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Post by jowan on Jun 5, 2012 19:08:52 GMT -1
Taking his first step forward after teleporting from the Voidclaw, Jowan took a deep breath and immediately wished he hadn't. He hated backwater planets like this, the air always thick and stinking of marshland. Still, he'd heard some rumors floating around about the small settlement on Inzmoth and his curiosity was peaked enough to make it worth his time.
Then there was the other thing that irritated him about planets such as this; the need for disguises. A man wandering around in a thin robe on a planet infamous for it's wet climate probably wasn't the least conspicuous option. As a result he had cast a small spell that altered his robe to appear as a long trenchcoat, his hood replaced by a leather fedora he had acquired some time ago. The hat covered the scar on his forehead and partially hid the cloth tied around his eyes, with the added effect of making him feel rather dashing.
He emerged from the alley he had appeared in and took a quick glance around the street. He had misjudged the time somewhat, as night had fallen and the street was largely empty. Heavy rain spilled down onto the dirt, forming murky puddles everywhere and ensuring Jowan was soaked to the bone before he had the chance to cast any sort of shield for it. It almost felt like he was underwater. He resolved to find the nearest bar and investigate where it was dry. Or at least drier.
A brisk walk down the street confirmed that most buildings were shut for the night, with only a handful of lit windows. The thunder of the rain drowned out most noise, though he could hear what sounded like a dog howling in the distance. However it wasn't the disturbing atmosphere that bothered him, rather the fact that his ability to sense magic was being somehow restricted. Normally he could feel traces of power all over the place, but this place felt empty. A true ghost town. Still, he kept going and at last found something that looked open.
He pushed through a door that looked like it belonged in a bad Western and found himself in a smoky, badly lit bar room. Not for the first time he was grateful for his enhanced sight, which allowed him to pinpoint each patron of the shabby bar, every single one of which was staring at him. After shaking the water from his hat, he approached the bar and cleared his throat to draw the attention of the frankly hostile looking barman.
"I'd like a drink please, whatever it is you usually sell to people. Also a room for the night if you have it."
It took him a moment to decipher the grunts received in response.
"We don' get many visitors roun' these parts. You got Buissness here?"
Yet another point to add to the list of reasons to hate small planets. The charming locals.
"Of a sort. Nothing to worry about!"
For a moment the barman stared at him as though waiting for more, then apparently gave in and set to work pouring a shot of something dark and sickly looking.
A few moments later, Jowan sat in a dark corner nursing a drink that had until very recently been poisoned, listening to the soft murmer of conversation that had sprung up, mostly reguarding him. It seemed that at least some of the rumors he had heard where true; the locals seemed very suspicious of strangers. He only hoped he wouldn't have to kill any would-be assassins in his sleep.
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Post by Carl on Jun 5, 2012 21:00:13 GMT -1
Outside the tavern, there was some minor commotion. A group of men were debating, while looking through the tavern window at Jowan, seemingly debating about what to do with him.
Suddenly, the head of one of their number exploded, showering the rest in blood. Purple blood. The group scattered, yelling or screaming. A second was killed before he could make it to safety. The rest ran into buildings or the tavern, yelling to take cover to each other.
Far in the distance, an old woman looked down the barrel of her smoking rifle.
"Thats another two for the scoreboard."
Resting her rifle over her shoulder, she took one look back at the town before returning to her hiding place.
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Post by jowan on Jun 8, 2012 21:41:20 GMT -1
Jowan actually jumped a little when he heard the gunshots, briefly summoning a fireball in his hand before quickly extinguishing it when he saw the attention of the bar's occupants was not on him. He cursed quietly under his breath; He was very rarely jumpy but he'd spent a good ten minutes now waiting for a bearded man a few tables across to throw a knife at him.
A moment after the second shot, two men hurtled into the tavern and leapt behind the bar, as though expecting their assailant to charge in at any moment. The rest of the bar had sprung into action, shotguns and pistols pulled form beneath coats and tables upended to serve as shields. Clearly the sniper was not an uncommon occurence.
