Ishgar Symposium (Group 1, Bellum)

A light knock echoed from the door of his guest chambers. “Come in,” Norwood called lightly, his tired eyes lingering on the beautiful Joya landscape beyond the windows. The chairman of the council had a lot on his mind lately, and while he did well to carry himself with an air of patience and grace it was evident that he was weary and exhausted. Pulling his gaze away, he turned to the white robed messenger that stood within the door frame.

“Good morning, Master Pendleton. The mages have arrived. The Cardinal has already been summoned, as well.”

“Thank you. I’ll be down in a moment.”

The boy disappeared, and after a short moment to collect himself, Norwood exited his temporary chambers and made his way to the small conference room where the mages hired by the rest of the Council had been instructed to meet them. Along the way he met up with the Cardinal, the two of them chatting idly with one another as they walked the halls until they made it to their destination.

As they entered, the four mages would be greeted to the sight of two regal looking gentlemen. Norwood was a stately man garbed in a rich black uniform with silver trim and embellishments. He had short, dark brown hair and a thick beard and moustache that framed a slender face. Gentle grey eyes scanned the room’s occupants briefly before he gave them a small but warm smile. “Good morning, everyone. I am Norwood Pendleton, head Chairman of the Magic Council. With me is Bellum’s Cardinal of Whispers, Leonida Ferreolius.”

He gestured to the man that hand entered beside him. Leonida was a tall and stocky man that was dressed in all the splendor that befitted his position within the Bellum hierarchy, garbed in a priestly looking set of plated armor with a sleeveless black robe trimmed in gold. He had bright blonde hair that was slicked back across his head and thick sideburns that ran down to his jaw. He greeted the gathered company with a much easier smile that wasn’t burned with as much weariness as the Chairman’s. “Good morning! It is a pleasure to meet all of you. Please allow me to thank you in advance for volunteering your time and energy to help make sure this treaty goes through as smoothly as possible. Each of you has my sincerest gratitude.”

After Leonida turned toward the chairman to silent indicate that he was passing things back to him, Norwood nodded and continued. “Let’s go ahead and get started. As all of you know, we have all gathered here today in the hopes of brokering a peace between Bellum and Pergrande after the recent skirmishes along their border. Given the history between both these nations, it goes without saying that today will go down in history as a rather miraculous moment of reconciliation, but as with any political exchange their are plenty of people that are not in favor of what we aim to do. While I sincerely hope that we are able to get through today with little to no excitement, we thought it best to be as prepared as possible, which is why Fiore was asked to gather a few individuals to serve as a protective escort for the Cardinal as we travel to the Symposium.”

“I have already received reports that there are some active protests taking place in a couple places in the city. We are keeping an eye on these areas and are going to do our best to select a route with as little of this activity as possible, but please expect that we may have to make our way through some… spirited crowds. There are squads of Rune Knights that have joined up with a few of Joya’s hunters to patrol Felidae and keep the crowd passive, so with any luck they will be able to handle anything before we have to get involved, but it is imperative that we all be as vigilant as possible, just to be safe.”

“That being said, before we get started, I would like to take the opportunity to let each of you introduce yourselves. I have your names, but it was the other members of the Council in Fiore that selected you while I was focused on preparing things here. I would appreciate being able to put names to faces, and to get an idea of who you are and what you are capable of so we can ensure that we are able to play to each of your strengths in this endeavor. Now is also the time to ask any questions if you have them.” With that, he looked at each of them and waited patiently for them to take turns with a more formal introduction.

Tag: @Mythica @Kyran @Leona Jarnefeldt @Lehanna Seraph

You have until 10/20/2021 to post

The two men listened politely as the party took turns introducing themselves. The first was Leona, who’s name did bring a small but genuine smile to Chairman Pendleton’s face. “Ah yes, Miss Jarnefeldt! I apologize, I should have recognized you, but we have never met in person. It’s a pleasure.” Norwood, of course, was well aware of who all the wizard saints and gods of Ishgar were, as he was part of the committee that assigned them. After that was Kyran Dyer, the CEO of a business that Norwood at least recognized, though he was not familiar with the details of their services. Following him was a young woman -- more of a little girl, really -- named Lehanna, who was one of Leona’s Silver Wolf members. He could only assume she wouldn’t have been chosen for this task if she wasn’t up for it, despite her apparent age. And the last was a woman who went by the name Maven, whom Norwood didn’t recognize but he did note that she was being quite encouraging toward Lehanna who had expressed some embarrassment over her self-perceived limitations.

