Forums » Fantasy Roleplay » Bloodied Shards IC (CLOSED!)

Isabella stared at Nadia while she spoke. The girl offered no visual or verbal confirmation to the fairy, but inwardly she agreed. A glance was offered then to Ren before she looked at, then approached Geoff.

Having apparently heard her, he began answering immediately. Had he been through this before? Isabella certainly hadn't planned on torturing the information out of him, at least no more than the psychological torture she may have been inflicting on him unintentionally. She paused a few feet away from him, glaring through him with her gloss black eyes.

"Then what of the sorceress? The one who seeks these artifacts....what do you know of her?"

Victi's initially on the back foot as Adriannu approaches, bracing for the earful the chimera woman (who had thus far managed to gracefully dodge giving her name, which just seemed rude to the kitsune) was about to give her. When that was stopped by the arrival of yet another freaking child, one with an aura that smelled strongly of blood, even if there wasn't actually any such smell to her physical body. She must have used it frequently, very frequently, even, for it to stick to her that strongly. What could the little feline child need or even want to be using.... presumably the artifact, so frequently for?

Also, two kids with the shards was.... frustrating. It meant she needed to figure out a general approach to getting them rather than a specific approach. Okay, not strictly, but Victi would be a bit annoyed at herself if she didn't come up with at least the framework of a general solution. Fortunately, so long as this one didn't do anything idiotic like get hostile. It didn't seem like a good excuse, but.... a child so heavy into blood magic was deeply disturbing even to her. Her face showed how perturbed she was, brow furrowed but eyes still held slightly wide, the hint of a grimace coming to her mouth.

"So, I'm no expert, but I'm smelling signs of irresponsible parenting," Victi quips, falling back to her usual defence mechanism against such things. "By the way, Mizz Adeptus," she says with an exaggerated emphasis on the, by her standards, cludgy sounding honourific, "if this is your entire strategy I will adapt to it. Don't mistake me being polite for me being gentle. Anyway, tea?"

As Isabella started her questioning of Geoff, Ren teleported Naida to the same room as she had Drake. Be careful, and let me know when you find him. He’s probably been trying to find his way out, Naida heard Ren’s voice in her head as she appeared in a different cave.

“Well, someone is certainly violent...” Naida said to herself with a slight laugh as looking around at the shattered vase.

The fairy quietly flew out of the initial cavern, confident enough in her surroundings to not need a torch. She paused for a moment after walking a bit down the passage, closing her eyes in concentration. “There,” she sighed after hearing what she was listening for: the sound of boots on stone. Soon after turning a few corners, she saw a faint torch glowing ahead. Considering her options, Naida decided it would be best to announce herself rather than sneak up on him, though she easily could.

“Hey, fuzzy buddy?” she said hesitantly when she got close enough to be heard. She stayed a few feet off the ground and several feet away from Drake, still nervous that he might react violently, like she assumed he did back in the cave with all of the clay shards littering the ground.

Alastor lets out a sigh and leans against a nearby wall. "Guess I'll kick things off then. You've sent us this quest and guaranteed payment if we succeed. We've seen that these shards are powerful, and I understand they could do a lot of damage if they were combined, so I believe no good can come of our enemy's plan. But what is her end goal? I'd like teh know how big of a threat we've got here."

"Frankly, we don't know," Kylarion replies, "I was able to surmise her intent to come here thanks to her looking for information regarding gaining control over a world's manasphere in a somewhat public way, but why she is doing so is unclear to me."

"That said, I know who might be privvy to her plans: A fellow shard holder by the name of Drake Leonardis," he continues, bringing up a holographic image of the man in question from a small device on his wrist, hidden under his wizardly robe, "Chimera, male, mercenary. He has ended up cooperating with the sorceress due to, from what we can tell, a combination of being under threat, careful wording of her intent, and him being... somewhat smitten with her. Lady Jules, you have encountered them both, as I recall. I appologize that I had not been able to make contact sooner, else you may have had the chance to abduct him and gather that information already."

