Wings of Fury 2

"Myes". Holek takes one of the salads, and starts to desperately offer it towards the nearest horse who would take it.

Zaya changed course to follow Terzi. People who know how to delve into dubious ancient ruins should stick together!

Well... At least Caulind suspected Henri less of some form of duplicity now.

Eyes widened at the sight of Naissyri more than anything else, the sight of such a creature new and freshly seared into his mind as the sheer size matched only by it's aggressive personality.

Still, respect formed quickly seeing that Henri had the skill to match his insane plan, and had prepared against a threat of fire. Enough for a laugh to bubble out as everyone scattered towards the ruins except...A small spark of energy blossoming at the young priest's song drew attention.

Caulind moved, his pacing over the ground crouched low. It looked almost like he was about to fall to all fours as he ran but instead merely leapt and bound, arms and staff cutting through the air as he kept a horizontal upper body to aerodynamically dash forward, moving to reach Guillairme to cover them rather than leaving them by themselves as they sang. He began to start tapping his staff against the ground to the rhythm of Guillairme's song, seemingly trying to match the beat before beginning anything himself.

Terzi and Zaya moved towards the ruins, skirting around the clearing to stick to cover. The terrain was rough and forested, but it kept them safe from the dragon's gaze. Unfortunately, this less direct route was a hell of a lot slower than charging straight across the plains. It'd take about twice as long to reach the fortress as through the meadow. There was just a whole lot of climbing up and down annoying rocky slopes.

Rozenn rode after Henri's horse and had to spend a fair bit of time calming her down after jumping onto her back. After a few moments she was able to begin charging across the plains, with Avag climbing on part of the way there. The dragon was up ahead, struggling against the valiant assault of Sir Henri, and she quickly diverted from the fortress to start smashing her back into trees in an attempt to shake him off. Avag, for his part, disembarked from the horse as they neared the fortress and ran towards that.

Despite being on foot and in plate armor, Comète managed to make impressive time to the fortress, arriving roughly when Avag did. The fortress resembled many others on the surface, with a strong outer wall, an even stronger inner wall, and a robust fortified keep. However, closer observation would make note of the dwarven influences in the design, such as the fact that none of the compound's buildings (save the towers) outside the keep were above-ground. Most of the fortress seemed to lurk below the surface, and the keep was the only way to access this underground installation. While the outer gatehouse was open (and indeed, breached in numerous places), the inner gatehouse had been completely collapsed at some point. This had likely been done by the dragon to prevent people from easily reaching her lair. The inner wall was mostly intact, with breaches having been repaired through the placement of giant rocks and boulders. Getting in would require some creativity.

Brom and Holek had attempted to lure Sir Henri's horse, but the horse had quickly been taken by Rozenn who charged off across the meadow with it. Not changing their tactics any, the two halflings continued waving salads around at various animals until Gwen (Rozenn's horse wandering back from the orc knight's horse trade) came over and began to sniff the salads. The horse began to munch on the salad, trusting them both.

Guillairme said prayers for his liege and began to sing the Fourth Song, looking to buff Sir Henri in any way he could. Caulind approached and began to match the beat, considering a tune. From this vantage point, the two could see the fight as it progressed. Sir Henri quickly climbed the rope onto the dragon's back, keeping hold as he advanced. The dragon, sensing this, began smashing her back into trees and obstacles in an attempt to get him off. Sir Henri was a resilient and stubborn man, and his command of the Fourth Song was powerful. He weathered these attacks well and retained hold of his two lassos as he made his way towards the dragon's head.

"Alright, Holek, let's hustle up. Us and our short stubby, yet adorable leggies!"

While feeding bits of salad to Gwen (because horses are extremely nervous creatures), Brom helps Holek up (if he wants).

He then asks Holek to pull him up later.

"There's gotta be some way in!" said Avag, starting to scurry over the piled up rocks. "We just need to distract her back over here and stop her smashing into trees! Henri's the only one who's got a killing blow, so we need to try anything to get her to split her focus! Look for somewhere to get in, or take cover! I can take a few hits, so I'll go up and try and grab her attention!"

