[NEXUS] WATCHTOWER 15: New and Improved!

[Shadowcaller]

[Outside the Gate==>Towards the Barracks]

The sorceress waves farewell to Tobias and then proceeds to lead Matt into the building. "Best we settle you in before introducing you to the other members of Watch. I'm sure they're pretty curious about HALO, we don't get much of a chance to met up with your organization." Better not tell him about Twister: HALO edition which Watch happens to have.

Perhaps they will bump into one of the other Watchmen on their way.

[FireFox]

Toby leaves Wenomir and KR's room and heads out, unless he's stopped.

[Towards the Barracks]

Matt silently follows Cessie, wondering about the other members. He was told that the sorceress' politeness and tact was atypical, but surely not everyone here was a gruff, ruthless killer.
... This probably isn't the best time for me to undeadtime Spyridon.

[happyturtle]

Library

"She knows nothing can happen unless she changes back. I just.... I wish I were sure that I mean more to her than her power." Darcy says.

[Morty]

[Library]

Wenomir is silent for a while. He knows platitudes would be empty now. He has no idea if Ilpholin cares about Darcy that way. They've always been good friends but... well. He can't claim to be able to fully understand Ilpholin either. He likes her, despite that love triangle nonsense a while back, but she's a complicated personality.
I'm sorry. I don't know what to tell you. All I can do is say that I really hope you do mean more than power to her.

[orb_of_blood]

[Attack!]

Walls:

Well... the ranks of gnoll climbers are decimated mainly by:
- Bursts of flame
- Crossbow bolts
- Rain of Mia's bullets

Those that aren't killed by the above, or merely wounded and can't support their weight on the wall and fall to their deaths, make it to the top. They are all swarming at one particular point, rather than spreading out and attacking individuals. That is what their master had told them to do, isn't it?

Very wisely, they'd given the adamantine -clad dragon the widest berth they could, once a few of the leading gnolls had fallen off the wall as mini-bonfires.

So, the area that they're focusing on, is the patch of wall next to Mia. Not any particular reason the higher climbing gnolls chose her, except that she was nearly directly above them, and she isn't near Harnel.

As such, people may wanna re-think their whole 'fire rapidly', 'throw tomahawk' strategies as their friend might also possibly be hit.

At this point their numbers are dwindling. It's hard to count them as they're all moving around, but maybe around twenty or twenty-five still remain? Easy enough as they're weapons are primitive. Most carry longswords, unsheathed the moment they're on the wall at last, though every single one has a whip strapped to their belts.

Still, to climb up at just one point means only a few can appear at one time. The first two make it over the edge and attack Mia with little hesitation. One draws a sword, giving a few seconds where he's entirely vulnerable. The other just attacks her, armed only with his teeth and claws and protected only by scraps of boiled leather armor. Slash! Slash! Aiming for her stomach.

-------

Archers:

The archers are simultaneously being slaughtered by:
- Bullets
- More bullets
- And if two guns aren't enough against five bow-wielding gnolls, than more bullets as well.

...Considering that one can fire a gun faster than a bow and arrow (as in much, much faster), and that there are three guns, one on rapid fire, all being used by people with good aim... yeah, there are five hole-riddled hides where the archers had previously stood. Poor things couldn't even dodge effectively what with the bulky weapons in their hands.

However, I'd like to remind you all since you seem to have not noticed: There are two arrows heading towards Boris, one at Yazon, and three (though one rather clumsily aimed) at Adir which apparently have been on course since last post and have not seemed to hit or miss yet.

[Murkus]

Training Grounds
Designed and actually works are two different things

Anyways, Kirlia nods and...disappears from the human eye again.
Moving so fast she immediately begins to throw kicks at Adir, ones with enough force to send an 18-wheeler flying. He did say to give her full strength...
She also will continuously move to meet Adir if he is flying and kick him over there.
Please note that if she notices that she's going to hurt Adir, she'll tone it down.

Adir can track her - he is a fair bit better than human - but the stag is hard-pressed to keep up. In any case, he's struck square in the chest by the first kick and sent soaring across the grounds. Quite far outside the boundaries of the sand ring, I might add.

Though now fifty or so feet away, he seems to be mostly unharmed. There's a fresh ding in his suit, of course - it's far from indestructible. The stag just lays there a moment, stunned, before gaining his feet slowly. "Okay, that is totally not fair," He shouts at her. Good-natured as ever, apparently. The stag makes his way back over and glances toward Niza. "How bout' your friend? Is she this strong?"

