-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-<* Myrrish Camp *>-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-

    Soldiers. Ferriers. More soldiers. Cooks. Cavalrymen (and cavalrywomen). Healers. Officers. All these and more bustle through the neatly-pitched sea of tents that make up the Myrrish camp, no matter the time of day or night. At night, firelight flickers off the tents and lengthens peoples' shadows.

An herbal scent comes from a large group of tents off to the side, nearest the front lines--these tents an an appropriated farmhouse make up the field hospital, where the wounded are brought. A neat graveyard stands behind the field hospital--a few men are almost always on duty digging new graves.

Nearby, an entire (albeit quite small) town has been appropriated for officer's quarters and Myrrish war business--the smithy in particular is certainly making money. The only tavern in the tiny town, the Blushing Rosalia, is something of a gathering place for officers and adventurers.

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

 Xander          Tall, handsome, goatee-wearing human mage.            21s  1h

 Darshan         Mechagodzilla                                         0s   1h

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

Blushing Rosalia <BR>     The Front Lines <TFL>    

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It's Variday, Firetide 22 19:16:52 1006. The full moon is up. The tide is low and ebbing.

Towering white clouds drift slowly through the blue sky. It's hazy and hot, and the glare of the sun seems to drain the color from the landscape.

A lizard drapes over sun-warmed stone, and this one does--his tail hangs flat against its rough wall, with grave-diggers huffing past, a wooden casket on their shoulders. He looks at them with morbid interest before going back to running claws through his scales. Black scales with a now metal sheen and vibrant whirr of mana underneath the hot and muggy sunshine. A bucket, dinged and dirty, sits on the ground beneath him.

Xander seems to be directing the efforts of several magi further off, if the hand motions are any indication. There's at least half a dozen of them, and as they are given assignments, they shuffle off in a direction of their own. Soon enough, the warmage is left alone, taking his leave himself, only to come across a lizard. With the several feet long rod in his hand, he prods Darshan in the side - not too harshly, just enough for the feel of it to pass beneath the tough scale. "Feeling a bit lazy, are we?" he says, his voice carrying hints of a friendly tease.

Darshan looks over in aggravation, and even when he sees who it is, the features settle into an upset grimace. "I work for fools," grumped. Ah. He's in that sort of mood. "Bloody fools, Xander! Fools who don't listen when I say leave the field, fools who--who would rather peel POTATOES than get anything done! Fools that promote that--" he bites it off harshly, and drops to the ground, staring out towards the graveyard with a lash of tail. "And...apparently, so do you. So do these FOOLS peel potatoes while they approach a dragon? Do they dine, and ask him in for tea?"

"Depends on the dragon." Xander says, calmly, with just the hint of a grin, but it dissipates quickly. He goes around, taking a seat nearby the paladin, leaning lightly on the nondescript rod. "Tell me what happened. What has you so upset?" he asks, solemn now.

Ah. Darshan gestures with the claws, saying nothing for a moment, but scowling grumpily at the gravestones. "I shouldn't be here," he says, at length. "But they say the war...it trumps sickness. It trumps..." the tail lashes, and the frill folds downward, flushed as he looks back over his shoulder at the mage. "I shouldn't be here. What if mrm, she's poisoned again? Or if Ganesa gets it into her head..."

"They will be well, sith-makar." Xander reassures, the epitome of calm in contrast to the poor lizardman's restlessness. He taps his fingers against the rod, idly. "If problems should arise, we shall handle them. What good does worrying needlessly do?"

"And the Garmites target children. What will the rest of them do?" He's in a mood, now, arms held wide in angry gesture. He looks down to glare at the bucket, the water before reaching down and grasping hold. "Of course one worries, Xander. Of course...one does. And mrm, of course there's no sense in it, but has that ever stopped anyone?" Grrr.

"That is exactly why you are here." Xander says, following the paladin's movements with his gaze. "Why all of us are. We bring the battle to the enemy, do away with threats before they spin out of control. With every blow you strike against Kinnevack and hers, you protect your friends, your family. You are aware what will happen if Bludgun should happen to win this war, are you not?"

The tail stills, and slows, and Darshan stares into nothing. "I suppose," he says, voice distant. And the tail lashes again, angry--angry at nothing, angry at everything, and there's a significant pause. An exhalation of breath. A forced relaxation. A closing of eyes. A bowing of head in thought, or reflection. "Nrnng...I suppose," he sighs, admitting it. "...I saw the child last night. She is...the Elunites are taking her in."

Xander nods, once. That is more or less all. There truly isn't much to say to that, is there? He stands up, a slow, slow motion, gesturing for Darshan to fall into step alongside him, if he so wishes.

Darshan looks towards the graveyard again, a longer look. The sith's overall appearance is morose, and the shoulders slump, faintly, metal and scale whispering against one another to form a slope. The frill flickers backwards, a bruised, angry color and the form shows a tiredness unakin to working in a field. He reaches down, and grasps hold of the bucket--which sloshes, laying a lace of water at his feet.

Whirlpool has arrived.

Darshan looks towards the graveyard again, a longer look. The sith's overall appearance is morose, and the shoulders slump, faintly, metal and scale whispering against one another to form a slope. The frill flickers backwards, a bruised, angry color and the form shows a tiredness unakin to working in a field. He reaches down, and grasps hold of the bucket--which sloshes, laying a lace of water at his feet. Xander stands nearby, ready apparently, for the two of them to take a walk. Just previously, there had been shouting.

