Two Blows
Log Info
- Title: Two Blows, the Ruination of Cryosanthia
- Emitter: Cryosanthia
- Characters: Zeke, Sabina, Aya, Braelnoir, Seyardu, Cryosanthia
- Place: A03: The TarRaCe
- Time: Monday, September 13, 2021, 3:26 PM
- Summary: Lily is dead. Cryosanthia is comatose. Her cihuaa has come to her side. Her scale-sister and friends have come to see her and bring bad news. Sabina and the succubus have been keeping vigil. The many presences rouse Cryo, who weakly asks what's been going on, and where is Lily. Despite the best efforts of the others to distract and redirect, Braelnoir says she's gone. Her grief and her posture are unmistakeable and Cryosanthia understands immediately, Lily is dead and Braelnoir failed to protect her. It is too much for the white dragon, adrenaline and rage fill her and she flings herself at Braelnoir with deadly intent. She's not used to fighting in her new form, injured and with dead appendages, and falls flat. Her scale-sister, a Korrite, must meet the fight, and engages. Zeke, Seyardu, Sabina, interpose, attempt to grab her, and talk her out of it. Her cihuaa's words don't stop her, her friend's words don't stop her, her rescuer's words don't stop her. The fight moves to the hallway, where Zeke rends himself in grief. Braelnoir is unable to land a blow on Cryo, while she manages a solid bite and swipe, ruining her leg. Seyardu steps in to channel Althea's power, and the blessing of the Nest-Mother to all the Stars gets through to Cryo, as does Sabina's demand that they get out of her way. She's going to save Lily. This is enough to make both scale-sisters pause, and that ends their battle.
- Encounters:
- (1) CR16 XP 76800 Cryosanthia as Grieving RageMomma.
-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-<* The TarRaCe *>--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-
Inside, this two-story structure has been almost completely opened up. Generous windows on both stories allow daytime sunlight and cooling night breezes to flow in as needed, while the brick walls have been whitewashed - contrasting with the dark-stained beams and supports, and the rich polish on the wooden floor. A broad strip of stone runs from the entrance to a framed doorway set into the opposite wall, with a sign above the lintel declaring that the baths are to be found that way.
The ground floor is sprinkled with tables and chairs of assorted sizes, offering welcome to guests both large and small. One whole corner of the building - into which guests are not permitted entry - has been given over to the kitchen, which serves as the domain of the famed monster chef Ligum Serforus. Mundane meals are available, but the chef delights in offering up obscure dishes made from the freshest of monster ingredients.
Opposite the kitchen a small bar runs in front of an array of shelves, displaying a broad selection of beverages (most of them alcoholic). The bar-top has been fashioned from what looks to have been old pieces of armor, fused and welded together before being polished to provide a near-smooth finish. Set above it, three human-sized statues have been built into an alcove in the wall: Tarien, Rada and Ceinara jointly keep benevolent watch over the room and its occupants.
To the right of the entrance, a small stage offers a platform for a handful of performers at a time. To the left of the door, a spiral staircase of wrought iron winds its way up to a balcony dining area, that is chiefly reserved for special events and parties.
-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Appearing, in Order -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Zeke 6'8" 239 Lb Sith-Makar Male A blue-scaled sith-makar in white Daeus vestments. Sabina 5'4" 130 Lb Human Female Tsuran woman of dark hair and green eyes. Aya 4'7" 105 Lb Shadow Elf Female Mul'niessa. Braided hair. Simple clothing. Braelnoir 5'11" 146 Lb Human Female A tall, pale Acanian woman, branded in silver. Seyardu 5'6" 150 Lb Sith-Makar Female A friendly silver sith-makar with a perpetual squint. Cryosanthia 7'2" 391 Lb Dragon Female Sickly, tattered grey-scales, with a crippled wing and tail. -=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--= -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= As the GM =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Cryosanthia 6'9" 291 Lb Sith-Makar Female A dashingly tall, elegant white-scaled lizard woman. -=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=
The back rooms of the TarRaCe. It's staff only, or friends of staff with a very good reason.
There's a closed door, where an rather beautiful and alluring human woman lingers outside. She has a lithe figure and dangerously seductive features. Her clothing is comparatively plain and uninteresting, her hessian dockworker garb traded for something in linen in a square waitress outfit. Oddly her feet are bare and on the dirty side.
She leans against the frame, seemingly on guard, "C'mon, c'mon, c'mon 'Bina. Where are you?"
A blue-scaled sith in white vestments comes throught the door, his green eyes roaming for some sign of what he's looking for. "Cryosssanthia?" His voice is low-pitced but carries well. "Can sssomeone tell thisss one how to find Cryosssanthia?" Zeke looks around hopefully at anyone who looks like they might have information.
