-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-<* Whirlpool's Room of Doom *>-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-

A floating, bald head says, "WELCOME TO YOUR DOOM!"

-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-- Contents --=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-

 Karelin Tattooed Korite warrior. Tall, dark and scarred. 3m 1h

 Chandrakanta Dredlocked Veyshanti Averite with ink and blades. 18s 1h

 Xander Tall, handsome, goatee-wearing human mage. 1m 4m

 Darshan Mechagodzilla 12s 5h

 Kylie Short blonde waif, peppy and ditzy. 37s 1m

 Whirlpool 0s 3d

 Roland 6'3" charismatic man with auburn curls and hazel eyes 1m 10h

-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--= Exits -=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-

Out <O>  

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Out of nowhere, an arrow streaks out and slams right into Kylie. Having moved above the others, a large troll has landed in a crouch. A massive composite bow is in his hands and he lets out a low chortle. "Told you bastards I'd be back," he yells in barely audible, guteral common over the cacophany of pieces of debris slamming into each other and the sounds of battle below.

The orc howls a fel cry, banging on his drums in a steadily building, frantic rythymn that seems to have an effect on his allies. One that seems to be bolstering them, joining into the roar of battle as if it were one with it.

Karelin ducks away from the scorching flame, sheathing his warblade as he moves. As he comes up, he downs the contents of a little phial, shimmers briefling passing over him -- concentrating on the symbols of Kor on his shoulders.

The orcish warrior, so encouraged by his fellow, leaps from the rock he's on to another to join the troll. He hunkers down too, patting his trollish allie on the back once and exchanging heart-felt battle-greetings. "We shall strike them down and feast upon theri hearts tonight. Worthy opponents!"

Kylie is trying to adjust to the new predictament she and her companions are in, but no time to prepare or think is granted. Before she can even say anything an arrow smashes into her shoulder and she lets out a sharp high-pitched cry, grabbing onto it with a wince. More surprised than it is painful. "Ahh--!" She hastily breaks the arrow and then rips it out of her shoulder in a hard yank. Toughness was an acquired fortitude over her life as an adventurer. Moving away from her companions -- or floating, rather -- she quickly downs a potion that encases her in a green outline that hardens on her very skin.

Chandrakanta avoids the flamestrike, she's been fairly untouchable on this, aside from the gas in her face. She reaches for the vials in her belt. Drinking a potion in preparation for what will come.

Roland nods a bit in time to the Yrch drumming. Enemies they may be, but there's still an appreciation for rhythm as Roland takes up the timing to start up his own chant before slinking off to the side, edging away from the group lest some more firey wrath strike down.

The giantess decides to take a different route, circumventing the center rather than trying to go over it. She kicks off in a powerful leap, hurling herself at another rock which shudders with the force of her impact. She brings up her greataxe again, which leaves trails of ice and frost behind it when it moves.

 

 "I will avenge my fallen sisters," she roars.

Back--Singed and burning, Darshan hadn't reacted in time. He scrambles to claw something from his belt, mutters words from a scroll, and a dark-light aura flickers around him before settling into place. And then--he moves to place the terrain around him as cover from the bounding party.

There is a contest of wills.

 

 As the bard beats his drums, to Xander's minds eye a great, howling beast is approaching him, but it is suddenly -turned- and approaching the sorceress. While the others remain aware, she struggls and shrugs it off, shaking her head. "Two can play at that game," mutters Ms. Maze, Vernaka, the Shadow Elf Sorceress. She scowls behind her field.

Karelin sips another phial, and starts growing -- until he's larger now. Giant-sized, even. As he grows, he unslings his now larger-than-normal bow.

Another flying projectile nearly misses the petite gunslinger as she jerks her body to the side, out of the way. Kylie's hand on her bloodied shoulder squeezes tighter, blue-violet eyes jerking back toward the archer with brows narrowing low on her face. Ranged versus ranged. It was something that sparked the spellgunner duelest within her. And considering that this bowman just hurt her friends, it was a challenge she couldn't walk away from. She had a mean vengeance streak. Downing a little bottle of black inky fluid, her body shimmers out of visual existence. Heels click together. Her body vibrates with the sensation of haste, and she spirals in a soaring arc across the battlefield.