Karelin has arrived.

"Come. The air here is stagnant. Getting somewhere where it's fresher will probably help you put your mind at a slight bit more ease." Xander says, and then begins walking, keeping the pace slow for the poor tired 'makar.

He grips the bucket in claws, and, swinging it behind, begins walking with the mage. He doesn't look as though the weight of the world's on him--just a set of irritations, and the frill stays flushed where it is, with him frowning at the ground ahead. "...how are the students?" Darshan asks after a time.

"Which ones are you reffering to?" Xander asks, glancing over his shoulder Darshan's way. A glance at the bucket, a raised brow, but he doesn't seem curious enough to ask why the paladin is lugging the thing around.

Announcement: Whirlpool shouts, "My open scene will be beginning in ten minutes. :)"

Announcement: Whirlpool shouts, "All are welcome to attend!"

Mrmmm...Darshan makes a noise that signals thought of some sort, and he looks back the way they'd came, expression quieter, now. "I wasn't aware you had more than one set," he admits. An almost-smile comes with it, and he picks up the pace enough to look ahead. "The one in the cape looks familiar. He...he was involved in something with the Temple Square, wasn't he?"

Aleron has arrived.

<Meet> Aleron joins Whirlpool.

Laoise has arrived.

<Meet> Laoise joins Whirlpool.

Karelin arrives back in camp, knees and elbows of his black war-armour smeared in drying mud. Mud. It gets everywhere.

Valeska has arrived.

Laoise can be spied somewhere in the back, near the vicinity of the field hospital; it would seem the slight(even for a halfling) lass has been more or less recruited into service helping out with the less gravely wounded; for some reason, the soldiers seem to like her, despite her cheerfully savage treatment of any straying hands. Or looks. Or comments.

"He's always been a bit of a troublemaker, but never one to harm." Xander replies to Darshan, whom he seems to be walking alongside through the camp. "The Coyote's clergy appreciated it, however, or so I heard."

Aleron read that as Valeska eating a four-year-old.

Darshan laughs. He has to. "It mrm, was close to the Opening. I remember." He closes his eyes for a moment. "It was a group of dwarves who talked him into it. We had to write up paperwork for them, too. It took most of the evening," and the mouth twists gently with the old memory. He slows when he sees the halfling, and offers a half-bow. Not a gesture that suits his form, or race, but practiced nonetheless.

Valeska was entering the camp, walking along in her full gear. Yes, she was going to perform field tests! With The Device! in her hands, she was gently narrating to herself and a recorder no doubt upon her person. "...having arrived once again at a forward field camp, I intend to seize a test subject from the ranks of the enemy to demonstrate the efficacy of the entropic disruption concept."

Aleron can be seen sitting on a crate at the edge of camp. Another one is set in front of him, used as a makeshift desk as he has his briefcase set upon it, open. He seems to be writing at a piece of paper while munching idly at some cuts of cold beef and sipping from a flask. Officers seem to stay away from him... *far* away...

A glance where Darshan is looking from Xander, and a polite nod to match the lizardman's greeting. "You were involved?" he asks the paladin, a brow arching. "I heard about it by proxy only." There's a pause before he adds: "Thankfully."

Valeska tugs at her shirt collar, which is worn high and snug to her neck today. Hrm. She sniffs the air slightly. Was something burning? Her eyes go wide as she realizes that smoke was pouring out of the device! She swats at it, trying to extinguish that fire. All while at her beltline, her Arcane Resonance Auspex begins chittering with activity, printing out tickertape of something anomolous. With the fire contained, she reaches down to read the printout...

Here there's a pause, and the pause could mean most anything--this one's accompanied with a wry smile, though. The sith'makar looks towards Laoise, then, "You've met?" he asks them both, and steps aside as the artificer tumbles past. As the smoke begins to roil. ...his eyes widen. Some part of his brain is likely measuring the distance, the closeness of what must surely be an impending explosion...

Karelin wipes his brow, then pats idly at the dried mud on his armour. He mutters under his breath, then starts towards other familiar faces. He lfts his hand towards Valeska and her... smoke... then nods towards Darshan and Xander. "Darshan. Blackrose." Laoise he greets with a polite nod.

"Ow!" The sound is heard directly after a sharp rap that sounds like wood over knuckles, and directly followed by a small rumble of laughter(and some groans) from the wounded grunts camped outside the field hospital. Laoise can be seen stalking away from the little group, wooden ladle clutched in a small hand, directly away from an abashed footsoldier wryly shaking his hand.

    Pause. Bright smile. "Oh, hello, mister Darshan. I'm not sure if we have, honestly - the trip here is all a blur, I'm afraid."

"Not yet, no." Xander replies, but before he can say anything, he notices Valeska. The smoke. The beeping. Maybe it's instinct honed over a multitude of years of working with (or against?) Artificers that has him immediatelly tense and on guard. Because, you know. Things around them blow up. Nine times outta ten. "Something's wrong." he says, quietly. Eyes narrow. He takes a discreet glance around.

