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Post by Donovan on Mar 5, 2020 14:44:23 GMT -6
Staring down at the charred and crispy corpses, Donovan had a flashback to seeing a ball of fire raging toward him. He heard Carter’s voice calling out and pushing him out of the way. He could smell his companion’s body as it was consumed in an instant. And this was not what he saw that day. This was a magic he’d never experienced first hand. It disturbed him to recognize that the type of burning was just… wrong to be from volcannon magics. “I don’t know too much about lightning spells, but I do know this isn’t Fire.” I don’t even know if this is Anima. The deep, cautious voice of Frag filled his mind. “I don’t see how it’d be possible for them to have died somewhere else,” the mercenary responded. “If this town had survived an attack, they would have greeted us by now. And Revenants aren’t scared by the sight of their own dead, so it’s not like someone would have moved them out here as a warning. Regardless,” he said whilst examining the ground around the corpses. “You’re right, Nayru. I’m not seeing any damage. This doesn’t make any sense.”
Donovan’s eyes drifted upward and to the town’s entrance. The ghost town felt like something out of a horror pulp novela. Something simple and sensational to appease those city folks who could actually read. He heard what he thought was doubt in Nayru’s voice as she proposed that the villagers escaped, and he felt inclined to agree, for some point. “Something tells me that when we walk in there, we won’t find anything of the villagers. No blood. No sign of a struggle. They’ll just be… gone.” But his mind returned to the creatures burnt on the ground beneath them and he returned to logic and caution. “Reed. Let’s make sure these things are really dead. That halberd is silvered, right?” Donovan asked as he plunged Fragarach into the skull of the closest revenant corpse. “We can’t be too careful with monsters like this. Try to hit them near the base of the brain.”
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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Mar 6, 2020 21:22:02 GMT -6
"It... does kinda feel like that, Reed," she agreed unhappily - it was an accurate observation on his part, but not one she liked. "There are no human corpses, no blood, no signs of a struggle. I'm not an expert on revenants, but I've never heard of them running from anything, either." It sounded like Don might be, given the certainty with which he spoke, and Nayru was not too proud to listen. It didn't answer the question though, clearly neither of them knew what had actually happened, but it did make her feel a little better to know she wasn't the only one confused.
The magical stench of the Nether still hung heavy in her mind, but as they inspected the dead and approached the village she thought she could hear and smell something else; a dim crackling, oddly muted for the fact that it didn't seem like that big of a village. A large village would have defenses... right? But the sound was as though it were both far away and close by at the same time. That seemed... concerning at best, but without super senses she didn't see what she could do about it right now.
Reed's question drew her attention from the problem at hand, to a degree. Help was not coming. Pherae was happy to throw away the lives of a few adventurers to solve a problem they were too busy to deal with. "The quest? Not much of value. A few scattered sightings of undead. No one had really heard from the village lately. I was expecting to fight some undead, but... it seems we're late to the party?" She couldn't keep the questioning tone out of her voice, the dragon honestly confused as to if this was a stroke of fortune or the prelude to something even worse than the dead and the damned. ...It was harsh to say, but this would be so much easier if she was alone. Even just half-shifting to access more of her strength would give her the confidence that she could deal with most problems, but for now she had to keep herself in check, relying on as little of her strength as possible.
Donovan's suggestion certainly served to kill that train of thought quickly, bringing her head up in his direction with a tinge of genuine confusion in her voice. "Is that... necessary, Don? They look dead to me..." One way to betray her lack of experience against revenants perhaps, but if he knew better, she wanted to know too. Fighting monsters was all well and good, but as much as she tried to avoid fighting humans, it was likely she would have to fight more of these humanoid creatures in the future as well.
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Reed
Squire
"If some feller gives me a lance, I'm'ma fight tooth 'n nail for what I reckon is right."
