Lords of Creation: In Character #2

[planswalker]

Nia and Rayne, Imperial Quarters, Teppelin

"My sister is not afraid, because she does not know what you are. I do. For that some reason, I have never used the River Dragon's scales. Not until I'm strong enough to protect myself. Perhaps then." The girl's resolve seemed to harden. "Now, serpent, I must ask you to leave. If you must speak to me, do so to me alone."

Nia's eyes widened momentarily at this, but she remained silent, letting her twin continue.

"Whatever you have come for, you will not harm Nia. Even if you hold back your talons and magic, you could wound her just as deeply with nothing but words. I'm not going to allow that. I ask again, what do you want with us? If you are not here to carry on with your brother's vendetta, why are you here?"

"Why would I harm either of my nieces? I do understand taht growing up learning to hate and fear my kind are not easily shed, but I've already told you why I am here." An edge of frustration enters his voice, as the River Serpent realizes that he is arguing with a ten-year-old. Whatever her parentage, he needed to not forget that they were children still, on the cusp of adulthood. Hence part of why he had come here: to make sure that her mother's hatreds and quarrels were not his own. Mostly though, he'd come to find out more about these creatures of such odd origin.

Besides, she demanded that he go, and then asked him a question. Clearly, her resolve was not as solid as she thinks. He sighs, pauses, and says, "Very well. Tell you what, I shall make an oath right here before you both, right now. I will bind myself by an oath that not even my own kind may break, not that anyone has ever wanted to. I swear upon the very life of the water within me and the magics that give me power that I not only will not do, say, or even think of harming either of you two for the entirety of your lives but will also protect you two to the utmost of my abilities for as long as I am near you, now and forever." For added effect, he had the room glow blue for a moment to signify the deal.

Not that the glow actually mattered, but theatrics never hurt.

"Now then, are y'all willing to speak with me, or must I leave as you have commanded?"

Hakan, The Unchained, Above Area 12

As much as she'd tried to replicate her prior success, Kaylee had yet to produce another fully functional ganman. So it was that Kakumei would be taking to the ground solo, at least for now - the airspace was hellish over the battlefield. The Unchained and Freedom's Fist were living up to the awesome firepower of the Capital classification, true, but that didn't make the resident battleship and its escorts any less dangerous. Worse, it had been fortified by the Destroyers from Area 11 - which were making things exceedingly difficult for the heavy rebel battleships.

Not that Hakan really cared about any of that. He was leaving Kaylee in charge of the fleet - she got all those things. Him? He got fighting. Tensing up, he jumped from the deck of the Unchained, hurdling like a meteor to the streets below. After all, he was hardly one to make a subtle entrance.

"Blazing Meteor Impaaaaaaaact!" With a massive explosion, the ganman scored a direct hit on one of the defending knightmares. Leaping unscathed from the resulting crater, the brawler raised his fists and began a charge towards the nearest of the surrounding foes. Nearby human rebels gave each other aside glances, shrugged, then cheered as they rushed to support their unexpected ally.

Hakan was in the battle.

Enki, Area 12, The Blasted Isle

"Tenebre! Tenebre, do you read? Tene... dammit!" The tiefling lashed out, his knightmare's blade knocking out the support of an adjacent building. Everything had been going reasonably well, but his comrades had suddenly started dropping like flies. Something new had taken the field, and the chaos of the battle was impeding his ability to find out exactly what.

Blast the Countess to the Rot and back! He'd known her idiotic little scheme would fail at some point. Eventually, anger was going to outweigh fear - even he was outraged at the despicably cowardly behavior. But she was still his commanding officer, so he had little recourse but to follow her orders, no matter how... distasteful. He was mulling over potential battle tactics when he froze. Displayed on his viewscreens was something he'd never thought to have the opportunity to see again. One of his peers, a knight-commander, mech fallen and crippled.

And from the body, a lance of ice.

All else was driven from his head as the knight readied his weapons once more and sped off into the streets. After so many years, he could finally avenge all his fallen comrades. Or die trying. Either way, his shame would be put at ease.

Lelouch, Area 12, The Blasted Isle

Scattered reports were coming in. He'd set of a sort of makeshift command center in a ruined building, someplace where his rapidly-growing network of sub-commanders could come to him rather than the other way around. It further secured communications - always vital. And now it seemed that Penkappa's forces had begun to arrive. Excellent. The aerial bombardment was already easing up.

Rising, he passed off management of the incoming commands to a collected young woman... Kinon, he believed her name was. Irrelevant. She showed signs of competence, which was what mattered. He needed to meet William personally - to that end, he gathered a handful of the soldiers he had assigned to guard his person, setting out for the last known location of the Ronin.

William - Area 12

He had not stayed in one place very long at all, constantly moving. However, he also was not hard to follow, for his handiwork was unmistakable. The group seeking him found him easily.

"So, I take it you sought me out deliberately. Care to tell me why? We're kinda in the middle of a battle here."

[Selinia]

Nia and Rayne, Imperial Quarters, Teppelin

Slightly taken aback by the river serpent's potent oath - hardly what she'd expected from a creature that disliked to be bound by anything of any sort - Rayne seemed to lower her guard momentarily. "What... about? What is important enough to speak of that you would make an oath such as that? You have sworn to do us no harm, and river serpents do not lightly break oaths such as that."

Lelouch, Area 12, The Blasted Isle

"You are William Penkappa then, I take it? I would think the reason I would seek you out would be obvious. You are the commander of your force. I have been working to form this uprising into something resembling a cohesive fighting unit. I can hardly do that with you as an entirely unknown element - what soldiers have you deployed? Where?" The man glanced around, obviously trying to keep an eye out for threats. William was in an unsecured region of the Bastion, and troops could arrive any moment.

"My name is Lelouch, by the way. The support is much appreciated, particularly your airborne units, but I'd watch for the Spire - the Countess has installed some rather heavy..." As if to punctuate his speech, a massive white beam lanced out from the monolithic structure, sending a rebel cruiser listing ominously. "...anti-air. That structure is our objective - we take that, we can clear the skies for ourselves."

Hakan, Area 12, The Blasted Isle

A small force had gathered around the ganman, supporting it with weapons fire. Well, cleaning up after it, at least - Hakan was moving too quickly to really receive 'support', nor did he seem to need it overmuch. He was happily pummeling any knightmare that stood in his way, and scattering infantry like ninepins.

By now, most of the enemies were fleeing, Kakumei in hot pursuit. So it was with some surprise that Hakan noted a knightmare rocketing down the street towards him - surprise, followed closely by excitement. Finally, an enemy with a bit of spirit of their own! Raising the great crysteel fists of his mech, he bellowed out a challenge. Unlike many of the others, he was answered with one as well.

"Hmph. So, you're the human with the stolen knightmare, are you? Very well, I accept - I can defeat you and still be ready to battle Penkappa. You will be a thorn in our side no longer!" The enemy knightmare lunged at Hakan, leading with its twin blades. The rebel moved to block, only to find the weapons already shifting direction.

"You're good!" An understatement - the ganman was heavily armored, but it was starting to chip away at the rain of blows from the opposing knightmare. Blocking wasn't working. Well, the pilot thought - he'd just have to try something else. Simply letting the sword strikes past, he lashed out with a mighty right hook. His opponent tried to dodge, but the knightmare was still clipped with enough force to stagger it. "But not as good as me! Come on, is that all you've got?"

Enki growled and wiped a trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth. Spinning his blades into a ready position once more, he rasped in reply. "Not in the slightest, human. Not in the slightest."

Forsaken Armada, Area 03, The Blasted Isle

The battle was lost. That much was apparent to anyone with half a brain observing it. Already the surviving battleship was falling back - beating a hasty retreat. The carrier Once Again though, had received different orders. From Idra himself - orders that would sacrifice the battle to win the war.

Forsaken soldiers might note that there were no longer any vessels docking in the carrier, only lifting off. Or perhaps that the gunships had ceased their strafing runs and moved to retreat alongside the battleships. But it is doubtful they would have gleaned any useful insight from this - it was not a strategy that had ever been attempted before. The last of the crew of the mighty capital ship fled in minutes, leaving the Forsaken to rampage unimpeded in the city below. A mere handful of troops opposed them - those who hadn't been able to make it to an extraction point in time.

Minutes passed. The now-empty Once Again seemed to be drifting lazily in the sky, devoid of all activity. It was a clean conquest for the armies of Aura.

Then the world ended.

It's four supporting reactors had been diverted, pumping energy into its massive primary core for the past fifteen minutes. It was only a matter of time before the highly unstable energy would snap free of its limits - even without the extra fuel, a carrier reactor meltdown would result in a devastating blast. Egged on by such a feedback loop, the result was almost incomprehensible.

Heat and light pummeled the city below. The air itself burned. Infantry were vaporized. Building shattered in the blastwave, crysteel material turning into deadly shrapnel. Various chaos-based weapons cooked off in their wielder's hand, sending rippling secondary blasts through the streets. Golemships were tossed about and scattered like straws in a stiff wind, even as their hulls cracked and fractured and their insides turned into furnaces.

Those outside the city fared no better. The walls of the city had exploded violently outwards, crushing forces already burnt and scarred by the initial blast. Even the mightiest of the Forsaken spellcasters would be pushed to the limits of their ability to save just themselves, let alone any allies.

Those scarce few that survived would find their surrounding not dissimilar to the tales of the burning. Anything flammable had bee scorched to charcoal. Grass and small plant life had been scoured into blackness. Trees had been flattened by the shock-wave, lying in eerily ordered patterns radiating from the blast point for miles around. Bits of crysteel dust - all that remained of the colossal carrier that had done this - drifted lazily from the sky, draping the aftermath in a blanket of glittering white.

The forsaken stood, victorious. A pile of rubble as their prize. As far as Idra was concerned, they were welcome to it.

Spoiler

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OOC: Actions!~

AP 6 - 0 (MR4 Blight - Kaboom; Charge from Ultima)

Pantheon AP 2 - 1 (Another MR4 Blight, because seriously, Kaboom.)

Final AP: 6
Pantheon AP: 1
GP: 18/24

"Area 03 is about to go up in fire and blood."? Well gee, can I help?

More seriously, all your heroes have obviously survived - although some of them are probably rather badly hurt. The rest of the armada is probably faring about as well as one might expect after being hit with what is essentially a magical H-Bomb.

[planswalker]

Nia and Rayne, Imperial Quarters, Teppelin

Slightly taken aback by the river serpent's potent oath - hardly what she'd expected from a creature that disliked to be bound by anything of any sort - Rayne seemed to lower her guard momentarily. "What... about? What is important enough to speak of that you would make an oath such as that? You have sworn to do us no harm, and river serpents do not lightly break oaths such as that."

Nia and Rayne - Teppelin

"Well, what do I want to talk to you about? Well, anything. I have been alive since the days before we had night to mark them. Never have I ever seen or heard of anyone quite like the two of you. However, I also come bearing information. Now then, if you would be so kind, would you mind answering my first question? Have either of you used Big Brother's gifts?"

Lelouch, Area 12, The Blasted Isle

"You are William Penkappa then, I take it? I would think the reason I would seek you out would be obvious. You are the commander of your force. I have been working to form this uprising into something resembling a cohesive fighting unit. I can hardly do that with you as an entirely unknown element - what soldiers have you deployed? Where?" The man glanced around, obviously trying to keep an eye out for threats. William was in an unsecured region of the Bastion, and troops could arrive any moment.

"My name is Lelouch, by the way. The support is much appreciated, particularly your airborne units, but I'd watch for the Spire - the Countess has installed some rather heavy..." As if to punctuate his speech, a massive white beam lanced out from the monolithic structure, sending a rebel cruiser listing ominously. "...anti-air. That structure is our objective - we take that, we can clear the skies for ourselves."

William - Area 12

"Then what are we doing standing around here talking? There are seven elite Ronin in the city walls, and what ground forces we have otherwise trying to breach the gates. That effort is being lead by a Ganman pilot named Hakan. I'll get him alerted, and suggest he keep the streets busy. Now then, shall we make for the spire?"

A quick mental sending on a breeze of mist, and Hakan has been updated to the situation.

[Steilos]

Avatar of Bacsphaal, Area 03 Pile Of Rubble in the Middle of Nowhere
Bacsphaal watched the battle with some amusement, lanching bolts of corrupted flame off whenever the urge seized him to kill. Void above, he loved war. It was an arena where all moral constraints were off, where one could destroy to his heart's content...

Then the world ended.

Except for Bacsphaal, who merely laughed as everything around him vapourised. Destruction and suffering of anyone delights him - at the end of the day, he doesn't really care who wins as long as he watches someone die.

But... he supposed he had to retaliate. To this end he gives a quiet signal to Peritus and the Black Rider to march, although he doesn't yet tell them where.

Bacsphaal, Festung

"Lessee... Malignant energy, death, evil, suffering... Yeah, liking this place's vibes. Now, what about a name?"
The Lord of Want steps through the halls of the fortress before apparently settling on something.

"Festering... Festing... Festung." Yes, that would do. Now to wait for the other lords.

[apocalypsePast2]

Pyrokus, Quarland

Quarland cried out with rage at the death of his people. He saw them struggle and fall. With a bestial roar, he fired off divine power, spinning a purple beam of death through the multiverse towards...

Teppelin

The purple blaze struck down from the sky towards the Citadel of the Spirit Empress. With a great blast like that of supernova, the violet fire struck the slow spinning mountain, flashing through crysteel and flesh. It blasted through the structure, incinerating tieflings. Then, it split.

The flames of rage barreled downward towards their targets, the docked ships of the tiefling fleet and the reactors powering the continent wide plasma cannon.

Through the docking bay flashed death and damnation as the fleet was struck, giant fireballs smashing through cruisers and destroyers like toys. Purple flames licked up the edges of the capital ships, although they did not fall. With a great groan, a little more than half the docked ships fell, the crysteel hulls smashing against the crysteel walls of the citadel.

The other line of flames flickered through the power lines, racing through the grid. With a smash like, appropriately, an angry god, the flames burst into the weapon reactors, setting the reactors alight and melting them like Swiss cheese. With a sigh, as if a last breath, the reactors powered down, their control safeties keeping them from violently exploding.

Spoiler

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6Ap-5AP=1AP
MR 3 Curse ( Docked ships of the tiefling fleet/ plasma cannon reactors)
Not too much damage was caused to the docked fleet, seeing as most of the fleet was out because of the war. However, the plasma cannon will take some time to repair, unless divine intervention is used. A few hundred tieflings were incinerated, but not a great deal. The Goddess and heroes survived, of course.
23/24 AP

This is called proportionate retribution.

[Selinia]

Nia and Rayne, Imperial Quarters, Teppelin

"I answered your first question already. I have never before used the scale of Sozuchi, nor has Nia. Teikoku has not forbidden it, but she has warned me of what your home is like. Why would I go to such a place? Why would my sister? Most importantly, what is this information of which you speak?" She seemed to be struggling internally, fear of the serpent warring with a child's curiosity at its words.

Genome, Biocomputer Core, Teppelin

"Hmm."

It took something truly significant to concern the odd computing entity. This - this was significant. Of minor significance, true, but it warranted attention. On the bright side, it had proven to be an adequate test of Teppelin's defensive prowess - next time the forsaken god decided to throw a childish tantrum, he might wish to check to ensure that he wasn't targeting something orders of magnitude more powerful than himself.

