What Can One Grey Warden Do?

[pinprick]

WHO: Hercules, Jamie, Kain, Rachette, Alistair, Kaidan, Bethany, Dorian, Anders, and Nathaniel.
WHAT: The ambush and capture of Lord Livius Erimond
WHEN: Drakonis 4
WHERE: The Western Approach
NOTES: Info on this post. Feel free to start your own mingle threads for the journey there and back. Warning for violence.

It doesn't really rain here. The skies are blue and the sun is glaring, the sands shifting only when a merciful breeze blazes through, which isn't often. It's hardest on Team D, which has no shade or shelter. The other two teams are tucked away in the shadows, impossible to see as Erimond's party enters the gorge.

They had seen the demons from afar, Nathaniel peering through a spyglass. There are eight of them, each bound to a mage, and Nathaniel has chosen to continue with the plan, though he has urged everyone not to try to fight, only to push through with the plan as-is and get out. They are all very much outnumbered, but all they need to do is take one man.

So stay hydrated and move quickly, team. Anything can happen in the next few minutes.

[OOC: I will tag into each team thread as the action reaches each team. Feel free to mingle on team threads before then and react to the action in other threads. Also, please start your own threads for travel mingling, if you want that sort of thing. This will keep everything organized for everyone's AC purposes.]

Comments

[liberalum]

That their voices might be carrying doesn't occur enough to Dorian to call for shushing, but he does go still rather than move at the appearance of their target roaming around the back of his company. He is poised and ready, and a sliver of electrical energy flourishes down the length of his staff just as Erimond screams out, and casts his spell too swiftly to defend against. The noise Dorian makes is a protesting one, flinching back when ice slices his face.

His face.

He doesn't need Nathaniel's instruction, surging to his feet properly as he hefts his staff. It seems to spin light and easy in the air, and comes down far heavier as he brings it two-handedly back down to earth, lightning and purple illumination flurrying. The effect itself happens beyond him, purple light lancing and glowing amongst the feet of the enemy mages, and above their heads, a sudden blooming of darkness, like a smoke cloud rising, furling into the impression of a skull before dispersing, a feeling of heavy horror intent to settle over the company.

Hanging back, Dorian stays rooted to the spot as the next turn of his staff sends fiery energy towards the company, striking sand, white-heat and orange flame.

His face, though.

[foodsofmypeople]

Kaidan was moving even before Nathaniel called out for suppressing fire. He was caught on the arm by one of the ice shards, causing him to cry out in pain, but he didn't care, his barrier flickering into live as he first cast a lazy fireball in the direction of the enemy mages, then made the decision to throw them off balance, and charge into their midst, his bladed staff wheeling as he sought to throw them off guard. Mages loved distance, but up close and personal was much harder for most of them.

Just to let you all know. I rolled a fifteen! SCORE!

[sunshinethroughgrey]

"Nathaniel!"

Bethany cried out across the desert expanse, her brown eyes widening. My fault, my fault! her mind screamed, as guilt turned into anger, and anger turned into magic.

If you have never seen a force mage at work, it can be a truly daunting sight. Bethany lifted her staff to the sky, and then slammed it down into the ground, shooting out one hand as she reached to the sky to tear open a hole in the fabric of force around them, and use it to create a vortex to the demons and mages rushing to Erimond's aid. Those who were not caught in Alistair's defensive templar abilities, soon found themselves dragged to one central spot.

Where they couldn't move, except to wave their arms ... rather ineffectually.

She starting swinging her staff around again, focusing and drawing mana back in for the next attack.

[pinprick]

Dorian's horror spell hits both demons and mages hard, lasting almost half a minute. From sheer terror, the mages begin to send spells out blindly in many directions. One, a blast of fire, catches Kaidan, singeing his face and any exposed hair but doing no more damage than a sunburn.

Several of the enemy mages have the sense, at least, to have barriers up. Kaidan's fireball singes a few eyebrows and knocks a number of demons back. It's Bethany's force spell that is deadliest to them, gathering them all tightly together as Kaidan's blade swings. The blow catches in layers of fabric, not flesh, but there is little they can do to resist more blows.

That is, until an older mage sends a wave of energy rippling out, casting off Bethany's spell--as well as the barriers guarding everyone in the fight. Only Dorian's horror spell remains, so the attacks from the enemy mages are still erratic.

A bolt of lightning lands near Dorian, but does not hit him. Dorian's fire spell hits nothing but rock, sending dust flying, obscuring the enemy targets.

[foodsofmypeople]

The singeing of his hair and face didn't phase Kaidan - you didn't fight without getting some kind of scars, let's face it, but it was the dropping of his barrier that had him most concerned. The way he fought, he relied on that for protection as he got up close and personal, and to be without that was putting him on edge.

But he persevered, his staff whirling in an attempt to knock as many down as possible, struggling to find his feet as the Venatori mage looked to disrupt them all.

[liberalum]

Spirit magic ripples sickly green as Dorian throws up his barriers as attention is, inevitably, drawn their way, even after the devastation impact of Bethany's force spell. "Not exactly ice, is it?" he shouts over the chaos, unable not to rib her a little for immediately veering wildly off-course from her own plan.

Apostates, honestly.

It doesn't matter, though. It's working. His voice is textured with adrenalised liveliness, and he conserves his most of his energy for the moment as he sends gusts of energy, surgical, attempting to control the crowd around where Kaidan is fighting them toe-to-toe, like a madman.

He turns, tearing a fireball through the Veil and sending it blazing for the enemy mages -- attempting, this time, for accuracy.

"I'll cover our retreat," he asserts, mostly for Bethany -- Kaidan will have to do with them yelling at him to run. "Be ready."

[sunshinethroughgrey]

Bethany just looked over at Dorian with a faintly bleak look, before she focused her attention on the elder mage. Her first Winter's Grasp bounced off of him and his dispel as if wasn't there at all.

She hissed and turned the staff on him again, amping up her Winter's Grasp to Winter's Fury to hit him again, her brown eyes flaring. She did nod in response to Dorian, however, knowing that he would have the ability to cover them.

"Right." She looked at him, her gaze focusing.

[foodsofmypeople]

Kaidan could manage - for the most part. Though he was getting uncomfortably aware that he would have to do the one thing he didn't want to, and use his magic. It would work, be powerful enough, but it could cripple him for a while afterwards, and he didn't want to put the extra pressure on Bethany and Dorian. But the retreat was going to happen, and with Dorian making sure Bethany got out safely, it was up to him to extract himself.

He drew on his mana and threw out a telekinetic burst, hoping that he would avoid the crippling migraine long enough to escape.

Sorry sorry!

[pinprick]

Dorian's fireball sends most of the mages to the ground. Their barriers are down, so nothing is to keep their clothes and any exposed hair from catching fire. Terror demons caught within the blast also fall, but a rage demon only grows larger and roams toward the team. That is, until Bethany's spell catches it, makes it impossible for it to press forward. Kaidan's blast is too small to reach enemies, but there is enough distance now for the team to escape.