What Jowan found most interesting however was the fact that while one of the new arrivals was hissing something in the barman's ear, his companion had begun to move back to the door before noticing Jowan. His eyes where now locked on the unfamiliar face. Yellow slitted eyes. His mouth opened in a snarl and Jowan glimpsed pointed fangs. Something in those eyes looked hungry, and completely unnatural. A moment later though he blinked and the eyes returned to normal, the change quick enough to be almost impossible to spot. At least it would have been if Jowan had been relying on eyesight alone. He turned back to the barman and spoke in a harsh voice, almost a growl
"Whose the new blood? Why's he here?!"
The barman seemed to shrink a little, fear in his voice as he replied "Ain't nothin' to worry about Will! Jest some traveller."
Will grinned and turned his attention back to Jowan, his face beginning to shift.
"Poor sod, picked a bad place to visit. I haven't eaten all week."
Again, all eyes in the bar turned to Jowan. a low hissing growl filled the cramped room as several figures began to approach, their backs shifting to become hunched and their limbs extending. The few men who hadn't started turning into lizards began cocking weapons as their companions surrounded the lone elf, the bloodlust in their eyes.
Jowan sighed. Wonderful. Now he was going to have to blow up the entire building.
Two minutes later, a blue clocked figure sprinted out the bar door, flames lighting up the door and windows. a single figure appeared at the door and howled before the fires reached the stores of alcohol and the building went up. So much for doing things subtly.
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Post by Carl on Jun 8, 2012 21:56:41 GMT -1
Entering the cave which was for the time being, her home, the old woman set her Rifle down against the cave wall, a wave of her hand igniting the campfire she had set up. Pulling off her hat, her long jet-black hair flowed onto her shoulders, resting as if it belonged there. The strangest thing of course, is that this old woman didn't really look old at all. In fact, she had hardly aged a day in 10,000 years.
She opened an old, leather book. Within it were a list of strokes, like a scoreboard. Clearly when she mentioned her scoreboard, she wasn't kidding. Another two strokes completed another line of 5. A loud noise disturbed her concentration, causing her to rush out of the cave with her rifle, only to be met with a plume of smoke from the town.
"Looks like I have some competition."
Donning her hat once more, she set off back toward the town, curious as to whom this might be.
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Post by jowan on Jun 9, 2012 18:27:42 GMT -1
A string of curses interspersed with magical incantations spilled from Jowan's lips as he wove spells in a way only he could. The fire was already struggling against the heavy rain and put up little resistance as the pyromancer forced it back to it's embers. As an afterthought, he also formed a weak shield around himself push the raindrops around him, saving himself from a soaking. He kept the hat however.
Much to his surprise, he was not immediately assaulted by lizard Daemons on all sides. A handful of darkened faces at windows or shadows in back alleys but nothing more. Unusual for creatures as bloodthirsty as these ones obviously were, and Jowan was in no doubt that the rest of the small town was infested. He was starting to feel that he had underestimated the extent of the problem but then, all he had to go on was the ramblings of a few space faring drunks mutter about the Innzmoth Cannibals. He could easily burn the daemons out if he had to but he hated resorting to destruction.
It didn't take him long to reach a conclusion. He had to find the sniper. Whoever it was clearly had skills if the reaction of the locals was anything to go by. He needed to know more before he risked another fight.
After a last glance at the wrecked tavern, he looked up at the cliffs shadowing the town. It was the best vantage point he could see and seemed the logical place to start. A fraction of a second later he materialised at the top, reaching out with his mind for any signs of life.
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Post by Carl on Jun 10, 2012 14:38:19 GMT -1
As he appeared on the clifftop, Jowan almost at once found himself staring at the barrel of a rifle. It was quickly lowered, however, when the woman holding it took a better look.
"Well, you're clearly not one of them, so that gives you a chance to explain who you are."
She lifted her rifle over her shoulder, glaring at the man from under the brim of her hat.