Posts: 79
Profession: Farmhand
Affiliation: None
Guild: None
Affinity: Light
Profile: Reed
OoC Alias: Ardent
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Post by Reed on Mar 13, 2020 4:22:52 GMT -6
The more time the group spent analyzing the situation, the harder it became to resist assuming the worst and that this sight was little more than the scraps left over from the real danger in town. The group was down a member (not counting the squire who could easily be considered dead weight) and without the support of the country's military to help them take down any problems waiting in the shadows for them to stumble past. Donovan seemed to know what the Revenants are normally like, and the anomalous behavior didn't help to settle his nerves. "I'm just hopin' they ain't anythin' like them skeletons in that cave in the mountains. Last time, that 'Mana' lady made 'em scatter like geese... Uh, don't take that as expectations or nothin', eh heh," the rural lancer reassured his companions.
Nodding to Donovan's request, he angled the heavy weapon to his side as if it were the oar to a raft. His grip and point wobbled, likely from the stress of attempting to hold the weapon still without moving it too much. "Pa said it's silver, 'n it's pretty darn good at takin' care-a magicky stuff. Don't suppose these fellers're magic, are they?" he commented, closing his left eye and sticking his tongue slightly out the right side of his mouth as he struggled to keep his halberd near the base of the Revenant's brain. Upon thrust, the boy had missed the base and sent the weapon right into the monster's back.
"Ah, blast... Missed it. Yeah, it don't hurt too badly to check. Y'all know that not just chickens can go causin' a ruckus when they lose a head? Snakes still bite 'n shoot venom, cockroaches don't die to nothin' but a full squash, 'n even a prayin' mantis still mates after it loses a head... Or at least that's all I remember 'bout it. Dunno what that's gotta do with these, but it's good to check twice," the farmboy commented as he hoisted the halberd again from the creature's back only to try again, this time managing to execute the beast properly through the designated point.
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Post by Donovan on Mar 21, 2020 15:54:33 GMT -6
The ragtag group was drawing unfortunately few conclusions about what had happened to this village. There was entirely too much to discern and nowhere near enough information to form anything close to a conclusion. Donovan watched while a shadow of a smile stole a moment upon his face - Reed’s skill reminded him of his own from way back when. Back when the only thing he knew about handling a sword was that which his father and mother had taught him about stage fighting. It almost got him killed in Ilia, when he tried to fight the very creatures that lay at their feet now. And he wasn’t about to let Reed get the same terrible scars that marr the player’s own chest.
Regardless, the band knew by the pair of definitely dead revenants that the rest were certainly not rising anytime soon, “You’re probably right,” he said, wiping Fragarach clean with an old rag, “we should be fine if we just move quietly.” Maybe you should run. A quiet voice in the back of his mind called as if through a cave’s echo.
“We need to find out what happened here.” He shoved that voice out of his mind. There was too much at stake. Too many people he’d already abandoned. “Even if we don’t catch whatever attacked this village, we need to find out and tell the people what happened here so they can prepare for…” his voice trailed off as he looked around the endlessly perplexing case they found themselves in. “For whatever this was.”
“What do you think -” he said, looking over to the bejeweled woman, “Should we split up to cover more ground or stick together?”
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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on May 12, 2020 15:29:37 GMT -6
"Mana..." Nayru's expression twisted into a grimace for a moment before she reigned in the wave of emotion, reminded of the Sacaen swordmaiden who had decided to thank her for saving the girl's life by nearly lopping off her arm with a dragonslaying blade. Hopefully Reed was talking about another Mana, one less likely to take the idea of disarming people so literally. She had a bad feeling that he was not. But hey, look on the bright side, at least he was using a Silver weapon instead of his own flavor of dragonslayer, right? Small blessings in a dark time. And all childishness aside, a silver weapon could be quite the blessing if they really were going to be fighting the undead. "That silver is starting to look like it'll be real handy, Reed. Hopefully we won't need to test that anti-magic today." She wasn't an expert on mages, but from what she had heard and what she had seen from Remus she certainly had a lot more respect for them nowadays than she had when she thought she was the biggest badass ever just by dint of being a dragon.
