The Stolen Sword Session 2

Princess Guard - The New Era 2017/23/03 	 Titan Natasha Wolf 43

Returned from the Fae Homeworld, Natasha has a sniff around the trees, on the lookout for danger. Also, as ever, treasure.

Now Natasha is closer she can 'smell' magic. Quite a few sources of magic. A lot of the sources emanating dark or even black magic.

Titan sets Wolf down after landing.

Titan says, "I think the plan still stands. I draw attention. You both can flank to try to get in and look for the item."

Natasha is rather surprised at all the magic. She starts tracking the nearest magic smell, after nodding to Titan.

The stench of black magic is coming from the main manor house.

The dragon's danger sense is relevant. Natasha's scales are tingling already; and Titan isn't even in sight of the gate yet.

Titan keeps walking toward the front gate, figuring that his appearance will likely be enough to draw a fair amount of attention.

The closest two armed guards move along the top of the wall to get each side of the gate pillars. One of them calls down in Spanish, "What do you want, Jerk?"

Natasha creeps toward the places very stealthily! Apart from her metal scales gleaming brightly in the sunlight.

Fortunately for Natasha the trees, that far back into the forest, give a bonus to stealth.

Wolf slips through the underbrush silently and discretely, keeping tabs on Natasha by sense of smell and on Titan by listening for the inevitable shouting and commotion. Titan shouts up at the guards, in English, "You've stolen something that I'm here to recover. Bring it out here, and I won't have to hurt you!"

The guard shakes his head and calls across to his companion. It's the second guard who seems to provide a translation for his buddy, and then looks down at Titan and makes a impertinent gesture, "F*** off." he says in strongly accented English.

Titan shrugs, and attempts to rip open the gate.

Natasha crouches, ready to launch herself toward the manor house. But she suspect that she should wait till weapons fire or such is part of the distraction.

Titan digs in with both hands and pulls one of the gates off the pillar. He tosses it casually behind himself into the grass.

The sound of tearing bending metal is ear-screaming loud.

Natasha finally hears noises of mass destruction! She takes that as her cue to start zooming toward the most magicky bit of the house.

The guards shout in alarm and shock. They open fire but with Titan so close to the gate space they have bad angles of fire. The weapons look to be standard assault rifles - but when they fire they release plasma blasts.

One guard misses, his blasts tearing smoking holes in the ground. The second guard hits with one of his three round burst.

Titan says over the link, << Better armed than expected. A brace on the gate. And plasma blasters modded to look like regular firearms. >>

Wolf nods to Natasha, or, if needed, to Natasha's wake, and sets off toward the manor house as well. Stepping neither to the left nor to the right, but "stepping sideways" nonetheless (in some arcane fashion) he fades partly from view as he runs. As he approaches the wall, he sinks down into the comforting embrace of Mother Earth, "swimming" through soil and stone alike to gain entry unseen by the denizens therein.

Cunning plan by Wolf to enter without being seen is successful. But also provides interesting additional data. Wolf bumps his nose on a barrier impermeable by him even in his sidewise stepped form.

Natasha stops in her advance on finding those silly slow humans aren't looking at the distraction yet. burrowing a bit into the ground with razor-sharp claws the better to hide till the time is right."

A guard points and shouts, in Spanish, "I saw something." But the distraction at the gate is drawing all attention, and now Natasha is under ground level he isn't sure what he saw. If it wasn't just a figment of his imagination, or a forest animal, or a falling leaf catching the sunlight.

Wolf sends: <<

The jungle's scents cry loud and clear with rampant throes of Life. The sounds of Titan's entry sound a herald's call of strife.

And underneath this house of stone a Wall of Magic lies. . . It blocks the passage of all ghosts and spirits -- what surprise! >>

Inside the manor house there's a definite if faint sulfur and brimstone that Wolf can detect, and also hint of a foul odor that catches in the throat.

Natasha pokes her head up from her hiding place just enough to see, low like a crocodile in the water. She watches for the guards to turn away, and observes what she can of the house meanwhile.

Wolf < > : The manor house contains within an ominous foul smell. The scents of brimstone charring, with the sulphur stench of Hell.

Titan strides forward into the compound, looking for an interior door, totally unconcerned about whether or not there are gunmen around. He basically chooses to try to ignore them, like they're not even there.

