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She nods. "I'll try to mention the demon thing then." She smiles softly as she sees the scene changing. It kind of reminded her of her first home town. She lightly smiled in memory before she knits her brows as she gets lost in thought.

She was snapped back to reality when she hears Alastor. "Oh? This place seems like... well like you made a lot of fond memories." She says softly before seeing the kids. She smiles warmly as she watches them. "They are little cuties..." she says softly as she follows Alastor.
Misc other (played by Avitrathephoenix) Topic Starter

In the orphanage

Kylarion stops in the middle of turning a page as voice buzzes his inner ear: "Sir, we've picked up the energy signature of the shard holder known as Jules approaching your location. Sat-cams confirm she is accompanied by the building's proprietor and the female chimera's familiar. That is all."

He looks up toward his gracious host and politely says, "It seems your employer has returned, and with guests, as expected. The cat may put on the same act you do, just so you are aware."

Any decision of other action would be left up to the person across from him in the study.
Misc other (played by Avitrathephoenix) Topic Starter

At the Gate

Geoff was.... a bit suspicious with Isabella's phrasing, but let it slide. The master-apprentice relationship at, say, the academy in Telmarune, tended to encourage a near familial level of comfort, so claiming to study alone would be unusual to say the least, and more likely worrying and requiring review of the teacher's technique and behavior. Out in the rest of the world, though, those may not be the expected standards. The fairy, though, spoke eagerly and earnestly enough that either she knew both of them as closely as Ren had claimed, or she was an exceptionally good fibber. Either way, there were already people in the city who were far less trustworthy, so it probably couldn't hurt. Worst case, he'd keep an eye on them.

Not letting his smile slip in the slightest, he replies, "alright, alright. An elementalist with the mojo for water and a generalist with an interest in necromancy then... hey, if you two are at all interested, I'd be willing to help vouch for you at the academy. Standing offer, we like people who know enough to learn a lot, you know? It's normally pricey, but enough skill and you can usually make back more than the cost. Anyway, other than that spellbook, which is pretty rad, by the way, enchanted spellbooks are always cool, do you have any magic items we should be aware of? Wands, amulets, potions, reagents for anything like that? The Inquisitor's going to want a complete list, so it's probably better if I have it and can tell them myself, cut down your stress a little."

"Oh, but mister Geoffrey, stress and discomfort lead to so much more... truthful stories than comfort. A mind under stress cannot keep its web of lies from tangling," comes a new, immediately annoyingly self-important voice. A man in well made travelling leathers with an elegant hat lowered to cover his eyes emerges from the shadows under the arch of the gate. He lifts his head to stare down his knows at the girls, fairy, dog, and wizard, his icy gaze as sharp as the rapier at his hip, the crossbow bolts in the quiver on the other, or the furred ears that extended from the sides of his head. "On behalf of high Inquisitor Thalia, visitors, consider yourselves.... suspicious."
Raven (played by DazzlingDragon)

Raven cocks her head to the side, confused, but agrees to abide by Alastor's request with a bemused smile and nod. She likes to make mischief, not enemies.

When they reach the orphanage, Raven slows to a slinking sneak, trying to avoid catching the eyes of the children. That is, until she caught a whiff of a familiar scent...

She freezes; her jaw goes slack as she takes a deeeep breath to make sure her senses aren't deceiving her. They aren't, the scent she eagerly matches to a friendly face is as clear as a sweet summer day.

A bounce springs into her step as she turns to face the others, her eyes wide saucers as she grows a positively radiant smile. "That fox is here! Oh my goodness ohmygoodnessyes!"

She scampers, meowing incessantly, around the building in search of an easy way in. An open window, a hole in the wall, anything. If the place is surprisingly well-patched, she scampers back to Jules and Alastor, waiting for one of them to open the door.

