RttToFC/Session3

Kuros: And what to do with Caran...

Kuros: One of his, uh, wounds was more serious than initially thought...

Kuros: So he's going to have to remain behind in the dias room.

dakkareth: His healing trance can't be interrupted!

Kuros: Yes, exactly!

Return to the Tomb of Five Corners - Session 3

Kuros: You have all returned safely to the dias room, and there is only one Gate of Auspicious Passage left...that with the eclipse caste marking

Kuros: And Caran has handed his key over to Alyssa.

Alyssa: Alyssa looks at the keys and then goes to the Gate of Auspicious Passage. "Does anyone see a keyhole?"

SonoftheMetalFlame: look around the room, trying to find anything that might look like the keys would fit

Gavane: "Maybe at the dais?"

Kuros: There are no key holes in the gate.

Kuros: Or anywhere else in the room.

Alyssa: "So they're probably symbolic of something. Maybe if we try touching something with all the keys?"

SonoftheMetalFlame: "It certainly won't hurt to try."

Gavane weighs his key in one hand trying to determine whether it is made of gold - or of the heavier sun-metal (it is Orichalkum)

SonoftheMetalFlame touches his key to the gate.

Gavane: "The locking mechanism did work on touch, so ..." Gavane shrugs and touches his key to the same gate, feeling a little silly while doing so.

Kuros: The key starts humming slightly in Son's hand.

Kuros: As does Gavane's.

Alyssa: Alyssa touches both her and Caran's Keys too it.

Gavane: "Ok, there's something happening."

SonoftheMetalFlame: "Yeah, looks like that may indeed be right."

Kuros: With a ripple of golden light, the wall within the gate outline fades away...

Kuros: Through it, you can see the following...

Kuros: You are nearly blinded by the sun refl ecting off the snow.

Kuros: The red snow. Two hundred yards ahead of you lies a

Kuros: temple, partially collapsed. There was a battle here,

Kuros: ages ago. Red-stained bones of all sizes and shapes jut

Kuros: upward from the fi eld of frozen blood that stretches in

Kuros: all directions across the uneven landscape, as far as any

Kuros: of you can see. The wind has honed the bones to razor

Kuros: edges, and as your vision clears, the sound rises to a

Kuros: shriek, as if protesting your very presence.

Alyssa: "What a welcoming place. And the North too. These gates are... impressive."

Gavane smoothly slips through the gate, his cloak taking on the same red and white colors as the snow

SonoftheMetalFlame slowly trudges toward the temple. "Yeah, definitely not terribly inviting."

Gavane: "A battlefield, but an old one it seems. I wonder, when this happened."

Alyssa follows the two men, staff in one hand, feet crunching on the red ice of the ground.

Gavane's moccasins leave only the lightest of impressions in the snow, almost unnoticable.

Alyssa: "Hard to say. It could have been the Usurpation."

Alyssa: "Or someone could have fought over it since the Contagion."

Kuros: As you get halfway to the temple, the snow around you begins to bulge, and you hear the sound of ice cracking.

Alyssa: "What!" Alyssa backs up quickly.

Gavane leaps several meters ahead, landing in a crouch

SonoftheMetalFlame drops into his usual stance, readying for possible combat.

Kuros: From underneath the snow, bleached skeletons arise. They blend in well in the swirling snow, but you make out the skeletons of three great cats, with red, burning embers where they eyes would be.

Alyssa: "A grave site. Wonderful."

Kuros: Behind them, a much larger skeleton bursts through the snow. A tyrant lizard shoulders its way up, smaller bones drifting in to complete its skeletal frame.

Kuros: It towers over you, glaring down with the same red, burning eyes.

Gavane crouches lower, trusting to his camouflage cloak to conceal him against the background of the red snow

Kuros: And now...Join battle!

Kuros: RC is 4. Gavane and the cats on tick 0, Son and Alyssa on Tick 2

Kuros: Each of the Cats bounds toward one of you, their skeletal tails lashing back and forth

Kuros: They snarl, and snap at you.

Gavane inwardly curses that the skeletal cat has managed to notice his presence

SonoftheMetalFlame pulls his claws up to shield.

Alyssa sweeps her staff back and forth to ward the cat off.

Gavane moves backwards quickly, his movement blurry and hard to follow

Kuros: All of the cats miss, and act again on Tick 6

Kuros: The Tyrant Lizard growls, and its massive head plunges downward, teeth snapping at Gavane.

Gavane plunges forward, slipping between its legs and coming up again behind it

Kuros: The snapping, razor sharp teeth barely miss you.

