I'll Set Your Soul on FIRE!
Sep. 6th, 2003 12:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
terryclothTonight was Lazar's Friday Shadake game, in which we accidentally murdered the person we were sent to assassinate, got chased by a dragon, then spied on our friends with the help of our enemies. Also, I got robbed.
The target Rystal (more politely called a Myriander) was found by Keit's scouting hawk sleeping on top of a building in Midrein's slums, as the party had been told to expect. After receiving their equipment, they set off on their mission of mercy (as if they didn't keep the priest out of action for a while, he'd have to be killed).
How to get up on top of the building? Tsuru, of course, would just climb up silently using his ninja skills. Sophie asked Kiet if he could levitate them up, he responded, "Can't you?" So she did her best -- transforming herself partially (15%) into smoke to make herself lighter and less noisy, then taking a running jump up onto the roof of a smaller building nearby, then clambering to the top of the actual target building, to see Kiet floating serenely up, and their target awake and ready for her from all the noise.
Kiet and Sophie attacked immediately, according to the plan -- Kiet sending a blast of silvery mist to nullify his aura, while Sophie 'altered' his body with shadow fire, temporarily destroying enough of it to hopefully incapacitate it. But Sophie's spell had no effect, and the Rystal shouted back gibberish, from which each of them understood a slightly different vague threat.
The Rystal whipped out a glowing green electric wire, which struck Sophie hard, damaging not only her well-fortified health but her quite fragile mind. She wasn't *quite* incapacitated by the assault, and replied with a blast of spectral fire to burn away the priest's soul, reasoning that if his *body* was immune, perhaps his soul would not be -- and asking for Flokin's often double-edged assistance to help it land, since getting hit twice by the horrible whip would doubtless drive her insane.
The assault worked better than expected, killing the Rystal instantly by destroying his soul -- or at least, damaging it enough that it was no longer coherent enough to attach to a body, meaning that the priest was quite thoroughly dead, even if the spell didn't eradicate all traces of the soul from existence.
As he died, the Rystal shouted out another stream of gibberish, which the party interpreted again in different ways, this time confirming their darkest fears -- Sophie, for example, was told that her brother had died thinking of her, while Tsuru was told that 'The ones who know' were on his trail and would 'get him'.
At any rate, the Rystal was very dead, and Sophie was too scared and angry to care. So she looted his body, and Kiet stuffed the little crystal bits into a sack, and --
And the dragon attacked, swooping down and breathing fire on the building! The attack was telegraphed enough for the party to flee ahead of the flames, which made them question whether they were even the targets... but no, the dragon looked like it was coming around for another pass, so Sophie used her materia to shadow-fire an ad-hoc sewer entrance.
The sewer wasn't proof against dragon flame (a thin crack led down the middle of the ceiling, open to the air, and at any rate the dragon's flame was hot enough to crack rock) but the dragon couldn't make them out inside the tunnels, and they were able to evade him. They could hear him rampaging and destroying random buildings outside, but the immediate threat to them was over.
They hid the rystal's body in several places, using shadow-fire to open a temporary hole in the wall of the sewer, into which a bit of Rystal was inserted, then letting it close. Then they returned to the White Fence to have their auras cleansed. Tormier insisted on doing their possessions and persons separately, which meant that (a) they had to sit in a corner of the tiny shop, naked, for four hours, and (b) it took four hours to complete the process.
Tormier didn't seem very angry about the priest's fate, and for her part Sophie didn't seem very sorry for killing him. Everyone was worried about the dragon, and Sophie was worried about her missing brother Collin, although she realized (from a similar element in the cleansing rituals) that the gibberish the priest had shouted had been a certain type of illusion spell called an 'impression', and that the details of what they heard were taken from their own minds. Which meant that her brother was no more likely to be dead than before the priest had spoken -- she'd heard it because it was something she was afraid might have happened.
The next day, all three of them were very tired, as they'd been up most of the night, but their torpor was dispelled somewhat by a bit of excitement -- the teacher arrived late, only to announce that he was not going to be teaching class that day, as he had to rescue the next day's teacher, who'd been kidnapped by a group of rogue demons known to be former associates of the Argent Claw, who the class was studying. 'Read chapter 7 for more details, after you've finished your assignment.'
Of course, everyone turned to chapter 7 first, which listed the demons and what was known about them. Sophie recognized one of them as the demon she'd run into in the library that night a week or two back, the one that had branded her -- it was the first of the Argent Claw's generals to be captured in the ancient war, but it had corrupted the priest who'd taken it and brought him over to the Argent Claw's side.
There was a lot of gossip going on in class, what with the teacher gone. When the subject turned to the dragon attacks, Lazarus taunted Sophie by showing her a piece of crystal that looked like the dead Rystal, making her gasp and look away. Surely, she did not protest out loud, their attack on the priest hadn't *actually* triggered the dragon attacks that had burned down so much of the city.
