Game Summary/Recap/Log

[Pikachu]

Recaps of played games, at least when I'm present. Helpful for catching up, refreshing memories, and posterity. I type these up as the game progresses. Here's last week's:

Note:

Jon = Lucia
Dyuman = Shin
Craig = Osmium/Overfiend
Pika = Sicarius/I/me

Game Session #1

-Intro speech. Chip's characters all kill themselves. Chip loves pain.

-Get mission briefing. We're hunting clowns, a part of GGXX... I mean, the Midnight Carnival.

-Clown sightings Palthan Prefecture: Edgewise Tavern, Palthan Prefecture Police Dept., Violet Rose, Shrine of Ishkandar, Cathartic King. Lots of taverns, corrupt ass places.

-Party splits up: Lucia takes Violet Rose, Osmium takes Edgewise, Shin + me take Cathartic King. Oh god, this is a bad idea. After this many years, why do we always split up so easily to look cool?

-We all hear a crazy giggle. Omfg. [Lucia finds clowns, who have murdered tons of dudes. They sound like they breathe in helium. Damn. There's one with a scythe? He's got a scythe? Lucia insults their "show", combat ensues. Good god, the leader has high dex. Leader attacks, does shit. Lucia casts spells back, they hurt. Spells are thrown and blocked. We arrive.]

-Shin and I arrive on one end, Osmium appears on the other. A red ball flies up and lands on Lucia, engulfing him in flame. It's not terribly useful, apparently. Wow. Lucia gets greenballed. Osmium tentacle hentais many people. Shin flings an energy blast. I think at the leader, Shin fails at DBZ, Osmium hentais more. I cleave someone in half. Osmium hentais someone in half. Osmium is the Overfiend. Lucia kicks clown butt, literally. I think at someone and he falls. Shin DBZ's the fallen clown. We win.

-We were taking the prisoner back, minus a Lucia (since he was tending to the children), but the prisoner is stolen from us. We're ambushed by marionette motherfuckers entangling us with wires. Why is everyone such a rapist in this game? We find these tards. I teleport up and I Wayne Brady one of the bitches. It doesn't seem to do tons. I hax0r her puter instead. Shin punches one after jumping up here onto the building. It doesn't seem very effective. He is angry and shit. Osmium treats one of the crazed clowns like a schoolgirl and plucks her off the building. Overfiendtastic things happen. Shin revs up and Balrogs the bitch in from of him. I interrogate someone and get the base of operations: The Keystone Factory. She works for a man named Vaughn. Called the Ringmaster. Very powerful. I'm surprised the leader isn't named Ino.

-We report our findings, ane our first session ends here.

Edit: Clarifications on some word definitions...

Wayne Brady, v. - to choke a bitch

Example: You distract him by tossing a rock over there, and then I'll sneak up behind the guard and Wayne Brady him before he can do anything.

Overfiend, v. - to use tendrils, tentacles, or any phallic object to kill someone, with very hentai implications

Example: Summoning a tendril from the nether, Osmium Overfiends a fat chick for 20 Body, splitting her from crotch to neck. Osmium is a sick fuck.

DBZ, v. - to use an energy blast to take someone out

Example: After standing around for 50000 phases, over three game sessions, Shin finally DBZs the mook for 582075338 Body.

Balrog, v. - to wind up and punch/haymaker/fist someone, either stunning/killing them in a manner that would impress Mike Tyson were he an intelligent being

Example: Entering into a berserk rage, Shin dashes up to a dude and Balrogs him in the head, causing an explosion of blood, skull bits, and brains.


And for future reference....

Howard Dean, v. - to utterly own a person, group, town, or any entity and existential distinction, in such a manner that would cause the individual/group owning shit up to erupt in the Dean Scream (Yeeargh!)

Example: In the ensuing epic battle with Teron, the Hat-tipping Homo, and Strahd the Magic Bunghole, the Twilight Watch was victorious after an audacious maneuver on part of the entire party - with Shin entering a monstrous rage, bullrushing Strahd straight into a fireball from Lucia, where Sicarius telekinetically hurls the flaming Strahd into Teron, who is being spread eagle raped by Osmium's shadow-Overfiend. The two explode in a fiery blaze of raging homosexuality, raining gay ichor into a bloody pool which is dirtier than Paris Hilton's vaginal discharge. Having Howard Deaned the villains, our heroes erupt into a loud, "Yeeargh!" and gain 100 character points.

**All word definitions are arbritrary references used by myself to color an action. These will almost always involve transforming nouns into verbs.

[Pikachu]

Game Session #2 (Given the craziness of this combat, I'm opting less for the silly route, and more for the serious, to make it a more interesting read, if you can believe that)

[told from the viewpoint of Sicarius]

We report in to Klavion and quickly receive new orders to go to the Keystone Factory to investigate. We cannot go immediately, however, because Shin is recovering from fatigue. I believe this is his side effect from going into those battle rages... as much as his strength is a boon, I cannot help but wonder how long he can last before he loses staying power, or his sanity for that matter. No one knows how much longer the Val might last after being cursed as such by Anaximandor like this. It could be later tonight, tomorrow, or decades from now - who knows? As an Illryian, I know better than any of the other races, or even more than any other Illryian, what being marked like that could mean. Unfortunately for Shin, I also know that there are those who are probably preparing for a contingency, should there be a day where the Val as a collective lose their wherewithal and forget of their self-appointed positions as protectors of the realm and go after friend and foe alike. Perhaps even the holiest of men are ready to let loose whatever dogs of war they have caged to eradicate the blue skinned brutes when the time comes.

Well, the noble Val have little excuse not to overcome this setback. Former humans have come back from worse, after all. If they do succumb fully, I wouldn't hesitate to put Shin out of his misery. It would be the respectful thing to do for a comrade.

Such were my thoughts as I meditated, waiting for my groupmate to recover. Humans and Fey may consider such thoughts treacherous, but they treat the necessity of death like an aristocratic woman treats mud and dirt. They are simply afraid to soil their hands with it.

Meanwhile, Lucia is playing with fire. Plumes of smoke begin rising into the crisp, clear night sky. I find it sad that he does not know to keep the skies clear himself, that he may appreciate the stars that are out tonight, and enjoy the bite of the cool breeze which is suffocated by his flames. He is a strange one, but I suspect that there is a method to his madness. No one attains any degree of appreciable power without this trait.

They find me first - Shin and Osmium - before finding a muttering and complaining Lucia. Osmium is another of the Demon Touched, who enjoys the shadows even more than many others of our kind. While I find the applications of his tendrils violent (yes, by my standards and potentially... perverse... I can probably relate to his brooding manner the most. As such, we have kept our respectful distances, well aware that we both bear many dark scars. He is sullen, indeed, but I have never met an Illryian who was upbeat, and somehow, I pray I never do. An Illryian who has cause to be so damn happy all the time is one that no one should trust.

We gather our gear and head out into the city, toward the Keystone Factory. I watch as the buildings surrounding us begin to degrade, until we have reached a particularly wretched looking factory - looking the same as the image I gleaned from the clown puppet's mind barely forty-five minutes before. But no one needed a psychic to understand the nature of such a place. Blood soaked dirt covers the front of this building, and the air smelled of torture and murder. I briefly soak in the aura of Killing Intent, savoring its familiar nature...

Perhaps you do not understand, reader, how to savor such feelings. One thing a person can learn, while under the tutelage of demons, is to intuitively understand the nature of death. What makes sentient beings so special is that sentience leads to purpose. Purpose leads to intent. A strong Killing Intent is full of will, passion, and certainty. It may contain hate, jealousy, vengeance, sadness, or pleasure. But nothing competes with a Killing Intent which desires to contribute to the higher order of death - the drunk revelry of power which has the authority to stop life.

(continued, for easier reading, in the following post)

[Pikachu]

Game Session #2, cont.

I begin to feel disappointment, and disgust. Taking in another's Killing Intent is like experiencing a forbidden fruit. Those who cannot handle such feelings may wither under fear if their enemy's intent is too strong. I expected better, even from these two-bit murderers, but their aura fills my mouth with the taste of sour, shitty wine. They have no true Intent - just a numbing hedonistic itch to scratch, nothing more. I feel the urge burning inside me to eliminate their stench from the face of existence.

We walk into the warehouse, our footsteps echoing faintly off the stone walls. I do not feel the need for subtlely here, not against such pathetic weaklings. Not finding any guards, our party casually explores the factory, following the trails of blood to a trap door leading underground. Quickly, we pop it open, expecting an ambush, but no such thing comes. Entering the passage, we begin hearing laughter, mixed with the pained moans of prisoners. I take no mind of the prisoners. They were not listed as a higher priority than dealing with the clowns. Shin and Lucia begin freeing the prisoners first.

I do not understand the counter-intuitive design of this place. Further down the corridor, at the end, I hear laughter that is unmistakably... clownish. Why would the prisoners' cells be in front of those who should guard them? I also do not understand why Shin and Lucia are in such a hurry to free the prisoners - they'll still be there after the fight. Should we somehow fail, there would just be more bodies in those cells, after all, and in a more traditional setting, the guards would need to be eliminated first before the freed prisoners can have a safe escape.

Fortunately, the need for order is unecessary with the chaotic, nonsensical clowns, and some prisoners are led out safely. Osmium and I, with our priorities straight, head down to the end of the hallway. I half expect Osmium to open the door first, thinking we could barge in and begin the slaughter, but he sinks through the door.

"Couldn't you have opened the door for me?" I mutter sarcastically.

"No," I hear from a faint Osmium-sounding whisper.

It figures.

I open the door, finding a demented circus of drug paraphernelia, marionettes, and those strange wooden boards with the moving blades* strewn about the floor. I casually draw my sword and wait for them to notice us an approach, that they may fall to my blade.

Us? Osmium?

Except, this is less "us" and just a lot more "me". Hmm. Osmium is nowhere to be found. The clowns immediately charge en masse. Great, I think to myself, this now has to be a little more difficult. Throwing up a barrier around myself, I am barely able to cushion the blow of a potentially lethal swing of a clown's scythe. I am instantly surrounded by four of these imbeciles. Osmium leaps out from the shadows and takes out one of his tendrils, wrapping it around a clown's neck, snapping it.

Thankful that there is one less out of more than a dozen to worry about, I ward off some pathetic attempts to attack my mind, while Osmium now grabs someone by their lower regions, and squeezes hard enough to pop his manhood. I knew there was something Osmium was hiding in his closet.

Taking a weak swipe at one of the scythe-wielding clowns, I feint another blow at him, and quickly change my target to another standing adjacent to me. Not expecting my attack, the clown's innards are spilled all over the floor, but he still manages a gurggling laugh as he slumps over. Once again, I feel those same wires tying me up. I look over to my right and see Osmium getting bound as well. More clowns keep rushing at us, but they are so weak in their attacks that they cannot harm two bound men. I knew they would be so useless.

Osmium picks up one of their strange blades* with a tendril, still tied up himself, and begins swinging it around, dismembering another clown in a bloody flare. I casually free myself of those wires and swing my blade downward, hoping to catch the scythe-wielder in front of me on the chest. He is able to lean back far enough to keep his organs intact, but loses a leg as my sword continues its arc toward the ground. Miraculously, the clown maintains his balance, and my brief moment of victory is dampened when I see the clown's leg move up off the floor and re-attach itself back to where it was.

More blows are exchanged, and a clown throws a colored ball near me. The resulting pulse weakens my defenses as I am on the receiving end of some unfunny punishment. I am not sure how much longer I can hold out, but then a fireball streaks past me and fries one of the arms from the clown I am still fighting. Finally, Lucia and Shin must be done. Though they are just seconds late, they are late nonetheless, and I am glad we can begin to roll over these clowns. I deftly slice the clown's other arm off, preparing myself to finish him off now that he cannot defend himself. However, the clown is a coward, unwilling to even kick me with his legs, using them instead to run back toward some jesters who help him reattach his lost limbs.

Meanwhile, Osmium delightfully takes off more genitals with his tendrils, and Shin becomes most angry, taking his rage out on a poor peon who is on the receiving end of a fist that takes him across the room, dashing his broken body against the wall. Before I can appreciate the designs Shin left on the wall, I sense two mental assaults on Shin. I watch him stumble momentarily and shake off the cobwebs... that couldn't have been pleasant.

I sigh as I fade my essence into the folds of space, briefly creating a tessaract in which I can move instantaneously towards the coward who ran.

"Going somewhere?" I ask him.

I do not wait for his reply, lashing out with my sword, aiming for the jugular. The clown twists and holds up his arms, and I hack off an arm yet again. In all my time, as a human and as an Illryian, I have taken off limbs, but I do not believe I have ever witnessed the same individual having their limbs taken off over and over quite like this.

The pain and shock are too much even for his demented mind to handle, and he falls over, twitching and oozing out a new puddle of blood that does not soak into the already saturated floor. All that is left are these pesky healers...

I am suddenly knocked back by a flash of light in front of me. Caught off guard, I feel myself lift off the ground, and I cannot fight the darkness that creeps into my vision....

[Meanwhile, Osmium continues in Wayne Brady fashion, while Shin finds out that a clown left room for his fist in his stomach... so he Schwarzenggers his fist through his stomach. The remaining marionette has tough as nails defense, as Shin flings himself into it, Osmium mushroom prints it, and Lucia tries to burn it.. all for naught. It even splits itself up into multiple images, and several phases are spent trying to blast it. While all this happens...]

I awaken in what is not more than a few seconds, to the din of fighting, and I try to shake off the shock by staying immobile, a tactic I have not had to use in years since being a mercenary. How terrible. Healers!?!? Since when have I made a habit of underestimating my foes and taking things so casually. I've become complacent, recognizing the weakness in another's Killing Intent, without even acknowledging the laziness of my own.

But I have suffered a wound, and I need to regroup. I fade from sight, and back off from the melee momentarily. I watch the rest of my group flail at the many images of the jester, barely denting the crazed marionette... even against a difficult foe, they are steadfast and persistent, qualities that my own Killing Intent have lacked while resting on my laurels. Even Shin, in a reckless attack, engulfs himself in his own explosive burst of energy to go down fighting, while I had gone down carelessly.

Suddenly, another set of double doors open. A ringmaster appears, and I know him to be Vaughn. Furiously, he scans his ruined "stage", frustrated at his fallen minions, and at the rude curtain call we have made. As he verbally demands our death, he rushes by me, launching a fireball at Lucia. In his anger, he misses wildly, but I cannot mistake it: the fury, the passionate anger at the demise of his show, the thirst for our blood.. a good Killing Intent. I quickly rush behind him, unseen in the nether. Him I shall strike down with all that I have. To do less, especially after what happened moments ago, would be utterly disrespectful to my enemies, my comrades, and myself.

I aim high. No more slashing off arms and legs. Yes, this anticipation of certainty, clarity, and sheer distinction of death is all too familiar, and yet it has been far too long since I have felt it this strongly. I feel the very pulse of Vaughn's arteries.. I hear the blood rushing through his body. Yes, the familiarity of a hunter knowing that he will give his prey the peace of oblivion. I allow myself to enjoy the privilege of being a part of death's designs as I assume my stance, letting loose my coup de grace. A brief twinge goes down my arm as I feel my sword slice through skull and brains, smooth as the caress of silk, as my own Killing Intent is fulfilled. I sheathe my sword and watch the ringmaster fall to his knees and then forward, his own blood covering the blood of his victims in penance for his crimes.

I stay unseen a little while longer to gather my senses, not allowing myself to be seen wallowing in the pleasure of the hunt, and gathering my bruised pride. We rifle through Vaughn's papers and discover that there are others like him. I take solace in having this hunt continue, that I may atone for my own weaknesses and further realize my own potential.

Edit:

* = note that these blades rotating on a wooden plank are basically chainsaws

[dyuman]

Summary of game 7/12/07

We awoke and are taken to a new meeting location. Unlike the previous one this is a plush middle class home with amenities to satisfy us.

Clavian sits before us and informs us that Sicarius is off on another mission while we take care of another situation. Valnassa Nalivir, an elf senator with ties to Duragar requires protection from the wayfarers... however due to her ties with Duragar she herself does not approve of our organization. We must protect her, but not alarm any guards, nor make her aware of our presence...

He also notes of a secondary mission to try and convert 5 other vigilantes into either joining the WoT if their intentions are good, or to eliminate them if it is bad.

... I wonder to myself... why oh why is the large blue target going on a stealth escort mission... *sigh* not like there will be all that much action anyhow...

The first location we will meet up at is going to be the senator's home, from there it will continue to a middle class area to protect her during a fund raiser, to further locations.

Osmiam asks Clavian for the addresses of the honor guards that will be escorting Nalivir. After sometime Clavian returns with this information and Osmiam goes off to the nearest guards home with haste...