There were questions to be had, of course. That was to be expected. Leona asked about how they were expected to deal with threats. Kyran backed up her question, along with putting in a request to have a map of the intended route and back up routes for reference. He also wanted ot know how much they should prioritize protecting the Cardinal over damaging the local property. Norwood nodded. “Excellent questions. As far as dealing with threats, obviously I do not condone lethal force, but in this case I would hold everyone to the same standards as we do the Rune Knights: Try to avoid lethal solutions if at all possible, but if someone is coming at you or anyone in our party with the intention to kill, then it is only right that you defend yourselves appropriately. As long as the force is justifiable in a court of law, then that is all I can ask -- though my hope is that we won’t have to worry about things getting that far. As to property damage, we have already worked out with the Joya officials that we will commit mages to restoration efforts after the treaty has passed, should it be necessary. Do your best to be as respectful toward property as possible, but the Cardinal’s life takes priority.”

“As far as maps go…” He nodded to one of the assistants in the room, who came forward and offered each mage a wristband made of a light, silver colored metal. Norwood lifted his arm, revealing that he already wore a similar band, and tapped lightly on its surface. A hologram of light appeared in the air above the bracelet in the shape of a three dimensional rendering of the city. There were various green colored route lines running through the map, one of which was noticeably brighter than the other branches. There were also an assortment of blinking blue dots on the map, along with one yellow one, clustered in one area where they all currently stood. “These are for us to refer to along the way. They will be updated remotely by my administrative staff as they receive news from around the city, in which case you’ll feel a vibration from the band if they are suggesting a route change. The bracelets also help each of us know where they others are, so if we get separated we will be able to find one another. The yellow dot is the Cardinal, and the rest of us are all blue.”

Presuming the questions had all been answered and the information would suffice, Norwood would turn to the Cardinal to strategize their approach. In the end, they suggested that Maven and Kyran keep closest to the Cardinal and Chairman, feeling that both of their abilities would be best suited for being close to their charge. Meanwhile, Leona and Lehanna would take up positions ahead and behind the others to watch their fronts and backs, where they would be free to use their magics and abilities without worrying too much about catching everyone else in the crosshairs. Since the two were from the same guild and had presumably worked together before in some capacity, Norwood would leave it up to them to decide who wanted to take which position between the front and rear.

Once all that was settled, they were off. The city streets of Felidae were bustling with daily work, many of Joya’s citizens unable -- or unwilling -- to pause their daily tasks to be a part of the history that was being made that day. Nearly all of them stopped to stare as the group walked by, however, with the party being met with a wide variety of expressions ranging between curious and excited, to wary or annoyed. However, the first leg of the trip did not result in any excitement as nearly everyone in the area was ultimately more concerned about their own personal affairs. Still, as the mages and their two charges grew closer and closer to the heart of the city and the base of the large hill where the marketplace sat atop -- the large building having been cleared of vendors and their properties for the day in order to serve as a meeting place for the treaty committees -- the streets became more and more crowded. It would be up to each mage to utilize their own skills and abilities to keep an alert eye on the crowds and their surroundings to determine if there were any present dangers nearby.

Tag: @Mythica @Kyran @Leona Jarnefeldt @Lehanna Seraph

You have until 10/27/2021 to post

“Ah yes, thank you for reminding me Miss Seraph. My exhaustion is getting the better of me. These wristbands will also allow us to communicate long range, if necessary.” Norwood smiled tiredly at the young woman. Then, once everyone was ready, they would set off on their journey.

The path before them continued to become more crowded as they moved along. Those who had sent out summons above and around them to help keep an eye on the growing numbers of people would be able to receive feedback on where the major pockets of crowds were, but for the moment nothing suspicious was spotted. Kyran’s own summons served as minorly successful distractions to the citizens at the start of their journey that weren’t as invested in the historical event, but as they got closer to the bottom of the hill that would lead them up toward their destination the people that had gathered for the event were far more invested in the proceedings than on watching magical creatures.

