Fate - First Reply Bandits, Why Did It Have To Be Bandits

[Edderick Stormbane]

The holding cell was not the same luxury that Edderick had imagined it would be. No she never imagined a place of distinguished wealth. Her images were in a sense a little pragmatic in that she knew it was to hold people against their will. But this hole in a patch of mud was like nothing she imagined. She imagined a dark cell of perfectly square masonry. A large wooden door held by banded steel and kept shut by a key slipped nicely on the ring of a sleeping guard, just barely out of reach. But that wasn't what she found herself in.

No, the Silk Ripper Gang holding cell was nothing more than a dirty hole in the ground, no way to grip the dirty mud without falling back in. No spikes to climb up on. No the only way up was way of the lowered platform. One she hadn't seen used since she was brought down there. All of her food and water was tossed down in a mocking hope of getting a rise. Edderick would like people to believe it didn't work, but as much as the bandits slung garbage down at her she couldn't help but sling some back up in a huff and a shout. It amused them, but besides the odd circus of embarrassment the young adventurer had no inclination of why she was even being held captor in the first place. She didn't really care at first, just glad they didn't kill her really, but when you spend weeks in a hole getting sunburned all day and freezing all night you get a lot of time to wonder.

It was in one of her wondering spells, in the pitch dark of night, that she was awoken by something that will come to help her. . .

Spoiler: OOC

I am looking for a story where Edderick meets a new companion to adventure with. Maybe another prisoner who can team up and finally get out. I am new to Forum Rp, so forgive me if I don't know all the usual decorum.

 

[Fenic Creed]

Fenic was lost... Or rather... Her master lost her.
The Beast Pits weren't the only way to make money, and her master was a horrible drunk gambler.
He bet her, his prized beast fighter in the final pot that finally cleaned him out. She belonged to a new master, the leader of the Silk Ripper gang, she now called him Master Kiktan but wouldn't dare even speak to him unless specifically asked to.
She knew more than a few slaves who lost their tongues by speaking without permission.

It was a long ride by wagon where she and her closest friend were carted to the location of the Silk Ripper gang's hideout.
While things got organized she was taken by a gang member and brought to a pit. She was silent and docile as always, even as she was taken on a platform and lowered down into the dank dark depths. This was nothing new for her.
Her feet sank into the mud as the guard nudged her off the platform, she was slightly surprised to see someone else down here but it made sense.

She didn't look at the woman, she simply put her head down, moved to the wall, and sat down on a comparatively dry spot where she huddled against the cold.

Fenic was small, almost emaciated. Her arms and legs were covered in whip scars and the only thing protecting her from the cold was the thin burlap sack that had been her wardrobe for as long as she could remember.
Her expression was vacant and her eyes lifeless. She simply leaned against the wall and closed them, not doing anything but waiting for whenever her master decided to summon her.

 

[Edderick Stormbane]

Edderick watched the girl get lowered and remarked just how. . .Tiny she looked. Edderick was not the largest of the bunch in her home city, but even so Fenic was miniscule and weak.

And Useless.

Edderick couldn't help but think that. It was in her life to think logistically in situations like the one she found herself in. But there was a part of Edderick that saw potential. She didnt know what potential was there, but she couldn't shake the feeling.

Edderick crawled over to the girl, sloshing a bit in the mud not caring about the noise.

"Hey."

Edderick started, not know exactly how to finish for a few moments.

"Hey, what's your name?"

 

[Fenic Creed]

"Hey, what's your name?"

Those words got a response. Fenic opened her eyes and looked at the larger woman, those dead grey eyes scanned her before averting to the mud between her bare feet.
"... Fenic..." Came the lifeless reply.

While this woman wasn't her master she was obviously more important than her... She wore armor and had actual clothes, and even wore boots.
A prisoner she may be, but this woman was not a slave, though how long that would last was anyone's guess.
Fenic automatically took the submissive rout. Important people were due respect, that meant no talking back, no talking without being directly spoken to, no disobedience, no direct eye contact and no stepping out of line.
Because of this training the only words she'd ever spoken in nearly five years consisted of her name and a few short responses: "Yes master", "No master", "I'm sorry master", and "Thank you master"... Maybe with the name of whatever master owned her at the time mixed in.

 

[Edderick Stormbane]

Edderick got a better look at her in the moonlight and her impression got worse. But not in dismissal, more in pity. She had never seen a slave before this night. Never lied eyes on the practice. But it was like looking at a corpse. All the life was drained from the girl, even the interaction.

It wasn't just pity. Rage boiled in her blood. A dangerous cocktail of fearful beligerance. Maybe deep down it was fear of her becoming like Fenic, but on the surface it was more about what Fenic had to become that pissed Edderick off. She tried her best to hide her anger, stiffling it's effects on her face and body by squeezing the mud within her fingers so tight she was more so squeezing the glove itself of water.

