Shattered City Shattered City[Main Event]

[Raigryn Vayd]

Fife Belduhr Brighthand Richard Henry the Eighth Myrcella Bochanan

Raigryn looked towards the gates. Belduhr seemed more than happy to express his exasperation at being led through the front door itself. Fife had decided to resortnto cheekiness. That attitude took on a slightly different quality in light of rather unexpected revelations. Which Raigryn was going to feel fairly stupid about for some time to come.

"Right I'm going to..." he started, turning back to Richard and Myrcella

"Myrcella," Richard frowned. "The last thing you are is weak and if anyone tries kill you, I'll decapitate them and take their ankles. Perhaps you can find a better use than they would."

Sometimes catching an out of context quote could truly derail your train of thought. He paused and regathered them.

"...go on ahead. Follow at a distance sticking to cover."

Raigryn turned to round the rock and jog for the gate. He stopped suddenly, a traitorous hand gripping the rock, knuckles white.

"Shit." He grimaced and slowly unfurled his fingers, remaining rooted to the spot. A deep fear coiled in his gut, keeping him there. A thousand versions of the giant golem flashed through his mind.

Old man, he chastised himself, you would have wielded far more magic than that for fun when you were younger.

 

[Belduhr Brighthand]

Fife refused the staff, and he continued to draw his brow together in confusion at some of the signs she was making with her hands. She had motioned towards the door, but her expression was one of, humor maybe, instead of concern. Which made him mentally stumble for a moment.

Why by the gods above would he go ahead of the man who made his living adventuring?

Raigryn spoke shortly thereafter, the conversation between man and woman behind them drawing his attention as well. He blinked a few times, turning his head in the direction they had left the pair before shaking it in dismissal and pondering the oddities of how deeply one could feel for another to make such odd and, questionable remarks.

"Stick to cover. Not hard for Fife and I to do." He remarked, his hand leveling out above his head before motioning up and down in mock of Raigryn's height. The man began to move but suddenly seemed to grow roots and freeze.

A small curse passed the other man's lips and made Belduhr peer around to maybe get sight of what Raigryn had seen to make him pause. When he saw nothing, he leaned a little further to glimpse at the man's face.

"You alrigh' den?" Belduhr whispered as well as a dwarf could. More aptly described as a low grumble than actually whispering.

 

[Fife]

She turned to follow his look, catching the same snippets of conversation that had her frowning in a sentiment similar to Belduhr's. Romance. Gross. Fife was more than ready to run into death's embrace if it meant escaping the lovebirds' gushing.

Fife caught the humor in the dwarf's affirmative, and while she generally disliked him, he had a good point. The mood in the group was level, for people about to run back into the unknown as they had once before. Sensible people might have learned from the first hidden city with mechanical threats and inky monstrosities.

Good thing they weren't exactly sensible.

Fife nodded to Raigryn, and readied herself to go after him, but he stalled abruptly and cursed. At first, she thought to peer around him for some threat that may have given him pause, but when she saw nothing her eyes caught sight of his hand. Knuckles taut and white, it was clenched tight. Raising her eyes to his face, she heard Belduhr's question as she registered what was happening.

Fear. He was still off balance. She blinked in surprise, but it made sense. How many people had he drawn from to make that curse? During their travels, Raigryn had been careful with his own use of Empathy. Barring the rare instances of necessity, he had lived by his lessons to her. How long had it been, then, since he had done magic like that? Or was the cost of even that much use of their brand of magic so taxing?

There wasn't a way to ask, especially not with Belduhr right there and not at a time like this. Fife reached up and touched his elbow -- one of the handful of times she had ever really touched him. Her dark gray eyes were questioning, but her features calm. Joy was opposite of Misery on the spectrum of Aspects. For once, Fife actually knew what to do.

She flashed a small grin, touched her temple, and flashed her hand open and closed. Think of Joy.

// Raigryn Vayd //​

 

[Szesh]

There was a ringing in Szesh’s ears. He could not hear the conversation around him, nor could he focus on anything other than the sight before him. His body had lost all feeling, and he was simply a formless observer, gazing into the face of horror.

