2954/Infiltrating Forsaken Fortress

Infiltrating Forsaken Fortress
Date of Scene:	03 September 2015
Location:	The Hylian Mainland <LoZ-5>
Synopsis:	An attack is made on Forsaken Fortress, to save Ilia and to get ahold of the Tear of Light from Blind the Bandit.
Cast of Characters:	Deelel, Sarracenia, 513, Sanary Rondel, 787, 789, 790, 821, 864
Tinyplot:	Clearing the Twilight

---

Agahnim (864) has posed:
     Forsaken Fortress is deep in the Gerudo Desert. The vast majority of the Gerudo Desert is known to be free of the Twilight. But, the Forsaken Fortress? It has long been assumed to be. After all, the area around it is covered in Twilight, in a perfect ring around it. The party will indeed have to go through a patch of Twilight, those affected taking on forms based on animals.

     But, within a short bit of the fortress itself, around a rocky overlook that provides a lot of cover? The Twilight vanishes.

     The Fortress is in fact free of it.

     The fortress itself is a massive castle. Four large massive black walls, with wooden drawbridges on each side. A channel runs around the castle. Seemingly, it was once a moat of some kind, but it is long dried out. Notably, the bottom of the moat looks more melted and covered in magma stones... Perhaps it was once a lava moat.

     A tall, five story tall tower can be seen in the center of the castle. Windows lining along it. The walls themselves seem to have various rooms as well. Large muscular pig men, Moblins, walk along the ramparts here and there, about three to each wall. At each corner of the base, massive spotlights point down, each a complicated series of mirrors and torches. They point along the desert, keeping an eye out for anything that might be approaching.

     There are, of course, many ways to go about this. The goal is to rescue a prisoner, and to find the Tears of Light. There is no need to fight, if it can be avoided. But... A more brute force option is almost certainly something that can be considered.

Sarracenia has posed:
     After getting some rest and having the mask she 'purchased' taken from her by the meanies in the Confederacy, Princess Sarracenia is making her way toward the Twilight with the others. She is not in a very good mood after having to turn over the mask, so she has been pouting the entire walk to the barrier.

     She stops when she reaches the edge of it. "So, we are supposed to turn into animals if we go in here?" she says aloud. She looks around at the others, then hmphs before stepping in. "I am sure I will change into something regal." The princess steps into the Twilight without hesitation. Perhaps foolish, but she prefers to think of it as bold.

     Once inside the Twilight, the princess groans as the magic takes effect. She glows, then is forced down to all fours before in a burst of light she becomes...

     A Chinese Crested Dog! About half the size as she was before, with cute poofy white fur on her head, the end of her tail, and around the bottoms of her legs. And, much to her dismay, it is neon pink fur. "P-pink...? Pink?! NOOO! WHY DID IT HAVE TO BE PINK?!" The transformed princess buries her short muzzle in her forelegs dramatically and whines.

Victor Ellsworth (790) has posed:
    Victor was, for a brief moment, an animal.

    Predictably the gambler turned into a rabbit. A bright yellow rabbit radiating LIGHT. One might mistake him for a Solar Exalted, honestly. He'll be rather happy to be done with that once they reach the fortress, but it might make their approach much more visible. Sorry guys!

    The young teen, once out of the Twilight, immediatly darts behind the nearest cover, presumably where everone will also be tempted to go. Can't really just run in, they have to find the best way in! Right?

    "This is the Worst. I am not High level enough for This."

    He reaches for a deck of cards kept in a holder on his belt, shuffling the pack and placing it back in. He draws himself an initial hand.

    5S, 6S, 8S, AD, Red Joker.

Could be worse. He'll want to avoid the Clubs suit here.

Finna (513) has posed:
    As before, the Twilight seemingly has no effect whatsoever on Finna. If anything, she's FLAUNTING its inability to change her, Moonsilver Tattoos proudly on full shimmery display, although the Twilight's energies do cast them in a weird, sombery, orangish light with streaks of silver and they occasionally reflect things native to the Twilight instead of the world around them.

    For weaponry, she's got a short sword of what looks like viking make on her waist and a hunting bow in hand, complete with quiver of arrows. A dagger completes the assorted weaponry...

    "They really don't name stuff 'the Forsaken Fortress' without reason! This sure looks the part." Of Course she's hiding behind dunes when the spotlight passes over. If it gets too hairy to progress further she can always shapeshift into a bird and go give the spotlight-watchers a bad day...

Epicea Chelid (787) has posed:
    "Let me get this straight. We go into the dark fog junk and then we become animals?" Epicea wonders, before they enter the Twilight.

    One might expect a seadwelling troll to become something aquatic when they entered the Twilight, a form twisted and amphibian, or worse, a fish. In open air.

    Instead she becomes a rather large sloth, with hooked claws and dopey-looking eyes.

    "Could go for some dank leaves and stuff now." Slothicea rumbles, trundling along with the rest at her own pace. This probably means she leaves the Twilight last, but everything works out. Unlike Victor, there is no field of LIGHT or whatever, but she's pretty freakin' chillaxed, maaaaaaaan.

    When she's back to normal, she looks up at the fort and shrugs. "So, what's our plan for violence? We gotta get in /somehow/."

Sanary Rondel has posed:
     "So... Bets on what we're gonna turn into?" Sanary wrinkles her nose slightly as she eyes the outer rim of the Twilight area, her arms crossed and her brow furrowed. It's not every day that she's faced with the possibility of transforming into something else entirely, but it's probably something she'll need to get used to if she hopes to explore this region further. "I just hope I don't end up with something stupid..." She edges closer to the ring before turning around suddenly to face her comrades for this mission.

     "If any of you laugh, I'm using you as battering ram." She's got her usual gunaxe hooked to the side of her belt and a bestial-looking kite shield on her back, and her armor is... Fuzzy. A little thick, too, which would probably be more appropriate for a desert at night rather than any other time of day.

     And then she's off! It's quite an uncomfortable transformation, shifting from her regular human size to something somewhat larger, and it's not quite clear at first where she's even gone. Upon closer inspection, though, there's a tiny yellow and black canary fluttering about rather haphazardly within the field. It lands on Sarracenia's head and give her a light nip on the head before.. Grunting?

     "H-hey. At least you can bite stuff. The hell am I supposed to do like... Like /this/?"

Deelel has posed:
Deelel does not enjoy the twilight there's this inate revultion to grid bugs, much like humans have towards insects. She's able to supresse it as she's not turned into a hulking digital spider like thing for very long. She's soon back on two legs and stares at Finna for a moment.

"Show off."

It's good natured at the veyr least and to Epicea she says

"I brought a few means of entry but the question is do we want to go in loud or quiet?"

Sarah Parsle (789) has posed:
Sarah is kind of taking her situation as a black house cat in stride, though she does glare at the Shiny Rabbit as they pass through. "Will you people relax, it would actually be better if the stupid fortress /did/ have Twilight, most of us would be better off for sneaking around then. Also, look who isn't surprised that Princess Shadycakes is a toy poodle." Yes, she's getting it wrong on purpose.

Catcatcatcatcatcatnotacat. Sarah exits the Twilight with the kind of acceptance that someone who is already convinced everything is going to go to hell has. She looks over the initial entrance and thinks for a moment. "No front guard. Shadows are deep enough to stay out of detection if we avoid the spotlights. Regular movements, regular patrol patterns." She looks up at the ramparts. "They've been here for some time. Their patrols are getting sloppy. You're going to find holes in their patterns."

She looks to the others. "I'm going to start sneaking in. It's more optimal than trying to fight an army of pigdudes. If you want to go for stealth kills, do whatever you want, but as long as the alarm stays down we can probably get this done quick and easy."

Sarah doesn't waste time, slipping in around the edges and keeping to the shadows as she glooms her way around, looking for a good opening to exploit.

Archer (821) has posed:
     Rin had been keeping track of this particular mission ever since Archer was given it, and she - still the sucker for offering help in these cases it seemed - had basically leveled him with the mandate of helping when he could with it. And what she ordered, he obeyed as per their contract.

