strangetrip | Inn-world Combat: The Dread Reign

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Inn-world Combat: The Dread Reign

At the crest of the mountain, Coc'zac sat atop Nazu's head looking through a glass that Hotor held to his eye. Vokva sat beside them, little more than a pile of bones atop a pile of rocks, and Hafur paced behind them, holding the troops in check. They milled in the pre-dawn gloom, skeletons, wights, zombies, wraiths, and all manner of undead creatures. Periodically, Nazu swept the space behind them with their tail bowling over anyone who'd gotten too close.

The first pinpoint of light had Coc'zac's teeth chattering with excitement in his disembodied head. Today was the day he'd been planning for. Soon, soon the Inn and its occupants would be his. Nazu unleashed a heavy sigh tinged with poison and necrosis. Fortunately the troops were all dead already, and Coc'zac didn't have anything in the way of arms to hit them with.

It fell to Hafur to gesture the troops forward as punctuation to Coc'zac's 'rousing' speech, and together they crept through the portal, avoiding its fizzing and popping edges demarcated in what would be neon blue, if they could still see in color. They couldn't properly hear either, but they were aware of the noise and the danger it marked.

Once they were all through, the advance scouts, four bands of skeleton archers swept quietly as they could through the shadows to take up position around the main buildings, prepared to pick off anyone who exited--for example for a pre-sun jog. And once they'd settled into wary, silent waiting, occasionally interrupted by the pop of a joint or the clatter of toe bones on stone, the next wave rolled in finding shadows to hide in until the residents emerged with the wights taking point.The bone naga and three flameskulls slipped through the lobby doors and stealthed toward the offices, assuming to find the command center there.

It wasn't long before the invaders caught the notice of the residents, and then shouts began to echo through the grey light and journals filled with messages and reminders of siege plans. Several strongly worded messages urged the kids and those without weapons or fighting skills to head for the Temple where the Hallow spell would protect them from unholy undead things.

And so the battle for the Madonna Inn began...

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It wasn't the sky lightening for dawn that had woken Vax, or the shift of Stephanie in their bed. Not even the clamor of battle outside had done it. What it was would have been difficult to make sound sensible in the groggy clutch of the early morning, or at all, for that matter. But he'd been sunken in a dream, the impossible quiet and bone-deep coolness to it no less eerie for being familiar. And what had woken him was a voice, sharp and clean and as piercing as any blade, her whispered words ringing in his head as if she'd shouted them, his heart pounding hard in his chest. When the threads of fate have become irreparably tangled, some of them must be cut free.

He'd looked outside, they'd hurried to arm and armor themselves, and some dozen undead bone bags later, there they were defending the Inn like so many others. Him half-distracted by his own thoughts all the while as his blades flashed, his wings unfurled, an inky black shadow fighting in a fury unlike any since Vox Machina stood against the Chroma Conclave. For this thankful fucking once, Vex hadn't argued to either take his boots or when the bigger threats of several bobbing flame skulls, a giant serpent of bone, and a - well, Vax didn't know exactly, but the weirdo had fancy robes and a wicked-looking staff and fuck high-ranking casters, that's what - had appeared and stayed well back with Percy to cut down more skeletons and do some healing. Was this what you meant? Go kill some undead? Is it their threads that need cutting?

He didn't let it stop him, though, or even slow him down. He swooped head-first and dove and threw multiple daggers at the first of the flaming skulls, was what he did. There'd be time for worrying about godly riddles after the battle.

Scanlan heard everything and had been half worried that Vecna had somehow found his way to the Inn. He was almost relieved when he saw a bunch of decidedly not-Vecna things.

Somehow he felt the need to find his idit rogue friend after he made sure Pike was okay. She was healing and she pretty much told him to go away and let her concentrate. He could do that.

When he saw Vax and the skulls, he moved toward them. "Room for one more?" Scanlan looked at the enemies and thrusted his hips in the direction of the skulls with a high pitched octave. Thunder shot out of him crotch.