The dragon felt herself oddly relieved that neither of them seemed to know exactly how dead revenants had to be either. Made her feel a little less dumb for not knowing. But going by what both of them had said, it would pay to keep that in mind for the future. Especially if she was going to be fighting alongside humans who didn't know her secret, restraint was paramount - it would be very advantageous to know exactly how much damage she needed to do to put these creatures down instead of just turning them into a bloody smear on the ground.
And Donovan was right. They did need to find out what had happened here. The undead didn't run away, that she knew of, and they didn't fall over and die (again) without a fight. The people were missing, only undead remained... something about it rankled in the corners of her consciousness, but she simply didn't have the information to even guess what had happened here.
"I don't have any choice but to enter the village and investigate." She knew it was true even as she spoke. All morality aside, her curiosity would eat away at her until she found out. But it wasn't just some scientific research here. People may have died, a lot of them, and she couldn't ignore that. She hesitated for a moment, verging on trying one last time to convince them to leave. Despite the earlier clash of egos, she didn't hold anything against them, and the fewer humans died on her watch, the better. It would be the efficient way of handling this. But... she also knew it wasn't an option. From the little time she had spent with Donovan, even if she couldn't read him as a whole, she could tell that he couldn't let this go either. Asking him to leave would simply be an insult to whatever morals or beliefs forced him to continue onward. Reed didn't seem enthusiastic about the danger, but to press on in the face of fear was itself a finer form of courage than blind aggression could ever be, and she couldn't find it in herself to disrespect that, either.
"If we split up, we can approach from multiple directions. But if whatever did this is in there, it could pick us apart one by one. We simply don't have the information to ensure the correct decision, but it sounds like you have more experience with this, so... I'll take your recommendation, Donovan." Swallowing her pride was one thing, but she wasn't giving up her freedom to decide - she was going in regardless. It still rankled at her to risk their lives, but at the same time, she knew she couldn't make their decisions for them. She had resolved to try and work with them, trust them; giving up on that now would be betraying her own beliefs as well as theirs.
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Post by Donovan on Jul 5, 2020 17:55:05 GMT -6
"... I'll take your recommendation, Donovan." The words rankled his ears. He wasn’t someone who deserved to be giving out orders - he probably shouldn’t even be giving out recommendations. But she was right to an extent that he had to begrudgingly accept. He had experience to survive monsters. And the scars to show for it.
So. What to do?
There were only 3 of them now that the Heelcutter had disappeared on them. A fresh faced youth on a protective steed. An unarmed warrior who he’d wager had access to magic - whether through herself or through magic items, he could not be sure. And a washed out mercenary who had fought and survived more undead than most warriors of Laus. They were few, a direct approach could easily lead to them being overwhelmed.
“If something is still here and we want to survive it: We need to be smart. There aren’t enough of us to sweep through here safely without being overwhelmed, so we’re better off moving quickly and quietly.” Donovan looked over at Nayru, “We can cover ground much faster if we split up, but we probably don’t want to get stuck on the ground if we do. Think you could make it up to the rooftops?” He pointed to two squat buildings near the unfinished gate, “If we each get up there quickly we’ll have a better vantage point and will be safe from any revenants that might be lingering. Just keep an ear out for any cackling bones - sometimes wights use bows or javelins.”
Donovan looked around the clearing surrounding the town. It was so still. Like the eye of a hurricane. “I think you should stick to the edges, Reed. Stay in the middle ground between the treeline and the towns border, so nothing can jump out at you. Let Nayru and I act as reconnaissance and if we get unlucky enough to get caught, you can charge in and pull us out of danger.”
He looked at the pair of people before him and shrugged, “Honestly, it has been a while since I’ve done anything tactical like this, so if it doesn’t sound solid to you, just say the word.”
