Fantasy Guild of Heroes: Recall Protocol

[Captain Gabriel]

Someone, or something...
Location: The woods around Caspul
Hanarei Silver Wolf Alteras @[Lil Kreen]

As the group approached the wounded Dragonblood knight, the stench of her blood filled the air, being spread around by the soft breeze, which moved the leaves in the trees, causing the shadows to flutter gently on the ground. However, a feeling of instantaneous alertness, dark and inevitable, overcame their instincts, causing the hairs on the back of their necks to stand up to attention.

But it passed, a mere instant later, although the leftovers of this rush of fight-or-flight still remained...

And the shadows observed, unrelenting.

 

[Churl]

Tamah Babbit
Location: Baryan Estate- Manor
Captain Gabriel


“Thank you for the w-water. Um. S-Sorry for breaking the glass.”

The servant shook his head. “It’s quite alright, Miss. We have plenty.”

“That’s good. Um, and did I apologize for trying to slit your throat with it?”

“You did, yes.”

The young woman nodded.

“That’s good. If y-you wouldn’t mind, could you tell me why you’re still holding onto my arm?”

“Because you have not even ceased attempting to kill me, Miss.”

In the seat of Baryan’s personal lands, an apologetic but shackled girl stood in a waiting room, her arm clenched in a vice grip by a surprisingly strong and nonchalant servant to prevent her from stabbing him with the shattered glass in her hand. The enchantments on the shackles had continued to deliver painful shocks whenever she attempted to cast magic, so she had decided to take advantage of her captors’ hospitality. Seeing how calm her intended victim was, she just felt ridiculous, though. That glass was probably expensive, wasn’t it? Now she looked like a bully.

“Um, if I drop the glass, can you get me another one? I-I really am thirsty.”

“You won’t break it?”

“N-No, I think I’ll try looking for a candlestick or something to beat you with while you’re gone.”

“Acceptable. I will return.”

Tamah dropped the glass shards and the servant dutifully swept them up before leaving the room. The furniture had a noticeable lack of red or black colors in this room. Not an ornate skull design in sight. This was a shame, wasn’t the person in these lands some sort of undead or along those lines? She didn’t get much information, she had to admit. Many of her conversations tend to end in screaming before long. Such as the one that brought her here.

She had been so excited to hear tell of strange appearances, a sure sign of the Guild’s return! Finally, her wickedness had paid off and Good had returned to the world to punish her! Unfortunately it seems the Guild isn’t very popular in these parts. Voicing her excitement led to an argument, and an argument led to unleashing the terror of Hell upon a village, and that led to her being ambushed by some people almost as pale as she was with sharp teeth and brought to this manor to face judgement. Normally, the prospect of being judged and punished for her misdeeds had a charm to it, but this being the home of an enemy of the Guild, she has decided escape might be preferable. Aside from her distaste she really didn’t fancy getting executed again. The last hanging added an inch to her height, and things still felt a little off.

The servant returned and offered her another glass. She graciously accepted it, downed the drink, and returned it to his hands.

“Did you find a suitable blunt instrument, Miss?”

“S-Sorry, I got a little lost in thought, and you were quicker than expected, so I didn’t really get to search around…”

“I assure you I am not in the least inconvenienced by your failure to murder me.”

Tamah ducked her head. “I know, but I said I would try, a-and you were expecting it, so I’m sorry. Maybe if I-?”

Whipping her hands out, she wrapped the chains of her shackles around the servants throat and began to pull.

“I-Is this working?”

The servant shook his head.

“Aw…”

 

[Alteras]

Averza Reyes

LOCATION Woods Around Caspul

INTERACTIONS Claire Motoye, Jaunt Nemesis, Sophia Gertrude

CS

Averza nodded in affirmation to Jaunt. Road or not, they only needed to reach Laurelian lands. A road will only make them a bigger target.

She turned back to Claire and listened to her plea, while Jaunt maintained vigilance for them. Listening to Claire, it felt like listening to a new hopeful applicant. It made her smile inwardly. "Ahh... I guess the fame of the guild would still hold after five years." She thought to herself. But before she could make any response, Jaunt's notice tore her attention away.

Looking up ahead, she saw the injured woman, leaning against a tree. Thankfully she was conscious. Averza slid off Jaunt in a similar fashion as Claire and quickly made her way to the knight. Design and red attire reminded her of something she could barely remember, but more important was the bandages the woman was trying to wrap.

"Jaunt! Keep watch!" She yelled out before kneeling before the woman. "I'm Averza Reyes of the Guild of Heroes. Let us take a look at that." Before the knight could consent, she was already unwrapping the bandaging. "Geez... what caused this... Claire, we'll redo the bandaging. I'll use a basic cleaning spell on both the wound and the bandages. Hold it out for me."

Averza's blessing may have weakened, but it doesn't mean she's lost all magic. The basic magic spells she's learned from the incessant lectures of her sisters were still relevant, and have aided throughout her adventures, as it will now. She held her palm over the wound and chanted a few phrases before turning to do the same on the bandaging. It wasn't too effective, being only a basic level spell, but it'll have to do for now. A clean blood stained bandage is probably better than a blood soaked one.

Hanarei lil_kreen Silver Wolf

FontsFonts Coded by Alteras

 

[Swire]

Kyro Script

LOCATION Bowerstone

INTERACTIONS Captain Gabriel

"Your generous offer is reassuring." While he would normally decline, Kyro was willing to place some incentive for Baryon. Who likely stood to gain from such an agreement.

"I will consider your offer." Kyro said before pausing. "Actually." He revised. "I will take you up on the offer. After you have inducted the remaining guild members."

Luscious patterns of color shimmering from his royal attire, Kyro turned to leave the room. "Good luck, I shall meet with you again after your success." He said. Soon only a phantom of his presence remained after he exited the room.

Within the court, Ararigonterisa had finished the remainder of the work. Members of the court began taking their leave. Several of the high-ranking members expressed their excitement about the new project to Kyro. After each had left, Kyro turned his attention to his next endeavor.

"We should now visit the ruins."

"Indeed. We will need to take a teleporter. We don't have time to waste."

