Serious Plots 6: Srs bsns

[Reinholdt]

[First Floor -> Second Floor]

Rein puts up with Quinn's lewdness just this once. Not that he has the time to properly deal with the perverted paladin. Somebody's making an awful mess of this house, up to and including, acid, explosions, and glass shattering screams. He has to carefully dodge the brief influx of falling debris, slightly more dangerous to him than Quinn, he's sure. Still, better to have to deal with the fallout than whatever caused that mess in the first place.

Which doesn't make the prospect of going upstairs to the cause of all this very enticing. More of a necessity really, as he darts up ahead of Quinn, careful to keep from getting underfoot. He could try to remind these people this is a rescue mission or he could get in front of this thing and try to minimize the collateral damage before everything looks like the foyer does. Especially since the cat is not sure he could even hear anyone else anymore after that shriek. So it's time to try to rush to the end goal.

[Recaiden]

Spako looks up, excited.
"Oh, your hatchlings are shadow dragons? Are those like umbral dragons? They're very nice. At least the one I met was. He was a good cook.

Anyway, I'm a kobold. One of my parents or ancestors must have been a bronze dragon, but I don't know who. My clan was very...communal about children. It's hard to really identify which one was the father in any situation, and sometimes the mother. I've heard people use the term 'dragonwrought' but I might just be a regular old half-dragon." he says with a shrug.

"I haven't met an umbral dragon, but I imagine there's some things in common."

Cleo pauses. They're far enough from the tower now.

"Tell me about your magic."

[Deathkeeper]

Wizards' Tower

"Well, the magic from my homeworld is stored here in this book as formulas, and then I recite them to cast. It's done beforehand and most of my spells are focused on combat since that's what I was doing when I was teaching myself those basics. The other school of thought I was taught was rune magic, which is primarily channeling energy through arcane runes for a distinct effect. It's a lot more broad but even then I mostly know about channeling elements and transfiguring things a little. I've always had trouble doing it on myself." Spako admits.

[Ashen Lilies]

[The Nightmare]

The Demon Hunter pivots deftly sideways, swinging his sword at Anika as she charges. He keeps one eye on Wenomir as he does so, watching for his move.

[The Nightmare]

Wenomir breaks into a run towards the Demon Hunter, but instead of charging him head-on, he sidesteps to his left, circling around the enemy and surrounding him in a silvery net of lightning-quick attacks.

[The Nightmare]

The swarm of motes will actually follow Othermir, even as he dodges around, continuing being a thorn in his side.
Anika shields herself by rearing up to tank the swing by her torso. Her ironfur protecting her against the bulk of the swing. In response she attempts to jab Othermir with her claws, if Wenomir was moving around him then perhaps he couldn't just step away from it.

[The Nightmare]

The Demon Hunter gives ground, contained by the two-pronged assault from Wenomir and Anika. He darts away from them, deftly clambering around the statue to place it between him and them as he looks for another opening. Two on one is cheating!

[Morty]

[The Nightmare]

Wenomir circles around the statue, and makes a heavy step forward. He twists his hips, putting all of his strength into a neck-level cut that aims to use the statue as an executioner's block.

It's reckless, but the existence of this copy of himself seems to bring out a lot of aggression.

[Recaiden]

"So the runes aren't from your homeworld? Interesting."
"Show me something. What can you do?" Cleo asks, waving a hand out in front of them.

[Deathkeeper]

Wizards' Tower

Spako nods and waves his hand and his scepter, creating two glowing runes in the air. Electricity arcs between them. Spako barks a word of draconic and calls an invisible hook around a nearby tree, pulling himself cleanly around it and landing close to his original spot, waving the scepter as if clubbing someone with it as he lands.

[Recaiden]

"Inventive."
Cleo claps politely.
"I think you'll do just fine. Do other people work with the runes? Where do they come from?"

[Deathkeeper]

Wizards' Tower

Spako shakes his head. "I dunno where it came from. The only one I ever knew who used it is gone. Well there's one other but he hates my guts and isn't an option."

[Recaiden]

Cleo shrugs.
"Well, we'll have a bit of looking ahead of us learning more about it."
"Tell me about this enemy. Even if we can't talk to him, there might be clues to it."

[Deathkeeper]

Wizards' Tower

"Oh, he was the apprentice of my master's previous apprentice. I beat him in a duel for my mentor's job. It was ugly and he hates my guts for taking it away. To be honest I'd say it's odd that I was better than him after learning magic for only a year, but he was a pigeon, so chances are he wasn't more than three years old anyway." Spako exclaims, clearly having not an incredibly amount of respect for the bird in question.

[Recaiden]

"A pigeon, you say. Poor thing."

Cleo shrugs and turns around.

"There's a place by the ocean, if it hasn't fallen into the waters yet, that I think has something to do with dragons, though maybe not runes. We could start looking there."
"Do you think there's something more universal than them? Do the visual patterns correspond to the sound-patterns of my spells and the formulae in your book, on some level?"
Probably not in any way they can figure out.

[Deathkeeper]

Wizards' Tower

"The runes are conceptual. There's a rune for electricity, runes for change, runes for plants and birds and colors. You have to mix them around, get them in the right order and flux to make things happen. It's...complicated, and I don't really know if it's any more efficient than other methods." Spako admits.