The guards finally start to react to this intrusion into the compound. One of the two gate guards is using a walkie-talkie. The other guards on the wall either shoot at Titan or move into a position where they can get line of fire on him. Four guards turn away from the exterior to face inwards and fire. One of these being the guard that was watching the sector Natasha was approaching from.

Dark tinted shimmering auras appear around the guards as they activate force-field defenses. Then four fire on Titan.

Titan continues walking forward casually through the hail of plasma blaster bolts. Several shots bounce off of him, not deterring him at all.

Natasha takes advantage of the guard's distraction to charge flat out toward the house. She tries to gain access through a small aperture if possible, as less likely to be guarded.

The guard that was watching in Natasha direction is now facing inwards. He doesn't see Natasha's speedy approach and the slight buzzing of his force field defense prevents him hearing her wings. However as Natasha crosses his field of vision at the edge of his sight he spots her. But before he can react she's through the open second floor window and out of his sight.

Natasha starts sniffing about for the fae sword before the guard can come looking for her!

As Natasha sniffs, she can detect multiple magic sources. Only one has the distinctive odor of Fae magic, and that source seems to be beneath her, either on a lower floor or in a basement.

Wolf will keep on scouting, moving through the walls, floors, etc. to gather more information as he thinks about why and how the Spirit Barrier might have been put into place. ..

As Wolf scouts a number of observations come to his attention. There are six wall guards outside. Now at a minimum you can expect at least a 2-to-1 ratio of total guards to active guards. They have to sleep, right. So shifts. There isn't sufficient used living room in the manor for that many guards. Wolf catches sight of what seems at first glance to be the guard commander. But Wolf can tell - he's not human. In fact the supposed guard commander is the source of the foul odor. In one of the rooms that does appear to be lived in there's a red robe hung over the back of a chair. The robe is hooded, and has a symbol on the front of a skeletal ram's head with long curling horns and red glowing eyes.

Wolf < >: The Captain of the Watch is nae as human as might seem. And there's nae room to board all guards. . . There's more Below, I deem?

Natasha is trying to keep to the plan. She follows the smell of fae magic, wherever it goes. She does try to keep to narrow areas where humans are not likely to be looking, especially if she sees or hears someone coming.

Natasha is almost spotted a couple of times but her good hearing and ability to hide behind fairly small objects saves her. The magic scent trail leads her down to the ground floor and finally to a door under the stairs.

Titan continues into the building, not really knowing what he's looking for, other than a Fae sword, since he doesn't have any magical senses. He tries to rip the door to the building proper off before heading inside, just for show.

Titan tosses the door aside. "Perhaps you would be more reasonable to deal with, hmm?" He smiles, "You have something that was stolen. I am here to recover it. And I will."

The exterior guards stop firing. They aren't going to risk hitting the commander. The commander smiles sadonically, "You are here to die. I'm impressed with the way you have survived the Inferno Agents. I will do you the honor of eating your heart after I've killed you." he says in a dead serious tone. Then his form shifts and becomes demonic, as he slashes at Titan with a long clawed hand.

Titan stands there as he's hit and the claws skip off his body. And he yawns.

The demon's claw rip across Titan's chest, slicing his shirt into rags but not even marking the hero's skin.

The guards see their invincible commander slash at Titan and have no effect. The weapons in their hands sag as they look on stunned into immobility. Even the demon, confident as it is, seems to be affected.

Wolf squnches up his shiny black nose and twitches his whiskers a bit as he thoughtfully sniffs at the hem of the ram's-head cloak from his place of concealment behind and beneath the chair, his mental gears whirring as he tries to piece together if there is some -particular- use that this special Fae sword would have to these specific agent(s) of the infernal. ..

Wolf < >: Our hosts are cloaked in DEMON garb; their robes and symbols tell. . . Their Magi seek to summon Beasts from nether realms of hell.

Natasha, given that they don't seem to have been considerate enough to put in a dragon flap, leaps up to try to open the door in the conventional way so she can proceed.

It seems the door is locked.

Natasha, dropping to the ground again, exhales the magical essence of rot at the door.

The fake wooden door is tough but not that tough. It stays on its hinges but blows inwards. The sudden movement inside the passageway leading down a flight of stairs triggers the explosive charges linked to motion detectors. A gout of flame and blast blows back, slamming the door shut, which luckily shields Natasha from most of the blast, as the door, now blown free, is hurled over her head and across the hall into the opposite room. .

Natasha is dazed by the suddenly blast and pain....

The demon slams at Titan with a closed fist.

But it misses and punches a hole in the wall beside the front door.