We still had hours to spare till we needed to be at the senator's home, so I go on to the first stop in the senator's day trip and scope out the location for any traps and spots of interest.

Lucia goes in a similar fashion to the 2nd location.

Meanwhile, Osmiam secretly enters first guards home and shadows into the bedroom. From there he presents the guard with a dream of himself and a warning to listen to the man with his face if the guard were to ever face it.

Not being entertained nearly enough he then shadows over to the guards wife sleeping next to him and places thoughts of the sexy Illryians and how they are far sexier than ever before. He snickers and goes off to the next guards home.

There he performs the same master of mind warping on the guard, and goes further with the wife - This time placing sheer thoughts of adultery into the wife's mind on top of an attraction to Illryians. Thoughts of Sicarius back-dooring the husband guard fill the poor womans mind. What a sick fuck.

Once Osmiam has his way he heads back to the base and regroups with Shin. Shin proceeds to eat breakfast (ala goku in dbz) and meditate for a few moments. Once finished and on their way out shin catches a glimpse of something shiny on one of the tables... a pair of metal gloves... and just his size.

He takes the gloves and puts them on, banging them together causing an echo of the metallic clang in the home. "This could come in handy."

Osmiam and myself head over to the Senator's home and see that Lucia is already there. We then realize... we never figured out a plan of how to tail her...

We note Clavian is already there as well... on the roof of Nalivir's home...

Shin ducks under a large shrub nearby the home, while Lucia stays out of sight. The guards arrive after a bit and we note they are speaking about their dreams from Osmiam.

Nalivir finally arrives, and we follow her... naturally we begin to split up slightly to not draw attention. Lucia goes ahead while Osmiam and I follow behind by 100 yards. Clavian flies up into the sky on what looks like wings of flame. I suppose he'll recon from the air.

At the first stop the Senator begins to conjure what seems like a fund raiser booth.

The 3 of us scout the area... having been here earlier in the morning I note something different on top of one of the buildings...

We Val aren't exactly the stealthiest of people... I jump up to the top of the roof with a small thud, but it seems that no one noticed the big blue guy jumping onto a building.

Infront of me is... nothing... but something... some sort of warping in the roofs shape, a sort of haze is near the ledge. With my keen ears I can hear a sort of clicking... a fire arm? What the hell is going on here...

I make my presence known and I see a wave of haze turn towards my direction... whatever it is he sure isn't happy to see me up here. I look across the courtyard at my team scouting the area oblivious to me finding something.

*pffft* *ping* Somethings hit me in the shoulder, it didnt hurt in the least... but it definately did hit... the haze's silhouette is that of a rifle. Before I can comprehend what is happening thoughts of the fucker shooting at me fill my mind. He shot at me... that mother fucking piece of shit shot at me!!!!!!! I go up to him and back hand him thinking I wouldn't even have to break a sweat... he blocks my colossal hit unphased.

Of what control I have left in my rage I keep reminding myself I cannot make too much noise... else fail the mission...

Another haze appears in front of me and takes a swing with some sort of weapon, it glides past me barely missing. I turn my attention at this one and proceed to hit him. He blocks as well... looks like this will be more interesting than I thought...

I had enough by now, I wind up a full punch and clench the knuckleduster I had gotten before from the home... "Die." I strike the one that fired the gun straight in the chest... he is hurled off the building by my blow and falls off. I felt his ribs break on my strike... though I hope he is outright dead.

I hear the other one speaking to someone... "Code blue! I need backup, Code blue!" I turn to him, "I am very 'code blue." He realizes I can hear him and panics a bit.

Fools didn't know what they were dealing with coming in. I notice in the distance Lucia and Osmiam begin to head to my direction... Clavian must have warned them.

My guard was down... I got distracted... I dont know if it was from my rage or just being out of focus... I get struck in the head with something... something that hurts. Blood gushes forth and I lose conciousness and fall on the roof. Before I black out I think "... fucking Sicarious gets a vacation and I get this"

-----
3rd person info

Lucia flies up to the top and finds Shin out and bloodied from being hit in the head. Proceeds to fire blast the haze he has noticed now as well but the assassin dodges.

Osmiam notices the one that fell off the building and kicks him to make sure he's done for. He proceeds to climb up and squints from being in the sun. He sees the haze and spits at him. The haze is aware of Osmiam showing up and dodges the attack.

------
Shin mode:

I regain conciousness... at least I'm not blinded by rage anymore... regardless - I'm going to tear the one who struck me, in two. I hear the crackles and pops of flames whipping past me... must be Lucia. I'm still not feeling all that ready just yet, and rest a bit to regain strength in the hopes to surprise the one they are attacking.

"Where is my backup?!" I hear while feigning to be out cold... Yea... that is definitely the one that got me.

I hear Lucia pull out a trick that did not sound familiar to me... I peek out the slits of my eyes and see him wielding a fiery blade. I see a glimpse of him moving away at the assassin but no sound of death.

Enough is enough - I have gotten enough strength back and should be able to finish the bastard, one chance though... if I don't make my mark and he turns to me again... things won't be pretty.

I quickly get up and rush behind the hazed figure. "OH SHIT HE'S UP AGAIN!" I swing at him with a fully powered punch... but... the blood in my eyes and being light headed wavered my aim... I miss.

The haze takes hold of his blade and comes at me... Thoughts of my life, my failures fill my mind in moments. The haze hits his mark true and severs several major arteries in my neck, blood gushes all over the roof and then... the darkness comes.

Before it completely envelops me I note Clavian finally arriving onto the roof.

Shin has died.

(For Josh's reference: 1 Headshot armor ignoring attack + high dmg hit knocked me out leaving me at 2 body... Vitals hits for 15 hthka putting me at -28 after multipliers (Con of 28).. Chip basically fucked me up).

-----

Jon has story while I'm gone.

----

I wander a twisting nether... I failed... once again... I was not strong enough. At least this time it cost me my own life rather than ones around me.

Suddenly a large light seems to be scanning the nether. It lands on me and begins to pull me towards it slowly. Like a black hole it pulls me in progressively with more intensity - I begin to hear the voice of Clavian incanting. It must be him. Guess I'm not so dead after all.

Just as I reach near the source of the light I notice a familiar figure to my left.

"Can it be?" I wonder to myself. She smiles and raises her hand waving goodbye to me. I panic - it is "her"! I try to use my strength to break away from the light and go to her, but to no avail - I have no strength in this world. I failed... twice in one day.

I suddenly awake with panting terribly painful breathes and see Clavian collapsing, and Lucia standing over me. I black out once again...

[Pikachu]

That guard's wife must be incredibly turned on by Sicarius' sexiness. She might be a yaoi fan, you know. Be glad it's a dream, though, because if you want to make that homo fag dream a reality, Vaughn and now Shin can tell you what will happen:

BOOM! Head Shot!

Btw, I am not on vacation. I am... Chip.. where am I? (PM me!)

EDIT: Chek yur speellingz plees. Osmium. Klavion. Sicarius. Kthxbye, Mercushio.

[dyuman]

eh too lazy, you know what i mean.

You're on a solo mission, just me cursing you not being there.

[feedback]

Told from the viewpoint of Lucia

All spells in italics are incanted in Faerihalirianthyrianial.

---

After finishing the previous assignment one might think that given our success that we would be granted a short break, or perhaps some kind of reward, but of course not, not in the Twilight Watch. And so here I find myself waking up before the sun is even beginning to rise, gathering once again around another briefing table with my fellow wayfarers. At least the beds at this latest safe house were more comfortable than the rocks we were sleeping on the other night, not that I really got to enjoy them for very long. Yawning as I sit down, I glance around the table, idly thinking of the great and wonderful sleep that I should be enjoying instead of listening to this idiot (Klavion) prattle on about something I probably won't care about. What a way to start the day.

My thoughts are suddenly interrupted as Klavion decides to start the briefing. I look up in a daze, slightly confused why we are starting as we still seem to be missing a Sicarius. As if to answer my unasked question, Klavion is quick to inform us that the Phoenix unit will be down a member since Sicarius is off on a secret mission. I probably should care, but I'm just too tired to really pay attention at this point. Klavion goes on to explain how an Alundrian ambassador, senator, and all around diplomat Valanassa Nalivir would be making a public appearance in our fair city to try and improve morale and raise money for rebuilding Valdis or something like that. I caught the gist of what he was saying, half paying attention half reading my mission statement while trying not to fall asleep in my chair. Klavion goes on and on about how the senator does not believe that she is any danger and refuses anything more than the bare minimum for her honor guard. That she even had the audacity to turn down Duragar Aetherbane's own offer to escort her during her stay. Klavion continues to stress the importance of this mission and then goes on to make some pretty big demands on how we are to protect the senator from anything that might harm her and at the same time make sure she doesn't know that we are doing it. Oh and while we're at it we should try to find out the identity of her unknown assailants. And here I'm thinking that I should just kill the bitch myself so I can go back to sleep.

Oh well, can't be going off and killing important diplomats without a good reason. Too bad her interrupting my good sleep doesn't count as a good reason in most states. But that name, Valanassa Nalivir, I could have sworn that I've heard that name somewhere before. While I'm trying to remember where I've heard that name before, Klavion also informs us that since Sicarius is absent that he will be filling in and joining us in the field. I nod slightly acknowledging his words, trying very hard not to fall asleep while I do so. I still can't shake the feeling that I've heard the name Nalivir somewhere before. As I continue to ponder this name, Klavion continues to inform us of our secondary mission. I look back up at him just amazed on how long winded and demanding this guy can be. He informs us of five rogue vigilantes that have been operating in our vicinity that we should keep an eye out for. At least this part of the briefing is a little more interesting. He shows us dossiers for the five targets, all of them the Watch considers highly dangerous and at the same time prime recruits should we be able to lure them to our side. I can't help but wonder if the Watch had a similar file for me lying somewhere when I first arrived in this city. As I'm looking through the files, it suddenly hits me where I've heard the name Nalivir before. Of course, she was that light elementalist that my old man once told me about. Frowning slightly I start applying this new information to what I've heard so far. My half awake brain struggling to keep up with my thought process. If this is the same Nalivir that I'm remembering then it does make some amount of sense why she feels that a full honor guard is unecessary. This thought makes me smile, perhaps this day might not be so bad after all. If I'm lucky, I might get to see how another old war hero's magic works. While I'm off in my own little world thinking about who and what Nalivir is, Osmium is discussing something with Klavion and he leaves us for a bit. Finally I think to myself, too tired to even care anymore, I just let go and fall asleep in my chair.

Some time passes and Klavion returns with an answer for Osmium, and I am once again rudely awakened. Osmium quickly leaves after receiving his answer and Klavion reminds us that we have some time before we are to meet up at the senator's house. Yawning one last time, I decide that I should probably get to work and get up. Glancing at the scheduled stops, I notice that they are going to be making a speech at the magic college. Well well, I think to myself, I guess this is as good a place as any to scout out. Looking back at Shin and Klavion, I figure that at this point I'm probably better off on my own. Both a decrepid old man and a Val out at this hour would sort of stand out. I wave to both of them as I leave telling them that I'll meet them at the designated time. Making a quick stop at the room I was using just a little while ago I gather a few items, remembering to grab my sunglasses and then head off to take a look at the academy.

Oh how sweet the air is in the wee hours of the morning. The streets are empty with most sane individuals comfortably asleep in their nice cozy beds. And I would be one of them too, but noooo, I had to do something useful with my life. Let my stupid brother die a happy death and stick me with all of this damn responsibility. I swear, one of these days I'm gonna raise that bastard from the dead just so I can kill him myself. Sighing, I reflect on my situation a little more. I guess it isn't all that bad. Even though it hasn't been that long since I joined the Twilight Watch, I have managed to do some good. Those two kids that we saved from those clowns, not to mention that one base we managed to shut down and the dozens of hostages that we released. Yeah, I guess this gig isn't that bad. Now if only the hours were a little more flexible...

On my way to the academy, my stomach begins to complain. Sighing again, I am once again reminded of the many things I would rather be doing at this hour. Ce la vie, nothing to be gained by just standing around and complaining. I quicken my pace eager to finish this quick recon so I can go get something to eat. Arriving at the academy, I take a quick look around. As I thought, nothing too special. Wanting to end this as quickly as possible I begin channeling some mana and activate my Dragon's Eye. I can't help but smile as I think about how these eyes have been as much of a blessing in disguise as they have been a curse. With my enhanced vision, it doesn't take me that long to locate most places where I would set up either an ambush or a sniper's nest. Satisfied that I've got the lay of the land figured out, I stop the flow of mana to my eyes and make haste to the nearest tavern to get breakfast.

After enjoying a very relaxing breakfast, and more than a few cups of coffee, I pay my tab and start heading over to the ambassador's house to join my companions. Upon arriving I notice Klavion is already here, lying as inconspicuously as he can on the good senator's roof. I suppose that he is something of an odd fellow himself, I wonder how long he's been there. I smile and wave at him, enjoying the scowl that results from this. My spirits once again lifted I wander around looking for a good place to conceal myself from plain sight. Knowing that the senator is an accomplished wizard herself I decide to try and limit my use of magic for this mission, at least until I figure out the range of her detection abilities. It doesn't take me too long to find a nice tree to hide behind. Once I'm settled, I look around for the other members of my party. I notice that both Osmium and Shin have also arrived and are similarly concealing themselves. Ah yes, the joys of a stakeout, nothing to do but sit and wait for something to happen. Fortunately not long after arriving, I notice three guards dressed in formal attire who I presume to be Nalivir's honor guard arrive. Two of them seem to be having some kind of a mind blowing conversation from the look on both of their faces. I wonder if they saw a ghost or something. The guards take their position outside Nalivir's house and a few minutes later the good senator herself joins us on stage. I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting. Maybe the wizened old wizard look or the typical immortal Alundrian look, but once I got a good look at her I couldn't get past the fact that whatever she looked like, she looked extremely well rested. Oh yeah, I could feel the resentment growing as the guards took their places around her. Yeah, this is gonna be a long day.

Typical of any shadowing mission, this one begins as dull and boring. We tail her to her first location with no problem. Each of us using our own methods to try and follow her without attracting too much attention. Of course some of us just had to show off, yeah I'm thinking about you Klavion. You and your fancy fiery wings and cloud illusions to follow her in the sky. Real impressive moron, what if she had detected you casting those spells. Maybe I'm just a little upset that I didn't think of doing that first. I gotta admit, that was a pretty good idea, for an old man that is. On the bright side it did give me an estimation on her detection range since she didn't appear to notice either spell, that or she just didn't care.

After arriving at our first destination, Nalivir and her guards begin setting up some kind of a booth. While it wasn't what I had in mind, I did get to see the ambassador conjure up some simple furniture. I suppose it was better than nothing, but I was hardly impressed. Taking a quick scan of the area, I noticed Shin, kinda hard to miss the guy, leap up onto a nearby building in plain sight. It was at this point that I wasn't sure if I should be baffled by his stupidity, praise him for his amazing leaping abilities, or just be stunned that apparently nobody other than myself seemed to notice the big blue blur jumping onto a building. In the end I settled for good old fashion irritation and turned my attention back towards Nalivir and her unamazing displays of sorcery. I suppose that I probably should have been paying more attention to the big blue idiot because the next thing I know I have Klavion's ever annoying voice in my head telling me that somethings wrong.

Klavion informs me that Shin has found something and is fighting something... Clearly I must be missing something because when I turned to confirm this, all I saw was Shin swinging at the air. My first thoughts were that Anaximandor's curse finally got the better of him and he's now fighting imaginary opponents. Imaginary opponents? Or invisible ones? Following this new train of thought it occurs to me that our big blue friend might not be as stupid as he looks and begin making my way over to confirm my new theory. It took me a little longer to get there, trying not to stand out is such a pain, but I managed to duck into a nearby alley without anyone noticing.

Glancing up, it is obvious that I can't replicate Shin's amazing leap and quietly utter an incantation, "With these flames I craft, a pair of wings that will reach the highest heavens." As I finish, a pair of crimson flames appear on my back, they quickly expand and form a pair of draconic wings. Satisfied, I begin flapping my wings and then leap up and take flight to see what Shin is up too.

I suppose that part of me expected to find Shin there with this big grin on his face, standing over some manner of corpses, ready to tell me how he just foiled an assassination plot on the ambassador. It was probably the last thing I expected to see Shin lying face down in a pool of his own blood. Seeing this turn of events made me question whether or not the big guy was just plain stupid or useless. Quickly scanning the area, I notice a distinct distortion in the air. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that there is some kind of illusion spell at work here. It takes even less of a genius to notice the bloody knife being held by pseudo-invisible assassin and put two and two together. I suppose that I probably should have asked him who he was and what he was doing, but I suppose that it would only alert him to my presence and foil any advantages I might have. Gathering some more mana I begin casting another spell to deal with our would be assassin friend, "Destruction of nature, gather together your burning flames. Fire Blast!" As I am incanting, I aim my left hand at my target as it begins to glow with an orange light. A blast of flames erupt from my outstretched hand at the assassin as I finish my incantation. I frown in disappointment as my target is able to dodge my attacks and begrudgingly realize that he must have some skill if he was able to down Shin in the short amount of time it took me to get here.

