OOC- ok... =p sup all u old skoolas. I was hoping that the new doods would b posting or wat not but i am gonna post anyways.



IC- And he looked around, and he saw that it was again time to move on. He wondered what the others had been up to, but he smelled the drifts of greenweed on the currents of the air.

They should know that the habit leads to a softening of ones battle senses. He could smell it in the air, the battle..The battle was coming ever so much closer.

And with that, and the sun rising like a beacon in the fog to signal a new day they had packed efficently and well. The demon makta'erin went back obediently into vAl's pocket.

Draskireis flexed his leathery wings, scales shining in the early morning sun. ready for flight. The Dragon nodded at the Eagle as if acknowledging both of their abilities to fly.

And so they marched onwards, through the groves and groves of trees and seemingly endless forests, slaying innocent sheep and large chickens, cultivating herbs magically for the famous chicken noodle soup that vAl made for traveling purposes. As if it were a cue for them to stop, they came across a large rock in the middle of the day, almost hidden among the trees.

Choriselle could feel that it emitted some sort of power, or so she said. They encircled it, they... the war angels... and did not know what to make of it.

"An artifact...." someone said..
"A trap.." somone said..

The rock stood three man heights tall and almost seven man-shoulders wide. An invisible circle of power seemed to emit from it..gently... but was it true?
Di'ethe had his hand on his bow the whole time...

"We cannot go forward without figuring this out." said vAl.
"A beacon of hope, hidden from the Dark Goddess and her minions? Was it fate that brought us to this place?" the Dragon was full of hope.

Hidden, yes. Friendly? They would have to find out..
Several bunny rabits hopped in the nearby bushes, making soft rustling noises.

The smell of carrots filled the air.

"Wheres my pipe...damn carrots.." romulus couldnt stand the smell of carrots.
"Old injuries and memories both, brikar?" vAl said.

The sky turned dark blue but cloudless.. and the assembled travelers faced this rock which would not let them pass, like a puzzle with no pieces or a maze without walls.

OOC- artifact



---------------------------
Word is king to the truest ~

OOC-SORRY! My internet has been down! just catching up...whew!

IC-Since the morning, Chori had been wary of everything. She was almost totally paranoid of anything around her. She sensed that today would be a day of battle. As well as sharpening her battle senses, Chori had been restraining Tarisse, as well as herself, from beating Romu over the head with a quarterstaff. If anything, Chori and Tarisse were independent. Chori had been womanized enough back at home, and she wasn't taking it anymore! They hadn't been walking for long, when Chori stopped suddenly. Almost completley obscured by the trees was a HUGE rock. Chori tapped vAl's shoulder. "Something there. I can feel it."
vAl looked at her a little doubtfully.
"Trust me," returned Chori in a tome that told him she wasn't one to be messed with, at least not now.
"Very well." vAl ordered the others to stop. They surrounded the rock. Both Di'Ethe and Chori were poised to fight, and the others were very wary. As they waited, Tarisse whispered to Chori, "He's looking at you!"
"Who?" asked the Paladin, utterly surprised.
"Drask. Haven't you noticed? He's been staring the whole day!"
"Mmm hmm. Well, he isn't now. He never is while I'm looking at him. Whatever. I'll figure it out later. Be prepared, Tarisse."

Aut Inveniam Viam Aut Faciam--I will either find a way, or I will make one

OOC- Haven't been posting; too much work; the play rocks; I am the eggman.

IC-Vilset was baffled by his eperience with the sun. He did not know what to make of it. He had naturally assumed that he would be hurt be the sun. Whe he wasn't, he thought that there was something strange about it. He didn't have the time in his life to research that part of the vampire's curse. He had only just recently solved the retention of the soul problem when he died. The sun was a totally unexplored area. Still, he had that gut instinct that his was no ordinary experience; there was some sort of puppeteer pulling strings with him. He could actually feel something pull him towards the west every now and then. Vilset did his best not to take heed to this pull. He had no intention of becoming someone's marionette.

As Vilset was walking with the bizarre assembly of beings, they came accross a rock in the road. A rock. What was a rock doing there? Who put it there? It would have been a lot nicer if they had put a fork there. Honestly, a rock in the road. Who has ever heard of that before?

