Sutoratosu

"Yes well, maybe you don't. But nearly being killed by a bunch of two-bit bandits and having to fight through even more criminals just now has kinda ruined any appeal this island had for me. Are the local authorities really this incompetent? I've not seen a single constable or town guard, or any sort of peacekeeper here, and these morons we just finished killing were running amok like they own the place for over a week, Karik..." with that said, she turned and started heading towards the others, farther to the north. "I just want to forget about this dump and get back to the mission, it would be more fulfilling than wasting our time with bandits and rogues. The sooner we find a ship that can take us closer to Kabumu, the better..."

"Eh, yeah. You did for a minute there." The fencer got up and reached a hand out towards her gear. A slow, rattling jingle sounded through the area as the Wind Spirits grabbed firm hold of her coat's collar and dragged the thing- blades and buckler and all -over towards them. She'd taken to having them suppress the noise whenever she was wearing it, but now that the threat was gone and there were no morons to be slain, she saw little point in not putting them to use in another purpose. That, and she honestly just wanted to see to what limits she could push their new retrieval trick before they ran out of whatever ambient energies they primarily relied on and started draining her 's instead. grabbing a knife and prying it out of wounded men and bringing it back was one thing...but she felt there could even be more utility to it than just that. "You were out pretty hard though, I thought for a minute or two I'd really have to let them do it." she'd finally managed to get them close enough to grab the jacket herself and sling it over her shoulder. Even despite how much it must've weighed, the winds still seemed to be at least partially supporting the burden, given the billowing sleeves and hem. She daren't put it back on though, she'd almost forgotten what it was like to not be constantly weighed down by gear and Brigandine, and she was going to savor this feeling as long as she could. "Anyway, the others are just over there, probably interrogating whatever morons are left. Hopefully that means this whole mess will be over soon and we can finally leave this goddess forsaken place..."

"Karik....Karik, we should get back to the others..." With the stave having been removed from her sight, a hideous thing it was indeed that she'd not miss, she busied herself trying to shake the boy awake. "Come on, I know you can't be that out of it just from picking it up." But then again... maybe the boy really could. Cadence had been exposed to that type of magic and several others for most of her life, had gotten so used to the residual energies of Staves and Light and Anima magic that tended to permeate consecrated sanctuaries and hollowed grounds that her body was virtually unfazed by it's presence... Karik though, apparently was not... The anima however, knew the perfect way to waken him. Cadence however, merely shook her head at their suggestion for now... "Enough, get up already... don't make me shock you..." as if to back up her words, a loud, snapping pop echoed as a small, sparking arc of lightning seemed to appear from nowhere and vanish just as suddenly a few feet away from them both, and the anima laughed in Cadence's mind all the while...she couldn't help but mentally scold the cheeky little bastards for how close they'd done their little demonstration to the grass and trees- last thing they needed was to set a fire...

"Oh god, not one of these damn things..." She reached down and rather disdainfully pulled the staff from the boy's hands as he lay on the ground. She knew the staff exactly for what it was the moment he'd pulled it out, had angered Prudence enough times to be on the other end of several variants of them. Unlike most staff wielders, that woman had the skill to actually consistently hit something with them; in her sister's hands, magic that was usually scoffed at by those who it failed to strike became a disciplined force to be feared and respected... probably had something to do with all that time training with crossbows... and that eyesight of hers. Cadence held the thing out in front of her at arm's length in disgust, putting two fingers to her lips and giving a shrill whistle, before calling out to the man who let himself be summoned like dogs. She figured wherever he may come from, he might hear as he approached... "Eh, Courier! I've got something for you, take this off to our priestess, would you?" "Or secretly toss it into the ocean, if you'd prefer. I'm fine with either one...actually, wait...huh..." already, she was beginning to consider her own advice, eyes idly drifting towards the water's not too far away...it was certainly tempting...

