07.05.2019: A Walk In The Park Pt. 2
| A Walk In The Park, Part 2 | |
|---|---|
| An encounter with violent hounds comes to a head. | |
| Players | Evaline Saskia Teagan Oktav |
| Location | The local park, Prospect CA |
| Spheres | Mage |
Transcript
In the dead of night, a trio of Mages make their way back home through a wooded park. The flickering lights along the path are both annoying, and super creepy. A battle rages, the trio of Mages hounded on all sides by a pack of monsters- dubbed seeker hounds, gnashing jaws and violent eyes dripping with red tinged malevolent energy. One has already been dispatched by Evaline, with her kenetic shield while the other four are still breathing. Saskia, with her burning sword held high and defiant has just launched a strike, only imparting minor damage on the lead hound. Teagan, working her magic to identify their weaknesses and Evaline trying to summon her technology to aid them.
The three of them are standing under the flickering light of one of the street lamps, the shield Evaline conjured has finally fallen under the assault of the seeker hounds, whatever they are they seem to drain and consume magic.
The shield shatters into falling motes of energy and electric, it falls around them like rain. The hounds are charging, about 20 feet out, there isn't much time until they're on the group. The air is thick with the gnashing jaws and violent eyes of the monstrous hounds as they all charge at once!
Teagan bites her lip as she watches the assault progress. Her eyes scan the park for anything of use, but there is nothing but grass and dirt. Throwing a glance at her wounded hand, she grits her teeth and tightens the grip on her knife. Turning to one of the hounds, she focuses her eyes onto its. The creature is mortifying, and Teagan barely manages to stand her ground as a tear falls down her cheek. Taking a step forward, she stabs the knife into the ground in front of her with as much force as she can muster. There's a tiny flash of light as the knife connects with the ground, but other than that nothing happens.
Breathing heavily, it doesn't take long for Teagan to realize that her spell had no effect on the creature, which is now staring back at her with murderous intent. She takes a few steps backward instinctively, stumbling over herself as she does. Her breathing is shallow, and there's more than a few tears streaming down her face at this point. Now on her back, she crawls another few measures away from the creature, winging in pain as she gets dirt in her wound. Finally managing to look away from the hound, her eyes quickly dart back and forth between Evaline and Saskia, in a desperate hope they'll be able to do something.
Detrevni is busy frantically keying in data onto some awkwardly adapted keyboard fused into the leather vambrace on her right arm. Her eyes glare at the rushing hounds and it doesn't take long for Teagan's intel about the strange, supernal golem dogs weaknesses to become clear. A small reticule hones in on the odd sigil engraved on the hound's neck. She has her target.
But the hound rushes past her, and advances on Teagan with a growl in its throat. It has hunkered down low, and Detrevni knows that it's about to attack her dear friend. She rushes to her aid, except her feet don't move. She glances down and to her horror, the bottoms of her soles have melted into the pavement. The intense heat of the electricity may have passed harmlessly through her body as a conduit, but as it earthed itself on the ground it turned the once solid rubber into nothing more than sticky jell-o.
She curses under her breath and snatches at the clasps on her feet, wriggling her feet feverishly until finally she is free, and she bolts across the pavement in a fervorous sprint. "Teagan, snap out of it! Defend yourself!" At the last moment she hunkers down low and then springs back up, leaping into the air with grace, her damp socks on display for all to see. Her spear-tipped baton is poised down toward the creature, the vision behind her goggles still trained on the hound's weak point. Electricity crackles at the tip as residual energy from the shield builds up in the weapon. Her resonance sends sparks flying from her, arcing from her heels to the ground, and finally she comes down without mercy on the unsuspecting golem-dog.
The point of the baton pierces the sigil perfectly, stabbing deep into its neck. The costumed, shoeless woman screams in righteous fury as she strikes true, twisting the baton deep and tearing it away, leaving nothing but a large, gaping hole in the creature and the crackling of resonant energies dissipating everywhere: through Detrevni, through her baton, and most importantly, through the now quickly dying dog.