When the extent of the attack had become obvious, Stephanie had to make a choice. She'd kept Batgirl on ice for more than a year, only donning the suit in other worlds when it wouldn't be so obvious. But this was their home and, frankly, she was a squishy without her nomex-kevlar. So while Vax had donned his black leather, she'd taken out the skin-tight black and purple suit, cowl and cape.

The crack of thunder about deafened her, even with her cowl on. She winged a 'rang at another skull and dropped down from the second floor where she'd been perched. "Give a girl some warning!"

Had they caught her alone in the office, or her and Caroline, there would have been an inferno, to begin and vampire against vampire. A strange fight, considering they'd be peculiarly balanced. Not usually the best strategy, but she couldn't imagine any undead beings had either the intellect or the time (where had they come from) to plan that attack.

But they hadn't arrived in her office when she'd caught the eerie light of green flame through the still open door. She emerged with fire in her hands, but quickly traded it for force when she saw Vax and a vigilante suited woman that she could only guess was his girlfriend joining that fight. She grimaced at the lightning shot from the crass bard's groin, but it was effective if irritating.

For this one moment, they held the attention of the group of five. Still unseen, she elected to avoid focus fire and sent a force blast through the enemy grouping. They staggered, the bone snake losing a few bits, but they were stronger than she expected.

"Couldn't warn a girl without warning them," she announced herself, and shot the other three a grim smile.

Unexpected attacks exploded from all quarters!

Vax's daggers hit once, twice, a third time in quick succession -- and should have done a massive amount of damage, but for the flame skulls resistances. The daggers seemed to do almost no damage at all. Scanlan's dick lightning followed nearly immediately, hitting the first to crumple its eye sockets into a single hole. The bolt leapt to the next skull and the next, splintering bone chips off of them, as they spun and skittered.

Batgirl's batarang smashed through the first glowing headcase, exploding it to smithereens and smashed off a second. The damage to the second was minimal, but it do mean the skull had to fly back into range before it could act.

The controlled forceblast from the sorceress hit the entire group of undead invaders at once, exploding and throwing them about. The remaining skulls had begun to look damaged, the naga lost several bones to nowhere in particular, and the vampire--looked annoyed, but still very suave and urbane.

Hell's bloody bells Altair hated rogues and their sneak attacks. Add an ambush that included two spellcasters, and on any ordinary day, he'd be shapechanging and getting out. But Cocksack didn't take well to having his orders ignored and, frankly, Altair could use another lair. They all could.

"Now, is that any way to treat new residents?" A warmth pervaded the tall, slender, really rather attractive man's voice. "I was under the impression that everyone was greeted with kindness, a gift basket, and a key, at very least, and quite often with a song or an offer of intimate companionship. Was I wrong?"

He offered a smile to the dark-haired male, attempting to Charm him.

Beside him, the Naga swayed, hissing and moaning in some bastardized variant of Yuan-Ti. It sounded like agreement and concern, but in fact, it was casting Hold Person on the two women and the gnome.

The two flameskulls, knowing their companion would rise again within an hour unless treated with holy water, opted for a more defensive tactic, each blurring themselves to give their attackers disadvantage.

Scanlan felt something start to seize over him, but he was able to shrug it off after a moment where he wasn't sure he was going to be of any use in the fight... Again.

"Did you even stop to ask if there's a vacancy?"

He turned his attention to the Naga and started to sing, "You can dance if you want to, you're gonna dance your friends behind. Because even you're gonna dance, no matter what the dance, cause you ain't no friends of mine."

Then he sent a wink in Vax's direction and hoped to inspire him.

(ooc: song to the safety dance)

For a moment, as Vax's attention flickered from the skulls that seemed not to care at all about his daggers to the comely figure calling something playful, Vax felt the lull and draw at his mind that suggested-

A time when he'd been all-over locked up with tension, unable to move, caught out on his own and unable to hide behind a flimsy lie. A large, hard hand on his shoulder, a woman's cutting smile. You try and flee. I’m merely asking you questions. Come, let us discuss in more private quarters.

Don’t worry. You look delicious.

That's the last thing they damned well need right now, and whether it's because of the memory or the fact they're being swarmed by undead or Scanlan's cracking wise to disrupt the unnatural coaxing in that voice, it rolls off Vax's back without effect.

