Log:Post-Apocalyptic Dwarves, Scene 8

Post-Apocalyptic Dwarves 2020/03/27 Ascendant Artemis Ellbeth Fauna Moonshadow Titan Thunder Stoutheart Stick-in-the-Mud 8

The gate stands open, and many dwarves are still half-stunned by Fauna's mighty deed. THe first few of a series of great halls can be seen leading their way into the mountain. And, in a more distant such hall, Moonshadow has become aware of the heroes' entrance. Or at least of the door being ripped off.

"HA-ha!" Nohrbor Nanuran Surryx laughsboisterously. "Thwarted by our wee Fauna! The Dwarves are even weaker than I beleived! Let us show our Hosts how we repay their shackled affair!" He exclaims (loud enough for the Dwarves to hear he hopes) before once again taking to the air and charging into battle.

"You've turned away Honor and Diplomacy! Let us see what the Godflora have left for such simpering three-inch fools!"

Titan lands again in front of the gateway, seeing what the dwarves are likely to do about the current situation. "Care to re-evaluate your options again?"

Considering the ramifications of someone rushing into the city now while the dwarves seem to be second-guessing the whole 'kill them with massive explosions' plan, MegaFauna moves the other gate into the Open position to drive the point home that none of them are safe behind it.

A dwarf commander bawls, "Send for the mutants - NOW!"

Finally back away (hey, you try taking 15 rail gun shots and have to sleep it off) the teenage hero rises up from wherever he is and looks around. "By Ryujin, I am going to enjoy this." He growls a bit, not one prone to anger despite being a teenager. Rail guns /hurt/ after all. And the teenager looks ready to go at the moment. He's already demonstrated that he's incredibly strong. And oddly, for the whole magma episode? He doesn't look like he sweated at all. Bringing his sword out, the teenager glares at the dwarves, "GO AHEAD." His voice roars. "I'm mad at you little guys right now. And quite frankly? I feel like letting loose!"

Ellbeth ports to the entrance, while ensuring she can keep an eye on where Ghost is laid in a tunneled out foxhole.

Most of the dwarves, however, are running away. Or at least tactically withdrawing. SOme start to close the large interior doors between the various halls.

Loud alarms sound.

Titan sighs. He had hoped that they'd be willing to talk after that demonstration. Apparently the dwarves don't even have THAT level of sense.

Titan mutters, " morons." He turns to the others. "I guess we'll have to just force our way to their prison area."

Moonshadow continues to fly invisibly in the direction that the map said the dungeon could be found.

MegaFauna begins moving into the halls to help open gates and explore what she can without having to desizify.

Nohrbor Nanuran Surryx continues his charge, laughing merrily the whole way. "Oh do not flee and show thine bellies so easily!" He shouts as he flies overhead. Once he sees them retracting the doors he'll reach out with his telekinetic abilities to hold one of them open.

"I SAID HOLD YOU PLAGUE SORES IN MAGNIFICENT ARMOR! I should like to beat you all like drums!" The Acendant yells as he focuses on a door.

Thunder crouches as the air seems to shimmer around him before the teenager leaps forward with a roar, as many times as he has to get to the interior doors and flat out push them back open. The teenager definitely looks pretty mad, and he's not holding back as he tries to literally push the doors open. "You dwarves had better come out here, because when I get my hands on you I'm seeing how far you can fly without those jetpacks!"

Titan takes a deep breath and heads inside as well, intending to just tear through doors as necessary.

The Godflora turns to see who speaks with such vinegared conviction. Seeing the youthful Thunder he laughs again.

"Well said, Pup! Let us see!" He shouts back.

Ellbeth wonders how the dwarves like heat. So as they try to close the interior doors she sends a mental image of Artemis firing a beam of fire turning the doors white hot.

Thunder yells back, "Stop calling me Pup, old man!"

Artemis flies in to catch up with Nohrbor. She's not one to be outdone by her Bloodbound, weaponless or not!

