A Dream of Quiet (IC)

[Leliel]

"And leaving aside all that, wars are exactly what the Lion wants. More potential shadowlands. I vote for the 'scuttle ship, buy time' option."

[Rhyvurg]

"Did you guys notice something about this ship? It has very little soulsteel in it. Why would the Lion be so frugal with the construction of such an important weapon, unless it was because he has little soulsteel to use? The best thing we can do to slow him down is take it out of his reach forever. Any agents of his we find should also be similarly disarmed. If we keep even a single daiklave it could find it's way back into his hands."

[Recaiden]

"Not enough of us yet, but there can be. Don't tell me you have no one in the world you can count on? Even I have people who could help."

"I think it's foolish not to use it for anything, but I see you are right that an attack on Merciless would be ill-advised. But in the old world? There is no place I could take it?" Masque nods to Pyrus about the soulsteel.

[Tavar]

"There are people I trust, yes, but not enough. Look at what we managed, vs the forces the Lion arrayed against such an event. I don't think we would be able to manage more than he, not against determined attackers, and not unless we wished to give up everything and just become custodians of this ship.

Unless we offer something else in return, but that would likely result in it's use. And that would firmly unite those who we don't ally with against us. So, war, and a terrible war, given the weapons used. Which would play into the Lion's hands."

Wing rubs his chin, stubble rough against his hands.

"Something this large must have truly wonderous engines and generators. Perhaps the attack on the keep isn't a bad idea, if we use this less like a gunship and more like a cruise missile."

[Drascin]

"I dunno, I wouldn't make too many assumptions on the fact there's very little soulsteel used here. Perhaps the plating isn't finished yet, perhaps some of the integrated systems resonate poorly with soulsteel, perhaps it's just a matter of making it easier for it to break through to Creation by using Creation materials, or who the hell knows what else. I don't like assuming with too little data."

The mystery man's question makes him chuckle somewhat darkly, though. "Yes, I do have people I trust. But precisely because I trust them I would never shove this massive heap of trouble on them. "Here, help us safeguard this thing that is going to make it so people kill all of us on a regular basis for very little actual benefit" - since we're not actually going to be using this thing much, because by the looks of it further war just got outvoted - is not very friendly behaviour"

He then looks at Wing. "Plus, you know, what Wing said. We're just a ragtag band of adventurers with not much in the way of preparation, and we basically kind of just walked in through a huge complex with guards and armies and dozens of buildings. We can't pull off any real security measures better than what the Lion really had, and look how well they served him.

As for the other thing... Hm. Well, I did consider ramming, but the thing is ships don't actually explode, most of the time. They just kinda break, and that'd be just giving it back with some repairs needed. But maybe we can rig the engines to explode. We should make sure the ship is secure first, though. I'm still kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop"

[Recaiden]

"The plating that is on has soulsteel in it. But it's a special sort, light no actual metal, heavy on magic. He's right, this is an odd lack."

The man turns away from the controls. Drake will notice that this is when things are fated to go wrong.
"As a matter of fact, the ship has already been secured." From beyond the door, the smell of death fills the air, and the sound of thunderous footsteps can be heard.
"Now. Consider it dropped." Reanimated corpses and constructions crowd towards the room, and begin to lurch through the door.

The man begins to fade, as if seen through a fog, blur heavily, and then vanished from sight.

Only one zombie has yet made it into the room, but the hallways outside are visibly filled with monsters.

((Join Battle))

[Scarlet Dragon]

Shadow Dancer convulses for a moment before quickly calming "It's good to be alive." he says in Old Realm inhaling deeply.

Smiling evilly "Dancer" turns to Masque and sprints forward, throwing his clawed fist forward with unbelievable strength, followed quickly by a strong uppercut from the other fist.

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Doing a two action flurry
(13d10)[10][1][9][10][10][5][6][5][2][1][10][5][8](82)
(12d10)[10][4][7][9][6][2][4][10][7][7][8][9](83)

[Rhyvurg]

"Oh Hell..."

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(6d10)[7][8][9][10][8][7](49)Join Battle
Pyrus will activate Concordant Dragon Form and run to the door to close it.

[Recaiden]

As Pyrus begins to slide the door shut, a pair of skeletal hands grips the edge to slide it back. It doesn't even slow him down. Then four more decaying hands grip it, then a bestial claw, and so on until there are five or six things trying to hold the door open. They succeed long enough for another few horrors to leap through the opening (landing prone or in a heap a ways past the door), and then it slams shut and then he manages to drive it shut and the essence lock engages.