Darshan nods to Karelin--the claws reach out and fumble at Xander's sleeve, pulling him back and around as the sith'makar slowly turns. No further greeting--the look's on The Device and its Smoking Contents, an Immanent Explosion. "Miss Laoise...I...please step back. Even the artificer looks concerned." And that, perhaps, is a measure of danger. The artificer looks concerned. ...does madness ever take note of danger?

Valeska shoves the slightly less smoking device into one of her pockets to smother it for a bit, while she's trying to interperet what her instrument is saying. Sliding tickertape printout across her field of view, she reads quickly. "My, some substantial magical activity is taking place nearby." she adds, before noticing how everyone is backing away from her. "Oh! Everyone, don't worry. The Entropic Necro-Disruptor has no combustable components beyond it's small power source! There is nothing to fear!"

Karelin's head comes up and around. "Where? Is it directional?" He's suddenly on point.

"Oh dear." Obediently, the curiously well-mannered halfling woman takes a step back - placing Darshan between herself and the growing plume of smoke, as it happens - and reaches out to take a grip at a protruding bit of armour hanging off the mecha-sith'makar, much in the manner of a child taking refuge behind a parent, peeking out from behind their protective bulk. Aww. Don't you just want to protect the adorable little chi-- wait, she's not a child.

"..." Darshan lets go the mage's sleeve eventually, and continues the introductions, "Laoise, this is Professor Xander Blackrose, and mrm, Karelin. He is very good at hitting things," wry, and a gentle amusement touches it, or the situation as he continues watching the artifice-device. Darshan's eyes flick over towards the artificer's as the metal bulk shifts to shield the halfling, too. "Evening, Valeska." And silence, for a moment. "One..." and he's at a loss for words.

Laoise looks ill at ease. Really, who wouldn't, with an artificer about? She manages, somehow, to overcome it, though, peeking out from behind Darshan's... tail, as it happens... and giving a cheery little wave and a smile that's entirely too bright for a world that's not yet seen Colgate toothpaste. "Um. Hello! Nice to meet you all."

Valeska smiles. "Oh, evening Mister Darshan. Are you here to help me capture a zombie?" she asks, her head turning a bit more. She politely smiles to Laoise, lifting her instrument to scan in her direction a bit. Then in another. "Hmm. The reading is difficult to ascertain as to it's direction. It's of substantial magnitude however."

"Something has disrupted the device from the outside." Xander tells Darshan, quiet. He closes his eyes, briefly, as if trying to catch hints of whatever could be causing it. Of course, Valeska's already on the job! So to speak.

Carmina has arrived.

<Meet> Carmina joins Whirlpool.

Karelin nods to Laoise, then eyes Darshan. "Something like that." He nods to Valeska, lips thinning. "You and the damned zombies." A pause. "The last time, a dead zone got created." He scans the area, fingers tapping the hilt of his sword.

    Aleron finishes eating his lunch, slipping a small sack back into his briefcase. In the meanwhile, he continues to write at a piece of paper... then puts it on top of a venerable stack of papers, as thick as a fist. He puts his inks, pens, and extraneous back into his briefcase and slips the stack of papers under one arm, gripping the handle of his briefcase as he stands up... and starts to wander toward where the people congregate...

    He ominously approaches the massive armored lizardman. "Mr. Darshan? I have a delivery for you as an arbitrator..."

Laoise cringes visibly as the instrument is pointed her way, as though fearing it'll zap her with a horrible ray of doom. Well, it might! "Er, a zombie?" she squeaks, effectively conveying an 'oh-gods-I'm-already-out-of-my-depth' kind of look.

Look, she's really expressive, okay?

The bit of armour hanging off Darshan's tail is clutched just a little bit tighter. Fancy that, someone looking to the big, bad lizard man for protection.

Xander shakes his head, obviously not catching any hints of whatever is happening himself. He glances at Valeska, at her thaumic measurement machine. "Artificer. Point your device upwards." the mage suggests. Just in case...

"Ah..." Please don't explode the world? The request gets stoppered, and forced down like a pumpkin through a straw. "I...see. Zombies?" Darshan pauses to scrub hard at the scales on his face. Perhaps they itch. Perhaps it's the equivalent of putting your head into your hands. "And dead zones?" Zombies and dead zones and lawyers? He lifts his head, slightly, and eyes Aleron through them. Gripped in Laoise's hands, the tail...twitches. Twitches.

Chandrakanta has arrived.

<Meet> Chandrakanta joins Carmina.

Valeska points her instrument upwards then, at prompting. "Pardon me.." she says to Xander. "But actually, I'm an artefactual engineer specifically. There is somewhat of a difference." she says. More tickertape prints out. "I really can't make out anything! It's as if this entire area is being permeated by a signal strong enough to be off my chart."

Aleron gently sets his briefcase down on the ground, gripping the pile of papers using both sets of fingers stretched almost to their fullest extent in order to contain them. "I have a claim from a Mr. Gus McGuffin who alleges that you may have accidentally crushed his muffin stand whilst in pursuit of a thief. Attached are all the forms necessary to file a counterclaim or accept responsibility. He apparently hired... a rather studious barrister who was rather extensive on the list of specific claims, itemizing each individual object that may have been affected by the incident..."

Oh my.

