faderift | it's close to midnight and something evil's lurking in the dark

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it's close to midnight and something evil's lurking in the dark

WHO: Merrill, Morrigan, Thranduil, Ellana, Inessa, Zevran, Bruce, Maxwell, Bethany, Beleth, Leliana, Amelie
WHAT: A trip to fetch an eluvian goes wrong and everyone gets a taste of Kirkwall hospitality.
WHEN: Harvestmere 7-11
WHERE: Kirkwall
NOTES: Plotting post one and two! Warnings for Creepy Stuff, monsters, violence, gore, etc.

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Merrill huffs as her spell hits the barrel instead. The barriers are a welcome warmth, though she too is hit by the Blizzard, teeth clattering together in the cold. She's able to cast a Crushing Prison, however, toward the mage that uses the blood magic. It seems she has a bit of a grudge, as he's the one who did something to the eluvian.

Inessa's Veilstrike slams each of the warriors, some harder than others. The frozen warrior that Thranduil is attacking shatters free from the ice with the force of the blows of magic and metal, slashing back at the Rifter with a longsword even as he bleeds heavily upon the ground. The warrior that Garahel is biting uses his free hand to slam his shield into the mabari, trying to get the dog off. The Veilstrike frees him from the ice as well, which sends him scrambling to fetch the sword the dog made him drop. The Walking Bomb barrel, an innocent bystander caught up in everything, is sent hurtling down by Bruce's fireballs even as they light up along the other warriors. It crashes amidst Thranduil, Garahel, and Inessa exploding and spraying a disgusting, corrosive liquid upon them and the enemy warriors, who are having a bad time.

Zevran is able to hit three of the mages before one of them casts a Wall of Flames, illuminating some of the passageway just in time for anyone paying attention to see a chunk of stone fall from the ceiling onto another barrel. Another Venatori shouts a warning, something unclear in the chaos that is presumably about the structure of the place, even as he casts sigils on the ground for traps made of ice. One of the unfrozen warriors tries to make an insane dash toward the eluvian, striking with a great maul toward Ellana. Despite the warning, one of the mages casts Tempest, with lightning striking down toward Bruce and Merrill.

He steps back to avoid the longsword even as the liquid splashes; it should become apparent that even fancy elves have bad language because he certainly hisses something even as he sheds his now ruined top layer, letting it fall to the ground. He can do nothing about the pain he currently feels, unable and unwilling both to discard the pants even as the acidic liquid eats through the leathers and cloth in a few patches. Adding to that problem is the need to step around the puddles-- and turn his attention on the warrior with the longsword, hoping he was hit harder by the liquid than Thranduil himself.

Ellana will know what Morrigan is up to instantly, Merrill too; the air about her shimmers as her body writhes in what would look like purple smoke if it weren't so dark.

What was Morrigan is now a spider, a large one, with eight glittering black eyes alighting on the enemy. Webbing will slow them down, help give them all some sort of buffer on the floor and she-- well she rolls, eight long legs tucked in with an awful clicking and hissing as she does so.

Hopefully avoiding anyone. But you know, these things happen and better it's webbing than something nastier.

There's definitely some guilt when he sees where the barrel ends up at, and internally Bruce curses himself for it. He knows there wasn't much of a choice, but at the same time he definitely felt bad. This is why he was not one for fighting.

Back to focusing on support and defense - and just in time as well, what with that spell coming straight for him. Bruce quickly casts a barrier for both him and Merrill, hoping that they will take the worst of the damage - though Bruce still attempts to physically dodge either way. Its sort of an instinct at this point for him.

While he does that Bruce casts another quick offensive spell - more fireballs just like before, flying with precision towards the warriors, but before they hit their mark they burst into even smaller fireballs, multiplying in number and swarming together like a cluster of fiery bees as they strike at the mage that had attacked him.

Thank the Maker for that Barrier spell; Inessa doesn't want to imagine what that corrosive liquid would do has it actually come into contact with her. Bruce's skill with fire is certainly impressive, and Inessa would love to discuss it...later. At the moment, their battle takes priority. The soldier attacking her dog gets a Misdirection Hex slapped on him, then she focuses on casting Winter's Grasp to freeze that warrior dashing toward Ellana.

As if being frozen wasn't bad enough, Ellana gets to come out of it to see the Venatori throwing everything they've got at them. The space is illuminated by the wall of flames and that helps, but only so much as seeing your probable death coming towards you instead of seeing only a hint of it in the darkness. Her reaction time is slowed due to the recent blizzard and before she can set a barrier, the warrior's maul hits its mark, smashing against her ribs and sending her flying backwards. She would scream, but all the air has been knocked from her lungs. When she lands, she wheezes for breath, her vision swimming from the pain. She's definitely broken at least one rib. Maybe several. At least she held on to the staff. That's an accomplishment, right? So she now casts Barrier on herself to keep from being finished off. The warrior got to her a second before Inessa got to him, but he's now frozen. That doesn't mean someone else can't throw a spell her way to kill her.