The dead were dead of course. A terrible tragedy, to be sure. As it happened, Quarland had succinctly killed any sympathy the forsaken might have had. Those news outlets that had been advocating a possible peace treaty with them to allow proper focus on the human threat were now calling for further, brutal action. Of course, the news could do as it pleased - Idra would act as according to military strategy, not civilian mewling.

And on a military scale, the attack had been laughable. Teppelin's outer hull was repaired within seconds, golden threads knitting the damaged sections back together as the Weaver's power exerted itself. Within minutes, the fires had been put out. Most of the damaged aircraft had been civilian ones - those too small to keep airborne long enough for Teppelin's emergency functions to save them. Six fighters, being moved to a cruiser's docking bay, were the lone armed casualties. Several cruisers would needs minor repairs, and much of the outer armor of two of the battleships had been severely damaged by the leaping fire. It would likely take several days before any of them could properly be deployed. Perhaps a week for the worst cases. A hiccup, on the logistic scale.

Genome shrugged, as much as a disembodied head can shrug. The empress had decided to not respond to the Betrayer at all - the stark reminder of his own futile childishness should serve well enough.

Lelouch, Area 12, The Blasted Isle

"Wait... what? Eight soldiers? Eight!? You cannot be serious! Placing such a large objective in the hands of so few is lunacy! Even with your commando in the stolen knightmare, your ground deployment is woefully small! We need more soldiers! We need to clear a route to the Spire properly, for our forces! Blast it... I think I can pull together an assault team though. Give me fifteen minutes, that's all - if I sacrifice the squads in the opposite quadrant as a diversion, it might buy us a window to move closer with relative safety." He scowled. "Unless you have a better plan? But I refuse to risk the outcome of this battle on the skills of a mere handful - individual soldiers are unreliable and highly fallible. Only on the larger scale can true tactical control be achieved in any meaningful fashion."

Hakan, Area 12, The Blasted Isle

The pilot received William's message, shooting back a rather overzealous 'Busy now' in reply. For whatever reason, this guy simply refused to go down! Kakumei had thrown every punch, kick and body slam in Hakan's arsenal, and the tiefling with the two swords had evaded them all. Mostly. Both mechs were battered with dozens of dents, cracks, and fractures.

Enki himself was seething with frustration. No knightmare was this tough, not even a custom model! He should have sliced it in half a dozen times already! But it just soaked attacks like a sponge - he needed to find its limit, somehow. Lunging forward, he let loose another blazing-fast flurry of blows, sword strikes falling like rain upon the ganman. The cockpit seemed to groan as he pushed Viradu to its limit - the machine had been waiting as long as he had been for a chance at vengeance. It wasn't about to let some upstart show it up.

Hakan struggled, the rain of blows beginning to take a real toll. But he wasn't finished yet, not by a long shot.

Spoiler

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OOC: Actions!~

AP 6 - 0 (MR4 Bless - Teppelin Security; Charge from the Spiral of Creation)

Final AP: 6
Pantheon AP: 1
GP: 18/24

Teppelin wouldn't be much of a divine Fortress if it couldn't stand up to some chump (admittedly, divine) temper tantrum. Of course, everyone who died is still dead, but any structural damage or impact on the fleet has either been canceled out by Teppelin's defensive wardings or is being repaired. About time to show that all the big talk about Teppelin being nigh-unassailable was more than just words.

[planswalker]

Nia and Rayne, Imperial Quarters, Teppelin

"I answered your first question already. I have never before used the scale of Sozuchi, nor has Nia. Teikoku has not forbidden it, but she has warned me of what your home is like. Why would I go to such a place? Why would my sister? Most importantly, what is this information of which you speak?" She seemed to be struggling internally, fear of the serpent warring with a child's curiosity at its words.

Nia and Rayne - Cultural Confusions

The River Serpent tilted its head to the side and said, "What's dangerous about water? I don't understand. I thought your kind had to drink it to survive. Or is part of Ear's heritage that water harms you?"

The serpent did not understand the child's apparent fear of water. The scales allowed them to move and breathe in water freely. True, the Riverways were the biggest source of water anywhere, but surely the two had encountered it before, even on this Ear-forsaken fortress. Had Ear deprived her children of even the simple joys of trickling streams?

"I thought it was customary of your people to immerse yourselves in water each day to cleanse yourselves. Are you saying that you fear using the scales in there? Also, the Riverways have their dangers true, but does not this citadel you call home as well? Is it not dangerous to touch power cores? In much the same way, my home has its dangerous parts. However, it also has its beautiful parts, and those places are the essence of joy, pure and undiluted freedom."

He realized then that he had asked them yet another series of questions without answering theirs. "I had come to show you two some of the more advanced parts of what water can do, new games that you two can play with them, but if you are afraid of water, then it would be mean of me to scare you." His tone is not patronizing but frank.

Big Brother had clearly told him when he had asked him about the gifts that they allowed the twins to play in Sozuchi's domain. And when BB said that, he didn't mean home, he meant all water anywhere. The serpent had naturally assumed that the twins understood the difference, for such things were not easily confused in the ways that Sozuchi and his brethren communicated. If Ear's children found water itself to be dangerous, then his job was going to be hard indeed. If water was dangerous, then maybe the two were too young yet to handle it. Maybe in another hundred thousand years, Riverways time.

Lelouch, Area 12, The Blasted Isle

"Wait... what? Eight soldiers? Eight!? You cannot be serious! Placing such a large objective in the hands of so few is lunacy! Even with your commando in the stolen knightmare, your ground deployment is woefully small! We need more soldiers! We need to clear a route to the Spire properly, for our forces! Blast it... I think I can pull together an assault team though. Give me fifteen minutes, that's all - if I sacrifice the squads in the opposite quadrant as a diversion, it might buy us a window to move closer with relative safety." He scowled. "Unless you have a better plan? But I refuse to risk the outcome of this battle on the skills of a mere handful - individual soldiers are unreliable and highly fallible. Only on the larger scale can true tactical control be achieved in any meaningful fashion."

Spoiler

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Hakan, Area 12, The Blasted Isle

The pilot received William's message, shooting back a rather overzealous 'Busy now' in reply. For whatever reason, this guy simply refused to go down! Kakumei had thrown every punch, kick and body slam in Hakan's arsenal, and the tiefling with the two swords had evaded them all. Mostly. Both mechs were battered with dozens of dents, cracks, and fractures.

Enki himself was seething with frustration. No knightmare was this tough, not even a custom model! He should have sliced it in half a dozen times already! But it just soaked attacks like a sponge - he needed to find its limit, somehow. Lunging forward, he let loose another blazing-fast flurry of blows, sword strikes falling like rain upon the ganman. The cockpit seemed to groan as he pushed Viradu to its limit - the machine had been waiting as long as he had been for a chance at vengeance. It wasn't about to let some upstart show it up.

Hakan struggled, the rain of blows beginning to take a real toll. But he wasn't finished yet, not by a long shot.

William - 12

"No, you misunderstand. Seven of us went into the city covertly to free the thousand captives without loss of life that someone decided would be better to just go ahead and kill off so he can start his battle an hour early. We have a small contingent of ground forces with the Ganman. Think of a ganman as a custom knightmare, times ten. Most of our forces, though, are in the skies, ready to overwhelm things once we get that Spire down. We figured the internal resistance had more than enough manpower on the ground, if used properly and its commander doesn't butcher them all himself."

Hearing a lecture from a man who had just started today what he had devoted his adult life to was irritating. Hearing a lecture about something that a man misunderstood when that same one was likely behind the deaths of a thousand innocents just to start his battle sooner was unacceptable.

"As it happens, you are now berating a man who has spent the last ten years of his life living and breathing asymmetrical warfare. That's the practice of ensuring that the larger opponent never gets a chance to attack you on even terms. The seven who came did not come to overtake the spiral single-handedly, but to free the captives. We had a plan for that which would have freed them without having to kill them. Now, though, that seems to be a moot point. Our intelligence last night said that freeing those captives were the primary objectives. Now that plan has been shot to shreds. Time to adapt things to a new objective."

"You say the Spire has powerful anti-air defenses? Then let us take it out. Like all the teflings' stuff, crysteel is itself their greatest strength and worst flaw. The human spirit can unravel is seconds and surpass in minutes what it takes the oppressors a lifetime to achieve. If your team can get me to the primary power core, I can re-channel its energy into a more useful means. I assume you have good schematics for the critical systems in the Spire and their location?"

[Rainshine]

Desert Meetings

The young girl called herself an Asherati, and the language was similar enough to the tongue of the desert that they could understand her. When she began to speak of the great cities beneath their very feet, they began to realize that they were speaking with a demoness of the desert herself. But a demoness who knew the tongues of music, and played them beautifully. She told stories of life beneath While gently strumming her harp, told of great families and schools living out their life beneath the surface. In the face of this, the Mteule thought, perhaps these Asherati are not demons at all. They live and work, and more importantly, they are students of music. By the falling of night, they had exchanged stories of times past, and arranged to meet the Patriarch of the young musician's House in twenty periods forward. A first contact of blood and poison, a second of music and stories; which might be the future for these two co-occupants of the desert?


Fall of Magic, outside of Hold Nerthos

It was a simple matter, the wanders that came in by the growing light that day had accounted being accosted outside the Hold by an attack of jackals and some large buglike creatures. The following night, a pair of Desert Speakers, one older and one younger, set out with a guide towards where the attacks had happened. Two Speakers could handle any threat short of an army, after all.

How the prideful learn. Their guide pointed from a distance, muttering things about ravenous claws. With a handful of sand each, the Speakers began their incantations. "Niska pote le 'bay nou consequat sovaj nan minim sab lobortis wisi augue," sand falling to the desert floor. Air shimmers faintly, and they step forward. The sound of the three steps of footsteps is constant, a rhythm that broke through the natural hums and breezes that filled the desert night. Thirty steps, fifty, and their flesh shivered as showers of sand poured around them, as creatures burst from the sands. A faint shriek was heard in the distant sky. The Speakers turned to look at the four bugs that were arrayed upon the sands, slowly approaching, sneering as they began to chant and motion. An outflung hand as a gesture, a few drips of sand and... nothing. The Speaker looked from side to side, then quickly changed his words. "Douch dušš kabann kaugemale depase!" His pointing finger was direct at one of the bugs, scarcely five lengths away, but nothing happened, and he heard the nervous mutterings of his partner, the faint prayers of their guide. The shriek from above came closer as the two made one last attempt, their magic not coming to their call. Then the cries rang out in the clear air of the desert, and were no more. By light, there were only a few blotches of red on the sand to mark where they had been.


Citadel

After a good bit of explaining, they began to teach the study of the mind to him, and he marveled. Not only at the things that they could do, but at the things he could do. After only three periods, he was beginning to see how his study of the body had been so incomplete. The mind managed many of the signals that he had to manage to make his body function in certain ways. Amazing things. Their food was a bit away from what he had known, but that could be adjusted to -- most of it wasn't too toxic. It seemed that the gnomes were as strange in their cooking as in their "science". The one fellow, with the machine, had the idea that somehow, with round discs with teeth on them, and strange cards, he could replicate a mind! Preposterous, of course. Then again, that was what he had thought of many of the things these gnomes did. They could change their body color! Make this finger red, this one white! They could imagine so many things! And some of the elder ones... Their minds seemed to operate at a whole different place then the rest of life. That was a mystery to which he was not yet entitled.

And so he turned himself to studying. Time passed outside the little group, years and generations. As he began to learn small things, the way to large things was opened. Mysteries of their ways shown -- the gnomes, as it turned out, actually were in a different place. Somehow, they split their minds, and had two bodies -- one seen, one unseen. The unseen was not as strong as the seen -- it was purely of the mind, with no flesh to back it -- but through it they could see, and do small things, like close doors. That was, of course, only a small benefit, but one of the very tangible ones to his way of thought. His time was spent doing exercises, stretching his mind by entertaining wild and crazy concepts, helping them in the development of some hundreds of items that would end up littered around this area, some used for payment for the supplies used.


And like that, thirty years was gone. The voice called to him again as he slept, only part of his mind resting, the other part restless and roaming. He had went as far as the gnomes could take him, his time here was done. So, with saying his farewells to those who still studied, to the gadgets and machines of the gnomes, he made his way back out into the world.


Teppelin

Approaching the great structure, he looked around. Astonishing! How could anything like this be built up? What kind of creatures must live here? Cautiously, he began to circle, looking for an entrance, or the residents, and hoping he would neither regret this, nor lose the way home. Throwing the rock back through hopefully would warn the mage to leave it open. Hopefully.


Northwestern Desert

A young harper strummed tunes as they marched, a ragged band of warriors and Winds, and freed slaves from one of the cities of Vendigroth. The scouts of the General had reported a sudden reduction in forces around this city, so out the raiding party went, and fairly successful at that. It was a long hike, unfortunately, over a reg, and he played to lift their spirits. Certainly they were lifted by the success, but it had not been a cost or pain-free regrettably, and so he played to drive off the pain. Fingers worked their clever way, and as tough and bare feet hit the ground with barely a sound, his clear and still tenor voice making counterpoint to the harp.
Our feet go steady onward,
Onward towards our home
The sands are far,
The sands are long,
And home is so long far gone

Together we will be,
In the House Hall once more,
When the winds fade
When the storms fade
Once more together after the fade

Oh, but now we are,
Here alone, no home
The winds blow loud
The sands sweep clean
To not be alone, to be home...

Our feet go steady onward,
Onward towards our home
Our hearts will hope
Our hearts will hear
Our hearts will love again, at home

There we will be,
Together in the end,
No wind, no storm, to be between us
Then the Father and Mother will come
And together all, all will be


The song had to be interrupted with the arrival of some of the locals -- crossing over rock was necessary, but also dangerous, as it took away their quick getaways. The group quickly circled up, eying the hungry predators arrayed around them, casting eyes skyward from time to time. The harper drew his spear, walking with his back to the rest of the formation, cautious steps as they moved forward. Sounds of crashing came from one side of the circle, yelps and cries, sound of claw and bone and weapons. He turned not his head to look though, for fear of breaking the circle, of giving advantage. They moved onward. He skewered one yelping animal with claws almost as long as his fingers that came from behind a boulder, and still they crept. The cries from above drew all their eyes for a few moments, then their pace picked up. They had not many archers left, and a roc could cause great difficulty. Haste makes difficulty.

The faster they moved, the more creatures seem to come. Careful structure of the circle began to bend, and a large cat came bounding at the exposed side of one of those further to the sunside of the circle of he. With a twist of the hips and shoulders, he launched the spear at it without much thought, satisfied to see it fall short -- and less so when he saw another cat come at him. Naturally, he grabbed the nearest thing to hand, that being the harp. The angry strum that he plucked before drawing back to swing was a cry of anger at being forced to take such an object of beauty and ruin it. The effect was different than he could have ever anticipated.