SonoftheMetalFlame: holds his position, watching the cat that attacked him carefully and waiting for a good opportunity to act. (Aim action - claw stats right now: 1 damage, 6 aim, 7 defense, 1 rate)

Alyssa: Alyssa whirls her staff around her head, building up speed and then lunges across the ground, stooping to bring the spinning arc of wood against the Cat's with crushing force.

Kuros: Your staff cracks into its body, sending one of its ribs spinning off into the whirling snow.

Gavane slides to a stop, his balance perfect even on the slippery ice. His eyes narrowed he whirls around and runs up the skeletal lizards tail to plunge both of his daggers between the vertebrae closest to its skull.

Kuros: The lizard roars, and thrashes back and forth. Some of its extremeity bones fall off, crashing to the ground.

Gavane holds on easily, his Charms giving him perfect balance

SonoftheMetalFlame crouches lower for a moment and leaps up and forward, bringing his claws down upon the cat's spine.

Kuros: Your claws shred the bones like paper, and the cat collapses into the snow, the red lights of its eyes fading.

Kuros: The two remaining cats snarl, and charge toward Alyssa. They leap through the air, bony claws extended.

Kuros: The claws glance off you, leaving no trace.

Alyssa: Alyssa's caste mark glitters in the aftermath. "Bad kitties."

Kuros: The tyrant lizard roars. Ignoring Gavane on its back, it snaps its head down towards Alyssa and swipes a claw at Son.

Kuros: They both miss...horribly.

SonoftheMetalFlame falls into doing splits, allowing the claw to swipe over his head.

Gavane: Bracing himself against the daggers still stuck in the lizard's spine Gavane lets his rope slip out of his sleeve and into his right hand. Gathering momentum in a graceful pirouette he brings it down onto the monster's skull where it hits with the force of a giant sledgehammer despite its unassuming appearance.

Kuros: The Lizard roars as it starts to come apart. Its neck bones break apart, quickly followed by the rest of the body.

Kuros: (You're going to fall about 30 feet)

Gavane: With the lightness of a feather flying on the wind Gavane rides the skeleton's spine to the ground, landing unharmed amidst the broken bones.

SonoftheMetalFlame: puts his hands on the snow, twirling his legs around and lifting himself up on his hands before pushing off, landing on his feet in a combat stance, crouching and waiting to strike the Tyrant Lizard. (aim)

Alyssa: Alyssa uses her staff to vault up onto the back of the nearest cat, then drives it down into it's neck. (Jump, then attack with 9 dice)

Kuros: The Cat growls, as the blow sends it reeling. It falls in the snow, and does not get up.

Alyssa: Alyssa simply steps off the collapsing skeleton as it falls apart.

Kuros: The Cat snarls, and pounces at Gavane, both claws extended and its teeth snapping.

Gavane: Out from the cloud of snow thrown up by the lizard's fall Gavane shoots at the remaining cat in a blur. Twisting to the side he avoids its attack while raking his knife along its left flank.

Kuros: You arely manage to avoid the claws. (8 sux vs. DDV 8)

Kuros: Your score a line across its flank, but it lands on its feet easily.

SonoftheMetalFlame charges the cat at full speed, but before reaching it, he slides feet-forward onto his back with the claws running down the line of the entire beast as he passes underneath it.

Kuros: (Son gets 2 sux on 18 dice) Amazingly, the cat manages to twist out of the way, barely avoiding your claws.

Alyssa: Alyssa whirls the staff, raining blows down upon the Cat. (2 attacks)

Kuros: Your staff cracks into its head. The cat shudders to the side, but doesn't fall.

Gavane hangs back, switching the knife in his hand into a throwing grip and fixing the cat with his eyes (Aim)

SonoftheMetalFlame jumps to his feet and spins to face the cat. He leaps forward, each claw flying full bore at the beast's skull in succession. (Flurry of 2 attacks, 6 dmg, 7 acc, 0 def, 2 rate)

Kuros: Your claws once again rip through the Cat, slicing it into small pieces.

Gavane looks back and forth between the shattered skeletons and his cloak, frowning at the long tears left in it by the cat's claws. "I must be slipping. That was far closer than it should have been."

SonoftheMetalFlame: "Well, it's pretty easy to slip on ice like this."

SonoftheMetalFlame: "Oh wait, sorry, I see what you meant."

Gavane: "Hah."

SonoftheMetalFlame grins.

Gavane: "Also - and correct me if I'm wrong - this kind of thing isn't exactly natural, is it? Even on such an ancient battlefield."

