Fantasy Cursed Island

[Darkling0096]

"And that doesn't ring as a trap?", Turac asked, referring to the signal.

"The mirror can get that big?", Siege looked at Katsuo and then the mirror on Nidia's hip, "Doesn't look like it."

"They're magic," Jalin whispered, "I can put an object through, but I need Nidia and Turac to hold the mirror perfectly level with the ground."

 

[Fangs9090]

"It does. We don't know who is sending that signal."

Roy spoke up. "We also need to wait for the guard to pass again. We don't want to get interrupted."

 

[Darkling0096]

"Hmm," Turac squinted in the darkness. A human's sense of sight wasn't much better than a dragon turtles. Sharp eyes wouldn't get you far in the deep water, not as well as sharp hearing and sharper sense of smell, so he couldn't pick out the shadowy shape of Turac behind the flashing mirror.

"Speaking of," Jalin spoke up as Emilia and Roy could hear footsteps again.

 

[Fangs9090]

"We should proceed with caution..."

Roy nodded. "Hold on, stay quiet." He quickly tucked the amulet away out of sight.

 

[Darkling0096]

"You should proceed with caution," Turac smiled, dragon pride showing.

"Shh!", Siege hissed as the guard passed by Roy, Emilia, and Jalin's cell again. He raised an eyebrow and demanded to know what Roy was doing in the corner.

"He's takin' a piss, whaddaya think?", Jalin snapped, "We been walkin' all damn day!" Committing to the crazy blind man act, Jalin felt around for a stone and threw it, missing the guard by a wide margin as it hit the wall twenty feet to his left through the bars.

"Stupid rich idiots," the guard rolled his eyes and moved on.

 

[Fangs9090]

Once the guard was gone, Roy brought the amulet back out. "Alright, let's move fast. Emilia?"

Emilia nodded and took out her mirror, expanding it to the full-size mirror that she'd mentioned her mother using and resting it against the wall. "Ready on this end."

With the go-ahead from Roy, Nidia got her own mirror and did the same, resting hers on a tree when it was full sized. They soon had the mirrors connected to see each other.

 

[Darkling0096]

Turac went to help Nidia keep the mirror level as it opened, "Alright, hurry up," he waved Siege and Katsuo over to climb into the mirror.

Going from gravity pointing straight down to suddenly to your left was unnerving, Siege looked a little green when she came through the mirror. The commotion as Siege and Katsuo came through drew the attention of the guard, who got a faceful of lion girl vomit for his troubles when he squinted through the bars to see what was going on. "We're never doing that again," Siege groaned as the man flailed to get the puke out of his mouth.

 

[Fangs9090]

Roy looked at her. "Deal, just recover quickly so you can break us out of here before he runs."

Katsuo followed Siege through, suffering less from the disorientation.


Once they were both safely through, Nidia disconnected her mirror and shrunk it back down, looking at Turac. "Alright, let's move."

 

[Darkling0096]

"Shut up," Siege groaned and forced herself to her feet, gripping the bars for balance, and then pushing. The weakened stone supporting the bars cracked, then shattered as she put more force behind it and the bars just... flew. Straight across the hall and flattening the poor fool between a set of heavy iron bars and hard stone with the force of one sick-feeling half-chimera.

"Good," Jalin stood up and rolled his neck on his shoulders and strolled over to the fresh corpse, "Yes... you will do nicely," he smiled and flicked his wrist, blood swirling out of the corpse and into the air to form a rapidly spinning circle. The circle grew as a snarling, bestial head that looked like it had been skinned, only muscle, bone, and blood coated it as it crawled out of the circle. It was only the size of a mastiff, but Jalin wasn't putting much into this summons without his cane to beat a larger one into obedience with. "Go," Jalin dropped the circle when the thing completely came through and let it run off to go make trouble.

"How did you just do that?", Siege demanded.

"I will tell you later," Jalin smiled, "For now, we have a fortress to take."

------------------------------

"Indeed," Turac smiled and reached up to his piercing, clicking it. As the bandits in the fort were panicking from the wild blood monster Jalin had summoned, those on the walls got the terrifying sight of a dragon turtle waddling up the fortress with a bard on his shell, spewing hot steam for a fog.

 

[Fangs9090]

Roy recoiled from the hound before shaking his head. "Right... First thing's first, let's find our stuff and Sinach."