Hurriedly climbing the rocks and boulders plugging one of the breaches, Avag started to hum determinedly, calling up his best enchantments of resilience. He tried to get a high enough vantage point on the wall to see the action going on outside, ideally making it all the way to the top. Once he was up there, he'd take a deep breath, and shout at the top of his goblin lungs. "HEY, SCALYFACE! NICE LAIR YOU HAVE! WE'RE JUST GONNA MAKE OFF WITH EVERYTHING INSIDE WHILE YOU FIGHT SIR SHINY OVER THERE, OKAY?"

Hyup! Holek is up the horse, and grabs the hand of Brom. Now the horse has to carry the weight of two entire halflings...

"Howdoesitwork" mumbles Holek quizzically, while petting the horse's mane.

"Well I only raised horses. I never really rode one," Brom shrugged. He grips his legs tightly on the saddle, relying on the rim to keep him "set in." "There is a first for everything, you know? Hold onto me, a fall off a horse is worse for us."

"Say, horsie can you lead us to your master?" And he lets the horse lead to Rozenn.

Nothing helpful. Well, it was worth a shot.

As the tsavari crested a particularly high slope, Zaya held up a hand a moment, peering over the opposite side. "...Have an idea. May be reckless. Done it before, though. It'll get us there faster. Follow me?"

Zaya stepped up to the edge of the slope, looked down, took a deep breath... and without any real warning, exhaled a blast of ice and frigid wind downward, freezing the slope solid. She coughed a couple of times, as if that had been a mildly unpleasant thing to experience, then jumped, sliding her way down the slope much faster than carefully climbing down would have gone.

Zaya's use of the Second Song wasn't very conventional, as it turned out.

Comète followed Avag up the wall, getting up next to him, and nodded. "Let me lend a hand. If you bring the noise, I will bring the light." And Comète raised her voice and begin belting out her Second Song, forming as big of a fireball between her hands as she could muster and holding it aloft. The idea was to catch the dragon's eye to accompany Avag's taunts and shouts.

Guillairme saw Caulind's approach and made a small <Eyes on me> gesture on the upswing of his instrumentation, inviting the Third Song user to join in keeping the beat. It wouldn't add to the Song, but Guy was able to add nearly nothing in that arena himself-- the richness of the song could help Sir Henri channel it, though. The breath control of a Fourth Song Knight was incredible, but there was inherent difficulty in keeping a song going for a Song while scampering around on a lasso'd dragon.

He took some steps to keep in earshot of the dragon, more walking with urgency than running, and was able to discern the song Sir Henri had chosen--a sailing song, but one of freedom and comradeship. A bold, valiant paean of Ramay.

"--Let us rise together
Let us fall together
Let us ride the sky beyond the tide
Together--"

Guillairme added his voice to the choruses, on the verses proper letting Sir Henri take the melody line as he hummed the harmony and struck out the rhythm.

Terzi doesn’t hesitate before sliding down the ice ramp, landing at the base with little flourish but plenty of skill. She hasn’t been having much issue with the terrain so far, but she wasn’t about to turn down the help.

“Thank you-“

Suddenly, distant discordant goblin screaming from the direction of the fort.

“.... oh no, I think the goblin is getting killed near the fort. That will make this difficult. Get ready to hide and wait for the dragon to leave. Songs’ End, I though anyone else would flee from a rampaging dragon. I hope Rozenn isn’t trying to fight it. It’d be a waste of a young life.”

Caulind began to focus more purely on Guillairme, Sir Henri and Naissyri, but more specifically the voice of the squire and knight before joining in. He had a higher voice, and now he'd gotten the style of the notes sand between the pair, was able to accompany the sound of the fourth song with his own wordless music. As he put a hand on Guillairme, he sang seemingly erratic notes that formed chords with Guillairme and Henri's pitches, slowly more and more jumping between adding and supporting their voices.

Synchronicity began to form as he weaved a link between their minds and his, a feeling of smoothness linking the thoughts and intentions to better improve already upon the natural bond between the pair and fit himself to how they worked in turn.

Rozenn grins as a wild plan crosses her mind. If Avag and Comete are hiding in the rubble, and the dragon is still thrashing about...

After securing her shield to her back, she draws her bow, knocks an arrow, and fires it in the dragon's direction. It won't harm it, she's sure, but that's not the goal. Once she's confirmed it made contact, she begins galloping - right past the gate, preparing to circle around behind the castle. Hopefully it's enough to draw the dragon's attention! Maybe it'll think she's stealing its gold.

