto the side of the wagon. A bow and quiver was strapped across the figures back, and a green cloak hid the face and features, except for a pair of glowing eyes.

“By the Goddess Ariel and all that’s holy will you stop doing that Elimar?” snapped Alec.

Elimar ( http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b184/Upum/Fantasy/Night_Elf_Archer_by_gondolaend.jpg) was the biggest mystery of them all. She was a Night Elf. A rare breed in the lands of the Empire and were never fully to be trusted. Elimar however seemed to be the exception.

“Don’t worry little one,” smiled Elimar. “I’d never cut your cute neck.”

Tyrec turned to the pair. “Elimar, what did you scout ahead?”

“Nothing serious master dwarf,” she replied smoothly. “I found a pair of Minotaur and put them to rest.”

The dwarf was about to say something else when suddenly the horses halted and began whining aloud. They tromped and tramped, not daring to go forward.

“What’s wrong with you beasts?” growled Tyrec.

His question was answered when with a huge explosive boom, a fire appeared in the middle of the road. Everyone in the wagon stared. To their amazement and puzzlement a figure stepped out wearing rather alarming, garish red robes and a large pointed hat. The man was old, or seemed it, and held a staff out as if he were on a summer stroll; completely oblivious to the fact that his entrance had garnered an audience. With a bit of an innocent look he turned and blinked at them.

“Well, well, well what have we here? A dwarf, a few humans, a half-breed, and a night elf! Most unusual combination to be found in these parts,” he stated in a conversational tone. “Would I be wrong to assume you are mercenaries? Adventurers? Otherwise sword-hands who I may hire?”

“You’d be right,” said Tyrec at last, the prospect of business bringing him our of his reverie.

“Good. Then I will discuss it with you when we get to our destination. Won’t take long, but please don’t try to run. Better to sit tight for it,” said the old man. He turned his back and began chanting.

Tyrec frowned in confusion that was shared by the entire group. “What do you mean ‘it’?”

Before anything else could be said a loud boom echoed over the road and a flame shot up around the entire road, surrounding the old man, the wagon, and all its occupants. The horses cried out along with the members of the company as a few drew weapons and Alec and Tyrec wrestled with the horse reins. Smoke billowed around them and clouded their vision. A feeling of cold swept over their bodies followed closely by a searing heat, then just as suddenly the sense of cold and hot disappeared and the fire around them disappeared. The horses calmed and the old man turned and smiled at them.

When the smoke cleared it became quite obvious that they were no longer on the road going north towards Phyros. On the contrary, they were in the middle of a field by which sat a near destroyed building that had a small sign-post that had a blue boar painted on it.

“Welcome to the Kingdom of Itselzier,” said the old man. “My name is Armenius the Warlock and I will be employing you for the time being.”

(OOC: She wants to get out, and helping foreign monarchies ruled by kids is out of her plans for sure.)

Yelena shrugged as she tried to resist the temptation. The drink was as clear as water, and the will to forget everything that occurred for a while was strong. She forced a smile to the drunkard who offered a glass of it to her and said no words, although it was obvious she was not happy at all, to the point there seemed to be a permanent shade of grey over her face. They simply moved to a bench where he poured the vodka on her glass and his, drinking everything in an entire gulp while she still did not drink hers.

"Whassh eh Matter preetie ladyiesh?", he asked in his foreign language to her

"Я не говорю ваш язык."(I do not speak your language)

"Foreigner mahladie? Wher did you cam froms?"

"Я не имею никакую идею на вы спрашиваете."(I have no idea on what you are asking)

"Thinksh less drinks more mahladie! Mah friendhs findyou som new fishing clothes", the drunkard said as he poured the bottle for the third time. She still did not take even a sip from the drink. It was familiar that bench, it brought her memories of the time she subconsciously triggered a magic spell when she was very young. For that moment all her steel blue eyes focused on was the nothingness as the surroundings were forgotten in exchange of the past.

At the time she reminded her first "spell", perhaps the most powerful and useful one, although since then she never managed to repeat something like that. Teleporting light itself could have an infinity of possible uses, but never again Yelena managed to teleport a beam of light like in that fateful day when for the first time, her innate skills were revealed, and hidden under the guise of an intensive and forced against her will technological education which overshadowed it until eventually she unconsciously teleported herself away from civilization and to the outskirts of the Badlands, where a group of old people who ran away from persecution for their inescapable innate skills also lived, and taught her what she wanted to willfully learn.

At the same time she reminded of the way she teleported light, the liquid of the vodka in her glass simply evaporated... no trace, no sign, no fancy magical flash, not a single drop of vodka remaining or evaporated, it just vanished like if it never existed before there. The drunkard immediately noticed it as Yelena returned to the present and her glass simply emptied from nowhere.

"You knows magics mahladie? Mah frens found fishing new clothes! Do not be this sad mahladie, I can borrow mah arm to you! And mah friends think you like black and red colorsh with yellah sickles and hammehrs like your pretty flag! Do you?", he said as she simply did not answer, having no idea on what he meant, with the invisible grey tone still on her face like a mask of pure ennui and sadness.

Then a woman came there, clearly shrugging at the drunkard and gesturing to Yelena to follow her:

"Come in dearly! I need to measure you to sew your wizard robes!", she said.

Yelena had no idea, but she seemed friendly enough and did not smell alcohol either, and she simply followed the woman to a tailor shop. It was a simple two-store brick building, similar to those of tales regarding the dawn of the bourgeoisie as the petty bourgeois class of small family businessman which would eventually overthrow feudalism and monarchy through a revolution, like they overthrew the capitalist Tzar regime through another revolution.

´"Death to the bourgeoisie! For the Motherland! For the People! For the Communist Revolution! The bourgeois will exploit your children and the proletariat!"´. She shook off her head strong trying to make the memories pass away as she entered in the tailor shop and notice a woman on its back working hard as the owner, that woman who brought her there, did nothing besides measuring her body... a "wage slave" and that woman was what Yelena was taught to be a "small-time capitalist pig". As the owner of the tailor shop was measuring her, Yelena glanced at the shriveled and tired worker with a clear expression of pity, as she took a glance at Yelena and stopped sewing those clothes, and after 2 seconds the owner, who was measuring the body of Yelena, including her firm hips and average curves, glared at the clerk and said: "Get back to work!". The poor proletarian woman simply lowered her head back like a slave and continued sewing with that old manual sewing machine. At the same time Yelena glared at the woman, trying to hide an air of hostility.

"What is the problem dearly? That's just a mere peasant I offer a job to for her to feed her children, is there anything bad with it?", she asked. They definitively never saw a communist before and neither have any idea about the horrors of the industrial revolution and capitalist exploitation of children in 24-hour periods of work without sleep, that form of exploitation Yelena witnessed now was not as badly, as although tired from work the worker did not seem to be sick or starving there. Yelena simply looked at the woman, who had neither any sweat or sign of having working hard at all and said in a neutered tone as she glared with hostility at the owner of that shop:

"Вы будете свиньей капиталиста!"(You are a capitalist pig!)

"What did you just say?", she asked then with a glare

Yelena simply replied in a forcedly neutered tone with her foreign, incomprehensible language to the woman:

"Я сказал вы будет свиньей капиталиста, и ленивым драчевым буржуа также живет напряженнаяа работа других." (I said you are a capitalist pig, and a lazy bourgeois bastard as well who lives by the hard work of others.)

"Never mind it dearly, now I know what to do", the woman shrugged, although she knew that stranger probably did not make a friendly comment, but she could never be sure about it and gave Yelena the benefit of doubt as she finally finished measuring Yelena's body and looked at the worker, asking:

"Is it finished?"

"Yes, it is mistress. What is the next request?"

"Good, hand it to me! I'll inform the next request later.", she said as the worker handed to the owner of that shop several dark red cloth and black cloth, the woman then went upstairs and brought a reinforced padded waistcoat, a red painted rope and a strange wand which seemed to have several lines coming from its inside. She then stretched all those clothes and pointed the rod to it as Yelena wondered if magic would turn her into a "capitalist pig" as well, a thought she forcefully dismissed as a strange spell mended together those clothes into a large red robe with black linings and a yellow decorated line on its long sleeves shaped like a mosaic of torus knots (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:TorusKnot-3-8.png), and with several pockets. It was built to fit perfectly for Yelena's body as the woman offered it to her together with the waistcoat saying:

"It won't protect much, but I doubt you would like the weight of studded leather, so here it is, you can go on upstairs to change your clothes.

Yelena quickly grabbed the rope, the robe and the waistcoat from the woman, and before going upstairs looked at the worker and smiled genuinely to her, saying in a pleasant, soothing voice:

"Вы!"(Thank you)

The woman seemed to have her spirits raised for a while. Most people thanked the owner of the shop rather than the worker, but this woman, she seemed to disdain the owner and admire her for her simple work, even though she imagined it had no social prestige or value.

Yelena went upstairs where an assortment of materials and the bedroom of the owner were. Although definitively a bourgeois, her bedroom was relatively simple, it was a petty bourgeois, but a capitalist anyway which could in the future give origin to a massive clothing industry which would exploit thousands of unprivileged classes. Such were Yelena thoughts as she undressed herself of all but her socks and underwear, and wore the waistcoat, which made her body features slightly more visible, and wore the robe as well. Finally she tied the rope over her waist, and took her weapons, bullets and gunpowder to its pockets. She had a bit of difficulties to undress herself on the way though, having only one arm, and sometimes it was frustrating. But she managed to do it as she now wore a large, black and red wizard robe with embroidered torus knots, which were ironically symbols related in a certain way to science, but they apparently did not know it.

As she went down she greeted the "proletarian comrade" with a handshake, but ignored entirely the owner of the tailor shop as Yelena headed out coldly towards her.

"What an ungrateful wench! I will eat my pinky if she is not a necromancer! Only those like so much of dark and red colors!", the shop owner frowned as Yelena left and returned to the destroyed outside of the Inn.

Yelena would have laughed if she could understand that strange language from the owner, but as she headed back it seems a new group teleported to that place. Two young to thirties men, an young man with funny ears, an older man who seemed to be a wizard of sorts, a short overweight human, probably someone with severe dwarfism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarfism) and with a stomach larger than his beard and a freaky African woman which got her ear tips stuck in an hydraulic press (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_press) when she was young and got them stretched, but not enough to tear then apart, or who perhaps did some weird self-mutilation on her own ear. Such is the way she imagined those, as Yelena simply thought they were "different" humans rather than other races.

Yelena walked towards the old wizard of the group with a curious look in her face and steel blue eyes, and asked. It was visible that whereas her pale right hand with delicate, long fingers, came out from the black yellow lined sleeve of her robe, her other hand did not, she then asked to the wizard, which she did not know that his name was Armenius, her voice seemed almost lyrical, as if its tone came from someone singing an anthem in Russian:

"Вы знаете предсказывать говорите по буквам для языка?"(Do you know divination spells for language?)

OOC: Marvel makes up names for those whose names he does not know. He seldom shares these names with others, however, as they tend to be a tad unflattering. "Darwin Award" is one of these. He has not shared that name with anyone--and for good reason.

The Darwin Award is given annually to someone who has made the ultimate sacrifice to evolution and died by his or her own stupidity (preferably WITHOUT having children). The more spectacular the stupidity, the more likely one is to win the award. :) :) :) Past winners include a boy who mocked his sister for...telling him he was standing too close to the edge of a cliff... There's a website. You can find it with a google search.

Marvel would know this because, before he was in Hell (or whatever), he was born of a librarian (archaeologist, actually) in a world much like this one. This also explains the way that he understands basic machinery.

You can understand why Marvel wouldn't share the name "Darwin Award"... :) :) :)

---------------------------------------------------------

IC:

Life was wonderful sometimes. Like right then. Marvel had managed to find that bottle of The Good Stuff that he'd used in the battle...and--YES!!!!--there was some left!!!!!!!! Of course, it didn't last very long, but it was warm and sweet all the way down and had an aftertaste like thundering velvet! Made the demon feel so good he danced around the fire with some of the townsfolk--even got some mojo back, made a pretend lyre and sang a song or two.

He saw some newcomers entering the group--one of them looked like a pompous old wizard, but he wasn't really sure--and he saw Yelena talking with them...like she wanted something.

Then, somebody asked him how he had made the lyre...and then the fun began. You see, not only did he get to explain that it was an illusion, he got to demonstrate all the fun things that one can do when one can cast virtually any illusion at will. Of course, he didn't harm anyone, but, being drunk and in a silly mood, he couldn't resist playing a little prank or two--nothing harmful, mind you, just a little prank.

There was a dwarf in the newcomers' party who looked like he hadn't had a bath in even longer than Marvel. So...while everyone was watching, a choir of miniature angels appeared, circling over his head and singing, "a sprinkle a day helps keep odor away...a sprinkle a day..." There was this fat old woman who worked in the sewing shop. As she passed by, suddenly, the ground shook like an earthquake with every step she took. Cracks appeared in the ground around her feet. She left footprints that were six inches deep. The crowd went into hysterics--all except for her husband, who came over to chastise Marvel soundly...only to find that, any time he opened his mouth to say anything, it sounded like he was farting. Marvel gave him a consolation prize, though. The demon put a glamour on him so that, for one hour, he could see what all the girls would have looked like if they weren't wearing any clothes. He would never have admitted it, but he loved every minute of it.

As the evening wore on, it began to rain, and, before long, it was too wet to party. This wasn't such good news--they hadn't finished scavenging the inn. The GOOD news was that they hadn't found that stinkin' cooler yet, either--it was going to have to sit there and get nice and rusty. Oh well. Still, everyone retired early--and Marvel found some soap and took the opportunity to wash the last few days' nonsense off of himself. (Who needs privacy when you can cast an illusion that makes it look like you're wearing something even when you aren't?)

Finally, all prim and proper, he popped into a volunteer's house and settled in for the night by a nice, warm fire. There would be time for more fun later.

Armenius the wizard was greeted by Armenius the town chief.
"Good evening gentle sirs, and noble lady. How may I assist you this fine day, my name is Armenius, and I am chief of this small town. We celebrate because a group of fierce warriors have just defeated a tremendous monster of Chaos. Big as the fallen inn it was, and its appearence seemed to shift every second."

Meanwhile, Maggie turned in early, and had another nightmare, this one worst than the first.

__________________________________________
She was just a small girl, in a dark and scary castle. Shadows were everywhere, and something seemed to move within them.
"Nooo! Leave me alone! she cried in a shril little girls voice. She tripped, and blood pooled around her fingers.
"Its your fault, you killed them, their blood is on your hands." said a frightening voice.
She looked up, and behold, there was Marvel, Yelena, Kuri, and even Aradia, as well as countless thousands of innocent villagers, and Johm the innkeeper. Each of them was slain, as though with a bladed instrument, but upon closer inspection, one realised that each victim was simply torn apart.
"I didn't do it!" she cried.
"Liar. I watched you do it with my own two eyes." the voice said, and to her horror, the voice turned out to be her own, she could feel herself talking. From the shadows emerged a simple mirror, and within it she could see herself grinning in satisfaction, licking some of the blood off her glove.
"I'm innocent, I swear!" she cried, huddled in a corner.
"your just a murder, that's all you are, nothing more. Your not even the scum that collects atop the ponds in the wild. It is worthier than you to claim innocence. You don't even deserve the right to breath."
Maggie just cried.
Over and over the scene repeated through the night, and everytime it got worse, until finally...
She was walking towards the people she had just met the other night at the inn, a bloodthirsty grin on her face.
"I am Destrudo, the Demon of Ri-an. In a single day I destroyed the capitol and conquered the army, what chance then, do you have ?" she asked. There was no time, no fleeing, no further discussion, and within the flash of an instant, they were all dead, and she was feasting on their organs. All traces of the former Maggie were gone, there was only hatred for all other things, that stemmed from a deep loathing of the self, a desire to make everyone else suffer as she had.
_______________________________________

Maggie woke up screaming, retching in horror at what she dreamt. Those were not her memories, yet they were, anothers, passed down the family line.

There was a change in her Aura, for now it had streaks of red in it, and seemed much stronger.

"The change." she whispered. She realised it was only seven in the morning.
She prepared to apologise to any that came running to see what was wrong, but as luck would have it, The Chaos had muted her screams.

She went downstairs, ate a quick cold breakfast, taking only a few days rations, and went out to the city square. She would wait there only two hours before leaving, like she said she would. Everyone could see some sort of a change had come over her, for she seemed like she was just, diffrent. Red streaked through her hair, her eyes, and her aura. She seemed quieter, more reserved.

OOC: So, this is the morning of the big departure.
I don't know how to convince Yelena to stay, so, if she wants to leave, there's nothing I can do to stop her.

OOC: Marvel might be able to, but, first, she'd have to let him know that she wants to leave. She's really kept that fact almost completely to herself. (It was for this reason, in fact, that I had Marvel come into closer contact with her.)

-------------------------

IC:

Marvel awoke fresh. The sun was just slightly up, but it was annoying. There was no sun in hell. A diplomat could sleep in most of the time.

Still, it was fun being served breakfast by the cottager's cute little daughter. Oh, she was just cute as a button. She had blond hair and two big, brown button eyes, and full, full lips--and she smiled ever-so-trustingly as she brought in the porridge and wurst that served as the family's morning meal. Just the way I like 'em.

"My," he said, "you certainly are a little cutie. Bet you're already driving the boys crazy." An' if you'll come a little closer and let me get my tail on you, you'll be happy for the rest of your short little life! Gently, he reached out a hand toward her.

There was a crash downstairs, and the sound of an argument.

"Oops!" she said. "Gotta go!"

Ahhh--drat!

Oh well. On with breakfast.

Aradia slept most soundly, her body healing it of the contusions and bruises over night. Tasman had snuggled up to her and assissted by purring continuously, plus there was nothing like a Fyrecat for keeping one warm.

She woke early, about sunrise, and those who had taken her in for the night were all to happy to provide her with breakfast and travelling rations in exchange for some gold coin. They had provided her with a bath last night so she had little to do other than to dress and head over to the inn. She needed to find her equipment. It took nearly an hour but she managed to locate all that had been in her room. The clean clothes in her saddle bags were dirty with dust, and one of her daggers was bent and twisted, but that proved to be the extent of the damage.

A quartrer of a candlemark later she had saddled Shadow Sun and slipped the hackamore over his head. The headstall was more for holding the tassles and bells that he enjoyed making chime than any thing resembling a bridle. He ws an Elf Horse and while not quite of human intelligence was far more so than any stranger would expect.

"Let's be about this" she said flatly to Maggie as she joined the woman in the town square. There were many reasons the Order didn't like Chaos, and days like yesterday was just a small example.

"Let's be about this" she said flatly to Maggie as she joined the woman in the town square. There were many reasons the Order didn't like Chaos, and days like yesterday was just a small example.

Maggie looked at the sun.

"The sun hasn't yet returned to the position I said I would leave at. If no one else joins us by nine, then we shall be off. Meanwhile, I believe proper introductions are in order.

My name is Maggie Destrudo, I come from The Dark Empire of Warhaven, a place very far away. I am a Magekiller, a being bred to fight and destroy those who use magic of any kind, even Psionics, the magic of the mind. All Magekillers serve The Great Devourer as members of the priesthood, and may call upon his powers only once in their life, not that he ever agrees to do anything spectacular for us.

Thus, be careful about casting magic of anykind around me. The closer you are, the harder it is to overcome my natural Anti-magic Aura. My Aura is the source of my strength, my power, my Regeneration." Maggie said, formally introducing herself.

Meanwhile, if one looked closely at the sun, one could see it was no longer a sphere, but had managed the extrordinary feat of becoming completly cubed, even as the landscape adopted a more geometric outlook.

"Weird Landscape." Maggie muttered.

It wasn't long before Marvel dragged himself into the fray. The townsfolk had chipped in some new threads for him, so he now had sandals, trousers, a shirt and a leather vest--cut so that he could get his wings through them. These were folded against his back, so that, from the front, he looked almost like a humanoid.

With feral hearing--a good ten times as powerful as a human's--it wasn't difficult for him to hear Maggie's introduction. He arrived just as she finished.

"I'm Marvel," he said, "and I'm a diplomat from hell. When I left, I was in the process of being eaten by another demon, so I'm not exactly what you'd call keen on going back. I was light infantry before I was diplomatic corps, so I have military training--but what I'm best at is illusion magic. I'm no slouch at other kinds of magic," he lied, "but, when it comes to illusions, I'm really good. For example..."

The flesh around his lips seemed to elongate, carrying them over to Maggie's forehead. There, they made a loud kissing noise, followed by a little pop. Then, they returned to his face, leaving what looked like a lipstick imprint. In a moment, that began to fade.

She was right about that anti-magical aura. Normally, the lip imprint would have lasted for over an hour. But he didn't tell anyone about that. It was better for him to keep his mouth shut and let them think he was an idiot than to open it and let them know.

"So...who's next?"

Dastardly Stench;13430334']
"So...who's next?"

"Its a pleasure to meet you Mr. Marvel. I'm relieved to know not all hell beings are inflicted with an insateable bloodlust. Sometime I should tell you of The Stories of The Legions of The Knights of Doom." Maggie said.

OOC: They comprise the main body of my armed forces, dredged from the deepest pits of hell. Its possible Marvel may have heard of them, being from hell himself, but only as rumor, or legend.

(OOC: I'll edit here if Thrashia replies later to the interaction)

After making her way to grab whatever tonic and anti-sleep potion she could find, Yelena passed the entire night without sleep as she awaited for energy to accumulate sufficiently. It was not a pleasant experience the way that man stared at her later on as the demon did some pranks and she frowned upon him, but it mattered little now. She was going back to Soviet Steam, or maybe to Novaya Russia where although not exactly loved, wizards and witches were tolerated rather than hunted. Although some rich families offered her shelter, she refused them all and seemed slightly hostile to those who were wealthy around her, until she finally accepted the offer of that worker from the tailor shop to sleep in her humble, "proletarian" home and laid down on its wooden floor, letting the weary woman sleep on her bed.

´"No, I am not joining the capitalists in Novaya Russia!"´, was the thought that crossed her mind. Another thought Yelena did have was regarding the reason why she was born with such gift, which seemed to be more of a curse, there was logical explanation on why was she rather than someone else that should have born with innate magical capabilities, a fact which was not strange considered how magic itself defied all sense of logic.

´"There is no fate involved, this is like any talent and it is only my choice on whether to use it and on how to use it. These pre-destination stories are nothing but fiction written to make things easier rather than trying to depict a person with no fate but that made by oneself. Sometimes life can change on the roll of dices, and I was only brought to this place by pure random probability. I could have ended in the mouth of a volcano or in the middle of the ocean, but I had a chance to survive which was greater than if I stood there against those misguided solders."´, Yelena concluded.

Hundreds of ponders and thoughts came to her mind as she remained awake for the entire night, thinking deeply on everything that happened and that could happen later.

´"Chaos... it was chaos in the form of famine and unrest that served as a reason for the birth of the Revolution. If I aided this monarchy against it, I could end up aiding the perpetuation of a corrupt and reactionary government that would bring much more misery to this people than Chaos in a much longer period of time. Down with all corrupt Monarchies!"´, was the thought that rendered her resolve to depart from that place stronger.

´"Why do I have this strange feeling of nothingness every time I teleport?"´, she thought remembering of that strange sensation of being for a fraction of time into oblivion when casting such type of magic mentally. She got used to it, but sometimes Yelena could not help but wonder whether such teleports did not leave a part of her behind every time she used them.

Those thoughts were finally interrupted by somewhere about 4:00 AM, much before the first of those adventurers and people lost there woke up, when Yelena finally felt that it was the time for her departure as she got up from the ground, dressed herself with the black and red wizard robe and in silence focused her will upon her own physical manifestation and on the location of space she was into as she remembered of the small town of Kunetzov in the borders to the capitalistic and libertarian Novaya Russia, also known as the New Russian Republic, where she was before together with her father as part of the negotiation of a peace treaty between both in face of the increasing mutual threat of the Yaga Kingdom and of the Theocracy of Perun which lasts until today. This time it was going to be a safe teleport rather than a random one as she knew the place she intended to arrive at. Another mirrored surface with only one side appeared at her front, she went through it, only to become entirely shocked to where it leaded her to.

It was definitively not Soviet Steam from the design of the walls and painting on the floor, plus it was too sumptuous to be a Soviet Steam building. Somehow chaos disrupted and distorted her complex magic in that place for the worse, and rather than returning to home, soon Chancellor Listh'vis private chambers would be met by an one-armed but handsome woman wearing black and red wizard robes and apparently a bit lost. And it did not take much for her to notice she was not alone as she saw the man ahead of her, but simply remained silent due to the shock. There was an impending feeling of dread which came to her as she was alone in those chambers, except for that strange, and somewhat frightening man who definitively would soon notice her presence, if he did not noticed it by then.

"You mean...the Knights of Doom...are real?" Marvel asked. "In the part of hell I came from, we thought they were just an old wives' tale used to shock the troops back into formation. Has anybody seen Yellena, by the way?"

-----------------------------

OOC: I've used the following spell on other boards to bring back someone who teleports, but, obviously, the longer it's been since the portal was used, the less the chance that the spell will work...and it was, ICly, at least five hours between the time Yellena teleported and the time the group gathered to go off to the next round of the quest.

Shades in Limbo and forsaken
Return now what has been taken.

OOC: I'm speaking in Yellena's dialect of russian, but find it faster/easier to simply type in english. Also I'm going to make the claim to have been in contact with your Witch-hunters back home, which is completly false. there are more to the nightmare's than simply wearing people down. The things I say to her at the end, I do not mean personally.

IC:
Chancellor Listh'vis straightened considerably as he felt the teleport in.

"My name is Chancellor Listh'Vis, second in command of this land, and It would seem Chaos has seen fit to answer my prayers." he said in flawless Russian as Yellena entered. He snapped, and grates appeared on the windows, and the doors became barred shut from the other side. He still had his back to her.

"Do you want to know what I prayed for, I prayed that if anyone tried to leave by Teleportation, they would at least have the courtesy to come pay me a visit first." Listh'vis said, as he slowly turned around to face Yelena.

"I'm glad you were so courteous, I really wanted to discuss the problems of this nation with someone so obviously fit to understand the complexities of ruling a nation. I've been watching, you and your, Comrades, via the powers I possess. I could teach you much indeed, but I doubt you would ever permit yourself to be free to the whims of Chaos, your body language has said as much over the past few days. You despise magic. You hate it, and because you have it, you loath yourself, struggling to find a way to come to grips with your own identity as a person. But, then, there is the problem of guilt by Association. Some of them actually think they can be heros. Such foolishness and nonesense, wouldn't you agree?" Listh'vis asked, while causually pouring himself a glass of water. He sipped just a little bit, adjusting his greyish black robes he had chosen for the day, and changing his frock.

