I like big dragons and I cannot lie

[justice_is_blond]

WHO: Alistair, Anders, Anduin, Hanzo, Inessa, Merrill, Nathaniel, Val
WHAT: Racing the Venatori to a Great Dragon
WHEN: End of the month
WHERE: Northern Anderfels
NOTES: Violence, nothing else atm.

The trip is made fairly straightforward enough with griffons, staying high and flying during the night to avoid being spotted and making camp during the day once the grey light of dawn shows them somewhere far away from nearby villages.

They make it to the jungles of the northwest without seemingly causing alarm, but it's hard to know for sure.

Comments

[justice_is_blond]

"Right," he says slowly, patting Buggsy who is about ready to book it into the trees. She's used to people, not dragons, and he can't blame her. Nothing she's come across before has dwarfed her like this.

The scholarly excitement can be... mostly understood. If the dragon wasn't fully capable of eating them and then still wanting to eat more, Anders might join him in it. As it is, he watches Val with a little apprehension. "Perhaps keep your eyes more on her? Than the writing?"

Nate's in charge, but that doesn't mean Anders can't try to keep someone from becoming a new ice statue. "Nate?"

[pinprick]

Nathaniel doesn’t respond right away. He is scanning the battlefield, or what is about to become the battlefield. Blanche’s feathers ruffle, her wings opening to make herself look larger as she tries to stare the dragon down. Then she hears a noise, looks behind, and shrieks. That’s when the hair on the back of Nate’s neck stands up.

“Behind us!” he yells just before the fireball hits.

It lands directly in the middle of the party, sending people and griffons alike flying in all directions. It hits Anduin and Alistair hardest, with Anders and Nate catching the edge of it. Hanzo and Inessa are practically untouched. Nathaniel’s head spins as he tries to pick himself up and check on Blanche. Behind them are three venatori advancing on them quickly. Blanche has a few singed feathers, but she is flapping and shrieking in front of Nathaniel, claws bared threateningly. The venatori hesitate upon seeing the griffons. The dragon growls.

[circleprodigy]

Potato lets out an angry shriek, nearly unseating Inessa again as she manages to maneuver sufficiently away from the blast. Wincing at the sheer noise and rush of heat, Inessa stops clinging after a moment and straightens to have a look at the aftermath. She hisses in concern upon noting where the blast struck hardest and sends a Heal spell at Alistair...Anduin, too, if there's time. Hopefully the blue energy settling over them will be enough for now.

[eruit]

The sight of the Venatori has Hanzo moving before anything else; the dragon is meaningless to him in the face of these people. All he can picture in his mind is his family wearing these colours, these robes, declaring themselves fools and villains in comparison to what Tevinter is supposed to be. It gnaws at him and he feels so uncomfortable that he can barely handle himself.

Moving forward, he draws his bow, moving around the fire and the movements of his fellows.

"I will take them," he says, nodding his head. His bow glows lightly as his eyes narrow, his body shifting as he moves forward. "The dragon will keep them at some distance for now."

[chainlightning]

Merrill shrieks just as loudly as Ghostface does. The pair of them are sent sprawling; Ghostface had attempted to dodge and not quite made it, and the smell of burnt feathers and fur fills the air. Merrill's almost unseated; she has to push herself up with her staff, but she's quite happy she cast that first spell. This would be worse otherwise.

"Up- up we go-" Ghostface rocks onto his haunches and flaps his wings, screeching a challenge. His attention has come away from the dragon, and for now, Merrill's more focused on the Venatori as well. Hanzo steps forward and she calls down from where Ghostface is rising. "I'll help cover you!"

Divide the targets, make the three Venatori have to work all the harder -- and the dragon too, for that matter.

[byblow]

The thing that alerts Alistair most quickly to the fact that something other than a dragon is attacking them is not the fact that it's fire—because why wouldn't a great damned dragon the size of a fortress be able to breathe both ice and fire, sure, it's already a nightmare, why not make it a bit worse—or the fact that it came from another direction—because it could be another dragon, that would also make sense—but the fact that, for fire, it doesn't hurt that badly.

It hurts, obviously. It burns. But it's the muted burn of magical fire butting up against magic resistance, plus Merrill's spell. He sucks air through his teeth while Inessa's magic does its work, but he's already moving, too, to cleanse any lingering fire and to make sure de Foncé and his book are shielded until he can (hopefully, if he has a lick of sense in his excitable Orlesian head) put the book away.

He looks at the dragon, too, to shout, "Don't you dare attack us." Not because he thinks it will listen. It probably doesn't, you know, speak Trade. But it makes him feel a little better about turning his back on it to focus on the Vints, who are not four stories tall.

[lil_lion]

The force of the blast knocked Anduin off his feet. He was burning, then, he wasn't, and before he could recover his feet there was a blue light. Anduin turns and fixes his eyes on one of the men behind them, on the one staring back to him, his hands still wreathed in flame.

Shalamayne still clipped to his side, Anduin extends a hand towards the mage. Light, golden, unbearably bright flares in his outstretched hand. There is not a moment's hesitation as Anduin pours his determination, the justness of what he does into it. The light arcs in a scintillating beam, a burning no arcane power can dispel. Anduin doesn't stop to see what remains of the mage as the light fades.

He steps around to guard Alistair's back, keeping a wary eye on the dragon without making eye contact- that would be bad, right? He draws his father's sword.

[justice_is_blond]

There's pain for a short moment, fire searing his skin. and then he's reacting in a second, healing the damage and keeping his head clear as best he can. Anders gives Nate a shake of his head as he lands his griffon; he's not really going to be any use in the air trying to fight and heal, and the Venatori may be the biggest threat. ...In a manner of speaking. He urges Bugsy up, away from the combat, in what may not have been the smartest move ever/

He casts haste on Hanzo, Alistair, and Anduin, the other three on the ground, as the Venatori close in.

One of the Venatori is already bringing up another fireball, taking his time to make it larger. He flings it forward at the group in the air. The second has his hands glowing a purple-black when a beam of light strikes him fully in the chest and he stumbles back, shouting in pain and fear.

The third eyes them all before his eyes narrow and he sends a bolt of ice past the party to strike the dragon. It's clearly not enough to do significant damage, but it is enough to get her roaring in more anger and blowing ice again. The ice is generally aimed toward the Venatori, but it's fairly clear that the dragon isn't being entirely picky about most of the small figures darting around when it's her getting hurt.

[chainlightning]

Up in the air, Merrill feels closer to the elements. Ghostface shrieks a battlecry beneath her and she can't help but grin. She raises her staff and lightning comes down from the sky, striking at the Venatori's position. If there's anyone hidden, hopefully she'll be able to flush them out. If not... well, hopefully they'll be able to get the Venatori out of the way before they completely antagonize the dragon.

[circleprodigy]

Seeing the fireball streaking toward them, Inessa manages to renew her Barrier spell in time...though just barely, and the flames curling around them make her shudder even so. Potato squawks; unsinged, but outraged nonetheless. Promising her griffon that revenge is to come, she follows up Merrill's attack with one of her own.

Once Potato is in position, Inessa taps into her power as a rift mage and directs it at the mage who was antagonizing the dragon. Recreating her fist from the essence of the Fade, she brings it down upon him without mercy. If the rest are close enough to smash into the ground as well, so be it.