The speared dog howls in pain as Evaline skewers it like a monstrous kebab. It writhes and wiggles on the ground as the magic sustaining the golem creature fizzes and fades away. The flesh, the bones, everything starts to dissipate and melt away into the ground- all that's left is a oval shaped stone carved with that same sigil in the middle. It vibrates and shakes with barely contained energy. The other dogs, upon seeing one of their own vanquished in such a surgical fashion pause their charge, feet skidding the ground as they come to a stop- allowing the trio a moments respite to get back on their feet. They seem cautious now, and start to encircle the group to surrounded them cutting off every avenue of escape. Snarling maws, gnashing teeth and blood red eyes piece the night. Three of them left now. Three of them left to kill, as they're not going to give up. Not in the slightest.
Saskia is standing there a few feet away from Teagan and Evaline, her blazing sword still raised high in a defensive posture after her earlier failed attack. She's breathing hard, her chest rising and falling in rapid motions- she is truly terrified of these dogs, and it shows clear as day on her face. Usually, a stoic and collected expression, but now it's all twisted up in horror. The flames lick and spit at the night air, flowing off her bastard sword as she stands there, frozen. Only the motion from Evaline rushing across to save Teagan snaps her out of it, and there isn't enough time to get off any more complicated spell or maneuver... so she charges.
Mid-stride she calls out an Enocian invocation, "RASHA' VALA!" And swings her sword upwards like a javelin, her arm cocks back and she launches it like a flaming spear at the closest dog- it shrieks through the air like a firework, impaling the creature through the neck. The dog barrels off towards the side, thrashing and roaring as the sword sets it alight. Saskia is still running towards the dog, a hand snatches out to yank the hilt out, using her foot as leverage to draw the sword free. In the same motion, she spins around on her heels and lashes the blade in a horizontal arch, splitting another dog across the face leaving it with a gaping, flaming wound.
Three dogs dead now, one severally wounded which will heal shortly- one more charging at them.
Evaline's words only seem to further Teagan's desperation. "How?" echoes in her mind endlessly as the hound rushes towards her. The fact that she might actually die within the next few moments crosses her mind as her eyes widen. Taking one final breath, she forces her eyes shut and prepares for whatever it is that's about to happen. Evaline's blow to the creature doesn't register with Teagan, instead, the girl passes out, and limply lies on the ground. She opens her eyes, but she's not where she was before. Standing in ankle deep water, or at least something that feels like water, Teagan is surrounded by an inky black void. She can hear Saskia, Evaline and the hounds, but they're distant. Quiet echoes. She screams but the sound goes nowhere, like she's in a soundproofed room. Terrified, confused and helpless, she stands there, and soon gives up speaking. Instead, she curls up on the ground, holding herself tightly, hoping everything will be okay as she sobs.
Meanwhile, back in the park, the air is crisp and the world is sharp. Teagan stands back up mere moments after having passed out. She opens her eyes, but they're not hers. They glow brilliantly, almost matching the brightness of the nearby street lamps for a moment. She sighs, rolls her shoulders, and slowly looks to Saskia and then Evaline. "Great job, Teagan." She mutters, but the voice is not her own. It sounds otherworldly, and the words she speaks reverberate within themselves. Completely calm, she looks to the remaining hounds still circulating the trio. "Right." She starts speaking incoherently, but dangerously precisely. Every word has a very specific intent, and as she continues talking she focuses her attention on one of the creatures. Slowly, its hind legs start separating from its body, followed by its front legs, then after that, its head. All that's left of the creature is a jumble of limbs, and Teagan turns to Evaline with a wretched smile. "Happy?" There's no time to respond as Teagan falls lifelessly back to the ground.
Detrevni watches the whining hound disassemble itself before her very eyes. The shock is such that it rips her out of her combat mindset, and she feels the very unfamiliar sensation of confusion wash over her. She turns slowly to Teagan, that ethereal voice ringing in her ears. "Teagan?" she asks, unsure of who she's really speaking to. She clips her baton carefully back onto her belt, and raises a hand to fiddle with the many complex controls on the side of her goggles. The pallid blue glow switches to a different colour with every pass. The data being displayed to her is of Teagan's vitals: her temperature, heart rate, emotional state, etc. When she's satisfied with what she's reading, that Teagan seems to be unconscious, she takes a slow, careful step towards the girl. Her unbooted foot squelches on the cold, damp pavement. Her arm is outstretched cautiously, more for her own preservation than anything. "Are you alright? What happened to you?" she queries, her tone uncertain.