"This one's a bloody vampire," Vax shouted, recalling his daggers to his hand. "And he is mine," the words came as a holy vow, dedicating him to fight the undead thing with all the more fury. He threw Whisper to allow him to teleport right on top of the motherfucker, following with deft slashes of blades that would bring poison and flame.

The slick seductive voice slithered across her brain like amateur hour at the reptile house, horrible even though she wasn't its direct target. And the snake lady's whining wasn't any better. "Gross, dude. Consent is sexy." But Vax had McBrainRaper well in hand, so she left him to it. And whatever Scanlan had done was keeping Snake Lady occupied.

That left her with skulls. Hurrah, moving targets. Batgirl flipped back out of the way of another skull and winged a gooparang at one of the blurry ones. "Sit. Stay."

At the word 'vampire', Regina had begun to summon flames. Fire was how you fought vampires, wasn't it? And the flame did leap to her hands, willing and ready to be flung at the creature--

But her chest seized and her wrists locked, her shoulders froze, too. She stared at the vampire, and felt the loathing swell, and then at the Bone Snake, and there--a hitch. It had cast a spell on her. One that held her in place.

Regina snarled. She had to hope that she could break the spell or someone else would.

Altair cursed as the rogue shook off his Charm, and hissed angry sibilance as dagger after dagger struck his immortal form. That he regained his health mattered not at all, if the foolish creature would cling to him and keep attacking.

Raising a staff, Altair cast Bestow Curse on the rogue and then smashed him in the face with his fist to attempt to get enough distance for a bite.

Nearby, the Naga had begun to dance -- which was beyond worrisome to downright irritating. The creature could do nothing but sway and slide in a box, which made it an easy target for anyone who wanted to attack. Although it appeared to try to shake the bard's spell off, it did so to no effect. As its concentration was unaffected, the spell against the sorceress remained in place.

One of the skulls continued to vibrate, blurring itself, the other found itself stuck to a wall. Both, objecting to being struck from flight like idiotic birds, directed their fire rays at the costumed girl. Each of them blasting at her twice.

Vax'ildan was uncannily lucky. Vox Machina had seen it time and time again. But even the lucky had their failures, and he had never been very wise. Going toe-to-toe with a vampire, for instance - was not wise. He considered this as the punch connected and he felt the spell overwhelm him, necrotic energy weakening him from inside out way beyond what a knock on the chin should do. Maybe he could cure it, but not when he had this asshole trying to fangbang him.

He focused on disengaging from the creature, flying well out of its reach before throwing his daggers and imbuing his latest attack with the radiance of a Divine Smite. Attack and away, attack and away, attack and away, that's how it was done.

He did happen to wonder where Regina was at with those fireballs...

"You're supposed to avoid getting hit in the face, Vax." Though Scanlan had to keep concentration on the dancing, but he maneuvered around to get close to the skulls. He thrust in their direction with a high pitched note and thunderwaved at them.

The gooparang worked perfectly even after a year in mothballs so yay! But that still left two skulls with a hate for bats. Batgirl launched herself into the air, bouncing off a chair and a wall, twisting to get out of the way.

She managed to avoid one bolt but the next three caught her solidly - one to the shoulder, one as she was sent spinning directly in the stomach, burning through the black kevlar way too easily. She hit the ground gracelessly, her cape following with a too heavy thump over her. The third bolt hit that, the fire muted by the armored fabric.

Fucking ow, she thought with a groan and pushed herself to her feet. Okay, no more rangs. A flick of her wrist telescoped her staff out. Batter up.

It took a few seconds, but Regina overcame the spell with a glare and a vicious shake of her head. Her ears still rang, but as ever fire came friendly to her hands.

Forced to watch, Regina knew that the bone snake had been contained for the moment, and the skulls had shattered on the wave of whatever the hell that had been from the gnome's groin and no, she really didn't want time to think that through.

