Scene #7638: PF: The Beast Beneath 1

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Taelveras	Absalom! The City at the Center of the World, shining star of the Inner Sea! By medieval or fantastic standards, Absalom is immense, spanning twelve (or sixteen, depending on how you count the suburbs) districts that are practically cities unto themselves, an immense city of trade that has grown up around the edge of a bay on the south side of the Isle of Kortos and a naval power to rival historic England (though the Isle of Kortos is not so large). It is so significant to the region that it has its own warpgate, though it's a little awkward to use because it is on an island just outside the bay. There is a ferry. By modern standards it's not that big, having perhaps four hundred thousand people within its walls, but the ability to organize and operate a city on this scale with the technology Absalom has access to is impressive. Absalom's success depends on the city's trade, its magic, the ingenuity of its citizens, or all three. Right now it is late at night, perhaps one in the morning. Also, right now it's under attack. The Wise Quarter is the combination governmental and academic district (which, in Absalom, also means the magic district) on the north side of town. Many of the buildings are about what you'd expect - the heart of government, bureaucratic facilities of all sorts, schools - but it also includes three particular points of interest: the Forae Logos, an enormous library; the Blakros Museum, which collects strange artifacts; and the Arcanamirium, one of the most prestigious arcane magic academies in the entire Inner Sea region. It's the Arcanamirium that is under attack. The entire building was blanketed in a globe of gloom - easy to miss given that it was already night, but sufficient to dim lanterns and hide the stars. Moments later, drow, elves in shades of blue and purple with red or pure white eyes started to appear, teleporting in from... somewhere. It turned from a minor alteraction to a major raid in minutes. There are perhaps two or three dozen drow - they're hard to count in the shadows - but they are causing chaos all out of proportion to their numbers. Many of them are martial warriors, armed with curved swords and tiny hand crossbows that are intensely envenomed, but there are a trio of spellcasters in chain or partial plate (all female) with no weapons, and a male drow with fancy robes and a heavy staff. Their actual goals are unclear. Right now it looks like 'making a mess'. Most of them are outside, though judging by damage to windows and doors, they have been at least trying to get in. That's where you come in. Absalom is Commonwealth-friendly, and thus Paladin-friendly; they heard about it first, when they were asked for aid. But the Watch heard almost as fast; there are a number of Watch allies in the city, including the Bellflower Network, a secret society dedicated to freeing slaves (slavery may not be legal in Absalom anymore, but it is in nearby countries), and they'll sound an alarm as fast as the officials. The Arcanamirium staff is not doing a great job of defending themselves, because both the drow and the gear they are wearing are magic-resistant to whatever arcane arts are common here. A lightning bolt flies out of an opened window, artificially dampened to a dull flash by the strange darkness, but explodes when parried by a drow blade in a shower of harmless but flashy sparks. The Learned Guard, the district guard for the Wise Quarter, are not really up to the task. Several are already down. They need - and have asked for - help.
Ioanna Langstrom	This is a big damn city. Ioanna Langstrom's already gotten the lay of the land from a brief conversation with an insider, asking directions with a very local accent and a very local attitude. It helps that she's dressed exactly like one might expect an adventurer to be dressed - a set of heavy plate mail without a helmet, a heavy greatsword over one shoulder with a hexagonal pommel gem, chained gauntlets to keep her from dropping the weapon, a backpack, a cloak...the woman looks ready to get into a fight with something and win it. The eyepatch (which is not part of the MCM, of course) only adds to the feeling, as does the lack of a helmet. Adventurers don't wear helmets. There's no body part crit rules in Pathfinder. That's given her enough of an understanding of the city to get rapidly deploy where she's needed. Three dozen drow at the Arcanamirium means three dozen targets, and that's good - it means it's harder to just flat-out miss with any given strike. Magic resistance can be compensated for; bad aim cannot. She moves with instinct born of experience, sliding in with remarkable agility for someone in full plate to tank a hit for one of the Learned Guard. Her free hand comes up to grab the Drow by the head and pour light into its eyes - Tael's already mentioned light-blindness, and it's a common trait among Drowlike across the Multiverse. The fact that the light is also damaging doesn't hurt, either. -well, it hurts the Drow, anyway. She discards the drow and unslings the 'greatsword,' wielding it like a longsword. "Retreat to a more defensible position," Ioanna tells the guard, "I'll cover for the wounded. Prioritize evacuation over aggressive action."