Even to the magically uninitated, the powerful tingling is obvious. The ground then begins to tremble. Oh yes. Tremble. It causes some of you to lose your balance, certainly. Darshan, worst of all, given the heavy armor he's wearing. Some of you are left merely struggling for it.

Of course, the cause of it rapidly becomes obvious. Bursting through the ground in a massive spray of dirt and earth is a... well, it's a creature. Covered in an array of massive spikes and metal plates with a massively hunched back and great claws in its gauntleted fists, it easily towers a good twenty five or thirty feet into the air as it emerges -halfway- from the hole it's just appeared from.

Oh yes.

Today is a good day.

Aleron seems to take a good measure of time... kicking over his briefcase and *carefully* setting the thick stack of papers on top of the suitcase, kneeling down so that his heels are against his rear as they are put down. He then stands up, reaches behind his back, and flips a bow to his hands.

Sophia whomphs as she falls down inside the healers' tent. Rising to her feet, she peers outside and blinks, "What in the name..." She whispers a spell quickly, a protective prayer as she definitely decides discretion is the better part of valor for the moment... and that people will be needing her healing prayers quite soon.

Darshan doesn't notice the--whatever it is. He's busy staring at Aleron, and lets go a low hiss, with a scowl with it. "I...see," he says, frowning. "I'm mrm, afraid I don't remember the muffin stand...may I--" and the statement ends in mud. Splatters in mud. Darshan tumbles, thrown back by the overwhelming sense of magic as the creature surges forward--thrown, he lands on Laoise, a creature a sixth his size--and tries to scramble, scramble upwards, but the ground's still pitching... and then there's yelling, and it's his own voice, a sounding-out of sorts--another answers it, and large, lizard feet run over the landscape, to greet her rider with a great, great goblet of drool that splatters over both paladin and halfling, the former muttering as he makes it, finally to his feet, and makes a grab for the reins and saddle.

Chandrakanta has her feet firmly planted, enough that tumbling doesn't do more then make her wobble. The expression as that creature emerges from the ground is a little less firm, "Shit!" Quickly drawing the heavy, black adamantine sword from across her back, she moves in, running full force. The sound her blade makes as it hits the armor loud. Yet it does almost nothing, glancing off it.

"Strange," Carmina says, staring down as the ground begins to rumble. The only thing that keeps her on her feet has to be that half-elf grace. Staring at the creature that's arisen from the ground, she blinks. "Oh. Oh no. Very bad." And then a spell is cast, accelerating.

Oh bloody hell. Valeska stares and stares. In fact, she just STARES at the Armorclad monster rising from the ground. She staggers back a second, struggling to keep her balance as she takes mental inventory of what she has on her. She prepares her defensive implements, readying her magnetic repulsion buckler, and drawing her trusty, if somewhat inadequate Aether Exciter pistol. "Ah! Well. Em. Well! This is bad! Very bad!" she says, apparently to herself. If only her Steam Howitzer was finished. If only! Rather, the prudent artificer backs off, and squeezes off a shot at the giant creature with her aetheric beeaaaam! Valeska stares a moment later as her aetheric beam seems to lose coherency on contact! That... THAT'S never happened before!

Karelin's eyes go wide, and he looks up at the thing. "Oh, Kor's sweaty, -sweaty- balls, those fucking Garnaks." Then, he starts forwards, blurring into action, tearing his warblade free from its sheath. The black blade starts glowing from the inside until it looks positively molten, just beneath the surface. He arrives at it with a mighty *Clang*, blade carving into the dead flesh and armour, searing what he cuts. However, its a small cut, and its a very very big thing.

"Wha--*" SPLURK! Laoise is down. With a metal lizard on top of her. Luckily the mud is soft and squishy... and muddy... and cold and horrible and dirty. "Goddamnit!" comes a slightly burbly explosion of invective from under the big scaly lizard as he hauls his big arse up off her, revealing a VERY muddy halfling.

To her credit, once she realises that the effluent has well and truly hit the rotating thingy, she manages to grimly scrape some mud off her face, ball it up in her hands and, muttering something in an oddly reverberating voice, splat it right onto Darshan's nose.

Who proceeds to grow. A LOT.

OH, look!

It's not alone!

First of all, strange little scuttling creatures climb up out of the recently made hole. They begin skittering directly through into the healer's tent. That seems to be a deliberate goal of there's as they use their front claw-legs to slice through the wall. One of them? Hops directly onto a surprised soldier, sinking its teeth into his back and implanting its legs in his sides.

The soldier stops struggling, almost immediately, and gets to his feet, turning to lunge at Sophia thereafter.

Xander, who by some miracle kept his footing, stares up at the monster. "... they've been busy." he mutters. A swish of a hand causes his visage to blur, split, and soon enough there's seven of him retreating just a bit from the spiked giant.

Well, then.

The creature, massive as it is, reaches down and promptly smacks the hell out of Karelin, sending him flying back a good ten feet in the air and sliding in the mud, leaving him on the ground. That didn't feel very good! It howls in rage.

Aleron flicks off two arrows... and manages to only hit the top of the tent. At least he didn't shoot an innocent bystander! "Fuck, MORE PAPERWORK!!!" exclaims the man in red.

