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Enemy of my Enemy
Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2022 8:42 pm
by Masagh
74th Day of Ash, 122nd Year of the Age of Steel
“Look all I’m saying is that the goblins could spare a few more dragon shards for us…” Sabrione said, gesturing with her finger. “They’ve got a city full of people somewhere down there, we’re thirty ghouls in a crypt.” She shrugged as if that explained it.
“I don’t see how a crypt of a few dozen undead justifies giving up a dragon shard that is one of the only ways to combat these shadows when compared to a city full of people.” Masagh said slowly, dropping his chin into his hand.
“So you don’t think we need more stones?” Sabrione asked incredulously, glancing down at the one sitting on the table between them. “What, just because you’ve got one?”
“No, I’m saying from the goblin’s perspective, why would they. They know at least half our number are powerful mages, they probably figure they have more lives to protect so its not worth losing the stones. Besides, these are some sort of new material… weird how they first found it as this stuff started happening, huh?” Masagh said, picking up the shard of moonstone. “I wonder what else it can do.”
She frowned at it. “Kind of makes you think it’s some grand prank from one of the gods, eh?” She leaned back and crossed her arms. Cleon grunted a laugh from beside her. “Like they were bored and needed entertainment, so they decided to murder half the world and give the other half this stone.”
“Sounds like the type of mental stuff I’d give the gods credit for…” Masagh muttered.
There was a commotion in the the tunnel hallway outside the library where the three of them lounged. Nearby a pair of ghouls looked up from their reading and frowned at the door. Heavy footsteps were heading towards them, rushing.
“What now?” Sabrione sighed, running her claw-like fingers through the patchy hair exposed on her head. “I don’t want to hear it unless it’s someone come to bring us a crate of these things…”
“It’s not.” Cleon’s deep voice muttered, turning to look to the door. Two of the ghoul who worked the warehouse and Sewer River came into the library out of breath. They weren’t sworn but they were dependable members of House Creth and hard workers.
“What is it?” Masagh asked, getting their attention.
One stepped over, his garb was wet and he reeked of the sewer river. “Gods you smell foul, why bring that in here?” Sabrione growled, covering her nose.
“Pardon, Sirs, Weaponmaster.” The man said, worry creasing his undead and decaying features. “Something’s happening at the river way… We thought we should get someone.”
Masagh’s mind went immediately to shadow beasts, but Sabrione spoke before he could.
“What? Not those monsters?” She was already pushing herself to her feet.
“No, Weaponmaster… bodies, and debris. Clogging the grating.” The worker said. He stepped out of the way as Sabrione stormed out of the library with Masagh and Cleon on her heels.
Cyran and Emerande were just walking out of the laboratory as they left. “What has happened?” Emerande called to them as they followed the workers back to the dock.
“Some sort of blockage in the river.” Cleon called over his shoulder as they hurried along.
When they reached the docks, Edgar was there trying to push a bloody corpse off the grate covering the river tunnel with a long pole. It was not going well. He stood in their rowboat, but the act of pushing against it off-balanced him and he had to steady himself. He stopped in his attempt when they all rushed in.
The small crowd lined the dock and stared. A pair of bodies pressed against the grating, clearly dead. They were covered in dust and blood on their backs, the only part of them not submerged. They seemed like average living citizens. What was more, there was what looked to be the wood and brass remnants of a vehicle carriage attached to it as well. Between these there were smaller bits. A chair, a shattered tabletop, and a window curtain wrapped around a broken street lantern.
“What the hell?” Cleon muttered.
“How long has this debris been here?” Emerande said, stepping up to the edge of their small sewer dock.
Edgar spread his hands out in the boat, attempting to balance. “Been about ten minutes, Lady Creth.” He said. “First was just one body, then the bit of the vehicle, then the rest. They’re definitely dead.” He added the last after a somewhat sad glance behind himself.
“Somebody dump a bunch of crap in the sewer?” Cleon asked, stepped up beside the Matriarch. His arms were crossed and he looked perplexedly from Emerande to Sabrione.
“No, something’s happened somewhere out there.” Sabrione said. “Some sort of earthquake or something.”