Rocks flew up in a wave in front of him, torn from the ground. A cat with a missing pair of front paws and a well-beaten face went flying backwards several lengths, and the other creatures, on hearing the harsh sound, pulled back from their attack for a moment. With all the swiftness of desert veterans, the Asherati struck, a spearhead ripping forward through the lines, heading for deep sand at a run. The Wind, gritting his teeth, tried to run while holding his staff up, as a breeze began to form, and the shriek of the Roc grew louder. Frantically, the harper thought, trying to catch a few words of the Wind's chant as they ran, and threw his fingers into the harp, still confused by what happened, determined to make the most of it. Each thrum of a string seemed to draw the chant louder, the wind harder, until a storm wind seemed to be circling around them.
The Roc, easily visible by now, carrying a boulder, shrieked hate and hunger at them, releasing his projectile from as close as it dare get to the wind. The harper's fingers failed for less than a beat in alarm, quickly matching again with the chant, and the boulder slowed its approach to them, crashing outside the barrier of the wind. They ran onwards, panting, until feet found desert sand, and they dove, the poor harper's fingers and Wind's voice worn past exhaustion.

Spoiler

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AP 7 - 2 (Create Organization: Warsingers) = 5

[Shmee]

Terran, Halls of Endless Meditation

Breaking from his meditation, the god of Earth rises wearily, concern etched on his face as he watches the events unfold on Teppelin. Shaking his head in sorrow at the bloodshed that the gods were committing, he was greatly disappointed. Looking at his Valkyrie whom he had summoned, he begins to talk

"It had been my hope that both gods and mortals would have learned from the destruction that the return of fire ushered... but they have learned nothing. Even as we speak, the earth is gorged to its brink with the blood of the innocent. Very well then... it is time that they are all taught an even harsher lesson. They wish to shed blood upon the earth? So be it, the earth itself shall unleash a deluge of blood upon them! Let them wallow in their filth!"

"Brunhilde... my Valkyrie... you are to go back to your people... tell them to prepare for I intend to unleash my fierce retribution upon the world, a retribution so fierce that even I may not be able to control it. Your proud race and the Earth itself may be the only ones who may stop the tide which is about to strike the earth."

The Dwarven maiden bows, and runs off to her people. She didn't like what she had heard, but she knew that the Immovable Mountain had gained his title for a reason. Aruging with him at this point would be pointless.

Terran, now alone within the Halls, begins to ponder on what to do next. He would give them a dose of their own medicine... and for that, he needed a creature... but not any creature... one who would act as a twisted parody of what the gods and their mortals had become... a race more vicious and bloodthirsty than anything else ever seen upon the world... but what?

All of a sudden, the god of Earth has an idea. He remembers back to the first time he had unleashed punishment upon the world... when Keikoku and her Humans were punished by having their island flicked to the void. At that time in Kamigawa, she had been playing war games, using pieces, just before the unforeseen cataclysm kicked in. Reaching into his pocket, Terran looks at one of the pieces he had picked up while in Kamigawa and nods with satisfaction... this would do perfectly.

Placing the piece upon the floor, and begins to exert his divine power upon it.

"You are to become my tool of vengeance. The time for soft handed approaches is over... the rod shall strike them fiercely. Your strength and ruthlessness shall have no bounds. You shall yield to no authority, earthly, divine or natural but that of brute strength. The world, shall be overwhelmed with your sheer ferocity until all are silenced in fear of you. Woe to any who dares oppose you, for you are the living incarnation of my rage!"

Having finished his incantation, Terran now looks at the now living creature. This new creature was a humanoid, although very different from any race created yet. Taller than any human, this green creature was far more muscular, but as if a twist of fate, he had a dull look in his beady red eyes, and was drooling from his big toothy maw. The stench emanating from the creature made Terran wonder what type of being could come up with the idea to carve such a creature for a war game, and was grateful that they had at least bothered to cloth him. It was bare-chested, with spiked plate gauntlets and trousers. It wore a spiked helmet which covered its bald head, and a dragon hide cape.

"Hmmm... I wonder... what shall I call you?"

"I AM BURKEK! IZ YUZ MAH FADDA?" Bellows the creature. Terran is taken back for a moment before he regains his composure.

"I see... very well then Burkek, I guess you could call me your 'father', come... I shall give you the training you shall require."

"OI! YUZ IZ STUPID! I iz not needin' no trainin' from anyone! I iz da bestest and I iz gonna bash anyone who iz sayin' udder wise!"

Terran gives a sigh... obviously this one was not the sharpest knife in the drawer... or sharpest spoon for that matter. But then he remembered how he had made this creature... unbound-able... only impressed by one thing.

"Very well then Burkek, I challenge you and your strength. Defeat me, and I shall let you go on your way... however if I beat you, you shall listen... to the best of your capacity agreed?"

"YUZ IZ FINKIN' DAT YUZ CAN BEATZ ME? YUZ IZ ON ROCK'EAD! I IZ GOIN TO BASH YUZ!" bellows Burkek

"Very well then... but considering that I am divinity, it would not be fair... instead, we shall fight on equal level... follow me please."

"Were iz yuz takin' me?"

"This is Battle Rock. A place designed for combat and duelling where anyone inside it reaches their full potential. It is here that we shall fight."

"HA! ALRIGHT YUZ IZ ON!"

And with that, Terran and Burkek jump into the Orb containing Battle Rock. As the two prepare for their duel, curious Genasi Masters and students gather to watch the fight, as it was not often that the Revered Master Terran would challenge another to a fight, let alone use Battle Rock.

Taking his fighting pose, Terran taunts Burkek

"Come... for I shall not hold back..."

Burkek simply roars as he charges Terran with reckless abandon. What happened during the battle? Only the Genasi present know of what happened, but one thing was for sure, the entire world within Battle Rock was shattered, but in the end, a triumphant Terran remains standing over a defeated Burkek, the god of Earth breathing heavily as he knew that the only thing which gave him victory over this beast was his aeons of experience.

Spoiler

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Rolled to see who would win.
Seems Terran just barley won What happened in the battle? I'll save it for later.

Leaving Battle Rock and taking Burkek with him, Terran return to the Halls, and upon healing him, the brute looks at the god of Earth with malice in his eyes, before all of a sudden bursting into laughter as he slaps Terran's back

"DAT WUZ A GOOD FIGHT! I IZ LIKIN' YUZ ROCKHEAD! AND WHEN I IZ LIKIN SUMONEZ DAT MEANZ I IZ GONNA BASH DEM LAST!"

Regaining his composure, Terran eyes Burkek and tells him "Indeed it was Burkek... I cannot remember the last time I was pushed so hard. Very well, it seems that my teachings would be a waste on you... I am going to send you to the earth... were you shall do... well... what you do best..."

"Wut iz yuz talkin' about?"

Without saying anything, Terran grabs Burkek, easily lifting him up. Perhaps in Battle Rock the brute could rival Terran, but outside of it, Terran was still an elder god. And with that, Terran chucks Burkek out of the Halls and towards the Earth, were Burkek goes hurdling down into the mists. As he looks, a concerned Brunhilda appears, having returned from her task.

"Revered Master, do you think this is a good idea?"

"Brunhilde... it is as I have said... the world brought this upon itself... it is too late now to regret... the only thing we can do is prepare, for those unprepared shall be swept in his wake..."

With that Terran takes the Oath Barer from his Valkyrie and points it towards the mists in the world and focuses his power. Next to him, Brunhilde looks in horror at what the Immovable Mountain was doing.

One Peaceful day on Aura

For a while, all was peaceful, until one day in Aura, the Forsaken reported a small group of weird creatures trespassing in their lands. They seemed quite primitive indeed, as the biggest of the creature puts a crudely constructed standard which depicted a Hammer in front of a mountain, as the biggest of them yelled out

"ALRIGHT YUZ GITZ! DIZ PLACE NOW BELONGZ TO DA ORCZ!"

A great cheer is heard from the small group, as they begin to howl in their guttural tongue. To the Forsaken, three words could be heard over and over again "Orc" "Grand Poo-Bah" and "Burkek"

"AH SHAADAP YUZ GITZ WITH YUZ ASS KISSIN'! I IZ NEEDIN TO BE FINKIN' OF A NAME FOR DIZ PLACE BEFORE WE GO MAKING IT MORE ORCY!"

With that, Burkek sits down to think... very hard, as thinking was clearly not his strong point.

Orcs? Oh dear, there goes the neighbourhood.

Spoiler

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Use Mythic Power to raise hero: Burkek, Grand Poo-Bah of da Orcs!
AP23=24-1, Create Life: Orcs!

"It has begun..."

[Steilos]

Avatar of Bacsphaal, Area 04

The Lord of Want hovered above the city, taking in the sights and sounds of tieflings maintaining weapons and performing drill, the muted hustle as the oppressed humans went gloomily around their business, and the faint whispers of dissent arose from those who wished to resist. Countless people going around their business as normal, just trying to live their lives under the watchful eyes of the capricious Gods.

A city of people who were going to die.

The skies... distorted. Something was happening far above the city, something that caught the eye of nearly everyone in it as it made the clouds writhe in impossible dimensional agony. Bacsphaal had his old predatory grin back as holes appeared in the firmament...

The Black Rider, The Drought

The Black Rider raised his clenched fist as the concentrated power of the Grotesques began to tear reality apart at the designated location. Levelling his arm, he points at the rifts. The Grotesques take a step.

Thud.

Hundreds of thousands of Lost Ones and Aberrations skittered around madly, crude organic weapons twitching and convulsing.

Thud.

The Orators began to move, shambling masses of flesh and bone that inflict pain upon themselves with every step.

Thud.

The Grotesques keep marching, and the Black Rider sets his steed off towards the growing rift...


Avatar of Bacsphaal, Area 04

The rifts were growing. Knightmares hopped over rooftops, weapons ready. Tieflings on the ground cautiously raised their rifles, wondering as much as the humans were what was going on. The humans for the most part hid, having nothing other than their houses for protection, although those who had armed themselves put a hand over where they concealed their weapons. The leaders of the Bastion made preparations to send messages to Teppelin. Then the rifts suddenly froze. For the longest of moments, there was nothing. A stillness in the air and a silence so quiet it was deafening. Thousands holding their breath all at once.

Bacsphaal raised a hand in the air and whispered, "End them."

The sky turned violet and the portals turned into screeching malestroms of purple flame, a keening, piercing din that left many on the ground completely unable to hear anything. Then, from the heart of the chaos, shapes appeared. Twisted, monstrous shapes that defied all known natural conventions began to take form and colour, before as suddenly as they were shilouettes they were there, face to face with the terrified citizenry.

Millions of abominations were let loose upon the city, Grotesques battling Knightmares while the Lost Ones and Abominations slaughtered the humans. Orators fired colossal sonic blasts at structures within the Bastion, sending deadly hails of crysteel shrapnel flying from shattered buildings literally bursting into tiny pieces as the immense sound resonated with their very structure. The Black Rider smashed through building after building, his immense shockwaves pulverising troops like grain in a pestle. Within 10 minutes, lines of communication were cut.

The Knightmares fought valiantly and the Tiefling fleet was repelling boarders at an impressive rate, but without a way of telling Teppelin what was going on they were doomed to die. Even so, they lasted four hours before falling under weight of bodies.

All of the humans were dead long before then.

Bacsphaal stood at the foot of the spire and admired his handiwork. The abominations took their dead back to the Drought along with many dead humans as he picked through the rubble, the rift sealing even as he looked up at the sky.

There was nothing left usable of Area 04. The Orators has seen to it so that only the outer wall and the Spire remained standing, albeit barely. There was nothing left of the rest of the interior. With a smile, Bacsphaal turned around and made to leave, when he noticed a movement under a pile of rubble. Looking underneath it, he found a human coughing feebly, although relatively unharmed. Up ahead, the crysteel hulk of a smashed Knightmare twitched. After doing a quick divine check to make sure noone else survived, he picks up both the tiefling underneath the Knightmare and the human crumpled under the rubble.

The poor unfortunates found themselves face to face with the Lord of Want, his sightless yet gimlet eyes boring into their very souls. Yet Bacsphaal did not kill them, for an idea wormed its way into his mind at the exact moment he prepared to strike. Instead, he spoke, the harsh rasp drilling itself unforgettably into their heads.

"You will tell them what happened here. You will say that Bacsphaal, The Lord of Want, brought the apocalypse to your home on this day, that he killed every single other man, woman and child in the city, and that he razed this place to the ground."

He lets the man and the tiefling drop to the ground and walks off into nowhere, disappearing from their sight.

[Selinia]

Lelouch, Area 12, The Blasted Isle

"...very well. I defer to your superior expertise and battlefield vantage in this instance. I will launch diversionary tactics to help us secure a path. However, I fail to see the tactical benefit of liberating the prisoners - none but perhaps a small handful were combat-capable. Our forces on the ground here are extremely limited - it would have been folly to sacrifice the element of surprise on a maneuver with no significance to the battle. Their deaths were unfortunate, but effectively unavoidable. The Countess has been authorized for Gaess for months - the only reason the city was not purged by the battleships above us in minutes was that the occupying forces were caught while many important officers were on the ground."

"This also meant that the prisoners were under their heaviest guard. By allowing them to be purged, we bought the minutes necessary for your fleet to engage the enemy. I will defer to you in the matter of warfare, but in return I ask that you not condescend my own expertise. I have spent years analyzing tiefling command structures and protocols to prepare for this moment. Do not scorn me for having the spine to do what no one else could stomach. Our entire Bastion has been searching for a way to both free those hostages and break out for a decade - do you really think you could just swoop in and magically fulfill both conditions? It was one or the other!"

"In any case, we are wasting time. Here..." He produces a crysteel slate, inscribed with numerous complex patterns and notations. "...this is the building plan for the Spire. The Countess is a stickler for protocol, so it is likely that we can make our entrance with minimal resistance if we follow the path in red. The codes for these doors change at different intervals, but I should be able to get us past many of the lower-security ones without having to brute force things." He gestured towards the open street. "Lead the way, commander. I have contact with my subordinates - I shall accompany you as support."

Nia and Rayne, Imperial Quarters, Teppelin

"Of course we're not afraid of water! But it is one thing to take a bath, and another entirely to enter a realm where horrors lurk. You know perfectly well the dangers of the riverways, better than even myself. I do know enough to know that it is no place for me to venture alone, and even less so for my sister."

But in the end, curiosity won out, even somewhat battered from the struggle. "...But what is it you would show me? I have been taking a course in advanced elemental studies from aunt Yumiko, but have found most water magic to rather pale in comparison to the arcane. It is rigid, and lacking in versatility... but I would not mind seeing what a true entity of the riverways is capable of."

[apocalypsePast2]

One Peaceful day on Aura

For a while, all was peaceful, until one day in Aura, the Forsaken reported a small group of weird creatures trespassing in their lands. They seemed quite primitive indeed, as the biggest of the creature puts a crudely constructed standard which depicted a Hammer in front of a mountain, as the biggest of them yelled out

"ALRIGHT YUZ GITZ! DIZ PLACE NOW BELONGZ TO DA ORCZ!"

A great cheer is heard from the small group, as they begin to howl in their guttural tongue. To the Forsaken, three words could be heard over and over again "Orc" "Grand Poo-Bah" and "Burkek"

"AH SHAADAP YUZ GITZ WITH YUZ ASS KISSIN'! I IZ NEEDIN TO BE FINKIN' OF A NAME FOR DIZ PLACE BEFORE WE GO MAKING IT MORE ORCY!"

With that, Burkek sits down to think... very hard, as thinking was clearly not his strong point.

Orcs? Oh dear, there goes the neighbourhood.

Spoiler

Show

Use Mythic Power to raise hero: Burkek, Grand Poo-Bah of da Orcs!
AP23=24-1, Create Life: Orcs!