Kyro had installed several personal teleportation devices for his use alone. The foundation for such spells existed long before his mind conceptualized it. It was a rather simple task to create them, and their effectiveness had been proven a multitude of times.

They both walked over a set of runes that lit up. Lines of light enveloped them and magic energy consumed their forms until they vanished. Within minutes they would be transported to their destination. The ruins of an ancient, long-forgotten civilization, that had once possed the technology to create autonomous sentinels.

 

[LostHaven]

Faust Windfallow (& Co.)

The Raven's Arcana | "What's with all these isekai protags recently?"​

"Dunno," shrugged Alexiel. "Signing to the terms and contracts is usually handled by the Owner. It might've been because of one incident where we sold a Null Element Bomb to a group of bandits?" Luckily for Sasha, Alexiel was not perceptive enough to realize that she had been blushing redder than a beetroot with her face hidden behind the pile of contracts, or else the paladin would have undoubtedly persisted with her relentless teasing.

After receiving a positive response from the otherworlder, Alexiel practically burst out of her seat as she headed for the door behind the counter. "Alright~ I'll get the owner for you~" said Alexiel excitedly. Though, what seemed like enthusiasm for her work was little more than the anticipation of skipping her shift - this sort of thing wasn't even her job, but the impotent soyboy of a skeleton had assigned this as her punishment for the heretical act of getting a bit too touchy with some of their merchandise. It wasn't like she could help it, that cursed holy sword was really something in both size and sheer might.

After Alexiel had disappeared behind the door that lead to the ever-mysterious 'staff only' area, Sasha was given several minutes of silence to contemplate her decision, and the opportunity to back out of triggering some sort of secret boss event. It was almost as if the universe was giving her the option to chicken out and undo her choices up until that point, since the tall, hooded figure that emerged tripped almost every secret boss flag in existence. The shopkeeper, dressed like a plague doctor, was utterly unreadable - and it wasn't just because his face was covered by an admittedly very edgy mask. As far as Sasha, or any of the existences in her head was concerned, the figure's relative level of power was laughably pathetic - if his parameters were to be visualized into a stat sheet, every single stat would be at 1. He seemed so utterly worthless that it was like as if he wasn't even trying to feign weakness, but rather doing so for no other reason besides 'because he can'. More alarmingly however, was the frying pan the man held in his hand. Ignoring the fact that it was still sizzling with what seemed to be a breakfast of bacon, eggs and pancakes, the thing emanated such a volume of magical power that Sasha didn't even need her Odin's Eye to sense the thick, viscous aura of mana that oozed from the frying pan. Such power should belong to a legendary-grade drop like Frostmourne, not a cooking implement, and yet here we are.

Faust came out from behind the counter, frying pan still in hand. He stood in front of the girl, purple dots behind his sockets scanning the customer. Thankfully, the shopkeeper's gaze felt far less violating than the paladin's. "Nice Chloromancy," said the lich as he nodded softly as if in approval of her magical prowess, if it weren't for the hint of sarcasm in his voice that suggested otherwise. "I'd ask if you wanted some, but I'll assume that body cannot eat," he added as he grabbed a sizzling strip of bacon and slid it into the right socket of his mask. The mouth-watering aroma of a classic breakfast was beginning to waft through the entirety of the Arcana. "That whore-paladin told me that we had an interesting customer - I assume she was letting her crotch do the talking, but I guess you pass? Anyway, you don't look like you're after narcotics, do you have an item in mind already? And, before you ask me, no, I cannot send you home, yes, the 'forbidden scriptures' Alexiel was reading are for sale, and if you're broke, you may trade items of equal or similar value, pay it in instalments, or sign away your soul. Any other questions?"

June Verles

 

[June Verles]

Sasha Korneev

As Alexiel left the main store and went into the back the circus that was the nasa control centre inside Sasha's mind would return to normal, since they had nothing funny to react to anymore. Sasha was just happy that things had calmed down a bit, allowing her to let out a sigh before the next mental hurdle would arrive.

The one eye Sasha had just stared at disbelief at Faust appearance, not disbelief due to his sheer power, but sheer disbelief in just how cliche someone could be, to the point where she wondered if the skeleton was doing it on purpose and if they weren't then what sort of 11th dimensional being was forcing to be this stereotypical of a "mYsTeRiOuS AnD SeCrEtLy pOwErFuL EnTiTy.". If anything, she felt sort of bad for Faust if anything.

Luckily for her, processing faust's sheer generic-ness, didn't last long enough for her to flinch her face in disgust and pinch her nose shut, the mix of egg and concentrated mana infused metal was awful, it was like using a thermonuclear weapon to light a match.

"Does this guy think he's hot shit for having a little bit of drip?" Eik seemed to have a problem with him. "Sasha tag me in, I'll turn his bones into powder and fill his phylactery with two sponges and lube before I f-" Before he could continue with his profanities he would be shut by No one.

"Here's just eat this Surströmming and relax." He gave him a can of what looked like fish but smelt like death. "Senile, old and absurdly powerful farts like you clashing would lead to the destruction of this reality or something and we don't have insurance for that."

"I would object to the old half blind guy waste of bones. but I feel like if we turned this lich's ones into bonemeal it would just poison the earth irreversibly..." Chris said with a deep frown.

"What a shitty old nerd, probably never had a lick of pussy in his life."

"You're quite correct my testosterone filled friend." Adventurer 1 commented confused looking at the Lich's status. "He's the first and only person with the Virgin status effect I've ever meet. And I've seen the actual goddess of purity."


Back in the real world Sasha still just stared the man in the eyes, or rather lack of, still seemingly unimpressed.

"Do you want me to react upset about your subtle display of superiority? Sorry, I don't want to lead you on it looks like you have a lot of things going on with your life... un-life? So I don't think insincerity is what you need to hear."

"In the mean while though, can I get some 7.62mm, this week's shounen jump and you joining me in helping me save the world?"