“It was no earthquake.” Emerande frowned at the bodies. “We’d have felt it here.”
“What then?” Cleon asked.
“That looks like a street light…” Masagh said.
“Masagh.” Emerande said, the name brought a tone of command that silenced the others. She had reigned in her people with a single inflection. “Please shift and try to help Edgar there clear the debris from our gate. Sabrione, take Cleon and prepare for a patrol. Once the gate is clear I’d like you to take your knights through and investigate.”
Masagh was the first to move, fumbling at his belt pouch for the largest of his amber encased totems. The crocodile tooth. He evoked the Rune of animus and felt his body distort. As Masagh shifted and grew, the other knights hurried off to gather Riah up. When he was fully transformed only minutes later, Emerande nodded approvingly.
“Disperse it as best you can but bring the bodies to the dock. We can use them.” The Matriarch said as the undead crocodile slid into the water.
The sewer water was murky and shallow, only about five feet deep in the center of the cylindrical passage. Masagh used his long scaled tail to propel himself, deftly dipping under the rowboat that Edgar still stood in. He came up at the grate gate.
Re: Enemy of my Enemy
Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2022 8:43 pm
by Masagh
Edgar stared at him expectantly. The crocodile lifted his long snout and tapped the grate latch with it. He was a light of understanding in Edgar’s expression. The man fumbled with the gate latch and the grate swung open slightly. The bars were caught in the arm of one of the corpses. The crocodile opened his mouth and tugged gingerly at the corpse.
It was careful work to bring the corpses intact to the dock. After that, though, he used more force to ferry along the other debris through the gate and along the sewer river to the opposite grate. It was much harder to get their attention to convey his need for the second grate gate to be opened. It took the return of Sabrione and Cleon, who were much more versed in his shifted communication to direct Edgar to move to open it.
Once done though, the debris floated on down the sewer river to be expelled into the sea a few miles along. Masagh decided against transforming back into his ghoulish form just yet. He floated to the surface and turned his lizard eyes upon Emerande and Sabrione.
“Spread out if you need to, just looking for an idea of what happened.” Emerande said. “No need for and fights.”
“Right, got it.” Sabrione nodded and motioned them to the rowboat. “We’re commandeering your craft, Edgar. You stay here.”
The warehouse hand was eager to be out of the precarious craft. Cleon and Riah sat behind the oars. Riah sat in the front and Sabrione in the back. Masagh snapped his jaws at his sister.
“Not you, stay like that and swim on ahead. Let me know if you see anything below the surface.” Sabrione said, making an impatient gesture at him.
Masagh rolled his eyes and slid under the boat. As Riah reopened the gate the sixteen foot crocodile glided through before they managed to get the boat through the gap.
The sewers immediately showed evidence of more debris. A portion of a window frame in the style common in the neighborhoods above was tumbling along the bottle gently. Further on there was another corpse, this one tangled in some sort of canvas. Masagh left it where it was.
By the time they came to the first intersection, Masagh had a suspicion as to what had happened. Bodies, debris from the streets above, and the occasional cobblestone. There must have been some sort of accident that brought the debris and bodies into the sewer. Sure enough, a faint illumination radiated from further along the main sewer passage. He drifted to the surface and snapped his jaws again. Swimming along the surface he ensured the knights in the rowboat were moving along behind him.
It was not long before the truth of the matter was evident. The next intersection along had collapsed. The street above had fallen for about ten feet to the north and twenty feet to the east. The cobbled road had fallen and Mssagh could see the front wall of a house had crumbled and lay strewn across the gap. A Gel’Grandal police officer law over the misshaped drain that now dangled over the wall of the sewer.
He was dead with a bit of iron bar through his torso.
Other bodies clustered in the wreckage. Masagh counted about eight, police officers and civilians.
“Masagh! Any beasts up ahead?” Sabrione’s hiss from behind. He tore his gaze from the corpse nearest him to peer out at the sky above. Nothing. It was oddly silent. If it had been some sort of attack wouldn’t the area be swarming with police and Imperium? Then again, if it was a disaster event the same could be said.
