Love on an Adventure

[ladys_night]

LOVE ON AN ADVENTURE meme Lucky you. For a while, you get to eschew a normal life and see life past your door; you're going on a quest! It could be for personal reasons, for fun, for profit, or to save the world as you know it. In all likelihood, it's the latter, given the natural order of things, but hopefully it's not. Whatever the case may be, you won't be going it alone, however. Whether it's just you and a partner or a true fellowship, you've got people to back you up. You may not all start out as the best of friends, that's true - still, the fires of potential life or death scenarios or the threat of losing your booty draw you closer together, and a friendship forms. With one member of your party, more than friendship grows between you. But wait, you have to defeat the dark lord, find the oldest wand, fight evil by moonlight, create a giant robot, or any other number of tasks. There's no time for this sort of nonsense! Actually, you may push them away because of the mission or due to past wounds that tie into said mission. Maybe, though, you can steal moments to get closer, let a romance blossom...or more. HOW to PLAY Comment with your character, preferences, and any other info - ie, keep it PG, etc. Even though I used a fantasy picture, don't feel constrained! In Harry Potter, they have to find a wand, in Supernatural, the Colt, in Avatar, they have to fight the Fire Lord, etc. Feel free to AU your character or include information about them. Reply to others.

Comments

[moonandstar]

A pair of draugr emerge as they round the bend of the staircase. The larger of the two lunges at Garyn. He crouches and sidesteps its thrust. Then, with his left hand, he grabs its forearm and tosses him over his shoulder, over the balcony and into the bottom of the chamber several stories below.

[drehnifusbahi]

Meanwhile, Vanyel engages the second one, laying into it with Dawnbreaker. Then comes the sound of running footsteps, and someone flings a frost spell their way - seems there are cultists on this level as well as draugr.

[moonandstar]

Garyn summons the bound shield again and focuses his full momentum into a controlled shoulder charge. Once they're at his distance, their spells will be a lot less useful.

[drehnifusbahi]

Frea follows suit, charging in with both war axes raised, and once the second draugr has been dealt with so does Vanyel. With Garyn and Frea both fighting the cultists in close quarters, a ranged attack would be too risky.

[moonandstar]

A good thing, too - with the position they have the cultists pinned in, Vanyel's arrows would have been the greater threat. As talented a bunch of torturers as they are, these cultists are no match for the three of them together.

[drehnifusbahi]

The cultists aren't terribly impressive, no; they might have half-decent aim when slinging spells, but being so hemmed in means they can't. And with that, the cultists' advantage is gone.

Vanyel focuses in on his own opponent, trusting Garyn and Frea to handle themselves.

[moonandstar]

House Dagoth they most certainly are not. Garyn and Frea don't waste time in giving them what they so richly deserve.

Beneath them at the bottom of the stairs, there's the sound of more cultists stirring.

[drehnifusbahi]

It doesn't take long for Vanyel's opponent to fall either, and he steps around the body for a clear shot at the staircase, sending a preemptive blast of fire at the cultists below.

It's not likely to kill any of them right off, but if nothing else they'll be too preoccupied trying to douse their burning robes to do any attacking.

[moonandstar]

Clearly, the best thing to do is to cut off their retreat. So naturally, Garyn vaults over the balcony and onto the ground four stories below.

He does it so swiftly, so utterly without fear or hesitation that it would probably be just as shocking to watch even if he had told Vanyel about the Slowfall enchantment on his belt.

[drehnifusbahi]

It certainly is shocking, but he has to trust that Garyn has some means of surviving such a fall. Vanyel, however, does not, and he's willing to bet Frea doesn't either. So he grabs her by the arm and tugs her away from the balcony, chasing the fleeing cultists down the stairs - and lobbing a few more fireballs as they go.

[moonandstar]

Garyn's presence at the bottom of the staircase vexes them. They seem to hover in place, unsure for a moment whether to flee upstairs or downstairs. They try to throw fire at Garyn, but their efforts are interrupted by Vanyel's continued bombardment. Garyn is shielding himself against what does come through - no sense in risking getting hit by Vanyel and Frea.

One of them appears poised to try to break through. He'll certainly regret it if he tries.

Hopefully, Vanyel and Frea can get to them before they stop panicking and decide to throw lightning.

[drehnifusbahi]

There are quite a few stairs, and with one of the cultists already regrouping, Vanyel decides not to give the other two time to do the same. He still has a hold of Frea's wrist, so when he Shouts again, she gets pulled along for the ride.

"Wuld Nah Kest!" The effects of that particular shout let them make it down the remaining stairs in a matter of moments, badly startling the cultists. Vanyel capitalizes on that immediately, striking out with the same flaming sword as before.

Frea takes an additional moment to adjust, but isn't far behind. She pounces on the third cultist, who seemed to be having trouble deciding which of his allies might need backup more.

[moonandstar]

The cultist who had been threatening to make a break for it finally does. Hog butchers have a harder challenge than this one provides.

Garyn waits for the flame to purge his blade clean before sheathing it again.

"They don't seem to have much experience against people who can actually fight back," he says. "At least not so far."

[drehnifusbahi]

Vanyel does the same; Frea settles for wiping her bloodied axes off on the dead cultists' robes before stowing them.