"It has begun..."

Evanzar, Aura

Evanzar had teleported back to Aura to lead the next wave of golemships and to supervise the building process as well. So it came as some surprise when a courier from House Jier'teir arrived to tell him that there appeared to be some sort of escaped slaves or something claiming territory in the jungle near their House city. They assured him they could've handled the situation on their own, but they wanted to be sure of authorization first. Instead, Evanzar, with three golemships, decided to investigate the matter himself, arriving just in time to witness their little attempt at communication.

Snorting with contempt, Evanzar spoke through the ship. " Actually, you barely sentient barbarians, this land does not belong to the orcs. It belongs to us. The Forsaken, your infintely better masters.

Now you have two choices. Choice number one, leave. Choice number two, die or be enslaved. Simple right? Even you should be able to understand that." He tested the controls eagerly, flexing the legs and bringing the main gun around towards the orcs. He loved the smell of LC in the morning.

[canjowolf]

Spoiler

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[/Hespa, Llymic's Fall

Hespa would be gifted with a tormented vision, the fall of the frost god had carved a frozen crater from whence the netherglacier sprouted in the mirror world, like a twisted seed. And its effects had spread even to Kamigawa, that region was a barren waste, with the flows of entropic energies channeled through the prayers of the changelings hanging in the air around her where the veins of the Black Ziggurat were in the material world, and around her walked the shimmering images of the changelings, with their mirror-souls more visible in the spirit world without their disguises.

But there was nothing she could find that seemed divine, or anything of the like. Nothing that could be this "Llymic" was to be found anywhere there or anywhere else, she was blind, deaf and mute to the wretched creature born of Hal'Xaazar's filicide.

But there were other things... Dark things. Not like the spirits of old, who were linked to places, or those born of Sozuchi and who correlated to him. Those were strange spirits, possibly things that broke off from the Lord of the Mirror and latched to his fallen son, moving to Kamigawa for the material world was not for them.

They were many and immaterial but material, existing in states that even the gods would be hard-pressed to describe, things of entropy and void that failed to exist as much as they existed, and so they wrapped themselves in wispy coats and lost or stolen souls and to the broken elements of that place to link themselves to reality... Even the last feelings of the fallen god were not safe from those spirits, who took his terror and his torment and wove them into nightmarish visages for themselves.

They had no voices, but they could be heard. "Why are you here?" Was their question for Hespa.

Hespa, God's Corpse

Hespa looked around to see if Kali had arrived yet. Not seeing him the goddess decided to answer the creatures' questions and ask some of her own. "I have come seeking the source of the cold spreading across the world. What manner of beings are you and what do you know of this cold?" Hespa sang in her chipperest blue voice. Her essence radiated warmth and an arua of thawing surround her presence in Kamigawa (but not the material world).

[Shmee]

Burkek, Aura

Actually, the Orcs were shouting to no one in particular... mostly because its a well known fact that Orcs love to shout. Of course, the Forsaken couldn't have known that at that time. As Evanzar spoke, he would notice that the biggest of them, was sitting down and trying to think very hard. As he gives his ultimatum the other Orcs look at each other and shrugging to each other say

"Oh... ok, we iz sorry..."

And with that they begin to leave. All of a sudden, one of their heads fly off as a shout is heard

"OI! WERE IZ YUZ GITZ FINKIN DAT YUZ IZ GOIN!"

as Burkek punches one of the Orc's head, clean off of its shoulder.

"Gran' Poo-Bah, dem weird guyz iz sayin' dat..."

Burkek looks up to the Golemship up and begins to laugh, his laugh so loud that it could be heard all the way by the Forsaken.

"HA! DEY IZ DA STUPIDEZT! DEY IZ FINKIN DAT DEY CAN BASH US! DEY IZ NOT KNOWIN WUT A GOOD BASHIN IZ!"

With that, the other Orcs begin to laugh as well with their Grand Poo-Bah. After a few moments of further laughing Burkek tells them

"OK yuz can stop now."

But the Orcs continue to laugh

"I said, OK yuz can stop now..."

By now the Orcs were falling all over themselves laughing as hard as they can

"OI DATS ENOUGH!"

But even so the Orcs continued to laugh even louder as if they had just heard the funniest anecdote in the universe.

"AHHHHH SHADDAP!" Yells Burkek as he slaps yet another Orc's head clean off of his shoulders. That was good enough for the Orcs who immediately shut up, although they wanted to fight over who gets the dead Orc's stuff.

"Alright yuz gitz... dem... erm... wut did dey call demselves again?"

The Orcs look at each other shrugging as they do to the best of their limited mental capacity to remember what the Forsaken called themselves. Finally one remember

"Ah! I iz rememberin' Gran' Poo-Bah! Dey iz sayin' dat dey are For-Bacon!"

"Eh? Yuz iz sayin' dat dey are pigz? HA! Dat showz just how stupid dey are! Ok... dem Piggiez fink dat dey are better den da Orcs... yuz know wut dat meanz?"

The other Orcs look with great enthusiasm in their eye. "Iz yuz, sayin' dat it iz time for a Bu.." the Orcs are quickly silenced by Burkek who roars "SHADDAP! I iz needin to see if da time iz right! Yuz gitz stay here!"

Looking up towards the Golemships, Burkek does a massive leap and with a great thud, lands heavily upon the Golemship where Evanzar was. The brute clenches his fist and with a massive punch, opens a hole within the Crystal Material. Such was the strength of Burkek as he walks into the veichle.

"Scuz me..." he says to Evanzar, shoving him away, as he walks towards the ship's First Mate. Without saying anything Burkek all of a sudden plunges one of his powerful hands deep within the First Mate's abdomen, and with a mighty tug, pulls out his intestines free, as the Forsaken watches in horror as he bleeds to death. Having gotten what he wanted, Burkek jumps off the ship, but not before saying "I IZ GUNNA RETURN IT TO YUZ WHEN I IZ DONE WID IT!"

Jumping back down to the other Orcs, Burkek shows the intestines to the others, and without saying anything throws it high into the air. As it lands, all Orcs quickly race to it, to see what omens the intestines will bring. The Orcs look intently at how the guts were thrown into the air, and its position upon they land.

"Hmmm... I iz finkin' dat da gutz iz telling uz of good omenz. Dey iz sayin' dat dere will iz gunna be good fightin'!" Says Burkek

"Ummm... I iz not so sure Gran' Poo-Bah... if yuz iz looking at how da gutz..." the Orc who dared question the Grand Poo-Bah is instantly silenced as his face is punched in.

"I IZ DA GRAN' POO-BAH, AND WHEN DA GRAN' POO-BAH IZ SAYIN DAT DERE IZ GUNNA BE A GOOD FIGHT, DEN DERE IZ GUNNA BE A GOOD FIGHT! GET IT?"

The other Orcs look at each other before one says

"But Gran' Poo-Bah..." naturally his heart is carved out before he can say anything else by an irritated Burkek.

"GET IT?" Says Burkek holding the still beating heart in his hand.

"Well, actually..." yet another Orc bites the dust, as Burkek violently shoves the beating hard down his throat.

"GET IT?" Roars Burkek again.

"I iz only needin' to tinkle..." and again. After a dozen Orcs are promptly dispatched by the Grand Poo-Bah in similar fashion, the remaining Orcs finally understand that its better to remain quiet.

"Good... now den... as I wuz sayin'... da gutz iz sayin' dat all iz good. One of yuz go bring da boyz... its time."

One of the Orcs nods enthusiastically before running off and disappearing into the mist which surrounded Aura. With that out of the way, the Orcs return to remaining idle, and completely ignoring the Golemships nearby.

Until all of a sudden, Burkek remembers something

"Oh yuz... I iz forgettin'! OI PIGGIEZ! HERE IZ YUZ GUTZ BACK! FANK YUZ!" and with his mighty hand, Burkek flings the intestines which unceremoniously makes a disgusting squishy noise as it hits the golemship. At least, Burkek was being polite.

[planswalker]

Lelouch, Area 12, The Blasted Isle

"...very well. I defer to your superior expertise and battlefield vantage in this instance. I will launch diversionary tactics to help us secure a path. However, I fail to see the tactical benefit of liberating the prisoners - none but perhaps a small handful were combat-capable. Our forces on the ground here are extremely limited - it would have been folly to sacrifice the element of surprise on a maneuver with no significance to the battle. Their deaths were unfortunate, but effectively unavoidable. The Countess has been authorized for Gaess for months - the only reason the city was not purged by the battleships above us in minutes was that the occupying forces were caught while many important officers were on the ground."

"This also meant that the prisoners were under their heaviest guard. By allowing them to be purged, we bought the minutes necessary for your fleet to engage the enemy. I will defer to you in the matter of warfare, but in return I ask that you not condescend my own expertise. I have spent years analyzing tiefling command structures and protocols to prepare for this moment. Do not scorn me for having the spine to do what no one else could stomach. Our entire Bastion has been searching for a way to both free those hostages and break out for a decade - do you really think you could just swoop in and magically fulfill both conditions? It was one or the other!"

"In any case, we are wasting time. Here..." He produces a crysteel slate, inscribed with numerous complex patterns and notations. "...this is the building plan for the Spire. The Countess is a stickler for protocol, so it is likely that we can make our entrance with minimal resistance if we follow the path in red. The codes for these doors change at different intervals, but I should be able to get us past many of the lower-security ones without having to brute force things." He gestured towards the open street. "Lead the way, commander. I have contact with my subordinates - I shall accompany you as support."

Area 12

As they are fighting their way to the Spire William continues the conversation.

"I do concur that your tactics did aid us in this battle, but wars are not won in a single battle, and we are not fighting here for just a war. They were not fighters, true, but a thousand humans represents a significant portion of the population. There are about 20,000 humans in each bastion, and thirteen bastions. Unless the tieflings are hiding more of us elsewhere or there are humans who weren't ever taken by the tieflings and have refused to contact us in the pat ten years, that means that there are no more than 260,000 humans in all, and one thousand of those just died. They were not fighters, but they could have been healers, weaponmakers, future mages, politicians, and all sorts of roles that we will need if we are to win the peace that will come after we win the war. Try to avoid sacrificing the big picture in order to win the immediate advantage."

Nia and Rayne, Imperial Quarters, Teppelin

"Of course we're not afraid of water! But it is one thing to take a bath, and another entirely to enter a realm where horrors lurk. You know perfectly well the dangers of the riverways, better than even myself. I do know enough to know that it is no place for me to venture alone, and even less so for my sister."

But in the end, curiosity won out, even somewhat battered from the struggle. "...But what is it you would show me? I have been taking a course in advanced elemental studies from aunt Yumiko, but have found most water magic to rather pale in comparison to the arcane. It is rigid, and lacking in versatility... but I would not mind seeing what a true entity of the riverways is capable of."

Nia and Rayne

"Wait... do you think those scales are only useful for going to the Riverways? They are much more than that. They allow the two of you to live, breathe, and feel water as if you were a Serpent yourself. You say water is rigid? Not versatile? What has Aunt Yummy been teaching you? Water can be hard as stone, hot as flame, and light as air. It can heal, destroy, change, and preserve. A better question is what can't water do, is the hands of someone who sees it truly."

[Lord_Asmodeus]

Medusa's Forest, Old World

So, the Warriors and Brave's the Medusa were sent by Norea to the Three Great Beasts of the Forest, Kraakis, King of the Cockatrice, Barrag, Emperor of Basilisks, and Gorgoros Khan, Khan of all Gorgons. The Three sent were Sharin, The Subtle Daughter, Broll, The Stone Heart, and Karras, Eye of the Serpent, the three greatest fighters of the Medusa.

Sharin was sent to Kraakis, the most cunning of the Beast Lords. There she challenged him for the right to tame the Cockatrice. Kraakis was clever, and so he challenged Sharin to see who could reach the top of the highest tree in his valley, which was far easier for him because he could fly. Sharin was determined, and sly, and accepted his challenge. Kraakis instantly bolted upward, flying for the top of the tree, while Sharin raced to climb another. as Kraakis alighted atop the tree he mocked Sharin, for not only had he beaten her, but she had gone to the wrong tree! But, as he looked, it seemed Sharin was higher, and the reason soon became evident: she was a master Stone Shaper, and so had raised the ground of her own tree, and lowered Kraakis'. The Challenge had been to be the first to the top of the Highest tree, not the Tallest. Kraakis clucked and chuckled and conceded to Sharin, that the Cockatrice would follow the Medusa.

Karras was sent to Barrag, the Basilisk King. Barrag was not as clever as Kraakis, but nor was he thick. And so when Karras asked Barrag for the right to tame the Basilisk, he suggested a challenge that played to his strengths. He Challenged Karras to a staring contest, with the condition that the loser would be the first to begin to turn to stone, so neither would be encased. Barrag believed he could win for, as Emperor of the Basilisks, his petrifying gaze was greater than all of his kind and the Medusas. However, Karras had been sent to Barrag for just this reason, as hers was the most potent gaze of all the Medusa. And so, the contest began, and the energies of each contestant blazed from their eyes as they sought to turn their opponent to stone. As each stared unblinking at the other, Barrag slowly felt himself begin to change, but Karras could not see for it was the tip of his tail, and so he thought he could fool Karras, but he caught a sight of one of his six legs, and noticed all the scales were gray. He let out a low rumbling laugh, for his scales had all been encased in stone, and he agreed his people would follow the Medusa.

And so finally, Broll the Stone Heart, came to Gorgoros Khan, of the Gorgons. Broll asked the right for the Medusa to tame the Gorgons, to which Gorgoros Khan challenged Broll, if he could keep a hand atop his back for 10 minutes, the Gorgons would follow the Medusa. Gorgoros Khan was the most powerful and fiery of all the Beast Lords, towering over Barrag and the other Gorgons, he seemed an armored Titan to Broll, but Broll was a mighty warrior among his people, tall, strong, and mighty. He agreed to the challenge, and clambered upon Gorgoros Khan's back. Immediately, Gorgoros began to buck and flail, charging full scale into trees, sending them crashing down, running through boulders and smashing against the side of hills and mountains, Gorgoros bucked and thrashed, finally he smashed Broll against the side of a boulder, and the man fell to the ground. Gorgoros bellowed his triumph, until he saw that Broll was missing one his arms below the elbow. The arm was still gripping Gorgoros' back, and the time had run out. Gorgoros pawed the ground and let out a defiant snort, but he had given his word, and his people would follow the Medusa.

12AP=15AP-1AP Raise Hero, Broll the Stone Heart, -1AP Raise Hero, Karras the Serpents Eye, -0 Mythic, raise hero Sharin the Subtle Daughter -1AP Lead Populous Tame Cockatrice, Basilisks, and Gorgons
5/15GP

[Selinia]

Lelouch, The Spire, Area 12

"Indeed. The peace after the war. I'd say that the most important factor in said peace though is that we get to the point where we have to worry about it, wouldn't you say?" The group reached a small maintenance door in the side of the building. Muttering something under his breath, Lelouch punched in a lengthy series of numbers on a crysteel input pad. With a small ding, the door slid smoothly open. "There, no fuss, nice and sensible." He muttered something more, almost too softly to be heard. "...thanks, Lei."

Motioning everyone through, the man silently slid the door closed behind them. "Right, it isn't a straight shot to the building's reactor, exactly, but we should be able to get there quietly. They know we're here though - just not where. We're going to have every tiefling in the Bastion coming down on us once we get there though - it's the obvious target. You sure you can handle this? It's the core for the entire Bastion - it's orders of magnitude bigger and more powerful than anything on-board a ship."