    Upon arriving though, Archer felt equal parts dread and nostalgia at the sight of the fortress - and a very well-guarded one at that. He hadn't helped attack one since his early days... or at least not conventionally.

    However, this particular fortress was different from those of Earth - the people here weren't any strangers to magic like those back home, and it was well-known enough to likely make their castles resistant to being collapsed at a distance by magic. Another issue was that these weren't human - they were some sort of... well, pig men was the only word to describe them. But it wasn't their appearance that was really surprising - after what he'd seen in his few short missions so far, Archer felt he'd believe just about anything now.

    No - the issue was something else entirely. that he didn't know how much punishment these creatures could take or if they were resistant to magic, or at least more so then humans. Otherwise he could have risked just sniping them out one by one - but if they didn't drop with the first hit, they'd should an alarm. After all, if they were anything like the pigs on Earth, they could probably shriek pretty loudly.

    Enduring his short transformation into a scarlet-haired fox as he had the last time he was within the Twilight - and thankful that it was an animal that could move quickly with relative silence - Archer re-emerges as himself again and makes his way to the budding group that is meant to be his comrades for this mission. Hearing the questions, he shrugs offhandedly - "It's an easy choice; fighting is straightforward but it will make things harder since we don't know what these things are capable of. The girl" - he gestures offhandedly to Sarah - "is right about their patrols. They're getting sloppy - they don't expect an attack. Plus, we have a captive to think out - he's useless if he dies in the crossfire of a battle."

    Matching Sarah's pace, Archer glances down at her and smirks - before promptly fading from sight, turning invisible as he enters spirit form. "Mind if I tag along? You might need the help if any fight breaks out. Besides, two people tend to have better chances of success then one."

Agahnim (864) has posed:
     The group goes mostly unnoticed.

     Mostly, aside the glowing bunny rabbit who is lighting up the Twilight.

     All of the spotlights are /now/ pointed towards the group gathered, towards the rocky outcropping the group is hiding behind. The nearest gate of the fortress opens. A number of Bulbins start to ride out. They look to be bizarre creatures. Short, vaguely humanoid. Their arms reaching almost as long as their body. They are dressed in various leathers, and hoods. Horns come off of the heads of most of them, as well. They sit upon the back of /giant boars/ the size of a large car. Rushing into the group. There are about twenty riders in total. Ten archers, near the middle and back of the formation. Spearmen on the edges. A slightly taller one at the front, with a cutlass in his hand.

     Thankfully this means that Sarah and Archer are going completely unnoticed as they sneak away.

Sanary Rondel has posed:
     Riding Sarracenia the rest of the way through (flying is hard!), Sanary flutters off shortly just before they actually cross that inner edge in order to avoid crushing her once she transforms back. She resists the urge to groan at the soreness in her arms, instead moving over to a more shadowy position with the others. Luckily for her, this armor is significantly less clunky and loud than her usual armor!

     Alas, being stealthy is not to be, with the lights trained on that hiding spot. Just as well, though, since her armor (as fuzzy as it is) is still armor, and being able to brush off the smaller nicks that dodging won't take care of would be a godsend. "Time to make some noise, then." She peers out from behind the rock at those approaching riders, then takes a deep breath before drawing the gunaxe and shield. She starts pumping magic into the anklets worn under her pants, tilting forward slowly until she starts lifting off the ground! A little wobbly, but she's going high enough that it'd be easy enough to avoid the spears.

     "Hey, stupids! You're... Stupid!" Satisfied with the height she's getting as she faces the moblins, she starts swinging her axe around and trailing fire in the air behind her swings! She probably won't hit anyone with that, but.. It's bright and flamey! What a nice target.

Sarracenia has posed:
     The princess shrugs at Sanary. "Sing for us?" she suggests. That is what a canary does, right? Sarracenia makes her way out the other side of the Twilight finally, then blinks as she sees those creatures rushing toward them. "Well, I suppose that means a sneaky entrance is no longer an option!" she exclaims as she changes back to normal, her huge DK hammer in hand. She gives it a twirl then rests it over her shoulder before she digs into her purse and pulls out...three green leaves. "Whoever wishes one, take it. It will allow you to fly after getting a running start."

     The princess uses one herself, and a pair of cute brown ears along with a raccoon tail appear on her. She then charges right at the charging Bulbins. But, just before they would clash, she leaps and her tail flutters, taking her sailing into the air. In moments she is high above them, sailing toward the top of the ramparts.

Finna (513) has posed:
    Aaaaand out come the Moblins on their charges. Finna blinks. She was expecting, oh, maybe them to set up barricades and bar the gates, maybe fire some arrows or throw stones. Not go expose themselves at the first signs of danger!

    Morons.

    With a sigh, and deciding that any prisoner under these dimwits' care must be in serious trouble indeed, she flies the coop. That is to say, she backflips spectacularly and is already aflight as a red-tailed hawk, wings pumping supernaturally fast to send her skywards and over the walls! First she'll circle around a few times and see if there's anything of note to report back to her allies though...

Victor Ellsworth (790) has posed:
    "I AM INCREDIBLY SORRY RIGHT NOW," Victor says to whoever is still with him (most likely everyone who isn't Sarah and Archer), behind the safety of the very large rock he's cowering behind. He considers it a very lucky break when Sanary just sort of CHARGES IN WITH AN AXE. Oh, good, someone can tank!

    Victor draws two more cards, shuffles them with his hands, and then peeks out of his cover very briefly. Two cards lance straight out of his hands like high-speed projectiles towards the middle rows of pigmen, namely the archers.

    Those two cards are the SIX OF CLUBS and the ACE OF DIAMONDS. The six of clubs is more or less a hand grenade in explosive output, but the ace of diamonds is top-notch piercing damage-- for someone of Victor's strength, that is.

    New hand: 5S, 6S, 8S, QS, Red Joker.

    And then Victor dives back into his cover.

    "This is the Fastest I've ever seen a Plan go south! I hope we have a Backup besides killing these Monsters until they run Out of monsters to throw At us!"

Sarah Parsle (789) has posed:
Sarah skitters along with some of the other stealthier specialists. When Arther joins her, she mutters quietly, "Oh, hey, you're invisible. Nice trick. Let's move." She's prompt and on business, moving along with Finna, who is also a sneaky person as they work their way into the area. As she quietly hunches in the darkness as the Bulblins ride out, Sarah shakes her head and moves on. She must be thinking the same thing as Finna. While she's not supernaturally agile, she knows hot to generally stay out of notice and in motion. Being a little girl helps, people don't notice kids so much.

Archer (821) has posed:
    Archer clicked his tongue in annoyance as the guards emerged - once again, he cursed his E-Rank luck. This was the /second/ stealth-intended mission they had embarked on here, and yet it was already becoming a battle.

    Then again, he ought to be used to nothing turning out as he'd expected it to. That had pretty much been the case since he started taking missions in the Multiverse.

    Staying in line with the young girl, Archer follows her and fox-spirit into the fortress. He was basically relying on these two to know where they were going - he couldn't use structural grasp on the castle's layout without potentially exposing himself. Still, he was at least able to speak - softly enough for only Sarah, and possibly Finna, to hear.

     "I assume you know where we're going?"

Epicea Chelid (787) has posed:
    "Pff, chill out, Victor." Epicea urges, as her friend draws ALL THE AGGRO, ALL OF IT. "See, they're all coming out and leaving the door open. I knew I could count on you to make this plan work great. Or something. Like my lucky charm." She notes to Victor in a chillaxing tone. "Seriously though, don't worry about it. Look, they're all charging us, the door's open, it's perfect. Plus, check out night-bright over there." She gestures to Finna and her Moonsilver Tats which are also glowing like fsking spotlights screaming HERE I AM, I AM A LUNAR, HELLO YES THIS IS LUNAR.