Kaahl had pulled back the cloth to reveal a head very much like Szesh’s. It had nearly the same crested scales and the same eerily black teeth. The eyes were orange and foggy, and a black tongue hung out to the side, pierced by the head’s own teeth. From behind, an uneven trail of gore; tattered muscle, shattered vertebrae, and thick vessels that still oozed congealed blood.

Now here was another peculiarity. He had seen dead draconians before, of course. He had killed some himself. Some honorably, one not so. His people hated him, and part of him hated them. But a greater part clung to them, clung to the only people he’d ever had. And in the wake of losing his village, his one solace had been that some of them had survived. The ones that had been captured he had hoped to rescue, perhaps in a futile attempt to regain their acceptance? He couldn’t say, he was operating on emotion alone.

He did not know how long he stood staring, only that the head stared back with its dead eyes. Szesh’s only relief was that he did not recognize the face. All of the rage that he had been suppressing came rushing back. All thoughts of diplomacy vanished. He did not hear the noise he made, but an anguished roar erupted from deep within him.

He locked his gaze onto Kaahl and was suddenly, effortlessly, vaulting over the table. At the height of the jump he screamed fire at the alien man, charring the nearest meat to ash. He must have dropped his spear, because he did not hold it. Instead he sought to rake his claws through Kaahl’s throat.

All of them had to die. This city had to die.

 

[Myrcella Bochanan]

Myrcella was glad that Richard Henry the Eighth would listen to her at least, and try to reassure her. All the stubborness and hatred that she had for him weeks earlier after learning if their betrothal had dissipated. Even her snarky comments were tapered down due to their unwanted adventures that took them far away from the Bochanan Estate.

As Richard slowly set her down, Myrcella had expected to at least be able to set weight on her foot. But she was dead wrong. Pain shot up it like lightning, moving white hot up her leg. She gasped, her body tensing as she lifted her foot in the air. Tears brimmed her eyes, threatening to fall. "Maybe it's broken..." Myrcella had just expected a bad sprain, but this was much worse. It should have healed by now. "Do you think that there's a healer...somewhere in there?" She pointed towards the gate where Raigryn Vayd , Fife and Belduhr Brighthand were standing at. All that Myrcella could figure was that she needed to be healed lest she only increase the danger for Richard.

 

[Richard Henry the Eighth]

Richard winced as he heard Myrcella gasp and immediately picked her off her feet. Myrcella's ankle was somehow getting worse, it was obvious they weren't able to get some proper treatment but there was something seriously off about her ankle. "It probably is," Richard said wiping Myrcella's tears with his thumb. The Bard Knight doubted that the group they just met are proficient healers and the Dwarves despite their technological advances in the Age of Wonders weren't up to par when it came to medicine.

"Somehow I doubt it," Richard said carrying Myrcella. "Based on the what Raigryn Vayd told us it's been nothing but trouble in this city," He then smiled at Myrcella. "Not that I don't mind carrying you," he said winking. "At least with you in my arms I know that you're safe and ready to talk my ear If I do anything stupid."



Raigryn Vayd Fife Belduhr Brighthand Myrcella Bochanan

 

[Myrcella Bochanan]

Myrcella leaned against Richard Henry the Eighth as he picked her up again. She hated being hurt still. She hated being unable to get around on her own. "And what if those golems come after us? You can't fight them while holding me and I don't know how fast they run..."

Her mood was continuing to drop. Nothing seemed to be going her way. And it was all Celty's fault! Who else was there to blame but her little sister?

Myrcella wanted to just close her eyes and pretend to be someone else, but she couldn't. There was too much danger all around them.

"Tell me about your family's estate again. What's it like? What can I expect?" Anything to change the subject and distract her from their current situation.

 

[Richard Henry the Eighth]

Richard leaned in and kissed Myrcella briefly on the lips. "Whatever happens," he whispered to the young girl. "Just know that you'll be safe."

Myrcella was right though, Golems are dangerous creatures. It was said that they were the children of the earth. The Golems helped shape the lands before they were defeated by the Dwarves in the Age of Urogosh. Now the Golems sing of their lost glory as they fade out of existence. The Dwarves of course tell a different story, that they've assisted the Golems in creating the earth and were a major help in their technological renaissance. Scholars still argued which story was true though Richard leaned to the former.