Alyssa: "I've never heard of lizards so large in the North." Alyssa frowns. "It's too cold for them. Some one placed that here as a guardian."

Alyssa: "The cats probably the same. It could have been a long time ago. Or more recently."

SonoftheMetalFlame shakes his head. "Yeah, Alyssa's right. Someone put it here."

Alyssa: "Well, any answers would seem to be within the Temple. Shall we go?"

SonoftheMetalFlame nods and moves toward the temple.

Kuros: The temple ahead is huge, bigger than even the factory-cathedral, or Caran's tomb.

Kuros: The domed roof looks like it has collapsed in places, leaving it resembling a jagged crown. It is still over 1,000 feet tall, however.

Gavane: "Seems like our mysterious Eclipse was able to slip by unnoticed. We'd have noticed a fresh corpse, even among all this old carnage."

Gavane follows, looking out for tracks of people on the way to the temple. (but snow has obscured everything)

Alyssa: "Yes," Alyssa says doubtfully. "Unless the guardians were placed here very recently."

Kuros: It takes nearly 10 more minutes to reach the temple. The great wooden doors are ajar, with one looking as if it has been twisted off its hinges.

Gavane: "There were those zombies at the entrance of the tomb. You think this new Barrow King is involved?"

Alyssa: "The Barrow King is dead. But as all these zombies show, death is not always an end."

Gavane: "So it seems. How ... inconvenient."

Kuros: The interior of the temple is massive, with marble hallways and richly carpted floors. THe inside seems to have only recently been exposed to the elements, as the carpet has not yet rotted away...

Kuros: In some places, there are fresh piles of debris blocking halls and doors, though quite a bit of the temple still seems accessible.

SonoftheMetalFlame looks about, trying to see if any tracks lead through specific doors.

Kuros: It has many floors, it seems, and looks to stretch back for a very far distance.

Alyssa: "It could take a while to search somewhere this large."

Gavane: "We could split up."

Gavane: "Although, if there are more guardians left by whoever raises the dead around here, that might not be wise."

Kuros: As you enter the main entrance, a female voice echoes from farther back in the temple. It is a smooth voice that carries a hint of laughter. "My old friends! How nice to see you again..."

Alyssa: Alyssa steps forward. "Should I assume that you wrote our invitation here?" (Activate Judge's Ear)

Kuros: "Quite so. You're as smart as you ever were, I see."

SonoftheMetalFlame slowly investigates the area, attempting to discern where the sound is coming from.

Alyssa: Alyssa tilted her head, trying to trace the echoes of the other woman's voice

Kuros: The voice chuckles. "I ought to thank you all for abandoning me. It gave me a chance to meet someone far more powerful."

Gavane follows Alyssa, trying to locate the origin of the voice while simultaneously listening closely to its inflection and tone

Alyssa: "Do you speak of the distant past or the painful recent years?" Alyssa asks. (Attack to provoke exposition)

Kuros: "You really don't remember, dear Alyssa?"

SonoftheMetalFlame continues to look about, speaking loudly to the voice. "Certainly you do not expect us to know what you are referring to. Perhaps you could stop speaking in riddles and answer us." (Attack to get her to reveal her intentions)

Kuros: "But this is ever so much more fun!"

Kuros: "I have new friends, and a new master now. The Mask of Winters. Perhaps you've heard of him?" She chuckles again. "I can put in a good word for you, if you like, should you wish to join us...I promise it is a lot of fun."

Alyssa dismisses the proposal. Becoming a servant does not appeal to her. (Dodge mDV 7)

Gavane raises his voice for the first time since entering the great temple. "Fun? That seems a weak motivation for starting a war."

Kuros: "You'd be surprised."

Gavane sighs. "I'm not in this for the fun, woman. I'm afraid if there are no other reasons to join this 'Mask of Winters' ..."

Gavane: (wp spent)

Kuros: You enter a large room, that has a huge marble staircase in it. It is 30 feet wide, and spirals up at least 10 floors.

Kuros: Standing at the base of the steps...

Kuros: Resplendent in black articulated plate with crimson

Kuros: highlights and a matching crimson cape, the Mistress of

Kuros: Pacts Sealed in Blood carries a soulsteel reaper daiklave.

Kuros: This sword has a fi ve foot blade a mere four inches wide

Kuros: and one inch thick at the base, curved and tapering to a

Kuros: fi ne point.

Kuros: She is tall and pale, with jet black hair falling past her shoulders.