Shortly after I arrived on the scene, Osmium made his presence known as he tried to tackle the chameleon like assassin. I was honestly confused at this point, wondering why he didn't simply conjure up another one of those shadowy tentacles that he was so fond of the other day. Even he had to realize that this isn't an opponent to take lightly if he was able to down Shin in only a few seconds. I suddenly wondered if I had been thrown into an alternate dimension where everyone except me was a complete retard. Shrugging it off as overconfidence on his part, I began correcting my own overconfidence and started crafting my armor, "Forged through the sacred crimson flame, come to me my crimson battle armor." The familiar crimson flames engulf my form, quickly fading and leaving a suit of Alundrian style battle armor behind.

As I figured, the assassin was able to avoid Osmium's rather feeble tackle attempt. Oh well, I guess that just means more work for me. Figuring that he would just dodge anything that I threw at him, I decided to just fry everything within a few feet of him, "I summon the purple flames, the mischievous child of fire to come forth and do my bidding." I smile as the fool attempts to dive for cover, but it appears that he isn't faster than my incantation as he is engulfed by a sea of purple fire. Unfortunately it appears as if the flames weren't even able to pierce whatever armor he was wearing as he emerged from the flames unscathed. I muttered a curse under my breath in Alundrian as I realize that I have once again been cheated.

While I pondered my next action, Osmium once again attempted to grab the assassin and pin him to the ground. Now I was almost certain that something was wrong with my shadowy companion as he seemed to be struggling with something that was preventing him from using his true power. It was obvious that even an assassin as skilled as this one wouldn't last long against those shadow tentacles I witnessed the other day. While I was curious as to the nature of Osmium's plight, this was neither the time nor the place for such indulgences. My first priority was to stop this assassin, then I suppose that I should check to see if Shin was really dead or not. Deciding to get a little more serious, I began channeling some mana and activated my Dragon's Eye.

Suddenly the world started to move in slow motion as my eyes started to absorb information at an accelerated rate. I was slightly annoyed that I was being forced to get this serious against this lesser opponent, but most of my magic is far from subtle and I wanted to end this before someone else noticed. I was thankful that I remembered to bring my sunglasses today as they blocked the more obvious visible effects of my eyes. Deciding that close combat would be less conspicuous than fire balls being tossed around, I began summoning my warsaber, "My blade is born of fire, unmatched by mere mortal steel." In my left hand, a ball of fire appeared as I was incanting my spell. Clenching my left fist around this fire, it began to mold itself and eventually take the shape of an Alundrian warsaber (more or less a katana except the spine is sharpened 1/5 its length). Watching the assassin's movements I made some estimations as to how he would react and made a quick horizontal slash across his chest. Whether by luck or skill, the assassin managed to avoid my blade. It appears that he has been rather well trained, though at this moment it was his fighting style that bothered me. He moved very similar to the Valdis guards, a fact that greatly bothered me. It made me question what was really going on and if Shin had messed up and attacked the wrong target. Although, the fact that the assassin had remained silent and made no gesture to try and stop the fight also occurred to me. I decided that I would question him after I subdued him and hopefully things would just work out.

While I was absorbed in my thoughts, Shin suddenly decided to get back up and take another swing at his former assailant. It is a pity that I couldn't make out the expression our invisible friend's face as I believe that he had to be pissing himself about now. I suppose that I might have underestimated Shin's abilities as he appears to be more capable than I originally gave him credit for. Unfortunately it seems that Shin was having the same luck as I was when it came to actually landing blows on this assassin. Quickly checking to see what was the cause of all this blood, I noticed a rather unsightly gash across Shin's face that would probably explain how the assassin managed to down him. I am quite honestly impressed by Shin's fortitude at this point, few people would be able to get back up after taking a blow as serious as that one. But my admiration does not last long as the nameless assassin quickly changes from defense to offense and lunges at Shin waving his knife.

With either extreme luck or skill, the assassin manages to sever Shin's carotid artery and I watch as the proud Val falls for a second time. Judging from the arterial spray it is almost certain that Shin's luck had just run out and our invisible friend just scored his first kill.

As Shin falls to the ground, Klavion finally decides to make his presence known and enters the fray. Descending from above, his illusionary cloud cover gone and in its place Klavion wields a flaming sword. The invisible assassin apparently is unable to dodge Klavion's attack as he is struck by our older friend's attack and staggers forward, reeling from the blow. Following Klavion's lead, Osmium finally calls on some of his true power and fires a glob of acid at Shin's murderer. Disorientated by Klavion's attack, Osmium's acid strikes the assassin dead center torso. I watch as the acid eats away at the poor fool's armor, but the assassin still manages to stay on his feet. Feeling a bit left out at this point, I take another look at the assassin's movements. This time I sense his weakness and can almost feel his fear as he is desperately trying to find a way to escape. Closing in I adjust my grip on my sword and position myself to strike the final blow. Making a backhanded slash across the assassin's chest, I score a second hit following suit with Osmium's acid. My blade effortlessly slices through the assassin's armor dropping him to the ground.

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Continued in next post

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Continued

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The taste of victory is bitter in my mouth as I look over Shin's lifeless corpse. Stupid idiot, he just had to go and get himself killed. What a bastard I think to myself. What is it with people dying and leaving me to clean up their mess. Curious as to what magics the assassin was using I started searching his corpse only to discover to my disgust that he was still alive. Oh well, at least now we have someone to interrogate. I punch him in the face a few times to make sure he stays down and then begin to disarm him. Removing the assassin's helmet disengaged his suit's invisibility spell, I don't recognize his armor but I assume that Klavion might have some idea as to who this individual is. Hearing some faint sounds coming from his helmet, I notice that it has some sort of transmission device built in. Moving it closer to my ear I hear a rather angry voice.

"Unit 1 what is your status? Unit one respond... Unit one is down, units two and three move to backup."

I sigh as I drop the helmet and continue to search the assassin's corpse. Of course the next thing that catches my attention is his weapon. Even without my eyes I could tell that it radiates some pretty powerful magics. As I'm examining the knife I tell Klavion and Osmium what I overheard on the radio and then ask them what we should do. Barely an hour into the mission and already we have a casualty, this is great, just bloody great. I knew this day was going to suck.

Naturally both Klavion and Osmium look somewhat distressed, though Osmium seems to hide it rather well. Or maybe I'm just seeing what I want to see. I still don't know what to think of this Illryian, but Klavion on the other hand is an open book. He is obviously concerned with this recent turn of events, yet he seems strangely calm. More so he seems as if he's hiding something that could help us. But before I can ask him what is the matter he calmly though hesitantly states that he can revive Shin.

I don't quite catch whatever he said after that as my mind focused on that one statement. Very surprised I ask him to repeat what he just said. He responds that if we can watch his back, it is possible for him to revive Shin.

I'm almost in a state of shock myself as I look over at Shin to confirm the fact that he is indeed very dead at the moment. The wheels start turning in my head as I imagine the possibilities of what I was just told. Even though I want him to just start reviving Shin now so I can see if what he is telling me is true, the fact of the matter is there should be another two teams coming to investigate. The three of us have a quick discussion on what to do and we agree to split up into two groups. Osmium will stay behind to keep an eye on the ambassador and try to deal with the incoming groups. Meanwhile Klavion and myself will retreat to a safer location and attempt to revive Shin. Our decision made, Klavion grabs Shin while I pick up the unconscious assassin and gather his belongings. Osmium asks to have the helmet and I give it to him. I wish him luck and then we leave him in order to go bring back the dead.

After settling in a nearby safe house, Klavion is quick to start his spell. I secure the door and stand by the window to make sure that we weren't followed. Though, in all honesty I was probably paying more attention to Klavion casting his spell than keeping watch. Occasionally I'd kick the unconscious assassin to make sure he stays down but my main focus was on Klavion. I watched as he called on the light and fire elements to bring Shin back. Mentally taking notes of everything he was doing, it didn't take me long to figure out exactly how he was making this miracle happen. It seems as if the light element was being used as a divination spell to find and recall a lost soul. The fire element on the other hand was being used to repair the body. By joining these two elements together it was possible to bring back the dead.

Of course once I figured this out my thoughts immediately turned to Elric. With this, it might be possible to bring him back... But no, after I got over my initial excitement I noticed the flaws in Klavion's spell. His spell would not work for my purposes, Elric has been dead for too long and this spell only works on the recent dead. Additionally it appears to have an incredible backlash and as much as I hate to admit it, the backlash of the spell would probably kill me. In fact as I was thinking about these flaws Klavion completed his spell and promptly collapsed.

I still found it hard to believe, but the proof was right there in front of my eyes. Sure enough, Shin was breathing and that in of itself was an improvement. Unfortunately it appears that Klavion's spell also had some other flaws. It didn't quite bring Shin all the way back, in fact it looked as if he was still dying. A minor flaw, one that is easily corrected but it just continued to prove that I would need a more powerful spell to bring back my brother. But I had taken the first step. I now knew that ressurecting Elric was not an impossibility, only a matter of time. I had the core of the spell that I required, all that was left now was to perfect it to suit my needs.

Of course while I was thinking of how to perfect this spell, it occurred to me that Shin was still dying. Looking back at Klavion, it was obvious that he wasn't going to be able to do anything about it. Looking around the empty room, it seems as if I was the only one capable of doing anything for the poor bastard. The thought of leaving and letting both of them die did cross my mind, but I suppose that I did owe Klavion one. He just did me a huge favor by showing me this spell and I suppose that I shouldn't let his efforts go to waste. At the same time, I suppose that I also owed Shin for being the idiot he is and dying, forcing Klavion's hand, and ultimately showing me this spell. Oh well, I guess that it was fortunate for them that I tagged along after all, "Grant onto me the gift of life, that which all mortal creatures desire and purify this impure vessel with your holy flames." A small ball of white fire slowly began to form in my left hand, kneeling down next to Shin, I apply the fire to his wounds and watch as the flames seemingly burn away most of his injuries. Muttering another curse under my breath as I continue to heal Shin's injuries, I make another mental note that adjustments would definitely be needed.

Satisfied that Shin was no longer in any danger of dying, I turned my attention back to Klavion. I ask him about the spell he just cast, hoping to gleam some more information as to its origins and the source of its power. Thankfully Klavion was either happy to share or he was so far gone that he didn't know what he was telling me. I learned about a few more drawbacks to the spell as well as its origins. As thanks, I decided to be charitable and helped heal some of the damage he inflicted on himself as a result from casting that spell.

Changing the subject, I showed Klavion the weapons that the assassin was carrying and told him about the peculiar fighting style that he was using. Klavion went pale as must have recognized either the weapon or my description of the assassin's fighting style. I learned that this man was probably a member of the Shadow Templar. An elite core of men and women trained by Valdis as one of their most elite special forces. Of course this just raised more questions. Who would be able to mobilize the Shadow Templar? Why would they target Nalivir? Something is definately wrong with this picture and either someone in the government is at fault, or someone else knows something about Nalivir worth killing her over. Also these weapons were rather unusual as well. High grade magitek with the knife loaded with enough spirit magic to make it capable of cutting through practically any armor. Their rifle was of a similar grade of air magic with bullets that could pierce almost any forcefield. Weapons this powerful aren't that easy to make which means that our opponents were probably some of the best that Valdis had to offer.

While I was pondering these questions it suddenly occurred to me that we had just lost half of our fighting power. Looking back at Klavion and Shin, it was obvious that neither of them were going to be of any use in their present form. Cursing again, this time more loudly I kicked the assassin once again before walking back over to Shin. Casting yet another healing spell I began healing the big blue idiot trying to force him to consciousness. As useless as Shin was in combat, at least he was another work horse and target to be abused. I was not going to be protecting Nalivir with Osmium as my only backup given his recent reluctance or inability to use his shadow abilities. Now get up you big dumb idiot, your going to pull your own weight if it kills you... Again.

Unfortunately the amount of damage that he had taken was far beyond what I could heal on my own and it was obvious that he wasn't going to be waking up any time soon... Well, now he's probably regain consciousness sometime within the hour instead of within the coming week. Discussion our next plan of action with Klavion, we agreed to call in some re-enforcements on our end. After going over some more details on what we should do next, I left Shin in Klavion's care and got ready to return to the field. Before leaving I made sure to tidy myself up, making sure there was no obvious blood stains or anything else that might make me stand out anymore than usual. I pocketed the assassin's knife and then left to meet back up with Osmium. Man oh man, what a day this has turned out to be. And the worst part of it is, it isn't even half over yet... Shit.

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This covers the first session of the ongoing mission. I'll work on getting the next day's log up hopefully in the next few hours/days.

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Continued from previous, still told by Lucia's viewpoint

Unfortunately my notes of this session are incomplete at best as there was a lot of dialogue going on and I didn't have time to write it all down. Most of my notes from the earlier parts of the session are rather blank so I'm working off of memory for the most part. I'll try to do my best to remember what everyone said, but aside from myself and certain memorable things said by everyone else I don't have word for word what was said and or done. I'll use short out of game (OOG) notes where I know that something happened but I don't remember the exact way it happened. So I apologize in advance if I have you saying or doing something that you didn't do or say. If you find a mistake or have a game log that you'd be willing to send me, toss me a PM and I'll do my best to make the appropriate changes asap.

" " are used for normal speaking
( ) are used for mindlink communication
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Hustling through a back alleyway, I pick up my pace as I make my way back to the battlefront. Man oh man what a day this has been so far. First assassins who turn out to be Shadow Templar are attacking the Senator, then Shin dies, and then Klavion somehow manages to bring Shin back. Glancing up at the sun I sigh as it isn't even noon yet. I can only hope that Osmium is in better shape than Shin was in after taking care of the re-enforcements. With Klavion at least in a more consious state our mindlink has been restored to its former state. Osmium did seem a bit smug over it, mentioning something about swatting a few pesky flies. Damn if that Illryian doesn't just confuse me. First he has no powers and can't even take down a lone agent. Then he is somehow godly and is capable of taking out two teams with no major injuries to complain about, that or he's trying to save face and not telling us about how badly he was injured. Seeing the end of the alley nearing, I slow my pace and do my best to fit in with normal society as I exit back onto the main street.

Taking a quick look around to confirm my position, I figure I'm about another minute away from Osmium. Still a bit antsy about this whole ordeal I focus my thoughts and ask Osmium a quick question through the mindlink.

Lucia: (Hey Osmium, I'm about a minute away. How are things going with the Senator?)

Osmium gives me one of his typical dry replies about how things have been real quiet ever since he took care of those annoyances that showed up earlier.

Part of me is relieved to hear that things are quiet, but part of me is also certain that things are far from over. I'm just worried that the next group we meet will be better prepared to handle our ragtag group of bodyguards. Hopefully who ever that assassin was he didn't have enough time to report back our faces. Otherwise this is going to get real ugly, real fast.

Arriving back on the scene, it is indeed as quiet as Osmium said it was. Well, thank God for small favors. As I'm getting there, I notice two of the Senator's guards heading off to investigate some alley. I think that its odd at first, but don't give it more than a seconds thought as I resume my watch over the surroundings and go back to looking for hints about Nalivir's magic.

(OOG: At some point Shin rejoined us and Osmium had his mind controlled guards delay the Senator. This was discussed over the mindlink but I wasn't able to write down when it happened in my notes. The rest of the watch at this point though goes on without any major incident. Well except for some gopher coming to see what was taking the Senator so long. He was nearly assaulted by the guards at sword point.)

Finally after what seems like an eternity, the Senator starts closing shop and packing up. Two of her guards appear to be extremely edgy though. They nearly took the head off of some poor messenger boy who came to talk to the Senator about something. Thinking back, both of them got real jumpy after they came back from that alley. Glancing over at the alley, I wonder what the hell happened over there?

All finished packing up, we all head over to the second stop, the academy. Falling a bit behind the rest of the tag alongs, I do my best to remain inconspicuous. Trusting that both Shin and Osmium will be able to manage keeping a low profile, I pay them little mind and instead continue my watch for other potential assassins, or those five rogue individuals we were warned about. Fortunately little occurs en route to the academy.

Arriving at the academy, the place is packed full of now annoyed people who are curious where the Senator is. The courtyard is filled with people eager to hear the Senator's speech and it seems that they have all been waiting for quite some time now. Sparing a moment to take another quick scan of the area, it seems that little has changed since my previous visit, minus the sudden increase in people. So far no signs of any assassins and with any luck things will stay that way.