    To support the frontline attackers, Epicea begins to... throw pillows at the enemies. Yup. Pillows. The -blins get paffed by pillows which easily bounce off or fall short to a stop. Though, if they connect, they connect like sacks of bricks.

    "See? Everything's great. Just chill out and go with it, everyone. We're fighting idiots, so just apply violence."

    Epicea lounges on Victor's rock and casually continues throwing pillows, in plain sight.

Agahnim (864) has posed:
     As the group of riders make their way forward, they suddenly shift their route. They're aiming at an angle, looking as if they're getting ready to circle the group. And, they're doing this at /quite/ a far pace. Why rush forward if they're just going to be wrecklessy rushing to attack?

     Well, that's because they do, in fact, have a strategy. The archers are drawing their bows, while their pigs follow the rest of the horde. They aim the bows up, firing at the group from quite a distance. Their arrows look rather simple at first glance. Bow, simple feathers on the end. But, there is a trace of something on the tips of each of the arrow. Local poisons, refined and prepared upon their arrows. they're not aiming at anyone in particular, jsut at the group as a whole. Hoping to strike them with the arrows in the panic. A few are aimed at one person in particular: Sanary. She's trying to draw aggro, after all. And, one of the lancers breaks formation, going in towards Sarracenia. It brings in its spear, only for Sarracenia to suddenly be upon the ramparts.

     And, on the ramparts themselves? A few large Moblins are near Sarracenia, both holding gigantic axes. They start running at her, from both sides. Their axe, swinging down towards the Princess.

     Finna actually gets unnoticed, her bird form being considered just a bird. One bulbin archer casually looks up to her from the ramparts, raising an eyebrow. He takes a shot towards her, but misses. Snapping a finger, muttering something about wanting some fresher meat.

     But, as Finna circles the tower, she'll find a window that sticks out from all the others. It is on the fourth story of the five story tall tower. Thick bars upon it, and with awning that makes it hard for the sunlight to get inside. Torchlight is inside, though, revealing a girl. In chains. She is in her late teens, and laying on the ground, her knees bent. A chain connects her leg to a bolt in the floor. A small plate of mostly rotten food is next to her. Her short blonde hair looks dirty, and it almost looks like she has been crying. She exactly matches the description of Ilia.

     Archer and Sarah go completely unnoticed as they enter the fortress. The tower has but one doorway, and a particularly fat moblin sits next to it, on a chair. Sleeping. A ring of metal keys are upon his belt, and a padlock is upon the door to the tower.

Agahnim (864) has posed:
     The cards manage to do a fair amount of damage to the bulbins. The explosion causes a couple to fall down, especially considering how /closely/ grouped together they all are. The piercing strike takes one down, leading to him falling off the boar and being trampled. Only a handful of archers remain, now.

     And, the front bulbin, the one who is simply weilding an intimidating looking cutless? The one leading the group? He is hit by the pillow. The only one who actually seems to not /care/ about them, assume the pillows are safe. Possibly one of the only Bulbins who even knows what a pillow /is/ enough to assume it is harmless.

     And then he falls off, and gets trampled.

     The Boar Riders are beginning to scatter a bit, now.

Sarracenia has posed:
     Princess Sarracenia swings her hammer as she flies over the lancer, aiming to knock his head in. Whether that works or not, she is now on the ramparts. With two big Moblins. Holding equally big axes. "...perhaps this was not a sound plan." she says to herself. Still, she stands her ground, letting them close in. Letting them think she will be easy to catch.

     Then, just as they are about to slash at her, she ducks and dives off the rampart. Without a running start all she can do is float down, but flying wasn't really her objective this time. She was hoping that the Moblins were not very smart and would either be unable to stop their swings and hit each other, or just plow into each other and hopefully knock each other out.

     Even if that plan does not work, she is floating down toward that dry moat inside the castle's walls. When she touches down, she starts running again and again leaps into the sky, trying to rise up onto the next wall.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel is able to get close enough and most of them are able to avoid getting seen. Shje's going to try to keep form getting noticed when. She will take up the offer that Sarracenia made and will take a leaf. It will be quite the odd bit with the tail and ears, but once she gets a good runnign start? She can't argue with the results. She'd have used her light jet but that thing is not stealthy at all.

Once she gets in the air she's going to fly only as long as is needed before she'll find a on the fortress where she can come in for a landing and get to searching for the hostage.

Sanary Rondel has posed:
     Not as many as Sanary had hoped would focus on her, but it's still a good number. " As those arrows come closing in, she pumps more energy into one of the anklets to, ideally, push her just out of the way of those arrows! With the angle her foot's at, though, and from putting in a little too much energy, she starts spiralling in mid-air! Oddly enough, it's actually timed just right to avoid most of the those arrows without really moving anywhere.

     Unluckily for her, though, that's not all of the arrows. The timing on that spin just so happens to put her shin right in the path of one arrow, sending it cleanly into the side of her calf. "Son of a... Lucky hit, you shitty... Shit ass." She shakes her head quickly, feeling somewhat woozy after all that spinning. A little too woozy even for that, though. Was there something on those arrows?

     Fighting back the urge to vomit on the spot, she bites back a cry of pain as she yanks that arrow out, focusing her energy on that leg wound while bringing her shield around to augment her mid-air defense. Instead of firing back with her gunaxe, however, she opts to direct some energy into her eye. After a moment, she fires a red-hot beam out of it to try and sweep it at the archers! Like with the archers' shots, she's not aiming at anyone in particular and mostly just hoping it'll hit something. Of course, her reflexes are somewhat dulled by that poison, so it's not as if she'd be able to aim properly at just one of them, anyway.

Archer (821) has posed:
    Well, getting in hadn't been a problem. Now there was the matter of getting their prisoner back out.

    Fortunately, there wasn't much opposition in here. The outside battle would have been a problem if it spread into the castle.

    A single guard? Alone inside with no back-up and a commotion outside to drown out any sounds? That wasn't quite as much a concern in dealing with.

    Moving behind the sleeping guard, Archer quickly re-materalies, not even hesitating to wrap his arms around the creature's throat, casting Reinforcement on them to increase their strength - and twisting sharply to the left, snapping it's neck with a sound like breaking bark.

    Quick and painless. He could only hope things went as smoothly from this point on.

    Letting the body flop to the floor, kneels down, picks up the keys from his belt and then turns to face Sarah before giving a sarcastic smile and half-bowing to her, holding out the key to her as if he were a knight. It's unclear as to whether or not he's polling fun at her-

    But then he gives an all-too-polite "After you" that sounds suspiciously like he's assumedly asking 'what would you do without me?'

Sarah Parsle (789) has posed:
"It's a prisoner, they have to be keeping them in a place where she can't just walk out." Sarah whispers back.

Meanwhile, she sees a fat, lazy Moblin at the door. She would unleash scorn but that would be counteproductive right now. Stay on task. Stay on task. Keep focused. With a quick motion, Sarah scurries up to the sleeping Moblin and then carefully begins doing the keys-

When Archer solves the problem permanently. She pauses, looking at the dead guard, and then back to Archer, and gives a somber thumbsup. Sass is for when they're not playing a stealth game. She takes the keys from Archer and USES the KEYS on the DOOR.

Victor Ellsworth (790) has posed:
    They're not friends! THEY ARE NOT -FRIENDS-. Damnit, Epicea! You know Victor is aware of the narrative! Okay, not really to that extent, but if you'd spoken that out loud he'd have argued it to hell and back.

    The sound of arrows clipping the rock and landing right near him stressed the boy out, who wonders if he should even stick his head out one more time. It seems like a BAD IDEA.

    "Relax? Relax?! I would like To point out we are Being besieged by an Army that may have belonged To a King of Evil, they are Huge, also pigmen, those arrows Look poisoned, and we might Die!" he replies to Epicea, ignoring the secondary plan to fly off. There's archers! Flying is an awful idea! Oh god why are people doing it.