He begins to pace behind the desk, and gestures emphatically as he speaks, carrying on his monologue, "I can, however, make some educated guesses based on Victi Aurora's history. Something I had not said in the message before but is pertinent now and here is that she has expressed disgust toward blood magic in any form many times in the past, very publicly. However, she intends to use the completed vase. From what I know, she did not even look for the locations of the other options she found until she found this one and proceeded to locate this world, suggesting she was not intending to simply collect or destroy whatever world-bending articafcts her searches presented, but wanted one in particular fitting some thus-far unknown criteria."

"Continuing, this means that she seeks a great deal of power for some purpose. She is not the sort to want to rule a world or even shatter it, she would much rather do something needlessly bold and watch smugly as others stand watching, mouths agape. She's really quite insufferable, from what I have heard. There are few such.... stunts, which would demand such magical power and in such a specific form. She could be attempting some kind of massive inter-stellar or even inter-planar spell, requiring an absurd amount of power amplification to strike deep at an enemy. Another possibility, and more troubling for you, would be something to do with the incredibly energy-intensive eldritch magics she has become so fond of."

"If that is the case, it is at best an experiment and at worst she is attempting to... interact with an eldricth entity in some fashion. There is already one nearby, relatively speaking, a Void Leviathan, nearly a billion miles from here, close on the cosmic scale. Larger than a continent, though wonderfully benign as these things go. It was drawn here by the confluence of events the sorceress has set in motion. I could imagine her trying to control it, given both her nature, the amount of power involved, and the shards' natures regarding control of the natural world."

"The last option, and the one I fear most, is that she may be attempting to bind an Elder God. Horrific entities that rule primordial forces and twist reality beyond recognition with their mere presence, so mighty that they leave all but the most omnipotent gods quaking in their boots. It would.... most certainly be a vanity project she might pursue, and would lead to millions of lives lost on this world. I have no doubt she could do it, luring one would be well within her capacity already, and the Vase would let her bend the world to entrap it, creating a prison to enclose it for millions of years until it becomes vulnerable. Assuming cultists or foolish archeologists did not release it first."

He leans on the wall, as if the very possibility exhausted him. "You understand now, why she must be stopped. We do not know exactly what she is planning, but it could be as terrible as bringing about a near appocalypse just so that she can flaunt her hubris," he sighs, "If it comes to that, I will attempt to aid you directly in combat, my vessel is somewhat armed, but not before that. If she discovers my ship, she will likely kill everyone aboard and destroy it to prevent my interference. That said, I can provide you with enchanted equipement, or at least some. There are laws binding my actions here, as well as the threat of the sorceress's retaliation."

She thinks back to that day of her encounter. Her house being destroyed, someone getting completely destroyed, shooting Drakes handwoven he was going to shoot her friend. She had a plan to heal it but before she could Victi took him away. She grips her skirt. "Its not like I didnt try..." she whispers out as she listens to the rest.

"Enchanted weapons? Could you enchant weapons we already have?" She asks as she takes a deep, steady breath. She was also a little upset that no one responded to her little joke but she shrugs it off.

"Whatever she has planned, I just hope we can defeat her. Which reminds me. In my last encounter, my clothes were more or less burned off. That being said, do you have anything that would be hard to destroy clothing wise?" She asks with a small head tilt.

"Lady Jules, I by no means believe that your actions were lacking in that encounter. I am simply saying that the situation was different at the time. Had you been sure of his value in that regard, I expect that you would have abducted him succesfully, and hopefully your allies would have avoided confronting the sorceress beyond what was needed to acquire him" he reassures, "I do not doubt your competence, skill, or abilities in the slightest."

"I cannot do so in the time I have," he replies, "I would need to take them and spend a fair bit of time to do so, even with the enchantery on my ship. If you are willing to be without the equipment for a day or two I could arrange it, but otherwise, well, I like to think I have anticipated your needs, including protective garments, yes. You both seemed like the sorts who would benefit from some additional protections. I have prepared outerwear enchanted as my robe is. You will find them more resilient than even wolfram-alloyed steel, I suspect, and far, far lighter of course."

"Do you have a chain and sickle in your arsenal? Perhaps an old gun even? Knives?" She asks as her eyes began to sparkle. She did enjoy new weapons. "Oh, what are the clothing like? Do we get to pick from a selection or do you have things already planned out?" Questions began flowing in her mind too fast for her mouth to speak.