The seeker hounds are falling all around them, the spell from Teagan finishing with destructive affect. It leaves only the one left, the one Saskia slashed across the face with her flaming sword. Even now it's regenerating, the searing wound across its maw knitting itself back together, the sinew twisting and twining together to fix the break. It snarls in range, and charges right at them- only to be intercepted by Saskia's sword which takes it right across the neck in a downwards slash. The flaming sword sears through its flesh, cutting its head right off at the neck. The headless corpse thuds uselessly beside Evaline and Teagan, the body melting away to leave that single sigiled stone which clatters against the floor as it vibrates softly. That's all of them... or is it!
"What's wrong with her?!" Saskia calls out, her sword fwapping back up to her high guard, eyes snapping out every which way to look for more enemies. Nothing, yet. "Teagan, speak to us!" She calls out, "Evaline- Keep her safe." Her voice loud, and wavering. The sound of abyssal barking and roaring emanates from across the trees, hidden from view. Sounds like more of the bastard things. "Scheisse! More of zem'! We can't hold all these... hecking things off!" She calls, her sword lashing downwards to plunge the tip into the ground as she works a spell. Her hands clasp together, fingers twisting and twinging in arcane configurations- "A HO HOATH DE A IAIDA!" She incant in Enochian, calling out a invocation to the Archangel Micheal, her hands spread wide before her- the flames from her sword plunged into the ground suddenly wash off it in a torrent, surrounding them with a circle of flame in a protective circle. "We need to get out of here, quickly- We don't have much ti-"
A lone figure steps out of the trees, a shadowy figure with red eyes. In each hand the figure holds the leash of one of the seeker hounds, lashing and biting at the air- just waiting to be set loose. The figure rumbles out a speech, its voice piercing through the air like nails on a chalkboard. "You can't escape us that easily, Maleficarum."
"I'm okay! I don't know!" Teagan calls out upon hearing Evaline, finding some respite in a familiar voice. Despite her best efforts her words do not make it anywhere, simply echoing throughout the inky blackness which surrounds her. In the park, Teagan is lying motionless on the ground, with the wound on her left palm slowly staining her shirt a deep red. Her breathing is shallow but consistent, but as Evaline speaks her heart rate increases, if only for a few seconds. "I'm trying!" She shrieks to the muffled sound of Saskia's voice, her tone, not that anyone could hear it, clearly panicked. As she realizes that there's still nobody who can hear her, she lies back down in the shallow water, shaking as she wraps her arms around herself.
Detrevni drops to her knees mid-run and skids along the wet pavement up to Teagan's unconscious body. She looks over over again, her goggles humming with life sight, checking her up and down for any sign of what's wrong. When nothing stands out to her, she looks back to check on Saskia and her situation, pulling the goggles up onto her forehead.
When it seems like Saskia has everything covered for the moment, Evaline grabs Teagan by the shoulders and shakes her forcefully. "Teagan! Wake up! It's not safe here!!" Her voice is stern and commanding, but there's the shaking undertones of panic attached to her words. When shaking seems hopeless, Detrevni reels a hand back and deftly lands an open palm smack against Teagan's cheek. "Wake up!"
The umbral blackness surrounds Teagan, growing thicker and closer with each passing second. The water rises as the emptiness closes around her, tighter and tighter still, with absolutely no hope of escape-
"By the wisdom of the Clavicula, here I bind thee. By the will of Perdition's Flame, here I bind thee. By the strength of arms, Here I Bind Thee." From what once was above, another liquid falls abruptly into the room. It surrounds Teagan, blasting the water back, smelling faintly of iron. Teagan can feel, with some arcane understanding, that the space is expanding rapidly. "By blood and bone and pain, the prison is broken. Until life is gone, be hence."
The voice pauses for a moment, and there's a distinct sense of embarrassment. "Your mind has a poetic sense to it, Teagan. It's a bad influence. Go kill some dogs for me."