"Huh, hey what are you-" before she could even react, the boy had already tossed the damn key away, running off towards the chest. Cadence stood there, for just the slightest of seconds. Already, though, she could hear the Anima goading her on, shouting to show the boy his error of judgement. Even now, they were tugging away at the armor coat, slowly beginning to take it off. "So... that's how it's gonna be, eh? Fine then." She took a single step forward, and in that same motion let the brigandine slide off her body and onto the stone pavement, revealing the cherry colored tunic and black trousers, how well they fit her figure and made it painfully obvious she was indeed a woman in stark contrast to the old coat... "Your mistake!" Cadence took yet another step forward, this one far quicker, smoother, her body becoming a mere blur as she set off after the boy like a wolf tailing a rabbit. Fleeting as embers, her feet barely seeming to even touch the ground- the boy may have had a bit of a head start due to his little trick, but without her coat, she was unhindered and unbound, free to roam like the wind. Soon enough, she not only began to gain on the boy- "Try and keep up, don't want ya to get left in the dust~" and like that, she was past him, beelining the remaining distance to the chest and slowing her gait... as she turned back to face him. "Heh, looks like I win. You got guts though Karik! It's been a long time since anyone challenged me to a race." unfortunately though, she seemed to not have recalled that the whole point was to pick up the key and unlock the chest first... not simply beat the poor boy into the dust in a contest of raw speed.

"hmm... guess that's the end of it. Figures, I was beginning to wonder why it'd gotten so quiet," Cadence sheathed her blade at the sight of the three men leaving the ship, weapons down in clear surrender, before they disappeared around the other side of the house where presumably the others were. She heard no further sounds of war afterward, so she figured it hadn't been a farce, not like they couldn't have easily dispatched all three men in a heartbeat with their numbers, but still... "At least these idiots are smart enough to know when they've been beaten though; it's nice having to slaughter them to the last man in order to get the message across." She glanced at the chest nearby, as she spoke. Hadn't Karik picked up a key from the buccaneer she'd shived? The fight was over, the danger had passed. There was no harm seeing just what was inside the container now. "Weeeell... to the victors go the spoils, I guess. Hell, who knows, maybe it'll even be something useful-" "Eh karik!" she called as she approached the apothecary- or... what used to be an apothecary, if one was willing to take a certain convoy man's testimony at face value -shop and the boy standing outside it's door. "You still have that key you found earlier, right?"

The brumal girl The world around her slowly began to burn a faint, icy teal around the edges as her vision focused and wrathful adrenaline continued pumping, the words of her companion slowed and distorted. All she could focus on was the fact that her enemies were still active, still alive, and in all honesty, not a single bit of the plant girl's encouragement even registered as she gathered the frigid fires of her rage once more, a bone chilling gale seeming to practically billow off her along with a second, far less intelligible scream as another, far brighter blast of artic blue aura emanated from her and expanded out towards the shuffling, black monstrosities. It passed over the plant girl, but just as it had before, seemed to completely ignore her and continued on a steady warpath for the strange beasts, it's wrath much like it's wielders- raw, savage, nigh beastial in it's ferocity...

Move to R16

"Actually feels kinda nice to get a break...heh, my coat even feels a bit lighter."

No one to be found within the castle, not a single soul when she'd woken up. She wasn't quite sure what it was that had stirred her, perhaps the grinding vibrations from the landing sequence, or the change in air quality when the doors had finally unsealed, maybe even the sense of something on a greater scale... whatever it was, she broke out of the brief stretch of slumber to find herself alone in a foreign land. Yes, that certainly wasn't familiar, no, not at all... She had ventured out of the castle to find... sand, surprisingly. Miles and miles of it, more than she'd ever seen, and a heat unlike any she'd felt before to match- a heat that had given her reason to put up the hood on her robes for the first time in a long time. But with the sight of sand and intense sun came an even stronger aroma from the various stalls in the trade town. Some lucid thought of trying to find the ones who'd brought the fortress here briefly entered her mind, but was just as quickly forced out as she'd taken off in the direction of the scents, spending her time in the market creeping through the cover of shade and occasionally using her webs to snatch a bizarre morsel whenever a chef or merchant happened to not be looking. She didn't even recognize half the unique foodstuffs, but whatever they were, they had tasted well enough and she didn't bother to worry much about it. It was only after the desire to sample what she saw and the same thought from earlier began to creep back in however, that by chance she'd noticed a different scent beneath all the mingled ones of the pack animals, the food and various felines cooking it- that of a flesh bag. A fleshbag she'd only encountered once, but easily recalled the bacon- she seldom forgot those who gave food. If he was here, then surely, there would be others too. And even now, she could smell another scent along with his, one she'd not met before, but could tell from it's distinct foreignness compared to all the others, it might well be another of the Fort Dwellers. Still sticking to slipping unseen between the shadows, she set about tracking them...

and boom, resubmitted with the necessary additions, and a few minor edits for one of them. Wallace Tesla: These two will doubtless end up murdering each other come adulthood, but eh, that's an issue for me to worry about in a different story, in a different RP