Sophia shouts, "Watch out for the smaller ones, they seem to puppeteer people! WE NEED HELP IN HERE!" She spins her mace around, taking advantage of her suddenly hasty speed to move into a position to smash the crabby on the soldier's back, making it squeal like a pig!

Ned Beatty, eat your heart out.

It pays to be more petite then the big fighters, Chandra is still next to the horror that the Garnaks have unleashed. She grabs for another blade on her belt, and begins to move rapidly, aided by the Loremistress' spell. Her black blade digging into, wretching open the skin on the evil beast. It strikes its mark twice, she'll feel its anger next.

Karelin picks himself up, now thoroughly mud-spattered. He curses, and digs at his belt pouch. He pulls out a little vial, then downs it -- a shimmer of violet-white light colours his armour briefly, then fades.

Valeska stuffs away her Aether Exciter, given that it seems bloody useless against that giant monster. She instead unlimbers her modified cutting torch, with an alternate fuel supply of alchemical incindiaries. Her Pyrotechnical Incinerator comes up to her side. She spots the chittering little creatures, and moves towards Sophia's position. "Try to keep one of those alive for study!" Valeska calls out, as she levels her weapon, fanning a stream of blazing flame towards the hole. Naturally, Valeska wasn't being heroic trying to flame down the hole. She needed a specimen for science!

Still dripping with mud and looking rather fetchingly annoyed, Laoise digs into a pocket(don't ask where) and whips out... a rubber ball. Oh gods, it's that horrible, annoying halfling thing. Taking careful aim, the diminutive blonde squints one eye, rears back, and THROWS!

The ball plonks off the carapace of one of the nasties near Sophia. Apparently it does little other than annoy it.

So much for the halfling's usefulness.

Xander extends an arm at the monster, fire blazing, coiling around it as he intones words of arcane power. The fire lances out, once, twice, thrice. The spell looks like it might, unlike others, hold and do some damage! It struggles, struggles, expertly woven magic against magic-resistant hide. The spell loses in the end, fizzling into nothingness. The warmage growls, frustrated.

The Poor Chandrakanta. Left all alone with a massive monster of terror. It reaches down, then, and grabs hold of her with a massive smash of its fist into her and then picking her up. It seems to be lifting her over its head, aiming to.. oh my. Those spikes on its back? It's about to impale her on them.

Sophia smashes her mace into the bug on the soldier's back again, killing it and sending the soldier to the ground. She shakes her head and looks around, "Come on, we need to drive these back!"

Drip. Drip. Srassha's head whips side to side, flinging drool everywhere--and seeing a familiar face, she runs that way while her rider, now too bloody fat to be useful, does things involving hitting. She stops just nearby, her tall visage hovering over the comparatively shorter warmage, and drip, drip, drips on his hat. "Rhuuuh," she says. Slobber.

Karelin charges back into the fray, gripping his sword a little too tightly. The sword skitters across its outer shell, catching nothing.

Carmina's nose wrinkles as she assesses the situation, and one of her brows shoots up when Chandra is caught in the monster's grip. Then, she glances at Darshan. Then back to Chandra. Then she makes an "Oh!" expression and digs into her robes. She reads from a scroll. "Make her little, make her small, make her tiny, make her not very tall." As Chandra shrinks, Carmina shakes her head. "Not the most eloquent scroll..."

Oh, hey, someone's having some success with the nasty little... crab... things! Laoise dashes over to Sophia, mud-splattered and annoyed-looking as she is - she's apparently given up the skipball for a bad job - and places a finger, gingerly, on the Highborn woman's, uh, thigh. It's the closest thing to hand, okay? Don't look at her like that. Look at the highborn! She's now... a lot bigger. Probably poking through the top of the tent. The same weird-sounding muttering as when she accosted Darshan accompanies the touch. Anyone close enough to hear(and not too preoccupied to notice) will probably hear something very much like what Carmina said. Only, uh, the other way around.

Chandrakanta slips out the graps, cursing up a storm. Tho, not in common. Its gutteral. Orc. She managed to land on her feet between the spikes. One blade slipping from her hand she tries to stab at the head of the constructs. Her sudden lack of height makes her grasp of swordplay more tenuous. Missing with each attempt to strike.

Valeska twists as a hand swings by her, with surprise on her face. She turns to gaze at the man, then shoving with her incinerator, to push him back just a second. She turns quickly, burning down another wave of flame across the oncoming bodilly horror hordes. "I would appreciate it if someone could help!" she calls back, to Sophia or Laoise. Someone nearby, as she backs away, waiting for the possessed man's next attack.

Several of the 'possessed' individuals? Scream in agony as the claws bury into their sides still deeper. The begin to attack the *other* wounded, ripping into them as their finger bones *erupt* from the fronts of their hands into claws. Brutal looking and painful, it's clear that these creatures seem to be transforming their 'hosts' into monsters themselves.

Xander isn't WEARING a hat. So... ew! He peers around the lizard at the behemoth, ponderous. His hands come to his front, palms pressing together. In an almost blindingly fast motion he parts them, and a small ball of something green and sizzling zips through the air and impacts upon the monster, splattering, burning armor plating and flesh. That experiment having been a success, the mage presses his hands back together again, closing his eyes and chanting. Chanting. The hands part slowly this time, the orb of sizzling acid swirling between them, turning, flowing, as if the volatile liquid were inside an unseen container. And then he sends it through the air at the monster. It splatters, making holes left and right, and filling the air with a disgusting aroma of acid-burned undead flesh. Joy.