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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Jul 15, 2020 15:45:24 GMT -6
Ah yes, splitting up when investigating the dead and the damned. A tale as old as time that always ended well. ...Was she trying to amuse herself to avoid thinking about the idea of not being able to protect them, or not taking this seriously at all? Nayru wasn't entirely certain; she tended to deal with stress via humor, but while she had gotten better at accepting and handling her emotions over the last few years, she still had a ways to go. That said, she was no expert on tactical decisions, so while it irked her a bit to leave Reed to his own devices, she also couldn't argue with Donovan's assessment - it would be better for the two of them to go in first and risk the brunt of whatever was in there.
...But why did it always have to be rooftops? Marcus's chase session had been ridiculous enough, and now she was going to be climbing yet more rooftops, this time to hunt undead instead of dragons. The dragon smiled wryly at the thought, accepting her fate as a monkey - great ape, surely - and nodded at Donovan after he finished speaking. "That sounds logical." And, admittedly, not something she would have thought about on her own - when you can turn into a demihuman battering ram, getting surrounded by a few zombies doesn't seem like much of a problem... at least until you commit to working with people who don't know your secret and you aren't supposed to partial-shift around. Maybe she had been spending too much time around Remus. "Alright, count me in. Reed, stay safe. Don... be careful. I have no idea what's in there, just tinges of the Nether, and the fact I can't is worse than anything I could sense in there."
That was what bothered her, wasn't it? Nayru knew she was potentially throwing a human's life away because she didn't know what the hell she was doing, because she couldn't understand and read the flow of magic as well as a proper dragon. Erim could have told them what was going on in a heartbeat, Nether or no. But... she also knew that she couldn't make that decision for Don. He was his own person. She had no control over him, and she didn't want it. Humanity had to be able to make their own decisions to grow and evolve. Even if sometimes it meant the genocide of her entire race. But - she had chosen to believe in humanity. Elly, Veigue, and Remus had all taught her about them, even if they weren't perfect, even if most of them were gone. Even before the ones she considered friends, she had met so many humans who had taught her about their kind indirectly, proven they were good people rather than genocidal monsters.
If she wanted to help bring about an age of understanding... she was going to have to trust that there were humans who wanted that to.
And she did.
Nayru could FEEL her arm twitch for a moment as a tidal wave of essence flowed through it, invisible from without but an electrical storm from within as magic surged through it, then her entire body in a violent wave. The unrelenting force and fury of life, unbridled but entombed within her. Nothing to do but to do it, the phrase crossed her mind as she walked towards the nearest building, feeling... something, a slight tension for a heartbeat as she did and then it was gone. But it was impossible to ignore the weight of the Nether weighing down on her as she closed in, far more clearly than it had been from afar. And there was more to it that she somehow hadn't noticed before - she could taste the copper in the air as well. Electricity. And SHE of all people would know.
Her brows furrowing a bit as she reached the building, the dragon felt the energy pulse through her, flowing downwards through her thighs and legs as she launched herself off the ground the lowest eave of the house, and even as she did shifting the power to her arms to use the upward momentum to swing herself over and further upward. 'Course, now she had to walk up the rest of the roof like a normal person, but without Remus around it was a bit hard to teleport, and as she learned the hard way with the scorpions, super jumping without a landing strategy had a tendency to go to hell real fast.
From the peak, she could see... what mostly looked like a normal village? No giant towering pillars of evil energy, no tidal waves of revenants, no undead - no one at all. The only thing that looked especially out of place were the occasional cylindrical objects, or... towers surrounded by circular objects, she amended. Far enough away it was hard to tell if they were floating there or attached normally, but it did seem more than a bit out of the ordinary for your average farming village. Hm. Where... HAD Don gotten off to, anyways?