Enki, Streets, Area 12

"Hang in there, Viradu... you're strong. Strong enough for this." The joints of the knightmare groaned in protest as another blow from the strange, stocky enemy mech sent it skidding down the street. One of his blades had snapped in half - normally he would simply resort to a grapple, but this opponent was freakishly strong. He held back for a moment, trying to gauge his options... only for a harsh, shrill voice to echo into his cockpit.

"Knight-Commander Enki; you are hereby ordered to withdraw to the Spire. We are launching in twenty minutes - all command personnel are withdrawing to Teppelin." The knight scowled, glad that the relays were purely audio. Such cowardice was what he had come to expect of his superior here.

"...yes, milady. As you command." He gripped the controls, raising a fist to his opponent. "It appears I must cede this battle to you. Consider yourself lucky - but you have earned my respect. I expect we shall meet again." With a sharp gesture, he filled the street with smoke and flares. Shameful as it was to be ordered to retreat from a worthy foe, he still needed to hunt down Penkappa. By the time the obstructions cleared, he was long gone.

Nia and Rayne, Imperial Quarters, Teppelin

Rayne stood, silent. She was obviously thinking about something very carefully. "...Nia, stay here." Tapping her sister lightly on the shoulder, she moved over to a small sapphire-encrusted chest on a nightstand. Cracking open the lid, she removed one of two identical necklaces - silver, set with more sapphires. But it was the radiant deep blue scale set in its center that drew the eye, its white-hued counterpart giving one last glint as the box closed.

Rayne donned the necklace, giving a sharp and rather undignified squeak at the momentary sensation of being dunked in cold water. She felt the watery chill settle down inside her, until it seemed like there was an icy river in her very bone marrow. It was... actually not terribly unpleasant. Uncomfortable, yes, but tolerable. Taking a deep breath, she faced the serpent. "Show me then, if you speak the truth. Show me what the Riverways can do."

For the first time in the entire exchange, Nia spoke aloud, although barely more than a whisper. "Honorable sister, are you certain that will be safe? By your own words, you will be entering a place with terrible danger!"

Rayne sighed, then tossed a relaxed (and feigned) smile back over her shoulder. "I'll be fine, sis. It's just another lesson, that's all. Just with a different instructor. You don't have to worry - I'll be back before you can blink."

[apocalypsePast2]

Spoiler

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Burkek, Aura

Actually, the Orcs were shouting to no one in particular... mostly because its a well known fact that Orcs love to shout. Of course, the Forsaken couldn't have known that at that time. As Evanzar spoke, he would notice that the biggest of them, was sitting down and trying to think very hard. As he gives his ultimatum the other Orcs look at each other and shrugging to each other say

"Oh... ok, we iz sorry..."

And with that they begin to leave. All of a sudden, one of their heads fly off as a shout is heard

"OI! WERE IZ YUZ GITZ FINKIN DAT YUZ IZ GOIN!"

as Burkek punches one of the Orc's head, clean off of its shoulder.

"Gran' Poo-Bah, dem weird guyz iz sayin' dat..."

Burkek looks up to the Golemship up and begins to laugh, his laugh so loud that it could be heard all the way by the Forsaken.

"HA! DEY IZ DA STUPIDEZT! DEY IZ FINKIN DAT DEY CAN BASH US! DEY IZ NOT KNOWIN WUT A GOOD BASHIN IZ!"

With that, the other Orcs begin to laugh as well with their Grand Poo-Bah. After a few moments of further laughing Burkek tells them

"OK yuz can stop now."

But the Orcs continue to laugh

"I said, OK yuz can stop now..."

By now the Orcs were falling all over themselves laughing as hard as they can

"OI DATS ENOUGH!"

But even so the Orcs continued to laugh even louder as if they had just heard the funniest anecdote in the universe.

"AHHHHH SHADDAP!" Yells Burkek as he slaps yet another Orc's head clean off of his shoulders. That was good enough for the Orcs who immediately shut up, although they wanted to fight over who gets the dead Orc's stuff.

"Alright yuz gitz... dem... erm... wut did dey call demselves again?"

The Orcs look at each other shrugging as they do to the best of their limited mental capacity to remember what the Forsaken called themselves. Finally one remember

"Ah! I iz rememberin' Gran' Poo-Bah! Dey iz sayin' dat dey are For-Bacon!"

"Eh? Yuz iz sayin' dat dey are pigz? HA! Dat showz just how stupid dey are! Ok... dem Piggiez fink dat dey are better den da Orcs... yuz know wut dat meanz?"

The other Orcs look with great enthusiasm in their eye. "Iz yuz, sayin' dat it iz time for a Bu.." the Orcs are quickly silenced by Burkek who roars "SHADDAP! I iz needin to see if da time iz right! Yuz gitz stay here!"

Looking up towards the Golemships, Burkek does a massive leap and with a great thud, lands heavily upon the Golemship where Evanzar was. The brute clenches his fist and with a massive punch, opens a hole within the Crystal Material. Such was the strength of Burkek as he walks into the veichle.

"Scuz me..." he says to Evanzar, shoving him away, as he walks towards the ship's First Mate. Without saying anything Burkek all of a sudden plunges one of his powerful hands deep within the First Mate's abdomen, and with a mighty tug, pulls out his intestines free, as the Forsaken watches in horror as he bleeds to death. Having gotten what he wanted, Burkek jumps off the ship, but not before saying "I IZ GUNNA RETURN IT TO YUZ WHEN I IZ DONE WID IT!"

Jumping back down to the other Orcs, Burkek shows the intestines to the others, and without saying anything throws it high into the air. As it lands, all Orcs quickly race to it, to see what omens the intestines will bring. The Orcs look intently at how the guts were thrown into the air, and its position upon they land.

"Hmmm... I iz finkin' dat da gutz iz telling uz of good omenz. Dey iz sayin' dat dere will iz gunna be good fightin'!" Says Burkek

"Ummm... I iz not so sure Gran' Poo-Bah... if yuz iz looking at how da gutz..." the Orc who dared question the Grand Poo-Bah is instantly silenced as his face is punched in.

"I IZ DA GRAN' POO-BAH, AND WHEN DA GRAN' POO-BAH IZ SAYIN DAT DERE IZ GUNNA BE A GOOD FIGHT, DEN DERE IZ GUNNA BE A GOOD FIGHT! GET IT?"

The other Orcs look at each other before one says

"But Gran' Poo-Bah..." naturally his heart is carved out before he can say anything else by an irritated Burkek.

"GET IT?" Says Burkek holding the still beating heart in his hand.

"Well, actually..." yet another Orc bites the dust, as Burkek violently shoves the beating hard down his throat.

"GET IT?" Roars Burkek again.

"I iz only needin' to tinkle..." and again. After a dozen Orcs are promptly dispatched by the Grand Poo-Bah in similar fashion, the remaining Orcs finally understand that its better to remain quiet.

"Good... now den... as I wuz sayin'... da gutz iz sayin' dat all iz good. One of yuz go bring da boyz... its time."

One of the Orcs nods enthusiastically before running off and disappearing into the mist which surrounded Aura. With that out of the way, the Orcs return to remaining idle, and completely ignoring the Golemships nearby.

Until all of a sudden, Burkek remembers something

"Oh yuz... I iz forgettin'! OI PIGGIEZ! HERE IZ YUZ GUTZ BACK! FANK YUZ!" and with his mighty hand, Burkek flings the intestines which unceremoniously makes a disgusting squishy noise as it hits the golemship. At least, Burkek was being polite.

'Spolsion time, Aura

Evanzar let's out a long breath. He clenches his fists in anger as the primitive savages threw his officer's guts back at him. With a voice shaking with anger, he spoke through his comm. " Evanzar to task group. Authorize lethal action. Fire at will."

With a shudder, Evanzar fires his main gun, sending a white-hot jet of LC sizzling toward the orcs, incinerating about two dozen and sending a shockwave of force out in every direction, blowing others off their feet. His secondary gunners begin to fire artillery, shells filled with LC smashing into the orcs like fiery rain.

The other two golemships followed suit, raining death upon those impetuous enough to try to fight them on their own land.

[planswalker]

Lelouch, The Spire, Area 12

"Indeed. The peace after the war. I'd say that the most important factor in said peace though is that we get to the point where we have to worry about it, wouldn't you say?" The group reached a small maintenance door in the side of the building. Muttering something under his breath, Lelouch punched in a lengthy series of numbers on a crysteel input pad. With a small ding, the door slid smoothly open. "There, no fuss, nice and sensible." He muttered something more, almost too softly to be heard. "...thanks, Lei."

Motioning everyone through, the man silently slid the door closed behind them. "Right, it isn't a straight shot to the building's reactor, exactly, but we should be able to get there quietly. They know we're here though - just not where. We're going to have every tiefling in the Bastion coming down on us once we get there though - it's the obvious target. You sure you can handle this? It's the core for the entire Bastion - it's orders of magnitude bigger and more powerful than anything on-board a ship."

Spoiler

Show

Enki, Streets, Area 12

"Hang in there, Viradu... you're strong. Strong enough for this." The joints of the knightmare groaned in protest as another blow from the strange, stocky enemy mech sent it skidding down the street. One of his blades had snapped in half - normally he would simply resort to a grapple, but this opponent was freakishly strong. He held back for a moment, trying to gauge his options... only for a harsh, shrill voice to echo into his cockpit.

"Knight-Commander Enki; you are hereby ordered to withdraw to the Spire. We are launching in twenty minutes - all command personnel are withdrawing to Teppelin." The knight scowled, glad that the relays were purely audio. Such cowardice was what he had come to expect of his superior here.

"...yes, milady. As you command." He gripped the controls, raising a fist to his opponent. "It appears I must cede this battle to you. Consider yourself lucky - but you have earned my respect. I expect we shall meet again." With a sharp gesture, he filled the street with smoke and flares. Shameful as it was to be ordered to retreat from a worthy foe, he still needed to hunt down Penkappa. By the time the obstructions cleared, he was long gone.

Nia and Rayne, Imperial Quarters, Teppelin

Rayne stood, silent. She was obviously thinking about something very carefully. "...Nia, stay here." Tapping her sister lightly on the shoulder, she moved over to a small sapphire-encrusted chest on a nightstand. Cracking open the lid, she removed one of two identical necklaces - silver, set with more sapphires. But it was the radiant deep blue scale set in its center that drew the eye, its white-hued counterpart giving one last glint as the box closed.

Rayne donned the necklace, giving a sharp and rather undignified squeak at the momentary sensation of being dunked in cold water. She felt the watery chill settle down inside her, until it seemed like there was an icy river in her very bone marrow. It was... actually not terribly unpleasant. Uncomfortable, yes, but tolerable. Taking a deep breath, she faced the serpent. "Show me then, if you speak the truth. Show me what the Riverways can do."

For the first time in the entire exchange, Nia spoke aloud, although barely more than a whisper. "Honorable sister, are you certain that will be safe? By your own words, you will be entering a place with terrible danger!"

Rayne sighed, then tossed a relaxed (and feigned) smile back over her shoulder. "I'll be fine, sis. It's just another lesson, that's all. Just with a different instructor. You don't have to worry - I'll be back before you can blink."

Enter the Spire

"Indeed, it is quite powerful. Fortunately, I have the blessings of three gods and artifacts from two of them. There is a reason I favor a chain over a more conventional weapon. It won't be easy, but I should be able to channel the core long enough to disable the spire with its own systems. Besides, I bring with me a whole host of tiny warriors whose attacks strike swiftly. Oh, and eight younger siblings to a god are close at hand. Problem is, they level cities easier than they target specific folks. Best if we avoid adding our own forces to the death toll."

William deftly advanced, unleashing the Virions before him, spreading through the air. The spire quickly became a sick house. This was not the time to restrain them, provided they only infected tieflings. An aura of greed went before them, egging the brave into rashly attacking their party, and the cowards to retreating as fast as possible.

The crysteel itself seemed to rebel, teiflings who approach the fast-moving party find that doors are jammed and locked, walls collapse unexpectedly, and illusions obscure the path.

And that's just what William did on the run, in addition to the skills of his companions.

Nia and Rayne - a proposal

For a creature with a serpentine jaw, the twins thought for sure it was smiling."So, young one, you think that donning a gift you've shunned all your life makes you ready to enter my home? I apparently did not make myself clear. It is not a free ticket to the Riverways. It is a tool that enables you to truly understand and manipulate water. Whatever Ear your mother told you it was, simply wearing it won't make you safe in the Riverways. At least, not the dark and unpleasant parts you seem to want to explore. However, most of my home is not that way. Most of it is quite safe, provided you don't get swept away by the currents. Your necklace can do just that, if you learn to use it."

He pauses for a moment, and says. "However, Nia, you have one too, would you like to try yours as well? If you both are willing to wear your necklaces I will teach you both how to truly use them. They aren't free passes into the Riverways, they are the keys to unlock a world of wonder few ever experience."

[Shmee]

"Even considering their primitiveness, the Orcs do indeed have a written language. It consists of six simple letters, B U R K E and C. That's right, even when creating his own language, Burkek misspelled his own name. It is thus that the Orcs have three sacred words. The first, being Burkec... the name of their Grand Poo-Bah. The second is Urk... being everyone else. However, it is the third and final word which is the most fearsome and powerful, for with but a single word, the entire world falls silence before its might, and the insanity that it ushers."

Snippet of the Orcish Lexicon, from Daly's Library

Burkek, AuraOrcish Ambience Music

It would seem as if the Forsaken have the upper hand against the Orcs in this case, as they begin a full artillery barrage upon the stupid brutes, and it would not be long before they were easily dispatched. Yet amongst the cacophony of artilary fire, a deep guttural laughter can be heard, as Burkek Grand Poo-Bah of the Orcs simply watches the carnage. All of a sudden as if he notices something, he turns his head towards the mist, and gives an evil leer at the Forsaken.

The Boyz had arrived.

From within the mist Orcs began to appear, and within moments, several thousands of them were making their way towards their Grand Poo-Bah. Indeed if the Forsaken were to look, the it would seem that the entire beach head had been filled with Orcs. Everywhere they looked Orcs and more Orcs. Of course what Evanzar could not have known was that in fact, Orcs began appearing all around Aura, as if the mist had brought them upon the shores of this land.

Grinning maliciously towards the Golemships, Burkek makes his proclamation while pointing an accusing finger at them.

"WE IZ DA BEZT! FINK DIFFRENT DO YUZ? COME AND HAVE A GO DEN YUZ RUNTY LITTLE WIMP!"

Throwing his hands into the air, Burkek yells at the top of his voice, the third and most taboo word in the Orcish language, the one reserved for the Grand Poo-Bah himself

"BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUR!"

For a few moments, there is total silence from the Orcs, as the word slowly sinks into their soul. All of a sudden, a single Orc scratches his head and asks

"Buuuur?"

Other Orcs begin to confirm it

"Buuuur!"

"BUUUR?"

"BUUUUUR"

"BUUUUUR"

Every Orc saying that one word over and over again, but each time they said it, they appeared to be more angry, as they are slowly whipped up into a frenzy, as any Orc who hears it is instantly brought into a state of mindless rage as they begin to repeat the word over and over, until the only thing heard around the shores of Aura is

"BUUUUUR!"