Gareth	Upon hearing about the attack on a city near a warpgate that she's not quite familiar with, Gareth is quick to join those coming to the city's aid. So what if it's at a weirdly late hour? All that means is she'll have a better time sleeping later! Besides, getting into her armor is easy enough, and she arrives following the roar of a motorcycle engine echoing through the streets around the Arcanamirium. "Hold it right there! You have five minutes to stand down, or you'll all be answering to my lance!" Time limit? Check. Viable threat? Check. Making it sound like an act of nature rather than a person attack? Two out of three isn't terrible. Still, the threat is very much real for whomever is in the way of Gareth and her motorcycle as she rides it straight towards the group of drow furthest from the entrance, shield and lance somehow wielded as she's driving and poised to just plow right through them in the process. There's little subtlety here. Gareth is not going for subtle.
Ishirou	I4 is floating on his POD as he hits another roof. "Geeze, not INDUS big but pretty neat for its time in the 'rustic era..'" he muses to himself as he leaps to another rooftop and tries to get to a better position. I4 aims to use his lithe frame and quick movements to get around obstacles, up and down buildings, and a quick run over flat walls and jump off ledges. He catches the glimpse of a dark figure, and see's it attack a guard openly before fading back into shadows. I4 crouches to make his figure less obvious before he looks out to his POD. "Wide-area scan, of they're going to use darkness and hide, then we'll show them they can't hide from me." He says, before looking back out. I4 and the POD scan-out, aiming to reveal drow. Through walls, in shadows, it doesn't matter. He'll look for anything he can see...and then start connecting to other team member's HUD's to share information. "I'll see what I can, but I'm still early scanning here. You're the expert in other cultures Ioanna, what do you think they're doing? To me this kind of attack is bold...but I guess we'll see if they're packing bigger numbers!" I4 says cheerfully. To a broader radio, but mission secure, "Anyone else out there who's helping with this let me know and I'll give up updates. Just don't be jerks please."
Aidan Proudpick	Resistant to magic means they are powerful against many of Aidan's skills. But not too powerful against Aegis. Aidan doesn't know much about Absalom. He also isn't that savvy about Fantasy tropes yet. All he knows is streets that look like home and rushing above them. Aidan's ability to move is awkward, but incredibly fast. The sky BOOMS with the shattering of the sound barrier each time the Aegis changes direction and builds up speed again above the city. The squirrel moves in with little need for stealth or speed in this production. Instead, he comes down at full force, tilting downward and flashing towards the ground before stopping the rush of magic to the shield and landing on his feet behind Gareth. Standing up to full height, he breathes out just enough breath to keep Aegis at full spread, a massive round tower shield with the head of a lion, the faint roar of magic working through it. He at least fits in with leathers(maybe not the gun, since this isn't COOL KIDS Absalom) "Five minutes is a real long time, I'll give you one!"
Taelveras	The drow are expecting a response, and Ioanna looks like exactly the kind they expect. The drow attacking the Learned Guard has her blow parried, and she pivots, raising the tiny hand crossbow to fire at Ioanna point-blank. She gets the shot off but it goes high when Ioanna goes for the grab. Taelveras wears a particular kind of enchanted lens and still occasionally squints in the light. This drow isn't wearing them, which is why they're attacking over the double cover of night and shadow. She drops with a screech, though that's enough for one of the other drow to aim by sound and fire their hand crossbow, envenomed with a numbing toxin. "Right," the Guard says, giving Ioanna a slight salute. Does he recognize her? Nope. Did she just save him? Yep. That buys good will, and it accords with what his orders are anyway. Gareth's response only gets a laugh. It's a bit less of a laugh when she drives at them; both the drow in question abord their attacks to vault in different directions. One gets away; the other gets clipped and rolls for several yards, painfully, but a wild slash may damage the side of the motorcycle anyway. That's certainly the goal, anyway; they may not recognize a motorcycle, but 'construct mount' is perfectly understandable. Aidan's own magic doesn't get resisted as much, either because it's so different or just because he's not using it the same way. With his shield up, he presents a harder target from the front, and so a trio of them try to circle, forcing him to change his facing and open his back to a different member of the team so that he, too, can get shot. They do like those crossbows. I4 doesn't draw attention to himself quite as much and so doesn't get an immediate strike. He can see that there are a fair number of people inside the building - a whole bunch of different races. Many of them are blocked into rooms, which seem to be strong points; a few of the mages who get upper floor rooms to themselves are still there and casting spells, either to protect themselves or to attack the drow (and, indeed, another lightning bolt comes out a window from an overeager evoker, with slightly more effect than the first). But there are some drow in the building. Three of them appear to have gotten inside. One is in the hallways, moving with an unclear destination for now; one is approaching an empty room; the third is attempting to break into the bedroom next door to the evoker who's got a hair trigger with the lightning bolts. (There is someone else in that room, who has set up a protective magic ward of some sort.) Unfortunately, one of the drow does notice him up there and takes a shot that's just at the edge of the range for his tiny crossbow. Hey, it might hit. Outside, the spellcasters are doing something. The three women are apparently ordering the male to do something in sharp language; he takes a deep breath, steps forward, raises the staff... And something erupts out of a smouldering rift. Take a hyena. Give it two heads, both of which have horns; attach a pair of draconic wings, six legs instead of two - four that look insectoid and the front two that look like a bird's, complete with talons - and an enormous scorpion's tail with a disproportionate stinger. Also, the whole thing is fifteen feet long. A glowing rune appears over each forehead, distinct from each other; over the male caster's forehead, a combination rune that looks like the two of them overlapping appears, visible even through the darkness. It roars in stereo. "Behold his power!" one of the females yells, and the impression is that she doesn't mean the summoner's.