[Leliel]

"Hoo boy. I have more than enough motes that these ghosts will have to get back in their holes, but it's going to come close to your head. Don't worry, you're going to get help, it's just draining on little old me.

Raziel glides over to where Pyrus is facing off against the ghosts and fumbles for his battle canteen, initially seeming to forget where the screwtop is.

[Recaiden]

Masque almost gets out of the way, but Dancer's strikes do just manage to connect, meeting Masque's robes with a flash of white light after each blow. She stumbles back a bit, but doesn't look too hurt.
"This...is an odd time to learn to speak properly." She backs against the controls, taking a defensive stance while trying to figure out what happened.

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Masque Joins Battle: (4d10)[8][6][3][8](25)
The vanished one Joins Battle: (6d10)[2][3][4][3][1][3](16)
Undead Join Battle: (5d10)[4][4][10][9][1](28)

[Tavar]

Wing begins to weave hypnotically, placing himself between Dancer and Masque.

"Stand Down Dancer, or I will kill you."

A part of Wings mind marvels at how vehement he is about this.

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Activate Snake Form.
Wielding an Exceptional Seven Section Staff(hit incorporeal, agg to ghosts)
Sp 5, acc -1 , Damage 8b, Defense +4, rate 2

Dodge DV 4 dice
Parry DV 6(8-2 for Charm)

Soak:
3L/3B
Health:
-0 [ ]
-1 [ ][ ][ ][ ]
-2 [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]
-4 [ ]
-X [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]

Social Defenses:
Dodge MDV6
Parry MDV 3

Permanent: ●●●
Personal: 11/19 (0 Committed)
Peripheral: 31/40 (4 Committed)

[Drascin]

Truth be told, Drake was kind of expecting betrayal by the new guy.

The zombies and Dancer going aggro, though? Not so much. So he does what he always does in these situations. Namely, freeze for a few seconds, eyes wide.

"...oh ****"

Goddammit, why do I only get to be right when it comes to bad things?

He then looks around left and right, frantically trying to catch sight of the dissappeared traitor. "Where did he go?" Should have put more effort on my martial arts training, damn it. "Eh, I'm sure learning a revealing strike is not that big a priority anyway, I have enough to do and it's so tiring", yeah, good going there, myself.

Awareness - (9d10)[6][1][4][1][6][4][1][5][2](30)

[Recaiden]

Drake manages to be watching, eyes wide, when Dancer attacks. The defensive flash from Masque's charm dazzles him for a second. When his eyes clear, a living corpse is lurching towards him, green eyes glowing. It lunges at the distracted Sidereal with a one-edged knife.

Paying no attention to the serpentine weaving, the other two zombi turn to Wing, diving in with surprisingly deft punches.

"Thank you, Wing, for protecting me." Masque draws herself up, her cloak starts to flutter in...no there's definitely no wind here, and she leaps over the two Lunars, snapping a kick at an apparently empty patch of air and following it up with a sweep of her hand.

Then she says some more words that none of you understand.

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Drake is up
Zombie against Drake
(6d10)[5][9][8][2][4][7](35) + (4d10)[5][3][6][7](21) - 4 Successes

Zombies against Wing
(7d10)[3][2][8][10][2][2][8](35) - 4 Successes
(7d10)[5][7][6][9][3][8][3](41) - 3 Successes

Masque's attacks
(8d10)[9][3][5][4][10][3][7][5](46) - 4 Successes
(7d10)[1][5][6][5][1][1][7](26) - 1 Success

[Tavar]

Wing easily dodges one grasping claw, and wraps the sections of his staff around the other. A pull forward to unbalance the undead, then he unwraps the staff, twirling it fast, before whipping it into one of the reaching arms with an audible crack.

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Pretty sure this is either on tick 3 or 4; I took a speed 3 action on t=- t=0.

Flurry:
Attack on one Zombie: (8d10)[3][5][9][3][3][8][3][7](41)
Defend other on Masque.

Activate Snake Form.
Wielding an Exceptional Seven Section Staff(hit incorporeal, agg to ghosts)
Sp 5, acc -1 , Damage 8b, Defense +4, rate 2

[Drascin]

"Argh!" Drake blinks, eyes hurt, at the sudden burst of light - and it's only the moan of the zombie and the sound of the creaking floor that clues him to step back before he finishes recovering, giving him enough space to regain sight and parry the knife away with his left gauntlet. "-whoa! That was way closer than I'd like!"