[Boris's Room]

Before long, Boris pulls back, a little to his own chagrin. "I love you, Cornelia," he says, running his fingers through her unbraided hair.

The gunslinger takes a deep breath when Boris recedes, only opening her eyes partway. Her hair is still rather silky - straight and fine. A small smile splits her healed lips. There's not a trace of dryness in them - in fact, more importantly, Boris may notice a lack of calluses on Cornelia's hands as well. The dead tissue is all gone. This will likely cause some aches in the forge for a while.

"Oh, ye know what m'gonna say. What I'll always say, t'that." She places her newly softened hands on his cheeks, grinning.

[Walls - Attack!]

My apologies, I foolishly skipped over that part of the post. Unfortunately, the arrows merely bounced off Adir's armor - he can't really be harmed by mundane weaponry in the suit.

The stag, seeing the archers put down, aims his gun toward the crowd of gnolls a couple hundred feet away. No firing yet. The hyena-men attacking Mia - or getting ready to do so - go unnoticed by him until next post.

[Devixer]

[Walls - Attack!]

One of the two arrows heading for Boris is the unluckiest arrow, in that it bounces off of Boris's rifle to the ground he's standing on. The other, however, sails straight into his arm, and he's too focused on the archers to dodge it. He curses as soon as it hits him, and looks at the wound. "Archers down. Arm hit by arrow, moving to cover." Boris does just that, sitting against the wall, grabbing some gauze from a satchel on his uniform.

[Boris's Room]

Boris has a mirthful look on his face as Cornelia raises her hands to his cheeks. "Of course I know. Doesn't mean I don't like to hear you say it," he mutters.

[Murkus]

[Boris's Room]

"Aw, course I love ya," Cornelia says, talking in something of a baby voice. She's probably serious enough satisfy him, anyway. The gunsmith kisses Boris again, probably raking a hand through his hair while she does.

[Halae]

[Walls - Attack]

Once it becomes obvious that Harnel is being avoided, he'll take wing, easily strong enough to carry his own weight and that of his armor, and will head for the greatest concentration of gnolls, which is apparently near Mia. He'll drop down onto the ground and proceed to breathe a cone of fire at the wall. He's doing his best not to hit the people on top of the wall, so the gnolls that have made it to the final ten feet of their climb will only get their feet and tails singed, but anything below that is going to have a very hard time.

The gnolls on the ground will have a moment to attack Harnel if they choose to while he breathes fire at the wall, but if they remain within range of his blades for more than a few moments, they'll likely find themselves stabbed, sliced, diced, cut, or slashed in a variety of painful ways. Still, there's the opportunity if any are brave enough.

For the record, he'd be doing this from the air, but he's never mastered the ability to hover in place; he'd need to keep moving, and when you want to focus fire, moving out of range is a bad idea.

[Mindfreak]

Adir can track her - he is a fair bit better than human - but the stag is hard-pressed to keep up. In any case, he's struck square in the chest by the first kick and sent soaring across the grounds. Quite far outside the boundaries of the sand ring, I might add.

Though now fifty or so feet away, he seems to be mostly unharmed. There's a fresh ding in his suit, of course - it's far from indestructible. The stag just lays there a moment, stunned, before gaining his feet slowly. "Okay, that is totally not fair," He shouts at her. Good-natured as ever, apparently. The stag makes his way back over and glances toward Niza. "How bout' your friend? Is she this strong?"

Training Grounds
Kirlia hovered a foot above the ground. She had been watching Adir fly quite intently.
"I don't think so...but she uses weapons and stuff."
Kirlia doesn't. She just uses her fists. And legs.
And ki.
"And um, I can kinda do more than just hand to hand and flying..."

[Devixer]

[Boris's Room]

Boris tries to pull Cornelia still closer to himself as they kiss. He can't really think of much else to say, so he just holds her for a time.

[Murkus]

Training Grounds
Kirlia hovered a foot above the ground. She had been watching Adir fly quite intently.
"I don't think so...but she uses weapons and stuff."
Kirlia doesn't. She just uses her fists. And legs.
And ki.
"And um, I can kinda do more than just hand to hand and flying..."

Adir was expecting Niza to answer, but the MS girl can just pipe up anytime. "Well? Get to it! Show me!" The stag orders, gesturing for her to continue.

[Boris's Room]

Boris tries to pull Cornelia still closer to himself as they kiss. He can't really think of much else to say, so he just holds her for a time.

Now that words have given way to kisses, Cornelia relaxes and reaches a free hand toward the curtain. It'll only last for a short time, unless Boris has more stamina than his partner.