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Post by Donovan on Jul 16, 2020 14:23:59 GMT -6
A pit grew in Donovan’s stomach when the martial artist agreed with his plan. Yes it was logical, but… the actual thought of splitting up with an enemy they didn’t know and haven’t seen was a massive risk. At least Reed would be out of danger, for the most part. Liar, how could you rob the young boy from his chance at heroism? I only robbed him of a certain death - one we’d all share if he slipped up, Fragarach. Horses aren’t exactly quiet, and the kid couldn’t even land a clean hit on a corpse. If we tried to make him sneak alongside us, the most use he’d be was as a lure. The sword stayed silent, enraged at Don’s… fairly accurate assessment.
“Nayru, you be careful, too. I’ll try to stay in your line of sight as much as I can. I don’t think I can sense things as much as you can, but I’ll take your word for it. Just try to stay low and out of sight and who knows? Maybe we’ll get the intel we need and be able to regroup before anything even sees us. And we’ll be right back, Reed, just keep an ear out.”
Donovan cracked his neck and walked alongside Nayru into the village, the world around the silent as an owl’s wings - though whether they were the bird or its prey was yet to be seen. He walked over to the building across from Nayru’s and gave it a quick once over. Checking to see how difficult it would be to scale the side, rather than immediately using Frag to jump.
The simple village house was covered in ivy - the windows shuttered and the stone solid. It wasn’t anything fancy, and it might take the mercenary a minute to get to the roof quietly, but it should hold his weight well enough. He looked over to Nayru to give her a thumbs up, only to see she was… gone. He looked up in time to see she had already made it to the top of her building. Gods, she's fast, he thought.
He sheathed Fragarach again and began to climb. It wasn’t nearly as hard a climb as he’d thought it would be, the ivy proved to be firmly rooted to the stonewall and there were enough footholds for him to scale without particular difficulty, but the mercenary took his time to make sure he made as little noise as possible. He pulled himself onto the rooftop and kept as low as possible as he unsheathed Frag, the strange, runes along the blade seeming to pulse a subtle emerald light. He moved quietly along the roof (It wasn’t his first time hiding on top of a building - though normally he’d been escaping out of a window, under slightly less dangerous and slightly more… scandalous circumstances).
The air is THICK here, Donovan. The nether is heavier here than I have felt since you rescued that Althea girl. The hair on the back of Don’s neck raised at the thought of that crater where he’d found her. And as he peaked over the side of the building, he had to rub his eyes to make sure what he was seeing was real. He couldn’t make heads nor tails of it. But the towers caught his attention - Donovan had seen farming towns across Lycia, growing up - He’d lived in Pherae for years and knew what was a part of its culture. He had seen dozens of villages attacked by monsters, undead, and bandits alike - but he’d never seen something like that before. Think that might be the cause, Gasbag?
That’s… Certainly worth investigating. And don’t call me gasbag, you ungrateful -.
Don pointed Fragarach over at Nayru, who looked just as confused as he, and sent a small gust in her direction to get her attention. He gave her a thumbs up and pointed toward the pillars before raising his shoulders in a “The f**k is that?” sort of gesture.
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Post by Mila on Jul 16, 2020 19:28:08 GMT -6
Oh Mila.. was.. not having a great day. No.. not great what so ever. Whatever she had eaten the day prior was not agreeing with her at all. The woman spent most of the wee hours of the morning making use of the poor excuse of an outhouse, her host had. And now she was spending the better half of the not so early morning, trying to recover from her sleepless night. She found it hard to eat too. Despite the loss of appetite she managed to at least drink some broth for breakfast. She was in such a terrible shape that she couldn't join Donny in the quest to deal.. with whatever.. was going on about a missing village. Well it wasn't so much that the village itself was missing, as structures like houses, don't just grow legs and leave. But, rather that it's predominantly human inhabitants went missing. She was supposed to go with him, to provide support. But she just couldn't do it. Not like the way she was.