There was now a cauldron within Edderick and that cauldron broiled over. She had been harboring and featering her hate in hopes to use it to escape but now she had morw than enough. Too much to remember the anger's purpose, the Anger's goal. Life seemed to drain from Edderick's flushed face as suddenly her muscles tensed and bulged with shape and defination.

Fenic could see the young adventurer crouch and suddenly take off at impossible heights. Leaping well out of the hole.

For long moments Fenic was left alone again. The same fate she had suffered in the past. But just when the numbness kept going the sound of the block and tackle squeeking started up and Edderick was coming back down on the lift. Her face so red it basically glowed.

 

[Fenic Creed]

Fenic watched the spot between her feet. The lady didn't say anything else, but what she did made Fenic look up.
The lady put herself into a seething rage, and then it was as if that rage changed her... She leapt out of the pit as if it were nothing!
Fenic looked up to see where she went, her mouth opened slightly in awe at the amazing feat... It reminded her of Apocolisk, how easily she could have escaped this pit just like the angry woman.

There was silence for a long time... She watched the evening sky from the bottom of the muddy hole... The silence seemed to drag on for ages...
After a while she returned her gaze to the mud, but almost as soon as she did she heard the squeaking of the ropes on the pullies.
She looked back up to see the platform being lowered down with the angry woman on it.

She didn't ask what happened, she only stared with dead eyes and a half opened mouth.
She didn't ask questions, if the lady wanted her to know she would tell her.
Fenic stared until she realized what she was doing and quickly looked down at the mud again. She didn't want to lose her eyes for the slight indiscretion.

 

[Edderick Stormbane]

Edderick's rage didn't really stop. When it got started it never did for a while, a minor cost to the magic she wielded as an Empathy mage. But she grunted, in the best she could.

"Well, get on. You aren't gonna' get saved by mud welp."

Her words rang out a little harsh, she couldn't help it in her state. Despite her desire to help the girl, all the rage let her feel was the frustration in waiting for her to hop on. There was only a small part, deep beneath the rage that could only hope she wasn't making the situation worse for the younger one.

But she knew the slave would obey.

As they went up on the pulley the noise of bandits came up. They shouted and made noises in the night. A terrible vantage point as bolts from crossbows flew down at the two, but there wasn't much notice beyond the torchlight and the lower ground.

"What are you doing? Grab my crossbow and return fire already! MOVE IT"

Edderick's adrenaline was mixing with the cocktail of emotions she channeled. Her hands occupied with the manning of the simple mechanisms bringing them up, arrows flying past her head and causing a flinch that shook the whole platform. She worked at the mechanisms faster when she heard a bandit scream

"Cut the ropes!"

The stress was high, the air was electric. The entire world was like a fireball of chemicals surging through everyone. Two prisoners, on a shitty raft in a toilet of a situation.

Spoiler: OOC on Empathy Magic

I have misused it in this case, as Empathy mages can only use other people's emotions, but I think Edderick is definately taking from some inbuilt rage of Fenic. Rage she might have pushed aside for survival and part of the cost for Edderick is she falls into these emotions. I hope this is fine.

 

[Fenic Creed]

Fenic wasn't comprehending what was going on... Slaves organized rebellions, escape plans, suicide attempts, assassination plots... But they hardly ever succeeded, and when they did succeed it was those left behind that paid for it.
Even if she ran... Where would she go? And if she was ever caught she would be punished with more lashes than she could count... Maybe finally killed?

"Well, get on. You aren't gonna' get saved by mud welp."

Freedom was an idea beaten out of her long ago. But this lady looked dangerous... If things went badly her master likely wouldn't understand that it wasn't Fenic's idea to escape...
For Fenic death was a certainty if she ever tried to escape. But perhaps this was simply another changing of masters... If the lady was taking her away from her master, who was she to argue? Arguing meant punishment or death.

After a moments hesitation she stood up and staggered through the mud to the platform.

She heard the guards and when the crossbow bolts began firing she immediately crouched with her arms over her head, cowering on the platform without any cover.

"What are you doing? Grab my crossbow and return fire already! MOVE IT"

Fire the crossbow? She'd never been strong enough to string a shortbow let alone any sort of crossbow. And even if she threw rocks she couldn't hit the ground if it weren't for gravity and a whole lot of luck.
Instead of potentially ruining the ladies crossbow by misusing it she interpreted her order as "Fight back", and that's what she did.

A purple glow outlined a tattooed mark on her sternum. Immediately Fenic fell unconscious on the floor of the platform.

____________________​

Her eyes opened again, but they were the eyes of something else... The reptilian eyes focused, the nostrils flared and the tongue flicked out to taste the air. The eyes could only see bars covered with a heavy tarp, but beyond that the location of every living creature in the area was revealed to her senses.
The sensation of stone rending power filled her body, an earth rumbling growl rattled from the bestial throat.