"Rimun, dear? 

 "Yes? 

 'Would you please hurry up and get to them so that the killing may begin? 

 "Looking forward to it." And that's when Rimun begins hopping his way, huge bulk carrying him fron one stone to the next as he carefulyl makes his way along the shifting field.

The orc, chuckling, leaps to another rock closer as well, narrowly mistiming his hump. Thankfully, there's enough rocks close together enough that progress is even able to be made.

"We can dance later, m'dear. Excuse me." Xander retorts sweetly, whipping a hand out towards Rimun, the Maugrimite Cleric, instead. The weaves of the magic around him fray, rip, tear, spells being undone. The cleric shrinks to his normal size, which will likely have him livid. Then again, everything has him livid. As for the warmage? The outlines of energy forming a shape not unlike wings on his back unfurl, and he ducks behind cover to protect himself from her wrath.

Roland keeps shuffling along the rock, keeping up his chant as he slides his bow from it's sling before briefly closing his eyes.

Chandrakanta pushes off, flying towards the Yrch. As she moves through the chaos, her hand moves up to touch the circet above her brow. The delicate circlet she's wearing fires off a bold, searing beam of light at the bard. He might just begin to miss beats as it burns thru him at such a great distance.

The giantess leaps again, but this time her powerful legs do not serve her so well. Rather, she goes sailing *over* the rock as it goes out from beneath her and she continues on her merry way, out of control, with a loud curse.

Darshan traces a pattern, a ward against fire in front of him. "Is she still giving you orders, Rimun?" he calls out, through the wind and vortex. "If you die again, will she pick you up, and carry you back home?" and the spell finishes, and of course--the sword's out. And he probably smells like bbq lizard.

Holding the bow seems to pain the troll. Really, it does. It's very touch seems to burn into his hands, but it doesn't bother him that much and the healing rate of trolls seems to take care of most of the harm he's suffering from it. He fires three shots at Roland. Really. Just three shots. And each one *sears* into the bard, striking him and leaving him badly, badly hurt. At least time there doesn't appear to be any poison, right 

 Right 

 One can hope. Then? He leaps a little closer, landing on another rock nearby with a chortle. "Look, the singer's lungs are getting pierced. I love my work."

The bard suddenly fades from view. The orc one, that is. He shifts his drumming to a different beat that seems to slowly fade out as he does 

 And then there's new drumming, but he can't be *seen*. Only heard.

"You bloody bastards," roars Rimun, irritated when his spells are dispelled. He loses several, yes, of the many that he'd cast upon himself. He leaps off the rock and lands on the same one the troll and the other orc are on. They did get a bit of a head start on him, after all.

"Bah," says the Shadow Elf sorceress from the safety of her globe. "You're not as clever as you think, wizard." And with that, great, black hand springs into existence from her outstretched palm and smacks right into Xander, knocking him off the edge of the rock. Just like that.

Sometimes, there are advantages to being big. This is one of them. As Karelin bends his bow, the arrows he looses are spear-sized. One splinters on Rimun's armour harmlessly, but the others thud into the metal painfully, points blowing through the metal, drawing blood. In this environment, the spatter is probably little floating red spheres, slowly drawn towards the gate, too.

Oooh. Pretty.

The double bladed axe wielding orc leaps again. This time, though, *he* misses his target and goes sailing past it with an uttered curse. He pushes off one as he passes by, directing himself to one lower than his original target and close to the portal. He's on solid ground again, but not where he wanted to be. He snarls with frustration.

Kylie continues flying across the field of magic and mayhem, swirling left and under to avoid boulders. She's closing in on the troll, but she needed to be at a better vantage. Positioning was key. From a pouch on her waist, the little gunslinger withdraws a ball of fluff that she literally throws at the trolls face as she careens overhead, unseen. From that tuft emerges a disgusting mass of coarse hair, dark tawny hide, and large tusks. "SQUEEEEEE! SNORT!" Miss Piggy bellows loudly as it makes a jumbled swing that narrowly misses the troll. But, look, boars materializing in front of one's face! Maybe it would at least serve as (visual) distraction.