Birdsie LostHaven

 

[Hanarei]

Claire Motoye

Claire looked a bit distressed at the situation hearing Averza speak up making her stumble back into focus again. She was overthinking things. She had to stay calm and collective. It seemed that Miss Reyes had a plan that seemed far less scary for her in terms of being able to handle. She nodded following her lead. Claire's hand taking hold of the blood bandages focusing her magic in order to not disrupt Averza's attempt to clean them. A rather minor use of mana on her own part fortunately given she only had to worry about them being cleaned off before the influence of her magic wouldn't matter if it was effecting the wrappings at all.

"Wh... what had happened to you... if you don't mind me asking?" The knight asked the wounded woman out of concern. Her eyes fixating briefly upon her wounds as Averza worked on treating them though adverting her eyes quickly not wanting to look as if she was needlessly gawking at them. There was no reason for her to look at them when another was already treating it after all. She took the bandages as they were cleaned, doing her best to wrap them partially back up to make it a bit easier to reapply them without accidentally dragging them through the dirt to keep them as clean as possible. She didn't want to accidently undo the magic used upon them for no reason.

The knight blinked as she glanced away briefly, a strange feeling coming over her that she couldn't describe. Her eyes shifting about briefly before shaking her head, dismissing the feeling altogether. It wasn't worth letting her mind drift away incase more was needed of her when helping this new injured knight. They were being chased from the sounds of it, so the quicker they fixed the problem and got on their way the better off they might be.

lil_kreen Alteras Silver Wolf

 

[Silver Wolf]

Sophia Gertrude
Location: Woods
Interactions: Hanarei Alteras lil_kreen
Mentioned: Churl ?
​

Sophia must admit, having who should be now recongized as a comrade decline the spider's offer to cover her wound in sticky white substance found within the creature...yeah, no woman wants to do that. No sane one in her eyes at least. Though, it was far from the only thing on her mind.

"Considering what Kyro Script has done to not only the Dragonblood Order, but also our guild...I'd say using such titles liberally may not be the best approach," Sophia said while she held out the bandages as per Averza's order. In that time, Claire asked the question. "I'd love to ask that clown of a guildmaster how I seem to be the only one so far to come to in a dire wolf den. Would've been easier if void static weren't replacing a solid amount of my oath to Aegir. Beyond that, having to use Aegisblood and nearly pass out from shock from one use sure is lovely."

As the bandaging became finished, Sophia tested it out and smiled briefly while giving a 'hmph' of affirmation. Using her sword as a cane, she propped herself up and looked at the group. A greenhorn, a spider...thing, Averza, and some weird unexplained forboding presence she didn't understand completely. It suddenly crawled to her core, allowing a new rush of adrenaline. The addition of people triggered the blessing and she was back to her pre-wounded state physically. Of course, the bandage and wound were still there, but Aegir's Blood Oath picked up all the slack of the wound fast.

"I get the feeling we're in danger as the oath just triggered. Anyone else feel that?"

What an inconvenience.

 

[lil_kreen]

Jaunt Nemesis
Location: Woods
Nearby/Mentioned: Hanarei Alteras Silver Wolf

---

Jaunt's ire was already up at an injured Matriarch nearby while with two others, one a direct ally. A prodigious field of view still kept his head moving side to side to keep primary eyes on his blind spots. Stood in the middle of the road and seeing no immediate threats did his mood no favors and clicked back his hammer to its clasp and removed his rifle instead. The other blade arm reached back with outstretched talons along the edge to clasp down on the rungs of the upside down gun. Swung down for the moment he need to grasp hold and position the other sawtooth mount into his grip. A lever popped the gimbals for the pneumatic recoil mount to free float ahead of him. The loading gate clanked open as something bordering on an artillery sized revolver clinks with ammo removed from his underside.

As the feeling washed over him he lost some of his nuance in a monotone salutation to Averza from the Dreamer's ideal that created their order, "Matrem Vult! It will be done!"

A creature meant to take punishment his hearing was nothing special but smell of the dirt, blood, and plant life over-saturated in his mind. Much of his exposed surfaces picking them up in one specialty or another. Carefully working through the chemical messages he tasted for the telltale chemical scream of grass or live branches being crushed. Fine setules on his long leg tips that cling so tightly to things listening for tremors close by as he slowly moved legs between rock to rock along the narrow road. He'd gotten close enough to the group to disengage one arm with the gun that he could jab at the something that paranoia now insisted had to be there.

Jaunt's voice made an unnatural melody being otherwise focused on looking for things to shoot at, "It feels like the third eye of my Matriarch but this must be a heretic. Can Script scry so far?"

All shifting leaves kept drawing his sense of motion from a habit of looking upward for biting creatures like himself. Humans, it had turned out, had much the same habits of verticality if a bit closer to the ground.

 

[LostHaven]

Faust Windfallow (& Co.)

The Raven's Arcana | "Please help I've been placed into existence against my will-"​

Faust didn't seem to take much of Sasha's words to heart, the dots of soulfire in his sockets went out and lit back up several times in rapid succession as he stared at her, as if he were blinking. He then proceeded to tear off a bit of his pancake and shoved it underneath his mask whilst Sasha spoke out her request. He chewed loudly, jaws clattering as he 'ate' the pancake, though how that was even possible was beyond even the understanding of Outer Gods. After swallowing, he opened his jaws to reply:

"No."

Sasha was hit with the fastest and hardest 'no' a third-dimensional being such as herself could ever possibly come to comprehend. There no thought in the response, no weight in the lich's reply, that made it seem as though it were a reflex. "No way in fuck. There is no secret condition to recruit the shopkeeper NPC into your party, but I can you your stuff," said Faust as he reached into his cloak to produce what looked suspiciously like a handheld radio. He brought it up to his mask: "Emily, bring the items from 556-F and 1113-E," he directed into the device. Not even a minute after he had said this, a girl emerged from behind the forest of shelves, holding in her hand a brightly coloured magazine, and a dozen dozen or so rifle cartridges stacked haphazardly on top the magazine. Without a word, Emily approached the counter, and placed the items on the desk before she swiftly turned to leave. Before doing so, however, she did spare Sasha a glance and an ever-so-slight bow before disappearing back behind the shelves.

