Chapter 22
The party are in trouble, they are outside a Viera village, well the tumble down remains of it and just right royallyt pissed them off! They attacked their Ochu (who admittedly where attacking them first) And the Viera have retreated into the village, challenging the party to follow after them! Well when we say Party that is Raziel, Thaylorn, Marduke and Mordecai with the party being saved from the unbearable heat of the jungle thanks to the water imps magic. Jenna is still up on the Dao, her injuries from the collapse of the main cannon now fully healed but sadly she wasn't ready in time to join the party. Now the captain is holding station up in the air, waiting for any sign of the flare he left with Raziel to summon them to aid the group!
Raziel looks at where the pet ochu was then at the tries then at the party. "That.. was not what I expected. I suppose there is little in the way of choice though." The mage shakes his head just a little bit before he starts looking for a way up into the village though not without tilting his head towards the rest. "Thoughts would be appreciated."
"I say we try to find someway around this place, but there's no telling how far around it might be." Thaylorn chimes in as he looks up into the trees as well "Don't know how many might be up there, either." He adds with a soft sigh, just glad he isn't full of arrows from the small encounter the group had with the Viera.
Mordecai has his guns out, pointing them upwards as his pale eyes scan across the trees, trying to spot for any movement that might turn hostile again... And without looking at the others he responds in his gruff baritone, his voice calm despite the situation, "These Viera aren't likely to listen to common sense, anymore. We likely should have tried to avoid the Ochu, but that's just me talking after the fact... Now it's up to you, Aegyl. Do we shoot to kill, if we go in?" Marduke is holding a hand to his head with a soft sigh and shaking it. He glances up to the trees and offers, "Do we have a choice? We have to find this location and they know where it is at do they not? Find a way to appease them if you want my opinion, if not we find another way." Shaking his head and refraining from other comments.
Back on the ship, Jenna is busy pacing back and forth on the top deck. Her ankle is wrapped in a bandage under her boot, and the moogle crew has added a metal brace on the outside to further secure the recovering injury. The burmecian wraps her knuckles on the side railing, as she glares over the side of the ship. "Look, just get me down there already! I'll find them on the ground if I have to. This is ridiculous, you never march into a hostile area and leave part of your forces behind."
Captain Farquan shakes his head and regards Jenna, "You do when those forces cannot walk, when they signal for help we'll drop low and you can save their arses with cannon fire. Once they tag the location I am sure we can assist them." Down on the ground the village is empty and quiet, there is a way up, a vine choked ladder leading up the trunk of the tree to a platform about 20 feet above the ground, the mouldering remains of a building just visible on it. That platform then connects to the one the Viera was standing on when she taunted you all to follow her into the village otherwise the oppresively hot and humid jungle is silent.
Raziel shakes his head to Thaylorn, "unfortunately there's little choice there." The man frowns to himself before he starts to climb up the ladder. "We go in and try not to piss them off more then," the mage states over his shoulder before he looks up and continues ascending upwards. "And if there's no choice, we defend ourselves," he adds in a quieter voice. Once up the man looks around the platform, a brief glance given the building before he starts towards the walkway leading on to the next platform.
"Well, let's just walk carefully, I doubt falling from up there would be much fun." Thaylorn offers as he moves to walk and climb behind Raziel, the cooling aura following the Imp about. "Specially since this is their territory, we could be shot pretty easily." He adds softly as he looks about at the trees and other platforms that may be around once he has reached the top of the ladder, checking for anything that may be hiding.
Mordecai finally glances at the others, and then the barrels of both guns drop a few inches, the man risking it and relaxing some. He nods at the others then, answering in that gruff voice, "Alright, then... We only fight if we have to. And considering where we are, you better count on it." Actually holstering both guns then, he follows after the others, needing his hands free to climb.
Marduke moves to follow the others to climb up the tree and shakes his head. "Mordecai is right, fighting seems that it will be impossible to avoid at this point. They are not quiet themselves." Sighing and making his way up the tree and staying near the back of the group. "I have a bad feeling here..."