He could see nothing moving up ahead. Masagh crawled as well as he could up onto the nearest large block of stone that had in a previous life been a portion of street. He released his evocation and returned to his ghoulish form. “I’m going up to look around.” He whispered back.
“Be careful!” She hissed back, standing in the boat and glaring at him. Sabrione had the oddly endearing mannerism of worrying with intense aggression. As though he were an idiot for putting her in the position where she was worked to worry instead of take risks herself. Masagh admired his sister’s ability to delegate tasks even with that intensity.
“Always do.”
He climbed the rubble like a spindly pale and black spider, easily reaching up through the rubble to pull his head up onto the street. Illumination came from a few sources. A bright moon shone above in a clear sky. Around him, a handful of dawnstones littered the ground beside or in the hands of dead police officers. It was clear why the scene was so quiet, the responders were dead. About twelve in total. That was normally light for Gel’Grandal. The city at the center of an empire could summon far more at its beck and call, but time under the curse and with the shadow beasts undoubtedly strained all the city’s resources.
The strongest source of light was what Masagh had first thought to be a bonfire in the street. Climbing up onto the street above he saw that it was not a bonfire. It was a woman. Her arm was alight where she lay clearly dead in the middle of the intersection. Her legs were both stone, with tendrils of granite anchoring her to the street so that she was partially upright.
Sabrione called to him from below, the moonlight splaying across her face. Masagh only gaped at her. Then he walked slowly over to the dead woman. She had died with a strained look on her face. Only when he stood before her did he see the destruction arrayed behind her. The stone and granite was trailing from the broken street behind her to her body. In her burning and charred hand, outstretched before her was a dawn stone.
Re: Enemy of my Enemy
Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2022 8:43 pm
by Masagh
She had been an elementalism in life. Something had made her draw the elements from behind her, and still she died. Looking now, he saw that the officers and civilians littering the street all seemed to have either died in that culmination of her failed power or had been maimed. With a sinking feeling Masagh thought he recognized those bites.
“Sabrione!” He hissed urgently when he got to the edge of the caved in street. “Lot’s of dead around here. I think they were attacked by shadow beasts.”
“How many?” She asked, they had tethered the boat to the large piece of rubble and were now extracting themselves.
“Lots, I’d day a few dozen. A dead mage too. I think that’s what brought the road down into the sewer.” Masagh glanced around again. “No beasts up here right now…obviously.”
He moved away from the edge as the other’s clambered up. The street was well lit beyond the eerily still corpses littered around him. There was no one in this residential area, either because of the late hour, or more likely they were all holed up in shelter hoping the shadows don’t slip through their walls.
“I don’t like it, Sabrione.” Masagh said. “Too quiet and too likely some of these coppers will be back.”
“Noted, now go check for moonstones.” Sabrione said shortly, dusting off her armor.
Masagh growled and they all began rummaging through the corpses, careful to avoid the warm light of the dawnstones. Masagh still had the only moonstone in Creth. He wanted nothing more than to be able to share that responsibility with someone else. As they expertly rolled the bodies, only dawnstones showed up, and those were precious few. They left them on the ground where they fell. To touch one was akin to step into the sun for a ghoul, which is to say to touch death.
A cracking and a sharp metallic screeching drew their attention sharply up to the building to the north. In a single motion all the knights drew their hoods up over their heads and drew claymores from their scabbards.
A door, barricaded and reinforced with makeshift planks and metal bits was being forced open from within. Masagh stepped forward out of habit as the one with the moonstone. Though, no shadow beast he had seen would bother using the door. He lowered his sword a fraction as four men and two women spilled out of the building. They were bloodied and carried makeshift weapons.
“Get back, we want the stones!” The front most said. “We won’t let you have them.” His eyes flickered to the massive claymores each bore and the armor they all wore. “Please, we need them.” His voice cracked with fear.
Masagh lowered his blade more, glancing back at Sabrione.
She looked livid at the appearance of the living. Adjusting the cowl to shadow her face even more she stepped forward. Although there was little outward evidence of her undead state, her voice grated like a thing of nightmare. Masagh often put it out of mind, since every ghoul he knew spoke such. But the man took a step back at her words. “Suit yourself, we don’t want those ones anyway. Then get lost.” She waved a hand impetuously.