Ioanna Langstrom	The poisoned crossbow bolt gets real close. If it wasn't for the sheer superhuman stats of the MCM, it probably would've nailed her in the side. As it is, Ioanna jerks sideways, and it scrapes across the 'plate', leaving some dripping poisonous goo and not much else. It's eating away at the MCM's defensive field but it's manageable. She'll live as long as she doesn't let it keep building. Her response is as swift and brutal as the drow's own. Her free hand hooks onto the sword, and the sword starts glowing. A mighty swing from the two-handed blade sends a wave of light carving forward into their ranks as hard as she can before Ioanna goes charging forward anyway. Denying them ranged advantage and keeping their attention on her would give the others time to evac and build a more defensible line. The appearance of the giant scorpion-tail insect-bird-demon staggers her for just a moment. It's...well, it's a small kaiju. All her time fighting kaiju has told her the same thing - at her level, the best thing to do is hunker down, focus on the targets you can fight, and if you can't, give more time to the civilians to get away. Normally, though she had a gun. Well, at least this time, her gun hits a lot harder.
Gareth	The curved blade puts a rather nasty gash through the front of the motorcycle, but isn't enough to break through Gareth's shield during the knight's charge. It's a nasty cut through the front and even leaves a nick on Gareth's armor, but it doesn't seem to slow her down in the least. Still steering the motorcycle with only her legs, she manages to swing the whole thing around in a wide arc as she couches her lance at waist level. "It's part of a three step program to convince them it's not worth staying and throwing their lives away!" She calls out to Aidan while hopping onto the motorcycle with one foot on the handlebars and the other on the seat, taking aim at one of the casters without realizing what they're actually doing. It's not until one of them yells about the thing, and then Gareth sees the giant two-headed hyena. "... Perfect. If we destroy this thing, they'll know exactly how futile it is to continue with this fight!" Gareth guides her motorcycle towards the hyena to stab it right in the face, possibly ramming her vehicle into one of the casters on the way over while motorcycle-surfing!
Ishirou	The shot is a GOOD shot, it fires up towards his face and causes him to fall back in pain and surprise. I4 holds his face in pain, rolling around on the ground for a moment. He yanks the bolt out of his anime face and nearly screams again in pain. However, he can hear the rumbling of the creature they summoned...as well as see several Drow in the building. First thing's first. "Hey you guys in the building, there are Drow.." and he starts listing their locations. "Also, you drow lady who is all 'wooooo look at what I can summon..'" he says, and jumps out. His hand shoots out as he fires a blast towards the beast. He attempts to take control of it by trying to override the summoning controls. He immediately just attempts to redefine 'friendly' to him and the people fighting the drow, and the drow as 'the enemy.' "Your summon is my summon!" he says, as the first target would likely be said summoner.
Aidan Proudpick	Aidan has never been SURROUNDED before. He has always only made flat planes of force. As the crossbow drows spread out around him, Aidan breathes in, then quickly breathes out, green planes of force forming around him. He manages two wide planes of force that only block two shots. The third hammers into his back, making him howl in pain. That's a failure of a fort save. Too many people. Too many targets. So he pulls out his GUN. The long barrel semi automatic is made of mostly wood, with a long barrel of iron. The planes of force suck back in as Aidan drag them in, then pushes them into the gun. The air magic forces the narrow iron bullets out at sub-sonic speeds, but in a rapid enough number to start forcing the drow back down.