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Post by jowan on Jun 10, 2012 20:09:39 GMT -1
"What? Oh, that was easier than expected. Nice gun by the way." After a moment he realised that staring blankly through someone holding a gun probably wasn't the best idea so looked up, lifting the brim of his hat in an attempt to create the illusion of eye contact. "Sorry. Well naturally you must be very suspicious. Jowan Fireheart, proffesional adventurer, though I suppose i'm here as a freelance daemon hunter. I heard a few odd rumours at a nearby spaceport, decided to investigate. After you- i'm assuming it was you- shot the mob forming outside the tavern, the locals turned ugly. Well, uglier. Still, I suppose I should thank you. You saved me from having to hang around the unwashed morons for any longer."
As an afterthought, he summoned his staff to his hand and rested it over his shoulder int he same manner as the stranger held her gun.
"So then. I thought you might be able to inform me of how a budding town turned into a lizard nest. Any ideas?"
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Post by Carl on Jun 10, 2012 20:32:27 GMT -1
The woman gave a slight nod, a crack in her brow.
"Laryli Halaan. I guess you could say i'm kinda freelance too. Been tracking this bunch for a while. Heard a Dragos member encountered a group of these fellas on Earth."
She quickly lifted her rifle to pop the skull of a male whom had just run from one of the buildings, before continuing.
"Chamaelon Demons. Remnants of Baelze's army. Mortals can't see 'em very well. But if an immortal focuses... their true form is very clear."
She stopped again, lifting her rifle and killing a man taking a peek at the window.
"There's too many to handle alone, so i've been trying to thin out their numbers before finishing them off. But perhaps with you here, I can finally torch this town, with some help. If you're interested, of course."
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Post by jowan on Jun 11, 2012 9:59:34 GMT -1
"Chameleons you say? That's actually rather refreshing, normally I always seem to run in to sorcerers. Almost like they follow me around. Moron's think they're more powerful than me."
For some reason he was starting to feel a little intimidated by the number of bullets whizzing past his shoulder. It wasn't like the was engaged in some sort of kill competition with this woman, that would be ridiculous. Still. He gave a flick of his wrist in the general direction of the town and some poor sod came running out of a house, hoping the rain would extinguish the flames his hair had suddenly turned into. Best to be on the safe side.
"I usually try to avoid setting fire to entire towns, the higher-ups tend to be a little funny about that. Still, if it really is completely overrun with daemons...."
He grinned wickedly and summoned a fireball around his closed fist. "Did you have anything in mind?"
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Post by Carl on Jun 11, 2012 18:25:43 GMT -1
"You've obviously not been here long."
She shrugged, pointing to locations on the horizon. "They're all over the place. I'm performing a planetary extermination. Couple thousand at least. So, I hope you're up for a mass culling."
Laryli reloaded her pistol with a glowing bullet, pointing and aiming it at one of the buildings. The shot tore the building apart, with what looked like a small nuclear explosion.
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Post by jowan on Jun 14, 2012 18:25:58 GMT -1
for a moment a flicker of surprise crossed Jowan's face before his expression turned blank as he pondered the issue. A minute passed before he spoke again.
"If that's the case...this planet isn't heavily colonised, as far as I know there's only a handful of small outposts, meaning going from one to the next and wiping out any opposition would be feasible...if done quickly there shouldn't be much opposition...my main concern is accidently killing any of the colonists who survived. "
He returned his hat to his head, pulling the brim over his eyes and turned back to face Laryli.
"I have to say, I quite like stealing Dragos' job. Alright then, i'm in. I could set each town on fire if its absolutly necessary... of course, I need to see them to burn them. But that might have collateral damage. Your choice, we can things the subtle way, or the fun way."
Again he flashed an insane grin that served as a reminder that he had once been a madman.
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Post by Carl on Jun 14, 2012 19:50:09 GMT -1
Laryli shrugged, resting her weapon over her shoulder once more.
"Gonna be tricky. They're intermingling with the innocents, so we gotta be careful they don't use any as human shields. If I could, i'd have just blown all the towns to hell. But thanks to the civs, makes it a bit trickier."
She knelt on the ground, marking a rough map of the local area in the sand.
"Here's the towns I know have innocents. The others are pretty much all demons now. Here's what I propose. We get the civilians the hell out, then blow them all to hell."
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