A few of the redveins moved to step forward and take the stones but the leader threw out his arms and held them back. “Why don’t you want them…” Suspicious colored his words.
“They aren’t my color.” Sabrione said snidely, peering down the street a moment. “You know what happened here?”
“It’s a trap! Nobody take them.” The leader yelled, voice rising an octave.
“What?” Cleon growled, looking around.
“He means us. He thinks we’re laying a trap.” Masagh smirked, then he stepped back to allow them free access to the stones. He even sheathed his sword. “We don’t want these ones, seen any of the other kind around?”
The redveins glanced at each other but remained behind their leader. He swallowed and looked between the five knights. “Are you Imperium troops? I don’t recognize that armor you’re wearing. Are you Inquisition assassins?”
Gods below, the imagination of the masses. Masagh laughed inwardly at the preposterous guess. Beside him the dead mage had gone out, her body a smoking, charred remnant.
“Yea, sure.” Sabrione said slowly. “So you seen what happened here?”
At her dubious affirmation the leader stepped forward and then hesitantly motioned his people forward. They scrambled, snatching up the stones they could see. There were only four small dawnstones in all, but that would be a real boon to these people.
“I own that bakery there, these are my neighbors and friends.” The leader said as though Sabrione had asked. “Are you sent for relief?”
Sabrione’s hood shifted as she turned back to him. “What? Ah no, no. We’re just passing through, how long ago and what happened?”
The baker looked around. “About half an hour ago, they were one of those new night patrols.” He gestured sadly to the corpses littering the street. “The nightmares came from all over. Their witch tried to protect them with her fire and stone, broke the damn street, but her magic didn’t work for some reason. She burst into flame instead and the street collapsed. Then the nightmares were able to rush in and do for the rest of ‘em.”
“Overstepped. Burnt herself up.” Calliope rasped, shaking her head and peering closely at the charred corpse of the mage. “What a way to go.”
One of the civilians near her sputtered and shuffled backwards. “Hey, she-she’s.” He said, pointing at Calliope. Fear was blossoming across his face. Masagh thought he knew what that fear was. “She’s a vampire!”He finally sputtered.
The reaction was muted. None of the civilians moved, none of the knights moved. They all just stared at the man. He stood frozen, clearly waiting for Calliope to strike him down.
“I’ve heard of this!” The baker said breathlessly. “Vampire assassins within the Imperium, controlling it!”
“We aren’t vampires.” Calliope said flatly.
“Using blood magics to bend the will of Gel’Grandal officials-“ The baker rattled on.
Masagh thought the baker must surely not be so well informed. They, of course, knew of a coven of vampires within the Imperium that had a lot of influence, and he had met a few others as well. But more likely the baker was speaking on some folk tale shared over a pint at the local watering hole.
Re: Enemy of my Enemy
Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2022 8:44 pm
by Masagh
“Sacrificing the virgin children of the nobility to control their minds!” He finished dramatically.
“No, we aren’t vampires.” Sabrione explained.
“Either way, we aren’t here to kill you, or take those dawnstones.” Masagh reassured the baker, sensing the point was getting away from them.
“What are you here for?” He asked, turning his gaze to Masagh.
Masagh lifted the moonstone to show him between two fingers. “We want these ones.”
“Why? Why does it matter?” The baker asked.
“Because those ones,” Sabrione growled, pointing her blade at the woman carrying the nearest dawn stone. “We’re allergic to.”
The baker had time to look confused and open his mouth before there was a started gasp and they all looked around. One of the baker’s people was holding up a dawnstone, facing down the street. At the other end of the street, shadows walked.
Everyone took a few steps back and subconsciously tightened in around each other, ghoul and living alike. The shadow beasts were arrayed along the street, prowling towards them a few hundred meters away.
“Shit. Get back inside, everyone!” The baker said. He paused and looked at Sabrione. “Come with us, you’ll never be able to outrun these.”
“We can’t make it top the boat.” Masagh barked, stepping back and drawing his sword again.
“What boat? Come with us!” The baker yelled as he and his people hurried back towards the door they had come from. Sabrione paused a brief moment and then motioned to follow.