"Funny thing is, if you had never left them, you would've become the people's hero, and if one has the will of the entire working class behind them, oh it makes me shiver to think what you've helped me avoid! So I'm going to give you a present, I'm going to let you die, as slowly, and as painfully as a mere mortal such as myself can manage. I'm going to do it personally, I'm sure your honored, you have to be, I'm not giving you a choice in the matter. Before hand I was going to send you to the Warp where the tender loving mercies of the gods would've transcended even death, but perhaps after you die, some caring diety will pluck you from my grasp before I can absorb you soul to make me even more powerful." Listh'vis said.

He pointed at her, and great bolts of lightning leapt from his fingers to her, their sole purpose was to knock her out, slowly, painfully. His powers far exceeded hers alone, and unlike her, he had practiced almost from very early childhood.

"So, what do you think, should I beat the elderly to death because they can no longer contribute to Industry? Perhaps I should give Tax breaks to the Rich, and grind the poor into the dust to make my coin, conscript every loving mother's Son into the army to swell my might. Where should I strick at first? I hear there's some backwoods nation known as Soviet Steam, Ripe for the plucking to add to the folds of Chaos. You think you know so much better than the ruling class how to rule, so answer me you dirty good for nothing hoar, what do you think of my plans?" Listh'vis shouted at her as he kept up his agonising strike. Even if Yelena fainted, she would feel the pain when she was unconcious. Nothing short of leaving Listh'vis's presence would ever stop it.

_________________________________
"Ah, so you've heard of them. Not the most pleasant of groups I assure you. They seem to desire to kill, maim, and destroy everyone, and everything they see, having no sense of fairplay, decency, morality, Virtue, or how to refrain from using one's full strength in trival matters, and that's just the Demon Horses they ride. I agree, Where is Yelena? I have a bad feeling about this." Maggie said.

the kind elderly lady Yelena had met the other day came tottering over to Maggie, a tear in her eye. She was mute, had been from birth, but had the power to see things others couldn't.

She held the same side of her arm, that Yelena had lost, in the same place. She seemed to urgently need to tell them something.
"You know what happened to the one armed lady with the strange language?" Maggie asked. the old woman shook her head yes.
Then on the dirt on the ground she wrote the following:

The Monster Tortures one who has strayed off the path and into its den. Death comes slowly for its claim.

Then she walked away, having done all she could.

"I hope that doesn't mean what I think it does, but since it does.." Maggie said, trailing off.

"Are there any Magic Users Potent enough to help us rescue one of our own nearby? Someone strong enough to counter The powers of the man that attacked yesterday with the Chaos Beast?" She said, standing up shouting.

OOC: Marvel could do it, but it would cost him greatly, its also an opening for him to suggust that spell. Its also a chance for Thrashia to step in ICly and introduce his (her? I'm never sure being online) characters to ours.

Armenius, due to his great age and experience, is at the very least, very close to Listh'vis's powers, in the same way I imagine his powers are close to those of the Winter Sorceress seen in Thrashia's intro post. The Sorceress and Listh'vis I'm certain would be dead even.

This rescue can go several ways, but its going to take a lot to rescue Yelena.

Marvel caught up to the woman and put his hand on the woman's shoulder. "This is a language glamour," he said. "It's just an illusion, but, if you believe in it, you'll be able to speak normally for as long as I'm touching you."

"Mmmm-mma--I don't believe it! I can talk! Ohhhh, mercy, thank you, kind demon! You've no idea what it's like--." She had a homey cockney accent, but it was spoken with a precision that belied great intelligence.

Marvel took his hand off her shoulder.

"I'm sorry, but time is important here. I'm going to ask you some questions about the lady. It's important that you answer them as succinctly as possible. OK?"

She nodded.

"Now, tell me what you saw." The hand went back.

"It was the monster, sir! Right in his lair, he was! And she with no way of fighting back!"

"OK. What monster, and how did she get into his lair?"

"Opened a portal, she did. Trying to get back 'ome, she was--but it got all fouled up and took 'er straight into the bed chambers of Listh'vis, the evil ruler of all this land! And on 'e goes about giving 'er the gift of a slow and painful death!"

"How did you see all that?"

"It was all right there, on the other side of the portal."

Marvel's eyes were wide. "You...have the diviner's gift!" he exclaimed. "Not one in ten thousand...can look through an open portal and tell what's on the other side--and you can see through one even after it's closed! WOW! Do you have the magic sense as well?"

"I don't know the word, sir."

"Look at my hand," he said, holding up the one that wasn't on her shoulder. "What do you see?"

"It's...it's turning blue, sir."

"Oh brother. You're an adept. OK. Take me to where she opened the portal. HEY, GUYS!! FOLLOW US!!"

It seemed like forever before they reached Yelena's room--and the trail was cold. Try as he might, Marvel couldn't feel the closed portal anywhere.

"Can you tell me where it was?" he asked.

"Can't you feel it, sir? It was right over there." She said, pointing to a location a short way from the fireplace.

"No, but I might be able to boost it open again anyway. I'm going to have to let go of you now so I can concentrate my powers on this thing."

Marvel extended his fingers and, using his mojo, pushed. In a moment, a glowing, blue orb appeared a few feet back from the wall and about four feet off the ground--the stub of a closed portal. Slowly, carefully, with as much skill as he could manage, he brought it partly open. Just a little power applied in the wrong place and the link would shatter. Somehow, he managed to get the portals maw wide enough to show the void between the worlds. Then, extending his hand, he intoned a spell from the underworld...

Shades in limbo and forsaken,
Return now what has been taken.

The portal opened to reveal a room. In it, on the floor, lay Yellena. Behind her, an elderly man stood--the same man who had been at the heart of the creature that had attacked the inn. As the portal flared to life, he looked up. "Oh," he said, "I was wondering when you were going to show up."

Before Marvel could do anything, the man launched a Web of Death spell straight him. He moved his other hand in front of him.

"Shaldan!" he said. This was SmashMouth Diplomatic magic. In its place, it could appear very powerful, but each such spell had a crippling weakness. The Shaldan Shield was effective against virtually any magic--but let through anything real. A knife with a death spell on it would arrive with even the spell intact. Still, this time, it would work.

And work it did. The Web of Death spread around the shield, and, finding nothing living there, promptly collapsed. The problem was that, while he used the defensive spell, Marvel could not also maintain the portal. It died before the Shades' Return spell could take its full affect. The portal closed once again--with a pop that let Marvel know that the hole in reality that led through it had been closed.

"AAARGH!!! I WAS SO CLOSE!" the demon screamed.

He felt a hand on his shoulder.

"It's OK, sir," the woman said. "I saw the path by which she traveled. I'm certain that, when the others get here, they can use it to get to her again--if only you'll let me explain it to them."

If Yelena could hold out that long.

"In the meantime, I just wonted to thank you once again for the marvelous gift you've given to me. Why, this is extraordinary! It's just so..."

...if MARVEL could hold out that long.

--------------------------------------

OOC: Marvel can't do it. He's not that good a mage. Doesn't think far enough ahead to be ready for what's going to be on the other side of that portal. Too high strung. :) :) :)

Somebody wanna give the poor fool a hand?

The Official Wizard might want to take an apprentice. The mute woman might make a good diviner/healer--if it doesn't go to her head. :) :) :)

Into the middle of the discussion a little old lady walked in.

"Alright, which one of you is going to take that girl you caused to float around and glow green with you. I don't know what magic you people used on her, but it is getting quite disturbing."

(OOC: I'll add some words to the monologue to improve it overall. And yep, she is not a "knight in shining plate" type regarding morals, and neither she is an "evil mistress of doom" as I personally don't like issuing alignments to characters and prefer a moral relativism approach. And she can do some powerful tricks if she chooses to drain all her daily magic at once, the problem is they can't last enough time to be effective, so her magic skills rather than a primary matter of learning spells, is a matter of managing limited resources strategically and of improving her capacity of storing magic for her own use)

Chancellor Listh'vis straightened considerably as he felt the teleport in.

Yelena simply said nothing...

"My name is Chancellor Listh'Vis, second in command of this land, and It would seem Chaos has seen fit to answer my prayers." he said in flawless Russian as Yellena entered. He snapped, and grates appeared on the windows, and the doors became barred shut from the other side. He still had his back to her.

"Do you want to know what I prayed for, I prayed that if anyone tried to leave by Teleportation, they would at least have the courtesy to come pay me a visit first." Listh'vis said, as he slowly turned around to face Yelena.


´"A man who prays to achieve his ends is pathetic"´, she carelessly thought as he continued. That man seemed selfish and ruthless somehow, while Yelena always was somewhat egotistical, but in the sense of not willing to help others and keep as much of the fruits of her own work to herself, rather than in the sense of wanting to harm and exploit others, with the exception where harming someone was her only choice for survival, something which fortunately she never had to. She was such way because few would have helped her at all during all her life and heroes were only rotting cadavers on the wait. This was other belief where she diverged from the Soviet, as she believed that people should only have a communitarian share of capabilities according to each needs on a voluntary basis. She finally gained the courage to ask a question:

"Why did you disrupt my ways? I do not care about this place at all and I would not make any difference if I cared either besides a new tombstone with my name later, All I wanted was to get out of here and save my life. So whatever agenda you have, I do not care about taking sides here.", she honestly replied as her question was not exactly answered in the way she hoped to. Even the most egotistical man was reasonable in a certain way in the continent she lived, but in this place perhaps even reason and logic were ignored. However, something inside her conflicted with her selfish seek for her own survival only. The vision of the proletarian, the oppression of that place. But she was no hero, and her logical reasoning concluded her presence there would be futile, and even if it wasn't, her success would only serve to perpetuate a monarchy so on way or another, risking her life on that would be pure idiocy in her mind. All she wanted was to leave that place to its fate and to get out of there alive. But then his answer came.

"I'm glad you were so courteous, I really wanted to discuss the problems of this nation with someone so obviously fit to understand the complexities of ruling a nation. I've been watching, you and your, Comrades, via the powers I possess. I could teach you much indeed, but I doubt you would ever permit yourself to be free to the whims of Chaos, your body language has said as much over the past few days. You despise magic. You hate it, and because you have it, you loath yourself, struggling to find a way to come to grips with your own identity as a person. But, then, there is the problem of guilt by Association. Some of them actually think they can be heros. Such foolishness and nonsense, wouldn't you agree?" Listh'vis asked, while causually pouring himself a glass of water. He sipped just a little bit, adjusting his greyish black robes he had chosen for the day, and changing his frock.

"Yes Chancellor Listh'Vis, I am no fool or I would have joined them in their mass suicide. In fact I only ended in this world by random chance", Yelena replied with a shrug to the strange man

"Funny thing is, if you had never left them, you would've become the people's hero, and if one has the will of the entire working class behind them, oh it makes me shiver to think what you've helped me avoid! So I'm going to give you a present, I'm going to let you die, as slowly, and as painfully as a mere mortal such as myself can manage. I'm going to do it personally, I'm sure your honored, you have to be, I'm not giving you a choice in the matter. Before hand I was going to send you to the Warp where the tender loving mercies of the gods would've transcended even death, but perhaps after you die, some caring diety will pluck you from my grasp before I can absorb you soul to make me even more powerful." Listh'vis said.

"Of course I wouldn't because I am not a fool! And why in the Baba Yaga's stomach do you want to kill me? I did nothing against you and I am not picking sides here because I care about my own life! Plus, neither gods do exist, nor I have any soul, nor you have a soul and we all are going to cease to exist after we die. So what is the point on doing this with me? Are you an insane religious fanatic for some obscure pagan god which does not really exis...", she could not finish the question though.

He pointed at her, and great bolts of lightning leapt from his fingers to her, their sole purpose was to knock her out, slowly, painfully. His powers far exceeded hers alone, and unlike her, he had practiced almost from very early childhood.

Yelena knew suffering before and had a good resistance threshold for pain due to it, but even when known before, suffering does not become less worse, she screamed in the beginning as crackles of electricity, and added to that she was tired as even with all those tonics, she did not sleep for almost twenty-four hours. Her body fell on the ground and she winced in pain, but soon refused to scream or cry, only muttering "You..." in the middle of acute suffering as he spoke again:

"So, what do you think, should I beat the elderly to death because they can no longer contribute to Industry? Perhaps I should give Tax breaks to the Rich, and grind the poor into the dust to make my coin, conscript every loving mother's Son into the army to swell my might. Where should I strick at first? I hear there's some backwoods nation known as Soviet Steam, Ripe for the plucking to add to the folds of Chaos. You think you know so much better than the ruling class how to rule, so answer me you dirty good for nothing hoar, what do you think of my plans?" Listh'vis shouted at her as he kept up his agonising strike. Even if Yelena fainted, she would feel the pain when she was unconcious. Nothing short of leaving Listh'vis's presence would ever stop it.


It was difficult for her to focus her will on such condition but a thought slowly came up in the middle of that torturous ´"Electricity does not propagate in vacuum"´. She did her last maneuver as Marvel distracted the chancellor with the opening of a portal, draining her entire magic energy for it as she only wanted to reply him. Death, why not? Her life was not something great anyway, all would fade. A massive burst of kinetic energy surrounded her, creating a vacuum around her body which temporarily blocked the lightning strike, for enough time for her to reply, with magic teleporting the sound of her voice through the vacuum:

"I think you are pathetic and your plans are equally pathetic compared to the unpredictable, shady and much more intricate ways of Kashchey the Deathless and the threats, like Kashchey, my nation has faced for centuries! And you are an idiot of making from a neutral person like me into an enemy. You thought you would destroy me into fear? I might have suffered but there is something that you forgot fascist walking thrash! You are nothing but a puppet and lackey for this damn Chaos you talk about like if it was your master with you in a leash like a dog. Hey Chaos your doggie wants to walk! Yes... you are nothing but a pathetic slave of chaos who rely on it rather than on yourself! And you are a fool! Magic is weaker and weaker further into my nation heart that eventually it really impressive things only happen once in years and if you stepped there you would be stomped and your name recorded... in jokes and comedies!". She amused herself for some brief moments as she sought to mock that man in an unexpected move.

And with the last remaining energies of her magic, she transferred the vacuum towards him, draining all his breathable air for a few seconds and started to pressurize his body in a painful way, stretching his skin almost to the point of tearing it apart and pulling his eyeballs, as she said her possible last words:

"You are a lucky coward. I could have drowned you, giving only a few drops of air or teleported you straight to the magic-proofed secret police headquarters to make you suffer what you deserve, fascist pig! If I had a few more years of practice you would pay dearly, I am not afraid anyway, can you hear me?", she said as she smiled at him.

Then her magic drained almost entirely. It was a bold, brash move to demonstrate she would not bow to his will at all, specially as he claimed he was going to kill her anyway, so, dead one way or another, she would rather die fighting till the end than cowering in fear. And somehow her behavior was anything but heroic, probably more of a way of dying with pride rather than with shame, submission and cowardice, she had inflicted pain on the fascist pig, something a person like him probably never had before from anyone. It did not matter to her, into her mind ,what could happen to her after it, as she was going to die anyway, or at least she thought so as the portal Marvel opened to distract the pig closed again. She was exhausted, but before he could inflict her pain she only smiled.

Aradia nodded her head to Maggie, and Marvel and introduced herself, far more briefly. I am Aradia Victrix, Companion of the Order Shri'vra. And I will stay well enough from you but I doubt that your Aura will affect me tht seriously. I am Heyoka." She did not explain further. They would learn in good time.

She had swung down off of Shadow Sun when the old woman had written inthe dirt.

Are there any Magic Users Potent enough

Aradia looked at Maggie with a sigh. She hadn't felt any particular empathy with Yelena, and now to have to rescue her on top of every thing else...

"Alright, which one of you is going to take that girl you caused to float around and glow green with you. I don't know what magic you people used on her, but it is getting quite disturbing."

"Maggie, you go deal with Kuri, I don't know what you all did. I will follow Marvel and see if I can help."

At a trot she headed in the direction that Marvel and the old woman had gone

OOC: Listh'vis is not an NPC. I'll let it slide this time, but remember, he's mine.

IC:

"Such brave words from such an inexperienced woman. Can you truely prove you do not possess a soul? Do you really think that Magic is the only recourse with which I can annex your nation? Within the Warp there are hordes of fearsome demons that rely on brute strength alone. But your right, perhaps a magicless chamber would be more appropriate." Listh'vis said.

"What are you doing to that poor woman?" asked a little girl that had walked into the room wearing a circlet. She spoke the same language as the rest of the nation, which was not russian, but she wore a small crown.

"Ahh, young Latvia. How charming to see you. I caught myself an intruder." Listh'vis said.

"Well let her go. I pardon her." Latvia said.
"Letting foreign intruders go? That's no way to run a safe nation." Listh'vis said.
"Don't you question me. I'm the queen, and I say let her go." Latvia said.
"No." Listh'vis said, advancing dangerously on the Queen.
"GUARDS!" Latvia shrieked fearfully, but no one came running. Listh'vis smiled.
He shot a sickly green orb of energy at the young queen, and it impacted her with such force that it broke every bone in her body, even as it crashed through a wall, and kept her unconcious.

He turned to Yelena.
"Now, about that private room." He said.
He raised his hand, and fog completly whited out the room due to its density.

Yelena would find herself strapped in an anti-magic cage, and no matter how long she waited, no matter how hard she tried, she could not use her powers in there, nor could anyone snatch her from it. She was now, quite beyond the plans of Marvel's rescue attempt.

"So, you thought to drown me? Intresting. You know, there is a fascinating technique called Chinise Water torture. Water drips on a part of the forehead in an inconsitant pattern. It is most cold, and as time goes on, it drives its victims insane as an increasingly bigger hollow point is made. I've always wanted to see this in action, but never wanted to waste it on anyone I needed something out of. You can think of whatever you want, you can even try sleeping, but it is of no use, the subconcious has an overwhelming desire to make sense out of the timing, to develop a pattern where none exists, a futile effort.

I was just going to kill you after you passed out. Plop you in an Iron Maiden and leave it at that. But no, you fought back, you resisted, so now I have to break you first." Listh'vis said.

He turned a wheel, and the table she was strapped too, both arms, Legs, neck, head, and feet, completly strapped down, slowly tiled back.

drip, one second later, drip, eight seconds later, drip then two seconds later, drip, drip. Yelena could see the drops coming. They were Ice Cold, and hit like little daggers, dripping down her face. Listh'vis summoned up a chair, a giant bucket of popcorn, and sixty-four ounces of soda and sat to watch, smiling. there was no pattern of any kind, not that Yelena's subconcious would be able to keep itself from trying anyway.

Meanwhile, back where Yelena and Listh'vis were, assistant mages worked in unison to make a NASTY surprise for whomever opened the portal again, a Nice House-sized explosion that would blast outwards from the portal, and the mages also erased all evidence of Listh'vis's escape.

OOC: You can still free her, she's a little more than a days walk away, not that anyone knows that, yet. I have a way of finding out, but would rather not quite use that option yet.

Into the middle of the discussion a little old lady walked in.

"Alright, which one of you is going to take that girl you caused to float around and glow green with you. I don't know what magic you people used on her, but it is getting quite disturbing."

Maggie nodded to Aradia, and then walked over to the little old lady.

"Take me to her, I'll get her." Maggie said.
"good, one glowing freak for another." the woman muttered under her breath.
"What?" maggie asked, not believing what she heard.
"Nothing." the woman said suddenly embarrassed.

Moments later, they arrived at the woman's residence.

"I may have a way of finding out where she is," El'Hilth said "if anyone has something of her's I can use it as a focus to see her suroundings. After that I can create an astral projection, it can't do anything but talk and movebut it might be good for something."

OOC: sorry for not posting much.

An astral projection bacicly an illusion for most mind mages very few can do anything with them and El'Hilth is no excption.

(OOC: Sorry for it, but I think next time we should coordinate better through YIM what actually should happen so all characters can react properly and according to previous agreement before "monolithical" posts)

Yelena seemed to simply suffer in silence all the time, she could feel that one more stretch and her bones would break. Pain was the only constant there as the freezing water felt on her forehead and her muscles were stretched beyond a healthy limit bringing a permanent discomfort worse than those drops of water It was difficult to think something and it seemed the perpetuation of it would again bring her misery like when she was between life and death. For a while she attempted to struggle with physical strength against it, but it was futile. Thoughts were broken by the constant pain to the point even the most strong concentration was broken, but once or another she came out of her silent agony trying to mutter some words, until finally she spoke in a shriveling and diseased tone of voice:

"Why?", and another drop felt on her head. "What is the point of doing this?".

It were her only words as the pain again broke her concentration and she continued to wallow silently in misery, refusing to scream or cry as the last thing Yelena could do in that situation.

Kuri was in a small room off the main room of the small house. She was glowing less than last night, but was still apparently asleep and floating.

The little old woman produced a cloak and rucksack and handed it to Maggie. "Here you go...they say this is hers. The emblem's match anyways.

"Return the staff..." The 'boy' ghost appeared from somewhere and looked down at the little old lady.

"It's just a staff...I got to get something for my trouble..."

The ghost looked up at Maggie. "Allowing this woman to sell such a powerful magic item in this world would be a mistake."

"Yeah, so what I says its mine? You've been getting weaker all night...but I'll tell you what I'll give it to the nice lady here."

She pulled the silver topped rod from its hiding place and began to hand it to Maggie.

"Don't take it from her, " warned the ghost, "The object has an inherent curse against it being wielded by magic users.

(OOC: Sorry, if I went too far, but I decided that after rejoicing after the battle, the next day the locals would be more 'capitalistic' about things)

OOC: Updates everyone so far...

IC:
Maggie started to speak but then suddenly began praying in a toungue that could not possibly be repeated in any manner by anyone that heard it, nor written in anyway. the only way to describe it was Destructive. the light left the shack, as did all senses, natural, Arcane, Paranormal, or otherwise. It was not just contained to the shack either, the cloud spread over the entire village, absorbing the great amounts of Chaos like a sponge, as her words reverbrated accross the countryside. the villagers who heard it, wished fervently they never had to hear those words again.

then it was gone, as were Kuri, The Ghost boy, and The staff. the woman was holding a large stack of gold coins.

"what?." Maggie panted heavily as she cried blood from her eyes.

"Did I just do what I thought I did? I guess that means I am now a full ranking member of The Priesthood."she said, as she weakly made her way out of the small cottage.
______________________________________-
Meanwhile, before Maggie spoke destructive words and summoned the black cloud....

"Would this help?" a little boy asked El'Hilth, waving Yelena's severed arm around like a sword.
"Well, gotta give the boy some credit, can't get much more personal than the severed member of that person, even if it is a bit disrespectful to wave it around." an old man remarked.

Then, after Maggie's words, and the black cloud.
"What in tarnation?" asked the old man.
then everyone's jaws dropped in surprise, for all the twisting, all the shifting, all the changing, it was gone. The sky was clear, and beautiful. What once was the odd combination of a pig, a duck, a vulture, a fish, and a moose, was now a beautiful Cardinal, and it sang ever so sweetly.

Maggie walked out, still crying blood.
"Why didn't daddie tell me it would hurt like this the first time?" she asked herself plaintivly. As some tried to approach her to help her, she chased them all off, screaming that she had to go through this alone. That still didn't stop people from staring transfixed. Yet somehow, a small five year old Little girl, with blond hair, blue eyes, a freshly plucked daisy, and the worlds biggest, friendliest smile managed to creep into her arms, and hug maggie. Maggie just held her, sobbing in pain.
____________________________________

Even Yelena was aided by Maggie's strange power.
The black cloud filled the cell, and when it disappeared, Yelena was gone.
"WHAT?!" Listh'vis screamed in outrage.
________________________________________

And where did this cloud come from, and where did it take its four targets?
As Maggie said, to The Place that is No Place, The Void.

Yelena found herself face to face with herself.
"Welcome. This is the Place you say you will go to when you die. You say you won't exist anymore when you die, thus you have elected to come here because you died. Before I send you back, I just wanted to know, did you want Eternal Never ending Blackness, Your own personal Hell or some other sort of unimaginable Horror, or Paradise?" asked her clone.
"Be Honest!" said another Clone of her.
"Well, okay, this is the half-way point to complete Nothingness. We get alot of misguided Athiests who believe they only cease to exist after they die. Silly Athiests, there's no such thing as death, its just another state of existence, so clearly what you must've meant was after you die you wanted your soul to come here to be destroyed instead of continuing to exist in new and varied ways. Silly non-believiers, not believing they don't have a soul. Everyone has a soul, unless they don't want it. no one can take it from you, you have to willingly sell it." said the first clone.
"We'll buy it from you then, just name your price, you have nothing to lose, after all, wasn't it you that said you don't have one, and if this just some delusion like I'm sure you'll convince yourself of later, you still have nothing to lose." said the second.
They whipped out a piece of paper for Yelena to name her price and sign on the dotted line. They waited in the Black, empty, featureless void she seemed to desire after death so much.
OOC: Couldn't resist a little fun. Its an incomplete rescue, your just going back to the cell anyways, but with some minor diffrences.
________________________
Meanwhile Kuri would awaken to find herself looking at a glowing man, with greyish white hair, greyish white Eyebrows, and slate grey eyes. He glowed red.
"Time doesn't exist here, so your treatment ran through enabling you to awaken. You've met my Daughter, Maggie. She tried to rescue your staff, but ended up sending you here as well. some peasant woman was going to sell it on the open market. But we have magic. Its not learnable or copyable in any way, but it can still be defined as having arcane origins.

Could you tell her it doesn't get any better or more reliable, and I would've told her if I was permitted?

Anyways, I just thought you might like a friendlier welcome than the regular welcome wagon. Anyway, you should be getting back, so, goodbye." Destrudo Clan-Leader, and Maggie's Father said. He faded to black, as did everything else, and then Light dawned.
_______________________
In the village square, everyone could see someone slowly fading into being not too far from Maggie and the little girl. It was Kuri, her staff, and the Ghost Boy. Whatever conditions would've occured normally upon her waking occured at that moment.

Maggie was still sobbing in inhuman amounts of pain, but was no longer Crying blood, just regular tears.

OOC: Had to happen that day sooner or later. That was a once an IC year sort of ability. First time used is against the persons will, and is always on the same day as their change.

Yelena is going to reappear in her cell momentarily, outside the cage. Listh'vis is gone from there, leaving her free to wander the first level of the temple and try to find her way around, or out, or further in.