Ambiguous Bolt on Waddle Dee 2 [2d6+Syn((6))+1/2Int((3))+1]

Cheryn "I-" before she could say much of anything, their was a stirring behind her as the boy woke up, and even more of one when Merlin attempted to suppress his would be lashing out and he vanished-"did he... just transform in that ball of wind?" -seeing the god remove herself from the barrier- she still didn't really like the chick and her continued fuckery with her barriers wasn't improving her opinion of her -and Anemone sink to her knees and looking about to go on a miniature meltdown though, she sighed and let the barrier slowly dissipate into nothing. No point keeping it up, if she wasn't gonna try and charge her again. "Shit... guess I didn't really consider that part... gah..." "Alright, fine," she muttered under her breath, mostly more to herself than anyone else "I fucked up a bit here. Guess the eggheads are a bit better at their jobs than they sounded..."

Cherynoble "Oh, so now you guys are ready to pay attention, eh?" She scowled a little, splitting her focus ever so slightly to glance at them. It was already enough of an effort working on a scale this small and self contained when she was used to far bigger ones, and being yelled at certainly wasn't a welcome addition to the task. When the Seer started after her though, Reflex took over as Cheryn took the concentration she'd put into frying the machine and instead channeled it into a rectangular barrier of translucent, crackling red that manifested itself in the space between her and the other mage, letting the Seer throw herself smack into the field and in that same moment Cheryn's spark flared with a rebounding force that would've sent Anemone backwards in the opposite, though given her own restraint with her charge she probably wouldn't have gone that far or even landed that hard. "If this is keeping him alive, it must be a fucking miracle then," she retorted from behind the crimson barrier, her features slightly distorted looking at it from straight on, though the purely ornery expression she wore was clear as day, "Cause all I see here is a bunch of electrodes and tubes, the former is probably to just monitor him and the latter to pump him full of sedatives or some other stuff to keep him controllable. It takes a bit more than just that to keep someone on life support, last time I checked. Besides, you all were so busy shooting the shit and wasting time, I figured at least someone should get to trying to accomplish part of the reason we're here to begin with. The other group is supposed to be buying us time with a distraction right? Might be nice to not shit all over their efforts by chatting around when we should be making progress...just saying."

Cheryn With a light sigh, Cheryn closed the e-book flashing across her HUD, as the conversation still seemed to be going on. "Daaaaaaaamn, come on, with the time you're wasting with all this stuff, I could've written a damn book and found a few people to pass the file along to. Wasn't saving a few kids at least part of the reason we're here to begin with?" She honestly couldn't recall exactly, but she was fairly sure. Just like with the chatting back and forth right now, when she'd received the request, she'd only been half listening to any of it at best. Still though, this kid right here, the Elder Mage may have said they'd worry about helping the children once they'd gathered more data on the facility's progress, but... well, something didn't sit right just leaving him there like that, hooked up to all this bullshit in some coma... She stepped over to the machine, its screen still open to some of the datalogs Anemone had found earlier. Read through em, looked back over at the kid. "huh, bet it probably feels like shit...man, what the hell would that even do to the other parts of his head?" She looked a bit closer at the kid- Tallow? Odd name, but it could've easily been some random designator chosen by the egg heads -none of it looked comfortable, none of it looked pleasant, all the wires and shit. The damn thing didn't seem to be keeping him alive though, from what she could gather, just tracking his vitals and helping in this experimental... mind pump? was that a good term for it? Either way, it didn't matter, the guys who put him here could fuck off as far as she cared. She turned her attention back to the screen, and with it, began to hone her concentration, staring into it's ghastly glow and the data and figures presented onscreen. Not that she cared about what lay on the screen, but what lay beneath it... circuitry, electrical components... components that relied on semiconductors...components that, if not already Radiation Hardened or made out of materials resistant to rads(Which she bloody doubted, given where they were all standing now), could easily be fried or severely damaged by a good dose of it... she visualized the innards of the machine, or what her imagination could conjure as a decent representation of it... a representation that in her mind, took the form of a small city, people milling about like ants... people who represented electrons. Orderly, neat on the sidewalks, all single-file like little automatons, flowing just like the electricity flowing through circuits. And in an instant, that city was engulfed in hellish fire as tall stacks in the distance, looming titans of destruction disguised as mere utilities, bloomed with massive force. Panic, trampling, death- some from the trampling, others from the sickness they soon felt falling over them, even more from injuries by being too close to the epicenter. Though honestly no one but Anemone would've been able to see it, she had formed a miniature shield within the inner circuitry, small enough to easily fit in one's palms several times over, and let it pour it's radiation through the damn thing like water through a strainer as she started small, a single bubble shield, then layered another, and another atop it and merged them into one. She was going to fry this thing, one way or another. Fuck the eggheads running this joint, and fuck their experiments too.