The blue-scale is recognized and directed to the back. "She's upstairs, second door on the right."
These directions are clear. The woman waiting outside the second door looks up, her eyes widening, "Oh sh...shugars. You're one of her powerful friends?"
She's looking around, "'Bina will be right back. There's something wrong with her. You're a Deu-achoo! Healer?"
GAME: Zeke rolls sense motive: (11)+4: 15
The softskin seems heavily perfumed and nervous.
Bina walks across the upper balcony area and looks down below. Her face is set in a frown. A frown that deepens as she notes Zeke speaking with Rupi. "It's ok, Rupi. Zeke can come up to see Cryosanthia." Herr tone is very carefully nuetral. Sharp spikey scents waft down from where she stands. "Perrhaps he can even help."
After having informed Zeke of some key facts (such as Cryosanthia being tended here), Aya had other things to attend to... or so she thought... or told herself. Things that quickly proved to be unattendable, nonexistant, or otherwise delayed for another time. This left her with nothing, and nothing is untenable.
She returns to the TarRace, as it is something. Already familiar with the location and room, Aya makes her way there, though she does not make great haste. Her lack of speed only increases as she notes Zeke, keeping her well in his wake.
In the time since the trouble downstairs, long enough, perhaps for certain truths to be unloaded, or for lay treatment of incidental injuries as the case may be, Aya's erstwhile partner returns.
Brae's countenance is hollow, and her gait has all the spunk and energy of a necrotic construct.
Whisperfine scratches spiderweb her cheeks, neck and what is bare of her shoulder, some of the joints of her exposed fingers are red and swollen, as is the elbow of that arm.
With only the listless tromp of her boots, and the acoustic miscelanae of her battle rattle, she ascends the stairs toward her scale-sister with her newest, greatest shame.
No one had told her Cryosanthia was missing.
No one had told her she had been found.
All Seyardu had to cling onto was trust in the tasks she knew the whitescale went on at times, that were not shared. But this was strained, on top of everything else that had been going on. And the rumors at the TaRaCe, of white dragon being on the menu, was enough to make them leave their work at the temple immediately. They ran across the city, and by the time they reached the pub/inn, they were blood in several places on their arms and legs from stumbling over so many times. But they did not care, and were already looking around for staff, before asking them about the rumors that had been mentioned.
"Right up there," The waitress-guard points, "and you, and you two too. 'Bina I'll be in the kitchen!" Rupi waves Braelnoir and Seyardu upstairs, keeping a distance from all then vanishes tout-suite.
A small flight of stairs that seems so long. A door, a room. Inside, a form familiar to Aya, Sabina and Braelnoir, they've seen her before. To Zeke and Seyardu, it's... Cryosanthia?
She has wings, full wings with canopies, not the empty, two-thirds spars she's had for months. Except one of them is withered, seems dead. She's got a lot more tail, but what sticks off the end of the bed seems shriveled also. She's charred, looking like burnt paper.
Her scars are all faintly glowing, a strong pale blue. It makes her look like a block puzzle, and two others who fell to pieces. There's a black tar leaking from her eyes, and a bandage on her side.
She's not moving.
GAME: Zeke rolls heal: (13)+15: 28 GAME: Seyardu rolls heal: (5)+7: 12 GAME: Seyardu rolls knowledge/arcana: (7)+5: 12 GAME: Braelnoir rolls knowledge/arcana: (17)+9: 26
She looks bad, almost dead. Doesn't look right. Closer inspection reveals she's breathing slowly, tail and wing seem dead, some kind of withering touch effect. She has way too many layers of scales, only one is the expected. She's inside what should be several shed skins that are somehow all burned up.
She's also blinding under a detect magic, something the Tarienite discovered earlier.
This is a mild improvement to her condition when she arrived.
Zeke watches Rupi with blatant suspicion for a moment, but Sabina with even more as they head up the stairs. The suspicion in his gaze fades at the sight of Cryosanthia however. He hardly even cares about anyone else that might be in the room. He hums low in his throat a comforting sound for her, keeps his scent even and calm though... the sorrow underlying it is not something he can help. "Cryosssanthia..."
He murmurs her name and moves toward her. Trying to determine if she is conscious or not. "You need healing cihuaa... Perhpass even more than thisss one isss capable of..." He is speaking somewhat to himself, but also for the sake of the others in the room, whom he grows more aware of with each moment.
Aya remains outside the room, watching from the doorway yet not impeding any travel through it. She is unusually silent, and her expression and posture are both neutral; a tense neutral, but muted all the same. While she has far too much context of what Cryosanthia endured while in the Sea of Mana, she knows not what transpired after and is not a healer by any means. All of that is left to healers, magi, and anyone else with more knowledge than she.