No matter. Vilset had thought of a perfect solution. One of his favorite potions: a liquify potion. He could liquify a path through the rock, provided it wasn't too big. He felt fairly certain that he could find the few ingrediants that he needed. He also needed a glass bottle. Glass is the only way to carry this potion, for glass is already a liquid. Glass is actually liquid in structure. If you were to place a rock on a sheet of glass, without breaking it, over the course of several years, the rok would slip through. That is why the original glass panes on old houses are thicker on the bottom: the glass is dripping. If he could get a pure glass container, he felt confident that he would be all set.

Just then, he felt a tug from the West. He looked down at his pendant, for he thought that he had seen it move with the tug. He touched it, but his own hands were too icy cold to perceive temperature. Looking into the pearl, he saw nothing but blackness. Darkness there, and nothing more.


.......................,..........,.....................
...................../|..........|\....................
..................../'|...........|'\...................
..................(''(.............)'')..................
....................\''\........../''/...................
....................._\''\___/''/_....................
.................._^ /#####\ ^_................
................./ /# '/00000\' #\ \...............
...............| /# '000000000' #\ |............
...............|(# '/000000000\' #)|............
...............||# (0000000000)'#||............
...............|(# '\000000000/' #)|............
................\ \# '00000000' #/ /.............
..................\ \#'\00000/'#/ /...............
................... \ \######/ /.................
.......................*______*....................

OOC- Don't you love my art? It's so low-tech. If you don't get it, it's supposed to be the pendant.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cogito ergo sum: I think, therefore I am.
Cogito Eggo sum: I think I am a waffle.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Vilset :-[..

OOC: Jimbo...were you drunk when you posted? Cause you sure did forget to call me Romulus...

I don't know who that OTHER guy was, but I bet he's an asshole.

By the way, for you underformers who don't know me, my name is Roman, of the original War Angels. My character's name is Romulus, a capricious human warrior of the blade.

Oh and Des, this one's for you... =)

IC: "Megalith."

Tam stood just to the left of him. "Aye."

"Bad feeling about this..." Romulus caught Tam's eye and he nodded slightly. The two stepped away from the group crowding around the rock and moved out to the sides of the clearing. He might not have had the senses of the elves but Romulus was acute in other ways. He sure as hell didn't live this long by being dumb. His gut sunk deep inside him and the hairs on the back of his neck pricked up under a fresh sweat.

He summoned Valdici with his mind. "Danger, Brikari. Soon."

Romulus was not looking at him, but through the mindlink he felt Valdici turn around. Suddenly, the forest was silent. Never a good sign. The others had picked up on it too by this point and there was a collective symphony of drawn swords and bows.

Romulus slowly walked to the edge of the clearing and pushed a low pine branch down with his sword. There was a soft rustling and he knew his own species well enough to make a guess.

"Men," he told Valdici through the mindlink.

"How many?"

"Not sure."

The ambush came from both sides and above. Arrows flew from the trees and a dozen men rushed in, pinching the Alliance and their traveling companions against the megalith.

Romulus picked off the biggest one before he broke through to the inner circle; an extrodinarly tall and burly man swinging a heavily notched battle axe. He stood a good foot taller than the six and a bit Romulus, and his arms were as round as Romu's thighs. The axe came around like a wrecking ball, whistling through the air. Romulus ducked as the blade passed harmlessly overhead. Normally he'd play this game until the man tired but this was not a one on one situation and there were others to look after. So as he ducked Romulus flicked his atom blade (OOC: I still got that one Des, right? Or did you give me something else? Anyway, it's sharp...) So as he ducked Romulus flicked his atom blade across the man's belly, covered only by a thin wool tunic. His bowels slipped out before he completed the swing, and the force of his hips turning with his swing did not help his intestines stay put. Romulus dropped further, rolled on his shoulder, and was up on his feet looking for the next target as the once towering opponent fell to the ground in a slippery puddle of his own insides.

One of the snipers had singled out Romulus as a primary threat and before the warrior could even catch his breath, an arrow was on him. By pure chance he had stood up facing the archer's tree and he had only a fraction of a second to drop back to the ground. The arrow thudded into the dirt behind him.