But as the hours went on, her guilt, and frustration grew. She'd only just started travelling with Donny again. And that meant the world to her. And she knew the regret would kill her if he died on the mission. Especially, if he died by something she might have been able to protect him from. Ugh.. but I'm in no.. condition to do anything. She mentally groaned. Eventually she forced herself out of the cot she had been coddling for the better part of a day and pulled out her bag. She drank whatever sort of healing tonic she had left in her bag, ate a large piece of ginger, And chased that down with a cup of peppermint tea. She sat there for a few minutes, hoping that she wouldn't throw up. There was a horrible squelch from her gut and a nasty burp. Stomach.. Gut.. Ass.. you three are going to have to sort yourselves out. I've got a friend to support.
She slowly and painfully put on her questing gear. Which considered her regular clothes, of several wrap around bandages over her arms, her hooded cloak, goggles, trusty bag, books, boots, and belt. Attached to said belt was a bottle containing her little lightning elemental Joules.
"Ooh.. ok.. just.. gotta get up." She spoke as she made a motion to peel herself off the bed. She took a few slow steps towards the door frame. It took a while, but eventually, she managed to make her way out of the host village. And out towards the hills, towards her friend, and other quest goers. Her stomach gave another terrible call but she clenched her fists and continued walking. Donny and the others were probably about an hour or two hours ahead of her. But, she could catch up to them if she kept up a good pace. ---
Oh.. she kinda wished she didn't make her way all the way out here. The land here was weird. Not weird in the sense that it was barren. No Nature was trying it's hardest to reclaim the land that was once inhabited by humans. She could see evidence of that on the road. But, something felt very off. She was maybe about a mile away from the actual village proper. But, she could feel that something had gone horribly wrong.. or horribly right. She couldn't tell which. But, the lingering twinges of spent magic loomed in the air. It felt like licorice in her mouth, and like cold fine mist on her skin. Neither of those sensations made her feel any better. Even Joules, who had been happily out and about in his jar, all through out the walk over, sensed something wrong. As the little sparking creature practically retreated into it's rocky, dormant form. Save for a tiny blip of light that served as his face, peering out into the horizon. It looked like a frightened child that was curled up under a blanket.. if that blanket were hard, and full of minerals.
And while she couldn't see anyone from her vantage point. She knew people had passed by here recently. She knew how to track footprints and recognized that three humans and a horse passed by not to long ago. So she suspected one of those three human feet belonged to Donny, the other two were other quest people, and either someone was on horse back, or they had horse as a pack animal. She tried squinting through the glass of her goggles to see if she could see any movement in the distance. Nothing. I've gotta get closer.
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Post by Nayru Al-Saiduq on Sept 18, 2020 15:24:06 GMT -6
The f**k is that, indeed?
Nayru expressively shrugged back, thinking better of yelling across to him when she realized that would quite literally be the least stealthy thing she could possibly do short of just transforming on the spot. Maybe they should have discussed some way to communicate before embarking on this little adventure, but unless he happened to have a carrier pigeon handy they were going to have to make do with hand signs and.... shrugs, apparently.
Unfortunately, without a wind sword she didn't have quite the mobility her counterpart might, and swallowing that bit of jealous - Aeos would probably have an easier time here too, she couldn't help but think - she debased herself to walking like a normal person, mixed with the occasional enhanced jump to cross larger gaps. It wasn't the fastest progress, but thanks to Marcus she had more experience with roof-hopping than she had ever wanted, and it wasn't like she didn't have a history of climbing roofs anyways.
Nothing attacked as she made her way towards the nearest of the strange pillars, noting the total silence of the village along the way. She was more focused on moving forward and not falling than on a complete survey, but the dragon didn't see anything particularly amiss in the village. No hordes of undead, no giant piles of corpses, no real destruction aside from evidence of a few smaller scale struggles between forces long since gone.
The pillars themselves were... interesting, if that was the right word. Massive metallic structures dozens of feet tall, far larger than anything that should be in such a relatively small and out of the way town, as thick as trees and surrounded by concentric metal rings of uncommon size far enough up that she couldn't really reach them. They... SEEMED inert, she didn't really get any particular sense of evil or at least the Nether from them. If anything, the strange structures reminded her more of really big lightning rods than anything, but were wildly out of place in the otherwise rural village.
