Damsels and Dragons

Yeah, but in a time of war while everyone's evacuating, I doubt there'd be much interest in that heap of metal.


I suggest we meet Gregori and see how he's buffing the soldiers -- we may learn a thing or two, or at least we'll know what to expect from the soldiers.


If the apothecary has any poultices or potions to offer us (she's evacuating anyway, after all) we can take it off her hands. 


I'd also like to examine the army's outfits. Martian's the man in charge, but who's under him? See the chain of command in uniforms and behavior might come in handy later. May as well grab a helmet and gambeson while we're at it. He might have no clue how to use a shield, but it couldn't hurt to have one. 


I also think Jason should find some way to escape the battle if need be. He can't be ready to die here. Family and friends back home that he'll never see again? Dying in a world he hardly knows? It'd fill any sane man with terror to think of it. He should find someone to talk to. It can't be Matilda -- she's got too much responsibility in this war that it'd be callous to tell her his misgivings. Maybe the barkeeper, he's probably got an ear for woes, and see what Jason can figure out to do -- maybe hear enough about this world to think it's worth fighting for, or at least share his thoughts so he can handle the emotions. Otherwise a strong anxiousness is sure to creep in. 
 
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Killigrew said:
Yeah, but in a time of war while everyone's evacuating, I doubt there'd be much interest in that heap of metal.


I suggest we meet Gregori and see how he's buffing the soldiers -- we may learn a thing or two, or at least we'll know what to expect from the soldiers.


If the apothecary has any poultices or potions to offer us (she's evacuating anyway, after all) we can take it off her hands. 


I'd also like to examine the army's outfits. Martian's the man in charge, but who's under him? See the chain of command in uniforms and behavior might come in handy later. May as well grab a helmet and gambeson while we're at it. He might have no clue how to use a shield, but it couldn't hurt to have one. 


I also think Jason should find some way to escape the battle if need be. He can't be ready to die here. Family and friends back home that he'll never see again? Dying in a world he hardly knows? It'd fill any sane man with terror to think of it. He should find someone to talk to. It can't be Matilda -- she's got too much responsibility in this war that it'd be callous to tell her his misgivings. Maybe the barkeeper, he's probably got an ear for woes, and see what Jason can figure out to do -- maybe hear enough about this world to think it's worth fighting for, or at least share his thoughts so he can handle the emotions. Otherwise a strong anxiousness is sure to creep in. 
Click to expand...
 
>Preparations.exe


Jason had a little time to get ready, and as this was likely going to be a fight for his life and he had no intention of dying, he wanted to make sure he had every advantage he could get. To that end, the first place Jason went after departing the mayor's house was the Apothecary where he had been employed for all of three days. As expected, the woman running the shop was in a flurry of activity, packing away every ingredient, reagent, potion, poultice, solution, salve and mixture she could fit in her traveling trunk.


When she saw Jason, the two of them had a brief conversation about their future plans. She tried to dissuade him from joining the forces that were marching out, but as he had already made his decision, there was little she could do to dissuade him. When he asked if he could borrow some of her mixtures for his own use in the oncoming battle, she grabbed three of them off her shelf and handed them to him. According to her, these stimulants would quicken his thoughts, quiet strong surges of emotion (especially fear or anxiety), and help his blood clot faster if wounded.


Jason thanked her for the gifts, and wished her good luck. Before he left, though, he was forced to promise that he wouldn't put himself in any more danger that necessary. He wasn't sure if he could keep that promise, but he did say that he would do his best to stay alive.


After leaving, he went to visit the bar. Less to get intoxicated, as the place was all but abandoned by now, and more to have a place to sit down and ingest his assortment of potions. They were foul smelling, and ether excessively thick or had the consistency of snot, but he held his nose and drank them down anyway. Unlike most spells, potions were slow to act, but lasted for a very long time once ingested.