"Oh it's large estate located on an eponymous hill," Richard responded smiling at Myrcella. "It's actually located a few miles a way from Elbion and sits near the forests. It has glistening rivers, different kinds of exotic birds, standing killer armies that my father loves to yell at and a sister who will be probably eager to meet you."

 

[Myrcella Bochanan]

Myrcella hoped that she'd be safe. She looked into Richard Henry the Eighth 's eyes, almost as though she was trying to read his mind to discern the truth. And from what she could tell, he wasn't lying.

Still, that didn't exactly lift her spirits.

The change in topic was good, however and she was ever so glad that Richard obliged her. There were a few things that knterested her, such as the birds. "Exotic birds? I'm sure that they'd be lovely to paint. How old's your sister?"

Myrcella hoped that her relationship with Richard's sister was far better than that of her own sister. If Richard was sent off to war, she'd need someone else to talk to.

 

[Richard Henry the Eighth]

As the two got closer to the group, Richard smirked. "Well," he said as he held Myrcella in his arms. "There are Fae birds such as the Tweek. Colorful Birds who live in the forest but like most creatures that come from the Fae, they can be mischievous."

Richard shrugged. "They love to trick people with riddles and overall mess with people," he said. "They are beautiful to look at but the way the act sometimes, they remind you of Celty."

The Bard Knight wasn't sure what Annebelle would think of Myrcella. Mrycella is a headstrong, stubborn woman while Annebelle can be meek and mild at times. Though she is a talented jouster. "She's 15," Richard answered. "She loves horses like you so perhaps you and her can get together."

 

[Myrcella Bochanan]

Birds that acted like Celty? And ones that spoke riddles? Myrcella could hardly imagine it. Perhaps Richard Henry the Eighth was merely pulling her leg? Still, it didn't stop her from wanting to see them.

The bit of information about his sister seemed pleasant enough. At least there was something for the two to have in common. "Is she set to be betrothed as well? Or...actually, that could only be something that your Father knows." Their own betrothal was a secret, afterall. But it was certainly a good way to prevent a war, or at least, a way to earn allies in other kingdoms. Myrcella hated being a pawn in someone elses' game, yet she was taking lessons to give herself more of a chance to play as another piece. She preferred to have options.

 

[Richard Henry the Eighth]

"Mother is very protective of Annabelle she's doing what ever she can in order to delay Anna from getting married," Richard said. "Annabelle is bookish but she has an adventurous side the worse she'll do is talk your ear off about the great battles she has read in books."

Richard doubted that his father had any marriages lined up for his sisters. Neither Elia nor Annabelle were proper ladies for lords. He can already imagine the headaches they would cause for their husbands. "Who knows though, mother protected me from my father's ambitious." There was a bit of contempt in Richard's voice as they reached the group.

Myrcella Bochanan

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

Fife Belduhr Brighthand Richard Henry the Eighth Belduhr Brighthand

Raigryn grimaced, looking from Belduhr to Fife and then to the two lovers who had been cast here through the portal stone.

"I'm alright," he called to the dwarf. "Just...a moment."

He offered Fife a smile. It was difficult to just get his face to make the shapes it knew so well.

"Joy," he said to him. Her. This was far worse than the lunasloth. "But just a little. Thing of the tight rope walker."

It was an analogy he used often. Eight emotional aspects came in pairs. Drawing from opposites helped mitigate the risks of drawing too deep. Too much of one aspect and an Empath's entire emotional balance was sent off kilter. That cut them off from their power.

It could also draw an empath too close to what they had taken. An emotion was colour. Used to paint a memory, but it came to the empath without form. Raw and ready to use. Off balance those colours sometimes remembered the shapes they had once been. The memories.

Raigryn touched his aspects. Like a pan pipe player he went down the scale to find out how large his reserves were. As usual he had more Fury than Charity. There was enough Joy to draw a little.

He reached into the pouch at his belt and drew out a dull, copper coin. He sent it tumbling across his fingertips until it was a blur then snatched it out of the air and slipped it away. It was certainly a confusing moment for everyone else.

"Ready," he grunted, setting out across the open ground for the gate. Nothing stirred. Not yet.