"You're gonna like him, her...them? I can't remember, but this guy has good food. Trust me, you're gonna love this as long as no one smashes the place..." Her eyes narrow. She swings her head left and right as if another Neo will pop out of nowhere and wreak havoc with his insane powers.
Ren (played by The)

Ren addressed the newcomer first, “Trust me, Inquisitor, we have no lies for you to untangle.” Then she turned back to Geoff, “And I have an amulet to aid in my elemental magic.” She took off said amulet and held it up for the magician to see. She glanced over at Naida. Truthfully, Ren had no clue what the fairy might be carrying. She had a tendency to collect things, but Ren was sure if any of it was magic, Naida wouldn’t really know anyway. She wasn’t even sure if Naida realized the shard was magic, so at least she wouldn’t be lying if she answered “no” to the question.
Her eyes light up more. "A fox you say?" She asks as she looks around. A whole barrage of new scents fill her nose. "Well, I am certain I will not know a soul here... personally I should say." She says as she looks around. She stretches as they arrive. She felt a little uneasy at how revealing she was in front of kids but it was too late to change. That and she didnt really feel like changing. She looks at Alastor. "Are we ready?" She asks softly.
"Yep, haven't been to it myself..." Just before they speed away, he says, "Hey, I set up some snares in the woods, hopin' we could check them later?"

They come across a target in due time; some pretty well-off looking merchant and his wife heading a small train of supplies to sell. Drake asks Victi to slow the bike as he slips a newly enchanted dagger out from under his coat. He makes eye contact with the driver as he aims...then he sends the blade flying at the reins of the horse.

The enchantments do their work and set the beast of burden free. The lead carriage crashes to a halt; the driver tumbling over and hitting the ground. The rest of the caravan stops; guards tense up, drawing their weapons. Passengers peer outside, confused. Upon sighting a grinning chimera and fox-like being the likes of which they'd never seen, the merchant and his wife duck back into hiding. At some unseen signal, the guards cluster around their carriage in a pointed formation, each one taking a stance with spears aimed out like a barrier of wooden stakes. And to Drake and Victi, they're about as threatening as such.

Victi tries the whole, "Give us what we want and no one gets hurt" spiel while Drake draws another dagger and shapeshifts his other arm behind his back. His boss's reasonable request hits about how they expected; a man who presents himself as the lead guard signals for his spearmen to advance.

Drake lunges, dodging and slicing spears apart with his claws while Victi does what she seems to do best: illusions, kicks, and snarky remarks, mowing over the spearmen to search a bruised, cowering coach driver for a map.

It doesn't take much to wrestle the head guard's side-arm away from him: a handsome-looking broadsword. This blade isn't quite up to the standards of Drake's old weapon, but it'll do. He hops on top of the wagon and swings down to block the exit, cornering the man and his wife. Brandishing a sword in one hand and a handsome set of claws on the other, he greets them with a swathe smile.

The merchant's hands, fat fingers curled around a small dagger Drake isn't worried about, tremble. "What do you want from us?"

"Your wife looks pretty nice..." he drawls.

"What-!?"

"...but I'll take some money too." They didn't rob the caravan for money, he thinks, but it wouldn't hurt to snatch some while they're here. He holds out his hand. The merchant and wife flinch as he flexes his talons. The poor woman looks about to faint.

"Hey, I was kidding about your wife. Taking her, I mean; I never lie about a pretty lady." He winks at her as the merchant hands him a sack of coin. "Thanks!" He hops off and backs up away from the caravan, toward the trees and also nearer to the Shriker. "Hey, Victi!" He waves with both the new sword and the small sack. "How are you doin' over there?"
Victi Aurora Silverfur (played by Avitrathephoenix) Topic Starter

"We might come back, I remember places pretty well," Victi replies to him as they speed off, "Not a bad way to get food."

At the end of the raid

Most of the guards had their hands over their ears and their eyes squeezed shut by the time Drake was getting ready to go, assaulted by awful sounds and flashing lights, only faintly audible or visible outside of the areas they were meant to impact. Suppression spells weren't her specialty, but they were usually pretty effective anyway. The one exception was a semi-competent spellcaster the merchants had hired, who was looking exhausted as he tried to strike Victi with any spell he could muster, each time finding it disrupted and/or blowing up in his face. Seeing that her hireling had gotten what they came for, Victi gave one last vicious kick to the lesser mage's stomach, knocking the wind out of him, and bounded back to her hoverbike.

"That was fun," she sighed happily as they got to some distance from the caravan, "Always nice to strike like lightning and leave like thunder... Anyway, just to let you know, any more jokes or threats of the kind of violence you suggested to the lady and I'll castrate you and force feed what I cut off, okay? okay. Anyway, let's pull over and take a look at that map. What was the name of that city again?"