That's where El'Hilth will find she is, and can even guess a general direction if he wants Which Maggie will confirm with the map, leading us to finally set off and get to the meat of the story.

SSAHE (MEA) Internal Directive

No response received by MEA from Itselzier (IRI-N).
Assume nation lost/aid not required.
INST: Assistance program terminated (SEC).
STAT: Prelim stage: no rsrc dispatched.
YTD cost: ∂00.00/5.
Final cost: ∂00.00/5
End of Line.

Imagine waking up feeling so refreshed that you felt absolutely wonderful sort of having a contact high with Life itself. But you wake up to darkness, not a dark room, a dark building, or even a cloudy night sky. But complete utter darkness but for a single old man who proceedes to say:

"You've met my Daughter, Maggie. She tried to rescue your staff, but ended up sending you here as well. some peasant woman was going to sell it on the open market. But we have magic. Its not learnable or copyable in any way, but it can still be defined as having arcane origins."

Now the first thought in your head is Where am I, because your brain doesn't remember complete utter darkness and it a bit of a panic about it suddenly appearing like this. Your second thought might be Maggie Who? Who are You? if panic hasn't set in yet, confusion is having a field day in your skull.

Of course confusion went from having a field day to having the bloody confused mind Summer Olympics.
What staff?
You have magic, so what?
Magic is learnable...is that even a word?

Could you tell her it doesn't get any better or more reliable, and I would've told her if I was permitted?
Who?...Huh?....Mommie! Panic had finally shown up.

"Anyways, I just thought you might like a friendlier welcome than the regular welcome wagon. Anyway, you should be getting back, so, goodbye."
Getting back to bed? to Mommie

Kuri found herself standing in well somewhere it definitely wasn't the Red School, or even Hubris for that matter. Maybe she was in the Outer Islands, or perhaps even Alcona?

Kuri looked about and noticed the woman crying, and apparently in pain. Kuri just blinked, she didn't know where she was, but the woman was obviously in pain. "Are you alright? Do you need a doctor?" Kuri held out her hand to Maggie, and then blinked at the hand. It was a bit larger, and more worn than she remembered.

She looked at her arm, it wasn't a novice garment she was wearing. It was a uniform. Looking down at her chest she noticed it was an upper warrior cleric uniform of the Cult, she was much taller than she had been last night, and she also had larger breasts.

Of course nothing in Kuri who had walked into the inn the night before last had changed, except for a nasty twelve year gap in her memory.

Oh, and the ghost was gone...
------
OOC: Pardon for the liberties but moving ghost boy into another realm such as she did has to have complications with a soul already stretched between them. Somehow it fits with all the chaotic magic going on that well, the dead shall return.

The Void
The 'boy' ghost was no longer a boy, but a very old man. Actually the soul of a very old wizard who was studying the permutations of the Void. "Tis darkness shall be numbing to mine soul. Yest mine soul hath a far better seat in mine heaven, devoid of much contact, than this barren wastes of the afterlife."

He could sense a soul, one that seemed to be quite er...troubled. Normally he would have avoided said soul but right now, it seemed to be leaving. And personally Degrath was quite sure he didn't want to wait around here.

Which is why Yelena found an old man, in a rather elaborate costume inside the cell. Who was tapping his head repeatedly with his finger. The gray eyes were focused on latch.

"I have some things to say to you, figments of my imagination, who are completely wrong. First, this is not the place I would go if I died because I am not dead yet, or I would not be speaking here or self-aware at all thus there must be something alive here, myself, and with awareness come existence, nothingness cannot coexist with self-awareness, in fact the existence of nothingness is a logical impossibility. Second, you ask me what I want? Well, I know this is silly and just impossible during my entire lifetime, but there is only one way, although a far and unreachable way to not cease to exist, this way is physical immortality, and until now nobody ever managed to get a single glimpse of it, neither scientists, nor alchemists, even though the involuntary contributions of the latter to progress were significant, they never achieved their primary goal. Should it be possible, physical immortality would be my choice, and the paradise? I might make one... with my own efforts only. Hell? Just a clergy tool to scare peasants into blind devotion to the opiate of the masses.

Third, the most likely possibility, under the logical principles and Occam's Razor, is that I created this nothingness as a shelter and became isolated from reality after suffering for countless days as I cannot be certain of how much time has passed, this is nothing but a creation of my mind. Fourth, perhaps this "soul" has another meaning... self awareness and freedom. And even if you were real rather than some strange manifestation of my mind and of some weird self-analysis, I would never sell my freedom, not even for immortality"

Yelena teared the strange paper as it dissolved into nothingness. And now she was back at the cell, but not trapped anymore and outside of that horrible cage as she muttered, saying in her language before noticing the old man.

"I should have brought a revolver or repeating rifle, or perhaps even a maxim gun to fill this pigs with holes, and now they took away my weapons and I can't move even a tread of line!"

She finally noticed the old man, and asked, in Russian:

"Another random teleport? Good, I don't have time to talk. Could you teleport us to somewhere better than this horrible continent, realm or whatever it is?"

Unless the old man was blind, he would immediately notice she had an arm missing and seemed extremely battered and a bit psychologically shaken by the way she looked around as if something was about to attack her, finding threats where they did not exist. An irrational part of her wanted to stay to take revenge, or as she preferred to call it, justice, on that damnable chancellor while the other just wished to get the hell out of there as soon as possible.

Degrath looked up at Yelena for a moment. It was the slavic university educated girl from an alternate reality. And she was speaking in her native tongue again.

Degrath stood strait and pointed at her, "Lequotious Univalas Imperious Stemtempum" It was a simple spell, a curse actually, long lasting and fairly low energy. Which was his problem at the moment, his sudden corporeal body was only slowly absorbing the magic power around him. At least now everyone could understand her, and she would understand everyone else.

"Fair young mage, did thee ask for assistance perchance? If mine ears did interpret thy Slavic babel correctly, you wish to vanish? Mine strength shall not be that strong for some hours yet, perchance days even. Perhaps thee can assist me by finding a small bit of string, or wire?" (Young mage did you ask for assistance perhaps? If my ears heard your language correctly you wish to vanish? My strength will not be great enough for hours or perhaps days even. Perhaps you can assist me by finding a small bit of string or wire.)

The answer of Yelena was quick, she knew what should be done now before it became too late. It was a quick, abrasive reply

"There is not time for it! we should find a way to get out of here as soon as we can first! And without my gun I do not see how to leave this place as I picking locks is something I never did!", and then she glanced at that horrible torture chair... she simply turned behind and gazed at it in silence and stopped moving. A panic came to her mind as she could almost hear a dripping sound, she seemed very scared of that place as a whole and somehow, and the possibility of ending there again brought her another surge of terror. It was obvious her "resistance" was only a facade of pride and nothing more as the mere visage of the chair seemed to turn her in a frightened children cowering in fear. Yet she muttered to the old man, in a voice that seemed to be of someone trying to make sense of her words in the middle of a nightmarish fear:

"It... it has... has chains and... strong chains... remove them... it has handle... put chains in door... and in handle... pull handle... force it open... might... might work", as she said it, she crouched to the ground, covered her face in shame and what she never wanted to show appeared as she cried softly and a few tears came from her eyes, followed by the feeling of shame, she gave in to what she considered to be emotional "weakness" after all...

Degrath turned and looked at the Chinese water device. "Hmm, you know you might be right." He walked over and pulled a metal rod from the mechanism below the table while holding the boards up with one hand. He then lifted the rod and smacked the water bucket that had still been dripping down on the table.
He then focused on the small mechanism that had controlled the drip rate. It was nothing more than a wind up, actuated valve to maintain a steady drip.

Degrath pulled a small curled bit of wire from the remains. "Ah yes, the device did have what we need. Degrath pointed to the wire and called, "Ank der sert turun..." The wire glowed and straitened. Then Degrath walked over to the lock and pushed the wire inside. He pulled it out looking at the pattern that had formed. "Grupus die zeta" he intoned and then placed the wire back into the lock and turned it.

Degrath pushed open the cell door and looked down at Yelena. "Now fair damsel sine thee and I have solved that puzzle, shall we hence go forth and find an exit for this foul place?"

OOC: I assume you refer to an exit from the temple, there's no such thing as an exit from the void, a place that does not exist cannot have a door in or out of it. Nor can it be defined or banished by Logic.

The Void is not a Realm, but the absence there of. The Void is merely the bridge, or, Door through which anything and everything, anyone and everyone gets to Nothingness. It is not its own Realm, is not connected to anything, and has no definite form, shape, rule or function. The barest threads of the fabric of reality can be found there, which is why its so mallable.

Therefore, Kuri should not of infact been effected by going there, but instead, by going back, and when she was sent back, Ghost was sent with her along with her staff. But you went a diffrent route, I'll adjust, no biggie.

Fair warning though, the Temple has spells, enchantments, and traps like you wouldn't believe. Even the dead can die again.
IC:

Yelena had gotten out of her cell, and the next challenge, was the door, which was easily beaten by a simple twist of the knob and a good hard yank.
She had the choice of going to the left, and going down the hallway which was constricting and expanding like a giant living lung, a hallway that later took a left, or to the right down the spinning hallway that later also took a left, but not before it took a right. Each path had its own difficulties and challenges.

The walls were enchanted against all forms of slipping through them, not even Degrath could force his way through them, or in them. Secondly, if anyone tried to cast magic against the walls, the spells would be reflected back at the caster, and if someone like maggie tried to beath them down, the walls would simply jiggle like some much rubber.

OOC: Take nothing for granted, assume nothing, take absolutly everything at face value here.

If your normal senses are in someway enhanced beyond what a normal human can sense, or if you have some sicth sense or some other such skill that lets you know more than the average senses tell, I need to know, I also need to know the exact limits of this skill or enhansed sense and what it is this enshancement skill or sixth sense lets you know, least I leave out information I could've told you.

I am assuming Degrath has enough knowledge to at least know the general knowledge of whatever they run accross if this is not true, let me know. This is a Chaos Temple, it has no definitive layout, Halls might overlap if you were to try to map it at home.

One path leads out, one path leads further in. One has a monster, one has a trap.

If you go far enough in, and down, you will run accross a monster too powerful for either of you alone, it was designed with the group in mind.

If you leave, you will find a very tough monster that guards the entrance, this is of course a second monster in addition to the one that may or may not be guarding the entrance.
___________________________________________________

The little girl left Maggie's arms, and hugged Kuri's leg, as though she were her mother.

Those nearby would begin to recognise something pecilur about this little girl, it was as if she possessed a soul spun of pure light, like she was pure absolute innocence, embodied, and those around her couldn't help but notice, everything just seemed better when she was around. The little girl looked up at Kuri, and with the most innocent eyes one could imagine, she asked in the sweetest little voice she could muster,
"Mommy, are you okay?"

She let go and walked over to Marvel.
"Daddy, what's wrong with mommy?" she asked with a tear in her eye.

She wasn't their daughter of couse, she just decided to name them such because she didn't know their real names, and thought they would make nice mommies and daddies.

She latched onto Kuri's leg again.
"It'll be okay mommy, I promise." she said.

Maggie meanwhile, had frozen in place, as though she recognised that little girl.

OOC: A very special little girl character of mine. Its hard not to laugh imagining the possible reactions

El'Hilth struggled to maintain a dignified look about himself, he doubted he would eat human after this. "Well an arm was certinly more than I was expecting but it will work plenty good."

He but the arm on a table and concentrated on finding to whom it once belonged. He saw her inside a temple, just outside of some sort of torture chamber with an old human male. He chose to create an astral projection so that hopefuly he could talk to the old man.

Within the chamber the apperence of El'Hilth could be seen. "Hello there I am an astral projection of a mind mage here to watch over that young lady, can you tell me where this place is by chance?"

OOC: Degrath is of course undead. But his 'reincarnation' is my interpretation of what happened. The Fox staff went somewhere it was not supposed to be and the effect of the two magics were his soul being 'unglued' from the staff for a time.

And Kuri's problems stem from the magic used the day before. She just had a bit of a jolt there and then.

IC:
Kuri looked down at the girl calling her Mommy then up at 'Daddy' with a confused look on her face. Oh god, I slept with *that* Kuri actually crossed her arms and shivered with the thought of kissing that thing. Let alone doing the nasty.

Kuri then looked down at the little girl calling her mommy. I'm a mommy? She just stared down at those eyes for a moment her mind whirling. But somehow she didn't want to hurt the little girl. Perhaps she was her daughter, I mean she was old now. What would Mommy do? Kuri asked herself.

Kuri uncrossed her arms and knelt to take the little girl in her arms and hug her. "It is going to be okay..." popped out of her mouth a moment later. But Kuri's eyes spoke of fear and confusion.

Yelena got up and stopped crying in an unexpected motion as the old man asked her, probably he was too blind to notice he plight as well while Yelena swallowed her emotions deep inside the unconscious and regained the analytical and cold facade she had before, there were still a few tears she quickly wiped as she said in a calm voice:

"Yes, this place seems a threat to itself and somehow some really powerful magic have permanently distorted many of the laws of physics here, staying here is threat to us.". It was easily noticed the bizarre, breathing walls ahead. She asked to the old wizard immediately:

"Do you think you could... cross it? Because I think it is beyond my capabilities, not sure about yours though, hope you can because sometimes the seemingly easier path to take might be the most dangerous.", she said pointing to the right where it was, apparently, safer.

If he thought he could, she would wait him to cross it first, and if he died she would at least know she should not be there because Yelena was not going to be the first to risk getting into such a dangerous place. Or perhaps he would not be a fool either and simply suggest going through the right instead rather than risking himself. She was disguising that she was obviously reluctant to go ahead and that she suggested him to go as a bait so him, rather than her, would die should something go wrong.

´"It is just an old man. I have much yet to live and after a decade or two this man is going to die anyway. It is not wrong... no, I have no better choice than this to ensure my survival."´, she pondered to herself, trying to get rid of a feeling of guilty from what she just told the old man to do. She was using him for her own ends... and no matter how her ends were simply the need of survival, considered in her thoughts, that seemed to justify sending an old man ahead of her into risky situations, Yelena had a quick thought came:

´"Am I becoming like what I despise? No! I need to survive so I can help the proletariat! This old man was probably very rich because of his magic skills and he is going to die soon compared to me. I... cannot let irrationality put my life in risk for a possible bourgeois!"´

It was more of a way to lie to herself and temporarily ditch the feeling of guilty what she did as a mental exercise. Yelena wondered whether the old man could read thoughts, because if so, then things would become very complicated for her. She never wanted to have to do something like that, but the circumstances in such chaotic place could eventually put her to seek her survival... at all costs. Before the old wizard could reply the strange apparition came as Yelena took a defensive stance and retreated a meter away from it as a reaction. When she notice it was just that humanoid insect who was in the Inn, she then replied to him, hoping that he would understand her language and that the spell of that old wizard would work:

"I have no idea. I was at a palace or castle before, and I do not want to remember it anymore... but now it seems nothing makes sense here. I do not think I am in the same realm of existence than you. This is just... nobody can continually distort space this way, I suspect I am in some sort of realm of chaos or alike.", she said pointing to the "breathing walls".

"Maggie, it's good to see you," Marvel said--then, he smiled sadistically, and said, "and it's good to see you, too, Mommie. How are the rest of the kids, by the way?" He smooched the air. Ohhhhhhhh, what they don't know!

He looked down at the girl. She was obviously making up names for people she didn't know, just like he did--only she wasn't old enough to have learned to keep it to herself, the way he did. So...he answered her. "My name is Marvel, babe," he said, "what's yours?"

He felt a hand on his shoulder...again. Ohhhh no!

"Miss Maggie! Miss Kuri! So good you've arrived," the old woman said. "I was starting to think that no one would ever come to help poor miss Yelena! Please! You've got to help open a new portal! I saw through the last one and know just where it is! But that evil Listh'vis is there, too! He almost killed that nice Mr. Marvel! And just as he was about to get her out! He's a dastardly one, he is! Usurped our throne, he has! In league with chaos itself! No good can ever come of it! You've got to save Miss Yelena before he tortures her even more! Used a death spell, 'e did! And poor Mr. Marvel couldn't keep the portal open and defend 'imself at the same time! All without batting an eyelash...!"

Maggie seemed to forget about the pain, she looked at the little Girl curiously.

"Who's your Daddy?" she asked the little girl.
"You know who Daddy is, you just asked him for help." the little girl said.
"Cara, what are you doing here, aren't you supposed to be dead right now?" Maggie asked in the same manner one might ask a child of the same age that was up at a very late hour of the night if they were supposed to be sleeping.
"I have something I'm supposed to do." Cara said.
"You know he's going to be unbearably happy when I tell him your still alive, right?" Maggie asked.
"Yes." Cara said.
"Then why did you call Kuri your mother if she really isn't your mother?"
"I always wanted a mommy." Cara said.
"Didn't you consider how uncomfortable that might make her feel though?"
"No. we should help that other lady out soon, her and a not living man are lost." Cara said.
"Were is she?" Maggie asked.
"You know where she is. You swore an oath to leave at about this time yesterday and go there." Cara said.
"But I didn't know she was there now! we could've saved time and already been half-way there by now." Maggie said.
"Then why are you sitting around?" Cara asked.
"I don't know." Maggie said. She stood up, gathered her things, and walked out of town to the north.
"Come on everybody!" she said.
Cara ran along behind Maggie. What was it she had to do?

"No, WAIT!" said the old woman. "You've got to reopen the portal! Something's wrong! I don't know what, but something!"

Marvel sighed heavily. "She's a diviner, Maggie," he said. "Untrained, but still a diviner. You'd better listen to what she's saying."

------------------------------

OOC: @WH: Lest you forget, Latvia is still in that room, and she's badly hurt.

Dastardly Stench;13441369']"No, WAIT!" said the old woman. "You've got to reopen the portal! Something's wrong! I don't know what, but something!"

Marvel sighed heavily. "She's a diviner, Maggie," he said. "Untrained, but still a diviner. You'd better listen to what she's saying."

------------------------------

OOC: @WH: Lest you forget, Latvia is still in that room, and she's badly hurt.

OOC: Actually she's dead, or at least she will be *looks at IC watch* soonish. I mean, it is awfully hard to live with your entire blood supply spilling out all over the place. I'm purposefully removing the government, so that one of us can annex it as an ooc thread prize. ICly we're just being nice and helping a struggling nation get back on its feet, a grateful nation that would want to join a bigger, better nation:). Due to the 200 or so years worth of Chaos, its possible for Itselzier to be however you like, and still not have godmodded a change in. I never said exactly where this place was. Itselzier could be anywhere, on Earth, on a planet.

Also it was part of the plotline for Listh'vis to kill her and take over as king anyway.
IC:
"So is she." Maggie said indicating Cara.
"Well, I certainly don't have the power to open portals." Maggie said a moment later.
"I could grow up and assume my full powers if that would help." Cara said, wanting to be helpful.

El"Hith told Yelena "We shall come to get you, but I must find out where you are, so I am going to disapate this astral projection and leave you alone for a bit." Soon after the apperence of the the giant mantid faded away, leaving no physical trace of him.

In the back where he was, he still had no idea where she was, short of the apperence of that part of the inside of building. He knew need to find out her location if they where to rescue her, he concentrated on the arm forcing the image of chamber into it, after a moment the arm moved and pointed north* and it's chlenched fist pointed one finger.

Going over to Maggie and the demon he told them "She is one days journy north*,shall we leave now? Also dose anyone have a small barrel and some salt I could borrow?" When one of the villagers produced what he asked for he put the salt in the barrel, put the arm in the salt, and use some leather that was liying around straped the barrel to Drulk's back.

*OOC: I used north for simplicity, Warhaven if you want it to be some other direction I have no problem changing it

OOC: Quit thinking inside my head you. It just so happened that was the direction and amount of time neccessary to reach the temple.

IC:
"Marvel wants to open the portal again, feeling like there's something wrong there where she was when she originally left." Maggie said.

After the dwarf roundly cursed Armenius and all of his descendants for bringing him to what looked like a run-down, no-good, dirty world and threatened to lop his head off with his rune axe things got a bit more settled. After the mention of money was made quite clear again Tyrec had settled down and actually listened. The small band had huddled around as they spoke, only stopping when Armenius put a spell of “Universalis Verstehen” on them all and the young Russian woman who had approached them. It allowed them to communicate in any language with the people around them.

Tyrec had settled on a bounty of 2,000 golden crowns when they returned to Thrashia, as well as one magical wish for each member of the group before they finally agreed to work for Armenius. Far as the old warlock was concerned it was a fair bargain…he’d just have to find all that lead he kept and remember a few of his alchemical solutions.

The group settled down inside of a small inn that they were led to by the towns head man. The mercenaries were tired from past journeying and more than a little shook up by this sudden occurrence. They trooped upstairs to their rooms. Armenius stopped the massive Atvar. The 7ft giant looked down at the warlock.

“What can I do for you master magician?” asked Atvar in his soft grizzly voice. His face was covered by a smooth and mighty brown beard that matched the color of his face. He also had bright ice blue eyes.

“You’re a cleric, and therefore trained in holding onto the life strings of peoples lives correct?” queried Armenius.

“Aye, but what of it?” answered Atvar.

“Good, then come with me.” Armenius led the huge man out of the inn and behind the row of small houses and hovels until they came to a tree line. As they passed the other group of explorers Armenius collected information through their thoughts, learning of Yellena’s disappearance, which troubled Armenius for he had a small bit of foresight.

They entered the trees and came to a small grove. It was a peaceful scene that calmed Armenius and Atvar alike; they both served elemental powers and reveled in nature’s beauty. Armenius nodded in satisfaction and sat down in the middle of the grove. Atvar sat opposite of him. The cleric no longer seemed curious or surprised but simply resigned to follow Armenis’ directions. Armenius held out his hands palm upwards and closed his eyes.

“Take my hand good cleric and anchor my soul and body. What I must do will be trying and hard on you, for I will draw on your strength as well as mine,” Armenius warned. Atvar simply nodded. He placed his palms atop Armenius’ and closed his own eyes, concentrating on the form of the old man sitting before him.

Armenius mentally nodded with satisfaction as he felt Atvar’s power rise and a warmth entered his hands. He then prepared for his own magic.

“El haddad, im elowen;
Sekar dem loch im Hadris;
El haddad, im zilowen;
Sekar dem loch im Marketh.

I call to the power, the East;
In the name of the god Hadris;
I call to the power, the West;
In the name of the god Marketh.

El haddad, im xalowen;
Sekar dem loch im Mordred;
El haddad, im silowen;
Sekar dem loch Flans.

I call the power, the North;
In the name of the god Mordred;
I call upon the power, the South;
In the name of the god Flans.

Dei haddad dem loch.

Heed my call you gods.

Nympha somni, regina Mab, portam aperiens ad se me alliciat.

I invoke Queen Mab, the Dream Fairy, open the door and invite me into dreams.”

Power surged through Armenius’ body like a hurricane. A faint white light glowed around him, causing his skin to shine. Atvar grunted under such a force of magic and aura, but kept his hold. He cold sense what the old warlock was about to do, and he wasn’t about to fail him. There was a large pile of gold waiting at the end after-all.

Armenius opened his eyes and looked down. He saw himself seated beside the giant form of Atvar and smiled. His spell had worked well, much better than the last time 200 years ago. Without another thought Armenius turned and looked out with magically enhanced senses. He searched out with delicate tethers of magic, searching for Yellana. After a long few moments he found her and flew there.

He found himself in what looked like a palace. Yellana was standing there frightened in front of a sickly, evil looking man. A small child with a crown on her head was saying something to the man.

"What are you doing to that poor woman?" asked a little girl.

"Ahh, young Latvia. How charming to see you. I caught myself an intruder," said the man.

This must be the young queen, thought Armenius. But who was the man?

"Well let her go. I pardon her." Latvia said.

"Letting foreign intruders go? That's no way to run a safe nation," the man said.

"Don't you question me. I'm the queen, and I say let her go." Latvia said.

"No." The man said, advancing dangerously on the Queen.

"GUARDS!" Latvia shrieked fearfully, but no one came running.

The man smiled. Armenius sensed what came next. The man summoned and then shot a sickly green orb of energy at the young queen, and it impacted her with such force that it broke every bone in her body, even as it crashed through a wall, and kept her unconscious. The man then turned to Yellana and with a spell they disappeared.

Armenius rushed over to the young queen. She was unconscious which only made it easier for him. With a subtle word of power he touched her head and entered her mind. She was in great pain, fear emanated around Armenius like a thick fog. He found a small figure huddling amidst this. It was the small queen.

Armenius touched her shoulder. “Queen Latvia, I am Armenius and you need not fear me. I am a warlock sent to help you against Chaos. I am here to save you.”

The girl looked up with tear filled eyes. “You are?”

“Yes. I am afraid your body is broken beyond repair, but I can save your soul and preserve it until such time as is safe for you to return. My lord and master can fashion for you a body then. But I can only do this if you allow it.”

“Will I know what’s going on around me?”

“No child, you will feel like it was but a dream. I will guard you so have no worries,” answered Armenius. “Now we must hurry.”

Armenius took the girl’s hand and then searched out for his own body. Atvar’s strong power was like a beacon and let Armenius concentrate. Using an ancient and near forgotten spell created long ago by the Lords of Light to preserve life, Armenius guided the young queen’s soul back to his own body. He pictured in his mind the adamantine crystal in his side pouch and settled the girl comfortably into it. He added layers of protective magic around it and then settled himself back into his body.

Atvar caught him as his body sagged forward. Armenius opened his eyes and smiled at the worry evident in those ice blue eyes. “Don’t worry Atvar, I’m fine. I will need some of your healing and mana powers later, but for now let us return to the inn. I have learned who our enemy is.”

As they walked back Armenius took out the adamantine crystal from his pouch. Whereas before it felt cold to touch, it now felt warm and full of life.

ooc: I typed this using my left hand only...

Placeholder. Got smaller splint .

why not just use your goodhand?

bump

"Something's...happened," the old woman said. "The danger, whatever it was, is past."

Marvel took her hand off of her shoulder, and removed the glamour while he was at it. "Well," he said, his eyebrows raising to indicate that he found the whole situation ridiculous, "I guess that means we can call off another trip through the intestines of the universe! And don't worry, Kuri, she's not your kid. She's just calling you that because she doesn't know your name. Cara, meet Kuri; Kuri, Cara. Can we go someplace now? An early lunch would be nice. Besides, it's been more than twelve hours since I made a fool of myself while drunk. I think this universe--or whatever it is--needs a recharge."

"I must say, that is a very strong illusion." Maggie said, indicating the illusion used to give a mute woman a voice.