Xander is shoved. Rudely. By a gigantic, disembodied hand. The phantasmal wings behind him flare out as the mage twists his body in nigh-catlike manner, a single downbeat removing him from the crash-course with the rock he'd been flying at. He glares daggers Vernaka's way, inside her cozy little bubble, but chooses another target - the troll archer. A hand extends, and in a fountain of silvery energy the troll vanishes, as if he never were. "He'll be back." says Xander. "Until then..." A meaningful glance at the giant black hand. And the sorceress.

Roland winces as the battle rages, though really...very little is registering so far except for PAIN. He closes his eyes as he starts to chant once more, drawing from the Dancer's Gift to sweep him away from sight before squatting down and taking one giant, invisible leap for yet another floating rock...

"Bastard.." Chandra mutters as the orc disappears. She changes course, using the dagger in her hand. She flies at Rimun. The small blade is wickedly accurate and does far more damage then it should. The Veyshanti herself hisses from pain as the strikes. Oddly despite not being hit, a trickle of blood trails down from her nose.

The giantess is spinning out of control and angrily snarling in the language of her people. Giants have some very colorful swear words, it'd appear. She howls in anger and then drops onto a rock, finally pushing herself off of one to get her feet back underneath her and lose her momentum. She reaches into her backpack and pulls... *something* out. It's hard to see what with her under numerous rocks and this far away.

The bard can be heard banging his drums.

 

 Then no more, for a moment.

Darshan breaks off the yell towards Rimun--something about Maugrim dancing with a dainty mole-rat, and gives another. He pulls something from his pocket--a pair of feathers that enlarge, grow, spin--and catch the wind, ships' anchors that begin to spin towards the sorceress. He stares after them just a moment, then starts to run towards Xander.

A great storm of ice errupts in the sky over Roland's position, shards and blocks of ice *raining* down on the poor bastard. It would appear to hurt quite a bit 

 "Fine, then," says the Wizardess. "You take one of mine out of play, I take one of your's out." She seems offended, as well, adding, "Copycat."

Rimun breaks out his greataxe, seeming fine with swinging away at Chandrakanta. The veyshanti is, however, too quick for him just yet and he snarls at her, "Fine then. We'll do this the far more painful way." Of course, so far, she hasn't actually been hit.

Well, then 

 The hand has just encircled Xander and is now holding him tight. Aren't wizardly combats fun?

Karelin slings his bow across his back, and takes one last swig of from a little phial. He doesn't move much, but his feet might not quite be touching the rock.

Arngrim has connected.

Xander grunts. Gods damned hand. A word of the arcane, and the mage vanishes, reappearing a mere step or two from the lizardman, using the rock's shape as cover from Vernaka, and possibly, the others as well. A hand whips at the hand, which is already moving after him for a second attack no doubt, eldritch fire showering it. It does not do away with it, but it does do some damage. "Could use some help." he asides to Darshan.

"Watch yourself, Veyshanti. The other orc is right behind you." Xander asides. Because it's a useful bit of information.

The giantess sails up a solid thirty feet, coming up and around towards where Darshan and Xander are. She'll be there next round. That could be a problem for them, couldn't it 

 At any rate, she's on her way and she looks quite happy to be doing so.

As Chandra dodges the blows of Rimun axe, she pulls her rapier. The glancing the first blow of his armor, the second and third strike of her rapier are accurate. Their ice infused wound looking grave. As she pulls the rapier back her dagger hand moves and does its work. Another trail of blood runs down the Veyshanti's face as she fights against Rimun despite her not having been struck.

Roland may be unseen, but he is definitely not unheard. He turns his attention to Vaneska, "Seriously!?!? Ugh..." he knocks a bit of ice free of his shoulder while dragging out a scroll and quickly reading it before taking yet another leap...He probably should have waited until all the ice had cleared as his feet slip and send him tumbling through the air.