Taelveras	Light works very well against the drow. They don't seem to be vulnerable to it in that it does not make them burn up as soon as Ioanna uses it, but the flashes do make it hard for them to see and lead to more chaos in the ranks. Nobody wants to be blinded, even temporarily, and that poor drow she got in the face still doesn't look like she can do much more than crawl slowly away from the battle. The drow don't really keep a line as such, scattering as Ioanna attacks. Even though that means she doesn't do as much damage as she'd like - only one of the drow takes a solid blow, unable to parry with his lighter-weight sword - it does break them up as she was hoping. They're trained more for skirmishing, and so they work in concert, trying to keep Ioanna on the move and dealing with attacks from multiple directions. Aidan gets a similar response. With his big shield he reads as a target to a mobility-focused raiding party, because he can't deal with all of them at once. "What is the matter?" one asks him. "Can't keep up?" They don't need to recognize a gun to know it's a threat, but they underestimate the speed it can fire and how often it needs (or doesn't need) to be reloaded. The group around him breaks off - those that don't drop to the rounds, anyway - leaving him alone except for the injured. For a moment. This doesn't mean he is safe, though; one of the female spellcasters seems to be bailing them out with a cold, creepy miasma that freezes the spirit as well as the body. None of the drow seem affected by it. Gareth charges the eidolon. It's big. It looks tough. She does it anyway, and is rewarded with a doubled roar; she didn't get it in the face because it reared up at the last moment, but she did get it in the flank. It comes down, stomping with its taloned hands and crouching so that it can jab its gigantic stinger over its own heads at her. But it's I4 that really manages to confuse things. Calling out the drow's locations helps - not everybody can hear him, but enough can to make a difference. The evoker who had been rather unhelpfully tossing lightning bolts leaves his room to go to the room next door, where the drow was breaking in to encounter someone defending themselves with a magical ward. The one in the room without any other people in it is apparently looting. The last is encountering the guards that Ioanna freed up to go in and help the apprentices. Seizing the eidolon, though... Controlling the eidolon is hard. It's not the magic resistance, but something else, something that makes it hard to guide away. Hard, but not impossible. He feels that he's got more than just the eidolon - it's connected to the male summoner, somehow. He can't make it strike the summoner, because - mentally, spiritually - they feel the same. But the drow never did get along, and turning the eidolon on one the female spellcaster casting at Aidan is a whole lot easier. It roars with one head, grabbing with the other and snapping its neck side to side, tearing into the cleric. "Blasphemer! Betrayer!" One of the remaining ones yells, either at the kaiju or at its summoner, but the third seems to be a bit more clever and followed the path of the bolt back toward I4, eyes narrowed. She makes a prayer and a gesture, and a pillar of black-tinged flame bursts from the ground beneath I4. Hellfire, or at least Abyss-fire - it's more than just heat, there's a sense of viciousness and even evil to it.
Aidan Proudpick	Aidan is most definitely G. CG most likely. But that has yet to be seen. In comes the breath, then out it goes, pushing back against the miasma, parting it, trying to push away the majority of it. He can feel the bone deep cold past his fur, the wasting away of his very feeling. He staggers forward through the miasma, sucking back in his magic with a pained gasp. He brings up his accelerator, taking aim at the cleric... when it gets yanked down by the horrible hyena monster. "Oh. Great." Banging from the inside. Twisting his body towards the sound, he breathes full breath into Aegis. The eyes suddenly flare with life and raw force rips out the side of it, sending Aidan forward into the building, smashing through one of the windows, and the bricks around it. He can at least follow the path of MAGIC SPELLS to look for the DARK ELF, rushing on his feet to turn corners sharply and... "HEY! In the name of protecting the innocent..." shit he doesn't have a follow up, "Oh! I mean, I am here to SHIELD the innocent!" The shield roars again, and Aidan drives towards the Evoker, quickly building up speed, ignoring pesky things like 'walls' or 'doors' or 'obstructions'.
Ioanna Langstrom	Skirmish tactics. Hit and run. Hit and fade. They're soldiers. Not a swarm. The kaiju is a tank. Not a monster. The degree to which this calms Ioanna Langstrom can't be overstated. They're not relying on raw numbers or a giant monster. Raw numbers can be strategized about but it's harder. A giant monster has to be overpowered by someone else. But hit and fade? Ioanna can deal with that. She, too, can hit and fade. First, though she has to weather it - and that's a problem when venom's building across her armor and starting to hiss and sizzle with some serious damage to the MCM. Structural integrity's dropping, says the thing in her ear. Fine. She's hunting for an opening, and the instant she finds it, she makes use of it. The chain around her free hand bursts to light. The sword blossoms into a bright white glow. Keeping them from attacking her directly with ease is a boon she won't avoid. She levels the blade like a gun and starts firing beams of light from it as she, too, hits and fades, moving back behind cover. She's turning the fight into a shooting war while everyone else handles the monster, getting behind some fallen chunks of building to avoid letting them hammer her back with ease.