They were treated to a small quick lunch that consisted of Sandwiches comprised of leftovers from last night.

"Well, isn't it about time you got going then, kept your promise and all that?" asked the town chief.

Maggie leapt to her feet.
"By goodness your right, it IS time I left." Maggie said. She scooped up Cara in her arms, centered her aura on her feet, and walked out of town so fast she left a blur in her wake that quickly disapated.

As the trail wind died down, The Village Chief looked Marvel.
"Goodness, that's a fast exit."

She was of course, heading for the temple.

Marvel smiled. "You ain't seen nothin' yet, chief," he said--and, before he could say "why am I doing this," the foolish demon had spread his wings and taken to the air, following in Maggie's wake and even catching up to her.

"How ya doin', gorgeous?" he asked Maggie as soon as he got close enough. "Mind if I tag along?"

Dastardly Stench;13445145']Marvel smiled. "You ain't seen nothin' yet, chief," he said--and, before he could say "why am I doing this," the foolish demon had spread his wings and taken to the air, following in Maggie's wake and even catching up to her.

"How ya doin', gorgeous?" he asked Maggie as soon as he got close enough. "Mind if I tag along?"

"Only if you can keep up!" Maggie said. She stretched from a fast Aura enhanced walk, to a full out Aura enhanced Run. Fire burned in a trail behind her due to friction, fortunatly, it quickly died. However she could not keep full out forever, and soon stopped, miles away from the village. She set Cara down.

"Goodness child, its like running carrying two squirming fifty pound sacks of potatoes." Maggie said.

Cara meanwhile, had grown considerably, and was now in the body of a ten year old little girl on the verge of entering puberty.

"What do you expect, I'm growing up. I thought about being an adult, I can't help myself, I'm becoming one now. I lack as a child the same control The Marvelous Demon does over his powers, or even like you do." Cara said, now in the body of a thirteen year old teenager and growing rapidly. Thank goodness her dress grew with her, or something really inappropriate might have happened. As she Grew, wings made of pure Golden White Light sprouted from her back, and she seemed to develop a halo of light. Her dress whitened considerably, as she grew not into an adult Angel.

Now, that trail wasn't hard to follow. Scorch marks usually aren't. That didn't mean that the demon wanted to be left completely behind, though. There was strength in numbers, and being alone in a world like this one was simply not a state that Marvel relished. So he beat his wings as hard as he could and, as she put it, kept up...almost.

It was thus a shocker when he rounded a bend in the path to find that she had stopped. That wasn't the shocker, though. The shocker was what was with her. It was...an...

"EEEEEEK!" he screeched. He flapped hard to try and reverse his course. That was a mistake. He had worn himself out chasing Maggie, and, instead of reversing course, he only succeeded in losing his aerodynamics. Helplessly, he spiraled to the ground, a mass of flapping wings and swinging arms, going, "No, no, no...OH SH--," SPLAT!, "Uhhhhhhh!"

"This is a conspiracy!" he whined, shaking the cobwebs out of his head, though he was too dazed to rise to his feet. "You set me up! You wore me out so I wouldn't have anything left when you sicked that on me!" He pointed at Cara and moaned. "I was good to you!" ...and no good deed goes unpunished.

Marvel knew Angels well. Every time he had seen one, it was always beating up on a poor, defenseless demon. It was horrible. It was cruel. And now...it was his turn.

And to think, he could've avoided this whole mess by having a nice, painful death and getting it all over with.

Now, that trail wasn't hard to follow. Scorch marks usually aren't. That didn't mean that the demon wanted to be left completely behind, though. There was strength in numbers, and being alone in a world like this one was simply not a state that Marvel relished. So he beat his wings as hard as he could and, as she put it, kept up...almost.

It was thus a shocker when he rounded a bend in the path to find that she had stopped. That wasn't the shocker, though. The shocker was what was with her. It was...an...

"EEEEEEK!" he screeched. He flapped hard to try and reverse his course. That was a mistake. He had worn himself out chasing Maggie, and, instead of reversing course, he only succeeded in losing his aerodynamics. Helplessly, he spiraled to the ground, a mass of flapping wings and swinging arms, going, "No, no, no...OH SH--," SPLAT!, "Uhhhhhhh!"

"This is a conspiracy!" he whined, shaking the cobwebs out of his head, though he was too dazed to rise to his feet. "You set me up! You wore me out so I wouldn't have anything left when you sicked that on me!" He pointed at Cara and moaned. "I was good to you!" ...and no good deed goes unpunished.

Marvel knew Angels well. Every time he had seen one, it was always beating up on a poor, defenseless demon. It was horrible. It was cruel. And now...it was his turn.

And to think, he could've avoided this whole mess by having a nice, painful death and getting it all over with.

Cara simply giggled, and simply infused him with energy to remove his weariness.

"My job isn't to harm you Marvel, I don't see why we couldn't be friends, I'm not bound to the same rules of reality as everybody else." she said with a smile.

"But if it pains you so, then I shall free you." Cara said, and in her hands formed a broadsword made of the same solidified Golden White Light her wings were made of. She raised it to cleave Marvel in two.

"But are you sure this is what you really desire? I'd rather put this silly thing away and be friends." Cara said plaintivly, not wanting to do what she thought he wanted.

Kuri was of course in utter confusion by now and had been sitting contemplating the world for the last hour. When the others suddenly vanished she curled into an even tighter ball.

How to you get back to Hubris from here? she plantively asked the villagers.

(OOC: I can't see any IC reason for Kuri to go chasing after you so *shrugs* she is out I suppose.)

The Temple
Degrath studied the two paths and shrugged. "Unfortunatly neither path suggests anything to myself at the moment."

Yelena immediately, and impulsively asked to the old wizard, apparently a bit frustrated and angered as he refused to go ahead, she was not good with social skills, and hiding intentions was complicated, it was obvious the fact he refused to go ahead of her was what bothered her. And triggered a burst of what seemed to be pure pessimism and hopelessness as her bodily gestures indicated, in her mind, logically she was going to die sooner or later, and the last option she had was of not giving them the pleasure of killing her, something which became very obviously her intention as she erratically asked, changed from the way she was before as ´"My chances of surviving are null, I want to have the last painful death then to oblivion"´, was the thought that suddenly occurred into her mind as she spoke in a desperate manner:

"Should we wait here to die then? Is that what you suggest? That we wait here to have an horrible fate? Or are we just doomed anyway? If then, could you borrow me that wire?"

Maybe she was being influenced by the demonic presences of that realm, or maybe it was an expected consequence of post-traumatic stress and having vivid memories of being tortured still flashing against her. Perhaps that would put the mage to do something to give her hope, as she obviously asked him to help her to commit suicide.

Cara simply giggled, and simply infused him with energy to remove his weariness.

"My job isn't to harm you, Marvel. I don't see why we couldn't be friends. I'm not bound to the same rules of reality as everybody else,." she said with a smile.

"But if it pains you so, then I shall free you." Cara said, and in her hands formed a broadsword made of the same solidified Golden White Light her wings were made of. She raised it to cleave Marvel in two.

"But are you sure this is what you really desire? I'd rather put this silly thing away and be friends." Cara said plaintively, not wanting to do what she thought he wanted.

---------------------

It was the end of a long-fought battle. Marvel's unit, a group of "combat virgins," as they were called, had been sent behind enemy lines to distract a group of Angels while more experienced units fought the real battle. Survivors would become regular infantry. The rest--well, there was a reason why they were referred to as "virgins." And, in this battle, Marvel learned what they didn't teach him in infantry training.

Red Gargoyles are high-performance fighters. Angels are slower, but have greater endurance. Thus, it is the preferred tactic of the Angels to ride the Gargoyles out during the early stages of a fight and slaughter them when they start to get tired. Of course, Marvel learned this lesson at the point of a white-hot sword, but he learned it anyway. The only little, teeny weeny problem was that the lesson came with a teeny weeny penalty: he was caught and held over for execution when the Angels' Warlord decided to get his oversized butt off of the cloud he liked to lounge on.

But, eventually, his butt DID come down from the clouds--and Marvel, arms, legs and wings all bound, was brought before him...and had a nice little fiery sword held a few inches off of his nose.

"So, demon," the Angel said, "wouldst thou grovel against thy fate?"

"Ohhh, don't patronize me," the demon replied. "Just get it over with, for cryin' out loud."

The Angel's eyebrows raised. Something about Marvel had excited his curiosity. "Thou hast no fear of death?" he asked.

"You kidding me?" Marvel replied. "Of course I do. I hate the thought of dieing--I'd just rather that be the case than have to be stuck in these damn shackles for one more minute. Death would be a relief!"

The Angel laughed a mirthful laugh. Marvel shook his head at the insult. "I stand corrected, then," he said. "Intelligence--and a rare honesty. Thou knoweth thine predicament, and thou knoweth thine heart." He seemed to become pensive then. "Perhaps...there be hope for thee," he said.

If there was hope, he sure didn't act like it. Instead of slicing the demon through, he slammed the hilt of his sword down on Marvel's head. Everything went black after that.

When he awoke, he found that he had been left on the battlefield, his bonds cut and taken. It took the Demon a week to get back to what was left of the army--where he found that, not very surprisingly, he was the only one of his unit who had survived--the only "virgin" who hadn't been completely...destroyed.

But he never understood those Angels. No amount of trying could make him figure out why they left him alive after going through so much trouble to kill him.

They were simply unfathomable.

---------------------------

"Desire?" he said. "DESIRE?!?! YOU THINK I CRAWLED OUT OF ANOTHER DEMON'S GULLET JUST SO YOU COULD CHOP ME INTO LITTLE PIECES?!?!!" Seeing that his loss of temper wasn't having much affect, he cleared his throat and lowered his voice. "It's just what you Angels always do to my kind. I don't like it and I certainly don't want it, but it's what you always do."

He looked up at her with eyes that could have bored holes into her, so intense was his gaze. "I would prefer it if you'd put that thing away," he said, "even though I don't expect you to. You are, after all, not subject to the same rules as the rest of us. Nobody'll so much as bat an eyelash if yet another Angel slays yet another Demon."

Dastardly Stench;13446329']
"Desire?" he said. "DESIRE?!?! YOU THINK I CRAWLED OUT OF ANOTHER DEMON'S GULLET JUST SO YOU COULD CHOP ME INTO LITTLE PIECES?!?!!" Seeing that his loss of temper wasn't having much affect, he cleared his throat and lowered his voice. "It's just what you Angels always do to my kind. I don't like it and I certainly don't want it, but it's what you always do."

He looked up at her with eyes that could have bored holes into her, so intense was his gaze. "I would prefer it if you'd put that thing away," he said, "even though I don't expect you to. You are, after all, not subject to the same rules as the rest of us. Nobody'll so much as bat an eyelash if yet another Angel slays yet another Demon."

The broadsword disapated.
"Then let us be friends. I have not once in my life ever harmed another living being, and I would prefer not to start now." Cara said enduring his gaze with a smile.

"Oh, we forgot someone. She needs to come along so she can reunite with the rest of herself, and anyways, someone as confused as her shouldn't be left alone in a strange uncaring village anyway." Cara said.

She disappeared in a beam of light shooting upwards.

~*~*~*~*~*~
Whereever Kuri was right that very instant, she began to disapate into light, as someone drew her away, a very powerful someone, with more skill than she remembered.

She would find herself somewhere were there was only light, and the light was everything. It was pure Golden White, and it seemed to make everything better.

She was not alone, a woman stood not too far away from her, holding out her hand to her, she was a beautiful woman, and the closer Kuri got, the more she realised she had wings, and a halo.

Peace and contentment were the only two things that existed here, that, and the restorative Golden White Light.

OOC: This is The Place that is Everyplace, like an Egg on a pancake, its everywhere all around you right this very minute. It is possible to get anywhere from there, even to The Place that is No Place, nowhere, and if you think about it hard enough, you can get to Alcona and Hubris from there, the light will fade away, and she'll be wherever in AaH she wants to be most. Or, she could take Cara's hand.

The longer she stays in the light, the better she will be. Any imperfection, the light takes away, because the light itself, is perfection.

When El'Hilth turned around he found that Marvel, Maggie, and the kid had left. He pulled out a bit of cloth that had been torn off Maggie's sleve in the fight with the chaos beast and it used to find Maggie, next he created an astral projection before her.

"Forget someone?" his projection asked.

"Yeah," Marvel replied with a mischievous little grin. "We left Kuri in the village. Cara's gettin' her, though. Bet she'll be back before I can ask m'self why I'm doing this again. Maybe it's the free food." He had managed to stand up, and put his hands on his hips.

"Well, impressive me with your magic, show me how quickly you can get here, you know where the temple is, you said its direction." Maggie said.

She crested a hill, and let out a gasp.
"Holy Hell that's huge!" she exclaimed.
Before them was a tower that seemed to stretch for miles in the air, the force of Chaos so strong within it that the very air around it wavered. Sections of it seemed to spin visably. All around it flew monsters of nearly every known type, and at its base, swarmed legions of others.

"Alright, I can accept all that, but, why does it look like a giant erect, nevermind Maggie you don't want to know." she said speaking partially to the others partially to herself. She was visably blushing.

"We're only half a day's walk from that thing, and using speed enhancing abilities, we got here quickly, can't you do something similar, or do I need to have Cara open a portal?" Cara asked.

"Are you kidding?" the demon asked. "If we go in there at full speed, every one of those monsters is going to come down on us with a fork in one hand and a knife in the other! Puhhh-leeeeeze! I worked sweeping detail when I was in the infantry. Let me put a dome of invisibility over us all and then we can go in slow and careful, feeling out the traps BEFORE we spring them.

"Besides, it's too short to look anything like MY...never mind...," he said with a wry grin. Of course, she didn't need to know that the reason his...never mind...was so long was so that it could fertilize eggs in a host's stomach. Some things are better left unsaid.

--------------------------

OOC: If there are magical traps and such, TG me. I'm not saying that Marvel can't fall into one, but rather that it should be done in such a way that it is consistent with his (untrained) ability to feel magic.

"Are you kidding?" the demon asked. "If we go in there at full speed, every one of those monsters is going to come down on us with a fork in one hand and a knife in the other! Puhhh-leeeeeze! I worked sweeping detail when I was in the infantry. Let me put a dome of invisibility over us all and then we can go in slow and careful, feeling out the traps BEFORE we spring them.

"Besides, it's too short to look anything like MY...never mind...," he said with a wry grin. Of course, she didn't need to know that the reason his...never mind...was so long was so that it could fertilize eggs in a host's stomach. Some things are better left unsaid.

--------------------------

OOC: If there are magical traps and such, TG me. I'm not saying that Marvel can't fall into one, but rather that it should be done in such a way that it is consistent with his (untrained) ability to feel magic.

OOC: Nothing but a giant horde of monsters. I'll give everyone a few OOC days to catch up, a few IC hours to get there. Inside the Temple however...
Well, lets just say there is a special trap in there called the Domino Effect. However its pressure plate, not magic, but it evolves into magic. Its a very difficult trap to completly avoid.

IC: Maggie looked at the bug, and at Marvel.
"You know, I think I'll give everyone a few hours to catch up, I did just suddenly blaze out of there. Besides, I have a feeling we're going to need everyone we can get inside there." Maggie said.

OOC: Especially against Angel-Demon, Chancellor Listh'vis, and Malal's Beast, which is the last and most powerful monster of this thread.

"Good," the demon replied. "Besides, I think a short sit would do me a world of good."

He found a fallen tree on the side of the path and sat on it.

OOC: It would seem this has fallen the way of all other Fantasy RPs, as this thread takes its few final choking gasps, I shall remember to never again use an environment completly neutral to me, and next time, because there will be a next time, I will use an environment I'm more intimately familier with.

El'Hilth met up with Marvel and Maggie after a few hours.

"Now we just have to wait for everyone else."

"Yeah," said Marvel. "Didn't happen to bring any food with you, did you? Flying kicks my metabolism into overdrive. I'm hungry."

-------------------

OOC: I'm not going to give up on this thread just yet, thanks.

Degrath sighed 'The sigh' the one all old men do when some youngster has gone off on a rather pointless tangent.
"Alright neither of us have any clues, and we can not stay here. Therefore we could flip a coin." Degrath paused for a moment, "Do you have a coin?"

The Everything

The Magical energy began to 'rewire' parts of Kuri's memory. She could remember that night in Torrhall with Emma and that cute guy....She remembered everything about guns....about the retaking of Hubris by the Alconians...Her initiation into the Order...

Duty popped into Kuri's semi-healed brain. And she thought..."I need to go where my Duty demands..."

Kuri appeared at the doors to the first temple with a rather confused look. Although she knew Duty had brought her here. She didn't actually remember what her mission orders were. Who else was assigned...obviously Kuri had jumped the gun.

OOC: Some of us just haven't had that easy a time trying to figure out what path to take with our wounded characters. (That and I missed SS last post

Yelena looked at Degrath, apparently frustrated by the slowness of the old man to take some action about the situation they were into:

"No, but even if I threw a coin there to check if there was a trap, who knows whether there is some magic that makes the trap smart enough to not be triggered by non-living things? And who knows if that 'normal' path to the left is not actually the most dangerous one? The only sense about this chaos thing is that it makes no sense. What are you still waiting for? Flipping coins is a very foolish way to take decisions... ahn... what is your name?"

Maybe he could still be pressed to go ahead of her after all.

Maggie looked at Marvel and El'Hilth, and then over at the temple, far far away where Kuri had materialised out of The Place that is Every Place.
Fortunatly for Kuri, Cara had come with her.
Cara had an effect on the monsters all around Kuri, and they all backed off in fear.

"I was going to take you to the rest of the group, but your thought is most excellent, a woman on point to scout for traps is an idea I should've thought of myself. One as skilled as you in the Arcane arts should be able to detect many traps in this place.

I shall not presume to enter yon doors until you pronounce it safe for our well-being." Cara said.

She shot a ball of light towards Maggie with a message.

The ball stopped infront of Maggie, and unfurled into the words
"Kuri accidentally jumped the gun and brought herself to The Temple's entrance. You should probably hurry, I can only do so much."

"Looks like its time to go." Maggie said standing up.
______________________________________________________

Meanwhile, inside the temple where Yelena and Degrath were...

The sound of a large beast moving through the hall came from the left.

It came around the corner, and the first thing either could see, was that its body was black, as though charred by a flame that burned the very soul. Its eyes glowed red, and smoke curled out of its nose. It had two large demon wings, Clawed feet, and fangs for ripping meat. This was no ordinary magical creature, this was a Demon Horse, a rare steed belonging exclusivly to The Legions of The Knights of Doom, but only those familier with either their legends, or the rarer parts of Demonology would know what it was, all others would only know it as an abomination from hell.

It licked its lips as it stared at Yelena, from accross the breathing hallway, and let out a little knicker, shooting a fireball at the floor even as it did so, then, without warning, it charged down the hallway at Yelena full speed, intent on killing her with its claws and eating her for its dinner.

Both Degrath and Yelena would find its skin was very tough, lending it a natural armor against physical attacks, and it absorbed fire based attacks, healing itself in the burning flames.
____________________________________________________
OOC: Sometimes you find the monster, others, the monster finds you, if it can move that is, some monsters can't. In this case since the Monster was a demon horse from the renegade legion, it found you. This particular demon horse has no powers or abilities beyond claws of slashy doom and a weak fireball. Its an untrained demon horse, so with that in mind, make it a good fight you two.

I am going to assume Thrashia is following us somehow someway ICly, so as to not bump him(her?) out of the story, and anyone else who hasn't arrived yet, gets that same assumption.

TG me and answer me this question:
If you could find one treasure in this temple to enhance your fighting abilities before we get to the first major fight in this temple, what would it be? If you don't want it to be for fighting, but something else, than what would it be?
What are the properties of this item, what does it look like?

Meanwhile, we begin the temple. *insert evil laugh and appropriate evil theme music here*

As the horrific beast started charged towards them, the window for choice now was limited as a second was what separated life from death. With all magical capabilities drained, no firearms, no melee combat training or fitness for it, an arm missing and no other choice, Yelena, clearly frightened as her senses perceived the coming death, dashed behind, in perhaps a great demonstration of either cowardice or reflexes, to run back to the place were her cell was located in the hope of finding some use of what could be scavenged there, leaving Degrath behind who would hopefully buy her some time as the beast feasted upon his flesh, or maybe that old man would somehow defeat the beast by himself.

Kuri looked down at Cara. "I'm afraid your quite confused...I have zero magic ability..."

She pulled the long gun from her pack and pointed it at the first monster smiling slightly with an odd, almost devilish grin. "I have magic munitions..."

Kuri drew a bead on the largest monster and pulled the trigger. Her first round selection was a 'standard' 45 caliber, long range explosive penetrator round. The explosive equivilant was sticking half a stick of dynamite into the creature's belly and letting it go off.

If that didn't work, or the other creatures attacked. They would be enjoying a redefinition of phase.

The Temple
Degarth looked at the girl. "My name is Degarth...and you my dear need to learn to deal with your problems, not sit and whine about them like some overbread little princess. I've met nobles so inbred that their grandfather on both sides is the same bastard who have more backbone and self-reliance than you do. The only thing you do is run from your troubles, until you can't. Then you whine like some overbred twit for someone who isn't spinless to rescue you."

Of course at that moment the monster showed up. Degrath pointed at the creatures eyes and called ventira a small burst of acid flew out in a nasty green mist to blind it.

"Everybody get close," Marvel said. "One Dome of Invisibility coming up."

He raised his hand, and the world around it seemed to bend somehow. The "bent world" slowly expanded out from his palm, like dripping oil in reverse, until it was a meter or two above the whole group. Then, it seemed to spread apart and drip downward until it reached the ground. Then, the affect vanished. Things appeared normal.

"There," said the demon. "As long as I can keep my arm up, we're invisible. We're not inaudible or unsmellable, so keep it quiet--and I'm glad we all had a chance to bathe yesterday. We're downwind of the temple, anyway, so let's hope the wind doesn't change.

"All together now!" And with that, he started walking toward the temple--slowly, so that everyone could keep the same pace.

At the entrance...
The shot triggered a trap, energy pulsed into the ground, and great stone hands shot up out of the ground and came slamming down on Kuri and Cara, but Cara simply darted into the temple, pulling Kuri with her.

"Perhaps we're safer inside." Cara said.

____________________-
meanwhile, at the invis dome...

"Their being attacked, we should hurry." Maggie said, and she was right, but not because of Cara and Kuri. As it so happened, there was a large monster in their path that resembled a massive fat belly with a large protrouding nose and a mouth. It was similar in nature to Slaboflab, the demon that ate Marvel, but was infact, not Slaboflab.

The monster sniffed the air, and smiled. Its tounge darted out and nabbed Maggie, carrying her towards its mouth.
"Aiieee!" Maggie screamed, unable to fight off the sudden attack. Having eaten Maggie, it went for Marvel.

__________________-

Inside...

The demon horse blocked most of the acid mist with its wings, but some still got to its eyes. It roared with pain, a sound that was far beyond the capabilities of any normal horse. It reared on its hind legs, shaking its head, and ran into the room with Yelena, charging straght into the wall. the wall broke away to reveal a pedastal with a gun on it, next to a little silver box of holding containing many electrified bullets.

The demon horse roared with pain, sniffed Yelena out, and ran over to bite her.

OOC: congratulations SS, you found a Droch Warbringer when you needed it most. I mean, I could've waited, but now seemed like the most appropriate moment.

Alcona, you never answered my question.

Stench, you should definatly get eaten again...

It was too fast and soon Yelena would reach a dead end as she ran away scared. There was not much to do, anywhere to run... it was over. As the beast impacted with the wall, luckily not hitting her, Yelena immediately noticed luck went on favor of her. What was there was something beyond any existing technology in Soviet Steam, a handgun which complexity and design seemed to make even a gatling gun meek in comparison: a pinnacle of science and technology, a masterwork of gunsmith, and also her last chance of survival.

Her vision saw it clear as she darted away from her previous direction, everything panning to the left and the visage of the pedestal as clear as ever as the beast was distracted. There were very few seconds now. She ran like never before, motivated by a surge of adrenalin, towards the pedestal. The thought it could be a trap never came because if it was, she would be dead anyway then. With a quick reach of her remaining arm, Yelena grabbed the impressive handgun (http://www.gamebanshee.com/arcanum/equipment/images/wg-drochs-warbringer.JPG), and without time, or a free arm, to load it, she immediately aimed against the beast, trying to target its head, having no other choice but to fire it and hope its revolver chamber, apparently capable of carrying 8 rounds, was fully loaded, as it was already ready for fire.

Seems like probabilities and chances were at her favor as well. with a pull of the trigger, a projectile escaped from the barrel of the gun, making a loud bang and sound of electric shock as a bullet flew from it, sparks of electricity moving around the bullet, a visage which was not possible to notice due to the speed the projectile moved, almost as fast as sound itself, but a trail of electric arcs, which lasted for a hundredth of a second, was noticeable. The projectile headed straight towards the demon's head in those fractions of seconds, at the same moments Yelena concentrated entirely on it to check if she managed to hit the demon or not.

The projectile headed straight towards the demon's head in those fractions of seconds, at the same moments Yelena concentrated entirely on it to check if she managed to hit the demon or not.

The bullet did impact the demon's head, and it floundered on the floor scratching at the walls, at the air, flailing, trying to get back up, but in the end, it was just a pony, not even a fully grown fully trained Demon Horse, and it died.

This left Yelena and Degrath once again with the question, left down the breathing hall, or right down the spinning hall?

hopefully, Yelena would not forget the accompanying box of ammunition.

It was safe for now, relatively safe. Yelena still held the firearm in her right hand, and looked at the box, but soon took some steps forward to watch both exits to left and right, point her gun where her eyes were directed. It seemed as heavy as a brick, and the recoil of such revolver gave the impression someone just punched her arm as she fired it before, although somehow it was tolerable and not beyond her capabilities to wield such compact, but powerful weapon.

Looking at Degarth again with seemed to be a facade of pride, as apparently having a large handgun seemed to boost her courage and determination drastically, perhaps due to the reason that now she was not defenseless anymore, and she smiled, speaking calmly and pretending to be relaxed:

"Degarth, what did you say about whining? Do you know the difference between the certainty of death and certainty of having chances to survive? I had no way to defend myself before but to run away, that is what I sought to, and seems luck came to my favor this time. And do you know how many people can just get away with a degree of determination after, in a single day, waking up from an horrible nightmare which seemed to last for months, suffering from acidic burns, losing one arm and being tortured for an indeterminate amount of time? I doubt you know... because I am having a really cursed time in this place and I want to get out of here as soon as possible. So, considering that thing came from the left, there might be many more of those there, so I suggest us to take the right way, but before it, let me present properly, now that I am finally forgetting gradually all that happened before"

She then "extended" the stump of her left arm, making a slight motion of the long sleeve over it, much longer than her remaining extension of that limb, from where no arm could be seen coming out, apparently seeking to greet him in an unusual way while her actual hand was busy. The way she spoke seemed to impose an air of authority, but in an apparently friendly way, despite everything.