Kylie poisitions herself at the right angle behind the troll, ready to unleash her volley of bullets -- when he suddenly disappears! Did he go invisible? What happened? No time to think about that now, what with Rimun bearing down on her friends. Her dual pistols click audibly as they're loaded, and she appears in mid-air, poised and aiming right off to the cleric's right. "Hey, healer!" She yells to him, right before loud blasts of bullets begin to pelt him all over his body. Shots to the chest, stomach, and even one that mangles his upper arm. Ice crackles as it spikes outward from the bulletholes, adding ice-fire to the wounds.

Twin maces whistle into Chandrakanta's back, using it as a drum in its own way. Smash! Crack! That can't have felt good and she can hear the orc leering behind her, saying, "Time for you to die, pretty thing. I will sing songs of this victory over you."

A thin, green beam errupts from the sorceress' fingertips behind the globe she's in. It streaks out between the rocks and zaps Roland. Really. It does. Just like that. ZAP. 

 It goes right through him, leaving a massive, gaping hole in him that's sure to hurt a lot.

Actually... there's not a whole lot of Roland left. The sorceress smugly says, "There. One down, only a bunch more to go. But this is *perfect*." Smug bitch, isn't she 

 In the meantime, Rimun is so badly hurt he needs to take leave of the fight, initially, staggering back and healing himself through a prayer to Maugrim.

Roland has disconnected.

Karelin streaks like a comet into battle, baleful and angry, and leading the way with his glowing warblade. Arriving with "KOR!" hurled like a spear at Rimun, his sword rips into the Maugrimite through the joint between arm and breastplate, plunging through into the soft flesh (and bone) beneath. It blows out the back of the breastplate, just scraping past the spine. Its a terrible blow, but it doesn't kill Rimun outright, and leaves him alive and gasping, impaled and bleeding from the arm and neck holes of his armour.

The orc howls with rage. Just -howls- 

 He sails through the air, without anything remotely close to the greatest of ease, and lands next to Karelin, finally. He brings it down to bear on him, smashing it directly into the back of his armor and carving through the adamant and nearly into the Korite's spine. "Witness *this*," he roars, laughing madly.

Kylie's teeth grit when the cleric pulls back to heal himself, the wounds re-sealing. She spins her twin pistols around in her palms, keeping her vigilant spot in mid-air. Tsch-shhhhht! Bullets reload automatically from her mechanized wristbands, and she brings both of her guns out in front of her. Click-click, cocked. "Heal this!" Pupils dialate to pinpoints. "Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhy!" BLAM BLAM KABLAM BLAM BLAM! Bullets rain from the little girl's guns mercilessly, each cutting through the air with frost trails left behind, and each squarely slamming into Rimun's face over and over and over again. It is a brutal follow up after Karelin's decimating strike, leaving barely a recognizable corpse once the body hangs, lifeless.

Whirlpool has changed your initiative total to '25'.

Darshan sends a quick grin Xander's way, and readies his stance, readies, and--holds, until the hand goes sweeping in and down. He meets it with the sword, twice, and it crackles, dissipating into a cloud of static.

"Thank you, Svarshan." Xander, who is FREE as the hand is chopped into tiny pieces, says, chanting. Energy gathers around him, a swirl of potent mana, and... nothing happens. "We've lost the bard." he says grimly, glancing towards the rock with a thin film of dust on it. Roland. Damn. The warmage grits his teeth.

Spla 

 It's like having a bug on your windshield. A really angry bug. That's a giant. WIth a giant axe. She is... not happy. The look she gives Xander is absolutely murderous. 

 She begins feeling her way along the edge. Carefully.

Chandrakanta really didn't like that, she turns and steps towards the orc that leapt around her to get to Karelin. Her blades move and strike his side. Rapier and then the vicious dagger. Each hit of it the dagger doing damage to Chandra as well. Her nose bleed getting worse as she begins to eviscerate the orc.

