War of Dragons 2: Act of Retaliation - 1

It has not been long since the Adventurers stumbled upon the Terraformer factory in the Thor region and met with the dangerous 'ruler of Thor', Potimas Harrifenas. Thanks to Mikage, they managed to garner that this robot had in fact just been a copy of some sorts.

But thanks to the work of Merek, setting the machines to self-destruct, it would appear that the Thor Kingdom had no appropiate way to retaliate on the short term. No doubt, years of work having been pushed back with the use of a single power... and the unfortunate temporary loss of two Adventurers in their conflict.

Now, it seems, a retaliation has started their way. Reports have just come in of a heavy assault on a nearby team - it seems the Thor Kingdom followed a small team of spies towards this area and captured them - and is now using them as a way to lure out further Uncrowned.

They've created a small camp in the area, caging the Uncrowned and tying them up in the middle of a field of rice-paddies. Visibility on all sides. Multiple soldiers at the perimeter, trying to get an idea of where the Adventurers will come from and what they will do.

Goldenblade is of course alarmed to hear that allies have been captured, and bait or not, they will make every effort to rescue our people. Sadly, she's not a tactical sort, and in addition appears to be under some sort of debuff for lack of sleep. But she is bound and determined to go through with this, despite her condition, and stands ready, with swords on each hip and mail coat gleaming. The fact that she has no tactical skill, however, will mean she hovers around the back of the pack as tactics are discussed.

    Merek may have been the one who caused the explosion but Setuna definately encouraged it and was quite happy with himself about blowing up the factory. So of course when word came that their was retribution, Setsuna kinda sorta felt guilty, which has lead to him watching the camp from afar,hiding down in the muck of a rice-paddy field and looking for an opportunity. To the others around him he speaks up in a kinda whisper, " I say we just rush it, they don't have anything trained on the uncrown. We may bleed a bit but I think we can decimate the camp. Unless someone sees something more to the obvious trap?"

Jae Gu had been, until 4 weeks ago, a Crowned Adventurer himself. Not only that, his purpose in the Palace Lands, as a servant of the Rosenheim Kingdom, had been to hunt down Uncrowned Adventurers and ensure their crowning. It seemed only fitting that he now join to assist these adventurers who were in danger of sharing that fate.

He had been, until today, cowering in Yamato in fear of death: returning to the Church filled with water. The terror he experienced in risking the memories of those he loved kept his feet metaphorically rooted to the ground. But Jae Gu knew that he needed to move forward. He could not let his fear prevent him from doing what is right. This is something he had learned a long time ago.

And so he is here with his fellow adventurers, analyzing the situation. "We might have less risk to ourselves and others if we send some people in stealthily to release some that might be caught in the crossfire. If we get detected, the dogpile option is still there."

The Good Doctor was not present for Harrifenas Potimas' Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. The sacrifice of the precious memories of two Adventurers was... not ideal. If he were there, could he have saved them? Perhaps even just one...? The results may have been quite positive, but...

Still. It hurts more than just a little to think that such sacrifice had been necessary.

Which is perhaps why he is here, now. There are people who are in desperate need of rescue as a direct result of the bloodying Harrifenas' lip. Prophylaxis has very little in the way of true tactical options, but he is one of the best healers in Yamato-- and a formidable magus besides. "Stealth is not my forte," the doctor says, shaking his head. "But I can provide intelligence on the surrounding area, and provide us emergency cover if necessary. I should also be able to protect one of the spies completely from danger. But otherwise, I'm here as firepower and an additional body."

"I mean, I -do- know a technique to hide inside a large slime and move around concealed within," Uta concedes to Jayu, "but what if they decide to just attack it because 'Monster'?"

"How about we give them a giant wooden horse as a present, instead?", Uta suggests, whispering. "I mean, it did work last time. We just have to adjust things a little." She looks down at her hands held vertical, parallel, as she gestures, "We just have to replace the giant horse with a wooden barrel on wheels, pulled by a grunty." She returns to look at the rest of the team, one at a time. "That... that would be my traveller's wagon," Uta explains. "Which doubles as a mobile clinic." She gestures in the short distance, possibly towards the barn where the is temporarily parked, "I've already spoken with Osk, and shared my recipe for painkillers. I could not grant him a 'patent' or 'exclusive', so to say, because all the knowledge is already public domain in Yamato. But I could tell him about the ingredients and methods long in advance so that he had abundant time to set himself up as 'first mover' in the market," Uta explains, her voice kept low. "Now." She looks around, with determination. "I would suspect that painkillers are likely starting to be perceived as a Real Thing in the Palace Lands, one which arouses curiosity. Yet, rare enough that most people, in Thor specifically, probably have never seen them." Deep inhale. Hold that breath...