Jenna grinds her teeth, "I wasn't hurt that bad, I could've marched just fine," she grumbles. "Alright! But we'd better get the cannons ready now, it's no good going to save arses if we aren't ready." She glances back at the aft portion of the deck, and then looks back down to the captain. "Main cannon is still... disassembled. So we'll be using the regular ones?
Captain Farquan nods his head, "I am afraid so, the main cannon is a right off, no way we can rebuild it whilst out of port. But you the regular cannons are already being readied, if you want to go help please take a gunnery seat and grab your crew and get it ready." Climbing the ladder is easy which is good, the real trouble starts when the party are half way across the connecting bridge and the damned thing collapses pitching everyone about as it comes apart at both ends. It must have been released maunally by someone for it to come-away at both ends at the same time! Mordecai is of course magnificent and leaps to safety on the far platform and Thaylorn and Raziel though pitched into the air are both able to fly, golden wings carrying Raziel up into the air and Thaylorn just slows down and bobs about like imps are want to do. Marduke however is not so lucky, he falls to the ground and sadly isn't fast enough to pull out any magical items he may have to help him and he smacks into the ground hard, he's concious but damn did that hurt!
As the bridge falls away the Aegyl flails for a brief moment before his wings snap out. A few good flaps carrying him down to Marduke then as he kneels beside the man who, lets be honest, has had a rough time of it. "You alright?" Even while the question is asked a few green beads of healing energy pass from mage to summoner. Glowering the man looks back up and then offers Marduke a hand up. "Let's get back up there. Mordecai, grab a vine or rope and lower it will you?"
The Imp lets loose a rather annoyed sounding squawk as the bridge gives away beneath the group, suprise showing as he falls for a second or two before being able to catch himself through hovering there. Floating downwards towards Marduke and Raziel on the ground he sighs "Seems we might be a bit heavier than the Viera that usually walk around those platforms." He murmurs with a small smile "We might just be able to fly him up again if there's nothing to climb up." Mordecai has his shotgun out the moment he lands on the platform, instantly starting to track the sawed off weapon across the surrounding area, ready to blast a load of buckshot at any bunny eared bitch that shows itself. At Raziel's call though, he slowly backtracks a bit, and takes a moment to peer down at the people who're now on the ground, before looking around for a rope or the like he can lower. Calling back meanwhile, "... That was no accident. I suggest we shoot now, and ask questions later."
Marduke been waiting on the edge of the bridge when it feel, surprise catching as he falls and lands in a heep on the ground. He doesn't moves for a few seconds before he pushes himself up and throws his back against a tree resting. Bald, heat exhausted, and now bout dead from a fall the summoner just isn't doing all that good. He glances up to Raziel as he smirks a moment, "Thanks. Just go, I can't hold myself down here I think and I don't have the agility needed to keep my footing up there. Will watch down here." He offers and smiles a bit, "I have my contracts if I need to." Then reaches down and rubs his foot with a wince, the mystical words being spoken as he brings forth his own healing energies. A bright white glow covering his body as he closes his eyes. He smiles a bit and stands up seeming fully recovered. "There we go."
At the Captain's words, Jenna bobs her head, and turns to go get the middle cannon ready. "Run 'em out!" she shouts, "Captain reckons we're going to be needed in a minute!" She disengages the weapon's safety, and briefly takes stock of what ammunition is close at hand while the magicite capacitors charge up. Ultimately, she selects grape shot, and loads a round of that into the weapon. "Come on, gimme something fleshy to shoot at," she mutters. "Malboro, Ochu, lizards... Viera Tribe... whatever."