[Devixer]

[Boris's Room]

The curtain can be pulled easily. Boris doesn't have much more stamina than Cornelia, so it won't be long before he lays in the bed, running a hand along her back.

[Murkus]

[Boris's Room]

Cornelia pushes herself up, hands on Boris's chest, and let's herself take a few breaths. Hair dangles about her face like silky-white curtains, and a sly smile crosses her now disheveled features. "I guess ye really missed that bit."

[Morty]

[Training Grounds]

A while after Serph leaves, Wenomir goes into the training tower and emerges wearing his full armour and his sword on his back. It's time to get to some serious workout.

He heads for the obstacle course controls and fiddles with them for a while. The obstacle course shifts and remodels itself according to his specifications. He finalizes it and runs for the entrance, the course ready for him.

First, the course presents him with a large pool of water with sparsely distributed steeping stones. Without breaking his stride, Wenomir runs up to the edge of the pool and fluidly jumps on one of the stepping stones. The other ones immediately change position, moving through the water. The demon-hunter doesn't appear bothered by it and jumps from one stone to another with impeccable timing. As he reaches the other side of the pool, another difficulty appears - large mechanical aligatores jump out from the water, trying to grab him and drag him down. One of them gets close as he’s mid-leap between the last stepping stone and the shore. Wenomir raises his leg, steps down on the construct and uses it to push himself forward, landing neatly on the shore. The aligator splashes into the water. First obstacle, cleared.

Wenomir starts running again immediately after landing on the shore. The obstacle course in front of him shifts, turning into a very narrow path between two deep chasms. The warrior slightly shifts his posture, spreading his arms wider to keep himself balanced. At first, it looks difficult, but not overly so - then the ledge suddenly disappears and another one rises from the chasm to his left... just as the one the warrior is running on starts to disappear behind him. Wenomir swiftly crouches and jumps sideways, performing a sommersault in mid-air, then landing on the left edge and resuming his run. He doesn't get very far however, before he has to do it again. And again. Then the chasm ends and Wenomir is faced with another challenge.

This time, the course takes the shape of a large circle. It is empty, but not for long – blade traps spring from the ground, slashing at Wenomir on various heights. The demonhunter nimbly ducks under a trap seeking to decapitate him, weaves around one trying to slice him in two under his ribs, then dodges other ones and gets into the middle of the circle in an intricate dance. Once in the middle of the stage, he gets no rest, as four traps erupt from the ground around him and spit gouts of flame in his direction. The warrior performs a long-distance leap, landing in a blind spot between two traps. They begin to turn in his direction, but he deactivates one with a swift kick and then the next one with a quick punch from crouching position. Said position allows him to quickly roll out of the way when the two remaining traps fire again. He springs to his feet once the gouts of fire die down and gets to the two other traps, disabling them in a blink of an eye. This isn’t the end of it however, as several arrows fire from behind him when he’s finished. He manages to spot them just im time, and swiftly dodges to his left, evading all but one arrow. The remaining one is knocked away by a swipe of his mailed hand.

When the arrows fail to put him down, the obstacle course rumbles and a miniature fortress erupts at its end. On its top stands a hologram of Calublufiok. The fortress immediately starts to blast the circle Wenomir is standing in with fire and lightning. Wenomir assumes a new posture and starts running, making long steps and hopping to his left and right, thus frequently and rapidly changing his course. The bolts of lightning and balls of fire whizz past him as he zigzags towards the fortress. It has no stairs, so Wenomir must climb, mindful of the blades stabbing out of the walls. One almost runs him through, but he keeps going until he reaches the parapet. When he goes, he grabs it firmly, vaults himself over it, unsheathes his sword while in the air and swings at Calublufiok’s hologram immediately upon landing. The hologram flickers and vanishes and fortress begins to fold into the ground along with the obstacle course. Soon enough, Wenomir is standing there in the open, breathing heavily.

((For some strange reason I felt like writing a stand-alone cutscene. Feel free to react to it or ignore it as you please.))

[Mindfreak]

Adir was expecting Niza to answer, but the MS girl can just pipe up anytime. "Well? Get to it! Show me!" The stag orders, gesturing for her to continue.

Training Grounds
She nods!
"So um, do you have any targets I can fire at? I don't think your armor will hold up against what I'm going to show you..."

[happyturtle]

Library

"Soooo.... anyway, I'm meeting her in Riverside tonight for a party, and then I'm going to go back to AMEN with her. I think I'll have to, um, pretend to break ties to Watch to keep things from looking bad for her. Communicate with you by telepathy or disguised meetings or whatever." Darcy says.