{OOC: Don, some things your character or Frag might notice that Nayru didn't; a gate in the village that was ripped apart, the front of a building with a large hole in it, VERY stale air ever since they entered the village, the top and bottom halves of a Pheraen soldier some distance apart.
Mila, feel free to enter the village as desired on ground or roof level and notice similar stuff. Mila will not be able to see or hear Nayru or Donovan until she enters the village, after which point it is entirely up to your preference.}
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Reed
Squire
"If some feller gives me a lance, I'm'ma fight tooth 'n nail for what I reckon is right."
Posts: 79
Profession: Farmhand
Affiliation: None
Guild: None
Affinity: Light
Profile: Reed
OoC Alias: Ardent
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Post by Reed on Nov 4, 2020 16:17:02 GMT -6
{OOC: HAHA I LIVE! Apologies, 2020 hurts. Let me know if I did anything wrong from interpreting what Reed was supposed to be doing!}
It was only a few minutes after Nayru and Donovan left that Reed started to think exactly why he agreed to take the outskirts while they explored the central part of town. He was too busy trying to yank the Regal Halberd out of the Revenant to really pay too much attention to the plan: the topheavy weapon had pierced right through the back of the neck and lodged itself into the floor, and the lancer putting too much force into that stab caused him to spend a good while pulling it out again just to get his better weapon back. Charging in for backup toting only his simple iron pitchfork would be a story worth telling, but moreso as an obituary for the green country hick who thought it was a good idea to act like a hero when he had farming tools to attack with. After seeing Fragarach for himself, Riley had looked at his pitchfork and pondered if he really needed that as a backup weapon of all things.
...
Nah, maybe there really was a use behind keeping it. Plus it reminded him of home. That was enough reason to keep it around.
"...I know, girl, I know. I'm worried 'bout 'em, too. But we gotta stay here for now. We're the ones that come chargin' in at the first sight-a trouble: just gotta wait for the signal." he reasoned, wiping off more of the residual Revenant off of his halberd.
Gracie snorted and scratched at the dirt.
"Uh... I getcha better'n anyone else in the world, but I don't speak horse. I'd learn if I could, but... Yeah. I-It's probably for the best, right? We ain't no quiet types. We just gotta do our part, then folks'll feel a lot better knowin' we took a look at what happened and did what we were supposed to do! Heh... Hm." he smiled lightly, wiping the last of the unknown substance clean so that his poleax showed his blurry reflection.
Reed stared into that reflection, his smile fading into a neutral, anxious stare. So far, things just got complicated. On one hand, he was terrified to be here and had been trembling up a storm for a good while. Every little sound made his skin crawl, and although Gracie didn't hesitate to ready up whenever danger was nearby, the irrational fear that maybe she was just missing the cue plagued him. On the other hand, however, he so desperately wanted to point his halberd at something and take it down. "Hrm. Pa said yer supposed to be a weapon for a real warrior, but I ain't really used ya that much. Makes me worry mighty strong: am I not that 'real warrior' that ya deserve?" he muttered to his reflection in the flat surface of the halberd's end.
"Ah shucks. I could just go right in there right now, start lookin' for that thing and give it- ...Nah, I'd prolly just end up as its dinner. Hmm... Aw, fiddlesticks!" the Sacaean rider sighed in frustration, stowing his halberd again and holding his temple with a troubled scowl. He paced back towards the open part of the clearing, right back into view of anyone who gazed along that stretch leading into town. "Why's it gotta be so hard 'round these parts to start bein' a real warrior? Knights don't just sit around 'n watch the stronger ones do everything, right? The small stuff's gonna just be helpin' folks regularly like always, but the big stuff's gonna just leave me deader than a doornail! Whaddaya say, Gracie?! We should go! You 'n me can do it if we get each other's backs!"
Surprisingly, all the horse did was look at Reed with a blank stare. The language gap goes both ways.