The Dao continues to circle, nothing has been signalled, below thew Jungle is a sea of waving, rippling green... quiet looking beneath the heat of the tropical sun! Down below everything is pretty quiet, Mordecai is able to select a rope to toss down to Raziel but with Marduke declaring he might just stay there it might not be needed. Still the rest of the village looks empty and deserted there is no sign of anything or anyone but beyond the next set of ruined buildings is a large staircase leading up toward a huge ring of trees. Raziel looks at Marduke and grabs the rope before he hands it to him with a determined look. "You will not stay here. We're not splitting up more than we already are. Those alone are easy to pick off. Your pacts serve you well, but they still take a moment to cast." In fact unless Marduke starts to climb he starts wrapping the vine around the summoner. "Now go up before I ask him to drag you."
"You'll probably get eaten if you stay down here by yourself, you know." Thaylorn scolds in turn with Raziel's statements to Marduke, the Imp even holds up a finger and waggles it in a threatening manner! "Besides, you'll be more help if you're with us anyways." The Imp would follow after the others if Marduke decides to head back up again as they move through the trees and potentially towards the larger staircase.
Mordecai ties off one end of the rope to something that won't easily break, and only takes a moment to glance down to see if Marduke is climbing up, before paying attention to his immediate surroundings again, keeping an eye out for mist-mad Vieras. His gaze soon falls on that staircase as well, and he quietly lets his eyes follow it upwards to see where it may lead. Marduke just mutters something about falling again and sighs as he grabs the rope, "Didn't expect to be climbing any tree's. I can jump and climb, but avoiding a fall." Smirking at the irony of his own training as he shakes his head and starts to climb again. His determination returning quickly, "I am not sure it was a trap Mordecai, we just over weighted the bridge, need to be more careful with those." Testing the vine then working his way up.
With the cannon prepared, Jenna has... nothing much else to do except wait. So, wait she does. She leans against the side of the cannon, and produces a rolled cigarette from her case; after a flicker of flame from her mechanical lighter, the air around her takes on a rather pungent quality, as she blows smoke rings in the air in her idleness.
The stairs rise up and then pass between two large trunks and into something else, it's hard to see from Mordecai's viewpoint. Soon enough though the party are all up on the platform and moving cautiously are able to approach it without running afoul of any other traps though a couple of the other bridges are rigged to go the same way but Mordecai is able to lead the party safely past it. Soon enough they are able to approach the staircase and climb it, it is the only way to go and at the top they can see through into a large ampitheatre hung between the branches of the mighty jungle trees. In the centre at the bottom of another set of steps that lead down between the tiers of seas are two viera and the Ochu just waiting.
Raziel keeps his mind tilted towards the magic so that he might be able to summon it up at any moment. The man hesitates when they arrive at the amphitheatre. Quietly he glances at the others and then looks back at the viera. "I realize we're likely surrounded," the mage says while pitching his voice so that it will carry to the viera. "So lets make nice. I apologize for attacking the... pet earlier, I feared for our safety. You've attempted to hurt us with traps as well.. Can we let bygones be bygones in that case?"
"Quite a strange place this is turning out to be." Thaylorn murmurs as he sticks as cloes to the group as possible as they traverse through the trees, "Think they'll let us pass?" He asks as he takes note of the group at the bottom of the ampitheater. Hand falling quickly to the blade at his side it seems the Imp is ready for battle, if the Viera bring it, that is.
Mordecai glances at Marduke, and calmly responds, "These bridges were made for an entire Viera tribe. Mist mad or not, they would make it structurally sound." And afterwards, his point is proven by the fact he manages to get everyone to avoid the other attempts at making them plummet to the jungle floor. Stopping with the others above the ampitheatre then, he quietly peers down at the two Viera and Ochu for a moment, before letting his gaze slowly go left and right, scanning for other hostiles that might be hidden. Letting Raziel do the talking meanwhile.
Marduke keeps his foot careful and takes it a bit slower then the rest so he doesn't drop again like he did last time. As they enter the ampitheatre he frowns a bit, "It won't be that easy my friend. Remember who they are, and the state they are in." Glancing around as he frowns a bit taking things in, "The bridges are traps, the tree's are one entrance only, this place is built more like a fortress or trap then it is a city now." Eyes looking back to the Viera and their pet, "Something just seems off."
