A Dream of Quiet (IC)

[Scarlet Dragon]

"Man start running, look like set alarm off" Dancer indicates the direction of the ship "Use man like worm, follow quickly, let man set off trap, is good idea, yes?"

[Tavar]

"Might be a good idea, might be a bad idea. But we don't really have other options. Let's hurry."

[Recaiden]

Usually, prior warnings are vague, just a strong hint that bad things are coming. This one is still vague. But you can clearly make out the Legionaries, the countless shipyard's risen workers, and a variety of horrible things sweeping towards this point, not to mention the clear sense of danger the intruder will be presenting.

They could just be coming for him, but you'll still be in danger. Then again, if the alarm has already been sounded, might be you should go in through the danger while you have time.

[Leliel]

"Well, I'm not a tactician, so you people decide."

[Drascin]

Drake freezes in place, and speaks very slowly, piecing things together in his mind.

"...ooookay. So, if I'm understanding this thing right, we are right into the traffic and it's cluster*** o'clock. That guy probably just turned on all the goddamn alarms. There's serious trouble coming, serious trouble ahead, a bunch of Legionnaires figure into this, and the guy himself is almost certainly going to be a danger to us.

I think the plan just got shot in the face. So, run?"

[Recaiden]

"We wanted a distraction...will he not provide one? I can...deal with any Legionaries in our way." Masque's smile is kind of disturbing.

[Leliel]

"...dammit, do we have any other shots at the airship?

If not, we'll have to risk it. It'll be nice to talk to Corona again."

[Drascin]

"You do realize the point of a distraction is to distract people away from one's target, not to make people head towards one's target, right?" Drake snipes offhand at Masque, too busy thinking to keep acting meek. He's looking at the area and making some calculations for how long horrible things would take to close in on them...

"Yeah, I don't see any alternative here. We still want to avoid engagements as much as possible, but right now it seems speed is our only bet to reach the ship before the whole thing is locked down and we'd have to fight through half the goddamn Legion to get through. Well, guys, weapons out. Alarms are already going, might as well trip them all" he adds, stepping aside to let the primary fighters take the lead. "I'll try to keep up".

And with that, he'll begin running behind whoever takes the lead. He's not sure how long he'll hold up, but he's going to try. Knowing that stopping to rest can get one eaten by hungry ghosts is a wonderful motivator.

[Scarlet Dragon]

"I can take lead" Shadow Dancer volunteers as his body begins to change. Black hair sprouts all over his body, fangs grow, wicked looking claws emerge out of his hands, and he grows an additional three feet. Immediately bony plates start to emerge out of his body covering most of his body, one bony plate forms into a sort of shield extruding from one of his arms. A silver full moon begins to glitter on his brow. Moving quickly forward he stealthily stalks ahead of the group.

[Tavar]

Wing doesn't waste time on words, simply taking a great leap, shifting his form as he does so. Before he can reach the ground, he is in the form of a desert hawk, ascending high over the field and heading for the main camp.

[Rhyvurg]

"Hell with this, time to be irrationally bold." Pyrus takes off for the ship at a dead run, with enough chaos they can still pull this off.

[Leliel]

"Okay, I'll uh...hang back. And make tentacles. On a locust."

[Recaiden]

"We're distracting them from us."

Masque spends a moment, and takes off running after the others, though she's not quite keeping up with either of them

"And you can do that while you're with us."

Ahead, maybe the man broke another ward, or maybe the alarm just got to someone, but a low ringing alarm can be heard from far ahead. He's getting relatively close to the ship, passing the outermost buildings and mechanisms. But 1000 Exalted distance units separate him from his goal, although the point of obvious entry if much further on, where the scaffolding overlays the ship on the far side. But on something this large, there are sure to be many entrances. At least several. Our heroes are several hundred units further back. Other figures are coming out from the buildings and from across the valley, mostly towards the man, but one group, of what look like people, already, off to the east, are clearly coming towards you.

[Recaiden]

The group is closest to Dancer, (and of course, furthest from Wing), and seems to consist of six cautious people, looking from their dress like part of the construction crew, save maybe the one in armor, armed with a spear instead of pipes or essence welders.

They pass the tiger-monster slinking through the dunes, and are moving to head off Drake, who among members of the party who are not hiding is a few yards ahead of the Pyrus, who is himself a few yards ahead of Masque.

There were no shouted words yet, maybe waiting to see your reaction, maybe planning to attack without any speech, maybe waiting to a more personable distance for conversation.

[Scarlet Dragon]

After the group passes Shadow Dancer, he begins to shadow them, waiting to see what their intention is. Not trusting things to turn out well, he prepares to attack the armored one at the slightest provocation.

[Drascin]

"Okay, guys" Drake huffs back to the others when he sees the blockade, before they reach it, trying to keep his run "punch through and run?"

If I get out of this I swear I'll never skip training again, sifu. he's thinking to himself.

[Leliel]

At the mention of the word "Locust", the agata tensed a bit, swiviled it's head slightly back, and went "Locust? I'm a wasp. Moron."

"Okay, guys" Drake huffs back to the others when he sees the blockade, before they reach it, trying to keep his run "punch through and run?"

If I get out of this I swear I'll never skip training again, sifu. he's thinking to himself.

"I was thinking fly."

[Recaiden]

The six slow down to a stop, a safe? distance away, while far ahead a half-circle is closing in on the other intruder, when one of them takes a step back. "They aren't from Merciless. These are alive." Something which is evidently a cause for concern, given how they stiffen up and lift their weapons and tools to the ready.
"Go get help." The soldier waves one of the workers away, and he takes off running back towards the closest buildings to the east.

He tries to put on a tough front.
"You are trespassing in the land of the Lord of the Thousand. Surrender immediately, and you will treated fairly."
But you can see he's shaking with worry.