"Shit, she's getting even faster," commented Faust as he began to arrange the 7.62 mm rounds standing upright along the desk in a straight line. There was a total of exactly fifteen rifle rounds. "two silvers and twenty-two coppers for your ammunition. Twenty-four gold, ninety-seven silvers for the book," he informed Sasha in an uncompromising tone. He was willing to bargain, however - the rifle rounds weren't much higher than Faust's estimated production cost, but the Shonen Jump magazine was trickier - the actual item was dirt cheap, but these sort of items rested more on sentimental value. And, as far as Faust was concerned, the customer in front of him seemed like one of the losers that were absolutely infatuated with these sort of things. "And, for that book, if you'd like, I can show you the collection of the more... 'expressive' works."

June Verles

 

[June Verles]

Sasha Korneev

Sasha was definitely most ticked at the fact that the Lich insisted on eating with it's mouth opened, or rather it was maybe because it had a lack of flesh for sound insulation. Either way, Faust was still the asshole because if he could make his skeleton body consume food he could make it so it didn't have to be loud. No wonder this place looked like it got no traffic.

"I'm rather sorry, I should've realised you were content to rot here. I won't attempt to interfere with your eternal intellectual decomposition any longer." the Russian girl responded in an apologetic tone, as if she didn't mean to insult him but actually meant every word she said and one had to wonder if that was worse for the lich than if she actually wanted to insult him.

Turning towards the new girl who brought her stuff Sasha stared at her with her cold eyes but all she wondered were two things, if she could pay more money to get cute girls to bring her ammunition and manga and secondly if her previous thought was a result of her mind being tampered by Eik induced brain rot.

"Hey! Don't blame me, I'm not screwing with anything in here, being near us is just making you more comfortable with your real self. Anyways, get me the latest Comic X-eros."

"I want Bonsai Focus, the way they trim and prepare those trees just for my eyes is just...mmmmm." Chris commented, as he hugged himself from sheer excitement about miniatures trees, followed by a common disgusted stare that he didn't care about.

"I want Ultra Jump, I want to read Jojolion." Fuchsalot put in his request.

"Oh you don't know? Part 8 is finished, the new part is starting in August." Adventurer 1 commented, to much upset by Fuchsalot.

"Wait, how do either of you know about manga from other universes? Are we skipping over this? Okay." No one commented, ever the straight man. He was just going to read Comic X-eros after Eik was done with it, but he wasn't going to let anyone else know.


Like a mother dealing with a bunch of petulant children Sasha would sigh in real life and looked up.

"Can I actually get the 27th Tankōbon of Jojolion and also a subscription to Comic X-eros, Bonsai Focus and Shounen Jump aswell? Do you guys do that?" She hoped they do, so she could see the other girl a little bit more.
Birdsie LostHaven

 

[LostHaven]

Faust Windfallow

The Raven's Arcana | "Man, no internet is a pain."​

"Pfft-" Sasha's apologetic insult only incited Faust to turn his head away and snicker beneath the mask. "Says the one into this sort of brain-rot-" Faust sniggered under his breath. After composing himself a little, the lich turned back toward his customer, and set down his breakfast. "You know these things are kind of hard to get, right? You're wallet is going to die," Remarked Faust as he pulled up the handheld radio once more. "2771-E and 55581-Z."

Once again, the blonde girl emerged from the depths of the store, carrying in her hand another magazine and what looked to be a bag of holding. She placed them gently on the counter, and looked toward Sasha. "Thank you for your purchase," said Emily, foreshadowing the death of Sasha's wallet before she hurried off as quickly as she had came. Faust retracted the Shonen Jump and put the copy of Jojolion on the desk in its place.

"Subscriptions are a pain," mumbled Faust as he took the bag of holding, opened it up and reached his hand in. He mumbled unintelligibly to himself as he seemingly began to tamper with the bag for a few minutes. "There, this should do," he muttered as he finally set the thing down on the desk. He proceeded to pull out a second, identical bag, and tossed what looked to be a mushroom into the bag in his hand. He then looked toward the second bag, and retrieved the same mushroom he had tossed into the first from the second, before nodding to himself. "Your magazines will be delivered to you via that bag," said Faust, pointing toward the sack he had placed on the desk, "and you'll also pay by placing coins inside it. You can choose between a monthly fee of thirty gold, or a yearly fee of three platinum. That's for each individual subscription."

June Verles

 

[June Verles]

Sasha Korneev

"Is this guy insulting one of the most prestigious hentai publications in the entirety of Japan? Who does he think he is?" Eik would comment immediately at the words of the Lich.

"It's just drawn porn isn't it?" Adventurer 1 asked with a frown.

"..." The old magus would just look at him and frown in disgust at his lack of culture.

Sasha on the other hand just ignored both the real and mental old farts, waiting for her chance to see the blond girl from before again. Lucky as she was the attendant would actually look up at her and like a trained hunter not willing to give up her shot, Sasha acted, attempting to smile back in return to her thanks. Unfortunately, Sasha's wide smile gave the vibe of an insane serial killer about to rip your fingernails from your fingers before using them to peel your skin off bit by bit like a viral ice cream video.

"Wow, I literally survived Turenval erasing me from existence and you look more terrifying, truly impressive." Mr No one commented, leaning back a bit.

"Dude, if you want girls just tell her you bench 135." Fuchsalot advised her, however he didn't actually know if it'd work because usually women would come to him.

"Another reason why plants have it figured out, pollination is just a better way of reproducing." Chris didn't miss his remark.

As she left Sasha left out a tired sigh and turned as Faust threw her the bag. Reaching into her spacial storage dimension, pulling out her perfect replica Gama-chan frog wallet with additional hello kitty stickers, a visible dust cloud coming out as she opened it.

Reaching in she would pull out what little she had and put it on the counter in front of the Lich. Without skipping a beat she would look at him without a shred of embarrassment.

"This is what I got, do you offer alternative payment options."

Birdsie LostHaven

 

[Alteras]

Averza Reyes

LOCATION Woods near Caspul

INTERACTIONS Jaunt, Claire, Sophie

CS

Averza overlooked Jaunt's warlike cry as she focused on the bandaging. Perhaps insect based species all worship a queen? But a spider isn't an insect? And then again, she's heard of a guild member from the bee people and didn't recall hearing any such rumors of a queen. This is why she decided not to think too deeply about it.