"ALL RIGHT BOYZ! 'ERE WE GO!" Bellows Burkek as he gives the singnal to attack, and upon command, the ground begins to tremble and shake as the immense Orcish attack begins. The now frenzied Orcs begin a mad and reckless rush, their numbers seemingly endless, with one purpose in their mind: to kill.

The Orcs began pouring all over Aura, slaughtering anything that would get in their way. Unlike what the Forsaken were used to, the Orcs never took any prisoners, anyone trying to negotiate with the Orcs would be instantly bashed. Within their primitive mind, they had but one simple objective: the complete and total annihilation of every single Forsaken.

The third and most sacred word found within the foul Orcish Tongue, the "Buuur" is a term coined by their Grand Poo-Bah and is etched deeply within the Orcish psyche, for the Orcs were built so that upon hearing this word, it triggers a frenzied reaction within their simplistic mind, which throws them to begin slaughtering the enemy to whom the Buuuur was declared against, as another trigger kicks in which causes the Orc to begin yelling Buuuur at the top of his lungs, so that other Orcs may hear it, and pass the message along, until every Orc hears it and goes on another bout of genocide.

As the Orcs begin pouring from everywhere, should the Forsaken not panic, they would also realize that other creatures were emerging from the mist to fight alongside the Green menace. Countless Lightning Elementals, who also lived within the mist had seen the Orcish mass migration and decided that they were definitely fun creatures, and being bored of playing tag with each other, decided to share some fun with the Orcs, as they begin shooting lightening at any Forsaken they see.

Spoiler

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OOC

I've got PW's green light for the Lightening Elementals, he shall emphasize more on them.

The Orcs fought with savage abandon, it was clear that this would not be a simple war to get slaves or conquer lands, as the Orcs would leave nothing standing. Several Orcs who were missing appendages would continue to fight, and it would soon become clear to the Forsaken that the only way to make sure than an Orc was dead was to pound it into minced meat, as the insane Orcish rush continues.

"ALRIGHT BOYZ! FIRST OFF I IZ WANTIN' DEM CRAWLY FINKZ DA PIGGIEZ ARE RIDIN'!"

Bellows Burkek as he points towards the three Golemship, caught in a tidal wave of madness and chaos. Even as Evanzar watches, he would hear a rhythmic booming sound coming from the mist, as the attack presses on. All of a sudden, the source of the noise is revealed as the Orcish heavy artillery, aka Orcs riding the Giants, make themselves known upon the battle field. Thousands of Giants, having struck a deal with the Orcs were making their way into Aura, not really caring what they stepped on, whether it was enemy or Orc. Hundreds of Orcs would ride within the Giant's pockets, on their belt, shoulders and just about anywhere you can imagine. The Orcish navigator, if you could call that one, was nestled deep within the Giant's ear giving it orders. Of course there were times when a Giant would have a navigator in each ear, and thus being confused, would go and do his own thing... not that the Orcs really cared, as their strategy was rather simple: steam-roll over everything.

As the Orcs began swarming over the Golemships, to take it over, the horde of Giants begin attacking the three doomed ships as well, for no matter how many Orcs they would blast, more would come. Others would attack the Golemships, but most would ignore them, and simply continue their mad rush towards their true objective: The Forsaken Capital.

Burkek himself is within the thick of the battle as he leads a group of Orcs into one of the Golemships, slaughtering any Forsaken in his path until he has reached the control room. Of course, considering the chaos going on outside, it had received substantial damage, its weapons off-line, and the Orcs having no clue how to navigate this contraption

"Ummm... Gran' Poo-Bah... I iz not sure how we make diz work like da Piggiez..."

"WUT DUZ YUZ MEAN DAT YUZ NOT SURE?"

"Well, Gran' Poo-Bah, I iz not seein any buttonz... I iz not understandin'..."

"YUZ IZ STUPID DATZ WHAT YUZ IZ! WE IZ DA ORCZ! WE OBEYZ NO LAW! WEDDER ITZ MORTAL, DIVINE OR NATURAL! IF WE IZ WANTING DA CANNONZ TO FIRE, DEN DA CANNONZ WILL FIRE!"

With that, Burkek slams his fist upon the floor, and inexplicably, as if responding to his iron will powers up at his command.

"HUR HUR YUZ SEE? WHEN AN ORC WANTZ SUMFUNK, DEN DA ORC GETZ DAT SUMFINK! HAVE DA BOYZ REPAIR DIZ, AND FIRE ON DA SHIP OF DA PIG WHO SAID DAT DEY ARE BETTER DEN DA ORCZ!"

In the middle of the battle, if one could really call this a battle, the Orcs begin to repair the Golemship that Burkek had seized, as they go to take over the other two. Indeed, all around Aura, Orcs would plunder what ever weapons their fallen foes left behind. It did not matter to the Orcs what technology it was, or how damaged it was. They would quickly patch things up, and turn their foes technology against them, and although Orcish "teknologee" was ramshackle and slapped together, they were surprisingly as potent as anything the Forsken had.

Back in his Golemship, aptly renamed "Da Gran' Poo-Bah's Fist" Burkek is having fun as he wills the LC Cannon as he launches a barrage of LC upon Evanzar's Golem ship, adding increasing pressure upon the now beleaguered Forsaken.

"DIZ IZ REAL FUN! BUT DEZE GUYZ ARE SMALL FISH! WE IZ GONNA GO TO DERE BIG CITY, AND WE IZ GUNNA BASH DEM TO THE GROUND! COMMON BOYZ! DIZ PLACE NOW BELONGS TO DA ORCZ! I IZ GUNNA CALL DIZ PLACE.... DA BUUUR-LANDZ!"

With that, "Da Gran' Poo-Bah's Fist" turns and begins to lead one of the several pushes towards the Forsaken capital, as the green Orcish tide begins to mercilessly sweep across the Buuur-Landz, leaving nothing but death and destruction in its wake.

Spoiler

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OOC

Use the Free Weekly Bless on the Orcs for a MR4 Bless
AP0= 23-23, do 23xMR4 Blesses on the Orcs using the Oath Barer

Orcs have a total of 24 MR 4 Blesses on them, thus creating an endless horde of them.

GP:24/24
Terran is now DR6

Use 1 Pantheon AP; Teach Orcs: Holy War
Use last Pantehon AP; Teach Orcs: Genocide
Use mortal artifact; Teach Orcs: Orcish Teknologee

The Forsaken Capital

Even as the first reports about the Orcish invasion of Aura begins pouring in, all of a sudden within the Capital's main hall, the earth begins to tremble, as the Genius Loci, the Primal Earth Elemental appears.

"Which one of you calls themselves "Leader"? Make yourself known, for I have a message for you." the ancient elemental rumbles as it speaks.

[Selinia]

Nia and Rayne, Imperial Quarters, Teppelin

"That makes no sense - understanding comes with teaching and study, not magic trinkets. We'd be protected against anything trying to tamper with our mind in any case and..." The girl paused at the soft voice behind her.

"Honorable sister, may I go with the serpent as well? I do not wish to see the dark and knowledge-filled places... but I would like, just one time, to see the beauty of our Honorable Uncle's realm. Please..." Nia looked down at her feet, letting her cloud-like mass of hair fall forward over her face in shame. "...unless you think it would be wiser for me to remain where I am. I apologize, it was nothing but a silly impulse..."

Rayne inhaled deeply, letting loose a drawn-out sigh. Then she smiled very slightly. "Its okay sis. You can come, if you really want to." As Nia broke into a radiant smile and went to silently retrieve her own pale blue-white scale, her twin turned her attention once again to the river serpent. "You promised not to hurt her." It was a statement of fact, not a question or even a command. It seemed as much for Rayne's benefit as the serpent's, in truth.

Nia took her place at her sister's side, the pale pendant draped about her neck forming a sharp contrast with Rayne's deep blue scale. "I am ready, Honorable Serpent. Umm... I mean, If you are still willing..."

"As am I. If you are willing to show me how to use this power, then I will accompany you. Take my sister where she wished to go, just... be careful. If I understand the nature of your realm, we will not be gone for more than a fraction of a second here."

Lelouch, The Spire, Area 12

The last door slid open, armored locks clicking into off positions as the heavy bulkhead retracted. Lelouch's codes had failed now that the group was in such a high-security area, but the crysteel complied just as readily to Will's magic... even if it did stand out like a beacon to their position. Beyond, a massive, faceted crystal thrummed with energy as it supplied power to the Bastion. The room was actually remarkably small, dominated by the reactor and a number of empty consoles around the room's edge. Non-combat personnel had apparently already been evacuated.

The wiry, angular man concentrated for a moment, processing a new batch of Sendings. "...excellent. Move fast - the primary consoles for various systems are elsewhere, but this is the hub. You should be able to at least shut it down - anything beyond that is good, but optional. On the downside, it looks like the tieflings are evacuating... the second their troops are off the ground, that battleship is going to start tearing up this city and everyone in it. This Spire included." Lelouch takes out the map-tablet again. "You get working on that - just get as much as you can done in a couple minutes, then we pull out. I'll see if I can't get us a way out of here that doesn't run us through the entire evacuating army."

[planswalker]

Chept on the Blasted Isles - ignoring the vamps - for now

The treaty in place, Shota and Bitvachept left. They immediately withdrew the Star'Chept from the battle, not as difficult as it would have been, since they found that they could not harm the hated vampires any more. Within an hour of no longer being able to act upon their rage, the Stars had calmed down enough to be safely extracted.

However, over the next few days, Stars would continue to seemingly pop up out of the ground, in seemingly more numbers than before. Any Star that had not had its head completely burned to ash would come back after death. Any pieces left would break apart and burrow into the ground. A day later, a new Star'Chept emerged.

It took almost a week before every last Star was evacuated, for many had to be hunted down. Not an easy task when a vampire was unable to harm it.

At long last, though, the Chept totally and finally left. None remained behind. They and the mage-army of the Chept then headed towards the Citadel. Along the border, the Chept advised the vampires there to leave the gnomes be, for the Chept wished to deal with them.

The Citadel - a Reunion

Shota lead the army of Chept into the Citadel, bearing a banner of friendship and peace. The five immortals went ahead, calling out in one voice. "Greetings from Water World. We have come to speak with Turkin, the one favored by the Faeri."

Nia and Rayne, Imperial Quarters, Teppelin

"That makes no sense - understanding comes with teaching and study, not magic trinkets. We'd be protected against anything trying to tamper with our mind in any case and..." The girl paused at the soft voice behind her.

"Honorable sister, may I go with the serpent as well? I do not wish to see the dark and knowledge-filled places... but I would like, just one time, to see the beauty of our Honorable Uncle's realm. Please..." Nia looked down at her feet, letting her cloud-like mass of hair fall forward over her face in shame. "...unless you think it would be wiser for me to remain where I am. I apologize, it was nothing but a silly impulse..."

Rayne inhaled deeply, letting loose a drawn-out sigh. Then she smiled very slightly. "Its okay sis. You can come, if you really want to." As Nia broke into a radiant smile and went to silently retrieve her own pale blue-white scale, her twin turned her attention once again to the river serpent. "You promised not to hurt her." It was a statement of fact, not a question or even a command. It seemed as much for Rayne's benefit as the serpent's, in truth.

Nia took her place at her sister's side, the pale pendant draped about her neck forming a sharp contrast with Rayne's deep blue scale. "I am ready, Honorable Serpent. Umm... I mean, If you are still willing..."

"As am I. If you are willing to show me how to use this power, then I will accompany you. Take my sister where she wished to go, just... be careful. If I understand the nature of your realm, we will not be gone for more than a fraction of a second here."

Nia and Rayne - Off to the Riverways

"Indeed, you will not. However, before we go there, you should become familiar with your gifts. You can already feel a sensation. That is merely from the water ambient in the air around you. The Riverways are the most pure and udiluted essence of water found anywhere within creation or outside. You should prepare for the shock, as well as practice basic techniques for manipulating the water before we leave. If you are swept away, only Big Brother himself could keep you safe there."

With that, the room instantly and without warning became filled completely with water. Gentle currents and eddies swirled around the room.

However, Nia and Rayne did not feel wet. Indeed, they did feel different, but not in a way ever before experienced. The water enveloped them, and the clammy cold feeling from before became something warmer, gentler. They were immersed, but their breath became even easier than when there was air in the room. They felt... connected to everything in the room.

"Don't worry, the water will leave the room just as it was when I take it away. Nothing will be harmed. Now, please walk up and touch the ceiling. There is no need to swim."

The twins would find that doing this was easy, once they finally got over the fact that this should be impossible.

Lelouch, The Spire, Area 12

The last door slid open, armored locks clicking into off positions as the heavy bulkhead retracted. Lelouch's codes had failed now that the group was in such a high-security area, but the crysteel complied just as readily to Will's magic... even if it did stand out like a beacon to their position. Beyond, a massive, faceted crystal thrummed with energy as it supplied power to the Bastion. The room was actually remarkably small, dominated by the reactor and a number of empty consoles around the room's edge. Non-combat personnel had apparently already been evacuated.

The wiry, angular man concentrated for a moment, processing a new batch of Sendings. "...excellent. Move fast - the primary consoles for various systems are elsewhere, but this is the hub. You should be able to at least shut it down - anything beyond that is good, but optional. On the downside, it looks like the tieflings are evacuating... the second their troops are off the ground, that battleship is going to start tearing up this city and everyone in it. This Spire included." Lelouch takes out the map-tablet again. "You get working on that - just get as much as you can done in a couple minutes, then we pull out. I'll see if I can't get us a way out of here that doesn't run us through the entire evacuating army."

Will ran over and placed his shield on the core. For a moment,, it seemed as if nothing would happen. THen, the core shut down, and went dark. The chain he wielded in his right hand began to glow a sickly green.

A beam of light shot upward from it, and struck the enemy battleship, piercing through without harming anything, except the minds of those on board.

They were now filled with a greedy madness that precluded anything resembling teamwork. They began killing each other for their possessions, thing none of them really even wanted.

[Selinia]

Lelouch, Reactor Core, The Spire

"...effective. Very effective. Excellent work - not only will that suppress the battleship for a while, it will muddle evacuations. Most of their command staff is on that ship by now - if we're lucky, you've just cursed the Countess herself." He punched a sequence into a door on the opposite side of the room, sliding it open from within. "The downside being that all the troops that would be evacuating will start piling up in here. Still, things are going remarkably smoothly, all things considered - once we're out of here, we can blast it to oblivion and take out most of the tiefling ground forces in one swoop. In theory. How long will that effect last?"

"In any case, finish up. I don't think we'll be able to go back the way we came. I've got a route that should take us through the auxiliary hangers back on to the streets. Most of the light craft that would be stored there are likely operating out of the landing pads higher up. We might have to deal with a few stray knightmares, but I doubt that will be too much of a problem."

Nia and Rayne, Imperial Quarters, Teppelin

Rayne managed a startled, "How did...?", before finding herself gulping down the sudden wash of liquid. She was wet - very wet. Somehow, more wet than ought to be possible, which unsettled her slightly. It took a few seconds to acclimate to actually breathing the water, rather than swallowing it. She'd reflexively numbed her consciousness to the odd rush of understanding - hardening against mind-effecting magic had been one of the very first things she had learned from her divine parent.

