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The Boss, Part III
Posted: Tue Nov 29, 2022 9:39 am
by Masagh
36th Day of Ash, 122nd Year of the Age of Steel
Masagh emerged from the well entrance tunnel still dripping but ignoring the cold chill. Clambering out into the compound tunnels he found Sabrione and the others gathered there, ringing out their tunics. She caught sight of him and frowned.
“Masagh no dice on that poetry place, I think he was screwing with us-“ She saw something in his face and stopped speaking. “What?” She said. The others were all looking at him, seeing the blood on his face no doubt.
“He lied to us.” Masagh said breathlessly, he had ran all the way home. “Temishi was at the mansion with more killers. He’s the one in charge, not her.” Sabrione didn’t respond. She only stared at him for the briefest heartbeat, then she was tearing off down the tunnel. The rest of the knights sprinted after her, Masagh bringing up the rear.
The dungeon was modest compared to what one would think, with only a handful of cells. The Creth were not known to keep prisoners long. Sabrione and the others drew up outside the cell and found it empty. The door was closed and the lock unpicked. Alsariph left nothing behind to give hint as to how he had escaped.
“Sound the alarm, search the compound.” Sabrione barked. Cleon, Riah, and Calliope ran out of the dungeon. Masagh stayed, eyeing his sister and catching his breath.
“What happened to you?” She asked, her voice low and soft. She still stared into the empty cell.
“I went there. Temishi was there with two who dressed like mercenaries.” Masagh recounted. “Some servant in the yard snuck up on me and alerted them to my presence while I was shifted. Temishi sent more spirits after me.” Masagh grimaced. “I killed them and escaped, but…” He trailed off.
“I think Alsariph is the mastermind behind this, Temishi and the other two called him the boss.” Masagh finished, shooting a searching look at Sabrione. “Did you find anything?”
She shook her head. “Nothing at all. We need to find out where they are.” She looked up at Masagh and her eyes flickered to the cardinal rune on his forehead and then back down to his eyes. “Come on, I have an idea.” She was off, running towards the Grand Hall. Masagh followed her.
“Get me a platter, something shiny.” She barked at anyone close enough to obey. Cleon and Emerande were there, both looking worried.
“Sabrione, Cleon has just informed me that the prisoner has escaped since we last spoke to him. I will fetch my scrying crystal.” Emerande said, fuming with rage. Power crackled from her and all the runes across her body, her soul totems, and her various magic items radiated danger.
“No need, mother.” Sabrione said evenly, snatching the ornate silver splatter from Masagh’s outstretched hands. She had adopted the calm, focused tone she always did when she had a plan. Sabrione tapped the platter and her Traversion rune gleamed with the evocation. The platter shimmered. She drew her ghoulish claw down the length of it, tearing open a window into their own reality whose edges blurred with the slipspace. It was a powerful magic of traversing Masagh rarely saw her use.
They all gathered around and peered into the window. Alsariph stood below them on a familiar street with Temishi. Arrayed around them were no less than nine men and women garbed for war. It looked as though Alsariph Aistmar was giving orders. His face had a colder, more focused look than Masagh had ever seen there.
“That’s the warehouse.” Riah said.
“Yes, and it looks like our bumbling friend has got some muscle with him.” Sabrione said, glancing up at Emerande and waving the portal closed. Her Traversion rune dimmed and they all looked at Emerande.
“Prepared yourselves, we will attack momentarily.” Emerande said, eyes blazing and mouth contorted in a frown of disgust. She reached up and pulled from within her robe a metallic disc covered in runes and with a gem in the center. The room grew colder as Emerande tapped into her impossibly deep well of aether and evoked the power word of the artifact.
Mist swirled up from the ground next to her, the same glowing color as her pale soul totems. It solidified into the form of a woman in ancient battle dress. Her cruel eyes surveyed the room and her unnaturally long, claylike fingers twitched. An ethereal voice rang out in the chamber, a whisper in every person’s ear.
‘Whom am I to maim?” The ghost asked, dark anticipation thick in her words.
“Follow my daughter and her warriors, kill those they go to fight.” Emerande ordered. Then her blazing golden gaze shifted to Sabrione. “Weaponmaster, open a portal to that warehouse and do your worst. No redvein upstart will encroach on the domain of the grave born.” Her words thundered through the room, latent aether making the command reverberate.