Aleron sighs as he peers at what is going on within the tent. The bow just won't do for precision... he'll have to get a scalpel. He takes a step toward the tent, throwing a shield onto his left arm and readying it, then moving his hand to his scabbard to draw out his blade.

Sophia blinks as she is suddenly quite larger than normal. Unfortunately, her coordination is thrown off by the sudden size increase, as her swings are quite wide of their marks.

WHUMP! Darshan goes down with a choked snarl, and armor scrapes painfully against armor, leaving great, deep furrows in the sith'makar's own handicraft. Of course, his response, sanely, is an act of rage...that has his claws shrieking off harmlessly off the metal hide. After a while, he starts to look fascinated. This. Is. ARMOR.

Karelin changes his stance slightly, cutting in at the vulnerable parts of the armour. Real armour -- time to go for the joints. Some cuts fail, but two bite deep into its knees, searing flesh as well, as the blade cuts in.

Being little doesn't stop Chandra, she swings her sword. Staying precariously perched between the spikes as her blade swings. The first knocking a chunk out of the armor on its head.

"For the love of..." Laoise, tiny that she is, seems to be good at this whole 'zipping between people and making them freakishly huge' thing. With a mumble of a rhyme that would probably sound dirty if anyone took the time to listen to what she was actually saying, the halfling dashes over to Aleron, and... touches him. On the ARM, perverts.

Boing! Huge Aleron. This is getting to be a recurring theme.

Valeska lowers her slung incinerator for a moment, scampering back for ground. Out from her pocket springs that... DEVICE she was using earlier, now no longer smoking. turning quickly, she aims the remote box towards her assailant, even as he grotesquely begins to sprout bony claws. "I, Valeska Cynosura, demand that you protect me!" she snaps at her nearest assailant, fumbling with the controls. Even as her new pet just stands there, lazilly. Grrr. She grabs at her flamethrower with her other hand.

Xander bares his teeth at the colossal creature. He focuses. In fact, his eyes seem to glow silver for a moment. He points his index finger at the creature, and a thin ray of emerald projects from it right into the creature's center. There's a little, high-pitched noise as it impacts, burns past the natural defenses. For a few moments nothing happens.

And then Xander smiles. It's a feral, pointy-toothed smile.

The creature GLOWS green briefly, and suddently, from the point where the ray touched, it begins to fall apart, opening a huge, gaping hole in its undead body. It's still hanging together, but good gods, that was one nice hit there!

Unfortunately for the creatures, their abilities to claw some of you are limited by the fact that they are, well.. using bony finger claws! They don't exactly pierce Sophia's armor. Or ALeron's. Or Valeska's. And they don't even notice Laoise 'coz she's tiny. Still, others have their attention on the wounded, attempting to kill -them-.

SOme of them, thsoe that can move, are trying to escape.

In the meantime, Myrrish soldiers are also opening fire on the creature as well, arrows sailing through the air and striking it. What they lack in power behind their shots they make up for in *sheer numbers*. Bullets are being fired too, but they're so close to the healer's tent that they don't dare use their cannon on it.

Sclarch.

It just did the unthinkable. It just slammed Darshan down onto a spike on its back. The spike jams right through his side and comes out the front, leaving him trapped and pinned there. THat can't have felt good. He's probably going to need some help with that. Ow.

A whole lot of ow.

It's eyes now swing towrads Xander, however..

Darshan likes armor. He appreciates its plating, its design, its defensive qualities. The golem, though, demonstrates something the paladin never made use of--its offensive ones. The result of that shoves through his back, out the front--and the sith'makar, shaking, pale beneath his metallic scales, sees something he never thought he would in front of him. For a moment he's in shock, but the type with the eyes sharp, unregistering--and then it DOES register. Then it hits. Then he feels it--and the screaming voice is his own, and he empties the contents of his stomach. Not heroic. Not in the least way heroic.

Sophia raises her holy symbol, and shouts a powerful prayer to Althea in the celestial tongue. The creatures that are not attached flee in terror back down the hole. However, the ones 'attached' are not fazed by the divine incantations.

Karelin keeps cutting, as he spares a glance up at Darshan. Now that's gotta sting. He keeps hacking at the legs, though, searing torn flesh.

At least someone is now up here with Chandra, she puts her sword away and moves to try to pull Darshan off those nasty spikes. Unfortunately, she's smaller then usual. And he's bigger then usual. The equation doesn't quite work as she tugs. Probably making things worse.

Pausing, Carmina frowns, assessing the situation. "This is a bad idea," she announces. Digging into her robs again, she pulls out a scroll. This one is better written, causing her to disappear and then reappear on the monster's back, near Darshan.

And she winds up... and she calculates the distance... and she PITCHES! Laoise throws that skipball with all the skill of a professional baseball pitcher... and all the strength of a kitten with the sniffles.

The innocuous ball sails through the air in a wonderful arc... and bounces off the carapace of the beastie Aleron just skewered so well... with a *crack*. And the beastie goes down.

Laoise, meanwhile, is left standing and staring, dumbly, at the monster for a couple of seconds. She got it! She actually got it!

