07.08g Gated Landscapes

[Joshua]

A few things happen in rapid order. Aibne has inadvertently given a grave and deep insult to whatever the entity that's facing you believes. The five (let's go with five) villagers inside the house suddenly flare with heat (and not just the fire), skin starting to turn red. This apparently boosts their effectiveness*.

This time, Simon manages to make a few shallow cuts with his cleaver as his friend seems to expertly maneuver to cut off Aibne's retreat.

The three in the kitchen... well, unfortunately, the sucker punch isn't, but it does land. The three of them are almost more than Alys can handle, but she's got armor and going full defensive helps. Unfortunately, they're starting to realize that she's protecting Asai, and will be changing tactics soon.

Said Shockwave fails to unweave the psychic power being poured into the townsfolk. On the other hand, it does give quite an info-dump** in its failure. Plus it greatly weakens the one thug it strikes.
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*: It is definitely clear that this is a hive-mind thing. No group has coordination like this naturally.
**: Over PM.

[Draylen]

"Well... Crap," Aibne says, shrugging a little. He pulls out his stone sword, fending off the cleaver as best he can. "This could be... Bad." He fights back, but he's obviously just trying to keep himself unharmed, and losing, slowly. He'll trade blows with the two of them, slowly getting whittled down, growling a little. "D-damn it... Solas!" he'll say, the diamond on his ring flashing a bright light right in front of the butcher's eyes, and Aibne tries to cuff him, hoping the heavy blow will knock him out.

[Wyvern]

Alys continues shifting towards her red dragon form, keeping on the defensive for a few more seconds... before switching to attack, accepting a hit that breaks her right arm in exchange for an almost surgical claw attack against one of the two full-strength puppets, severing vital tendons and leaving that man's right arm as useless as her own.*

Then she drops back to defense for a bit, using wings and tail to compensate for her disabled arm.

"The interesting thing here," Alys comments, "Is how pointless all this is. You're pouring an absurd amount of power into these three, and you're only barely able to match the least of Amber's defenders. And for what? The most you can hope to accomplish here is to actually anger us - and you yourself admitted that's not a confrontation you can win; the power of Amber is a far greater thing than any mere shadow of a so-called god."

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* Not that Alys plans on her own arm staying useless - she's essentially setting up the same gambit Grind tried way back here. Hopefully this attempt will be more successful, though...

[Veyska]

There is a flurry of movement and sound as Asai rapidly shuffles through her trump deck*. A few moments later Asai begins casting a second spell. This one involves noticeably more hissing, though it oddly still somehow sounds like a language of sorts. Then she breathes out an impossibly long breath, releasing a thick, clinging, soakingly damp mist. It quickly fills up the room and spills out into the rest of the hut, obscuring vision and damping down the fires**. The mist blurs every form and shape with its opacity, but after a few seconds it becomes clear that Asai's form, as well as Alys' and Aibne's, are not just blurring but fading away entirely. The last that is clearly visible of them is Asai's toothy smile.

From the "travelers'" perspective the mist never fully fades away, but it does gradually thin out enough that the three can dimly see the outlines of massive, sharp-edged standing stones*** looming in a rough circle around them. The lighting is dim and diffuse, making it hard to tell whether it an overcast day or moon-bright night.

(*Think less card trick shuffling and more "lots of experience flipping through piles of note cards looking for one specific word/phrase".)
(**Larger fires might last a while, but smaller ones likely fade away in fairly short order.)
(***Think Stonehenge made out of volcanic obsidian.)

[Joshua]

The spell seems to have worked. People have minimal damage on them, and thankfully, you're several miles from where you were. There doesn't seem to be an immediate issue with pursuit, although not sure how long that can last.

A number of fae seem to have taken notice of the newcomers, but they are currently keeping a safe distance as they do sense real power.

[Draylen]

"Ah! AH! AAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!" Aibne screams as he resolidifies, patting himself down. "I-I'm... I-I'm okay? I'm okay. Alys, did you-" he turns, looking at the dragon, and stares. Then he sees the 'cat', and stares more. Then he looks around and notices the Fair Folk, and crumbles into a screaming heap.

[Wyvern]

Alys fades in, looking absolutely miserable, wings wrapped tightly around her, shivering... She starts to respond to Aibne, but stops when he collapses, turning instead to the cat. "Thank you, Asai.* I hope the puzzle of what we faced proves worthy of your interest."

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* Having just been in her head, Asai should have no trouble translating this to "I owe you a favor, in rough equivalence to the amount of time you spent preparing those two spells, plus perhaps an extra half-day for the inconvenience of your arrival."

[Veyska]

Asai gives Aibne a patently feline inscrutable look before turning her attention to Alys, saying, "What on earth possessed you to disturb that sort of hornet's nest? And also, how was Priscilla involved? You rather dragged me into the climax of a story and your exposition was understandably a bit jumbled..." Amusingly enough, Asai seems to be more exasperated (in a good-natured sort of way, mind) about not knowing what led up to the fracas than about being trumped into the middle of the (partially) literal firefight.

[Draylen]

It takes a few moments, but Aibne slowly stops screaming, picking himself up. He dusts himself off a little, blinking blearily, shaking his head. "M-my apologies," he says, looking at the two women. "I was... It's.. Um." He shakes his head and bows to Asai. "I am Aibne. My apologies."

His brain works slowly, and he shakes his head. He sits down onto the ground, completely relaxed. "As for the hornet nest..." He frowns a little. "The Hivers came to us. They wanted me. I'm not sure why, admittedly," he says, giving a slight shrug. "But it knew I was from Amber." He looks up, and blinks. "Um. We should move. We should move fast." He stands up again. "I'll tell you the story on the way, but right now we should move."

[Wyvern]

While Aibne is speaking, Alys takes the opportunity to remove the spear from her back; it comes out with the haft blackened and seared as if by fire, and leaves behind no visible wound.

"I'd suggest starting by finding a healer that's on their way to Fishguard; I don't know how the puppets you faced fared, but the ones I was dealing with... should survive, but will definitely want a healer."

As the three start moving, Alys responds to Asai's questions, "I don't think Priscilla was involved - unless it was tracking her instead of one of the two of us, or perhaps an item planted on one of us, or... That's a second thing we might want to take a moment to find while we're out in shadow: a clue as to how it found us there."