"VAL!" Romulus knew he was in a tight spot--pinned down with no cover. He hopped into a crouch and ran for the clearing. Three steps into it the second arrow was loosed. Romulus heard the deadly whistle and threw his free hand over the back of his neck, bracing himself to take it off the forearm.

The archer had fired true, and Romulus roared in pain but kept running for the trees as the arrow's barbed point cut through his forearm and exited the other end by a good three inches.

"VAL! THE TREES!!" Out of the open was good but still not safe. There could be reinforcments, and whose to say a skilled archer can't thread a needle through branches? Romulus checked his situation. It did not look good. The other bandits had crushed the Alliance into a tight circle and they stood shoulder to shoulder with Val in the middle, pshed up against the megalith.

"Where's that damn dragon..."

"Romulus! Help us!" Valdici cried, anxious and strained, through their mind link.

He did not hesitate. And ran, arrows wizzing past him, to engage the bandits from their flanks. Tam was doing the same but had managed not to take any hits from the archers who were not firing into the group, probably for fear of hitting their own people. If this was true, it was good news, for it meant they were not sent by Dimindium. That cruel bastard valued no life but his own, and would not hesitate a second to order his slaves to fire into their own. And where the bloody hell was Drask?

Romulus was in the middle of thrusting his sword through a bandit's shoulder blades and preparing for the one on the right to realize he was next and turn, when he chanced a look at the sky and witnessed something even more beautiful than the sunrise he and Tam had shared the morning before.

The Dragon had returned. And he was pissed.

OOC: Take it away Drask... I suggest you fry the archers first tho.


***Knowledge without Goodness is Dangerous
and Goodness without Knowledge is Weak.***

IC:
Everyone was on their guard. They all feel there's something about this rock, but don't really know what to make of it.

Eagle didn't know what to make of this huge rock, but he knows the importance of being prepared, for anything. He morphed into his half-eagle form, a human with wings, then flew up just a bit til he was above everyone else. He held his wind blade firmly in front of him with his right hand, while holding his other arm out and aiming his left hand at the rock, with the element of wind at his fingertips.

Meanwhile, Romulus and Tam Lyn stepped to the back of the group and all of a sudden arrows came flying and the roars of human battle cry filled the air. Eagle spun around in the air facing away from the rock, and spotted about 2 dozen men, some already charged in, some on the perimeter still.
"Uh oh...archers too!"

The attackers moved in as they tried to hem in the war angles. Having newcomers in the group made it harder to execute any group formations at this unexpected moment of battle. The war angles fell into a defensive formation.

Eagle did his best to call upon the winds to blow downwards, disrupting the courses of the arrows, sending them into the ground. The archers meanwhile, should definitely be taken care of, or else Eagle, who's ruining their aim, would be the next target.

OOC:I'm going away a few days for spring break, so won't be posting.

OOC: BtW the Di'Ethe history is ALMOST finished. Just have to edit a bit before sending it out.

IC: The arrows fell all around them. Di'Ethe dodged an incoming arrow and sent a shaft straight back at the archer in the tree that had the audacity to shoot at him. Taking a lesson out of Emyr's books, the human in the tree clutched his nether regions as he fell from his branch.

"GET THE GODDAMN ARCHERS! THEY'RE ALL IN THE TREES!!" Someone yelled.

Di'Ethe ran to the stone, He hoped it was what he hoped it was (OOC: HUH?) The others had felt uneasy about it as it had some sort of power that was unindentified. Di'Ethe felt it for what it was, an amplifier for nature magic. Upon reaching the megalith he had limited cover from thwe arrows but with what he was about to do he'd need more time and more cover.

"EAGLE! TO ME!" He yelled. This had the undesired attention to himself. Cursing quietly he dodged another incoming arrow and as eagle landed to give him cover he began to concentrate and reached out to the surroundings with his will.

~ GROW! ~ He willed all of nature in the area. He poured energy through the stones and felt the trees and vines respond to his will.

The archers all screamed in surprised as vines and trees grew around them to entangle there limbs and create a living wall of bark between them and there intended targets. The archers were effectively removed from combat as they struggled against the living force of nature's wrath.