Xander watches Carmina teleport up onto the monster's back, eyes narrowing briefly. He seems to decide two being busy with helping the sith-makar is enough. Another orb of that sizzling, primal acid is sent sailing at the construct. It burns! But it's still kicking, so to speak.

Valeska points quickly at another of those possessed hybrids, fiddling her remote and stopping it in it's tracks as well. "Damn you, why won't you fight back at those?" she calls out in frustration, suddenly lifting her free arm to shield her, repulsive field slowing down a swing. Still, Valeska is thrown to one side, bashed in the shoulder and arm.

Smash!

Karelin is smacked again. Hard. Then? It reaches down and promptly picks him up while he'

While he's dazed from the impact. It works out pretty well for the monster, even thoug hit's got some giant holes in it now from sword, acid and other spells.

Sophia raises her mace up, then brings it down with thunderous power on one of the crab things, killing it with a pair of strikes.

Aleron manages to run his blade along a soldier's back with a lucky swipe. Hard to get precision when you're nearing the height of the tent. The parasite clatters to the floor... but what of the soldier?

Karelin struggles in the grasp of the thing, twisting and working, trying to get away from it. However, he just can't, as the back-spikes loom ever closer.

The petite Averite becomes more aggitated as Karelin gets grappled. She pulls that black blade, giving up on aiding Darshan for the moment. She pummels its back with her blade. Splitting its back open with three solid strikes.

Not one to be caught without a missile weapon, the halfling pulls a sling out of a pocket. No, don't ask where she keeps all those pockets, you don't want to know. Whirl, whirl, whirl, zing! Plonk. A stone cracks off a carapace, seeming to have, well, negligible effect.

A voice. A woman's voice. Near Xander.

"My, you're doing so well against it. I can't let you kill it, though. Not before it gets away. We'd like to use it again."

And then the sound of spellcasting. A familiar spell to Xander, no doubt.

Very familiar.

Reaching out, Carmina touches Darshan and calls out a few words. With a flash, the two disappear from the top of the monster and reappear some distance away.

Valeska points at one of her assailants with her entropic disruptor, falling back as more fists repell off her magnetic shield. She is frantic, pushing back deeper through the tents, before she tunes the proper wavelength. "Aaaaah"! Valeska stresses out. "Get them off me! Get them off!" she covers her head, deflecting more blows as one peels off to comply to her control.

Xander, who was about to fire another orb of acid at the creature, turns rather suddenly towards the voice, his mouth ever so slightly agape. "Oh, you cowardly--" And then? Then he's gone. Just... gone.

For whatever reason, instead of actually trying to take Karelin with it, the creature begins to sink back under the earth and *hurls Karelin* as hard as it can. Perhaps to serve as a distraction in his injured state. He's dropped to the ground, to be sure, and it begins to pull itself through the earth to make its escape.

"Darling, would you do me a favor?" says a voice directed towards Laoise now, since she's nearby and so is Darshan. "Do give Blackrose my regards whenever he gets back." And then...silence. No one could actually *see* who said those words, or cast the spell on Xander, incidentally, but hear them? Yes.

The movement downward screws with Chandra's balance, she wobbles badly. Using her sword, she stick it in deeply to steady herself. Its effective enough.

Darshan staggers when he's yanked from the spike, and he finds himself looking down at the gaping hole in his chest--hands floating, he reaches around, and numbly registers that it's slowly knitting. Daeus' light rebuilds armor, scale, closing some of the wound--but he can still see through. He tries not to think about that, but nods numbly, gratefully to his rescuer.

Karelin lands hard, rolling in the dirt. He picks himself up, runs back towards the fight. He's been fdoing that a ot lately.

Plonk. Another pebble bounces off a carapace'd nasty to little effect. The halfling stands there, sling hanging kind of limp from a hand, and sighs. "If only I'd listened to my Da an' learnt to shoot a gun..."

"Once..." The voice is faint, indistinct, at the edge of hearing. "... was..." It becomes stronger, the baritone ringing through the air. Xander reappears, coalescing, fading into existance, his hands ablaze with silver fire. "... ENOUGH!" The flames are sprayed over the retreating construct, white-hot fire searing, melting metal. And once it is gone? The thing isn't moving anymore.

And Xander? Looks pissed.

Well, that fire seems to have the effect of suddenly spreading all over its body. In fact, it literally *erupts* in flames that threaten to consume Chandra and rapidly set fire to several tents here. Oh yes. That's so not good, and of course, it seems to be quickly reducing the remains of the creature to ash.

A soft, femining voice from nowhere says, "..well.. guess we'll have to build another." and then she's gone as well.

Fire. That is bad. Chandra leaps and rolls off, just in time to avoid getting swallowed by the flame. Landing in the upturned earth. She growls, "Someone care to make me the right fucking size.." Apparently, being a halfling is not on her list, sort of like being a gnome.

Darshan sways, and reaches down, grasps hold of the sword he'd dropped. "I'd wanted to skin the damn thing," he says, to no one in particular, but the voice is flat and hard as it is darkly humored, with pain underneath it. Alot of pain, and he looks over towards the others, and, dropping the blade back in the scabbard, heads over that way. He shrinks as he does, and by the time he gets there, he's just about the right size again.