Ishirou	I4 is happy with the work he's done so far and is about to consider moving from his position until something starts to change in the world around him. Looking down, the small opening to HELL that shoots out a gout of flame catches him completely by surprise, thinking his attack was clever and he wasn't caught. He goes off the edge, burning and hurt. In a way, he's not sure about it, but he manages to grab onto the POD as it falls with him and uses it to help break his fall. Hitting the ground hard he moves into a roll. He hurts, but he's not critical, yet. This gives him a chance to see the strategy with sunlight. Of course, that's a great idea! He can't make a sun appear, but he can do something almost as good. He fires a beam off again, once more provoking a hacking minigame. Each shot fires to the Drow he can detect (sans the summoner who is a temporary ally) and attempts to once more do something incredibly rude. Attempt to feed sensations directly into the mind that... It's full daylight suddenly, and that any protections they had aren't working for daylight.
Gareth	Digging her lance into that beast's flank, Gareth is forced to abandon her bike as it swerves around and eventually stops when it either crashes into something or someone, or just flips over a couple of times. With her feet on solid ground, though, Gareth can take full advantage of her strength and rock-steady defenses. As the eidolon stomps down at her, Gareth barely moves. Instead of trying to evade it outright, she instead takes a few calculated hops sideways off-center of its incoming foot before thrusting her shield upwards to meet it. She pushes into the beast's foot to slow down that stomp, struggling briefly under its weight while being just off center enough that she can still slip away deftly at the last moment. "I am no blasphemer, and I have betrayed nobody!" Gareth shouts in response to the yelling that she's not quite aware isn't even aimed at her, all while hopping about back and forth with far more agility than someone in plate armor should be able to. It's almost like she's taunting the eidolon with her footwork, slapping the front of her shield with her lance a few times to make some noise before rushing back in. "I don't even know who you are!" The lance is brandished once more, blue light gathering around the canisters at the base. She aims a quick series of thrusts at the creature's legs, each one followed with a burst of mana to add some much-needed volume and magic-infused burning to each of her strikes.
Taelveras	The drow may be fractious, chaotic demon-worshippers, but the one time they are pretty much guaranteed to work together is during a battle like this. The ones Ioanna is pinning down - and she is pinning them down, even if she can't hit them effectively when they're using cover and the light-sapping shadowy aura - are certainly working as an effective squad. So while she doesn't strike any blows, she's stopping the group of them - four? five? - from assisting anyone else, or even really breaking away. One of them is using cover and stealth to try to sneak behind her, though, and the next time she rises to shoot, he rushes her from the other direction. No shots this time - he uses only his sword to strike, and he's better than at least some of the others. Aidan rushes into the building. There is a wall in the way. It stops him for exactly zero seconds; he just goes right through it with a shattering of stone, revealing the evoker (who is Arcanaminium staff) and a second wizard under attack by what looks like a drow ninja. She has a mask pulled up, no skin exposed except a small gap around her eyes, and what feels like way too many knives. He can angle right to hit her, but she somehow manages to twist, springing off the shield - not harmlessly, the impact was severe, but she's still under control. She throws several of those knives down at Aidan in a blitz, then lands and goes back to what she was doing - she shoulder-checks the non-evoker to heft her up onto her shoulder. Is she attempting to steal an entire wizard? (Yes.) Also, the knives are poisoned. But not the numbing poison from before. This stuff burns, feeling more like acid than toxin. Even if they stick in his armor, they weaken it just by being there. Aegis is probably fine if they hit it, though - but he might really want to clean it afterwards. Gareth is doing a very good job of tying up the monstrous eidolon. It discards the cleric it was chewing on by tossing her into a wall (she does not immediately rise, though she's still moving so she's probably not dead) to focus down on the smaller knight engaging it. She's tearing at its legs, and though it has six of them it needs at least three of them to stand up. It does another one of those double-roars as Gareth takes one of the insectoid ones out from under it with a crack of chitin, causing it to lurch dangerously, but it still manages to follow through by exhaling a cloud of green-yellow mist at her. Surprise! That's acid too. The cleric that attacked I4 knows he's still up there, but she can't see him from where she is, so there's no immediate follow-up spell. She is yelling at the other upright cleric in a language that is not immediately recognizeable to non-natives (it's Abyssal), probably telling her about the mind-control of the summoner. Who is, for his part, looking more than a little out of it; all his attention is on controlling the kaiju. The two clerics turn in unison, raising their hands in mutual prayer in the same language. A literal wall of spinning, churning blades - apparently made of bone - appears in midair in front of them like a shield (which incidentally herds the kaiju away from them), and at the same time a gauntleted fist appears in the air above I4, twice the size of a human hand. It swings down in a flying punch, then rises up and repeats it. It follows him if he tries to move. Life isn't fair. But by this point he's finished his hacking, and a stream of bolts comes down for the drow. Some dodge; others deflect it with their enchanted armaments. A few others are inside, and there's no direct line to them that doesn't go through stone walls. But it strikes enough of them that there is a great shout as the sudden appearance of 'light', mental as it may be, disorients, dazzles, and blinds them. "Idiots!" one of the clerics yells. "There is no light! The shadowgate is still present!" Well, she must be fine, though by the general raider raction, most of them aren't.