Averza smiled a grin listening to Sophie's warning. "Within Albion perhaps, but just across those mountains will be Laurellia." she pointed out, as she finished up her bindings. "It also appears that our name hasn't been snuffed out of people's minds quite yet. Jaunt and I popped out of the void in the middle of a tavern. An old fella there helped us out and pointed the way. Make it out of Albion, and the big man won't be able to pursue us, at least publicly."

Standing up, Averza chanted the clean spell once more, this time to clean her hands, before assuming a cautionary stance aside Jaunt. As she listened to the others comment on the sensation of the tension filled air, Averza herself pulled out her sword and watched the surroundings cautiously. "I doubt this is him... probably a subordinate..."

With her free hand, she began to move her fingers slowly. A barely noticeable wind started to move in a large radius around them, gently brushing through the trees. Her eyes narrowed. Her blessing was weakened, and so was her wind detection spell, but it was enough to know there were multiple... objects near them, and where they were. With her sword in the air before her, she slowly turned her body. "... and not just one..." She said low enough for the party to barely hear, while still turning herself, sword pointed towards the woods around them before stopping in the direction of one of the beings she detected. Her hardened face turned into a challenging grin.

"Now then, are we just going to stand here? Or are we going to fight?"

Hanarei Silver Wolf lil_kreen Captain Gabriel

FontsFonts Coded by Alteras

 

[Captain Gabriel]

"I get the feeling we're in danger as the oath just triggered. Anyone else feel that?"

"Now then, are we just going to stand here? Or are we going to fight?"

Location: The Woods near Caspul
With: Alteras Silver Wolf lil_kreen

The attack came quicker than a speeding train. Three blurry streaks of red came out of the branches of the nearby trees, pouncing at full speed towards Averza and Sophia. Two more attackers came from other directions, literally emerging from the shadows as if they were mud, immediately going for the spider and for Claire. They kept their magic use to a minimum, readying their daggers, and exerting the fortitude of their blood to ensure their attacks found their mark.

===

Lord Gabriel Baryon
With: Swire and then Churl

"I will consider your offer." Kyro said before pausing. "Actually." He revised. "I will take you up on the offer. After you have inducted the remaining guild members."

Luscious patterns of color shimmering from his royal attire, Kyro turned to leave the room. "Good luck, I shall meet with you again after your success." He said. Soon only a phantom of his presence remained after he exited the room.

"We shall try our best. Never forget that these are heroes. Much of their deeds are still recounted in tales and whatnot," the Vampire Lord said, nodding slowly. With a flourish of his long coat, he turned and walked outside of the room as well.

He breathed in, letting his blood shift in his veins. All of his skin slowly melted into each other, as well as his clothes, until all that remained in the spot was an amorphous mass of blood-like slime, taking a vaguely-humanoid shape. An exertion of thought and will later, Baryon reformed into the body of one of his servants - placing him at Kyro's palace, as he was used to - who was previously being strangled by one of the women that his men had captured earlier in the day.

“Aw…”

Without a care in the world about the fact that his windpipe was being constricted, Baryon extended his arcane hand and wrapped its long talons around Tamah's upper neck, lifting her off the ground as if she was an empty leather sack. His eyes regaled her with a long look, going up and down her figure to try and measure her character with a mere glance. When that didn't suffice, he breathed in, and deep-dived into the mysterious crevices of her mind, consuming her surface thoughts and most recent experiences, and feeling what she was feeling. It was a reinvigorating sensation.

As that process went on, Baryon's face fell flat, intimidating. "Do you mind telling me why my men felt the need to bring you here, child?"

 

[Churl]

Lord Gabriel Baryon


He breathed in, letting his blood shift in his veins. All of his skin slowly melted into each other, as well as his clothes, until all that remained in the spot was an amorphous mass of blood-like slime, taking a vaguely-humanoid shape. An exertion of thought and will later, Baryon reformed into the body of one of his servants - placing him at Kyro's palace, as he was used to - who was previously being strangled by one of the women that his men had captured earlier in the day.


Without a care in the world about the fact that his windpipe was being constricted, Baryon extended his arcane hand and wrapped its long talons around Tamah's upper neck, lifting her off the ground as if she was an empty leather sack. His eyes regaled her with a long look, going up and down her figure to try and measure her character with a mere glance. When that didn't suffice, he breathed in, and deep-dived into the mysterious crevices of her mind, consuming her surface thoughts and most recent experiences, and feeling what she was feeling. It was a reinvigorating sensation.

As that process went on, Baryon's face fell flat, intimidating. "Do you mind telling me why my men felt the need to bring you here, child?"

Tamah Babbit
Location: Baryon Mansion


The girl looked up at him with large, dull eyes as he appeared. While she radiated nervousness there was no scent of fear in the air. Her body language showed only self consciousness, no other emotion whatsoever. In picking her up, even that left her form as she stilled. Perfectly so, as if he was holding a sculpture or a corpse caught in rigor mortis rather than a person. Even for him she was quite light.

While she didn’t meet his eyes, in probing her emotions he could confirm the lack of fear. There was just an anxiety, not directed at him but baked into her very being and even this quieted and was replaced with an empty resolve at him. Something full, strong, but bare of feeling.

He could see her attempts to kill his servants, and before that could see a tavern on his lands set aflame and dark things tearing a man apart. He could see the answer she gave his men.

“Because they were wicked, and so am I.”

She hadn’t been nervous then.

Still, probing her mind was easy. It was as if it had been breached again and again, over and over, and no longer bothered to shut the door. Much less lock it. Others had entered here, and they had left in disgust or been forced out. This… thing was mad. Her thoughts a jumble, but that word ‘Hero’ thrumming over and over more surely than her slowed heartbeat.

In the present, she looked at his shoulder blankly, and responded.

“Probably… because I do things like this.”

There was little thought in the action, not even a killing intent in her emotions. For that reason, the dagger went unnoticed as if flicked out of her sleeve and she buried it in his neck.

