Black Zenith [Adventure RPG / Chapter Four: Fires of Heaven]

Selphy scans for a target with the heavy rifle. Failing to find an obvious place to shoot she instead fires the rifle at the back wall of the internal room. If Lucid were to be especially unlucky as well as actually being behind the wall at the time, the bullet would pierce through the wall and hit her.

Selphy would then go on to say "So... Anyone need a ride?"

You shoot the wall! The rocks groan a little, dust falling from the ceiling. No corpses mysteriously appear out of thin air. (hit 6+6 Vs Defense ??) Well, thats a shame, but atleast you seem to have acquired a number of passengers.

"Should i land, or will the stepladder do?" Torhald asks.

Watson emerges from the smoke cloud, his sword having disappeared back into his hat where it belongs. He coughs a bit but ceases and dusts himself off. This is going to be tricky.

He sees a short woman who seems... otherworldly. Divine, if you will! Watson is utterly confused at this new woman's appearance. Is he supposed to know her for some reason? Oh! Of course! She's the scary young woman with an undoubtedly illegal, weaponized airship! He'll have to talk to her later.

"Why yes, we would! But pardon me, some things I must attend to", he says as he turns back around to speak to the rest of his fellow... where has everyone gone off to? He look

"Well... there does seem to be an undead assassin running loose! Wouldst one of you attend to..."

Watson confusedly gestures, waving his open hand in front of him.

"...him or her?"

He looks around.

"Bohw! You look to be in splendid condition to do so and not at all angry! Would you seek her out? I must... assist Nos."

Watson begrudgingly takes out his Vase and resumes the painstaking task of getting Nos the enchanted water he needs.

You feed Nos some more water, healing him for 100. He seems to be getting steadily better.

Mayor looks suddenly more relaxed as Bohw regains control of her body. Briskly, he walks over to Nos and Savannah, both of them look as they are in terrible condition. Grabbing his Mayoral Sash for comfort, he prays for their health... no, he doesn't pray, he wishes, he wishes with all his soul that they will live.

Bohw suddenly breathes out sharply and raps on her forehead to focus herself. That time wasn't... too[i/] bad, she thinks to herself, letting herself willing lose control was reckless and she should of never done it, but in the end it was the only thing between Echo and...

She looks up and gauges the situation, the enemy has fled, people are hurt and that girl with the airship is here for no explicable reason. Taking control, Bohw gives out orders to hurry things along. "Mayor, gather Nos, Watson, Taran, standby on guard."

Bohw then turns to the Airship Pilot, she isn't about to forget a face like that, especially since this is the second time she's pulled them out of the fire. "And you, I am in one hell of a debt with you now." She smiles, a smug, yet grateful smile. "We need to get to the city as soon as possible, alright Selphy?"

As Mayor approaches Nos and Watson, the light from his sash dims, and Nos seems to be breathing remarkably easier now. He could probably wake any minute now, though how Mayor knows that he isnt really sure. He picks Nos up anyway, carrying him towards the airship.

Meanwhile Bohw gets to the business of shouting orders. Taran takes up position, watching the cloud of smoke in the center of the room for anyone emerging from it. Nobody does.

Myra steered right around to the doorway of this new room as soon as she caught sight of so much blood. After taking a moment to calm down, Myra sends out a telepathic message to all of her comrades, "[i]Hey, I followed that Echo person's magic, but it flared up and collapsed within itself in this room I'm currently in. All that appears to be left of her is a pool of blood with traces of her magic surrounding it. She may have been killed, but there are fresh Cultist corpses in here, too, so I'm going to check this room out. You guys should get a head-start on getting out of here; I'll catch up when I'm ready."

Having given the essential information to the others, the ravenfolk begins looking around the room for oddities, including magical traps, as well as any items that may be on or around the corpses. She especially looks around for something to contain what Myra can only assume to be Echo's blood. She may be able to use it for something, especially if that witch is still somehow alive. If all else fails, Myra will pluck some feathers of her own and soak them in the blood before storing them.

Looking closer, you see that the many different statues in the room appear to actually have moved around - they were probably animated. Judging from the positioning of many of the cultists and the sorry states the statues are in, you estimate that the cultists fought a battle here and won, but opted to leave their dead behind. Atleast, nothing living is moving around other than yourself.