The Viera grin at you and one of them kicks a lever by their side, the platform at the top of the stairs you are standing on collapses suddenly, the whole staircase leading down to them turning into a slop that pitches the group down the path, sliding away toward them. All around the ampitheatre panels are being kicked open, Viera clambering out and into sight, fiends... so many fiends following them. Ochu, Lobo, one Malboro, several flying types, all of them clambering out and preparing to assault the party as they slide down the slope uncontrolled before they can react. Marduke is the first one to react, the currently bald summoner raises his staff, light flares on the tip of it and a pair of wings crack loudly as a shape coalesces out of the humid air, streamers of mist forming a dragconic form that picks the summoner up on its back and launches into the sky, skimming over the length of the ampitheatre. Mordecai and Raziel are next, the sword master leaping nimbly off the sloping path as he careens down it, guns whistling around to blast into a large scaled pangolin beast the creature slumping to the ground dead as Mordecai slides down its scaled back and hops nimbly onto the platform next to a Viera whom he promptly pistol whips off the terrace they are on. Raziel leaps off in the opposite direction to Mordecai, wings snapping open, the golden feathers glittering in the sunlight as he spins and turns and shoots up over the head of an ochu whose tentacles just cannot reach him. He pulls something out of a pocket and fires it, there is a thump and the flare shoots into the air followed by several golden feathers, the fire mage weaving his magic into the trajectory of the flare so the resultant explosion stabs a pillar of golden flame up into the sky and down into the heart of the three ochu gathered on the terrace below him, incinerating them! Thaylorn is the last of the group in the ampitheatre to respond, the imp tumbles down the slope rapidly and out of control only to suddenly right himself, pushing himself up onto all fours as a surge of water floods the slide beneath him, it continues to build, a cresting wave of white frothing, foaming water roaring down the former staircase with the imp riding at its head. It smashes into the posing viera and their pet in the centre of the ampitheatre and all three of them vanish beneath the frothing waves as the Water Imps sword flashes an arc and dispatches one of the viera whilst the other flounders, tangled in the tentacles of its Ochu pet as the water carries it off the central platform and down into one of the openings the others were emerging from. Up in the sky the Dao is the last to react but as soon as the Captain sees that flare he spins the wheel and bellows orders, dropping out of the sky rapidly, heading toward the ampietheatre, passing over the tree structure, exposing the interior seething with monsters to the cannons as it looms into sight over head!
Jenna in her seat by the cannon gets her wish granted, she throws the gimbals around, aligning her shot and fires! The retort of the cannon going off rocks her back in the cradle seat and the grapeshot smashes into the thrustavias that was rising into the air above the ampitheatre. The advantage of air superiority is lost as the might airships cannons tear into the flying beast, grapeshot peppering their wings, making them fold up and plummet back to the forest below! )
Raziel swoops down and around as below him the ochu's burn. There is a grim smile on the mage's face and then he shouts out to Thaylorn, "Give me more water, and don't touch where I strike.." He waits for another wave and starts to cast, silvery blue motes of energy running along his wings as he starts to wave the magic spell, flying higher and higher before suddenly plummeting as he launches off the spell with the intent of doubleteaming someone between water and lightning magics. At the last moment before he hits the ground his wings spread out and snap, catching him before he hits the ground.
Gathering what water he can maintain from the initial wave he rode into the central area of the theater, Thaylorn turns about and nearly knows exactly what Raziel is planning. Thrusting his hands upwards the Imp pulls a large sphere of water from the water about him before throwing it with all his might where Raziel is planning to launch his lightning, the water still spinning with the momentum!
The mage and the imp throw their spells together, the ball of water hurled up intersects Raziel's lightning bolt and the two merge and meld. The mages boiling sphere of electrified water arching through the air to slam into a group of lobo. The wolf like fiends jerk and their bodies twitch and their howls are muffled as five of them go down under the electrified onslaught!