Bina watches from the doorway with the neutral look firmly on her face. "Being left for two weeks in the wild and in a highly magical area, after a long combat will do that to a person. No mater what the race. Thank the gods Cryosanthia is tough. Able to withstand the magics in some way I couldn't understand. And able to keep herself from bleeding out even after being nibbled on by something." She narrows her eyes and sighs. "And she's near blinding when one seeks out magics via spell or prayer. I didn't dare try to heal her with magic without understanding what was going on with her."
There's almost no light of recognition toward the girl at the door waving Braelnoir in, even Aya and Zeke, by far more familiar, are not quite enough to pierce her gallows' funk.
It isn't until she's back in the room with her sister's battered form, battle tested for certain amid a forced evolution of some kind.
The sound of the palescale's name cuts through the night like lightning, and the warrior flinches as though she were a child hearing it's peal.
A swallow, and her eyes lift from the Sith woman to her mate with a soft, "Zeke.... it's..." Her train of thought yanks on the reins, something behind the training, something weak and confused and human changes the next words to, "Molting... stuck... layers o'molts burnt up... a witherin'... that's some black hoodoo..."
As she speaks, the tip of the scythe thunks into the floorboards, as if she only has so much life of her own left to allocate amongst her actions.
Cryo is not conscious, although a long exhale hints that may be changing. A night in a quiet room, attention, the sounds and scents of those familiar, friends, family and loved sink in.
Even as things seep out. A pile of dirty rags, stained black, are in a bucket beside the bed. She's belly down, her arms folded so her hands are beside her head. Talons, weapons not hands, her claws curl in sheet beneath her, tearing it.
"Sssssseeeeke?" She hisses, words heavy with sleep, eyes opening.
Seyardu was up the stairs the moment she received any guidance. Bloodied, agitated, and no small amount distressed. She only slowed herself down upon reaching the second floor, and her desire to help outweighed the urgency. She looks to Aya out side the door, and Sabina. She peers inside, listening as Sabina speaks. Her heart drops as she sees the state. Useless to do anything.
"Left for two weeks?" Seyardu asks, growing more angry now. "Eaten? Just what happened to her?" She asks, holding herself up against the doorframe with one hand.
Until she stops. She takes a bucket out of her bag, offers a prayer, and it fills with clean water. It was the most common way that she knew to help when scales bunched up as such due to injuries. "Can any of you boil any water?" She asks firmly to those present.
She takes a cloth from her bag as well. Soaking it and dabbing at the edges of the withered scales once, to gauge any response.
There's a slight pulse in the glow as a spell is cast nearby.
Zeke responds to his name immediately, moving closer to Cryosanthia. Close enough to touch her though he does not. He nods to the words spoken to him. He knows this, but... what's to be done about it? "Zeke isss here." He murmurs to her. Wishing almost that she wasn't awake. That would make it easier. "Why did no one tell thiss one that sshe went into the ssea of mana?" He looks at Aya. Confused. Hurt.
He looks back to Cryosanthia just as quickly, his question almost unimportant. "Thisss one can offer you healing Cryossssanthia, but it... it will be very painful. It will not repair every-thing, but it did... it did work for othersss. To make them better."
He says nothing of Seyardu's assistance, but allows her near to his cihuaa, allows her to help. Keeps an eye on it just in case it agitates Cryosanthia.
Aya's primary reason to remain out of the room proper was to not interfere. Zeke's look makes her wonder, now, if that was her only reason. She didn't have any answers for his questions before, and none come to mind for this one, now. None that would offer any justification nor consolation, at least. Excuses, at best. All the more reason that she says nothing, though the mostly non-expression on her face flexes as her jaw tightens.
Braelnoir doesn't seem to need the acknowledgement, as the boisterous merc stands staring numbly at the tableau. The duration of Cryo's absence has been no small amount of consternation for the Korite, managing the game pinning her largely in place, and nearly as much as watching....
- ...Lily....
It's only the demand for answers that draws her eyes to light, sweeping the particulars for a clue who knew what and when.
Bina takes a deep breath and slowly lets it out. She reaches out a hand and places it gently on Aya's shoulder for just a moment before withdrawing it. "There was a miscommunication of some sort. I do not know the answers for certain. I wish that I did. I, perhaps, should have taken her straight to the temples but I was not sure she could be treated there with this mana poison in her blood. I was going to look into anti-magic and natural healing."
Cryosanthia, much like most invalids who shouldn't, attempts to move and get herself upright. She manages a push-up and stays elevated. Her cihuaa who knows her intimately, saw her age over decades would instantly recognize a lot of things wrong. She's exceptionally muscular, her rib cage is larger, neck longer. "My tail... wing... hurtsss."