“I forgot I had it on me earlier. P-Please don’t laugh.”

 

[Captain Gabriel]

There was little thought in the action, not even a killing intent in her emotions. For that reason, the dagger went unnoticed as if flicked out of her sleeve and she buried it in his neck.

“I forgot I had it on me earlier. P-Please don’t laugh.”

Lord Gabriel Baryon
Location: Baryon Mansion
With: Churl

The dagger's iron blade forced its way through Lord Baryon's skin, embedding deep into the cold, not-quite-dead flesh of his neck. Blood trickled out slowly, the liquid darker and denser than it should realistically be, for a human. The vampire breathed in, the blood of the wound reaching out from his wound and surrounding the blade itself, like a bunch of demonic tendrils. They seeped into the blade, and Tamah could only watch as the blade melted, the resulting liquid a bright, vibrant red.

The hemoglobin made from the dagger's iron flowed back into the wound, and the hole that the girl had made in Baryon's neck closed up seamlessly, as if no injury had been dealt with in the first place.

"If you had stabbed a lesser man, it would've worked. Commendable," he commented with a smirk, still not releasing Tamah from his grip. He wasn't angry, nor off-put by what she'd just done. Instead, he was deeply amused - amused that a warlock such as she would dare lift a finger against him.

He wasn't disgusted by the contents of her mind, either - insanity was something he was in contact with often enough. She wasn't something to shy away with, but... a resource. There were plenty of opportunities, avenues for information-gathering, subversion and manipulation. He could even use his hypnosis on her, enthrall her to him, or just sire her. But there was no need for that...

She was workable.

"I wouldn't say you are wicked, Tamah," Lord Baryon said smoothly, his voice like honey. His features shifted imperceptibly, until the signs of age were naught but gone. Appearances were important to the fine art of manipulation. He put her down on the ground, bringing his demonic arm back behind his coat, and turned to regale the large window that faced the mansion's large courtyard. "Misguided. Uneducated, maybe, but not wicked."

Baryon took another glance into her mind, savoring the tasteful brand of madness that plagued her. It was immensely nourishing. "I, too, am an admirer of the heroes that obsess up your mind. I think they are worthy paragons of respect and justice. Of what any person should strive to be." He nodded, gesturing to himself with his normal arm. "Which is why I burden myself with challenging them, from time to time. No hero can truly be one without quarrel. People like me - like you, maybe - give heroes the opportunity to be such. An epic hero is nothing without their epic villain."

 

[Churl]

Lord Gabriel Baryon
Location: Baryon Mansion
With: Churl

The dagger's iron blade forced its way through Lord Baryon's skin, embedding deep into the cold, not-quite-dead flesh of his neck. Blood trickled out slowly, the liquid darker and denser than it should realistically be, for a human. The vampire breathed in, the blood of the wound reaching out from his wound and surrounding the blade itself, like a bunch of demonic tendrils. They seeped into the blade, and Tamah could only watch as the blade melted, the resulting liquid a bright, vibrant red.

The hemoglobin made from the dagger's iron flowed back into the wound, and the hole that the girl had made in Baryon's neck closed up seamlessly, as if no injury had been dealt with in the first place.

"If you had stabbed a lesser man, it would've worked. Commendable," he commented with a smirk, still not releasing Tamah from his grip. He wasn't angry, nor off-put by what she'd just done. Instead, he was deeply amused - amused that a warlock such as she would dare lift a finger against him.

He wasn't disgusted by the contents of her mind, either - insanity was something he was in contact with often enough. She wasn't something to shy away with, but... a resource. There were plenty of opportunities, avenues for information-gathering, subversion and manipulation. He could even use his hypnosis on her, enthrall her to him, or just sire her. But there was no need for that...

She was workable.

"I wouldn't say you are wicked, Tamah," Lord Baryon said smoothly, his voice like honey. His features shifted imperceptibly, until the signs of age were naught but gone. Appearances were important to the fine art of manipulation. He put her down on the ground, bringing his demonic arm back behind his coat, and turned to regale the large window that faced the mansion's large courtyard. "Misguided. Uneducated, maybe, but not wicked."

Baryon took another glance into her mind, savoring the tasteful brand of madness that plagued her. It was immensely nourishing. "I, too, am an admirer of the heroes that obsess up your mind. I think they are worthy paragons of respect and justice. Of what any person should strive to be." He nodded, gesturing to himself with his normal arm. "Which is why I burden myself with challenging them, from time to time. No hero can truly be one without quarrel. People like me - like you, maybe - give heroes the opportunity to be such. An epic hero is nothing without their epic villain."

Tamah Babbit
Location: Baryon Mansion
With: Captain Gabriel

She liked that knife.

Tamah stared wistfully at the now blade-less handle while the obvious villain began to speak. As he drank deeper into her mind, he could feel her finally recognizing what he was doing… and a feeling of an apathetic welcome. As if she were widening the door for him, more out of repetitive action than reverence. She had clearly done this many times before, there was the taint of many a patron in her being, yet none were present. Even the most jealous monsters had abandoned this vessel.

After she was placed down, she sat cross legged and watched his movements. This was a prime lesson in doing an evil monologue, she was sure. It was also true she was uneducated, the only thing she had learned was how to read, but she hadn’t touched a text that wasn’t a spell book or fiction story. Maybe she wasn’t wicked, but she hoped to be, or at least appear so. She definitely wasn’t misguided though, and gave a small pout at the word (though it came off more as a deranged grimace on her features).

It was his next words that truly made her pay attention. Another villain had the same thought she did? Well, it was obvious that someone like her couldn’t have thought anything original, clearly others must have come to the same realization. It was only common sense. She supposed if he shared the idea that she could allow herself to admit he seemed a very cool antagonist so far. He definitely seemed like he could be a final boss type, and any fight between him and a team of plucky heroes seemed almost pornagraphic to imagine. Still, she was his captive…

“Where does that leave me, then? Am I going to be punished?”

 

[Noble Scion]

Sienna Fei

Her time in the void had been.. Soul-crushing.