Under a minute later, they teleported to an area of forest within sight of the walls of Telmarune. After stashing the Shriker in a pond (she promised it would be fine underwater) and Victi adopting her previous chimera disguise, they proceeded toward the city on foot....
rolled 1d6 and got a natural 1.
Isabella's eyes met with Geoffrey's as he casually mentioned her spellbook again. It was something that made her uncomfortable for reasons beyond her grasp. Mentioning an interest in it could mean an interest in taking it....which was something she avidly resisted even in theory.

She pulled her hand back and let the mantis crawl onto one shoulder while she watched him speak. It was an easy distraction from her tomb, she thought, being it was the only other magical artifact she had. She reached into the book and pulled out the shard she had found, holding it grasped in one hand while tightly clutching her book with the other.

"All I have is thi-" was all she managed, extending her arm out halfway towards the guard before she cut herself off at the new arrivals intrusion. Her head snapped to him and she stared skeptically, almost fearfully as this man sauntered in. She retracted her arm and, still holding the shard, used it to press against her tome.

Being accused of being suspicious only made her apprehension worse, and unsure of what to say or do, Isabella could only search for guidance. She looked over to Nadia, wondering what it was the fairy would do in response to this odd man.
Naida (played by The)

Naida did not like the newcomer. She grew quiet when he approached, watching carefully and hoping she wouldn’t have to address him. Much like a toddler, she moved closer to Isabella, mostly for her own protection and partially in case the strange man tried to hurt her new friend. She briefly remember her own magical artifact, and saw Isabella had her shard out. Naida knew she really shouldn’t mention blood magic and shards to the Inquisitor, but she also really couldn’t lie. Maybe the man would just let them study. She pulled her shard from her pack. Feeling Isabella’s eyes on her, Naida cleared her throat and said calmly, “Sir, I have this shard, which I’m sure has some sort of magic, but all I want to do is go to the library for some research.”
Isabella's eyes watched Nadia carefully while she proceeded. She could see the apprehension in her movements and this only further fueled her own discomfort with the stranger. Still, if she was going to show her shard, Isabella figured she should too.

She looked back at the man tentatively and held up her own shard with a step closer to Nadia, almost pulling the husky along as he stepped with her insistent on having close personal contact with the girls hip. The reluctance she felt he picked up on, and he watched the stranger intently awaiting their next move.

"I found one too," she claimed quite timidly, not yet willing to say anything further.
Misc other (played by Avitrathephoenix) Topic Starter

At the gate

Geoff's had put on a pair of glasses just before the inquisitor had arrived, spectacles which helped make magic semi-visible to normal vision. Looking in the general direction of Isabella's book, he had assumed from what she had said about her parents that it was a) a hereditary relic and b) the reason for their coming to the grand library. He had been just about to tell the inquisitor that when the fairy and then the girl pulled out.... very quiet artifacts, but obviously blood magic when shown so plainly. His eyes widened and he stumbled back, with a quiet, "woah, okay, that's not good," visibly unnerved.

The inquisitor who had arrived raised an eyebrow and smiled slightly. He couldn't sense the magic on them, that was not his skill particularly, but he knew what they were. The High Inquisitor's carriage had arrived earlier in the day with a (very, very) strange girl carrying a similar object. He and his brethren had been informed of what it was, and now what should come before him but another pair of these objects. More blood mages.

"You will give me those pottery fragments, the amulet, and the spellbook at once before submitting yourselves to holy sanctions of arrest," the inquisitor declares, withdrawing a holy symbol from one of the pouches on his belt, "You will then be transported to detention at the Hall of the Inquisition. Any resistance will be met with magical binding or lethal force, as you both now stand accused of blood magic and consorting with evil. You will be tried fairly by divination and truth-seeking enchantments, overseen by a justice approved by the church, and also overseen by High Inquisitor Thalia once she has returned from her current errands. Do you understand?"