Spotting a nearby stone shelf that has mostly collapsed in on itself, you see something shiny beneath a pile of rubble and a thick layer of dust. It turns out to be what is left of a golden goblet. It is missing the foot, and is badly crumpled. Though you dearly doubt that the thing is still capable of holding liquid, its the best you have so you give it a try. It turns out to be able to hold a small amount of liquid - anything more simply trickles out. A rather unwieldy solution, all in all.

Savannah huffs, slowly standing to her feet. "It's good everything's over, I suppose." Seeing that Watson is helping out Nos at the moment, she takes a step back and gingerly touches the spot where Lucid's knife struck her. Hissing in pain, she recoils and grabs her injured bicep, blowing air out of her nose as she waits for the stab of pain to die down. "Okay..." She stoops down and picks up her healing wand, firing off a charge into her arm and sighing. Savannah spies the knife that got her and picks it up vowing to return the favor if they saw that ninja bitch again. "...Now what?"

Surprisingly, as soon as Mayor walks past you, all your wounds are suddenly gone!

You're left dumbstruck for a moment. What even just happened.

---

Razan steps out into the grayed-out sunlight, casting a healing spell on himself. He looks up to Selphy, speaking.

"Please, We require transportation to the city of Nirthrid as quickly as possible. How fast can you bring us there, if you have the wind at your back?"



Stats

SpoilerShow

Bohw: 830/830, Familiar (+3)
Leader: +3
Mayor: 1512/1512
Sabotage Cd 1
Selfless Cd 2
Hellbent Cd 18
Block Cd 11

Nos Reaper: 1200/1200
Kill Time: 0
Calming Breath Cd 3
Overexcited Cd 3
Madness Dance ready!
Spell Focus Cd 4

Savannah: 1200/1200
Aromatherapy Cd 7
Absolute Zero Cd 5
Parasitic Relationship Cd 6
Manacharge ready!
Wand of Healing: 18

Watson: 1400/1400
Wits ready!
Fine Wine Cd 5
Dragon of the Red Wine ready!
Runeguard Cd 13
Water Vase: 1½ charges

Myra: 1200/1200
Readiness: 0
Change Form ready!
Winds of Fate Cd 21
Punishment ready!
Wraithstrike ready!
Shield of Feathers ready!
Farsight Cd 12

Selphy: 1700/1700
Miracle Repair ready!
Judgement Calling Cd 2
Wings of Freedom ready!
Airship: 3750/3750

Mael: 922/1000
Inner Focus Cd 2
Deathstroke Cd 1

Taran: 850/850
Word of Glory Cd 5

Torhald: 900/900, busy piloting
Shield Charge ready!

Razan: 2607/5000
Balance: 35/100
Wrath Cd 3
Absolution Cd 7
Wildcall Cd 4
August Bulwark Cd 4

With Mayor's strange magical wishes (silly to think of them as nothing but luck) healing Nos, Watson locks up the Vase in his hat and decides to enter Razan's conversation with this... airship woman.

"We would be most appreciative of your help", Watson adds.

"Miss... might we have your name? I would like to know the person to whom we are graciously indebted."

Selphy says the following things. "Let down the ladder Torhald, we're probably leaving right away. As for how quickly the ship can go... I'd say that if you want to get somewhere safely its speed would be comparable to that of a horse-cart, I'm pretty confident that the ship can maintain that pace without any problems. As long as we don't need to fly over any mountains, we could just travel in a straight line... OH! And my name is Selphy. There will be plenty of time to talk later."

Myra puts the goblet, filled as much with the blood as possible, in her magical inventory. It's not much, but Myra was planning to be sparing with her usage and experimentation of the blood anyway.

I'm not done with this room just yet...Now let's see just how much of a seer my race makes me! She really wants to find out as much as possible, so Myra tries a spell that shows a vision of what has recently occurred in this room.

Savannah pats her formerly injured arm in confusion. "What." Wounds didn't just close up like that. She thinks. This was probably the strangest thing to happen to her today. In her entire life, maybe. That's saying something. After touching her arm for a few moments to make sure she wasn't delirious from blood loss or whatever, she leaves the cave, feeling the magic flow back into her.