"Oh, thank the *gods*. That idiot is *finally* dead. Of course, some enterprising cleric of Maugrim will see to it that he gets ressurected, no doubt." A sigh from Veranak in her globe as she draws together more magical energy, a pulse of it directed towards the others. And then she notices something coming towards her. Anchors. There's a soft, "You've got to be kidding me." And the she's scrambling OUT OF THE WAY. Out of her globe. "That is the most absurd thing I've seen today, aside from a nethercite bomb opening a tear into a plane of elemental earth. Really, I ought to be going, but in case you're thinking about following me.." She's at least a little more exposed no.

Karelin turns on the axe-swinging orc, very unhappy at the blasphemy. A battle is not the time to go maligning Kor, y'hear? He crushes his sword across its chest, and returns the strike to the underside of its forearms, laying them open, before descending again to crush into the collarbone -hard-. A lot of blood, everywhere.

Roland has connected.

Darshan glances up, and back again. He tosses a blade Xander's way, and follows with another, swapping--and calling on Daeus' blessing. The blade shines, glowing brilliant-white--and digs in once into the hide of the she-beast. Stops.

Kylie chances a glance over her shoulder to the sound of Xander's voice, her face visibly crumpling from blood-smattered warrior to crushed little girl. "No...! Roland!" She utters at the news, the faintest of signs that she may very well be disabled in combat from the blow. One of their own was dead. It hit home how real this was, how dangerous it was, and brought the morality sinking into what they were fighting for. The memories of friends she's lost over the years, the close calls. The girl looks on the verge of shedding tears, looking as if she wants to run and hide. But in a split-second, something clicks inside of her and those wet eyes turn into narrow slits. "You coward! Hiding because you can't fight in the open!" She yells in vehemence (at the sorceress presumably) before bringing her guns back around, stalwart again. "Eehhhhhyyy!" Gunblasts sing through the air, a little off on their precision, as only few manage to hit the orc. Sparking with frosty ice.

Seeing the Orc attack Karelin and rip thru the armor, Chandra reacts. The rapier slipping from her hand, she reaches for a wand. Cursing the gods, "Kor can not have him yet.." as the wand touches him and begins to knit the wounds.

Xander takes the sword, blinking at it, and just... holding it, really. This is what Xander would have looked like had his player taken a more twinky option, kids. The mage looks over towards the sorceress. Finally, out of the globe! He throws a hand out, and suddenly, a cloud hisses into existance where she is, a thick, thick thing with a beautiful, nauseating green color. The sorceress seems to be alright, from the lack of choking within the cloud, but hey. Worth a shot, right? The mage's hand whips out the other way as his ethereal wings take him to the empty air. The movement causes one of the fiery lances to wildly miss, but the other two strike solidly and scorch the unfortunate giant. Oooh, she looks so pissed.

"Finally, I'm in the fight," says the Giantess with a loud laugh. She glances towards the many Xanders and says, "You. I'll get to you." The fire doesn't seem to bother her. Oh, it pains her. But it doesn't -bother- her. She swings her axe into her large, dranei target. "The blood of giants is pure in my veins. I am greater than you will ever be, pretender," she tells him.

And then she hits. Twice. Hard.

"Blah blah blah.. Greater then me. Blah blah blah. No you're not. Blah blah." rumbles Arngrim as he rebounds from the giantess after his original attack occurs and he skids backwards violently, vbarely deflecting one of her attacks only to have the other slam into him and then another one follow up against his form, staggering him considerably. "Zoinks and zargas!" he rumbles, for some strange reason, "That hurt!" He straightens up and spins his great maul around in a massive hand deftly, "You wanna go out?"

So 

 Another pulse of magical energy towards XAnder. This time, it appears to have no effect. The sorceress coughs. "Gods, that's rank. Really, I am going to have to take a *bath* when I go home. You bastard." She sounds annoyed about that. Really.

The orc, of course, continues striking at Chandrakanta, leaving Karelin to the other. He seems to think this is all a great time. "You're going to fall, pretty thing, and we'll add your skull to our collections. We have many from Sendor. Perhaps someone you know is there."