Apparently Thunder makes a good battering ram. He literally crashes through the first one. Then the second, then the third before he stops. Said gates end up off the hinges and kinda just hanging there as the teenager lands before he raises upwards, showing a bit of a flair of the dramatic, "Come out, dwarves! Face the fury of Ryujin's Tenrai! Or are you too cowardly to face me without your fancy toys!"

Artemis calls after Norhbor, "Yes, I think the younglings are called kits!"

The Ascendant Bloodlit, Nohrbor Nanuran Surryx laughs. "AH! I see, well I like the fire in this kit, dear Sister! He reminds me of our time in the Academy. Well, yours- I was far to bashful then. Always caught in my tomes and the proper processes of things... but now..." He summons a spear to his hand. "...look at us!"

Ascendant hurls the soulbound spear at a dwarf and it vanishes from view as it slides through the astral plane at his target.

Titan isn't in a major hurry. He's happy to follow up the others, with hte intention of helping people past any blockades if they're up by the time he gets to them.

Artemis laughs at Nohrbor's comments. "Indeed! Are you even Do'jon anymore, Brother? Your own kin wouldn't recognize your ascended self now!"

MegaFauna shrinks down to regular-sized Fauna, meandering in with Titan rather than charging, having little by way of pressure to remain as large as the halls.

The Ascendant Bloodlit, Nohrbor Nanuran Surryx laughs. "AH! I see, well I like the fire in this kit, dear Sister! He reminds me of our time in the Academy. Well, yours- I was far to bashful then. Always caught in my tomes and the proper processes of things... but now..." He summons a spear to his hand. "...look at us!"

Ascendant hurls the soulbound spear at a dwarf and it vanishes from view as it slides through the astral plane at his target.

"Ah Sister! You are right! This new form Burns HOT! My Soul flies higher and brighter than ever before!" Nohrbor Nanuran Surryx says to Artemis gleefully. "They would still recognize the Heart of our People within this Ascendant flesh! No Doj'on can hide the depths of themselves from the Commonality so I have no fears of being shunned by my kinsmen. They will celebrate us with a Hundred Year Feaast when we return to bask within the Shining City once more!"

Moonshadow continues to fly invisibly in the direction that the map said the dungeon could be found.

The first dwarf Ascendant tries that on resists through studborness, but the second falls for it, and goes to fetch his flamethrower!

"Clay-brained cowards!" Nohrbor Nanuran Surryx shouts as the Dwarves attempt to flee from their party. "You were warned! Now face our wrath divine! Face our Glory and bend thy knee or be broken, Dwarven-swine! Mark thy calendars as the day you were Blessed! Blessed by the Godflora with Mighty Retribution and know that it is JUST! It is DESERVED!"

Titan does leap toward their goal, but only about half his normal speed. He makes a point of tryng to make as much noise as possible when he lands each time, though. And he shouts, "Stay inside and hide! Bar your doors! And...do NOT stand in our way!"

The dwarven masses are startled by Titan shout. Few flee, but even the soldiers are affected to some extent.

Artemis flies ahead to keep charging after her Bloodbound Brother. "The Godflora have no wish to punish the innocent and those of ye who be civilians! Step away or face our fury!" she warns, not attacking the civilians as she flies on.

Moonshadow slows down as she approaches the closed gate, landing in a spot clear of dwarves.

Fauna rides on Titan, arms around his neck and shoulders, attached like a spider monkey/spider. Both at once. Fauna doesn't understand the connection.

Ellbeth follows along at her best combat effective speed. Good enough to keep up. If one Titan is impressive, how about six? Ellbeth creates mind illusions of an additional five Titans, all at varying distances up to 8m away from the original, advancing with him but also weaving and crossing paths, making it as hard as Ellbeth can manage to keep track of which is which. Oh, and including an image of empty space where she happens to be.

Titan is a bit surprised as Fauna latches onto him, but he chuckles and just goes with it for now.

Towards the gates, the dwarven response is more organised - or was, till Titan rattled them. The approaching soldiers fall out of step, fail to coordinate, some fail to fire - and those that do are most often firing at Titan's illusory duplicates.