Ceiling collapsing, traps on the ground, fighting half in and half out of the dark, Morrigan a spider? Zevran is right at home. Even with the light offered he slips in quickly, making a second pass through the huddle of mages. Ribs and joints, seeking out the soft, vulnerable spaces with his flashing blades. He leaps over one of the icy sigils etched into the ground to continue his darting attacks, sliding past the mage caught in Merrill's crushing prison. Dropping a bottle of Antivan fire at his feet to add to the chaos and obscure his fellow's attempts at traps he vaults over the skittering roll of Morrigan's spider form.

Familiar tactics for an unfamiliar place.

A piece of ceiling crashes down right in front of her and Merrill shrieks, nearly dropping her staff. "We need to get out of this section!" Of- wherever they are. It's clearly not stable, and all the magic being thrown around is probably not helping. Ellana's hurt on top of that, and Merrill uses Stone's Throw to be brought to her side in an instant, crouching down next to her.

"If we can get you behind the eluvian, you should be safer; they want it, so they won't want to hurt it. Can you stand?"

--

The warrior facing Thranduil screams -- acid has flown into the open wounds Thranduil already inflicted. While his armor protects most of his body from it, his face is not protected. Luckily he falls forward before anyone can get much of a look at what's happening to his face thanks to the corrosive liquid, because it's both not pretty and very fatal.

The warrior attacking Garahel misses thanks to Inessa's Misdirection Hex, which makes him slam instead into the frozen warrior that broke Ellana's ribs. The ice and remains of the Walking Bomb make it harder for the two to extract themselves, an easy target for Morrigan in spider form. Webbing also lands on two of the Venatori, making them easy targets for Zevran and his blades. The two warriors still frozen break free from the ice now, one attempting to hit Morrigan with a warhammer.

The mage attacked by Bruce and his firebees screams, trying to flail both at the firebees and the flames coming to life on his robes. In his panic, he runs right toward Inessa. The remaining warrior attempts to back away, only to be frozen in place by the Venatori that first used blood magic -- and then thrown right toward Thranduil. If the man is going to run, he can be used as a weapon instead against the strange elf.

Worried about Ellana, Inessa quickly follows up with a Heal spell. It might not take away the worst of the damage, but at the very least, it will ease her pain. A more accomplished healer can do better work on her, she's certain.

Upon seeing the flaming mage running towards her, Inessa recoils and casts Chilling Array, placing a set of ice mines before her. That ought to put out his fiery robes...and hold him in place long enough for her to finish off.

Garahel lets Morrigan finish off the two idiots if she pleases, though the one with the warhammer gets his attention and on the way back, he tries to charge that one from behind. If he can knock him over, then Morrigan can finish it off. Teamwork is fun.

He's distracted very easily by the very large spider that appears out of nowhere, and centuries of bias don't disappear in a few moments. Especially as it shoots web, and he's learned what that can do. Between that and the firebees (what is Thedas, he doesn't know) the Venatori with the creeping realization he's losing gets an up on him enough to throw a person at Thranduil- points for creativity- and all he can do is bring his swords up and duck, hoping to shatter the man. All hope of rolling away has been ruined by the webbing and the acid.

"Yes," Ellana says through gritted teeth, even as her mind is screaming No. This pain is a different kind from the injury she sustained in the Fade, but she can bear it better somehow. Creators, she wonders if she's growing used to extreme pain. As she struggles to find her feet, using Merrill's shoulder to help push herself up, Inessa's spell reaches her and the pain becomes more bearable.

"I can still cast from behind the mirror," she offers, not wanting these damn Venatori to think they've taken her out of the fight. Though from the way a couple of them are screaming, she's betting they're not long for this world.

That took care of most of their opponents - he could leave the rest to Zevran and the others, and besides, he's not a fighter, and right now there is somebody who needs immediate medical attention.

Bruce quickly hurries over to Ellana - who he had seen getting struck earlier - feeling a little out of breath from all the magic he's had to constantly cast, but its nothing he can't handle. At least he's not too far away from her, and manages to get to her side not long after Merrill, crouching down as well.

"I'll take care of her." He's already casting another healing spell on top of the one the Warden had done earlier, doing his best to quickly encourage recovery and ease the pain. It'll definitely not be as good as that of a spirit healer, for for now they had to make do. As he casts he glances between both of the elves for a moment, then focuses on Merrill first. "Can you provide some form of protection until I can get her to the eluvian?"

A thing you never quite forget: how it feels when her chelicerae punch through flesh, though a spider thankfully isn't equipped to taste in the same way that a person is. Inessa's hound being there, along with Zevran? Some of it feels almost painfully nostalgic. No one would be comforted by that though. To know what it was like to fight in the filth and the mire, with things that wanted nothing more than to rip you apart limb from limb.

At least the Darkspawn were mindless to a degree, driven on by the Archdemon. Tis a different thing when these are men serving their master, something so like old tales rising from the grave to prowl the earth once more.