Alyssa: Alyssa steps forward to face the Mistress, unarmoured and carrying only a wooden staff. "And is one of those new friends the Barrow King?" (attack, to make her reveal any connection to the Barrow King)

Kuros: Her bleak face breaks into a cruel smile, and she gestures at the staircase.

Kuros: From behind it, the Barrow King steps out.

Kuros: "You did quite a good job of eradicating him. My master simply created a simulacrum. Very effective for rousing the local rabble."

Kuros: The Barrow King bows smoothly.

Gavane: "Maybe introductions would be in order at this point? You have us at a disadvantage here after all. It would be only polite ..."

Kuros: She turns to Gavane, and bows mockingly. "I am the Mistress of Pacts Sealed inBlood, and this is my master, the Mask of Winters."

Kuros: She gestures at the Barrow King.

Kuros: "Not in person, of course."

Gavane returns the bow both to her and the 'Barrow King'. "Interesting to meet you. Gavane is what I'm called in these parts."

Alyssa: "Somehow I'd envisaged him as taller."

Kuros: The Mistress touches her daiklave. "Last chance, my old friends, to join us."

Gavane: "You know, you haven't given us much reason to at this point. If your sales pitch consists of 'join us, it's fun', that's a really weak one."

SonoftheMetalFlame laughs. "Join you? I think not."

Kuros: She grins widely. "I was hoping you'd say that."

Kuros: Join battle!

Gavane sighs. "Oh well. If you're not actually interested in convincing us, then we might as well skip to the unpleasantries. I'd hoped for more though, after that polite letter."

Kuros: The Barrow King edges backward, observing silently

Gavane removes his arms from his wide sleeves and brings his hands together in a mudra. Shadows flicker around him and in a blur of motion that defies mortal eyes he disappears.

Gavane: (everyone who beats 4 sux sees him jump over the heads of the Mistress and hide a few meters up the staircase behind a statue)

Kuros: She tracks you easily.

SonoftheMetalFlame slowly and gracefully lowers into combat stance, one leg forward and the other back - one arm above his head and the other hovering slightly above his forward leg. (aim action, normal defense stats)

Alyssa draws on her essence, letting it rush through her. It crackled around her and light flowed out from her, illuminating the room around her as if the sun was at it's height. (Zenith Anima power, spd5)

Kuros: The Mistress rushes toward Gavane, her daiklave flickering with shadows as she unleashes a flurry of blows at him.

Kuros: (4 attacks, 20 dice each)

Gavane meets the Mistress head on, turning shadowy and insubstantial, letting her attacks go through him without effect and turns solid again behind her.

Kuros: She growls, whirling to face you. "Cease your trickery!"

Kuros: As she turns, on her forehead you see a mark, a circle surrounded by a ring, carve itself into her flesh and blood begins to drip from it.

Gavane: As the Mistress whirls around to face him Gavane is not there anymore, moving simultaneously to stay out of her field of vision. Quickly he hooks one arm around her throat while the rope in his right flies forward in a snake-like motion and winds around her sword arm, holding it in place and cutting into it like a wire.

Kuros: She steps to the side, barely avoiding your clinch.

SonoftheMetalFlame: leaps forward from his forward leg, windmilling his other one as he propels through the air toward the Mistress. As he lands, he sweeps his outside leg around and slashes out with a clawed hand. With incredible speed, he comes back around, both claws jabbing at her chest. (Flurry, 3 attacks, stats: 5 dmg, 7 aim, 0 def, 3 rate)

Kuros: More and more blood pours from her caste mark, and shadow images appear around her.

Kuros: Your claws open a gash along her side, but it doesn't seem to phase her.

Kuros: The Mistress extends her free hand to Alyssa, and dark energy pulses around her arm. WIth a sharp crack, a ball of black and blue energy launches it self at her.

Alyssa: Alyssa flicks her staff towards the energy to deflect it (Dv5)

Kuros: The bolt slams into the wall, sending marble spraying everywhere...

Alyssa: "It helps if you aim," Alyssa suggests calmly, as if the attack had been no more concern than a fly darting past her face. Golden light flows along her skin. (Iron Kettle Body, Spd6)

SonoftheMetalFlame jumps back from the Mistress and calmly re-enters his same combat stance. (aim action, defense claws)

Gavane's eyes bore into the Mistresses's. "Senseless violence. Is that what your master bids his servant to do? Or is that just what you do 'for fun'? In either case, you brought this on yourself." Feinting with the knife in his left be lets the rop snap upwards, translucent razor blades manifesting around it.

