Legend of Ransera

Posted: **Sat Jul 15, 2023 12:12 am**

One of the most important lessons which Imogen Ward had learned from her years among the dregs and shadows of the High City was that it didn't really matter if a plan was good, per se. Even the most exhaustively researched and cunning plots were only as good as their execution, and even truly inane plans could succeed if executed well. No, the important question was whether the planners were able to achieve the element of surprise. Without it, the best-laid plans went awry. With it...

The smugglers fell to the ground near their boat as Jae's spell caught them off-guard, clawing at their eyes to wipe away the sand, and continued to scramble as best they could in the direction of their craft. The witch waited longer than Jae-Song might have liked, remaining hidden under the boat's rim until she was sure the men were close enough to get a good look, even in the darkness. Then she stood up.

Technically, the form she was wearing as a chimera. She hadn't made many obvious alterations to the base, but she'd done a lot of work on the size and mass for the purposes of shock and awe. As a result, the jaguar which rose up out of the bottom of the boat was almost five feet high at the shoulder, and probably rivaled all of the men combined for weight. What seemed to be smoke curled out around the cat, filling the air above the little boat as the shocked men scrambled to stop themselves before they got too close.

Then Imogen bared her fangs, and her entire mouth erupted with white fire.

One of the smugglers, caught between a demon cat and a man with a sword, chose to fling himself back to the ground, perhaps instinctively hoping that Imogen would leap over him and he could find an escape. The other man, and Nikolas, chose to turn about and try to rush Jae-Song. Neither one seemed, in the moment, to have the wits to really draw steel and attack him; they seemed merely to be hoping they could push past him and leave their erstwhile comrade to sate the sudden demon-beast's hunger.

The witch chose to deny the smuggler that dream. She leapt from the boat like a bolt, a mass of black fur and shadow and flame the size of a small pony slamming directly into his back and driving him to the sand. If it were rock or hard clay, the impact alone might have splintered bones; as it was, he simply lay prone, whimpering and breathing dangerously fast. Imogen chose to sit down on his back, pinning him to the shore, then turned her head to hiss at the other smuggler, who had just begun rising to his feet to flee. His face turned pale, and he froze on the spot.

Meanwhile, Nikolas charged blindly at Jae-Song, eyes wild and wet with tears of shock or terror.

Posted: **Tue Aug 01, 2023 4:20 pm**

TIMESTAMP: -
NOTES: -

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When an incredibly large cat, the likes of which Jae-Seong wasn’t quite familiar with, leapt from the boat, he made the leap of logic that this had to be Imogen. Understanding at least the basics of how Animus worked, it would make sense that this was her…any other explanation came across as either nonsensical or terrifying. This would become all but entirely confirmed to him when, from the jaguar’s movements, it certainly came across as if it was working with him, not against him, and further, it was not behaving like some wild, lost beast. Certainly, if this wasn’t Imogen, he’d be in for a poor time, he thought, once the cat opened its maw and breathed fire.

The smugglers, however, reacted as if they were staring down a demon, which…to be entirely fair to them, this might very well be one. Or, perhaps, another type of spirit out to get them, but the overall threat would be notably similar in either case. Were he just a bystander, he might’ve laughed at the man whose instinct it was simply to have thrown himself to the ground, choosing, essentially, to cower in fear and hope nothing bad would come to him. Which, while it would still be subjective as for what ‘bad’ meant, Jae-Seong, at least, didn’t plan to massacre everyone here.

The other two, however? Their plan was to try and rush past the swordsman, likely gambling on the assumption that Jae could only stop one of them– but this was foolish. The ridiculously large cat leapt from the boat from which it lurked, soaring through the air over the man on the ground and landed onto one of those that had chosen to flee. With the man on the ground being thoroughly intimidated once one of his comrades was pinned, it would appear that Imogen had those two thus handled.

That would leave Nikolas, who, it would appear, was still of the mind to flee. Again, Jae-Seong had little desire to kill the man, at least, not before they had time to interrogate him. Undoing that which held his sheathed sword to his hip, he’d wield the thus blunted blade that way, and while this made the weight of it significantly off, it really wasn’t that terribly big of a deal for him– at least, not in this scenario. Hitting the man in the gut with his sheathed blade, the wind would be knocked out of him in the same motion that Jae-Seong called upon elemental wind to fully cause the man’s keeled over stumbling to result in him faceplanting in the sand. And finally, to prevent him from standing, he’d call upon the elements again, willing the sand to shift beneath Nikolas any time he’d try to get up.

Looking down at the clearly mortified man, “...relax. I don’t seek your death, but further resistance might provoke it,” he’d start.

“Rather, what interests me more are your contacts, those with whom you work; tell me of those on the ship.” He spoke calmly, almost casually, his expression not much different; it’d be clear enough in his demeanor, though, that he was completely serious– further resistance meant mortal harm.

- - -

'Thoughts'

"Synskrit Tongue/Speech"

"Common Tongue/Speech"

"Inandoth Tongue/Speech"

Posted: **Thu Aug 03, 2023 7:37 pm**

"Call off your demon!" Nikolas whined, "Sky guard, yes? Sky guard? I am known to the officers, an informant!"

One of the men the transformed Imogen was sitting on lifted his head and cursed in Kathalan. The other had simply gone limp, though Moon could not see if it was from fear or something else. The huge cat on top of them, having determined that no further displays of terror were needed, was simply toying with one smuggler's hat batting it back and forth with a paw.

"I am unwilling accomplice!" the peddler continued to babble, his alibis beginning to conflict with one another. His blathering protestations were cut short by the sudden sound of gunfire whizzing over the night.

Bang!

Bang!

Imogen ducked as the bullets began flying, whirling around on the lake without regard for how she was trampling the smugglers, eyes wide, looking for the source of the gunshots. A moment later, a huge, round shield materialized between the lake and the cat- then another, and another. A dozen of them blossomed into being, and the explosions and faint aerial sounds of the projectiles were replaced with hammering noises as caster shells slammed into enchanted metal.

The cat looked back at Moon (and Nikolas, who looked like he may have just voided his bowels) and suddenly spoke, shouting, "Sniper, Moon! Get him out of here!"

It was one thing to fight men armed with short-range guns and basic caster shells, but if the smugglers had an Imperial Sniper it meant that he could kill anyone on the edge of the lake, and magic only got you so far; even if you could deflect the projectiles, it just took one you didn't see. Imogen thought, at first, that the sniper must have missed everyone... but as she pulled up a paw, she realized that there was blood all over it. It seemed he'd aimed to kill his own comrades first.

Posted: **Sat Nov 04, 2023 8:05 pm**

Review

Moon Jae-Seong

Points: 10, skill debt
Injuries/Ailments: nothing noteworthy
Loot: 50gp

Imogen Ward

Points: 10
Injuries/Ailments: nothing noteworthy
Loot: 50gp

Notes: Nikolas is presumably secured, so I split his bounty. Sorry this one got away from me so badly!

Legend of Ransera

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