Katsuo headed on after the hound with his axe in hand.

----------

Nidia played on her flute as she rode Turac's shell, mainly just giving herself a shield so she wouldn't get sniped off.

The bandit leader stormed out of the fort's captain's quarters as the sound of panic reached him, looking around as he drew his sword before spotting Turac. "Bloody hell..."

 

[Darkling0096]

"Right here," Sinach called as he fluttered down to land on Roy's shoulder, "I know where your stuff is, too." Seeing as no one had answered his mirror signal, and then suddenly Turac came to attack, Sinach abandoned his post and went to go find the others.

"Directions, book," Jalin said.

"Cellar, third block from the left under the north wall."

"Thank you." Jalin nodded and pulled the remaining blood he could get from the corpse into a facsimile of his cane, moving on to go beat up bad guys with Katsuo and his crimson hound.

"Magic is bullshit," Siege decided, seeing all the things it could do. Why weren't there more mages in the world?

------------

Turac was too big to fit through the fortress gate, so instead he blocked it with his body, preventing reinforcements from entering as his tail thrashed behind him while he stuck his head in to pick off bandits with ice, steam, and his mighty jaws. He'd already eaten a few bandits when they'd last fought, so he just crushed them into pieces in his toothed turtle beak and flung the pieces at the others to sew discord.

 

[Fangs9090]

"Right?" Roy readied a couple of spells in his hands, fire in one and lightning in the other, as he headed on. Having a channeling focus helped, but he could still cast bare handed.

Katsuo was currently bullrushing the bandits he encountered, using his empty off hand to grab them when he could and either slam them into a wall or the ground, or keep them still for his axe. Sometimes both.

----------

The captain's quarters led out onto the wall, so the bandit chief started running along it, aiming to jump Turac from above. Nidia took notice and hopped up, jumping onto the wall to stand in his way. He didn't see her as a threat and just swung to cut her down, but Nidia managed to duck under the blade, roll around past his feet, and kick at the back of his knee as she jumped away, all without messing up her song. The kick dropped the bandit leader to one knee. He growled as he got back up turning to face Nidia as played her song and danced before him tauntingly.

 

[Darkling0096]

While Katsuo attacked with his axe and his bare hand, Jalin's hound tackled to the ground and mauled bandits, which Jalin quickly reanimated in between dodging around and deflecting sword swings with his blood stick. Where he could, he stabbed his attackers with the stick to pull all the blood from their bodies to instantly kill them, which resulted in a sizeable mass floating in a swirling halo above his head. But there was nothing angelic about what he was doing.

Siege sighed and hefted her axe, willing it to start doing ice things and moving to actually do some fighting while there were still bad guys to fight, cleaving baddies in twain or crushing them with the force behind the swing if she couldn't penetrate their armor.

Sinach fluttered around Roy, charging up spells from his mouth to use as breath weapons. Emilia could on occasion recognize a spell similar to the cantrip her father used to make small fiends have critical existence failures.

---------------

Getting arrows in the nose made Turac sneeze, shooting hot steam and dragon snot into the opposite wall as he pulled back out of the hole to rub his nose with his claws. He growled when he saw the bandit captain threatening Nidia. She seemed to be holding her own, but that would probably not last, as she wasn't using any weapons or combat spells. The dragon turtle's head rose up over the wall next to the captain as he began sucking in air in what beastkin recognized as preparation for a very loud roar.

 

[Fangs9090]

Roy was fighting at range, throwing fire bolts and lightning bolts at any enemy that wasn't otherwise preoccupied. Emilia summoned her hellhound to join Jalin's blood hound in mauling the bandits, staying back behind the others herself. She wondered if she should've made herself a whip like her mother after all.

----------

Nidia saw Turac and twirled back away from the bandit, altering her song for an ear protection spell.

The bandit leader noticed Turac rising up next to him and turned to face him, bracing himself with his sword at the ready.

 

[Darkling0096]

Making their way to the treasure room, carving a bloody path as they went, the group found their target and worked to claim their belongings. The blood of Jalin's improvised cane went to join the blob, which now floated outside, as he picked up and wound his cane up. The bandit it knocked out started to stir, and quickly un-stirred as he got the pointed steel cap through his throat. "Only I get to play with my cane," Jalin smiled as the life faded from the man's body. He would not be resurrected.