Once he was satisfied that the potions were starting to take effect, Jason exited the bar and picked up his sword from where he kept it in the trunk of his car. He then made his way towards the camps that Colonel Martian had set up. Despite being a bit of an ass, the man was right when he said some armor would do him some good.


The camp itself was a bustle of activity, with people running around and trying to coordinate the chaos. Of immediate note as Jason approached were around two dozen men in robes, holding staves like the one Gregori had held. There were arranged in eight rows of three, and an even longer line of soldiers in full armor and weapons were walking down in between them. Every time one of the soldiers passed, one of the robed figures would place their hands on either the soldier or their weapon and mutter a few words. After a small flash of light, the soldiers would move on to the next robed figure in line and receive the same treatment. It was the magicians that Martian had spoken of, mass enchanting the soldiers before the fight.


Gregori was standing a ways a way, overseeing the process and occasionally barking criticisms to the magicians performing the enchantments. Apparently they were much slower and much less efficient than Gregori felt they should be. Martian was standing just next to the him examining some documents that had been brought to him, and as Martian was making no attempts to silence Gregori, he must have proven that his methods were superior.


"Martain." Jason said, calling out to the Colonel. "I could use some of that armor you mentioned."


Martian looked up from the papers in his hand, his jaw tightening as he saw who it was. "The offer was contingent on you being willing to follow orders." He said, handing off the paperwork to someone else after signing them. "Since you insist on remaining a free agent, I feel no obligation to equip you."


Jason grit his teeth at the reply, already feeling this was a bad idea. "Sure, but I'm under no obligation to help you, but I'm doing that anyway. I think you could sand to return the favor. It's not like you're so under equipped that you can't even spare one set." Jason said.


"I don't even know if you'll even be useful to me." Martian said. "The Incarnate may vouch for you, but your skills are an unknown to me."


"Bah, the boy will be fine." Gregori said, taking a break from shouting at the magicians. "I saw to his training myself. He should be good enough for your idiots."


This caused Martian pause, as he looked at the wizard with new surprise. "You, old man?" He said. "You've taken on an apprentice?" Martian looked back at Jason with a contemplative look. "Well, I suppose that changes things. I'll see what I can do about getting you some armor. I need to speak to the quartermaster about supplies anyway." He said, motioning to the soldiers that were on guard duty to accompany him as he left.


Jason moved as Martian left, getting a better view of the magicians performing their duties. "Thanks." He said, standing next to Gregori. "I didn't think he'd help me."


The old wizard let out raspy laugh. "Military and nobility haven't forgotten me, despite their best efforts. They know when Gregori moves, the world holds it's breath." He said.


"Were they really that afraid of you?" Jason asked, recalling what Matilda had told him.


Gregori sneered. "Naturally. I could have broken the Empire in half if I wanted to. Could have made a claim to the throne, too." He said. "The Right of Virtue. Any man who has proven invaluable to the throne could proclaim himself a potential heir to the Emperor." The sneer turned in to a scowl. "Bah, like anyone would want to be Emperor. Going to be meaningless in a few years. No. I was interested in other matters."


"Your legacy." Jason said, earning himself a nod from Gregori.


"Yes. I'm an old man now, not many chances left to make my mark on the world. Fewer still, once everything gets smashed to bits by the Black King." He looked at Jason, frowning. "The only thing that matters in life is that the world remembers you when you're dead."


"Is that why you did those experiments on your servants?" Jason asked.


"Heard about that, did you? Yes. It doesn't matter if had been reviled. If I had succeeded, I'd be alive and they would be dead and forgotten." Gregori gave a sigh that was tinged with regret, for a moment looking like a tired old man and not a Battlecaster of terrifying power. It lasted all of a second, before he drew himself back in to regular form. "I suppose I'll have to be content to pass on my skills, like every other idiot out there. I think you'll do well enough. You know enough of the basics to keep you alive though this, so long as you don't act as stupid as you normally do."