Masagh felt the ichor in him burn, pulsing through his veins. His focus sharpened and his fingers twitched towards the hilt of his blade. He drew the blade, the others doing the same. Sabrione was smirking, anticipating the battle rush. She stepped away from the table they huddled around and drew her own blade.
“Knights, with me.” She said. The rune gleam burned again, but this time she tore an opening in reality big enough for them all to fit through. They rushed as one into the slipspace, Emerande’s personal ghost assassin with them. Masagh had never in his two hundred years seen the thing fight. It was an ancient servant bound with strong necromancy to do his mother’s bidding. Now it floated along behind them, dark eyes glinting with a feral hunger.
Then there was another tear, this time opening onto the darkened street. They poured out into reality with their weapons raised. The scene before them was much the same as what they had seen in the scrying. Alsariph in his embroidered coat stood with Temishi in her sailor’s garb. The men at arms they had assembled seemed to be attempting to enter the burnt husk of the warehouse, no doubt to salvage any of the cargo they could find. At the sight of the ghouls and ghost materializing through thin air they abandoned the attempt and began to form up around their leaders.
Re: The Boss, Part III
Posted: Tue Nov 29, 2022 9:39 am
by Masagh
“Ambush!” Temishi yelled. She drew her blade and the rune gleam burned on her arm.
Alsariph pulled a wand from his belt and yelled an order. “Put those undead back in the ground!” His voice was low and harsh as opposed to the higher tone he had used before. His eyes stared at them with a cruelty and lack of fear that transformed his face. With that coldness the pomp and silk seemed a dangerous disguise, rather than a bold-faced boast.
Masagh and the rest charged into the fray. But none could act before the ghost. “Flesh to rot, mind to break, soul to rend!” It’s voice roared over the sound of all else, ethereal and otherworld. It flew into the nearest man at arms like a cold mist. His eyes burst with the mist and his face contorted in pain and rage. Masagh saw the man reach up and run his own blade across his face, blood pouring down it. Paying no mind to the self-inflicted wound, the possessed man turned on his nearest companion.
A mercenary with a longsword stepped to meet Masagh’s charge. He struck with his blade and the ghoul blade met the strike, binding the blade up. Masagh snarled a war cry at the man. Sliding his blade down the length of the longsword Masagh thrust his blade into the man’s chest. A surprised look crossed the warrior’s face. Grabbing a fist full of the man’s hair Masagh pulled him in close and bit into his carotid. Blood gushed and the battle fever was on him.
All around him the fight raged. Men at arms fought desperately against ghoul and ghost. Temishi had summoned more turtles, dark grey ones with long spiked tails and horned heads. Masagh kicked the corpse off his blade and looked around for Alsariph. The man was sprinting down the street, Sabrione running after him. He still had that wand in one hand and a rapier in the other.
Masagh evoked the rune gleam and attempted to enter the slipspace on his own for the first time since gaining the rune. He felt the aether shifting in new ways within him, vibrating through the connections to his astral body. He wasn’t separated from his physical form though. Instead reality dematerialized before him suddenly. It was not like how Sabrione opened portals, tearing them. For Masagh, reality just turned to dust in front of him, like a decayed corpse in a breeze. He was pulled through in a rush.
Stepping out less than a heartbeat later in front of Alsariph, Masagh raised his blade to strike at the elf. Deftly the half-hytori brought up the wand and a shimmering hexagonal shield manifested, rebuking Masagh’s blade. Then the elf was past him and Masagh was chasing after him with Sabrione close at his heels. He seemed perfectly fine with abandoning his defenders to death at the warehouse.
Sabrione lifted her sword and threw it into the air, her cardinal rune burning ominously. The blade spiraled through the air toward the elf. He seemed well aware of it though he did not look. Instead he paused and raised the wand as if to block the blade.
Masagh brought his free hand up to direct his own aether. The torrent burned and the air around Alsariph’s wand fell to dust. Masagh saw the thin bit of imbued bone fall from Alsariph’s hand and through the small portal he had opened. It fell through a cloud of dust into his own hand and Masagh wrapped his fingers around it.