The figure just walking out of the trees moves beyond the shadows hiding his form, the red eyes glowing in the distance seem to wink out. It appears not to be a terrifying Nephandus, warlock or monstrous creature- but a man, an elderly man of a bout seventy by the look of it. Wrinkles, crows feet and hunched posture. The old man wears the garb of a priest, a frock covered in strange symbols and gplys of warding- instead of a white collar, he wears a red one. An unusual garb for a run of the mill man of the cloth... but, well, the seeker hounds would suggest otherwise too. "DEMONS!" The old man yells out, his voice the quality of sandpaper. "I have finally found you- The archfiend herself, Satan in womanly form!" He snarls out, spittle flying every which way. His hands tighten around the chains holding back the two remaining dogs, they trash and gnash at the air- just waiting to be set free. His direful eyes are speared through Saskia's middle, "And minions! You have yet more spawn of Satan! They will be -dealt with-." He snarls out, and releases his hands on the chains. The two dogs launch into a sprint, their almost skeletal forms rippling with strained muscle. Their red eyes blinking in the night with hungry intent.
"We need to run!" Saskia calls out, straining against her magic as she keeps the wall of fire burning around them. Her face is a mixture of panic and sorrow, sweat beading all across her skin. Suddenly, without warning, the wall of fire vanishes in a loud sizzle. The priestly figure is holding a gilded cross aloft, chanting some Latin blessing, which seems to banish the summoned magic worryingly easy.
The two hounds rush at them, they seem bigger and more ferocious than the last two.
"Hello?" Teagan barely has time to call out as she's assaulted by a wave of thick, iron-smelling, liquid. Before she can understand what's happening, she's entirely engulfed by it, unable to breathe. She flails and thrashes to no avail before everything goes dark. That is, until she opens her eyes again.
Evaline slaps Teagan across the face, and just moments later she draws a single deep breath as her eyes open. Struggling to catch her breath, she dry heaves before launching into a coughing fit. Quickly realizing that there's blood spilling out, Teagan moves a hand over her mouth to prevent ruining her getup any further. Teagan looks to Evaline in confusion as she recovers, her now blood-soaked hand moving to brush against the point of impact. Her eyes don't linger long as realization dawns, and she pushes herself to a sitting position, desperately scouring the park in hopes of finding whoever freed her. As she does, she notices the robed man and panic settles in on her face once again. Her eyes dart from Saskia to Evaline. "Fuck."
Detrevni pats Teagan on the back as she coughs, "You went down during the fighting," she explains, seemingly unfazed by the sudden expletives. Turning her gaze back to the man she can see him shouting his insane sermon at Saskia. "But I think I managed to snap you out of it. Saskia is-"
She's cut off by the savage barking coming from the larger hounds as their master sets them loose. As both of the demon dogs gallop towards them, she sighs. "Foolish hounds. Can they not see the fire that is protecting us? Oh. Oh no." Detrevni stands and offers a hand down to Teagan, "I think it may be time for you to utilize some of your correspondence magic, Teagan. We need to escape this fight right now." Her gloved hand pulls the baton away from her belt once more, and with a smart flick of the wrist, the spear-tipped weapon extends to its full length with a click. A streak of sparks fly from the end, crackling into short lived strands of electricity that dissapate into the foggy night air. The other hand pulls the goggles back down over her eyes, filling her sight once more with the analytical nature of her life-sight. As her eyes hone in on the dogs, the software automatically starts to analyze their composition. Through this haze of new information she innately picks up on exactly what she wants to see: under a thin layer of armour across the back of the neck, that same sigil glows with some unnatural flare of supernal energy.
As the hounds close the gap between themselves and Teagan, Evaline takes a meaningful step between the two parties. "I'll defend you as best I can. But our survival is down to you now, Teagan." The young woman immediately breaks into a sprint, her baton held high above her head. Her left hand springs out at the last moment and grabs the lamp post. She climbs it with deft athleticism about halfway and then springs off it, launching herself over the top of the two hounds. She picks one at random, and comes down on it with unrelenting force, her spear-tipped baton aimed true at her target. With a sickening CCRRUUNNCHH the spear strikes through the armour and pierces the sigil, causing the hound to scream in anger. She twists the spear and clutches to the dog's back, riding it along and keeping herself steady by clutching onto the handle of her baton for dear life.
On a rooftop some three hundred feet out, Oktav returns to himself. The cigarette that was hanging from his lips must have fallen out a while ago, the last dying embers winking out even as he looks down at it. With a grunt, he shifts his prone body and peers through the scope of his rifle. A thousand tiny little adjustments take place in a few seconds, assisted by a classical weathervane on a nearby home. "Elevation cleared. Wind speed cleared. Making sure I'm not about to shoot one of my allies in the head - cleared. Alright Remmy, it's you and me now. Let's not fuck up."