Senator Nalivir begins her speech, and to her credit it isn't that bad of a speech. A lot of lofty ideas and goals, but I guess you can't help but admire her naive attitude towards rebuilding Valdis. If it only was that easy... is the thought that runs through my mind as I listen to her speech. Glancing around occasionally to make sure that no unwelcome visitors have arrived, I spot something out of the corner of my eye. A lone figure that wasn't there last time I looked who seemed a bit out of place.

Standing near the back, away from the crowd was a lone individual, I guess there wasn't all that much that was special about him. He had short flowing silver hair, cobalt tattoos covered his skin... Thats when it hit me, this was the unknown Illryian that we were supposed to look out for.

Although we were told very little about our potential targets, at present he really didn't seem to pose much of a danger to anyone. Doing my best to remain discrete, I started channeling some mana to my eyes and activate a detection spell. Expecting the typical darkmoon aura that all Illryians carry, I had my second big surprise of the day when I noticed that our unknown friend here had probably the most unique magical aura that I have ever seen, that probably anyone has ever seen. Now I'm not just talking about your occasional odd ball aura, but this guy's shit was really out there. His aura contained a perfect mix of both immaculate and darkmoon air mana, something that has to this point only been theorized and even then this was one of those rogue theories that nobody really payed any attention too. I remember reading the theories when I was in school, but never in my life did I ever think that I'd actually see someone work it out without blowing them self up. My interest definitely piqued, I decide that now might be a good time to inform the rest of my group that I've spotted one of our targets.

Lucia: (Well well, you'll never guess who I just spotted.)

Klavion: (Who?)

Lucia: (I'm not too sure about his name, but he's got cobalt tattoos and silver hair. Don't suppose that ring any bells now does it?)

Klavion: (The Illryian!.. What is he doing?)

Lucia: (Nothing much at the moment, he's just listening to the Senator's speech like everyone else... Oh, did I happen to mention that our friend here is something of an anomaly?)

Klavion: (Oh? How so?)

Lucia: (Oh, nothing much. His aura just happens to reflect a perfect mix of darkmoon and immaculate air mana. It's really quite fascinating.)

Klavion: (But... Thats impossible?)

Lucia: (Yeah I know, but I remember reading about some theories about how it might be possible to create such a phenomenon... But last I heard this stuff was barely past the conceptual stage...)

As I'm relaying this information to Klavion, the Illryian seems to notice something and starts looking over in my direction.

I mutter a curse under my breath and try to casually look away, trying very hard not to draw anymore attention to myself than I already might have. I wait a couple of seconds before looking back, it seems that he didn't notice that it was me... That or he doesn't care that it was me. I wonder what tipped him off? What is this guy? Psychic? Satisfied that he hasn't picked me out, I continue with my report.

Lucia: (Shit, I think he might have spotted me...)

I think about what just happened a little more. Trying to figure what might have given me away. The only things that I did different was check his aura and report in. I'm pretty sure that he didn't notice me when I was doing my magic scan, it was almost as if he started to notice me when I started talking about him over the mindlink... That might be it actually. If I'm not mistaken Klavion's mindlink probably draws from the air element. Given how screwy and powerful this guy's aura is it might be possible for him to detect maybe even listen in on our link because of the common element. A little crazy, but its the best theory I have at the moment.

Lucia: (Hmm... Careful what you guys say over this link, I think that he might be able to detect it.)

I look away for a second while I continue to try and figure out what this guy might be up too. At least it doesn't seem like he has any hostile intentions. Aside from his fucked up aura I didn't notice any other dangerous magic on him. Glancing back once again I notice to my surprise that he seems to have disappeared completely. Getting that sinking feeling once again, I sadly turn back to the mindlink and report my latest mistake.

Lucia: (Err... I lost him. Looks like he disappeared.)

At this point all three of us are keeping our eyes and ears open trying to find the disappearing Illryian. Shin, finally starting to pull his weight must have noticed something because he's the first to respond with anything useful.

Shin: (I heard something on the roof.)

Looking around for a big dumb Val, it isn't that hard to spot Shin even in this crowd. It's a hell of a lot easier than trying to find that damned Illryian, though you would think that those tattoo face freaks wouldn't be too hard to spot either. Glancing up at the roof above Shin, I see a familiar cloaked figure jumping from rooftop to rooftop.

Lucia: (I see him, he's on the roof.)

I track him as he makes his way around the courtyard following a circle like pattern. It occurs to me that our mysterious friend is keeping approximately the same distance from the Senator as he previously was. This new information sets off warning bells in my head as it means that is the limit of his range, either hearing or perhaps sniping. After moving almost a full half circle from his previous position, the Illryian drops down into the alley and I lose sight of him.

Lucia: (I lost him again, he dropped down into an alley. Do you want me to pursue?)

Klavion: (Hmm... Follow him, but keep close to the Senator.)

Lucia: (Got it. Osmium, Shin, keep an eye on the Senator. I'll go after him.)

Shin: (Want me to come along?)

Lucia: (No, keep an eye on the Senator. I've got this.)

Shin: (Ok.)

I suppose that part of me is slightly worried about Shin's current condition. After all, the guy was dead not 30 minutes ago. The last thing I need is for him to get to try and go all hero on me and get himself killed again. No, I can handle this. Of course I would by lying if I didn't say that I didn't have an ulterior motive. I just really wanted to meet the guy who managed to do the impossible. Taking two polar opposites and combining them, now thats a magical feat. Now all thats left is to find him and get him to tell me how he did it.

I start making my way through the crowd, doing my best not to stand out while moving as fast as possible. I don't want him to get too much of a lead on me otherwise I'll never be able to find him, but as I near the alley there he is. Sitting just barely inside of the alley still listening to the Senator prattle on about her righteous mission to fix Valdis as if he didn't have a care in the world. Regaining visual contact, I stop and go back to pretending to listen to the Senator's speech. Well I do more than pretend, I am listening but I'm keeping an eye on the disappearing Illryian. After a minute or so, I decide that I should probably let the others know whats going on.

Lucia: (Found him. He's apparently still here listening to the Senator... Do you want me to make contact with him?)

Klavion sounds extremely torn about what he wants me to do. He sighs and makes a lot of noise before giving me a response.

Klavion: (This is a rare opportunity... I... )

Honestly at this point I really don't give a damn what Klavion wants me to do and I start heading over to the Illryian. I think that as I'm heading over Klavion finally decided that I should make contact but since I'm already heading over I just respond with an affirmative. Man, how indecisive can this guy get. Who the hell wouldn't want to meet the man who is at the center of one of the greatest breakthroughs in magical history. As I'm heading over to meet him, I guess that he noticed me as I hear an unfamiliar voice in my head.

Voice: (I was wondering when you would come over here.)

Caught with my hand in the cookie jar, I can't help but just smile. I try thinking back to him and see if I get any reaction, but either he can't hear my thoughts or he just doesn't care to respond. Oh well, have it your way. I close the rest of the distance and stop in front of the alley, still smiling.

Lucia: "I see you noticed me. I wonder when that happened."

(OOG: From here on I don't remember exactly how the conversation played out. And unfortunately what few notes I took were useless. So here is a condensed overview of what was discussed in hopefully the right order.)

Doing my best to remain calm, project a friendly atmosphere, and not let my mouth get the better of me I begin to have a pleasant conversation with our unknown friend. First we talk about our little game of cat and mouse. I make an comment about his unusual magical aura, ask him how that happened. He just smiles and says that it was an accident that happened some time ago and that he would rather not discuss it. Hearing this disappointed me greatly as it probably meant that he has no idea how he was able to acquire his aura nor how one might replicate it. I ask him his intentions and he politely responds that he was just here to listen to the Senator. When I asked him what he thought of her speech he said that he admired her ideas. I commented that she had a rather small and naive understanding of Valdis. My friend countered saying that while that might be true, it was refreshing to see someone trying to make a difference. He mentioned that Valdis has changed since he was last here, with many different factions. Hearing this, I asked him if he was from Valdis, he confirmed that for a time he used to live here and attend the magic college, though that seemed like so long ago.

Curious, I asked him if Valdis has changed much since he was last here. He laughed and said that he had only been away for a few years. This answer surprised me, doing some quick math it appears that my friend was barely older than I was... Or maybe I might be older than him? This news crushed what little hope I had left about learning about his unique aura and how he came to acquire it. If it was the result of an accident and he was barely older than I was then he would either have to be even smarter than I am, fat chance of that, or he has no fucking clue on how to replicate the experiment that gave him his powers. Oh well, once again I hit a dead end. The only bright light out of any of this was the knowledge that it was possible. Oh well, back to business.

Feeling slightly more comfortable talking to him, I ask him his opinion about the Twilight Watch. He says that they are a group trying to do good, but he doesn't know much more than that. At this point I slip up and accidentally mention that Duragar Aetherbane is the leader of the Twilight Watch. This sure got his attention as he thought about it for a few seconds before nodding saying that it made sense. Inwardly I'm kicking myself for letting that slip, but I just shrug it off, nothing to do now but live with it. I quickly change the subject mentioning that not everyone believes in what the Senator is preaching. He inquires as to what I mean and I make a vague reference to the previous assassination attempt on the Senator's life. My friend seems very surprised at this revelation and asks for more details. I do my best to remain vague, trying to gauge his response to see if I can figure out whose side he's on. In the end it seems as if he really is just another unusual do gooder.

By this time the Senator has finished her speech and is preparing to move on to the next location. Seeing that our time is up, I introduce myself to my new friend and learn that his name is Tirvan Palomides. We agree to a temporary alliance to protect the Senator from any further harm that may or may not occur during the rest of her tour. That said, we turn to follow the Senator to her next location.

After separating from Tirvan, I get back on the mindlink and start filling in everyone else with whats happened.

Lucia: (Well, that went well.)

Klavion: (What did you learn?)

Lucia: (Well, I learned that he's an Illryian covered in cobalt tattoos with silver hair. Nice guy too.)

Klavion: (Thats it? You didn't find out anything else? A name of some sort?)

Lucia: (Hahaha. I'm just yankin ya. He says his name is Tirvan Palomides. Ring any bells?)

Klavion: (No... I don't believe so.)

Lucia: (He says that he used to attend the magic school a few years back.)

Klavion: (The Academy is a prestigious magic college. Many successful mages attend it every year.)

Lucia: (Right, maybe in this backwater city...)

Klavion: (What was that?)

Lucia: (Nothing... Anyways he mentioned something about a magic experiment gone bad about the same time he was attending the college. You remember hearing anything about that?)

Klavion: (... Hmm, that does sound familiar. I remember a friend of mine telling me about an incident where a student took in demonic power and went out of control. They were able to subdue him though... Actually I remember him saying that it was a lot easier than they thought it would be.)

Lucia: (Well you might wanna look into that chief. Might give you some clues as to who our friend really is.)

Klavion: (Yes, I'll have to go have a talk with my old friend some time.)

(OOG: I don't remember the name of her 3rd location. We get stopped by construction workers and I forget if that was part of her schedule or not. I think it is so I'm going with that.)

That said, the Senator and her honor guard are on the move to the third location. I fall back into line with the rest of her admirers and do my best to look inconspicuous. I suppose that its a little harder now that her guards seem to be almost as certain as I am that something is wrong. The same pair seem completely paranoid. I silently curse whatever spooked them as its starting to make my job that much harder.

As we're nearing the next stop on our tour the Senator is approached by a bunch of construction workers. Making a quick scan, I check the miners for weapons, more importantly magical weapons. Thankfully my scan turns up nothing and the two groups begin talking about how to proceed with the reconstruction of Valdis's less fortunate areas. The tour halted, I start checking my surroundings to try and find the rest of my team as well as my new ally. Shin isn't that hard to spot as usual, it takes me a bit longer to find Osmium, but I think I see him over in the shadows. Tirvan is the hardest to find once again up on the rooftops, but I see him too. Tirvan sends me a telepathic message about the miners and I just wave to him smiling and nodding. I hope that he got the message that they were ok.

I'm about to go back to my lax duty of lookout when something else catches my eye. Noticing a familiar distortion of the air similar to the previous assassin's cloaking spell some distance away, once again warning bells go off in my head. Unaware of how long they've been staked out at their present location I can't afford to waste too much time and play it slow.

Lucia: (Hey guys. I think I just spotted another assassination team.)

I suppose that I did see this coming as the next thing I hear in my head is Tirvan's voice.

Tirvan: (Really? Where?)

I wait for a second to see if anyone else heard my new friend's response. Seeing as how no one was complaining about an unfamiliar voice on our link I deduce that he's using a single target version of telepathy. I look back up at him and just grin.

Lucia: (So you can hear this. Well, I guess that makes this a whole lot easier.)

Tirvan just smiles back at this point, it almost looks like he's laughing.

Catching Shin and Osmium's attention I point out the direction to the others.

Lucia: (They're over in that direction, a couple buildings away.)

I barely finish my sentence before Tirvan starts making a beeline for the assassins. Now this I didn't expect and I just stand there stunned for a moment before quickly regaining my composure.

Lucia: (Shit! Tirvan's making a beeline for them. Shin, Osmium watch the Senator. I'm going after him.)

Shin: (I'm coming too, Osmium watch the Senator.)

Osmium: (... I guess I'll watch the Senator.)

Knowing that time is now of the essence, I don't have time to argue with Shin and just hope that the idiot learned his lesson and doesn't go charging in by his lonesome. Picking up my pace, I duck out of sight into a nearby alley and quickly start creating my wings, "With these flames I craft, a pair of wings that will reach the highest heavens." With my wings in hand so to speak I quickly fly up above the buildings and then start going after Tirvan. As I'm in pursuit I notice Shin following on the ground. Unfortunately it looks as if he's having some trouble keeping up and is slowly falling behind. Oh well, probably better this way since he won't be an obvious target from the get go... Well, at least I hope not.

I try not to think too much about the Val and his sometimes questionable actions, instead focusing my attention on trying to keep low and minimize my profile as I try and catch up to Tirvan. It seems that the Illryian is a bit faster than I am, not too surprising since his element emphasizes mobility. But, never the less I am still intrigued. I start thinking that maybe it might not be such a bad idea to let Tirvan make the first move and see how things play out. That should give me a better idea of whose side he's on and just what he's capable of. Yes, that sounds like an excellent idea. I grin in anticipation as I just imagine what Tirvan might be capable of. Seeing him stop in front of the cloaked assassins, my grin widens as I silently think to myself, now show me what a darkmoon immaculate hybrid is capable of.


---

Had this part done and I figured that I'd post it up. As previously stated please PM any and all corrections to me so I can make the necessary changes. Hopefully I'll have the rest of the log up in the next few days.

To be Continued in the next post.

[dyuman]

Combat! Combat! Combat! *chanting*

[feedback]

Continued from before, still told by Lucia's viewpoint. As noted previously working off of bad notes. Any help to fill in the blanks is appreciated. PM me with any corrections to your actions/speaking. Also, when sending changes try to be as specific as possible and describe your actions or type out what you want to say so I have a better idea of how I should correct it. The more detailed the better.

" " are used for normal speaking
( ) are used for mindlink communication
' ' are used for personal thoughts occasionally (I'm not consistant with this one)

All spells in italics are incanted in Faerihalirianthyrianial

---

While I'm trying to catch up to Tirvan, I decide to make good use of my time and summon my armor, "Forged through the sacred crimson flame, come to me my crimson battle armor." I momentarily become bathed in fire and change from a flying fireball back into myself now clad in my armor. I sigh as I continue to try and catch up to Tirvan mentally hoping that nobody saw that, muttering under my breath, 'I really hate having to keep a low profile like this.' A few moments later I finally catch up to Tirvan and land a short distance behind him. His eyes focused on the now obvious illusion spell he declares in a loud and commanding voice.

Tirvan: "I am Tirvan Palomides of the Order of the Immaculate Storm. Identify yourself."

Hearing his self introduction, I'm suddenly curious as to the story behind this Order of the Immaculate Storm. Maybe they have something to do with his unusual powers. Come to think of it, Tirvan does have an unusual emblem on his back. Looks like an eye in the center of a hurricane surrounded by strange runes. I couldn't make heads or tails of it but I begin to wonder what significance it might have. Hmm, come to think of it I think I've heard of that Order of the Immaculate Storm somewhere before, I just can't quite place it.

While I'm musing over these trivial facts, our assassin friends seem to be rather surprised that they were first discovered and then confronted in such a manner. I guess I'm a bit surprised myself at how Tirvan decided on using the direct approach. What doesn't surprise me is the assassin's response as the shooter quickly takes aim and fires a round at Tirvan.