She then pauses. "I know you've told us about her potential actions but how about you tell me more about her herself. Its always good to know your opponent before a battle even if it's just a little. Sorry if you've already discussed this but I do need a refresher." She says softly as she crosses her legs. "Does she have any ticks? Anything we can use to distract her? Maybe even convince her otherwise for things... you know? Everyone has a weak spot. Even if it appears they dont." She says with determination.

"Actually, I did have a kusarigama manufactured for you," the magistrate says with a smile, "It should be.... very responsive compared to a normal chain, and less rigid in length. I think you will rather enjoy it."

"As for the clothing, it can be adjusted to a few current styles of various socioeconomic castes, and is enchanted to change colors and designs relatively easily, essentially by intent, as I am sure you expect. I hope it will give you both safe passage in... various ways," he explains.

"About the sorceress though...." he sighs, "Beyond her notable skills and talents, she is an interesting case. Understand though that I am no great nemesis of hers, nor do I have significant history with her. I mostly know her by reputation, though also by thorough research in recent years as she has risen to prominence in certain spheres. Dangerous renegade or not, a sorceress with her gifts does not stay unnoticed."

He commences another monologue: "Let us begin with the simplest matter of weaknesses. In terms of physical protection, she has speant countless hours fabricating, adjusting, changing, and recallibrating her defensive enchantments, making them more efficient, harder to disrupt, harder to bypass all of at once, and overall more resilient. Not impenetrable, but functionally so to essentially any forms of attack which would not force upon me a rapid change in priorities. Many people have wanted her dead for a rather long while, yet living she remains."

"Her personal relations are.... not accessible, and I do not condone threatening even the loved ones of villains. That said, she herself does follow certain codes common to the hunters of her home, which afford the same luxury to you. She attempts to be somewhat sporting, though it may be considered cruel. She seems to avoid collateral damage, so I suspect something went wrong with the spell she cast during your first encounter. We did note that she went to assist firefighting efforts along the coastline she ravaged. She is not reported as harming children, and data suggests likely avoids confrontation where they are present. I would not gamble upon it, hiding all of the shards with children may make me rather disturbed by you if she decides to pursue them anyway, but I doubt she would chose to strike at you here, for example, given the choice."

"Weaknesses of personality... she is not the most socially adept, she was not raised with much contact with anyone save her life partner, inaccessible as previously mentioned. She can most assuredly be flustered when not posturing excessively, but attempting to manipulate her in that was is... dangerous. Appealing to her by logic is also presumably possible, she is a person and even one with a very logical mind, though remember that for logic to work the core values of the arguments must be alligned. Her core values are.... unusual to say the least. The same goes for her morality, though if you can puzzle that out I dare say you have me impressed."

"She is a creature of learning and an explorer by habit, so you may be able to take advantage of her curiosity in some fashion, though any ruse would need to be very subtle or very elaborate, I suspect. She takes great care to shield her conventional vulnerabilities, but you are approaching her by means most of her foes do not have the chance to do. This is very encouraging."

"Oh? I haven't heard of that weapon but I am very intrigued! As for the outfits, they will fit to my... um... figure?" She asks as she crosses her legs. Her cheeks lightly blush as She is referring to her large chest. "And I wont have to worry about rubbing, chaffing or itching?! Woah! That would be amazing!" Her eyes sparkle.

"Well if you know me... which I fear you know more than I'd like you to, then most of the time my words are not the best." She says with a little sigh. "However, id still like to try. Fighting is always my last resort. Too many families lose loved ones that way." She sighs as she recalls some things from her past. Her eyes then look up with more determination. "We are going to do our best. Thank you for giving us this wonderful information! I'll do my best to try and not let you down." She says with a proud smile.

In keeping up with the lie, Adriannu beamed at Lisa's praise and quickly picked up that Liliath seemed to be a friend judging by Lisa's treatment of her, though she honestly hadn't been concerned by the other girl anyway. From what she had seen so far, the girl seemed rather timid and likely a crybaby. Ugh, she hated crybabies, crying almost never solved anything, tears didn't bring her parents back to life, keep the caretakers at the orphanage from mistreating her or fill her belly. No if you had something to cry about, then the energy was best spent doing something about it and the only use she saw for crying was to occasionally trick someone into letting their guard down. Oh well, she's have to put up with it for the time being, maybe later she'd could convince Lisa to ditch the kid pointing out how bad it was for everyone involved if the girl stuck around.