Her time spent honing the art of magic and wizard was being ripped from her very body by the void, her best efforts to move away from her physiology and background, and it was being taken away from her bit by pain-staking bit, she couldn't imagine a crueler fate, yet she was powerless to stop it, floating sulkily in the endless abyss, wondering if she was to meet her end by the hands of an opponent she had never even met.

Yet eventually, a message. Her hope was restored and a smile had even graced her face, despite the rather disheartening news of their enemy apparently conquering the world, but a way back to existence was better than nothing, and she was more than content with a spontaneous flash into existence.

Yet her face, that had shone with a bright joy for the second time in her entire life, sank to something as sour and dark as the void she had just left.

She was in a forest, one that she was all-too familiar with. Many a day had been spent training her talons on wood here, throwing knives, and generally hunting to hone their instincts. Recognizable by a small marking of an S on practically every tree, along with a number of other letters. The initial of many an assassin-to-be.

The owl sighed as she achingly crawled up, drained, but alive, wondering where exactly to head. Her memory of Espania was hazey, her time in the void combined with how long she'd simply been away made it difficult to remember exactly where she was, though she did recall a small shop nearby.

Where exactly? She wasn't sure, but she wasn't about to find it standing still, so she began her walk towards where she thought the road was with a self-motivating coo.

Luckily, she'd been right, and had also fortunately found a shop, thought it was much more sinister than she remembered. "Raven's Arcana, huh?" she mused as she entered, her thoughts drifting to how familiar her face might be nowadays. She'd never exactly struck it big, but her name had floated around on the 'for-hire' boards for a while in the underground. She wasn't sure if it extended to here.

Entering the store, she was met with a strange sight. A person in a very dark bird costume (which she found mildly insulting), a woman wearing a bird mask (again, insensitive), and a strange, smaller woman with an unusual and unfamiliar weapon. Her face glowered at the two shop owners behind the counter, before remembering the risks that she might be recognized and softening her expression.

She wasn't sure what type of shop they were running here, but as loathing as she was to do it, she was hoping to sneak off with some mana and healing potions to speed up her aching body's recovery process. The fact that they were openly wearing such mocking outfits made her feel a little better about doing it though.

"Hi, I do hope I'm not interrupting? whoo are you people? I do hope you have potions in stock?"

June Verles LostHaven

 

[Birdsie]

The attack came quicker than a speeding train. Three blurry streaks of red came out of the branches of the nearby trees, pouncing at full speed towards Averza and Sophia. Two more attackers came from other directions, literally emerging from the shadows as if they were mud, immediately going for the spider and for Claire. They kept their magic use to a minimum, readying their daggers, and exerting the fortitude of their blood to ensure their attacks found their mark.

???

"Now, Ellis!"

A shout rang through the forest, as the assassins left the safety of their hiding spots. There was a flash of white light that revealed an old wizard and a young man with a sword and staff, kneeling down with his palms braced against the earth, silver-white mana swirling about his hands and forearms in an aura flare.

At the old wizard's command, the young man spoke a magical word in some arcane language, and the silver-white light flowed from his hands to form a magic circle under the feet of the Heroes, faster than anyone at the battlefield could react. Its awesome lines, curves, and sigils were colored in purest white and radiated flakes of silver into the air.

As the vampiric assassins burst out of their hiding spots, the magic circle bloomed and exploded with sinuous lengths of silver, coalescing into ethereal tethers and ropes that lashed out at them, intent on wrapping around their legs, arms, and torsos, to restrict their motion as much as possible and keep them in place, like a swarm of constrictor snakes that had been fired from a dozen gun-barrels in their direction. As fast as the vampires were moving in a dash to murder their quarry, they only signed their own death warrant, practically running into the snaking lengths of silver binding magic.

Hanarei Alteras lil_kreen Silver Wolf Captain Gabriel

 

[lil_kreen]

Jaunt Nemesis
Location: The Woods near Caspul
Nearby/Mentioned: Hanarei Alteras Silver Wolf Captain Gabriel Birdsie

---

Location: The Woods near Caspul
With: Alteras Alteras Silver Wolf Silver Wolf lil_kreen lil_kreen

The attack came quicker than a speeding train. Three blurry streaks of red came out of the branches of the nearby trees, pouncing at full speed towards Averza and Sophia. Two more attackers came from other directions, literally emerging from the shadows as if they were mud, immediately going for the spider and for Claire. They kept their magic use to a minimum, readying their daggers, and exerting the fortitude of their blood to ensure their attacks found their mark.

Treetops saw quick movement nearly a smudge of dispersed light as his reflexes changed weapon posture immediately. They were far too close to shoot at with his rifle. A deft hand held the rifle's handle the other pulled the lever to compact it. Even as the heavy rifle took up the course of gravity to deflate the gimbal pistons all talons along his blade arms slip from the sawtooth rungs. A smooth drift backward on his legs not to retreat from the oncoming fly at his person but a creature gaining strike length. Hard talons clap to the edge of the blade arm as he drops his chelicerae between the arch of blade arms to flip out the shine of fangs. A quick reaction demanded, ignores the new threat nearby of oncoming gleaming ribbons for the present threat. A weave to dodge and parry the gleam of metal then flick upward to ram four inch fangs with force that could bisect ribs.

Certainly two things were going to happen: someone was going to get bit, and the nature of armors to be tested. However, vampire fangs would soon find the reason for the layer of panolymph fluid under his skin. The puncture resistant hide under his affect harness a result of his kind that bit each other quite a lot. Small fangs as much as daggers finding their strike may thieve their weapon. Fangs too shallow for blood find expanding fibrous mass make them well-clogged indeed.

Though his safety of the first strike was paramount it was to live to defend the Matriarchs. Well incensed after his strike to the oncoming creature knew he may sprout a new metal puncture slapping a blade arm back to spring free his hammer. A furious metal shadow chased another threatening one as the castigation hammer wheeled about in a long arc behind the one advancing toward Averza and Sophia. A hundred pound hammer of kinetic warfare slid instinctively between the two merciful ribbons to chase one's target. The magical spells may inflict mercy but the hammer most certainly would lay waste in undead sprays until the insides of a creature were exposed to the elements. The arriving havoc of impact weapon frozen in its place only by the voice of one of the false Matriarchs he followed. Matrem Vult.