"Well, thanks." Jason said. He meant it, despite the backhand compliment. Gregori had a bad attitude and a borderline nonexistent moral compass, but Jason could at least respect that the man knew what he was talking about. Everyone else did, anyway.


Movement at the corner of his eye caught his attention. The magicians were finished bespelling the soldiers and were convening among themselves to discuss... whatever it was that magicians talked about before an engagement. Martian soon returned, and in tow was an outfitter with a gambeson for Jason. After a small struggle, he eventually managed to get it on with some coaching from the outfitter.


It was then that a horn blew out through the night, causing everyone to stop in what they were doing for a moment and look up.


"That's the signal." Martian said, turning on his heal. "Move out! On the double!" He shouted to his troops. There was a scramble of activity as the armed forces assembled for deployment. The enemy was landing soon, and it was imperative that they be stopped.


"Shit." Jason muttered. Holding up his hand and placing it on his chest, he exalted and spoke out. "Be warded." A shimmer of light eclipsed him as the protective magic took hold, before fading in to invisibility. Gregori nodded his approval, but said nothing.


It was time. The battle would be engaged soon and The Black King's forces would be confronted, and hopefully stopped. The future of the Empire hung in the balance. No one had any illusions that it could be stopped here, but how the whole war would play out would depend on this first encounter. 


Steeling himself for the confrontation, Jason began to march.


Select Character:


>Gregori, The Master Battlecaster.


>Matilda, The Incarnate of Heaven.


>Jason, The Unknown Stranger.


OOC


For those who are worried, the change to a different character is temporary, not permanent. As the battle will have multiple things happening simultaneously, Each character will get a post that involves their actions in the battle, and this vote will decide the order in which you see it happening from their perspective.


@Dullahan Shinigami[COLOR= rgb(39, 42, 52)], @Dusky, [/COLOR]@Emiya Shin[COLOR= rgb(39, 42, 52)], [/COLOR]@Genon[COLOR= rgb(39, 42, 52)], [/COLOR]@Heisenberg[COLOR= rgb(39, 42, 52)], [/COLOR]@Killigrew[COLOR= rgb(39, 42, 52)], [/COLOR]@Lavender[COLOR= rgb(39, 42, 52)], [/COLOR]@Reinhardt[COLOR= rgb(39, 42, 52)], [/COLOR]@Riuma[COLOR= rgb(39, 42, 52)], [/COLOR]@Silanon[COLOR= rgb(39, 42, 52)], [/COLOR]@Silvertongued[COLOR= rgb(39, 42, 52)], [/COLOR]@simj22[COLOR= rgb(39, 42, 52)], [/COLOR]@Stormblessed[COLOR= rgb(39, 42, 52)], [/COLOR]@Syrenrei[COLOR= rgb(39, 42, 52)], [/COLOR]@White Masquerade[COLOR= rgb(39, 42, 52)], [/COLOR]@wonderandawe
 
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>Matilda, The Incarnate of Heaven.


Let's first see how she gets herself into unholy trouble - then we can try to rescue her with the other two.
 
>Gregori, the Master Battlecaster


Jason's our bro and Matilda's our ho but we better get past our bro and ho so we can see a real battlecaster fight!


Unlike Jason, he's not new, Gregori's an old player though he has bad conduct. Unlike Matilda, he's not the chosen one but he is still frickin' badass.
 
Matilda. Let's bring the fist of Heaven to bear.


(crap. I just realized I used Matilda as a name option for my upcoming quest.  Better remove it from the list. Shame it was my favorite option.) 
 
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Oh good, for a moment there, I thought you had stumbled upon Matilda's secret ability to turn in to a bear.


Imeanwhat?
 
>Matilda, Incarnate of Heaven


Walking down the beach, Matilda could see the landing parties of the Black King's armada coming ashore. There were dozens of them, with each ship housing hundreds of of the Black King's creations, meaning there would be thousands of troops against their scant hundreds landing on the continent.