Mordecai's aged, stoic faced is ever so briefly lit up by an expression of sheer satisfaction as he connects his heavy revolver to the skull of one of those bunny eared freaks and watches her tumble down the platform he managed to land on after slaying the beast he slid down off. And afterwards the man instantly snaps both his weapons towards the Viera and various Fiends that are still left down below. His pale eyes shooting this way and that, followed in turn by each gunbarrel, as he almost calmly pulls each trigger and spits hot death towards any foe that dares to be in range, shooting as long as his ammo lasts.
Up up and into the air the summoner is carried off! There are some perks to being a summoner, and being able to ride a dragon made out of Mists is one of them. Being the first into the air the pair are above the grape shot as it goes off and sweep back in aiming right for the deck. The dragon dissiapating into cloud of Mist and reforming standing on the deck beside the summoner the two look down to the fight. Marduke reaches up and pets the dragons head as he considers, "Thank you my friend." Eyes scanning and nods, "Cloud our enemies visions and grant my allies sight, Lost in the Mists." The dragon offers no nods and jumps off the air ship and drives back down towards the arena with a loud roar. "Hold no pity, no mercy, they were lost long ago." Sighing softly as he reaches for his staff to lean into and blinks opening his eyes, "Damnit."
Mordecai is a crack shot, the viera he pistol whipped off the platform doesn't even have a chance to get back to her feet before the Esper's bullet takes her through the brain and she goes down. The giant pangolins that are down there both go down, bullets searing them through the eyes to blast their brains out across the platform. The ochu proves more difficult, its body able to take the bullets and it stoically starts to claw its way up the platform toward Mordecai. It gets about half way before the constant detonation of bullets through its wide open mouth tears a hole in the back of the creature and it collapses, splattering hot, green gunk all over as it thrases about dying.
After firing the cannon, Jenna jumps out of the gunner's seat and ushers one of hte moogles to take her place. "Keep firing," she instructs, "I'm going down there." The buermecian runs acrossthe deck, limping a little from the wound to her leg, but making it to Mordecia's summoned dragon just in time to leap onto the thing's back, taking just a moment to scrabble into position and straddle the beast just ahead of the wings. She cheers joyously once she's in the air, and points down towards where Mordecai is fighting. "There! Get me down there!" While she's en route, she draws her revolver and aims it into the mass of enemies; she picks out one of hte viera, and opens fire on the forest woman, the wepaon blazing with a flash of energy and a loud report.
Sadly Jenna's wild shot goes awry! It misses the viera woman but it does announce their presence to the enemy and the viera scatter as do the smaller beasts. The Malboro rears up and with a shrug Chlaal pitches its uninvited passenger off and the former soldier is able to land atop something soft which growls and snaps once as its spine snaps from the inpact and it twitches. Chlaal then opens its maw and ROARS at the Malboro and buffets into the giant plant fiend the dragon and plant going at it together. Over head the Dao has turned around, its other side now broadside to the arena and BOOM the cannons fire again, reducing quite a number of flying enemies to mists of blood and mangled pieces. The ampitheatre is still full of angry forest lift however! The party is not over yet!
Raziel flies over Thaylorn and nods to him before circling around arena and soaring back up, dodging the canon fire that makes it through the monsters towards him. The mage's golden wings glow bright red gold as he summons up his instinctive and prefered magics. The aegyl's heigh decreases again as he must leave off flying to cast, alowing gravity to take hold of him for a few moments. As he plummets the aegyl extends his hands to rain down the firey magics on the monsters beneath him.
The flaming magic streaks away from Raziel's hand, the golden winged Aegyl glittering in the sunlight. He strikes into several giant mantis and they screech in angony as they are roasted alive, burnt to cinders by the onrushing flames. Raziel then has a moment to jink to one side, he swoops between the flailing tentacles of an ochu and has to duck under a thrustavius! Things are still quite crowded in the arena.