 

[Captain Gabriel]

Lord Gabriel Baryon
Location: Baryon Mansion
With: Churl

“Where does that leave me, then? Am I going to be punished?”

The vampire lord extended his normal hand towards Tamah. It was dreadfully cold to the touch, but the act itself carried a measure of warmth. She helped her stand up and led her to watch outside, through the window, at his beautiful courtyard. It was full of exotic flowers, trees from distant lands, and animals that were obviously magical in nature. After a moment of pondering, he said, "No, Tamah. You are to be properly educated."

===

Vampire Attack Party
Location: The Woods Near Caspul
With: Birdsie Alteras Silver Wolf lil_kreen Hanarei

"Fuck-" one of the vampires blurted out as the silver ribbons caught onto him. He fell to the ground, convulsing and frothing at the mouth, as the magic bound him in place and shocked him to a liminal state between unconsciousness and torpor. Some of the attacks found their mark, but none were particularly meaningful or bad enough to significantly hurt any of them.

The others, however, reacted accordingly and changed their trajectory mid-air with a burst of kinetic force, which shot them sideways, away from their targets. They had to change their avenue of attack, and do it quick. The source of the magical defense was clearly the boy kneeling on the ground, with the sword. So, all of the attackers converged on him - two of them charging him head-on, while the other two were content to fire invisible bullets of magical force. A hit would leech the boy of a fraction of his vitality.

 

[Churl]

Lord Gabriel Baryon
Location: Baryon Mansion
With: Churl

The vampire lord extended his normal hand towards Tamah. It was dreadfully cold to the touch, but the act itself carried a measure of warmth. He helped her stand up and led her to watch outside, through the window, at his beautiful courtyard. It was full of exotic flowers, trees from distant lands, and animals that were obviously magical in nature. After a moment of pondering, he said, "No, Tamah. You are to be properly educated."

===

Vampire Attack Party
Location: The Woods Near Caspul
With: Birdsie Alteras Silver Wolf lil_kreen Hanarei

"Fuck-" one of the vampires blurted out as the silver ribbons caught onto him. He fell to the ground, convulsing and frothing at the mouth, as the magic bound him in place and shocked him to a liminal state between unconsciousness and torpor. Some of the attacks found their mark, but none were particularly meaningful or bad enough to significantly hurt any of them.

The others, however, reacted accordingly and changed their trajectory mid-air with a burst of kinetic force, which shot them sideways, away from their targets. They had to change their avenue of attack, and do it quick. The source of the magical defense was clearly the boy kneeling on the ground, with the sword. So, all of the attackers converged on him - two of them charging him head-on, while the other two were content to fire invisible bullets of magical force. A hit would leech the boy of a fraction of his vitality.

Tamah Babbit
Location: Baryon Mansion
Interaction: Captain Gabriel

She followed without resistance and gave a curious glance to the surroundings. It certainly was beautiful, a much better fit for the prince or princess love interest’s castle than the villain’s. Tamah cocked her head to the side like a dog at his words. Well, he was clearly a capable antagonist, she wouldn’t be opposed to being a minion. Especially if the Guild might come for him and she’d get the chance to be beaten up by her beloveds. And she did have much to learn, she supposed.

With the opportunistic indifference of someone that signed away their soul regularly with the same level of thought as choosing which apple to buy from a vendor, she took a kneel and stared up at him.

“I a-accept, then.”

It seems once she was out of her ‘villain’ mode, the stutter returned.

“B-By the way, if it wouldn’t be too much trouble, um…”

She raised her shackles and gave them a pathetic shake.

 

[Alteras]

Averza Reyes

LOCATION Woods

INTERACTIONS Sophia, Jaunt, Claire, Attackers, Interlopers

CS

Three beings rushed her and Sophia from the front. Averza gritted her teeth and raised her sword, ready strike down the moment the three arrived before her. If she had her blessing at full strength, this speed would be no problem, but in her current state, the best she could hope for was to hit one, and that was while pooling her magic into her sword. But the moment never came, as a yell from who knows where was followed by bright light appearing from beneath her feet. She watched as the light formed a magic circle, and restrained the incoming attackers.

As they turned to face whoever summoned the binding magic, Averza flicked her free hand, letting a dagger slide out into the palm of her hand. She tossed the dagger towards one of the vampires seemingly attacking someone with magic, before leaping forward behind the path of the dagger. Her sword moved parallel to the ground as she ran forward, winding up for a wide slash. She filled her sword with magic, activating the rune engraved on it for more speed, as sword began its arc towards the vampire.

Birdsie lil_kreen Hanarei Silver Wolf Captain Gabriel

FontsFonts Coded by Alteras

 

[Silver Wolf]

Sophia Gertrude
Location: Woods
Interactions: Birdsie Alteras lil_kreen Captain Gabriel
​

The next few seconds were hectic, as soon as the beings showed themselves, Sophia raised her shield to block some of the strikes. She and vampires mixed...interestingly in combat. Blood arts were her forte, but a powerful vampire could easily overtake her magic should she be sufficiently weakened. The panic didn't last long, however, once a certain old man and his boy toy appeared as if from nowhere. Using his classic silver sorcery, the old man immediately shoved the attackers onto the defensive. With magic support of this caliber, Sophia abandoned any sense of preservation and charged at the vampires with her shield raised. While she did block a strike or two, she felt empowered by it. Sure, some of them didn't need protecting, but she felt as though she had reached a fraction of her normal strength at last.

"Bloodsucking fiends!" she shouted as her bandages ripped open and her blood coalesced around the edges of her blade. With new extended reach, she swiped with the liquid forming an extension of her slash which would undeniably hit at least one of the creatures. Of course she chose that line to strike as an irony. If they liked blood so much, they might as well die by it too.

The vampire hit was the one she began to focus on, wounded it would undoubtedly try to escape, but her shield would be strong, she knew it. Charging forward again with it poised, she moved to impale the creature on its abdomen. The others could worry about taking live prisoners if this turned out to be lethal. Her blade may not be made of silver, but it is a sacred divine relic of her church it had to do something.