Not exactly a request, not a refusal.
Scales flake away under the silverscale's efforts. They come away like dried skins on an onion, layer after layer of molt, consumed perfectly, there's no variation in the burn, grey on top of darker grey, lit by a blue light that faintly penetrates through them.
Her eyes focus, her head turns. She works her jaw open, there are a lot of teeth, she's climbing up to consciousness, "Seeeke, Braesss... where am..."
Climbs further, inhales. A look of recognition, "... the TarRaCe?"
Awake. Her head pans, dried layers crinkle, "Where's Lily?"
Alarmed, Zeke shakes his head. "Down Cryosssanthia! You are not well. You mussst not exert your-ssself!" He's almost grateful for the emotion to cover his swell of sorrow. "Do you want her to sssee you like thissss? Injured? Hurt? No. Thisss one assskss you to lay down. Pleassse cihuaa." He begs her with hands that refuse to touch the flaking skin and unmake her.
Seyardu pauses, as Cryosanthia pushes herself up. She allows herself one ginger hug, relief evident in the air. " Careful, Cryosanthia." She says equally gently. oil taken from the bag, applied to the exposed scales underneath the molt before she continues. "The wing and end of the tail are injured." Seyardu says while she was there. "We shall see how things are when the scales are cleared away, but I am hopeful. I do not know where Lily is right now. I will find her when I can."
Consumed by one overwhelming worry, and blissfully unaware of another.
As Aya watches Cryosanthia regain consciousness and move, her countenance wrinkles in commiseration. She can only hope that the whitescale looks worse than she feels, though Aya already knows how poorly she might feel, at best.
It's not until the pink one is asked for (and how could Aya even dare to expect she would not be?) that Aya makes her first sound. It is sharp intake of breath. One that's held even after Zeke offers a response to the question, then through Seyardu's words, and beyond.
Amber eyes close, chin dipping as a moist glitter permeates silver lashes. What life comes to Brae's features is a twisted thing, anguish and pain boiling over, as a quavering breath shakily hisses in past her lips.
The word comes forth less softly than the first spatter of a tear, chased in quick succession, by a second upon the floor.
That single, horrible word is:
"Gone."
Brae's frame straightens as a soldier at a Court Martial, or a soul standing on the gallows, just about to stretch, "I.... c-couldn't stop....!" she whispers.
"W-we couldn't-" she moans, "Away.... we.. couldn't get away..."
Patter-patter, "He... he killed.... he took...!"
The haft in her hand creaks beneath a white knuckled grip, "I.. couldn't save Lily....."
Bina is not, at first, aware of the change that comes over Aya nor Braelnoir. She's watching Cryo move and try to speak. But all too soon it's hard to ignore Braelnoir's words. Her eyes widen behind her mask as for the second time in as many days she's stunned. "What?" She manages to ask in a voice that's barely a whisper in the crowded room. Her eyes whip over to Cryo in hope that she didn't hear them. Reaching for Brea and trying to get her out of the room. To shut her up. Anything.
She's about to reply to Zeke, something affirmative like 'yes my Cihuaa', or something strange like 'I was talking with Maugrim', but Cryo's head is full of fog, full of sensations, mostly pain, that are distracting and just the slightest bit off.
Her scale-sister's confession cuts through her mental clouds.
"WHAT?"
Suddenly, she's very awake. The temperature in the room drops dramatically, her papery molts crinkling in the cold. This effect is familiar, it's a troubling sign of her emotional stress, but it's normal. Her pupils spreading, her eyes turning completely black, another extreme sign... still 'normal'.
There's another effect, one only Aya would recognize. The room is growing darker. A shadowy patch is forming on the ceiling above her. Cryo's eyes are leaking a black tar. She's an unsettling reminder of her alternate self.
The one that failed.
Admonishments to rest, stay put, lie back down, vanish. Cryosanthia pushes herself off the bed. She's had only a few hours, perhaps even only minutes, of clear awareness of her new form. She's not had time to adjust. She's forgotten.
Her first step comes up short and she falls out of the bed, faceplanting with a growl and a loud crack.
"Why? How? We won?" Her head snaps up, focusing on Aya, shouting, "Didn't we win?"
How could she have won if she lost Lily?
The words of her failed self come back, 'everything gone, everyone gone, no nestling, no friends, no cihuaa.'
Lily is gone. The one thing she was holding herself together for; the lynch pin that kept her from falling apart.
The question she asked then tumbles out again, "Why am I still living?"
Her eyes snap to Braelnoir, they meet, all questions are answered, will be answered. She screams, "WHY ARE YOU?"
She leaps.
Why?
Who?
How?