"Whoa," Sinach hadn't realized at the time that there was actually a considerable amount of treasure in this room. It was no mighty hoard, but these bandits definitely weren't dirt poor.

-------------------

The air was still for a moment before the built up air in Turac's massive lungs was pushed back out with force and a deafening roar reminiscent of crashing waves. Someone smaller than Nidia would probably be thrown back by the force of that air rushing at them, but in the case of larger humanoids that couldn't secure their footing fast enough, it either made them slide or fall away from the noise. Ice mist was building in the back of Turac's throat as the roar reached its loudest point, before the breath attack rushed out to meet the bandit leader with the fury of the coldest arctic blizzards.

 

[Fangs9090]

Emilia snickered at Jalin's remark. "And Captain Sal."

Roy retrieved his staffs, letting them float behind him as he found himself gathering more trinkets without really considering that they weren't his.

----------

The bandit leader slid back, trying to resist the force of the roar before the blizzard threw him off his feet, sending him off the wall and crashing to the ground bellow.

 

[Darkling0096]

Jalin ignored that comment as the head clicked back into place. "Roy, we are still fighting bandits."

"We're still broke," Siege said as she joined Roy in scooping up valuables, "You guys have a bag of holding, right?"

-----------

Turac closed his jaws and scowled at the space where the leader used to be. "Are you alright?", he asked Nidia. He assumed that fall would have been fatal, or at least broken ribs, so he didn't check the body.

 

[Fangs9090]

Emilia shook her head. "They are still part dragon as well. And yes, I do." She pulled up said bag and handed it over.

----------

Nidia smiled and gave a bow. "Yes, I am, thanks to you."

 

[Darkling0096]

"Thanks," Siege took the bag and just started scooping shinies into it. They'd be valuable to someone, they'd sort that out later.

"Hopeless," Jalin sighed, leaving the room, "Katsuo, I believe we have bodies to stack and burn." His revived army of dead bandits began to go around and gather the unrevived corpses, building a pyre in the center of the fortress and dousing it with oil, before adding themselves to it. "Who wants the honor?", Jalin asked as his crimson hound jumped back into its home elsewhere, and the cloud of blood in the air was rushed into the deepest part of the pile.

-------------

"Yes, well," Turac peered down where the body had landed, "You are integral to making sure my siblings are safe."

 

[Fangs9090]

Emilia followed after Jalin, trusting the twins would be fine. Looking at the pile, she whistled and her hellhound headed to ignite it.

----------

Nidia giggled. "Aw, don't pretend you don't care." She walked over and looked down at the body as well. Or rather, at the man. He was too wounded to move, but a groan confirmed he had managed to survive. "We should tie him up and take him alive. The local guards would rather he be formally judged and tried rather than just killed by some travelers."

 

[Darkling0096]

"I will restrain him," Turac laid his head on the wall so Nidia could make her way back down to the ground, before turning his horn ring so he could stand the man against the wall, and with careful application of his ice, stick him to it. He'd almost certainly get frostbite in the days it might take for the Prince and his armies to arrive if he wasn't treated, but then he was probably on the verge of death, anyway.

 

[Fangs9090]

Nidia nodded and headed back down to the ground, heading around through the gate. She stopped to marvel at the bonfire for a moment before the smell hit her. It was less appealing then, and she quickly headed away to find the others.

 

[Darkling0096]

Jalin was no stranger to the smell of burning corpses, but considering he presently lacked the washing barrel Niudisa had constructed from the blueprint made all those years ago to wash out the smell, he opted to vacate the area once he was certain the fire would continue to burn for several days, the sheer volume of corpses would see to that. But the fortress was cleared. "Ah, Nidia," Jalin smiled when he noticed her, "We are almost finished looting." Where 'we' meant "Roy, Siege, and Sinach," as the paper dragon was doing his best to move things, but he'd used all of his refolds today and couldn't take on a larger form to help.

 

[Fangs9090]

"Cool. Turac and I took out the leader. He lived, barely, so we're gonna turn him in alive when the prince shows up."

 

[Darkling0096]

"Hmm," Jalin nodded, "And there are no more outside the fortress?"

"Not anymore," Turac tossed a corpse onto the pile.


"Damn bandits," Siege grumbled once the treasure room had been picked clean, "I should have became an outlaw, not at adventurer, how were they so loaded?"