That left the vampire, and wouldn't you know it happened to be trying to bite her favorite rogue. "Hey, ugly. Over here!" she called, waved with her fire filled hands, and then sent two perfectly sculpted fireballs one each to the hand casting spells and the face.

Wouldn't you know that being a sorceress, they managed to miss Vax completely?

Ugly? How dare she?

Altair lost his focus on the rogue for the moment and surveyed the--face full of fire. "You bitch!" he screeched through the flame wreathing him and making him look like a damned flameskull.

He drew his Staff of Contagion and cast Contagion on the rogue, then tossed him aside to go after the sorcerous cunt.

The skulls had shattered and while their resurrection in an hour might be an annoyance, they were useless now. And so on his way by, he smashed the Naga in the face with his staff, breaking it loose from the spell.

The Naga hissed something ugly in its even uglier Yuan-Ti, wavered as it shook off the last of the dance, and slid forward to get a bite on the strange creature with the fire resistance and the staff.

Away, and attack-

But then, even as Vax was swooping in to attack the seemingly distracted vampire, a foul spell hit him. It packed a whallop so hard it stunned him, his black wings failing. It effectively swatted him right out of the sky to crash into the ground and tumble to rest through some scattered remains of undead who-knows-what.

That wasn't the half of it though. That was a side effect really. Blood rushed through his pointy ears so hard they rung, pale skin growing angrily ruddy, moisture welling through his pores that was not sweat. His veins pulsed visibly darker, blood vessels in his eyes swelling to redden the whites, until bloody tears spilled down his cheeks to merge with the mess trickling from his nose. What the spell did, what it really did, was make him bleed. He felt the magic wringing it out of his body like water from a sponge. When he retched, it came out reddish-black on the dirt beneath him.

Motherfucker, Vax thought, though he could not speak the word, telling himself not to panic. He'd seen Pike cure disease. They could fix this. Sure. Once he could move at all, he could probably do it himself. Yay for being a deity's Champion. Not that he fucking felt like one at the moment.

Scanlan felt the panic rise in him with the same familiarity of uselessness that he did during the Vecna fight. While there was chaos going on around them, he was mostly concerned about his friend as Vax was hit by something. The Gnome had no idea what it was, exactly, but it was bad. Vax was bleeing a lot.

He moved over a little and hummed a soft song that was meant to heal Vax, but it was clear nothing was happening. He closed the distanced and put a hand on his friend's shoulder. He had never done this before, but he'd be damned if he was going to let down his friend again.

"Don't worry, Vax. I got you."

With that, Scanlan closed his eyes and made a wish for Vax's safety and happiness.

Batgirl whipped her head around at the sound of a hiss, gaze leading and staff following, but too late. By the time her staff was in position, there were claws on her shoulders and fangs at her throat. The cowl protected the vein but not all the flesh. The raking teeth felt like acid, searing into her neck.

The staff came around and thwacked heavily on the naga's side, then stabbed down, giving Batgirl the leverage she needed to tear away, kick out to push the snake woman back. Her head was spinning, even as she tried to fight against it.

Triumph short lived, both Vax and Stephanie under attack, Regina snarled and readied an attack. The gnome let loose a wave of magic so enormous, it blasted Regina back against the door to the back office. Her head cracked against the frame and for a dangerous few heartbeats, her vision blurred, going dark around the edges.

Blood filled her mouth from her bitten tongue and her head swam, her feet didn't want to stay under her, but Vax and where was Caroline? And Snow? And Dyson?

Everything sharpened and magic swelled behind, the attack she'd been readying exploded off her hands. More white lightning from a force blast than she'd ever produced, and it split, branching toward the vampire and the snake creature and Regina staggered back against the door frame, catching hold with her hand.

The naga flew back from Stephanie, hitting the floor, skidding and bouncing, bones splitting and shattering. Altair hissed as the staff flew from his hand, cracked against a wall and cracked in half, leaving it useless.

Altair drew hard on his magic, trying to restore himself with his necromantic energies, but he was weak. And getting weaker. It was time to get out of here.