    Two more cards, and the boy peeks his head out of cover. How close are the riders? Please still be far. PLEASE STILL BE FAR. The two hurled cards this time are the QUEEN OF CLUBS and the RED JOKER, doubling as an ACE OF DIAMONDS again. The queen of clubs is basically high-yield explosives, the ace of diamonds stand-in wildcard is the exact same thing as before. And yes, he's making sure not to friendly fire at Sanary, if he can help it.

    New hand: 5S, 6S, 8S, QS, KS.

    "How many Pigmen can you fit in One fortress anyway? Maybe we should try getting In or something. HEY PEOPLE WHO ARE FLYING, THROW A ROPE DOWN THE RAMPARTS WHEN YOU GET UP THERE!"

Finna (513) has posed:
    Sharp hawk-eyes catch the tone of fair skin against all the dreary stone and rusty metal in this awful place. Finna enters a steep dive, heedless of the one arrow, and heads for the barred window. Unless these bars are tight enough to keep out bugs or a mouse, she'll have no trouble squeezing through. Literally. If a hawk can squeeze through the bars, she'll do that. If not, she'll shift to a mouse first...

    But either way, once she's through, the creature walks up to the cage.

    Finna paces around the area a few times, listening carefully to find if there are any guards approaching.

    Once she's fairly sure they're safe, creature-Finna aproaches the girl.

    "You've met with a terrible fate here, haven't you? Ssh, don't alert the guards."

    In no time at all, Finna resumes her natural shape. Flesh reshapes and the tiny bird grows clothes in place of feathers, human features instead of sharp animal ones.

    "There's a rescue party keeping the guards busy."

    Presumably these leg irons are locked somehow, and Finna knows how to deal with that. She pulls out some lockpicks and gets to work, assuming Ilia doesn't flip out too much!

Agahnim (864) has posed:
     The Moblins stop /just/ short of hitting eachother. Even then, their axes were aimed similarly, so they would of just stopped as they stuck eachother's weapons as well. One of them runs for something up on the ramparts, which wasn't immediately visible: A large lever.

     And he Pulls the Lever.

     Panels open up across the castle's walls. Lava begins to flow down, filling into the moat. At least, Sarracenia definitely has time to get out. And seemingly the moat /is/ still in use.

     Sanary manages to hit a spearman as the riders begin to scatter in the confusion, the beam from her eye striking him just right. Or more of, hitting his boar, causing the boar to fall to the ground, and the Rider with it. Soon after, Victor blows up a number more. Bodies, flying all over the place. The few remaining riders are fleeing into the Twilight, rather than heading back to the fortress. They seem to know when shit hit the fan.

     Deelel manages to land inside the fortress, right near where Archer and Sarah are. Just in time to see Archer crush the throat of the Moblin, breaking its neck. It falls over limp, dead upon the ground.

     The key opens the door. Behind it? A /vast/ number of enemies. There are no less than twenty moblins, and ten of the small bulbins. They suddenly all lift various spears up, pointing it towards the trio outside the door.

     It only hits the minds of the group after the fact that they should have thrown the fat moblin in first, to intimidate the numerous Moblins inside. At the least, a staircase leading to the next floor is behind them, so they can do that with the /next/ room.

     As Finna enters the cell room, she'll find the inside rather plain. Wooden floor. A door on one side. A staircase leading further up, with a large lock on it. Ilia turns, her leg chained to the ground. She lifts a hand, wiping a tear from her face. As Finna starts to pick the lock, she simply whimpers a bit, "That... that's what the noise is, out there? A rescue party... Just for me?"

     Ilia moves to Finna's back. Wrapping her arms around her. It feels like she wants comfort. A chance to relax. Perhaps it is simply the joy of seeing a human seeming person for the first time in ages.

     Or perhaps it is a trap. Which is a lot more likely, considering the knife that suddenly appears out of nowhere in Ilia's hand. Ilia presses the knife to Finna's stomach in a sudden flash of movement, while Finna is working at the lockpicks. Ilia keeps trying to hold onto Finna, trying to hold her back. Even as Ilia's shape changes.

     Her skin turns red in color, her hands becoming larger. More masculine. Her clothes change completely, into a simple white rope covering her body. And her head, becoming a large face masculine red face with large pupiless eyes.

Shapeshifting Shadow Thief
BLIND THE BANDIT

Finna (513) has posed:
    Tinker tinker tinker! Finna's about got one of the things unlocked when she has Ilia climbing onto her. Okay that's a little odd, but she can tolerate that.

    Then her instincts scream at her. "Wha--OORGH--!!!"

    STABBED! A searing pain lances through her gut and Finna nearly doubles over... but that's kinda hard with this awful THING that nearly has her in a chokehold. "Grrrrkghh..."

    Instead of doing the 'smart' thing for most people in her position and putting some serious CQC hold-breaking to work, she glances back and immediately makes a face like she's about to vomit.

    Then she takes a solid, deep breath, ignoring the pain and the blood that's seeping from her wound-- wait? Seeping?

    Blind was probably expecting that to be a nasty wound that would need medical attention. It is not. There's very little blood at all, as Finna's wound clots supernaturally fast.

    "Rotting food so I wouldn't smell the rotting trap... cleeeeever. But you picked the WORST possible time to spring this one. You've lost the element of surprise and have only one person to assault. And I..."

    Power gathers through Finna's body. Her Moonsilver Tattoos gleam and shine from within as Lunar Essence concentrates. Fur sprouts from her flesh and muscles bulge and ripple. In a few seconds she's grown a full head taller... and all of her fox features are on full display. A great humanoid fox woman with white fur's what Blind's holding on to now.

    All that power in Finna's body then erupts out in a swirling aura of brilliant moonlight and twisting shadows, wreathing her whole body in a thick light that keeps her exact stance, size, and shape vague. It's bright enough that the light shines through the tiny window like one of the fortress's spotlights, except this light twists and tears at the night air and stone.

    THAT's when she spins around in Blind's grasp and attempts to hurl him at the wall with all her might!

    "I can play this game too!"

Archer (821) has posed:
    Well, if nothing else the girl wasn't squeamish about killing. That was helpful to know - practical for the mission as well.

    A good thing too... since at this moment they were now thoroughly in trouble.

    Muttering a curse, Archer barely had time to grab the fat moblin - an easier task with his strength still under Reinforcement - and half-throw, half-shove it towards the oncoming mob.

     "Run!" He only says it once - he figures that's all he needs to as the girl doesn't seem the type to need telling twice. He also must trust the girl in the circuit-covered jumpsuit to keep an eye on her... while Archer bought time.

    That done, he prepares to try and stall out some of the oncoming moblins.

     "Trace; On."

    Nameless swords materialize in the air around Archer, suspended in mid-air and ready to fire. The moment the moblins can get past the body of their fellow, he'll launch the blades straight into their midsts - and hopefully buy himself time to pull back himself.

    After all, he wasn't big on suicidal heroics if he could /help/ it... or had any choice in it at all, for that matter.

Sarracenia has posed:
     After hearing the many complaints of her companions on the shared radio, Sarracenia realizes they probably need to get out. But, now there is a moat of lava. The princess dives toward the Moblin who released the lava, and as she comes in she swings her hammer in an attempt to send him flying off the side of the wall and into the lava. She lands near the lever and tries to close it again.

     Whether that works or not, she reaches into her purse and rummages around before pulling out an icy blue flower out. She gives it a squeeze, and it bursts into sparkles that quickly settle onto her dress, turning it from red to ice blue. She then proceeds to run along the wall, firing ice bolts down into the moat, attempting to cool it quickly so her trapped comrades can escape. If a Moblin gets in her way, it is targeted with those bolts as well. She isn't sure how well they will work on a Moblin, but they freeze creatures from her world solid. She is really hoping they work on lava and Moblins. Otherwise, she might be in trouble.