It was at that point that the Chimera hugged her which was something she still wasn't used too, but quickly returned without hesitation in order to keep her story intact. "It mostly went well, but there was one weirdo, luckily a nice shopkeeper chased him off and apparently the weirdo was going to try to take me to his uncle's stall to try to sell me useless junk like you warned me about before. But I was a good girl and only bought what you told me to!"

Afterwards Lisa's complete failure to answer the question about who the other Chimera was heavily implied that they were in fact dealing with Victi as that was the only reasonable explanation for it. Definitely not what she had been hoping for, but the child had known from the get-go that it was a possibility. Now the Cathera had to figure out a way to ditch the enemy and ideally do it without revealing the shard. Thanks to the sheath she had made, the shard wasn't visible and by virtue of having it around her neck meant that it would be impossible to simply try to covertly take it from her.

"Sure mom! Did you find what you are looking for, or did you find something more interesting? Oooh maybe a book of bedtime stories for me or maybe mom found one of those mushy romance books." With that, she took the books and put them away after setting her bag down. The fact is that she didn't want Lisa to do it as there was one very questionable item or rather items in there; the blood vials. While they were carefully wrapped up in cloth to protect them, she didn't want to take any risks of Lisa accidently exposing one.

During this the chimera she assumed to be Victi commented on Lisa's being a bad parent and oh-so-dearly wished she knew what that comment was about. Then the enemy explained that Lisa shouldn't mistake her politeness for gentleness before asking about...tea? Why was the enemy asking about tea of all things, yet despite her confusion about this, she made certain not to let it show on her face and instead proudly said that she was done packing away the books.

"Comfort is assured," Kylarion confirms with a nod, "and we have been able to generate approximate measurements to fit you. The fit may not be exact, but it should be adequate and adjustable."

"Perhaps it is important to realize you are not alone in this. If you do not trust yourself to be adequately convincing, trusting, say, this building's proprietor, who is experienced in such things, may be wise," he continues with a sly smile on his narrow snout, "Which enourages me to ask him specifically for further questions and concerns. Raven you may need to wait."

At Adriannu, she laughs. The suggestion that she might have picked up a "mushy romance" novel from the University Library catches her off-guard enough to help break the tension. But Victi is sure to repair it, offering up an insult, a veiled threat, and the implication that she isn't fooled by their performance all in one turn.

Lisa prickles at Victi's snide remark about her parenting skills, even though she is not actually a mother and has no idea what Victi could be commenting on other than the idea of letting Adriannu loose in the marketplace, but something about her face hinted at something else, something that deeply disturbed her. Her. Victi, the powerful eldritch sorceress, who had gone from acting sly, to friendly, to awkward and now to ever so slightly horrified. Her eyes narrow and she's more then tempted to demand right then and there, What the hell are you playing at?

When Adriannu announces that she's safely packed away the books, Lisa offers a hand up to both children, taking Adriannu on her left and Liliath on her right and trying to pull both of them as close to her as possible. "Yes, tea." She agrees.

"I think...I think it's this way." Lisa leads them out of the street to walk under the awnings of several mercantile buildings until abruptly turning and entering a shop with a sign which reads, quite plainly, "Telmarune's Tea Parlor."

Geoff's ridiculously bushy brow furrows as he tries to recall getting any information on a sorceress hunting blood magic artifacts.

"I haven't heard much about artifact-hunting sorceresses lately- other than members of my department at the University..." He pauses, then probably realizing the potential implications of that comment, looks up wide-eyed and waves his hands in a frantic gesture as he tries to elaborate that, "We've got no one looking for blood magic, though, I assure you. This sorceress is most likely- no, most definitely not associated with the city of Telmarune."

Drake's current appearance, a lean, mean, and thick-coated mesh between his normal and shifted form, probably helps in warranting the title "fuzzy buddy." He'd been using some extra senses- namely smell and his sensitive whiskers -to look for a potential exit. He's following the faintest of drafts toward somewhere hopefully outside when Naida finds him.

His head snaps around to half-face her, the beginning of a snarl on his lips. His fully-shifted eyes reflect the dim torchlight much in the same way a cat's would in the dead of night.