"If you do not know already, Degarth, my name is Yelena Praskovya, I do not see worth on fancy titles or presentations so that is all I have to present myself, my full name. Could you give me a hand with that silver box there? As you can see, I am short of one myself and considering what just came out from there I would rather not have to take away this weapon from my only hand and seven shots are not going to be enough to get out of this place."

~SNIP~

They would notice, after picking the box up, that it came with a handy shoulder strap that just matched Yelena's eyes, made of finely woven spider silk.

OOC: I decided to be nice enough to give you that.

Degrath shrugged. "I suppose one finds courage in all sorts of things, but I never found a blunderbuss to be of much value."

Degrath picked up the box and put it over his shoulder. "Since we seem to be discussing what has befallen us in the last twenty four hours. You might want to know that I was enjoying my rather nice, comfortable afterlife until you and your merry band of misfits pulled my soul out of Vahalla and back down onto this plane."

He looked down at himself, "And now I am either alive again after a few hundread years of being dead. Or I happen to be undead. I am not sure which I find more disturbing."

Degrath turned and pointed down the right hallway. "Well, one can only hope about such things let us be going."

Temple Entrance
Kuri swore and looked down at Calra. "Damn it we need a full heavy assult squad with a three man point team to take this place."

OOC: What question??

"Ohhh," Marvel said, "how do I get myself into messes like this one?" One would think that, having recently escaped the maw of one Eater Demon, Marvel would have some sense of fear of them. Not so. He had studied Slaboflab, and knew a few of its weaknesses--and this one was smaller and weaker. He didn't know why he was putting himself in danger for this alien creature, but he had to postpone that question for later.

He was going to need all his concentration for this one--it would test not the brute force of his mojo, but rather the skill with which he could apply it--so he dropped his Dome of Invisibility. Then, he let it wrap its tongue around him and took a deep breath as it started to haul him into its bulging maw. He was going to need to get up close and personal for this.

As the demon started to swallow, Marvel reached out and wiggled his fingers. "Tickle" was a VERY basic illusion, and could be applied anywhere--including an Eater Demon's uvula. This was, in fact, where Marvel applied exactly that illusion--if he got his aim right, and he was very careful. It shouldn't take long, he reasoned, for it to have its intended affect. He was sopping wet with saliva, and it felt real grotesque, but he put up with it just to make sure he could deliver the spell where it was needed.

Hopefully, he'd soon be out, and Maggie wouldn't be long to follow.

Yelena looked at him contemptuously as he mentioned afterlife, wondering whether that old wizard became insane, or if he created some sort of inner world to forget something from his own past, or something similar.

With the box hanging on her shoulders and definitively encumbering her, she unceremoniously held the gun grip with her teeth, opening her mouth pretty wide and giving her some aches on her teeth due to its weight, as she reached the box, opening it where, from almost a hundred of stacked bullets, she took a single bullet from it. Releasing a lock to push down the pistol barrel and the cylinder up, she then removed the cartridge from the shot bullet from it with her free fingers, after clumsily trying to reach them correctly, and placed the new round in the cylinder, and then pulled the barrel up again to its previous position, finally releasing the grip of her teeth over it and holding it with her hand, before Degrath could offer to help her.

She took a few steps ahead to the right until she was only a single centimeter away from the shifting mass of flesh ahead, staring at it and playing with her weapon as she aimed towards those disgusting walls and floors. She simply answered to Degrath:

"These things are alive, Degrath. They are, even in their disgusting form, living beings, and I do not intend to harm or kill them, as long as they do not harm me. But, I suggest that both of us cross it together, and stay very alert for any movement of this flesh that does not follow its current pattern."

She did not take any step further as the looming mass of flesh was almost touching her boots, because of the proximity she was from it.

OOC: Check out the last third of post #151, that question. Its an OOC question.
IC:
Inside...

As they made their way down the right hallway, it continued to spin, as though this were some sort of a funhouse, and the spinning tunnel was one of the joke hallways that lead either from one half of the house to the other, or to the exit.

But this was not a funhouse, and it was doubtful that either Yelena or Degrath were having fun.

The tunnel lead to a more stable area, and as they walked they entered a large room.

Writing was on the walls, and it was magic writing, that adopted itself to whatever language one read the best.

Your in my trap and its a doozy,
careful or you'll feel woozy.

Whether it is day or night,
you'll need all your might.

The Pin is in the floor,
the key is in the door.

Pull one to use the other, but the Pin holds the ceiling down,
yes, your in reverse, but please don't frown.

As they looked around, they would find a large peg in the floor, and up towards the ceiling, was a door, upside down. A key was plainly in the door.

on the walls neatly stacked were a large assortment of tables, chairs, and ladders.

If either tried to leave, they would find themselves depostited back in the very same room.
_______________________
The monster began to hack and cough, and threw up the contents of its belly.

Out came maggie, out came Marvel, out came a couple gallons of Stomach Acid, bones, partially digested meat, and various objects.

One in surprisingly good condition had somehow managed to land around Marvel's hand, an amulet on a gold chain. It was a glowing, Azure stone with four little orbs on it, that revolved around the stone, as though they were planets going around a sun. on a little clasp was inscribed the name Yendor. Appearently, Yendor had failed to keep from being eaten by this, whatever it was. The gold was not pure, but it was pure enough to withstand the acid in the creature's belly, and once the amulet was cleaned, it would still be very valuble.

Maggie stood, and gathered her Aura to her right hand, her punching hand, and hit the thing so hard it flew far, far away, and was eaten by its bigger, mobile brother.

"Screw the invisiblity, I'm just going." Maggie said, as she turned and walked off.
__________
At the entrance.
"Look over yon plain, behold how such an assembly approaches, though on a smaller scale. I have no doubts our approaching friends will be more than adequate back-up." Cara said.

OOC: No Alcona, no Soviet, I'm not going to tell you how to get past the trap. Not until the rest of us manage to join you. In my next post, We will join Kuri at the entrance, and the post after that, will be with you in the trapped room.

Here's how it works, you two can discuss via whatever method you choose, OOC, IC, TG, E-mail, IM, Snail-mail, whatever medium you so desire, how you think you can get past this little trap. Then you both post your characters perspective efforts. You don't even have to discuss anything, you can just post what you think will work.

Then I'll post what happens, then you'll continue from there. You might spring the trap, you might disarm it, you might do niether and end up failing on both accounts.

Good luck.

The thing was magical! Wow! The power that it gave off was tremendous! Marvel had never seen anything like it! Still, he could tell that it was dormant--not a threat--as he held it in his hand.

He didn't have enough time to check it out, though. A giant bat swooped down from the air, fangs bared.

Marvel didn't so much as flinch. He just got angry. His hand, the one not holding the amulet, reached forward and, with a sound little swish of his finger, he pulled another dirty trick out of his little bag.

A wellspring of fire shot from the demon's palm. The bat burst into flames. It really didn't matter that they weren't real flames--Marvel could never cast so strong a fireball--because, to the bat, it felt like real fire. It flew off, shrieking in pain. After that, none of the other monsters dared challenge him as he bent slowly, carefully, keeping an ear out for another attack, over Maggie and checked to see that she was still alive. Being hungry, he had a good mind to make a meal of her blood, but he held back, figuring that he would soon need her good graces--and especially those of her friend the Angel--more than he needed the nourishment that she could provide.

As they moved along, dancing sandwhiches spawned from the large amounts of ambient chaos energy in the air. They danced around Marvel, teasing him and his hunger. If he so chose, they would be really quite delicious.

"Oh for goodness sakes." Maggie said. She grabbed one and promptly ate it.
"Oh, Tuna, my favorite!" Maggie said smiling in satisfaction as the sandwhich screamed and died in her hands.
A ham sandwhich was moving particularly close to Marvel, it looked very, very good.

They had finally reached the entrance.
"Maggie!" Cara called.
Maggie entered the temple and looked around.

"A breathing temple, weird." Maggie said.
"Its not really breathing, its just pulsing with Chaos." Cara explained.

Marvel's tongue shot out of his mouth, lassoed the sandwich, and brought it home to pappa. It folded in neatly.

Marvel smiled sheepishly at the disgusted look on Maggie's face. Then, he put the bite on another, slightly more distant, sandwich. "Now all I need," he said, "is a giant bathtub to appear so I can clean this mess off of me."

Not to be outdone, a giant bathtub appeared right over his head and, humming the rifts of "Riders on the Storm," ever-so-ceremoniously turned over and dumped its entire contents on the demon, before disappearing again and leaving him to fume.

"Ohhhh. I just hadda ask!"

He followed Maggie into the temple, noting the two sculptures of hands that hadn't been there when he started his journey.

This place was like a haunted house. The only thing missing was little voices to taunt you along the way.

Marvel. I can help you.

Looks like the demon had thought too soon.

OOC: Soviet, Alcona, are you two waiting on Jagaro, Dasterdly Stench, and i to join you two in the trapped room, cause I've been waiting on Alcona and Jagaro to make, at the very least, a reaction post to bring us all in the present moment in our little party at the entrance.

I could if you want, fast forward to where we're all in the same room.

OOC: no, more like I've just lost the bubble on this thread for a moment...:headbang:
OO
The Gateway

Kuri stood and looked about for a moment, poking the wall slightly with the tip of her gun. She also made sure that the rod (or staff) was attached firmly to her belt.

The Trap

Degrath stood there and queitly pondered the wall for a moment and then said. "I think pulling the rod from the floor drops the cealing down on us or throws the floor up at the cealing...either way we go splat I suppose."

Peering inside of the gateway, Marvel could see Cara and Kuri. Then, a monster just appeared. Actually, it entered with a whoosh. It was basically humanoid, and clad in a sliver one-piece suit. It was thin and had long legs and long, clawed fingers. Over its head it wore a helmet--shaped to resemble the human head, with a wrap-around part covering its jaw and a mirror-shade screen above it covering its eyes. In its left hand was a small wooden ball with a metal stick coming out of it, threaded on its outstretched end.

"Oh no!" Marvel said. "It's a speed demon!"

"On your mark," said the speed demon. "Get set..."

"What if I kill these walls with gunshots? They are alive after all, and I do not want to get through a legion of those 'horses' to find my way out of here!", Yelena asked as she retreated a bit from that dangerously close position from the trap, apparently thinking the way she approached it was foolish.

The entryway...

Maggie rolled her eyes when she saw the speed demon and just continued walking in the temple. Appearently she hit some sort of a secret switch, because the ground tilted upwards and sealed everyone inside, as it transmuted into more of the same sort of wall. Try as she might, niether the switch, nor the brute force of a solid blow to the door could force it open. Infact, when she hit it, the door simply jiggled like a bowl full of Jello.

"Whoops, guess there's nowhere to go now but forward." Maggie said.

She walked on, past a large circular room that smelled of demonic presence, covered with horse manure on the floor. This was where the young demon horse had been.

She walked down the breathing tunnel, and stopped to peer in the room where Yelena had been held. Onward she walked down the revolving hall, falling only once when she lost her balance.

Untill...

In the room with the trap...

The things on the walls were held in place by begs and hooks. A little mouse darted accross the hall.

Maggie moved very quietly, and had taken a moment to read the wall.

"Appearently Gravity is objective directional, with a special rule that keeps the walls and things on the walls acting as objects for gravity to attract. See how the ladder neither rises nor falls, clearly it is perfectly suspended between the two gravities, for no pegs, hooks, nor any other object holds it in place, and as yon little mouse has proven, if we can make it close enough to the ceiling, we will be effected reversly by the strong central pull of gravity downwards, and instead repelled towards the ceiling.

Having read the bad poem on the wall, I am lead to believe that perhaps we should first get to the ceiling." Maggie said.

"Would it help if I flew up there?" Cara asked.
"No, because the door is up there, and we all need to get up there." Maggie said.

OOC: This does not mean that those that are still in town cannot join us, there will be another entrance should they choose to come.

El'Hilth and Drulk had Marvel and Maggie fallowed quietly, he had not found any need for his powers. Now he thought he could find Yelena, he took her arm out of the barrell on Drulk's back, "I am going to see if I can find her." He used the mummified arm to find her and started trying to back track.

El'Hilth and Drulk had Marvel and Maggie fallowed quietly, he had not found any need for his powers. Now he thought he could find Yelena, he took her arm out of the barrell on Drulk's back, "I am going to see if I can find her." He used the mummified arm to find her and started trying to back track.

OOC: If you read my post and really followed me, then you would find she was in the room with me. Also, there's not a whole lot of back tracking to do, basicly a long hallway with a single room off to the side, that is not so large a quick peak couldn't scan the length, width and depth of its interior.
I had assumed you were right with me, and so locked you in the temple with the four of us. (four of us as in the posters, not the characters.)

Marvel had never felt so glad to get locked inside of a building. They didn't know it, but speed demons are nasty little things. They have nervous systems like house flies--almost three times as fast as those of humans. They are so fast and so quick that, once they get going, it's almost impossible to stop them.

Moving along with the others, he came upon the same strange room that they were in.

"Would it help if I flew up there?" Cara asked.

"No, because the door is up there, and we all need to get up there." Maggie said.

"I don't understand," Marvel said. "Both Cara and I can carry you folks. We could set up a regular fire brigade."

----------------

OOC: don't want to deal with my creations, eh? Well...there will be more of them along the way. Just wait until I get into the computer humor. :) :) :)

OOC: sorry I miss read your posts, we'll just pretend that didn't happen.

IC:

"Well mabey if we ask the door nicely it will come donw here, seems to make just about as much sence as anything else I have seen in this place." Said El'Hilth before stabing his jian into the ground in frustration.

OOC: Okay, okay, I'll give just a little more away ICly.

IC:

Maggie looked at the walls, and the other end of the room. Then she leapt on the wall, wall jumped off that, and landed on the ceiling, where she stood up.

From Maggie's perspective...

She looked up at the ceiling to see everyone up there. A feeling of nausea overtook her momentarily, however, her new perspective let her see something new, from where she was, she couldn't see it because she looked up, but there were scratchings in the floor where everyone stood, as though someone had once tried this same puzzle.

A large stack of items has the same gravity as the floor its attached to. The walls move.

Maggie read the words aloud to the group.

"I guess it means if we build a stack of tables ladders and chairs large enough from me to you, then we'll only suffer a five foot fall when we pulled the ceiling plug. Since one operates the other, we would need a flyer to pull the doorkey at the same time, as clearly only operating one is a trap, a lethal trap for the solo adventurer." Maggie said.

OOC: Don't forget about that speed demon just yet Stench, he's actually the very next monster that we'll face, only he doesn't know it yet.

Stats for rest of Temple:

10 monsters, with Speed Demon being the first of them. They may range from easy, like the Demon pony, to medium. Hard mmonsters are reserved for later.

3 levels, one of which will be nothing more than a gigantic room, it has invisible walls.

5 traps, that are actual traps, not a puzzle like what we're in now.

6 puzzles, the last one of which leads to the guardian of the first portal to the Warp, and, a secret.

one level will contain a portion of the story of what happened that fateful night long ago when King Cromyr prayed to Chaos, only this takes place AFTER the bit I posted.

Jagaro, Alcona, and Hubris each still must make up their rare finds to give their character an edge. Jagaro can do one for each of his two characters, as can AaH. At some point, before the first Guardian, I'll let them find it.

And of course, The guardian itself. This particular guardian is a doozy, as it was imagined specifically with your character in mind, and is built with the potential to kill your character, a very tough battle indeed. How did I do it? I didn't, you did, or at least you will. That's right, the first guardian is individual specific, we each get our own, a chance to really showcase what we can do. more on that though when we get to that point.

If you have an idea for a puzzle trap or monster, let me know, and I'll give you an OOC nudge right before it goes into action. this is only the first temple, so keep it easy to moderate in difficulty. Stench gets to use his speed demon creation after we're done with the puzzle.

Marvel hopped up and, with a single flap of his wings, somersaulted neatly in midair and landed without a sound on the door. In response to the gazes that followed him, he looked surprised.

"What? I was infantry. They taught us little aerobatic tricks like that.

"You think we can use the stuff in the room as support columns? Might not last long, but maybe they'll keep the ceiling and floor apart long enough to let us get everyone through the door. In fact, since the door's opposite the floor, couldn't you all just stand in its footprint and let the ceiling push you through the door once it's open? It's a little crowded, but there aught to be enough room."

OOC: Though I'm waiting for everyone else to post ICly...
We pull on the key and the plug at the same time, Gravity shifts to make the side with the door the floor, and it swings open to reveal a lever. We throw the lever, and as I said, the walls move, taking the tunnel we all entered from, and dropping it from what is now the ceiling, to the floor, we go down a tiny bit, and the room squeezes shut behind us, and the tunnel opens to a large circular room, where your speed demon will have found his way inside.

After Speed demon we go to a trapped set of stairs.

OOC: Sorry to hold up but RL is eating my time a bit more than normal
Saturday post planned

OOC: Hey, if we need to take a break we can, no hurries, no rush. Maybe that's why RP's keep falling, people keep feeling rushed to complete them, but never feel free to take a break. We can put this on hold.

DeGrath looked at Kuri...
Kuri looked at DeGrath...

Kuri pulled somthing from her early memory and her eyes went wide. "Your...Vincent DeGrath...the Red Wizard who destroyed the Dark One's unborn..."

DeGrath humped a bit. "So it that what Athena's little minions are learning these days? Well why don't you show them what you can do and get up to the cealing. I suppose you do have a rope available."

"Athena always said you were huffy..."

"Gah, that one is always was on my case. Now give me one end of the rope and be a good little warrior princess and follow that female mage up to the cealing with the other end."

Kuri gave Degrath a long cold stare, but did as he asked.
Kuri pulled a rope out from her backpack and handed one end to DeGrath and then repeated Maggie's trick.

However, Kuri kept her eyes firmly planted on the floor or cealing to avoid getting disoriented.

Degrath looked about to the others. "Actually I don't want to be finding out that when we pull the plug, the chairs and tables drop on top of us when we pull the plug. Now who wants to climb up first?"

"Ahem!" said Marvel. "Ummmm...like, I'm already here!" He rolled his eyes.

"I guess its just you four then." Cara said, indicating Kuri, Degrath, and the two bugs.

"I can hold the rope, I'm not going up, I'm going to pull the plug down here at the same time as Maggie pulls the key up there. I mean clearly that's what we have to do, But I'm not powerful enough to carry four people, not even three. One maybe, but that would be difficult." Cara said.

OOC: What's the problem this time? You could AT LEAST have the common courtesy to explain WHY you're ignoring my posts. And don't give me any BS about godmodding, either. I'm being quite careful not to. The post said that every wall, including the one with the door on it, was a floor. Any character who can reach it can stand on it. Cara could do the same exact thing. NOT that anybody has had the guts or common courtesy to bring this up...

So, once again, what's the problem?

Dastardly Stench;13480953']OOC: What's the problem this time? You could AT LEAST have the common courtesy to explain WHY you're ignoring my posts. And don't give me any BS about godmodding, either. I'm being quite careful not to. The post said that every wall, including the one with the door on it, was a floor. Any character who can reach it can stand on it. Cara could do the same exact thing. NOT that anybody has had the guts or common courtesy to bring this up...

So, once again, what's the problem?

OOC:I have not once ignored one of your posts, an Ignore would be written all over the post. No one has actually put forth any ideas of how to pull the plug, just how to keep the ceiling from falling. No one's discussed any ideas, nobody's debated their pro's and cons. I regret making this puzzle in the first place, its NOT that difficult.

Secondly, if you had really read my posts you would have noticed that I already said ICly that both had to be operated at the same time because not doing so was clearly a trap.

Nowhere in any of my posts has there been a blatant ignoring of your posts, if anything you've been ignoring mine and not completly thinking about what I've said. I said we were going to the entrance in one post and then to join them in this puzzle in the next, and what did you do, you summoned up a monster without even asking if it was okay, or if there was a more appropriate place for it. Believe it or not I would've let you summon it after this puzzle where I was already lacking for something in the first place.
I said we had to operate both objects at once, and only volunteered to keep one down with the plug, in no way does that interfere with your column idea, or AaH's idea of getting everone down to the door first, it simply solves part of the next problem, how to operate both at once. No where once was it stated that I couldn't pull the plug when everyone is ready.

OOC:I have not once ignored one of your posts, an Ignore would be written all over the post. No one has actually put forth any ideas of how to pull the plug, just how to keep the ceiling from falling. No one's discussed any ideas, nobody's debated their pro's and cons. I regret making this puzzle in the first place, its NOT that difficult.

Secondly, if you had really read my posts you would have noticed that I already said ICly that both had to be operated at the same time because not doing so was clearly a trap.

Nowhere in any of my posts has there been a blatant ignoring of your posts, if anything you've been ignoring mine and not completly thinking about what I've said. I said we were going to the entrance in one post and then to join them in this puzzle in the next, and what did you do, you summoned up a monster without even asking if it was okay, or if there was a more appropriate place for it. Believe it or not I would've let you summon it after this puzzle where I was already lacking for something in the first place.
I said we had to operate both objects at once, and only volunteered to keep one down with the plug, in no way does that interfere with your column idea, or AaH's idea of getting everone down to the door first, it simply solves part of the next problem, how to operate both at once. No where once was it stated that I couldn't pull the plug when everyone is ready.

OOC:

I apologize for my outburst.

Nonetheless, it makes little sense to me to have a rope going up from the "floor" to the "ceiling" and ask for somebody to hold it when Marvel happens to be standing on the "ceiling," right on the door.

Again, I do not mean this as an insult, but, rather, an explanation. I read posts where Maggie and Cara were in the puzzle room, and assumed that Marvel had gone with them. In fact, it was this lack of continuity that led me to begin feeling that my posts were being ignored, though I now know better.

---------------------

IC:

"Well, why doesn't everybody come up here then. I can get you all up, one at a time. That way, when you pull the plug, one of us can turn the key in the door at the same time, and the rest can all haul you up here on the rope and then we can all hop in the door."

OOC: Kuri took the rope to the ceiling mainly because she had it in her hand already.

And really my brain-power happens to be focused on my job at the moment. So if I haven't spent much character time doing puzzle solving it is just RL needing high wattage brain power right now at all times it seems. :(

OOC: Regrettably my compy has crashed, borrowing another until mine gets fixed. I will not be on again until it gets fixed.

with that in mind, let us take a break, refresh our minds and imaginations, and come back with a better perspective. I'v already come up with a few ideas that will make this even better.

IC:
"well, there is a notch in this here plug in the floor, after everyone is on the otherside, I could tie the rope to it while we build a support column out of the stuff on the wall like Marvel suggusted. I fly too, so I don't need the rope. Then, I guess we pull the rope and key, and hope we're not horribly crushed to death under 45 metric tonnes or so of temple. Ok, its probably more than that, but, you know." Cara said. She looked around, grabbed a chair, and put it close to the center of the floor, and from there, began making a support column. There was enough for four such columns on the walls.

"You could always toss the end of the rope up to me," Marvel said. "Not sure what it would do to the spell to have an object on two of its gravity references, though."

-------------

OOC:

Just keeping the thread active. Sort of a polite bump.

OOC: I'll be off and on, random net acces until compy gets fixed. I hope I got this right.
IC:
Cara smiled, Kuri already had one end of the rope, and she was on the smame end as Marvel.

"It was a nice idea Mr. Marvel, but remember, Kuri and Degrath already have the rope stretched between the two gravities,and nothing has happened. Further, this ladder has been suspended inbetween the two since we first came in the room. I surmise that the two gravities are area of effect spells, and if that's true, then having something stretched between them to cause something to happen would be as ineffective as trying to prevent earthquakes in europe by tying the british isles to the main continent via some sort of underwater subway tunnel. Nice try though. If only we had a spellcaster strong enough to counter one of them, but its not as if you could just grab an Amulet and somehow cancel out a gravity area, then that would defeat the trap portion of the puzzel and make things much easier." Maggie said.

OOC: hint, hint.

OOC: OK, I'll bite.

----------------

IC:

But you can, Marvel. I can help you.

Oh brother--it was that voice again. "And just who do you think you are?" the demon asked. Of course this didn't exactly do wonders for Cara's disposition--which didn't exactly do wonders for Marvel's disposition. "NO!" he said, "NOT YOU, THIS!" He held out the pendant around his neck. "D----d thing's been b-t-hin' at me ever since I found it!"

"I am the Amulet of Yendor," it said--only now everyone could hear it.

"Oh, gee," Marvel said softly, "and I thought that you only had 'yendor' stamped on you because he was your boyfriend."

"Do you wish to learn the secrets of the Magic of the great wizard Yendor, or do you wish only to insult me?"

"I...wasn't insulting you...I'm sure he was a good boyfriend."

"Then I shall instruct you."

After a moment, Marvel looked around him. "You mean it's that easy?" he asked.

He reached out his arm, and the people on the floor below him found themselves floating gently toward the ceiling.

"Ohhhhhhh," Marvel said, smiling like a cat that was about to choke on a bowl of cream, "I can get used to this!"

OOC: Is that just them floating upwards or did you cancel the one gravity?
I ask because it makes a diffrence in what happens next.

OOC: Sorry for the lack of posts, I have been on reading week, which is like spring break but in feb.

IC: When El'Hilth and Drulk at last made it to the "celing" El'Hilth was so very frustrated that he tried yelling at the door "Hey you, bloody door get down here." When that didn't work he tried throwing his sword, which in turn got stuck in the door.

Realising that he had made a quite undignified out-burst, he took a moment to calm down. He then noticed that his sword was still stuck in the door.

"Well I made a total Fly of my self and now I am minus my sword."

OOC: Sorry for the lack of posts, I have been on reading week, which is like spring break but in feb.

IC: When El'Hilth and Drulk at last made it to the "celing" El'Hilth was so very frustrated that he tried yelling at the door "Hey you, bloody door get down here." When that didn't work he tried throwing his sword, which in turn got stuck in the door.

Realising that he had made a quite undignified out-burst, he took a moment to calm down. He then noticed that his sword was still stuck in the door.

"Well I made a total Fly of my self and now I am minus my sword."

OOC: El'Hilth Sprang the hidden Trap and solved the puzzle at the same time! lucky!