Questions that Aya has been asked often as of late. Questions she can't answer, even though she wishes to. Sith-makar may not be facially-expressive as softskins, but they are not stone. Aya faced that look once today. Now there it is again. Pain. Anger. Sorrow. Many things that she, herself, knows well, while others are somewhat new.
In this case, her answer is no. She can't do it twice. She couldn't even do it once for more than a moment.
With a puff of shadow, she is gone.
<OOC> Cryosanthia says, "Okay, so Cryo does a bull rush to push Braelnoir against the wall," GAME: Cryosanthia rolls cmb: (4)+18: 22
Adding to the cold and darkness is a distinct lizard stink. Cryo has lost it. She bounces from the floor, scrabbling for purchase and flings herself at Braelnoir.
Again, she's moving as if she's in a different body, and what was intended to be a shove that puts her across the hall and through the wall becomes more like a large dog jumping up and placing paws on the chest.
Which is to say, her scale-sister is staggered slightly but doesn't go anywhere.
<OOC> Zeke would like to get between Cryosanthia and Braelnoir. Say some stuff, and cast spell 11 just in case. On Braelnoir. NOT Cryosanthia. GAME: Zeke casts Shield Other. Caster Level: 13 DC: 16 <OOC> Cryosanthia says, "ok, caster check please, there's a SR20 in the area. There's also another effect." GAME: Zeke rolls 1d20+13: (18)+13: 31 <OOC> Cryosanthia says, "also, Will Save, DC16+spell level, to cast the spell you want, otherwise it's random." GAME: Zeke rolls will: (7)+12: 19
Even as Zeke moves he prays. Prays to the Dragonfather not only for the ablity to protect Braelnoir from his maddened cihuaa, but for the ability to get through to Cryosanthia. "Thisss one! Attack thisss one!" He shoves himself between the pair. Pushing Braelnoir backwards so that he is looking up at the woman who loved him first. Who had taught him to begin to truly accept himself. "Thisss one did not protect the nessst! Thisss one wassss gone. It isss thisss onesss fault." He holds his arms out, blocking access.
<OOC> Sabina will also try to step in between them. Talk. No magics. Dip check if needed but immagine RPing out is better. GAME: Sabina rolls diplomacy: (10)+18: 28
Bina moves as fast as Tarien's blessing can move her feet, covering the distance like a monk might and sliding in between the pair, pale faced and frankly scared. "No more blood! NO MORE! Are you going to attack your sister?!" She asks the pair of potential combatants. "Are you going to cut yourselves on one another? Cut your hand off to spite the other?! NO MORE BLOOD!" She presses her back against Zeke, trying not to trip on his tail.
<OOC> Seyardu says, "I don't expect much , but I'm going to try to grapple(hug) Cryo" GAME: Seyardu rolls cmb: (19)+7: 26 (vs 36 - Fail) GAME: Seyardu rolls diplomacy: (1)+12: 13 (EPIC FAIL) GAME: Seyardu rolls will: (14)+8: 22
Seyardu paused mid work. She turns, looks to Braelnoir, aghast, pleading in her eyes, hoping, praying that she had heard wrong. Sabina's reaction proves that it was not. It was enough to make her not react to Cryosanthia's sudden movement, and she was shoved back by them, staggering on her feet. And then they charged Braelnoir, and others moved in front of them. She was still standing there. Why was she alive? What had she accomplished? They were questions that she could not answer, and the silverscale was trembling. She runs behind the maddened makari, trying to grab hold, but slipping off even as she tried to hug them.
"Please, Cryo-" She pleads, only to find an inhalation of air she did not know she needed filled with ash. She doubled over in a coughing fit, trying to clear her throat and lungs.
Why is Brae alive?
Because no one will take her.
The lunge from Cryosanthia... maybe it was expected.
Maybe the silvermane is too broken to care.
Her eyes simply lift to meet her sister's arc, the anguish steeping her features the only thing keeping her face from being a limpid death mask.
The Endless Fields...
Rolson...
... not long, now.
As the palescale in all her fury soars at her, the Korite stands unmoving. It's only as the lunge makes contact, twisting the muddled human nearly half about the clock that the fight's begun.
A fight her training begins steering her body toward, locking her hand tight around the haft of the scythe.
A fight she doesn't want to win.
A fight she MUST meet or even the ashes of her final dream are for naught.
<OOC> Braelnoir says, "so everyone's between us now?" <OOC> Braelnoir says, "try to bullrush in return" <OOC> Cryosanthia says, "heehee. So CMB vs Zeke CMD+2 for Sabina being there to try and get past" GAME: Braelnoir rolls cmb: (12)+12: 24 (Vs CMD 23+2 - Fail)
By Kor...
No one understands.
Tearing herself from the Field, being so close...
It's not fair.