Di'Ethe slumped to the ground his energy and will spent. The remaining bandits faced the now regrouped war angels who attacked them with a new fury since they did not have to worry about arrows. The fortunes had been reversed.

OOC: Evil nature..... Well maybe not so evil but i supposed there's going to be some slicing and dicing now that it is reduced to mere hand to hand combat.

-----------------------------------------------

Death need not be the end of all things, Hopelessness is worse than death ever will be. Learn to survive through hopelessness and death will hold for you no fear.

~Di'Ethe

OOC - Going a bit back...

IC - "Bad feeling about this..." Romulus caught Tam's eye and he nodded slightly. The two stepped away from the group crowding around the rock and moved out to the sides of the clearing. He might not have had the senses of the elves but Romulus was acute in other ways. He sure as hell didn't live this long by being dumb. His gut sunk deep inside him and the hairs on the back of his neck pricked up under a fresh sweat. Xandim had noticed this two huddle together away from the group, using his abilitieis he had recently regained, he warped the wind to carry the words by these two to his direction. With a hushed whisper, he heard Romulus tell Tam that there was a battle to be done, and to be cautious.

Suddenly, the forest was silent. Never a good sign. The others had picked up on it too by this point and there was a collective symphony of drawn swords and bows. Xandim had shrunk against the rock and began morphing to his cat form, and padded towards the forest.

Romulus slowly walked to the edge of the clearing and pushed a low pine branch down with his sword. There was a soft rustling and he knew his own species well enough to make a guess.

The ambush came from both sides and above. Arrows flew from the trees and a dozen men rushed in, pinching the Alliance and their traveling companions against the megalith. They had surprised Xandim, who had just reached the edge of the woods. A bag was thrown over his head by a half-dozen men, who cheered and fell back into the woods. "Ambush.. but why?" Xandim thought to himself. He still heard arrows flying and swords clanging in the distance, which meant his kidnapping was unnoticed. He was being bumped and bruised in this bag as these few people escaped, obviously completing their objective... which Xandim still questioned. A pain seared through his head, which he hadnt felt since he first became a daemon, as words formed in his mind... -We shall have you back on our side... DAEMON-. Xandim remained stunned, his body going with the movement and bumps, unable to do anything...

OOC - Yea lets make it interesting.....

ooc: no rom, wasn't drunk last time i posted, but i'm sure hung over now

and yes, that other guy is an asshole =P

and i watched jackie chan legend of the drunken master a couple of nights ago, and am very tempted to put some of that into my post, but i'll fight the temptation

ic:

"megalith"

"aye"

then the trap was sprung. but tam could see now, so he had no problem dodging the origional attack and getting his sword out. damn shame, he wanted to use his bow, now that he could see his targets, but couldn't do that in this situation.

unlike romulus (yeah, romulus, i remember this time) tam never played around when fighting. he just one the fight. that didn't mean killing the opponent, that meant cutting at whatever was there and moving on. taking the time and effort to actually finish someone off cost too much time and could get you wounded, because, unless the opponent was quite inexperienced, you usually couldn't get a killing blow in without leaving yourself at least partly open. besides, you could wound several enemies in the time it took to kill one, and when fighting against multiple enemies, wounding a bunch hurt the group much more than killing any single one. if you killed one, others took his place. if you wounded a bunch, they didn't fight as well, and got in the way of their allies.

so tam didn't waste any time playing around, or even killing enemies. with his sword in his right hand and his belt knife in his left, he spun through the enemies. he kept moving and didn't let them harm harm him, and when there was an easy target, he hit it. arms and legs that were left out a second too long were sliced. not hacked off, cuz swinging that hard would leave the attacker open, just cut. but that was enough. the more wounds that they got, the worse they fought as a group, and the faster the wounds came. besides, by moving through the enemies in that manner, tam was able to avoid being shot at by the archers and to draw the attention of more bandits. between him and romu, they had engaged about a dozen bandits in hand to hand combat. and while they weren't killing them, there was a dozen less for the rest of atw to worry about.

soon the enemies were moving noticably slower, some retreating to nurse wounds. keeping with his battle philosophy, tam didn't finish them off, but moved with romulus to attack the rest of the enemy on the flank.