“Damn it, this isn’t good.” Cleon muttered as they all converged on the door.
Masagh was the last through the door, and glanced down the street towards the crowd of shadow beasts. He could not count them or really differentiate their forms, so crowded were they. He could make out their dark inky eyes though, boring into windows and down side streets. He stepped inside and was immediately jostled as people moved to close and bar the door.
Looking around, he saw they were inside what appeared to be the baker’s house. Besides the five knights and the people that had come outside, another half dozen were there. They huddled on the steps leading upstairs or in the corner. None seemed like the warrior type. As a matter of fact most of the ones who didn’t go outside were old and infirm or children.
The knights stood clustered together splitting their worried looks between the door and the crowd of redveins clustered in the baker’s living room.
“We should put the stones in the windows! It will make them avoid the house.” One young man said, holding his own up eagerly. He had red hair and freckles.
“Or it will tell the beasts that people are in here…” Sabrione said, her words carrying more menace in the confined space.
“They might have seen us come in!” The red haired man said.
“Or not. They will know we’re in here if you show them though.” Sabrione countered.
Cleon took a casual step. It was not threatening, but it was a step closer to the man. In the still and tense room, it was all that was needed to set the redveins on edge.
“Hey, we don’t want trouble with these folks!” The baker hissed. “We invited them in here because they’re clearly warriors, which can help us. They let us have these stones. I don’t know who they are, but the nightmares are their enemies as well, and those things won’t let any of us go. So we are all allies here…” He made calming gestures at both the knights and the red haired man.
“Boris, if you dangle that thing out of the window I’ll knock you senseless.” The baker pointed a finger at the man.
“We can’t use those things, and you can’t fight the shadow beasts.” Masagh said, his mind racing. “We should work together.”
“We can do alright.” Boris said, but everyone looked at him and no one agreed.
“What do you have in mind?” The baker asked. Sabrione was looking at Masagh expectantly also.
“We can’t let those stones touch us, or their light. But we can fight those beasts from afar if you hold a line here. If they come in, you can direct the light at them and we can find killing strikes, from behind.” Masagh explained. “Just four to hold the stones and the rest can hide upstairs.
“You want us in front to take the hits?” Boris asked, looking outraged.
“We can’t hold those stones, they hurt us.” Sabrione spat at him. “And trust me, we’re the best chance you cluster of meatballs have at surviving that.” She pointed at the closed door.
“I’m not standing here so a stranger can cower behind me.” Boris said.
Masagh invoked the reaving rune and his blade slid free of its scabbard slowly. It turned and the tip raised to the ceiling. The sword was now a full realized pact weapon, the coiling ghoulish faces stark and staring out at everyone in the room. The crossbar was a ghoulish silhouette with arms raised, one side laughing, the other side crying. It hovered next to him.
“We won’t be cowering.” Masagh said flatly. Then he turned to the Baker, knowing him to be the leader. “You stand and hold the line with those stones and our blades will carve up anything that comes through that door. Then we will leave without questions, without further violence, and without the stones. You live, and you keep the things that protect you. We all want the same thing.”
“Why are we trusting these people?” Boris asked, looking desperately around.
“I’ll stand in your place if you won’t do it, Boris.” Another woman stepped forward, her hair in a tight bun and strands falling to frame a young face marred by sweat and grime. Her hands were bloody, but it was old blood. A doctor perhaps. She held her hand out.
“Shh! They coming.” A little girl said from the window in the corner. “They’re sniffin’ at the people.” She hopped down from the window and pattered back against the rear wall. Her bare feet made almost no sound.
Boris slapped the stone into the woman’s hand and pushed between her and Masagh away from the door.
“Knights, swords out.” Sabrione said.
Re: Enemy of my Enemy
Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2022 8:46 pm
by Masagh
“What’s your name?” Masagh asked the woman.
She turned and eyed his dark hood. Her mouth creased into a frown. “Nora. What do you need my name for, vampire?”
“Hold the stone up in front of you and try to focus on it, put your will into it.” Masagh said, ignoring the vampire slight. She stared at him then turned towards the door and held the stone aloft. The baker and two others were shuffling into place and Sabrione and the knights were stepping behind them, crouching.