 

[Fife]

Not too much. She nodded, remembering the anecdote he had repeated over and over. An attempt to counterbalance could send him off the other side just as quickly and with far worse results than this. Watching, she felt the Empathy as much as saw it. Not too much, and bending the rules a little after pushing too far in the first place, but enough to tip the scales back toward center.

Fife nodded, ready to follow once more. She was quite and agile on her feet and had no issue keeping pace with him, even with a much longer gait. Keeping to the cover he left behind, they moved forward in increments. Her pulse was a roaring whoosh in her ears and her heart thumped against her chest, but she kept her ears open and alert. They weren't exactly coming for tea.

// Raigryn Vayd // Belduhr Brighthand //​

 

[Ukrir]

Near the Clocktower
Fynauria | Aifrin

The Golems moved not as individuals, but as one towards the two sky Elves.

They were simple things. Skeletons of metal with flesh of steel barely covering small orbs imbedded within the chest. An arrow would have been enough to knock one aside, but in their ranks stood dozens upon dozens of their brothers.

Behind them all moved something sturdier.

A grand thing, not quite human but an approximation of a titan. Standing three heads taller than an ordinary man it moved with an unnatural grace. One arm was affixed to a sword, the other an open grasping hand.

The golems moved as one, ushered forward.

They rushed the great eagle that attempted to protect Fynauria. Dozens of the smaller humanoid men of metal jumped and slashed, hacking their blades as their larger cousin moved to grab the fallen sky elf and drag her onto it's shoulders.

 

[Fynaurie]

Ukrir Aifrin

The rohk were intelligent creatures. Their minds worked in a different way to the elves they lived alongside. They might have a different perception of the world but they were not stupid beasts.

Vaxor fought as long as he could. The great Eagle tearing golems to pieces, but soon he had to flap his enormous wings and flit up to a nearby roof. He cawed in frustration and anger. The golems had snatched Fynaurie away before he could pick her up in his talons.

 

[Aifrin]

Aifrin silently watched the golems, mute with horror believing for a split second it would be the end of the rokh. His escape however was not seen by Aifrin as Birin grabbed her up in his talons.

"No! Birin we-." Aifrin started before the jerking motion of takeoff yanked the words from her throat. She coughed and hacked, her back stinging against the talons as he set them upon a roof opposite of Vaxor.

 

[Arbeiter]

Szesh 's attack was like a coiled spring had been let loose. The workers had been docile, seemingly intimidated by the elder golem's commands but now they were let loose. Hundreds of them began to pour out of the very walls, the only sound the whirring of their motors and the skittering of their metal legs on the stone.

They attacked the adventurers indiscriminately, leaping to stap at legs or to climb the invaders so they could jab metal through eyes and mouths. Intricate works of craftsmanship, they shattered easily, falling prey to a single sword blow or firm kick. But for each one that fell, there were five more.

 

[Myrcella Bochanan]

Myrcella listened as Richard Henry the Eighth spoke of his sisters. They were lucky if what he said was true. As far as she could tell, most people didn't like having choices taken from them. Especially big choices..

She caught the contempt in his voice over that of his Mother's failure at protecting him. "I guess your Father had other plans that were....more important." But what those plans were, neither could be certain of guessing correctly. They'd have to ask him in person.

That is if they ever got home.

Oh how badly she wanted to be home.

 

[Belduhr Brighthand]

Belduhr did not interrupt the moment between apprentice and master, instead standing slack jawed at the pair so desperately out of place. A healer? In the direction with which the golem's were coming from? A foolish question. Which brought to his mind another question.

He kept silent however, attention drawn back as the other two moved forward. He followed behind them, acting as a rearguard instead of thinking himself any more capable than any of the dwarves in the city. Whatever these things were made from, he was more curious about the how than the why.

He still had an internal argument with himself about the sudden bravery he felt, Feelings of fear and worry slowly creeping back into his mind as he began to question why it had been missing in the first place.

Raigryn Vayd Fife

 

[Richard Henry the Eighth]

"I'm doubtful mother knew," Richard said. "I remember how surprised about the bethroal as we all were." Richard remembered the day his father gathered the family and said that he was to be married. Who was the woman, Richard's father never said but the Bard Knight remembered the collective gasps across the family especially him.

Richard argued with his fathered saying that he has know desire to be chained to fate. Never before has he been so livid. It was almost as worthy as his father's outbursts In battle. Richard could barely remember what his father said and he didn't care as the next day, he left the estate.