Sanary Rondel has posed:
     She can't keep it in forever, so she might as well let out now that the moblins have scattered. Sanary takes advantage of her mid-air vantage point to just empty the contents of her stomach on the ground below. It's quite liberating, although it does keep her occupied for a brief time while she focuses on just accelerating her own healing and getting it all out of her system. Spotting the commotion by the entrance, she takes a deep brath before hovering over at a steady pace, albeit more carefully and slowly with the poison still lingering in her system.

     There really are quite a lot of moblins and bulbins, aren't there? The numbers game is certainly a thing that would work in their favor, but just trying to run would mean leaving allies behind! Thus, she falls back on that last strategy that got her an arrow for her trouble...

     Flying right over the creatures and swinging a flaming axe around. "Lay down your weapons, weaklings! Bow to your new burning god!" She's practically shouting that as she draws those flames in broad, sweeping arcs, even firing another heat beam out of her eye at the gathered pigmen to try and make herself as intimidating (or hard to ignore) as possible. Hopefully, it'll at least buy the others some more time to escape!

Sarah Parsle (789) has posed:
If Sarah knew the area was full of Moblins, maybe she would have. But hey, that's the curse of incomplete information.

As she sees the horde of pigmen and mini-pigmen raise their spears, she sighs. "Ugh. Of course everything went straight to hell."

A moment later, she turns and runs up those stairs even as Archer tells her to run and starts covering their back. To this guy's credit, he has solid tactics. It can't be worse than staying down here in Grossly Outnumbered Land like he is. Should she encounter more Moblins, she's not going to stick around and fight them, she's going to go full evasive, trying to get lost in the growing chaos.

Victor Ellsworth (790) has posed:
    They're-- running. Okay, Victor can live with this.
    It's certainly better than dying.

    As the riders and pigmen retreat, the future Mage of Light walks out of the cover-- fortunately, not near the moat, because he's lethally allergic to lava-- and like a good hero in training, starts looting the minions. Maybe they still have some of that poison, but overall just having their cache of weapons and armor and assorted belongings might come in handy later.

    This is done by repeatedly throwing two ten-sided dice at various belongings, which turns them into cards and stores them in his Sylladex.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel ios able to join up with Archer and Sarah thankfully and she takes a moment to summon her keyblade the weapon takes shape in her hand. She knows things are about to get crazy. She does seem to know how to handle the strange weapon and she's looking to engage the numerous moblins she'll take a moment to buff herself and archer with a haste spell of some sort which should if it's able to effect a Servant give him better reaction times.

"Little bit of overclocking, now really?"

Wtih that she dives in ot enages the enemy with the keyblade.

"Give up now and yourt lives will be spared!"

Agahnim (864) has posed:
     The light causes Blind to wince for a bit, though thankfully it isn't true Sunlight. That, after all, is a massive problem for him. It's enough to cause him to stumble back, before taking off into the air. He floats above the ground, his white robes flowing around him. His hands, becoming covered in flames. Though Finna does manage to push him back, he manages to halt himself midair. He laughs, wickedly, loudly.

     "Awww, you can shapeshift? What a surprise! Not a lot /quite/ like you around. But, heh, you know what? You still fell for the trap! You /aren't/ going to find the girl! It was only a matter of time til someone came for her... Almost surprised, though. Still some heroes in Hyrule."

     "Now, tell me who the hell you guys /are/. Did the Duke send ya? Or... Huh. Agahnim maybe planning to come back and take this place back? Pft, he's sick of his old allies not working for him anymore, eh?"

     Blind lifts his hands, burst of flames flying forward. Notably, the floor /is/ in fact wood. And, he doesn't seem to care about /hitting/ the wood. So, if Finna dodges blindly, the floorboards might start catching fire.

     Even if throwing the Moblin into the room is a bit delayed, the act still makes the others nervous. More terrifying? The various numbers of swords. This is unlike /anything/ these guys have ever seen, and they work for a shapeshifter. A particularly brave Moblin moves forward, only to be struck straight through.

     The others sort of just back up against a wall. This is /way/ past their payscale.

     And then Deelel rushes at them wtih a keyblade, some of the wussier ones drop to their knees. They surrender. One is even /crying/ at this.

     Leaving Sarah free to run further up. As she gets to the second floor, she finds something that she is almost /certainly/ going to have trouble with. There is a door, visible on the other side of the room. But, in the path? Numerous blocks. They have to be pushed out of the way /just/ right, or else they will completely block the path.

     ....Or she could just climb over them. But at least she /is/ the one who is good with puzles.

     Sarracenia manages to send the Moblin off the wall, causing him to fly into the lava. He melts, screaming out in pain. Bursting to flames before even /touching/ the lava. The lever is hard to pull, but some effort will make it /finally/ stop, the lava no longer being pumped into the moat. The bits of ice help cool down the lava, hardening it. It's /still/ incredibly risky, but at least it can be /safe/ to step upon those cooling stone platforms.

     Victor, on the plus side, manages to collect a lot of Moblin and Bulbin gear. Thankfully ther are a /lot/ of them, so he has plenty of REALLY CRAPPY WEAPONS in his inventory now.

Sarah Parsle (789) has posed:
Sarah doesn't know that the people below him are actually holding fast and even winning. She thinks there's going to be a pair of wounded allies and a horde of spear-wielding pigmen charging up those stairs in a minute.

And those allies don't need a pile of boxes in the way. Sure, she could YOUTH CLIMB over them, but...

As a matter of fact, that's what she does first. She climbs up on top to survey the room, plotting things out in her head. "That has to move there, and that there, then this over there, and then..." She leaps down, then, and makes her choice, shoving crates around, her little girl arms straining as she pushes things around as fast as she can. As long as she sticks to the Plan everything will work out.

In the meantime, she listens to everything fall apart some more around them.

Finna (513) has posed:
    "Yeah, yeah, I fell for your trap! Gotta compliment you on that one. -I'm- usually the one setting the traps, not falling for them." The praise is genuine enough, even if the Lunar's delivering it with some heated barbs in her tone. From his angle, Blind can see her bloodied gut... the wound is healing fast enough that he can SEE it closing.

    She glances around quickly. Fireballs and a flying enemy in a fairly tight arena? This is NOT to her advantage at all.

    "As for who sent us, you'll have to beat that answer out of me - if you can. But my name is Finna Snowdancer, and you're about to learn why!"

    Indeed, dancer is a good word for what follows. She elegantly backflips away from the fireballs, zigging and zagging further and further back... only to frown when the wood's struck by it. "Are you burning down your OWN TOWER?!"

    She reaches around her back and pulls out, seemingly from NOWHERE, her bow and quiver. the latter's slung over her back in no time at all. While zigging and zagging she brings up arrow after arrow and launches them.

    This is not to her advantage though with all of that FIRE around! Because eventually one strikes.

    And she's covered in BIG, FLUFFY FUR!

    WHOOOOOOOSH! "Hyaaaaghhh ow dammit!"

    After a few seconds of FLAILING though the fire is EXTINGUISHED. All that fur disappears... replaced with lizard-like scales. THAT's more resilient to flame at least! So now she's a giant fox-woman with SCALES instead of fur... weeeeiiiiird.

    And it gives her an opportunity to aim another shot, except this one's aimed... at a wall? The tip of her arrow gleams silver before she fires!

    ... And this arrow fires off with phenomenal speed. To strike a wall - and BOUNCE OFF IN ANOTHER DIRECTION. It keeps bouncing off the walls several times in a dizzying pattern before finally flying right at Blind's head!

Sarracenia has posed:
     Sarracenia slows her run to a trot then to a walk and finally a stop as she hears Archer say that the bad guys seem to be surrendering. Queue deadpan look. She -just- went to all the trouble of frying a moblin and using an ice flower, and now they don't even need to escape? The princess sighs, but keeps cooling the lava in case those outside want to come in. Then, she makes her way around the wall to find an entrance into the fortress.

     The princess isn't certain, but she figures if she follows the stairs toward a general center of the castle direction, she will meet up with either Archer or Sarah.