Down. Across. The blade snicker-snacks across the giantess' form, cutting deep with Daeus' guidance. It leaves a trail of blood behind, splashing onto armor, onto rock--onto the teeth of the sith'makar, as he dives in and removes a chunk of hide. The old fashioned way. So the requisite cursing and verbal parrying sort of sounds like, "Foo. Fuff-fuff-foo!" And etc. Downright terrifying.

Kylie blinks hard to rid the wetness from her eyes, jerking her twin pistols to reload them with a hiss of steam once more. Another round of unloading bullets comes from the gunslinger, face twisted into something of stoic autopilot. The only trace emotions there on her blood-spckled face revolve around resolve and disdain. Crrrkkklk-ckrkl! Holes appear on the orc's body, lining from his abdomen to his throat, and from those circles sprout ice crystals that rips through the bard from the inside out with its spikes. Another one down. That's all that was on her mind. Keep shooting.

Chandrakanta winces from the pain, she begins to curse at the orc in his own ugly gutteral tongue. Flinging insults as easily in Orcish as she does in common. The wand touches Karelin again, infusing him with more healing energies.

Xander glances, again, the way of the Globe of Invulnerability and the puke-green fumes he gifted the sorceress with. A spell similar to her own earlier is woven, a dragon's claw of silvery force grasping tightly the invisible orcish bard, which should make him easy to find for the pair of meleefolk around him, if not exactly easy to HIT. "I know, I know, I'm a copycat." he drones as he hides from her - yes, he's hiding from girls - again. Then adds, pleasantly: "But imitation is the highest form of flattery, is it not?"

Karelin has disconnected.

Whack! Whack! Whack 

 Three blades are swung and two of them hit Arngrim. One hits Darshan. She looked confident that Arngrim was going to go down with the second blow and is somewhat dissapointed when he's still standing. "Well, damn," she grunts after she smashes her axe into Darshan. "Well, you'll be going down."

 

 And that's when something rips off her arms. Going towards Xander. 

 The *real* Xander, as if it somehow has a mind of its own. Metal bands.

Karelin has connected.

"I love you and I just met you." says Arngrim. And he just might be serious! But he probably isn't. That is unless 'I love you' means several whirling great maul strikes that explode against the giantess with the power of a miniature earthquake. Then again, maybe that is 'I love you' in giantese. He bears forward and suddenly grimaces, looking more then a little groggy as he bears another brunt from her attacks and is forced down nearly to his knees before coming back up to his full height, still standing.

Grasped by the hand, the bard just shrugs his shoulders and.. slides right out of it. Freedom of movement sure is a bitch. Then? He pounds Chandrakanta. Hard. Twice. It's a bunch of unpleasent, sickening crunches that come from the maces he's wailing on her with. Still invisible, incidentally.

A scroll is pulled out by the coughing wizardess. And she casts. Oh she casts. And a blast of *pure* freezing ice *slams* into Kylie. She's out of the sphere, yes, and she's gagging. "I really hate you," she informs Xander after the scroll burns up, "and this fanatical Eddy character."

Karelin turns from the corpse of the axe-wielding orc, bloodied and bruised. Lashing out at the air, he cuts into the space near Chandra -- while most of the cuts either deflect off of something unseen or just catch air, one blow lands with a meaty THWACK, and blood starts to spread in the gravityless environment.

Blood rains down, ties in with the vortex and splats on Darshan's face, on his armor, some from him, but a greater amount from the warrior nearby. And that, and then--he steps over, and shoves a hand that way through the rain, the movement glowing fiercely, and it begins to seal up the wounds on Arngrim's side, his skin. Ribs patch themselves together, sinew. "...I think she turned you down," solemn, gently. "But do you think you can push her off this rock we're on?"

Kylie is flicking her wrists to reload her pistols again when all of a sudden there's something that hits her like a carriage speeding down the road. Her senses fuzz out, ears ring, and she can feel blood pouring from her nose and mouth as she coughs the air from her lungs. There isn't even time for cries of pain for the little gunslinger, the frosty ice blast searing off patches of skin in chillburn. And distorting her perception. All she knows is that she's in bad shape, and nearly crippled while out in the open. She forces herself to fly to the safety of a boulder nearby, her trajectory erratic. "Eeuugh!" She grunts in pure pain as she forces her arm up to shoot at the giantess in effort to aid her friends, always pushing it to her limits and beyond for the sake of friendship. Then she whimpers.