Just as I would expect from one as unusual as Tirvan, even his dodge looks a bit off. I'm not sure if he really can predict the future or what not, but he seems to see the bullet coming and jerks his head to the side quickly to dodge the bullet. As he dodges, I can make out some kind of motion trail or after image mimicking his movements, maybe some kind of reflex enhancer or time alteration spell. Luckily for Tirvan he was able to dodge the bullet as it tears through whatever magical defenses he had erected as it goes flying through his after image. Sadly I don't have time to think about what I've just witnessed as Tirvan goes into full battle mode after being fired upon.

Incanting in what I think is Eodai, I watch as Tirvan creates a matched pair of wispy psionic blades. Hearing his incantation seems to jog my memory as I recall hearing about the Order of the Immaculate Storm's existence during the Millennium War. Something about a sect of Eodai air elementalists. Sadly this does nothing but bring up even more questions as to who Tirvan is and how he came to be. My train of thought barely gets any further before Tirvan continues to incant what looks like a booster spell. The next thing I know his swords are turning from a wispy clear to a violent purple shade as now potent darkmoon energies flow up and down the blade. One beautiful slash later and assassin number one is dead on the floor, eviscerated.

As beautiful as that display just was, all it got us was one dead assassin and a small glimpse of Tirvan's abilities. As much as I would like to leave the other one to him as well, I can't risk the possibility that this team might be a decoy to draw us away from the Senator while a second team moves in for the kill. Unfortunately dead men can't talk and I don't have any spells that will allow me to interrogate the dead... yet at least.

Lucia: (Hey Osmium, how are things going with the senator? Is everything still quiet?)

Osmium: (Nothing appears to be amiss at the moment.)

Klavion: (Whats the situation?)

Lucia: (We just encountered another assassination team, but this team might be a decoy to draw us out and away from the Senator. So keep your eyes open.)

Osmium: (I'll stay on guard.)

Satisfied that the senator is alright, I decide that it might be a good idea to take another prisoner. After all, the more information we can rip out of these guys the better. Deciding that if I can just tie him down, Shin should be able to knock him out, "I summon the chains of hades, weights of grief, come now and bind my enemies in your unbreakable grasp." Suddenly the ground around our other assassin begins to shake as seven chains burst out from the ground and instantly begin to entangle the assassin. Pinning both of his arms and anchoring him where he stands. Nodding approvingly of my work, I turn to Shin.

Lucia: "Shin don't kill him, I want him alive."

Seeing my Val companion struggling with his typical battle fury I further add.

Lucia: "If you kill him I'm going to kick your ass."

(OOG: At this point the assassin made some comment about executing a plan of some sort but I think the only person who heard was Shin with his uber hearing. I sure didn't hear it.)

It looks like Shin managed to understand what I was saying through his fury as it looked like he pulled his punch. Of course when dealing with a Val warrior's strength perhaps I should have been a bit more specific as to how I wanted Shin to subdue the assassin because my threat didn't stop Shin from ramming his fist right into the poor assassin's face. Oh yeah, one broken nose later and our assassin is off to dreamland. He definitely won't be answering any questions anytime soon.

Lucia: (Well, so much for that team. Looks like we got things under control over here.)

I just sigh as Shin knocks out my information source and just give him an angry look. Too annoyed to do much more, I just look at the two casualties and remind myself that at least nobody died this time... Wait, pair of assassins? The previous assassination attempt only had one templar when I arrived on the scene. Does that mean that Shin took care of him or that he got away? Argh! Another loose end that I'll probably have to take care of at some point. I'm about to ask Shin what happened at the first location when Tirvan suddenly gets all jumpy and starts dashing towards Shin screaming.

Tirvan: "Get down!"

Trusting my new friend's advice, I drop to the ground. Tirvan follows my lead, although probably not in the way he expected. In his effort to tackle Shin and get him out of harm's way, I watch as he instead comically bounces off of Shin and falls flat on his ass as three bullets go whizzing by Shin's massive form. Shin is looking rather confused as to why Tirvan just ran into him and Tirvan is just looking up at Shin thinking, 'Oww...' Realizing the danger we're in, Shin follows suit and drops down to minimize his profile.

Lucia: (Dammit! We've been suckered.)

Klavion: (Whats going on now?)

Lucia: (After we took out that one team, a bunch of other teams just opened fire on us.)

Tirvan: "What do you know about these assassins?"

Lucia: "Well, not a whole lot. As you've seen they use long range rifles to snipe at their targets from a distance. I had a chance to take a look at one of these guns earlier and it seems as if the bullets have enchantments that allow them to pierce magical defenses."

Tirvan: "So I've noticed."

Lucia: "Their other weapon is one of these."

I take out the spirit dagger that I confiscated from the other assassin and hand it to Tirvan. He takes it and begins examining it.

Tirvan: "... I see."

Lucia: "Yeah, if you can't tell it has heavy spirit magic concentrated in the blade. It pretty much allows it to ignore most conventional defenses."

Tirvan nods slowly as he seems to understand how dangerous our opponents weapons are and then hands the dagger back to me.

Lucia: "Anyways, lemme see if I can spot our new friends."

Slowly getting up, I quickly scan my surroundings looking for the other teams that just ambushed us. Dammit, I really need to develop a better detection spell for these invisible freaks. It takes me some time, but I manage to catch a glimpse of where the other three teams are located. Satisfied that I've located these new threats I lie back down and fill the others in.

Lucia: "I've spotted three other groups. They're a couple hundred feet away in these directions."

I make the appropriate gestures to Shin and Tirvan trying to point them out. Both Shin and Tirvan slowly peek up to try and locate them as well. A second later they lie back down. Shin makes some stupid suggestion on how we could try and use him for cover during our approach and I promptly ignore him. Maybe getting killed just once wasn't enough to show him that he's not invincible. I'm thinking about telling him what an idiot he is but Tirvan interrupts me.

Tirvan: "I know where they are approximately, but I can't pinpoint them."

Lucia: "You think that you could take them if I pointed them out to you?"

Tirvan: "Easily, but my problem is finding them."

Lucia: "No problem. Gimme a second."

Smiling I move to a half crouched position and pick out one of the teams at random. Hmm, I think I'll start with the one on my right. Locking onto my target, I draw a bead and steady my aim. Slowly, I begin incanting a spell, "I summon the purple flames, mischievous child of fire to come forth and do my bidding." A purple flame appears in my left palm and I slowly adjust the flow of mana, weaving subtle enchantments into the spell. Satisfied, I draw my arm back and then hurl the flame at my target. A bolt of purple fire goes flying towards the assassin and impacts him dead center, lighting him up like a Christmas tree. Grinning from ear to ear I look back at Tirvan.

Lucia: "Can you see him now?"

Tirvan grins as well.

Tirvan: "Yes, that will do quite nicely."

Tirvan gets to his feet and starts muttering another incantation in Eodai. This time it looks like he casted some sort of a mix between a haste and accelerated reflex spell. As soon as his spell completes, Tirvan just takes off after the target that I just lit on fire. If nothing else, that guy can really move when he wants too.

Not wanting to be left out, Shin just suddenly stands up and is rewarded as several bullets come flying right at him, to his credit at least he guarded his head with his arms when he stood up. I suppose that Shin's skin is a lot tougher than it looks or I seriously overestimated the firepower of those rifles as the only bullet that hit him bounces harmlessly off of his skin. Feeling a little cocky, Shin makes a taunting gesture towards the sniper. I don't speak retard, but I think he was asking him if that was his best shot. I suppose that seeing his bullet bounce off of Shin coupled with Shin's obvious provocation must have made some sort of impact on the sniper because the previous steady stream of bullets seemed to die down.

While the snipers have their attention focused on Shin, Tirvan manages to close the remaining distance and once again brings his psionic sword to bear. This time taking a page out of Sicarius's book, Tirvan makes a horizontal slash and split the sniper's head in half in a wonderful display of blood and brain matter. Damn, I think to myself as the assassin's head slides off. I'm sure glad that he's on my side.

The now dead sniper's partner seeing his comrade's head get sliced in half seems a bit panicked even at this range. Unfortunately the other two teams are still concentrating their fire at both Shin and myself. Not wanting to drop back down and miss this incredible show, I summon some additional chains and interpose a barrier between myself and the group on my left, "I summon the chains of hades, weights of grief, come now and bind my foe in your unbreakable grasp." This time several chains burst out from the ground and interweave themselves together creating a chain wall between myself and the snipers. I figure that this should buy me some time, hopefully enough for Tirvan to take care of the remaining teams at the very least.

I guess that seeing Tirvan take that assassin's head off must have gotten Shin's Val blood pumping because the next thing I know the big guy is charging, or rather leaping after Tirvan obviously eager to enter the fray. While Shin might not be nearly as fast as Tirvan is, I know for a fact that the big guy hits like a truck. If Tirvan doesn't finish off these guys then Shin definitely will... If he can ever get to them in one piece that is.

One down and one to go as the old saying goes. Finished with his first target Tirvan turns his attention to his panicking partner. Adjusting his stance Tirvan makes a downward slash towards the second assassin, but narrowly misses as the assassin dodges out of the way. As he's rising to his feet, the assassin draws his dagger and attempts to slip the blade between Tirvan's ribs. For a second there I almost thought that he had succeeded too, until I saw the dagger bounce off of Tirvan's magical defenses. Smirking, I could tell even without seeing his face that this guy is definitely not having a very good day right now.

My mind is quickly snapped back to reality as the team to my left opens fire on my makeshift barrier. Flinching involuntarily, it isn't until I realize that my barrier held that I breathe a sigh of relief. Checking to see how much damage they were able to do, I'm surprised to see that last shot almost pierced my barrier. Perhaps I didn't underestimate these guns after all and make a mental note to keep the crimson moon on standby for the next volley.

The other sniper team opened fire on Shin, but they didn't have anymore luck than the previous team had with me. Once again bullets just bounce right off of Shin's arms and I can just imagine the baffled look on the shooters face. I know that I would be getting pretty scared if some guy was able to just take my hits without even flinching. Not even slowing down or acknowledging the bullets that just bounced off of him, Shin makes a powerful leap, winding up in mid-air, and comes crashing down fist first right in the second assassin's chest. To say that had to hurt would be a gross understatement as the second assassin goes flying from the impact, hitting the building across the alley, and then falling down into the alley and out of sight. Tirvan barely managed to get out of the way of the flying assassin and was nearly bowled over by that last attack. Needless to say Shin must have felt pretty damn good about himself because the next thing he does is turn towards the two remaining groups, flexes his muscles and then makes another taunting gesture. If those other teams weren't scared before, I'm pretty damn sure that they're pissing themselves right now. Hell, even I'm impressed by that last attack. I knew that Shin was strong, but I didn't know just how strong the big guy really was. Hmm, maybe I should be a little nicer to him in the future... Nah.

With the last of that team eliminated, I conjure another purple flame similar to the one I just used to light up another sniper group, "I summon the purple flame, mischievous child of fire to come forth and do my bidding." Not even bothering to take my time to aim, I just hurl the flame at the second group as soon as I'm finished casting it. The fire impacts the lead man of the second team and just like before acts like a giant 'Kill me' sign. Shortly after he's lit up, I hear a now familiar voice in my head.

Tirvan: (You are proving most invaluable.)

Lucia: (As are you.)

Both Tirvan and Shin are out of earshot range for me, but the two of them seem to talk about something and then suddenly stop their advancement on the second group. Taking a moment, Tirvan casts another spell that I can't quite make out. At this range it's difficult to determine the effects of his spell, but they become rather obvious as Tirvan grabs and picks up Shin before resuming their charge on the second group. Once again this Val just confuses the hell out of me. At the same time I suppose that my opinion of Tirvan dropped a couple of notches for listening to Shin's inane ideas in the first place. Still, Shin's stupidity does work out in my advantage as it forces Tirvan to show another one of his cards. A strength boosting spell strong enough that he can pick up an adult Val warrior and still run at full speed, who would of thunk it.

Before I can recover from this pair's questionable intelligence, the next thing I know Tirvan is launching Shin at the second group like a catapult. Once again the big blue guy is flying through the air and I don't know whether I am impressed at the duo's unusual thinking or depressed that this is rapidly becoming a familiar sight. It comes as no surprise when Shin lands off target and just beside the assassin instead of impacting them as I assume was their intention, I suppose that Tirvan doesn't get much practice tossing Vals around. Even off target, Shin is rather quick on the recovery leaping back to his feet and moving in for a devastating assault. As he's rising from the ground, Shin uses his momentum and fires off a powerful right uppercut at his first target. Connecting right under the poor guy's chin, the assassin is sent flying upward as Shin put his full strength behind this blow. I watch as the guy goes rocketing up into the sky, before coming crashing down on the roof. Oh yeah, he's dead.

Continuing his assault, Shin adjusts his weight and throws a downward hook at his second target. I guess Shin's aim was either a little off or the second guy was able to react a little better than his partner and gets hit in his right leg. Still, like his partner the second assassin goes crashing straight down into the ground, his body almost bounces off of the floor from the impact and I'm pretty sure that leg is now pretty close to useless, that is if that guy is even conscious after the shock of that last blow.

With only one group left, I pop out from behind my barrier and fire off another purple flame at the final group. Once again I hit the lead man clearly marking their position. Repeating their earlier combo, Tirvan picks up Shin and then throws him over at the third group. I suppose that when I look at it from a strictly tactical viewpoint it is an effective way to compensate for Shin's otherwise sluggish movement. Still, I think it looks ridiculous and can't believe that one of them even suggested it, or that the other is complying with the request.

Tirvan's aim still needs a little work and Shin ends up landing behind the third group. I see both of the assassin's figures blur as they rapidly spin around and aim their guns at Shin. Surprisingly neither of them open fire and the two of them seem to be scared shit less at this point. I guess I really can't blame them after seeing Shin and Tirvan just rip apart the other two groups, not to mention the other group that we took out before they opened fire on us. Shin, eager to continue the massacre begins walking towards the two assassins. I assume they both went bug eyed at this point as they both quickly drop their guns and raise their hands over their heads practically screaming.

Assassin A and B: "We surrender!"

---

To be continued

[feedback]

From the mind of Lucia! Still looking for any help if anyone remembers something I forgot, or did wrong. PM and I'll change it as soon as I can. As always, please include a detailed description of what I should change something too.

" " are used for normal speaking
( ) are used for mindlink communication
' ' are used for personal thoughts occasionally (I'm not consistent with this one)

All spells in italics are incanted in Faerihalirianthyrianial

---

Hearing this, I quickly manifest my wings and fly over yelling at Shin as I fly.

Lucia: "Shin! Calm down! Don't touch them! Touch them and I'll kick your ass!"

I guess that Shin hears me and is able to overcome his battle fury as he noticeably starts calming as I land next to the two defeated assassins. Tirvan arrives just after I do and the three of us surround the pair. The first thing I do is I quickly search both of them for additional weapons and then disarm them. Tirvan quietly collects the duo's discarded rifles while Shin stands there with a threatening look on his face. Now unarmed, I remove both of their helmets which disengages their invisibility. Listening inside the helmet, I hear a familiar voice barking out requests for an update. Smirking I toss the helmets aside and then look back at our two prisoners.

Shin orders them to lie down on the ground, hands above their heads and they both comply. Looking over at me, Shin suggests that I interrogate them, mentioning that I might be better suited for the task. I grin as that's probably the first good idea he's had all day... Well maybe the second, but its a short list. Looking back down at the two, I know I have a lot of questions that I want to ask them, but the real question was how am I going to get them to answer me. I glance over at Tirvan, hmm, he probably wouldn't approve of me burning the information out of them so what am I to do now?

I think of a few interesting ideas, but I decide to start slow and start with the basics. Picking the guy on the left, I order him to stand up, slowly. He slowly rises to his feet, he really does look terrible, completely and utterly defeated, but something in his eyes tell me that he's not quite done yet, that he still has something to prove. After he's on his feet, I order him to put both his hands behind his back, after he complies I summon another set of chains to bind him in place. At first he struggles, a reflex action I assume, but is quick to submit and just stand there. As I'm examining him, trying to build an appropriate atmosphere to begin, Shin begins making threatening gestures towards the assassin. Cracking his knuckles, flexing his muscles, and smiling.

The assassin, who I'll refer to as Marty for now, Marty looks back at Shin, defiance in his eyes as he doesn't appear to scared of Shin at the moment. I guess he kinda got used to the idea that the Val could turn him into a human pretzel without even breaking a sweat. Gulping, Marty just stands there silently.

Pride, that was the feeling that I was getting from him earlier. The pride of a professional doing his job. I grin as recognize this emotion, oh yeah it's going to be fun breaking this one. Holding up a hand telling Shin to stop, I decide to take a stab at threatening this guy. Holding up my right hand, I snap my fingers and a small flame starts burning in the palm of my hand. Holding the flame up so Marty can get a good look at it I just smile.