Drake looks around. Damn it. He wants to flare aura, let himself into some music self-hypnosis so that he can forget that knot of panic in his stomach, but if he does the traitor would probably focus on him simply out of kneejerk reaction to the whole blaze of light thing. Gotta keep under wraps until he shows himself, and then try to coordinate everyone to nail him.

"[Activate!]" he says in Old Realm as he steps back in with a quick step, and his gauntlets start glowing red. Yes, this is basically just so that the mystery guy keeps thinking he's not an Exalt, just a guy or godblood with a some sweet artifacts. He wants to not be a threat until he can see the damn guy. Instead, he pushes off the knife with his left hand into one of the wals, spins around it, and backhand-slams the zombie right into a wall with his right, trying to not tremble too much.

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Activating Horrific Wreath for 4m peripheral, adding +1Acc and +3damage and making my fists do Agg damage to creatures of Darkness. Gotta kill those zombies.

Attack: (13d10)[4][6][1][2][8][7][1][8][7][4][8][1][1](58) (Dmg 11B/2), -1DV

DDV 5
PDV 5
Remaining motes: 5/15 Personal, 28/38 Peripheral)

[Recaiden]

The zombie is easily entangled in the staff...for a moment. It rolls forward into the pull, easily ducking under the other segments of the staff swinging its way and twisting its other arm free. The thing is remarkably quick on its feet.

When Drake's hand comes around to send the zombie flying, he finds it's waiting for him, and it catches his arm just below the killing wreath, stopping his spin with inhuman strength and shoving him back a little bit. It mocks him in a slow, creaking voice, clearly struggling with decaying vocal cords and collapsing dead lungs. "Not going to help if...you're not fast enough...mortal."

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Sooo many ones, Drake. You're not actually moved anywhere, it just defended against the attack. Barely.

[Leliel]

"Not to mention...

Suddenly, Raziel's eyes glow an eerie blue.

"The living don't apparently pay that much attention. Seriously, this kid managed to fight me off enough to try and warn you. That's just not nice to him, being completely oblivious."

The (apparently female) nemissary wearing Raziel finds the top of the battle canteen and unscrews it sloppily, spilling much of the contents. Awkwardly, the possessing ghost begins to perform the needed finger mudra to activate the Ichor Flux Tendrils, and the water begins to react shudderingly, turning green and back again seemingly randomly as the ghost's unpracticed hands attempt to commandeer her host's skills.

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Not activating the Charm yet, giving the Circle as much of a chance as possible, and because Raziel is fighting her tooth and nail at this point, trying to stop his hands from moving properly.

[Drascin]

"I actually was kind of hoping that ghost posession worked like spirit possession and you couldn't use his Charms, to be completely honest. Without use of Charms Raz is not exactly priority red" Drake retorts offhand as he steps back from the block, trying to find an opening in the ghost's guard. Of course, with the charms he would definitely be a problem if the ghost can indeed get ahold of the tentacles...

[Scarlet Dragon]

Wing begins to weave hypnotically, placing himself between Dancer and Masque.

"Stand Down Dancer, or I will kill you."

A part of Wings mind marvels at how vehement he is about this.

"That would be quite an interesting achievement considering I'm not Dancer, but don't let that stop you go right ahead and kill your companion." Dancer's mouth replies in perfect Flametongue.

Dancer lunges at Wing with a heavy punch directed at Wing's stomach the power of which throws Wing back a few feat.

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(15d10)[9][1][5][6][7][1][8][9][9][4][10][6][2][7][8](92) - 9 successes

[Tavar]

Grasping one of the central segments, Wing slams it into the oncoming arm, pushing it to the side while he also steps slightly backward, and so the fist simply goes through empty space.

"Huh. Possession. Wonder if this will work just as well..."

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DV of 7, so I'm not sure I even need to stunt.

[Recaiden]

Masque turns slowly, watching something in the room, and yells out something equally incomprehensible.
There's no response.

Dancer('s possessing ghost) and the zombies hear a voice, quite intelligible, at the back of their head.

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"On my mark, we take down the one with the staff, together." A few more words follow, detailing the plan of attack, which is to take place on Tick 11.

Coordinate Assault: (8d10)[10][4][8][2][3][1][3][2](33) + 1

Exact success, applying the maximum DV penalty of 4 to Wing.

[Leliel]

"I...gah...ack....there! Nice show kid, but there's a reason I learned to keep the possessed conscious!"