Alsariph Aistmar had enough time to look startled, blinking at his own hand, before the claymore struck him in the face at velocity. The blade slid through him like butter and gore flew. Sabrione stopped running. She paused a moment, staring at the body, then raised her hand and summoned the claymore through the air.
“Good work.” She said, eyes briefly grazing Masagh’s as they both turned back to the fight.
While the men at arms seemed to be no match for the Reaving ghouls, Temishi and her newly summoned spirits were bolstering their efforts. Two more huge fire scaled turtles were squatting on the street at either flank of the line of meat arms and another silver colored one flew above. Cleon and Calliope were weaving their blades through the ranks, attempting to score a death. Riah stood to the side, battling a single man at arms with sword in hand.
Masagh veered off to join her. He rushed the mercenary’s weak side and the man spun to keep both in sight. Masagh brought the blade down hard overhead, the man reflexively raising his blade to counter. Riah yelled and darted in with her own, making a clumsy thrust into his belly. Her blade rasped against the brigandine plates of his armor.
“Back to the fight, Riah.” Masagh barked, bringing his blade down on the man’s skull for good measure. He drew it out of the gore and bone and turned.
As Riah rushed back to the skirmish, the silver turtle swooped down from above, biting into her shoulder and lifting her from the ground. Her sword fell from her grip as her hands shot out to grab at the spirit animal. Without even thinking about it, the rune gleam burned over his eyes. Masagh felt the rage of battle course through him and he stepped forward into the dust made portal. A brief heartbeat of slipspace flashed around him as he was pulled at velocity along the leyline by the aether. He fell out of the portal above the silver turtle spirit and scrambled with leg and hand to catch onto the thing.
His weight brought all three of them tumbling back towards the street a dozen feet below. Masagh could not bring the large blade around without endangering Riah. Instead he diverted the aether, invoking the shifting power. His head began to change, the teeth growing to fangs, the skin turning to scales. In a moment the ghoul had a large cobra head in place of his own, tongue flickering out about him.
Re: The Boss, Part III
Posted: Tue Nov 29, 2022 9:40 am
by Masagh
With a surge of ferocity and animal rage at the turtle for attacking his own family Masagh hunched and bit hard into the thing’s face. The cobra was not a snake whose fangs could withstand a strong grip, hollow and venomous as they were. So Masagh let go before the turtle could shake him free, but he bit again and again. The turtle dropped Riah the few remaining feet to the ground.
Finally free to swing his claymore about, Masagh scraped the blade across the shell beneath him. The edge bit away the turtle’s fin and head. Immediately he was falling to the street. Masagh leapt from the turtle’s back and came down hard on the street, pain radiating through his knees and heels. Masagh helped Riah to her feet, her shoulder a mass of rotten flesh and ichor, but still mobile and able to lift her blade.
Masagh shook his head, releasing the rune-made cobra head and letting it morph back into his own.
The fight was quickly evaporating into a slaughter. Cleon brought his blade down on one man’s sword, pushing it low with brute force. He slid the edge across the man’s neck with the rune gleam. Calliope was covered in blood and had removed the front foot from one of the spirits, cackling all the while.
The ghost Emerande commanded was the most horrific. It had shot from body to body, making the possessed lash out at themselves or their companions. One women lay on the street staring vacantly up at nothing, her grip still wrapped around then hilt of a dagger driven into her own chest. Another had turned to assault Temishi, who had run them through.
The ship’s captain was still standing strong, fencing with Sabrione now. Behind the burnt out shell of the warehouse loomed, black against a black sky. It felt to Masagh like an age ago he had watched the flames first lick the sky and Alsariph was subtly convincing them of his harmlessness. Never again would he allow himself to be tricked thus.
Calliope stumbled back as a spout of flame shot forward from the enemy she battled. The turtle extended its neck, giving chase to its prey but unwilling to abandon the quickly deteriorating line of defenders. Masagh stepped in where Calliope had been, cobra eyes making the turtle a mass of red heat. His forked tongue flicked out as he swung his blade down on the thing’s head. The spirit tucked its head quickly into its shell as his blade fell, thudding into the hard edge.