Sanary Rondel has posed:
     Well. That seemed to work out better than expected. That, or the creatures were more intimidated by the significantly greater threats from Archer and Deelel along with that surprising display of acrobatics from Sarracenia. Whatever it was, though, Sanary's more than willing to take credit for it anyway!

     She doesn't stick around for long, though, focusing for a moment before sending out a wave of healing energy to each of her allies. The magic wouldn't mend their wounds immediately, but it would boost their natural regeneration by a significant degree: Wounds mending, energy coming back, and even magical power restoring!

     Afterwards, Sanary heads upstairs after Sarah and even grounds herself, both to make getting up those stairs less risky for her head and to conserve what's left of her magical reserves.

     once she's up there, of course, she just gets a faceful of boxes. "... The hell is this shit?" SPotting Sarah hard at work trying to move those things, though, she cricks her neck and gets into position beside her. "There's... A reason for this, right?" She laughs and just starts going along with whichever boxes Sarah's trying to push. She might not have the mind to figure these things out, but she sure as hell can do the grunt work!

Sarah Parsle (789) has posed:
When Sanary arrives, Sarah pops her head up. "Oh, hey, you. Good, come use those farmer muscles for something useful." She hops back and gives Sanary room to help. "Okay, just push these exactly how I tell you and we're all good." She then proceeds to lay out the plan step by step to get all the crates where they need to be.

Archer (821) has posed:
     It seemed that the moblins weren't used to something like him - many of them paused in fear when he threw their companion's body at them. When he lanced a sword through them, they all started shaking in what looked like terror.

     It almost made Archer pity them...

    If not for the fact that, had their positions been reversed, they would not be showing any mercy to him. Besides, if he turned and left, chances were they would just take up arms and swarm them again if they reunited with the rest of their forces and got their morale restored.

    Not everyone could be saved... and not everyone deserved to be saved. Murderers cowered in fear after being caught for their crimes in many cases - did that make it alright for them to simply walk away?

    Archer knew the answer to that... and it was the same one these creatures would get.

    Eyes radiating steel and face set in stone, Archer's hand rose up... and a split second later, the blades around him speared forward into the hoard of cowering opponents, headless of the fact that they would not fight back.

    It was no garuntee they wouldn't come fight again when their backs were turned. He wasn't going to take that risk. If the blue-haired woman beside him saw him as a killer, so be it.

    It wouldn't be like she was wrong.

    After the deed was done, Archer spent only a spit-seconed contemplating the result before turning and running up after Sarah, leaving no threats behind him that could endanger them later on.

    After all... who in their right mind put their enemies over their comrades?

Agahnim (864) has posed:
     It won't take Sarah long to clear out the block puzzle, especially once Sanary starts to aid. Once the blocks are moved, there is a nice clear path to the next door way.

     Also of note? There are a pair of treasure chests near the door leading further up.

     And soon, the

     Blind simply smirks a bit, "Well... I'm BLIND THE BANDIT! No clue who you are. But, really /doesn't matter/. You're after the girl we caught! And we ain't letting /no one/ get her! Way too vital!"

     "...Also, the floor is just /wood panelling/, over /stone/. Come on, do you think I'm /that/ stupid?"

     And then teh arrow strikes him in the head. It's actually a rather big surprise to him. The arrow hits, piercing. His head, falls clean off. It rolls along the ground for a few moments. And then it starts to levitate into the air.

     Aw fuck.

     The head of Blind the Bandit breathes out a massive burst of flames, while the hands are tossing ball after ball of fire towards Finna. The flooring /will/ catch fire eventually. That might need to be addressed.

     The moblins slump to the loor, dead. Archer eventually meets up with Sarah. All that is left on the second floor is the door to the third. And, the fourth floor is where Finna is.

     The third floor, once entered?

     It's actually empty. There is nothing in there, but the door to the fourth floor, and a /large/ number of pots and urns lined about the room. Tempting you to smash them.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel had been moving ahead because they had to she'd been putting in a call for a prisoner transport to come in and pick up the enemies who had surrendered after all she'd given them her word she would. No she wouldn't find out until later what had happened at this point. She'd trusted Archer to handle things till the pickup crew would arrive but this would prove to be a fatal mistake for the prisoners.

She's going to press ahead and meet up with the others at this point.

Sanary Rondel has posed:
     Everything about those treasure chests screams booby trap. There could be explosives in them, a monster might be hiding inside, they might trigger the walls to come down on them...

     And yet, Sanary can't just ignore the things. "I call the one on the left!" It's only fair, right? She did do the grunt work in moving those boxes with Sarah, after all, and even moving those was tough work. It's only natural to reward herself with a little ill-gotten loot from the tower of weirdly-shaped pigmen.

     "Keep your eyes open in case anything comes out." She's not completely clueless, though. No, the healer's at least got the sense to throw a rock at the chest first while keeping her shield raised. Assuming it doesn't explode right away, she'll then follow up by trying to actually pop that sucker open before heading upstairs!

     After all that's said and done, the next course of action: Heading upstairs to the fourth floor to rejoin with Finna and (hopefully) a non-burning floor!

Sarah Parsle (789) has posed:
Sarah nods as the work completes. She dusts off her hands, and looks to Archer as he arrives. "Hey. You're not dead. Awesome." This seems to pass for what she has as congratulations as she scurries to the chests, getting her loot on for the right. "Yeah, okay, that's fair. You helped." She admits, letting Sanary get her choice. "Hey look, the advantage of solving puzzles and being thorough, right? Sarah says, her legs sticking up out of the box as she tries to pull out what's inside. Once she pops out, she'll probably look like she's dramatically holding it over her head for some reason.

Once the loot is over, Sarah will stash whatever it is and head up to join the others.

Sarracenia has posed:
     Princess Sarracenia arrives right behind Archer, unaware of pretty much everything he and the others have been up to in here. She has lots of money and treasure already, so the chests and urns are hardly a distraction for her. "Forget the items! We have a comrade in danger above us!" she says, running past the others and the items to be smashed or opened. She still has an icy blue dress, and still has a giant hammer, so she is certain she will be helpful when she reaches the fourth floor.

     It is pretty easy to find Finna. There is fire everywhere, after all, or at least the whoosh of flames being thrown. When Sarracenia reaches the door, she swings her hammer and attemps to smash it in. "Hold on, whoever you are! Help is on the way!"

Archer (821) has posed:
    Pausing once they reached the room, Archer's gaze narrowed dubiously at the sight of the many pots strewn across the room. "Well... this certainly looks too easy." Looking at Sarah and seeing Sarracenia rush past her, he gestures for the latter to move back a bit and off to the side. "There might be more enemies behind the door. Hold back - I'll clear the way. Then you can take point up to the last floor."

    That said, he traces his bow with a flash of prana in one hand... while in the other, a nameless arrow takes shape.

    He doesn't need to use anything too strong like Caladbolg - it could rattle the castle's foundations and bring parts of the ceiling down. Instead, he simply decides to aim a simple arrow for the door.

    Drawing it taunt, he takes a breath, prana filling the arrow as the bowstring is pulled back-

    -and sent flying for the door at close to Mach 2, charged with enough prana to cause an explosion on impact large enough to rival a small frag-grenade.

Finna (513) has posed:
    "You've got it the other way around, thinking about it. If that was a wood floor and you sprang the trap here you could've sent everyone tumbling. YOU can FLY, cheater!"

    Finna proclaims - just as the arrow strikes. Her triumphant fingerpoint and smirk combo's brought to a halt as the head just... FALLS off. The finger falters, her smirk turns into jawdropping... "... sooooooo cheating... what the hell ARE YOU?!"

    NOW she's genuinely freaked out. Finna decides to DITCH THE FLOOR ENTIRELY and instead vault over to a wall. Because, for whatever reason, she seems to have no trouble running along the wall. As if it was the floor.

    They're BOTH CHEATERS.

    "Come on, what kind of power is THAT?!" She complains to nobody in particular. Just KINDA freaked out now.

    But not so much that she can't return fire with a few more arrows at Blind's floating head while zipping in-between fireballs. Unfortunately that's making her accuracy pretty poor...