Valeska tosses aside her precious Pyrotechnical Incinerator, to unlimber her big pipe wrench with the galvanic accumulators. For charging purposes of course! She swings in a broad arc at one of her assailants, the wrench crackling with electricity. She bashes at the remaining creatures, eyes wide. "Preserve as much as that large creature as possible! We must ascertain it's secrets!" cries out the engineer, swinging wildly with a 20,000 volt wrench with her remaining attackers. She is just overjoyed that her device worked, and now she has THREE specimen!

Carmina looks over at Chandra and blinks. Discreetly, she drops the spell, so Chandra returns to the right size. "That was a clever move," she says, in Xander's direction, then runs off to do something helpful with the fire.

Aleron goes to work immediately, stepping outside to pick up the fallen to bring them into the healer's tent... More paperwork... Speaking of paperwork... he'll have to wait for Darshan to be propped in a hospital bed first. He'll have plenty of time to fill out those itemized forms for muffins, boards, and nails later...

Karelin blows out a breath, and watches the conflagration as he lets his sword cool, tip grounded and smoking.

Xander huffs, once, and is then quickly at work controlling and extinguishing the flames. Mostly, he does it with ice magic, when it is safe to do so, coralling it and extinguishing. He's not speaking much. He just focuses on doing it before it spreads too far.

Laoise trudges over to a mercifully still-intact crate of something or other, mumbling under her breath and running her hands over her dress, her head and her face, seeming to scrape the mud off... and leaving herself remarkably spotless. Amazing, the things you can do with magic. She sits heavily down on the crate and sighs. "Gun. Definitely gotta get a gun."

Karelin has disconnected.

Sophia shakes her head, "What exactly /are/ these monsters, anyway?" She looks around, then starts to tend to the soldiers in what's left of the healing tent.

Sophia has disconnected.

"Messages from the Garnak's. Destroy them." Chandra answers, sternly, staring at the smaller creatures that are still about, letting others deal with the flames. She's still got her sword out, pointing it menancingly. She really wants to kill something, having not been able to deal that thing the final death blow.

Laoise remains... remarkably unhelpful through the cleaning-up process. At one point, she gets to her feet and heads towards the Daeusites' part of the encampment and is not seen again for the rest of the day.

Valeska was finally done bashing in one of her assailants, having expended most of her arcantric accumunator's power. She staggers back to take a breath, smiling at her three specimen. She pulls out the remote, tweaking it's knobs a little, and gathers them around to stand in line. Yes. "It works! IT WORKS!" Valeska cackles. Before coughing. "I mean. A great tragedy. Such fine and beloved soldiers."

And that's that. Or he thinks that's that. Darshan starts--and nearly drops the weapon. He does, in his state, and numbly picks it up again. And then he's clanking, bearing down on them like a giant clanky thing. He clanks! But the undead are getting--well. Smited. The sword glows brilliantly, cutting into darkness--Daeus' light to guide it. And then he turns and scowls, and the look he gave to the undead is nothing, NOTHING like the one aimed at Valeska.

"Fucking corpsebotherers." Chandra uses the local venacular for necromacy. She's eyeing Valeska when she starts going on with glee about those thing.

Once the fires are extinguished or contained enough to no longer endanger supplies or people, Xander turns to the Artific-- oh, sorry, Artefactual Engineer and her pets. His eyes are dangerously narrowed. "We shall speak of this later. For now, immediatelly get those three to the nearest members of the healing-clergy." he says to Valeska. "If they cannot be saved, grant them a merciful death." Then, to Darshan: "Accompany her, please."

Valeska gathers up her things, and then points at the mess. "Clean them up." she says, tweaking her controls a little. There was all this rubble around, knocked over tents... lots of work! She turns her head a bit, blinking at all those eyes on her. She smiles. "Well, that.. could have gone much worse." she smiles to Darshan, starting to doublecheck her arcane readings now that the danger's passed.

Aleron has disconnected.

A long, low twitch, a shudder across armored shoulders. Valeska's look is met with one of disbelief, then anger, and Darshan steps up and looks as though--but ahh, sith'makar? He grabs a mental hold of his hand, and shoves it back to his side. And silently, stalks up and grabs hold of the device. No matter she holds it. He grabs it, and stares hard at her. "Lady. If you attempt to use this again, I will drag you before Vardama's Scales herself. Let her /priests/ judge your actions. Your acts may not have been against the law of man, but they strike against the laws of the gods, the safety and security of every man, woman, and child on this earth. /Do/ you understand?" The words come across as heavy, snarled. But the body drips--blood oozes from his torso with the hole in it. He's in alot of pain. He probably smells funny, too.

Chandrakanta raises a brow when Darshan steps up and acts. There is quiet approval in her body language. After all, she would have just used her black blade on the device and ignore the threatening parts. "Corpsebotherer.." She repeats herself, this time branding it on the Artifictrix.

"Oh, but you are wrong, my friend. Necromantic magitech has been made illegal a long time ago in these lands. The repercussions are... severe." Xander says, solemn, eyes flicking between Darshan, Valeska, the undead. "I would advise you to do as I told you."

Carmina glances back at the others, a puzzled expression on her face. Then, as she puts things together, her lip curls in disapproval.

Laoise has disconnected.

Xander goes OOC.

Xander has left.

Darshan goes OOC.