If Avag and Comete ambush the dragon, she'll prepare to circle back around. If not, she'll keep on circling the fortress, ready to burst into the woods beyond if she hears anything like some fire being charged up!

“I just really hope that dragon’s attention is focused anywhere but its lair.”

Sir Henri's plan certainly has proved to be a surprise! Everything happens so quickly, Grokzurl barely has time to react to their escort trying to wrangle a dragon with a few pieces of rope. Just as quickly as Henri had struck, the rest of the party takes off towards the dragon. Not one to be left behind, Grok tears off in the direction of Guillairme and Comete! He's amazed by how quickly the latter moves in her armor, but has learned by now not to take too much time pondering such things.

Keeping pace is easy enough, but catching up  is another story entirely. Grokzurl arrives at the fortress well after Comete and Avag had begun their climb, and simply follows with a sigh. Best to keep close to the one with the net, Guillairme is easy enough to keep track of with his Singing.

Holek and Brom successfully climbed onto Gwen, bribing her with sweet sweet salad. Upon mentioning Rozenn's name, she let out a dutiful huff and began galloping across the meadow towards her master. Considering the two halflings combined were substantially lighter than the fully-armored Rozenn, the horse made excellent time!

***

Rozenn, meanwhile, fired an arrow up at the dragon! It plinked harmlessly off her scales, but she noticed regardless and became enraged when she saw Rozenn riding off towards her lair. She became angrier still when she saw Avag and Comète standing upon the walls, waving fire and screaming.

Despite the stubborn knight still hanging onto her back, she flew off towards the castle! Along the way, she looked down and bathed Rozenn and Henri's horse alike in fire. The flames immediately heated Rozenn's armor to a burning temperature, but she escaped the worst of it by jumping off the horse and rolling onto the grassy ground. The horse continued charging forward, suffering the flames with a dignity afforded by her enchanted caparison. Despite this, the heat was clearly making her uncomfortable, and she charged off into the woods once Rozenn had hopped off. The dragon didn't stop, and continued flying towards Avag and Comète.

As Rozenn sat in the grass trying to cool/tear her burning hot armor off, Brom and Holek rode up on Gwen!

***

Terzi and Zaya reached the edge of the woods, arriving just in time to see the dragon torch Rozenn and fly off over the nearby walls. Looked like everyone else had ALSO had the idea of running towards the dragon's lair while she was distracted fighting Henri, but with somewhat divergent objectives.

***

Guillairme and Caulind continued to approach the castle on foot, singing their respective songs. With a great deal of focus, Caulind was able to telepathically link Henri to Guillairme. The former was a bit focused on fighting the dragon, but if the latter wished to communicate he could do so!

Grokzurl caught up to this group around this time, huffing a bit from the sizable sprint!

***

Avag and Comète watched as Rozenn fired her arrow, raced towards the keep, and got bathed in fire for her trouble. Sadly, the dragon didn't stop there, proceeding at breakneck speed towards the castle. Comète threw her fireball, but it seemed to have little effect as the dragon sent a giant torrent of flame down at the wall. Between Avag's durability and Comète's firesinging, the two of them were able to bear the brunt long enough to dive into a nearby tower, but Avag had still suffered a few burns and Comète's armor was burning hot.

Sir Henri reached the dragon's wings at this point, and delivered a mighty stab into the base of one of them. This caused the dragon to roar out in pain as she lost her aerial balance, sending her careening down into the inner courtyard. Landing with an enormous thoom, the enraged dragon finally managed to reach up and grab one of Henri's legs. Swinging him off her back, she began tearing into him with tooth and claw.

Holek jumps off the horse, taking out his chef puppet. "Fear not, friendly Rozenn! You will not be cooked today! The only thing we will cook today, is the dish of victory, and after that, a feast of actual dishes!" Holek starts to sing a song about waiting for the food to gently simmer, with emphasis on the gently!

Zaya froze, for just a moment, as the dragon crashed down into the courtyard. That? That was bad. Probably. Confined space, at least. Not many places to dodge to. Zaya felt an impulse to do something, despite her very specific insistence that no, she did not have any sort of applicable skills for fighting a dragon.