"...How about we disguise ourselves as a medical team who's here to demonstrate them?" She gestures. "Just let Doctor Prophylaxis do the talking. I can also reinforce the story there."

Rubbing her chin, she continues, "But I suppose Jayui is right, after all. Perhaps I -could- sneak my way to get a closer look to the camp. Not close enough to get attacked, but... you know, close enough to see if we're dealing with Landers or Adventurers. The former would make things far easier. The latter..."

"Mm, it's possible, but if they see through our ploy, we'd be right in the middle of them with no recourse," Prophylaxis muses, stroking his chin slowly. "...And besides, I'm a pretty famous name. I wouldn't be surprised if they figured out who we were after doing a quick Inspection. The problem we have now is that the enemy is using this as an opportunity to discover the location of our camp. If they can do that, then rescuing those captured spies will just lead to more trouble down the road. What we need to do is to disguise our approach completely..."

He thinks for a moment, tapping at his temple. "It's a shame that the weather is so clear today... Ah."

"I /can/ help more than I thought I could," the doctor says with a smile. "As it so happens, I can use a spell to conjure a heavy fog. If we move before it disperses, we can disguise our approach and get the drop on the Crowned before they can realize what we're up to."

    Setsuna takes a deep breath as the magical butterfly symbol appears on his head, as his eyes take on a whited out look for a long moment before the magical trance breaks and he looks at Uta, " Don't wear a slime to the party. " Setsuna then looks at Prophylaxis as he speaks and nods, "The heavy fog is a good idea , but I think there are land mines between us and the camp. I saw Uta try to use a monster to walk in and well outside the normal arrow barrage some explosions occured "

"Hoh. So they managed to copy our design." Prophylaxis frowns, "I should have known, after the incident with the Terraformers. That means they would be able to pick up our approach by the sound of explosions. And if we set them off intentionally, it'd do the same thing. Tricky. But potentially something we can use to our advantage. If we can set off mines in several directions at once, it might confuse their response, especially once visibility is wrecked."

Goldenblade sits back on her haunches as tactics are discussed. Proph geta a skeptical look as he claims to be famous, and she says, "You're hardly the only one." But she has no good solutions, and her head is pounding kind of hard, so she will close her eyes and wait for the discussion to conclude.

Uta removes her hat and holds it in front of her, while she looks down, somber. "Thank you for your sacrifice, future alternate timeline me. If you will have ended up dying..." Pause. "Would have..." Frown. "Would... will... have ended up dying?" She scratches her head, as her puzzlement deepens. "What mood and tense do you use for an event that happens before a future that has happened for certain, but it was in an alternate timeline, so it technically counts as hypothetical?" Uta shakes her head. "Anyway, if you would will have died, I will forever be indebted to you."

She looks down again, and holding her nurse's cap, observes a moment of respectful silence. Then she puts her cap back on, and looks up again, "I suppose I could summon a bunch of monsters," Uta remarks. "Humanoid, to create extra confusion. And let them roam the place To explode the mines in various directions?"

"Thanks, Setsuna," Uta whispers. "I owe you one."

Uta sighs at Goldenblade. "Yes, I mean, I don't think I'm famous, myself, but a bunch of Landers I've never meet seem to know me and be familiar with my work anyway. I guess the Landers love Adventurer Gossip or something."

"That sounds like a good plan, Doctor," Uta agrees. "Shall we drop this ball so that it hits the floor rolling?"

    Setsuna contemplates everything they know for a moment before he looks at Uta andthen the doctor and gets an idea, " I think you both have a good idea, we need to make it a horror party. Lets get the heavy mist up, doc you lead it, everyone who can use fire help by burning the water. Uta , you and I have to go raise the party attendees. We summon as may things as we can and send them in. Shame Kauch isn't here, she would have loved this. After the first wave of monsters we can start trying to sneak in. Just be ready for this to all go belly up, I don't need to point out the obvious but this looks like a cliche movie trap. "

Jayu nods once, his face serious with DETERMINATION. "I guess I am on the sneaking party, then. I could add a bit of fire to the mix to thicken the fog through evaporation while I wait to get going?"

Goldenblade nods to Uta, agrees, "Many of our players have found substantial fame." But if we're moving forward under the cover of stealth, she will go with that plan, holding back to let the fog fill the field and give us some cover. She prepares to move out.