Xander struggles as the metal bands whip and turn and wrap around his body. His struggles bear fruit, as he whips a single hand out of them, quickly incanting a spell. The mage vanishes, and it's a question whether anyone will even see him reappear with all the images and confusion. One thing is certain, the bands are no longer there. They've shrunk considerably, and hold tightly in their confines a tiny snake. Xander grabs said tiny snake and conceals it immediatelly, lest it become target of attacks in its unfortunate state.

Hey, at least that's a valuable magical object he's nicking, there?

In the meantime, the dragonclaw of arcane force swipes, charging towards the invisible sorceress. The impact results in a flash of bright light and the hand is thrown back, spinning unceremoniously through the air. That... did not work.

Weak doesn't stop Chandra, she whips around with her blades and strikes at the bloody air. Dagger, blade. They hit the orc that is causing her so much pain. She continues to curse at him in that gutteral tongue, probably telling him how pretty he will be on display at the battlehall.

Two more chunks are taken out of Darshan's armor and form. The axe wails on him three times. She gives Arngrim this look that just screams 'I am going to kill you and eat you slowly', but the healer is of course a priority. Healer aggro is what Darshan has.

A piercing *roar* erupts over by Chandra and Karelin, one that makes both their ears bleed and threatens to deafen them. The bard has leapt back away from them, then, and off the end of the rock. He's falling down towards another one now.

Sigh.

 

 "Do I have to do everything myself?" A lighting blast comes from the area with the globe, *smashing* directly into Karelin's back and passing to Chandrakanta. Both of them are able to turn and groundthemselves, but it clearly hurt. As for the bard, like every good bard, he's running away after that shout. He's so gone.

Healer aggro. Darshan totally has it. Except the healing--doesn't do much. The wand sputters, emitting a few sparks. But, it does its job--more of Arngrim's bruises seal, heal away. More draw closed. Just, not enough.

Kylie doesn't dare move from her hideaway, not while she's nursing her wounds and trying to get the motion back in her joints and muscles. That ice freeze on her has done serious damage. Moving her elbows and shoulders around, getting more movement in them, she manages to raise both of her reloaded gunarms to point at the giantess brutally bashing her friends. BLAM BLAM! Bullets fly their course, but not with as much deadeye shooting as she normally could do. "Eyah..." She yelps softly, wincing.

Xander whips a long, elegant rod - not that, goddamn perverts - from his belt, the runes upon it glowing with power. It is pointed at the giantess, a spell channeled through it. Angry, ANGRY fire blasts into her. So much burning. SO MUCH burning. One of those rays impacts straight into her chest with deadly precision, boring a painful, scorched hole. And she falls. Oh, how she falls. Xander doesn't seem pleased, however. He is running WAY out of steam.

Whirlpool has cleared initiatives.

Karelin looks up, and streaks through the air, down the line of the lightning bolt. Trailing blood, smoke from the bolt, and a wild yell, he arrives at the other rock with a scything cleave of his sword.

The blow stops *dead* half way through the swing, crashing into an invisible shield of energy that pulses with the impact, spiders of power bleeding away from the strike.

"My. Don't you look mad," says the Shadow Elf. She shakes her head, invisibly, and then utters a quick spell and is *gone*. She's getting the fuck out of here, just like that.

 

 Of course, there's still a portal that requires dealing with. And now that your own sounds of combat are dying down, you can hear more coming from *within* the mouth of the portal and vortex.

Incidentally, Gettys itself looks to have suffered severe damage during the fight and there's definitely ground tremors going on. You can already see, from this high position, damage to the roads, to the passes into Sendor. This was Kinnevack's plan, in part -- destroying the terrain to delay your advance. The longer that engine continues toe xpand the portal and cause damage, the worse it's going to be...