Thaylorn seems to have decided that he is going to hold his ground instead of move around constantly, claming the bottom of the theater as his territory! With the water that has built up there it's probably as good of place as any to be for the Imp! Raising both his hands once again, the Imp's eyes spin and glow as he summons forth his magic, two large tendrils of water forming out of the water on either side of him. Nearly spinning about the Imp, the large water lashes spiral about the lower area of the ampitheater, potentially cathing and hurling and just generally bringing pain to anything down by him that might be struck!
Thaylorns attack lashes out, the two tendrils of water rearing up then whipping out, they snatch two viera and literally hurl them out of the ampitheatre before smashing downm atop a pair of wolves that attempt to pounce into the water imps territory! Thaylorn is reeking havoc down on the lower terraces, nothing can get through his whirling wall of tentacular death to get to him and make him stop!
Mordecai isn't moving much either, still standing on the platform after killing those initial enemies, continuing to empty his guns this way and that. The man only pausing to reload, plucking bullets and shotgun shells from his gunbelts and shoving them into empty chambers, before going right back at it. Carrying plenty of ammo on his person, but the constant wave of enemies making him gradually run out... As such trying to make every shot count.
BOOM, BANG, CRACK, ZIP, ZING! Mordecai's guns are death come to visit unto you! The targets that are the easiest to drop are the viera, an entire group of 8, they were lining up with their bows and arrows on a higher platform preparing to pepper Jenna and Chlaal with death but the lone Gun-man got to them first and the party drop to the floor dead before their bodies hit the ground of the ampitheatre!
Marduke glances to Jenna and blinks a moment. "Jenna..." Even though she can't hear him, "Im the one going to get it for that. Dragons have a lot of pride." Sighing softly, then frowning as the dragon engages the Malboro. Nodding through good choice for him. The dragon meanwhile works to keep the Malboro under control and of course to keep any breath attack it might use away from the party if it can use it at all. The dragon snapping at its tentacles unafraid of getting poisened and attempting to drag it towards a edge where it can knock it off with.
Chlaal is having a time with that Malboro! It is big, it is pissed off and it is all teeth and tentacles and EYES! OMG so many flaming eyes! It does turn its head up and aim a huge noxious blast of purple gass at the Dao as it swoops over head but the mist dragon arches up and into its path and aborbs the whole wicked lot! Bad breath cannot affect a being made out of mist after all.
As the battle rages around her, Jenna plummets through the air and lands on... something irrelevant, seeing as how it's broken. The former solcier rises to her feet, and pulls back the hammer on her revolver as she gazes around herself, spending a moment to look for the best targets. She spots them -- another group of viera. "To hell with the fiends, I'm killin' the bitches," she proudly declares, if only to herself. She levels her wheel gun at the forest women, and with a series of loud reports opens fire, blasting her remaining five rounds through the air at her targets. As she finishes, she snaps the weapon's chamber open, hurrying about the act of reloading.
The retort of the revolver going off is quite loud, echoing around the segment of the ampitheatre Jenna is in, she snaps bullets into two of the viera felling them with ease their bodies crumbling down to the ground. Her other three shots miss however and the soldier barely ducks down and to the left as one of the girls she missed fires an arching bolt of lightning at her. She dodges but her reloading is interupted, bullets scattering around her feet as she ducks and weaves out of the way of the incoming magic!
Over-head the Dao is ponderously turning around again, bringing its cannons up to line on the battle raging below, it'll be a few more seconds before it is ready to blast off again!
Raziel takes note of the dragon. The Mist Dragon... and he frowns faintly for a brief moment. However whatever thoughts entered his mind doesn't keep him from helping. Another pass and another firespell, this one targeted right at the malboro while he uses his speed to keep soaring past rather than allowing himself to fall during the casting of the spell.
The ball of flame lashes out from Raziel's hands and races toward the Malboro, Chlaal sees it coming and roars, his claws dig into the plant creatures body and it heaves it back and around. It's huge mouth opens in a roar that ends up gulping Raziel's fireball. It hiccups, a trail of smoke rises from it and all its eyes seem to cross. Then the mass of writhing green tentacles explodes in a roar of fire. Chlaal roars and backflips and dissapates, banished back to the spirit realms as a noxious cloud of green, blast carried poison washes up over the ampitheatre!