And while the throngs of people around them grew larger, so too did the presence of conjoined squads of Rune Knights and Joya warriors. The Knights were rather obvious in their crisp black uniforms, each one sporting the various colors and insignias of their various branches and stations. The native warriors that were with them didn’t have any uniforms to speak of, but they were sporting black sashes across their chests that bore the insignia of the Rune Knights, provided to them by the Fioren military, so that the Joya warrior were easily distinguishable from the civilians as a source of peace enforcement for the day. These small squads casually wandered the streets with a watchful eye, mostly just being a presence, though as the party got deeper into the city the squads were having to take more initiative to keep things civil and calm.

They also did their best to help try and keep a clear path for the party, though that was becoming increasingly difficult. Norwood had a worrisome frown on his face as he looked around, constantly checking the map on his wristband to see what the other areas were like. The crowds here were far too focused on them for his liking, though it came as little surprise. The streets were filled with the dull roar of hundreds of people talking and cheering and chanting. Many of them were holding up various signs that were mostly in favor of the intended treaty, though there were a surprising number of people that were not in support of the peace efforts. Most of these seemed to be shouting anti Pergrande propaganda and voicing their thoughts that Pergrande was full of terrorists that were not worth trying to work things out with.

Leonida continued to seem less worried than the Chairman, the Cardinal smiling and waving at the citizens that called out and cheered to him and ignoring those that jeered over his role in the upcoming meeting. It wasn’t until the crowds became a bit more physically active that he took on a more concerned countenance. Tension filled the air as a large group of people in support of the peace treaty started having more heated exchanges with those who were against it, and soon enough the squads of Knights were having to physically insert themselves between people to try and keep things from breaking out into a more physical altercation. They were doing their best, but things escalated quickly and soon there was a lot of shoving and shouting. With the crowd starting to get out of control, the party would find themselves becoming more and more cramped for travel space until soon there was moderate chaos around them.

“We need to get out of this area,” Norwood told the party, bringing up the map again. Presently, the crowds were more interested in confronting one another, but it would not take long, nor would it be difficult, for that attention to quickly turn to their own party. It was already bad enough that people were starting to press in on all sides. Touching a spot on the map, he selected a new route that would light up on everyone’s wristbands so they would know where to go. Then, he used his magic to procure a sword to arm himself with, putting himself slightly ahead of the Cardinal. “Everyone, do what you can to keep some space between us and these crowds. Try to form a path for us out of here if you can. Keep an eye out for opportunists. If you have any protective measures you aren’t utilizing yet, now is the time.”

Tag: @Mythica @Kyran @Leona Jarnefeldt @Lehanna Seraph

You have until 11/5/2021 to post

As the crowd began to get more out of control, the group pressed forward to try and get toward a less chaotic route. Leona took the lead, withdrawing her sword and attempting to use it as a silent warning toward anyone that dared approach, while wordlessly relying on her glare to keep the masses at bay. She would quickly realize that this tactic was not going to be as efficient as she would hope as most people were paying more attention to the growing hostility of the other people around them. As the crowd began to get physical with each other, she would start to deal with people getting forcibly shoved toward her, more concerned with one another than with the Saint of Courage, until it was apparent that it would take more than firm silence to spear the party through the crowd.

Kyran, on the flip side, was proving himself to be much more take charge over the situation. He used his wind creatures to form a protective barrier around the group, the magical animals keeping close to a few select members of the party and acting as a rather effective buffer between them and the crowds. Leonida’s brows rose briefly in surprise over the red shield that appeared before him, but he swiftly connected the spell to Kyran’s prior mention of blood magic. Giving the redhead a single nod of acknowledgement and appreciation, the Cardinal moved forward without too much concern over Kyran’s hand upon his shoulder.

On par with Kyran, Mythica too took a more assertive stance, arming herself with a rifle and loudly insisting that the crowds give them some space. While her words were pleasant and considerate enough, there was no mistaking the unspoken “or else” that came along with her sentiments, and a fair number of nearby people erred on the side of wisdom and elected to give the group the space she demanded. She adjusted her own position within the group, taking up a spot on the other side of the Chairman and ushering them toward the nearest exit.