Vax felt the familiar tingle of Scanlan's magic, but... It didn't take, at first, whatever it was. Like a whisper he couldn't quite make out for the droplets of blood pattering from his ears (from his everything). Vision swimming red as he struggled to keep his eyes open, he was losing consciousness as the life spilled right out of him. He'd seen Pike earlier in the fray, she might still... Regina and Steph, they could... Or maybe this was finally his time, to bleed out poetically and meet his matron in her world at last.

For a moment that lasted longer than it possibly could have, Vax thought of Stephanie. Her laugh, her smile, the sweet smell of her hair. Her scarred skin, shining in the moonlight from their chilly little nest on the rooftop, but warm enough when he shared blankets with her. He thought of Keyleth, too. His mother. And Vex. Always, Vex'ahlia.

Until something touched his shoulder, calling him back before he could quite reach that dark, silent place. "Don't worry, Vax. I got you."

Vax'ildan had felt magic before. But Scanlan's spells had never before been so intense as this. Purple light surged and swirled, tingling warmth soothing him all over, putting him back right again. The slimy doom of the contagion in Vax's body was reversed somehow, or he was restored from it at least, only the fresh blood and dirt in his hair to tell it'd ever even happened. He felt better than alive, he felt fucking awesome, humming with vitality. And the very same light shot from Scanlan and him to surge brightly through Stephanie much the same, or so it looked. Scanlan must've targeted her as well?

But it was gone in a flash just as swiftly as it'd happened, and Vax sat bolt upright, grabbing Scanlan's small form into a hug. "I have no idea what the fuck you just did, but you did it, you beautiful bastard," he thanked the bard in a rush. They had a battle to get back to, didn't they?

No sooner did Scanlan get his spell off and see Vax being healed - to know he was alright - did Scanlan start to feel worse for wear. It seemed to start in his stomach and work it's way out in a spiral like he was being eaten alive.

Not wanting to draw attention to himself, he reached for the wall to steady himself, but had to double over in pain. He was dying - he could feel himself dying.

"Scanlan!"

The bard knew that sound over anything else and even in his current state, Pike's voice produced a smile on his lips. He forced his head up in time to see a very concerned looking Pike staring at him. It was obvious she was worried.

"I'm okay coach. Promise." Though Scanlan knew better. From behind him, there seemed to be a void opening up and Scanlan could feel a pull like it was suctioning him out. He looked at Pike, but she didn't seem to see it. His smile turned more into one of farewell. "Okay. Maybe I'm going to have to sit this one out."

Pike felt a rush of panic and a pang of grief. She was almost all out of spells from helping on the battlefield. She reached for her necklace and she held it, praying to Sarenrae for some divine intervention. As she reached out to reassure Scanlan, she felt Sarenrae's presence. She felt it envelop her and Scanlan. It was then that Pike was able to see the void pulling them in. She could tell that Scanlan was already getting better.

Hands held, she stepped into him. "Where you go, I go."

And then the two Gnomes seemed to simply disappear from the Madonna Inn.

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Inn-world Combat: The Dread Reign

Re: For Vax, Scanlan, Steph, Regina

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Re: For Vax, Scanlan, Steph, Regina

Re: For Vax, Scanlan, Steph, Regina

Re: For Vax, Scanlan, Steph, Regina

Re: For Vax, Scanlan, Steph, Regina

Re: For Vax, Scanlan, Steph, Regina

Re: For Vax, Scanlan, Steph, Regina

Re: For Vax, Scanlan, Steph, Regina

Re: For Vax, Scanlan, Steph, Regina

Re: For Vax, Scanlan, Steph, Regina

Re: For Vax, Scanlan, Steph, Regina

Re: For Vax, Scanlan, Steph, Regina

Re: For Vax, Scanlan, Steph, Regina

Re: For Vax, Scanlan, Steph, Regina

Re: For Vax, Scanlan, Steph, Regina

Re: For Vax, Scanlan, Steph, Regina

Re: For Vax, Scanlan, Steph, Regina

Re: For Vax, Scanlan, Steph, Regina

Re: For Vax, Scanlan, Steph, Regina

Re: For Vax, Scanlan, Steph, Regina

Re: For Vax, Scanlan, Steph, Regina