[Zefir]

[Walls - Attack]

Well. The gnolls might made a bad decission while not knowing what waits for them here. As the first Gnolls pass over the walls edge the sound of metall hitting metal can be heared.

In the moment they start there attack they may see Mia a step back from the wall, waving them a goodbye with a friendly smile.

Behind her stands the robot who has brought down the bullet storm. his arms now normal again he will swing his right one intending to bash the gnolls away like his arm is a baseball bat and the gnolls are the balls. The robot has calculated this hit to leave no harm on his master, sadly he didn't care for a flying dragon so they might flie in his way when he hits them.

[BladeofObliviom]

(I'm finally back! Yay!)

[Walls - Attack]

Jacob originally was planning on directly dealing with the unconscious individuals, but then the horde reached the top of the wall. Since the soldiers that Jacob summoned were kind of forgotten about, I should note that a battalion of Archers has been firing into the Gnoll ranks since the beginning of the battle, though they were likely overwhelmed when the Gnolls reached the walls. The pikemen, on the other hand, would be filling the gaps between the watchmen and helping keep the savages at bay.

Jacob himself seems to simply flow through combat almost like an actual fluid, as malevolent strands of silvery metal attempt to embed themselves inside the bodies of the unfortunate souls that he passes by. These strands, if they successfully get inside the body, attempt to thrash around inside the torso, severely damaging the victims' viscera. After a few seconds of this, they escape the body and reattach themselves to Jacob's armor.

[Devixer]

[Boris's Room]

"That guess certainly wouldn't be wrong," Boris with a similarly sly grin on his face. "I think the same could be said for you."

[Training Grounds]

Hildur had arrived at the grounds just after Wenomir, and was a little transfixed by the scene at the obstacle course. Once it ends, she lets out a low whistle. "Wish I could fight like that," she says. She looks new to fighting in general, given the very civilian appearance of her winter clothing.

[Shadowcaller]

Toby leaves Wenomir and KR's room and heads out, unless he's stopped.

[Towards the Barracks]

Matt silently follows Cessie, wondering about the other members. He was told that the sorceress' politeness and tact was atypical, but surely not everyone here was a gruff, ruthless killer.
... This probably isn't the best time for me to undeadtime Spyridon.

[Towards the Barracks]

Showing him into the room (which looks remarkably lot like the other rooms) the sorceress gives him a quick heads up on where everything in watch is. "...and in the back are the communal showers." She states with a gesture at the end of the corridor. "If you're like me and think such things are a bit public, I will gladly lend you my tub. I barely use it anymore anyway." She mostly washed herself in the Mithar keep.

"I can give you some more details on the more secret functions once you're an officially initiated. Which if you want we could do right away, KR and Wenomir are usually the ones dealing with that."

[FireFox]

[Barracks]

Matthew looks around the room, seemingly pleased with his new living arrangements. He sets down both bags and takes his sword belt out of one. I'd like to do that as soon as possible. Do people regularly walk around armed, or should I leave my sword here?

[Morty]

[Library]

Wenomir nods.
Alright. We'll work something out. Shapeshifting ought to be enough. It's not like AMENites watch our every move.

[Training Grounds]

Wenomir turns to look at Hildur with a raised eyebrow.
Hello? You're one of the new members, correct?

[Devixer]

[Training Grounds]

"Yeah, I just joined. Been getting accustomed to the place." Hildur starts to approach Wenomir. "My Name's Maarsukaal. Yours?" Once Wenomir hears her Name, he may also feel a certain power behind it.

[Morty]

[Training Grounds]

I'm Wenomir. One of the people in charge here. You don't look like much of a fighter, Wenomir comments.

[Shadowcaller]

[Barracks]

"It's allowed to carry around weapons, yes. I imagine it might get bothersome after a while though, swords are rather heavy aren't they?" She had held one once!

[FireFox]

[Barracks]

I'm used to it. Matt puts the sword belt on and waits for Cessie to... do whatever needs to be done to finalize this.

[Devixer]

[Training Grounds]

"Well, that's because I'm not much of a fighter," Hildur says. She shrugs soon after. "But as long as I can shape air and winds, may as well use that for good, right?"

[Morty]

[Training Grounds]

Air and winds you say. I assume you've already passed your test. Wasn't it KR who supervised it? He seems to remembers she was. And if Maarsukaal passed KR's test, it means she knows what she's doing.

[Devixer]

[Training Grounds]

"Oh, yes. I have a room and everything now." Hildur struggles to remember who the name of who had supervised her. "Kind of intimidating woman, cross scar on the cheek? Yeah."