IC:
As the sword got lodged in the door, the whole room began to glow blue, and the walls began to spin, Gravity completly shifted towards the ceiling, and spikes came out of the floor. What was now the ceiling with spikes coming out of it began to fall slowly, inexorably towards what was now the floor. The glow faded, and the sword was gone! The door had developed two large angry eyes, and vemonous jaws. It leaped away from where it was, Jaws wide open and springing for El'hilth.

Maggie turned to look down what she thought was the exit for a second monster, but was surprised to see only a one foot recess with a switch. throwing it, the walls began to move down towards the floor, or perhaps it was the floor moving up, for the ceiling was much faster in its decent.

"As soon as you can make it to the tunnel, run!" Maggie cried.
She however made no move to run.
"Cara, after you get out, tell my father I died fighting a mighty wizard, it is true, in its own way, for I have no doubts who planted this trapped puzzle here. It'll make him proud of me at last." Shesaid. Then came the ceiling, and with all her strength, she pushed up against it, even as the tunnel opened up.
Spikes pushed down against her.
"Go, save yourselves!" she cried.

OOC: she doesn't have to die though, there is a trapdoor on the loose...

OOC: OK. I'll bite.

-----------------

IC:

Well, wasn't Bug Eyes just something! La de da! I can throw a sword right at the door that you're standing on and all you can do is jump our of the way!

-----------------

OOC:

How many posts was it that I pointed out that he was standing on the door in?

/me rolls eyes

-----------------

IC:

Then, the thing got downright rude. It turned into a monster and ignored Marvel, who was now FLYING right in front of it, and went after Bug Eyes. There was no way Marvel was going to sit still for that! He was going to punish Bug Eyes, not some idiot wizard's pick-up date!

Reaching out his hand, he bent the space just behind the monster's big behind. In a moment, he'd snagged it in a cute little gravity cone. He felt a distinct, sadistic pleasure as its features changed from attack to confusion to fear. Finally, he was foiling someone else's diabolical plans! He sent it into the nearest group of spines sticking out of the wall.

Did it die?

Did he care?

It seemed like it was stuck there, and that was good enough for him.

Then, before he had a chance to figure out what happened, the walls started closing in. Quickly, he brought everyone to what looked like the way out--everyone but himself, anyway. They'd have to paw their way in--all but Cara--but they'd be safe. Even ol' Bug Eyes.

The next thing he saw was Maggie pushing on the walls. Can you say "stupid," neighbor? He KNEW you could! This woman needed to learn that Marvel did not take kindly to having his traveling companions turn into food for something other than him!

----------

OOC: If nobody else turns him, sooner or later, he's going to turn on everybody else...one at a time.

----------

IC:

There just happened to be a trap door forming right behind Maggie where she couldn't see it. Tee hee! It was time for Marvel to look like a hero! Boy, wouldn't she be amused--until he got hungry and opened up a vein or two on her with that spiny little tongue of his, anyway. He popped the trap door open and got his lower body into it. The new "gravity" took over, right on schedule. Then, he reached out the hand that wasn't holding ol' Yendor's Last Stone, wrapped it around Maggies legs and gave the whole shot a nice little pull.

For a moment, he wondered whether ol' Yendor ever had any real stones.

-----------------

OOC:

There. I'd been meaning to bring out the evil in ol' Marve for some time now. I'd been writing him as if he'd already been turned. Forty lashes with a wet noodle!

For those who want to know, the Orb of Yendor is taken from some old quest games that used to be on computers everywhere. The most popular of these is "rogue." I've even got the source code for the version of the game that came from the University of California at Berkeley--in fact, I dug into it and reverse engineered the super wizard's password ("bathtub"). In the unlikely event that anybody wants a copy, let me know.

I don't know where "Yendor" comes from. I STRONGLY suspect that it has something to do with a guy named "Rodney," because "Rodney" is "Yendor" spelled backwards, but its origin has eluded me.

Yendorian Magic works only within the framework of the universe with which it is aligned. It can't be used to open portals to other worlds or to summon extradimensional creatures. It works by altering the Four Yendorian Elements: Space, Matter/Energy, Time and Mind (in increasing order of difficulty).

The Amulet has a help feature. It teaches the person (or whatever) who holds it how to use it to enhance his, her or its mastery of Yendorian Magic.
Right now, Marvel has SOME control over SPACE spells. He's quite the beginner.

OOC: A few questions:
1) Turn him, into what, a woman? into a good guy? What are we supposed to be turning him into? For that matter, how?

2)What are you doing to maggie, knocking her off her feet? eating her as a trap door? Pulling her to the door?

3) You put everyone in the hallway, right?

OOC: Answers as best I can.

General principle: when I can avoid it, I try not to control other players' characters. I will admit that, at times, I take some liberties with this, but I try to do this as sparingly as I can, and to control other characters in only trivial ways.

1) Turn him from an Evil Demon into a creature with Free Will. This will involve altering his reproductive system so that he doesn't fertilize ova in people's stomachs any more. You (where "you" is some other poster or combination of posters whose character or characters have this ability) don't have to turn him into a Good Guy, but you have to remove the Aura of Evil that prevents him from making decisions that are in everyone's long-term interests. He is a Demon from Hell, and he is bound by Evil Aura Magic that even he does not know about. He has no choice in the matter.

2) I took great pains not to reach the point of actually doing anything to Maggie, so you can back out of this if you wish. I DID fix a location for the trap door--it's now behind her--but I couldn't avoid that. Right now, Marvel is grabbing for Maggie's legs with one arm. He's standing in the trap door, partway through. Maggie can easily prevent him from saving her if she wants to.

3) I didn't cause anybody to exit the trap room. I put them at the threshold. They'll have to cross into the hallway by themselves.

OOC: Round 2:

Would having his tail ripped off by an overly zealous spirit of innocence (Cara is not an angel, just looks like one) work in giving him free will? She would after all, be trying to save Marvel from the collapsing room. I remember you hinting that his tail was responsible for his form of reproduction.
Also, afterward, would you rather him be a eunuch ( a man without the equipment,) or a woman. Cara is fo all intents and purposes, here to be the healer, besides another purpose. She can cast the proper gender changing magics. if he di become a woman, would he (she) still have free-will?

After these answers, I will post ICly.

OOC: His tail isn't responsible for his reproduction. It merely holds a venomous barb, and the hypnotic narcotic venom can be used to make a potential victim susceptible to the suggestion of...being fertilized. The venom is addictive, and contains digestive enzymes (makes the body easier for the "newborn" to digest). In the Official Marvel Time line, I have him come into this world unaware of the long-term affects of his venom and learn about them the hard way, by befriending a human and...having it not end well. I've scrapped that time line for this thread.

Tearing off the venom gland will cause him tremendous pain, and the thing will only grow back in a month or two. Because of this, and the fact that he has other ways of luring folk into his clutches, this is really a waste of time.

Changing his gender will only make things worse. The Females lay the eggs. Sometimes (quite rarely), an egg can hatch without being fertilized. The hatched larva then devours its host. This never happens with a male. Better to modify his reproductive system to make it like those of males of other species. Of course, this brings up the SMALL dilemma of showing Marvel's unique reproductive system for what it is without resorting to erotica-esque writing (this could be done, for example, through divination), but that problem can be solved later.

(I hope this helps...) His evil won't assert itself in the temple. Right now, he needs everybody in fighting shape to take on the challenges within the temple itself. That'll give everyone plenty of time to notice that something about him is off and do something about it. But he won't show it easily. He has a million and one excuses--as everybody should know by now.

Just don't let anyone be alone with him when there isn't a major battle on.

OOC: Considering the battles ahead, there might be oppurtunity based on what happens. I have modified the first section, after we leave the first area, we encounter Speedy again, (who found his own entrance to the temple), after beating speedy we get to the first bosses, This is because we need some sort of a reset, to start things again, so I decided to make the second temple, the great underground tunnel, larger.

I must assume everyone enters the tunnel, because who really wants to be crushed to death?

IC: Maggie kicked the door, and let Marvel pull her towards the exit.
"Come on everyone, time to get going" she said, enterin the tunnel.
The room began to collapse on itself, forcing everyone in the tunnel.
"Whew, glad that's over with." she said. She walked down the tunnel, and then wlked back.

"You won't believe this, but the next room is bigger than the entire building!" Maggie said excitedly. She ran back into the next room, it was a maze of twisting pathways, almost like a race track, and it all lead up. Magie felt nervous, for an enemy could easily be hiding behind one of the walls that supported the path.

"woah!" Cara exclaimed, looking upwards.
OOC: Cue the speed demon...

OOC: Your ever-so-obedient servant.

-----------------------------------

IC:

Marvel did not see anything, but, on the very edge of his feral hearing, he heard something.

"On your mark," it said.

Uh oh, he thought, looks like the food supply has an uninvited diner.

"Everybody get your arms up," he said, moving to the head of the group and doing as he had asked.

"Get set," he heard.

He pulled his wings in close to his shoulders. They were more durable that way.

"Go!"

And all he heard after that was a soft whoosh! as something moving so fast it only looked like a silver-and-brown blur streaked by and raked him with a sharp set of claws. His arms bore the brunt of the attack, but the force of the blow knocked him over, blood starting to flow from his fresh wound. The blur vanished around a nearby corner. Marvel tried to set up a shield by increasing the density of the space by the wall, but it came back so fast that he didn't have time to set up the spell.

It shot over to him again. As it did, his foot shot up. Somehow, it managed to connect with the creature's helmet. It stood there for a moment, stunned, then shook its head so fast that the helmet was a blur and headed back in the direction it came from.

"We've got company," Marvel said, "and it ain't got any letters of invitation!"

He threw up another space-density shield. This one seemed to hold, but he knew that he'd have to let it down again before the group could continue through the maze.

Maggie got into a defensive stance, and looked about for the uninvited guest.
"I'll drain his energy if I have to just to find him." Maggie said.
"It could be a time effect, instead of a physical enchancement." Cara said.
"No, trust me, it's not time." Maggie said.
"Well, why not?" Cara asked.

Maggie drew a deep breath, and prepared to launch a motherload of a lecture on time magics.
"Oh dear gods, not a lecture." Cara said, wincing. she moved away from Maggie.

"I forgot, Magekillers are trained in Arcane theory. Little miss bookworm here graduated at the top of her class, which was full of wizards, not other Magekillers!" Cara whined.

"Time magic begins with the second, no he smallest unit of time, but the most well-known. Many mistakenly belive time to be broken down into parts, units, made wholly of smaller things. this is not so, Time, as a seperate dimension of Space, is in truth more like a river. Indeed one can get various units of measurement from a river, but it is still one whole thing afterwards.
Now, keep that river in mind, for the basic control of time steems from that image, and the school of Hydromancy. Those were the words of Chron, Magi-master of time, the most powerful spellcaster ever to control the time aspect of dimensional magic. In today's class, we will be discussing the diffrence between Haste, and Acceleration.

Haste is renouned for being the greatest of all speed enhancing magic, but it is not from the school of effect magic, which stems of course, from a cross between the schools of healing and Earth Magic. Acceleration is Time magic.
Yet, to he outside observer, both are the same spell. Now, the first thing to consider, is that Acceleration causes its target to experience time faster than a normal person, and its this faster experience of time that causes the target to age faster than normal. Even creatures than can accelerate themseles, age faster. A target with acceleration on them, moves only at their normal speeds, however since they move through time faster, they appear to be moving faster. A target with haste on themselves, does indeed move faster, at their normal pace through time. Pray that you never meet a crossbreed between a Time Demon, and a Speed Demon, for they are nigh unstoppable when they get going. Let me stop right here to note, that it is possible to both accelerate someone to death, and to Haste someone to death, one will age someone so fast they die on the spot, and the other will make them move so fast they experience Friction Burn.

Now, lets move on to casting Acceleration and its subtle visable effects. Maggie, pay attention to this part. If someone has Acceleration on themselves, the air around them will sparkle with energy. To cast acceleration, lets go back to that river." Maggie was saying, repeating the lecture verbatim from memory. She was interrupted by Cara, who was curled up on the floor snoring, completly asleep.

"Well, it wasn't that boring." Maggie said, insulted.

"You're right, Maggie," Marvel said, still clutching his arm. "Speed demons just have a souped up metabolism. They're fast and quick--but also have short attention spans and live short lives because they burn out so quickly. Can you put a reverse accelleration spell on that thing?"

Marvel, I can help you.

Not you again.

There was a loud whap followed by a soft thump. The speed demon had rammed the shield. Marvel winced. He was starting to wear himself out keeping the spell going.

"Deacceleration is time magic, and while it would work, the proper spell is Slow, which is the opposit of haste. It might work, but I can't cast that sort of magic." Maggie said.

As the blur raced by luckly not getting him the answer semeed self-evident, The Jal's history was well known to any mind mage, and cheif in the history was the unionizing and rebellion in which siafu spears where used to impale jumping dolbears.

"Do you think we can get it to run into a sword?"

OOC: Its stench's/Marionetonia's creature, and so is the one with final say so in all areas concerning it.

IC:

"I see no reason why not, Cara, whip out a lightsword." Maggie said, nudging Cara awake with a toe.
"You say that like I have a limitless supply of disposable weaponry." Cara said.
"Sorry." Maggie said.
"That's alright." Cara said. She manifested a longsword made of light. It hung there in the air, waiting for someone to grab it.

"You can run 'em through if you can get close enough," Marvel replied. "Their nerve cells fire between two and three times as fast as ours do, and they've got real hyper metabolisms. And trust me, you don't want to see one of 'em eat something. They don't have any special armor, though they are naturally strong.

"Maybe if I conjure an illusion of all of us and you hold out the sword, I can fool it into running into the sword. You think I can make that thing invisible?"

"Can one truely make light invisible and unseen? I doubt this is possible, though Father and The Ministry of Shadow feel otherwise. If you think you can accomplish such a feat as making light go unseen, then by all means, be my guest, Though perhaps it might be easier simply to change its wavelengths to make it apear as something else." Cara said.

OOC @ anybody EXCEPT WH: OLLIE OLLIE OXEN FREE!!! Anybody still there?

----------------

IC:

As the speed demon bashed his shield one more time, causing him to wince, Marvel extended his hand. His face contorted with the effort of casting what a few minutes ago would have been a childishly simple illusion.

The sword wavered, shimmered, and...slowly...slowly...faded away. "There," Marvel said. "Got it!" Then he looked at Cara. "Oh, drat," he said. "I didn't get the shadow." Sure enough, Cara's shadow still showed through, as if the sword was beaming down on her.

Wait a minute, the demon thought, I shouldn't be able to do that! If that's an Angel's weapon...if that's a real Angel...hmmmmmmm...

OOC: I am still with you, I ment to post yesterday but I went to get a snack and forgot what I was going to post.

IC:

"Well now what I had in mind was to simply use my own sword, but whatever works. Although putting a child, even a human child, in danger dose not sit right with me."

OOC: El'Hilth dose know that she is an angelic being he simply thinks she is a gifted preistest.

"I'm not a child, I grew up over the course of five minutes, and I'm not afraid of death, I've died at least five or six times already. As for being human, no, I'm not human. I am, at least as a child, one of The Spirits of innocence, created from the smallest shard of Omnisource's soul to calm the darkness. I've never grown up before, I don't know what I am anymore, still a spirit, but not of innocence. I feel, I feel like I could blow up a city if I was pushed into it." Cara said.

Marvel smiled. "Now that's my kinda woman," he said. He winced as the speed demon rammed his shields again. "Uhh, folks, the wall isn't going to last much longer," he said.

"Well, its not like we could bore it to death and make it go away." Cara said.
"If we could, I already would've been to the finer points of Distortion Physics." Maggie said.

"Can't you make it tired? I saw others of your kind do it." Cara asked.

Maggie's eyes turned black, and her Aura completly disappeared, even her hair turned black, both hands shot out and clasped each other like that had clasped onto a rope, and from them shot a massive black ball, with a trail that lead back to Maggie's fists, the ball slowly retreated into Maggie's fists and sucked all energy from the surrounding environs into it, from people, demons, and objects, pulling it out of them, away from them, and then it retreated into Maggie, and all the energy went into her, her Aura flared out 15 times greater than it was before, she punched the ground sending most of her aura into it, and spikes protrouded from every availible surface. Only the area where Marvel's shield was protecting was uneffected, which meant the party was unhurt.

"They don't get tired," Marvel said. His eyes widened. "They... just... give.. out... and... suddenly die!"

"Ah yes covering the place in spikes ought to do the trick, I would bet that little devil will tear it's self to shreads on those things. I liked assuming you where human better litte girl, I can devalue the well being of a human much easyer than I can that of a heavenly being."

"What's wrong with you Marvel?" Maggie asked.

Cara turned to El'hilth.
"I am what I am. I know one thing that kills all things without exception, for with no thermal energy of anykind whatsoever, you cannot live, and at Absolute Zero, there is no thermal energy of any kind, no chance for any sort of interaction. But I am loath to use it, for in so doing, I would kill someone. So far this demon has only been annoying, not harmful. What justice then, in killing an innocent being?" she asked.

"OOOF!" Marvel said. The speed demon rammed the wall again, and, this time, it gave out.

"Now what?" Maggie asked.

Cara spread her arms and wings wide, stretching her arms to the heavens, the light grew brighter, and brighter, as great chunks of ice appeared in her hands.

Suddenly a blizzard of Epic Ice Age Porportions was roaring around them, all sound lost to the screaming winds. Even if it didn't kill the demon, it gave them a shiny new ice shield, and the loss of traction would at the very least spell trouble for the demon.

"Absolute zero." Cara said.

Then Cara recoiled in horror, Maggie was outside the shield!

****************

"I'm going to kill her." Maggie said.

She was trapped in a block of ice, only her head exposed.

Noting that she had no other option, she tried the last thing availible to her, talking it to death.

She launched into one of Xrus's lectures on The Void, voted as the most boring in history, no one had ever stayed awake through it, not even once, and the only reason she knew it, was because she had read the transcript.

In short, it explained that The Void was like the drain at the bottom of the sink, eventually, everything, represented by water, entered the drain, and left the sink forever. The wlls represented creation itself, with all the rules and laws, and the faucet represented Omnisource the source of all things. However Xrus managed the scholarly feat of stretching those few lines into a three hour lecture complete with arcane scientific theory.

OOC: Which I would post the entirety of the lcture, but I do have feelings of mercy and compassion every once in awhile you know. ;)

It zoomed up to her, then stopped and tried to listen to her lecture.

In a moment, she could hear it yawning. In another, it sat down in front of the block of ice, as if it was tired. Soon, it was snoring away.

Before the lecture was complete, the speed demon had died of SHEER BOREDOM.

There was only one question left: would Maggie ever be able to live it down?

-----------

OOC: Ohhhhh, I'm sorry, but that one was just too juicy to resist! :) :) :)

Ooc: :D

IC:

Cara let her light shine, and its warmth began to warm everything up, at an accelerated pace, within minutes, everything was back to normal, minus the dead speed demon on the floor.

"It uhh, it died. I gave it a stern lecture on Distortion physics, and it was so bored it just died." maggie said, blushing.

El'Hilth bent over the dead speed demon.

"I have heard of people dieing of bordem before, but so far all I have seen has been a case of a simple a suicide or murder caused by bordem. To see that bordem can be a direct cause of death rather than a simple motivation for the use of deadly force, by a sentiant being, is quite interesting."

He got up and turned to marvel, "you seem to know a lot about them, tell me, are they edible, or would they be toxic," then trying to get closer so that the more human amoug them can't hear them, he widpered "and how would they taste compaired to human?"

Maggie had started her way up the path.

Cara meanwhile, had better hearing than a human.
"I ate a demon once, it tasted like Barbequed chicken. Definatly better than most humans, Magekillers taste like cherry pie, and I'm just so wholesome and delicious its not even funny." she said, winging away with a smile. Not one word of what she said was a lie either, for the inherent truthfulness rang in the words.


Although all paths lead upwards, it was like a maze, and Flying was not possible, for shortly millions of ghostly hands pushed against her forcing her down, she land on the path and followed Maggie.

"Oh, yeah. Taste just like chicken," Marvel replied. "If you like your chicken so tough and bony that all your teeth break when you try to eat one. You don't have teeth, though, do you? By all means, help yourself."

At least the blood on his arm had stopped dripping. It would take a little while for his mojo to recharge. Maybe, during that time, he'd have another little pow-wow with the ol' Yendor's Last Stone (Light of Lucifer, he loved that name!) and get even better with the magic that it controlled. Maybe, if he got good enough, he wouldn't need the rest of them...and then, he could watch the fun begin...

Cara and Maggie made it all the way to the top, having only taken one wrong turn, it was more or less a straight shot to the top.

The stood up there staring at a door with 6 blue buttons on it, and a inscription above it that read
"12-52? all though greater in size, their equivalent is the same in time."

OOC: After this door, the first boss! I'm just waiting for you two to join me when your ready.

El'Hilth used his sword to slice the demon up into strips, and put them into the barrel of salt on Drulk's back. "There now we'll have some food to eat along the way."

They fallowed Maggie and Cara, they stood before to door. He did not know how much use he would be as he is little more than a foreseer but he took a moment to meditate any way.

OOC: I am going to be busy over the easter weekend so try tnot to get too much going without me.

Marvel looked at the inscription.

"A year," he said. "Twelve months, fifty-two weeks. Of course, it's really fifty-two weeks and one day--two on leap years--but who's counting? Just like the way they misspelled 'although.' Don't ask me what it has to do with those buttons, though."

OOC: Don't worry, it won't be anything you can't catch up on. The first boss is a solo experience anyways, as in, the enemy Maggie fights is not the one Cara encounters, nor the one El'hilth or Drulk encounter, nor the one Marvel encounters, it is a seperate and unique experience for all.

IC:
"I don't know either." Cara said.
"Well, since I have a degree in adventuringing, with a specialty in Traps and puzzles, I feel qualified to say that this is a rather poor puzzle. Clearly the answer to their puzzle is 365, as there are only six buttons, and if the left most one is one, up to six on the far right, then clearly if we push 3,6,5 like follows, the door will open up." Maggie said as she pushed the buttons, but she was wrong, it didn't open up, it suddenly gained the suction power of a black hole and sucked them in before they had time to react.

What they found on the otherside, was a great black empty void. A light flickered on from somewhere.

"Miserable pains in my neck! I'll teach you to fight me! No one will oppose the Glory of Chaos! You must die lest the people think they have a fighting chance against Chaos, I will not allow a rebellion in my kingdom!" Listh'vis shouted.

He held up Queen Latvia's body, and through dark Necromantic powers had stolen her soul from wherever it hid. He absorbed her soul and body using more magic, and a crown appeared on his head.
"As the King of Itselzier, I command thee to get out of my kingdom!"

Cara couldn't help but laugh.
"Fine, then I shal kill you all." Listh'vis said.

Suddenly time stopped, with such an expert degree of mastery that not even Yendor's amulet could overcome it, Space froze around them to the same degree.Suddenly, they found themselves staring at each other, and first went El'hilth, something caused him to move to the center, and before him was a mighty enemy, matched to his powers and abilities, surely it seemed, all was lost, after their fight, what a sight it was, went Drulk, El'hilth's helper and friend, and fought a similarly matched enemy even as El'hilth was rebound in the fetters of time and space freezing. Both of their battles finished, Drulk was refrozen, and Marvel was freed to fight an enemy he could only defeat with the help of Yendor's Amulet, for this enemy was matched to both Marvel and the amulet.

Then it was Cara's turn, and lastly, Maggie's.

OOC: So, the first boss. Make it up yourself. It is evenly matched to your character, and can kill you if your not careful. Designed to take you to your limits before it's beaten, this is not going to be an easy fight. I will wait for both of you to finish your fights, just keep in mind the order I posted. Listh'vis is already long gone.

There in front of Marvel sat a tiny, bald-headed man in an orange toga. His head was bowed in prayer as Marvel saw him. He stopped praying and looked up.

"Ahhh. So glad you could come," he said. He nodded his head.

The world seemed to spin. Everything outside turned topsy-turvy. It was like being inside a tornado, where things go around you.

Marvel raised his hand, and the outside went black. "Nice illusion," he said, "but--."

"Oh, it was no illusion," the stranger replied. "Right now, you and I are spinning wildly--and the only thing that prevents you from being flung into a million pieces is me."

Ummm, stoney? A little help here...

---------------------

OOC: What? You didn't say I had to do it all in one post!

~snip~

OOC: You are absolutly correct! I myself intend to take several posts. I'll probably start mine in a little bit.

The other battles finished, Cara found herself in the center of the Arena. She watched the other battles with fascination, she had hoped to be spared, and was relived to see her Father appear before her.

"My Daughter, I found you at last!" Kajeenith said joyously as he embraced his daughter. He was not her real father, but he had raised her and cared for her as if he was, and the calming effects he had on her, were amazing.
"My father, I have grown up, I'm not the same innocent little girl I once was." Cara said.
"I see, and what are you doing in this wretched place? Better thatit be unmade so that a more pleasant building can be erected in its place." Kajeenith said.
"I bring justice to one who needs it so, one who has already been punished enough for his misdeed." Cara said.
"Justice, what do you know of Justice?" Kajeenith asked.
"I know enough to mete it out as I see fit." Cara said.
"So you say, but what of the man that stole an apple from the kings orchard to feed his hungry family?" Kajeenith asked.
"Why, he may work for the king without pay for a month to pay it off." Cara said.
"But the King is a cruel despot who takes everything from his people, crushing them in misery and despair." Kajeenith said.
"Then perhaps he should not be king anymore, he shall be unseated and a more democatic and caring government installed in its place.
"So you do, but the whole region falls into constant terrorism. The king was a despot, but at least he was a stable despot. The people had food and water enough through the proper channels. To aid a common theif you have upended the world's peace and brought the people nothing but increased grief, no food, no water, no peace, no quiet. You fail at justice." Kajeenith said.
"This from the God that declared all of creation to be his mortal enemy simply because he does not exist, and Creation does. What of the innocents who have by no fault of their own, done nothing to harm you directly but exist. Are you telling me that even the smallest of newborn children are guilty for something they did not have control over?" Cara asked.
"They are especially guilty!" Kajeenith said.
"What kind of a monster declares helpless newborn children his mortal enemies?" Cara asked.
"I do." Kajeenith replied.
"So you admit to being a monster, by all rights you should be dragged up and down the streets until your dead." Cara said.
"And I was too, boy that was fun, then being dead got boring so I simply illed myself to be living again. Death is just another state of existence." Kajeenith said.
"I, I cannot abide a father who is so evil. If you cannot change your ways, then I shall leave you forever." Cara said.
"Why should I change, all things have an inherent need to suffer, a part of them that cannot accept anything for free. I'm not a monster, I'm a saint, for answering their most basic needs tirelessly over the centuries. Yet I'm the monster, I'm the despised one, for doing nothing more than helping." Kajeenith said.
"Did Tajen want to suffer? He only wanted to know his father, to know his father's love. Did your own flesh and blood child really want to suffer in the way you caused him to? You give me all your love and affection, but cannot even give the smallest of the same to your own son? Your not helping, your only causing misery and despair for your own enjoyment." Cara said.
Kajeenith looked hurt, unready for such an attack by Cara. He fled, and Cara, and only Cara, could hear something no other entity had ever heard nor seen, the sound of Kajeenith sobbing.
**************************
Maggie marvled at the soundness of Cara's wisdom and understanding. Suddenly it struck her, Cara was innocence as a child, yet it was known that in order for justice to be obtained, Innocence must be sacrificed, and as an adult, Cara was justice.