Goldenblade begins a whirling sword kata that spins her blades around like fanblades, generating quite s ubstantial amount of wind. It may seem counterintuitive, but the sword artes have these occasional unusual features, and as she continues to spin, the wind pushes with more force, to get our fog where it needs to be.

A plan is settled upon. Prophylaxis nods and presses up from his seat. "Right, best to get it. Once we get the fog rolling in, it'll be up to the Monster Handlers to cover our ingress. Shall we, then?"

A short while later and somewhat closer to the field in question, the doctor waits in cover with his staff at the ready. He closes his eyes and focuses, a gentle breeze humming through the channels of his staff. The tip gleams with an eerie light as the air begins to fill with a thick, rolling fog. Soon, it begins pouring down over the rice paddies, leaving the others with room aplenty to do their own part.

Jayu nods once to the good doctor before taking up a wide martial arts stance. He makes a fist and slowly pulls it back. His fist catches fire as if it were a match, and then roars with flame. He punches forward, and a fist-shaped ball of fire soars forth in one of the particularly watery parts of the field, generating a great deal of fog, as planned.

    Setsuna lets the fog begin before he begins to run to get himself in position for part two of the plan, the heat of his running being used to drag the mist with him and help spread it around the camp. Once Setsuna reaches his destination he slows to a stop and opens chims as he contacts the others. "Ok I am in position, give me the signal and I will start my summmoning."

As mists begin to stretch over the land, there's shouts across from the top of the rice paddie area. Of course, it means for the team, it gets harder to spot them. Flames go up, realizing that the fog is unnatural. That there's magic in the air.

Moments later, arrows start being shot in all directions. But, lacking exact positions, most of these just end up stuck in more rice-paddies and the dirt!

Staff clutched in both hands, Uta also assumes a martial artist's stance. She lowers her center of mass, and begins to rotate the item. Slowly, at first.

A breezy tune is vocalized at a low volume, then, as helical tendrils of light and magic dance and surge to coalesce into the gem at the top, she the air around her begins to stir, ruffling her hair and her clothes, lifting whirpools of dust, catching the mist... beginning to spread outwards, in concentric circles of different angular speeds.

"o/~ When you are ready o/~", Uta confirms to Setsuna over chims -- she has to sing it, lest the casting Arte be interrupted.

As the casting proceed, multiple thin, long strips of paper are created, to further add confusion to the already confused situation.

One can never have too much confusion, when creating confusion.

* * *

When all seems to be going well, arrows begin to rain on people's parade, so people have no choice but parry the arrows' raining.

Well, or evade it.

Acrobatics aren't really needed at the moment, but let's face it. They're cool. And they add more confusion. One can never have enough confusion, when creating confusion.

And So, Uta performs multiple spinning flips in the air, along with somersaults and cartwheels.

While in the fog. And the fog is full of paper. Also, it is on fire.

It seems that the Crowned already figured out that something is up. Arrows begin flying at random. But with the fog as dense as it is now, it's hard to predict exactly where they're going. Several nearly catch Prophylaxis in unfortunate spots, but are turned away at the last moment by a sudden current of wind. An Aero spell, designed to covertly defend its caster. The more subtle the defense the better, right now.

Now they're just waiting on the fireworks.

    Setsuna takes a deep breath as he begins to cast for the monster bash. Blood is given and the cost is paid as the summoning begins to take life, undead begin to rise from the ground as a skeleton knight is summoned to lead the charge toward the forces. The beads of sweat on Setsuna's face show signs that he is pouring as much of his power into things that he can. " Package is on it's way."

Goldenblade moves easily aside from the innaccurate incoming archery. She's much too fast for the likes of that, and she executes an advanced evasion technique, putting her in podition to fan the flames to High Intensity. These Special High Intensity Flames sear the Palace Landers, and they seem to be getting the worst of it.

After plentiful tumbling along with a side of faux flying roundhouse kicks and handstands, Uta eventually lands into an area off to a side enough to provide a good starting point for some summoning.

Of course, she lands with her arms spread, olympic-style. Gotta commit to the whole acrobacy bit to the end.

Once there, between the roaring of the wind and fire, she inserts a rhythmic chant, with a progressively accelerating bassline- wait.

Is she dubstepping zombies into existence?!

She is. She might have spent too much time around Kauchemar.

And soo, from Yamato with wub, Uta spreads some undead cheer in the Palace Lands, sending zombies to shamble all over the place, in random directions; were they all to spread radially, that might give hints.

"What's that music?!"

"Why is there music!?"

"Incoming!"