It's not fair that Rolson was dead, denied her, but Ghisha didn't let that stop her from troubling Braelnoir from beyond.
That Lily was snuffed like a candle, and her failed Tia couldn't even land a blow on her killer. Couldn't even solicit a response.
A proper death.
It's not fair.
"Because it's not FAIR!" she yowls before hurling herself, bodily, against the comrades who dearly want the sisters to live.
To live without each other's blood on their hands.
Cohorts, whose barrier holds true.
Because it's not fair.
<OOC> Cryosanthia says, "Cryo is using Acrobatics to move through you all, so that's your CMD+5" <OOC> Cryosanthia says, "So, Acro vs DC 22, 28 and 32, in that order" GAME: Cryosanthia rolls acrobatics+5: (8)+21+5: 34 GAME: Cryosanthia rolls acrobatics+5: (6)+21+5: 32 GAME: Cryosanthia rolls acrobatics+5: (8)+21+5: 34 <OOC> Sabina says, "She double flips over us all and dives throug hte doorway." <OOC> Cryosanthia says, "so that's move, and 1 attack, which will be claw swipe" GAME: Cryosanthia rolls 1d20+19: (1)+19: 20 (EPIC FAIL)
Cryosanthia drops to all fours after her bodyslam failed. Her tail, a wing, hang off her like dead weight. She's blocked, waists everywhere.
"You weren't there for months!" She screams at her cihuaa. He should have qualified actions, not words. She throws her shoulders to the left, crouches, "Not there when Tae gave her! Not there when she was stealing! Not there when I needed you. Of course you weren't protecting the nest!"
Not a good angle. "You don't understand Sabina. It's all over. This is the only way Braelnoir gets to heaven. This is the only way my pain stops!"
She jinks to the other side, finds the line. Like a cat, she leaps, soaring over Sabina, Zeke, catching the doorframe to kick herself just enough to land behind Braelnoir.
She's an acrobat. of course.
A claw lashes at the silver merc's face.
She's not that great a fighter though, and clearly thought she was landing on two feet, not four.
GAME: Zeke rolls diplomacy: (8)+11: 19
There's weight in the truth. In the fact that he was gone. Gone for so long. Abandoning his duty. He has no words that can possibly express right now how that truth makes him feel. No scent which can possibly... none save his own blood. He spills it on the edge of his claws and moves. Gets close to his cihuaa and jerks his wrist so that the blood falls to the floor. It stains his white vestments in little red spots. He shows her the mark. "You are right. Thisss one... hasss failed. In every-thing thissss one hasss failed. Do not ssspill more blood cihuaa. Let thisss one be the only one that paysss the prisce. Look at your ssssissster. Ssshe isss not thinking! You are not thinking!"
He shakes his wrist and the blood trickles down his arm. "Thisss one will help you find thossse truly resssponsssible. Thisss one will be there. If you let thisss one... Pleassse Cryosssanthia... We... We mussst mourn our daughter." He lets out a small, tiny sound of pain.
GAME: Sabina rolls diplomacy: (12)+18: 30
Bina takes in Braelnoir's face ... Cryo's words... Braelnoir's words. She calls out in a loud yell. "RUPI! CLEAR THE TARRACE!" And then in more reasonable yet passionate tones she speaks. "Of course it's not /fair/! Life isn't fair! No god promises us fair. It's up to us to make it fair ourselves and violence doesn't make it that way! it only ends with less fair and more pain!"
"On it 'Bina!" Rupi calls back up the stairs, and then she can be heard shutting the place down, emergency.
GAME: Seyardu rolls diplomacy: (10)+12: 22
There was so much going on. Seyardu was near the doorway now as Cryosanthia vaulted over the group. She wasn't going to be able to squeeze past at the moment. The silver face peering out was pleading, the scent of worry and despair in the air, if it even reached her.
"Cryosanthia, please." She says, her voice cracking and interrupted from a cough. "You have helped me through so much, you were the first kin, to treat me normally."
Could she even reach her? It was unknown. Did her voice matter, when it had meant so little in the past.
"You are, this one thinks of you like a nest mother never had. You have done so much."
Seyardu sighs, and closes her eyes. "Please. This one does not wish to lose you to. This one can not take more loss."
<OOC> Braelnoir says, "backhand with the gauntlet, followup with a swing of the scythe, say angsty things" <OOC> Braelnoir says, "if you want OPR" GAME: You spend ONE point of PANACHE. (2 remaining) GAME: Braelnoir rolls weapon2: (6)+13: 19 GAME: Cryosanthia rolls 1d20+19: (10)+19: 29 (Opportune Parry - Parries) GAME: Cryosanthia rolls 1d20+19: (3)+19: 22 (& Riposte - wingslap misses) GAME: Braelnoir rolls weapon1-5: (15)+16+-5: 26
Words.