Agahnim (864) has posed:
     As Sanary kicks open the treasure chest, she finds... A map. Of the fortress.

     This would have been useful much earlier and yet is in just about the last room.

     The second chest has a blue rupees in it. That's worth a whole FIVE RUPEES! Wow!

     The door is blown open, and everyone rejoins Finna. They'll maanage to see Finna engaging with Blind the Bandit briefly. His head still floats around the room, spinning randomly now. It bounces around the place, laughing heartily, "AH! I /told/ you what I am! I'm BLIND THE BANDIT! Master thief!" What decapitation has to do with being a master thief, who knows.

     The head is struck by the arrows, taking minor damage. The arrows stick out of them, though it still manages to spit out fireballs. It's aiming for the floor just as much as it is aiming for Finna, trying to /engulf/ the entire room. It doesn't realize how bad thigns went downstares.

     And then as his body randomly floats around the room, his head turns towards the door. And sees the group of Elites.

     "Aw, fuck."

     He is a strong match for one Elite. A true Boss Fight.

     This is a bit overkill.

Sarracenia has posed:
     FIRE EVERYWHERE!! Fortunately for Sarracenia, she has just the solution for fire. Ice! She starts tossing freezing bolts all over the floor. It shouldn't take long to cover the burning floor with sheltering ice. "You guys help her!" Sarracenia says as she keeps tossing ice bolts. "I'll keep the fire under control!"

Finna (513) has posed:
    ALRIGHT, PEOPLE ARE ARRIVING! With one hell of a show at that. Finna enters a spectacular flip that leaves her standing on the CEILING, making her a difficult target indeed with so many people on the GROUND filtering in. Granted, the ground is on fire. That's a problem.

    Although she's pelted with a few fireballs on the way up, leaving her scorched and holding her side, she still has enouggh spunk to cup a hand near her mouth and yell down to Blind, "You MIGHT wanna consider surrendering. Tell us where Ilia's being held and we WON'T tear you to shreds... also what does that have to do with YOUR HEAD FLOATING OFF?!" Although for Finna's part, she doesn't fire any more arrows.

Sanary Rondel has posed:
     Well, it's better than nothing. Cramming that map into her pocket, Sanary hurries to meet with the others just in time to spot a...

     Floating head thing and Finna on the ceiling. Well. "Alright, you wanna do this the easy way or the hard way?" She tosses a quick glance at the other Elites gathered in the room, taking note of Finna's offer before levelling her gunaxe's barrel straight at Blind. If that's not enough, her eye is also glowing with the telltale sign that she's ready to fire one more of those heat beams!

     She also spits out a bit of leftover vomit on the floor. That last bit's probably not intended to be threatening, but it could be! Maybe. Not really.

Archer (821) has posed:
    When the door is blown open, Archer regards the floating head with masked weariness in response to it's insane antics.

     Drawing the images to the forefront of his consciousness, six nameless blades materialize before the decapitated head of Blind the Bandit, each pointed directly at him - two of them being close enough to prickle it's skin.

     "You should consider listening to her - we're not exactly in a patient mood anymore. That is, so long as you don't have any issue being left pinned to the wall in a room being slowly coated in ice? I can't imagine you'll last long now that you've lost your body."

Sarah Parsle (789) has posed:
You've found a BLUE RUPEE! That's worth FIVE RUPEES!

Sarah is just kind of standing there with a look of irritation on her face as she holds it over her head. Nevertheless, she pockets it and moves on with the others.

As they get to the flaming room with the floating head, Sarah looks at the situation and just stares for several moments, then turns to Archer.

"Kill that stupid bastard." She says.

And then they say a thing. Sarah sighs and turns to the head. "You, head guy. Tell us where the girl is or you die. Nice and simple."

Deelel has posed:
Deelel is eying all the pots as well she holds back from it and keep sher keyblade ready as Archer dows his thing she's not sure just how it' going to play out but it's going to be quite a show right? She gets teh cheating but they are on a rescue mission and to clear this place out one way or another to hopefully stop any raids being staged from here.

She's going to work cleaning up here. She snags one of the ruppies not because she wants money but because they are pretty.

Agahnim (864) has posed:
     Blind stops moving. The fire is being put out by the princess with the ice. He looks towards the group, considering all of them. This /is/ too much. Way too many for him to take all at once. And with all of them here...

     His men are defeated, too.

     And so, his head goes back to his body. He floats, near one corner of the room. And, he smiles at the group.

     "...Fine! You win. I'll give you the key to let the girl out, /if/ you let me go."

Sarah Parsle (789) has posed:
Sarah nods. "Fork it over, creepy head guy."

Sarah's already pulled the Renegade Trigger this scene like six times, you know what she's already advised.

Archer (821) has posed:
    Archer doesn't even hesitate to let the blades inch closer to Blind's head, the blades practically pricking through the skin and drawing blood.

     "Give us the key, then tell us where she is first."

    He lets it be unspoken what will happen if Blind tries to protest this - the blades should be motivation enough.

Sarracenia has posed:
     Sarracenia wipes her brow as she finishes putting out the fire, then looks toward the bandit. "Killing a defenseless opponent is bad form." the princess says, lowering her hammer. But...she does fire some ice bolts at Blind, hoping to ensure he can't just escape.

Agahnim (864) has posed:
     Blind reaches into his robe. A gigantic key is tossed forward, matching the keyhole to the door above. He smiles, looking at the group as a whole.

     "She is right up the stairs. Now. I'll be leaving."

     And, he slowly makes his way to the window, unless stopped. Seems he plans to just leave through the bars and fly away.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel doesn't intend to let him leave, and moves aot attempt to block his entace. Sanary seems to have a plan to deal with him.

Sanary Rondel has posed:
     "Oh no. You're not leaving yet." Sanary moves over to the window to try and put a physical barrier between it and Blind, keeping her gunaxe barrel trained at him.

     That's probably not a great idea in a room that had just been on fire, though, so she lowers the gunaxe and just opts to swing her shield at his face instead!

Agahnim (864) has posed:
     And, Blind's head is suddenly knocked off of his body by the shield hit. It rolls along the ground, before starting to float up in the air again. He gives an /annoyed/ look at Sanary.

     "Please do not do that again."

Archer (821) has posed:
As if to punctuate the statement made before by Sanary, Archer's blade's plant themselves in the floor around the disembodied head, effectively trapping it in a cage of swords. The blades are angled so that the hilts lock together at the top, leaving the head trapped.

     "Don't try to escape next time."

    He leaves it at that since the arrangement of the blades should be clear enough indication of what happens if he tries it again.

Finna (513) has posed:
    Finna, of course, with everyone else trying to bar the way, is going to VERIFY that. She flicks a wrist and SPIDER SILK slings down to snag the key. Then she dives for the door - wary of traps, this time. Time to go see if Ilia's ACTUALLY there!

    She seriously doubts it.

Agahnim (864) has posed:
     Once the path upstairs is open, there is a spiral staircase heading up higher. The room up above is beautiful. Stained glass windows, depicting events from ancient times. They are set into the circular tower, forming a tiangle. These three images are art from ages past. One, a picture of a boy in a green outfit, with a green hat. He faces the viewer, eyes open. A sword in one hand, a shield on the other. above his head, a brilliant golden triangle, with light shining off of it. On the south window, a picture of a princess in a pink dress. She has long, flowing blonde hair. Her hands are clasped in front of her. A triangle above her head, as well.

     The last window is broken, and patched up poorly. Broken shards. It is hard to tell what the person in that image is. But, it too, has a golden triangle above it. Whatever this third picture was, it is long forgotten.

     A girl sits in the middle of the room. She at least has a bed, some fresh food, and some amenities. This is Ilia. The real Ilisa. She lets out a sigh of relief, before a look of dissapointment. The dissapointment fades quickly, but not before a glance back towards the stained glass picture of the youth clad in green.

     But, she looks at the group, smiling.