Gavane: A quick sidestep brings him around and he uses the momentum for a second whipping attack and then a third.

Kuros: The Mistress flickers away in a wave of shadow, and reappears out of range of the attack 3 times, smiling at Gavane.

Gavane nods seriously but seems unconcerned

Kuros: The Mistress rushes towards Alyssa, her daiklave flickering into 3 strikes at her head and body.

Kuros: One of her strikes gets through, leaving a long gash in your side.

Alyssa: Alyssa shakes her head. "Is that all?"

SonoftheMetalFlame charges at the Mistress, his oaken claws clattering as they rush toward their targets' throat.

Kuros: She flicks and disappears again, reappearing away from your strike.

Kuros: Black energy swirls around her, and you see the faint image of grasping, skeletal hands clasped above her, with blood dripping from them.

Gavane: While the Mistress attacks Alyssa Gavane once more tries to catch unaware, his feet stepping silently on the marble floor, the color of his clothes perfectly aligned with the background and his movements strangely slow to avoid drawing notice. A twist of his hand aligns the starmetal threads in his weapon and the rope becomes rigid like a sword as he jumps forwards to stab her into the back.

Kuros: Your rope plunges into her back repeatedly, leaving horrible, bleeding wounds and drenching you in blood.

Kuros: She collapses to the ground, blood pouring in small rivers out of her.

Alyssa: Alyssa walks over to the Barrow King, ignoring the Mistress, swinging her staff around to determine how much her injuries are impeding her. The truth is more than she would like, but the mask on her face - the mask that in so many ways IS her face - leaves her expression serene as she inclines her head slightly to him and brings the staff down and around at him. (8 dice + stunt)

Kuros: You crack him on the head, and he staggers backwards, blood beginning to seep down his face.

Kuros: "You destroyed my pupil..." His voice is rasping and hollow, as if coming from a deep well.

Kuros: "I will not forget this."

Kuros: The Barrow King simulacrum sudden gasps, and falls to its knees. A black shadow flickers out of it, and disappears, as it collapses lifelessly to the ground.

Gavane stands over the Mistress, a mixture of sadness and determination on his face. "This was not necessary. But it was your choice. Remember that in your next life."

Gavane turns to the 'Barrow King'. "And you. You should train your servants to be more polite."

Alyssa: Alyssa sits down abruptly, using her sleeve to blot at the blood from her wound.

Alyssa: "He's gone, Gavane."

SonoftheMetalFlame looks about. "Well. I wonder if she just brought us here to be attacked or what."

Alyssa: "You're growing quite proficient with that rope however."

Gavane shrugs lightly. A ripple goes through his clothes leaving the clean of blood again.

Gavane: "I can't grasp what might have motivated her."

Alyssa: "Possibly she overrated her abilities. Certainly, those of persuasion."

SonoftheMetalFlame chuckles quietly. "Certainly."

Gavane: "Hah. Persuasion?"

Gavane: "I don't think she even tried."

Gavane: "Seriously, 'join us, it's fun'? How much more unconvicing can you get?"

Alyssa: "Perhaps we will have better relations with her in her next life. Whatever is here can be left for her then."

SonoftheMetalFlame: "I don't think that's going to happen. Once Abyssal, always Abyssal. At least, usually."

Gavane sighs. "But maybe her next incarnation will be less mad with battle lust."

Alyssa: "She was a solar though. Once. And now she is an Abyssal."

Alyssa: "That is not something I believed possible."

Gavane: "Judging from her words it was her choice to become such. Perhaps the next incarnation can chose to take a different path?"

Alyssa: "I don't know. Everything that we have found her seems to lead to something greater."

SonoftheMetalFlame pokes around, looking for anything of interest. He kneels down next to the corpse of the woman, reaching down to a bag and pulling out a couple of books.

Alyssa gestures in benediction to the body and it is consumed in white flames.

Gavane looks at the artifacts left behind. "This dark metal. Somehow I doubt she found it here ..."

Gavane: "What do you have there, Son?"

SonoftheMetalFlame mumbles. "Hm. I'm not sure, really. It looks like old realm, but I don't recognize a lot of these words."

Gavane: "Encrypted maybe?"

SonoftheMetalFlame: "Maybe. I'll have to research it to find out for sure."

Gavane: (what artifacts are left behind after Alyssa turns her to ash?)

Kuros: (Her soulsteel daiklave..)

Kuros: (And articulated plate armor)

Alyssa: any xp from this session?

Kuros: 8 xp.