Aidan Proudpick	Oh, that's not a wizard. That's a jumpy lady. Aidan doesn't have these cultural touchstones. He twists around with his shield, trying to foil her vaulting, but she is just far too agile. He tries to spin around, but moving the mighty shield on a dime isn't easy, especially when you are built like a twig. Two knives drop into Aidan's shoulder and the squirrel lets out another fierce shout of pain. Leather starts to wither away and his body feels like it is on fire. He struggles to turn around in place, not doing a good job of drowning out the pain as he sees her GRAB A WHOLE DAMN WIZARD. "No.. no you don't." First a wall. One sharp breath puts a wall in front of the ninja, a wall of swirling but somehow hard air. Next, Aegis roars to life, filling the hallway with the thunderous sound of rushing air. The shield fills much of the hallway, a roaring glowing force that starts building up speed, a perfectly steady acceleration. Until it stops five feet from the ninja. Aidan kills the shield, forces it down, and uses the momentum to deliver a kick that'll likely shatter his shin if he misses.
Ishirou	I4 jumps around, trying to avoid being FISTED to death. The fist continues to pound down at him, and he hears that loud drow screeching. He flips back up, running across the street until he kicks up off the side of a building and reaches for a flag pole. He flips from there to a window, and then over the blades. He spins, aiming a beam of light at the first. He doesn't need to hack very hard here, reconstructing a spell isn't that hard. All he has to do is redirect the energy, dissolve the matrix...and then reemploy the matrix with his own code. Instead of a fist, it's now a foot. Instead of being aimed at him, it's aimed at the very loud drow. He lands somewhere nearby, a blade being drawn from his source of weapons. "Yeah, no use screaming at them...it's not an illusion, I wired their brains to actually experience the sun!" he says.
Ioanna Langstrom	Keeping enemies pinned down is practically Ioanna's lot in life. It's a familiar place - being shot at from behind cover, shooting at soldiers across the way. It's every Confederate-v-Union battlefield she'd ever been on. It may be less grand, less overwhelming, than many, but it's the same sort of thing. Except this time... Well, this time, she's an Elite, isn't she? And that's proven once and for all when one of them rushes her, and her alone. In the old days, she'd have a squad. In those days they wouldn't be able to get close without someone sniping for her, someone shooting over her shoulder. But in those days, she'd've died to a single hit from the blade - not been able to parry it aside with a gauntlet. The blade would've carved through her armor, not bounced off with a big scar down the middle. She brings the heavy greatsword down with enough force to split the cover she'd been hiding behind, swings the damaged arm around, and opens fire with a barrage of light blasts that burst like flashbangs.
Gareth	Gareth is prepared for the roar this time, using her shield to keep the brunt of that sonic blast from knocking her off her feet or turning her ears into mush. She peeks upwards when she doesn't feel a leg smashing into her shield, but the timing is a little off as it starts belching acidic mist at her. "What a fearsome beast you are! It's a shame you're with these people, though... We could make a formidable team!" Sounding just as eager as she did when the battle started, Gareth grimaces as the acid burns into both her armor and her directly, her shield doing little to keep the cloud from covering her. It's certainly enough reason to keep her moving, at least, even as the lingering burns continue eating into her skin and keeping her distracted. Instead of trying to dance around it and risk more acid, Gareth goes into a more focused offensive. She tries getting underneath the creature directly, crushing risks be damned, just so she can start stabbing the everloving crap out of it as light starts to build in the canisters on her lance without being blasted outwards just yet.