She found herself moving. The blackness had changed for the others, but not Cara, reflected a more suitable surrounding. As the light increased, she found herself inside the squared circle. She was going to box or wrestle someone, she was sure of that. The others found themselves in an audience filled with ghostly audience members. There was a doorway off to the left where it looked like her opponet would enter the ring.

A jungle beat came from somewhere, the sound of a thousand tribal drums beating out a harmonious rhythm. Something told her to leap back from the center of the ring to a corner, and she was glad she did, for a warrior that looked like he came from the dark jungles dropped from the ceiling but was his tribe African, or American? He was wrapped head to toe in a green tight fitting cloth, that allowed him complete freedom of movement. He wore a wooden mask with feathers of man colors in it. The face was painted to resemble a fierce creature, or untamed spirit. The Rhythm continued, and many, many voices joined this warrior in chanting, but the words were beyond Maggie's understanding.

Maggie tooka deep breath, readied herself, and was prepared to fight. A glint of something caught her eye. On his waist was a title belt that read "World Champion", clearly, this man was the best fighter from wherever he came from.

Stoney?? Ummm...Amulet of Yendor?

How may I help you?

I need a crash course! What's the next level up from space?

Beyond space, there is the manipulation of energy.

Well lay it on me, dude, while I keep whatzisface busy!

Very well.

"Well...that's very kind of you," the demon said to the stranger, smiling his friendliest, phoniest smile. "Maybe if we can--."

"Do not attempt to disuade me, demon. You know as well as I what must be done."

Energy is a constant, Marvel. Neither can it be created, nor can it be destroyed...yet, it can be channeled...

Marvel looked annoyed. "Ohhhh, don't tell my you're another one o' those flourishing demon hunters!"

"Very well," he replied, "I won't tell you that. It would be a lie anyway. If I were a demon hunter, why would I give up the advantage of surprise and meet you face to face?"

"Well, if you put it that way..."

To change matter to energy and back, one must...

"I am, rather, a bit of a leader...and I am here to lead you. Thus, I offer you the choice: swear allegiance to me now and accept the Spell of Servitude that I shall offer, or I shall devour your soul and your body shall serve me so long as it continues to...well, we won't call it 'living,' now, will we?"

Marvel snickered. "Not much of a choice you're offering there, bucko."

"Nonetheless, you will obey me," the stranger said. As he spoke, his eyes seemed to turn into two large swirls.

Marvel looked quickly away.

It's really that easy, stony?

He clenched his fist. He twirled his fingers. The stanger's clothing ignited.

"Liar liar pants on fire," said the demon.

The fire flared for a moment, then died away. When it was gone, so was the original stranger. In its place was a short, stooped-over figure with gray skin, huge, spike-toothed jaws and spindly limbs, clad only in a dirty old loincloth. He did not appear to be amused.

"Weeee can alwayyyyysss dooo thissss the harrrrd wayyyyyy," it hissed. It reached over and grabbed a staff that was sitting on Marvel's left.

Instantly, the world changed again. Marvel found himself walking up an incline, toward a door with no doorknob. He couldn't stop himself. As he reached the threshold, a gangrenous, clawed hand reached out, took him by the arm and pulled him into the door--and he just went right on through. He fell. For what seemed like hours, he fell through the air, and, no matter how hard he flapped his wings, he couldn't slow his fall. Finally, the ground came up to meet him, and then everything went black.

Maggie and The Warrior Eyed each other Warily.

"I am The Greatest, I have conqured God and Man alike, how can a mere woman ever hope to defeat Agala, the Greatest Warrior in all of Creation? Give up now before I crush you." The warrior generously offered.

"As you pointed out, you have beaten God and man alike, but I am niether God, nor Man, I am Woman and Priestess of The Great Devourer, thus I am superior. How can you possibly hope to defeat me, give up now before I destroy you completly." Maggie returned.

"You will pay for your insolence with your life." Agala said, and immediatly threw a punch at Maggie. Maggie dodged, droped down low, and with a sweep of her right leg knocked Agala off his feet.

As Agala fell he rolled to his side, pushed on to his hands, and with his legs spread wide turned a full 360 degrees knocking Maggie back into the ropes. Agala swung his legs down Cartwheeling to his feet, even as Maggie rebounded off the ropes and punched him squarly in the midsection sending him reeling.

Maggie grinned, and drew her thumb accross her throat, signifying he was going to die, Agala turned and rushed her, Maggie ran for thr corner, leaped, rebounded off the post turning in mid air hooking her left arm and caught him by the throat bringing them both down to the floor. Not even stopping for breath Maggie rolled and hooked her legs around his neck and squeezed, going for a submission. Agala reached into his belt and drew a dagger, stabbing her in the right side, Maggie cried out in shock, letting go with her legs. She pulled the dagger out and threw it out of the ring, holding her injured side carefully, even as her regeneration went to work on the wound.

Agala laughed, mocking her openly be holding his right side to, then using his right hand delivered an uppercut the knocked Maggie out.

"Women should be pregnant, barefoot, and in the kitchen. They have no business in a mans world." Agala said.

"Sexiest pig." Cara yelled out from the sides where she and the others were helpless to do anything but watch.

When he opened his eyes, Marvel found himself in chains. Bound hand, foot and wing, he was laying on a stone floor. Facing him stood the stranger-demon. Behind him, a shifting mass of mottled and deformed flesh--the misshapen pieces of many a human and inhuman captive--writhed in a transparent vat with a large tap on one end.

The gray demon extended two gnarled hands. One held out a drinking mug while the other turned the tap. There was a soft moan from the vat as a viscous, blood-red liquid poured into the glass. Into this, the gray demon extended a wiry little tongue. Marvel could see it drawing the liquid from the glass, through its tongue, in surging little gulps.

The gnarled fingers started to straighten. Flesh began to fill bony limbs. When he was finished, the demon looked much younger and stronger than it had previously been.

"Ahhhh," it said, "essence. Now, to claim yours." He took a step toward the red gargoyle.

Marvel regarded him with sheer contempt. Did he honestly think that mere chains were going to hold his quarry captive? He could control matter and energy! He could control space itself! No, it would only be a matter of seconds before he had--

--and that was when she arrived. She was wearing a cape and not much else--which, to Marvel, was very suggestive. This was because she was that wonder of wonders, a female red gargoyle demon--or, at least, something very close to it. She was as tall as he was, and most females of his species weren't, and she also had canine fangs that hung down an inch or so from her mouth as she smiled menacingly at the gray demon.

"So, Soulsucker," she said, raising her barbed tail in a gesture of threat, "you've been busy. Claiming a neophyte without approval. What ever will we do with you?"

"He's mine!" Soulsucker exclaimed. He raised his arms as if to shield himself and backed cautiously away. "He was cast into my net by contract! It is the law that payment cannot be denied!"

"It is the law," she replied menacingly, "that no neophyte, regardless of the means of capture, can be claimed without the approval of the Elites. Give him over now and I will spare you the punishment for refusing Examination."

"But the LAW!" Soulsucker protested.

She shook her head. "If he is found ineligible, you will be compensated," she replied.

He dropped his head. "Ohhh, very well," he said, swishing his hand in a gesture of dismissal. "Take him, then."

She turned to Marvel. "Good. Now, let me remove your--."

"That won't be necessary," Marvel replied.

The chains came sliding off, falling to the floor--all, that is, but one, which remained in his right hand, ready to be used as a whip if it proved necessary.

She chuckled. "You drive a hard bargain, Soulsucker," she said.

"Lady," Marvel replied, "you have no idea."

Quick, stoney, what's next?

Silence.

OK! AMULET OF YENDOR, what's the next lesson?

Beyond space and energy, there is time.

Time, eh? OK, stoney--er, Amulet of Yendor--lay it on me!

Time is as a separate dimension in this universe--closely related to space, yet distinct in and of itself. Space, time and energy work together to form a unified whole. Each influences the other in many useful ways...

(OOC: In the first place, sorry for letting it out and stopping posting for a significant quantity of time, I'll make everything hopefully make sense on why Yelena never joined them or came out of that place. I'll let Marionetonia to decide whether to find her or not, and thus whether she'll live or not. If Marvel doesn't find her, she'll be probably dead before being able to cast a simple light spell)

One second of distraction, and the old wizard was gone. Alone in that dark place, Yelena soon let fear overcome her mind. The fleshy mass ahead sometimes seemed to have spiders coming out from the shadows, and with nobody nearby, alone in such horrible place, there was only one feeling to have, the feeling of imminent doom and constant despair. Fearing for her life, Yelena simply ran away back to the cell, pushing with an effort the ammunition case with her. She sat on the floor, facing the exit of the place, and kept her gun ready to shoot should anything come from there, but trembling. That torture room seemed to make the nightmare more vivid, and a struggle presented between courage to stand, and bursting of despair as the memories of the tortures became vivid. The trauma was never forgotten, simply postponed. Shaking in fear, the decrepit distant figure was having difficulties to keep guard over that place. Courage to go further wouldn't happen, for with nobody nearby, her frail mood was revealed, and like a beast awaiting for the slaughter, she remained there, almost defenseless, defeated not by any beast or abomination, but by her own fears and nightmares.

Her will and resolve were broken, everything was lost since she first arrived at that place. She wondered whether everything would have been different, should she have decided to refuse learning magic at all and returned to the city. It was thus ironic, that despite all her hatred of technology, whereas it was a burden in Soviet Steam, here technology was her last bastion of decaying hope. And whereas magic was her dream in her land, here it was nothing but a nightmare she wished to not exist. A nightmare which costed her an arm and her dignity. For a transformation was happening in the way Yelena saw the world, and soon, magic would no longer be seem with positive looks by her, except for a last hope to survive.

All she had to do was to wait and try to rest a bit. After about an entire day in that horrible place, she would be able to cast an actual teleport spell towards Soviet Steam. Missing it now more than ever, she clang to memories of her father to find some solace and comfort, while tears came from her eyes. Yelena never was any hero or brave adventurer, and in fact, she never wanted to have ended in that place. Hopefully they would be more tolerant with her if she promised to never again deal with magic to the Party, for now, something before never wondered, it was a real possibility for her to abandon the practice of magic forever, should she manage to get out of there. For now, despite the association of technology with her previous illness, magic was associated with even worser memories, and it was logical she would want to forget everything. The firearm was basically the only thing which still stood somewhat firm in her hands, for an instinct of survival has kept her from simply giving up.

Hours have passed, and her torment increased, nothing happened. In fact, the nothingness and lack of any imminent threat was more frightening than a visible threat. And now, to make it worser, Yelena could feel hunger and thirst consuming her while the need of sleep was trying to put her down as an easy prey. Struggling, she could feel the weakness, and her eyes became heavy. Maybe it was time for something to happen.

There was no way to measure time, in fact it seems it already happened an eternity before her half-open eyes. Her throat was almost bleeding dry and her breath was difficult, each movement being painful due to the lack of energies, and an immense urge to drink water coming to her was the only thing that avoided Yelena from falling asleep. The pistol felt from her hand due to her weakness, and with much pain and effort, she reached it again and raised it towards the room exit in a very slow process. Her eyes were red from tears as she had little to do. Trying to keep awake she began to sing with a raspy voice, playing with her gun and pointing at fictional targets at that room exit, it was a very old song, of the war against the reactionary and tyrannical Russian Monarchy that happened when she wasn't even born. It was basically the last thing that could give her some hope to continue, the "Sacred War" (http://russmus.net/song.jsp?band=Narodnaya_muzyka_Sovetskaya_Muzyka_i_Gimny&album=1&song=3#eng) it was called.


Vstavay strana ogromnaya vstavay na smertnyy boy
S fashistskoy siloy temnoyu s proklyatoyu ordoy
Pust' yarost' blagorodnaya vskipaet kak volna
Idet voyna narodnaya svyashchennaya voyna
Pust' yarost' blagorodnaya vskipaet kak volna
Idet voyna narodnaya svyashchennaya voyna

Dadim otpor dushitelyam vsekh plamennykh idey
Nasil'nikam grabitelyam muchitelyam lyudey
Pust' yarost' blagorodnaya vskipaet kak volna
Idet voyna narodnaya svyashchennaya voyna
Ne smeyut kryl'ya chernye nad Rodinoy letat'
Polya ee prostornye ne smeet vrag toptat'

Pust' yarost' blagorodnaya vskipaet kak volna
Idet voyna narodnaya svyashchennaya voyna
Gniloy fashistskoy nechisti
Zagonim pulyu v lob
Otrod'yu chelovechestva skolotim krepkiy gr*cough*

Even speaking was becoming difficult now, and Yelena was not sure if she could survive for the length of an entire day without water, but there was some glimpse of hope yet. It was not over, that was not the way she envisioned her end, and as long as she could breathe, she would try to keep herself alive. However thoughts were easier to have than actions

That was not what she did when a one meter and half large spider came from the exit and slowly crawled towards her. In a very unhealthy state resulting from hunger, dehydration and sleep deprivation, now the extreme fear of spiders have effectively rendered her defenseless, although she was struggling, the beast was getting closer and closer for its final attack to end her misery. With her hands trembling, she was paralyzed in fear, with all nightmares repeating. A loud bang signaled the death of the spider, for the instinct of survival finally spoke louder than fear, and equally the recoil of the gun was higher than her strength to hold it, pulling her right arm a few inches and knocking it against the wall. Yelena was trembling, about to pass out, starving and dehydrating in what was maybe one of the worst ways to die. Her eyes closed briefly and opened to the half after that moment, with the adrenalin being futile to impel her to get up. Tired, starving and thirsty, Yelena remained there, agonizing, as the disgusting blood of the insect splattered the ground and its stink assaulted her nostrils. Maybe the Hell was real, but that was something she comforted herself into refusing to believe. Soon she let herself prone on the ground, lacking forces to even remain sitting, her left cheek landing right on the disgusting spider blood, splashing it on her face. Trying to hold the handgun on the ground, she had yet some minimum of resolve, or perhaps of the instinct of survival, to not give up that easily, and she was still aiming towards that exit and trying to remain awake in such deplorable condition.

It would be a long nightmare... one that she would remember every time the word magic would be mentioned, if she survives.

OOC: Welcome back.

I'm not ignoring my boss fight, I just need to see Wrestlemania to refresh my idea I had. So, monday, here comes the rest of my boss fight.

OOC: sorry about not posting lately but I was tied up on easter weekend and then my internet was out all week.

IC:

As El'Hilth was drawn to his oponent he could start to make out the details. The thing looked mosty like a human in a hooded robe at first except for a set of Damselfly wings, when the robe was removed however he could see everything, A beak, eyes made of cinders, the right arm made of molten metal, and the left hand a tangle of snakes.

He looked at the thing and tried to see if he could remember reading about anything like it "If i had to guess I say you're one of those molochs the sheild-breakers always talk about, a chosen of Virus" he was intrupted.

"There is no point in talking, we can both read minds." said the thing, they then went into a furry of mind reading, each one trying to find out all the needed to fight the other one.

OOC:

"Yelena" is being (heh heh) used with permission.

Warning: some mildly sado-masochistic content. Every effort was made to keep things in good taste, though.

---------------------------

IC:

They spread their wings, and she led him through a bewildering array of tunnels, to a small chamber. There, a human was chained to a low but raised block of stone--one could see the outlines of the chains under the sheer coverlet. The human was female--fairly thin of build--and missing one arm. Though restrained, it did not move under a cover of white silk, suggestive in the torch light. Perfumes and libations stood, disorganized, on a table against the far wall.

"You must be...in need...after your ordeals," she said with a mischievous smile. "Perhaps you'd...care to join me in a little...satisfaction?" She walked suggestively over to the raised stone and slid away the coverlet.

Marvel's heart almost burst out of his chest. It was Honey! There she was, eyes closed, an ugly red mark on her remaining forearm, where the female demon must have stung her to get her...like THIS! Yelena! The only thing in the whole blasted pack of fools that Marvel would've spared! The only one of them that he really liked!

"You do remember how we have sex, don't you?" she chided. "You know--first, I slliiiiide into her and lay my eggs, and then you...make your contribution. And then...it's food for the brood."

She walked over to the stone, above Honey's head, and started to spread her skirts.

"Wait!" Marvel called. "Let's have a little drink first...to set the mood!"

She smiled. "Oh, of course!" she replied, her smile still beaming. "Help yourself."

Whew! That was a close one! Marvel walked over to the table, found two glasses and filled them with something that smelled alcoholic. "Aren't you going to join me?" he asked.

"Of course," she said, sauntering over to him. "If I didn't know better, I'd almost think you didn't want to relieve yourself."

"Well," he said, deadpan, "do ya happen to have any of the ones she was traveling with? I just don't want to do that one. She was in a herd, though. There should be plenty to go 'round."

She was on him in an instant. She was impossibly fast! The glasses both shattered on the floor as she lit straight into him. He barely got his arms up in time to avoid being knocked clean over. As it was, she only pressed him against the wall with more strength than he'd ever felt from any female of his kind.

"It's not polite to refuse such a golden opportunity," she said, drawing her stinger back for a strike.

Marvel got his tail up and barely blocked a nasty little shot. In the process, she wrapped his tail up in hers--and she, once again was stronger. She brought both tails over to her waiting hand, which closed around them like a vice. Then, she took both of the barbs and started bringing them down into Marvel's eye. He grabbed her arm, but it was no use. She was just too strong. Slowly, the stinger came closer, closer, closer.

"Maybe you can try to overwhelm my mind," she said. "You know you can't overwhelm my body."

Wait a minute! Something's REAL FISHY here! And then it occurred to him.

It's not me that she wants, stoney, it's YOU!

And in a moment, the whole world turned into a giant blur as Marvel burst through a huge, ornate illusion that had been cast around him. The world whirred and buzzed as layer upon layer was stripped away, until there he stood, right in the center of the room he had started out in--and there, sitting cross-legged, across the room, was a tiny old gray-skinned demon with razor-sharp teeth and wrinkled, gray skin.

"You were in my mind," he said. "You were trying to get the user's manual for ol' Yendor's last stone!"

The demon looked up with yellowed eyes. "With that, I could have defeated you," he said.

"Yeah, well it looks like I turned the tables on you!" Marvel said, a smug look playing across his features.

"Fool," said the other demon. "My snares are beset with other snares. Enjoy your moment of victory, but remember, the others saw all that you saw, all that you did. When you return to them, they will know that you will betray them at the first opportunity."

"As if that's going to do anything to save you," Marvel said. Now, he was angry. He brought his hands together, and the demon's skull caved in under its own weight. But nothing splattered. Instead, it turned to dust, and slowly fell into a little, cubical box.

Slowly, Marvel walked over toward the box, until he was just close enough to hear it softly ticking.

--------------------

OOC:

Here comes that trademark phrase!

--------------------

IC:

"Oh sh--!"

BOOM!

When his head finally cleared from that demon's going away present, he stood up and walked back to the wall and sank to the floor, exhausted. Then, a thought came to his mind.

"Where is Yelena, anyway?"

In the distance, he thought he heard something that sounded like singing--but it was in a strange language, and he couldn't make out the words.

Groaning, her hand was giving up as the revolver started to slip away from it, her eyes were almost closing and she could not find any strength anymore, not even for holding it together. The blood of a dead spider was at her face, and yet due to her weakness, Yelena was almost passing out and cleaning such blood was the least important thing now. Fighting against all needs, she managed to stay awake for hours in such extreme conditions. It was perhaps another of her really bad times happening again, for sometimes she wondered if she was, for some reason, naturally unlucky to end in situations like this.

When her finger was about to leave the trigger guard, in a last effort, in a way that gave her the impression she was pulling a hundred of kilograms of weight in her back, Yelena pulled the trigger. A loud noise could be heard, and if anyone friendly was nearby, there was a hope for her. She could feel that in a few hours she would have enough magical energy to teleport away from that place, and somehow, Yelena ignored the possibility of the magic being foiled again, for her resolve to leave such place, should she live, was very strong and it was enough of suffering to have there for nothing, her presence was useless anyway, not only it was rational, but there was nothing wrong in leaving everybody behind, or at least she thought so.

The bullet simply made a hole into one of the walls, and the noise has stopped Yelena from completely falling asleep for a few seconds, however soon she would lose to the needs, for a combination of hunger, thirst and sleepiness was anything but easy to overcome. Maybe she would finally find peace, in nothingness. Or maybe, a glint of hope could come, but she would never manage to get out of there by herself, in fact, standing on such condition would be a miracle. Agonizing as she attempted to restrain her physical needs, Yelena groaned again, and couldn't even speak anymore due to a very dire situation of exhaustion and dehydration. If nobody helped her soon, which was by itself unlikely, Yelena would eventually die. After a final struggle, it was too much and soon she passed out of exhaustion, unconscious and thus completely defenseless.

A soft noise echoed through the halls.

It sounded like...that popper that Yelena carried.

She was in trouble! He needed to get to her!

But how was he going to find her? He couldn't cast a divination spell to save--

Wait a minute.

Stony--er, Amulet of Yendor--I'm going to need that stuff on mind spells.

Marvel, I can help you.

Good. Shoot the juice to me, Bruce!

Cara seemed down and out.

1...

she was being counted out.

2...

Agala smiled and alread assumed victory.

as seven was reached, Agala strutted around the arena.

At eight, he paused, and decided to desecrate her body.

Nine, he pulled out his manhood.

Right before the Ref reached ten, and he started to do anything else, Cara's eyes snapped open, she grabbed his manhood and squeezed, with all her strength. She stood, stil holding on tight.

"The next Male Creature that waves their Manhood, or lack their of at me, will get it ripped off." Cara said with a venomous intensity that made everyone know she was serious. She let go, and roundhouse kicked Agala, he put himself away, but continued to roll around on the ground in pain.

Cara took the time to rest and recover her strength. She had a feeling she was going to need it.

Having learned his most recent lesson, Marvel sat down comfortably outside the ring and reached out his mind. In a moment, he had found Yelena--now nearly unconscious from lack of food, water and sleep.

...and the realization dawned on him.

If I finish this spell, I'll come in contact with her mind...and she'll know everything...too.

(OOC: If Marvel gets into her mind, he'll see and get into this too. And she isn't nearly unconscious, but completely unconscious. Also, not the same thing, but is of a related nature to what Yelena is "dreaming" about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Xl8kqjJ4nM. And this "dream" is a sort of continuation of this one (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=13412489&postcount=55) )

´The situation was critical, blood red skies were nothing but a reflection of the war that raged on. Four airships were falling into the scorches of the Badlands, taken down by the three-headed dragon itself which tore apart the film of their gasbags. Wooden ships flying through magical means were being torn apart by the maxim guns of the winged aircrafts while attempting to dodge the flaming rocks that the witches casted against them. four of them were completely obliterated. Aeronaut Sergei Mirovsky was leading the remaining aircrafts into the heat of the battle with his legendary skills, diving and maneuvering into the spots between the floating frigates and mortars and pestles and dodging all the spells from the Baba Yagas and common witches. There was a burning being quickly erased in the flagship. About half of the enemies were downed, but there was still the imminent threat of the dragon.

The chaos of battle, such foreign concept for her, was what she could hear, see and feel. Yelena was desperate, despite pretending to be completely fine, and was quickly thinking and issuing orders to the fleet. It was approaching of the enemy flagship, in a dangerous way, and Yelena frenetically picked up target priorities while they got deeper and deeper through the formation supported by the small winged aircrafts, opening a sort of gap in their defenses.

"Comrade Mirovsky! Target the flying beast, it is too big to compete in agility! Station 1, fire at the mortars! Station 2! Focus on the frigates! After my command, fire everything you got into their primary airship!", Yelena shouted, while at the same time she shouted: "Private Gagarin! Hand me a spare rifle!", "Yes Comrade!". The man shouted. Flying projectiles, burning, frozen or even collapsing started to fly from all directions. She couldn't know for sure but someone have tipped her down just as a magical flaming arrow was about to go through her head. The impact hit straight against her forehead, and a minor pain came to her, not anything she wasn't used with. Quickly getting up despite all the turbulence provoked by those projectiles, she crawled towards the command post and, after a quick glance at the closing enemy flagship, thrust her arm forwards, shouting. Several visible signs of damage were around the airship, and its gasbag was slowly being severely damaged. The time was running short when the order came:

"Fire!"

A barrage of 57mm cannons aimed against the flagship have quickly fired several projectiles, opening massive holes against it while the maxim guns were continually firing their 8mm bullets against it. The impact was enough to push their flagship forwards through momentum alone, and a few of its crew was thrown away from it, falling into their deaths beneath a crimson sky, while bodies of dozens killed by the magic projectiles were thrown away by such force. The massive enchanted ship-of-line started to bank downwards. Yelena was attempting to aim the precision rifle at the captain of that strange ship. When its distant figure was finally visible enough, she pulled the trigger and a bullet flew, hitting the wood of that flying ship instead of her target. However it did not went unnoticed, and soon a very strong pull tipped her balance, and she felt on the floor strongly, sliding for a few meters. Blood was visibly coming from her nose, yet she simply got up to notice what have happened. The dragon attacked the flagship, but have not downed it yet, for its misfortune. It was flying through the left and Yelena could see it while she pulled the lever of the rifle to load another bullet, ordering:

"Station 2! Fire at the Dragon! Station 1! Keep firing against the flagship! All other airships, cover us against their frigates and mortars"

Mirovsky and all other flying aircrafts aeronauts were gone, defeated by the sheer might of the beast which seemed more agile than expected, probably for that was their first conflict with such a mythical creature. However it was clearly wounded by several bullet wounds which have penetrated its thick scales, the flashes of maxim guns from the airship which aims accompanied the dragon's direction were visible, and it wasn't as invulnerable as legends claimed. It seemed to clearly have a burden rather than mere nuisance from those guns. However, they lacked stopping power to effectively detain that beast as it dangerously approached the needed maneuver of flight to dive straight against the gasbag. The tears on its lower area have not been enough to take it down due to the less dense air naturally going up, but if it teared the upper part of it, all of them would be as good as dead. It was by sheer luck that the support beams of their large blimp, its steam engine and tesla turbines were still intact allowing it to continue flying despite massive damages. Yelena seemed aware of the event, yet she couldn't make any sense of why she was doing that, and how. Before the dragon could finish its maneuver, a last volley of cannon fire was finally the needed one to down the enemy flagship which eventually felt down, with its explosion being nothing but a speck below to be seen. Most of the enemy forces started to retreat, but the dragon had no fear. There was a man, his face had blood, and he seemed full of despair. Yelena was losing her hopes, but at least the victory of their enemies would certainly be Pyrrhic. The man, looking at her said, in a pleading tone:

"Comrade! We'll all die unless you cas..."