Undead begin to shamble in various directions. Arrows begin to fire at the movements they spot in the mists.

"We've got Uncrowned here! Increase the barrage!" The unfortunate folk don't know exactly what is happening, but they're seeing enough things moving in the midsts that they know they are under attack when...

BOOM.

A detonation takes place right beneath Uta's undead. Uta luckily manages to avoid stepping on one of the mines thanks to Goldenblade's intervention. But Setsuna's shamblers don't have much more luck either.

Detonations start springing up all around the paddy-field.

And worse of all, Prophylaxis gets caught up one one, taking off a good 2/3rds of his health, and ripping off one of his legs!

Goldenblade rallies Uta's Divination, cheering her to initial success, though it seems she's not persuasive enough. But then everything is happening at once, and she will try and get close to the prisoners in the confusion of the melee. If she can sneak up to the prisoners, maybe she can motivate them to run!

Jayu waits in complete silence as the telltale signs of explosions start going off left and right. That's the signal to advance. Jae Gu moves with the silence of a cat in the dark of the night, crouched low and chest parallel. Almost 3 years of experience in hunting adventurers has given him a lot of practice at this particular task. He makes it to one of the uncrowned and begins to attempt their release; he hopes they can't see his face in the fog because, until 3 weeks ago, the rebellion movement considered him a rather annoying foe...

    Setsuna winces in pain every time one of his bone heads steps on a bomb. Sometimes he can redirect them but truthfully it still hurts as an echo across the link. All the necromancer can do though is summon more to replace them as his mana slowly pushes itself down to zero. When the undead reach the camp walls though it is like something out of a cheesey b-movie from the 80s. The undead army attacking the poor helpless mortals while the undead king watches on with a smile on his face. It's good to be the king.

There's a terrible, earth-shattering kaboom. Prophylaxis curses the vicious wheel of karma as a stored explosive spell ruptures the earth underneath him. When the dust clears, he's left slumped against a tree with a crackling red stump where his leg used to be. "Damnit, of all the-- I guess this is what I get for inventing a war crime," Prophylaxis grumbles and grabs hold of his stumped leg. A wave of restorative magic pours into his body as, grotesquely, his limb begins to reassemble itself. First bone, then muscle and then finally a layer of skin.

With a grunt, he pushes himself upright and focuses, the air grows chill and icy, flowing out over the rice paddies. Moisture in the air abruptly condenses, adding further to the dense fog, even as the temperature plummets around the Uncrowned in the distance...

It is always quite the show to see an undead blown to smithereens; it is not as fun when your HP is linked to theirs; Apart from the obvious HP hit, Uta is tossed forward by the explosion behind her, and she comes this close to landing face-first on a mine. It is only Goldenblade's last minue intervention that prevents the mine from getting a faceful of Uta on itself. Which would have been bad for both parties involved.

Would will have been bad?

As a last minute instinctive action, Uta manages to plant her staff on the ground a short distance off, and punt herself away from the originally designated point of impact. Tumbling to a side, she pushes herself back to standing again, without interrupting her chant. The impacts do alter the flow and rhythm tho.

And, as a Sage of Song is wont to, she lands with a THUD right on an accented note.

After this point -- silence.

The undead are no longer handled, left free to roam as they please, if any are still around. Uta has gone into deep cover mode. Full Spriggan. Moving from shadow to shadow (as one can in the middle of a fog on fire full of strips of paper and explosions), the Spriggan pushes deep into Crowned territory.

Goldenblade is trying to do damage control all over the map, calling out to Jayu some impromptu advice, but her voice cracks halfway through the shout, and she can only speak in a panicked rasp.

Jayu manages to pass through the defensive line of the Crowned, and gets to the cage. A few of them do spot his face however. And when Jayu starts trying to undo the lock on the cage, one of the massive Were Fangs suddenly reaches through and grabs him by the front of his clothing, and pulls his face to the bars, slamming him into it. "You bastard. Don't think I don't recognize you! You captured my wife!" Before slamming Jayu's face into the cage again.

Followed by the Crowned being alerted to his presence and turning, immediately firing magic and weaponry on his position!

Jayu spins heels over head in the werefang's grasp, standing on the cage like Jackie Chan as if it is a vertical surface before creating a shield of Ki in front of him, which deflects the arrows from harming those in the cage, though he himself does take a bit of damage. With quick movement, he grabs the werefang's other hand and presses it firmly against his head, where the Crown would normally be. "I have been freed of their control, and you will be too, soon, if we can get this cage unlocked!"