Karelin lets out an angry, angry roar at the sorceress' voice, then turn back to look down. A bomb. Just what they need. Mega-Karelin kicks off, and starts approaching the machine. Carefully. Mostly, he dodges rock.

Chandrakanta wipes the blood off her face. She gathers the things she dropped in the fight and looks around. She tries to gauge what to do in the chaos.

Kylie senses that the battle's over with how the others are reacting. "Did she get away? Is she tricking us?" She asks unsteadily, before wincing again at the pain of just the air on her skin. "Eugh..." The little gunner shakily wipes the blood from her nose and mouth, trying to clean the metallic smell and taste from her face. It was unsettling for her, mostly being her own.

Karelin hangs in the air, considering the machine. He calls out: "We can destroy this. But it -will- explode. Be aware!"

Arngrim falls back as the giantess falls down from the array of spellfire. He blinks a few times in surprise and then leans over the ledge of the platform he's on to yell after the giantess, "YOU SHOULD HAVE SAID YES!"

As you approach the machine, it appears to be some sort of engine rotating around a great globe of smelted together nethercite crystasls, you can also see inside the portal. You can see inside of it.

 

 Verin is there.

 

 He appears to be battling, single handedly, a rather huge host of earth elemetnals trying to climb their way through. He leaps back out of it when he spots all of you approaching, howling, "Do something! Fast! I tried to hold them off as long as I could." He's hurt. So bad. But alive.

 

 You can hear a whimpering sound coming from near the portal as well as you examine the nethercite engine and 'bomb'. Because, even as it forcibly expands the portal, the nethercite *will* cause a massive expulsion of magical energy. It's bad.  

Karelin has reconnected.

Karelin has partially disconnected.

Xander lands beside the bomb, surveying it. He's clueless, and the expression on his face is one of conflict. He could encapsulate the bomb. He could stop it from destroying everything, and he could kill the Weird. But... he made a promise. A promise, some time ago. A promise that must be kept, a dept that must be repaid. His teeth grit, and he goes through the incantation, touching one hand to his chest as he closes his eyes.

He draws, draws a part of himself to fuel the magic, and it glows a gentle silver-white as he touches it to the Weird. "You can see my mind, and my future, and I hope I've just changed your own." he whispers. "Help us."

The glow becomes a necklace, a beautiful trinket of sapphire, and he puts it around the earth-woman's neck.

Karelin hangs in the air, battered and burned. Eyes wide, he smiles at the act, then closes his eyes and echoes: "Help us." He's ready to tap into the last vestiges of speed-spell in his boots to streak away from the gates, though.

The wand in Chandra's hand crumbles as she uses the last of it. Seeing where Roland once stood, his equipment on the stone and the rapier she lent him for protections, she exhausts a sigh. She flies down to where it all is, peeling off the hair scarf she tries to gather up the ashes and pile them in the scarf. The blood running down her face from the strange wound she took mix with tears that fall down her face. She's may be hardened to war, but not to the death of friends.

Kylie floats cautiously closer to the earth-woman scene unfolding. Battered and bruised as she is, the girl still manages a hopeful look in her eyes. One that exudes how much that she wants a better tomorrow, something that this whole war has been about, and that people -- and now friends -- have died for. Grimacing just at the corners of her expression from the aches in her body and upon her skin.

The Weird, a feminine form made of swirling debris and dust steps through the portal as he trinket is taken by her, coming into form to receive it from Xander. And with that, she is free. She strains, yes, and the portal is *weakened*. not entirely closed, as its held open by the nethercite, but she clambers inside of it, trembling. "I will do what I can from the other end. You must close remove the nethercite here." And with that, well.. 

 That leaves one option, but with the reduced energies due to the weird's efforts, you'll be able to destroy it with only a *minimally* horrifying expulsion of energy, sending you all kareening (and yes, feather falling) in your flight to get away from it as all the debris and other things goes *crashing* back to the earth. The earthquakes below too will subside, in time, though aftershocks will continue for many days. 

 The battle for Gettys is over, but the aftermath is just beginning and now the march on Sendor truly begins.