Maya couldn't help but stifle a giggle at the boy's eagerness "Alright, alright Dash. Don't worry, Just... try not to overexert yourself too much; I don't think your body's quite used to being healed on a regular basis like the others. Just take it slow for now, give it some time to catch up." even as she spoke those very words though, she felt the tinge of regret creep in at the fact that a mere child like dash would be wounded oft enough to even warrant getting used to it at all. "And honestly, you aren't the one I'm worried about misbehaving. Hopefully there won't be anymore trouble from anyone for a while..." that same, infuriating flash of the merchant spattered in blood and fragments of bone flying as the soldier's skull collapsed like an egg crept into her memory. Hopefully whatever Saffron had said to the woman last night really would serve to keep her temper in check from now on...

Following the rider outside, Maya near immediately started off towards the tent she'd had Dash put in, on the farther side of the camp. Normally most wounded would be kept as close to the healer as possible, but well... such measures were really unnecessary, when one had access to an actual Staff instead of just vulneraries or mundane healing supplies. A few faint echoes sounded in the distance, but as she moved away from their source they faded into nothingness, just as any thought to them in her mind as she pulled the tent flap back and poked her head in. "Dash, are you awake?" She called in softly. From his exhaustion yesterday though, she didn't really expect him to, at least not fully... "We're heading to the city in bit, I thought you might want to come. How are you feeling, by the way?"

"Huuuh?" still groggy, the Sister got up from her sleeping roll. Sure enough, there was the cart outside, already being prepared to head off. "Sure... why not..." she backed away from tent flap and rubbed the remaining sleep out of her eyes. Perhaps her display of frustration the night before had taken more out of her than she'd thought- waking up this early shouldn't have been an issue; Donalto and his men would've easily already been up and active even before this hour... the dusk and predawn hours always provided the best cover for movement. There was another thing as well, though. One she had brushed aside in the heat of the moment, but now after the storm had passed, had all too much time to wonder about- at some point in that whole confrontation, there had been a change in the light. A transformation from the likes of that produced by her staves to one hailing from another source... a far more primal and retributive one. The tattered remains of Freyl's tome were proof enough of transition, proof enough that whatever had occured, she had not merely imagined it. Taking one the Heal Gems out of sleeve, she held it in one hand as the other lay open before. Like clockwork, all she had to do was will it, and the light bloomed forth in her palm, swirling there like snowflakes in an ethereal blizzard, and held there for a few moments as she stared into it depths. Try as she might, she felt no difference in it than any time she'd called it forth to heal someone. Perhaps... could the sheer duress of the situation have been a factor? The hunds had certainly proved willing and able enough to try to mentally assault Dash on nothing but her general anger alone, yesterday... but to be able to completely alter the nature of their own being into a force of physical destruction? No, no... it was something to think about later. Whatever had triggered it, she wasn't eager to do it again, one way or another. She already had to watch herself enough with the knowledge of how volatile a healing could become, and this new anomaly was just another thing to worry about keeping properly caged... She slipped the sphere back into her robes and let the blizzard die, turning back to the rider as she tried to push it all from her mind. "Say, ecquis, why don't we invite Dash too? I'm sure it would be nice for him, after... yesterday. I want to see how's he doing."

"Yes, that's right, keep walking you fool..." Like a waiting predator, she continued to size the buccaneer up from the woods. It was even better than she'd thought- he'd wandered so close, if she wanted to, she could just reach out and strike him directly, before he'd ever know where it came from. The knife would do the job just fine though, that much she was certain of as she crept forward and with another quick flourish of her arm sent the small blade hurtling through the air, aimed right for the man's calf and knowing full well the anima would dig it out afterwards and bring it right back, just as they had the last time... Move to R12, Knife the Pirate

Tesla gave no response, as one of the buggers leapt onto her and another tried to blast her with a shock storm. Cold, violet eyes burning an unnatural light beneath the confines of her helm and her mind a whirring blur of calculations, she turned her might upon yet another foe. The little blob's sobbing did nothing to restore the mercy that had utterly fled her heart, as the docking bays in her shoulders opened, and the ordinances within primed themselves for launch... Multi-Ordinance Strike on Waddle Doo [launches 1d3 ranged strikes at the selected target, dealing 1d4+Int((6)) damage each.]