He dodged back as the head surged forward to grab at him, the large beak snapping. Calliope thrust forward, her blade sliding into the mouth. An oddly glowing blood came out with her blade but the turtle still lived. It squawked in fury and gnashed its beak. As the thing spat blood and writhed in pain Masagh lunged forward, wedging his blade between shell and skull. He drove it home in the gap with a grunt of effort. He felt the grating of iron on bone as his blade dragged through the spirit’s body.
It slumped over and went slack, its great shell dimming. The felled beast was still blocking their enemy’s flank. That is until Calliope went screaming over the shell and behind their line. Her blade lashed out and bit into the backs of two mercenaries. Distracted by the appearance of an enemy behind them, one man turned to face her and caught Cleon’s blade in his side. He grunted in pain and toppled over. The remaining mercenaries broke and began to flee. Riah caught one in the thigh with her blade and he toppled.
Still alive, the man crawled away in fear. His companion, a silver haired Dratori woman abandoned him to his fate, sprinting off down the street. The remaining fire turtle spirit turned and blew a gust of flame towards the deteriorating line in an attempt to kill them all. Ghouls dove out of the way and Temishi spun and rolled back. The possessed woman, steered by Emerande’s ethereal killer, simply stepped into the flames. Apparently the flames hurt the ghost though, because it screeched as no living thing could and flew from the now charring corpse of the woman. It smoked and sizzled and disappeared from view behind the ghouls, though its pained screeching continued.
Masagh and Sabrione bolted after the retreating Temishi. He heard the others turning on the remaining spirit behind him. Temishi was sprinting, saber still in her hand and coattails flying behind her. Her high leather boots thudded against cobbles unevenly as she fled. Sabrione’s sword hand gleamed, but before she could send her blade to take Temishi’s life, the sailor spun and faced her. Her hand was clutched around a piece of parchment. Masagh had enough time to see the spiraled ink runes on the surface before the sailor spoke a single word and and the ensorcelled ink ignited. Cobbled swirled up out of the road around Sabrione, liquidating and twining around her feet. She stumbled and fell, stone shackles forming around her limbs.
Masagh didn’t hesitate to help his sister. He vaulted over her prone form and continued the chase. Temishi snarled a savage grin as she brought her blade up to meet Masagh’s. For every slash and thrust of his blade, hers was there to meet it. The saber whipped through the air with an expert precision even when all her companions were dead around her and the undead were bearing down upon her. It was a mark of her skill that she could do so.
Masagh snarled and brought his blade forward once again. Her skin ldid not matter, she would be felled tonight, dragged down to her grave by those born of it. Temishi bound his blade up and stepped in close. Her thick ork arm shot up and the elbow caught him on the nose. The ghoul reeled back and stumbled.
Re: The Boss, Part III
Posted: Tue Nov 29, 2022 9:40 am
by Masagh
He landed hard on his back and spat ichor from his mouth. The olive skinned Temishi smirked down at him. Instead of gutting him, she pulled a thin length of bone from her coat. Masagh recognized it as some sort of arcane wand.
“You will find my saber between your rotten ribs someday soon, vampire.” The ork said in a calm voice. Her pronouncement carried the weight of a blood oath. Masagh invoked the red wrath of the rune gleam and sent his blade at her heart. But she had already stepped into the slipspace and vanished. The ghoulish blade danced through empty air.
“Masagh, get over here and help me.” Sabrione said breathlessly from behind him somewhere.
Temishi was gone, and with her any chance of ending this bloody business tonight. He turned to find Sabrione trying to pry the stone from around her ankle. Back down the street Cleon, Calliope, and Riah were felling the bloodied turtle together. He stepped over to his sister quickly and brought the pommel of his dagger down hard on the stone.
It chipped but did not break.
“Keep going.” Sabrione muttered, leaning back to give him room.
He beat down upon the aether made stone shackle until the stone crumbled and Sabrione was able to wedge her foot free. Then he helped her to her feet.
“She had a key to the Slipspace.” Masagh said, watching as Cleon severed the head from the fire turtle spirit. The ghouls relaxed their sword arms as the beast spirit fell. Its form deteriorated into ash and embers as they watched.
“You let the Orkhan escape.” An ethereal voice just behind Masagh.
He spun to find the ghost had materialized behind him, her hallow eyes boring into his own.
“She escaped, I did not let her.” Masagh snarled back.