Between all their efforts, the group managed to move somewhat smoothly out of the area with one exception. In the chaos and commotion, they would find one of their party members had gotten separated from them. As the crowds pushed and shoved from every angle, Lehanna would quickly find herself being stopped by the crowd and finding her path forward blocked by a mass of bodies that grew larger the more the rest of the party kept on pace. The space around her was so packed that she barely had space enough to even wield her sword, and she would find herself solidly in the middle of a full blown riot as the people around her finally began grappling with one another and throwing punches at both citizens and guards alike.

It wasn’t until the rest of the party managed to get to the other side of the square that they would even realize that Lehanna was missing. By then the riot had become such that they would not easily be able to find the small young woman with their naked eyes, though Leona’s air born summons likely had a chance to spot her. That, and they would be able to see where she was on their wristbands. The difficult part would be actually getting to her, however, as doing so would involve going back into the now fully hostile crowd. There was a subtle look of concern on Norwood’s face as he scanned the crowd briefly, his desire obviously wanting to go and fetch their young comrade from the chaos behind them, but his duty demanding that they stay focused on the task at hand. After all, the longer the Cardinal was out in the open, the longer he was in danger.

“I’m afraid she will have to rely on her wristband to find us and catch up to us. I hate to leave her behind, but our duty is to get the Cardinal to the meeting place. We have to press forward.”

“Have faith in her, my friend. She is young, but I doubt that she would have been assigned to this group if she could not handle herself, and there are enough Knights about that she is not truly on her own. I trust that she will catch up to us soon enough.”

Norwood sighed softly. “I suppose you are right. Let’s not waste any more time.”

With that, the group would usher themselves forward down the far less crowded -- and far less exciting -- side streets. The streets were not fully abandoned, but most of the people they came across seemed far more interested in either rushing toward the riot or hurrying themselves indoors out of self preservation. In short, they would find very little resistance on their chosen path, though there were a number of times where their course was seemingly chosen for them by fate as they had to avoid other outbreaks in different areas of the city.

In fact, after a time it would certainly seem like the path was perhaps just a bit too smooth.

A sharp warning from one of her summons would be the quickest warning that Leona would get as she was notified of a number of masked individuals rushing their direction from rooftops. The Silver Wolf guildmaster would barely get enough time to voice the incoming trouble before bullet fire would begin to rain down upon them as several other people leaned outside of the windows of the buildings around them and began to shoot at the party from many directions at once.


Tag: @Mythica @Kyran @Leona Jarnefeldt @Lehanna Seraph

You have until 11/12/2021 to post.

**BE ADVISED that if anyone's character would feel strongly about going back to assist Lehanna in rejoining the group, Norwood will allow only ONE individual to do so. The main duty of this party is to protect the Cardinal, and he would not allow the majority of the group to abandon that post and put the Cardinal in danger.**

As the initial onslaught of bullet fire rained down upon their heads, Leona had provided just enough warning to give herself, Kyran, and Mythica time to react. Kyran erected a shield of light around both of their charges, while Mythica nabbed the Cardinal by the arm and ushered both him and Norwood inside the nearest building where they were not in the direct line of fire. Norwood took up a flanking position around Leonida on the opposite side of Mythica, keeping his attention to their backs so he could make sure no one was sneaking up on them from inside. Both men had to keep themselves hunkered away from windows while glass and debris exploded around them from bullets.

Leona instructed her summon to prepare an attack while she, herself, stepped briefly into the open to fire off a spell at one of the attackers she could see from the window. There wasn’t a whole lot she could see to identify them, but one thing was easily visible: Their entire face was covered by a black mask with a single red stripe that ran vertically down the middle. In fact, it would only take a few moments of battle before the entire party would notice that all of their present enemies sported the same facial covering. Her Wind Bullet screeched through the air and struck her target in the shoulder, sending them stumbling backward inside the building. Likewise, Tempest Avian’s fletchettes riddled a number of small but painful wounds into a couple of the masked warriors that the avian was able to target at once, causing them to cry out in pain and pause in an attempt to brush the dozens of darts from their body.

While Kyran was busy putting himself in position, a blast of black fire shot into one of the building from the outside to indicate that Lehanna was at least close enough to throw some cover fire, literally. A pained scream confirmed that her target had indeed caught fire, along with a portion of the building. On the flip side, Kyran unleashed a number of spells in quick succession, each one doing its part to seek out a different target. In this manner, he was able to preoccupy several assailants at once as they each fought back the immediate threat, some with more efficiency than others. While each of his vines reached their intended victims, a few of them were protected by magical shields that caused the vines to glance off the energized barriers harmlessly.