... The Apocolisk has awakened...

With the sound of screaming steel the bars of the cage were torn away like toothpicks, the tarp ripped to shreds.
A massive beast stood in the middle of the bandit camp, it measured almost fifteen feet tall, two massive arms tipped with powerful claws, two smaller arms with equally deadly claws, and a mouth filled with flesh tearing teeth and fangs.

This nightmarish creature howled into the night sky before it began it's grim business...

Knocking men aside it strode on all fours to the prisoner pit, before the crossbow men could react a massive clawed hand struck them from behind, sending bloody pieces of screaming men raining down into the pit.

_______________​

Fenic remained unconscious. She was still alive but her mind no longer inhabited her body.
When the beast struck one man hit the platform hard, his weight sent the platform swinging before he rebounded and fell, but the movement rolled her body dangerously close to the edge.

Spoiler: OOC

It's cool, I don't mind in the least. Although Fenic would most likely have despair as her strongest emotion. She feels it so often and so constantly that she hardly even notices it. She's had despair and fear her entire life, rage and anger long ago replaced by those emotions.

 

[Edderick Stormbane]

The mood of the scene changed almost immediately as suddenly Edderick's fury was replaced with confusion and relief. The sheer destruction and violence of it all slowed Edderick's efforts with the pulley system. But when the platform moved, Edderick tensed up seeing Fenic get close to the edge. She knelt down, her muscles struggling to hold the rope to the anchor line while her other arm stretched the best it could, barely grabbing the simple clothes of Fenic, pulling her body closer to the center. But a sting of pain made the young adventurer shout some profanity as she went back to pulling up the platform.

Every tug and pull at the rope was like a fire in her arm. But soon they finally got to the top. With Edderick's injury of a pulled muscle she hitched the rope the best she could with one hand before walking off the platform with one hand dragging the smaller person the best she could until they were safe on the dirt. Edderick fell onto her back, trying to take some time to rest.

 

[Fenic Creed]

They reached the top of the pit and Apocolisk/Fenic watched the angry lady pull her unconscious body off the platform and onto the dirt.
The huge beast stood over them while the sounds and shouts of bandits approached with weapons drawn.

... But this wasn't an arena fight... She knew better, the lady didn't tell her to keep attacking, these were people not a piloted beasts made to be slaughtered in a pit.
Apocolisk stood there but made no further move, lest she do something undesired and she be punished for it...
Even in this unstoppable form her masters had a strict control over her. If she stepped out of line they held her true body hostage.

A few crossbow bolts sank into her shoulder which barely registered as a tickle to the hulking beast that now served as a meat shield fer Fenic and the angry lady.
The Apocolisk looked around and looked at the angry lady, waiting for either a command to continue, or a command to leave the body of the beast.

 

[Edderick Stormbane]

Edderick laid down on the ground, staring up at the giant hunk of flesh and muscle. She turned her head to look to the girl and back to the beast. A part of her understood that somehow they were connected. How this creature that stood over her was of the same as the girl. Because despite the sudden power, Edderick still saw the hopeless gaze of it's eyes.

The arrows sank into the flesh of the beast with a sound similar to hitting a bag of sand. Edderick looked to the other bandits and wondered why the beast didn't turn. She actually took a long time thinking about what to do. She grabbed the girl and tossed her on her shoulder the best she could, standing up and looking to the bandit.

"Clear us a way."

Edderick felt a sour taste to the sentence. A part of her heart feeling some acidic hatred of something as simple as telling her what to do.

 

[Fenic Creed]

"Clear us a way."

A clear order. Apocolisk turned its reptilian eyes on the approaching bandits, they were cautious now and approached slowly with weapons ready.
Another volley of crossbow bolts streaked at her, a few hit her thick hide and others broke and shattered against her chitinous plating.
She lowered her head into a crouch, her titanic muscles coiling as she tensed for a charge, a low continuous rumble resonated from her throat and literally began to vibrate the ground as it built in timbre and volume... Clear a path didn't necessarily mean killing, and so she would do her best not to do more than what she was commanded to do...
The rumble turned into a roar, and that roar suddenly turned into a primal screech that at once sounded like twisting and a thunderclap!

Her warning cry...

Like the releasing of the arm of a catapult the Apocolisk bolted forward, heedless of the row of pikes that were arrayed against her, she plowed through them all knocking the men aside like ragdolls, but careful not to kill them or even maim them, simply forcefully moving them aside to create a path for the angry lady who carried her limp body.
The gang members attacked her, slashing at her arms and legs in a feeble attempt to hack through her tough hide and armor.
She knocked them down and aside working her way through them and towards the border of the camp.