Always words.
Zeke wasn't there, so what?
Brae was there... she was determined.... she was resolute...
And she was powerless to stop it.
Powerless to save another loved one. Brought another member of her family to ruin, and another to her death.
Worse than useless.
A hazard.
Betrayal made flesh.
Her spiked fist knots rattlingly into a makeshift mace as she brings it back the way from whence the attack had come, though her sister's defter reflexes turn it aside.
"I'M NOTHING ELSE!" she howls, tears streaming her face.
Her hand, bouncing back from the parry, seize upon the haft with it's twin and she brings a forceful stroke around, though the blade catches some of the wall and slowing enough to leave a window open for reprisal.
<OOC> Cryosanthia says, "So, full attack, which will be 4, on Brae. Bite, Claw, Claw, Wing, she's down a wing and tail attack" GAME: Cryosanthia rolls 1d20+19: (16)+19: 35 GAME: Cryosanthia rolls 1d20+19: (4)+19: 23 GAME: Cryosanthia rolls 1d20+19: (18)+19: 37 GAME: Cryosanthia rolls 1d20+19: (1)+19: 20 (EPIC FAIL) "wingy is just not in the fight, but that makes sense." GAME: Cryosanthia rolls 1d10+1d6+12: (3)+(4)+12: 19 GAME: Cryosanthia rolls 2d6+10: (8)+10: 18 GAME: Cryosanthia damaged Braelnoir for 37 points. 84 HP remaining.
Cryo is much louder, much closer, "The one responsible is right here!"
She snakes her head forward, snaps at a thigh. Her teeth open up a huge wound, she whips her head to tear Braelnoir's flesh even more. An arc of blood sprays, mixing with Zeke's.
"She was protecting her. She's been everywhere with me. She knows. She KNOWS." Cryo screams again. "It should have been me. I wouldn't have failed."
A claw lashes her shin, opening it up. Her one functional wing just waves around uselessly, she's still not adept with them.
Then... horrible words fly towards Seyardu, "I'm a horrible Nest Mother! Two Nests!"
She attempts to stand on her back legs, like a cat, balancing with great difficulty. "Here Brae! I'll stand Still for you. JUST KILL ME!"
Everything is lost.
Lily.
Cryosanthia.
There is nothing. His words fall on deaf ears. His actions on blind eyes. She is rage and he knows her fury like a tainted beat in his own heart. Aya has wisely fled and soon... His cihuaa will murder her friend. Or she will die. So he keens. He lets blood stain his vestments, lets his voice carry into the halls. He weeps in the only way he can.
For Cryosanthia.
For Lily.
Everything is lost.
GAME: Sabina rolls diplomacy: (5)+18: 23 <OOC> Sabina says, "Free Re-roll, please." GAME: Sabina rolls diplomacy: (17)+18: 35
The air is thick with yelling, with pleading and with keening tears. The sound of combat and the smells of pain and blood. Below them patrons are moving quickly out of the Tarrace though some stand near the exit or the windows outside to peer in at the spectacle.
Bina realizes there is nothing she can physically do to keep the two from fighting now. Pain is wrapped up about them both. Locking them together. It spins around the sisters like a black figure eight. Infinity. And the only thing she can do is offer them hope. Hope to fight the pain.
"YOU CAN FIGHT EACH OTHER OR WE CAN GET LILY BACK! WHICH IS IT THAT YOU WANT TO DO!? I'M GOING TO GET LILY! GET OUT OF MY WAY!"
<OOC> Seyardu says, "I'll squeeze out into the hall, use channel divinity." GAME: Seyardu rolls 3d6: (9): 9 GAME: Seyardu damaged Seyardu for -9 points. 67 HP remaining. GAME: Seyardu damaged you for -9 points. 151 HP remaining. GAME: Seyardu Sabina for -9 points. 41 HP remaining. GAME: Seyardu Braelnoir for -9 points. 93 HP remaining. GAME: Seyardu Zeke for -9 points. 100 HP remaining. GAME: Seyardu rolls diplomacy: (7)+12: 19 <OOC> Seyardu says, "I'd like to reroll that" GAME: Seyardu rolls diplomacy: (6)+12: 18
Her words meant nothing. It was nothing new. She staggers on her feet, shoving through the doorway if possible. Standing, facing Cryosanthia, her weight almost entirely against the wall behind her.
"You are not, Cryosanthia. Please do not say that." She says, pulling the holy symbol out of her tunic, the blood stained stone statue of the celestial mother. "I would be, a poor servant of the celestial mother, if I could not discern a good one, would I not?"