"Who are you?" He snaps, because he can't say he remembers seeing a little fae creature out on that gate.

Victi cast a simple spell, essentially a silence-wrapped tube from her lips to Lisa's ear, letting her whisper in private. She quietly growls to the chimera, "I reeeaaaally hope that you're lying about her being your kid, for your sake. Anyone who's child's aura is that full of blood is so careless or cruel that they shouldn't be allowed anywhere near children. It would be a mercy for me to put her down in front of you if you're that irresponsible."

With that, she drops the spell and continues following the other three, though she still looks deeply, deeply disturbed. In spite of using it as a chance to test stories... and maybe score another shard if she does end up going to muder the girl, the blood-bound child does disturb her, not a feeling she expected in the slightest when she came here, and one she was having trouble managing now.

She grabbed Lisa's hand and queitly walked after Lisa. Liliath was trying to think off about a plan,she was not sure if she should join this mother and dautgher act.

-at this point Liliath was pretty sure it was an act.- Liliath decided that it was the best to wait until Lisa said what she was supposed to do.Perhaps in the 'Tea Parlor' they could discuss it, she hoped they would cause she really did not know what to do else. The act would help her getting her mind of that she had told Victi about the shards.

She put her hand in her pocket and felt the calming feeling of her shard still being in it. She kept her hand in there in case she needed to use her shard to protect herselfagainst Victi.

Alastor let out a deep sigh. "So yer willing to offer us clothes and weapons? Hell, I'll take any kind of advantage yeh can get me, but I got to know, can the gear be traced back to you or yer kind? Ain't much good if she can pick out the fancy far-realm knives from the local ones." Alastor draws one of his own daggers as if to emphasise his point. "And if that happens, I can guarantee my skills become a lot more limited."

"As fer other questions, yeah, I've got a big one." Alastor stared unblinking towards the Magistrate, a dark expression showing itself. "Yeh said she won't attack here. I need yer assurance of that. The fact that you're here doesn't exactly fill me with confidence in their safety, 'specially if she has an accomplice that knows their way around. So I need you to say it, with absolute certainty. If she shows up here, will my family be safe?"

"An interesting question indeed," Kylarion muses, "if I can acquire powdered metal, I can use a spell to coat the majority of the exposed composite with metal, which should at least hide them physically. As for enchantments, they are... not of a tradition I think she will recognize , I have found a somewhat exotic style to be most comfortable for me for enchanting. She may notice them to be very sophisticated and different from the local structure, but she also does not know the nature of wizardry elsewhere in this world. As long as she does got acquire the weapons, which I doubt she would try to do, I would be surprised if she could identify them. While they are stowed away, I am willing to say that I am confident that she could not tell the difference. That said, I will see if I can have some appropriate powdered steel sent to me before I leave."

"To address your most pressing concern now, Alastor," he begins. As he starts to speak, he touches his eyes to remove the contact lenses he wears, removing any obstruction to his eyes created by the coloured lenses or the small projections of his AR overlay. Once they are out, he locks eyes with Alastor, the golden yellow of his eyes now sharper, and a fine ring of violet visible at the outside of his iris. When he speaks, it is clear and confident. "All of the not insignificant data we have suggests that she will actively avoid bringing children into the line of fire. They are not valid prey to a good hunter, which she considers herself to be, and a good hunter avoids killing those who are not their prey. There are two other factors as well, and all combined mean I can assure you that she will not bring harm to the people here, even if she were where I am right now."

"Do remember, though that this is within reason," he warns, re-inserting his contacts once Alastor seems satisfied with his words, "If she comes and falls under attack by you, expect her to defend herself with all of the risks that entails. She may avoid collateral damage, but a stray spell or sword strike is as lethal as an intentionally aimed one. Also, please avoid giving more shards to children. There are three child shard-bearers in play, and I cannot guarantee that she will not decide to treat blood-mage and child as mutually exclusive titles if she finds that relationship to be a trend. I do not wish to see the consequences of that."

She listens to all of this. She imagined all these happy faces. All the children here. Her heart sunk as she thought of something bad happening to them. She loves children. She herself had her own secret and holds her chest. "I will fight for these children if she tries anything. Get them to safety if it comes down to it. Whatever I can do." She says with a fire in her eye and determination in her voice.