That was when the second wave arrived. As the party focused on the enemies firing down upon them from the windows, the original group that Leona’s summoned spirit spotted running along the rooftops leaped down into the fray to support their comrades. From inside the building, the Cardinal growled in fury and rose from his spot, seemingly with every intent of stepping back outside to join the fight. Instead, he found himself pulled back down by Norwood. “You need to stay.”

“No, I need to go out there and help. I will not stand by while these honorable mages risk their lives to protect me! I am the Cardinal of Whispers, blessed by Arcanos himself, and--”

“I am sorry my friend, I truly am,” the chairman interrupted as politely, but firmly, as possible. “But the most important person in this group is you. Without you here to represent Bellum’s Holy Council, this treaty -- this peace -- will fail, and that is exactly what these people want. These mages are doing the job they volunteered for, but their efforts will mean nothing if you don’t swallow your pride and press forward while we have the chance. The rest of us aren’t as vital, not even me.” The two men stared at one another briefly, Norwood patient against Leonida’s passion and frustration at being told to stay out of the fight.

Finally, the Cardinal relented with a grumble. “Fine. Let’s go before I change my mind.”

Norwood nodded his thanks, and his relief, before turning to look at Mythica, who seemed to be enjoying herself all things considered. It was slightly concerning, but he couldn’t deny that some people simply got a thrill out of battle. Besides, she had been hand picked by members of his own council, so he felt no need to worry. She opted to take the lead, stepping out into an alley with her guns locked and loaded as the the sound of pained cries echoed lightly between the buildings from those who had gotten caught in her chains. With the smoke screen to provide at least some visual cover, she hurried to lead the two VIPs out of the immediate danger zone and closer toward the meeting house.

Shortly after she drew the two men out of the area, Lehanna would find herself finally caught up to the group in full, showing up just in time to see a handful of masked individuals descending upon Leona and Kyran on foot. Two such assailants rushed Leona, one wielding a double headed axe and the other’s body covered head to toe in a suit of rock that magically appeared upon them, each attacking her in tandem with swings of their weapon or earth-coated fists respectively. Kyran would find himself being targeted by four individuals that had dropped from the rooftops and singled him out. One kept back a bit and loosed a number of lightning bolts his way, while another unleashed a wave of orange mist that would sap not just Kyran, but also Leona and Lehanna of a bit of their magical energy should it come in contact with them. The other two sprinted toward him with swords in an attempt to distract him from being able to easily defend himself from the lightning mage. Lastly, as Lehanna thrust herself into the fray, she would find three masked individuals bursting from what was left of Mythica’s smoke screen. Between them, one summoned a demonic looking boar that squealed loudly before rushing her tusks first. Of the other two, one slung rays of ice magic at her while the other stood back with an ominous looking tome in their hand from which they were chanting some kind of incantation.

Above them, the number of attackers that had been shooting from the windows had been significantly reduced, but not eliminated entirely. Those who remained continued to lay a small amount of suppressive fire from above, with some of them paying special attention to Tempest Avian, doing their best to kill the creature so they could go back to focusing on the people below. As the two groups fought one another, however, the masked man with the book finished his first incantation, and with a small flourish a large dome of purple energy surrounded the entire group, assailants and party alike, trapping them inside with one another. Flipping a page in the book, he began to read off the start of another spell.

Outside the dome, Mythica had already managed to get both the chairman and the Cardinal away in time to prevent them from being caught inside the trap, though they would be able to see the dome with ease should they stop to look back. Additionally, they would also see a concerning amount of black smoke coming from the square where the riot had broken out, where Lehanna’s previous dumpster fire had unintentionally caused an escalation as the incensed crowd had turned to the fire and spread it. Considering that the Joyan city was practically built into a forest, there was quite a bit to burn, and the flames had spread quickly. Still, the trio pressed forward, if unhappily. Norwood hated leaving them behind, but he knew what had to be done. The best he could do was vow to return or send more aid once Leonida was at the meeting house.