OOC--Forgive me for this following post. Better that it be done here, where some won't be reading, than in forbes, where some won't be walking. And now, Joey, you understand why I avoid the discussion forum.

And Roman, the atomblade was being healed in the Garden, but you've got it now... =P

Any others whom I offend either in this post's content or in the fact that it spoils a lot of people's fun, I'm sorry. I may take a break and I want to go out--as always--with a bang.

IC--Draskireis flew above the field of battle, and saw down below him an ambush of his fellow WarAngels. Archers rained black hail upon his brethren, and he saw the pattern of the winds shift as Eagle diverted them all into the ground. It could not stand much more such abuse: either one element or the other would have to give. And the earth is not so forgiving as the soul of an angered dragon. Drask knew this could not be allowed to happen.

Beware the dragon, dreaming red
For flying, falling, causing dread
It shall wreak upon the earth
What's not been seen since its birth
Fearing now, the earth will fall
Seeking its demise to stall
Too late, it sees the doom that comes
Accomp'nied by black rumbling drums
As all his rage is now outpoured
In blasphemy to any Word
Crumbling earth bemoans its fate
Felled by backlash to its hate

Draskireis, fully armored in his too-oft called upon rage, straightened like an arrow, folding his wings tight about his chest and entering into a falcon-dive to rival any peregrin. None but one saw death come down from above, and he needed not worry about it. All too soon, the forest closed to range, and it caught quickly, life consuming life in that hated cycle of entropy. Di'Ethe rained curses down upon the wayward dragon enough to cause all but the most callous of hearts to wither. Drask simply did not hear him. He was blind to all but the assaults upon his kinsmen, and he meant to stamp them out in such a manner as none would live to tell of it. Even if he himself perished in the fight, it would be a fight well fought--and thus Draskireis Martissal did not care.

He no longer cared about much. The sun, the moon, the stars all seemed dull and hostile. Those considered to be at least cordial--if not outright friends--attacked him with vicious slander. The dragon wondered whether all this was worth it--whether he should even stay within the Alliance, since they seemed allied more against him than against evil. Why fucking bother? There were other places he could go, other manners in which he could serve the good--even if he walked in darkness to do so.

Drask liked the dark: it was safe.

The trees exploded like so many pinecones tossed onto a summer bonfire. The trees screamed as wrath consumed them, and Drask continued to fly into the blaze, his tears of blood steaming off his scaled, beastly cheeks before they could fall. Archers shriveled and found themselves reduced to little more than blanching skeletons whose flesh and whose lives had been consumed in the irrational anger of the rampaging dragon. He continued to fall, gravity being even stronger than his futile, self-destructive wrath. He landed upon a pack of fleeing brigands who carried a burlap sack. They squeaked as they were crushed under his weight. A cat leapt out of the bag, orange with white stripes. It seized the pendant from around the throat of the terribly wounded dragon and ran off towards those servants of the Alliance still blocked from moving by the rock in the road. The pendant was dropped at the feet of the drow, who picked it up and cursed the heavens. The dark archer knelt and began to heal the damage done to nature by his ally and enemy.

OOC--and here is my response to shorter, since I told arthur that I would restrain myself from a response in the forum, but I cannot leave such charges unanswered: I have told all whom I care to about the attack upon beeker, and of the one-time theft from shorter and the same (that it was an ongoing thing is blatantly false). As the the attack on shorter--I take vengeance seriously, and that knowledge is enough to understand it. And it is not I who am fascinated with souls, but shorter himself: I never claimed to have taken it (I wouldn't be able to even if I wanted to and even if I had means--such means as, in my opinion, do not exist--for he does not have a soul to take or to redeem. Perhaps that is why he thinks I took it?). It is shorter who has always been fascinated with all things concerning souls. If much more goes on, I am not sure how well I will restrain myself. I no longer much care. About anything.

*********
He liked knowing so much power was down there, so close to his feet; heliked thinking abou tthat moment when it might erupt, might flow into him, up through his soles and into his blood. He'd burst into flames and they'd shrink from his roar.