Masagh stepped back behind Nora. He loathed to be behind an unarmed civilian in a fight, but the only way they could harm the beasts was with the stones, and the only way to use the stones was to have someone else use them and block their light. It was the only solution he could come up with at the moment, and the moment was quickly becoming dire.
They all fell silent as they heard the sounds of wet chewing outside the house. Eyes focused on the door and Cleon and Sabrione’s swords were pointed at it like some sort of huge hornets. The others had their blades hovering overhead. The shadow beasts, or nightmares as the baker called them, were outside in the road now.
Eyes fixated on the door, Masagh was startled when a shape emerged from the wall in the adjacent corner of the room. A huge black head the size of a dog appeared, vaguely like a bear’s. The dark eyes bore into them and it growled as the dawn stone rans focused on it and began to sizzle the shadows of its form.
“The walls!” Masagh hissed, willing his sword down on the thing’s head. With the power of the dawnstones combined with the reaving claymore, the beast’s head fell to the floor silently. It bled shadows for a moment before the thing disappeared into smoke.
They all stared for a heartbeat at where it had been. Masagh looking over Nora’s shoulder. “Is that it?” She asked, half glancing behind her.
Then the entire street facing wall began to ooze shadows. All manner of beasts and monsters were emerging through the wall. Suddenly the room was a chaotic flurry of blades, light, and shadow. A shadow snake coiled above Masagh and Nora, maw gaping to strike. It was only the centuries of muscle memory that allowed him to expertly bring the sword through the chaos and strike its head from its body. He was operating on faith now. Faith that Nora would hold onto the stone, faith that his blade was were he sensed it in the crowded and chaotic room, faith that none of these others would inadvertently shine their beams of dawn stone light at him and incinerate him.
The ghoulish claymore twisted in the air, looking for the next victim. Masagh gripped Nora’s shoulder and she gave a startled yelp. He barked an incoherent word in her ear as he brought the dancing sword down on the shoulder of a shadow boar charging past. He drew out one of the dagger’s at his belt and pressed it into her free hand.
Nora glanced back at him and her eyes widened. His hood had come down in the chaos of the room. She said nothing, taking the dagger and turning back to aim the light.
Their line only held for about half a minute. Then the civilian on the end was pushed back. Calliope and Riah backing up with him. Amazingly, he kept his grip on the stone, even with a bite taken out of the leg. They were pressed into a corner with a clump of others, desperately fending off shadow tendril and claw with only the light from the one dawn stone.
Almost immediately after that Cleon and Sabrione were forced back to back, arms protectively around the baker and another. They fought in the center of the room, a flurry of dancing blades around them. The baker stood with eyes tight shut and the stone held just over his heart. Sabrione was yelling taunts and threats at the shadow beasts, though none paid her heed.
Masagh and Nora were alone then, forced back towards the stairs. He felt a soft body behind him and feared the worst, but when he turned he found Boris crouching there with his arms outstretched to protect a small cluster of others on the stairs.
“Get the fuck upstairs!” Masagh roared, bringing his dancing blade down hard on the giant spider attempting to knock the dawn stone from Nora’s hand. Boris looked at him blankly for a heart beat and then turned to usher the people up the stairs. “Nora, we’re going back un the stairs, come on.”
They back carefully up the stairs, Masagh’s claw still on Nora’s shoulder. His blade stabbed and arced through the confined stairwell as dexterously as he was able to make it. Still the beasts came on. Nora held fast to the stone.
“Masagh! The moonstone!” Sabrione was yelling. He saw that his companions were now struggling to retrieve their blades or fighting by hand, darting the claymores out from behind the bearers of the dawnstones.
He had stepped too far away with the moonstone for their abilities to work. Without thinking, Masagh threw the small shard of it through the room to Sabrione. She reached up and snatched it out of the air mid-thrust with the skill only she could claim. The Weaponmaster elf it above her head and her blade leapt into the air. Twirling with a renewed vengeance, the edge severed the head from a huge monster and cut another in half in the same movement.
Masagh snatched his now falling blade out of the air. “It’s more complicated now. I have to stab them the old fashioned way.” He growled in Nora’s ear. Behind him Boris was panting.