Goldenblade looks around and decides this is a full-on Charlie Foxtrot, as the military guys he used to hang out with in Yokusuka would call it to protect his delicate civilian ears. But we're here to get people out, and she'll be damned if this fight goes south in vain. She was feeling miserable before we started, and trying to use her Legendary power too much has made the headache throb. But she sidles over to the cage while Jayu is busy and a katana thrust makes quick work of the lock. As Damon Wayans said in Last Boy Scout, she bypassed it.

    Setsuna watches the horde of the undead as much as he could but like with most things in the world, line of sight is rather important and as he loses it more and more of his undead become unhandled. It will be up to Uta to deal with the rest. So for now all Setsuna can do is provide more heat for the fog. As the black flames rise around him and begins to radiate heat, evaporating the water in the rice fields to add to the mist. Once the fire is lit Setsuna begins to channel it into nearby fields, spreading the fire almost in an uncontrolled nature.

Recently unexploded leg or not, there are still dangers abound. Arrows still fly and whistle through the air, and the Crowned are lost in the fog, trying to find the source of this incursion into their perfectly laid plan. The doctor grits his teeth and focuses, more magic pulsing out through his staff into the surrounding atmosphere to try and keep the fog cloud steady and thick. It's working so far, but how much longer can they keep it up?

"Oh, Doctor, by the way..." Uta mentions out of the blue, as she's prone to. "The results of researching who the Alv in the hologram in Rosenheim was are in. Apparently, the name is 'Kanoyeel.Cielsh.O.Domneq.Genometrica', also known as 'Kanoyeel.kkll.Preciel.' Great Architect of the Alv. Currently resides on the Red Moon. Creator of Naval Monte, Mac Anu, Fort Ouph, and Soreil." After a short silence, but before she dashes for the final leg into the core of the camp, she asks, "Does that ring a bell?"

There is a quiet acknowledgement between Uta and Setsuna. Trying not to give away her position while in Deep Spriggan Mode, Uta magically tugs at Setsuna's arcane senses. Kind of like a tagging motion, but as a Wave Arte.

Having snuck her way into the thick of things, like a ninja, Uta takes over the control of the undead. And sends them to nag the soldiers in the Thick of Things.

While trying to, if time and actions allow, inspect the soldiers.

The Were Fang growls, releasing Jayu; "Don't think that means I've forgiven you for what you did. You're going to help me get my wife back!" He demands of Jayu as Goldenblade uses 'alternative tactics' to open up the cage. The uncrowned quickly come flooding out, entering into the mists. They know where to go, and they move fast! Luckily, Setsuna and Prophylaxis are doing a good job at maintaining the mists. And with Uta's interference, any time the Crowned try to get to chasing them, they end up getting met with undead interference!

Jayu nods to the Werefang with DETERMINATION. "I will: You have my word. We're going to free EVERYONE from them." Kicking off the side of the cage, Jayu launches another fire fist while spinning in mid air, fortifying the fogs effects. He lands on the ground, waiting for all of the uncrowned to leave the cage before following in case he needs to shield the fleeing captives from stray arrows.

    "Oh hey he made it to the moon, that is really cool. I just assumed he never made it successfully. Wait, Uta did you just say this guy currently resides on the moon. " Setsuna comments over the chims as he begins to retreat into the fog. Every few moments he throw up more fire behind him as he works to turn water into mist to continue to obscure their path until they are good and far away.

"I have never heard that name before in my life, but if there are Alvs on the Red Moon, that would explain where they've all gone off to," Prophylaxis replies. It's not much, but it is a confirmation. This is new lore! Who is this mysterious Kanoyeel? How likely is it that she'll turn out to be a total pushover cinnamon roll with a masochism kink once they get to know her a little bit more? Eh, maybe fifty-fifty.

...

Prophylaxis continues to maintain the fog as they make their retreat, mixing cold with heat to condense Setsuna's vaporized rice paddies into ever thicker fog clouds.

"That's what we figured out, Setsuna. Red Moon. And weirdly enough, despite how far in the past we expected these events to have happened, no power strain took place."

Everyone in the team is informed of this -- as Uta has now found her groove, and no longer needs to stay hidden and silent. She can just throw zombies at people.

"So, my hypothesis is... Soreil, being meant as a travel vessel as well as a city, is what took Kanoyeel to the Red Moon. Possibly away from the reach of the Cursed Wave. Possibly not."

"We know that at least one Alv is alive and on the Red Moon," Uta points out. "So, uh, this is interesting. Between Kanoyeel and Bondrewd, we know of at least two Alvs that are still around. Alive."