But of course, it would not be so smooth of a course. Their course had clearly been orchestrated by this unknown group of anti-peace insurgents, so it would be no surprise when several more attackers garbed in black and red masks slipped out of the alleys to block the group’s progress. The vast majority of them immediately descended upon Norwood and Leonida. Three of them, however, broke away to focus on Mythica. The first used their magic to summon a number of thick green vines in her general direction, the foliage looking more to entangle her than harm her. Of the remaining two, the first was wielding a oversized, two handed hammer that glowed with an eerie red light while the other let out a primar roar whose sonic power shook the area so hard that the nearby buildings trembled under the pressure, the sound waves releasing at decibels so high that it would be both agonizing and debilitating should the trio not find a way to protect themselves from it.


Tag: @Mythica @Kyran @Leona Jarnefeldt @Lehanna Seraph

You have until 11/28/2021 to post.

Please make sure to copy/paste your full spell, complete with description, in a spoiler at the bottom of your posts. This saves us from having to dig through your magic to refer to the spell's descriptions.

Within the dome, Leona, Lehanna and Kyran were locked in a chaotic battle against the various enemies that had squared off against them. At first, the attack methods of the party would seem rather effective as the first few masked assailants went down pretty quickly. Kyran worked on dodging the incoming blows from the two sword wielding enemies who found themselves slowed by the Angel of Peace, giving him enough space and time to launch his spells. Both swordsmen dropped relatively easily, all things considered. However, when he went to press his attack upon the remaining two assailants, he would find that his magic seemed less effective than it should have been. His lance attack and his vines hit true to their targets, but seemed not to do as much damage as he had intended.

Furthermore, the rebels seemed to be almost indifferent about trying to protect themselves. The spells hit square, yet they continue to stay on the offensive, hurling further spells of lightning and mist upon him. That wasn’t the only odd thing that Kyran would notice, however. Though his lance spell had spread out and pierced quite a number of enemies, none of the wounded targets were bleeding. There were injuries to be certain, and his lances and vines had certainly caused damage to their attackers, but there were no drips of crimson plasma pouring from the wounds, nor did their clothes appear to become saturated with any kind of bodily life fluid.

In fact, Lehanna, Leona, and Mythica alike would notice similar things in their own individual battles. Their first attacks would be effective enough to down their first opponents, but with each subsequent spell their magic seemed less and less effective, almost as though their attackers were adapting to the magic damage being inflicted upon them and building up resistances to it. As such, the more enemies they managed to fell, the more difficult it became to deal effective damage to those who remained and were seemingly able to endure much more punishment than those who had fallen before them. Additionally, they would likely notice after landing a few damaging spells that none of their targets were bleeding.

By the end of their current round of spellcasting, Leona would have slain both of her enemies, though the pugilist had been far more difficult to take down as her wind magic seemed to become less and less effective with each strike. Similarly, her summon’s flechettes were still dealing damage to the assailants in the windows, but it was taking increasingly more of them each time to deal enough damage to take them out. Still, between the flechettes and Key’s own multitargeted attacks, the enemies inside the buildings were finally dealt with one by one, leaving the remaining assailants outside on the ground to engage the group.

For Lehanna, her inferno attack would hit nearly all of her intended targets at once simultaneously, causing all of them to light on fire, burning away their clothes and then some. In fact, their very flesh began to burn away, revealing a subsurface layer or what appeared to be some sort of metal that melted and popped, leaving the enemies so disfigured that they couldn’t even move any longer, their malformed bodies crumbling to a semi-melted heap onto the ground.

The only one who remained was the assailant toward the back carrying the tome. They had been further away, causing the flames to take slightly longer to reach them, and by the time the snake-like whip of fire had connected they seemed to have developed a magical resistance to the flames. Its clothing and skin layer melted away, but the metallic frame beneath held true. As far as the dome, while Kyran’s lance would hit the barrier, it did not penetrate it. In fact, much like the masked assailants themselves, the longer his spell remained in contact with the barrier the stronger it seemed to get. Whatever it was going to take to remove the structure, he would get the distinct feeling that attacking the dome directly was not going to work as the source of its energy was coming from elsewhere.

Meanwhile, Lehanna’s heightened sense of hearing picked up a rather odd sound above the chaos of the battle. It was faint, but she would still manage to pick it out: a strange sort of ticking sound. Should she elect to follow the noise and try to pinpoint it, she would find that it grew louder as she approached the fallen bodies of the enemies before her. It was a meticulous metronome that seemed to click about once per second, almost like the ticking of a clock…. Or more accurately, some kind of bomb. Either way, she could be reasonably certain that if the three of them did not find the right way to bring down the barrier or protect themselves from the incoming explosions, things were sure to get very dicey very quickly.