She decides to take inventory while she waits for the others, leaning on the cave entrance. Her three knives: the belt one, the ninja bitch one, and her old one; her healing wand, the Champion Blade, and... huh? She pulls out the Diadem, confused for a moment, before she remembers where it came from. She glances over at Razan, who seems to be done yelling at the airship girl. She gets up and walks over to him, casting a healing spell on him. "Hey. Magic dude. You know anything about this? Found it in the cave thing before we met you and your dumb pet." Savannah holds the Diadem out to him.

With Mayor's strange magical wishes (silly to think of them as nothing but luck) healing Nos, Watson locks up the Vase in his hat and decides to enter Razan's conversation with this... airship woman.

"We would be most appreciative of your help", Watson adds.

"Miss... might we have your name? I would like to know the person to whom we are graciously indebted."

~

Selphy says the following things. "Let down the ladder Torhald, we're probably leaving right away. As for how quickly the ship can go... I'd say that if you want to get somewhere safely its speed would be comparable to that of a horse-cart, I'm pretty confident that the ship can maintain that pace without any problems. As long as we don't need to fly over any mountains, we could just travel in a straight line... OH! And my name is Selphy. There will be plenty of time to talk later."

People start getting onboard, with Mael taking the ladder first.

Savannah pats her formerly injured arm in confusion. "What." Wounds didn't just close up like that. She thinks. This was probably the strangest thing to happen to her today. In her entire life, maybe. That's saying something. After touching her arm for a few moments to make sure she wasn't delirious from blood loss or whatever, she leaves the cave, feeling the magic flow back into her.

She decides to take inventory while she waits for the others, leaning on the cave entrance. Her three knives: the belt one, the ninja bitch one, and her old one; her healing wand, the Champion Blade, and... huh? She pulls out the Diadem, confused for a moment, before she remembers where it came from. She glances over at Razan, who seems to be done yelling at the airship girl. She gets up and walks over to him, casting a healing spell on him. "Hey. Magic dude. You know anything about this? Found it in the cave thing before we met you and your dumb pet." Savannah holds the Diadem out to him.

You catch up with Razan as he is about to ascend the stepladder. You heal him for 135 health! (roll 4+5)

"I dont recognize that. I assume it is a relic from a time long lost. I know little of such matters, but i would assume it belonged to a noblewoman or somone of similar station. It is faintly magical. Hm." He pauses for a moment, then blinks once and inspects the diadem anew. "Oh, yes. When commanded, it will extend a rather small field of antimagic around the wearer. It seems to not have been enchanted intentionally - the spell structure and magical layering makes that self-evident. That happens to objects left in close proximity to great sources of power in some rare cases. Practically speaking, this makes the artifact rather unreliable if used for extended periods or time or if activated with frequency - However, it should still function optimally if used only rarily."

Glancing around, Razan shakes his head lightly. "What were i saying...?" Noticing the ladder, he curses, then scrambles to climb it, as if suddenly in a great deal of haste. "Quickly! Climb aboard! We will have to leave the ravenfolk and bunni behind - they should be able to catch up. We have not a moment to waste!"

Myra puts the goblet, filled as much with the blood as possible, in her magical inventory. It's not much, but Myra was planning to be sparing with her usage and experimentation of the blood anyway.

I'm not done with this room just yet...Now let's see just how much of a seer my race makes me! She really wants to find out as much as possible, so Myra tries a spell that shows a vision of what has recently occurred in this room.

(roll 19+7)

You look back in time, to only mere moments ago. You see the room as it is now, minus the blood. Then Echo suddenly winks into existence with a flash of light, stumbling, clearly pretty out of it. Her lips move, as though she is speaking, but you hear nothing. Then, almost explosively, everything goes dark, your very vision convulsing and sounds distorting into twisted screeches. Only a few seconds pass, and then it is gone again, the room returning to normal, with the conspicious exception of Echo having disappeared, leaving only the blood. Moments later, you see yourself fly into the room.

You end the vision. You now have a splitting headache.

Watson reluctantly enters into the airship.

"Is this flying machine regulated?" he speaks under his breath as he looks around confused.