Everything was going well so far, they might actually be able to escape with their lives...

... Then another roar answered her...

 

[Edderick Stormbane]

Edderick trembled at the strength of her new company, but there was still that lingering feeling underneath. She was trained in the art of draining and detecting emotions and ultimately, despite all of this strength the cocktail she was viewing was not a bottle up display of aggression. It was tranquil. Morose. Like watching the apathetic, ice cold sea rip into the rocks of the shore. No passion. No sense of preservation. Only violence was left in the heaping flesh's wake. All the product of a small package currently resting on Edderick's shoulders. A helpless girl. One who should, more than any in this camp, never have been here.

The second roar took Edderick out of her moral quandary. It was deeper. Like a horn deep in Edderick's chest going off. She looked to the beast and towards the source of the sound. Choosing to stop and place Fenic down, Edderick took the bag she reacquired during her rage and began looking for anything to help her. It was then she found a bottle of lightning. A rare and dangerous wonderous item from her home city of Volta.

"Fenic!" She shouted, holding the bottle close.
"Fenic we got company!"

Edderick readied for the second monster.

Spoiler: OOC

Sorry for being inactive. Working doubletime to fill in for someone who quit. Hope you still got this thread on watch.

 

[Fenic Creed]

"Fenic!" She shouted, holding the bottle close.
"Fenic we got company!

Fenic? She was not Fenic... Not in this body... She's Apocolisk.
But the message was received all the same, though Apocolisk had no human way of communicating back.

She responded to the monster with another challenging roar as she knocked another bandit to the ground.
So the boss had another beast fighter in this camp. He must really enjoy the games to have two fighters to win him money.

Again she bellowed her challenge with a bell like note, taunting the beast fighter to show itself.
There was another squeal of twisting iron as cage bars were pulled apart to release the beast to fight. In all honesty the cages were simply for transportation, authorities generally wouldn't think twice about monster hunters transporting a sedated monster to collect the bounty.

Out of the darkness the second beast appeared, a huge ape like creature armored similarly to Apocolisk and standing quite a bit taller even on all fours. Its mass nearly twice that of Apocolisk for immense crushing power. It rumbled out its throaty challenge again and approached while Apocolisk crouched for an attack.

The bandits that were still able began to move away, dragging their companions with them to clear the area that was about to be a Titanic battle between beasts.

The Roars of Apocolisk

 

[Edderick Stormbane]

Edderick made her way away from the ring of fighting. Her hands closely holding the bottle lightning as she tried to find the highest point to get to.

There were a few towers built to help watch the camp, but few rarely went above 10-15 feet. Edderick picked the closest one and sprinted like a dart-fly, zipping up the ladder as fast as she could manage with one arm. The process was grueling and took double what it usually would for a similar skilled fighter.

She had to get to the high ground. Get away from the fight and ready herself for when the time was right.

 

[Edderick Stormbane]

(( Fenic Creed Just bumping ))

 

[Fenic Creed]

The two beasts charged. Apocolisk at first bolted head on at the hulking brute, but as it raised its fists to crush her mid charge she changed direction and jumped to the right just as the fists came down, the ground shook with the force but Apocolisk wasn't stopping. She took the moment and flanked the beast, long claws from her upper limbs sliced into the ape beasts hamstring, the ape let out a bell like roar while Apocolisk continued to deliver one slice after the other, cutting off huge chunks of flesh as if she were trying to dig into the creature's side.

Then there was a loud crack...

The ape beast whirled around and delivered a devastating backhand to the side of Apocolisk's face with enough force to send the several ton beast flying through a group of tents.
Fenic had no reaction, but Apocolisk was fighting to remain awake, the bone plating around her head was fractured but it saved her skull.
She shook her head and let out a growl to clear the fuzz from her brain, when in doubt add more adrenaline.
She pulled herself to her feet in time to see the ape beast advancing on her.

 

[Edderick Stormbane]

Edderick watched the fight unfold and took her bottled lightning into her hand and aimed it towards the the two giants. She waited patiently. Waited for the right time. She found it when the Ape moved into a perfect angle.

The area became a flash of light and the roaring crack of thunder rang out like a cannon. It was sudden, before anyone could flinch the Ape creature's blood vessels would have been super heated from a bolt of electrical friction. A lightning bolt in a bottle. The Volta's most devastating weapon of chaos brought to a condensed and focused form. If the ape was "lucky" it's heart would be intact, as the charge would travel and explode out around the shoulder or the opposite side of it's chest, but Edderick had aimed the weapon the best she could to reduce the chances of the lightning taking an alternative path from down it's left side and through it's heart to the feet. Even if it survived, it's whole body would have been hit with something akin to a fragment of the sun going through it's body. Even for an instant such heat is lethal in all but the rarest circumstances that is in the spectrum of milliseconds of contact.