Lucia: "I have some questions for you and I expect some answers. Now we can either do this the easy way, or we can do it my way."

Marty looks unfazed by this, he's obviously had some pretty good training for resisting interrogation and torture.

Marty: "I know I can't beat you, but you'll never make me talk."

I just continue to smile as I watch his pathetic attempt to put on a brave front. I can tell he's scared shit less and just praying to whatever god he believes in that he'll have a nice quick death. Enjoying this way more than I probably should, I continue.

Lucia: "Know this, there are agonies that I can inflict upon you that will have you begging for death. If you do not tell me what I want to know, do not think that you will get off with a simple death. No, yours will be a long and painful journey on your road to hell."

Marty seems a bit uncomfortable as I start describing what I will be doing to him, his eyes darting to the fire in my hand every now and then, but even if he is scared of what I'm saying, he seems to be resolute in his belief that he won't talk.

Marty: "Do what you will, but I won't talk."

I'm about to continue when I feel a hand on my shoulder. Judging from its size, I assume that its Tirvan. Man, I knew that this guy was going to get in my way, I just knew it. Oh well, I guess that its time for plan b. I extinguish the flame in my right hand and then hold up a finger asking Tirvan to hold on for just a moment. Changing my approach, I decide that its time to take the kid gloves off and slowly reach up and remove my sunglasses. Now staring Marty in the eye I continue.

Lucia: "Are you sure about that?"

Marty, now staring at my eyes seems to falter. His resolution seems to waver as he appears to recognize who I am. Seeing that I've almost broken him I start channeling some mana to my eyes and activate my Dragon's Eye. My usual crimson eyes change to a darker shade of crimson, my pupils change from a circular to an oval shape, and my whites turn yellow. Both eyes have a dull red glow surrounding them and radiate a powerful darkmoon aura. I just have the biggest shit eating grin on my face right now as this is probably the most fun I've had all day.

Lucia: "Are you sure you don't want to spare yourself the pain and just tell me what I want to know?"

If Marty was scared before, he's just shit his pants as it dawns on him just who I am. I see his jaw drop as he just stares at me, frozen with fear. Studdering, he silently mouths, 'C.. Ca.. Catastrophe of Dawn.' before returning to his previous scared shit less expression.

Realizing that I now have him exactly where I want him, I just smile and continue.

Lucia: "I see that we understand each other. Now, as my friend was saying. Who are you working for?"

Marty's voice is quivering as he tries to speak, he's at the point where he's almost too scared to talk, but he's probably even more scared of what might happen if he doesn't tell me something.

Marty: "P..Pl.. Please believe me when I say that I have absolutely no idea what so ever of who I am working for..."

I frown as I hear this, obviously unhappy with what he just said.

Lucia: "Ok... I believe you. How are you communicating with your boss?"

Assassin B, who I will refer to as Bob, completely oblivious to everything that I'm currently subjecting Marty too starts to get up before realizing that might be a bad idea and instead starts saying.

Bob: "Don't tell them an..."

Bob is interrupted as Marty just starts spilling his guts about everything he knows. Bob is obviously surprised and just falls back to the ground in a slump muttering to himself about what a wuss Marty is.

(OOG: Ok, I can't remember exactly how 'Marty' responded to my questions. I also remember that while I did get an answer from him, Chip didn't actually have an answer for us in game for some of the questions because he didn't have the answer at the time. So parts of this will be blank until I can fill it in. Also, I forgot what I asked him in game, so if anyone remembers a PM would be much appreciated. Also props to Chip for Marty's responses which I have copied and pasted because they were just that damn good. )

Marty: "We received our orders in a sealed envelope at <location>. We were supposed to report back <using this method> after we completed our mission."

Lucia: "So what was your mission?"

Marty: "Our... Our Primary Mission was to eliminate the Senator... but we were also told to prioritize eliminating any opposition above... above the assassination of Senator Nalivir."

Hmm, interesting I think to myself. As we assumed, they are after the senator, but it seems as if she's not their primary objective... Its as if they're just using her to draw us out into the open so they can eliminate us instead. An interesting agenda. But why the senator? Did they know that we would be keeping an eye on her? Is she in on this plot? What if we failed to protect her? The wheels are turning, but I put those thoughts aside for now and focus on the task at hand.

Lucia: "How many teams are there?"

Marty: "... ... W-we have a total of t... twelve teams on this mission. ... If our reports are correct... you dispatched teams one through three earlier today, and we... were teams four through seven. Teams eight through twelve - like our force - were given orders to ensure that they could cover one another, in the event that the enemy came upon us. If they do not withdraw at this point, it is likely they will all be together."

Well thats good to hear. Just five more of these dinks, and two commanding officers to deal with and we're home free... I hope.

Lucia: "Who is the voice directing you?"

Marty: ".... Our squadron Leader, Owyn Falvain, through or farseer, Kelborn Ignacious. Kelborn is the squad's Air Elementalist, and the focus through which our etherlink functions."

Yes! A name that I can use. Bonus! Two names I can use. Hmm, now to find out where they're hiding.

Lucia: "Where is your base of operation located? Both for this mission and your typical base."

Marty: "Our Current meeting point is on the top floor of Saint Yves' Tavern, in the Cypress Prefecture. You should know as well as I that my base is within the walls of the Valdis Keep."

His base is within the walls of Valdis Keep, well better check just to make sure.

Lucia: "So you are Shadow Templar then?"

Marty: "... Yes. I'm surprised that you recognize us. Only a former high ranking military official would have even heard of us."

I smile, this is very interesting indeed. While we had suspected that these guys were Shadow Templar, now that we have confirmed that fact it really does narrow the list of people who ordered this operation. Well, while we're on the subject, might as well learn as much about this organization as I can. After all, it isn't everyday that I find such an understanding and cooperative fool.

Lucia: "Who is the person that trained you? Where were you trained? What is your selection criteria for potential recruits?"

Marty: "We were trained by Lady Astra, one of the hero Duragar's disciples before he... departed from military service. Our base of operations is our training ground. Potential Shadow Templar are selected and tested from the ranks of the Valdis military, primarily soldiers and agents who display a knack for subtlety and magitek weapons."

Hmm, another name. This guy is just an information goldmine. Jackpot cha-ching cha-ching!

Lucia: "What is your name and what do you do?"

Marty: "... I am Agent Winston Greystone. In case it isn't completely obvious, I'm an assassin for the government. We are paid well to both to kill people and keep quiet about it, so I really don't need any other profession. ...Frankly, I find this target to be rather unusual. One would think our talents would be better spent hunting rebels... like... um... yourselves."

I just keep smiling. At least he's honest, and just a bit gutsy to give a response such as that. Lucky for him I'm in a good mood right now since he's spilling his guts and giving me all the right answers to questions that I know nobody wants me to know about.

Lucia: "Rebels such as us hmm? What do you know about us? Are the remaining teams aware of our identities?"

Winston: "We believe you are members of the Twilight Watch, but we have not identified you personally, or confirmed our suspicions as fact."

Well thats a relief. Good to know that they don't know our faces and we should be able to continue this operation as he have. I guess they were either too busy or too stupid to report back what we looked like. A bit sloppy if you ask me, but its working out in my favor so who am I to complain. Satisfied that I know have a better idea of just who and what my opponents are, its time to see how their toys work.

Lucia: "How does your helmet's communication system work? Can this frequency be changed or blocked? Explain any ciphers or codes that your people might be using."

Winston: "Before we were aware of your eavesdropping on our line, we merely used Trader's Tongue - because the helmets are being used as foci, the link between us was completely secure, and because we're an internal organization, we do not require knowledge of other languages as a prerequisite for joining. However, we do utilize cyphers, and we switched to our primary cypher, Shadow Speak, when we realized that units two and three were taken out because the enemy was listening in on us. In Shadow Speak, we mirror important terms with their opposed letter in the Trader's Tongue alphabet. B turns to Y, C to X, and so on. Only Vowels and their reflections remain unchanged in this cypher, so A-Z, E-V, F-U, I-R and L-O remain unchanged, but all other letters are reversed."

Lucia: "What about these weapons? Explain how they work and who made them."

Winston: "The Nether Edge was forged by our master swordsmiths, utilizing steel that was infused with Spirit Mana. It is capable of ignoring corporeal armor. The Mage Sniper itself has only minor enhancements - the bullets are the primary focus. Each bullet is adamantine and thoroughly drained of all mana - so much so that it creates a pocket of null-mana around it, rendering purely magical defenses useless. The bullets are heavy, and require a specially made rifle to fire them accurately, thus the enhancements on the rifle. Air mana is utilized to create a sight and tracer for the bullet's trajectory, but most everything else is mechanical, otherwise it would stop functioning when the bullet came in contact with it. Our Etherlink helm nodes are a set of Air Elemental crystals that act as foci for telepathic communication. Each Shadow Templar squad consists of 24 agents, a squad leader, and one Far Seer, an air elementalist specializing in communication and transport. The crystals allow the Far Seer to focus on us, and act as our communications node. As long as the crystals are undamaged, the communications are undetectable, though anyone who puts on the helmet can hear the communication, because the link doesn't broadcast the identity of the wearer. Our Stealth Suits are meant for instant concealment for long range attacks. In an ideal situation, we will set up, and shoot the enemy from afar, where they won't be able to get a bead on us. As you probably saw before, the suits only provide usable concealment as long as we minimize our movement. In addition to this, the suits are fitted with reinforced, enchanted leather armor, to allow for some degree of protection."

I nod slowly, damn this is a lot of information to take in, but it sure is worth it. He just answered the last few questions I had on how their weapons actually work. Now all I need to do is think up an appropriate defense for each and this should be a lot easier. Satisfied that he's answers pretty much all the questions I can think of, I decide that its time to let him go. Deactivating my Dragon's Eye and replacing my shades, I thank Winston for his cooperation.

Lucia: "Thank you for your cooperation Winston, you have proved most useful... Oh, one more thing."

I tap my sunglasses as I continue.

Lucia: "This... stays between us ok? If you speak even a word of this to anyone, I will find you, and I will make you pay... So be good."

Marty just nods slowly, clearly intimidated by my threat. Smiling I turn back to the others and say.

Lucia: "Well, that was fun."

At this point both Shin and Tirvan both give me this very perplexed look of 'how the fuck did you do that?' Tirvan actually asks too.

Tirvan: "H.. How did you do that?"

(OOG: Presence attack their EGO/PRE + 30 ftw! I'm a scary mother fucker. )

Still smiling as I respond.

Lucia: "Let's just say that there are a few things that I don't like discussing either."

Tirvan slowly nods as he continues to stare at me with either a new respect, new fear, or maybe both. I can't tell which and quite frankly I don't care at the moment. My mind is busy processing all of this new information that I just acquired. Remembering 'Bob', I turn back to him and kneel down. Tapping him on the shoulder to get his attention.

Lucia: "Now you be a good boy too now. Otherwise you might suffer a fate far worse than what I had in mind for your partner."

Bob is obviously pissed at me for my comment and I can see him shaking as he is trying very hard to control himself and not get to his feet and attempt to kill me where I stand. I just laugh and pat him on the head and call him a good boy before summoning another set of chains, binding him to the ground. I guess now is as good a time as any to report in.

Lucia: (Hey Chief, got an update for ya.)

Klavion: (Go ahead.)

Lucia: (So yeah, we managed to subdue the other three teams. We even managed to take some prisoners. Two of them are even conscious this time around.)

Klavion: (Excellent work.)

Lucia: (Yeah... But the thing is we're gonna need you to send someone out to take them off of our hands.)

Klavion: (Hmm... That is a problem... I hesitate to trust these prisoners to anyone except experienced wayfayers such as yourself... Give me a minute...... Ok, I've dispatched a team to retrieve them, but it will take them some time to get there.)

Lucia: (Hey Osmium, hows the senator doing?)

Osmium: (She is still conversing with the workers... Why?)

Lucia: (Any idea if she's getting ready to move on? We're stuck here until back-up arrives to take these prisoners off of our hands.)

Osmium: (Give me a minute, I'll see what I can do... Ok, I believe that I can delay her until back-up arrives.)

Lucia: (Sweet... I'm not even going to ask how you did that. Just keep an eye on the little lady until we're done here.)

Osmium: (Will do.)

Looking back at Shin and Tirvan, I motion for us to move away so we can talk. Shin declines, saying that he will keep an eye on the prisoners. I nod and walk away from the prisoners with Tirvan so we can talk in private.

(OOG: Again my apologies for my shitty notes. Talked about a bunch of stuff with Tirvan but I only remember bits and pieces of it so I'm once again doing a brief overview of what was discussed. Most of this is from memory as my notes are non-existent at this point. Any and all help is appreciated.)

Once we're out of earshot range of the prisoners, we continue our conversation from earlier. I ask Tirvan what the Order of the Immaculate Storm is. He confirms my suspicions that they were indeed a sect of Eodai that utilize air mana. I try to ask him a little more, but he is reluctant to answer my questions. Deciding against pushing the issue, I change the subject and we start talking about he recent attack. I compliment him on his battle prowess and ask him if he's ever considered joining the Twilight Watch. I assured him that our leaders are very interested in recruiting him. He chuckled at this and declined my offer. He mentioned that similar to how I was influenced by an old friend to join the Watch, his friends are part of a different group that he is thinking about joining. I ask him what group that might be and he responds with 'Jewels of Heaven.' I search my memory trying to remember if I've heard of that group before. I do recall hearing about it, but they're supposedly some kind of a musical troupe, not a vigilante fighting force. Tirvan informs me that they are new and very covert. They are very active and trying to improve the city from the shadows.

Suddenly Tirvan seems to get a bit jumpy and then jumps off the side of the building and into the alley. A bit surprised by this sudden action, I look behind me only to find ninjas approaching our position. Thankfully I recognize these ninjas as fellow wayfayers and wave to them. Quickly checking with Klavion whether or not these were the people he sent to retrieve the prisoners, I get a positive response and then release the two conscious prisoners into their custody. I also mention the unconscious prisoner on the other rooftop and one ninja goes to retrieve him as well. As they're getting ready to leave, I smile at the two conscious ones just before they're put under hypnotic magic reminding them to be good and remember what we talked about. While two ninjas are busy hypnotizing the prisoners, another ninja, probably a medical ninja heals some more of Shin's previous injuries. With both of the prisoners now unconscious and Shin fully healed the ninjas are ready to head out. I hand over the assassins weapons and instruct them to collect the remaining weapons before sending the ninjas back to base. I smirk as I watch them hop away. Ninjas, what else does this crazy cult have hiding in its closets.

Walking back over to the alley where Tirvan disappeared, I just mention that its safe to come out now. Suddenly Tirvan reappears next to me and we resume our conversation. He tells me a little more about Jewels of Heaven and I try once again to recruit him into the Watch. He seems interested, yet reluctant. I figure that the day isn't over yet and I might get another chance later. I give him my contact information telling him to drop me a line if he's ever interested in joining, or he just wants to talk. I mention that I'm always willing to listen to his story of how he acquired his unique magical aura. He smiles and pockets the information. Our prisoners retrieved, we start heading back to rejoin Osmium and the senator.

On the way back, I'm just thinking of how awesome this day has turned out so far. I've seen Shin die for his stupidity, seen him come back proving that resurrection is possible, I was able to analyze Klavion's spell and determine its nature, I saw one of the greatest magical achievements of the century, met the guy, hopefully made a friend, got to screw with some guy's head, and now I've just acquired a ton of information on one of Valdis's most secret covert ops team. Oh yeah, this is a good day indeed. Now if only someone would give me some information about the Azure Flame this day would be perfect. Oh well, the day isn't over just yet. Who knows, it just might happen. Its just been one of those days...

---

Woo! And with that we're all caught up again. And just because I have to say it once. I am Batman!

[Pikachu]

Ok, we have got to make sure Tirvan dies to some giant three-armed giant smashing his skull in with a giant warhammer. Even in Chip's game, everyone hates Chip, and therefore, any of Chip's avatars must die an incredibly brutal death.

Now seriously, that session sounded like fun. Good shit.

[feedback]

Told from Lucia's viewpoint. As usual PM any and all corrections to me and I'll make the changes as soon as possible. When correcting me please be as descriptive as you can so I have a better idea of the action you took or what you said.

" " denotes verbal communication
( ) denotes mental communication
' ' denotes inner communication, thinking to oneself

Would have had this up yesterday but my internet was down all day. Just came back up a little while ago. This is the first of a three part log. Hopefully my internet will stay up and I'll be able to get the next part done with. Well, enjoy.
---

Still a bit smug about how well my day has turned out so far, things only get better as I hear even more good news over the mind link.

Klavion: (I believe I can call in some support for the rest of the mission.)

Lucia: (It's about time.)