The shot rings out, clear across the nightlife. Cops are going to be showing up -real- damn quick, because this gun could not be confused for a firework or a car backfiring. This is a Remington 700, a big ass, fuck you gun with a big ass fuck you bullet going straight into a moderately sized old man's kneecap. Oktav smiles at the sign of a job well done, then quietly begins packing up his things.
The Inquisitor continues his Latin chant, his sandpaper voice orating into the air. His gilded cross is held aloft in a warding gesture, utterly fanatical and devoted- this single priest bearing down upon the Tellurian like a wrecking ball made of pure faith, magic on another scale. He reaches the end... his voice raising in a deep crescendo... and then the whipcord snap of the rifle shot from far away. His knee explodes into pink mist and bone, his chant turns into a wailing scream as he folds downwards into a priestly heap- his cross skidding across the ground out of reach. He falls, wailing and yelling curses.
The remaining dog is almost at them, Saskia standing there like a lemon, her sword raised weakly as he hands shake against the hilt, her knuckles white hot. "Scheisse, Scheisse..." She protests, her free hand flashing out towards the remaining dog. A pair of fingers twist and turn in the air, her mouth full of strange words as she spits them out into the night. She makes a hard pulling motion downwards, her hand flat and fingers splayed out. A loud crack, and waft of cold air as the kinetic energy of the beast is transmuted into cold, the dog immediately halts stiff with ice rapidly skittering across its horrible form before it's encased from head to tail. "Die!" She yells out, darting towards it, her sword held aloft as she brings it down in a ferocious strike. It hits the ice-dog like a bell, sending a loud ring into the air before it shatters like porcelain.
Meanwhile, the priest is coming back to his senses. His hands are clasped about his wound, pained words filling the air in a chant. You don't get this old going up against this sort of stuff without tricks up your sleeve, slowly the wound knits together- well enough for him to stand on but he's wobbling a bit. "This is not the end, Witches!" He spits out, accompanied by the sound of distant barking. Sounds like a lot.
Teagan wobbles to her feet with Evaline's help, her top pretty much entirely doused in blood at this point. "Okay..." She mumbles, arms outstretched as she tries to regain some sense of balance. "Okay." She repeats to herself this time, closing her eyes to take three breaths. The gunshot goes off right as she opens her eyes, and her eyes quickly dart over to the man now missing a knee. She immediately looks away from the wound, seeing both Evaline and Saskia occupied with one of the beasts. "Okay." She repeats with determination, realizing that she has to act.
Knowing full well there's no doorways anywhere near her, Teagan bites her lip as she leans down to press her hand against the pavement. Drawing a circle around herself with her blood, she quietly begins chanting.
Lady of the Night, I beg you hear My covenant, of which I swore Of safe passage for mine and dear I ask of you this and nothing more
Repeating the chant over and over, the circle of blood slowly starts glowing. It's dim at first, but with each passing verse the light grows in intensity, slowly but surely illuminating the park in a brilliant white glow. As the portal reaches peak luminosity, Teagan's hair and clothes start moving as if a strong wind is acting on her. Trying to locate either Saskia or Evaline when standing next to the thing would be hopeless, so Teagan shouts a loud "We gotta go!" hoping that it's loud enough to reach the two.
The Inquisitor now has his cross back in his hands, and seems to be fully mobile. His face is contorted with conviction, "You will be cleansed by the holy fire!" He roars across the park, for an old guy he sure can shout. Along the horizon, more blinking red eyes are sprinting across the space- more seeker hounds. Oh fuck.
As Evaline is sucked into the glowing portal, Teagan beckoning them towards it. "THEY'RE AFTER ME AND ME ALONE, YOU WON'T BE SAFE-" Saskia calls over her shoulder, her sword raised in defiance- flaming once again as it licks and spits into the air. "A FLAMBEAU DOES NOT RETREAT!" She bellows out, her profile glinting with flame as it starts to envelop her limbs, and spiraling up her forearms. "KEEP YOUR GOOD SOUL, TEE-TEE- EVALINE, KEEP HER ALIVE." With that, her sword raised she begins to charge. Her boots slapping against the ground as she throws herself towards the Inquisitor.
The portal snaps shut, Teagan and Evaline sent to their destination as Saskia is left behind in a dervish of sword swings and Germanic curses.