She sprinted through a hole in the outer wall, pulled a rope and grappling hook from her belt, and flung it up to the top of the inner wall. "Going to do something stupid," she said to Terzi. "Feel free to follow. Have to act fast, before the dragon... destroys everything. Or kills everyone. Or both."

With that, Zaya propelled herself up the rope with pure adrenaline, and tried to maneuver herself to a vantage point over the dragon - which was likely distracted lashing out at Sir Henri. She then, without giving herself time to really think about how badly this might go, propelled herself off the wall, aiming the strongest blast of ice she could muster directly into the dragon's face - aiming to blind her, ideally.

If the fall didn't result in horrific injuries, Zaya's priority would then be to immediately get to some kind of cover. Oh, this was probably a bad idea.

"Ow ow ow!" said Avag, hurriedly patting out a few smaller flames where the padding on his coat had caught alight. He'd suffered a few burns, but he'd been through a lot worse. "Quick! Now's our chance! Get her!"

He leaped out of the tower just in time to see Zaya blasting a wave of ice down at the dragon, and followed it up by pulling out one of his axes, gripping it firmly in two hands, wincing a little at his burns as he aimed, and then throwing the axe at full force towards the dragon's head! Once he'd done that, he'd scramble down the rubble towards the inner courtyard. Drawing his other pair of axes, he'd try to get in to assist Henri in melee! The big guy needed help!

Comète stood firm against the breath blast, moving and dodging along with Avag. She motioned him away and focused her breathing, changing her song slightly. Once Avag was clear, she let out a sharper, staccato tone as the heat building through her armor was forcibly vented out. A haze formed around her like the heat rising off the desert, which she charged through to follow Avag after the dragon. She knew her fire wouldn’t do much, so she’d just have to help occupy it until it got into punching range.

“No stop what do you think you can even DO-“

Terzi watched as Zaya rushed the dragon. She looked to her short stave, shrugged, and sighed defeatedly.

“I liked her. What a shame.”

Terzi climbed the wall as stealthily as she could, but kept an eye on the fray. If Sir Henri got tossed clear of the fight, she’d sigh and slink off to try to stabilize him with Second Song. Otherwise, she had nothing to offer here.

"Whoof," Brom plorps down on the ground, because he wasn't an equestrian and also he is extremely insulated against any harm from falling from a combination of fur and fat. It wasn't very comfortable though. "Oog."

He didn't had anything quippy to say currently, but he summons Aloe plant-sap, song-bending the liquid from his hat into a floating glob, administering it properly (as he can) to Rozenn's wounds.

Guillairme noted the link, but wasn't immediately certain what to do with it. The beat he drummed out continued on unabated, but the meager effect of his Song slackened as his attention wandered from it.

And then the dragon fell from the sky, Sir Henri still lasso'd firmly to her. Guy's eyes widened as he saw the beast wobble, then plummet, and just like that he knew how he should be using the mindlink.

On the grassy meadow, Guy grabbed for Caulind's arm, gripping it with the bone mallet still pressed against his palm. If his other hand hadn't been holding a rather bulky jawbone, he certainly would have grabbed Grokzurl with the other. Guillairme broke into a run towards the keep, pulling Caulind along behind him. "Keep singing," he called back, urgently.

Though the music had stopped, in the mindlink it played on; forcefully communicating the tempo of the Fourth Song with the distinctive mood of the signature of resilience.

Oh bugger.

That showed on his face only, his voice occupied remaining harmonious, now playing along with a singer that wasn't quite singing anymore but an echo of Henri's signature voice remaining in Caulind's song. There was a stutter and flash of distant moving red in Guillairme's mental perception right as Caulind stumbled slightly in the squire's grip. The song became strained as the elf fell into auto-pilot, staggered running as he began to draw and take on the burden of the pain felt by Henri into his own perception. Some of it splashed over into Guillairme's thoughts, unable to perfectly move the pain but only a diluted, diluted amount, enough to get an idea of the endangered member of the mind-link.

There wasn't any verbal speech in response to Guillairme's command to keep singing beyond a strained, wordless mental acknowledgement that Caulind understood as the elf-mind as a whole tried to keep focus.