"No. I can't honestly say I'm surprised by that, though; I've rarely met a rogue mage or half-baked necromancer who did," Vanyel replies.

He steps around the cultists and moves toward the switch not far from the base of the stairs, but then -

There's a loud thud of stone hitting stone, and a draugr deathlord wielding an ebony greatsword rushes at them. In a deep, raspy voice, it Shouts. "Zun Haal Viik!"

It's probably lucky that they'd already put their weapons away, or they'd have all gone flying. Vanyel glances over at Garyn. "I don't suppose you know Bound Sword or Bound Bow?" It doesn't seem like a farfetched assumption, given that he can apparently conjure a Bound Shield.

[moonandstar]

"No."

Garyn summons the shield again. He parries the deathlord's attack and bashes it with the bottom end. It tumbles backward - much further than any normal Dunmer could have knocked it.

"Don't need it."

The Bound Shield spell comes from an enchanted ring anyway. Garyn has no natural talent for conjuration. He'd explain that, but now doesn't seem a good time.

They should have more than enough time to draw their weapons now.

[drehnifusbahi]

"If you say so." Once again, his curiosity is piqued - but this is still very much not the time.

Frea draws her war axes and rushes the fallen draugr; Vanyel elects to conjure up a sword instead of drawing Dawnbreaker just yet -in his experience, these things can be ready to Shout again almost as quickly as a dragon- and calls up a fire spell with the other.

The deathlord was already climbing to its feet again, but between being hit with a fire spell and Frea setting into it with her war axes, it's rather distracted.

It swings the greatsword, but she dodges the blow.

[moonandstar]

Garyn is quickly upon it with Trueflame drawn. The draugr whirls to face him, only just managing to keep up with his strikes.

But it cannot defend against both him and Frea at the same time. She buries her war axe in the top of the draugr's spine. Its knees buckle and its neck snaps forward, half-decapitated by the blow.

The revenant makes one last attempt to kill its quarry with one wild, arcing swing of the Great Sword. Garyn swats it away.

A stiff breeze could do it in now.

[drehnifusbahi]

And then Vanyel makes it over there, releasing his Bound Sword in favor of drawing Dawnbreaker. The enchantments on the blade that make it ideal for slaying the undead almost aren't necessary; all it takes to finish the deathlord off is one good swing.

The head rolls off, and it and the body burn quickly; soon enough, there's nothing left but ash.

The flames lick Dawnbreaker's blade for a moment, purging and purifying; once they've died, he sheaths the sword again.

He eyes the greatsword for a moment -old habits die hard- but ultimately turns away, back toward the gate and the switch. He trades the flame spell for Clairvoyance once more, and casts.

As expected, the trail of blue light leads up to that gate.

"This way," he calls, throwing the switch.

[moonandstar]

They follow him through the gate. The walls are rougher here, and the air is somehow even more musty. The walls are lined with tombs. They've entered the heart of the catacombs.

No surprises here. Garyn's sword is already out before the first draugr even emerges.

[[OOC: We can get specific or just handwave our way through this if you want.]]

[drehnifusbahi]

Dawnbreaker stays out and a flame spell crackles in Vanyel's other hand, ready and waiting.

He knows full well what happens to adventurers who let their guard down in this places - he's tripped over their bones often enough.

[[ooc: I don't mind handwaving! It looks like the next boss-level enemy is in the room with the Sanctum entrance anyway.]]

[moonandstar]

Draugr are nothing if not consistent. They begin to rise, gradually in groups of a few at a time.

Garyn rushes into one of the alcoves to fell them before they can fully rouse themselves.

[drehnifusbahi]

Vanyel scours another alcove with his flames, and Frea makes short work of any that managed to survive.

In this way, they manage to make their way along the path, past a swinging blade trap and yet more draugr. At one point the path splits, but a quick casting of Clairvoyance shows which of the forks to take.

Eventually the path leads to a much larger room, guarded by both swinging blades and flame spouts. At the far end of the room there's a gate, and a switch to the right of said gate.

[moonandstar]

Garyn regards the gauntlet of traps, and the door it guards.

"That's probably the switch right there. Best if we try it one at a time."

Frea laughs. "I am not going down there. It would be foolish to attempt it."

Garyn turns to Vanyel. "The thu'um you used on the stairs - I don't suppose you can use that here?"

[drehnifusbahi]

He studies the traps before them for a long moment, observing the arc of the blades and the distance between the flame spouts.

"I should be able to, yes."

After giving it another moment's consideration, he moves closer to the wall. Then he Shouts. "Wuld Nah Kest!"

The blades aren't actually swinging in a wide enough arc to hit the wall, but they come damn close - and he sprints under them in the nick of time.

The flames prove a little easier to navigate, the spouts are floor-mounted and there's a gap near the wall that he manages to slip through.

Then he throws the switch; the traps are disarmed, but the gate remains shut.

[moonandstar]

Garyn and Frea follow along the newly cleared path.

"Miraak took great pains to make it difficult to reach him, it seems," Frea says. "Let us hope that is the last of these traps."

Garyn raises an eyebrow and shoots her a Look. Narration trusts that Vanyel is probably making the same expression.

Frea shrugs. "One can hope for unlikely things."

Garyn returns the gesture and turns his eye toward the gate. "Now what?"