Taelveras	Ioanna does indeed manage to prove her skill. The drow swordsman hits the gauntlet, but he's fast, twisting the blade through a sharp arc and following it up with a pair of almost jabbing blows. They're unlikely to break through the armor, but if he gets lucky and hits a joint or a weak point, he can carve through. His blade is harder than steel, though not so hard as adamantine or something similar, and sharp. Except so is her own sword, and she's swinging it powerfully. She carves through the cover (part of a decorative stone fence for a walkway, though effective enough at covering your lower half) and then fires. This one is apparently one of the ones that was not blinded by the 'sun', but now he is, at least dazzled long enough to make him an easier target. He falls to the sword, crashing down. One of the drow that hasn't actually done much yet, perched on a roof, opens up. He's using a larger crossbow with a strange magazine that lets him fire a group of bolts very quickly, clustering his shots to try to break through Ioanna's armor by just pounding through it. I4 finds the spiritual weapon - a mere construct of force - not difficult to hack at all, by comparison. He can reconfigure the field more or less at whim once he's avoided getting punched in the face by it, and he does, driving it down at the louder of the remaining clerics. The remaining one snarls, "We will not be defeated by surface-dwellers," before bringing up her unholy symbol - a disc with a rune engraved on it, though it's hard to tell what the rune is from there. Another prayer, and she drives her fist forward as if punching I4, though she's too far away to touch him. The screaming crow made of blood and darkness and flame that erupts from her fist, flying straight towards him, is not too far away to touch him. As she continues to punch the air, several more of the screaming birds dive at him, immolating themselves into tiny fireballs and surges of negative energy on impact. She seems to have figured out his trick after the foot, and is using self-destroying spells to give him less of a chance to grab them. Aidan drives himself and his shield right at the ninja. The ninja doesn't move. It's some kind of staredown as he approaches, rocketing dangerously fast at her, until - She drops a smoke bomb. And then she isn't there anymore. Aidan keeps going. The next wall is, fortunately, not a wall at all but a door, so he breaks through it in a shower of splinters as he enters what looks like a study. The NEXT wall is also wood, but thicker, and when he's through that one, he is in a room with the drow that was looting before. He has a bag, and is rather confused when someone breaks through at least two walls to get to him. Not so confused that he can't shoot Aidan before he runs, though. Meanwhile, the ninja appears in another puff of smoke by the window, and leaps out of it, the unconscious sorceress still slung over one shoulder. "I say!" yells the evoker from where he is at the window, firing a series of homing darts at the ninja, most of which burst harmlessly. Gareth is still fighting the kaiju. Unfortunately (for her, not for the kaiju) the summoner has mostly returned to his senses and is now directing it more carefully, with gestures and movements. He looks terrified, as he should by the way the clerics occasionally look at him after his monster practically chewed up one of them. She goes underneath, and the eidolon takes off, leaping into the air, draconic wings beating. It is a very poor flier, but it does fly well enough to take off even as Gareth stabs at its stomach; it lands mere feet away, driving its immense poison stinger directly at her flank. It's big enough to strike like a spear, never mind the toxins involved.
Aidan Proudpick	As the ninja suddenly disappears with the captive, Aidan opens his mouth to call out quickly that someone is running with a captive. He gets the yelp out. Then his feet crashes against the wall. Thankfully it is a small wood paneled wall, and he smashes through it without crushing his foot. The NEXT wall is a more dense wooden wall that Aidan drives through, his leg giving a painful CRACK as he slams into it and through it. Aidan finally gets enough mind set into him to activage Aegis, arresting his momentum and falling down to the ground. Aidan looks up at the looter. The looter looks at him. Aidan looks at the looter. The looter starts to run. A wall of wind rushes forward, yeeting the looter out the window.
Ioanna Langstrom	Just shooting the MCM isn't enough to break it. But shooting it over, and over, and over, and over, and over, is enough to start cracking even the durable disguised power armor. Bit by bit, it starts to crack. Orange hexagonal cracks spread from the arrow impact points. The cracks start spreading, and the plate mail starts disappearing, replaced by dull orange hexagonal lines clinging to a nearly skintight bodysuit. The further it's pushed, the more Ioanna is getting pushed backwards - the more she's pushed back into the line of fire. The more she's pushed back into the line of fire, the more she's exposed to other attacks, bright lights be damned. She's losing control of the situation. That's how you die. She has to regain control. She grabs the rock she split in half and flings it into the way of one of the arrows. It's just enough for her to roll forward and break into a run. Contrary to expectations, she is not running straight for the enemy lines in some kind of heroic super-attack, or some kind of kamikaze blaze. Ioanna just...isn't that stupid, or that suicidal, or that kind of person. She's always been a survivor, first and foremost. What she needs to do is find a position. So she does. She gets behind a crumbling pillar, past the heroic line, past the heroic rescuers (and the Watch, but hey). And then she grabs the weapon. The MCM starts to flicker as she pumps power into the OC. The armor's integrity is breaking down already - no point in keeping it active. The field collapses utterly, leaving her in her skintight suit covered in orange hexagons, as the sword's light gets more and more intense. It's not going to be just a swing this time. There's certain types of attacks that make /sense/ here, certain types of magical abilities here that just are sensible. And this is one of them. The charge grows brighter. When she's maximized it, she reinitiates the MCM, winding up in a ragged set of robes with a book tucked under her arm. She's still holding the glowing greatsword. She steps out from the pillar and fires upwards. A beam of light just pours down from the sky, a heavenly smite, a fist from heaven pointed at the Drow's back lines, to scatter them and leave the rest to the party. She falls back behind the pillar, taking a deep breath.