For anyone else, such prospects would be dire indeed. Any force short of a full legion lead against such numbers would be doomed to fail, crushed under the sheer weight of numbers, to say nothing of the Black King's own magicians who would undoubtedly manipulate the battlefield and augment their own troops.


Their biggest advantage now was surprise, shock and overwhelming mystical force. Not just Gregori and Colonel Martian's magicians, but her own intrinsic abilities as the Incarnate.


Matilda stopped just before she came within range of the landing parties, and knelt down in the sand, her sword drawn and placed point first in to the ground. Closing her eyes, she bowed her head and began to pray.


The gods of her people had no names, having been lost long ago in one of the Black King's many crusades. But what their gods represented and the promises they had made to humanity at the genesis of the world still held true, and so people invoked these in their rites.


"Oh, Earth and Sky, grant me strength and swiftness in my trials. Oh, Sea and Moon, grant me clarity and wisdom to walk my path. Oh, Sun and Stars, grant me light so that we may know peace." She said, completing the common prayer of her gods. As an addendum, however, a final line was added in.


"For You are The World, and I am You."


So invoked, the gods of her people answered.


The sea became still, the wind died, the the trees stiffened and high above, the moon and stars seemed to dim. Everything was plunged in to total stasis, and for a moment Matilda seemed to stand out against the world, greater and far more important than anything else, sharply defined against the dull grayness.


Newfound power welling up within her, Matilda began to walk towards the landing parties, sword drawn and ready.


She was in no hurry. She had thought she would be, but the gods of her people were within her, whispering in her ear reassurances and words of patience.  As she approached, the blurry figures before her came in to light, and she could see what she would be facing.


Goblins, the fodder of the Black King's forces, were busy at work. Green skinned and barely breaking four feet tall, they were unnaturally strong and nimble for their size. One of them, standing on the ship and dressed in armor that indicated a higher status, noticed her approached. It yelled obscenities and orders in its native tongue, all meaning lost to her beyond their intentions.


At its shouts, a trio of goblins approached her with weapons of their own drawn, waiving them threateningly at her and trying to get her to run so they could have a bit of sport in chasing her down before beheading her. When she continued to walk towards them at the same steady pace, their jeer changed from mocking to violent, and charged her with the intent to kill.


They were dead before they hit the ground.


The first died slowest. It came at her with a raised cleaver in an overhand strike. Matilda cut the arm off at the elbow as the weapon came down and separated its head from its neck in a second stroke. She then sidestepped the second as it tried to avenge its comrade, maneuvering behind it and cutting it clean in two from side to side. The third and final goblin, seeing its fellows cut down in moments, wisely decided to beat a hasty retreat for support. Sadly its wisdom far outstripped its speed, and Matilda crossed the distance between the two of them in seconds, her blade piecing the back of its skull and coming out from its brow.


The goblin's body hung from her sword as she raised it, pointing it at the commander in challenge. The goblin slid down the shaft of her blade in response to the new angle, and she discarded it with a flick of her wrist.


The goblin commander scowled at her from above and blow his war horn, and the battle was joined in earnest.


They came in waves, dozens of them all screaming for blood, weapons falling and murder in their eyes. Matilda met them in kind, rushing forward and clashing with them head on. Two of them in the lead were the next to die, as she stepped between their clumsy blows, she turned in her heal and bisected them, using the momentum of the spin to move in to a block, throwing a third attacker off balance before she ran him through. A fourth, fifth and sixth attacker tried to surround her, but when they closed in Matilda leapt over all three of them, and they soon found their bodies hitting the ground


The bulk of the goblin hoard was upon her now, and she ducked, blocked, cut and priced her way through their numbers like a knife through butter. As she fought her way up the landing ramp of the ship, she could see Colonel Martian's forces engaged with the enemy on the other side of the beach. Flashes of spellfire were raining down from the cliffs above where his magicians were weaving their spells. Gregori was likely there, given the overabundance of magic being poured down from the cliffs.