[Rhyvurg]

Pyrus doesn't hesitate, he takes a running step and leaps over the heads of the soldiers to intercept the fleeing worker.

[Tavar]

Wing can see the man trying to run, and it doesn't take a genius to figure out why he's running. That won't do. Not at all.

Flying in the stagnant air of the underworld is a challenge: the normal thermals he'd look for are rare and weak. But the air isn't thicker, and so he tucks his wings against his body and dives. A flash of gold in the otherwise pallid landscape, pulling up at the last moment. And then a flash of silver, and it's a man, not a bird, that hits in the small of the runner's back, driving him hard against the earth.

"No Running."

Spoiler

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1 mote to take on my human form once I'm close enough.

Clinch roll:(9d10)[8][5][1][4][1][2][4][8][5](38)

[Scarlet Dragon]

At the first sign of trouble Shadow Dancer dashes from concealment throwing one of his cruelly clawed talons into the soldiers chest and twisting his embedded hand violently, causing him to be thrown back, only to land in a bloody heap.

[Leliel]

"Oh yeah? We're the Lords of Ten Thousand Rude Gestures. I'm the Duke of Middle Fingers, nice to meet you!"

The battle canteen is quickly brought out, and is almost as quickly opened.

[Recaiden]

Pyrus flies impossibly high over the ghosts and cuts off their retreat, as there is no safe distance when a Concordant Dragon stylist is involved.

A shape drops out of the sky and slams into the unprepared worker running to get help, knocking him down in a puff of sand and leaving him completely in the grip of the ambushing lunar.

Speaking of ambushing Lunars, the Tiger stylist bursts out of the sand and sends the soldier flying. The man barely has time to hear Raziel's retort before he's sailing through the air, unable to react. He hits the ground and breaks apart in a puff of ectoplasm.

Three of the remaining workers look at Dancer for just a second and then turn to run, every ghost for himself, in three different directions, east and west and to pass Drake on the way up to the mountains. The last one runs too, away from the Dragonblooded behind him, prybar held high, right at Raziel.

((He gets 2 successes))

Spoiler

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For all the other rolls I forget(100d10)[9][7][8][8][4][2][5][3][7][8][10][7][5][9][7][9][7][5][2][2][4][2][9][6][6][5][3][1][10][3][9][8][9][7][6][3][8][10][5][5][8][5][2][2][3][8][10][10][2][2][1][6][3][10][1][9][4][4][9][4][6][8][1][5][4][6][7][2][6][2][6][4][7][7][5][9][5][5][9][7][6][10][2][8][9][3][6][3][6][5][6][2][3][7][6][6][3][3][7][8](566)

[Rhyvurg]

Pyrus runs down the one going east, slamming his lance into the middle of his back and lifting the ghost off the ground.

[Drascin]

Dammit, Drake had just wanted to go through them and not hurt anyone. Attacking Legionnaires is one thing but hitting terrified workers gives him a bad taste in his mouth. Still, right now there's little else he can do. So as he runs and the two workers try to pass by him, he takes out his hands from his pockets at last and extends his begauntleted arms to the sides, slamming them right into the ghost workers' faces and pushing down to flip them to the ground to leave them unconscious.

"Sorry guys, but trust me, better me than them"

(Flurrying two attacks, one for each)

(10d10)[7][9][6][9][4][8][7][2][8][9](69)
(9d10)[5][3][1][3][5][3][3][1][6](30)

[Drascin]

Aaand gonna be spending three motes to reroll that botch with the third Excellency, thank you.

(9d10)[5][2][9][2][10][3][3][6][1](41)

[Recaiden]

The eastbound ghost tries to jump out of the way, but the lance catches her just as he starts to move and runs them through. Bones snap, ectoplasmic flesh tears, and she dissolves before Pyrus even finishes his strike, corpus destroyed. An essence welder thuds to the ground from the ghost's hand.

Drake catches both of the ghosts with his smashfists. On his left, teeth crack and the ghost hits the ground and stays still, although present, either KOd or playing at it. On his right, he misjudges the hit and strikes the ghost a glancing blow on the chest. The ghost spins over to the side, stays on his feet, and keeps running.
"Appreciated, but how about neither?"
Drake shouldn't feel too bad here. He didn't even discorporate anyone, much less send them to Lethe or kill them.

Ahead, where the man is confronting the larger group, you hear, faintly (or for Dancer, pretty clearly) screams and shouts and clanging metal and clattering bones. Looks like it's going no more peacefully.

[Rhyvurg]

Pyrus grabs the essence welder. You never know.

[Tavar]

Wing heaves on his opponent, pivoting him across his hip. If this was on Earth, back in the gym, he'd be a bit more careful, guiding the ghost down to the ground. But there's no reason to be careful here, and no reasons to keep holding the ghost. So instead man becomes airborne breifly, before smashing into one of the nearby mounds of rock.

Free, Child then spins his seven section staff out from it's holder.

Spoiler

Show

Two action flurry
Clinch; (7d10)[4][4][8][9][1][6][10](42)-using break hold action to throw opponent 3 yards.

Then readying seven section staff.

[Recaiden]

The ghost hits the rock, bounces off onto the ground 3 yards distant, and staggers up to their feet, hurt and favoring their left side but able to keep going, and starts to clamber over the rock at desperate speed, away from Wing. No desire to stay and fight with him.

The welder is a metal rod with a pointed bone and soulsteel assemblage at one end and a faintly glowing crystal set into the other. It's not actually meant for fighting, but it can certainly do damage, along with its normal uses.

The ghost that just slipped past Drake fades a little bit from view, becoming translucent although still clearly visible, and jumps up. Rather than landing a few feet away, they keep going, soaring up into the sky at a fairly good speed.