Fauna goes flying from Titan when she is struck by whatever it is that was aimed at Titan, critically inju--seriously injured (8 rPD: Instant Regeneration), unmoving when she stops.

The lead group passes by more dwarves, but fewer battle-ready...

By the door Moonshadow has reached, one dwarf guard frowns. He pokes his railgun forward in the direction of Moonshadow...

Unnoticed by the heroes, Stick-in-the-Mud oozes out of the rock of the walls behind Titan and Ellbeth....

Fauna snaps back to consciousness, trying to figure out how she ended up amidst a pile of fruits and vegetable-like snacks.

Ascendant knows that time is not on their side, at least not without possibly injuring those they came to save and so he relents in his chase for Glory for tactical advantage. Plus he revels in the chaos, so he pauses long enough for his Sister to take her rightful place at his side before he continues moving down the center pathway towards the center of the city. He hurls his astral spears at every elder Dwarf who charges at him with a new illusion to allow for his allies a better chance of getting through- that illusion is the inversion of the truth, and so they shall see Dwarf where there is only Fae/Human/Fauna & Fae where their kinsmen stand if their wills are as weak as their gates!

He walks slowly as he goes, finding much delight in his wrathful retribution.

"Tell your children to fear US! Hide and hovel away or face ME!" He shouts out until he finds one worthy of his attention.

Moonshadow steps Astride the Boundary, and quietly moves closer to the door.

The Ascendant's arms rapid fire a number of soulbound spears that are hurled and quickly fade into the astral plane out of view to most. There they find their targets and hit true, rending the mortal dwarves' psyches and inverting their understanding of things.

Those struck wobble and bring their hands to their heads before taking stock of the mayhem all around.

Many are confused but being Elder Dwarves they are strong and mighty! They shall not balk when they see what few kinsmen left fighting for all they are worth.

They pick their arms bakc up and turn towards all the bloody Fae infesting their noble walls and yell out a mighty warcry as they really turn on their own.

As Moonshadow gets right by the door, she can feel something resisting the magic - she almost fades into sight!

Nohrbor seems satisfied with his chaosbringing as the Dwarves turn on their kind and he laughs before humming a song never before heard in this realm, a song sung in times of war & battle- one passed on among the Godflora for a thousand thousand generations.

Titan jumps over to pick up Fauna, "You'll be okay." He hoist her up and then jumps again, making a little more progress. "Everyone! Stay indoors! We don't really want to hurt you if we don't have to!"

Fauna chirps and holds on to Titan when he performs the pickup operation, either hugging or hanging on, possibly both.

Artemis lets Norhbor so chaos amongst their enemies. She keeps her mind to the task of the mission to rescue the Princess. Hopefully she can see an armory on the way, or some dwarf carrying a powerful looking weapon she can obtain along the way.

Perhaps surprisingly - Artemis sees a group of aerial soldiers hurrying towards her from the directions she's heading! So, arms: check. But also uh-oh. How was she to know that the next hall was where the dwarves had cornered Palanir?

Ascendant lets his humming build up to a crescendo and then begins reciting the words.

"Woe betide the enemies of those who Are.

Shades too ignorant to bend knee to the Justicars.

Shades of folly forgetting who they face...

and how they are lost in both time and place.

The drums of woe beat down like rain, and upon the field there will be only pain.

Know that those facing the Godflora on mount or sea would be...

better off Dead so their prayers might be heard by those lordly..."

He still looks like he's have a wonderful time.

Thunder turns towards the one that actually did manage to hit. Thunder, looking very mad, heads over that way and instead of flat out attacking stops and brings a hand up before slamming it hard into the ground. This produces a nice big shockwave. Civilian or not, everyone's not standing from it probably! Afterwards, he stands up and looms over the hopefully fallen dwarf that shot him. "You. Answer me now or my next strike is sending you outside. Where. Is. Me. Sword."

Dwarves go down like skittles, the unarmoured among them taking light injuries.

Civilians scatter from the angry Thunder, but the policeman holds his ground. Albeit he's sitting on it now.