Selphy shouts "So which direction is Nithirid from here?"

He indicates the direction - its the way you came from.

"Torhald, I'll have you continue to pilot while I deliver a quick lecture on safety and heavy weaponry. Is everyone here? Actually I'll just talk louder and assume you can hear me. AHEM!"

"This ship was designed with military applications in mind so it should be able to withstand considerable force, however it is considerably less sturdy from within the ship itself. Please refrain from touching anything if you don't know what it is. Also, I'd appreciate it if you didn't test the ships resilience while it is in flight. Or at all. You should also refrain from sitting on the railing of the airship even when near the ground or in situations where you would look really cool doing it."

"I have designed and installed several weapons which are both dangerous and questionable. First of all we have the Heavy Rifle over here. It works much like a standard firearm, just point it at your target and shoot! being attached to the ship greatly reduces recoil, but does not eliminate it entirely. You seriously shouldn't be leaning on it while firing it. I'm pretty sure that you should at least have basic marksmanship training to use the thing. Next we have this charming Gatling Gun attached to the front of the ship. This weapon can fire a large amount of bullets in a short period of time. You really do not want sit on that gun for any reason, not sure why you would sit on it but just don't. Finally we have the Artillery Cannon way over here at the back of the ship. This one fires an Explosive Shell at a defined location. Don't touch that one without talking to me about training first. If you decide to do so anyway, keep in mind that it can rotate far enough to hit the airship itself because I made the mistake of assuming no idiots would be withing touching distance of it."

"So... Any questions?"

Watson cannot stand to hear all of this! Dangerous, illegal weaponry which was created simply to harm others? He must make sure...

"Excuse me, Selphy was it? Was any of this used to kill human beings? Why, I have it within good reason that I should leave this ship while in flight if that is the case."

Watson had his arms crossed.

Savannah stays on the ground, glancing back at the cave. She shouts up to Razan, "You can't be serious! I... I-I mean we, can't just leave that raven girl here! It's... what if... I mean... you just can't!" She stomps her foot on the ground, yelling louder. "I don't leave people behind!"

"Unless the people you were fighting against like two minutes ago were humans, then no. These weapons have not been used to kill any humans thus far."

"Well not to my knowledge so it is quite alright then! We should embark immediately for Nirthid! However..."

Watson pauses, scratching at his head and remembers some people are missing.

Where is the ravenfolk? Where is the Bunni? Where have they gone off to?

He considers for a moment that the Bunni was an utter buffoon who did not at least stick behind to help his fleeing teammates and simply fled for the hills without checking whether or not the ship operator was friendly. Yes, something must be done about him. Much to be answered to in his absence. As for Myra's disappearance? Perhaps she went off to hunt Echo?

"I believe we should wait a few moments for one from our team to return. Or better yet, I shall check behind to see she is not grappling with the likes of Echo."

Watson heads back to where he last saw Myra leave.

Bohw makes her way up the deck, making her way over to Savannah and tapping her on the shoulder.

"Myra can turn into a raven and fly. I thought she told us tele-,telepathentally...? She basically said that she'd catch up just fine."

"As for the damn Rabbit... Ugh... I wish I would have to stop worrying about him so much every time I go demonic... but if he had any sense he fled to the city. If he had any sense that is, which after what he did... I might begin to doubt that..."

Mayor heads up last, intentionally so, the combined weight of himself and Nos makes the airship creak and threatens to tear the ladder right off, but Mayor briskly makes his way to the top and throws his body onto the deck to safety. After Selphy's little speech, the strange thudding noise makes a few people turn their heads, where Mayor can only awkwardly stand up right in response.

Bohw then calls out to Selphy, pointing over to Nos. "Oy! Selphy, do you have any beds onboard? Lil guy's tuckered out."

Savannah slumps her shoulders and sighs. "I still don't like it. What if she doesn't? I don't... never mind." She takes a quick glance back at the cave and grabs the ladder.

Once on the airship, Savannah wanders off and takes up residence near the Artillery Cannon. She has no idea what the damn thing is, but she sure as hell isn't going to touch it. She can smell the explosives stuff. Plunking herself down on the floor, she peers off the edge of the ship and thinks about how much she probably doesn't like flying.