Kiet, meanwhile, had sent his hawk out to watch the teacher on his mission. It found a large gathering of suspicious looking folks, including the Procyonisk sorceress who'd had the demon imprisoned and the missing Wesley... who saw the hawk immediately, and sent it packing.
Tsuru also managed to get past his mental block enough to write down the things he was still unable to speak about -- the spirit he'd poured from the vial into Wesley was almost certainly the Argent Claw himself. Lord Aberhad had to know!
After class, Sophie sent a smoke bird to follow the (rather cute) Manis who knew her brother and evidently shared a 'secret place' with him, according to a note she'd found written on her book from Colin, that told her to tell him to go leave some paper there.
On the way to Lord Aberhad's castle of doom, Kiet and Sophie managed to convince Tsuru that Lord Mosher, their magic teacher, would be a better person to tell, since he was the one who'd sent them on the job and already knew everything bad they'd done as a result, and he wasn't a psychotic who liked capturing the souls of people who brought him news so that they'd be handy in case he needed clarification. Not that Lord Aberhad was *necessarily* that bad, although Kiet, the only one of them to ever actually meet him, insisted that indeed, he was.
Lord Mosher was sick in bed, however, recovering from, reportedly, turning back the dragon from its rampage and putting it back in 'circle over the city scaring people' mode. At least they got lunch out of the deal, and the head servant told them that he'd delivered the notes Tsuru had written.
Then they followed the smoke bird to check out Colin's secret spot. It was full of junk, except for a tray full of gems of various colors and sizes, all of them huge. Searching for clues as to where Colin might have gone, Sophie found a cache of pirate memorabilia... combined with Colin's friend's insistence that Colin had gone somewhere of his own accord, it seemed much more likely that he'd snuck on board a pirate vessel than that he'd simply been killed, or drafted, or kidnapped. Which was a relief, in a way.
Sophie then dismissed the summoned elemental, which cheerily informed her that its master's servants were always willing to help her. The master it named was the demon from her textbook -- whose brand she wore on her hand, a general of the Argent Claw, who was even now kidnapping her friends and teachers and hiding them in a mine east of the city. This was not a relief.
Then the three headed to their various homes, although Tsuru and Sophie planned to meet later to go practice flying some more. At home, Sophie discovered that her money pouch was missing -- which was very odd, as it was kept in an inside pocket of her un-cuttable weaver-silk clothing. Tormier could surely have stolen it, but he'd have no motive to do so. It was a mystery!
last week next week
When I got home, I had a message on my machine threatening to 'Slap me like a bitch'. It sounded like it might be coming from prison. I'm so sick of wrong numbers!
The target Rystal (more politely called a Myriander) was found by Keit's scouting hawk sleeping on top of a building in Midrein's slums, as the party had been told to expect. After receiving their equipment, they set off on their mission of mercy (as if they didn't keep the priest out of action for a while, he'd have to be killed).
How to get up on top of the building? Tsuru, of course, would just climb up silently using his ninja skills. Sophie asked Kiet if he could levitate them up, he responded, "Can't you?" So she did her best -- transforming herself partially (15%) into smoke to make herself lighter and less noisy, then taking a running jump up onto the roof of a smaller building nearby, then clambering to the top of the actual target building, to see Kiet floating serenely up, and their target awake and ready for her from all the noise.
Kiet and Sophie attacked immediately, according to the plan -- Kiet sending a blast of silvery mist to nullify his aura, while Sophie 'altered' his body with shadow fire, temporarily destroying enough of it to hopefully incapacitate it. But Sophie's spell had no effect, and the Rystal shouted back gibberish, from which each of them understood a slightly different vague threat.
The Rystal whipped out a glowing green electric wire, which struck Sophie hard, damaging not only her well-fortified health but her quite fragile mind. She wasn't *quite* incapacitated by the assault, and replied with a blast of spectral fire to burn away the priest's soul, reasoning that if his *body* was immune, perhaps his soul would not be -- and asking for Flokin's often double-edged assistance to help it land, since getting hit twice by the horrible whip would doubtless drive her insane.
The assault worked better than expected, killing the Rystal instantly by destroying his soul -- or at least, damaging it enough that it was no longer coherent enough to attach to a body, meaning that the priest was quite thoroughly dead, even if the spell didn't eradicate all traces of the soul from existence.
As he died, the Rystal shouted out another stream of gibberish, which the party interpreted again in different ways, this time confirming their darkest fears -- Sophie, for example, was told that her brother had died thinking of her, while Tsuru was told that 'The ones who know' were on his trail and would 'get him'.
At any rate, the Rystal was very dead, and Sophie was too scared and angry to care. So she looted his body, and Kiet stuffed the little crystal bits into a sack, and --
And the dragon attacked, swooping down and breathing fire on the building! The attack was telegraphed enough for the party to flee ahead of the flames, which made them question whether they were even the targets... but no, the dragon looked like it was coming around for another pass, so Sophie used her materia to shadow-fire an ad-hoc sewer entrance.