The warhammer comes too close; she rolls again, blood and poison spraying from where she's bitten the first of her foes. The man is screaming as she lets out her own angry clicking noises, backing up and away without looking (because she can't, not when there's a warhammer) as quickly as she can to try to spit more webs in an attempt to slow him down. At least this body doesn't feel the sting of acid when she moves though next time? Perhaps a corrupted spider might be better. Or a stinging swarm.

There's a quick nod to Bruce, a silent thank you. Merrill takes a moment to touch one of Ellana's hands with hers and then she's turning back toward the fray, staff in hand.

"Let's go, then."

Her turn for a wall of flames, enough to keep any more warriors from getting to them as they head for the relative shelter the eluvian provides.

--

Caught by ice mines and cursing his fate, the warrior that charged toward Inessa is stuck and unable to do much more than wait for someone to break him. The warrior with a warhammer swings it in a panic as Garahel jumps for him, taking out a chunk of stone from one of the passage's walls and attempting to hit the dog, even as he's brought to the ground.

The warrior thrown at Thranduil via magic is shattered by a combination of his defensive posture and the stone wall next to him. Unfortunately, the chunks are large, heavy, and sharp; they're essentially shrapnel of ice and metal, twisted armor peppering the area. It is, at least, one more warrior down.

Giant, sentient spiders like Morrigan were not expected, and the two remaining warriors are having a hard time dealing with it. One is on his knees, screaming as poison ravages his system only for it to be muffled when more webbing wraps around him; one hard strike will end his suffering. The other has raised his shield, blocking some of the webbing, but leaving his back completely exposed.

With their muscle on its last legs, the Venatori mages are scrambling a bit. One Fade Steps to Merrill's Wall of Flames, summoning ice to attempt to freeze it so that he can follow the injured Ellana, Bruce, and Merrill to the eluvian. A second follows, casting Chain Lighting toward the three in an attempt to slow their progress. Thranduil is an unknown force as both a large elf and someone with a shard in his hand; the last two of the mages advance toward him, one casting a Fireball and the other using Horror.

By now, Ellana's barrier has decayed, but her mana has built back up enough to lay down another as she, Bruce, and Merrill get up and start to move. She hisses in pain as the physical movement of laying down the barrier aggravates her injury, but it's only a sharp spike that fades back down. Bruce's healing spell is working; she just needs to not undo all his work.

The screams of battle hopefully mean the tide is turning in their favor, but she sees that familiar glow of electricity and immediately shoots Flashfire towards that mage as his chain lighting hits her barrier and eats some of it away.

Giving Garahel a bit of an edge, Inessa casts Barrier again for his benefit before turning her attention back to her trapped opponent. She's not going to waste further mana on him, instead using her staff to do the rest. Doing so triggers an effect, and she stiffens in surprise upon feeling it, not anticipating that there was more to discover about her powerful and ancient staff. Apparently, she was wrong. But this isn't the time to marvel at it; directly afterward, she Fade Steps over to Garahel to help him before taking on the Venatori mages.

Bruce would have thrown up another barrier himself, but Ellana does it despite her pain and Bruce is thankful for that. It certainly saves him some mana, of which he was rapidly getting low of, and that certainyl doesn't help their current situation.

From the corner of his eye he sees some of the remaining Venatori mages heading in their direction - most likely trying to take advantage of Ellana's condition - and Bruce growls in irritation at their persistence. They really needed to stop trying, now, before he gets really angry. And nobody wanted him to be angry.

"Merrill, step aside!" The warning is given, and he gives her that needed moment to go away before he curls up his free hand into a fist and punches the air in front of him. Instantly a roaring pillar of flames rises out from next to him and heads straight in the direction of the mages attempting to follow them.

He moves to avoid the fireball- it comes close enough that the hair on his forearm burns away, and he's going to need to have that seen to. Perhaps they ought to have cast their illusion and then sent the fire, because for several moments he's stuck in place, staring at things long banished from this world. It's not real- he knows it's not real- but it disturbs him still. He comes from it aware of the burn on his arm and with his teeth clenched tightly.

Drawing on his Craft doesn't require a waving of hands or any gesture at all. And Thranduil's not inclined to throw horror back at them- he simply takes their sight, replacing it with darkness, glamouring the whole tunnel as unending night without any stars.

Despite being utterly incapable of speech - and considering Morrigan herself decided to just shoot webbing everywhere - she manages to raise plenty of angry chittering at the flames, feeling the heat of them lick at the hairs of her legs. She has potions in a bag at her hip, some salves, and it's not like the swarm where losing a few pieces involves coming back without a few nails. (Painful, uncomfortable, but worth it because that's usually what magic is so often, it's always sacrifice.) Her mana is wearing thin when she wasn't expecting to be transformed and fighting for so long in a shape so very different and she hurries for the eluvian as fast as eight legs will carry her.

Hi Thranduil please pay no heed to the spider scuttling past you. Or do. Because it might be hilarious. Possibly giving you a tug of encouragement to please hurry to the exit sir, it is time to go.

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it's close to midnight and something evil's lurking in the dark

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