     "Oh, thank the Golden Goddesses. They hadn't hurt me, yet. I don't know what they wanted from me, though... They just kept asking me strange questions, about this Spring near my village. Ordona Village. I... I was kidnapped from there, and brought here."

     She lets out a sigh of relief, "But... This must certainly mean you killed Blind the Bandit. I heard him talking... He stole this... /thing/, called the Tears of Light. Used it to power himself up... I don't know /what/ he was planning, but apparently, I might have been used for it."

     A smile, "At least, with that murderous bandit dead? I think I heard that one of the Spirits of Life can be revived."

     ...Oh dear, it is good you guys didn't let him go.

Sarah Parsle (789) has posed:
Sarah comes upstairs with the others who choose to come up.

She looks up at the artwork, considering them for a moment. "Huh. This isn't going to be prophetic at all." She says, but then looks oer at the girl, looking close at her. "Yeah, looks like the real Ilisa to me." She listens to what she's saying this time, and blinks. "The head guy stole them? He used them?"

She turns around and points down the steps. "RED GUY! HE HAS THE TEARS INSIDE HIM! KILL HIM ASAP, WE NEED THOSE THINGS!"

Agahnim (864) has posed:
     As Sarah shouts that back down, Ilia just gives a blank stare.

     "...You guys /didn't/ kill the murderous backstabbing kleptomaniac psychopath monster?"

Sarracenia has posed:
     "We were just about to! We didn't know if we would need him later or not!" Sarracenia says, even though she didn't really even try to kill him. She rushes back downstairs, hammer in hand and ready to smash a head.

Sarah Parsle (789) has posed:
"Some of these guys are really dumb. I blame all the heroism. It goes to their head." Sarah says, gesturing to her temple. "He's downstairs under guard."

Sanary Rondel has posed:
     Sanary laughs and strolls on over to the head, stepping around the blades before leaning over to get as close to eye level with Blind as she can without falling over. "What he said. Now this is how it's going to go. You're coming with me, and we're going to have a nice long talk back home. And if you behave, you won't get any of this."

     She turns her head and, as if on cue, coughs out a bit more vomit. "Ookay?" Just how long is it going to take for that poison to get out of her system?

Archer (821) has posed:
    Well... that settles that. They only had one real course of action now.

    Looking down at the head a moment, he meets it's eyes as his own gaze bores into them. "So you have some of what we need hidden inside of you. I guess that explains why you survived getting your head cut off. I wonder when you were going to tell us /that/ part?" he asks the disembodied head rather blankly, almost idly.

    Of course... he never finds out an answer - not that he expected one - as the next instant the blades surrounding the head enclose.

    In fact, by the time Sarah cals out to him, the six blades have reached Blind's skull, cutting it to pieces without hesitation.

     After spending a moment to regard the head and make sure it is truly dead, Archer then swiftly repeats the process with Blind's body, a dozen new blades materializing in the air and piercing the headless form, slashing it to literal ribbons in an instant.

    The bloodshed over, Archer steps forward and looks up at Ilia, giving a half-wave - and sidestepping Sarracenia as she rushes down, speaking to both. "It was a problem at first, your highness" he addresses the two princesses - he knew from experience from Rin how finicky women with titles were to appease if you didn't address them properly "... but it's been taken care of."

Agahnim (864) has posed:
     Ilia stares at Archer. It is an unfortunate misunderstanding, beause Archer is /not/ in fact one of those who was around the day before. But Ilia blushes a little, looking at him blankly.

     "Uh. I'm not a princess. I'm a farm girl. ...My village was attacked and I was kidnapped. I... need to get back to there, soon."

Sarracenia has posed:
     Princess Sarracenia stops when Archer addresses someone else as a princess. And, it's the farm girl no less! She huffs, then makes her way back toward Archer and Ilia. "Could you not tell that simply by looking at her? She is obviously one of the working-class." she says, apparently a bit insulted that someone can't tell the difference between a princess and a farm girl.

     After that, though, she smiles to Ilia. "That is why we are here. We will take you back to Kakariko, where you can secure safe passage to your home."

Agahnim (864) has posed:
     With Blind's skull destroyed, the rest of his body bursts into a puff of smoke as well. Sitting in the room is a strange object. It looks like a teardrop shaped object of light. As in, raw light, floating in space, in a way that light is not really /supposed/ to act. An astounding sense of calm, relaxation, and benevolence comes from it.

     This is certainly the Tear of Light.

Archer (821) has posed:
    To his credit, Archer does manage to take the news with little surprise, instead giving a courteous smile of the kind he would use to placate Rin's occasional flustering. "My apologies. I'd assumed you had been held captive because of status. It seems... somewhat common in cases like this. As for her state..." he turns to regard Sarracenia, offering her a shrug. "Well, I doubt anyone would look well off if they were a prisoner for a long period of time, so forgive my failure to tell the difference. I am, after all, nothing but a humble bowman."

    Looking once at the dissolving corpse of Bind, he then tilts his head at Sarah when hearing her speak, and his smile seems both genuine... yet somehow bitter. "You're more right then you know." Turning focus to the Tear of Light, Archer regards it somewhat wearily before looking back at Sarah and the other Union members. "So... what exactly are we meant to do with it? Does it bind into us like it did with our dead friend here? Or is there some way of carrying it?"

Sarracenia has posed:
     Sarracenia pats Archer's shoulder. "Then, you are forgiven." she says before she notices the glow. She turns to see the Tear of Light, and her eyes widen. "Oh...how lovely." she says before approaching it and attempting to hold it. "This is what the weakened spirit needed, is it not?" she says as she inspects the orb. She smiles happily, then turns to the others. "We should return as quickly as possible!"

Sanary Rondel has posed:
     "I think that was the case, yeah." Sanary lets out a half-whistle, half-blowing noise at the sight of the Tear, an impressed look in her eye even as she stands up and adjusts her eyepatch. "Got everything we came for, so.. Yeah, let's get outta here before any more of those pig guys decide to come back."

     Just in case though, she does take another moment to dispense some more of her energy around the room. Not enough to drain her completely, but hopefully enough to keep everyone on their feet for the return trip!

Sarah Parsle (789) has posed:
Sarah brings Ilia down, and if no one else takes the thing she'll CAPTCHALOGUE the TEAR OF LIGHT into her SYLLADEX.

She'll have to make a note of the captcha code for later, just in case.

"Agreed, let's get moving. I'm sure Noa is just waiting with baited breath to move in as soon as we leave anyway. This place looks like it was hit with a swordnado."

Agahnim (864) has posed:
     The Tear of Light can be picked up and handled like most anything else. Trying to put it in one's body would fail. Some /really/ dark magic would need to be used in order to take it into one's self to steal its power. It would be an abuse of what it is. But, still, it is easy enough to pick it up.

     Or, as it turns out, it is entirely possible to Captchalogue as well.

     And soon, the group will need to return to the Spring near Kakariko Village. Bring the Tear back, so the Spirit might return. And then, the Twilight surrounding Death Mountain and Kakariko village will clear up.

     Of course, there is the matter of Ilia. Her home, Ordon Village, was attacked. She hasn't been home since. And who knows /why/ she was captured. But, she is far past due for being returned home.

     Such will be the next quest.

Archer (821) has posed:
    As they leave the castle, Archer himself moves away from the main group, making for one of the exits. Moments later, his body fades from sight as he enters spirit form, leaving the group.

    He couldn't really afford to stay in this world, after all. Not that Rin would let him have free reign anyway. Still... he had to had to admit, it hadn't gone as horrible as he had initially expected it to, given how it started. Especially in the wake of finding some of these 'heroes' weren't quite as strict to the credo he'd once followed as he'd initially feared.

    With any luck, that would be the case for any future missions Archer took. He could certainly hope as much.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel is with the rest of the party and she keeps escort as they move to go. It's time to get going as for good or bad everything is over it's time to get going here. It seems to be pretty insane and she's got a better idea of her allies ways of doing things.