The sewer wasn't proof against dragon flame (a thin crack led down the middle of the ceiling, open to the air, and at any rate the dragon's flame was hot enough to crack rock) but the dragon couldn't make them out inside the tunnels, and they were able to evade him. They could hear him rampaging and destroying random buildings outside, but the immediate threat to them was over.
They hid the rystal's body in several places, using shadow-fire to open a temporary hole in the wall of the sewer, into which a bit of Rystal was inserted, then letting it close. Then they returned to the White Fence to have their auras cleansed. Tormier insisted on doing their possessions and persons separately, which meant that (a) they had to sit in a corner of the tiny shop, naked, for four hours, and (b) it took four hours to complete the process.
Tormier didn't seem very angry about the priest's fate, and for her part Sophie didn't seem very sorry for killing him. Everyone was worried about the dragon, and Sophie was worried about her missing brother Collin, although she realized (from a similar element in the cleansing rituals) that the gibberish the priest had shouted had been a certain type of illusion spell called an 'impression', and that the details of what they heard were taken from their own minds. Which meant that her brother was no more likely to be dead than before the priest had spoken -- she'd heard it because it was something she was afraid might have happened.
The next day, all three of them were very tired, as they'd been up most of the night, but their torpor was dispelled somewhat by a bit of excitement -- the teacher arrived late, only to announce that he was not going to be teaching class that day, as he had to rescue the next day's teacher, who'd been kidnapped by a group of rogue demons known to be former associates of the Argent Claw, who the class was studying. 'Read chapter 7 for more details, after you've finished your assignment.'
Of course, everyone turned to chapter 7 first, which listed the demons and what was known about them. Sophie recognized one of them as the demon she'd run into in the library that night a week or two back, the one that had branded her -- it was the first of the Argent Claw's generals to be captured in the ancient war, but it had corrupted the priest who'd taken it and brought him over to the Argent Claw's side.
There was a lot of gossip going on in class, what with the teacher gone. When the subject turned to the dragon attacks, Lazarus taunted Sophie by showing her a piece of crystal that looked like the dead Rystal, making her gasp and look away. Surely, she did not protest out loud, their attack on the priest hadn't *actually* triggered the dragon attacks that had burned down so much of the city.
Kiet, meanwhile, had sent his hawk out to watch the teacher on his mission. It found a large gathering of suspicious looking folks, including the Procyonisk sorceress who'd had the demon imprisoned and the missing Wesley... who saw the hawk immediately, and sent it packing.
Tsuru also managed to get past his mental block enough to write down the things he was still unable to speak about -- the spirit he'd poured from the vial into Wesley was almost certainly the Argent Claw himself. Lord Aberhad had to know!
After class, Sophie sent a smoke bird to follow the (rather cute) Manis who knew her brother and evidently shared a 'secret place' with him, according to a note she'd found written on her book from Colin, that told her to tell him to go leave some paper there.
On the way to Lord Aberhad's castle of doom, Kiet and Sophie managed to convince Tsuru that Lord Mosher, their magic teacher, would be a better person to tell, since he was the one who'd sent them on the job and already knew everything bad they'd done as a result, and he wasn't a psychotic who liked capturing the souls of people who brought him news so that they'd be handy in case he needed clarification. Not that Lord Aberhad was *necessarily* that bad, although Kiet, the only one of them to ever actually meet him, insisted that indeed, he was.
Lord Mosher was sick in bed, however, recovering from, reportedly, turning back the dragon from its rampage and putting it back in 'circle over the city scaring people' mode. At least they got lunch out of the deal, and the head servant told them that he'd delivered the notes Tsuru had written.
Then they followed the smoke bird to check out Colin's secret spot. It was full of junk, except for a tray full of gems of various colors and sizes, all of them huge. Searching for clues as to where Colin might have gone, Sophie found a cache of pirate memorabilia... combined with Colin's friend's insistence that Colin had gone somewhere of his own accord, it seemed much more likely that he'd snuck on board a pirate vessel than that he'd simply been killed, or drafted, or kidnapped. Which was a relief, in a way.
Sophie then dismissed the summoned elemental, which cheerily informed her that its master's servants were always willing to help her. The master it named was the demon from her textbook -- whose brand she wore on her hand, a general of the Argent Claw, who was even now kidnapping her friends and teachers and hiding them in a mine east of the city. This was not a relief.
Then the three headed to their various homes, although Tsuru and Sophie planned to meet later to go practice flying some more. At home, Sophie discovered that her money pouch was missing -- which was very odd, as it was kept in an inside pocket of her un-cuttable weaver-silk clothing. Tormier could surely have stolen it, but he'd have no motive to do so. It was a mystery!
last week next week
When I got home, I had a message on my machine threatening to 'Slap me like a bitch'. It sounded like it might be coming from prison. I'm so sick of wrong numbers!