Ellbeth drops the Titan images. Now Titan is holding Fauna the real McCoy is fairly obvious. There's other useful things she can do. For instance, station implies transport. Reinforcements would be bad for the heroes. So she turns her attention to the sizable side tunnel, and uses her Excavation spell to weaken the roof sufficient to cause a cave in. Dwarves can clear the tunnel. But it will take time and time is what the heroes need. //switch levels to DCV.

Normally Ellbeth uses this to open up areas in digs. This time she uses it to weaken the roof of the side tunnel. Cracks appears first as she drills holes into the rock. Then the cracks spread and join, and the roof of the tunnel gives way and caves in blocking the passage.

Stick-in-the-Mud catches up with the rear group - she's fast when moving through dirt and even stone! - and causes stone arms to come forth from the floor and try to grab Ellbeth!

The seeds of confusion sown by Ascendant bear fruit, as one dwarf turns his flamethrower on the place and others end up in confused battle with each other...

Back near the gate, Stoutheart reaches the first hall.

Fauna releases her grip on Titan, becoming unreasonably enormous again to protect Ellbeth from further troubles, grasping the stone hands and removing them from the ground.

If Ellbeth sees Fauna coming to the 'rescue' she gives Fauna a cheerful smile. "Please, stay with Titan and assist in rescuing the captive Fae. I can escape this when I need to. In the meantime I can guard the exit path to the best of my ability, and my ability to resist damage from the dwarves just improved significantly."

Ellbeth pats Fauna affectionately, "Thank you for the thought. Although clearly you did not hear my comment."

The appeal to Fauna's inactive side falls on enormous deaf ears, or the monstrous creature is going forward with her plan anyway, taking Ellbeth away from the line of fire and protecting her, and standing as unfathomable obstacle to the dwarves.

Though Ellbeth has blocked the station tunnel, and Thunder has scattered opposition within the hall, there is still trouble from behind: the few aerial soldiers from the first hall have been able to keep up.

Meanwhile, Artemis and Ascendant are faced with the first half dozen of the soldiers in front of them...

Artemis is shot through an clutches her chest. Her momentum hasn't flagged, but she's mortally wounded.

Ascendant ducks a stray shot and looks up at the first half dozen soldiers that stand in their way.

He stops singing and laughs.

He laughs harder at the surely near fatal shot imposed onto his Bloodbound Sister

"Finally, Soldiers willing to drawn blood!" He exclaims boldly.

"Tis bit a fleshwound!" Nohrbor Nanuran Surryx declares. "A Mortal dilemma surely, but ye of poor aim do not face Mortals on this day." He adds as his hand is thrust into the sky and another Soulbound Spear is forged in hand.

"No- on this day you face the Godflora and we are resplendent in our Might & Glory!" He says as he considers charging ahead, armor burning into existence around his mighty body.

"See our Constitution and tremble! We fear not Death only Dishonor!" He exclaims before turning to Artemis. "And of course, loosing to our Immortal Rivals."

Then with a sudden stab of his spear he attempts to impale Artemis with his spear.

Artemis is ready to keep fighting until she can't. And so Norhbor's treachery comes as a surprise as he runs her through. She grips the spear and stares at him. "Well...played...Brother," she chokes out before she starts to drop out from the air, landing on the ground with a hard bounce before becoming still.

Moonshadow takes a deep breath and steps into the wall, angling toward where she hopes is the back of the door. She uses the feel of the restance to navigate.

"Sleep well Sister, and know that on this day Hod's Light will be mine on this day! But take heart! I shall return your Noble Weaponry to your divine hand while you slumber." Nohrbor Nanuran Surryx says as he gently lays his Bloodbound down.

"Now, that you can taste my resolve. Let us see you you fare, yes?" He asks as he stands and turns his eyes towards the Soldiers.

Moonshadow has the luck of the devil. She before she intersects the corridor, she intersects another room - one with a number of weapons and other equipment in it. Not dwarf make, though.

MegaFauna takes a second to collect herself, as Megafauna are wont to do.