The cloud of poison gas sweeps up across the ampitheatre, engulfing beasts and viera, Mordecai is the first of the party to go under but well he's Mordecai! He just doesn't give a damn. Thaylorn however is right on the ball, as the wave of poison rises from where the Malboro exploded he lashes out with his two tentacles of water and snatches Raziel out of the air and Jenna off the platform she is on. The two are momentarily submerged in water then dumped spluttering at the imps feet before he encloses them in a dome of raging, foaming water that absorbs the shockwave of poisonous gasses and then crashes down to the sides. Thaylorns spell is over, he'll have to work up a new one if he wants to do something else with the water but he stopped Jenna and Raziel from being poisoned, probably quite fatally too with noxious Malboro gasses! The ampitheatre is looking depleted, maybe a third of the original number of combatants remaining but the Mage who was assaulted Jenna appears to have recovered her poise as have several other Viera and a few plant fiends who are immune to poison.
Having plucked Jenna and Raziel from certain doom, or at least from certain illness for a period of time, Thaylorn decides that it's time to take a little break and figure out just exactly what he should do now! Although with the other two so close to him for the time, he decides to postpone his break and bring forth a bit more magic before summoning forth water magic again. With a soft word and pulse of magic a field of energy surrounds the trio in the water, hopefully protecting the other two from physical damage!
Thay's spell causes a sudden mirage of pink light to engulf himself, Raziel and Jenna then it seems to shatter and fold away into their bodies, all three of them glowing faintly golden as the magical barrier takes hold!
Mordecai doesn't seem to give a shit at all about the poison washing over him, the aged gunfighter standing his ground, his eyes narrowed to slit, his expression grim and dangerous, while his guns continue to snap this way and that, firing as long as he has ammo on his person, empty shells by now littered around his feet. And as he watches surviving Viera and fiends converge on the former Forsaken's position, he quickly swivels his weapons towards them and starts firing once more.
The problem with clouds of gas is it really fucks with ones aiming! Mordecai is a little off his game it seems and as the remaining fiends converge toward the central location where Thaylorn, Raziel and Jenna are he manages to drop two. Another of those large mantis collapses with a squeel and a viera goes down with a yell of pain as he shoots her in the leg.
The Mist Dragon lets out a roar of triumph as the Malboro gets taken down by the spell. Then it dissipates completely fading into the nothing it came from. Marduke on the other hand isn't doing so well, forced dismissels always hurt and the man falls to his knees. "Ugh..." Holding a hand to his head as he is momentarily stunned, "Good job Chlaal." Putting his hands on the deck to keep from falling further as he works to recover. The summoner is going to need a moment to recover.
Jenna slowly stands up, having found herself plucked from her previous position and doused in the water. At least it was for a good cause! The burmecian snaps the chamber of her pistol shut, sans bullets, and draws her sword before charging forwards, steel heedless of the slight limp her ankle is causing her. "Yaaaaaaah!" she shouts, peeling her lips back in a widl snarl as she closes with the viera. "Let me introduce you," she snarls as she runs a wolf through in passing, "To my travelling companion," she smashes one of the viera in the face with the butt of her pistol, before kicking the woman's spear and snapping it. "Death!" she shouts, as she runs the other viera through the belly. Her sword comes out red as she hammers the first viera again, knocking loose several teeth; her elbow collides with her jaw, breaking it, followed by a swift stab to the heart. While that viera is crumpling, Jenna turns her attention to the already bleeding second one; as she yanks her sword loose from the first she continues the momentum, whipping it through flesh and bone and smoothly decapitating the forest warrior. )
The Dao turns in mid air, its cannons lining up and with a blare and BOOM of amunition the remaining mantis explode and one of the pangolins go down too! The remaining mages look down at the dwindling supply of minions and jump back into one of the openings that they all originally surged out of, retreating inside the structure below. The remaining fiends however show no sign of giving up, leaping down onto the platform with Kioshi and Thaylorn and adnvancing!