“I’ve got a spear also here.” The man said. “Eltha, take the others further back, we’ll hold them.”
Masagh didn’t bother turning to see what that outcome was. He was now fighting to survive rather than to vanquish all the shadows. He was simply thrusting past Nora and her dawn stone light at any shadow that came within reach. A shaft honed to an edge and tipped in a shard of glass was thrusting clumsily past him to cover his exposed side. Nora was also swinging the dagger wildly before her.
“Argh!” A sharp pain radiated through Masagh’s calf. Looking down he saw the head of some humanoid shadow thing rising through the stairs. “Kill that thing, kill it!”
Nora looked around wildly, spotting the beast below them she ducked and held the stone towards it. It let go of Masagh’s leg and gnawed its jaw in pain at the light.
“I’ve got it!” Boris said eagerly. He thrust his spear and the glass edge cut through the shadows, but not before dragging shallowly across Masagh’s leg.
He groaned in pain. “Sorry!” Boris yelped. Masagh felt him patting his shoulder like that would help.
“It’s fine, keep killing them!” Masagh yelled, paying the accidental injury no mind. More were rushing up the stairs.
Re: Enemy of my Enemy
Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2022 8:46 pm
by Masagh
The rushing beasts thundered up the stairs but Nora stood fast. Masagh was surprised at the bravery both she and the unlikely Boris were showing. Just as the though entered his head and the silent thankfulness washed over him, an inky tendril of shadow whipped out and struck Nora on the temple. She collapsed immediately against the wall.
The only saving grace was that the stone fell from her hand and landed a step down. Masagh lurched back but Boris was there.
“I got it!” The red head said victoriously, snatching the stone up.
“Get ahead of me!” Masagh growled, grabbing Nora unceremoniously around the collar and pulling her form back. Boris, to his credit, did not hesitate. He stepped forward as the ghoul marked pact blade slide forward to skewer the tentacled monster before them. It jolted against the blade and shadow tentacles smashed against stairs and the walls until they faded in the light of the dawn stone. The monster continued to flail in vain, but the substance of its form had faded back to shadow. Then it simply disappeared.
As quickly as the bloody fight had begun, it was over. Masagh breathed heavily and Boris was panting before him, shoulders shaking. Nora lay with the others on the landing behind them. In the corner Riah and Calliope stood with arms raised over the shoulders of their stone bearer, blades floating before them.
After the chaos of the fight the carnage of the room seemed muted. Only one stone bearer had fallen and two others who had been felled in the breaking of the line. Masagh’s own wound was on par with the worst amongst the living. Blood streaked the walls and floor in places, but none of the shadow beasts corpses were there. Masagh reached out and gently pressed Boris’s still outstretched arm down. The man was still holding the stone up and jumped at Masagh’s touch.
In the sudden stillness of the room every movement seemed amplified and brought the realization of sweet victory, wonderful survival. Masagh turned and looked at the still unconscious Nora. She lay with her head cradled in a man’s lap and two others around her. “She alright?” He asked, pulling the hood back up over his face.
“Breathing, not sure other than that.” One of them croaked. Boris turned and bent to inspect her. Masagh stepped out of the man’s way and tiredly descended the stairs.
He slid the sword home into his scabbard and walked to the window. Peeling the tattered curtain back he peered out. “Gone. The larger, ah, herd must have moved on.” He croaked to Sabrione.
The Weaponmaster was pulling her own hood back up and sheathing her blade. The knights were tiredly gathering up. “We should get the hell back home and make our report.” Sabrione muttered distractedly.
“Wait, you’re leaving?” The baker said worriedly, an edge of shock in his voice. “They could still be out there. What about us?”
“Yes, we’re leaving. He just checked, they’re gone.” Sabrione said, turning back to the man and folding her arms across her chest. “And last I checked there was about a platoon’s worth of weapons just outside your door.”
“But you’ll be safe here until morning. There’s no reason to leave now.” Boris said, he had a hand on the shoulder of a now conscious Nora.