As she gradually eased back on the mental barrier, she cautiously took a step upwards. And another, and... she blinked. She was at the ceiling already. It was actually pretty close. And... Nia was there already, floating with a serene smile on her face. Shrugging as best she could in the liquid, Rayne turned her attention back to the serpent. "So... what now?"

[planswalker]

Lelouch, Reactor Core, The Spire

"...effective. Very effective. Excellent work - not only will that suppress the battleship for a while, it will muddle evacuations. Most of their command staff is on that ship by now - if we're lucky, you've just cursed the Countess herself." He punched a sequence into a door on the opposite side of the room, sliding it open from within. "The downside being that all the troops that would be evacuating will start piling up in here. Still, things are going remarkably smoothly, all things considered - once we're out of here, we can blast it to oblivion and take out most of the tiefling ground forces in one swoop. In theory. How long will that effect last?"

"In any case, finish up. I don't think we'll be able to go back the way we came. I've got a route that should take us through the auxiliary hangers back on to the streets. Most of the light craft that would be stored there are likely operating out of the landing pads higher up. We might have to deal with a few stray knightmares, but I doubt that will be too much of a problem."

Nia and Rayne, Imperial Quarters, Teppelin

Rayne managed a startled, "How did...?", before finding herself gulping down the sudden wash of liquid. She was wet - very wet. Somehow, more wet than ought to be possible, which unsettled her slightly. It took a few seconds to acclimate to actually breathing the water, rather than swallowing it. She'd reflexively numbed her consciousness to the odd rush of understanding - hardening against mind-effecting magic had been one of the very first things she had learned from her divine parent.

As she gradually eased back on the mental barrier, she cautiously took a step upwards. And another, and... she blinked. She was at the ceiling already. It was actually pretty close. And... Nia was there already, floating with a serene smile on her face. Shrugging as best she could in the liquid, Rayne turned her attention back to the serpent. "So... what now?"

William - the Core

Grunting with effort, William manages to divert his attention long enough to say, "This will hold as long as I maintain it. I think I can set the core to implode in a few minutes if we want. Explosion would kill half the city."


The Twins - Training, then Adventure!

The River Serpent spent a few minutes showing the twins basic ways that their gifts allowed them to manipulate the water, then dismissed the water. As mysteriously as it appeared, it left. The water in their lungs were replaced with air as well.

"Now then, are you two ready to go?"

[apocalypsePast2]

Spoiler

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"Even considering their primitiveness, the Orcs do indeed have a written language. It consists of six simple letters, B U R K E and C. That's right, even when creating his own language, Burkek misspelled his own name. It is thus that the Orcs have three sacred words. The first, being Burkec... the name of their Grand Poo-Bah. The second is Urk... being everyone else. However, it is the third and final word which is the most fearsome and powerful, for with but a single word, the entire world falls silence before its might, and the insanity that it ushers."

Snippet of the Orcish Lexicon, from Daly's Library

Burkek, AuraOrcish Ambience Music

It would seem as if the Forsaken have the upper hand against the Orcs in this case, as they begin a full artillery barrage upon the stupid brutes, and it would not be long before they were easily dispatched. Yet amongst the cacophony of artilary fire, a deep guttural laughter can be heard, as Burkek Grand Poo-Bah of the Orcs simply watches the carnage. All of a sudden as if he notices something, he turns his head towards the mist, and gives an evil leer at the Forsaken.

The Boyz had arrived.

From within the mist Orcs began to appear, and within moments, several thousands of them were making their way towards their Grand Poo-Bah. Indeed if the Forsaken were to look, the it would seem that the entire beach head had been filled with Orcs. Everywhere they looked Orcs and more Orcs. Of course what Evanzar could not have known was that in fact, Orcs began appearing all around Aura, as if the mist had brought them upon the shores of this land.

Grinning maliciously towards the Golemships, Burkek makes his proclamation while pointing an accusing finger at them.

"WE IZ DA BEZT! FINK DIFFRENT DO YUZ? COME AND HAVE A GO DEN YUZ RUNTY LITTLE WIMP!"

Throwing his hands into the air, Burkek yells at the top of his voice, the third and most taboo word in the Orcish language, the one reserved for the Grand Poo-Bah himself

"BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUR!"

For a few moments, there is total silence from the Orcs, as the word slowly sinks into their soul. All of a sudden, a single Orc scratches his head and asks

"Buuuur?"

Other Orcs begin to confirm it

"Buuuur!"

"BUUUR?"

"BUUUUUR"

"BUUUUUR"

Every Orc saying that one word over and over again, but each time they said it, they appeared to be more angry, as they are slowly whipped up into a frenzy, as any Orc who hears it is instantly brought into a state of mindless rage as they begin to repeat the word over and over, until the only thing heard around the shores of Aura is

"BUUUUUR!"

"ALL RIGHT BOYZ! 'ERE WE GO!" Bellows Burkek as he gives the singnal to attack, and upon command, the ground begins to tremble and shake as the immense Orcish attack begins. The now frenzied Orcs begin a mad and reckless rush, their numbers seemingly endless, with one purpose in their mind: to kill.

The Orcs began pouring all over Aura, slaughtering anything that would get in their way. Unlike what the Forsaken were used to, the Orcs never took any prisoners, anyone trying to negotiate with the Orcs would be instantly bashed. Within their primitive mind, they had but one simple objective: the complete and total annihilation of every single Forsaken.

The third and most sacred word found within the foul Orcish Tongue, the "Buuur" is a term coined by their Grand Poo-Bah and is etched deeply within the Orcish psyche, for the Orcs were built so that upon hearing this word, it triggers a frenzied reaction within their simplistic mind, which throws them to begin slaughtering the enemy to whom the Buuuur was declared against, as another trigger kicks in which causes the Orc to begin yelling Buuuur at the top of his lungs, so that other Orcs may hear it, and pass the message along, until every Orc hears it and goes on another bout of genocide.

As the Orcs begin pouring from everywhere, should the Forsaken not panic, they would also realize that other creatures were emerging from the mist to fight alongside the Green menace. Countless Lightning Elementals, who also lived within the mist had seen the Orcish mass migration and decided that they were definitely fun creatures, and being bored of playing tag with each other, decided to share some fun with the Orcs, as they begin shooting lightening at any Forsaken they see.

Spoiler

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OOC

I've got PW's green light for the Lightening Elementals, he shall emphasize more on them.

The Orcs fought with savage abandon, it was clear that this would not be a simple war to get slaves or conquer lands, as the Orcs would leave nothing standing. Several Orcs who were missing appendages would continue to fight, and it would soon become clear to the Forsaken that the only way to make sure than an Orc was dead was to pound it into minced meat, as the insane Orcish rush continues.

"ALRIGHT BOYZ! FIRST OFF I IZ WANTIN' DEM CRAWLY FINKZ DA PIGGIEZ ARE RIDIN'!"

Bellows Burkek as he points towards the three Golemship, caught in a tidal wave of madness and chaos. Even as Evanzar watches, he would hear a rhythmic booming sound coming from the mist, as the attack presses on. All of a sudden, the source of the noise is revealed as the Orcish heavy artillery, aka Orcs riding the Giants, make themselves known upon the battle field. Thousands of Giants, having struck a deal with the Orcs were making their way into Aura, not really caring what they stepped on, whether it was enemy or Orc. Hundreds of Orcs would ride within the Giant's pockets, on their belt, shoulders and just about anywhere you can imagine. The Orcish navigator, if you could call that one, was nestled deep within the Giant's ear giving it orders. Of course there were times when a Giant would have a navigator in each ear, and thus being confused, would go and do his own thing... not that the Orcs really cared, as their strategy was rather simple: steam-roll over everything.

As the Orcs began swarming over the Golemships, to take it over, the horde of Giants begin attacking the three doomed ships as well, for no matter how many Orcs they would blast, more would come. Others would attack the Golemships, but most would ignore them, and simply continue their mad rush towards their true objective: The Forsaken Capital.

Burkek himself is within the thick of the battle as he leads a group of Orcs into one of the Golemships, slaughtering any Forsaken in his path until he has reached the control room. Of course, considering the chaos going on outside, it had received substantial damage, its weapons off-line, and the Orcs having no clue how to navigate this contraption

"Ummm... Gran' Poo-Bah... I iz not sure how we make diz work like da Piggiez..."

"WUT DUZ YUZ MEAN DAT YUZ NOT SURE?"

"Well, Gran' Poo-Bah, I iz not seein any buttonz... I iz not understandin'..."

"YUZ IZ STUPID DATZ WHAT YUZ IZ! WE IZ DA ORCZ! WE OBEYZ NO LAW! WEDDER ITZ MORTAL, DIVINE OR NATURAL! IF WE IZ WANTING DA CANNONZ TO FIRE, DEN DA CANNONZ WILL FIRE!"

With that, Burkek slams his fist upon the floor, and inexplicably, as if responding to his iron will powers up at his command.

"HUR HUR YUZ SEE? WHEN AN ORC WANTZ SUMFUNK, DEN DA ORC GETZ DAT SUMFINK! HAVE DA BOYZ REPAIR DIZ, AND FIRE ON DA SHIP OF DA PIG WHO SAID DAT DEY ARE BETTER DEN DA ORCZ!"

In the middle of the battle, if one could really call this a battle, the Orcs begin to repair the Golemship that Burkek had seized, as they go to take over the other two. Indeed, all around Aura, Orcs would plunder what ever weapons their fallen foes left behind. It did not matter to the Orcs what technology it was, or how damaged it was. They would quickly patch things up, and turn their foes technology against them, and although Orcish "teknologee" was ramshackle and slapped together, they were surprisingly as potent as anything the Forsken had.

Back in his Golemship, aptly renamed "Da Gran' Poo-Bah's Fist" Burkek is having fun as he wills the LC Cannon as he launches a barrage of LC upon Evanzar's Golem ship, adding increasing pressure upon the now beleaguered Forsaken.

"DIZ IZ REAL FUN! BUT DEZE GUYZ ARE SMALL FISH! WE IZ GONNA GO TO DERE BIG CITY, AND WE IZ GUNNA BASH DEM TO THE GROUND! COMMON BOYZ! DIZ PLACE NOW BELONGS TO DA ORCZ! I IZ GUNNA CALL DIZ PLACE.... DA BUUUR-LANDZ!"

With that, "Da Gran' Poo-Bah's Fist" turns and begins to lead one of the several pushes towards the Forsaken capital, as the green Orcish tide begins to mercilessly sweep across the Buuur-Landz, leaving nothing but death and destruction in its wake.

Spoiler

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OOC

Use the Free Weekly Bless on the Orcs for a MR4 Bless
AP0= 23-23, do 23xMR4 Blesses on the Orcs using the Oath Barer

Orcs have a total of 24 MR 4 Blesses on them, thus creating an endless horde of them.

GP:24/24
Terran is now DR6

Use 1 Pantheon AP; Teach Orcs: Holy War
Use last Pantehon AP; Teach Orcs: Genocide
Use mortal artifact; Teach Orcs: Orcish Teknologee

The Forsaken Capital

Even as the first reports about the Orcish invasion of Aura begins pouring in, all of a sudden within the Capital's main hall, the earth begins to tremble, as the Genius Loci, the Primal Earth Elemental appears.

"Which one of you calls themselves "Leader"? Make yourself known, for I have a message for you." the ancient elemental rumbles as it speaks.

Aura

As the unstoppable horde of orcs flowed across the land, the stern bastions of the Houses stood against the tide like ocean cliffs. Walls of obsidian, stone, and crystal stood strong against the attack, their stern fortifications holding like they were designed to do. Hundreds of years of warfare had no broken these fortresses, and no horde, no matter how large, could break them.

Around the wall-less cities, stood the pride of the Forsaken military, their golemships. When the Forsaken didn't have walls, they used golemships instead. Lines of golemships stood against the onslaught, coordinating blasts and shells, prioritizing Giants. Obsidian shells spun, spraying Liquid Chaos into a dense cloud, then igniting it amongst the hordes. The horde was gradually pushing them back, inch by inch, but they paid for it with the blood of hundreds of thousands.

Some golemships were boarded and taken, but plans had been made for this. The crews teleported away when their doom became obvious, and set off the reactors, blowing up in giant mushroom clouds visible for miles.

In the jungle, the Forsaken infantry fought, with blade and rifle and heavy artillery. Despite the horde, the Forsaken were fighting on their home ground, their turf. A rain forest is one of the most dangerous places in the universe, filled with poisonous creatures, quicksand, and poor visibility. Here was where the Forsaken excelled, their guerrilla jungle warriors, experienced from years of inner-House warfare, fought for their land. The air was filled with screams as bloodlusting orcs piled into quicksand like lemmings and filled the sights of Forsaken guns and heavy weapons.
Until they too, were pushed back by the unstoppable wave of the orcs.

"Da Gran' Poo-Bah's Fist"

With a sudden jolt, the golemship stops. All lights and weapons go out, and the reactor stops. Suddenly, the air feels... different somehow. Looking up, Burkek sees something, in the clouds. A masked man descends from the heavens, followed by thousands of armored winged forms. The Forsaken halts at several thousand feet. He speaks in a normal tone that nonetheless carries out across the entire continent.
" You. Worthless barbarian. You will leave, or you will die. I am Quarland. The Mask. Flee now, or be purged." He raises a fist, glowing with purple fire, and incinerated a thousand orcs like an army of ants. " There will be no compromise or diplomacy."

With a great roar of rage, the Quarantii split from their air legions, raining fire, ice, and lightning down upon the orcish horde, all while staying several hundred feet in the air.
The Avatar of Quarland slashes the air with his shadowy blade, and thousands of orcs fall with each cut. He spurts fire down upon the Giants, charring them to little more than burning hunks of flesh.
Evanzar decides he's had enough. The situation seemingly handeled here, he snaps his fingers, teleporting everyone else of the ship, then sets the reactor to critical overload. Then he teleports away to...

Alekzandria

With a flash of light, he appears in the main hall of the High Monarch's Fortress, and witnesses the massive elemental's question. Cursing silently at the predicament, the High Monarch still directing the invasion, he responded instead. " I'm "Leader", I suppose, now tell your message and then let me get back to slaughtering your allies."

The endless hordes of orcs begin to approach Alekzandria, despite the heavy barrage of death being rained upon them. As they near a mile from the line of golemships, a rumbling is heard. The same rumbling heard at Area 03. With a fiery blast, the Horseman of War bursts from nothingness, riding down across the line of orcs. His steed's enormous hooves smash orcs to mush, their flames burning and scorching the orcs like grass before a volcano. He reaches the end of the line, and turns on a dime, riding back along exactly the same path, cutting across the next wave of orcs. The horde surges forward, but cannot pass the flaming line of jungle set alight by the Horseman of War. He rides along the line, striking entire legions of orcs dead with single slashes of his enormous dragon-bone sword.
And none can pass.

Spoiler

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The Spartans said they did not build walls, because their armies would be their walls. The Forsaken take that expression a bit more... literally.

[Draken]

Hal'Xaazar - Teppelin

The mirror lord's divine gaze fell on Terran's horde and the enemy it faced, and Hal'Xaazar could do nothing but utter a single word.

"Buffoon."

His gaze was also on his nieces, who were now entertained by one of his nephews (Hal'Xaazar refuses to acknowledge any being that isn't a god as a brother or sister, even of his brothers and sisters, only as their children).

"Timely..."