Raziel splutters out of the globe and then shakes himself, golden droplets falling only to be absorbed into the shield that the imp has placed. Looking around quickly then the man grunts a short thanks and puts his back to the imp's before rumbling quietly, "well I was going to take a shot at the casters, but looks like we've got more immediate problems... Thay can you give me another wave of water, I'll freeze it.." And even as he speaks the temperature plummets around the imp and mage while ice forms on his wings and then suddenly shatters outwards towards the approaching monsters.
Thaylorn draws up a ball of water again, feeding it into Raziel's spellcasting, it isn't as big as the man might like but then the water supply from the imps original splash down is dwindling. The shattering effect is rather more impressive, the lances of ice leaping forward and shredding both ochus, already damaged from earlier attacks they collapse down in a heap!
The Imp's water supply is indeed dwindling, each use of water magic decreasing the amount a good deal. "Probably not much more water magic from me." Thaylorn informs the others near him, eyes darting around to the enemies remaining about them "Can slow them down all the same though." He adds as he closes his eyes for a few moments before unleashing another wave of magic at the nearby wolves, this time a slowing magic intent on making a quick enemy easier to hit!
The spell does indeed seem to have an effect, a shimmering grey light envelopes the surviving wolves, slowing them all down, thwarting their attempt to charge Thaylorn and Raziel and making them easy prey for Jenna or Mordecai. The pangolin beasts are not slowed however and charge with claws lashing toward the pair of mages! Thaylorn bobs out of their way but Raziel is raked by one of them, claws slicing into his leg deeply!
Mordecai really hasn't moved at all since he landed on the platform after sliding down the beast he killed way back, at the start of the battle. And by now, the man has shot so many fiends and bunny eared fools, he actually ran out of shells for his shotgun. The smell of scorched leather hitting his nostrils as he shoves the overheated weapon back in its holster, and uses both hands to two-handed grip the remaining sixgun... Tracking the iron sights towards the attacking Pangolins, ignoring the slowed down wolves and leaving them to Jenna or anyone else... And his finger squeezes rapidly then, his gun barely seeming to have any recoil as he sends off each remaining shot straight towards the beasts.
Marduke is pulling himself back to his feet, still holding a hand to his head. He winces and glances back down to the fight seeing how his friends are doing. A shake of his head a moment trying to clear his thoughts and hmming a moment. Then shrugging his shoulders, "Well then" Glancing over the deck of the ship, "Got a ladder I can climb down on?" A touch of a sheepish smile, "They are cleaning up, keep the cannons ready, still four mages out there."
With the Viera dispatched, Jenna turns her attention to those beasties that remain. Wolves, you say? More like wolf steaks, says Jenna. The burmecian's ensuing onslaught might not be the most inspired, but thankfully Thaylown has slowed them down a notch already, and so Jenna is able to further take them down a peg. With her blade and gun in hand, she variously pistol-whips, slashes, and stabs them, until not one of them is still moving. That finished with, she gazes down at her handiwork, and calmly wipes her blade clean on one of the pelts before returning it to its scabbard. "Not bad," she comments.
Each of the Pangolin's drop, blasted through the eye right into their brains, their scaled bodies flopping to the ground and spasaming as they die. Up on the Dao the Captain nods to Marduke and a couple of crew moogles help the summoner upright and bring him something to drink as Jenna dispatches the last of their foes with the aid of Thaylorn's slowing magic. The ampitheatre is theres... it is also a rather unpleasent slaughterhouse, with ichor, dead bodies and green pulpy plant material oozing all over the place. Of the four viera who scampered for safety there is no sign but they have gone down into the structure below the ampitheatre. It must be of some significent and as the party have so far found no clues to the "Key Stone" here in the village it may well be beneath them in the ancient stone structure. For now however the wisest course of action would be to return to the Dao, recuperate and restock on supplies and HP before venturing down into the dank, vine choked depths beneath.
Go back to Stelazzio Quest Chapter 21
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