07.11f: Follow the Soulsteel Road

[Joshua]

A few steps and you duck to avoid a soul-steal grand daiklave* swung at your head. The vampire lady (previously mentioned) snarls at you. "How dare you invade my home! What is your business here?"

Still chained to the wall, Rogbar objects. "Hey, I'm not into this gender-blurring stuff. I rescue the damsels. Besides, we have to save something for our second date."

She will pause, ever so slightly from her attack to scream back, "We are not on a date!"
________________
*:Like a zweihander, only bigger... much bigger. so big...

[Chtalo]

Ch'talo ducks and rolls as he avoids the daiklaive, taking a quick scan of the environment. He narrows his eyes and glares at her.

"I am the Shadowed Hunter and I follow my prey wherever they go. So it should be you apologizing to me for getting in my way." His voice is low and in earnest.

"If you just tell me where to find him, I will leave you to your... Entertainment. But try to impede me and you've volunteered for the hunt yourself." He splays his claws out, still cloaked in silver, and readies himself in a fighting stance. He doesn't expect this to go well. Deals with the Undying never do.

[Joshua]

Rogbar will start to object at the title of entertainment, but the deathknight will interrupt.

She demands, "You come here, destroy part of my home and you think I will let you leave? I don't care that you are one of her chosen. She holds no power here and neither do you."

While it is possible she has no idea what you are talking about... I wouldn't bet on it.

That being said, she knows a number of offensive charms, including the one she starts with. "Thousand Wounds Feigning*!" She cries as her caste mark (Dusk cast) bleeds down her forehead. Dozens of black shadows of her blade appear attempting to strike all four of your limbs and heart at the same time.
____________
*: These are somewhere between zero lynchpin spells and power-words, although they are completely dependent on local magic.

[Chtalo]

Ch'talo growls as he half-glows in silver now, his eyes and forehead glowing in pale moonlight. As the blades approach, he takes on almost a true aspect of water*, flowing this way and that, taking a few steps back and moving towards the main entry from his position. Each move makes the glow brighter, and he snarls as he moves, slowly crouching through the motions and preparing for a spring.

"I know the tricks of rancid meat. You aren't who I seek, but you leave me no choice but to add your skull to my collection." And with that, he'll take a great leap forward, moving almost as though he is flying. Snarled under his breath, you hear him mutter "Death on Swift Wings"** as bony plates slide quickly from his body to form a shell that does little to impede his movement.

---
* For those keeping score at home with the Exalted rules, Flowing Body Evasion
** Yay, combos. Furious Hound Pursuit + Armor-Forming Technique

[Joshua]

(OOC: Or automatic shapeshifting combined with local magic.)

The abyssal will growl. She'll go offensive, her blade large enough to make a difference in the fight... giving her a narrow edge in what is likely goign to be a protracted fight.

[Chtalo]

Ch'talo bounds forward and back, moving fluidly, the otter now seeming more bear-like in size and stance, but still moves like an otter in the water. Occasionally he lunges in, heavy bony protuberances coating his forearms from the elbow down and sticking out several feet, inlaid with a filigree of silvery metal.

"I can run you to ground," he growls in a strangely dissonant tone, like he was slightly out of key with himself. "I have never failed to catch my prey, no matter how unappetizing they are."

[Joshua]

"Look, this is all well and good, but this is a really strange date." Rogbar will state... then pause... "Wait, trappings of death, battle for your life, arguments about prey and how you're stronger in your place of evil power... You're trying to do the evil seductress thing! Oh, I can get into that." he will smirk and play-complain, "Please, mr. otter, I am held captive by this vile succubus. If you don't free me, I will need to use my wiles to show her there is still good inside her. Even if I have to put it there myself."

The Abyssal will actually stop fighting a moment, leaving herself completely open, turn to Rogbar and just scream. "We. Are. Not. On. A. Date!!!!" She will continue on a tirade about how he's a pathetic insect she's using to steal back an item taken, and she's going to kill him... But the subtlety is lost on Rogbar who just seems to beam with anticipation of what he imagines will be amazing redemption-based intimacy.

[Chtalo]

Ch'talo comes up short as the cadence of the battle suddenly halts with the dramatic equivalent of dragging a needle on a record. His ears flat and he turns to stare at Rogbar, then sighs, shaking his head.

"If you insist on consorting with the dead, that's not my concern. Dead is..." his claws extend, glistening in that silvery metallic sheen. He lunges forward, driving his claws into the back of his opponent while she is distracted, claws 8" long and still slowly growing as he tries to plunge them into her flesh.

"Dead." He finshes, flat and expressionless.

[Joshua]

"Wounds Mean Nothing*!" She says, flexing lightly as your claws rend through her chest. She laughs as her vampiric body starts to heal... then fails.

"Im- impossible!" She screams... looking at Rogbar**. As she collapses, bleeding from the chest. "I will not be undone by... this... insignificant..."
__________________
*: Perfect soak where you take the damage then immediately heal it. Has one of the four flaws of invulnerability. In this case: She cannot use it in the presence of someone who likes her. Manual of Exalted Power: Abyssals (p147)
**: Ten-Thousand Dates Feel as One: By jumping into each new love with a pure heart, unfettered by past consequences, Rogbar can form an instant positive intimacy with anyone he's on a date with. Dragon-Blooded (p144)

[Chtalo]

Ch'talo looks at the dying... dead.... thing, then up to Rogbar, then back down, claws dripping ichor.

"I could say something about foxes and henhouses, but I think you get the point without it." He steps forward, his toeclaws long like sabres now, and begins to step down, letting them sink through flesh, kneading catlike as he eyes Rogbar.

"I don't know who you are or what you're doing here, but you certainly made this... diversion easier. Are you wanting out of your chains, or do you have a thing for cockroaches, too? I suspect her companion will be back shortly. And I'm afraid that my main prey is not here. Though...."

He pauses and sniffs the air, then an entirely unwholesome smile starts to stretch across his snout, with more fangs than are strictly necessary.

"Yes. He *is* near. Make your decision quick; it costs me nothing to leave you here."