"It gets tiring you know...always keeping your screams internalized so no one else will hear them..."

"Crazy Healer lady-" She stopped. It had taken a second or too, but almost immediately now, she knew exactly who the man was probably talking about. "I... see then. Interesting." "She really is alot like Meeyla then... though unlike Meeyla, I've no idea what the hell is going through her mind. Sister wouldn't have done such a thing as invite the likes of him unless she saw that he held little enough falsehood to be trusted. With our priest though... I've no way of knowing." But as much as she didn't like it, the man had a point. He was helping, even if it wasn't exactly voluntary. Besides, he likely wouldn't try anything while Cadence was watching; she could see that her presence alone was starting to unnerve him. And further, it would be Madante's issue what to do with him after the battle, not hers. "Fiiiiiine." she finally sighed, shrugging. Surprisingly, the Jack-o-Plates still made virtually no noise despite the movement. "Just try not to die. You'll become the Captain's issue if you survive this fight, not mine anymore." With that said, she trekked away and further into the woods, eyeing the pirate and thief both who were drawing closer to the wood line- more potential targets to bloody. The mage's fire may have stung a bit, but after the Anima had finished patching her up during the brief stretch of down time, the remaining wounds were so light they were barely worth noticing. Even better, the spirits had the foresight to pick up her blade in the idle winds and carry it back after their little exchange. Certainly saved her the trouble to picking it out of his corpse herself. Move to R13, Hold (while glaring at Pirate 3 from the woods)

"You again?" Cadence asked incredulously as she noticed the performer's presence for the first time since entering the battlefield. Despite her earlier threat of what she'd do if they ran into him again on this shitpile of a rock, she didn't make any move to go for a weapon, despite the two swords at her side. Still though, from her expression alone it was easy to see she was anything but pleased with the situation. "Perhaps I followed through on the ignoring a bit too well. Why are you still here, in this mess? I'd have thought a man like you would've leapt at the chance to get away scot free, whatever it is you did. You probably followed us here because you thought you had something to gain from all this, didn't you?" The world beyond the sheltering shade of the forest meanwhile, seemed to hold little incentive to her, as she stood there, eye's scrutinizing the man who'd named himself after a meat dish more and more with each moment, glinting like burning rubies in the dim light. There were still more rogues about, and the other thickets were just outside of her immediate range. No point risking herself when the others would just make quick work of them anyway. Hold

Still recovering from her time in the maze, her pride injured more than the few cuts and scrapes her body had suffered, tesla didn't say much as the strange little blobs starting getting closer. At least she could take solace in the fact that apparently everyone who'd gone before her had also failed spectacularly at one point or another along the path. Calling her mech into existence around her in a flashing storm of electrical discharge though, she couldn't help but see those soulless eyes, staring right into her, right through, unfeeling, dead, cold. She tried to shake the memory away, as it brought forth the others lingering in the depths of her mind just like it, but away it would not go. She remembered the price for failure, what it was like to go through mazes now, after so many years keeping it buried, after it had been so many years since anyone she knew was forced to pay it. Failure in their maze meant eradication. She could only have wished the outcome had been merely being kicked out into a comfy lounge back then. A failure was the price she proceeded to inflict on the nearest of the invaders as the electricity emanating before seemed to gather and briefly solidify itself into a series of spheres that quickly launched themselves forward as streaking death beams... Ambiguous Bolt on Sparky 2 [2d6+Syn((6))+1/2Int((3)) damage+1 Pure damage]

With her allies busy engaging the suspects other rogues nearby, Cadence took the time to crept further through the woodwork, approaching the lone mage who'd been foolish enough to stray so close to the treeline. Without a single sound, not even a jingle from the countless bits of iron forming her jack of plates, she was in position, and the knife concealed in her sleeve came launching forward as her arm arced outwards, flying straight towards the unaware spellcaster with a near terrifying whistle as it sliced through the air... She could respect the man for knowing that physical weapons were inferior to the likes of magic's capabilities, but a rogue twas a rogue at the end of the day, and he needed to die just like all the rest of them. It was probably the only way this mess could really end anyway- total destroying the threat before them. Move to R9, Send Mage1 her Regards...with an iron knife