“Heh, we aren’t going to be here in the morning, that’s for sure.” Sabrione rasped. “You’ll be fine, just hold those stones and set a watch. Be really quiet.” She waved a dismissive hand.
Nora struggled to her feet as the knights gathered by the door. “You want this back?” She asked Masagh, holding his dagger.
He had forgotten he had given it to her. Fingering the empty sheath at his waist he stepped over to her. “What are you people?” She asked, holding it out to him. Her eyes were narrowed and searching his face beneath the hood. Boris moved up next to her, though he did not seem hostile.
“Eh, don’t worry yourself over that. Lots of other troubles to go around this season.” Masagh muttered, trying to lower his head as he snatched the dagger up and slid it home. Nora stared at him with her narrowed eyes, not looking away.
“Whoever you are, I’m sorry. I should have trusted you.” Boris said. “Thanks for the help back there.”
“Yea yea. You know where they have more of these?” Sabrione interrupted from where she stood beside the door Cleon and Riah were wedging open. She was holding up the moonstone shard Masagh had tossed to her.
There was a chorus of ‘no’s and head shakes. Sabrione grunted and turned to leave. The civilians all stared silently at the five black clad figures who had come to fight the nightmares with them. Sabrione and Cleon waited long enough to see the lack of answer, and walked out onto the street. Riah and Calliope followed without another word to the redveins.
Then Masagh yanked the door shut behind him without so much as a goodbye. Better to be away quickly.
They crossed the street, which was much the same save for the corpses were now shredded and gnawed upon. The now tattered remains lay in silent slumber as the walking dead hurried past them.
Back at the rowboat it was Masagh and Riah who sat behind the oars this time. Cleon had the moonstone at the front of the boat and Calliop[e and Sabrione shoved off from the rubble. No shadow beasts were in the sewers as they drifted back into the darkness of the sewer system. Masagh felt his nerves settle as they moved into the familiar shadows of the sewers. For a long few minutes the only sound was the pulling of the oars.
“I thought we were going to die there, just for a moment.” Riah muttered beside him. Masagh turned to her. The adrenaline had worn off and she was looking shaken. Masagh felt a laugh burst out of him, uncontrollable. Riah turned, eyes wide and a flare of anger in them. For a moment she seemed to think he was laughing at her. But she must of recognized something she saw in his face, because she slowly smiled.
“Yea, thought our asses were going to be fertilizer for sure.” Cleon grumbled.
“Gods below I wish we knew what the hell brought those things here.” Sabrione said, peering vehemently down the sewer.
“Think it’s like this all over?” Masagh asked, dragging the oar back to his chest.
“If not its got to be an attack right?” Riah asked. “Or something from the Gash?”
Sabrione grunted. “I don’t know. No reports from outside the Imperium.” She sighed and adjusted a strap of armor that had been half severed in the fight. “As for the Gash, you’d have to ask Lady Creth, she was there when it was active.”
They all fell silent for a bit. Riah and Masagh continued to pull them closer to home.
“Hey Masagh.” Sabrione got his attention. She tossed the moonstone shard to him. Masagh caught it out of the air and looked down at it. “Good thinking with the civilians and those dawnstones.”
“Yea…” Masagh said, staring at the moonstone for a moment before tucking it away. What were these new stones and why did they have this power over whatever these shadow beasts were? Why had the nightmares shown up?
He returned his attention to the oar. The five knights made their way back to the Creth Compound battered but intact.
Re: Enemy of my Enemy
Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2022 5:31 pm
by Rune
R E V I E W
Lore: 15 total, 6 requested, 9 left over.
Animus: Crocodile form swimming
Animus: Crocodile form to clear rubble
Animus: Amphibian reptiles
Leadership: Forming a plan
Leadership: Using strengths of subordinates
Leadership: Finding common ground
Points: 30, may be used for Reaving or Animus
Injuries/Ailments: None
Loot: 1 Greater Lunicite Dragonshard
Notes: I am rewarding extra xp and lore, as well as the moonstone due to the exceptional writing in reaction to the world event. I haven't seen very many people writing in reaction to it and this was an excellent inclusion. You can write how Masagh obtains the moonstone into your story however you want, so long as he doesn't have to pay for it. Well done!