Klavion: (Yes, it took some time for him to return. He was busy finishing up another mission.)

Lucia: (So who's the new guy?)

Klavion: (Juno Revar. He is a member of Star Shadow Unit.)

Lucia: (That’s great... Better than nothing I guess.)

While I would have liked for them to assign more than just one questionable wayfarer, I guess beggars can't be choosers. We get back to the Senator just in time to see her moving on to her next stop. Following what has become my usual routine by now, I fall in line with the rest of the crowd, Tirvan on some rooftop somewhere, Osmium off in some shadow, and Shin following along as discretely as he can.

We arrive at the Golvai Prefecture and similar to her first stop, the Senator begins setting up her little magical booth. Still interested in how her magic works, I take a closer look. It appears that she is using immaculate fire magic to create her props, interesting I think to myself. Now grasping the concept of how her spells are working, I take a step back and return to my boring shadow guard duty.

Seems like a quiet stop for once, nothing happening so far. Glancing around, I check the position of my allies. As usual, Shin isn't that hard to spot. Tirvan is a bit tougher, but now I have a general idea of where he likes to hide. And then there's Osmium, who seems to have disappeared completely. Oh well, I never seem to understand what that guy is thinking anyways. At least I can trust him to take care of himself, unlike certain other party members. Its just good that things are quiet for once... Too quiet if you ask me. Getting just a little paranoid, I channel some mana to my eyes and do a quick magic scan of the area. Nothing... Nothing... Senator... Nothing... Sewer grate... Noth... Wait! Sewer grate?

Turning back to the previous anomaly that I detected, it appears that there is some unusual residual magic on one of the sewer grates. Thinking about this discovery, I'm pretty sure that Valdis doesn't use any sort of magic in its sanitation system. Curious, I casually walk over to take a closer look. Entering the alley, I crouch down next to the grate and take another moment analyzing the magic. Hmm, this is very strange indeed. Here I'm noticing three different elements, fire, shadow, and air all of which have a strong darkmoon stink to them. Making me even more curious is the shadow magic seems very recent, as if it just passed by.

Lucia: (Uh, I think I found something.)

Klavion: (What is it?)

Lucia: (I found some residual magic on a sewer grate.)

Klavion: (Residual magic?)

Osmium: (That would be me.)

Lucia: (Really? Well that would explain the shadow magic... But I'm also seeing traces of air and fire mana as well.)

Osmium: (... That would not be mine.)

Lucia: (Yeah, I figured as much. See anything interesting down there?)

Osmium: (No.)

Thinking about this latest discovery, I'm a bit puzzled as to what could have left this lingering mana. The shadow mana is easy enough to explain, but the other two are quite the mystery. So far we haven't encountered any darkmoon air mana except for Tirvan, and nothing we've encountered would explain the darkmoon fire magic... Aside from me of course and I certainly didn't do this. As I ponder what this could mean, Shin decides that he doesn't want to be left out and mentions that he's coming over to join me and Osmium.

Of course, as usual I'm not all that happy with Shin's bright ideas. Probably the first rule of a stealth mission is you don't want to do anything that will make you stand out. Sadly Shin fails at that rule by just existing, well nothing we can do about that. Second, do not do anything to draw unnecessary attention to yourself. Again Shin typically fails at this too, but fortunately for him he seems to generate some kind of a natural invisibility field when he performs his usual idiotic stunts. One of these days I really should turn him over to a bunch of mages and have them conduct some tests to see if he is generating some kind of... something that makes him invisible to the general public when he performs his less intelligent actions.

Unfortunately science will have to wait as I'm currently busy trying to not draw anymore attention to myself. The last thing I want is for someone to notice that a bunch of us are gathering in an alley, next to the Senator, and get the crazy idea that -we- might be assassins or persons that have ill intentions towards her... Well, they might be right about that second part, but still. Big stupid Vals draw way too much attention for my tastes. Looking over my shoulder, sure enough Shin is slowly making his way through the crowd, sticking out like a sore thumb. Quickly making up my mind to investigate the sewer, I pop the grate and hop down sending a quick message over the mind link as I do so.

Lucia: (I'm gonna go take a look. Shin, keep an eye on the Senator.)

I land on solid ground, a very good thing since I was half afraid that I would end up landing in a pile of feces. Taking a second to regain my balance, I then look around to see if I can see anything unusual... Well, I sure don't see anything interesting. Its too dark to make out much of anything really. Switching my magic detection back on, I take a second look, this time trying to see if I can find anymore hints about the earlier mana traces I noticed. One of the first things I find is a big mass of shadow magic on the wall right next to me. Recalling our previous conversation, I figure its Osmium and just move on. As I'm looking away, it almost looked like that shadow was giving me the finger. Nah, I must be imagining that.

My second find is a lot more interesting than Osmium. Traces of fire, air, and shadow magic seem to follow the underground walkways going pretty much everywhere that the path leads. Spending a little more time, I try to determine how old these traces are. My best guess tells me that some of these traces could be months old, but oddly they haven't disappeared yet. It is almost as if something is coming through and refreshing them. Looking around some more it seems that the last refresh happened maybe a couple of weeks ago. Very interesting, but it still does nothing but bring up even more questions about what the hell is going on down here. Still pondering what this could all mean, my thoughts are interrupted as I hear an unfamiliar voice on the mind link.

Voice: (Hello, this is Juno. What is the game plan?)

Klavion: (Glad you could join us Juno.)

Osmium: (Game? You think this is a game?)

I guess everyone is ignoring Osmium at this point as Klavion just continues as if he didn't hear him.

Klavion: (Well, at the moment we're more of a reactionary force. For the moment just keep a low profile and out of sight.)

Juno: (Well, I'm not very good at staying low, but I'll keep out of sight.)

Klavion: (Very well. Are you familiar with the members of Phoenix squad? I assume you've read their dossiers.)

In a somewhat annoyed tone I respond.

Lucia: (Our dossiers?)

Klavion: (It is merely a physical description so he knows who you are. Juno, perhaps you should describe yourself to the team as well.)

Juno gives us a brief description about himself. Something about being very shiny and covered in silver. Osmium makes a joke about Juno's shiny self standing out, but once again it seems as if no one is paying him any attention.

Shin: (You guys might wanna come up. It looks like the Senator's getting ready to move.)

Lucia: (Ok, we're coming back up.)

Climbing back up and replacing the sewer grate, it seems that Juno must have noticed something because he's quick to report it over the mind link.

Juno: (Do you guys notice something red in the alley?)

Thinking about his question, I don't remember seeing anything red. Of course if he's talking about what I think he's talking about then it means that he might have spotted me. Glancing around, I don't see any silver like thing standing around so I just hold up the finger randomly asking over the mind link.

Lucia: (Do you see this?)

Juno: (... Yes.)

Lucia: (Then that’s probably me.)

Sighing as I get that familiar feeling that I am not going to get along with this guy, probably a good thing this is only a temporary arrangement. I look around to try and find Shin, but I am surprised when I can't seem to find him. Not bothering to worry about it, I'm actually more concerned with how easy it was for Juno to spot me. Of course I knew that any mage worth his mana should be able to pick me out of a crowd without a problem, but this brings up two interesting points. One, that Juno himself is either a magician or has the ability to detect magic. Two, that the senator probably picked me out a long time ago and is probably playing dumb... Or she's just that stupid and carefree that she isn't even checking for possible threats herself, instead blinding believing that her guards will be able to protect her, or that no one would even think to harm her. Personally I hope that she's not an idiot, but hey I've been wrong about these things before. Falling into line, I start following the Senator to her next location.

Randomly as we're heading there I hear Shin report in.

Shin: (I think I'm being followed.)

Lucia: (By who? Where are you?)

Shin: (I went ahead to check things out, and I don't know.)

Lucia: (Well that’s helpful.)

The link goes silent for a bit. Part of me is concerned that someone managed to figure out that Shin is one of us. The last guy I interrogated said that they weren't aware of our faces. How did they figure it out in such a short amount of time? Even if they can hear our link like Tirvan can, we never said anything that would allow them to identify us. My thoughts turn to the air elementalist that should be a part of the Shadow Templar squad, wondering if he had something to do with this. Once again my thoughts are interrupted by Shin as he starts to complain over the link.

Shin: (Oh shit!)

Lucia: (What now?)

Shin: (I'm in trouble. Help!)

At this point I'm just confused as to what the hell is going on. What the hell does he expect me to do about it when he's already at the next location?

Juno: (I just spotted five Val, four of them on top of a building and one in an alley. Two of them just jumped down into an alley confronting the third.)

Shin: (Yeah, that’s me. Help!)

Shin's cries for help fall on deaf ears as far as I'm concerned. I mean really, what the hell does he expect me to do from over here? Shoot them? This is all his fault for going off on his own to check out the next site. Granted he had good intentions, but if dying once wasn't enough to teach him that he's not invincible then maybe a second trip down the river of styx will do the trick. Of course this time he probably won't be coming back since Klavion won't be able to cast that spell again for quite some time... And I'm sure as hell not going to risk my life for his sorry ass. Oh well, them's the breaks.

I continue to keep watch on the Senator and hope that Shin is able to take care of himself. I really don't want to have to be the one to tell Klavion that he got himself killed again... Then again, that might actually be kind of fun just to see the expression on Klavion's face, but still bad since it means more work for me. Yeah, probably better if he doesn't get himself killed again. At least not until this mission is over. Keeping an eye on the Senator, she seems to pause for half a second and glance up at the sky. Following her gaze, I don't see much and neither did she apparently as she continues on her way as if nothing happened.

Tirvan: (Did you see that?)

Once again I hear a familiar voice in my head. A bit puzzled by what he meant, I respond over the mind link. Of course since Tirvan isn't on the mind link and is talking to me directly my question probably sounds rather strange to everyone else.

Lucia: (See what?)

Tirvan: (Some kind of attack from the sky.)

Thinking that this might have been what the Senator noticed, I look back up at the sky, this time activating my detection spell. I notice a glowing silver guy. I guess it isn't that hard for me to figure out that's probably Juno.

Lucia: (Oh him. He's probably supposed to be our backup.)

In an excited voice Tirvan asks.

Tirvan: (We got backup? When did this happen?)

Lucia: (Just now apparently.)

Tirvan: (Ok. Should we go check it out?)

Lucia: (They're probably fine... Well Shin was complaining earlier. Yeah, we should probably go check it out.)

Tirvan: (Ok.)

Thinking about the best way to help Shin, I start making some mental notes of our current forces. Currently Tirvan and myself are watching the Senator. Shin is currently screaming for help at the next waypoint and Juno is apparently backing him up. This only leaves Osmium unaccounted for. I'm about to ask Osmium what he's up too, but before I get a chance too the relative silence of the afternoon is shattered by a thundering explosion as one of Juno's explosives misses its intended target and blows up part of a building instead. Of course I can't see said explosion, but I can sure as hell hear it, and if I can hear it then so can the Senator.

My good mood completely ruined by that explosion, I switch into full battle mode and do a quick scan of the perimeter. I'm not seeing anymore of those Shadow Templar and there's nothing else that might suggest that this is an attack on the Senator. Additionally the explosion that I heard seemed to come from where we are headed rather than at our current location. Checking back to see how the Senator is reacting to this, well she seems more than a bit surprised. Her entire entourage has stopped and two of her guards have this scared shit less expression on their faces. Satisfied that the Senator isn't in any immediate danger, I finish my conversation with Tirvan.

Tirvan: (Should we quicken our pace?)

Lucia: (Yeah, you go on ahead. I'll keep an eye on the Senator.)

Tirvan: (Roger that.)

Tirvan takes off like a bat out of hell, moving at top speed towards the explosion. Satisfied that he should be able to deal with whatever disturbance required the need for big loud explosions, I start screaming over the mind link trying to get some answers.

Lucia: (What the hell was that?!)

No response... Klavion also woke up and started asking for an update which no one paid any attention too. Some time passes and the Senator slowly starts to resume her march towards the Bunsen Prefecture. A little later Shin finally starts talking over the mind link.

Shin: (Ok, the situation is now under control. Thanks Juno.)

Juno: (No problem.)

Lucia: (So what was the big fuss all about then?)

Shin: (Err, I guess I was sort of paranoid after dying once today.)

Juno: (You died?)

Shin: (Yeah...)

Lucia: (So what the hell was that explosion about?)

Shin: (I didn't do it.)

Lucia: (That didn't answer my question.)

Silence... Shin and Juno continue to discuss the battle that just occurred as Shin continues to thank Juno for his assistance. Honestly it's a good thing that I'm no where near either of them right now as I'd probably fry them both for ignoring me a second time. Once they finish with their discussion, they bother to ask how the Senator is doing. I tell them that she's a bit shaken up, but otherwise fine. They ask for an eta and Juno responds before I can. Yeah, really don't like this new guy at the moment, but Shin on the other hand seems to love him. I guess it really is true what they say, 'Great minds think alike.' Or in this case 'Idiots attract idiots.'

Bad times for us, it seems that the Senator was scheduled to do a survey of this area. So it isn't very hard for her to notice all of the more recent battle damage that was just caused by Shin and Juno. I roll my eyes as it seems that both the Senator and her guards seem to be real jumpy now and just wonder how this can get any worse. Recognizing an emblem on the Senator's robes, I sigh again, 'Of course she would have to be the representative from the Bunsen Prefecture.'

Taking our usual positions, I do a quick scan of the area. With things rapidly going downhill, I'm not all that surprised when I spot another group of Shadow Templar. Of course, seeing only the one group does trouble me. Before I can report this finding in, Tirvan sends me a message.

Tirvan: (I have a bad feeling about this...)

Lucia: (Well, I just spotted another group of Shadow Templar. If that’s the feeling your getting?)

Tirvan: (No... That’s not it.)

In the short time I've known Tirvan, I've come to value his opinion. Sharing his uneasy feeling, I quickly start looking around for sewer grates. Just a hunch, but I've had a bad feeling about those things ever since I noticed the magic on the previous one.

Lucia: (Well, in any case keep an eye on that sewer grate near the Senator. Earlier I noticed some strange darkmoon magic coming from one of those things.)

Tirvan: (Ok. I got it.)

Lucia: (So, did the rest of you guys spot the Shadow Templar?)

Osmium: (I see them.)

Shin: (No, I don't see them.)

Juno: (Shadow Templar?)

Lucia: (Well, take a look south west about 300 meters from our current location.)

Juno: (I see them... I see two auras.)

Shin: (What should we do? Should we split up and take them out?)

As I'm pondering our next action, it seems that Juno is more of the take action first and think later types as he flies a little closer and fires off what looked like some kind of magic suppressor beam. I roll my eyes as I see this and wonder what part of discreet he doesn't understand. I glance over at the Senator and see if she noticed, thankfully it seems that she hasn't caught onto Juno's latest outburst. Tired that everyone seems to be asking me what to do, I ask the person in charge what he wants us to do.

Lucia: (Well, what do you want us to do Chief?)

Klavion: (Take out the Shadow Templar.)

Lucia: (So, any volunteers to stay behind and keep an eye on the Senator?)

Osmium: (I've done enough watching.)

I smirk as I hear Osmium's response. Poor guy, he must be dying to get some action since he had to sit the last fight out. Figuring that the others feel about the same, I decide to let them do all the heavy lifting this time.

Lucia: (Ok, fair enough. I'll stay behind with Tirvan and keep an eye on the Senator. Osmium, Shin, and Juno, you three take out those Shadow Templar. There should be five teams remaining not counting their two commanding officers. So don't forget to be careful, this might be a trap.)

All three respond with an affirmative and head off to engage the enemy. Juno flies over, Osmium does his little shadow trick, while Shin begins leaping from building to building, not very subtle at all. Seriously, mages need to study him to discover the secret to his apparent invisibility. Deciding to get a better vantage point for this encounter, I disappear into an alley and fly up on a building adjacent to the one Tirvan's perched on.

As I sit there staring down at the Senator, my mind is running through these recent events trying to make some sense out of it. My instincts tell me that something is wrong with this picture and I'm inclined to agree. Winston said that there were only five teams remaining and given our superior abilities they would be working as a group to take us down. So why only one team? Maybe the rest are hidden out of sight and this is an ambush. Perhaps a ploy to draw us away from the Senator so another group can take her out unopposed. And then there's Tirvan's uneasy feeling. Of course I'm not going to leave him behind to watch the Senator by himself if something is scaring him this badly. Partly because I don't trust that he's on our side just yet, but mostly because he seems to be able to tell when danger is approaching. Similar to how he noticed those snipers before the rest of us did, maybe this guy really can see into the future. Hell that's a power that I've been researching myself for quite some time now. In any case, my gut is telling me that things are going to get a whole lot worse before they get any better. And you know what? Sometimes I really hate it when I'm right.