The guards nearby began to move to surround them, polearms readied. Geoff, for his part, seems sad and a little worried for them, but says, "Hey, if you just found those things and aren't crazy blood mages, this will all be over quickly enough, in the good way, and you'll already be pretty much at the library. I'll vouch for you, too. Just go along with it for now and it should all be cool. We've just gotta be careful with blood magic here, it isn't just a 'misunderstood' magic like necromancy, and we had a nasty cult here in Telmarune a couple times before. Huge mess with those guys."
Isabella retracted her hand as the strange man seemed to start lecturing her, instructing her to hand over the artifacts and submit to arrest.

While the innate fear of being detained was strong, there was one thing that was stronger. Beating wildly into her subconscious was a panic at losing the Maleficis Mihi, and immediately she started stepping backwards.

Lucas stepped in front of her, immediately barking and growling at the man defiantly, clearly prepared to defend the group without fear.

"You can't have my book!" Isabella shouted wildly, "It's mine not yours and you can't have it!" she shouted, still stepping back and looking about at the now approaching army. The logic in her mind which told her attempting to keep the book would get her killed was easily drowned by the emotional demand to keep hold of it.

She would continue stepping backward slowly, her dog standing now intentionally between her and this wizard demanding she submit to him barking and growling wildly at him.
rolled 1d100 and got a natural 75.

Note: 1-50 no effect; 51-100 darkness activates

Urug (played by frostwyrmm)

Urug smiled. "My my, it's not often I get to entertain so many guests in such a short time span. I suppose I have you to thank for this, Kylarion. Shall we?" Standing up, Urug headed for the entry hall to meet his old friend, as well as some new acquaintances. He also took the chance to take a deep breath and don his usual persona, taking on the slow drawl and slouched stance required of it. "Let's see what kind of lot we got here."

Reaching the entry, Urug spotted the figure of a cat sitting in a nearby windowframe. "Oi! Wot do you think you're doing there?" He took a few steps towards the cat before the door burst open, a familiar figure rushing through it and straight into him.
Alastor Kain (played by frostwyrmm)

Alastor gave a proud smile. “That’s right! A lot o’ clever kids have come through this place. Don’t know what I’d do without my little family here.”

Alastor’s smile changes to confusion on seeing Raven’s rush to enter the building. Seeing Raven jump to a nearby open windowsill and hearing her say her part, he hurriedly moved inside to find who was there, skipping past the excited children that moved towards him. His mind hung on Raven’s mention of things being smashed, his thoughts drawn to the scene he met when he and Jules first banded together. Damn it, if she’s touched a single person in here, I’ll kill her myself!

Bursting through the front door, Alastor prepared himself for the worst. What he hadn’t expected was for his old friend to be ahead of where he usually stood. Colliding with the imposing orc, Alastor fell backwards with a thud. “Urug! Good, ye’r alive! Listen, if anyone else is here, tell me now! We might have trouble!”
She prepared for the worst as she followed them. Luckily she didnt change into her demon form, however she bumped into Alastor in the rush of things after he ran onto the Orc. She fell to the floor on her rump with a thud before standing back up brushing herself off. She rubs her bottom. "Ouch..." she whispers more so to herself as she looks around to see if there was anyone around that she recognized from that day. She tucks some hair behind her ear as her emerald green as then trail to the pair in front of her. She smiles a little.
Misc other (played by Avitrathephoenix) Topic Starter

At the orphanage

Kylarion strode calmly toward the entrance of the orphanage, watching the small chaos unfold. Catching sight of the small dark-furred form eagerly pawing at the window all was explained.

"Hello again, Raven. What a pleasant surprise to meet you again so soon," he says to the cat as he moves to stand next to Urug.

He turns to the two others who had stumbled in through the door, calmly greeting them with, "I am glad that the two of you have finally arrived. Alastor, I am very appreciative of the hospitality your people have shown, it provides a very good place for us to discuss the matters at hand. Beyond the situation you know of, mister Urug and I have just come from the guest room you keep with some interesting discoveries which, if you know of them or not, are certainly worth speaking of. And, of course, I come bearing what aid I can give you for the... issue of the sorceress."
Victi Aurora Silverfur wrote:
"We might come back, I remember places pretty well," Victi replies to him as they speed off, "Not a bad way to get food."