Gareth	The summoner's rise doesn't go unnoticed by Gareth, but she pretends not to notice for the time being as she continues her deadly dance with the great beast. Unlike the summoner, the knight still looks excited to just keep continuing this fight with the creature, bobbing and weaving around to make herself a tricky target even as it takes the skies. When it comes back down with that stinger coming right at her, she's already swinging her shield into position. Instead of standing her ground, however, Gareth charges right through the stab, angling her shield and juking sideways at the last moment to prevent it from striking her center mass. The poison still manages to get into her system somewhat, but it's not enough to slow her down for long. One massive step in, a stab to the underside, and she keeps moving forward. Another stab to a hind leg, and she turns on a dime. Another stab to the same leg from the other side, more turning, a stab to the face. As Gareth keeps running, she keeps building up speed and power with each strike, all while that glowing in her lance grows more and more ominous. It's not ominous for the creature, though. Rather, as she runs by a leg for what should have been another stab, she instead passes right by it and keeps sprinting. Her target: The summoner. "I've got you now!" She thrusts that lance into center mass, then unleashes all of that built up mana into a massive burst of power point blank.
Ishirou	I4 tries everything to keep ahead of these casters, but today the spells are too unfamiliar, and his ability to scan about for them is not fast enough. The burning birds and blood drive him back, again and again...pushing him against a wall. He sizzles as he slumps down, right arm function gone and his legs starting to melt away. However, his head snaps up...he wasn't done yet...not by a long shot. He doesn't have to be the one to land the finishing blow. He just has to set it up. Once more the world changes into data and numbers for him. He can see many drow...and once more things between them. He fires out a beam of light, aiming to hit one of the blind drow still, and this might cause the cleric who had put him into this position to think he missed. That is, of course, what he wants. He calculates energy, magical potential, and everything in between, before a beam of light would start jumping to each one. It does more than blind or burns, instead, he tries to turn all of their magical energy against them, trying to burn them in from the inside out and cause a chain reaction of explosions. If it doesn't kill, it will be incredibly painful, disorienting, and uh...a problem for their future selves.
Taelveras	Aidan uses a gust of wind to 'escort' the looter out the window. He lands badly, though he bites back a yell as he hits the unyielding stone-paved courtyard, dropping his sack. A few odds and ends spill from it - valuables, but underneath it magical items, scrolls, and books. All he could grab, where he was. One of the other drow - light-blinded by I4, but apparently on the road to recovery because he's squinting, eyes watering, but seems to be able to see where he's going - scoops it up. He doesn't stop. The drow, in general, are breaking. The assault is... well, it's unclear if it's a failure but it's certainly well on its way to ending. That's true even before Gareth drives a spear directly into not the kaiju but the summoner. The summoner is not armored. And he wasn't expecting that; all the attention so far has been on the eidolon. Gareth has to evade the spinning blade barrier, but once she does, she can strike home and blast away. He goes flying, landing in a messy heap next to where the cleric the eidolon threw landed. The eidolon itself twists weirdly and then vanishes, pulling into itself in a physically improbable-looking manner. Ioanna, meanwhile, brings down the hammer of God. Not literally - gods do answer prayers here, but she certainly isn't praying to any of them. But it doesn't have to be literal to be a killer. The blast descends, striking in the cluster of drow, where they were hiding out. Several of them literally go flying from the impact; others scream. What was a retreat begins to turn into a rout. And it only gets worse when I4 inverts the power of the clerics. None of them go up like candles, which may be slightly disappointing, but it's definitely doing something. One of them screams; another gets out a desperate prayer. The shadows in the area get darker. Something strange happens; the light inverts for a moment, like bright darkness, and then returns to normal. About half the drow are gone, teleported back by whatever means they used to get here. Other remain - some corpses, some wounded. One of the clerics and the summoner are two of the ones that stayed behind, but the ninja (and her captive) seem to be gone. At least there will be someone to get information from. And, judging by the rest of the Guard that is starting to show up, someone to talk to about it. COMING SOON THE BEAST BENEATH 2: VOICE OF THE BEAST
Gareth	Skidding to a stop as the summoner gets blasted away, Gareth whirls around briefly just in time to see the eidolon disappearing before turning again to get a better look at how the rest of the fight is going. From the looks of things, rather well! "Hmhm! Looks like that's settled, then. Now, stay down, and we might be able to help any survivors!" Gareth announces to nobody in particular, although she does go around to check on the fallen drow to see who is or isn't alive. Those that are get Gareth to signal their position, and the dead... Well, they're dead. "But why did this happen in the first place...?"
Aidan Proudpick	Aidan slowly pulls himself out of the room, dragging his foot behind him. He gets as far as the hallway and flops down to the floor, in a general state of shock, having broken his leg at 200 MPH. It ain't great.