"Station 1, aim at the Dragon and fire!", she shouted interrupting the man, and then looked at him with a frown: "Are you insane? We can't erase fire with more fire. I have promised years ago to never, ever delve into magic again and I won't break my promise no matter what happens! How do you dare to consider magic superior to our science? Look, it's just having a last dying attempt. That dragon is mortal and will be killed by technology alone! Magic is nothing but a curse against revolution! Do you hear? Look at this!", she said as she aimed her rifle towards the Dragon, pulling again the trigger. This time the target was large enough for her to not miss and soon a new bullet wound would add to the sum, she franticly pulled the lever again to load another round into the rifle's chamber and shot, repeating the process, combined with the roaring shots from the 57mm cannons, of the same type used by the steam tanks which sought supremacy in surface, while the maxim guns continue firing, until one of the fires stopped, and then the next... it was a very unlucky event soon notice as all maxim guns jammed almost simultaneously due to overuse beyond their capabilities.

"Station 2! Man your guns, line in the upper deck and help me firing!", she shouted while firing another bullet against the flying beast. Soon several soldiers armed with others of the same rifle formed at her side and they continued firing. Yelena never cared about such wounds, instead ignoring them to serve as an example to all who were still alive. However, in an unexpected change, the Dragon instead of heading towards the gasbag dived at the direction of the cannon emplacements while Yelena shouted yet again into the telephone:

"Retreat now Station 1!"

Soon the claws of the beast and its heads pulled all the cannons away from the damaged airship, leaving it defenseless. The other airships were too outnumbered, or were too stranded to come into their aid. They were now like flying preys waiting for the slaughter, for their rifles bullets were completely useless against such beast. The same soldier came again to her and said in despair, with his words interrupted by his futile shots against the beast:

"Commissar Praskovya! A larger fire will deplete the air of the smaller one and stop it! Please! If you don't use your magic we'll all die! You wasn't corrupted by it, it can't be that bad! It's our last hope!"

"The commissariat has strictly forbidden reformed witches from risking of going back to the dangerous occult! And you have no idea of what I suffered because of being born with the curse and specially because of being foolish to accept its call! So keep firing! It's almost dying by now! We are the people! For the Soviet! Death to the bourgeois and to the mage! We might die here but we'll kill this "immortal" abomination first!", she replied in a very angered tone, interrupting her speech to shoot against the dragon who was making a turn to dive against the gasbag. It was getting closer and closer, and no matter how they fired and reloaded their rifles, it did not seem to stop. Three hundred of meters away only it was when, in a fraction of seconds, it has finally died, and yet again, technology have won over magic. However, the momentum of its flight meant its body would collide against their airship. Then everything stopped, like in a photograph, but in all colors rather than just in black and white. Yelena could see the desperate, frozen looks of the soldiers at their side, the dead body of the dragon almost touching the gasbag in an event which would ensure the death of all of them, but for some reason, time itself has stopped. Yelena, enraged shouted to nowhere:

"Who have done this? Do you want me? Show yourself then coward! You witches and magical scum are all cowards!", were her words while she strapped a bayonet to her rifle and tried to look everywhere, shouting again:
"Come on! Who are you? I'll show you why your pathetic magic has failed yet again, monarchist and reactionary pigs of Yaga! Or maybe rats? Yes, you are rats! monarchist rats who cling to magic like decrepit old men cling to canes!"

Somehow her memory was skewed, and she could remember little of why she was wanting to say that, all she knew was a deep hatred of all that was magic, and her rifle pointed around in that place where time itself has stopped. Nobody came. Her alert reduced as after a long time nothing has changed. Frustrated, Yelena went downstairs and sat on one of the seats located there in the topmost internal deck of the airship, she yawned and awaited, with her rifle at hands, for whoever was playing with her. Sometimes she asked in Russian whether whoever did that was getting bored, others she simply insulted and mocked whoever did that, while others she even began to cry, but tried to not to avoid whoever stopped time from have amusement from her behavior. And thus she stood in such stopped time.´

Agala stood, having relieved his pain.
"Now, you die." He said.

He rushed in first and tried to trip Maggie off her feet, but now Maggie was playing for keeps, and was not going to hold anything back.
She disappeared and Teleported in behind him and used her power to deliver the force of three blows in one, she puched so hard it even seemed like there were two ghostly fists trailing her original. Agala rolled and turned it into a roll to his feet.

"Good, I don't have to hold back because your a woman then." he said, and he disappeared, and so did maggie. The Jumbotron on the wall which had been broadcasting their fight panned up to where they charged at eachother on the very beams of the ceiling itself, they leaped at each other and threw one another to the mat below, Maggie again teleported above agala, and turned her fall into a Diving Kick, Agala turned and grabbed her foot, and swung her around, Both hit the Mat at the same time and it just crumbled.

Thanks to Regeneration AND Adreneline Maggie was quickly on her feet, She grabbed a Metal folding chair and swung for Agala as hard as she possibly could, and with a loud Thwack it hit him accross the back, causing him to fall again, but instead of remaining motionless he swung his legs around and knocked Maggie over, he rolled to his feet, grabbed her legs, and twisted into a Figure Foure Leglock, Maggie screamed in pain, and elbowed the ground, a little spike shot into Agala's legs, and forced him to Release. He got to his feet, and threw something at the ceiling, Fire began to Rain down aroung Maggie, she ran through it completly ignoring it, leaping into the air and kicking him in the chest. He stumbled and hit the wall, turned, and began to climb it, leapt off it twenty feet up, and divebombed Maggie.
Maggie was out again, but the fall severly hurt Agala, and he lay on the floor using his own recovery magic. They both sat up at the same time.

Maggie started to run at Agala but froze in midstride, Agala flinched, thinking she was going to hit him. Bright Light coursed into her, and her aura seperated, into seven exact duplicates of Maggie, each one running up and delivering a powerful blow to Agala, and disappearing, each one in rapid succession, with Real Maggie following along behind just as quickly, grabbing him, and throwing him accross the arena floor. She teleported over to him. Both were wearing a bit thin, who could last longer?
Agala disappeared on the spot, and reappeared in the center. Other jungle warriors appeared around him, and poured their energy into Agala.

"That's not fair." Maggie cried, then reached into her pocket, and pulled out a metal case. Opening it, it contained a vial containing a brightly glowing liquid.
"But an Energy potion will make it Fair." She said, was she really going to drink it? The Vial was shaking dangerously like it was about to self-destruct.
Maggie drank it, and seemed to leap to lightspeed. She did not teleport, she ran, but she ran so fast she may as well have Ran.

No one knew what happened next, and it's likely no one ever well, for so much energy had been poured into them both, that when they met, it caused an explosion so intense it knocked both fighters out, completly canceling their energy reserves.

An invisible Ghost Ref began to count them out, and before he reached ten, Maggie managed to crawl to her feet.
As The ref counted ten, Spikes shot out of the ceiling, and skewered Agala's head and chest.
Maggie had won.
She reached down, and removed the world champion Belt from Agala.

"Your winner and new Champion fighter of The Worlds, Maggie Destrudo!" An anouncer announced from somewhere.
Then Maggie passed out, completly drained.

The fights were over, The room reverted to it's original form, a small room, with a raised platform, and chairs before it. The only sign they had not imagined the whole ordeal, was the fact that Maggie still wore The World Champion Belt.

"We must wait for Marvel to return." Cara said.
OOC: and when you do, she's going to resolve this eating people business once and for all.

As Marvel watched, Cara, in her fighting ring, with her challenge, crushed a VERY sensitive part of the poor guy's anatomy. He cringed. Ohhhhh, he thought, that's gotta hurt!

Every human woman, he was told, wants to do that to at least one man during her lifetime. Something about it being painful to give birth. It was so much easier for the Reds. For the Reds' females, child birth wasn't the least bit painful--in fact, it was extremely pleasant--so much so that some of them hung on too long, just pumpin' 'em in, and killed the host!

Marvel blinked and tried to get his concentration back. In a moment, he reached his mind back out into the halls...and...found Yelena. She was asleep...but the only way for him to get the precise route to where she was would be to enter into her mind.

Actually, this could make things easier. If she was asleep, maybe, when she woke up, she wouldn't remember enough about him to know how his species reproduced. That would be fine with him. As far as he could remember, she had an itchy finger that she liked to scratch on the trigger of the nearest firearm--and the gunshot that he had heard showed that there was still plenty of itch left on it. Maybe he wouldn't be giving her an excuse to scratch it some more.

So...that must mean that...ready or not...here I...

He broke free and into her mind with a jarring crack.

There was not much, or actually there was very much inside whatever her mind has prepared, perhaps on purpose it looked such way what Marvel would see, perhaps she actually wanted him to see it. As if time itself has stopped, soon Marvel would find himself into a sort of still image of a sort of aerial battle. It was sort of strange, with some very old, and seemingly ethereal witches riding flying mortars with pestles in their hands, several flying ships with massive gasbags keeping them on the air and even ships which would never be able to fly through scientific means, including two parts of the hull of a previously intact ship of line in a still image of what would be a part of its free fall moment, filled with scorch marks holes done by sorts of cannons. There was a very large airship just at it, and it was severely damage, with what seemed to be the marks of dragon claws on its starboard hull, and sponsons where there were some sort of weapons before completely destroyed. Smaller airships and also magically floating frigates were visible around, with the frigates apparently attempting to retreat while, for very keen eyes, dozens bullets could be seen floating in the mid air coming from some strange weapons those airships had. They had a black sickle, hammer and gears emblem, and all were some way or another damaged. The frigates had a set of two symbols (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f4/Thundermarks.svg/300px-Thundermarks.svg.png) instead. Beneath them a sort of clearly scorched land existed, and flaming remains of fallen airships and ships were visible from such height, with the sparks of fire static and motionless.

The most noticeable fact however, was with the larger airship. In its upper, external deck, a bunch of lined soldiers dressed in red-colored suede jackets with yellow buttons and black pants and boots, aiming several cylindric weapons ahead of them with discipline. There was a visible fear in their frozen expressions, and to make the scene even more interesting, ahead of them there was a dragon with three heads about to collide with the gasbag of the airship. The beast had visible wounds everywhere, and from its expression, it was clear that such frozen moment has captured the exact moment of its death. A in-depth observation of the creature would make it visible the holes some of its blinded eyes had, and the evident reason of its demise, a large wound piercing its belly widely, provoked by some sort of powerful weapon fired against it. There was not much alive in that place. In fact, it seemed disturbingly silent, like if it was indeed a time lock. Marvel would soon notice however, the silence being broken by a shout spoken in a strange, but familiar language:

"Pokazhite! Budete vy trusom?", was what he heard, in what seemed to be a tone of voice filled with hatred and frustration, however it was definitively Yelena's voice from the way it sounded. Apparently it came from inside the airship, just below its upper deck.

The place was literally a war zone. The emotion that Yelena had associated with the place was so pervasive that it blotted out anything that Marvel's mind could have put up around it. As he moved through, what had happened at that point was obvious: there had been a huge battle. As best Marvel could tell, it was the Magicians versus the Technicians--and Yelena was a Technician. An enemy heavy-hitter had butted heads with Yelena's ship. They'd done their best, but they were so evenly matched that it looked like they were both going to go down together.

This was definitely a memory--but it was much more. Marvel recognized the nature of it all--the demonic foe and the hard-fighting friendlies. This was a near-death dream. If he didn't end it--the RIGHT way--Yelena would never awaken. This meant a change of plan. Though he'd know where she was now, and be able to open a portal to her from where he was, he would need to save her life...again...or it wouldn't be worth the bother.

Then, before he could once again ask himself why he was doing all of this, he heard her voice in the distance.

"Show yourself!" she bellowed. "Where are you, coward?"

------------------------

OOC:

http://translation2.paralink.com/

:) :-P :)

------------------------

IC:

She had no way of knowing the true nature of the foe she faced. It was none other than herself--her own weariness and longing for death.

Slowly, he made his way through the maze of twisted metal, as a disembodied spirit would, down to the compartment where she stood. She was much as he had remembered her--tall, strong and defiant--but, in the dream, she still had two arms. To save her, he would have to defeat her hydra-dragon--and, from the looks of things, without using magic.

He would need to contact her--to try to reason with her.

"I am not the one who did this to you," he sent to her. "I am here to help you, as I helped you before." He made sure that she heard.

He coalesced not where she could see him coming together, but in the hallway slightly beyond. With him, he had a little toy, hand-made for the occasion: an elephant gun with a nice, big magazine full chock of ammunition--just the thing that would be useful in a world like this one without any appearance of magic. This was a dream, after all. He could make any piece of equipment that he saw fit to!

Slowly, carefully, he pushed the door open, gun slung over his shoulder, wings drawn in tight. "Don't shoot me now, honey," he said, the hand not holding the gun raised in a gesture of peacefulness. "We're still friends, right?"

The deck was covered by high quality wooden panels on its ceiling, with a few lamps hanging from it, and it had ebony wood floors and wooden panels on its walls. It was a sort of war and briefing room, with a large table with miniatures, and several papers on war plans. Its former glory was over, with several scorch marks on its walls, and a table torn in half. In the center of a row of chairs which were lined with the the table, there was someone who wasn't apparently trapped into the frame of stopped time like all others. The still, but alive bodies of soldiers taking cover and getting down were visible around, but this central figure was actually immediately drew his attention.

It was a red foamed armchair, an authoritative figure sat upon it, with a rifle resting in this figure's hands. It was Yelena, she was wearing the same red suede jacket and black pants and boots of the soldiers above the deck, with the difference it had a visible group of four medals and what was obviously a symbol of a higher military rank. red gloves covered both of her hands, despite the fact all other soldiers Marvel found wore no gloves. Also, there were a few signs of greying in her hair and some very few, almost unnoticeable wrinkles in her face, she looked quite older and with the first signs of aging coming to her, probably on how she would look like in her late forties or early fifties, however, she still looked quite active and with a good physical shape for such age, probably due to a lack of any retirement, for it seems her aging has been slower than normal, and she could easily pretend to have only 40 years old or less despite that, for some reason, her "age" was actually 49 years old.

That wasn't something to be expected. The demon did not seem to be a part of neither the Kingdom of Yaga nor of the Theocracy of Perun. Her grip on her lever-action rifle loosened, reflecting the benefit of doubt that her mind gave to that being. It seemed he have met her before once, she scratched her head once, twice. Then suddenly a surge of fear came into her, some sort of terrible visions of a monster growing inside her own entrails quickly coming and vanishing just as she looked at the demon, answered by her raise of her rifle towards him and a visible threat, spoken in her own language which apparently the creature could understand:

"Back off magical beast, if you or your tail move one inch closer, or if you try to do anything funny with my trapped comrades, I'll shoot you! Is that you who stopped time? I must admit demon, or not, because honestly, I don't believe in Hell or any form of afterlife, now... that is something which possibility of happening crosses my mind. Temporal magics is something I never witnessed before, but it seems that, to your misfortune, I am somehow immune to such magic!"

There was something very strange for Marvel to perceive. It was obviously more than a memory, it was a image of the future. Perhaps Yelena was a seer, but she never mentioned anything, or perhaps it was just her imagination flowing, representing her miss of Soviet Steam and her recently acquired disgust for magic. For some strange reason every time she woke up, she could barely remember her dreams, if she remembered her dreams at all, making of it, if actually a premonition, completely useless, but some claim that knowing the future would actually be catastrophic, and that the unconscious influences one's actions, but that would conflict with one thing. If she subconsciously knew what would happen if she teleported randomly, why would she have done such action? Theoretically, a random teleport spell could teleport the magician even to Venus, where it was believed that an human being would never be able to survive, or to any place of the realm or of other realms. Or maybe she would have not survived if she attempted to stand against the "witch hunt".

Nothing made sense in such vision. First, Yelena was being hunted for witchcraft, and in such vision, it was her who was hunting witchcraft. However there was something very interesting Marvel could sense. The source of such powerful temporal magic. It was nobody less but Yelena herself, as noticeable by the extremely strong emanations of magic coming from her, despite she apparently being oblivious to them. He didn't know it, but it was not the first time a spell was casted by her in the subconscious level rather than consciously, but all other similar events actually happened in reality rather than inside her visions and dreams. Of course, the possibility of her having the power to make such feat was null, but it was not a real happening. Somehow it was ironic, that it was not an unknown enemy who stopped time, but herself. She was keeping an steady aim against him for a while... but then.

That creature who insisted in claiming he had nothing to do with it, and that he knew her before and was friend, he called himself Marvel, and Yelena took the opportunity she had the advantage to observe it in depth. It seemed familiar after all, and despite her visions on what he could do, somehow, it was reviving some blurred memories. At such moment, she couldn't remember anything that happened besides the deployment of the airfleet and her routine during the days it took to reach the battlefield. No matter how she struggled, her past couldn't come. But eventually it became clear, she actually met him, but she couldn't remember the exact circumstances. She lowered her rifle again and sighed:

"I am sorry Marvel, I thought you were going to... I don't want to speak about it. I have much to explain. But I have no idea how you ended here. I think it was... about twelve years ago when I last saw you. I know it's weird, but I can't remember much of what happened during these twelve years, I'm just too stressed for it I suppose. I guess you'll want to know how I..."

With no further words, she removed the glove from her left hand. The hand in question wasn't natural, it seemed like a sort of mannequin's hand, with visible, very tiny interlocked gears and cogs on its joints which allowed it to move as close from an human hand as possible. Pulling her sleeve, and revealing what was more of a clutter of cogs, gears and metal parts joined together covered by a sort of mannequin, she pointed to a small slot where a small electric generator was located and said: "What magic took away from me, science brought back to me", pulling it over and wearing her glove over it again. Somehow, she was too talkative to allow Marvel to explain everything, and Yelena continued, pointing to her four honors with pride, and a sort of arrogance:

"I have some hints to what have happened since then, in the form of the recognition my comrades gave for my efforts I can't remember anymore. This (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/OrderOfGlory1stClass.jpg) is something I can't remember very well how I earned, just that it is given for bravery in face of the enemy, when I was still just an airfleet engineer. This (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/USSR10yearsofservice.jpg) is for time only, I can't remember, but I can feel the war... it got worser... in the last years, then I remember hardly getting this medal (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/Order_of_suvorov_medal_2nd_class.jpg), I think when I was a captain... or major, I can't remember, just that this isn't the first time we were outnumbered. Sorry Marvel, but my these are the only things that help me to remember now hints of what happened. This last one (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/Order_khmelnitsky1.jpg). I think my town was... invaded then I led the airfleet, or maybe I was just second-in-command. Or... it's freed again, and I was there. Just like I'm here now but time has stopped. There were 15 of their flying ships for each of ours, but we "won". I supposed that once the time flows again it'll be my time to receive a posthumous honor together with my comrades for our feat. It was said dragons were invincible and that could only be defeated by magic, but at least I'll have a monument, I think you should teleport out of here. I don't want to come with you, I promised I would never use or cast magic again more than ten years ago, and I don't regret it. Look, I know you might seem this as absurd, but I think my existence has fulfilled its role, I don't think it's right to cheat the laws of physics to live, one of my comrades begged me to do it, but it's wrong. Imagine what will happen to the morale of all my friends if one of many war heroes has used magic to defeat a dragon. I can't let that happen, if I did that, many more people could die, how am I better than the thousands, this, Marvel, this might help to end the bloody war I barely remember, but which has already lasted more than a decade, if I use magic here, nobody will believe dragons can be defeated, and the war will last much more than it would otherwise, and many would die. I hope you understand my choice of staying. I have made mistakes before in my life, ran rather than facing my fears, but now I have finally saw the light. It's better to have a short but fulfilling life than to live in mediocrity. Plus, if I use magic, I'll just end being executed for high treason anyway. This is a die-die situation, and I prefer dying heroically over having to run again to obscure lands of magic and face everything over and over."

It now seemed even more ironic to Marvel's mind, considering the fact that in such vision, she was the one responsible for stopping time with an strange, subconscious form of magic. Maybe, as she already got her hands "dirty" with magic, he could convince her to use her conveyance magic to save the lives of her crew, at the expense of what she believed that doing so would damage severely the war efforts of whatever that war was and have her condemned for treason, according to her words. There was something strange, maybe she created an illusion to compensate for her weaknesses in reality, or maybe it was actually a possible image of many different outcomes that might happen in the future.

For a moment, the demon's icy little heart completely melted.

"Oh, Honey," he said, tears welling up in his eyes. "There's so much you need to know--not just about this place, but about yourself."

He started with the simplest fact. "This will hurt, and I don't want to hurt you--but you're magical, Yelena. It's just what you are. You can't run from it, and you can't wish it away--and, if you fight it, you'll only be fighting against yourself. You can never win that way.

"Please try not to be too shocked when I tell you this, but this is all a dream. In the reality of your life, right now, you're asleep and I'm in another room, trying to find you. But it's more than a dream, honey--please don't be embarrassed when I call you that. This is a divination. The magic within you is so powerful that you can just see what can happen years and years from now!

"But don't you understand? If I let you go, you'll die--and none of these great things you've seen for yourself can ever become reality!

"And I don't think you really want to die. It was you who stopped time, you know. Your magic is so strong that you can ensorcel without conscious effort!

"Please let me help you. Please come back--for me, for them, for all that you dream of being!"

Suddenly the solid stance of Yelena in that chair collapsed into a clear expression of shock accompanied by a quick spasm. Her eyes had a glint of a large surprise never expecting to hear something like that, or the reaction of Marvel to her words. It seemed a strange thing contemplate that a being like him actually had feelings for her. Suddenly, she could sense something that she never sensed for a long time with such revealing words. It was magic, it was everywhere around that airship, despite its technological nature. It was coming from her, to her disgust, and soon something was realized, there was no way from escape from it. No matter how much they induced her to forget it and learn science, it can't be contained or replaced. It was too solid however, to be a dream or mere vision, too vivid, she could smell it, taste the dry and desolate weather, hear the silent of the static moment and feel aches in her body due to all the effort she had to make to win the battle. Sighing, she got up and walked through the wooden stairs towards the upper deck to the outside of the airship. Each step seemed difficult, there was something into her. Looking at Marvel she said:

"There is no coming back Marvel. The past is past, and I know how to differentiate a dream from reality, and this is reality, however, I can feel the energy running out, soon the flow of time will go back again and I will die, but... I do not want non-existence, I don't want to die. I just thought there was no choice, but there is one. Your presence, this conversation. For all people they never happened. A dragon can be defeated with technology, but our lives cannot be saved with it alone", taking a profound sigh, while getting through the first steps of the spiral staircase, she gestured for Marvel to follow her, adding to her words:

"They will not know I used it, for all accounts, their lives will be saved by science alone, but... I can't. When you are certain there is no afterlife, the act of letting a friend or comrade die is much more difficult to conceive. I find it disturbing how I must choose magic over death, I would rather not resort to it... it bothers me even after all this time that has passed, but yet again the circumstances impel me. I am not magical Marvel, I never was, I only have something special, but I can feel it is not magic itself, magic is just the usual tool that what I have of different resorts to, but... I don't know, I never understood what really led me to all the misfortunes of the past, I had harsh times, but since I stopped using magic, my fortuned changed for better. Until now, you have no idea how it is difficult of having to use what you most abhors."

She was already in the outside, the scenery was still the same, the lined soldiers with their faces in despair but with enough discipline to fight to the end, the dragon about to collide with the gasbag of the airship, the signs of battle all around marked by the retreat of the defeated forces of magic, despite their superior numbers. Yelena looked at one of the soldiers and said to Marvel, in a somewhat cold manner:

"I... don't know, this man, he is comrade Brokovsky, he doesn't want to die, he begged me to save them with magic. If I attend his request, even as they'll not notice the magic itself, an airship can't instantly lift a few meters above, they'll know I am the responsible for it, and I don't want to be hunted again, nor I want to be tormented by magical abominations. This is my home Marvel, and no matter what, I won't find happiness in places where magic is tolerated, because I know how it can be... much worser than any science applied to misery. Twelve years was the last time I did it, and I have promised for the people to never rely on magic again, I thought about it, I don't know what to do. I can't come with you either Marvel, I won't abandon my friends, I cannot return to cowardice and fear, they entrusted me with their lives, and no matter what you feel about me... I", she stopped, for a while, her eyes lowered down and she bent slightly her head forwards, if there was a moment where someone would be expected to cry, it would be right there, but her face remained stiff and cold, with no tears coming from her eyes, only a slight expression of sadness and indecision. The time was running out, a keen eye would soon notice how that, at each minute that passed, the dragon moved a hundredth of an inch closer to the gasbag, soon the inevitable would happen, unless somehow Yelena was convinced to go ahead and resort to her innate abilities. There was a glint of truth in her words, for indeed, she wasn't born with any inherent ability of magic, but with something else, which has allowed her to access the magic. Somehow, it could be noticeable that no magic was being consumed by the vision itself, instead, as Marvel was inside her mind, he could feel that somehow, the vision was originated from something emanating from her mind and own self, and not from an external source, like magic. Perhaps Marvel would know what that meant, that Yelena was not magical, however, her mind could touch the reality directly, and also manipulate magic with the ease she always had for it. And somehow, such ability of hers seemed more power unconsciously than consciously.

The dragon was almost touching the gasbag with one of its three heads, and to the naked eye, it already have touched it so small was the distance between it and the gasbag, the time was struggling against whatever magic coming from Yelena stopped it, and it was visible that very soon it would return, each second was one less sand in an ancient hourglass falling like life itself. With doubts overwhelming her, Yelena has not made a decision yet despite the urgency, and somehow, there was a few signs that she had silently decided that the lives of thousands spared by a war lasting less would be more valuable than her own, despite being completely sure it would be the end, and after it, only oblivion would come.