Titan sees the enemies coming up behind, "Fauna and Ellbeth...I'll hold them off. Go ahead. It's not like they have enough firepower to deal with me." He flies over...and goes to smash one of hte flying soldiers. Their weapons are powerful enough to be problematic. He finally also seems to get angry. He had been more...numb, up to this point, "You ! You don't even know well enough to get out of our way! You tried to nuke us! You think you can stop us?! Stand! Aside!"

The dwarf slams hard into a wall, but is still conscious, if not very.

Thunder glares at the fallen police dwarf, at least that's what he's assuming it is. "You." He points at the police dwarf. "I don't know what your people intended, but get the rest of these people to safety. Spread the word. If you do not fire on us, we will not fire on you. We want our weapons back and the Fae prisoners. That's it. I don't care if you believe me or not. Either do it or don't. These people's lives are in your hand."

He turns and leaps to the brawl with Titan, aiming at the nearest soldier he can reach possibly in an attempt to just punch one of them. "Sorry, big guy, but I hate these guys and here at least I can reach them better to show them how much I dislike their guns!"

Ellbeth stays with Fauna, creating a sphere of protection and a Privacy Field. Fanua and Ellbeth are hidden inside a 4m diameter semi-sphere of darkness to outside observation. From within it's just a slight grayness in the air. "Stay close, Fauna. This should get you close enough to what's ahead to punch it into next week."

Thunder's punch knocks one poor soldier right into the wall by where Titan's unfortunate 'victim' is as the teenager then settles into a fighter's stance.

Stick-in-the-Mud gets up to her old tricks, trying to ram earth -or rather the local stone, granulated - into Thunder's lungs.

Thunder moves around the incoming earth/stone sludge, then calls towards Stick-in-the-Mud, "Hey! No touching the first date!"

The leader of these dwarves speaks in a trembling voice. "He's mad - and -" he says, eyeing the infighting dwarves, "his madness is contagious! Retreat! We'll make a stand at the dungeon!"

Ascendant holds his ground and throws away his spear so his Sister's ichor won't mix with that of these unwashed Mortals. Such a blessing is too far above such lowborn & honorless beings.

"You have all proven yourself mighty foolish in all of this. We offered you peace. We offered you Honorable combat. And this is what you are left with." He says as a newly forged spear burns into existence in his pointing hand.

"Retreat? You cannot hide from the Godflora! We will outlast these walls you build. We will outlast these pitiful stars you bask under!" He exclaims as he hurls another spear.

This one fades like all the other as it slips into the astral plane seeking his target- the most frightened looking one.

Stoutheart catches up with those in the third hall, jet pack whining!

Moonshadow steps fully back into the world and lets her spell lapse. She looks around the room while she catches her breath.

Feeling that the stick-in-the-mud is probably a more bothersome threat than other things with the trying to asphyxiate her friends, MegaFauna sends a massive fist crashing down on that location.

The half sphere of darkness covering Ellbeth and partially covering Fauna collapses when Fauna strikes out.

The great fist of MegaFauna crashes down, scattering Stick-in-the-Mud to four winds and somewhat below, deconstituting the earthen dwarf for the time being.

At the fifth hall, the dwarves follow orders and begin their retreat into the sixth hall! At the third hall, only two soldiers are in any state to fire. One fires at Titan, the other at Thunder.

Titan growls and spares the dwarf who shot at him only a glance of derision. Instead he moves toward Stoutheart after righting himself, "You folks keep trying to kill us, despite our best attempts to deal with this peacefully! I'm done! I recommend you lot run as fast as you can, because this building will be coming down!" He then tries to slug the armored dwarf.

Stoutheart joins the dwarves bashed into the walls. Even with his willpower he's seeing stars.

Thunder runs over to the recovering dwarves, and attempts to punch it as well! He looks over, and winces as he sees Stoutheart now embedded in the wall. "Oooh... he's gonna feel that tomorrow."

Ellbeth turns and thrusts her hand out angrily, palm forward and fingers spread. From her palm a rippling pulses through the air toward the downed stunned Stoutheart.

The kinetic pulse hits Stoutheart, lifts him and slams him brutally into the wall behind him.

Stoutheart is knocked further into the stone wall, which is crumbling under the impact.