The ghost completes the mudras, and the Tendrils, stained with the black of the Void, erupt from the water. The possessor whips them around a bit to test them out, and then grows the familiar coral cages from them. Seems that the ghost wants to take you alive.

"Now, there's two ways this could go: I and my friends trap you and take you back to boss, or you die and we take your ghosts. I'm not a cruel lady, so I'm offering you a chance to survive all this, answer a few questions, then all go home happy."

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Ichor Flux Tendrils, then readying a grab.

[Tavar]

Wing paces dancer, spinning the ends of his staff to build up their speed. No sense being hasty.

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Aim action to get 3 dice.

[Recaiden]

The zombie by Wing circles around him, looking for an opening not protected by the swirling staves.

The other, engaged with Drake, takes advantage of his opponent's step away to fall back itself, and join its fellow monster in watching Wing, ready to pounce.

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They Aim at Wing.

I assume you are aiming at Dancer, Tavar?

And that means Drake and Pyrus are up, followed by Masque.

[Rhyvurg]

"Guys, I need to know right now if we're trying to stop this possession thing, or kill them!" Pyrus holds off on acting for now, not sure what to do.

[Drascin]

"Unpossess them, of course! I'm not in the habit of killing allies, and even if I was, we need their firepower back if we're getting out of here, to start!"

[Recaiden]

Upon activating Telltale Symphony, Drake can again hear the energy of the beings in the area. The zombies have a high pitched, slightly muted sound, which he can hear more of outside the door. Dancer and Raziel are similarly muted in tone. Masque sounds very loud, and there's something odd about the dark bell sounds of her magic. It sounds a bit like Raziel does at normal times. The controls sing out in all sorts of artifact tones, all subtly different from what he normally hears but identifiable as artifacts all the same.
The whole of this place has a faint whistling sound, like wind rushing over something, the sound of the underworld. But across the room, there's something wrong. It's too quiet. Not Laurel quiet, but there's an emptiness in the magical tone of the space. He can hear the space where there's nothing to be seen but clearly someone there.

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Awareness succeeded! He's still invisible, but you can tell where he is.

[Drascin]

Drake closes his eyes, letting himself hear the hums of this strange world - which are nowhere near as comforting as those in Creation, must be said.

And he turns around, looking at the point where Wing and masque are. "Uh, Masque, you okay? You are starting to sound really weird" He starts moving, breaking contact with the zombie he was fighting with and apparently going to check up on her worriedly. As he heads there, he's running his gauntleted hand over the controls of the ship-

-and suddenly he grasps the invisible fate threads hanging on the wood - the only familiar thing with a fate he can understand in this entire damned place - and lunges to the side!

Found you, you bastard. Let them go

Slashing threads of certainty coiled around his fists and trying to slash at their target by themselves like the heads of a hydra, he homes in for the point of quiet, and leads with a spinning backhand with his left hand before bending a knee and tossing a brutal direct at where he calculates would be the gut of a humanoid shape in that hole in sound with every ounce of what little strength he has. The fist is more propelled by his own anger at the toying with people and possessions than by his own meager strength - but it's going to be a nasty punch if it hits nonetheless!

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Trying to use a Charm that says uses Fate to guide the blow in a place that has very little in the way of Fate - so Drake improvises a stunt!

Flurrying two attacks, with Unobstructed Blow in both for a total of 8 motes, and channeling Compassion in the second one:

Attack 1: (10d10)[7][2][1][6][8][5][9][8][7][3](56)
Attack 2: (14d10)[10][9][4][2][4][3][2][10][9][6][2][2][4][10](77)

Both attacks at 11L/2 damage, aggravated if the dude is a CoD. Recovering 10 motes after the attacks from channeling compassion. Had to spend the 8 motes from peripheral (because the 5 personal went to Telltale Symphony), so I'm glowing blue by now. Still not in full Exalted bonfire, but it's pretty clear that something is up by now.

DDV 4
PDV 4
Remaining motes: 10/15 Personal, 20/38 Peripheral)

[Recaiden]

Drake has the threads of fate in his hand, nothing can possibly stop his strike, and then, just before he would connect, the threads vanish. His fists pass through air. They do, however, pass through the dark flames of an exalted anima, as the man snaps back into view a few inches away. He looks pretty disturbed, and is looking and Drake and the black energy around him in shock. On his forehead is a black ring, and blood is dripping down his brow into his eyes.
"You. What did you do?"

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Perfect Defense. There go 16 motes though, and his charm.