Now here Richard is carrying his bethroed and is now falling for. "When we get home Myrcella," Richard said. "We'll find the answers together."

Myrcella Bochanan

 

[Selene Avar]

The Golden Library
Harrier | Kaahl | Szesh | TTamark

She could have cursed the fool.

Hell, she could have slaughtered him right then and there. They had been getting answers, they had been attaining knowledge, and now they were fighting. What was the point? For one life? For a score of lives?

Did they matter in the face of all this?

Anger rose in the Dreadlord, and with it came fire.

Her eyes glowed a deep red, her fingers flashed, and as the odd spider golems began to crawl towards her they would find their path met with a sweep of white hot flame. The fire caught against the ground, hot enough to melt metal and scorch earth.

"STOP THEM!" She called out to the Librarian. "OR I BURN THIS PLACE TO THE GROUND!"

The words were punctuated as an Anirian Soldier found himself stabbed in the throat by one of the strange spider golems, his screams echoing through the library.

 

[Harrier]

Szesh Selene Avar Kaahl TTamark Arbeiter

Self-interest demanded that Harrier run, relying on her remaining skeletons to clear a path and sacrifice themselves. She acknowledged reasons to stay, as many reasons as there were books. This was the kind of place where she could live forever.

But there'd been some fuss with a severed head and now she and the skeletons were moments from being overrun by spider golems. Self-preservation won. She broke and ran, books flapping out of her arms. The skeletons around her took the brunt of the spider assault and proved unexpectedly apt to the task. Those slim impaling legs skittered between bones harmlessly. One skeleton went down with several such legs through his skull. The others paid no attention to their fallen comrade, just kept chopping with their rusty swords. Skeletons definitely had their benefits.

Harrier burst out into the sunlight and drained the power vested in the skeletons. They clattered to the ground as individual bones. Spiny little metal legs pierced Harrier's clothes in half a dozen places. As she threw the spiders off, she put all that banked power into a College Magic levitation charm and soared a few meters off the ground, too high for the spiders to reach.

One of the suspended rail-carriages of glass and metal trundled by, and she angles to catch hold. The levitation charm had its limits, one of them being accumulation of velocity, but the carriage-thing was moving at a good clip. She clung to it with both hands against the force of the wind and hoped the spiders weren't aboard.

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

Fife Belduhr Brighthand Richard Henry the Eighth Myrcella Bochanan

Thr Gates to the golden city were open just a crack relative to their size. Yet that opening was as wide as a barn door. Raigryn approached cautiously. Nothing stirred. He walked through the opening and then came to a sharp stop.

The sight before him took his breath away. He had never seen so much metal and glass used in construction before. There was a clock tower, not like the water clocks used by the dwarves or a sun dial by a mechanically drive set of dials. Just like the broken and rusted one they had found in the hidden city.

The one that had contained a portal stone being tampered with and a connection to the realm of the demons. To Pandemonium.

A single golem emerged from a building and darted towards them. Raigryn let the hammer slide through his fingers until he grasped the based of the haft. He took one wide steo and swung, daring to use his Fury to take the golem's head clean from its shoulders.

"Damn. Still some of them left."

 

[Fife]

The door was enormous and, though "cracked" in correct terms, it was wide enough for several men abreast to walk right in. Not that they were coming in abreast. Fife was light on her feet, her soft-soled boots muffling the sound of her passage. She kept a secure distance from him, leaving Raigryn the freedom to move at his own pace without having to worry she was too close or too far away.

They entered, and her gawking ways were hard to subdue. It had one of the things! It looked so similar to the one they'd seen in the library of the underground city! A clock, but not one that worked by water or the sun. It was powered by the same mechanics as these golems, and that being a lot of things she didn't have the first notion of. She would have had better luck describing an animal she'd never seen.

Fife couldn't help jumping when another golem came. Dancing away from Raigryn, she was happy to let him handle the golem that came charging toward them. That was, in a way, a noble way of saying she danced behind Belduhr. She was giving him plenty of space, she told herself. Raigryn dispatched with it quickly, however, and she stepped back out.

// Raigryn Vayd // Belduhr Brighthand //​