A look, another word before she closed her eyes. "I am sorry, this may hurt Cryosanthia, and I accept any retribution for the pain. But I know the healing needs to start. Please, Cryosanthia. Heal your heart and mind. And you as well, Braelnoir. This is not you. I know this, I do not want to see two I care so much about fight like this."
The blood stained amulet glows faintly, and releases a wave of energy, mending some of Braelnoir's wounds, and hopefully having a positive effect on the whitescale.
Teeth find purchase, and take their share.
Claws part flesh, leaving weapon furrows in their wake.
The Korite, leg barely able to bear her from the ground for the bite, regains some of her stability as the warm infusion of Seyardu's magic mends some of her wounds.
Still tear streaked, her eyes narrow at Cryosanthia's biting words, and her expression darkens at the inference. Another tilted field.
'Get Lily back' gets Brae's attention. It's not an unheard of concept, she just... doesn't understand what's happened enough to consider it a possibility.
It's... enough.
For a moment, anyway.
"I don't know who he is! I never saw'm, before!" she snaps, even as her Scythe crosses before her in a warding posture.
Everything _is_ lost.
All hope. Her light. Her challenge. Her joy.
She was lost, and then there was Little Fang, and she promised. She'd never abandon her. She'd return. She will be safe.
And that promise was broken, and everything attached to it falls apart, shattered.
Perhaps she should not have opened the door to the Dark Dragonfather in the Sea of Mana. Perhaps she should have closed it. There is only rage.
Which turns on Sabina, "FIND HER HOW?"
A question which spawns plans, enough to distract her momentarily. It's not as if she cares if she's struck, really. There is a way, two ways, a third.
Her balancing ends, it's harder with a dead tail. She drops to all fours again. The blood is much closer. The scents are strong.
None of it hers.
It never ends. It never ends. It never ends. It never ends. It never ends. It never ends.
A drop of black emulsion falls from her eye and lands in the blood puddle she's staring at. The spot pulls her attention. She stares at her reflection, at her other self, at herself. Why are you still living, Cryo had asked, if you've lost everything.
To give her a message, "You have to save her."
She closes her eyes. There's another quiet plop of falling ichor, then another, like the ticking of a clock.
"There's something I have to get first."
Map
https://www.mipui.net/app/index.html?mid=mxlr7p1hy0t
===================== Current Initiative Order - Round 1 =====================
---Init--Name------------AOO-Notes--------------------------------------------
29 Cryosanthia 5 Flat-footed (0 rnds active)
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23 Aya 6 Flat-footed (0 rnds active)
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19 Zeke 1 Flat-footed (0 rnds active)
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14 Sabina 1 Flat-footed (0 rnds active)
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11 Seyardu 1 Flat-footed (0 rnds active)
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4 Braelnoir 1
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==============================================================================
===================== Current Initiative Order - Round 2 =====================
---Init--Name------------AOO-Notes--------------------------------------------
>> 29 Cryosanthia 5 <<
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19 Zeke 1
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14 Sabina 1
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11 Seyardu 1
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4 Braelnoir 1
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| Name | Race | Class | CHP | HP | AC/FF/T |CMD |For |Ref |Wil |
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|Aya |SHADOW_ELF|Mnk | 229 | 229 |33/28/29 | 51 | 20 | 20 | 15 |
|Braelnoir |HUMAN |Brg/DDs/Ftr| 101 | 101 |25/22/16 | 27 | 15 | 7 | 5 |
|Cryosanthi|SITH-MAKAR|DDs/Sor/Swb| 151 | 151 |37/33/24 | 34 | 10 | 12 | 9 |
|Sabina |HUMAN |Clr/MTh/Wiz| 41 | 41 |19/17/13 | 17 | 8 | 6 | 11 |
|Seyardu |SITH-MAKAR|Clr | 67 | 67 |19/19/10 | 17 | 9 | 2 | 8 |
|Zeke |SITH-MAKAR|Clr | 100 | 100 |23/23/13 | 23 | 11 | 4 | 12 |
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| Name | Race | Class | CHP | HP | AC/FF/T |CMD |For |Ref |Wil |
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|Braelnoir |HUMAN |Brg/DDs/Ftr| 101 | 101 |25/22/16 | 27 | 15 | 7 | 5 |
|Cryosanthi|SITH-MAKAR|DDs/Sor/Swb| 151 | 151 |39/35/24 | 36 | 10 | 12 | 9 |
|Sabina |HUMAN |Clr/MTh/Wiz| 41 | 41 |19/17/13 | 17 | 8 | 6 | 11 |
|Seyardu |SITH-MAKAR|Clr | 67 | 67 |19/19/10 | 17 | 9 | 2 | 8 |
|Zeke |SITH-MAKAR|Clr | 100 | 100 |23/23/13 | 23 | 11 | 4 | 12 |
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