[Recaiden]

"Hmm, I don't think that's quite the same, but there is some mixing. A lot of magic is so personal, inexplicable, isn't it? Maybe just complicated. And yet we keep striving to understand it better. I'm pretty good at copying things without understanding what they do, really. And that's better than nothing, but..."
No need to finish that thought; it goes without saying.

What there is a need to do is set off, more or less following the stream down towards the sea. Those ancient ruins and caves won't uncover themselves.

[Deathkeeper]

Forest

Spako nods and follows Cleo.
"Yeah. I mean, I've done it so many times with my master's help that I can probably work out the runes to my bird shape. But I just haven't figured out the concepts or the instincts to doing something else complex. Which is where we find our problem." he babbles.

[Ashen Lilies]

[The Nightmare]

Wenomir circles around the statue, and makes a heavy step forward. He twists his hips, putting all of his strength into a neck-level cut that aims to use the statue as an executioner's block.

It's reckless, but the existence of this copy of himself seems to bring out a lot of aggression.

[The Nightmare]

The Demon Hunter ducks under the blow, stepping into Wenomir as he attempts to land a quick punch with his off-hand from inside Wenomir's range before stepping away to avoid becoming engaged. He's continuing to kite around the statue, attempting to put it in between him and at least one of the two Vigilants (currently Anika) as much as he can, so he only needs to face them one at a time.

[Recaiden]

"I used to be a bird sometimes. Don't miss it, though."
Cleo laughs.
"You're not overestimating your skill, are you? You should go ahead and work out the runes for the bird shape, like you said. It would probably have some things in common with dragon, wouldn't it? Do you know the runes for a dragonwrought winged kobold?"

[Deathkeeper]

Forest

"No, but I think I have the runes for me worked out and that should be fine enough." he says cheerily. He holds back asking Cleo what kind of bird it was.

[Recaiden]

Cleo doesn't volunteer what type of bird it was. It will remain an unimportant mystery.

"Definitely fine enough. You're only doing this for you."

She stops near a tree, looking it up and down.

"Everything looks so different."

[Deathkeeper]

Forest

Spako stops. Blinks.
"Compared to what? Does your forest change often?" he asks.

[Recaiden]

That question sets Cleo to giggling for a moment.

"We left our forest a long time ago. Since I was last here."
Years have gone by, greenery has reclaimed everything once left out in the open.
It's not so far to the edge of the forest now, a ragged cliff where trees slowly, glacially, tumble down to the ocean and rocks below.
"We're looking for a sort of cave, with four pillars out in front of it. One had fallen, maybe more by now. It leads back inland, if you have any sense of the geology that would lead to that."

[Deathkeeper]

Forest

Spako nods and flaps his wings, trying to survey the area from above, looking for pillars, upright or otherwise.

[Recaiden]

Surveying from above runs into the common problem with forest: they're full of trees, with branches and newgrown leaves all getting in the way of flight and/or vision.

But I'm sure he'll spot some things all the same: giant beetles clambering over some odd little hills with their shining dark-blue carapaces, a little spring that overflows into a tiny brook, a depression in the ground (that might be where a fallen pillar was recently removed, or might just be a ditch).

[Deathkeeper]

Forest

"I don't see any pillars. Just a spring and a hole. You remember either of those?" he asks the dragon who is not presently a dragon.

[Shadowcaller]

[The Nightmare]

Wenomir circles around the statue, and makes a heavy step forward. He twists his hips, putting all of his strength into a neck-level cut that aims to use the statue as an executioner's block.

It's reckless, but the existence of this copy of himself seems to bring out a lot of aggression.

[The Nightmare]

Anika attempts to circle around towards Evilomir's backside and then raise up, swinging her left paw and then her right, threatening to maul him if he doesn't keep out of her reach while simultaneously having to avoid Wenomir.

[Recaiden]

"A hole is close enough to the right thing. And a spring is always need. Are you thirsty?"
Upon asking this, the dragon resumes being a dragon. Want to be ready if there's any trouble ahead, and it seems more appropriate to the surroundings.

[Deathkeeper]

Forest

"Uh, no, I'm not thirsty. You don't expect trouble, do you? I'm not really dressed for any monsters..." he says, leading her to where he spied the hole.

[Recaiden]

"Uh, yes. It was a lot of trouble last time I was here. That's actually what started this whole thing..."
Cleo pauses.
"Why would you leave home without being dressed for monsters?! But you have your staff. And your cards. And your magic...that ought to be plenty, don't you think?"

[Deathkeeper]

Forest

"Yeah, two weapons is probably enough....
Wait, what do you mean 'this?' The Stormguard?" he asks her.

[Recaiden]

Two weapons is probably plenty. I mean, she's brought four, not counting what her dragon form is capable of, but they can't really all be used at once. Two is a good number.

Cleo giggles and shakes her head.
"The Stormguard's a lot older than me. Older than Haldavyr, for that matter. 'This' as in being a dragon. Being me. My whole world...but you don't want to hear about that. Show me where you saw it."
She slides over, ready to follow Spako. Flying is more natural to him; they may as well make use of it.