At the end of the raid

Most of the guards had their hands over their ears and their eyes squeezed shut by the time Drake was getting ready to go, assaulted by awful sounds and flashing lights, only faintly audible or visible outside of the areas they were meant to impact. Suppression spells weren't her specialty, but they were usually pretty effective anyway. The one exception was a semi-competent spellcaster the merchants had hired, who was looking exhausted as he tried to strike Victi with any spell he could muster, each time finding it disrupted and/or blowing up in his face. Seeing that her hireling had gotten what they came for, Victi gave one last vicious kick to the lesser mage's stomach, knocking the wind out of him, and bounded back to her hoverbike.

"That was fun," she sighed happily as they got to some distance from the caravan, "Always nice to strike like lightning and leave like thunder... Anyway, just to let you know, any more jokes or threats of the kind of violence you suggested to the lady and I'll castrate you and force feed what I cut off, okay? okay. Anyway, let's pull over and take a look at that map. What was the name of that city again?"

Under a minute later, they teleported to an area of forest within sight of the walls of Telmarune. After stashing the Shriker in a pond (she promised it would be fine underwater) and Victi adopting her previous chimera disguise, they proceeded toward the city on foot....

Drake nods fervently while sheathing the sword and pocketing the money; it's been awhile since he'd pulled a robbery. This is a bit of a welcome change to routine, until Victi explains she's not a fan of his humor with a particularly graphic threat, delivered so nonchalantly he doesn't process it right away. By the time it hits, all he can do is chuckle nervously, trying to pretend as usual that she doesn't scare him.

The chimera is quiet as they mount the bike, teleport, hide the Shriker, and then make their way to one of Telmarune's six Gates. He wonders to himself if the library visit will give him a good excuse to split for awhile. He hears it's a massive building, after all, with halls built tall and wide enough to house dragons.
Victi Aurora Silverfur (played by Avitrathephoenix) Topic Starter

As Victi and Drake walk up to the gate, one of the guards on duty gives them a quick look up and down and says, "Sorry, you won't get in this way. Not until a wizard gets a look at you."

Victi blinks a couple times, shoked at this person's bolness. She decides to play along, though, putting her hands on the illusions over her hips and raising one eyebrow bemusedly.

"Well then, where is a wizard who could check us over," she asks snarkily, "nearby, I hope, I'm not in the mood to wait."

Surprisingly, the guard is somewhat helpful as he says, "Some big deal with the people over at the eastern gate happened, so he's there. You want in quick , you may as well walk over there for it."

Victi seems grumpy about this, her ears flattiening slightly as he explains the issue. Once he's done, she shrugs, muttler something like 'alright', and start walking int the indicated direction.

Hey, maybe this would be where something interesting was in progress, she wouldn't mind having some more fun after that carravan...
Adriannu (played by Katia)

Adriannu smiled and nodded at his words before assuring him that she'd be able to carry it. "I can handle it and I only have to carry it back back to my parents and then they'll take care of it." It was at this moment that she caught notice at the men "looking" at the wickerware and decided to try warding him off lest he got any funny ideas. So she started telling a story about how her father had given her a new knife as a birthday gift, but had also made her practice how to fight a man to defend herself if need be, taking special care to mention where she would target in such a situation.

After which the merchant started talking about how the goods became less day to day the further down one went the market til you eventually ended up with witches selling potions or sleazy men sending their nephews to lure little girls to buy the results of their corpse looting. It was then that he shouted at the man next to her, telling him that she had no interest in his shady jewelry or magic bows. At this she looked up at him appreciatively before commenting on the fleeing nephew. "Oh so that was what he was up to. I thought he was going to try to mug me after I walked away from your stall. Anyway sorry about that knife talk, I just wanted to give him something to think about so he'd hopefully leave me alone."

Following this, the merchant started to whisper saying that while he normally liked to up charge and barter, he'd just let her have the normal price since she had been interesting enough." At this, Adriannu smiled before whispering back. "You drove a really hard bargain sir, had to put some good work in to get an appropriate price I did." Thus making it clear that his secret about giving her an easy time would be kept safe and indeed he kept his word as well.

Once the transaction was finished, the child paid him before thanking him. Afterwards, she quickly grabbed the bag and ran off to go talk to the next merchant to get some rope, a tinderbox and a few canteens. Once that was done, all she needed was some fresh linen and she'd be done shopping.

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