“You were not quick enough.”
Masagh was too tired, too battered to deal with the accusations of his mother’s long dead servant. “You are the quickest among us, Elrathrin. Why did you not possess her first?”
Elrathrin, who had once been a captain in the Undead Empire, just stared back at him. Masagh stared back, mouth in a cruel twist. Sabrione pushed between them, her shoulder passing through the ghost.
“Enough, we return to report to my mother.” She said, dismissing the tension.
Bodies littered the street in front of the warehouse where only yesterday two other corpses had been removed. Their party gathered around Sabrione as she tore another portal open in the air. Ushering them all through, the Weaponmaster was the last to leave the space. Masagh relaxed the tension in his neck and shoulders and let the aether pull direct his feet.
Masagh was still struggling to recover his strength when they stepped out into the familiar crypt-like walls of the compound. The knights gathered looking exhausted but relieved, none mores than Masagh felt. It had been another long, hard night for him. The only one of their number that seemed unscathed was Elrathrin the ghost-killer.
“What happened?” Emerande asked, strolling out of the Grand Hall with Cyran and Parthena in tow, a cluster of lesser sworn following behind. Her eyes still blazed and they found Elrathrin’s gaze before even Sabrione’s.
“The Ork has escaped, but the rest are dead.” Elrathrin said immediately, bowing her head to Emerande. The ghost turned a fraction, eyes shifting to Masagh. “This one let her slip between his fingers.”
“Go find a body so I can show you exactly how quick I can be, shade!” Masagh snarled, his ghoul-faced blade erupting from the scabbard and into his hand. Cleon and Riah quacking grabbed him and pulled him back. The battle rage still burning in his ichor and maiming the ghost would have to do.
“Enough!” Emerande yelled, her voice cooling the tempers in the room. Power crackled out from her.
“The Ork had a rune-bone key to the slipspace. I couldn’t reach her in time.” Masagh said, shoving his companions from him.
“None of us could.” Cleon added, giving the ghost a dark look.
“The elf is dead though, he was the only one who saw the inside of our compound.” Sabrione said. “Even then, he never saw how to reach it.”
“Could the Ork not scry on us?” Emerande asked evenly, pulling the disc from within the folds of her robe again.
Masagh shook his head. “If she had the Traversion rune I don’t think she would have used a rune-bone to escape.”
There was a silences as everyone pondered the logic of that statement.
“Nevertheless, we have an enemy. A capable one who knows without a doubt that powerful undead walk the city. Parthena,” Emerande turned to her eldest daughter. “Have your spies keep an eye out for her. I’m sure the sunken ship will be the talk of the town, not to mention a dead noble. We will find her and kill her.” Emerande said, the words as sure a death sentence as a falling axe. “Elrathrin, you may return to your rest. Thank you for your aid.” An aether surge burned from the disc and the ghost dispersed to mist, and then nothing.
“Yes, Lady Creth. I will inform them to keep an eye out.” Parthena said, staring down her nose at the battered knights. “Perhaps some rest would do you all well, before another situation arises for you to batter your way into a corner.”
Masagh growled and stepped forward to stand in front of her. Emerande laid a hand on his chest. “Enough I said, all of you. We have made an enemy outside these walls tonight, do not make enemies within as well.”
“Yes, let’s go Masagh.” Sabrione said, pulling him back. “Let her think what she will. Come on.” She lead him away, the other knights trailing after.
“I tried to get to her.” He muttered. “I didn’t see any of them leave the compound.” He spat to the side.
“No matter brother.” Sabrione said coolly. “Either we will find her and put her in the ground, or she will find us and we will put her in the ground.”
Masagh and the knights retired to rest, but he found little that day. His mind was constantly filled with Temishi’s grin, and her promise of death, and his heart raged on.
Re: The Boss, Part III
Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2022 6:29 pm
by Rune
R E V I E W
Lore: 10 total, 6 requested, 4 left over.
Traversion: Blink
Traversion: Blinking through a crowd
Traversion: Window
Traversion: Blink is very draining
Traversion: Portals are unique to each mage
Traversion: Hitch
Points: 12
Injuries/Ailments: None that won't heal
Loot: None
Notes: Looking forward the the rest of this story line.