Turing her attention back to her own battle, finally found herself on the deck of the ship, facing the goblin commander. To her surprise, it was not another goblin, but a troll. Armed with a massive sword and a shield as large as she was tall, it towered over her in its full ten feet of hight.


With a roar for blood, It swung its massive weapon downward, and Matilda was only just able to avoid the blow. It crashed on the wooden deck, leaving a hole in the ship that went all the way through to the level below.


Not one to surrender the initiative, Matilda rebounded from her dodge and leapt at the troll, intent on skewering it through the head, only to be blocked by its shield. Her sword cut a deep gash in the metal, and was forced to brace herself the defensive implement was thrust out, slamming into her and sending her flying backwards. She managed to right herself in mid air and land properly, unscathed.


Noting that this would require some level of actual effort on her part, Matilda assumed a defensive stance and gestured for the troll to come at her. With another roar, the troll rushed her, swinging the weapon wide. Matilda's own blade clashed with the troll's, sending it careening to the side, where it embedded itself in to the main mast of the ship.


That was all the opening she needed.


As the troll tried to wrench its weapon free, Matilda dashed the troll once more, maneuvering inside its guard as it was distracted. There, she leapt up the ten feet of distance between her and the troll's head, coming eye to eye with the monstrosity. At the apex of her leap, just before she started to descend, Matilda lashed out with her blade. Withdrawing her weapon as she began to descend, Matilda turned away from the troll and surveyed the ship, watching with satisfaction as the remaining goblins began to scatter and flee. Behind her, the troll swayed drunkenly for a moment, before falling to the deck with a crash, her blade having pierced clean through its head.


Taking a moment to exhale, Matilda turned to the main mast of the ship and, with a swing of the sword, cut it clean in half. With a sound of rope snapping the mast fell over like a tree, making a perfect bridge to the nearest ship.


It was then, before she could cross over to the next vessel, that a huge roar filled the night sky, and the sound of beating wings could be heard.


Looking up, she saw a silhouette on the night sky. Twin bat-like wings, a long tail barbed tail and neck ending in a reptilian head, with four limbs each tipped with razor sharp claws and molten fire dripping from the mouth. It roared once more and moved to attack the cliff where Gregori and the magicians were slinging their spells, belching a torrent of fire.


A Dragon had joined the battle.


Stage Select


>Gregori, Master Battlecaster.


>Jason, the Unknown Stranger. 


OOC


God I missed writing fight scenes. Gimme some feed back on the combats, yeah? I'm out of practice with that.


 


@Dullahan Shinigami[COLOR= rgb(39, 42, 52)], @Dusky, [/COLOR]@Emiya Shin[COLOR= rgb(39, 42, 52)], [/COLOR]@Genon[COLOR= rgb(39, 42, 52)], [/COLOR]@Heisenberg[COLOR= rgb(39, 42, 52)], [/COLOR]@Killigrew[COLOR= rgb(39, 42, 52)], [/COLOR]@Lavender[COLOR= rgb(39, 42, 52)], [/COLOR]@Reinhardt[COLOR= rgb(39, 42, 52)], [/COLOR]@Riuma[COLOR= rgb(39, 42, 52)], [/COLOR]@Silanon[COLOR= rgb(39, 42, 52)], [/COLOR]@Silvertongued[COLOR= rgb(39, 42, 52)], [/COLOR]@simj22[COLOR= rgb(39, 42, 52)], [/COLOR]@Stormblessed[COLOR= rgb(39, 42, 52)], [/COLOR]@Syrenrei[COLOR= rgb(39, 42, 52)], [/COLOR]@White Masquerade[COLOR= rgb(39, 42, 52)], [/COLOR]@wonderandawe
 
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Voting for Jason as well - if only to ensure that there's someone left to get him out of this...
 
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