Well that was pretty scary! Myra would have loved to do more exploring, but she really should head back to the others, especially with this headache of hers. She takes her leave back to the others, immediately taking notice of the big, hulking airship. "Hey everyone, you haven't left ye-CAW, THAT'S A BIG FLOCKING SHIP OH MY GOSH YOU ALL ARE GOING ON THAT? DOES THAT MEAN YOU GET TO FLY LIKE ME BUT NOT LIKE ME--Ow, ow, head, no, shouldn't shout like that while using telepathy right now..." Myra perches on Watson's shoulder, dipping her little head toward him. "Go on, let's get on the ship, maybe we can see that bloody Bunni running with his tail between his legs from above."

"Oh, speaking of blood," Myra begins to address the group again after staring at the ship for a moment, "I chased Echo's magic down, and came into a room with a pool of her blood, statues, and dead cultists. Fresh ones. Should've grabbed an arm while I was at it...Caw, nevertheless, I did a little more checking, and apparently she blinked there, mumbled something I couldn't hear, everything went black, and bam, she was gone, with nothing but her blood to show of her being there in the first place. Caww, I have a terrible headache now, probably from that spell I used to get that information...Oh well. I'm back, and I even have a bit of her blood in a banged-up golden goblet! Isn't that just fantastic!?"

Watson is greeted by a raven that is telepathically screaming at him. He realizes that this is Myra.

"Yes, quite... fantastic." Watson spoke as he rubbed at the sides of his head with both hands. That is some headache. Even Watson never thinks that loudly!

"Well now that most of everyone is here, I think we should be heading off now!" Watson says cheerily, sauntering off to the airship with the ravenfolk resting on his shoulder.

"I do think Razan would make the most use of it. Razan what do you think of what Echo has... I suppose... fortunately left behind?" he gestured for Myra to show him the goblet. He also smirked at the fact that it was mostly a job well done with weakening Echo to the point of retreat. Selphy is to thank for that but Watson thinks he has done his fair share.

"The woman we fought is of no consequence. Have you not been listening? A terrible doom descends on all of us as we speak! No sorceror can compare with what our world will suffer in the days ahead."

He waves a hand, and the wind suddenly picks up. "And so i suggest we be on our way."

The wind picks up, and Torhald, seeing no reason to contradict the distressed druid, sets the airship in motion, swinging it around in the appropriate direction. The wind picks up at another gesture from Razan, the ship's sails burgeoning with air, setting an impressive speed.

"If i remember the lay of the land correctly, we should arrive in something under an hour's time. I suggest using the delay to prepare yourselves for battle."

Hearing this, Mael sits down on the deck and takes out a strip of dirty cloth and a sharpening stone, taking the time to care for his blade. Probably not a bad idea, considering that it seems to be caked in both hydra gore and shadowy stains. Probably naga guts aswell.

How do you prepare, if at all?

Selphy takes a look at her Minor Spellrod and places an extended reach spell on it which would permit her to physically interact with an object at a distance.

"So... Is Nithirid is under attack now!?"

"I do not know. It may be. It may also already be rubble, and Lord Ziras dead. We cannot afford such an early defeat."

Selphy says: "That having been said, would anyone here like to learn about siege weapon operation? The weaponry that I armed this ship will probably be more effective than the stuff you guys brought with you."

"Oh, goodness, I hope we make it in time," Myra muses after Razan's forewarnings. Upon hearing the girl talking about weapons and teachings, however, Myra's mood switches back to being upbeat as she nods to Selphy and replies, "Oh yes, I would love to know how the machines on here work and how to use them! Do I need to my thumbs to learn, or is this form fine? ...Who are you, by the way? I don't think I was here for introductions. Oh yes, and I'm Myra. Ravenfolk, not raven."

Watson still thinks that Echo will pop out of nowhere and pose a threat in the middle of their plans. He had been pacing back and forth.

Selphy makes an offer to teach how the on-board weaponry works.

"I think I may take up your offer! I believe myself to be a fairly good shot. Not a very hard hitter, but that can't be helped", Watson shrugged.

"I would also like to introduce my self as Sir Watson. I do have a full name but I'd rather not waste my breath by it." he said and sighed.