Outside the dome, much further away and out of sight from the rest of the party, Mythica was engaged in a battle alongside the two VIPs in her charge. Much like the others, she would notice that her time magic seemed to become less and less effective with each strike. The man wielding the hammer was caught completely off guard by her teleportation behind him, finding himself on his knees with a bullet in his brains before he really got the chance to react. Her barrier to deflect the wave of sonic energy was successful, forcing the sound mage to be tossed right off their feet and blown back a number of meters by the effects of their own spell. However, by the time she returned to the mage controlling the vines, her spells were significantly less effective. Her own chains rushed toward this attacker much like their vines had done to her. The chains snagged her prey temporarily, but after only a moment they were able to shake them off. Retaliating quickly, and seemingly ignoring the damage they had received from the attack, the assailant stretched their hands out toward Mythica, their fingers stretching out into ten long, sturdy vines that raised themselves up and began to whip themselves at her one at a time.

As for the VIPs, Norwood and Leonida were busy with their own battles. Leonida was living up to his title of Cardinal, unleashing a number of light based spells, his body glowing with a bright golden aura of holy energy. “Light of Arcanos!” he cried, raising his hands toward the sky and summoning an intense ray of glittering light into the air that rained down upon the area, causing the masked fighters to recoil and shrink away in pain. Bit of their clothing disintegrated, exposing the pseudo-flesh beneath to the sunlight until it too burned away, revealing the metal plating beneath.

“What the hell are these things?!” he asked, frustration in his voice.

Norwood grunted as he used his sword to carve his way out of a water spell that had been sent his way. It was evident that he was more politician than fighter, strong enough to hold his own but nowhere near as powerful or well trained as the Cardinal was. “Some sort of machines? Whatever they are, they seem to be adapting to our magic and building a hive resistance the more damage they take!” The Chairman needed answers, and while some could come from inspecting the bodies of the fallen he wanted to capture some of them alive to answer to the Rune Knights later.

Moving with careful precision, he did his best to take down the handful of enemies that were focused on him with his sword, swatting away spells and maneuvering himself to keep the buildings of the alley behind his back so it would not be as easy to flank him. One by one he whittled his targets down, patient through the grueling process of bearing through the increasing resistances they seemed to have until he had slain all but one. With sweat pouring down his brow, he roared with renewed vigor and tapped into some of his back up magic, pointing the tip of his sword at the final assailant before him and launching a blast of near point blank energy at them, causing the target to stumble and lose their balance momentarily as they recoiled from the damage. Norwood rushed the target while they were at the disadvantage, body slamming them into the exterior wall of one of the nearby buildings and pinning them there, the edge of his sword pressed against their neck.

“Yield!” he demanded. “Yield and your life will be spared to face fair trial.” The assailant, dazed and quickly losing consciousness from how hard they had been slammed into the structure behind them, said nothing. At first, the only thing Norwood heard was the ringing of battle in his ears, but after a moment of being right up against the target there was no mistaking the sound. Tick, tick, tick, tick…

Boom.

An explosion the size of a miniature nuke rocked the entire city. The Cardinal’s eyes went wide as he just barely managed to throw up a barrier before him just in time to block the worst of the blast, though he was still sent rocketing through a number of walls in buildings of the alley. If Mythica was unable to defend herself properly, she would be treated to much similar treatment as she, the Cardinal, and the remaining masked rebels alike were all caught up in the violent eruption that leveled the immediate area, putting a temporary halt on even the riots several blocks over as the people shrieked and dropped to the ground out of sheer instinct.

As the dust and smoke began to clear, the Cardinal limped out into the alley from the rubble, covered in blood and dirt. “Norwood!” he called out through a cough. “Norwood!! Maven!” Rushing toward where he had last seen the Chairman, Leonida’s gait practically screeched to a halt as his eyes fell to the ground in horror. “Oh no…” There before him was the charred remains of the Chairman, barely recognizable through the blackened marks along his flesh and clothing where he laid in a lifeless heap.

Norwood was dead.

Tag: @Mythica @Kyran @Leona Jarnefeldt @Lehanna Seraph

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