"...Am I crazy for talkin' to ya like this when I'm upset, girl? Ya don't get a word I'm sayin' sometimes."
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Post by Donovan on Dec 4, 2020 17:17:36 GMT -6
Apparently, Donovan wasn’t alone in his absolute confusion. Nayru seemed to have as much a clue as he did with regards to what those strange structures were. Nothing left to do but move forward, he thought. From this close he wouldn’t be able to tell anything strange. If only Mila hadn’t gotten sick, she’d have been much more versed on what those structures might be - the difference between an education in study and an education in story, he supposed.
Nayru began her trek forward, so the mercenary followed suit. He tried to measure his steps carefully. You never know what roofer might have done a piss poor job on their construction, and he’d been caught scaling rooftops before after knocking loose a row of shingles. And the stakes that day were much lower than their current situation. With dexterity he’d fought for years to obtain he managed to make his way across the rooftops, occasionally using Frag to give a small boost to his jumps when the buildings were particularly far apart.
He didn’t notice much beside the general, small scale signs of battle that riddled the town. But the air felt wrong. Not just in the Nether’s special sort of way. It was… stale. The thing he couldn’t figure out, was why? He ducked down behind a chimney, hiding his tall frame well, against the brick, when a sudden fall of stone caught his attention.
Donovan’s head snapped toward the sound of the noise, seeing nothing but a building with a huge hole in its front. He scanned the rooftops looking for Nayru, but she was nearly in the opposite direction from the falling brick, examining the strange pillars. Wait, the thought crept into his mind. He snapped his head back to the building with a hole in its front, just in time to see another brick fall and later with a clatter.
What could’ve put a hole that big into a building? It’s not like the town just disappeared. Revenants, scorch marks. Now holes in buildings. This silence wasn’t adding up. He hoped Reed was alright at the front. With any luck, whatever attacked this town was more of a brawler than a hunter. Because if it was the later… leaving the kid alone might have been a devastating mistake.
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Post by Mila on Dec 6, 2020 17:17:11 GMT -6
Mila kept making her way towards the former village. Yes, she felt that she could call it former at this point. Their was no.. noise. No signs of smoke. No ani.. wait.. was that a horse? Mila had to look around once more. From her vantage point she could see some movement. And it's.. from a four legged creature. She had to squint to see the animal in question, and that horse wasn't alone. There was a rider with the equine. And he appeared to be armed, based on the shiny light reflective she could see moving around him. But, she was still a long way away from said horse and rider. Gotta keep walking.
And walk she did. As she walked she saw some faint signs of undead. Already dead undead. Which was puzzling. If this village suffered some sort of monster attack there would be more evidence of it. More corpses. More blood. More.. chaos. Not.. this weird and eerie quiet. She shook her head lightly and regretted it. Right. Her body was still sick. And while her stomach was starting to behave thanks to the massive amounts of ginger and tea she ingested earlier. Her head was still kinda not where it was supposed to be. Which, made things three times harder. She was able to walk just fine as long as she took small steps. She pulled her goggles off of her head and rested them on her forehead. The pressure off of her eyes and sinuses made her feel better.
The closer she got towards the village the more.. uneasy she felt. The licorice taste in her mouth started to get worse and her skin felt colder. She took a sip of water. Again, she felt a bit better. But, the lingering feelings of unease were there. She was about half way between her and the horse man before she remembered her current situation. Perhaps walking straight forward towards a stranger in the middle of this.. abandoned village may not be the best sort of situation. But, this person on the horse was alive. The horse was alive. And she knew Donny and mystery travelers had someone with a horse. But it was also entirely possible he might be a robber. Ah screw it. If I die, I die. If she did die than she wouldn't be sick any more. And Mila just hated having to work, while dealing with the failures of her body.
She was still a safe distance away, but well within shouting range. Which, may also not be the greatest idea but..
"Hey!" She shouted out towards the stranger on the horse.
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