And even as the Lord of the Mirror spoke all of this in solitude, he appeared to Teikoku, veiling his entropic self fully in the mirrored mantle.

"Causality aligns, sister, and I have much to speak with you. On matters of divine import."

"I hope you have the time to give to a brother."


-----

Saeric's Fall

The whispers answered her voicelessly.

"We are all that has not been. Bound to the Void God, possibilities that did not come to pass, things lost, destinies unatained... We know much of the fallen god."

The vestiges begin to swirl in the air around something Hespa cannot perceive, and they take on the silhouette of a titan whose deturpated visage could only have been forged in the depths of a mind completely abnormal to the common concepts of the divine, something very much unlike all other gods.

That, which she cannot see or even fathom without the aid of things that should not be, is Llymic.

"He is the source of the cold... When he wakes up, his winter will cove everything... And Hal'Xaazar's decree will have been upheld in part..."

And then came Tel'Radai, walking from naugh to stand next to Hespa.

"And the hubris of gods will be punished."

The faceless nerra turns to her.

"So close, but so distant. Like I said, Llymic dreams. You cannot reach him from this place."

[Lagren]

Westin, The Bird of Hermes, Outside Teppelin

"Hmm, yes. Wonderful theatrics. I'm sure that saying what you're doing in a dramatic tone of voice really helps move things along. Very good, very scientific. One warning, doctor. You seem to be seeking to impress me, hmm? Don't. Satisfy me - hmm, yes, too easy to get caught up in theatrics. Like now. Set up much, explained much, have yet to actually show results. Impossible expectations. Anything but an equally impossible machine would be a disappointment, yes? Even that, prepared for now."

"Hmm, but no point wasting further time yes? We are here. If you have this Bella, show her to me. No more hyperventilating over nothing."

Bird of Hermes, Testing Grounds
Lloyd takes a moment to confer with the chair.
Did I really say all of that out loud?
Yes, yes you did.

Lloyd grins lopsidedly.
"Apologies. I guess I've always wanted to show off my work."
Then, without further ado, he pushes a button on the console.

A series of loud clangs reverberate throughout the airship as its armoured belly parts; then, soundlessly, something shoots out and past the front of the Hermes at incredible speed, appearing across its bow for perhaps a quarter of a second.

A tremendous crack of thunder splits the sky, accompanied by a faint taste of copper and the smell of ozone, and the receding, vaguely humanoid form of Belial suddenly fills the windows, inches from the clear Crysteel panes of the ship. This close, all that can be seen is the head of the beast, flattened and vaguely reptilian in shape beneath the inches-thick Crysteel that armours and shapes its body. Its breath fogs the glass, smelling of sulphur even through the thick panes, but its eyes are invisible, hidden beneath the crystalline armour that weaves around and into its heavily-scaled flesh.

The beast slowly backs away, somehow lithe and dangerous in the way it hovers; ten thousand tons of metal, crystal and flesh melded into a colossal killing machine. Long, delicate claws flow from its hands, each edge serrated to cut through metal and bone, each supported by the ever-present crysteel.

From shoulder-mounted speakers, the much-magnified voice of Cecile booms.

"So, how do you like her? Faster than a fighter craft, more manoeuvrable than a Knightmare. Supersonic to a dead stop in under a second."

Lloyd grins and pushes another button.
"Cecile, please stop messing with Westin. You've hardly shown him anything impossible at all."
"But it's so much fun!"
"However, you are about to lose me my funding."
"Oh, alright."

The air around the beast is suddenly filled with a shimmering fog, as of a particularly strong heat haze. Its lanky limbs stretch and distort oddly as the haze shifts, bending the light around it like a funhouse mirror.

For a moment, Belial seems to be wearing a smile several sizes too wide for even its enormous face.

Then it reaches in through the glassteel of the front of the ship and places the very, very tip of one of its enormous claws right against Westin's neck. At this length, the blade isn't any thicker than a normal sword-but a sword is more than enough, isn't it?

"Pinpoint control through neural links and phasing. This machine can destroy the target with a minimum of collateral damage. I could kill you without leaving a scratch on the Hermes' hull or ruffling Lloyd's hair - and against an opposing Knightmare, Bella can reach right inside and pull out its core."

The Knightmare pulls its claws back out through the window, leaving it completely unmarked.

"But that's not the best of it. Lloyd?"

"You'd better back off a bit first."

With another crack of thunder, Belial is suddenly filling much less of the windows.

"Good enough. All gunners, do your best to bring that Knightmare down! "

A hail of fire erupts around the Knightmare, as the gunners score several direct hits.
The mist flares orange- but the Knightmare is completely unharmed.

"The WS Field. Belial dumps the energy of attacks against it into a Dirac Sea, a pocket dimension - then it converts it into usable power to fuel its own systems. We haven't managed to overload its capacity for burnoff yet - I believe the theoretical limit is somewhere in the range of a Giga Laser Break. Even that might not break it.

Lloyd's face is a blank mask.
"So, have I impressed you yet, Dr. Westin?"


Ozoi, THOUGHTBUBBLE
Ozoi's spheres are filled with destruction and death. Everywhere there is war, war, war. Even the normally peaceful Chept have marched on the Bastions.

But none of that bothers him.

What really bothers him is the green things that have overrun Aura.

They bother him so much, in fact, that he decides to step off his plane for the first time since his ascension.

Aura
Something emerges from the jungle near Quarland's avatar. It looks vaguely like a Croc'chept, if Croc'chepts were twenty feet tall and had teeth as long as your arm.

The beast hisses through its teeth.
"There are only a very few things in this world that really, honestly annoy me.
One: Stupidity.
Two: The destruction of lovely complexity.
Three: People who think that force is the answer to everything.

Care to guess what checks off all the boxes on my list?"

The beast's eyes narrow, its head sinking lower on its shoulders.

"Orcs."

It smiles with all of its lovely teeth. The sharpness is almost audible.

"So, here is a memo for all of you lunkheads."

One clawed hand lazily rolls to the side, accompanied by a faint smell of oil and a queasy feeling in the pit of the stomach.

"Technology does not work that way."

Spoiler

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Lead Populace: Supersonic Flight (Free from Lloyd's Lab)
Lead Populace: Phasing (Free from Bella)
Bane MR 4 x6: Orcish "Teknologee" stops working unless it would work anyway. (5 AP, Free from/Cost Reduced by Bella)
Create Avatar (2 AP)
7-5-2=0 AP remaining.
0+6=6 GP acquired.

[Selinia]

Nia and Rayne, Imperial Quarters, Teppelin

The two girls exchanged a quick glance, before Rayne spoke for both of them. "Yes, we are. Unless there is anything else vital we need to know?" She gave Nia another quick look. "Are you... sure, sis? This could be scary."

Nia nodded once. She looked worried, but her mind was made up - she was going.

Lelouch, The Spire, Area 12

"Hmm... so the effect will dissipate when we leave? In that case, we've probably held it long enough - we have the air advantage by now. Implode this, fry it, whatever you have to - just make sure they can't get that anti-air running again or they could potentially turn this around." After about a minute of nervous pacing and glances at various doors, he continued. "That's it. Something is wrong - the troops outside have all withdrawn, and yet none of them are coming for us. Even infantry have more brains than that. We're leaving, now."

As soon as William disengaged from the core and made his adjustments, Lelouch led the group in a borderline sprint from the chamber. They met no resistance along the way - either the troops had already evacuated, or they were purposely ignoring the group. The exit seemed near at hand - all that remained was to traverse an empty hanger.

Aside from the fact that it wasn't empty.

"William!" With a shrieking noise, a knightmare dropped from one of the repair gurneys, the ronin only barely managing to sidestep the falling blade in its grip. The mech quickly recovered, rolling backwards away from the group in preparation for a charge, when...

"Thunderaga." With a flick of his wrist, Lelouch sent a jolt of lightning blazing towards the enemy. Enki's mech spasmed, the skates on one of its legs abruptly retracting and sending the knightmare into a disorganized tumble. Enki recovered quickly, staggering back to a standing position. "Persistent. Very well. Thunderaga. Thunderaga. Thunderaga..."

Viradu smasmed, jolting violently with every massive bolt of lightning. Each time Lelouch blasted it, Enki forced it to its feet once more. "...Thunderaga. Thunderaga... ah, look, it's down. That took longer than anticipated." Sure enough, the knightmare shuddered and fell flat. Smoke streamed from its joints, and from every port - it was likely that every circuit in the machine was completely fried. And yet, there was a flicker of motion.

With a clang, the emergency hatch in the rear of the machine opened... and fell off. From it crawled a battered pilot - lanky, blond hair stained with soot. When he opened his mouth, it was full of sharply pointed teeth. "William... Penkappa!" He staggered forward a few steps, grasping at the sword at his hip. "I won't... be beaten. Not... like this! Fight me... fight me, dammit!" He stumbled, quickly regaining his balance.

Teikoku, Command Center, Teppelin

The goddess sighed, setting aside a stack of reports and various other vitally important documents. She did not have time for this - there was entirely too much to be done. Time is generally not something gods are accustomed to running short on, but Teikoku had long since grown used to a mortal timetable. But she could even less afford to antagonize this particular entity, so she merely tented her hands and looked at Hal squarely. "Of course, Brother. Ask away."

[Gunther]

The Citadel - a Reunion
Approaching the Citadel, the Chept would have found it very fitting to its namesake. A mixture of military arches and stairwells, with long, paved roads leading into the massive city. Unending seas of smoke gushed into the heavens through smokestacks and entire channels built into the abode of the Gnomes.

Unlike the swamps of the Chept, no large predators roamed about (Pardoning the occasional herd of rather terrified-looking elephants or other large mammals, that fled at the sight of approaching humanoids). The wilderness had game animals in large numbers, but most of the land around the Citadel were empty plains. A number of groves had been set up along the roads, groves that had been left abandoned.

Something had spooked the Gnomes, as evidenced by the occasional stuffed animal. The exact nature of that spook was evident in the large, tinder effigies depicting Vampires. Ones that were covered in pitch and- usually- burning away quite nicely by the time that the Chept army got there. Though on a lighter note, a few of the stuffed animals looked vaguely like Boa'Chept or Croc'Chept, with cartoonishly large teeth and tails and button eyes. Filled with fine sand, they were rather cute in their own, completely irreverent sort of way.

It meant that the Chept were, at least, somewhat expected. A good reason for not being preemptively blown to tatters.

The giant banner of love and peace was probably the second reason that they hadn't been torn to shreds on the approach. Rather, as they approached the massive front gates of the Citadel late in the evening, they saw a rather grand welcoming committee.

The front gates of the massive tower had been forged from what looked to be pure adamantine. In reality, such gates would have weighed so much that even Kali would have a hard time giving them a good shove. In reality, it was a layer no thicker than paint, under which there was steel. Lots of steel, in fact, plated onto reinforced concrete and- eventually- stone. The Gnomes did not believe in half-assing their front doors.

The Gnomes, rather than rushing out to greet the Chept with open arms, had instead decided to greet the strange foreigners from windowsills and behind shutters. A few of the more intensive Gnomish watchmen had considered attempting to disperse what consisted, legally, of a 'riot in potentia'...but found even their fascination too great.

The main avenue, which could probably have an entire river village float down it if someone added running water, from the Citadel's front gate branched off into several smaller avenues that were a bit more manageable. Divine architecture was fine and all, but the Gnomes weren't exactly god-sized, so they had adapted.

Buildings made from solid stone loomed over the incoming army, Gnomes dressed in rather silly-looking and overly warm coats (Perhaps not too warm, considering the weather) peered down over railings and catwalks at the incoming force. A few flags were waved from tower to tower, and the more adventurous Gnomes kept to the edges of the streets, trying to get a view of the festivities. One of them, armed with a coal plate attached to leather straps, seemed to be weighing the value of trying to sell his interesting-looking tubes of (what appeared to be) meat to the newcomers. Business was hard when people knew what your food tasted like.

"Sausage...sausage inna-" He began, before being cut off.

Opposite of the Chept, Turkin could be seen, having looked only a bit older than when they had last met considering the timespan. Gnomes, it seemed, aged rather gracefully- at least to an outsider. He did, however, sport a beard that was rather in-fashion. That, and a rather ridiculous-looking gold hardhat. One with a pair of exhaust vents along each side in the shape of wings, which occasionally hissed out steam. He wore a suit of what seemed to be gold, with large brass buttons.

What didn't look ridiculous was the pair of massive, metal constructs behind him. Looming over even the biggest Croc'Chept, they were three meters tall, with their torsos taking up most of their size. Red fire burned internally, dozens of moving cogs and chains visible underneath their segmented armor plates. Gold and silver was a common motif here...but other metals, such as adamantine claws, were present also. Bronze spikes jutted from their torso armor, and the stench of ozone was joined with the crackle of electricity. They remained far away from the Chept, however, instead content to rest on their knuckles like apes.

Turkin approached, smiling as he greeted the Chept heroes. "Welcome! I'm very glad to see you all, very glad indeed! It's been years, though I must confess you've chosen a rather...interesting time to visit the Citadel. Very bad things going on and such. I, err, could I interest you all in a sausage in a bun?" He asked, smiling widely. And only a very happy type of Gnome can smile like that.

Vampiric Engagement Field: Online

Leagues away, the bulk of the Golden Army- having broken into sections, which in turn divided- had paused, having reached their pre-determined locations. Already, the Vampires- the major threat that Thule and his fellow automatons had been created for- were present to engage them. Their territory was not to be disturbed by a hostile force. Their charges were to remain safe.

Thule would not disobey his primary directive. Fire burned within the machines as they began to reach outlying settlements, their gilded armor coated with a heavy frost. Energy built within their gear mechanisms as they reformatted physically. Whole assemblies fell apart into new shapes and functions, the machines building power. Building. Building.

Then venting it into the heavens. Spine-mounted cannons belched forth thunder, the earth beneath their clawed feet shaking in the wake of such a unified discharge. Not a hostile action. An equalizing one.

Across the Gnomish territories, Vampires would find themselves abruptly bereft of their normal advantages against their prey. A good position for the Gnomes: Their enemies would be weakened, but only if they tried to actually attack first. A very good position to be in.

Spoiler

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Golden Army Artifact bane activated. MR 3 Curse: All Vampires in the Gnomish Territories are reduced to the abilities they had before becoming vampires. Siren song disabled, bullet-time is 'no', good luck punching an everest, whatever sort of measurement that is.

7 AP spent on +3 Boon Artifact: The Citadel. That's right, the actual Citadel. With all of the life and death and hustle and bustle...it's about time it got something to show for it.

On the topic of which: Ding! New rank. DR 5.

MR 3 Boon: The Gnomish Citadel now has a large anti-magic ward projected over its walls. Supernatural abilities, magical attacks, so on, all sputter out and die. Inside and out, however, still function the same.

All with 1 minute to spare before Thursday!

[Draken]

Hal'Xaazar...

Looked out to a window.

"So entrenched in small things... You really did swamp yourself in affairs best left to mortals, did you not?"

Suddenly, everything in Hal'Xaazar's purview grinds to a halt, time itself standing still at his call... Or perhaps the room where he and Teikoku were was the one running exceedingly fast? Similar results, they had all the time in the world.

"Tell me sister, what ever happened to the spirits you so prized and the humanity you made in your own image?"

A faceless sideglance.

"What has led to all of... This?"