Suddenly shit hits the fan as another explosion blows away any remaining doubt that bad times are upon us. In the distance where Osmium, Shin, and Juno were pursuing the Shadow Templar a building suddenly explodes when Shin landed on it sending him flying. I turn towards the explosion just in time to see the cloud of smoke rising from the empty space that used to be a building, now in its place little more than smoking rubble. Looking back at the Senator to see how she's doing, it comes as no surprise as she and the rest of the people assembled are only a small step away from mass hysteria and wide spread panic. Sighing I think to myself, 'At least she's safe... For now.' Looking back at the smoking ruins of a building and directing my thoughts to the mind link I try to get some answers.

Lucia: (What the FUCK was that!?!?!)

Shin: (It wasn't me!.. I mean it was me, but it wasn't me.)

As if things weren't bad enough, why did Shin have to go and blow up a building? Maybe this was a trap that the Shadow Templar set up for us. Damn, in hindsight I probably should of had someone listening in on their conversation over the helmet link. As mad as I am about this situation, I don't even have time to think about this as I hear a very nervous and scared Tirvan in my head.

Tirvan: (Uhh... Lucia. We have a problem here.)

If it isn't one thing its another. Looking back at the sewer I told Tirvan to keep an eye on earlier, my jaw drops as I see three ethereal like Eodai float through the opening and into the alley. Of course, what else can go wrong? One quick magic scan later reveals the presence of darkmoon air mana, and a hint of immaculate mana as well. Interesting, while it isn't anywhere near the perfect mix that Tirvan has, these three individuals contain both darkmoon and immaculate mana as well. Checking how Tirvan is holding up, he looks pretty shaken up as his expression is a lot paler than I remember. Great, just what I need, another scared baby to take care of. Looking back at our three new guests, I notice a few other unusual things as they solidify and lose their ethereal status. Probably the most important thing about these three being that they really don't look all that healthy. Actually, they look quite the opposite, barely clinging to life if they're even are alive in the first place. My guess being that they're not alive at all and are instead shells of their former selves. Bloody hell, now I've got a trio of zombies on my hands, and considering their unusual aura probably fairly powerful ones at that. Well, on the bright side I now know what those strange auras I saw in the sewer earlier are now, for all the good that does me... Oh yeah, this could be a problem.

---

To be continued.

[feedback]

Continued from before, still told from Lucia's viewpoint. As usual PM any and all corrections to me and I'll make the changes as soon as possible. When correcting me please be as descriptive as you can so I have a better idea of the action you took or what you said.

" " denotes verbal communication
( ) denotes mental communication
' ' denotes inner communication, thinking to oneself

All spells in italics are incanted in Faerihalirianthyrianial

---

Figuring that I should probably let the others know about this, I quickly send a report over the mind link.

Lucia: (Uh.. Chief. We've got a problem here.)

Klavion: (What's going on?)

Lucia: (A trio of Eodai just came out of the sewer and are approaching the Senator. They share a similar aura to Tirvan's, but the mix between their darkmoon and immaculate mana isn't near his level. Its more as if the darkmoon was overpowering the immaculate... Did I also mention that they look like they're dead on their feet? More precisely if I had to guess they were reanimated corpses.)

Klavion: (But thats impossible!)

Lucia: (Yeah, tell me about it... Uh Chief. I'm not gonna be able to be discreet about this anymore.)

Klavion: (Very well, the Senator's safety takes precedence in this situation.)

Lucia: (Roger that. Moving in now.)

Casting a rapid succession of spells, I begin my battle preparations hoping that me and Tirvan will be enough to hold off these three freaks. "With these flames I craft, a pair of wings that will reach the highest heavens." Orange flames appear on my back and quickly extend forming a pair of dragon like wings. Leaping off of the building, I fly towards the Senator, incanting my second spell mid-flight, "Forged through the sacred crimson flame, come to me my crimson battle armor." Enveloped in crimson flames, I become a fireball for a brief second before the flames fade, leaving my Alundrian styled battle armor behind. Landing between the Senator and the approaching Eodai, I incant my final spell, "My blade is born of fire, unmatched by mere mortal steel." Another flame appears in my left hand, clenching my fist it quickly takes the shape of an Alundrian warsaber. Taking a defensive stance, I spare a moment to glance back at the Senator and smile.

Lucia: "Hi, don't worry, I'm here to help."

Turning my attention back towards the approaching undead, I'm really hoping that these guys aren't as good as I'm giving them credit for. Still, being more than a little cautious I'm not pulling any punches at the moment and channel some mana to my eyes and activate my Dragon's Eye. Faintly through my sunglasses one could see a pair of dark crimson eyes and a noticeable red glow barely hidden by the glasses.

Following my lead, Tirvan lands next to me, creating his familiar matched psionic blades. He takes on a similar defensive stance as we wait to see what these approaching Eodai do. We don't have to wait long as the three zombies approach us, each of them brandishing psionic blades very similar to the ones Tirvan is wielding. Two poor unfortunate souls get in their way and are cut down mercilessly. I mutter a curse under my breath as they fall, but my gaze never wavers from my targets. Studying their combat style, trying to find a weakness... Usually this is what I would be doing if I was thinking straight, but I guess seeing those two bystanders gutted right in front of me sort of broke my usual focus as I'm not analyzing their attacks in detail.

As if seeing those two die wasn't enough, the Senator's honor guard must have gotten the crazy idea that they could do something to stop these things. All three of her guards charge forward intercepting the Eodai before they reached us. As the guards are approaching, a beam of light comes flying from behind us as the Senator casts some kind of a light spell. Her spell hits one of the zombies dead on, but sadly does little more than that. The Eodai that got hit didn't even seem to register the hit. Recalling the spell that I just saw and the following result, my mind races as I try to explain what just happened. My best guess tells me that her spell was completely ineffective because it was designed to knock out opponents rather than kill them. I suppose that makes sense, I've never heard of anyone actually knocking out a zombie before. Hell, I don't even think that's possible.

Sadly Nalivir's guards do little better than the Senator herself. Two of the guards are actually able to land blows on the zombie Eodai, but neither were able to penetrate the Eodai's superior defenses. Seems like these zombies are fairly tough customers. Deciding that I'm going to have to go on the offensive if I want to save these idiots, I quickly move around one of the zombies and make a horizontal slash at his back. Moving faster than I would have imagined, the zombie quickly whirls around to meet my attack, but he isn't quite fast enough as my blade connects and draws blood... Well, I wouldn't exactly call it blood. More of a black ichor like substance and not that much of it either. The stuff smells pretty bad and it's times like these that I'm grateful that I don't have to actually clean my sword. Still, the zombie doesn't seem to register that he was just cut, or burned, rather all it seems I did was get his attention. Yeah, this is pretty bad.

Glancing back to see if Tirvan is having better luck than I am, I see him charging in a similar fashion to what I just did. With the expert swordsmanship that I have come to expect from him, he scores a sweet hit that should have done some good damage. Unfortunately similar to what I experienced, the Eodai barely registers his attack. Even worse it seems that his blade didn't cut quite as deeply as I initially thought it did. It seems that these guys have some pretty tough armor/skin. Checking Tirvan's reaction to this lack of damage, I'm rather surprised by what I see. It seems that he's been spending way too much time around Shin as it looks like he's worked himself into a real battle frenzy. Hell, he looks even worse than Shin does when his blood gets pumping. Oh yeah, this is not good at all.

I don't have much time to think about Tirvan's condition as my zombie launches his counter attack. I see it coming, but I'm not quick enough to avoid it. The best I could do was dodge out of the way so he only nailed my shoulder instead of slicing me clean in half, but damn if that swing didn't have the force of an angry retard behind it. The blade isn't able to penetrate my armor, but that doesn't stop it from knocking me clean off of my feet and sending me flying back several meters. I hit the ground hard, knocking the wind out of me and I start seeing stars. Fighting to maintain consciousness, I just lie there on my back staring at the sky very thankful that I only took that in the shoulder. Struggling to regain my senses, I'm unable to maintain several of my spells as both my armor and sword quickly dissipate, quietly thinking to myself. 'And this is why I prefer ranged combat.'

Praying that Tirvan is doing better than I am, I glance over to see how he's doing. Unfortunately he didn't seem to fare much better than I did when the Eodai swung back. Looks like his zombie managed to slam him in his stomach as he goes flying back and starts staring at the sky as well. I can't tell for sure, but it looks like most of his spells faded after taking that hit as well. Yeah, it seems that those guys are really good at knocking the wind out of you. Some backup would be greatly appreciated about now.

Struggling to get back to my feet, I barely make out the Eodai making short work of the Senator's honor guard. One cut apiece and they're on the floor either bleeding or dead. Yeah, I guess that if we didn't do so hot then they didn't stand a chance. My mind suddenly snaps back to reality as I spot one of the zombies closing in on the Senator. Fortunately the Senator seems to fair better than we did and manages to duck under a wide swing. She casts another spell and suddenly several globes of light go flying at the Eodai's face, exploding in a brilliant flash of light. I half smile as I slowly get back to my feet, 'At least she's putting up a pretty good fight.'

Finally back on my feet, I quickly start sending out an SOS.

Lucia: (Shit! This is bad.)

Klavion: (What's going on? Report!)

Lucia: (Remember those three zombies I mentioned. Yeah, they're a lot tougher than I thought. We're in real trouble over here. One of them's on the Senator. Help would be good.)

Klavion: (Damn it! Juno, Shin, Osmium, forget about the Shadow Templar and go assist the Senator.)

As Klavion continues to mutter, curse, and complain over the link, I'm busy recalling my armor and trying to figure out my next move. It's obvious that we're outclassed at the moment and we need to find a way to get the Senator out of here. Looking over at Tirvan, it seems that he's managed to calm down considerably. Getting knocked on your ass does that I guess. It looks like he's having similar thoughts about retreating as he quickly begins flying towards the Senator. It takes me a moment to figure out what he's doing before he grabs the Senator and starts retreating from the field as fast as he can. Yeah, that's a good idea.

Tirvan: (We need to get out of here and regroup.)

All the while some of the other members of the team are asking useless questions over the mind link about what's going on. I don't really have time to be answering such questions as I'm more worried about surviving this encounter. Following Tirvan's lead, I quickly reform my wings and start taking off after him. Satisfied that the Senator is safe for the moment, I give everyone an update on the situation.

Lucia: (Yeah screw that. Running now.)

Klavion: (What's going on?)

Lucia: (We're running. Tirvan's got the Senator and we're getting out of here as fast as we can at the moment.)

I look back to see what the zombies are doing and just sigh as they start chasing us... Moving faster than I would have given them credit for. Actually, it seems as if they're just as fast as I am. Thankfully they're running on the ground and not flying which still means that we have the advantage... For the moment at least.

Lucia: (Two of the zombies are in pursuit. This is not good.)

Shin: (Can I take them?)

Of course Shin would ask that. I suppose that it would be fair to say that I'm panicking at the moment, but I really didn't expect to encounter three zombies strong enough to take both me and Tirvan out with a single attack and fast enough to keep up with me. Looking over at Nalivir, I'm glad to see that she's ok for the moment. On the bright side, at least we're all still breathing at this point.

Lucia: (No! We're retreating for now.)

I really hope Shin got the message, these are not things we want to be fucking with at the moment. Looking back at Tirvan and Nalivir, the Senator looks over at me and starts talking.

Nalivir: "I know not what is going on at the moment, but I hope this will help."

Nalivir incants some kind of enhancement spell and re-enforces the strength of my armor. Smiling back, it's good to see that she at least understands that we're on her side. Out of habit, I respond to her in Faerihalirianthyrianial before checking to see what the others are doing.

Lucia: "Thanks."

Lucia: (Osmium, Juno where are you guys?)

Osmium: (I am currently heading towards your position. Might I inquire as to what you are running from?)

Lucia: (Death. We're running from death at the moment.)

Osmium: (I never thought you to be so fearful.)

Lucia: (I'm not stupid enough to fight a hopeless battle. We should be running, not engaging these things.)

As I'm arguing with Osmium, Juno replies that he is also heading for my position. I continue to argue that we should retreat for now, but it seems that aside from Tirvan, no one seems to share our opinion. Bah! Fools, all of them. Go die for all I care. I spot Shin running over to join us. He looks oddly different, faster, stronger, more powerful somehow. I guess that glowing red aura surrounding was the dead give away. Interesting I think to myself, I've never seen him use this trick before. Unfortunately I don't have time to analyze it as I'm more concerned with the two zombies in pursuit.

I guess that Shin didn't get the message when I said that we don't want to fight these things, but I'm really not that surprised. The short while I've known him, it seems the big guy does like to bite off more than he can chew. Of course I couldn't even begin to understand much less comprehend what the hell goes through his head as the next thing I see him do is run off to the side. That's a funny way to run from the enemy I think... Of course his Val blood would also dictate that he should be charging the enemy. So what the hell is this? Some kind of happy middle ground between the two? I don't have much time to think about what's going through his head as his next action just confuses the hell out of not only me, but everyone else in the immediate vicinity.

Running up to the buildings, I figure he's planning ot charge at the zombies as they get a little closer... Oh how I couldn't be more wrong. The next thing I know, this stupid stupid STUPID Val is grabbing the wall of this building and literally ripping it from its foundation. It takes a moment for all of this to register, I mean even Shin can't be this stupid right? Well apparently I was wrong as we all watch the Val pick up the building. I'm dreading his next action as there is only one reason why he would do such a stupid thing. Part of me is ashamed to have been able to follow his thought process, but the rest of me is mortified that he actually did it. Not surprisingly, Shin hurls the building at both me and the pursuing zombies.

If I wasn't so busy running for my life, I would have fried the guy. You do NOT pick up buildings and then THROW them at undead zombies while I'm in the line of fire... Hell you still don't do it even if I'm not in the line of fire. I mean, they can go ethereal for crying out loud... Well... Then again I doubt that Shin even knows what ethereal means. But this is beside the point. I watch a four story building fly barely four feet above my head and go crashing down behind me, crushing both zombies. For now I'm just happy that the big idiot didn't hit me! Fuck, I almost summoned the crimson moon to block that, though I doubt it would have done me much good. Looking back again I'm hoping and praying that there weren't any PEOPLE inside that building... How they let this guy into the Twilight Watch is beyond me sometimes... Most of the time...

Of course I'm not the only one who isn't too happy with Shin's latest stunt. Osmium starts yelling at him over the mind link as the building flies.

Osmium: What the FUCK are you doing!?!)

Shin: (Buying time.)

Klavion: (What's going on now?)

The building now rubble, I watch as the smoke clears, hoping that at the very least Shin's latest act of stupidity managed to take out our pursuers. Seeing one standing figure, clearly ethereal by the way he's walking out from under the rubble I just sigh.

Lucia: "Well shit."

At the very least, it appears that Shin managed to stop one of them and he at least slowed the other one down. Looking ahead I notice Osmium approaching in the distance and sigh again, knowing that these idiots are going to want to fight these zombies. Further away I hear some kind of noise as Juno breaks the sound barrier and starts flying towards us at top speed.

Now that we've met up with the rest of the team, my thoughts turn to the Shadow Templar that they were supposed to be taking care of. Since they didn't mention encountering any other teams or finishing them off, I have to assume that they might still be out there. I do a quick check of the perimeter to see if I can spot any Shadow Templar hanging around on the rooftops. Though given that Shin just threw a building at the Eodai, maybe the rooftops aren't as safe as they once were. Fortunately I don't see any Templar, which leaves only the one zombie to deal with. Good, at least things are starting to look up.

Starting to calm down and regain my cool, I watch as Tirvan lands, puts Nalivir down, and positions himself between the good Senator and the zombie Eodai. I'm not sure what is bothering him, but he has this torn expression on his face like he's very reluctant to take action.

Tirvan: "... Forgive me, Master. I must break my promise to you."

Break a promise to his master? I don't quite understand what he means by that and I figure that I'm not supposed to either. Incanting a spell that is familiar yet new to me, I watch as Tirvan draws a rather large claymore out of his chest. Coupled with what I overheard, I'm very curious as to how this sword is different from his usual weapon. I'm not sure what he's apologizing for, but if it is because he's using some sort of forbidden power I guess I can sympathize with the guy. Hell I've been doing me best to think of a way to deal with these zombies without resorting to black magic. Though, fortunately for me it seems that now that help has arrived I won't have to resort to such methods. After drawing his sword, Tirvan takes on a defensive stance and seems to be waiting for the Eodai to make the first move.

Shin: (Klavion. We've got a problem.)

Klavion in a very annoyed tone.

Klavion: (I gathered that, what happened now?)

Shin: (Uh, I threw a building at them, but one of them is still up.)

Klavion: (Wait! You did what?!)

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Hit the damn character limit again. Breaking this post up into two parts. Continued in next post.